Chapter 12: The Straw Man Shows His Power
Zhao Xing's actions on the grassland were seen by the three examiners on the flying boat.

The main thing was that he was the clerk who reacted the fastest and started making straw figures, and his speed and production quality were quite impressive.

Other people’s straw men were wobbly, but Zhao Xing’s straw man could run and jump, and looked lifelike.

"Hmm? Liu Chuan's 81-part method, is this guy an official under Lord Gao and Lord Tang?" Chen Shijie asked.

Gao Linong and Tang Wanchun looked at each other in bewilderment, because they didn't know everything. They couldn't recognize what the techniques were at first, let alone teach them. How could they teach if they didn't know how to do it themselves?
"He is not a petty official under my command."

"Not mine either."

"Oh? This guy's straw man magic is quite exquisite, but I don't know who he is an official for."

Tang Wanchun pondered and said, "Apart from Lord Chen, I think only Elder Xue Si Nong knows the complete set of 81 methods of Liu Chuan."

Chen Shijie nodded slightly. Xue Wenzhong had been the Minister of Agriculture for more than sixty years, so it was normal for him to know more.

After his reminder, Tang and Gao also began to observe Zhao Xing.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Xing was soon seen fighting with others for grass, throwing stones at them, and forcing his colleagues to retreat.

Gao Linong snorted, "Humph, this person has a bad heart. He actually attacked his colleague for a pile of hay. It's really unbearable."

Tang Wanchun glanced and said nothing. He was watching Chen Shijie's reaction. The top leader had just praised this minor official. It was a bit ignorant of you, Old Gao, to go against his tune now.

Chen Shijie said calmly, "As a minister of agriculture, you compete with the heaven and earth for food, so it's normal for you to be a little sharp. For example, Li Chengfeng, a clerk under Lord Gao, I think he is usually very high-profile."

Gao Linong's eyelids jumped, and he suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing. Even if he thought so in his heart, he shouldn't say it in person.

"Chen Shijie comes from the barren mountains in the north and has experienced many hardships from natural disasters. I'm afraid this kid's behavior may be just what he wants." Thinking of this, Gao Linong immediately changed his tone.

"Mr. Chen's opinion is brilliant, but I have a superficial understanding of it. Moreover, he was the first to reach the haystack, so he was right."

What does it mean that a higher-ranking official can crush a person to death? This is it.

Chen Shijie would just give Gao Linong a nudge and he would immediately agree, because he was the follower and Chen Shijie was the righteous.

Zhao Xing was completely unaware of the discussions of the three examiners on the flying boat. After using up the third haystack, he finally left the pasture.

At this time, he had made as many as seventy-six straw puppets!
Under pressure, he became more dedicated and waited until the 60th straw man.

The proficiency of [Fu Xingcao Ren] has exceeded 1000, reaching the level of 'first-level magic'.

Therefore, the sixteen straw men behind were faster, more agile, and more powerful.

"almost."

At the edge of the responsibility field, seventy-six straw men walked into the field, standing with bamboo poles in their hands, like soldiers ready for battle.

Zhao Xing glanced at the panel.

Vitality fell back below 50.

"According to the current situation, the [Cloud Walking] and [Thunder] spells won't last long. The cost of maintaining these two spells is much greater than that of the straw man."

After all, the straw man is supported by materials, so once it is made, there is no need to provide energy. However, moving clouds and thunder consume more energy.

However, Zhao Xing decided to continue holding on until he could no longer hold on.

After all, a straw man is not as useful as moving clouds and thunder, so there are bound to be many mistakes and omissions.

…………

In the first quarter of an hour of the Lesser Heat Assessment, [Moving Clouds] and [Thunder] blocked almost all of the 'grain-eating birds'.

In the second quarter of an hour, the straw man came to the responsible field and waited.

In the third quarter of an hour, the frequency of thunder weakened, and some grain-eating birds began to break through the clouds and come down to eat the rice, but they were stopped by the straw man.

In the fourth quarter of an hour, Zhao Xing had completely given up on thundering and only used moving clouds to block the grain-eating birds. One third of them rushed down, and the straw man began to drive them away with all his strength.

In the fifth quarter of the hour, many granivorous birds were shot down by the straw men, but five straw men were also destroyed.

In the sixth quarter of an hour, one third of the grain-eating birds flew away, but the number of straw men destroyed reached 25. In the seventh quarter of an hour, the clouds shrank, and Zhao Xing's vitality gradually weakened in the hot weather. He used straw men to attract the grain-eating birds away, because the material of the straw men was also made of Yuan rice stalks, which was the part that the grain-eating birds loved to eat, but he also lost more than half of the straw men.

In the eighth quarter of an hour, the clouds shrank by another half, and half of the fields were exposed. Zhao Xing asked all the straw men to be "sacrifices" and let the remaining grain-eating birds gnaw on them. At the same time, the fields below began to be destroyed.

At the ninth quarter of the hour, a bell rang in the sky, and all the grain-eating birds on the public fields flew away, sank into the white clouds and disappeared.

"hu~hu~"

Zhao Xing had a dry mouth and was sweating profusely.

But he didn't care about that and hurried to check the condition of his responsibility field.

"This half acre on the south side was the most severely damaged because it was exposed the earliest. I used it as a sacrifice and brought all of it here."

“The damage to the remaining acres was minor.”

Zhao Xing looked around and felt a little relieved.

Looking at the straw men again, there were only eight left, and each was incomplete. If these eight straw men had not reached the strength of "first turn", they would have fallen down long ago.

"It's over. We can rest now." Zhao Xing waved his hand, and the remaining eight straw men lost their luster and fell to the side of the field.

The heat was unbearable. After another hour of fighting, Zhao Xing felt exhausted both physically and mentally and wanted to fall asleep immediately.

The wailing of officials could be heard everywhere.

Because this assessment was much more difficult than any previous one, many people suffered heavy losses in their responsibility fields.

The vast majority of people lost more than half of their money, and some were even completely eaten up.

"After working so hard for more than a month, it's all gone like this?"

"Damn you, granary bird! Damn it!"

"Alas, who can you blame for your poor academic performance? Just wait patiently for the make-up exam."

"The best I can get in the make-up exam is a C, which is just a passing grade. It's a waste of energy. How am I going to deal with the next assessment?"

"How can it be so easy to become a ninth-rank official? The position of the Minister of Agriculture is considered good, with only more than 500 people competing for three or five positions. Little do people know that there are three to five thousand people competing for one position of the ninth-rank lieutenant general of the East Lake Army!"

"Forget about joining the army. There are nearly a thousand people competing for the position of craftsman in Tiangong Workshop."

"I wish I wasn't a girl. I heard the competition in the weaving workshop isn't that fierce."

"Ugh~ You are too unambitious."

"..."

Just then, the sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds and rain began to fall.

"Drip, drip~"

The raindrops were sparse and small at first, but soon became large and dense.

The temperature in the air also dropped sharply.

Zhao Xing sat down in the field and let the rain wash over him.

Showers come and go just as quickly.

This is obviously human manipulation.

The officials were given a quarter of an hour to rest and recover. The sky suddenly cleared up, the dark clouds turned into white clouds, and the normal Lesser Heat season returned.

A flying boat landed from the clouds to the grassland, with three people standing on the bow. They were Chen Shijie, the chief officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, and his two adjutants, Gao Linong and Tang Wanchun.

"Here it comes. It's time to announce the results of the Lesser Heat Assessment." Zhao Xing perked up and moved closer to the pasture.

(End of this chapter)