CH 40

Their worries were not unreasonable, their ancestors had been planing food in the field for generations, naturally they have their own disposition. If Wang Ye had not broken their fixed concepts, they were afraid that they would have always thought that spring plowing, summer weeding, autumn harvest, and winter to store away food, the four could not be missed to allow the grain continue to grow, and the people could have surplus food. Note (1) If they hadn’t seen with their own eyes, seeds could grow and germinate on a winter day when everything was withering, they would never have believed it. This is simply a miracle.

Ming Yu was not worried at all, what was he afraid of? He had a greenhouse nd he can still make plants blossom and bear fruit in winter. When the time comes, he could conduct more experiments with grafting, hybrid breeding and so on. Although he was not an expert in this area, he can also put forward this aspect of things and hand it over to professionals to study slowly, he believed that in terms of human creativity, from having nothing to producing something, one day there will be advanced technology in regard to this matter.

The current shed used glass, mainly for light transmission and heat preservation, but because of the color, the effect was not particularly good. Unfortunately, glass has not made much progress. If glass can be produced, when the time comes, there will be a few glass greenhouses, so the rest will not need to worry too much.

Ming Yu smiled, with a little confidence, “The rest don’t worry too much about it, in any case, we have to take it step by step.”

He believed that as long as he can grow the seeds, it will naturally be convincing. He can take his time since nothing can be achieved overnight.

Ming Yu was in a happy mood, and even dreamed of holding one large watermelon to nibble. However, after a few days, the good mood was gone.

Ming Yu looked at the letter in his hand, his hand trembling slightly. He finally turned genuinely unbearably angry. He smashed his fist on the table, “How can this be! Lao Tzu hasn’t troubled you, yet you actually provoked me to my door first? Very good! Very good! Very good!” Ming Yu gritted his teeth and said several very goods one after another.

“Wang Ye, what should we do now? These bandits come and go like the wind. Our tunnel construction and stockage village progression are still slow, only about ten villages have achieved the testing point; therefore, the result is not clear.” Xu Wen was a little worried, he also received a report that Ningshi Village had been ransacked by bandits the day before yesterday, so he hurried to the prince’s mansion to report the letter.

Ningshi Village was in the northwest of Liangcheng, not very far from Liangcheng, and the geographical location was very good. It was a relatively large village in Liangzhou. Such a large village, judging from the geographical location and the size of the population, was reasonably relatively safe, but unexpectedly these bandits actually hit them with their bad intent. The village was looted overnight, many villagers lost their lives in their dreams, some villagers who escaped rushed overnight to report the news. When the news came out, there was an uproar in Liangzhou City.

In the past, these bandits only dared to rob some remote small villages, but now they brazenly committed crimes around Liangcheng, how can it not make people tremble? At this time, everyone in the villages around Liangcheng was at risk.

Prefectual Magistrate Liu had already rushed over after receiving the letter, however, the matter had already come out. He could only handle the aftermath just like in the past.

“These bandits really are d*mned! They ransacked a village and fled without a trace, so there is no way to arrest them.” Xu Wen said indignantly.

Ming Yu thought of the massacre they encountered when they first came to Liangzhou. The barbarians do not treat the Han people as human beings and wantonly slaughtered them. Afterall, non-Han races all have different hearts. However, these bandits were also people of the Great Yan, yet they are cruel to their own compatriots, which is unbearable.

Ming Yu clenched his fists, he had long had the intention of rectifying it, but he had never been able to free his hand. Now it seems that it was indeed not toleratable.

Xu Wen was right, there were countless large and small bandits in Liangzhou. The number of forces was not the same. If the government caught and pursued them in a grand way, it would only make these bandits hide and wait for the opportunity. If they just catch some small minions, it would not hurt those bandits at all, instead it would alarm them to be more cautious. If they want to fight, they must beat them up and uproot them to solve the future trouble.

However, this matter was indeed not easy. If it was really easy to solve the bandits matter, then the border garrison would have sent people to surround and suppress them already, why would they wait until today, and allow them to continue to commit a lot of crimes.

“It’s not that there is no way, anyone can make up the methods. There must be a way to deal with it.” Ming Yu paced back and forth in the hall, his eyebrows slightly wrinkled.

Xu Wen looked at him without blinking, his eyes shining. If Wang Ye said that there is a way, then there will definitely be a way. He has been following Wang Ye for so long, and he has seen Wang Ye’s swift and decisive reaction and his style of putting enormous weight on his words. If he was not sure, Wang Ye will definitely not say it.

Xu Wen asked hopefully, “What do you think, Wang Ye?”

Ming Yu shook his head, “There is no arrangement for the time being, we need to collect everyone’s opinion for an advantage. It would be fine to just give some suggestions.” 

Xu Wen was a little disappointed, even Duan Wang said that there is no way, how could others think of a way? Will it take a few years until the people and villages of Liangzhou completely built underground passages and stockage villages before they can deal with these bandits?

Wang Ye had the intention of helping the people and villagers to fight against the barbarians and bandits, so he came up with a way for everyone to be a soldier, so that each village could build a labyrinth-like underground passage, which could attack and defend, but also protect the lives and property of the commoners.

But in this way, how long will it take? With each extra day, more people will suffer.

