Retain workers

Fu Zhiqiao was busy expanding his network of contacts and did not notice that news of the imperial court's conscription was sweeping through all the prefectures and counties of the Great Wei at a speed like snowflakes.

Two days later, the imperial decree to conscript soldiers was officially issued to Qingzhou.

All males aged 15 to 40 are eligible for this conscription. At least one male must be conscripted from each household, and two males must be conscripted from households with three or more males. Those who are physically weak, disabled, or shorter than 1.4 meters are exempt from conscription. Those who do not wish to contribute manpower must pay a fee of 30 taels of silver per person.

Thirty taels of silver was almost the life savings of most poor people, and many families simply couldn't afford that much money, so they had no choice but to send the men in their families to join the army.

Within a day, the people of Qingzhou were unsettled by this news.

Rumors circulated that the conscription was due to the imperial court's impending war against the barbarians in the northern frontier, and the people were in an uproar discussing the conscription and war.

"War means death. My son isn't married yet; he's the only son in the Liang family!"

"My family is the same. What if something bad happens to us and our family line ends?"

A husband put his arm around his wife's shoulder and said, "This departure may be our last."

Upon hearing this, an old woman nearby was overcome with grief: "Heavens! How am I, an old woman, supposed to live like this?!"

"Pah! Don't say unlucky things."

"The imperial court has sent all the men away, so who will grow our crops?"

The people surrounded the soldiers, complaining. The soldiers who were posting the notice were so annoyed by the noise that they shouted, "Quiet! Quiet!"

However, no one listened to him. The people continued to discuss the negative effects of conscription without stopping, and his voice was drowned out by the crowd.

The soldiers banged the gongs loudly, and only the ear-piercing sound brought a moment of silence.

"Fighting bravely on the battlefield is the mark of a hero, how can you speak of it as if we're going to our deaths? If everyone is afraid of death, how can we win battles? How can the people live in peace?" The officer was eloquent, and his words left everyone speechless.

"His Majesty is merciful. It is precisely because of the crops in the fields that he has allowed everyone to finish the autumn harvest before conscripting soldiers. Those who perform well on the battlefield after joining the army can stay in the army as squad leaders, and perhaps in the future they can be promoted and ennobled. Ambitious men should not miss such a good opportunity to make meritorious contributions!"

Going to the battlefield to kill the enemy is both dangerous and an opportunity!

Defending one's country and being granted official titles and ranks can indeed ignite the passion in a man's heart.

"The general sent by the imperial court will arrive in a couple of days. You have at most a month to settle things at home. The battlefield is ever-changing, and no one can guarantee they will come back alive. If you want to leave an heir for your family, hurry up and get married. Do you understand? I have delivered the message. Everyone, you may leave now."

*

The imperial court conscripted soldiers nationwide, and Liujia Village was no exception.

"The imperial court is conscripting soldiers; the order has already been issued, and I'm sure everyone knows about it."

Liu Pinggu sighed. Each household had to conscript at least one male, which meant that more than half of the village's labor force was being taken away, leaving only the elderly, women, and children.

"Village Chief!" Liu Zhiyi didn't stand on ceremony and said directly, "My elder brother just retired from the army two years ago, why do you still want my family to produce a male heir this year?"

Liu Zhiyi has an older brother, and his father also meets the conscription requirements. According to regulations, families with three or more male members must have two conscripted. Regardless of whether they can survive on the battlefield after joining the army, the loss of two male members at once is a huge blow to the family.

Liu Pinggu sighed: "It's a regulation from above, there's nothing I can do about it."

The imperial court's conscription of militia was not a lifelong system.

Unlike soldiers who are recruited into the army, militia members are essentially temporary workers.

Ordinary soldiers, upon enlisting, would have their household registration changed to military household registration, thus leaving their hometowns and spending their days learning and training with various weapons such as swords, knives, and bows and arrows. Higher-ranking generals and officers not only possessed superb martial arts skills but also had to be knowledgeable in military strategy, able to read maps, and be ready at any time to sacrifice their lives for the country.

But the militia is different. The militia is composed of ordinary people who have never received military training, have low physical fitness, and are not strong in combat. Therefore, the militia members go to the battlefield to kill the enemy when the country needs to fight, and go home to farm when there is no war.

To compensate farmers for the loss of male laborers, the imperial court stipulated that if any male member of a family was conscripted into the army, the family would not be required to pay taxes or participate in corvée labor during his service in the army.

Families with three or more male members will have two members conscripted. Liu Pinggu's youngest son, Liu Fangxue, has just turned fifteen this year. As a result, two members of his family will be conscripted. His wife cried every day after hearing the news.

Hearing his wife's cries, Liu Pinggu felt a pang of sorrow. As the village chief, he couldn't leave the village, but his two sons couldn't escape it. He was extremely unwilling to send his sons to the battlefield, but as the village chief, he couldn't show favoritism and had no choice but to reluctantly submit their names.

Liu Pinggu advised the villagers: "Everyone who meets the requirements must go. If anyone is found to be deceiving their superiors or concealing the truth, even ten heads wouldn't be enough to chop them off. Everyone should go back and prepare as soon as possible!"

