The rebel army's foremost master craftsman forged a million iron pylons!

Before it got dark, Li Tian crossed the suspension bridge and headed straight for Yu Family Village.

After walking about five miles south, the outline of a village came into Li Tian's view. There were about forty households, but no smoke was coming from any of them, and the place was deathly quiet.

The crops in the fields were ripe, but they lay unharvested on the ground.

The place was utterly desolate.

Li Tian took two steps forward and saw a child playing in the field, so he went up to him and asked, "Where is your village chief...?"

brush!

The child turned and ran away, into a mud house, closed the door, and only peeked out through the crack in the door.

Helpless, Li Tian had no choice but to continue walking forward.

After walking about a hundred steps, Li Tian finally saw an old farmer working in the field. He went up to him and bowed.

"Father, may I ask where the village chief of Yu Family Village is?"

The old man looked Li Tian up and down, opened his mouth, and said, "Village chief, go straight ahead, there's a small alley, go in, there's a big willow tree at the door, that's his house."

Li Tian bowed and thanked him, then continued walking forward, finally seeing the old man who had delivered the grain earlier.

Li Tian stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "Village Chief!"

The old man looked up and immediately stood up in surprise, exclaiming, "Sergeant, what brings you here?"

"Come and see what's going on here."

Li Tian smiled and casually handed the old man a handful of "tobacco".

This herb was picked by Li Tian on the mountain; chewing it has an invigorating effect.

The old man recognized it and accepted it with a smile.

The two chatted as they chewed.

"Old man, I see there are hundreds of acres of fields nearby, and the rice is ripe. Why hasn't anyone harvested it?"

"Oh dear! What a tragedy! It's all because there's no one else available. The village is mostly populated by the elderly and infirm, too old to work! We can only watch this perfectly good food go to waste!"

"I estimate... there will be even fewer people in the village next year!"

"What about the young people?"

"He escaped! He's dead! He was conscripted!"

"So you're just going to watch the rice rot in the fields?"

"If you have the energy, then go for it. Isn't Old Wang Liu harvesting grain at the village entrance?"

Hearing these words, Li Tian was slightly moved.

In chaotic times, people are worse off than dogs—that's absolutely true.

Li Tian looked up and saw that the surrounding sandy fields, though not the best, were still of average quality, but unfortunately no one was cultivating them.

"What a damn world!" Li Tian cursed angrily.

"Old man, there are six young men in our village. How about we come down and help you harvest rice?" Li Tian's eyes lit up.

"That's great!"

Old Master Yu bowed repeatedly.

"Thank you, sir. Actually, there are more than a dozen young people in the village, but they all hid when they heard that you were coming."

"To be honest, sir, I'm terrified of being conscripted."

Li Tian nodded in agreement, "Okay, then I'll bring some people down tomorrow to harvest for you."

"These fields can be harvested in five or six days."

Mr. Yu was extremely grateful.

Li Tian then asked, "You mentioned this morning that there's a blacksmith shop around here. Is it still there?"

"Yes, I'll take the soldier there."

Old Man Yu's eyes lit up, and he led Li Tian to find the blacksmith's shop.

The blacksmith shop was located at the west end of the village, similar to Li Tian's old blacksmith shop. It was a five-meter square space, complete with a furnace, bellows, pallets, and hammers.

In the corner were hoes, sickles and other farm tools, as well as about a hundred kilograms of iron ore.

An elderly man, very old, was fast asleep on a wooden bed.

"Sixth Servant, wake up! Soldiers are coming!"

Old Man Yu stood at the door and shouted.

The person on the bed jolted awake and slowly got out of bed, approaching Li Tian with a somewhat groggy face and yawning.

"May I ask what brings you here, sir?"

"May I ask, sir, is your blacksmith shop for sale?"

"The army is short of ironware. I am a blacksmith by trade and I want to bring some back to the army to make iron."

Li Tian asked with a smile.

Old Pu's eyes lit up. "Sell! Of course I'll sell! I'm too old to forge iron anymore. These tools will just sit here and be buried with me. I'd rather exchange them for some silver. Sir, give me a price."

Li Tian took out ten taels of silver from his pocket, weighed it in his hand, and asked, "Is this enough?"

"Hey! That's enough! That's enough!"

The servant's eyes lit up, and he quickly snatched the silver from Li Tian's hand. He looked around and said...

"These things now belong to the military commander, but I'm too old to deliver them to the military fortress."

"Sir, you can have someone move it to Wolf Head Fortress."

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Man Yu said, "It's alright, I'll find Yan Xiaoliu, and Yan Xiaoer will help the soldier send him to Wolf Head Fortress."

In a short while, Old Man Yu found two young men, the same two lads who had delivered grain to Wolf Head Fort that morning.

"Xiao Liu, Xiao Er, you two help this soldier deliver the goods from Lao Liu's shop to Wolf Head Fortress."

The two young men didn't say anything. They found an oxcart and, together with Li Tian, ​​hurriedly moved the blacksmith's things onto the oxcart.

"drive!"

The three of them drove the oxcart slowly toward Wolf Head Fortress.

Upon reaching Wolf Head Fortress, the suspension bridge stands high above.

Li Tian shouted towards the suspension bridge, "Old Wu, lower the suspension bridge down. I've brought us a whole bunch of good stuff."

Wu Laoliu, who was on the suspension bridge, shaded his eyes with his hand and looked down. Then, with a creaking sound, he lowered the suspension bridge.

"Walk!"

Li Tian drove the oxcart, creaking as he delivered the stove, bellows, and other equipment to the camp.

Zhao Erbao, Zhao Yong, Chen Jing, Sun Sanqiang, Wu Laoliu and others were waiting at the camp.

Upon seeing this, they all gathered around, asking, "Sergeant, where did you get all this stuff? Aren't these blacksmithing tools?"

"Are we going to be blacksmiths in the army camp?"

The group seemed particularly excited.

The main reason is that Wolf's Head Fortress is too boring.

"Take it off."

As Li Tian and Zhao Erbao unloaded the goods from the oxcart, he said, "Use this iron ore to forge some handy weapons for the brothers. If there's any left over, forge some suits of armor for the brothers."

Zhao Erbao and the others became even more excited.

Having armor is like having an extra life.

Who wouldn't like it?

Everyone hurriedly moved the items from the oxcart into the yard.

Li Tian gave the two deliverymen some reward money, then turned to Zhao Erbao and the others and said, "Zhao Yong, stay and guard the camp. The rest of you come down the mountain with me to harvest the rice."

"Harvesting rice?"

Zhao Erbao and the others were taken aback. "Weren't we here to guard Wolf Head Fortress?"

"Our righteous army is here to help the people. Now come with me to help them harvest their rice."

"The imperial army won't be here anytime soon, so it's most important for the people to have enough to eat."

Li Tian said with a serious expression.

Seeing Li Tian say this, the soldiers beside him had no objections, nodded, and followed Li Tian out of Wolf Head Fortress, heading straight for Yu Family Village.

"Young man, do you have a sickle at home?" Li Tian asked with a smile as he stood by the edge of the field.

The young man named Yan Xiaoliu nodded, ran home, and soon came out carrying five or six sickles.

Li Tian rolled up his trousers, grabbed a sickle, and went down to the field.

Seeing this, Zhao Erbao, Wu Laoliu, and the others rolled up their trousers and went down to the field.

The weather was fine and sunny.

Several soldiers were working hard in the fields, sweating profusely.

Li Tian felt particularly at ease.

War is nowhere as satisfying as harvesting grain for the people.