He Lingchuan gave a scoff. "Still keeping me in suspense?"
"I'm not trying to keep you guessing, it's just really hard to describe. Ah," Hu Min sighed. "I didn't get much schooling, so I lack the words."
Since that was the case, He Lingchuan pressed no further. It was just as Hu Min said: if he entered the Panlong dreamscape again in the future, he would eventually see General Red. There was no need to rush.
His drinking companion chuckled. "More than half of the green recruits who join the ranks ask that very question. Some people enlist purely for General Red's renown."
"Where on earth did General Red come from, then?" He Lingchuan snatched up the last piece of pork crackling. "Don't tell me you don't know that either?"
"That riddle, I'm afraid, is known only to Commander Zhong."
The two chatted merrily and laughed without restraint; the tavern was uproarious anyway.
In this dreamscape, He Lingchuan realized he had shed his protective coloring. It was as if he had returned to his student days, shooting the breeze while sipping iced cola and scarfing down skewers, talking about anything and everything. Shedding that burden left him feeling truly light.
It had been a very, very long time since he had felt so comfortable and carefree—
ever since he became He Lingchuan.
Full of food and drink, Hu Min belched as he got up to pay the bill, then tugged He Lingchuan outside.
Limping on his bad leg, he hailed a donkey cart to take them to the Ministry of Merits.
Along the way, Hu Min explained to He Lingchuan, "The Ministry of Merits is exclusively responsible for recording and distributing merits, and is one of Panlong City's most vital institutions. It's divided into two divisions: Military Merit and Civil Affairs. Since we're here to claim military merits, we're heading to the Military Merit Division."
He Lingchuan felt rather like a country bumpkin entering the city: "Earning military merit from fighting makes sense, but how do civilians earn merits? Through battlefield logistics?"
"Not at all. Anything related to combat falls under the Military Merit Division. Even if ordinary folk uncover a spy, that counts toward military merit. As for 'civil affairs,' that refers to civilians performing corvée labor, handing over extra grain, or venturing abroad to conduct business. They can accumulate merits to exchange for things that money can't buy or that cost an arm and a leg, like houses, cultivation manuals, elixir ingredients, and servant quotas."
He Lingchuan blinked in surprise. "Even servant quotas require merits?"
"Of course. If you want someone to wait on you in Panlong City, it isn't just a matter of paying up after they agree," Hu Min chuckled. "The merit required to redeem a fourth-tier residence can only buy you a single servant quota."
"Th-that hard?" He Lingchuan thought of Liu Baobao back in Blackwater City—merely the son of a merchant, yet his household boasted three concubines and a dozen servants.
Luxuries that the wealthy of the outside world took for granted were as difficult to obtain as scaling the heavens here.
"What do you mean by 'venturing abroad to conduct business'?"
"Leaving Panlong City to deliver messages or trade elsewhere." Hu Min asked, "Before entering the city, did you see any merchant caravans?"
"I did, quite a few." He Lingchuan glanced at both sides of the street again. Shop after shop lined the thoroughfare, their flourishing commerce far surpassing that of Blackwater City.
Foreign trade was like water, nourishing the city. Without incoming merchandise, Panlong City likely could never have thrived so brightly.
He even spotted theaters, brothels, and gambling dens...
Everything was orderly yet bursting with vitality. It was hard to imagine that this was the interior of a city perpetually shrouded under the clouds of war.
Wherever war swept through, shouldn't there be ruin, desolation, and displaced refugees?
"The Panlong Wasteland is plagued by endless strife, so venturing abroad to trade is no easy feat and well worthy of commendation," Hu Min said seriously. "Baling Kingdom has blockaded our trade routes multiple times trying to choke Panlong City to death. Those battles were exceptionally brutal."
He went on to explain, "Back then, when these matters weren't handled well, our motherland didn't even know that the Panlong Wasteland had become an exclave, hanging isolated in the west. Having learned a painful lesson, Commander Zhong resolved that we would never be isolated again."
At this point, Hu Min suddenly winked and nudged. "Ever since servant quotas had to be earned with merits, Panlong City's newborn population shot up dramatically! With nothing better to do, folks started having kids at home just for kicks, which had the high brass grinning ear to ear! Who knows if it counts as an unexpected boon."
In warfare, after all, the foremost element was manpower. For a city locked in perennial conflict like Panlong City, finding ways to boost the population was paramount.
He Lingchuan was taken aback. "Huh? What does one have to do with the other?"
"Everything!" Hu Min chuckled. "Think about it. If you can't hire hands and there are too many household chores for you to finish on your own, what's the most cost-effective solution?"
He Lingchuan ventured tentatively, "Having kids?"
"Exactly! Pop out a few and raise them till seven or eight, and won't you have extra hands? And they're free—no wages needed, just feed them a bite of food. Handier and more obedient than livestock! Once they get a bit older, they can go out and work for you, and the money goes to you. Isn't that great?"
"..." He Lingchuan rolled his eyes. "If it makes so much sense, how many kids have you had?"
"I... haven't had any yet." Hu Min blushed slightly. "What's the rush?"
"A man who lives with his head tucked into his waistband isn't in a rush?" He Lingchuan eyed him sideways. "Don't tell me you don't even have a partner?"
"Haven't found the right one yet, that's all." Hu Min pointed hurriedly ahead. "Look, we're here! Hop out!"
The Ministry of Merits was the largest architectural complex on the street, standing right by the lakeside with green walls, gray tiles, flying eaves, and a three-bay facade. People bustled in and out constantly. Passing through the six-leaf black-lacquered doors led to an entrance hall, behind which two paths branched left and right toward the Military Merit Division and the Civil Affairs Division.
