Chapter 26: The Road To Lanyu
Wen talked on the fifth day.
The first four had been what I'd expected. Harsh silence, grandiose camps, and quiet meals in between duties.
On the fifth morning, passing through a village called Hushan that flew the Western Reaches banner from its gatehouse, Wen pointed at a grain depot being constructed on the village's eastern edge.
"This village was under Lord Qinghe's prefecture two years ago. Back then, the population was barely above a hundred, and now it has boomed to a hundred and sixty. They built the depot themselves after seeing the Hekou model."
I perked a brow at his words. "The Hekou model?"
"Your labor rotation system was described in detail to Commander Xu, who in turn circulated the method to Lord Shen's administrative staff, and they used it as a model to rework the old method." He adjusted his reins. "I'm surprised that you didn't know that."
I hadn't. The labor rotation I'd built out of desperation to keep six struggling families alive had been adopted across the Western Reaches' eastern territory as standard practice. There definitely had to be some tweaks in it, so I couldn't pat myself on the back and claim to be a pioneer, but it felt good to have contributed to some positive change.
The road widened as we moved west. The villages grew larger and closer together. By the second week, we were passing through settlements of three and four hundred people with proper walls, market squares, and garrison outposts visible on nearby ridges.
Military checkpoints appeared at river crossings and road junctions, manned by soldiers in Western Reaches uniforms who checked documentation, inspected cargo, and waved us through when they saw Wen's administrative seal.