Over in Xianyang, the moment the conscription order went out, it indeed caused quite a stir among the populace.
However, Zhou Xu had already found himself a pretext, and with the propaganda department's cooperation, the situation was brought under control before long, without causing too much unrest.
The commoners' discussions gradually shifted, without anyone noticing, from "Why are they conscripting soldiers? Could it be that another war is about to break out?" to "How are the benefits for soldiers?"
Then they were astonished to discover that serving in the army in Great Zhou actually came with such good benefits!
The vast majority of commoners earned less from a month of work than soldiers did—and that was before even counting the fact that soldiers were fed two better meals a day.
That left quite a few commoners dumbfounded on the spot.
In fact, similar topics had already been discussed once before, when Zhou Xu had recruited soldiers to furnish the various border cities with garrisons.
It was just that the war had only recently ended. On top of that, during Yan Sheng's rule, the benefits for low-ranking soldiers had been abysmal. The commoners had a terrible impression of the government offices, the imperial court, and the soldiers alike.
That situation meant that even after Zhou Xu took the throne, many commoners at the bottom would immediately run off at the mere mention of conscription. They had no desire to get involved and did not care about it either.
It was only with this round of conscription that they gained an entirely new understanding of Great Zhou's recruitment system.
They soon discovered that becoming a soldier was not something they could do simply because they wanted to.
Along with good benefits came high demands for the soldiers.
Back when Yan Sheng had