Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 64 Recruiting!

As the saying goes, if you move a tree, it will die, but if you move a person, he will live. In Luoyang, Xialin, they ignored me, but now in Xinping, Xialin is too high for them to reach.
Although he has not yet returned home in glory, he can now wear a standard military uniform, stand on the top of a hill and look at Xinping, then point his finger downward and say to people: "This place will surely be a treasure land in the future."

Now Xia Lin commanded a battalion of soldiers and wore the official uniform of the Great Wei commander. When people saw him, they no longer needed to call him the village chief but instead called him Commandant Xia.

This is much better than what the township hears.

Although Xinping Township is still a township, it became Xinping Duwei Prefecture because of the relationship with Xinping Camp. Don't underestimate the difference between these two words, there is a difference of eight hundred towns between a township and a prefecture.

Because the government was established for self-government, self-government has a lot of room for operation. Rather than saying that Xia Lin is a local seventh-rank captain, it is better to say that he is a younger version of Guozhou Mu.

However, the most urgent task now is not to appreciate the official uniforms, but to recruit soldiers. The quota of 500 people must be filled quickly, and we cannot expect the superiors to transfer people. Such autonomous townships need to use their own income to recruit soldiers and maintain the army. This is why it was so easy for warlords to split up during the Tang Dynasty. A township can recruit soldiers and cultivate land by itself. This is fine in prosperous times, and the court still has the power to govern. But in troubled times, isn’t it a game of big fish eating small fish and small fish eating shrimp? In the end, the warlords in the southeast, northwest, and northeast may look back and find that they are more powerful than the court.

This kind-hearted person is living in a corner of the country. If someone with a little bit of idea had done that, he would have broken into the capital and forced the emperor to hang the concubine, and would have also burned half of the capital to ashes.

But recruiting soldiers was not a simple matter. The military system of the Wei Dynasty was actually quite bad. First of all, it followed the early military system, which was a compulsory recruitment system of one man per three households. This was actually not so bad. The key was that the treatment of soldiers was too bad, so bad that if a family was selected, it would be like losing their parents. For details, you can refer to the lottery for Thai youth to serve in the military.

There is a line in the Mulan Ballad of the previous dynasty that goes, "There are twelve volumes of military books, and my name is in every volume." This was true for the more senior generals. You can imagine how miserable ordinary people were.

Xia Lin had been troubled by this recruitment issue for several days. He had originally planned to go out in the dark to find peaches to pick for his sister, but who would have thought that he would get so busy that his own peaches almost shriveled, let alone picking for his sister.

They gathered together the respected people from the surrounding villages to discuss how to make the conscripted people willing. No one spoke, and everyone looked at each other, with a shrewd look on their faces.

Of course, we cannot recruit old men. Those who are recruited are the young and strong people in the family. If a young and strong person is taken away from a family, half of them will starve to death. So if the treatment issue is not resolved, I am afraid that we will really not be able to recruit men.

Seeing that he could not rely on these village elders, Xia Lin leaned there and pondered for a long time. He could not increase the salary at will. If this matter got out, at the very least, he would be accused of overstepping authority and be scolded by Lao Guo and have his military power taken back. At the worst, he would be accused of secretly entertaining the troops with the intention of treason, which would be in line with Lao Guo's words. Even he could not protect Xia Lin.

The contradiction is right in front of us. If we want to form a combat-ready team, we must first ensure the loyalty of the soldiers. The prerequisite for ensuring the loyalty of the soldiers is probably to ensure the treatment of the soldiers. No matter what, we must first ensure that their families can live in peace.

Ugh?
Xia Lin suddenly had an idea. Since he couldn't increase the soldiers' salaries, why couldn't he give some money to their families?
Xinping Township has money and land, but it is short of people. If the subordinates spread the news that whoever comes to Xinping Township to serve as a soldier will have his family buy real estate, farmland or shops in Xinping Township, then as long as one person comes and confirms that this is true, wouldn't it spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred?
With a plan in mind, Xia Lin immediately started working. He told Zhao Da to spread the news, and then sat happily at the recruitment office waiting. In his imagination, as soon as the news came out, people would flock to the door.

But he just waited and waited, from day to night and from night to day, but except for a 52-year-old man who came over and asked, there was no one else.

This was strange. The next day, Xia Lin stood in the empty recruitment office, scratching his head, but couldn't figure out what had happened. Confused, he called Zhao Da to go out for a walk.

After finding a shop and having breakfast, Xia Lin started chatting with Zhao Da: "Did you release the news?"

"I let him go, but the fellow villager didn't believe me. He said that words were not enough and wanted me to write a written document."

"Can this fucking thing be documented?" Xia Lin frowned. "These idiots are really cunning."

