From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 34 Corvee
Official document content:

In accordance with the requirements of the Yuanli County government, the Tonggu County Government recruited soldiers and sent them to Yunbian County!
From now on, every household is forbidden from marrying or adopting children to prevent evasion of the draft. Violators will be sentenced to forced labor for their entire family...

"this!"

Liu Hongwei carefully studied the requirements of this conscription and found that at least half of the families in Baihe Village would have to conscript a male.

“I don’t know how many farmers will lose their homes and families.”

When immortals fight, mortals suffer.

In the case of Yunbian County, although they said they were conscripting soldiers, ordinary people who went there would actually be cannon fodder and hard labor, and could only do things like transporting food and supplies, and repairing walls and building houses.

The aftermath of a random spell cast by an immortal can cause countless casualties among ordinary people.

In short, ordinary people would definitely risk their lives if they went there.

"Thank goodness I have my uncle, so my family is fine."

Liu Hongwei thought so in his heart.

Not only was his family safe, but they could also take advantage of this opportunity to acquire some more land.

----

The wedding date of Xu Xiaoniu and Chen Xiulian has been set, and it will be an auspicious day at the beginning of next month.

At the Xu family, everyone is preparing for the wedding banquet.

"This courtyard at home is a little small, so we need to expand it."

Xu Fugui had just returned from the county town, and he ordered a red-painted solid wooden bed as his wedding bed.

His family currently has seven people living in it, which is already a bit crowded. After Xu Xiaoniu gets married, there will be even less room.

"I can't save all this money I've accumulated."

Because of the existence of the family treasure tree, Xu Fugui’s plan is: the family will not be separated after his children get married, laying the foundation for the future "big family".

At this time, Liu Hongwei arrived at Xu's house. Seeing that the gate was not closed, he pushed it open and walked in.

"Hello, Master Xu."

"Young Master Liu? What are you doing..."

"I'm here to inform you that your family's wedding should not be held yet."

"What?"

At this time, everyone in the Xu family was at home.

Xu Xiaogou was in the room when he heard the sound and rushed out: "Liu Hongwei, it's not because of your third brother, right? Even if I beat him up, it won't prevent my eldest brother from getting married."

"Master Liu, why exactly?"

Everyone in the Xu family walked into the yard.

Liu Hongwei took out the official document and said, "This matter has nothing to do with my family. You will know it when you read it yourself."

Xu Fugui took the document, and Xu Xiaoniu and Xu Xiaogou came forward.

When they saw the words "Conscription", everyone's expression changed.

"Conscript...conscript?"

Xu Fugui's hands trembled slightly.

According to the requirements, one of the two unmarried males over the age of fifteen in his family must be selected to serve in the military.

"I've brought this to you. You can discuss this among yourselves. If you have any ill intentions, you'll bear the consequences yourself."

After Liu Hongwei finished speaking, he took back the documents and turned to leave.

"..."

The scene fell into an eerie silence.

After a long time, Xu Fugui shook his head and sighed: "Alas~~"

They are just ordinary people. What can they do when they encounter such things?

This is why every household in the village has many children, but the population remains stable: the lives of the lower class are worthless, and only by having more children can they withstand the losses caused by various irresistible forces.

"Dad, what should I do?"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Xu Fugui.

"Wait a few days, listen to the outside world and see what other families are doing."

Xu Fugui thought there were always ways to "escape conscription", such as exemption from military service and tax. The wealthy families could not bear to see their sons go to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

----

The news of the government's conscription spread quickly throughout Baihe Village, and the villagers complained bitterly.

"The imperial court wants to go to war, what does it have to do with us? They insist on capturing us to be cannon fodder."

"If we lose, we'll die, and if we win, we won't gain a penny."

"I only have one son in my family. Just because I'm still young, I have to choose between him and me? Is this fair?"

If there is only one son in the family who is over 15 years old and unmarried, and the father is under 40 years old, one of the two must be chosen.

Either the father is conscripted, or the son gets married and provides for the mother in her old age.

Either his son is drafted into the army, or the father has another child while he is still young.

"If I had known earlier that my son would get married, it would be to another family."

"The government doesn't allow marriages now, and even if you want to escape military service, you can't."

"..."

Someone privately found Liu Yaozong and asked him to change his family's household registration information to avoid being conscripted.

The household registration documents of each village are in the hands of the village chief.

The county government kept household registration books, but they hadn't been updated in a long time, and the records only dated back a decade or so. The village chief had the most detailed information on every household's population, including births, illnesses, deaths, weddings, and funerals.

However, Liu Yaozong did not dare to commit such serious crimes as tampering with household registration documents and evading corvée labor. He told others that the government had a rule that people could avoid corvée labor by paying "exemption silver."

So many people asked around.

Soon the rumor spread: in order to avoid being conscripted, one had to pay 500 taels of silver as exemption silver.

Five hundred taels of silver is a huge sum of money for an ordinary farmer.

If you don't pay the money, your family will be one less male and life will be very difficult in the future.

Even after selling his land and house to raise 500 taels to pay the debt, he still found it difficult to make a living.

For thousands of farmers, this is an extremely difficult choice.

There are also many tenants and poor farmers who cannot afford 500 taels of silver even if they sell all their property.

---

At Du Hai's home.

He came back from the county town after gathering information. As soon as he entered the door, Wang Qian, Du Yong and Du Meng surrounded him.

"Dad, how's it going?"

Wang Qian's face was full of anxiety.

"Dad, what did you find out?"

"It's okay. For our situation, we only need to pay five hundred taels of silver."

Du Hai looked relaxed. He had practiced martial arts his entire life, and while he hadn't reached the Xiantian realm, he had a lot of connections in the county.

After making inquiries from many sources, it was confirmed that the rumor was true: by paying 500 taels of silver as exemption silver, one could be exempted from this military service.

His family had fifty acres of rented land, and he also had savings from years of teaching students martial arts, so it wasn't difficult for him to come up with five hundred taels of silver.

He felt bad about spending so much money, but since it meant saving his son's life, he didn't hesitate.

"I'll go get the banknotes right now, rush to the county seat overnight, and deliver them to County Magistrate Liu tomorrow morning."

Du Hai had dealt with Liu Yaozu several times when he was young, and since they were from the same village, he was not turned away and could not see Liu Yaozu.

"To County Magistrate Liu?"

Wang Qian didn't understand.

"It would be beneficial to give this matter directly to County Lieutenant Liu."

As the county lieutenant of Tonggu County, Liu Yaozu was in charge of military affairs and public security, and he was fully responsible for this conscription.

Afterwards, Du Hai went out with a silver note worth five hundred taels of silver.

Du Yong and Du Meng breathed a sigh of relief.

Although they were both skilled in martial arts, they were only teenagers after all, and they were instinctively afraid of the battlefield where immortals participated and life-and-death fights were everywhere.

There are more than 60 villages in Tonggu County. The large villages have one or two thousand households, the small villages have three to five hundred households, and there are tens of thousands of urban residents and merchants in the urban area.

Like Du Hai, anyone who could easily come up with five hundred taels of silver was trying to find a way to send money to Liu Yaozu, fearing that if they sent it too late, their son would be captured.

----

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(End of this chapter)