Chapter 739: Sorrow
If they leave, there will be one less person earning money in the family, and the income will be reduced.
If we don't let people go, we will have to pay a large sum of money ourselves.
That money was earned by them with great difficulty, and they really don't want to spend it.
After a while, Ji Lizheng came out.
Ji Sheng said, "I asked everyone to come here to talk to you about the road construction. Those who have people at home can provide people, and those who don't want to come can pay."
As soon as the words fell, the faces of the villagers who had been relaxed at first became heavy at the same time.
Most people just went to watch the excitement at Old Song’s house, but they didn’t expect that they would also become part of the excitement now.
Ji Sheng continued, "The conditions for this military service are that any family with two or three men aged fifteen or over and under forty-five must provide one man."
"If there are four or more people, two men must be present."
"There is no one in the family who meets the requirements, and the family does not have an ox cart or a horse carriage, so you don't need to provide anyone or money."
"But there is no one in the family who meets the requirements. The family has a horse-drawn carriage or an ox-drawn carriage. The price for an ox-drawn carriage or a horse-drawn carriage is five taels of silver."
"If no one in your family wants to do corvée labor, those outside the city will each pay three taels of silver, and those inside the city will each pay eight taels of silver."
"After six months, if the road is not built, those who use ox carts or horse carts will have to pay again."
"As for those who meet the requirements and are exempted from corvée labor by paying silver, they will have to pay again after one year."
As soon as he finished speaking, most of the villagers looked sad.
Although now relying on the Song family, most families are growing vegetables again, and their lives are much better.
But they also spend most of their money on food, clothing, housing and transportation.
It is really not easy to save three taels of silver.
Most people now have only one or two taels of silver at most.
Even the fishermen who earned four hundred coins a day were very anxious.
If you have spent all the money you earn and have no money left, you must do labor service.
But if I go to perform labor service, my family will have much less income, and I don’t know when the road will be built. If it takes several years to build, and I have to pay money every year, then my family will have to live a hard life for a long time.
Ji Sheng continued, "Also, this time, the military service will be assigned based on the principle of proximity, so people from Qingyu Village won't be assigned too far away. Those serving can have better food, so their families can send someone to deliver meals to them every day."
"After finishing your work each day, you can go home and go back to work the next day within the time stipulated by the court."
Yang Deru said, "In other words, it's just like working outside, except you don't get paid for your service, right?"
Ji Sheng said, "You can understand it that way."
Everyone present looked at each other in surprise. This time's corvee labor seemed to be much milder than before, and it also took good care of the poor.
Yang Qingrui whispered to Yang Qingli, "Let's pay to be exempted from the corvée. Three taels of silver is still easy for our family."
Although Song Chuman doesn't go out to sea every day, she can now go fishing and earn four hundred coins a day.
It’s only three taels of silver, which is just a few days’ wages for each of them.
Yang Qingli nodded: "Well, this is more cost-effective, let's do it this way."
Yang Deru was standing next to them and didn't object.
Thanks to helping Song Chuman build a boat and making a lot of wooden barrels for her, he saved a lot of money.
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