MLMD – Chapter 24 Recruitment Rumblings

In the height of summer, the sun over Wuli Village was merciless. By the time noon arrived, the entire village seemed scorched and wilted. The rice fields, already nearing harvest season, lay limp and lifeless, collapsed in the paddies. Only the cicadas still cried out, their calls rising and falling in waves—yet even they sounded weak and weary.

By the banks of the Sanggan River, the Linglong sisters walked side by side. Yuling cradled several freshly washed garments in her arms, while Yulong carried a wooden basin. The two slender figures moved gracefully beneath the dazzling white sunlight. The afternoon heat lent a lazy, drowsy air to their fair faces. On the empty riverbank, several sheep grazed idly, their owners nowhere in sight. One sheep, white and black, bore mottled markings like a dairy cow. Yulong whispered to her sister, “This one must be the result of a white sheep and a black sheep fooling around and producing a little spotted lamb.”

The sisters stopped at a set of stone steps by the river—a spot where many women of Wuli Village usually came to wash clothes. The waters of the Sanggan River had nourished their ancestors for countless generations, and they themselves had lived and multiplied here ever since. But recently, the river’s water level had been dropping steadily, with dried riverbed exposed in many places. When the Linglong sisters arrived, they saw more than a dozen poorly dressed women by the riverbank, laughing loudly as they pounded clothes vigorously with wooden mallets. Upon noticing the sisters, a trace of reverence appeared in their eyes, and even their voices dropped noticeably. They recognized these two beautiful young women as members of Yue Family Manor. To them, Yue Family Manor was not only their provider of livelihood, but its master was also a kind-hearted landlord.

“Sister, why are they all looking at us like that?” Yulong felt uncomfortable under the women’s gazes. After squatting down, she shrank closer to her sister and whispered. Having rarely left the manor, she was unfamiliar with such attention.

“Because we’re from Yue Family Manor—and also the young master’s people,” Yuling replied. Having long regarded herself as someone by Yue Yang’s side, her voice carried a hint of pride and shared honor. A faint blush colored her cheeks, whether from the afternoon heat or from shyness, it was hard to tell.

Just then, fragments of conversation drifted into their ears.

“Cuier’s mother, just look at this—it’s truly sinful. The Sanggan River’s already dried up like this, yet the Wang, Li, and Lin families are still desperately digging canals to divert water. If they keep drawing water like this, the Sanggan River’s going to be drained dry.”

“Who’s to say it isn’t so? But what can we do? The young master of Yue Family Manor already agreed to it, so those three families are digging canals without any restraint,” said a simple-looking middle-aged woman, glaring indignantly at the figures busy excavating the riverbank on the opposite shore.

“But we don’t need to be afraid,” another woman chimed in. “Didn’t Young Master Yue have people dig plenty of wells for us? We won’t lack water to irrigate our fields. Letting them have this water doesn’t really matter.”

“Still, just watching them drain the river dry—it really makes my blood boil.”

“It’s fine. Once the plum rains come, or after it rains next year, the river will have water again.”

The women discussed recent events. At first their voices were low, but they gradually grew louder, until even the Linglong sisters could hear clearly. Soon, however, another topic caught everyone’s attention.

“Hey, have you heard? Yue Family Manor has started recruiting militia. I hear the terms are extremely good—not only is there a resettlement allowance, but you also get one tael of silver each month as pay. Lots of people from Wuli Village have already signed up. If you can become a village soldier, you won’t have to worry about making a living anymore.”

At this, one woman spoke up bitterly, “Tell me about it. My man went to apply yesterday, but he was rejected on the spot. They said he was too old. But my husband is only thirty-two this year—how is that too old?”

“Hehe…” The surrounding women burst into laughter. “Didn’t they say it already? They only want lads between sixteen and twenty-five. Your Zhuzhi is already sixteen—how could your husband not be considered old? In my opinion, you’d do better sending Zhuzhi to apply.”

“That’s right, Zhuzhi looks promising—solid and sturdy, clearly a strong young fellow.”

“Bah! Letting my man become a village soldier is one thing, but Zhuzhi’s only sixteen. I won’t let him eat from that bowl of severed heads.” The woman’s expression was resolute.

“How can people be like this?” Yulong fumed quietly after hearing this. “The young master recruiting village soldiers is such a good thing. How can they not understand his good intentions?”

She was about to stand up and argue with the women, but Yuling quickly pulled her back. Yuling gently shook her head at Yulong, signaling her not to be impulsive. Some things, she knew, simply couldn’t be explained.

In truth, once the news that Yue Family Manor was recruiting village soldiers spread, it indeed stirred up the surrounding dozens of li around Wuli Village. Reactions were mixed—some praised it, some scoffed, others merely watched the spectacle. Still, the conditions Yue Yang offered were undeniably attractive, stirring the hearts of many struggling to make a living. As a result, numerous households with idle laborers and able-bodied men signed up. What no one expected, however, was that Yue Family Manor’s recruitment standards would turn out to be shockingly strict.

The very first condition alone left everyone stunned: the recruitment age was set between sixteen and twenty-five. Those beyond this range could still apply, but only if they could read at least five hundred characters. This single requirement eliminated nearly half of all applicants.

“Young master, aren’t these conditions a bit… too much?” Hu Laosan, the head guard of Yue Family Manor, said worriedly as he watched the sparse stream of applicants at the manor gate. “If this keeps up, I’m afraid we won’t be able to find enough qualified soldiers. How about loosening the requirements a bit?”

It had already been three days, yet fewer than four hundred men had been recruited—less than half of the planned number. This left Hu Laosan deeply concerned, and he earnestly urged Yue Yang to relax the criteria.

“Better to have too few than to accept the unqualified,” Yue Yang replied firmly. Influenced by modern concepts of elite military forces, his recruitment standards naturally bore a strong imprint of later generations. Twenty-five was already the upper limit he could tolerate. He simply couldn’t imagine recruiting a group of thirty- or nearly forty-year-old uncles in an era where the average lifespan barely exceeded forty. Was the manor’s grain really that surplus?

Seeing Yue Yang’s resolute stance, Hu Laosan could only give up. Though he was the head of the manor’s guards, Yue Yang was unusually decisive on this matter, allowing no one to alter his decision.

Suddenly, Yue Yang recalled something and turned to ask, “By the way, Master Hu, have the village soldiers we recruited earlier been properly settled?”

“All arranged,” Hu Laosan replied. “They’re housed in the newly built row of single-story rooms on the north side of the manor.”

Hu Laosan dared not be careless with Yue Yang’s instructions. After the armed clashes and the establishment of the militia, Yue Yang had already begun to build preliminary authority within Yue Family Manor and Wuli Village.

“Let’s go take a look,” Yue Yang said, waving his hand as he strode toward the northern side of the manor…

The land north of Yue Family Manor had originally been wasteland. The soil there was saline and unfit for crops, littered with broken stones, so no one had ever taken interest in it. However, it was a naturally ideal training ground. After Yue Yang ordered several rows of temporary wooden houses built on this barren land, it became the camp for housing the militia. Now, several hundred village soldiers selected from Wuli Village had gathered there.

With no one managing them yet and having just entered the camp, these men were like idle folk without restraint. They wandered about aimlessly, and the entire training ground was filled with all kinds of figures and shouting voices—this was the scene that greeted Yue Yang as he arrived.