The dust settles

Chapter 22

23. Fortress
From the center of Maiqi chieftain's territory, there are seven or eight roads leading to it. In other words, the surrounding chieftains can come to Maiqi's territory through those seven or eight roads.In other words, the surrounding chieftains can lead to other chieftain territories from seven or eight roads.

Spring has just arrived, and the snow on the mountain pass has not completely melted. Just like searching for poppy seeds back then, there are people looking for food on the road.The chieftains brought silver and a large amount of opium, and wanted to use these things to exchange food for Maiqi's family.

My father asked me and my brother if we would give them food.

The elder brother spoke impatiently: "Tell them to pay double the price!"

My father glanced at me, and I didn't want to talk. My mother pinched me and whispered into my ear: "It's not double, but double double."

Instead of double double, I said, "The lady pinched me."

My brother glanced at my mother, and my father glanced at me. Both of them had very sharp eyes.I don't care.Mother turned her face the other way.

The young master wanted to say something to Mrs. Tusi, but before he could think it through, the chieftain said, "Double? Do you mean double? Even if it's double, doesn't that mean it's given to these people for nothing? I want Wait until they are willing to pay ten times the price. This is the price they will pay for the poppy."

My brother was wrong again, with an embarrassed and angry expression on his face.He raised his lowered head suddenly, and said, "Ten times? Is that possible? That's impossible. Food is food after all, not gold or silver!"

The chieftain stroked the gray beard hanging on his chest, held some yellowed ends in his hands, looked at them for a while, and sighed, "Double or ten times, it doesn't matter to me. Look, I'm getting old." .I just want to make my successor stronger." After pondering for a while, he made a major decision: "Okay, let's not talk about this, now, I want you to go to the border, and your brother to go too Go to the border. You all have to bring more soldiers and horses." The chieftain emphasized that he made this decision for the future of chieftain Maiqi.

The father turned his face to the foolish son and asked, "Do you know what you were told to do?"

I said, "Tell me to lead the troops."

Father raised his voice: "I'm asking, what do you want to lead the soldiers to do?"

I thought about it and said, "Compete with my brother."

The chieftain said to his wife, "Slap your son in the face, he's got me all wrong!"

Mrs. Toast gave me a slap in the face, not symbolically, but a heavy slap.Brother could answer such a question, but the chieftain refused to ask him.And I can't always answer like a fool.Occasionally, I still want to appear smart.The chieftain did this to ask the two sons to compete, especially to see if the fool's son had more talent to be a chieftain than his brother.I saw what Tusi meant, and said it boldly.

As soon as I said this, my wife immediately said to the chieftain, "Your little son is such a fool." She then slapped me again.

The elder brother said to his mother, "Ma'am, what's the use of beating? No matter how you beat him, he's a fool."

Mother went to the window and looked at the scenery outside.As for me, I just stared at my brother's smart face with a silly smile.

My brother laughed, even though there was nothing funny right now, he couldn't help laughing, and sometimes, he was very handsome.His father sent him to the southern border, and sent him to the northern border, to complete construction tasks, which he completed, but finally failed to guess what the buildings were going to be used for.It wasn't until the grain harvest in Maiqi's territory that he knew it was a warehouse.

The chieftain ordered the two of us to go to the border and guard these warehouses closely until someone was willing to pay ten times the price.I went to the north, and my brother went to the south.

To the chieftain who came to ask for food, chieftain Maiqi said: "I said that opium is not a good thing, but you must grow it. The grain of Maiqi's family is not even full in our own warehouse. Next year, we will also grow opium. The food must be stored.” The chieftains returned empty-handed with hatred for the Maiqi family that had exploded.

It has been many years since the famine came to the chieftain's territory. No one thought that the famine would come in the most favorable year.

The chieftains returned empty-handed, and there was an endless stream of hungry people on the road leading to Maiqi's territory.For these people, we say: "Every chieftain must protect his own people, and the food in Maiqi's warehouse is prepared for his own people." Hatred for their chieftains went on their way back to their starving land.

The day of my departure for the northern border is fast approaching.

