Chapter 162: Promotion, Salary Increase, and Housing All in One Step

"It's not that I'm keeping you in suspense, it's really hard to describe, sigh." Hu Min sighed with emotion, "I haven't read many books, so I'm at a loss for words."

Since that was the case, He Lingchuan didn't pursue it. It was indeed as Hu Min said; if he continued to enter the Panlong Dream in the future, he would eventually see General Hong, so there was no need to rush.

His drinking companion laughed again: "This question of yours, more than half of the new recruits who join the ranks will ask. Some people even joined the army just for General Hong's prestige."

"Where exactly did General Hong come from?" He Lingchuan took the last piece of pork crackling, "Are you going to say you don't know again?"

"This mystery, I'm afraid only Lord Zhong knows."

The two chatted happily and laughed wantonly; anyway, the whole restaurant was just as noisy.

In this dream, He Lingchuan discovered that he had shed his protective color, as if he had returned to his student days of bragging, drinking iced cola, and eating skewers, talking about everything, truly shedding his burdens and feeling light.

It had been a long, long time since he had been so comfortable and at ease—

Ever since he became He Lingchuan.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Hu Min burped and climbed up to pay the bill, then dragged He Lingchuan out.

His legs were inconvenient, so he found a donkey cart to carry the two to the Merit Department.

Hu Min explained to He Lingchuan on the way: "The Merit Department specializes in the recording and distribution of merits and is one of the most important institutions in Panlongcheng, divided into two divisions: Military Merit and Civil Possession. We are going to collect military merit now, so we'll go to the Military Merit Division."

He Lingchuan had a feeling of a country bumpkin entering the city: "It's easy to understand that fighting has military merit, but how do civilians get merit? Is it for logistics on the battlefield?"

"That's not it. Anything related to combat is counted in the Military Merit Division; even if commoners discover spies, they can count and collect military merit; the so-called 'Civil Possession' means that commoners performing corvée labor, paying more grain, or expanding business can also accumulate merit, which is used to exchange for things that money can't buy or are prohibitively expensive, such as houses, cultivation techniques, elixirs, materials, and servant quotas."

He Lingchuan was stunned: "Servant quotas also have to be calculated with merit?"

"Of course, if you want someone to serve you in Panlongcheng, it's not just a matter of them agreeing and you paying money." Hu Min laughed, "The merit that can exchange for a fourth-grade civilian house can also buy a servant quota."

"Is, is it that difficult?" He Lingchuan thought of Liu Baobao in Heishuicheng; as the son of a mere merchant, his family had three concubines and twelve servants.

The enjoyment that the wealthy could easily obtain outside was as difficult as ascending to heaven here.

"What does 'expanding business' mean?"

"Leaving Panlongcheng to send letters or do business in other places." Hu Min asked him, "Before you entered the city, did you see the caravans?"

"I saw them, quite a few." He Lingchuan looked at both sides of the road again; shops were next to each other, and the trade was far better than in Heishuicheng.

Foreign trade was like water, nourishing the city. If there were no foreign goods, Panlongcheng probably wouldn't be able to operate so prosperously.

He even saw theaters, red-light districts, and gambling dens...

Everything was orderly and full of vitality. It was hard to imagine that this was inside a city shrouded in the clouds of war all year round.

Wherever war passed, shouldn't it be withered and the people displaced?

"The Panlong Wasteland is in constant turmoil, so expanding business is not easy and is worth rewarding." Hu Min said seriously, "The Bali Kingdom has blocked our trade routes several times, wanting to trap Panlongcheng to death, and those battles were all fought very tragically."

He then explained: "In the past, these things weren't done well, and the motherland didn't even know that the Panlong Wasteland had become an exclave and was isolated in the west. Lord Zhong learned from the pain and was determined to make us no longer isolated."

Speaking of this, Hu Min suddenly winked: "Ever since servant quotas had to be exchanged with merit, newborns in Panlongcheng suddenly increased; everyone had nothing to do but stay home and play at having children, which made the high-level officials grin from ear to ear! I don't know if it counts as an unexpected joy."

Fighting a war, the first element must be people. For a city like Panlongcheng that had been fighting for years, trying every means to promote population growth was the most critical priority.

He Lingchuan was startled: "Ah, this? Is there any connection?"

"Of course there is." Hu Min chuckled, "Think about it, since you can't hire people, and there's a lot of work at home, and you really can't finish it yourself, what's the most practical way?"

He Lingchuan said uncertainly: "Have children?"

"Right, have a few more and raise them to seven or eight years old, and won't you have manpower? It's free, no need to pay wages at all, just give them a mouthful of food; when they get a little older, they can go out and work for you, and the money belongs to you, isn't that good?"

"..." He Lingchuan rolled his eyes, "Since it makes so much sense, how many have you had?"

"I... not yet." Hu Min's face flushed slightly, "What's the rush?"

"People who have their heads tied to their waistbands, not in a rush?" He Lingchuan looked at him sideways, "Could it be you don't even have a partner?"

"Haven't picked one yet, haven't picked one." Hu Min hurriedly pointed ahead, "Look, we're here, get off quickly!"

The Merit Department was the largest building complex on this street, standing by the lake, with green walls, gray tiles, and flying eaves, a three-bay facade, and many people coming and going. Walking into those six black-lacquered gates, there was a corridor hall inside, and two roads behind, leading to the Military Merit Division and the Civil Possession Division respectively.

