CH 46.2

There were three types of corvee, the first was "Gengzu" (soldier), that was, one month in a year was appointed to the local county government office, and no wages were paid, such as building a city wall, dams, and a county official residence or department affairs.

The second was serving as a "Zhengzu" (main soldier), you only served once in your life, but once was for a year, you had to go to the capital to serve as a soldier.

The last type was called "Shuzu" (garrison soldiers), who went to the border gates for three days every year. The time was very short, but the border guards wouldn’t be assigned nearby, and they would go wherever the court asked you to go. It was fine if the house was close, if it was far away, it may take a year and a half to come and go, and the travel expenses would be huge, and it would delay things.

For this reason, the imperial court was also very "humane". If you wanted to serve in the nearest military service, you could pay for it and make arrangements. As for the specific amount, it was up to the local officials to decide. And those who didn't want to go at all, also paid some money, and the court would hire other people to go, three hundred copper coins per year.

Because "Shuzu" could pay money to hide from the service, gradually the first two types had evolved into they didn’t have to go with paying some money.

"The imperial court doesn’t start to calculate the corvee age according to the birthday, but it starts to recruit people to serve in the year of weak crown. I’m exactly 20 this year, so I have to pay for it."

Zhang Fangyuan looked at Xu with a smile: "Of course, you don't have to pay for me, I can serve in the military."

Xu He squinted at him: "Since you want to serve in the military, then I will save the money from your corvee tax."

"No, don't! "Zhang Fangyuan hurriedly begged for mercy. It was fine in this county. If you went to the border or went to the capital to serve as a soldier, let alone when you would come back, whether you would come back or not was still not clear: "If you are willing to let me go, I will go. But I can’t bear to let you go.”

Xu He laughed, and said, “Then what kind of military service you need to serve this time?”

Zhang Fangyuan said, “I don’t know about that, and you can find out when the yamen servants come. It’s arranged by the imperial court. Once in the first half of the year, once after the autumn harvest in the second half of the year, the service will be alternated, and the master book will record it."

Xu He nodded, paying heavy taxes, making life difficult for ordinary people. Today was still the peace and prosperity time, if it was the time for war, taxes would increase and military service would be more stringent, it would be truly miserable.

The yamen servants came next to each other along the road in the village, and they arrived at their house not long after.

Xu He politely said to the yamen servant: "I have prepared the money, but I don't know what kind of service my husband is serving this time?"

Busy, meeting people who couldn’t afford the money was like crossing the river, pleading, crying, kneeling...

In short, there were countless, no matter how good-tempered the yamen servant was, he would lose patience after he urged for a long time.

Playing officialdom was not the goal, but collecting all taxes was the most important thing. For this reason, when they met someone like Xu He, it was very comfortable to answer the question, and their tone changed from the fierce prestige in the Hu family: "Your husband is Zhang Fangyuan, right? This year is only twenty. He will start from "Gengzu", the second half of the year will be "Zhengzu". Will you pay the money or go to do corvee?"

Xu He said: "Pay the money."

"Then you should pay five hundred and sixty copper coins this time."

Xu He took out another sum of money on top of the original amount four strings of money. The yamen servant counted it three times, and after checking it was correct, he recorded it clearly in the book for their family.

The yamen servant said: "If you don't want to go to do corvee in the second half of the year, you have to prepare the money earlier like this time."

"Yes, All the officials, let's have a sip of tea before leaving. "The yamen servants waved their hand. Although their mouth was a little parched, they couldn't be lazy. If things were not up to standard, the pressure from his superiors was not small: "We still have to go to two families. It's getting late, so we don't dare to stay any longer. "

Xu He didn't let them stay any longer, and the yamen servants went to the Chen family not far away.

The yamen servants were still talking from a distance: "If every family is as fast as this one, there is no need to spend so much trouble, and the village's taxes will be fully collected in three days." 

“It's not your turn to get a cheap errand."

After Xu He saw that people were walking into the courtyard of the Chen family, he went back to his own courtyard and closed the gate. Zhang Fangyuan was told to burn pig hairs in the house, fearing that he would clash with the yamen servants again when he went out.

"they left?"

"All gone."

Zhang Fangyuan put down the pig's trotters that had been burnt until they were clean: "I haven't asked the fourth uncle's family if there is enough money to pay taxes."

Xu He said: "The fourth uncle's family has an extra Xiaomao, they can’t pay much more than our family.”

In fact, Zhang Fangyuan just casually said that, their Zhang family was already an upper-middle family in the village, and none of his uncles were so poor that they couldn’t afford to pay the taxes. On the contrary, the eldest uncle's family had many cousins, and they needed to pay a lot of taxes, but the more people earned more money, the eldest uncle would pretend to be poor, but he would’t be unable to pay taxes.

But it was precisely because he knew that the Zhang family was a wealthy family in the village, and they had more troubles when paying taxes than other families.

"He ge’er, don't cook fish at night, just make something simple. Then put the pig in the house to wash it, and marinate it in the middle of the night."

Xu He didn't understand what he meant, but he also followed Zhang Fangyuan's idea. 

Later, when the night was windy and it was dark, he finally understood why Zhang Fangyuan was like this.