In addition to the well-equipped soldiers, I decided to bring a cook, needless to say, she was Sangji Drolma, who had been my personal maid.In my opinion, the clerk without a tongue should have been brought along.But my father disagreed.He said to his two sons: "Whoever of you proves that he is worthy of such an entourage, I will send him immediately."

I asked, "What if we both deserve it? The McGee family doesn't have two clerks."

"That's easy to do. I'll catch another proud scholar and cut off his tongue." My father sighed and said, "I'm afraid that in the end I won't be worthy of any of them."

I asked Suolang Zelang to accompany me to the kitchen, and announced to Sangj Drolma my decision to take her to the northern border.I saw her standing in front of the big copper pot, with her mouth wide open, wrapping an oily apron around her hands: "But, but, young master—"

From the kitchen, her silversmith husband was working in the yard.Solange told him my decision.Before the boy could finish his sentence, the silversmith slammed the hammer on the back of his hand, and his face turned pale.He raised his head and glanced upstairs, and when he really met my gaze, he lowered his head again.Solang Zelang and I went to the executioner's house again.

As soon as the execution was carried out in the courtyard of the executioner's house, the old executioner knelt down in front of me, but Xiao Eryi just stood there with his hands down, showing his shy smile like a girl.I told him to prepare a set of executioner's tools, and set out with me to the frontier.His face flushed immediately, and I think it was because of happiness.The executioner's son always looks forward to becoming an official executioner as soon as possible, just like the chieftain's son wants to become a real chieftain one day sooner.

The face of the old executioner turned red, he didn't want his son to immediately pick up the butcher's knife.I raised my hand to signal him not to speak.The old executioner said: "Master, I won't say anything, I just want to hiccup, I always have to hiccup."

"Do you have extra instruments of torture here?"

"Master, from the day he was born, I have been ready for your little servant of the Maiqi family. It's just, just..."

"Come on, just what?"

"It's just your elder brother, the future heir of chieftain Maiqi will blame me if he finds out."

Without saying a word, I turned around and walked out of the executioner's yard.

When they set off, Xiao Eryi came with a full set of torture equipment.

My father also assigned me a lame butler.

My brother is a smart man, so he doesn't need to bring many people as helpers like me.He often said that when he was chieftain, there would definitely be a lot of rooms vacant in Maiqi Guanzhai.It means that many people will lose their role and position under his hands.Therefore, he only brought a team of soldiers, plus an excellent winemaker is enough.He thought it was perfectly normal for me to take the housekeeper, the future executioner, and especially a cook who had slept with him, because his brother was a fool.I'm going to take Tana and make him laugh.He said: "Where there are crowds, there are women. Why did you bring this little woman? Do you think I brought a woman?"

My answer was silly: "Is she my maid?"

One sentence made him laugh out loud.

I said to Tana, "Okay, okay, don't cry, just stay at home and wait for me to come back."

On the way to the border, many people who came in search of food but returned empty-handed walked in front and behind our ranks.When we stopped to eat, I asked my men to give them some.Because of this, they all said that the second young master of Mai Qi's family was the benevolent young master.The lame butler said to me: "It's these people, and it won't be long before they will pounce on us like hungry wolves."

I said, "Yeah, would they do that?"

The butler shook his head and said, "Why are the two young masters telling me that I can't see the future."

I said, "Really, can't you see?"

He said: "However, we are definitely better than the young master. That's for sure. I will help you well."

Solang Zelang, who was walking in front of my horse, said, "We also need to help the young master well."

The butler lashed him with a whip.

I laughed so hard I almost fell off my horse.

The dealer butler said to me: "Master, you are too kind to the servants, this is not right, it is not the way of a chieftain."

I said, "Why should I be like a toast, the future Maiqi toast will be my elder brother."

"If that's the case, the chieftain won't arrange for you to come to the northern border." Seeing that I didn't speak, he shook his horse's rein, walked beside me, and said in a low voice, "Master, it's right to be careful, but You should also let us know your thoughts, I am willing to help you. But let me know your thoughts."