Hu Min naturally led him toward the Military Merit Division.
The further inside they went, the more specialized the buildings became. Only then did He Lingchuan learn that the Military Merit Division was subdivided into various bureaus. For instance, the Army Supervision Bureau was responsible for overseeing troops behind the front lines, executing deserters, and logging military merits both during and after battles to serve as the basis for rewards and penalties upon return.
And the Pengcheng Office, where He Lingchuan was headed, was the place where military rewards were distributed.
This was a room of about twenty square meters, with three people seated behind three desks. Cabinets against the walls reached all the way to the ceiling, completely filled with various documents and ledgers.
Hu Min walked over to the desk nearest the window and smiled. "Merit Officer Liu, I brought a brother to claim his merit."
Merit Officer Liu set down his brush. "Name?"
Hu Min rattled it off in one breath: "He Lingchuan. On the third of last month, fought in the rearguard at Xiqing Valley, helping the civilians of Weicheng evacuate to Panlong City, under the command of Captain Xiao Maoliang."
Only today did He Lingchuan learn that Commander Xiao's official rank was Captain.
Merit Officer Liu was well-practiced. He rummaged through the cabinet behind him and soon pulled out a register, flipping it open to check. "Mhm, He Lingchuan... Not a local?"
"From Tusu, fled along with the refugees." He Lingchuan didn't bat an eye or blush.
"The evaluation notes: fierce in combat, quick-witted. Your unit fought with few against many, completed a heavy mission with minimal civilian casualties, and the record was personally endorsed by General Red, so your merit is assessed generously. Mhm, based on the collective merit calculation, you are awarded one wood-grade house, thirty taels of silver, a suit of linked-chain light armor, five jin of cheese, five liang of chewing tobacco, and two mu of medium-grade paddy fields in Qingniu District."
Merit Officer Liu recited the items as smoothly as if he knew them by heart. "If you do not need the house or armor, you can exchange them for other supplies."
He Lingchuan beamed broadly. "I'll take them all, no exchanges needed. Thank you!"
Hu Min accompanied him out of the Ministry of Merits, and they climbed back onto the donkey cart, heading toward He Lingchuan's newly acquired house.
The rewards He Lingchuan received were all easy to carry: the house and fields were merely two title deeds, and he put on the newly acquired light armor right away. The thirty taels of silver were a true godsend; otherwise, penniless in Panlong City, he would have been unable to take a single step forward, and he didn't have the thick skin to keep sponging meals off Hu Min forever.
The so-called "wood-grade house" did not merely mean it was built of wood. Rather, residences in Panlong City were graded into nine tiers, from highest to lowest: Silver, Bronze, Iron, Tin, Lead, Water, Fire, Wood, and Earth.
Who on earth came up with such an annoying naming scheme? He couldn't help snarking internally.
Still, bypassing the lowest "earth-grade house" to get a "wood-grade house" on just one military merit was already quite good—
especially for an outsider.
Then again, he had risked his life last time only to achieve this much, which showed that earning military merits in Panlong City was no easy feat. It also reflected from another angle that combat on the Panlong Wasteland was tense and frequent; one or two military merits would not guarantee a lifetime free of worry over food and clothing.
If soldiers wanted a better life for themselves and their families, they had to fight valiantly.
Qingniu District was relatively remote, and the donkey cart ambled slowly. Hu Min yawned continuously, dozing off twice. He Lingchuan, however, did not dare close his eyes, fearing that drifting off in a stupor might drop him out of the dreamscape—and who knew how long he would have to wait before entering again.
Over two hours later, they finally arrived.
The moment he stepped off the cart and stood before the entrance of the wood-grade house, He Lingchuan momentarily felt as though he had returned to his home in the other world.
A cramped and crowded commoners' quarter, uneven road surfaces, uniformly low-slung houses: one family's wall abutted another's courtyard, and two houses across from each other even shared a single partition wall. At night, a married couple getting intimate or the neighbors thrashing their kids was a live broadcast, every detail audible with crystal clarity.
The house assigned to He Lingchuan had a reasonably sturdy wooden door, but the lock had issues—sometimes it would open, sometimes it wouldn't.
The two walked inside to find the layout exceedingly simple: just two rooms, a larger one for sleeping and a smaller one for cooking, plus a tiny courtyard attached.
Rather than a courtyard, it was more like a lightwell—a quadrilateral whose corners had each been encroached upon by the neighbors on either side, measuring at most five square meters. It couldn't even fit an extra water bucket, surrounded front, back, left, and right by other people's homes.
"This is a wood-grade house?" Strangely enough, He Lingchuan felt a twinge of nostalgia. Before becoming He Lingchuan, he had lived in a tiny rented apartment in a metropolis, not much bigger than this. "What does an earth-grade house look like, then?"
Hu Min pointed at the water vat in the courtyard. "An earth-grade house has only one room, and definitely no courtyard."
Alright, He Lingchuan corrected himself: an earth-grade house was actually closer to where he had lived in his past life.
Hu Min advised him further, "The cheese and chewing tobacco are hot commodities at the market. If you have no use for them, you can trade them for coin. As for the paddy fields, if you don't want to farm them yourself, you can lease them out on a four-to-six sharecropping split—you get forty percent, but Panlong City levies a ten percent tax, which comes out of your share. If your landholdings ever reach thirty mu or more, the tax rate jumps to twenty percent. If you want to drop it back to ten percent, you can offset it with more military merit."
Offset... with more military merit? He Lingchuan gave a bitter smile. "Who came up with so many convoluted tricks?"
"Commander Zhong." Hu Min cleared his throat softly. "Merit is a fine thing. The more you use it, the more you realize how scarce it is. You'll find that out soon enough."
Chapter 156