Traveling through ancient times, I led my family to prosperity

In modern society, military service is voluntary, but in ancient times it was compulsory. If a person is caught evading military service, he will be severely beaten at best, or even killed at worst. There are two types of military service: regular soldiers and garrison soldiers.

A regular soldier is actually a soldier who needs to serve for two years, one year in the local area and one year in the capital. Being a soldier is not in vain, as the court provides food, clothing, housing and transportation, and there is also a salary. There is basically nothing to do during normal times, just training in the barracks. When there is something to do, it is nothing more than arresting a bandit. It sounds good, but a regular soldier is like a sheep dung ball, shiny on the outside but dirty on the inside.

Being a night watchman is hard, but as long as you don't look for trouble, trouble usually won't come to you. But being a regular soldier is different, even if you don't look for trouble, trouble will come to you.

Night watchmen are all poor. Even if the supervisor beats someone to death, they can't get a single drop of profit. However, regular soldiers get paid, so there is profit to be made. The generals and officers above each regular soldier will ask for money. The smart ones will spend money to buy peace, otherwise they will suffer. These soldiers have their own ways to bully people. If someone says you are not well-dressed, you are not well-dressed; if someone says you are not good at training, you are not good at training; if they want to beat you with 20 military sticks, you have to bear it; if they want to beat you with 30 military sticks, you have to bear it. If you don't pay no matter how you are beaten, then when they catch bandits, they will deliberately send you to the most dangerous place to bear the damage.

Another type of service is garrison soldiers, which means being a frontier soldier. Generally, they need to guard the frontier for a year. There are frequent wars on the frontier, and being a garrison soldier is very dangerous. If you are not careful, you will die on the battlefield. However, this is the place where people are least oppressed, because they often go to the battlefield, and the officers are afraid that these soldiers will stab them in the back.

In addition to these three types of corvée, there is also miscellaneous labor, which has no fixed time or deadline, and the court can collect it whenever it wants. However, these are three-in-one labor, and the court allows people not to participate as long as they pay a certain amount of silver.

"Dad, before we separated from the Sheng family and lived on our own, we didn't hear that we had to perform labor service." Xiao Lan wondered.

"Your uncle is a scholar. He can be exempted from corvée and taxes. He can also exempt the other two male members of the family from corvée. So our family does not have to perform corvée." Sheng Xuan said.

"We are not so lucky. We paid a large sum of money to be exempted from corvee labor." Zhang Qingfeng sighed and said, "We still have to let our children study hard. However, even if we want them to pass the exam and become scholars, our family will have to spend a lot of money."

Xiao Lan thought that Sheng Nuo's talent was still very useful. It seemed that Mr. Sheng's thinking was very advanced. Having a scholar in the family saved the family a lot of trouble.

"Let the four younger brothers study hard. We will provide them with support as long as they can read and write and use an abacus. Even in years of famine, when farm work is no longer possible, they can go to work in shops and not starve." Xiao Lan said.

Since the private school in the town closed, Xiaowen began to teach Xiaohu, Xiaocheng and Xiaoqiang how to read. He taught them everything he learned in the private school. The children were afraid of wasting paper, so they would practice writing with a stick on the ground several times before they would write on paper with trepidation. Of course, these pens and papers were for Xiaowen to use in school.

The adult male refugees in the town were assigned to work as night watchmen or soldiers. Their tools and food were provided by the court. It was unknown whether they could return or how many could return.

There were not many female refugees and children who survived the famine and epidemic. Some sold themselves to wealthy families as slaves, some fled to other places, and some dug wild grass roots, tree barks, and Guanyin soil to fill their stomachs. Of course, many refugees died of bloating after eating too much Guanyin soil. After all, the county government only distributed limited food every day, so the refugees had to think of ways to survive.

In general, the county town is relatively stable, many shops are open, and the county government patrols every day, but there is no burning, killing or looting. Last year, the grain harvest was poor, and the government exempted the grain tax for a year. It is not known what the situation will be this year. Xiaolan does not know about other villages, but in Shengjia Village, many families can't afford to eat. When it comes to planting, whether there is money to buy grain seeds is a problem. I don't know if the government will solve it by then. Now there are people digging wild vegetables all over the mountains and plains. I am afraid that after the grain seeds are planted, they will be dug up before they are ready.

After buying the lard, the three of them passed by a shop selling paper and pens and went in.

The clerk was very enthusiastic when he saw someone coming. Those who could come to the shop to buy paper and pens these days were all from well-off families. People from ordinary families could barely afford to eat, so how could they care about studying and writing?

"We need four sets of brushes, ink, paper and inkstone." Xiao Lan said to the waiter, "We don't have much money, so we need cheap and durable paper for writing." Xiao Lan was not stingy. In fact, when Xiao Hu and his friends first started learning, they usually wrote and drew on the ground and were reluctant to use brushes and ink on paper. If she bought them good brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, they would be even more reluctant to practice calligraphy on paper.

The large paper in the store has the best value for money, but you need to cut it yourself. However, this kind of paper can save a lot of money compared to the cut paper. In the end, Xiaolan bought this kind of large paper.

Even though he had carefully selected the most cost-effective pens, inkstones, and paper in the store, he still spent two taels of silver when he checked out. Zhang Qingfeng wanted to pay, but Xiao Lan refused. "Uncle, please don't argue with us. We are all family. Besides, I didn't pay you for the work you did on weekdays, did I?"

"How can they be the same?" Zhang Qingfeng thought about it and said with a smile, "Forget it, we are one family and we should not talk about different things. When I go back, I will tell my children to study hard and repay you after they graduate."

After returning home, Fu and Liu started to boil lard the next day. They only bought three packs of lard yesterday. There were not many things, so they could get busy. Sheng Xuan, Zhang Qingfeng, and Zhang Qingnian did not ask the children to pick up clam shells, and asked them to learn a few words at home and concentrate. Xiao Lan, Zhang, and Xiao Ting put the clam shells on the stone mill, crushed them into powder, and put them back into the bag.

The fact that the children in the family practiced calligraphy was still known to the villagers, and many people were envious. Because this time it was not only Xiaowen who practiced calligraphy, but also the children of the old Zhang family. They all sighed that Sheng Xuan's family had become successful. Not only did they support their own children to learn to read and write, but even his Yue family benefited from it. What kind of situation was this? They could even afford to buy pens, ink, paper and inkstones for their children.

Xiao Lan felt that it was not appropriate to practice writing on paper after practicing on the ground, so she had to let the children practice on paper. After much persuasion, the children finally took out the paper that they had treasured like a treasure.

"Practice five pictures every day. If you practice one less picture every day, you will be hit on the palm." Xiao Lan said.

Several children nodded and said, "Okay."