Southwest corner, Wenpu County.

The sky was not yet bright, and the night watchman walked along the dark long street. Some scattered figures were also moving about in the quiet streets.

Some women, dressed in tattered and simple clothes, were pushing small carts through the streets and alleys, with small, orange lanterns hanging on them. Most of them were hunched over, some barefoot, stepping through the streets with early morning sewage. These women each had their own routes. They stopped under familiar eaves or roadsides, lifting wooden buckets in pre-arranged, inconspicuous corners, hanging them on the carts, and continuing on their way.

These were the night soil women, the first to rise in the small town before dawn.

The old town did not have a sewage system for excrement disposal. Dealing with night soil was a lowly job that people were reluctant to talk about, but honestly, the income was not small. Some women from poor families or widows who had no other way out could earn enough money to support themselves and even their families by doing this. In some places, night soil women also had fixed "territories" for their business, and sometimes conflicts would arise over competition for customers.

But at this moment before dawn, the women pushing their carts to collect night soil buckets were mostly quiet. They walked through the dark city along their predetermined routes, and then gradually gathered in a dilapidated courtyard outside the south gate of the city.

A man wearing a bamboo hat would take away the night soil they brought bucket by bucket and give them copper coins as payment.

Excrement was an unsightly thing, but in the past, some people collected it centrally. However, since the Huaxia Army came, the people who used to collect night soil were scared away, and the Huaxia Army took over the business. Although it was unclear why the large and powerful Huaxia Army would take over such a thing, after a period of time, the women who collected and sold night soil all knew that this had become a "public" industry, and even the person who collected the night soil seemed to be a member of the Huaxia Army.

The Huaxia Army's collection of night soil was actually better than the rogues and hoodlums of the past. They did not make things difficult for the night soil women, and they paid clearly and readily. This was not the case in the past. Most of the night soil collectors were women, and most of the buyers had underworld backgrounds. They often interfered with the night soil women's "qualifications" and "territories." Occasionally, if they didn't like someone, they would deduct or make things difficult when paying. Sometimes, when they saw a young widow who was somewhat attractive, they would tease her. Such things as "shit bandits" and "shit tyrants" sounded absurd and ridiculous, but they were things that actually happened at the bottom of society.

After the Huaxia Army came, these things disappeared. It seemed that the person in charge of collecting dung here in the past did not value this area of ​​interest and had no intention of intervening in these matters. Until recently, in the past two months, after a new manager was replaced at this night soil station, even the dilapidated courtyard gradually became orderly.

Various items were placed in an orderly manner, and when the night soil women came in the early morning, the surrounding environment was not as smelly as usual. This new member of the Huaxia Army reinforced the frame that supported the huge dung buckets on one side of the yard, and washed the road with water every day. The women did not have to work as hard as usual when dumping the night soil. Occasionally, he would help the women to dump the night soil buckets. Although he was not skilled, he seemed to be easy-going and easy to talk to.

In a month or two, the experienced night soil women quickly started talking to him, asking about his origins, whether he was a formal member of the Huaxia Army, why the masters of the Huaxia Army wanted to collect dung... etc. The middle-aged man named Tang Minjie did not avoid answering. He was originally from the north and was naturally not a formal member of the Huaxia Army. As for why he wanted to collect dung, it was because the Huaxia Army had built a farm in Xiaoye Village nearby and needed to store dung to study soil fertilization, etc. He took the wages and came to do odd jobs.

"Oh..." The night soil women understood these things and nodded. "Then... the person in charge before you should be a formal worker of your Huaxia Army... I said, he wouldn't do much..."

Relatively speaking, the previous "formal worker" at the night soil station did not have the enthusiasm to devote himself to this position. The "public person" had an arrogant attitude. Even the women who had dealt with dung bandits and dung tyrants in the past were a little afraid and did not have much communication. Now that a "temporary worker" came, the status of the two parties was similar, and there were more words. This temporary worker would also occasionally ask them about their lives and experiences over the years. Some elderly women would talk about their lives with hearty laughter.

