Top Scholar

Chapter 46 So I've always been an unregistered resident?

Although his family gave him plenty of money, Su Lu did not intend to change his mind.

Back in his room, he said to his father, "I still want to commute to school and bring my own lunch. That way I can save about 2.5 ounces a year, which is a lot of money."

"Why not make yourself more comfortable?" Su Youcai slapped the initial one or two taels of silver onto the six strings of copper coins and said gruffly, "There's no need to save money for your old man. Enjoy life while you can, even if you spend all your money, it will come back again!"

Su Lu thought to himself, "This isn't the time to cry because I'm broke."

"Dad, don't be too happy yet. The biggest taboo in business is relying on past experience to assume things will turn out the next way. Because anything can happen in the future, and if things go wrong, our investment could be wasted." He had to remind his father, who was getting a little carried away by his newfound wealth.

“If you save these six strings of cash, it can cover two years’ tuition.”

“What Qiu-ge’er said makes sense, but you don’t need to worry too much.” Su Tai said with a smile, “I’ll start making money this year.”

After saying that, he lowered his head guiltily, pointing two fingers at each other, and said, "If our distillery can still pay wages..."

"I just think you've been traveling too much back and forth." Su Youcai was always agreeable, but he still couldn't bear it.

"I've walked this route a few times, and I think it's alright." Su Lu smiled and said, "If you walk quickly, it will only take less than half an hour, which is good exercise."

"It's usually fine, but what about when it rains?" Su Youcai asked.

"Wearing a green bamboo hat, a green raincoat, a bamboo staff and straw sandals, I can outrun a horse," Su Lu said.

"That was just a light drizzle. If it were a downpour, it would just wash you into the river," Su Youcai said irritably.

"Doesn't the academy offer free accommodation? If the weather's bad, I'll just stay here. I can always pay for lamp oil." Su Lu then said seriously, "Ten coins a month is within my budget."

"That's one way," Su Youcai nodded, then a worry arose: "But what about meals when you settle in?"

When a child doesn't have a mother, the father has to worry more...

"Father, these are minor issues, you don't need to worry." Su Lu couldn't help but smile wryly, "Besides, I can't live without my second brother's... snoring."

"Yes, yes." Xia Ge'er nodded vigorously, feeling a great sense of responsibility.

"Sigh, why is this brat so sensible?" Su Youcai had no choice but to let Su Lu be for now.

~~
Even so, Su Youcai still wanted Su Lu to eat more comfortably. In the afternoon, he went to Gao Tuozi's house and bought a bag of bean flour, which he asked his sister-in-law to mix into the sorghum flour.

“This child always complains that sorghum cakes are too rough on his throat, but he still can’t bear to eat lunch at the academy.” Su Youcai sighed, “Sister-in-law, please try to make them taste better for him.”

"Oh my, Qiu-ge'er is almost as sensible as Chun-ge'er now," Auntie said with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll use all my skills to make sure he gets to eat a different kind of pancake!"

There are three main problems with sorghum cakes: they are rough and irritate the throat, taste bitter and astringent, and have a hard texture.

My aunt has put all her intelligence into cooking, and she has a way to deal with everything.

First, she soaked the sorghum rice in alternating hot and cold water to prevent it from becoming bitter or astringent. After drying the soaked sorghum rice, she stir-fried it to bring out its aroma.

My aunt really put in a lot of effort. After frying the sorghum, she ground it into powder with a small stone mill and then sifted it through a fine sieve to get the sorghum flour she needed.

When kneading the dough, my aunt added millet flour in addition to bean flour. The oil in the bean flour made the pancakes moister, while the millet flour improved the stickiness, making them less harsh on the throat.

Adding water is also crucial. Use 70% boiling water to scald the flour, and then add 30% cold water. This way, the dough will be both soft and elastic, and naturally not hard.

When steaming, sprinkle some rice wine on top as soon as the steam rises to make the cakes softer and prevent them from being dry...

That solved all the problems, it was just a bit of a hassle for Auntie...

~~
On the other side, Su Lu prepared to practice her calligraphy, refocus, and get into study mode.

No sooner had I set up my stall than my uncle appeared.

“Come on, come with me to the Thousand Household Office.” Like his son, he liked to talk while standing outside the window.

"Where are you going?" Su Lu had no choice but to put down the ink stick and get up.

"I'll register you in the household registration system." The uncle waved the yellow military registration book in his hand. "Ah, so I've always been an unregistered person?" Su Lu was dumbfounded.

“Nonsense, if you don’t go to school, you’ll be an undocumented person for life.” The eldest uncle said calmly, “Just like your second brother and your youngest uncle, they’ve both been undocumented for a long time.”

"Why?" Su Lu asked as she went downstairs with her uncle. "Do other families do this too?"

"Of course, our family has the most registered households in the whole Erlangtan area." The eldest uncle counted on his fingers: "Your grandfather, me, your father, your eldest brother, and you, that's a total of five registered members!"

As he spoke, he pointed across the street and said, "Like your eighth and ninth grandfathers' families, only one person is registered; the rest are not."

When his uncle said this, he made no attempt to lower his voice, clearly indicating that this situation was already common knowledge and that Su Lu was simply making a fuss over nothing.

On the way to Taiping Town, his uncle briefly explained the reason to Su Lu.