"That's right. I also said that this matter cannot be documented. But if we arrest people, it will damage your reputation. This is really difficult."

Xia Lin didn't blame Zhao Da. After all, this matter couldn't leave a written receipt. How could it be called a written receipt? It was called evidence.

"Sir, what do you think we should do now?"

Xia Lin is not Zhuge Kongming. He knows nothing about what to do. What else can he do except thinking of a solution?

After sitting in the breakfast shop for a while, Xia Lin couldn't think of any good solution, so he planned to get up and go back to think about it again. However, as soon as he turned around, he was bumped into by a beggar.

Xia Lin flew into a rage on the spot. He took a few steps back in disgust and slapped his captain's uniform hard: "You are so blind! If you ruin my clothes, I will beat you till you are covered in blood today!"

The beggar ignored Xia Lin's words, rushed forward and emptied the leftovers of Xia Lin and Zhao Da into his mouth in just a few mouthfuls, then tried to reach out to scoop out the things in the slop bucket.

"Hey!" Xia Lin shouted, "Wait a minute." The beggar raised his head and looked at him. Xia Lin felt that the man was sloppy and dirty, with a beard all over his face and he couldn't see his features. He could only tell from his figure that he was a man in his twenties. But he was the local official after all, so he still had to ask a few questions when he saw such a person.

"Where are you from, kid? There are no beggars in my Xinping Township."

Zhao Da also joined in fiercely: "My master is asking you a question. If you don't speak up, I will arrest you on the spot!"

At this moment, the beggar took a close look at Xia Lin, but still did not speak, and still stretched his hand towards the swill bucket. The person who ran the shop was a widow, and it was Xia Lin who waived her stall fee so that she could make a living here. Now seeing that the beggar was so ungrateful, the widow picked up a big spoon and was about to hit him.

But Xia Lin stopped this move. He smiled and said, "Sister Qing, give this beggar a big bowl of vermicelli. He looks very hungry. Add a big spoonful of meat."

The beggar looked back at Xia Lin in astonishment, but sat down without hesitation. Xia Lin found it interesting and sat down next to him.

The rice here is very famous, and the vermicelli made from it is also very delicious. The boiling vermicelli is rinsed with well water and then put into boiling broth, with a spoonful of tender stewed meat on top. It is such a delicious dish.

The beggar was obviously very hungry, holding the bowl and drinking, and in a short while he ate the full bowl of rice. At this moment, he was finally alive, raised his hand and bowed to Xia Lin in a very chivalrous way: "Zhou owes you a life."

"Don't try to play tricks on me." Xia Lin spat on the ground. "Let me ask you, where are you from? Why did you become a beggar in your twenties when you have arms and legs?"

The beggar did not answer directly, but slowly lifted up his messy hair, revealing a tattoo on his left cheek. This made sense, as he turned out to be a criminal.

"What's wrong?" Xia Lin's tone immediately became a little disdainful.

"Help the orphans and widows in my hometown beat up the evil officials."

"Oh, you're a brave warrior." Xia Lin laughed: "Are you here alone?"

"Bring my wife and children with me, but I'm afraid they won't make it through the day. I plan to have a good meal and then go down to accompany them."

Xia Lin looked the man up and down and said, "Oh, he is a man of love and righteousness. What's wrong with his wife and children?"

"The cold has penetrated into my bones. I have no money to treat it."

"Stupid idiot." Xia Lin cursed and pointed to a place with a medical flag at the intersection ahead: "Have you asked?"

"No, but I'm already penniless."

"Go try it."

As he spoke, he turned around and glanced at Zhao Da: "Why are you still standing there? Go and help."

Zhao Da knew that it was the adult's enthusiasm that had struck him again, so he could only stand up helplessly and follow the beggar. At 10 o'clock in the afternoon, Xia Lin had just caught two fresh fish at the dock and was about to go back to stew fish head and tofu, when he saw Zhao Da leading the beggar over.

The beggar at this moment seemed like a different person from the beggar who was desperate and wanted to die in the morning. When he saw Xia Lin, he knelt on the ground with a thud. His head was broken and bleeding after being knocked down three times, but he didn't care at all.

"What are you doing?"

Xia Lin was so frightened by his move that he took three steps back. The straw sandal gang on the dock also gathered around with weapons in hand. At this moment, Zhao Dacai explained, "His wife and child are not seriously ill. They went to the clinic to take some medicine and drink some soup. They are now asleep. This kid saw that his mother and daughter were rescued, so he had to come and kowtow to you no matter what."

Seeing the beggar in front of him who didn't have a very good brain, Xia Lin raised his eyebrows and said, "Hey... bro, do you want to join the army?"

(End of this chapter)