Chapter 77 Pay
It is already two months' wages for city dwellers. For those who make a living by farming, it is also a lot of money, so they can't help but feel relieved.

However, the next moment, Xu Huang's words made them ecstatic.

Xu Huang said, "But our prince said that if anyone in Jizhou Wei dares to drink the blood of soldiers and deduct their military pay, don't blame him for being merciless!"

Xu Huang raised his lips slightly, and then looked at the faces of the new soldiers on the training ground with interest, and said: "So now no one in Jizhou Guard will deduct your monthly salary. If they say it's three taels, it's three taels!"

Then he turned to the other veterans and said, "Send out the salaries. Don't make these new recruits anxious to death."

The veterans lifted the silver boxes with a smile on their faces and distributed the money one by one slowly and deliberately.

They were all old men of Jizhou Guard, and had all experienced their superiors withholding their pay. They felt like they had once been caught in the rain and wanted to destroy other people's umbrellas.

But even so, the recruits did not dare to complain.

After all, although the veterans are slow in distributing the rewards, they are truly genuine rewards!

Most of the people who came to Jizhouwei to serve as soldiers were bachelors in their hometowns. They spent whatever they had and had never seen three taels of silver!

The few lucky ones who got the silver tightly grasped the three or two silver ingots in their hands, their eyes shining with excitement, and they looked like they wanted to shout but couldn't.

The others who had not yet received the silver just looked enviously at those who had already received it, and then looked at the old soldier in the silver box on the table, wishing they could pounce on it and grab it.

Time passed quickly and slowly, and finally when the last recruit received the money for settling down that the conscription team had promised him, everyone felt like they were in a dream.

Without waiting for everyone to come to their senses, Xu Huang, who was standing on the reviewing platform, clapped his hands twice to wake up the recruits, and saw that everyone was looking at him.

Xu Huang then chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Logically speaking, those who have taken the An family's money will become soldiers of my Jizhou Guards, and they should have started training from today."

"But our prince sympathizes with you and will give you five days to go back to your homes to sort out the aftermath. Pack up what needs to be packed up and explain the intervention to your families!"

"After five days, anyone who is late or thinks they can just take the money and run away, haha..."

As Xu Huang spoke, a cruel smile appeared on his face.

All the recruits shuddered when they saw it.

I began to regret whether my decision to join the army was the right one.

However, after pinching the three taels of genuine silver in their hands, everyone felt that their decision was extremely wise.

After all, if you farm in the countryside, you will have to save until the end of time to save up three taels of silver.

As a result, a group of wealthy customers flocked into the shops in Baicheng that day.

They were all young and strong men wearing the armor of the Jizhou Guards. Cloth shops, grain stores, salt shops, and butcher shops were all surrounded by new recruits queuing up to buy.

In addition to the basic necessities such as cloth, rice, beans, salt and meat, even pubs and jewelry stores welcomed many customers.

Even the street vendors selling snacks on their shoulders finished work a few hours earlier than usual.

As it was getting dark, they left the city gates in groups of three or five, either carrying large or small bags on their shoulders or patting their round bellies with drunken eyes.

Because the conscription had just started, the conscription team didn't go too far.

So these people basically live in the countryside not far from Baicheng, so there is nothing to worry about when traveling at night.

After all, although Wang An's suppression of Crescent Moon Mountain did not cause much noise, most of the townspeople around Baicheng who were deeply affected by it knew about it.

Therefore, these new soldiers were not afraid of encountering bandits blocking the road. Tian San picked up a wooden stick from the roadside, cut it into a shoulder pole with the sword he was given, carried two large bags of grain, and happily returned to Tianjiazhuang.

Although it was already dark, Tian San couldn't wait to knock on the door of a house in the village.

An old woman's voice came from inside the door: "Who is it?"

Tian San shouted happily, "Aunt, it's me, Tian San!"

The old woman's voice was heard from inside the door, "San'er? Didn't you join the army?"

As they were talking, the door opened, revealing an old face of a woman.

There was no light in the room, and it was pitch black.

However, in the cold moonlight, the old woman's face only showed deep worry.

At this moment, two more noises were heard in the room.

A dim light came on, and two men's voices, one old and one young, were heard one after another.

"San'er is back? Didn't he say he was going to join the army in Jizhou? How come he's back after only two days?"

"My third brother is back, that's great! Let's say that the conscription team that came to the village that day was all lies, and my third brother must have gone to the city and found out that they were lying, so he came back, right?"

As the voices were spoken, two faces, one old and one young, appeared behind the narrow door one after another.

The old man frowned, and quickly leaned out of the door to look around. No one followed him and hurriedly said, "Old woman, please let the child in quickly, don't let anyone see it!"

The old woman also stepped aside as if she had suddenly realized something, and called out to Tian San, "San'er, come into the house quickly and don't let anyone see you."

"Aunt, uncle, what are you doing?" Tian San was confused.

Seeing that Tian San did not move, the old man urged him, "You beat up the village chief's son before, and he has been looking for a chance to deal with you for a long time. Don't let him see you as a deserter, or he will definitely have someone capture you and take you to the government office!"

The young man also reacted at this time, and hurriedly turned around and walked back into the house, saying as he walked: "I just sold our pig yesterday and got one tael and two coins of silver. Third brother, take it and leave quickly!"

It took Tian three times to realize that his uncle and his family had thought he was a deserter. He was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

After struggling to lift the two large bags of grain on the ground, Tian San stepped directly into the threshold, put the grain on the ground with two "dong" sounds and said, "Uncle, aunt, and Zhuzi, what are you talking about!"

Unexpectedly, my uncle's family was shocked when they saw the two bags of food.

The old man touched and opened the two bags and took a look. The white rice almost blinded his eyes.

They are all top-quality japonica rice!
The aunt standing by suddenly had tears in her eyes. She, who was always good-tempered, raised her hand and hit Tian San on the shoulder.

He knocked and scolded: "I told you it was easy to go to Jizhouwei? You didn't believe me. I heard that the worst that could happen is that you can just come back!"

"Don't you think about the fact that those officials tricked you into going away and allowed you to come and go freely? Now you can just run away."

"Your uncle and aunt don't blame you, but you shouldn't steal other people's food. That's like being a thief!"

Uncle Tian also had a gloomy face, and no one knew what he was thinking.

On the contrary, the young man was quite reckless, curling his lips and saying: "It's just two bags of food from the barracks, can you be beheaded?"

(End of this chapter)