I whipped his horse hard on the buttocks, and the horse raised its hoof, almost knocking the loyal and lame butler of the McGee family off the horse.I whipped again, and it shot out like a horse's arrow, and a faint cloud of yellow dust rose from the road.I took the reins, and after a while, I fell behind and walked in the team of servants.Along the way, the maid in the past always evaded me.She was carrying a pot and a small bundle of dry firewood, and her face was smeared with pot bottom ash of different shades vertically and horizontally.In short, she is not at all like the Dolma who taught me about men and women.Her appearance made me feel that life is impermanent, and my heart is filled with sadness.I called a servant, carried the pot for her, and asked her to wash off the dirt on her face by the stream.She trotted before my horse.I don't speak, and she doesn't speak either.I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't want to sleep with her again, so what am I going to do, my stupid head didn't tell me.At this moment, Dolma's shoulders shook violently, and she cried.I said, "Do you regret marrying a silversmith?"

Dolma nodded, then shook her head again.

"Do not be afraid."

I didn't expect Dolma to say something like this: "Master, some people say that you will become a toast, so hurry up and become one."

Her sorrow filled my heart.Dolma wants me to be a chieftain, and then she will be liberated from slavery.At this time, I felt that I should indeed become Maiqi Toast.

I said, "You haven't been to the border. When you do, see what it looks like, and go back to your silversmith."

She knelt down on the dusty spring road, knocked her head down, and her forehead was covered with dust.See how futile it is to try to find memories from days gone by.Just look at what happened to the girl who always cleaned herself up when she was around me.As soon as I urged the horse, I ran to the front.The horse's four hooves raised a puff of yellow dust on the spring road, and the people behind all fell into the dust.

The spring is getting deeper and deeper, and we are walking on a long road, just like walking into the depths of spring.When we reached the border, the rhododendrons in the four fields were in full bloom.Oncoming, more and more hungry people are looking for food everywhere.Spring is getting deeper and deeper, and the faces of the hungry people are more and more showing the green grass in the spring and the green color of the surging green water.

The older brother built the warehouse well.I mean, if there's a war going on here, it's a solid fortress.

Of course, I would also like to say that my brother is not creative.It's hard to believe that the heir to the chieftain, who is so smart and so popular with girls, has no creativity.When we arrived at the border and saw my brother's masterpiece of architecture, the cripple butler said, "Oh my God, another magi chieftain's court village!"

This is a knockoff.

The house surrounded by a large courtyard has three floors, all built with fine loess.The wide windows and doors face inwards, while the narrow holes and windows face outwards.The lower floor is a semi-underground warehouse, and the upper two floors can be used for living, and can also rain bullets on the attacking crowd at any time, and even shoot at the intruders while sleeping on the bed.It's a pity for my brother. If he lived in an era when the boundaries between chieftains were uncertain, he would definitely be a hero that the world has noticed.As I understand it, my father didn't tell him to come and build a fort on the border.My father was getting old day by day, and he often said a sentence, saying: "The morals of the world have really changed."

More often, my father didn't use such a sure tone, but asked with a confused expression, "The world has really changed?"

My elder brother didn't understand the pain that this confusion brought to my father at all, and said nonchalantly: "The world will always change, but our Maiqi family is so powerful, so don't worry about whether it changes or remains the same."

Father knew that when a big change really happened, if a chieftain, even an unprecedentedly powerful chieftain, could not adapt to this change, the consequences would be disastrous.So, the chieftain turned his confused face to the fool again.I immediately felt the faint pain in my father's heart, and an expression corresponding to the pain in the chieftain's heart appeared on my face.The chieftain saw the pain in his heart appear on the face of the foolish son, as if the father and son were one body.

My father said that the world has changed, which means that many things in the territory have changed.In the past, the ancestors built the chieftain's official village in the center of the territory into a strong fortress, which does not mean that the buildings on the border today must also be built into a fortress.Of course we still have to fight other chieftains. We have won the war of guns and cannons.This spring, we will use wheat to fight two wars.The war of wheat does not need a huge fortress.