The crowd dispersed in small groups.

*

Three men dressed as government officials came to the village with household registration documents to verify and register them.

The soldier was scribbling notes on paper when he heard footsteps approaching. Without looking up, he asked, "What's your name? Which family are you from?"

Those who met the conscription requirements stepped forward one by one, registered their names and hometowns, and were first checked by officers and soldiers to see if their limbs were intact, and then by doctors to see if they were blind or deaf.

Finally, those who have no physical problems are considered to have passed the test, signed the conscription document, and received a temporary number. "Those who meet the requirements, come and sign this conscription document. Prepare your bags and assemble at the yamen in three days."

More than 400 people in Liujia Village meet the requirements for conscription.

The eligible men all wore long faces. Going to the border to fight was tantamount to sending themselves to their deaths. No one wanted to go, but they had no choice but to go. The government held everyone's household registration records, and they knew exactly which families met the requirements and which did not. If the number of applicants did not match the records held by the soldiers, they would be in big trouble.

Anyone found to have concealed their identity and refused to serve in the army will be severely punished with fifty strokes of the cane. If they go out to evade conscription, their entire family will be subject to five times the amount of taxes.

There's no way to hide from it, and no way to escape it.

The villagers of Liujia Village had worked with Fu Zhiqiao for so long that they had accumulated some savings, but it was not easy for them to come up with thirty taels all at once.

Especially during conscription season, every household is short of money, and there's nowhere to borrow money.

Three more days!

If they can't come up with the money after three days and can't get their names removed from the government's list, there's nothing they can do.

The winery was full of young, strong men, and they were all distracted upon hearing the conscription news. Their names had already been submitted; going to the battlefield was deadly, swords had no eyes, and they didn't know any martial arts…

When someone's life is hanging by a thread, who has the mind to work?

Fu Zhiqiao only learned the truth two days later. Many of the male workers in the winery were the main force in winemaking. If they were conscripted, what would happen to her winery? Who would produce Taibai wine for her?

She rushed to the winery and promised that for workers who wanted to stay at the winery and did not want to join the army, the winery would pay twenty taels of silver to help remove them from the conscription list.

The winery paid twenty taels of silver, which didn't need to be returned, so the workers only needed to pay ten taels to avoid military service, which put their minds at ease.

After paying the money for the seventy-odd workers, Fu Zhiqiao thought to herself: It's a good thing that servants don't have to be conscripted, otherwise, she would have had to pay thirty taels of silver for each of the more than one hundred people in the transport team, which would have been unbearable for her.

Most of the workers at the winery were from nearby villages, and they immediately went back to tell their families the good news.

Liu Pinggu's two sons were among them. His family only needed to pay twenty taels of silver to avoid joining the army, and Liu Pinggu's wife immediately knelt down before Fu Zhiqiao. More importantly, his two sons were saved by the winery, not by Liu Pinggu using personal connections. The envious villagers couldn't find any fault with it.

And so, the winery's seventy-odd workers paid their money and had their names crossed off by the officials in a perfectly legitimate manner.

More and more people heard the news and came to Fu Zhiqiao for help.

"The imperial court is conscripting soldiers, and my family simply cannot afford that much money... Master, please help us!"

“My husband also meets the requirements, but what if he goes and doesn’t come back…”

"Master, please have mercy. I only have one son. If something happens to him, I will be all alone in the family."

"Please, save us!"

To help or not to help? That is the question.

Fu Zhi Qiao was willing to help by contributing twenty taels of silver to keep these workers because they were the backbone of the winery's production workshop and could complete their work with high quality. Letting these skilled workers go to join the army would be a loss for her.

Compared to the skilled workers at the winery, the others were not so important and not worth paying a large sum of money out of her own pocket. But those who came to plead for her were all frail old people with gray hair and women holding children. Fu Zhi Qiao couldn't bring herself to say no to them.

Fu Zhi Qiao completely understands their difficulties.

Taking herself as an example, even a wealthy family like the Fu family was immediately oppressed by their clansmen after Fu Changyue's death, let alone those families that were already poor.

What will happen to the women who have lost the most important breadwinner in their families and are deeply dependent on their husbands and sons? Perhaps many of them are strong women who can support their families on their own, but without money or connections, they can only do needlework or wash clothes for others to earn a meager income.

This is not the outcome Fu Zhi Qiao wanted to see, but she doesn't currently have the ability to help everyone.

The next day, the winery issued a new notice stating that any worker who had only one male member in their family could receive an advance of thirty taels of silver from the winery.

In the form of a loan, it was equivalent to the workers borrowing thirty taels of silver from her. The repayment method was to deduct it from their monthly wages. Until the thirty taels of silver were repaid, they could only work in the winery.

Fu Zhiqiao ultimately decided to help the villagers.

She only helped small, disadvantaged families, so that she could save one family, not delay the imperial court's conscription, and not cause dissatisfaction among other workers.

With Fu Zhiqiao's help, many workers paid their fines on the last day and crossed their names off the conscription list.

The workers and their families, who had received her kindness, were extremely grateful to Fu Zhiqiao and spontaneously gathered at the entrance of the winery to kowtow to her.