Hu Min naturally took him to the Military Merit Division.

The further in they went, the more detailed the buildings were divided, and He Lingchuan learned that under the Military Merit Division there were various bureaus, such as the Military Supervision Bureau, which was responsible for supervising the army behind the battlefield and beheading deserters, and recording military merit during and after the war, so that it could be used as a basis for rewards and punishments upon return.

And the Pengcheng Bureau, where He Lingchuan was going, was the place to distribute military merit rewards.

This was a twenty-square-meter room, with three people sitting behind three tables, and the cabinets by the wall reaching the ceiling, all filled with various documents and books.

Hu Min walked to the table closest to the window and smiled: "Lord Liu, I brought my brother to collect merit."

Lord Liu put down his pen: "Name?"

Hu Min reported a string: "He Lingchuan. On the third of last month, he defended the rear in the Jueqing River Valley, assisting the civilians of Weicheng to retreat to Panlongcheng, under the command of Captain Xiao Maoliang."

Today He Lingchuan finally learned that Commander Xiao's rank was Captain.

Lord Liu was skilled in business, flipped through the cabinets in the back, and quickly took out a booklet, opened it, and looked: "Hmm, He Lingchuan, not a local?"

"From Tusu, I fled here with them." He Lingchuan didn't blush or skip a beat.

"The evaluation is brave in combat, clever in mind. Your team had few people fighting, killed many enemies, the task was heavy, few civilians were lost, and there was General Hong's personal signature, so the merit is counted as large. Hmm, calculated as group merit, you can get a set of wooden houses, thirty taels of silver, a set of chain light armor, five jin of cheese, five liang of chewing tobacco, and two mu of medium-grade paddy fields in the Green Ox District."

Lord Liu could recite these items by heart: "If you don't need houses or armor, you can also exchange for other materials."

He Lingchuan beamed: "I want it all, no need to exchange, many thanks!"

Hu Min accompanied him out of the Merit Department, got back on the original donkey cart, and headed toward the house He Lingchuan had just obtained.

The rewards He Lingchuan got were all light, the house and fields were just two title deeds, and the light armor he had just obtained was worn directly on his body. Those thirty taels of silver were truly a timely rain; otherwise, he would have been penniless in Panlongcheng, unable to move an inch, and wouldn't have had the thick skin to always eat and drink for free at Hu Min's place.

The so-called "wooden house" didn't just refer to the building material being wood, but that the civilian houses in Panlongcheng were divided into nine grades, from high to low: "Silver-Copper-Iron-Tin-Lead-Water-Fire-Wood-Earth."

Who came up with these painful grade names? He just wanted to complain.

However, He Lingchuan had crossed the lowest-grade "earth house" with just one military merit and obtained a "wooden house," which was already considered not bad.

For an outsider.

However, he had risked his life last time, and only achieved this little, which showed that it was not easy to obtain military merit in Panlongcheng, and also reflected from the side that the fighting on the Panlong Wasteland was tense and frequent, and one or two military merits could not make people worry-free about food and clothing.

To give themselves and their families a better life, soldiers had to fight bravely.

The Green Ox District was relatively remote, and the donkey cart moved slowly, so Hu Min yawned repeatedly and took two naps. He Lingchuan, however, didn't dare to close his eyes, fearing that he would exit the dream in a daze, and he didn't know how long he would have to wait to enter again.

Over an hour later, they finally arrived.

The moment he got off the donkey cart and stood at the door of the wooden house, He Lingchuan was dazed and thought he had returned to his home in the other world.

The crowded civilian area, the uneven road surface, the low houses of the same style, your wall was next to my courtyard, and the two households opposite even shared a partition wall. At night, the couple clapping hands, the neighbor beating the child, it was all live broadcast, and every detail could be heard clearly.

The house assigned to He Lingchuan had a sturdy wooden door, but the lock had some problems, sometimes it could be opened, sometimes it couldn't.

The two walked in and found that the structure inside was very simple, just two rooms, the large one for sleeping, the small one for cooking, plus a small courtyard—

Rather than calling it a courtyard, it was better to call it a patio, because it was a quadrilateral with two corners occupied by neighbors on both sides, and the area was at most five square meters, not even enough for an extra water bucket, and there were other people's houses in front, behind, left, and right.

"This is a wooden house?" Don't say, He Lingchuan actually missed it quite a bit. Before he became He Lingchuan, he also lived in a small rental room in a big city, and the area wasn't much bigger than this. "Then what must an earth house look like?"

Hu Min pointed to the water vat in the courtyard: "An earth house has only one room, and even less of this courtyard."

Alright, He Lingchuan corrected, the earth house was more like the house he lived in in his previous life.

Hu Min pointed out to him: "Cheese and chewing tobacco are tight goods in the market; if you can't use them, you can exchange them for money. As for the paddy fields, if you don't want to farm them yourself, you can rent them to others, with a four-six split of the proceeds; you get four percent, but Panlongcheng still has to levy one percent tax, which you pay; if the land you hold reaches more than thirty mu, the tax will rise to two percent. If you want to lower it back to one percent, you can use military merit to offset it."

Use military merit... to offset? He Lingchuan smiled bitterly: "Who came up with so many tricks?"

"Commander Zhong." Hu Min coughed lightly, "Merit is a good thing; the more you use it, the more you know it's in short supply, and you'll know soon."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 163 =====