Chapter 309: Soldiers and Labor
When Xiaohong floated back to the mountain temple, Pan Yun was checking the lucky bags collected today and filling them with seven-color rice.

Seeing Xiaohong floating back, Pan Jun casually greeted her, "You're back? Is it fun outside?"

Xiaohong squatted down beside her and said after a long silence: "I think I have a mother too."

Pan Yun paused and said calmly: "Everyone has a mother. What is your mother like?"

"I don't remember what she looked like, but she seemed to bring good things home and share them with me, just like them..."

Pan Jun stopped asking her and let her think and recall.

Xiaohong stopped talking. She was trying hard to think and recall.

It was not until Wang Cong came over that the quiet atmosphere between the man and the ghost disappeared.

He rubbed his waist and said, "Master, I have distributed the food and re-counted it because we don't have enough rice to cook porridge at noon, so we need to buy some more. By the way, the county magistrate Ming sent someone to pass on the message that the headmen of each village have spread the message to the villages. According to conservative estimates, there will be at least 2,300 people who will come to participate in the mountain god temple fair, and the number of people who may come may exceed 3,000."

Pan Yun: "So many people?"

Wang Cong nodded, "So the lucky bags we prepared may not be enough, we still have to add more."

Pan Yun frowned. This was too much money...

Pan Yun thought for a moment and said, "I will go to the county town to buy some food tomorrow and then talk to County Magistrate Ming."

Wang Cong agreed and said with a smile: "You should take Miaozhen and Miaohe with you."

"We've all gone, and only you and Yanbai are left in the temple. Is that okay?"

Wang Cong said, "Uncle Junior, please call my father down as well. He has been looking at me like a fool these past two days on the mountain. Let him come down to feel our hardships and let him know that I really didn't slack off when I came down the mountain."

Pan Yun glanced at him and said, "Don't think I don't know. You just don't want to practice. Anyway, you can do anything except practice."

Wang Cong: …

Pan Yun: "You are not bad in talent, but Miao Zhen's cultivation is almost catching up with yours, Master Nephew, are you really not going to work harder on your cultivation?"

Wang Cong looked left and right, and finally pointed at Xiaohong and said, "Little Master, take Xiaohong with you, let her see the outside world."

Pan Jun waved at him, stopped talking about him, and turned to ask Xiao Hong, "Are you going?"

Xiao Hong wanted to see the women she saw today again, so she shook her head and said, "I'm not going. I want to play in the mountain temple."

Pan Yun didn't force it. The next day, he hitched a car and happily went to the county town with Miao Zhenmiao.

They haven't gone out to play for several days. Since their experience, they feel that the outside world has become more attractive.

Pan Yun was driving the ox cart. He suddenly looked up at the sky and said after a moment, "It's going to snow."

Sure enough, snowflakes began to fall, and the further we went, the heavier the snow fell.

Miaozhen reached out and caught a piece of snow. As soon as it fell into her palm, it turned into water, icy and a little cold.

Pan Jun also stretched out her hand, and a drop of icy rain fell on her palm.

Miao He, who was sitting nearby, said happily, "I caught the snow, look."

Pan Yun and Miao Zhen turned their heads and saw a fully formed snowflake falling on her palm. It took a while for it to gradually melt and turn into water under the gaze of the three people.

Miao Zhen accepted it with a normal mind and calmly.

Pan Yun: …

Luck is something that really depends on luck.

Pan Yun was convinced and expressed his willingness to accept it.

"Rain and snow," Pan Yun looked up at the thin dark clouds above his head and sighed, "It's going to be even colder tonight."

Miaozhen: "You can light a brazier in the house now."

Miao He: "When we get to the county town, should we drink a bowl of mutton soup to ward off the cold? Otherwise, what if we get sick from the rain?"

Pan Yun nodded, "What you said makes sense."

Even Pan Xiaohei meowed and said to Pan Yun, "I want to eat the steamed bun soaked in mutton soup."

Pan Yun lowered his eyes and looked at it, "You are quite good at eating."

Miao He immediately asked, "Master, what did Xiao Hei say it wants to eat?"

Pan Yun: "It wants to eat steamed buns soaked in mutton soup."

Miao He said, "Oh~" and then said, "The owner of that store is from Shaanxi. Xiao Hei and I ate there once. It was really delicious. Xiao Hei, I'll treat you!"

Pan Xiaohei gave her face and jumped into Miaohe's arms, meowing at her.

The man and the cat were delighted.

Pan Jun couldn't help but smile. Just as he was about to speak, he saw a man appear in front of him. He was carrying a shoulder pole with two huge, heavy packages on both sides of the pole. He was also carrying a small bag on his back.

It was called a small bag, but it looked like a camel hump, completely covering the man's back and making him look like there was a mountain bulging on his back.

Miao Zhen also saw it, and after taking a look, she said, "The clothes he is wearing... look like those of a soldier."

Pan Yun slapped the cow on the buttocks with a slap, causing the cow to speed up. When the ox cart passed him, the three people and the cat all turned their heads to look at him. He seemed to be a middle-aged man with wrinkles on his face, looking very sad, because the load he was carrying was very heavy and his whole face was exerting force.

