People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 72 Damn tenderness

"As a sergeant in our army, you not only have land to distribute in the village, but also receive monthly food and wages from our army. Isn't that enough?

You have to know that the other brothers don’t even have food or wages!

You are obviously much better off, why do you still want to do this? Where have you remembered our military rules and regulations?"

When Tian Shitou was questioning the squad leader, he couldn't help but look at the other nine Yellow Turbans in the village. These were the other brothers he was talking about.

According to the current situation, among the Yellow Turbans incorporated into the grassroots of the villages, except for the squad leader who can get a share of food and salary, the rest of the Yellow Turbans can only survive by relying on the allocated land, and live the same life as ordinary villagers.

The only difference between them and the common people is that as reserve officials of the Yellow Turbans, they will have the opportunity to be added to new territories as the army expands in the future. As for normal times, they are just ordinary farmers.

It’s not that Xu Chen doesn’t take them seriously, but that he has no money to support them.

If they are not allowed to return to farming, not to mention a mere county, even a county or even a state may not be able to support 5,000 fully dedicated professional troops.

Therefore, apart from retaining the core officer structure, Xu Chen decentralized all the rest to the grassroots to farm. When there was no war, they would have no burden and only needed to support themselves for a while during the war.

In this case, it is actually enviable for a sergeant to be able to get an extra salary.

"I was wrong"

Feeling all the eyes focused on him, the sergeant felt a huge sense of shame enveloping him. He collapsed on the ground with a dead heart, and soon he began to sob with tears in his eyes.

Seeing him hitting his head with his fist again and again, everyone was silent. They could all feel the regret in his heart.

The captain was indeed filled with deep regret and shame; he didn't know why he had been so bewitched as to accept these things.

If I had been more determined at that time, I wouldn’t be like this today!

If I hadn't made any mistakes, not only would my family have land, but I would also have an extra salary. I would be able to live a good life, and when I get married in the future, I would have my own family business, and I would have everything I deserve in this life.

Even if you follow the leader to learn knowledge and do a good job in the village, you may be able to climb to the position of village chief.

But now, all these possibilities have been ruined by this small bag of food and a few coins!

"I don't want to do this. I haven't eaten a single grain of this food, and I haven't spent a single cent of this money. I really don't want to do this!" The sergeant cried and slapped himself hard. The sound was so real that it hurt to hear it.

Tian Shitou waved his hand, and the Yellow Turbans immediately took him back to stop him from hurting himself. Then they continued to interrogate him: "Why did you accept these things in the first place if you don't need them or eat them?"

The chief was disheartened and replied weakly: "I didn't want to accept it. I was just afraid of poverty and hardship. When I saw the money and grain, my mind went blank. When I came to my senses, I had already taken it into my hands."

After hearing Shi Chang's statement, all the Yellow Turbans present had mixed feelings.

In fact, they could understand why the squad leader couldn't help it, because they were as poor and miserable as the squad leader, and something that came to their doorstep without any effort hit their weakest point precisely.

But although they understood, they had no sympathy for the sergeant. Everyone is poor and miserable, this is not a reason for you to ask for help. Since you have done this, you must pay the price.

Now that everything is clear, the remaining matters just need to be handled according to the rules.

Tian Shitou was holding something, which was a textbook for the literacy class he and other Yellow Turbans attended under the leader. It was the military law and discipline of the Yellow Turban Army.

More than three months of intermittent study was not enough for him to learn many words, but the content of military law was brief after all, so he was still able to recognize it, not to mention that he had already memorized the above content by heart.

"Now there are Yellow Turbans who have accepted money and property from the people and abused their power, which has violated our military discipline and law.

According to military law, after weighing the amount of his property, we now make a judgment to dismiss him from his post as squad leader, expel him from our army, and sentence him to two years of hard labor in a labor camp, and he will never be allowed to join our religion again for the rest of his life!"

When he said this, Tian Shitou also glanced at the villager who offered the bribe.

Although the villagers are not members of the Yellow Turban Army, the Yellow Turbans have an existing military governance system, so even if they are villagers, military law can still be applied to them.

"The villagers who offered bribes will be punished with two years of hard labor and will not be allowed to join our religion for life."

When dealing with powerful nobles, the Yellow Turbans could bring the common people to public trials, and the punishments were rough and simple. That was the way to deal with external enemies and was necessary to unite the people.

The internal problems of the Yellow Turbans now cannot be handled in such a rough manner. We must strictly abide by the law and act in accordance with the rules.

As Tian Shitou's verdict came out, both the head of the village and the villagers who had bribed him looked dejected.

But they were also somewhat fortunate. No matter what, the crime was not so serious that it was unforgivable. Although the punishment made them painful, it was at least limited.

After a brief silence in the meeting hall, a loud roar was heard and all the villagers stood up, cheering for Tian Shitou excitedly.

This villagers' meeting gave them a great shock. This shock was not only because of the selflessness of the Yellow Turban Army, but also because they, the villagers, were actually important participants in this meeting.

They discovered that their opinions could really be adopted and listened to by the Yellow Turban Army, and that as common people, they could even restrain the managers to a certain extent!
When they realized this, they felt an unprecedented sense of steadiness and peace of mind.

The Yellow Turbans' governance was not an absolute authoritarian governance from top to bottom, but rather it regarded the people as a supervisory force generated from the bottom up. In this way, the common people at least had the basic ability to defend themselves, which gave them an unparalleled sense of security!
They are finally no longer sheep that can only accept what is given to them, but exist as participants in social governance with relatively equal status.

Although the illiterate common people cannot express these truths, as witnesses of all this, their emotional feelings are very clear.

They could clearly feel that the Yellow Turban Army was different, that they truly regarded themselves as human beings, that they truly were doing good for the common people, and that they truly were working hard to achieve fairness!

Feeling this gentleness from the Yellow Turban Army, the common people could not suppress their excitement and moved. Only people living in such a tragic era as them knew how precious and rare such gentleness from a ruler was.

Today's chief's corruption not only did not make the villagers feel bad about the Yellow Turbans, but made them more supportive of the Yellow Turbans.

Apart from the Yellow Turbans, no one else in the world would treat me like this.

(End of this chapter)