Chapter 39 Section Three

Entering May, it is the busy season for farmers. Farmers in Weishui River, while harvesting barley and wheat, also planted millet, beans, and buckwheat. At the same time, they found time to plant summer sunflowers in the vegetable garden.At this time, people are busy, land is busy, cattle and horses are busy, and the whole field is full of tension and activity.But what is worrying is that this season is also the season with the highest incidence of private fighting.Fighting for land, fighting for water, stealing crops, robbing livestock, collecting debts and food, and taking advantage of the rush to avenge the family, etc., all of which are the cause of great disputes.Every May, the wars between countries basically stopped, and the government went all out to supervise farming and resolve all kinds of sudden disputes and private fights.May in Qin State is even more tense than in Eastern countries.In reality, the Qin State still had a well field system, with eight families having one well and sharing water channels and wells.Not only do the eight wells in the well have conflicts over land and water and how much labor to undertake on the public land, but there are also frequent conflicts between wells over land and water, involving two wells and sixteen families, and large-scale fighting frequently occurs.Furthermore, the village clan system of the Qin State is still relatively intact. Whenever there is a conflict, the whole village will be mobilized, just like a small war.But the most important thing is due to the folk customs. They are used to private blood fights, and even take pride in them. They often fight because of small disputes.

Therefore, May in Qin State has always been the busiest, most tense and chaotic time internally. One of the purposes of Wei Yang's decision to promulgate the first batch of decrees at the end of March and early April is to deter the chaos in May.With the new law, coupled with the newly appointed county magistrate who supports the reform, it should be more stable than in previous years.However, no one expected that large-scale chaos and violent fighting still occurred, and it came so suddenly and violently. What's even more shocking is that this large-scale private vendetta happened precisely in the famous Mei County!

There is a castle on the north bank of the Wei River in the Guanzhong Plain, which is the county seat of Mei County.Mei County is more than 600 miles away from Liyang in the east and more than 300 miles away from Chencang in the west. It is the most fertile area in the west of the Weishui Plain and is the most famous county in Qin State.However, the great name of Mei County is not just because of its fertile soil. In terms of geographical advantages, after all, Mei County is not as wide and flat as the eastern part of Guanzhong, and it is slightly inferior.The prestige of Mei County lies in that it is the "hometown of famous generals" in Qin State.The three famous generals in Qin Mugong's era-Meng Mingshi, Xiqishu, and Bai Yibing were all from Mei County.Although the direct descendants of the Mengxi and Bai clans lived in Liyang, the capital city, the offshoot families left behind in Mei County had multiplied for more than a hundred years and formed a huge force.The three clans stand together, covering almost half of Mei County.A large part of the rest of the population in Mei County are descendants of Rongdi nobles in Longxi.During Qin Mugong's time, he was worried about the resurgence of the Rong people, so he accepted the proposal of the great strategist You Yu, and moved all the upper-class nobles of Rong and Di to Guanzhong to settle down.Concerned that the Rongdi tribe was wild and martial, and other places could not restrain them, so they arranged most of them in Mei County, the hometown of famous generals, with a strong martial arts atmosphere, and lived with the old Qin people.Over the past hundred years, although these Rong and Di nobles have become peasants and common people, their rebellious character and aggressive atmosphere have not weakened in the slightest.On the ground of more than 200 miles in Mei County, they and the Mengxi Bai tribe have always been entangled in grievances and personal struggles.From small neighborhood brawls to large family fights, they almost never stop.

The new law was promulgated, and the people of Mei County were nervous for a few days.But within ten days, ridicule and resentment grew up, and the two major forces scoffed at the new law, gathered together to discuss it, and were very dissatisfied.The leader of the Rong people laughed drunkenly, "Don't let men fight? That's like not letting women have babies!" Meng Tianyi, the old leader of the Mon tribe, smiled and said to the people: "Back then, the old ancestors were tough guys who were beaten. Son. Rong Di wild species will admit to fighting, the more they fight, the more convinced they are. Afraid of the new law? It’s okay. If Qin changes again, can they still break the old rules of Mu Gong?”

On May 23, a tragic civil war finally broke out in Mei County. The nine villages inhabited by the Meng people are all on the north bank of the Weishui River, named Mengyi Village to Mengjiu Village respectively.People call this area Mengxiang.The land of Meng Township is about 30 li in circumference, and there is a canal leading to the Wei River running through the land of nine villages.Nine villages in Mengxiang kept their harvest in drought and flood, all thanks to this large canal.This canal was presided over by Baili Xi, a wise official in Qin Mugong's time, and it was called Baili Canal.Because the general Meng Mingshi is the son of Bailixi, and the Meng people are the descendants of the Baili family, the Dukes of the Qin Dynasty have allowed the Meng people in Mei County to live on both sides of the Bailiqu.At that time, the western part of Guanzhong was the core area of ​​Qin State, and the capital Yongzhou was more than a hundred miles west of Mei County. This large canal was the only water conservancy project built by Qin State in the Spring and Autumn Period.The main canal of Baili Canal is less than forty miles long. When it flows out of Mengxiang, it diverges into two branch canals. The branch canal to the west extends to Yongcheng, and the main canal to the east extends to Wugong.Meng Township is located in the section of the main canal, and the mouth of the diversion canal is in the field of Mengjiu Village.Rong and Di immigrants all live on both sides of the Dongzhi Canal, and there are about eight or nine villages. They often fight fiercely with Mengxiang for water.Although the Mei County government had canal officials, they could not prevent Meng Township from blocking the canals and forcibly intercepting the water during droughts, let alone stop the Rongdi immigrants from gathering to grab water.This summer, when there is a drought, the land will have to be dry-planted without irrigation, and the harvest will be greatly reduced. This is the truth that everyone in the farm family understands.

