Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 148 The Su Family's Good Days

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Some people wanted to touch his military uniform, but dared not. They could only circle around him, examining it closely: "So this is the uniform of our unit. It's really impressive..."

Su Tui Da proudly bid farewell to the villagers and walked towards his home.

The villagers watched his retreating figure and whispered among themselves: "It's a good thing that such a capable fighting force was trained by our boss. Now that they're even receiving rations from the imperial court, I hope the government won't take our land back now."

"Luckily, our third son joined the army back then, otherwise we'd be regretting it to death now..."

...Su Tuigu could already see the Su family's house in the distance. By now, his own fifteen acres of land should have been harvested, and if he hadn't arrived too late, he could have helped. Thinking of this, he quickened his pace.

When he arrived home, he found his parents, younger brother, and younger sister all there. Upon seeing him return, they all swarmed around him, bombarding him with questions.

"Boss, weren't you serving in the army for the boss? Why are you back?"

"Boss, is it tough being a soldier? If it's really too much, come home. Things are better back home now..."

"Brother, do soldiers get paid? Will they get beaten up?"

"Brother, what kind of clothes are you wearing? They look so impressive!"

……

Su Tuigu patiently explained, "Being a soldier isn't tough. The officers never beat people, and you even get paid. Look!" He untied his bundle, revealing gleaming silver ingots.

The whole family was stunned by the silver ingots. Old Man Su's first reaction was to rush over and cover the package, asking anxiously, "Eldest brother, did you get into trouble outside? How come you have so much silver?"

Su Da Tui was both amused and exasperated: "Father, it really is my salary from when I was a soldier. When I first joined, I only received one tael of silver a month, but now that I'm an officer, I receive eight taels a month. And this is only for eight months. I rounded it up, and the rest is kept in the army."

"Really? Is the employer that good?" Old Man Su looked at Su Tui's brand-new clothes and was mostly convinced. "You're an official now? What kind of official are you?"

Su straightened his back and said, "Platoon leader! That's equivalent to a sentry officer in the imperial army. Our boss has been recruited by the imperial court and is now the military commander of Qiongzhou, the highest-ranking military officer in the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture."

"Is the boss that powerful? How high is his official rank? Is he higher than the county magistrate?"

"A military officer is a third-rank official, even higher than a prefect!" Su Tui had heard people talk about the rank of a military officer before, and only knew that it was higher than that of a county magistrate and a prefect, but he didn't know that the status and rank of civil and military officials were not closely related.

But Old Man Su was unaware of all this. He was shocked, never expecting that his eldest brother had latched onto such a powerful patron. He lightly slapped himself: "Bah! I even stopped you from joining the army back then, I never thought you'd turn out so successful."

Since the silver was legitimate income, Old Man Su was no longer calm. He opened the package with trembling hands: "I'm practically half-buried in the ground, and this is the first time I've ever seen so much silver!" He took out a silver ingot, put it in his mouth and bit it. "Tsk tsk, it's of excellent quality, top-grade snowflake silver."