Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 429 Sui Ping
"Sui Ping!"

"Come with me to harvest the wheat!"

In a quiet village beside the Xindu River, someone patted the boy on the shoulder, offering to take him to work.

The boy said "Oh," obediently picked up the sickle, and followed the other person into the golden wheat field.

"Take advantage of the good weather, harvest the grain, thresh it, dry it, and store it in the cellar."

"The Taoist priests say that although things have been a bit more stable here recently, we have still suffered from the ravages of the Yuezhi people, and recently the Qin people have even crossed Yangguan Pass... Who knows, a war might break out one day and all the good grain will be stolen by those villains!"

For some ridiculous reason, the Western Xia capital was captured by barbarians who took countless nobles prisoner and burned the ancestral temples, thus declaring its formal demise.

following,
This led to countless upheavals.

The Yuezhi people's original intention was to take advantage of the situation and plunder the Xia, and they were not prepared to rule this land.

Their culture, institutions, and even population were simply not capable of forming a new dynasty and implementing refined policies.

then,

With the Xindu River as the main focus,

The former Western Xia territory, stretching from the Xingshan Mountains in the west to the Xindu Desert in the east, fell into a state of complete anarchy.

The Yuezhi people plundered and killed on a large scale, ravaging the birthplace of the Great Xia dynasty beyond recognition.

The remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were still performing shamanistic rituals, not forgetting their old practice of "inviting gods to possess them," and still thinking about establishing a new earthly heavenly kingdom.

The Taiping army became henchmen of powerful families, seizing control of one manor and town after another;
As for the aristocratic families, there's even less to say!
The Qin people who arrived later,
It's not a good thing either.

They have the disgusting face of someone who's here to exploit others!
In times of chaos, ordinary people are like weeds on the ground, trampled by horses' hooves time and again, and plowed by shovels again and again.

Under such torment, even if wild grasses are tenacious, how long can they last?
The grasslands will turn into barren deserts.

Even the grandest cities and mansions will one day decay and collapse.

Fortunately,

There is still a chance for things to turn around.
The chances of survival have not been completely extinguished.
As the Book of Changes says: "The number of the Great Expansion is fifty, but its use is forty-nine."

After experiencing painful conflicts and entanglements, the Taiping Dao, a sect that adhered to fundamentalism and revered the teachings of the Great Sage, finally broke free from its two disloyal brothers and led some desperate people to form the "Beggars' Army".

The leader, who had once received healing from the Great Teacher and studied under him, raised his arms and shouted in the crowd:
"I do not seek to conquer the world!"

"I'm just begging for a living for the people!"

Their strength is not great.
They do not have enough followers.
But they did manage to secure some land for the common people, who were like weeds in this chaotic world, allowing them to live and thrive.

Seeds took root and sprouted under the protection of the Beggars' Army.

I imagine that the spirits of those two great and virtuous teachers in heaven...
I also approve of this situation.

The reputation of the Way of Peace

It was ultimately protected and not completely ruined by those two crazy and frenzied forces!
The village where Sui Ping and his parents lived was one of the territories scattered throughout the Beggar Army.

He was an unlucky boy.

When his parents were just pregnant with him, the emperor of Xia died in the Sindhu Kingdom.
Not long after birth,
A severe flood struck his hometown, and the once peaceful farmers instantly became displaced people.

In Sui Ping's limited life memories,
He remembered that when he was very young, his parents dragged him into exile.

He also followed his parents to a noble family's manor to work as a slave in exchange for a chance to survive;

He had even witnessed the destruction and occupation of noble families' estates, where foreign bandits and barbarians slaughtered those once high-ranking nobles like pigs and dogs.

But relatively,

He also felt that he was very lucky compared to ordinary people in other chaotic times.

At least his parents are still alive.

Despite his childhood of constant displacement, Sui Ping did not become a disabled or weak person.
Amidst various upheavals,
Their family even received the protection of the Beggars' Army, allowing them to enjoy a precious period of peace.

