"Hongcai, the troops are coming, your sister is really going to take you with her!"

Mai Hongcai's good friend Liang Ping'an stood on the edge of the field and shouted loudly.

A head suddenly popped out from the haystack next to them. If it wasn’t Mai Lao San, then who else could it be?

While others are working, he is hiding here and taking a nap.

Hearing Liang Ping'an's voice, Mai Laosan sat up with a jerk and asked excitedly, "Ping'an, where are the troops?"

"He's talking to Shen Zhiqing at the entrance of the village."

As soon as Liang Ping'an finished speaking, Mai Laosan rushed out.

Following closely behind is Mai Hongcai.

"Dad, wait for me!"

To be honest, Mai Laosan really misses the days when Mai Sui was at home.

As soon as Mai Sui left, their family’s food standards dropped immediately.

Although Mai Sui left a hundred yuan for Mai Hongcai, telling him to be the housekeeper, he didn't need to save and could eat whatever he wanted.

But there are some things that you can’t eat just because you want to.

Like meat and fish.

When Mai Sui was at home, he could catch fish in the mountains or fish in the river when he wanted to eat, and he had no worries at all.

But now, they can only go to the commune or the city to buy it, and they may not be able to buy it.

Firstly, the supply is limited and if you go too late, it will be sold out.

Secondly, because he needed tickets, and their rural area did not issue such tickets. Even with Shen Xingchen, the meat tickets he had were very limited.

Less than half a month after Mai Sui left home, Shen Xingchen had used up all his meat coupons.

Later, Shen Xingchen went to find Yang Lin, hoping to exchange some meat tickets, but it was a drop in the bucket and Yang Lin didn't have much either.

Therefore, the longer Mai Sui was away from home, the faster their food standards declined.

Up to now, they have not eaten meat for more than half a month.

As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

Mai Laosan and his friends used to eat meat every day with Mai Sui, so it is inevitable that they feel some psychological gap when they are suddenly back to the time before liberation.

Now that they heard that they could join the army, they were naturally happy.

Because the living conditions in the army are definitely better than in the countryside.

This is indeed the case.

The troops not only pay allowances, but also issue various receipts.

There are all kinds of coupons, such as grain coupons, meat coupons, cloth coupons, sugar coupons, etc.

Not only that, free supplies will be distributed according to different levels.

Wheat Ear has no level now, but it also has a free supply quota, two packs of matches every month.

Does it look a bit stingy?

Therefore, the troops would distribute 24 packs at a time, and the annual allowance would be distributed at one time.

This makes it look much more grand.

If you don’t need these materials or receipts, you can mail them back to your hometown to your parents, or bring them back when you are on vacation.

In addition, there are several small shops inside the military region to serve family members.

Sometimes the items supplied by the canteen are more complete than those in the largest supply and marketing cooperative in the city.

After all, this is a military unit!

During the holidays, the troops would specially obtain a batch of supplies to provide benefits to the families.

Sometimes it is meat, sometimes it is fish, sometimes it is rice, black beans or something like that.

It’s not that we don’t need money, but we don’t need tickets, which can be considered a kind of benefit.

There is also free meat.

But you have to reach a certain level, like Huang Zongwei, to get free meat every month.

In short, life in the army is definitely much better than in the countryside.

At least, I don’t have to work in the fields.

For educated family members like Shen Xingchen, the army will also help arrange jobs.

After all, the entire Southeast Military Region, in addition to military camps, also includes hospitals, schools, family committees, etc.

The troops also need people to work, and it is impossible to let soldiers do all the work.

The main task of soldiers at this stage is still training, because war may break out at any time.

Even though the new society has been liberated, there are still occasional exchanges of fire in border areas.

Other military district troops must be ready at all times and rush to the front line!

The troops need people to do the work, but this is a military area, not an ordinary place, and not everyone can do it.

The most important issue is safety.

The family members just avoided this problem.

Because the family members have been reviewed by the relevant departments and their identity backgrounds are cleaner than those outside, they are safer to use.

Of course, you have to go through a series of application, interview, inspection and other processes before you can take up the job after passing the requirements.

Some family members cannot read or speak fluently, so they can only be assigned to clean the house.

But not everyone is willing to do cleaning. They may feel it is shameful, so they would rather stay at home and do nothing than do it.

For example, Mai Lao San.

He doesn't even want to take care of the hygiene of his own home, but he goes outside to clean it. That's impossible.

"I have attended junior high school. As a high-level intellectual, I should be able to be an elementary school teacher, right?" Mai Laosan boasted.

Qian Xiaodao smiled and said, "This is a coincidence. I heard that they are recruiting a group of teachers in the second half of the year. Uncle Mai, you can go and give it a try."

"Really?" Mai Laosan was delighted. He never thought that there would be a day when he would be a teacher. This was really a blessing for him.

But when Qian Xiaodao told him that the teacher needed to take an exam, Mai Laosan immediately became dispirited again.

He thought he could get the job directly, but if he had to take an exam, he would definitely have no chance as he hasn't read a book for many years.

But in front of Qian Xiaodao, Mai Laosan was too concerned about his reputation and just said that he was old, his daughter and son were filial, and he probably couldn't bear to let him go out to work.

How could Mai Hongcai not know how powerful his father was? Upon hearing this, he took the opportunity to take over the conversation:

"Yes, Dad, just rest at home, I will support you."

"Good son, your father has loved you for a long time. But how can you support yourself?"

"I am supported by my sister's allowance."

"Okay! Then we'll all rely on your sister from now on!"

Qian Xiaodao: .....People in your family are really humorous.

After Qian Xiaodao came back from dinner, Shen Xingchen couldn't wait to start packing his luggage.

Yang Lin, who was at the educated youth camp, heard about this and came over to ask, "Xingchen, are you really going to join the army?"

"Yeah, this can be fake."

"I can't bear to leave you." I can't bear to leave those delicious foods even more.

Although the family's food standards declined severely after Mai Sui joined the army, it was still better than that at the educated youth camp.

Since neither Mai Laosan nor Mai Hongcai are the kind of people who are willing to treat themselves unfairly, Shen Xingchen naturally would not endure the hardship for nothing.

Besides, there is still the hundred dollars left by Mai Sui.

Therefore, the food they eat is still better than that of ordinary people.

Yang Lin could get a bite of delicious food from time to time.

Now, Shen Xingchen and the others are going to join the army, and he will have to eat coarse food and simple meals at the educated youth camp from now on.

Just thinking about it, Yang Lin couldn't help but want to cry.

It seems like it's time to find a new home.

He Jiawei seems to be doing well.

Based on the fact that he would send delicious food to Zhao Xue from time to time, Yang Lin guessed that his family should not be poor.

Little did she know that He Jiawei didn't eat the food himself and saved it for Zhao Xue.

The person Zhao Xue really wanted to hook up with was Yang Lin, and she had no intention of marrying He Jiawei.

However, Yang Lin didn't like Zhao Xue, and he didn't even realize that Zhao Xue liked him.

After all, Zhao Xue had been accepting food from He Jiawei, and Yang Lin thought they were a couple.

And now, Yang Lin has set his sights on He Jiawei's...food at home.

He Jiawei: Don’t come over here! I don’t even have enough to eat!