Although the work of dumping night soil was not glorious, after getting used to it, life was not too difficult. Or rather, in this day and age, hardship was originally a part of life. These women were mostly silent when collecting night soil in the early morning. When they arrived at the night soil station, they were happy to talk about some things in their lives when they saw someone curious. Occasionally, laughter could be heard from the women in the early morning night soil station.

After dumping the excrement at the night soil station, the night soil women would go to the tributary of a nearby river to wash the night soil buckets. This was also part of the night soil work. Washing the night soil buckets cleaner would often get extra points from the homeowners. Some women continued the topic by the river, occasionally mentioning the "temporary worker" at the night soil station.

"It's hard to tell his age..."

"Thirty... forty years old?"

"He speaks skillfully, a man who has seen the world..."

"He's a pretty good person..."

"His body doesn't seem to be very good..."

"Yeah, look at him coughing, he almost couldn't breathe once, and the bucket of night soil fell on him..."

"Does he have any problems..."

"He's not a consumptive ghost, look, he doesn't cough all the time..."

"He eats from the public pot..."

"Looking at the way he works... I think he might be able to become a permanent worker in the future..."

"I think he's good too... What do you think about marrying Xiao Qing to him? Xiao Qing looks good..."

"Xiao Qing is strong and can have children..."

After older women express their appreciation for men, the topic usually comes to this.

Xiao Qing, mentioned by everyone, was a newly arrived night soil woman, twenty-seven years old, with a passable appearance. After her husband died, she lived with a daughter and was unwilling to work as a prostitute, so she came to do the work of collecting night soil. At first, she stumbled, but the woman was resilient and quickly gained the approval of others.

After talking about it for several rounds, they felt it was quite reliable. Especially when the woman named He Qing was present, everyone teased her. Seeing that she just blushed and remained silent, without cursing shrewishly, they knew that the woman thought the temporary worker was "okay." So after a few days, the old woman who was best at socializing privately mentioned the idea to the other party.

After a moment of silence, Tang Minjie sighed repeatedly, and then told the other party that his body was not good, especially after suffering a serious illness last year, he almost died. Now, he found such a job through relationships, and he might not be able to do it at any time. How could he implicate the good other party?

His words were sincere. By the end, the old woman, besides comforting him a few words, also felt that the combination of the two was not suitable. She reported back to everyone, mentioning the "Xiao Tang"'s physical problems, and couldn't help but shed tears. After learning about the problem that the other party was "too weak" and "often sick", the woman named He Qing also silently stopped paying attention to this matter.

People everywhere have their own lives.

After the sky gradually brightened, the area around the night soil station returned to calm.

Tang Minjie began to clean up the sundries and perform a simple cleaning inside and outside the yard. Then, he set up a mule cart and transferred the huge dung bucket supported by a wooden frame at the rear of the yard to the mule cart. Due to the height difference setting of the wooden frame, this work was not difficult.

The mule cart used to transport dung every day was the main asset of the night soil station and a manifestation of the Huaxia Army's "wealth and generosity". Every day, the mule cart would haul one to two large buckets of night soil back to the experimental farm about ten miles away to verify the advantages and disadvantages of various composting techniques and selectively experiment with the characteristics of various substances. Of course, all of this was not mature, especially in the area of fertilizers. Even within the Huaxia Army, it belonged to a "lowly industry." Ning Yi had mentioned some ideas, and many people had also proposed ideas, but the experimental cycle was long, the overall clues were not clear, there were not many participants, and the fighting will of the members was not strong. It was not as organized as the "improved seed selection" direction.

