Qin Shoucheng, who had been listening to their conversation, interjected, “So the military can buy back all the grain that the common folks have accumulated?”

Yang Haiyan responded, “Yes. But in just a year, by the second half of the year, the crops on the military estate will be harvested, and then the common folks will have no one to buy their grain.”

Qin Shoucheng was curious: “So can we buy the grain from the common people and then use the estate for other purposes?”

Yang Haiyan shook her head with a smile: “Your idea is good, but it’s cheaper for us to grow our own grain than to buy it. Plus, this isn’t a matter of a day or two, or even one or two years; over the long term, buying wouldn’t be cost-effective.

Besides, they have to find a way to sell their grain themselves. It’s beneficial for them; they can’t just wait for others to come up with solutions for them.

After all, they’re living their own lives, and the grain belongs to them, as do the proceeds from selling it.” So they shouldn’t expect others to solve their problems for them.

Qin Siya, who was easily satisfied, said, “Brother, why are you thinking about all this? This isn’t our family’s business.” She was just happy as long as there was food.

Qin Shoucheng didn’t say anything; as a man, his thoughts differed from Qin Siya’s.

Qin Fang glanced at Qin Shoucheng: “If you want to change this situation, there are ways.”

Qin Shoucheng quickly asked, “What ways?”

Not only Qin Shoucheng but also Yang Haiyan looked at Qin Fang curiously; it was rare for him to think about these things.

Qin Fang said, “When you have the ability, you can change the situation. Right now, you don’t have the ability, so you can only rely on others to change it.

But why would others help them change?

So you should work hard. When you have the ability, you won’t need to rely on others; you’ll be able to change things yourself.

Study hard, take the provincial exams, the imperial exams, and then become a local official. Once you’re an official, you’ll have both the responsibility and the ability to help everyone change their situation.”

Yang Haiyan understood that this was Qin Fang’s way of educating him.

Qin Shoucheng nodded vigorously: “Yes, I will work hard.”

After dinner, Qin Fang called for Niu Da, and the two discussed the military estate’s affairs.

Since it was already late April, they couldn’t delay the military estate any longer.

After their discussion, they decided that a portion of the 800 soldiers in the military camp would be sent to work on the estate.

A month flew by, and by the end of May, not only was the military camp in Yunxiang County completed, but the 1,000 acres of the military estate were fully planted with crops.

For soldiers, grain was more important than vegetables, so of the 1,000 acres, apart from 200 acres of prime land, the remaining 800 acres were planted with sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Potatoes planted in May could be harvested in August, while sweet potatoes planted in May could be harvested in October.

The 200 acres of prime land were converted into rice paddies due to their location, suitable for planting early rice that would be ready to harvest in October.

Counting the 1,000 acres of rice paddies, a few hundred soldiers were responsible for the work, and within three or four days, everything was completed.

One couldn’t help but admire the speed of their work.

Apart from Niu Er’s family residing in the military estate, soldiers also took turns to guard it, with each squad of 100 men on duty for ten days.

Although no one dared to cause trouble at the military estate, labor was still needed.

Therefore, while soldiers took turns guarding, they also took turns working.

At the military camp estate, Niu Er was in charge, while Niu Da was responsible for the general’s estate.

When the apple and pear trees were transported to the general’s estate, there were more than 160 trees combined.

However, after a month, only about 120 survived, and the remaining forty or so had died.

Besides apple and pear trees, watermelon seeds were also planted in the general’s orchard.

The watermelon seeds were divided into two batches: one provided by Yang Haiyan, leftover from last year, which were falsely claimed to be seeds from a traveling merchant but were actually platform seeds.

The other batch was collected by Niu Da himself.

Niu Da had collected seeds for various crops like watermelon, cauliflower, broccoli, and tomatoes.

No one knew whether these seeds would successfully grow, but they had to be gathered and experimented with gradually.

Otherwise, Yang Haiyan couldn’t keep using the traveling merchant as an excuse.

This year, they didn’t attend the Yongzhou market, so they had no other types of seeds to offer.

At the Eastern Suburb Military Camp:

“General, a hundred soldiers are ready to depart,” reported Lieutenant Yang, gathering the hundred soldiers.

Today, Qin Fang was preparing to climb the mountain to investigate the situation.

Every winter, wild beasts would descend from the mountains, and if this problem wasn’t resolved, the county’s city walls would have been repaired in vain.

Qin Fang acknowledged with a sound, “Everyone, prepare to depart with me.” With that, he mounted his horse and shouted, “Let’s go!”

Qin Fang had a horse, but the soldiers did not.

