Back to the Beginning of Ming to do Charity

*Edited by LazyCat

"Han Shantong is dead." After returning from making some inquiries outside, the first sentence Jiang Gui said was this, "Liu Futong escaped with his son."

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Lin Yuan nodded and said to Jiang Gui: "Brother Jiang, sit."

Jiang Gui sat opposite Lin Yuan and asked strangely: "Why is fourth brother not surprised at all?"

Lin Yuan smiled and said: "It's expected."

Jiang Gui's eyes widened: "The Xiang Army had such momentum but you expected them to lose to the Yuan Army?" (TN: Xiang Army is another name for Red Turban Army)

Lin Yuan was playing chess with himself. The original owner knew how to play chess. Recently, he had been feeling agitated and there was no one to accompany him, so he played with himself. He said to Jiang Gui: "On both sides of the Yellow River, everyone follows Han Shantong blindly. As long as the court is not blind, naturally they will send heavy troops over. What can they do otherwise? Let Han Shantong step on the face of the court?"

"Then Liu Futong taking Han Lin'er to escape, you also expected this?" Jiang Gui couldn't figure this out. "Why doesn't Liu Futong take control and instead support Han Shantong's son?"

Lin Yuan placed down a chess piece causing the white Go chess pieces to be surrounded, and said with a smile: "Liu Futong had been a minor official but Han Shantong was just an ordinary commoner. Since they have decided who would be subordinate, Han Shantong naturally took pains to win him over."

If Han Shantong didn't die, perhaps he might actually be able to become the ruler of the empire.

Liu Futong was an official. Although he was only an inspector, but he was from a wealthy family who had read books and had knowledge. But historically, he tried to preserve Han Shantong's bloodline until the last second of his life.

This was practically true love.

Such people were rare, and Lin Yuan even felt a little pity for them.

If it wasn't for the fact he couldn't logically have any relations with Liu Futong, he even wanted to bring Liu Futong onto his boat.

Think about it.

Zhu Yuanzhang on the left, Zhang Shicheng on the right, and Liu Futong in the front. Such a feeling of safety!

Of course, maybe Liu Futong just wanted to throw a big banner. (TN: expression for taking advantage of someone or something's influence)

However, the truth was not important. What was important was that the Xiang Army, or the Red Turban Army's rebellion, and the death of Han Shantong symbolized that the clarion call for the peasant uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty had been sounded, and everyone in the world would respond.

From this point on, the imperial court of the Yuan Dynasty would be facing a situation of being surrounded on all sides.

That meant Lin Yuan and his supporters would also be safer.

"It's time to inspect the army." Lin Yuan stood up and said to Jiang Gui, "Do you want to come together?"

Jiang Gui: "I'll go with you."

When Lin Yuan took a step, Jiang Gui naturally walked three steps behind Lin Yuan.

Looking at Lin Yuan's back, he was still a little dazed.

Jiang Gui was not a stupid person. On the contrary, that he could live to this day and support his family as a small official in Wu City, he naturally had his survival wisdom.

At the very beginning, he just thought that what Lin Yuan wanted was a farmstead, a farmstead that could be self-sufficient and worry-free in troubled times.

Later, for weapons and for more people, the farmstead expanded step by step. Later, in order to make a safe place in the troubled times, they came to Taizhou and made a big bet on their lives.

He didn't dare to think about what Lin Yuan wanted, but he had to admit that his fourth brother had really changed.

Originally in his eyes, Lin Yuan was a youth who was not yet deeply knowledgeable of the ways of the world. He did not have much scheming and had a kind heart. Such a person might be suitable to be a rich man, but he was not suitable to be a leader.

But Lin Yuan told him with facts time and time again, that Lin Yuan seemed to naturally be born with this potential.

He didn't know how many times he had imagined walking side by side with Lin Yuan as before, but still in the end he couldn't help but back up a respectful step.

It seemed that the leader and subordinate relationship that was never clear before had now become extremely clear.

Jiang Gui’s eyes were complicated, and finally he clenched his fists and thought: Things have come to this point, and they have no way of retreating. He could only follow Lin Yuan closely. Maybe one day, he would become one of the big lords he could only look up to before.

Lin Yuan took Jiang Gui to the training ground.

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Today, the only people training recruits were Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Baisong and Yang Zi'an.

He had observed before and found that the three men have completely different training methods.

Zhu Yuanzhang paid more attention to discipline in training soldiers, to establishing a hierarchical structure, one command followed by one action.

Chen Baisong's method was not like training soldiers, but more like training bandits and teaching them skills on fighting with the enemy that could be used on the battlefield.

Yang Zi'an's method was similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's, but not as good as Zhu Yuanzhang's.

Lin Yuan stood on the raised platform and felt that this platform was well constructed. Although Taizhou’s military strength was not very good, the infrastructure was indeed quite decent. It was indeed a land of fish and rice; with money everything was good.

Almost all the poor people in Taizhou were being fed by him. Having them go find work was in fact just looking for an excuse to give them food.

These grains were originally stored in Taizhou's granary. Although most of them were old grains, the quantity was quite large.

It was not like he could have the people starve to death.

Lin Yuan also randomly made up the job positions, so that the people have work and food. Only with work and food could their hearts settle.

Otherwise, give out the food directly? What would happen next? Would the people just wait for the government to continue distributing food when there was no food?

Fortunately, the crops in Taizhou will be harvested this year.

