Chapter 488 – Spring Farming (6)
“Choose at random?”
The three big characters echoed in everyone’s minds non-stop. Wei Ci barely held back a laugh with his superhuman willpower.
As expected, His Majesty is as domineering and willful as ever. As for everyone else…
Hmm, they were indeed shocked at first, but quickly accepted this setup.
Normally, captives were just treated as laborers sent over to toil away, dying from exhaustion with no one to care.
Now, giving them a chance to build families might just make those captives fight tooth and nail for it.
However, to avoid instilling a sense of superiority in the captives, or even treating the female soldiers harshly, they felt this matter needed careful deliberation.
Jiang Pengji was momentarily taken aback and asked, “Why do you say that?”
Feng Jin replied, “Captives are captives, bound as slaves, of the lowest class. The Lord’s actions might be misinterpreted.”
If others spread the word that Jiang Pengji has captured slaves and gave them female soldiers as wives, how would that sound?
Jiang Pengji froze for a moment, seemingly grasping the logic.
But what if the female soldiers retired in their twenties? Their male peers would either be married, or have been married multiple times, and who knows how many children they might have.
Sending her well-trained female soldiers to become stepmothers, wouldn’t that be even more unfair to them?
She was curious to hear what ideas Feng Jin and the others had.
Feng Jin’s point was understood by Qi Guanrang, who smiled calmly as he explained to Jiang Pengji.
“If we reward the female soldiers with captives to form families, thus solving marriage issues, a household’s head should be the female soldier to prevent any children from taking their father’s slave status. If this isn’t done, the Lord’s intentions would fall flat.”
Feng Jin continued, “To document this, that’s what Jin meant.”
Jiang Pengji was utterly bewildered. Her subordinates suggested that the head of the household be the female soldiers!
What does this mean? It means any children born in the future must take the female soldiers’ surname!
She had never considered her subordinates would have such open-minded thoughts. She hadn’t had the confidence to propose it herself.
The anonymous viewers in the live stream were even more shocked, dropping their snacks as they furiously typed out their astonishment.
“Is today a multiple update day?”: Wow, streamer, go check if Qi Guanrang has been transported from another world. Such advanced thinking? Even here, if a child wants to take the mother’s surname, it’s either after discussing it with the husband or if the husband is a son-in-law.
“Stowaway Non-Money”: I feel like I’m watching a fake live stream; how could ancient men’s thoughts be so open-minded?
“Gentle Beauty Beneath Me”: I must have misheard, there’s no way Uncle Qi Guanrang said something like that!
“Old Driver Alliance”: #Disdain, what’s there to be surprised about? I think their way of thinking is quite normal; they haven’t escaped the constraints of their era. Firstly, they do not see captives as humans; captives are items to reward female soldiers. Do you understand the meaning of reward? They’re merely objects. In this situation, if a child born from a female soldier takes his father’s surname, that’s a slap in the face. Ultimately, is it about using female soldiers to reward captives or using captives to reward female soldiers? The two meanings are entirely different. So, the suggestion to have the female soldier as the household head is quite reasonable.
“Genius Guo Fengxiao”: Although I understand the point above, I was still shocked by it.
“Star Lord Seek Forgiveness”: Er, thanks for the clarification. But I have a question: what if the captive has an affair while married?
“Defeated by You All”: Tsk, an affair? Isn’t there punishment for that in ancient times? The streamer even stressed that severe penalties would be imposed. You should worry if the captive husband strays, whether the female soldier would retaliate, rather than worrying about the female being distraught over infidelity.
Based on their long-term observation of the live stream, killing a perpetrator of infidelity cannot be considered murder.
On the contrary, once discovered, both the male and female guilty of infidelity would face severe punishment, especially since the streamer emphasized harsher penalties. They believe that the female soldiers trained by the streamer would absolutely not be soft-hearted.
“Ahem—this is actually a good idea. You guys deliberate further and come up with a plan, then inform the female battalion in a couple of days.”
What Jiang Pengji was best at was starting something and then leaving it for her subordinates to handle.
Feng Jin and the others secretly sighed, just as expected.
Three days later, the female battalion received a draft of the announcement, which included one or two previously wealthy young noblewomen, who, after their families fell apart, couldn’t keep their inheritance and were sent to the “prostitute camp” by relatives.
Of course, now learning it wasn’t a prostitute camp but a legitimate military unit, she sighed in relief.
Plus, since she could read, she quickly got promoted and spent her free time teaching the female soldiers literacy.
She read the announcement line by line, while everyone’s emotions were like a rollercoaster, rising and falling.
Upon hearing that entering the female battalion required being at least twenty-four years old to marry, and no breeding or marrying was allowed before that, everyone’s faces turned pale.
At twenty-four, their peers might already be preparing to be grandmothers, while they would still be unmarried old maids.
Many worried about their futures, their spirits heavy.
However, it didn’t take long for the situation to take a turn.
“T-This is real… we can really choose our husbands?”
“Corporal, take another look; is there a mistake on this? How could it be so… absurd…”
Though saying it was absurd, her round, black grape-like eyes sparkled with excitement, eager to try.
The literate corporal nodded and said, “Nothing was misread; everything written is true.”
They didn’t need to worry about being unmarried at twenty-four or marrying an old man to raise children as a stepmother. They could select a husband from the captives and take him home, and their children would bear their surname…
Oh my, if that’s the case, what’s there to worry about in the future!
They serve in the military, earning pay every month. Saving up until they’re twenty-four would be quite a sum; they could buy a few acres of land and comfortably be the main wives, living the good life.
If they accomplished great feats while serving, they might even get promoted and live well without having to farm.
These considerations were secondary; what truly moved them was the idea of the household head being the female soldier and the children bearing their surname.
One female soldier quietly reflected, her cheeks heating up, “If that’s the case… that’s really too good…”
The content of the announcement was indeed somewhat shocking, but upon closer inspection, it was all for their future benefit.
Thus, looking at it this way, marrying and having children early didn’t seem that great after all. Being a female soldier meant their good days were still ahead.
Thankfully, Xiangyang County is located in the far north, and these young girls were unaware of the existence of works like the Four Books for Women. As for this unconventional announcement, aside from a slight fear, they were mostly filled with eagerness.
They couldn’t wait to go fight and earn military merit; their future lives would surely be splendid.
For the sake of their bright futures, they needed to train even harder now to ensure they would survive to twenty-four and retire!
