[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-6":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205295,1561,"Chapter 6: Wolf Smoke","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-6",6,"\u003Cp>The Wang family's fields lay southeast of Xinzhuang. Because irrigation was inconvenient, the land there was relatively barren.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only northwest and southwest of Xinzhuang, where the land bordered the river and water channels crisscrossed it, was the soil relatively fertile. However, those fields mostly belonged to the Li family of the village and some wealthy households.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the winter wheat planting season, and many villagers were busy in the fields — turning the soil, watering, hauling fertilizer, sowing seed — a scene of bustling activity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou followed his mother to their own fields. The dry earth gave off a distinct smell. In his later life, Wang Dou had worked on farmland, and with the skills inherited by this body, farming was no problem for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He drove the ox, pushing the plow, deep-tilling his family's wheat field. His mother, Madam Zhong, followed behind with a harrow, smoothing and breaking up the turned soil. His junior wife, Xie Xiuniang, carried water to irrigate the field. Because of the drought in recent years, the soil moisture was insufficient; they had to water to create proper tilth, otherwise the wheat germination rate would be low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nearest stream was two li away. To water and create tilth, they had to carry water from there. Over twenty mu of land all needed this treatment, and it fell entirely on Xie Xiuniang to carry the water. One could imagine the hardship. Her small frame bore two heavy buckets, walking back and forth without a word, striving with all her might, though her small face grew ever more frail and pale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, southeast of Xinzhuang there had originally been some ponds and channels, waterworks built during the Wanli reign. But with the passage of many years, these ponds and channels were mostly silted up and could hold little water. Dredging and repairing them was a matter of enormous labor and expense, requiring mobilization by the authorities or the collective strength of the entire village. At present, Xinzhuang certainly lacked that capability, and with the village's lijia and headman system now defunct, it also lacked the organizational power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the river, ponds, and channels all unreliable, many Xinzhuang households dug wells for irrigation and for drinking water for people and livestock. But with the drought, the simple small wells costing two or three taels of silver, or the small brick wells costing seven or eight taels, were yielding less and less water. Digging them was a waste of effort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for deep brick-and-stone wells, the materials and labor alone cost eight or nine taels of silver. Deeper wells even cost over ten taels. A waterwheel also required over ten taels of silver and needed animal power to operate. All these costs added up to over twenty taels of silver. However, each such deep brick-and-stone well could irrigate over twenty mu of land. If a household had many able-bodied men and was well-off, digging such a deep well was still worthwhile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Small wells were useless, and the Wang family could not afford a deep well, so they had to rely on the most primitive manpower. There was actually another option: hiring laborers to carry water. A kind of water-carrier had recently emerged in Baoanzhou, people who specialized in carrying water for others. Initially, each load of water cost three copper coins; now it had risen to twelve coins per load, and carriers were hard to find.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Needless to say, Madam Zhong was unwilling to spend that money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three worked until noon, all drenched in sweat. Madam Zhong looked increasingly aged, Xie Xiuniang's face grew paler, and her body seemed ever more thin and frail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three rested under the large locust tree at the field's edge, eating some dry rations and wheat cakes with cold water. Wang Dou said to Xie Xiuniang, \"Xiuniang, this afternoon, don't go carry water. Stay at the field's edge and harrow with Mother. I'll do the watering tonight.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Xiuniang said, \"Brother, you plow during the day and carry water at night — won't that be too exhausting?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou said, \"It's fine. At night, I'd be idle anyway.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Xiuniang said, \"Brother...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou frowned. \"I said don't carry water, so don't. Why so many words?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xie Xiuniang obediently answered, but inwardly she was very happy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside them, Madam Zhong said nothing, but inwardly she was gratified. \"Not bad. This foolish boy has grown up; he knows how to care for his own woman.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the afternoon, the three continued working. Wang Dou drove the ox and plowed, while Madam Zhong and Xie Xiuniang harrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After harrowing and creating tilth, Xie Xiuniang spread fertilizer in front, and Madam Zhong sowed seed behind, then they pressed it down with the harrow. When the sun slanted west, Xie Xiuniang went back to cook dinner, then hurriedly brought it over, also bringing Wang Dou's bow and spear. With Tartars and roving bandits running rampant these days, a man alone in the wilds could not afford to be unguarded!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three ate dinner at the field's edge again. After eating, Madam Zhong and Xie Xiuniang went back, driving the ox home to feed it. Wang Dou stayed at the field's edge to continue carrying water. He trudged back and forth, trip after trip. Moonlight spread across the land, faintly illuminating the empty wilderness all around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A feeling of bleak desolation welled up in his heart. Wang Dou stood still on the spot, his expression somewhat entranced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next few days continued with plowing, watering, and sowing. Day after day of intense labor. The people could work, but the ox could not. One ox could only plow two or three mu per day and had to rest one day every three days. Fortunately, the Wang family had rented two oxen from the village headman, Jiang An, and by rotating them, they maintained their progress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time all twenty-plus mu were plowed, plus the soil preparation, tilth creation, fertilizing, and sowing, it was already late in the eighth month. But with all the field work finished, the whole family breathed a sigh of relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Farm work was exhausting, but it also toughened a person. Wang Dou had become much darker, but his body was sturdier and his gaze steadier. That saying was true: \"When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil; it exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou believed the hard days would eventually pass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the twenty-fourth day of the eighth month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Wang Dou returned to Jingbian Dun. The few people in the dun were the same as before, but now it was the autumn sowing season. Except for the two women, everyone else had gone out to seize the farming season, only returning near