Then the pressure of feeding everyone would be much less. Lin Yuan had also sent the merchants to collect grain while also collecting the artisans. Coarse grains and fine grains were both fine, so long as it could fill the stomach, all would be collected.

It was also necessary to pay attention to the merchant ships at sea. If there were any novelties, so long as they have something to do with food, they would also be bought and taken back.

After all, the Yuan Dynasty had quite developed business routes.

The famous Marco Polo had come to China during the Yuan Dynasty, and wrote the nonsense that China was full of gold.

——but then it was not complete nonsense. After all, foreign countries were too poor at that time. He estimated that the ordinary people there now couldn't even afford brown bread. The actual situation in many small Western countries now might not even be as good as a village here in Yuan.

Who would have thought that an industrial revolution abroad would directly equalize the development and progress that had fallen behind. And not just equaling, but also exceeding.

Lin Yuan looked at the soldiers under the stand. These soldiers were salt people and common people. They heard that Lin Yuan’s military service would not deduct their salaries and could eat meat every day, so they came voluntarily. The wishes of these people were so simple. It was likely that there were not many of them who signed up with a dream of pursuing a conferment of an aristocratic title or become an influential military official.

Regarding the issue of food, Lin Yuan had people make the meat into jerky. When the time came to fight on the battlefield, it could be eaten after boiling it in hot water.

As for the seasoning……with no plastic it was a bit troublesome, as it could not be made into small packages.

Then he thought of making it into a hot pot base flavoring, but there was not enough oil to condense.

After all, they still used sesame oil, soybean oil, and peanut oil. These three oils couldn’t stay solidified at normal temperatures. Lin Yuan could only have the cooks put a little more salt on the jerky, so the soldiers on the battlefield could at least taste some flavor during meals.

After all, there was only half a month remaining before they would set out to capture Gaoyou.

It was not difficult to capture Gaoyou, but after all, it was the first official battle with an actual army. Lin Yuan hoped that this army made up of salt people and common people could at least have some comfort during the harsh conditions when fighting battles.

Make a good start on the first time, and it will be smoother in the future.

After all, it was just a casual inspection, and Lin Yuan was not prepared to speak. When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang and the others looking at him, he made a gesture for them to continue.

——

Jiang Goudan was a recruit. He just turned fourteen, his parents were sick in bed, and there was no rice to cook at home. He heard that the army paid more than if he just took up random manual labor, so he made the difficult decision and left after kowtowing to his parents twice. Carrying the only rag bag in the family he went to sign up as a soldier.

On the day he went to sign up, he saw that there was a long queue. He didn't know the people in it. There were old and young, but unexpectedly they were not crowded together in disorderly clumps. He glanced around him and found that there were patrols around to maintain order so he also lined up obediently.

During this period, there were always people on the street saying that it was honorable to be a soldier.

Saying that serving as a soldier meant protecting the home and the country, saving the poor and defending their homes.

In addition, soldiers were also able to eat a full stomach, and receive a high military salary. After becoming a soldier one could also eat meat every day.

As far as Jiang Goudan knew, many of the neighbors around him who were the same age or older have come.

Most of them hid it from their parents.

Even the boys at the bottom of society have dreams of being a hero.

Young people basically came for the idea of saving their compatriots and guarding their homes that was tooted on the streets.

The older ones came to sign up in the army for the high pay and the meat.

Jiang Goudan was afraid that he would not be selected, and he was feeling rather uneasy. If he was not selected and had to go do manual labor, he would not be able to earn enough food to feed his family. His grandfather and grandmother were also at home and although they were not sick, they were old and couldn't do work that could bring in money.

He must become a soldier.

"What's your name?" Finally it was his turn, Jiang Goudan quickly stepped forward and said, "Jiang Goudan!"

The person sitting behind the table asked again: "How old?"

Jiang Goudan: "Fourteen, fourteen years from birth."

At this time, the person looked up and said: "The age is too young."

Jiang Goudan's eyes widened: "Milord, it's not too young, not too young."

Lin Yuan stipulated that only those older than fourteen could join the army, those below fourteen still needed time to grow up. He didn't want to kill the chickens to get the eggs. (TN: expression for doing something short- sighted)

The person said: "You look rather solid and strong, do you have a wife?"

Jiang Goudan was still a cherry boy after all so his face blushed, and he said with a slight embarrassment, "No."

The person: "How many family members are there at home?"

Jiang Goudan: "A total of five people, my parents and grandparents."

The person nodded: "Take this sign and report to the barracks tomorrow. If you have lice on your body, shave your head tonight. Don't make the squad leader go through the trouble."

Jiang Goudan nodded and smiled: "Understood, understood, please continue milord."

He held the sign as careful as if he was holding gold.

He ran home all the way, his mind blank.

He did it! He could enter the barracks! He could feed his family!

His family members did not need to starve to death, they could live on.

Jiang Goudan looked at the old man waiting for him to return at the door of his house and tears welled up: "Grandpa! Grandma! I got in!"

The old man secretly wiped his tears.

If it weren't for being forced into helplessness, who would want their only grandson to endanger his life in exchange for a chance to survive?

The weapons on the battlefield have no eyes, and the enemy would not let him go because of his young age.

"Good!" His grandfather's eyes were red, but he still said, "There is still some food at home. We will all have a full meal tonight!"

Jiang Goudan had a wide silly smile on his face.

He will let his family eat fully every day.

When he goes to the military camp, he will save his food and take it home when that time comes.

Maybe in a few years, he would even be able to marry a wife!

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Jiang Goudan grinned, unable to control his smile.