The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

What Sun Licheng meant by this was that the number of conscripts recorded in the household registrations had been registered and occasionally, a disability or illness could exempt one from a term of military service, but it could not exceed the specified range.

Jiang Sanlang: “Understood, I’ll inform everyone and whatever they do will be up to them.”

If all else fails, pay to have someone serve as a substitute draftee.

After seeing off Lizheng, Jiang Sanlang gathered all the villagers and read out the list of conscripts.

After hearing the list, everyone remained silent.

Everyone was living well, without worries about food and drink, and suddenly there was conscription; was it even possible to live?

Jiang Sanlang said: “I don’t care what methods you use, our village has to provide ten draftees anyway.” Be it buying a substitute or finding someone to falsify a disability or illness, it was up to them to call the shots.

“So, does that mean my eldest uncle doesn’t need to serve because he has trouble with his legs?” Chen Jiaxing, the eldest son of the Clan Leader Chen asked.

Jiang Sanlang flipped through the roster and said, “Your eldest son may be disabled, but the person on the conscription list is your second son, who cannot be excused due to disability or illness.”

Though he couldn’t officially declare himself unfit, if his family had connections, perhaps they could find someone to falsify his disability or illness.

“Why can’t he be excused? You are the village head, as long as you say a word, wouldn’t that be okay?” Chen Jiaxing discontentedly asked.

Jiang Sanlang glanced at him, “I am just a village head. I’m only responsible for delivering the message, not making such decisions. Why don’t you go ask Lizheng?”

The final say on conscription matters is given by the officials at the County Government. It is not up to a village head.

Several households had already started to cry.

Everyone knew, once drafted, it was like marching to certain death.

A few years ago, only a few soldiers returned from the conscription, while others have yet to be heard from and have not sent any letters home.

Now there’s another conscription; how could this not concern people?

Jiang Sanlang didn’t care about this. After reading the list, he asked everyone to go home and prepare. They would have to report to the station at latest the day after tomorrow.

Of course, he would accompany everyone.

Three days later, Jiang Sanlang took the conscripts of his village to report at the station.

The official in charge of conscription at the County Government checked every name on the list one by one, marking a tick at the end to show his approval.

Only then did Jiang Sanlang breathe a sigh of relief.

Back home, several villagers surrounded him and asked, “Is it settled?”

“Yes.” He gave that official two hundred silver notes, and thus everything was settled.

Indeed, of the ten people from their village, five had hired substitutes, including Jiang Quan, who had just turned seventeen.

This required bribing the official checking the household registrations, prompting the villagers to question this.

A few villagers gave a sigh of relief as if a big stone was unloaded from their hearts and thanked Jiang Sanlang once again.

Jiang Sanlang could only shrug helplessly, waving his hand and saying, “You can’t go blabbing about this. If anything goes wrong, no one can afford the consequences.”

“We understand, Sanlang. Don’t worry, we won’t let outsiders know anything about this.” The villagers thumped their chests in assurance.

Yingbao overheard a bit of the conversation from behind the window and sighed.

They were all spending money to hire replacements for their children to be drafted. The substitutes were from poor families of another village.

In some of these families, the eldest child was under ten years old. The men, in order to earn fifty taels of silver, became substitutes and went out to fight the war.

This was the case with the family that Jiang Da Bo hired.

However, Jiang Da Bo settled the family on his abandoned land and also built them a three-room straw hut to live in.

“Yingbao! Yingbao!” Chen Zhao came looking for Yingbao again, still holding a bamboo basket in his hand: “Shall we go collect firewood?”

Her father had gone to the city to study, her elder sister had gone to take care of the vegetable field, at home were only her grandparents, and that annoying Chu Man. Chen Zhao didn’t want to see her, so he’d often bring his younger brother Xubao to play with Yingbao.

Yingbao was about to refuse but thought better of it and nodded: “Okay, I’ll go call Sister Erni.”

Chen Zhao certainly didn’t object, happily waiting in the yard.

After a while, Erni came over carrying a bamboo basket, saying, “Let’s go to the pine forest to pick up pine cones, it’s a bit far away, will it be inconvenient if you bring Xubao?”

The pine forest was far from here, and two-year-old Xubao definitely couldn’t walk there.

“Then I’ll take Xubao back for grandma to take care of.” Chen Zhao was impatient to take care of a burden, but unfortunately, her brother always liked to follow her around.

In this way, Chen Zhao sent her brother back home again and handed him over to Grandma Chen of the Feng family.

The three of them, carrying bamboo baskets and small hoes, headed to the pine forest. Xiaowu, whose injuries were greatly improved, also followed Yingbao.

The local pine forest was full of dwarf pines, with many pine cones growing on top.

But Yingbao didn’t come here to pick pine cones; she wanted to look for Poria.

Sister Wen had said, “Poria often grows at the roots of pines, like a rice ball covered in ash. It’s easy to recognize.”

There happens to be a large area of pine forest on the South Slope, so she decided to check it out.

The accumulated snow in the wild had already melted, but the weather was still very cold.

Once they entered the pine forest, the three of them went their separate ways; Erni and Chen Zhao collected pine cones while looking for any pine nuts that hadn’t been eaten by squirrels.

Yingbao, with Xiaowu, went in search of Poria.

Under the pines, pine needles lay thick on the ground, along with many pine cones.

After a long search, she suddenly saw a dark brown lump the size of a goose egg under a pine tree.

Yingbao quickly ran over, took out a small knife, shaved off a bit of it, and revealed a snow-white interior.

It really was Poria!

Yingbao was overjoyed and hurriedly used the medicine hoe to dig it out.

The root was broken off inside; she dug a bit of soil to bury it.

Xiaowu came closer to sniff. Seeing his mistress happily putting it away, he tilted his head and suddenly ran off.

Finding one Poria confirmed that there would be more around. Yingbao started to search carefully again.

Suddenly, Xiaowu started barking in the distance.

Yingbao ran over and saw Xiaowu barking at her a few times before scratching the ground with his front paws.

“Wow! It’s so big!” Yingbao shouted, touching something as big as a washbasin.

She took out the hoe and dug around. Inside was snow white — Poria — But in some places, something had gnawed at it.

But that was okay, this Poria was large enough that even if she cut off a bit, there would still be plenty left to use.

“Xiaowu, you’re so smart,” Yingbao praised, scratching Xiaowu’s head and giving him a medicine pellet.

After she collected the Poria, Erni called her from a distance, “Yingbao! Let’s go back!”

During the time Yingbao was looking for Poria, Erni and Chen Zhao had already filled a basket with pine cones, many of which contained plump pine nuts.

“Coming! Coming!” Yingbao put the Poria in the basket, took Xiaowu, and went to join Erni.

They returned home joyfully, carrying a full load.

As they were nearing the village, they heard someone shouting, “It’s terrible! A child has fallen into the water!”

The three of them were startled and ran over together.

They saw two people next to the pond, stomping their feet and shouting.

At one glance, Yingbao saw two children struggling in the water, one of whom appeared to be her brother Xiaowu.

Even if you know how to swim, it would be impossible to get back to the shore in this cold weather.

Erni and Chen Zhao started screaming, “Xiaowu!” “Xubao!”

Yingbao quickly took off her cotton-padded jacket and trousers, jumped into the water, and swam hurriedly towards Xiaowu.

Just then, a few more people came to the edge of the pond; two of them who could swim also took off their jackets and jumped in.

However, the pond was far too cold; the two of them didn’t get very far before they had to return.

Yingbao was also so cold her hands and feet were numb, but she managed to swim to Xiaowu’s side and grab him.