dusk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Wang Dou, everyone's gaze was rather strange. Zhong Dayong snorted heavily, but he no longer dared to shout and order Wang Dou around as before. He simply kept a straight face and ignored Wang Dou, his narrow eyes occasionally flickering. Yang Tong's body had improved somewhat, but his front teeth were gone forever. Seeing Wang Dou, his gaze could not help but be venomous, though he only dared to mutter behind his back, saying something even Wang Dou could not make out clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qi Tianliang, Ma Ming, and the several women in the dun were full of awe and fear toward Wang Dou. Meeting him again, they called him \"Brother Wang\" at every turn, their address quite warm and familiar. Han Zhong was always circling around Wang Dou, as if he had grown a tail behind him. Only Han Chao remained his usual lazy self, though Wang Dou noticed him secretly observing him from time to time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At dusk, everyone in the dun lit fires to cook. A smoky smell enveloped the space within the walls. From the meals each person ate, one could see the living status of everyone in the dun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Squad Leader Zhong Dayong and his wife ate white flour. The remaining dun soldiers and their wives and families ate a small amount of sorghum and millet mixed with a large heap of wild greens. The same was true for the Han brothers. The black-flour baked flatbread Wang Dou ate had already drawn envious looks from several people. But Wang Dou was actually eating grain he had brought from home. According to his military pay, he should now be eating chaff and swallowing weeds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, a \"clang\" rang out — Han Zhong had smashed his bowl to the ground. He stood up and shouted, \"Damn it, eating this slop every day, this life is unbearable! No pay or grain for months — do they want us to starve to death?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at Wang Dou. \"Brother Wang, why don't we go riot for our pay? Death is death either way; even being beheaded is better than starving!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His commotion was so great that everyone looked at him in alarm. Wang Dou sat unmoving, but Han Chao scolded him in a low voice: \"Nonsense! Have you forgotten what happened at Zunhua? Do you want us brothers to be fugitives again?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice was very low, heard only by Wang Dou, who was close to him. Suddenly, Wang Dou recalled an event from history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the second year of Chongzhen, the garrison troops of Zunhua had staged a massive pay riot. At that time, southern troops received a monthly pay of one tael and five qian of silver, plus five dou of grain in kind, and retainers received two taels, three qian, and five fen of silver per month. Northern troops received only one shi of grain, commuted to one tael of silver, and already lamented the inequality. With pay in arrears for several months, the soldiers despaired. Each camp, hearing the call, demanded pay. On the eighth day of the second month, they gathered outside the west gate of Zunhua, felled trees to build a stockade, and wrote in large characters: \"Loyal Hearts Serve the Nation, Starving Soldiers Demand Grain.\" They besieged and assaulted soldiers and civilians, throwing the region into chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, officials pacified them. The Provincial Governor of Shuntian, Wang Yingchi, was arrested and sentenced to death for embezzling pay and inciting mutiny. Of course, afterward, the leaders of the riot were also rounded up and beheaded one after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This incident caused a huge stir and was famous in history. Could the Han brothers have been among the leaders of that riot?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou gave the two a meaningful look, only to find Han Chao's gaze also turning toward him. Their eyes met, and both casually looked away as if nothing had happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Dayong coughed and said, \"As officers and soldiers of the imperial court, how can we utter such treasonous and unfilial words? Cease this reckless talk.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Chao apologized, and the dun fell quiet again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That night, Wang Dou slept in his simple little hut. Such a hut, of course, had no soundproofing whatsoever; every noise reached his ears. In particular, the sounds of fierce battle between Ma Ming and his wife, Madam Shi, several rooms away, carried from afar, every detail heard clearly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The couple had a good relationship, but what was strange was why they were so enthusiastic about this matter, doing it at least once every night? It seemed that in this ancient era, with no entertainment, there was no other path but to go to bed early and make children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou shook his head, calmed his mind, and soon fell into a deep sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day, Wang Dou and the Han brothers stood watch on the dun platform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the dun platform, over ten meters high, one could see the distant silhouettes of Julu Dun and Chafang Dun. Standing here and gazing out felt truly good. The autumn wind blew, giving a sensation of floating toward immortality. No wonder Squad Leader Zhong Dayong liked this position on the dun platform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou watched for a while, his eyes habitually narrowing. He calculated in his mind: in a few more days, it would be the intercalary eighth month. Time truly flew by.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Voices came from behind him — the Han brothers were speaking softly. The two were discussing finding an opportunity in a few days to go out and do some trading, peddling some goods and the like. The Great Ming actually strictly forbade dun soldiers everywhere from leaving their posts without authorization or trading goods, but these harsh laws and statutes had long become dead letters. Countless dun soldiers who could not survive openly violated the prohibitions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving one's post without authorization was a minor matter. Many dun soldiers on the frontier even secretly communicated with the Mongols and Jurchens beyond the border, not only selling them prohibited goods like cloth, needles, thread, and iron pots, but even selling military equipment. Some even leaked various frontier intelligence to the enemies beyond the border in exchange for reward silver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Han brothers only planned to go out and do a little trading; they were already considered extremely law-abiding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing that their discussion had ended, and catching a few mentions of \"Brother Wang,\" then footsteps approaching Wang Dou, it seemed the two intended to drag Wang Dou into their scheme.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, the sound of a cannon shot rang out, followed by the frantic \"bang-bang\" of the alarm clapper. The three men trembled and looked together toward Julu Dun. There, a column of wolf smoke rose straight up, starkly conspicuous against the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three exchanged glances, each reading the same message in the other's eyes: the Tartars were coming!\u003C\u002Fp>",2297,"2026-06-03T14:05:19.908Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","1b0b876dfddd6088d099992f5647268299abc9872bbe25717979b32090696f3f","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-7","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-5",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]