Wang Lung, who has now lived through more than one drought and more than one flood, swarms of locusts, famines, and other disasters, has never seen a war. The mere fact that he refers to the war as something to be seen re-establishes the fact that he is a simple peasant from the "good earth." The second son advises him not to sell his grain because with the war approaching, they will be able to get a better price. Thus, after having lived through all the other calamities of life and having reached a respected position in society, Wang Lung now must suffer the indignities of having to quarter numerous soldiers who swarmed "out of the northwest like a swarm of locusts."
When Wang Lung first sees the soldiers, he does not even know what the implement is that they carry over their shoulders, and the faces of the men are so fierce that he wants to hurry inside and lock the gates. But before he can do this, the uncle's son sees him and has all of his horde of men move into Wang Lung's courts. Thus again is the uncle's son a source of evil to Wang Lung.
When the second son arrives with reports of how the soldiers will kill a person for the slightest provocation, Wang Lung and his sons realize the seriousness of the matter and immediately move all the women and children into the inner courts. They guard these courts against the soldiers, but in the same way that they could not deny the uncle anything because of family or ancestral ties, so now they must let the uncle's son into their innermost courts, where he insults the wife of the eldest son and makes sexual insinuations with the wife of the second son — a fact that will cause great enmity between the two women.
The uncle's son becomes so obnoxious concerning the females that they decide that it will be necessary to give him a woman while he is there. He chooses the delicate Pear Blossom, the slave whom Wang Lung bought when she was seven years old because she looked so pitiful. He has always felt tender toward her, and, when she falls to her feet begging him not to send her, he searches for another woman or another way to satisfy the uncle's son.
