Chapter 41 Choosing a House
Captain Luo placed the household registration of Song Zhenping and his sister in front of Zhao Tingduo's desk, and repeated the reason why the Song family wanted to become military households.
Then he chuckled and said, "Third Young Master, although I am a rough man, I never lie.
Especially when others voluntarily join the military household, it means that they respect us who eat military rations and regard us as their own people.
I have said everything I need to say. Since they are still willing to join the military, I will arrange for people to choose a house and land for them.
Anyway, those things are free, so they should be kept within the family."
Suijin Town has now become a ghost town, and the Qili County Government to which it belongs has been abandoned.
The Zhenbei Army was willing to take over, and the county government was happy to have some free time.
"Well! That's it! You'd better tell me whether the barracks can be built before winter!" Zhao Tingduo casually flipped through the household book and threw it aside.
For these desperate farmers, becoming military households is indeed a way to survive, but making this decision requires a lot of courage.
After all, according to the laws of the imperial court, military households cannot be transferred to civilian status at will, are not allowed to take the imperial examinations for three generations, and when war breaks out, each household must conscript one man into the army.
These three points alone are enough to scare many people away, and some even describe military status as a lowly status.
As for the 40% of grain that needs to be handed over to the army every year, without any other exorbitant taxes, it is actually less than what the government pays.
Zhao Tingduo, the third son of the Zhenbei Marquisate, came to Suijin Town. Ostensibly to supervise the construction of the garrison, but in fact, he was inquiring about the gold sand detection on behalf of his elder brother Zhao Tinglei.
It was just a coincidence that I met someone who defected to the Zhenbei Army, so I naturally didn't take it to heart.
Seeing that the Third Young Master started asking about official business again, Captain Luo's face suddenly fell.
For the past six months, he has been like a foreman, repairing houses and building walls every day, and he is already tired of it.
But this matter was ordered by Captain Lei, and he also sent people to inspect.
The third young master in front of him had a special background. Although he did not serve in the army, he was very much liked by the Marquis, so he had to be alert and deal with him.
On the other side, Xue Xiaoqi led his two siblings to the east side of the town where the houses were most densely populated.
This was also the most prosperous market in the past. After experiencing the disaster, most of the houses that have been preserved are also here.
It is rare to see new faces in Suijin Town. When the locals saw soldiers leading people to look at the house, they all gathered around to watch the curious scene.
Pointing to a row of cleared courtyards, Xue Xiaoqi said with a hint of pride, "Those houses are managed by the garrison and are now vacant. I have a word for you. Just pick any courtyard you want. No one will dare to harass you."
Song Liyun nodded casually and walked into a yard next to her.
She didn't know much about Suijin Town, so she decided to wait and see.
The courtyard wall is more than one person high. The courtyard is not big and the ground is paved with pebbles.
There is a small vegetable patch left next to it, which is now empty, revealing the newly turned gray-brown soil.
The house has one entrance, three main rooms and two side rooms.
There are kangs in the two main rooms. The kang surfaces are broken, revealing the fire channels inside that have not yet been completely blackened, indicating that the house has not been used for long.
These houses must have been rummaged through. All the furniture inside was gone, there was no window paper, and the house was full of sand.
Song Zhenping pulled Xiao An to look around, and touched the wooden pillars under the porch that still had a new color again and again, feeling very happy.
This is much better than the dark side room in my second uncle's house.
Song Liyun didn't go into the house, she just took a look outside and directly denied it.
She wanted a spacious open space, not such a compact courtyard.
Even if it is a little desolate and dilapidated, at least it allows Xiao An to run happily and laugh without restraint.
Moreover, she didn't want to have neighbors eavesdropping on her conversations, so she had to put on a smiling face every time she went out.
While the three siblings were looking at the house, Xue Xiaoqi stood at the gate and gave a lecture to the neighbors: "This will be a military town in the future. There will be more and more military households. You civilians, behave yourself. If we find out that you are bullying and discriminating against outsiders, we will drive you all out."
The residents huddled together in fear, saying they dared not.
Because of the Suijin Town tragedy, more than ten officials were killed or demoted from the provincial capital to the nearest Qili County. This place has long become a taboo place for Yunzhou officials, who are afraid of being contaminated by it.
Since then, the government has never come to collect taxes again, nor has it provided any comfort or compensation to the people who died in Suijin Town, and even ignored the living people.
It seems like leaving them here to fend for themselves.
It is said that it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. When Suijin Town was still a village, hundreds of people lived well.
A peddler comes in the middle of the month, and the village will be lively for a few days.
But Jinsha is like a nightmare to people. After experiencing the decline of prosperous villages and towns, no one can stand it.
Those who can leave have left, and those who cannot leave continue to live in a miserable state, no longer able to find the vitality they once had.
Now the Zhenbei Army wants to build a garrison, and has recruited some young people from the remaining 200 or so people in the town to do the work. They are also going to provide them with food and money, so there is some hope again.
All hope comes from Wei.
Therefore, when the residents heard Xue Xiaoqi's words, they naturally felt fear towards the military households.
When Song Liyun and her two siblings walked out of the yard, they saw the arrogant Xue Xiaoqi and the natives of Suijin Town who were dressed in tattered clothes and watching from afar.
Seeing Song Liyun coming out, Xue Xiaoqi put on a smile and greeted her: "Miss Song, what do you think? This place is in the town, and we can do some business in the future. I have already informed everyone around, and no one dares to disrespect you."
Song Liyun smiled faintly: "Thank you for your trouble, Master Xue. For such an important matter as choosing a family, it is still my brother who makes the decision."
Xue Xiaoqi seemed to remember Song Zhenping at this moment, turned around and looked at him, raised his head and raised his eyebrows and said: "Brother Song, what do you think of this house? I think we should just settle it.
This is in the town, so it would be convenient if Brother Song wanted to set up a stall to sell needles and thread.
To be honest, I will ask the camp for the yard next door when I get back, so that it will be convenient for our two families to visit each other in the future."
Hearing what he said seemed a bit confusing, Song Liyun couldn't help but glance at him: Who wants to be our neighbor?
In the yard, Song Zhenping already knew that Song Liyun was not satisfied with the house.
Although he thought this place was perfect, he still had to listen to his second sister's arrangements.
"Master Xue, I'm a farmer and I don't know how to do business. It's more convenient to be close to the land."
Song Zhenping said that his instinctive reaction was that he didn't want to be neighbors with this person.
"You look down on a house like this?"
Feeling the brother and sister's coldness towards him, Xue Xiaoqi's face turned unhappy: although his position was a small flag, he was in charge of ten brothers.
He didn't even drink a sip of tea, left his brothers and ran to help people choose a house, but he didn't even appreciate it.
If it weren't for the loneliness in the army and the girl in front of him, he wouldn't bother to talk.
Holding back his resentment, Xue Xiaoqi said in a deep voice, "Alright, then you can look for the yard next door. Anyway, I've already said it before, the best yard is right here. The further you look, the worse it will get."
Song Liyun didn't rush to look at the houses. Instead, she walked towards the huddled indigenous people nearby and said with a smile, "My dear uncles and aunts, my three siblings are farmers. Our parents died young, and life is difficult. We came to your place just to have a piece of land to farm and something to eat. We won't cause any trouble to you."
(End of this chapter)
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