Therefore,
During the day, Sui Ping had to do a lot of work, and the food he ate was barely enough to keep him from starving; it wasn't about being full or having delicious food...

But he still felt satisfied.

However, compared to Sui Ping, who grew up in a chaotic world and never saw peaceful times, the older generation pursued even more.

They have lost the good things they once had.

Therefore, the desire to regain it became even stronger. "The Beggars' Army still has too few men!"

"It's all the fault of that crazy guy from before, who turned Taipingdao into this mess!"

"Otherwise, how could we allow the Yuezhi barbarians to take turns bullying us, just like the Qin people!"

If it weren't for the fact that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom members accomplished so many unprecedented and ruthless feats in just a few years, their slogans and actions would surely have attracted even more people to join them and brought stability to more places.

After Sui Ping and others carried the dried wheat on shoulder poles to the granary,

He held a bowl of water, wiped his sweat, and squatted down to listen to people talking.

He couldn't help but ask, "What outrageous thing has happened between the Yuezhi and the Qin people this time?"

Although the Taoist priests of the Beggars' Army were not very skilled in military campaigns...
Rather than vying for power, they focused their energy on helping the common people during times of chaos.

But the Taoist priest's senses were still very sharp.

There are always some dubious channels and some dubious well-meaning people who bring news from afar to the Beggars' Army living in remote areas.

Therefore, the dispute that broke out between the Yuezhi people and the Qin people

It had long been a common joke among the Beggars' Army.

Sui Ping laughed along, but then couldn't help but say to the people around him, "It's actually this kind of guy who has made our country into this mess!"

However, the Taoist priest Qi Huojun, who was investigating the local conditions in the countryside, refuted his words.

He told Sui Ping, "The root of the problem doesn't lie with these outsiders."

"Xia is a very large country with a population of tens of millions."

"If everyone is of one mind, no one can harm the Xia Kingdom!"

"The reason it's like this now is simply because powerful people are vying for power and aristocratic families are fighting for profit, leading to serious internal strife and giving others an opportunity to take advantage of the situation!"

finished,

The Taoist priest then recalled the story of the Way of Peace.

He sighed and stopped mocking the meat-eaters of the Xia Kingdom back then.

But this does not change the fact that Sui Ping dislikes them.

After all, you can't judge a lump of dirt by its relatively intact shape.
They praised it as being more beautiful and graceful than the other two.

"That's not true!"

"If they keep making trouble, it will only make us look incompetent!"

Except for idiots,

No one lives like a joke.

If the Qin people and the Yuezhi people were one group...
What about the Xia people who were defeated by them?
Sui Ping felt that what the other person said made sense, so he stopped worrying about hearing new jokes.

After drinking the water and wiping away his sweat, he followed his elders to count the grain in the warehouse.

Sui Ping is a very intelligent young man.
After he came here with his parents, a Taoist priest saw that he was clever and handsome, so he taught him to read and write for a period of time.

Sui Ping learned quickly and well, and has now become the "master" of this small village, responsible for writing documents that need to be reported to the Taoist priests of the Beggar Army.

If a foreign merchant comes to conduct a transaction, you should also ask him to come and verify the transaction to avoid being cheated or taken advantage of.

Yes!

Even in such chaotic times,

Those profit-driven merchants have not disappeared!
Although the Beggar Army ruled over many impoverished people, the overall situation was stable, which was much better than other forces that wanted to plunder the people's wealth.

Therefore,
Merchants were also happy to do business with the Beggars' Army.

Not long after the autumn harvest
Then someone came to Suiping and said that some merchants had driven cattle and sheep to this place and intended to sell them to them.

Sui Ping followed, and just then witnessed the cattle and sheep trader confidently proclaiming:
"This isn't your average product!"

"These are all varieties introduced from other places!"

"I guarantee you'll feel great, both physically and mentally!"

(End of this chapter)