The general Wang Gui said that there were more than 2,500 people in the whole battalion, and there were as many as 1,500 hard laborers recruited, and this was still a battle within the province, and if he went out of the province to fight, he would need an equal amount of hard labor. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This is a big business, the general of the division, the bureau of the hundred to find the chief, ask for hard labor, the township chief slightly disobeyed, a wave of the big hand, the soldiers rushed out is tied up, in a cry, the unlucky ghost was tied up, into the army as hard labor.

Of course, there are also interesting township chiefs, when they see the soldiers coming to the door, they immediately meet them, and then find a few broken households from the village, and after a period of coercion and temptation, the wife is goodbye, crying and wailing on the road.

In the era of agricultural civilization and war, if a family loses a man and almost the family is ruined, it stands to reason that more than 50 hard laborers can be levied on the whole side.

Yang Xuan's heart was very soft-hearted, seeing the hard labor struggling desperately, looking at his family members who were almost desperate for the sky, he felt that he was committing a crime, which was to break thousands of families.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and the ordinary soldiers were only more than 30 catties, if they carried a little more food or something, everyone took turns to push and take turns to bear, it was not impossible, and it could also exercise the physical strength of the soldiers.

However, the soldiers were quite tired from the long march, and they needed to be properly compensated by everyone anyway.

Looking at the anxious lieutenant in front of him, he weighed the silver ingots sent over, and five people needed to be recruited.

Yang Xuan pointed to the villagers who were also nervous in the distance, and sighed: "Xuanben is a scholar, and he has also been a Xiucai or something, of course he knows that being conscripted for labor almost cut off the livelihood of a family, and in the end, the family is ruined, which is very miserable.

Xuan can let the brothers transport their own baggage, grain and grass, but this trip to Pengzhou for a month, hiring the brothers to do hard labor, also needs wages or something. ”

The lieutenant was shocked, his cloudy eyes widened and looked at Yang Xuan in disbelief and said, "Master Jun, you, you said that you don't recruit hard labor from the small village?" ”

Yang Xuan sighed and said, "Alas, who let Xuan be a scholar? Who made Xuan's heart very soft? ”

The eldest man was overjoyed, and he gave his hand again and again, and kept saying that he wanted to get it. Then he shouted loudly, convened the village elders to discuss the matter, and raised ten taels of silver, and ran over happily, and said again and again: "My lord, the villagers have discussed it, and they can be regarded as meeting a good person."

As the adults said, it takes a month to go back and forth to Pengzhou, and each person is counted as ten taels of silver, as a coolie fee for half a year. ”

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the middle-sized family had an income of more than 20 taels of silver a year, although the official government said that it was a month to levy hard labor, but the war was deadlocked, who knows when it can be released?

It is good to be at home for a thousand days, but it is difficult to go out for half a day, and I went out with the army to do hard labor, which is nine deaths, and the families who were conscripted for labor were ruined, so in order to send this gang of soldiers and bandits, the village was willing to pay half a year's income per person.

Looking at the warm face of the chief and the expectant eyes of everyone, Yang Xuan felt particularly conflicted.

In his previous life, he hated corruption, but how could the people of the world know that the common people were willing to spend money to support this group of corrupt officials who were sanctimonious and fair in their behavior in order to protect their legitimate rights and interests from being violated.

Thirty servants were levied less to earn three hundred taels of silver, each of whom was divided into two taels of silver, and the rest was used as a provident fund for everyone to eat.

Two taels of silver can be enough to sell three loads of polished rice, enough to pay everyone for more than a month, and the soldiers who have received the silver are happy, although they are a little bitter, but they can give it to their families, why not?

In addition, in the past, more than 150 people ate, but now there are only 120 people, and from time to time they can still eat dry rice and fatty meat, and everyone is very happy.

In order to set an example for everyone, Yang Xuan took his own weapons by himself, and never faked others, the first few days were okay, but after the fifth day, he secretly said that he couldn't stand it, but on the surface, he felt very relaxed.

And because of this, Yang Xuan's other reputation spread, that is, the Sheep Bodhisattva, who wants money and doesn't want to die.

Yang Xuan had no choice but to smile bitterly, in order to be the acting Bai Zong, he gave Master Zhu forty taels of silver.

Because he didn't pay the full amount, he can't turn into a regular now, but he is only acting as the president.

Along the way, the army marched in a row, filling the entire road, and surprisingly the road was quite spacious, some places were rammed earth, and some places were paved with bluestone, just like the simple roads in the countryside when I was a child.

This is an ancient post road, just like a modern highway and an ordinary highway, from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various princes and kings established intricate post roads throughout the country in order to strengthen local control.

