Cultivation begins with the Shen family

Chapter 31 Conscription order 【For further reading】

As the days passed, the weather gradually warmed up, and the cold winter was finally coming to an end.

I have to say that this winter seems to be extremely cold, and it lasted the longest in recent decades.

It is now late March, and the white snow that has accumulated on Biyun Mountain for a whole winter has only begun to melt, and the melted snow flows along the mountain streams to the oasis below the mountain.

For the members of the Shen clan who have been nesting in the mountains all winter, it is necessary to start spring plowing without stopping.

With the joint efforts of several tribesmen, the heavy iron plow broke through the hard ground that had been frozen all winter, and sprinkled the grain seeds left over from last year in the reclaimed gullies.
Spring plowing is an extremely important thing for the family, which is related to the livelihood of the whole family for the next year, so almost the whole family has participated in this great cause.

"This year's sowing is more than half a month late, and I missed the best sowing time in previous years."

On the ridge of the field, a thin and weather-beaten old man looked at the scene of sowing in the field, and murmured with some concern.

At this moment beside him, Shen Zhirui also nodded slightly, looking at the unmelted snow on the top of Biyun Mountain.

"Uncle Twelve, in your memory, has Shayu County experienced such a winter?"

"It's rare. Even in a few years, the winter was extremely cold, but it was not as cold and lasted as long as this winter. I'm afraid the harvest this year will be lower."

The old man sighed helplessly, then bent down and squeezed a handful of soil from the ridge of the field, inspected it, and sprinkled it in the field again.

Even though he, as a top-tier spiritual planter in his family, has rich planting experience, he is still helpless in the face of this natural disaster.

And at this moment, a member of the clan came to Shen Zhirui's side, and whispered a few words in his ear.

Hearing this, Shen Zhirui's expression changed slightly, and then he turned his head and said to the old man:

"Uncle Twelve, the Third Elder asked me to go, and I will trouble you to get old with the things here."

"Go, it's enough to have my old man here alone!"

On this side, Shen Zhirui hurried to the family meeting hall, and soon saw the sad faces of the third elder Shen Xiangchu, the seventh uncle Shen Daoming and others present.

"What happened to the third elder?"

I saw that while Shen Xiangchu spoke heavily, he handed a bamboo slip on the table to him.

"This is the call-up order issued by the county government just now, you should take a look first!"

Hearing this, Shen Zhirui immediately took the bamboo slip, and quickly opened it to check the contents inside.

It turned out that the Xuanling Sect sent their disciples to raid Shiyi County not long ago, breaking down the mountain gates of several families, and looting all the floating wealth of these families in order to avenge their shame.

Now the Liu family also began to send monks to wait for the opportunity to cross the border to carry out sneak attacks, so the two sides began to confront each other at the border.

And this call-up order was for the Shen family to send five monks in the late stage of Qi training and ten monks in the middle stage of Qi training to assist the monks in the county government to guard the border of Shayu County and prevent the monks from the other party from sneaking into Shayu County to plunder.

Looking at the call-up order in his hand, a solemn look gradually appeared in Shen Zhirui's bright eyes.

Shen Xiangchi had told him before that there would be a battle between Xuanlingmen and the Liu family, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

"Now is the critical period of spring plowing. How can the family send so many people to enlist in the army?"

A gray-haired clan elder said worriedly.

The few people present looked at each other one after another, each with helpless bitterness in their eyes.

The family is only about 40 people, and there are only more than [-] adult clan members except the old, weak, sick, disabled, women and children.

It is indeed too much to recruit 15 people at once. Once so many labors are lost, this year's spring plowing and planting may be greatly affected.

But no matter how difficult it is, it is necessary to gather the number of recruits, otherwise they will face extremely severe punishment from Xuanlingmen.

"The old fourteenth has already left this winter. The patriarch and Daoquan are both in retreat, and the second elder is in the county. Now there are only six of us left here as monks in the late stage of the family's qi training."

Shen Xiangchu looked at several people present and said in a deep voice.

Hearing these words, Shen Zhirui's heart couldn't help being touched, and a figure of a one-armed old man appeared in his mind.

The fourteenth uncle, Shen Xiangzhong, was seriously injured on his way to the county seat a few years ago, and lost an arm because of this. Unexpectedly, he would have passed the cold winter before he passed away.

Although he was not very familiar with this old man who had passed away, he was still moved by his behavior.

You can sacrifice everything for your family, including your own life!
"Third Elder, count me as one of the recruited monks!"

Shen Zhirui's piercing eyes looked at the third elder Shen Xiangchu, and then he spoke loudly.

Among the six late-stage qi-training monks present here, except for him, Seventh Uncle Shen Daoming, and another member of the Dao family who just broke through the late stage of qi-training, the rest are old people of the Xiangzi generation.

Among them, the three elders practiced the ninth level of qi training, one trained the eighth level of qi, and one only trained the seventh level of qi.

Among these six people, Shen Zhirui can say bluntly that his own strength is enough to rank first, even the third elder of the ninth level of Qi training may not be able to beat him.

On this side, Shen Xiangchu also began to think seriously, as if he was considering whether to agree with Shen Zhirui to go.

Now that the patriarch is retreating, Shen Zhirui is the designated successor, and also the hope for the family's rise in the future, so he is unwilling to let the former take risks on the border.

Xuanlingmen's recruitment of family monks with such fanfare is obviously to carry out a big move against the Liu family, and it may even be a large-scale battle, in which the casualties must be insignificant.

But the current situation of the family is indeed not optimistic, and there is no spare manpower to replace them.

Although he can replace Shen Zhirui, the family cannot do without him. Once he goes to the border, there will really be no one in the family who can take charge of the overall situation.

"Now that the patriarch is in seclusion, the affairs of the family depend on you, the third elder, to maintain the operation. You must never leave. The remaining four places should just be handed over to the four of us."

At this time, Shen Daoming, who had been silent all this time, glanced at the others first, and then spoke to Shen Xiangchu.

As soon as this remark came out, the remaining three people except Shen Zhirui looked at each other, and finally expressed their willingness to go to the border on behalf of the family.

After seeing this scene, Shen Xiangchu finally made a decision, and said earnestly:

"Okay then, there is an urgent need to select ten mid-qi training clansmen, and they will go to the border to report in three days."

. . . . . .

(End of this chapter)