He was walking with his head lowered, and when he heard the sound of a car, he turned the pole on his shoulder and let it move forward diagonally to make way for the car to pass.

Noticing that someone was looking at him, he looked up and saw three little Taoist priests sitting on a ox cart passing by him with a look of curiosity on their faces.

The man couldn't help but smile at them. Pan Yun and the other two were touched by his bright smile and couldn't help but grin and waved to greet him.

The man did not wave, but nodded at them, and then continued to look down at the road beneath his feet.

The oxcart gradually pulled away from him, and Miaohe realized belatedly, "I should have asked him to ride with me."

Pan Yun pulled the ox and slowed down the car, "It's not too late now."

Miaozhen suddenly cried out "Ouch!" and the two of them turned around immediately, only to see the man behind them slipped and fell to the ground with a loud bang.

Pan Yun immediately reined in the cow and threw the rope to Miaohe, who then jumped out of the car and ran towards the people.

The two of them quickly arrived in front of the man. Pan Yun took away the heavy carrying pole that was pressing on him with one hand, while Miao Zhen went to help him.

But the ground was too slippery and the man fell too hard, and he was carrying a large bag on his back, so he tried twice to help the man up but failed.

Miaozhen was about to take the backpack off him and help him up, but as soon as her hand touched the backpack, the man, who was lying on the ground and unable to move, pressed the backpack with his backhand and said in a painful, fearful but firm voice: "Don't touch the bag on me."

Pan Yun put the carrying pole and the two huge packages tied to it aside, turned his head and saw the uniform of a garrison soldier on him, then he held Miao Zhen's hand, put one hand on his waist and the other hand on his right shoulder, and with one force he flipped him over.

The man was still a little confused after sitting up. He looked at Pan Yun in amazement, "Little Taoist priest, you have great strength."

In the blink of an eye, he was turned over from the ground.

Pan Jun smiled and calmly put her feet under his backpack, with her toes slightly raised, to help him relieve more of the force.

She glanced at the uniform he was wearing and asked, "Are you a postman?"

The man responded, "I'm a courier."

He quickly looked up at the dark clouds that were slowly dispersing in the sky. Seeing that the sun had already risen high, he couldn't help but get anxious, "It's already too late, it can't be any later."

After saying that, he used his hands to support his body and climbed up.

Pan Jun held him down with one hand and said, "Are we going to the county town? We are going to the county town, would you like to come with us?"

The man looked at their ox cart, hesitated for a moment, and nodded, "Are you really going to the county town?"

Pan Jun nodded, "I really am going to the county town."

Miaohe had turned the car around, drove the cow over, and then turned the car around again, stopping right next to them.

Pan Yun helped him put the two huge packages on the shoulder pole onto the cart. Then, holding the backpack on his back with one hand and holding his shoulder with the other, she and Miaozhen helped him onto the cart.

Seeing that he was sweating profusely due to anxiety, Pan Yun patted the cow's butt to make it go faster, while diverting his attention, "Are you a hired courier?"

The man was about to cry, but he still forced a smile and replied, "No, I'm a labor soldier."

Pan Yun was slightly stunned. "But I see the shoes on your feet. How long have you been in the service?"

Man: “Half a year.”

Perhaps Pan Yun's question touched upon his heart, and he finally couldn't hold back his tears as he choked up and said, "This month was supposed to be over, but I'm late again. Not only will I be beaten with a stick, but I'll also be fined a month of hard labor..."

Pan Yun frowned. Although he knew he should think of another topic to divert attention, he still couldn't help but continue asking, "How long will it take for you to be recruited?"

Man: “Three months.”

"So the extra three months were all penalties?"

The man nodded.

Pan Jun was very curious about this. How was he punished?
it's actually really easy.

Private post offices and parcel delivery services appeared among the people during the Song Dynasty, but they were all on a small scale because the related businesses were mainly handled by the imperial court.

But in the Ming Dynasty, private post offices and escort agencies for transporting parcels and letters popped up like mushrooms after a rain, especially in the Jiangnan area. Why?

Because after the founding of the country, Mr. Zhu suppressed this part of the private business.

He believed that the imperial post stations should be mainly used to transmit official documents and military information. In order to curb the collusion between evil cults among the people and between officials, he had very strict requirements for the public to send letters through the post stations.

Not only have prices gone up, there are more inspections, and sometimes you have to fill out various questionnaires.

So the People's Credit Bureau gradually started to grow.

The most important thing is that once he reduced the private letter and parcel business, he naturally thought that the post station had less work, so most of the post station's affairs were completed by basic troops.

The basic garrison troops were basically forced conscripts who received very little pay, had a lot of work to do, and had strict rules.

If a letter was late, the messenger would be punished with a cane unless the government considered it to be force majeure.
If the number of such violations accumulates, one will be fined.

The reason why this soldier's service period was increased from three months to six months, and may now be extended by another month, is because of this punishment.

(End of this chapter)