When he left the Yongzhou military camp in March, he had only been allocated fifty ordinary horses.

Horses were extremely important in the military camp.

A regular horse cost sixty taels of silver, so if all one thousand soldiers were equipped with horses, it would cost six thousand taels of silver.

“Let’s go!” Tao Shan followed behind Qin Fang, while Captain Yang led the men on foot behind them.

“The remaining nine hundred men stayed at the camp, watching as Qin Fang and his group disappeared into the distance.”

Captain Lu said, “Stand your guard well. Even if there are no enemies here, we cannot relax. The general said if they return with a big haul, everyone will have meat soup to drink.”

“Meat soup! Meat soup!” The soldiers became excited.

At Beast Mountain:

For some reason, the closer Qin Fang got to Beast Mountain, the more anxious he felt—a gut feeling he couldn’t quite explain.

As they approached the foot of the mountain, he felt like they were being watched.

At the foot of the mountain was a large patch of farmland, which had once been owned by someone, but it was now abandoned.

The former owners didn’t dare come back for fear of being eaten by the wild beasts.

Just as Qin Fang was about to dismount, his horse, Wu Shuai(name of the horse), began to neigh uneasily.

Qin Fang patted its head and reassured it, “Don’t worry, I won’t go up the mountain. I’ll just check around nearby. You go further away for a while. I’ll call you back when I need you.”

Wu Shuai neighed a few more times before calming down.

Qin Fang dismounted. “Go on, go a bit further. I’ll call you when it’s time to come back.”

Wu Shuai nuzzled Qin Fang with his head, reluctant to leave.

Tao Shan remarked, “Wu Shuai is really smart.”

Qin Fang nodded.

He took out a handful of soybeans from his bag, placed them on a dish, and set it on the ground. “Eat up, and go rest somewhere nearby. When the corn comes in later this year, I’ll give you some corn.”

Wu Shuai, like all the horses in the camp, was well-cared-for.

Since horses have sensitive digestive systems, their food was carefully prepared. In fact, the horses in the camp were fed even better than the soldiers.

It was better to let the soldiers go hungry than the horses.

Wu Shuai sniffed the soybeans and then began eating.

Qin Fang started investigating the surrounding area.

In his search, he discovered some clues.

At the foot of the mountain, there were animal droppings, indicating that animals frequently came down from the mountain.

Qin Fang then moved closer to the mountain, where the grass was incredibly dense.

Such thick grass could easily hide dangerous wild beasts, so he didn’t rush up.

Drawing his sword, he swiftly cut down some of the grass.

Seeing this, Tao Shan also drew his sword and began cutting the grass. “General, the grass is so thick. No one has been here for a long time.”

Qin Fang responded, “Indeed. If people had come regularly, the grass and trees at the foot of the mountain would have long been collected as firewood by the locals.

The important thing is that this mountain hasn’t been visited in over twenty years, and with so much prey here, why do the beasts come down in winter to attack the town instead of hunting these weaker animals? It doesn’t make sense for the beasts to behave like this.”

Tao Shan chuckled, “The general is right. I hadn’t thought of that. If the beasts are doing this, there must be a reason.”

Qin Fang remained silent as he continued clearing the thick grass in the area.

“General,” Captain Yang said, arriving with the hundred soldiers.

Qin Fang ordered, “Take your men and search around the base of the mountain. I’ve found some animal droppings nearby, and based on their dryness, they seem to have been left in recent days. So, be cautious. The beasts might descend at any time and attack you.”

Lieutenant Yang replied, “Understood.”

He divided the hundred soldiers into ten teams, with ten men per team. If anything happened, they would fire signal flares.

The well-trained soldiers then dispersed to patrol the area.

On the first day, aside from cutting grass, nothing significant was discovered.

The tall grass had blocked much of their view, and any sounds they heard seemed to lead to nothing.

However, some quick soldiers managed to shoot a few wild chickens and rabbits, and they even found some wild chicken eggs.

But there were no other noteworthy findings.

By the end of the day, they had cleared a large patch of grass, and the foot of the mountain looked much cleaner.

Lieutenant Yang asked, “General, it’s getting dark. Should we spend the night here?”

Qin Fang replied, “No, bring me some of the wild rabbits.”

Though puzzled, Captain Yang brought over several bleeding wild rabbits.

Qin Fang then said, “Dig a few deep traps nearby.”

Captain Yang immediately instructed the soldiers to dig some traps.

Once the traps were ready, Qin Fang threw the wild rabbits into them.

He tossed in several rabbits, some of which were sprinkled with powdered medicine.

Unable to hold back his curiosity, Captain Yang asked, “General, what is this for?”