At this time, water is more precious than gold. In the middle of the night of May 23rd, just after the wheat harvest and the moon was thin, the Mengxiang people blocked the mouth of the main canal leading to the East Branch Canal, and diverted all the water from the canal to Mengxiang except for a small stream to the West Branch Canal. In the small hair canals of various villages in the township.According to government regulations and folk water usage customs, irrigation has always been done downstream first, then upstream.Although there were droughts in previous years, the amount of water in the Weishui River did not decrease, and the people of Mengxiang were not in a hurry.This year is really strange, the drought may not be as serious as in previous years, but the water volume of the Weishui River has been greatly reduced. Although it cannot be said to be dry, there are still boulders in the river channel.Rumors came from somewhere that the reform of the Qin State was against the law of heaven, and the sky would suffer a severe drought for three years!The people of Mengxiang were in a hurry, so they blocked the main canal and cut off the water first.

The Rongdi immigrants in the lower reaches waited eagerly at the mouth of Tiantou Canal for half a day, but there was not a single drop of water in the canal.Humao, the head of the Rongdi tribe, was very suspicious. Can't the branch canal leak completely?There should be a sound from the breach, right?If the woman patrolling the canal didn't pay back, it was clear that there was no water yet!However, the Meng clan is a big clan after all, so they can't make unreasonable provocations, and things must be confirmed first.Therefore, Hu Mao sent more than 60 strong and strong men to patrol along the channel to check what happened and report back quickly.

At four o'clock, the water patrol team went all the way to the mouth of the main canal, only to find that it was people from Mengxiang who blocked the canal.Rong Di Ding Zhuang couldn't help being furious, and stepped forward to dig the mouth of the canal with a shout!How could the more than a hundred strong men in Mengxiang guarding the mouth of the main canal tolerate it?As soon as the leader whistled, he swung his hoe, iron leash and stick and rushed up to intercept them, and the fight started.After fighting for half an hour, Rong Di's canal patrols were outnumbered, six of them died, and everyone was injured, so they had to flee back to report.

Seeing the six corpses carried back, Humao, the head of the Rongdi clan, was furious, his long hair stood on end, and he shouted, "Blow the horn to gather troops! Give it to me—!" The sound rang, one long and two short, resounding through the night sky.This is the horn of the Rongdi people's battle to the death, and it is a special signal to mobilize the whole body to go into battle.All of a sudden, all Rongdi villages were in commotion, men, women and children mobilized together, holding up hunting knives, daggers, sticks and hoes, they roared towards them.Patriarch Hu Mao led more than a hundred young men with horses and knives, whistling, and swept towards the west of Mengxiang like a storm.After that, more than a thousand people shouted and killed loudly, and followed the horse team, shouting and screaming, and swarmed westward.

A tragic fight unfolded in the field outside the main canal! Nine villages of the Meng tribe had already made preparations, and more than a thousand people gathered behind Qu'an, forming a large square formation to defend against danger.The Mengxi and Bai tribes are from the old Qin Dynasty. Most of the young and middle-aged people joined the army to fight, and most of the people who worked at home were old people, women and teenagers.The Rong and Di people are divided into two groups, and there is still a part of the strong population.When the two clans meet, each has a proud tradition of advocating martial arts, coupled with new and old enmities, they are extremely jealous, and it is more thrilling than the two armies fighting hand-to-hand.Rong Di's vanguard cavalry crossed the bank of the canal in one dash and charged into Meng Xibai's camp of young and old.The old head of the Mon clan who served as the "commander" whistled, and the old and young people behind the bank shouted and scattered.Most of the Rongdi cavalry rushed into the pit just dug!The men and women of the Mon tribe who came up to kill the Rongdi knights were ruthlessly blocked and killed by the cavalry outside the pit, and they got into a mess and fought fiercely.Later, the Rongdi people also swarmed and shouted, desperately rushed up the embankment of the main canal, and fought with the old and young men of the Meng nationality who were guarding the embankment.

For a while, there were shouts and screams all over the place.Although most of the Meng people are old and young women, they have the old Qin tribe's battle rules. There are always more than ten people in a circle, supporting each other from inside and outside, and taking care of each other.Although Rong Di is very strong and has dozens of knights, he has always been single-handedly fighting fiercely, and he has no advantage.The scuffle between the two sides entangled most of the night, and just before dawn, the scuffle crowd finally stepped across the embankment of the main canal. "Wow!" The waves rolled several feet high, rushing towards the entangled and fiercely fighting crowd on both sides of the bank! "Quick--! Run--!" the "General Commander" of the Meng tribe hissed loudly. "Ah——! Blow the horn! Pull——!" Humao shouted desperately, holding a scimitar. However, it was too late.The crowd who are fighting fiercely, you block me, I trip you, and those who hug each other are afraid of letting go of their opponents and being plotted against, so they hold on to their opponents tightly... When the muddy water comes violently, they want to shout It's too late!Those who were drowned in the flood, choked by mud, suffocated by suffocation, injured and bled to death, corpses littered the fields, dead people counted for nothing.The water of May, which is more precious than gold, flows endlessly into a vast ocean. The few people who escaped by chance kept scolding each other across a vast ocean of mud.