Chapter 1015.1: There is Good and Bad in This World - Part 1
As the news continuously returned from the north, coupled with the imperial court's recent conscription efforts and all sorts of other actions within the heartland of the nation, the common people of Great Liang, no matter how indifferent they were to outside affairs, should by now all have become aware of one extremely grave matter.
That was that another great war between the demon race and Great Liang had already entered its countdown.
Moreover, the rumors spreading among the common folk were even more accurate, saying that this time the demon race was unprecedentedly serious, intending to gather the strength of the entire race and break through the south in one stroke. For this reason, the court had been making intensive preparations, with conscription and grain requisitioning proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Conscription was still manageable. Across the nine prefectures of Great Liang, there were millions upon millions of able-bodied men. In addition, ever since the early years of the Tianjian era, the imperial court had repeatedly increased the compensation for those killed in battle. The common people were therefore not particularly resistant to becoming soldiers. Furthermore, over the past decade or so, life had steadily improved, something the people could clearly see and genuinely feel. Thus, as soon as the conscription notices were posted, many able-bodied men directly enlisted.
However, if these newly recruited soldiers were simply dragged onto the battlefield immediately, it would be no different from sending them to their deaths. Therefore, during these days, the imperial court had established dedicated training grounds throughout every prefecture and province to drill these new soldiers.
As for grain requisitioning, things were not nearly as smooth. Although most of Great Liang's tax revenue over the years had been spent on the Northern Frontier, the imperial court had not excessively squeezed the other common people within the nation, and taxes had always remained fairly low. This time, even with the additional levy, the court had no intention of wringing anything out of the ordinary people, merely increasing taxes by half a portion more. The real targets were actually the wealthy merchants and local gentry.
Their family fortunes were immense, so collecting more from them at this moment would not truly damage their foundations. But these wealthy merchants had always valued their wealth even more than their own sons, so this matter was not easy to handle.
Still, since orders from above had been issued with absolute firmness, officials at every level had no choice but to carry them out, even if it caused chaos everywhere.
Fortunately, there were also some wealthy merchants who were reasonable, and some even donated the majority of their fortunes outright, preventing the Ministry of Revenue from reaching the point of having no rice left to cook.