Therefore, no matter how anxious Han Du was, he patiently said goodbye to several county magistrates one by one.
Of course, County Magistrate Zhou didn't care. Having avenged an arrow, he had already gone back with the civilian husband arrogantly, and didn't even say hello to Han Du when he left.
For him, Han Du's failure is his greatest joy, and other courtesy is not worth mentioning.
The road was built, but the happiest people were not Lao Zhu, Han Du and Zhou County Magistrate, but the people who were called into labor.
A year's hard labor was completed in three days, and such a good thing happened to them all. Therefore, every team of civilian workers returning home was full of laughter and laughter. Of course, what they talked about the most was the magic of cement and the
The roads they built themselves.
These people are from the counties along the road, and this road will enter their lives in the future, so the experience of building it with their own hands will become a conversation piece for them throughout their lives.
Night began to fall, and the faint smoke rising from the village was almost completely enveloped by the night.
The sounds of several peasants laughing and talking could be heard far away in this peaceful environment.
Someone familiar heard the voice and came.
"Sanwazi? You, why are you back? Didn't you go to do corvee service?"
Sanwazi and others saw the person coming clearly and greeted quickly, "Old Patriarch."
"Let me ask you? Didn't you go to do corvee work? Why did you come back?" The old patriarch suddenly seemed to have thought of something, his face changed drastically, and he asked sternly: "You didn't escape and came back, right?"
The more he thought about it, the more likely this was, and the old patriarch stamped his feet angrily.
"You are confused. You must know that you will go to jail for escaping from corvee. Besides, the world is so big, where can you escape to? If you run away, you will not only harm yourself, but also your family. Alas.
....."
Sanwazi reacted faster than the others. Seeing the old patriarch's demeanor and tone, he knew that he had misunderstood, and quickly explained, "Old patriarch, you have misunderstood. We did not come back from escaping, we came back from doing the corvee service."
"You came back after completing your corvee service?" The old patriarch obviously still didn't believe it. "You've only been away for a few days, how could you have finished your corvee service?"
Seeing that the old patriarch still had a misunderstanding, Sanwazi simply reached out and took out something from the package behind his back.
"Look, this is proof that I have completed my corvee service."
The old patriarch took it and looked at it doubtfully. Yes, this was indeed a certificate for completing the corvee service in the county. He saw it many times every year, so it was impossible not to recognize it. Although he was illiterate, he recognized the bright red color on it.
Seal. Moreover, this certificate must be kept with him until the next time the county government collects corvees and transfers them, to show how much corvee work has been completed in the village.
"Come on, come on, take out all your belongings and show it to the old patriarch. We didn't come back by escaping, we really came back after completing our corvee service." Sanwazi greeted a few people around him.
The old patriarch accepted each one one by one, and he carefully confirmed that each one was indeed genuine. No one would dare to forge such things, and they would be beheaded.
In the end, the old patriarch finally confirmed that they had really returned from the corvee service and released Sanwazi and others back. However, a doubt came to his mind, "How could the corvee service be completed so quickly? This has never happened before.
.”
Sanwazi ignored the old patriarch's doubts and happily returned to his home carrying the package.
With a creak, the door opened.
"Who? Who has come in? Don't say anything. I'm going to call someone." A nervous, delicate female voice came out.
"Huiniang, it's me. I'm back." Sanwazi shouted towards the house.
Hui Niang held a spatula in both hands and walked out of the house doubtfully. When she poked her head out, she saw that it was indeed the man from her own family. The spatula in her hand suddenly fell to the ground with a clanking sound.
She covered her mouth with her little hand, and two lines of hot tears fell from her eyes. Seeing Sanwazi looking at her with a smile, she rushed up and said, "Master, are you really back?"
Sanwazi took Huiniang's hand and said seriously: "You read that right, I'm not dreaming. I'm really back."
"But, didn't you usually have to go to the corvee for more than a month in the past? Why did you come back in just a few days?" Hui Niang still couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Hey, who knows?" Sanwazi didn't understand this either. "The government did recruit corvees. When we went there, not only our county, but also people from several counties were there. I heard that they were all
There were so many people who came to do corvee labor. I have never seen so many people at once in my life. Do you know, Huiniang? Those people were like sesame seeds in a dustpan, a large black area. Later
Some craftsmen came to teach us how to work and how to build roads. We worked for three days. Then the officials above said that the roads were repaired and that our corvee service had been completed, so they asked us to come back. We were still at the entrance of the village just now.
We were blocked by the old patriarch, and he thought we had sneaked back, hahaha."