The farm located here was named the "Huaxia Army 223 Agricultural Research Institute," adjacent to a village inhabited by hundreds of people. It was obviously not a key project in the Huaxia Army's agricultural experiment blueprint. The small number of people, the small area, the vague research direction, and the lack of strong fighting will among the members were things that Tang Minjie could see at a glance when he came. The director of the research institute was named Chen Cirang, a comrade who was absorbed into the Huaxia Army at some point. He was literate and should be a scholar who had read books. Arranging things was still organized, and his personality was relatively mild. Of course, perhaps only this kind of personality was suitable for handling agricultural experiments.

He hauled night soil back in the morning, poured it into a large septic tank, and there would be different composting experiments depending on the work arrangements of the farm. Due to the work rhythm of the farm, these things were mostly dirty. For Tang Minjie, it was not very tiring. Of course, as a person who had worked in the hinterland of the Jin Kingdom for several years, there were already distorted parts in his spirit. The standard for whether he was tired or not was not the same as that of ordinary people, and it was difficult to say whether it was objective.

Since he got up early in the morning, he often didn't have much to do in the afternoon.

Although it was said that there was no distinction between high and low in work, the matter of collecting night soil inevitably made people smell bad. In the month or two since he came to the farm, Tang Minjie had not made any friends. This was also his own wish. During work meetings, he would try to sit a little further away from others. He would simply greet colleagues he met on the road. When eating in the cafeteria, naturally no one wanted to take the initiative to sit next to him. Not to mention discrimination, the smell was also unappetizing.

The injuries he brought back from the north had not fully recovered. His body was still weak, and he occasionally felt powerless when doing physical work. After being assigned here, in the process of adapting to the work, he borrowed some agricultural research books and materials from Director Chen to read. His overall understanding was not difficult.

On clear and uneventful afternoons, he would often cross the small woods on the edge of the farm and sit by the pond to look at the situation in the opposite village. Across the pond was the threshing ground in Xiaoye Village. Men, women, and children in the village would often gather there. Some people were grinding things there, some were chatting, and some children were playing and making noise.

The sunlight shone down on him. It was late autumn, but the warmth in the sunlight still brought out the coldness in his heart. The coldness burst out and conflicted with the sunlight in his body, torturing his skin and making cracking sounds in his bones.

His eyes would flash with the scenes of the north that he could still see every night, those who died in skin and bones, those who died in various tortures, the crazy screams of the slaves who were skinned. Thousands of miles away, they were still clearly visible and within reach. They would often blend in with everything in front of him.

The villagers in the threshing ground opposite would occasionally look at him curiously. Once or twice, the old squire in the village walked along the pond, seemingly wanting to strike up a conversation with him, but he smelled the odor on him and walked away.

The life after arriving in Wenpu County did not exist in any of his previous expectations. During this time, his spirit was chaotic. Many times he woke up in the middle of the night, and in a trance, he felt like he was still in Yunzhong. He listened to the movements outside, even rushed out of the yard, looking for weapons, and it took a long time to realize where he was. Sometimes, the night soil women laughed heartily, and he felt dizzy as if in a dream. The people in the threshing ground under the sunlight always reminded him of the villages in the north where the Han slaves gathered. He would habitually grope his collar, but there was no poison inside.

After he was placed here, the people outside seemed to have completely forgotten him. So, on an afternoon in October, three Huaxia Army soldiers rode horses to Xiaoye Village. The leader was Peng Yueyun.

"Senior brother."

At this time, Peng Yueyun could be regarded as one of the representatives of the young and middle-aged faction in the army, and also had the representative significance of inheriting the mantle of the Western Army. With the rank of Senior Colonel, he had unlimited potential. But facing the guilty Tang Minjie, he still gave a firm military salute. Tang Minjie looked at him for a moment and woke up from his dream.

"It seems I can't call you Little Peng now. What should I call you?"

"We're all our own people, so let's be a little more casual." Peng Yueyun said, "Just call me Father."

"...Ah."

After answering subconsciously, Tang Minjie hesitated for a moment and kicked him.