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a monk in Youfang, just like many old farmers, he was also very concerned about building houses, roads and bridges, not only for himself and his sons, but also for all the city walls in the country have been reinforced, especially solid (Shen Wansan's story of repairing the Nanjing city wall, the war against the Japanese army against the **** garrison of the Ming Dynasty built the city wall).

In addition to building houses, Zhu Yuanzhang is to build roads and bridges to the extreme of this era, if according to the current classification method, it can be divided into national roads, provincial roads, government roads and county roads.

The national highway is centered on the north and south of the two capitals, forming a dense network of ancient expressways (post road network) throughout the country

Among them, the post road with Beijing as the center, there are a total of eight such national highway networks, among which the Beijing-Rong line related to Sichuan is to start from Beijing, pass through Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, enter Sichuan Guangyuan, Baoning Prefecture Langzhong, Tongchuan Prefecture Zhishu Xixian (now Santai County) to Chengdu.

With Nanjing as the center, there are also seven such national highway networks, starting from Nanjing, passing through Lujiang (today's Hefei), Wuchangfu, and then along the Yangtze River to Chongqing, Luzhou, and finally Chengdu.

In addition to the national highway, the provinces also have provincial highways, take Sichuan as an example, there are such provincial highways, five of which are centered in Chengdu, namely Chengdu to Songpanwei (now Songpan County, Sichuan); Chengdu via Jiading Prefecture (now Leshan County, Sichuan), Xuzhou Mansion (now Yibin City, Sichuan), Luzhou (now Luzhou City, Sichuan), Chongqing Mansion (now Chongqing City, Sichuan), arrived at Kuizhou Mansion (now Fengjie County, Sichuan); Chengdu to Long'an Mansion (now Pingwu County, Sichuan); Chengdu to Huichuanwei (now Huili County, Sichuan); Chengdu to Chongqing; and there is also a post road between Chongqing Prefecture and Tongchuan Prefecture (now Santai County).

Chengdu to Shunqing in northern Sichuan does not have such a national post road, a provincial post road, only the road between different state capitals is connected, even so, the road is quite smooth, the road is often four or five horses side by side, followed by a big carriage (two-wheeled), a wheelbarrow, as well as porters, pedestrians.

Although the whole army is strong, the long line is dozens of miles long, and there is no end in sight, but the means of transport are very simple, and the more transported are large carriages, horses, mules and horses are dragged, and they can transport more than 600 catties, but the horses are quite precious, and the horses and fodder on the road are very large.

The wheelbarrow transportation is relatively fast and convenient, a wheelbarrow, pushed by a person, can transport a load of grain (more than 150 catties), often walk ten miles to rest, very laborious.

The hardest thing is, of course, the porter, two baskets and a flat shoulder, able to pick up a hundred pounds of things, but this is definitely a strength work, except for the conscription, there is no one who is willing to do it, and he will rest his feet and drink tea after two or three miles.

Although everyone got two taels of silver, some people still complained, and some even said bluntly, how can there be a reason for a soldier to be a porter?

Seeing the complaining soldiers, Yang Xuan often smiled, we are all from poor backgrounds, we can save if we can, we can earn it, anyway, the more we exercise, the stronger we are, these two taels of silver have the right to honor our parents.

Sometimes I also pick up the burden and run in front, although I am young and strong, and my body is quite strong, even if I put on the mat, my shoulder is still very painful, and I often bear a distance of more than a mile, and many soldiers run up, claiming that how can I let Da Xiucai bear the burden?

Yang Xuan didn't care, and sometimes bluntly said that he also divided two taels of silver, if he didn't let him bear it, then he had to take out these two taels of silver as vegetable gold.

If it is said that the march and war, wearing thick cotton armor every day, carrying weapons, pushing wheelbarrows, carrying burdens and so on, it is unbearable, and the difficulties of daily life are even more painful.

Everyone gets up earlier than the chickens, gets up for the third time every day, cooks for the fourth time, eats at dawn and packs up and sets off.

Life was a little better in the morning and evening, but it was just some gruel, but the gruel was so hard to swallow that everyone had to put a little wild vegetables in it, so they could barely eat it.

In addition to gruel to drink, the best is the pot helmet, after baking, hold the pot helmet in one hand, hold the coconut scoop in the other, dip it in salt first, and then eat the pot helmet while drinking water.

The camp time at noon is too short, and I don't cook at all, or eat cold leftovers from the morning, or dip salt and nibble on a cold pot helmet.

In the evening, everyone rushed to the camp early to set up tents, often a small flag and a tent, a little bonfire in front, a little licorice below, and then two or three people with a quilt, relying on each other's body temperature to keep out the cold.

At first, Yang Xuan still felt fun, but after five or six days, four or five people in the army fell ill from malnutrition, and many people were emaciated, like a group of beggars, which made people feel sore noses.