"Huh! My husband won't run away." Hui Niang was immediately unhappy when she heard that the old patriarch dared to doubt her husband. In her heart, her husband was naturally good.
"Here, these are the dry food you made for me. I originally planned to eat them for a month, but now I only eat them for three days. It's a pity." Sanwazi put the package behind him on the table and handed it to Huiniang.
Huiniang happily opened the package and took a look, "It doesn't matter, we can continue to eat, as long as you come back. I've been really scared at home these days since you left. I worry about whether something will happen to you outside, and then it gets dark.
I'm afraid of the dark..."
Sanwazi stretched out his hand to support Huiniang's little head, let her lean on his shoulder, and comforted her softly, "I've wronged you."
Less than a month after Hui Niang married him, the court ordered her to leave. There was no old man in the family, so when he left, Hui Niang was left alone at home, even though there were people from the same clan in the village and the old patriarch was there.
Take care of her. But after all, Hui Niang has not been here long, so it is reasonable for someone to be afraid.
The two of them were enjoying the rare warmth when suddenly Sanwazi joked: "Since you are scared to be alone at home, how about I find someone else to accompany you?"
"Who is it?" Huiniang was so cute that she didn't realize that she was in charge.
"Hehe," Sanwazi struck Huiniang's belly with ill intentions, leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Of course I will give birth to a big fat boy to accompany you."
"You..." Hui Niang was ashamed and annoyed. She rolled her eyes at him, lowered her head and said in a voice like a mosquito's groan: "You know how to bully me."
When Sanwazi saw Huiniang's face flushed, he reached out to pick her up and walked towards the house.
The two of them were standing in front of the bed, feeling very shy.
Bang bang bang, there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Sanwazi's eyes were full of annoyance and his tone was unkind.
"I!"
Is it the old patriarch?
As soon as Sanwazi heard this voice, he stopped and put Huiniang down reluctantly.
He rubbed his face with his hands and shouted outside quickly: "It's coming, it's coming."
Sanwazi opened the door and saw the old patriarch standing outside with several other elders in the clan.
"Old patriarch, why are you here? Come in and sit down." Sanwazi enthusiastically invited a few people in and called out to Hui Niang in the back room, "Hui Niang, go and light a lamp and pour some water.
Come."
Being disturbed at this time, Huiniang was blushing and wanted to hide her head under the quilt. When she heard someone calling her from outside, she had to try her best to look normal and got up to get the oil lamp.
Hui Niang came out holding an oil lamp and a pot of water, put both things on the table, turned around and ran back.
The oil lamp was dim, and the old patriarch and others did not see the blush on Huiniang's face. They only thought that her behavior of turning around and running away was a bit strange. However, there were more important things to ask Sanwazi, so the old patriarch didn't think much about it.
"Is there something wrong with the clan elders who came to see me at this time?" Sanwazi poured a bowl of water for each of the elders, put down the kettle, and asked.
The old patriarch nodded obediently and sighed, "Those idiots are useless. After asking them for a long time, they all acted like mouthless gourds and couldn't even fart. Sanwazi, you are smarter and have a good memory. You
Come and tell us about your corvee service. Although you are coming back so soon, even though you have the certificate from the Yamen, we are still a little worried."
Sanwazi knew what was going on as soon as he heard it. The old patriarch was worried about them, fearing that they would escape and come back. Although they had the certificates, after all, they had only served for a few days and came back to convince them.
There is really no way to reassure the old patriarch and others.
To escape corvee, not only the family of the person concerned will be implicated, but the village of the person concerned will also be implicated.
This is called sitting together.
"Well, let's just talk to them. Firstly, it can dispel their concerns. Secondly, his experience of serving as a corvee is so bizarre that he has long wanted to talk to someone." Sanwazi thought to himself.
After drinking some water, Sanwazi told the old patriarch and others about his experience of serving as a corvee.
"After we arrived at the county government office, we were told that this time we were doing corvee work to build a road from Jurong County to the capital."
Before Sanwazi could continue, an old man interrupted, "That road is thirty miles long. You guys built it in a few days. Did the government recruit a lot of civilians?"
"That's right, the government didn't recruit many civilians. According to my chat with the craftsman who taught me, the government recruited a total of 20,000 people this time." Sanwazi explained.
"This is impossible? How could you, 20,000 civilians, finish the repair in just a few days? Sanwazi, you didn't really escape, did you?" The old man suddenly turned pale with fright and asked doubtfully.
Several others, including the old patriarch, looked at Sanwazi with suspicion.
They were all people who had personally experienced corvee service, including building roads themselves.