"It's actually very simple. Because once you're registered as a military household, you have to serve in the army. The founding emperor stipulated that the descendants of military households must serve in the army for generations. But now that the country is at peace, being a soldier won't get you a good position or make you rich, and the military service is incredibly arduous. Unless you become an officer like your uncle and receive a salary from the imperial court, you'll have to provide for everything you need from your family, and you might even go bankrupt. So who would want to be a soldier?"

"I see." Su Lu nodded. He had been here for a while and had never heard anyone around him say anything good about being a soldier.

"Back in Hongwu's time, we were the elite, everyone called us 'Soldier.' Now, we're hated by everyone. Many military households deliberately mutilate themselves to avoid conscription. Ordinary households are also afraid of marrying into military families, fearing it would implicate their daughters, so there are countless old bachelors among military households." My uncle sighed deeply as he spoke.

"The Hongwu Emperor meant well back then, wanting us to share the fate of the nation, but now we're so dragged down that we're almost sitting at the same table as the commoners."

“Now those civil officials control the military and government, and they’re becoming increasingly despicable. They’ve tried every possible way to prevent us from evading military service. For example, they don’t allow military households to adopt their children, and they don’t allow military households to split up their families. Take our Erlang Su family, for instance; we already have eighteen branches and three hundred people, and we’re still all on the same household registration certificate.”

"So our Erlang Su family isn't just a clan, but a real family." The eldest uncle himself was amused. "Didn't expect that, did you? Actually, there's only one family with the surname Su in Erlangtan."

"What a big house!" Su Lu exclaimed, then quickly added, "But this is a good thing, right? This way, most people won't have to serve in the military."

“That’s true. But how could those corrupt civil officials let us take advantage of this loophole?” My uncle spat and said, “The regulations of the Zhengtong era stipulated that for every ten people in a military household, one person had to serve as a regular soldier, one person as a spare soldier, and the rest of the people had to be supported. So the more people in a family, the more people would have to serve. Of course, we wouldn’t register our household unless absolutely necessary.”

"I see." Su Lu finally understood why there were so many unregistered residents in his clan. "Doesn't the imperial court care?"

“Of course they manage it. The imperial court conducts a census every ten years and re-compiles the military register. When there are vacancies in the army in various places, the garrisons will also conduct a ‘military cleanup’ to find hidden people and recruit them into the army.” The uncle said with a sneer:

"However, where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure. The thunderous roar of Beijing is nothing compared to the farts we live in these southwestern mountains. So, in order to force us to register our households, the court stipulated that only one person from a family with five able-bodied men could become an official, and only one person from a family with ten able-bodied men could become a student. But there were absolutely no restrictions on ordinary households. Isn't that outrageous?"

“Indeed.” Su Lu nodded. His understanding was that five people had to be registered on the Yellow Register for one person to be allowed a permanent position. Ten people had to be registered for one person to be allowed a civil servant position.

"How many people did our family report?" he asked with concern.

“Adding you and Su Dan together, that makes exactly twenty Ding.” Uncle said, “Our family has too many people. If we report too few, we won’t be able to explain it to everyone.”

"So, in other words, out of me, my elder brother, and Jiao Jing'er, only two of us can become scholars?" Su Lu asked, frowning.

"Hahaha, what were you worried about!" Uncle laughed loudly, "If even one of you three can pass the exam, you should be thanking your lucky stars, okay?! Don't worry, if all three of you pass, everyone will be scrambling to register your household so you can have enough people!"

"Hehe, indeed." Su Lu laughed sheepishly. He really was dreaming of getting married—too much of a pipe dream.

But while his uncle was criticizing him, he couldn't help but dream: "If you can pass the imperial examination and become ministers in the future, you can get your family out of the military household and become civilian households, or even noble official households."

"You have to reach the rank of Minister?" Su Lu asked in surprise. Given the reality that even passing the county-level imperial examination was incredibly difficult, he didn't dare dream of ever passing the highest level, let alone becoming a high-ranking official. "These conditions are too demanding! Is it really possible for anyone to achieve this?"

“Of course there are. For example, Li Dongyang, the Grand Secretary of the current dynasty, came from a military background, and he has already led his family out of suffering.” The eldest uncle said with a self-deprecating laugh, “Of course, he is a celestial being descended from heaven, so ordinary people like us shouldn’t even dream of it.”

“Indeed.” Su Lu nodded, but his eyes suddenly lit up.

~~
The uncle and nephew chatted and unknowingly arrived at the Qianhu Office in Taiping Town.

Hearing that they had come to register their household, the people at the Thousand Household Office were overjoyed... another group of people had walked right into their trap. The on-duty centurion, with unusual enthusiasm, personally led them to the household registration office to complete the formalities.

The clerk in charge of household registration was all smiles and provided attentive service, completely unlike the usual "difficult to enter, unpleasant to look at, and difficult to get things done" attitude.

"Your Su family is truly remarkable. You just had one son a couple of days ago, and now you've had another one." The centurion gave a thumbs-up and praised his uncle, "You're so lucky! If only everyone were like you!"

"This is the duty of our Su family," the eldest uncle said with a wry smile, handing over the yellow book. Of course, he knew that while the man was smiling, he was probably laughing at his son inside.

(End of this chapter)