Militia Life (1)

At first light the next morning, Peter woke as usual. Faint sounds drifted in from the other farm households in Tunbao as they rose and busied themselves—drawing water, chopping wood, and the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs.

Today was his militia company's day off. There was no group training scheduled, so he quickly got out of bed and pulled on his coarse cloth clothes, patched all over but freshly washed and clean.

His plan for the day was to tend the plot of land assigned to his family and, while he was at it, clear and repair the somewhat silted-up irrigation ditch along its edge.

The ditch had been dug when Tunbao was first built, with the village head organizing all the refugees to work together. It had solved the major problem of irrigation.

Once the land had been distributed among the households, each family became responsible for maintaining the section of ditch beside its own fields.

During the slack farming season, Tunbao would organize workers for unified, large-scale repairs. That was the rule established by Lord Edgar, the steward.

Peter knew very well that this was no matter to be careless about. Lord Edgar's inspectors came down to patrol from time to time. If they found that a household had failed to maintain its section of ditch properly and harmed overall irrigation, not only would that household be punished—the village head would also be held accountable.

If the village head got reprimanded, he would definitely make trouble for them afterward. In serious cases, he might even reclaim the land assigned to them.

After all, everyone in Tunbao knew perfectly well that the land did not truly belong to them. Ownership rested with Lord Karl. They had only the right to cultivate it and live there. Being given