When Ji Han and his men traveled to the Three Kingdoms crew

Chapter 505 Paid Corvée
"Brother, is this still Wei County?"

Gongsun Yue was distracted for a moment as he looked at the busy figures not far away. In the Han Dynasty, corvée labor was roughly divided into three types, namely regular soldiers, border guards and night watchmen.

After two years of military training, regular soldiers are responsible for county security in the first year. In the second year, they go to Beijing to serve as guards to protect the capital, guard the imperial palace, mausoleums, or serve various government offices.

As the name suggests, garrisoning the border means guarding the border, also known as corvée garrison or garrison. The Han Dynasty law stipulated that everyone must guard the border for one year in their lifetime. If there was an emergency, they had to stay for another six months. The government provided food, clothing and other necessities for those guarding the border.

The remaining guards were to work for free for a month on local civil engineering matters, such as building bridges and roads, managing canals, and transporting grain. Because the guards served in shifts, they were called "Geng" and the guards were called "Gengzu".

If one did not want to serve in the garrison, he could pay to hire someone else to serve in his place. Or the government could order him to pay to serve in his place, which was called "guogeng" (overtaking the garrison), and the money was called "gengfu" (paying the garrison).

Of course, there were special circumstances and special identities that allowed exemptions, such as royal family members, nobles, high-ranking officials and their relatives, the three elders of the county and township and those selected for filial piety and hard work in the fields; disciples of a doctoral student, other people who were proficient in one classic and those who were specially granted exemptions by imperial decree; or those who had children, were in mourning, or were temporarily exempted from military service due to natural disasters or war; people who had made contributions to river control or who were in places where the emperor was on tour were also temporarily exempted from military service, etc.

But those who are engaged in labor have nothing to do with the above identities.

After all, everyone is exempted from military service. Who would be so idle as to come and serve as a night watchman?
If there is no exemption from military service, these night guards must be confused. Why do they work so hard?

Gongsun Yue even saw many people muttering something, and then they smiled.

Ok?
what is the problem?

Could it be that Huang Zhong, Guan Yu and others paid out of their own pockets to reward these guards?

"Brother Yue, I see that you look worried. What are you thinking about?" Gongsun Zan patted Gongsun Yue on the back.

Gongsun Yue was puzzled and asked, "Brother, do you find it strange that the guards are working so hard?"

"? What's so strange about this? It must be Xuande's credit." Gongsun Zan looked at Gongsun Yue in surprise, as if he was an inexperienced person who was making a fuss out of nothing.

"." Gongsun Yue pursed his lips. He still had some impression of Gongsun Zan's disdain when Liu Bei was in a high position. He felt that this was not good. But why did it become another extreme now?
Gongsun Zan saw Gongsun Yue's strange expression and pretended to cough a few times, "Ahem, isn't this simple? Brother Yue, can't we pretend to be merchants and go find out what's going on?"

"Brother, what you said makes sense. Let's do it."

Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Yue took off their military uniforms and changed into robes.

The style of the robe is a bit old, but fortunately it is relatively clean.

When the two brothers were dressed like this, their sharpness was much less sharp, and if you didn't look closely, they really looked like merchants.

Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Yue smiled at each other, took big strides, and rushed towards a place not far away.

"It's time to rest, it's time to rest."

The petty official struck the gong in his hand. As the loud sound of the gong and drum rang out, the sweaty people put down their hoes and baskets.

Zhu Hong raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Seeing everyone running to line up, he hurriedly took a step forward. However, he was still a step too slow. When he ran over, he could only stand at the end of the line. He was immediately annoyed.

He thought about it, gritted his teeth and gave up, "Forget it, forget it. It's just water, I'll just drink it in the morning. Judging from yesterday, water or something must be indispensable, why not go and rest under the shade of the tree first."

As Zhu Hong took a step, she heard a strange voice behind her.

"Good man, good man, walk slowly!"

Zhu Hong did not hesitate and was about to leave. In his opinion, the title of "hero" was definitely not a call to him. However, the voice behind him became more urgent as he walked away. Could it be that someone was really calling him?
As the sound got closer, Zhu Hong had no choice but to stop and turned around to see two people in robes running towards him.

Before Zhu Hong could even open her mouth, the youngest of the two took out a pass and said, "My two brothers are merchants from Bohai County. We just saw you busy building a road from afar, so we came here to take a look out of curiosity."

"Second brother." The oldest one interrupted the youngest one. He took out a water bag from his arms and handed it to Zhu Hong, saying with a smile, "My dear, I see you are sweating all over. You must be thirsty, right? Why don't we go under the shade of the tree and have a good chat?"

Perhaps it was because the smile of the man in front of him was so friendly, or perhaps it was for some other reason, Zhu Hong was stunned for a moment, then took the water bag and nodded.

After some understanding, Zhu Hong finally figured out the identities of the two men. The eldest brother was named Gongsun Dalang and the second brother was named Gongsun Erlang.

At first he thought the two men's movements were suspicious and they didn't seem like good people.

After some conversation, Zhu Hong admitted that he had misunderstood the other party.

Gongsun Erlang asked, "May I ask, Brother Zhu, was this road built by you at the expense of the county?"

"Conscription?" Zhu Hong took a sip of water. "Do you mean more conscription?"

"good."

"That's not it."

Gongsun Erlang frowned, "If it's not Gengyi, then what is it?"

"Every time I talk about this, I feel a little surprised." Zhu Hong said with emotion.

Gongsun Dalang became interested. "Oh? Tell me what's going on?"

Zhu Hong put down the water bag and fell into memories. The wrinkles on his face seemed to come alive. He forced out a bitter smile, and his voice gradually became lower and lower. "I was originally a poor man in Qingzhou. I responded to the call of the Great Sage Master. However, not long after, I heard the news of the Great Sage Master's death. After that, I followed the leader in a daze, robbing and robbing, just to fill my stomach. Later, it was rumored that General Yuan got the person chosen by Huang Tian, ​​so we came to Yecheng, Jizhou."

At this point, the Gongsun brothers discovered that Zhu Hong had changed from his previous expression of distress and loss, his face gradually became ferocious, and even his hands were clenched so hard that they made crackling sounds.

"It was said before that Jizhou was rich and there was endless land for cultivation!"

"Who knows who knows that General Yuan is lying to us!"

"There is endless land to be cultivated, but they didn't say we have to be slaves!"

"Even if we are slaves, why is the land tax so high? It's 60%, a full 60%! In addition to farming, we can't leave the camp! There are people dying in the front, and we have to fill them quickly! How can this be justified?! If we die on the battlefield, even our wives and daughters will have to remarry!" When Zhu Hong said this, his eyes were already red.

The two brothers Gongsun hurriedly spoke to comfort Zhu Hong, and after their persuasion, Zhu Hong's violently heaving chest gradually calmed down.

"If General Huang and General Guan hadn't captured the city, how could we have gotten food while serving? General Guan and General Huang's soldiers even gave us water-soaked naan." Zhu Hong grunted and said, "In my opinion, it's good to capture Yecheng, it's good to capture it!"

Zhu Hong seemed to remember something, and he added: "No, I heard that this is not corvée, it seems to be employment."

But the Gongsun brothers could no longer listen and were horrified.

Guan Yu and Huang Zhong actually paid the common people to do more labor!

(End of this chapter)