Dueling Chao Li (3) [Please Vote Monthly Tickets]

Sibao Prefecture, government office.

The area in front of the government office was packed with people.

A minor official sat at the entrance, registering names with a brush.

The line stretched far back. There were men and women, old and young, all dressed in coarse hemp-cloth garments. Clothes made from this fabric offered little warmth. Even when commoners stuffed them with reeds, willow fluff, and other fillings and layered several garments on top of one another, they still shivered with cold.

Those who hadn't reached the front of the line could only hug themselves and stamp their feet to keep warm.

At the very front, the minor official asked, "What's your name?"

"My name's Wang Tieniu."

The minor official wrote his name and number on a blank bamboo slip, then handed it to Wang Tieniu and pointed behind him. "Hold on to this. Follow the path marked out by the rope. Don't look around, and don't wander off. Got it?"

Wang Tieniu thanked him profusely and took it.

The minor official called out to the people behind him, "Next."

What was the Sibao Prefecture government office up to?

To understand that, they had to go back a few days.

On that day, the government office had suddenly put up a notice. It said that any commoner registered in Sibao Prefecture, between the ages of six and thirty-six and with a decent appearance, could come to the government office to participate in a selection event. Those chosen would receive a bolt of silk; those who weren't would still get a consolation prize of half a jin of pork and one jin of cotton. The commoners didn't know what cotton was, but they knew pork!

They reckoned this cotton could probably be used for stir-frying, too.

How many families only got to