Ming Yu seemed to see through his thoughts, and said aloud: “Ben Wang will definitely not let them go unpunished. If you want to get rid of the bandits, you must first make sufficient preparations. First find out the background of the bandits in Liangzhou, you must know yourself and know your enemy before you can make a plan to deal with them.”

Ming Yu did not fight uncertain battles, the bandits matter cannot be done by him alone, so he has to find helpers.

Ming Yu’s words made Xu Wen nod repeatedly, what Wang Ye said was not unreasonable. If someone came to say something like those bandits are nothing to worry about with a boastful talk, Xu Wen might also consider the authenticity of these words. Duan Wang did not take complete charge of everything, instead he eased his heart. With Duan Wang present, there will definitely be a solution to this matter.

Xu Wen patted his chest and stood up a little excitedly, “Wang Ye, if you have any order, do not hesitate to command. I will definitely complete it for Wang Ye.”

Xu Wen, a down-to-earth and capable person, being able to get Ming Yu’s appreciation from when he was a small official, has already proven the reliability of this person. Ming Yu was able to entrust him with the construction of village tunnels, which showed his ability.

“Ben Wang knows that you are meticulous in your work. You also understand the situation in the entire Liangzhou, you go help Ben Wang sort out and collect the current distribution of the bandits in Liangzhou, as well as the relationship between various forces, the number of people, etc., as detailed and accurate as possible. If you are not clear about something you can give it to Commander Mo, let him take people to investigate, the more detailed the better.” Ming Yu thought for a while and ordered.

Xu Wen nodded and agreed, and he immediately went to do it

Ming Yu nodded, “As for your previous affairs, you also can’t leave it behind, you can hand them over to trusted and capable people to continue to supervise the construction, the process must be accelerated.”

After Xu Wen left, Ming Yu couldn’t sit still. Finally he couldn’t stay idle, so he directly asked people to prepare a carriage and drive to prefectural magistrate Liu’s mansion.

Prefectural magistrate Liu welcomed Ming Yu into the door, General Wei was also there, both of them looked bad. Thinking about it, when such a big thing happened, Liangzhou City was also bubbling and gurgling. Prefectural magistrate Liu was in charge of the decrees of a province, and the commander-in-chief of each county announces the decree of the state and governs the people under his jurisdiction. As the commander of the border garrison, General Wei not only had to guard against the barbarians, but also had the responsibility to arrest bandits.

Now good, the bandits had brazenly looted and killed under their noses. They are only afraid that they will be smeared with a huge black spot on their political achievements.

The land of Liangzhou had always been plagued by bandits, but it can only be done in a more remote place. The losses of small fights were also under control. And because these people’s whereabouts were erratic, they often plundered one place and immediately moved to other places, or hid with the people, or immediately escaped into the deep mountains and old forests, it is really difficult to grasp their accurate information, this is why they were helpless against them.

Just like the case of Ningshi village the other day, when they got the news and rushed over, the bandits had long disappeared. When prefectural magistrate Liu rushed over, there were no trails, nothing.

General Wei’s eyes lit up when he saw Ming Yu coming, he didn’t expect Wang Ye to come over so quickly, which showed that Wang Ye was also very concerned about this matter. Duan Wang had always had many ideas, if Duan Wang thought of a way, maybe things could have a chance to turn around.

This matter has a great impact, it is impossible to conceal it. They must have felt the censure and have already made a compromise, even if His Majesty the Emperor blames them, they hope to have the opportunity to make up for the merits by wiping out this group of bandits, and calm the people’s hearts.

“What are the casualties in Ningshi Village this time?” As soon as Ming Yu entered the door, he asked unceremoniously.

Prefectural magistrate Liu was stunned, but fortunately, he rushed over immediately and understood everything clearly. He was only stunned for a moment before reacting, and replied: “Ningshi Village is a relatively large village near Liangzhou, with a total population of more than two hundred people. The bandits raided in the middle of the night, the people were defenceless, and only 2 or 3 escaped every ten. ”

Although he had expected it, Ming Yu couldn’t help but gasp, his heart couldn’t help but feel cold. He hated these people even more, a group of animals who bullied the soft and feared the hard, he hated them to the bones. 

General Wei saw that Ming Yu’s face was gloomy like sinking water, so afraid that he would be angry, he stood up and said: “Wang Ye, this matter is unexpected, the subordinates are responsible for it, you can punish me and the others when we eliminate the bandits.” 

Ming Yu sneered: “Eliminate? Do you have a way to kill the bandits now? ”

He’s afraid that they did not pay attention to these bandits at all. They always thought that the little bandits were not to be worried about, to indulge one’s enemy is asking for trouble. By ignoring their strength, today’s disasters would continue. Two hundred lives! It was because of the disapproving attitude of these people.

Ming Yu hated it, not only hating the bandits, but also hating the inaction of these officials. Obviously they can eliminate these calamities while they’re still sprouting, but they wait for the calamity to occur before remedying.

Both of them had nothing to say, both had remorse. They had always focused on the barbarians and to prevent the invasion of the barbarians. If they specially freed up manpower to deal with these bandits, one, it will not be easy to destroy the bandits, second, it will cost a lot of manpower and material resources, and third, they were afraid that the investment in manpower and material resources won’t leave great results. No one was willing to do such a laborious and unflattering thing, so they can only let it go, but they did not know that the people in the border areas had suffered for a long time.

The author has something to say: Note (1) is from “Xunzi Monarch System”