The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 470 Angry
That woman with the long, narrow face wasn't exactly a kind person either.

She jumped up and down in frustration, loudly retorting:
"Who's dragging the General into this! Are we military dependents not allowed to speak the truth in Guanzhong?"
She is no longer just a mighty general with three thousand guards in Ganluchuan, but the great general of the entire Guanzhong Plain.

Since she is in charge of all ten guards in Kansai, she should treat them all equally!

Do you know what kind of New Year's gifts Gan Luchuan posted a couple of days ago?
Let's look at Angmen Hamiwei again!
Why are only the Angmen given fruit wine, while Ganluchuan is given that ridiculously expensive Yili Wuliangye, even though they are both from the same garrison brewery?
Ten pounds of mutton sounds like a lot!

But every family in Kansai raises sheep, so who would be short of ten pounds of mutton?

In Ganluchuan, they're giving out fatty pork and geese!
Twenty pounds of rice! We Northwesterners have eaten flatbread and noodle soup our whole lives, we don't really love rice! You could at least give us two pounds of milk candy in return so the kids can have something sweet!

What's most infuriating is this ten catties of sesame oil! Who doesn't grow some sesame in their fields? The Ang family still has twenty catties of freshly pressed sesame oil left in their oil press.
Speaking of year-end bonuses! This is what makes me most angry.

The logistics revenue center has quite a few businesses, including a large restaurant, an embroidery shop, a winery, and a honeycomb briquette workshop! Each one is a lucrative business that makes a fortune every day.
But what was the reality? The year-end bonus that Ang's son received was a mere twenty taels of silver.

Ang's son is only a centurion, yet he didn't even get as much as a common soldier from Ganluchuan! Ang is just not satisfied!

The woman with the long, narrow face became more and more self-righteous as she spoke, and by the end her eyes were red, as if she had suffered a great injustice.

The older military dependents who were lined up with her were completely captivated by what they heard.

Some people nodded frequently, casting encouraging glances at her.

Interestingly, the young wives in the other group had their brows furrowed.

After listening to the shoehorn-faced woman's twisted logic, I gave her a response:

"You don't care for sea buckthorn wine? Don't you know this wine is an exclusive recipe from Imperial Physician Huang? It's a medicinal wine that clears phlegm, benefits the lungs, nourishes the stomach, and strengthens the spleen! Once it leaves Heping Pass and is sent to the Hexi Corridor, it sells for two taels of silver a jar!"

"You either have mutton, rice, and sesame oil at home, or you just don't like them? Since you don't care about them, then don't come to collect them! You can clear out your share and distribute it equally to those who need it!"

The woman with the long, narrow face looked even longer.

Dislike these?

No, no, no, she just thinks it's not enough!
Just as she was about to say something in her defense, someone else started poking fun at her:
"Madam, what kind of high-ranking official was your son, the centurion, five years ago? Tell us all about the good old days when you lived a life of luxury, eating meat and throwing it away!"

"You. You all."

"Stop talking nonsense! Tell everyone how wealthy your family used to be, and tell us what makes you so noble!"

".you"

"And another thing! You actually look down on a year-end bonus of twenty taels of silver! Ninety-nine percent of the military households in our border town didn't have ten taels of silver saved up in the past five years."

We don't understand any grand principles, but we are all heartless people.

All the Ang family knew was that during the previous dynasty, the men of the Ang family served as soldiers for eight years without ever receiving a single copper coin in salary from the imperial court.

Every year during this cold winter month, His Majesty takes money from his own private treasury to buy rice and flour to help us poor military households.

In those years, what was the difference between celebrating the New Year and ordinary days? The whole family never saw a new set of clothes! As for food and drink? Not every family had sheep, and even those that did were willing to keep them to slaughter and eat!
What kind of life are we living now?!

Who led the team that discovered the coal mine that paid the soldiers' salaries?! — It was the General Who Guards the West!
Who bought the high-yield grain seeds from the foreign merchants? — It was the General Who Guards the West!
Who brought back the oxen and sheep for each household? — It was the General of the Western Garrison!

Who captured the Nine Guards of Kansai and the Iri Valley? — It was the General of the Western Garrison and her vanguard battalion!
The eldest son of the Ang family enlisted in the army last spring. After completing basic training, his monthly salary was eight hundred cash, and he also received a bonus of five taels of silver at the end of the year.

All told, this 16-year-old boy earned nearly 15 taels of silver a year! Plus all the benefits he received during the holidays throughout the year!

Go and inquire in every city of the Yongtai Dynasty. Which family has a sixteen-year-old boy who has just come of age, and who can earn this much without resorting to dishonest means?

The long lines of military dependents were silenced by the woman's resounding words.

The woman with the long, narrow face hesitated for a long time before finally managing to squeeze out a sentence:
“Angang doesn’t mean the General is bad! Angang just feels it’s not fair.” The peer who had just been cheering her on heard this and was afraid of being implicated by the shoehorn-faced old woman.

I'd rather turn around and join the queue again at the back.

They felt both ashamed and guilty.

People are not afraid of comparison.

I'm afraid of being compared to anyone.

The contrast between my life a few years ago and now is stark.

Not all older people are shameless.

Moreover, they were also afraid that their words and actions would cause trouble for their sons in the camp.

On the city gate tower of Hamiwei.

In the blind spot of the queuing military families, the centurion of Hami Guard, who was leading the line, turned to ask his subordinates behind him a question.

"You've all heard the whole thing, what are your thoughts?"

Thoughts?

OK!
She harbored no resentment, but was now blushing with shame.

Meanwhile, the youngest son of the shoehorn-faced old woman, who was the main character under the city gate tower, was a man who had finally been promoted to centurion, and his whole body was almost cooked.

He buried his head in his chest, afraid that someone would notice that he and the old woman looked almost identical.

The scene was a bit cold.

No one dared to respond.

Among the rank-and-file soldiers, they heard their superior casually say:

"A small favor is appreciated, but a large one breeds resentment! Think about it carefully, really think about it."

Before the storm could even begin, it was suppressed by those with ulterior motives.

According to sources familiar with the matter.

The centurion's son of this woman with a long, narrow face.

Just because he had an ungrateful mother, he was demoted to squad leader that very afternoon.

Of course, no one would go out of their way to gossip about such a trivial matter to the General of the Western Garrison.

On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household grinds flour to make tofu!
The Kansai region has no shortage of beans.

All sorts of bean products have been explored and developed to new heights.

That was the last five days before the deadline for compensation payments.

The Kashgar Khanate sent a quantity of fine jade from Khotan, along with 10,000 horses, 50,000 cattle, and 1 million sheep as compensation to the Ili River Valley.

Tian Jiu inspected and signed for the package on behalf of the recipient.

These matters will later be reported to the imperial court by the General Who Guards the West.

Whether to directly convert the indemnity into cash in Kansai or to personally deliver these indemnities to Shangdu was entirely up to the imperial court.