We have the right to live in the fort.

It was a famine year, and we walked, talked, and dreamed over the piles of grain.The wheat and corn lay one after another in the dark warehouse, and the aroma rose and entered our dreams.On the fields in spring, hungry people with green faces wandered everywhere.Many of them couldn't dream of having a full meal until they were dying.And we literally slept on the grain piles.The servants knew this very well, and they all had a sense of pride on their faces as the people and slaves of the Maiqi family.

24. Wheat
Time to talk about our neighbors.

Chieftain Lashepa was very powerful more than a hundred years ago.The powerful chieftains have all done things that serve the strong and bully the weak.They once forced a daughter to marry Chieftain Maiqi, so that Chieftain Lashepa became Chieftain Maiqi's uncle.Later, our common neighbor Ronggong Toast got up and defeated them.By the way, chieftain Maiqi married his brother's daughter to chieftain Lashepa as his third wife. In this way, he became chieftain Lashepa's uncle.

As soon as I arrived at the border, I looked forward to the early arrival of my relatives.

But Lashepa Toast disappointed me.

Every day, those starving people whose faces are the color of green grass circle around our wheat-filled fortress.One circle, one circle, another circle, one circle, one circle, another circle, it made me dizzy.It would be ridiculous if they tried to take the fort this way.

But seeing these people always go around in circles, endlessly, one group came and went around for two days, and another group came and went around for three days, it was really unpleasant.But our uncle in the past, and nephew in the future, has yet to show his face.His people died one by one, twirling and turning, and fell to the ground, never to get up again.Or, Toast Lashepa wanted to arouse my compassion and pity in this way.But if he thought that way, he would not be a chieftain.In this land, no chieftain would place his hope on the mercy of others.Only poor people can have such naive thoughts.Right now, only spring is getting more like spring every day.On this day, I called Zhuoma, the cook, to me, and told her not to cook, and took ten servants to set up ten woks to fry wheat in the yard.Soon, the fire started, and the flames were blown by the wind, licking the bottom of the pot, and the wheat crackled and burst in the ten frying pans lined up.The butler looked at me puzzled, and I said, "I'm not just here to hear the sound."

The housekeeper said, "Yes, if you want to hear the noise, it's better to fire a burst of machine guns to scare those people away."

The butler was a real wise man, and wrinkling his nose, he said, "It smells so good, this smell." Then he slapped his forehead, suddenly realized, and said, "My God, master, it's not about killing those hungry people. Is it?" He took my hand and climbed up to the watchtower at the four corners of the fort.The watchtower is as high as a five-story building. From above, you can have a panoramic view of a large area.The hungry people are still circling outside. It seems that the aroma of fried wheat has not yet reached there.The housekeeper said to me: "Those who come up with good ideas, don't worry."

I said, "I'm a little anxious."

Dolma, who directed the frying of wheat, looked up at us. It seemed that so much wheat was burnt, which made her heart ache.I waved to her, and she understood what I meant, and most people around me understood what I meant.Zhuoma also waved her hand, and her men poured more wheat into the hot pot.Looking at it from here, although she hasn't returned to the appearance when I slept with me, she is no longer a lowly cook.

Fire is such a good thing, that while it scorches the wheat, it multiplies its aroma tenfold and a hundredfold, and it all comes out before life dies.A seductive aroma rose from the middle of the fort and was blown out into the fields by the wind.Those hungry people raised their faces, and greedily raised their noses towards the sky, their steps became staggering as if they were drunk.Who has seen hundreds of people, men, women, young and old, all drunk?I can guarantee that no one has seen it.So many people looking at the sky at the same time, the scene is really moving.

The hungry crowd staggered along, not looking at the soles of their feet but at the sky.Finally, their footsteps slowed down, and they turned in circles on the spot.Turn for a while, stand still, stand for a while, fall down.

The strong aroma of the wheat made the hungry men faint.

I have seen with my own eyes that wheat is more powerful than guns.

I understood instantly why my father believed that wheat would increase in value tenfold.

I order the gates of the fort to be opened.

(End of this chapter)