Chapter 956: Military Households

White rice and meat were luxuries only eaten during festivals, eggs could be had occasionally, but never cooked together with meat like this.

Even though Pan Yun's cooking was mediocre, with enough oil and salt, and meat and eggs both present, she couldn't make a bad dish—in the children's eyes, this was the best meal they'd ever eaten.

One large pot of rice, one large pot of dish; Pan Yun and her four companions ate only seven-tenths full, while the other eight children each ate until their bellies were round and full.

Too full to move, they could only lie half-reclined to digest.

Pan Yun sat with them in the courtyard, basking in the sun to aid digestion, and chatted along.

After that satisfying meal, the children regarded them as family; whatever Pan Yun asked, they answered openly.

Then they learned they were all military households, stationed at a garrison camp over forty li away, but military families were scattered around the area; all the land outside belonged to "my lords," and they lived here solely to till the soil for them.

Pan Yun asked: "Since you're military households, shouldn't your land reclamation be for the garrison troops? Why are you farming for 'my lords'?"

Though the question was profound, the children were young, but not foolish.

Adults always assumed they were too young to understand, so they spoke freely in front of them; in truth, even if they didn't comprehend, they remembered—and came to accept it as normal, believing it was how things ought to be.

For instance, the eight-year-old boy now said: "We don't have land for reclamation; my lord's family is noble and wealthy, so they bought vast tracts of land for us to farm. My father said, whether you farm for whom, life is the same."

Pan Yun asked: "How many mu of land does your family farm? How much grain do you harvest each year?"

"Don't know how much we harvest, but we farm twelve mu of paddy fields and eighteen mu of dry land—everything's planted."

Pan Yun: "With so much land, doesn't your grandfather, father, and uncles have to work the fields every day?"

"My family shares one ox with his family—it was given by the lord," the boy pointed to a girl and said proudly, "because my family farms more land, and farms it well."

Pan Yun looked at him gently: "With so much land to till, don't your grandfather, father, and uncles have to work the fields every single day?"

"Yes, every day—if we don't farm properly, we won't have food. Even in February and March, our family gets two meals a day—one of them solid!" The boy spoke of this with particular pride; the other children looked at him with envy.

Pan Yun noted everything down; before the adults returned, they cleaned and put away all the pots, pans, bowls, and utensils, and swept the courtyard clean.

Judging the time, it would still be a while before the adults returned, so she bid the children farewell, climbed into the carriage, and set out directly to the fields to speak with the parents.

On both sides of the road stretched rice paddies; from afar, people bent low in the fields looked like tiny gray specks amid the green, utterly unremarkable.

Yet it was these tiny gray specks that upheld the green, bringing order to the fields.

After walking a while, the four spotted a family in a field below the road—this was the closest family they'd encountered so far.

Pan Yun signaled Tao Yanbai to stop the carriage, then walked to the field's edge and called out: "Elder, this young one seeks directions."

The old man in the field straightened his back, squinted at her for a moment, and through a halo of light, finally recognized her; he washed his hands in the field, one hand clutching his lower back, the other bracing his knee as he slowly rose.

Because he had bent so long, he could not fully straighten, yet he still shuffled toward her, half-bent.

Much of the field's water had been drained; now only a thin layer remained.

He crossed half the field, and only when close did he clearly see Pan Yun; seeing she was a girl, he looked up the road and spotted the boy leading the horse—though young, he was a man, so he relaxed: "Little miss, where are you headed? The wind disaster just passed; many refugees are out there, some turning to banditry—be careful when traveling."

Pan Yun said: "Yes, we're heading to Jingcheng to seek relatives; we took a side path for a stretch and now rejoin the main road—wondering if we're still on the right direction, so I ask you, Elder."

The old man climbed onto Tian Geng, then stepped into the ditch beside it to wash the mud off his feet, swatting away leeches clinging to his calves, before finally standing upright: "To Jingcheng, follow this main road straight ahead; after another seven or eight li, there's a fork—one continues forward, the other turns north—oh, that's the right one. Turn right and keep going."

Pan Yun saw the leech she'd dropped wriggling on the ground; before it could roll into the ditch, the old man picked up a stone and smashed it into two pieces.

Pan Yun, seeing he paid no further attention, frowned slightly and said: "Leeches have strong vitality; even split in two, once in water, they revive—though weakened for a while and unable to suck blood, eventually one grows a head, the other a tail, becoming two leeches."

The old man glanced at the leech beside his foot, casually smashed it again, and said indifferently: "Kill one, and there are countless more in the fields and ditches—leeches can't be eradicated, so I don't bother wasting effort crushing them."

But crushing them was no great hardship—just a little extra effort.

Pan Yun: "I heard leeches fear sunlight most—remove them from water and expose them to the sun, and within a day they dry into leech jerky, usable as medicine."

The old man paused, puzzled why she was speaking so extensively about leeches; after a hesitation, he asked: "Little miss, are you buying leeches?"

Pan Yun also paused, then smiled: "If you're willing to catch and dry them, I'll pay a high price."

The old man thought seriously—he knew a pond with murky mudwater, where little water pooled due to low elevation, drawing water from all around.

Every time he worked there, the oxen drank and bathed in it, so the pond teemed with leeches.

Not only many, but vicious.

His family was short on cash; gathering a handful of leeches wouldn't hurt.

The old man immediately walked to the roadside grass, wiping his feet as he asked: "Little miss, is your family in the medicine trade? How do you take delivery of leeches?"

Pan Yun said: "My household has several Physicians who treat people everywhere, so we buy medicinal herbs; leeches used medicinally are called shuizhi—they break blood stasis and remove clots. Because the herb is valuable, we pay two hundred wen per liang."

The old man's voice cracked: "How much?"

Pan Yun smiled gently: "Two hundred wen per liang—if quality is good, we can raise the price further; in pharmacies, the finest shuizhi sells for two hundred and seventy wen per liang."

The old man looked again at the crushed leech and felt deep regret—it was money.

Because Pan Yun had given him a way to earn income, the old man no longer hurried to leave; he sat on the grass and chatted with her.

Pan Yun asked: "The wind disaster was so severe—did the imperial court reduce taxes? Can subsidies make up for the losses?"

The old man: "We're military households—we're not included; none of that concerns us."