Therefore, no matter how anxious Han Du was, he patiently said goodbye to several county magistrates one by one.
Of course, forget about County Magistrate Zhou. Having avenged an arrow, he had already gone back with his husband arrogantly, without even saying 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 of corvee was completed in three days, and such a good thing happened to them all. Therefore, every team of civilian husbands returning home is full of laughter and laughter. Of course, what they talk about most is the magic of cement and the road 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 lifelong conversation piece for them.
Night began to fall, and the faint smoke rising from the village was almost completely enveloped by the night.
The sounds of several villagers 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 him 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 run away and came back, right?"
The more he thought about it, the more likely it 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 misunderstood. We didn't come back from escaping, we came back from doing the corvee."
"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?"
Sanwazi saw that the old patriarch still had a misunderstanding, so he 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 over with confusion and saw that yes, this was indeed the county's certificate of having completed the corvee. We meet him many times every year, so it’s impossible not to recognize him. Although he was illiterate, he recognized the bright red seal stamped on it. Moreover, this voucher will still be kept with him until the next time the county government collects corvees, and will take it out 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 dared to forge such things, and 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's coming 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.
Huiniang held a spatula in both hands and walked out of the house doubtfully. He poked his head out and saw that it was indeed the man from his own house. Suddenly, the spatula in his hand 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, "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 Come to do corvee labor. There were too many people. I have never seen so many people 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, and then the officials above said that the roads had been repaired and that our corvee service had been completed, so they asked us to come back. Just now we were still at the entrance of the village. When we were blocked by the old patriarch, he thought we had sneaked back, hahaha."
"Hmph! My husband will not run away." Hui Niang was unhappy when she heard that the old patriarch dared to doubt her husband. In her heart, her husband is 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'm worried about whether something will happen to you outside, and it's dark the next. 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 Huiniang married him, the court ordered her to leave. There were no old people at home, so when he left, Huiniang was left alone at home, even though there were people from the same clan in the village, and there were old patriarchs looking after her. But after all, Hui Niang has not been here long, so it is reasonable for a person 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?" Hui Niang 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."
Seeing Huiniang's face flushed, Sanwazi 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 filled with 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 out quickly: "Here he comes, he comes."
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 invited a few people in attentively 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 to look normal and got up to get the oil lamp.
Hui Niang came out with 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 felt that her behavior of turning around and running away was a bit strange. But there was something more important 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 credentials, they had only served a few days of corvee service and came back to convince them. This really did not 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. He has long wanted to talk to someone." Sanwazi thought to himself.
After taking a sip of water, Sanwazi talked to 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. Could it be that the government recruited many civilians?"
"That's right, the government didn't recruit many civilians. According to chatting with the craftsmen who taught me, the government recruited a total of 20,000 people this time." Sanwazi explained.
"This is impossible? How could you, 20,000 people, complete 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.
