Early in the morning, Manager Hua, Manager Jiang, Governor Zhang, and Yang Zhaomo appeared on one of the three streets and six alleys. One spread to ten, ten spread to a hundred. Soon, all the merchants on the street knew about it. Everyone gathered around them as if they had found their backbone. They told him about the inconveniences caused by the silt removal.
They came at the right time. In the busiest street, some of the shops were run by the rich and powerful families of the city. If this dragged on for too long, the owners of these shops would come out and put pressure on Ye Zhaomo.
Now that they had appeared, most of the shops with powerful backgrounds could not react in time. It should be known that as long as the problem could be solved by themselves, the shopkeepers would not easily ask for help from their backers. Otherwise, even if the problem was solved, they would leave an impression of incompetence in the owner's mind. In the future, if the owner was even slightly dissatisfied, they would probably pack up and leave.
As for those businessmen who did not have enough backing to suppress Ye Zhaomo, or those businessmen who did not have any backing, they could only ask for help from officials like Manager Hua and Manager Jiang. In their eyes, these officials had been local officials for many years. Compared to Ye Zhaomo who had just arrived, they were considered their own people.
As expected, the subordinates of the Imperial Judge Yamen were closer to them. Without prior agreement, they followed the merchants and complained to Imperial Judge Ye. They expressed deep sympathy and understanding towards their plight. Then, they said, "However, as far as I know, Imperial Judge Laoye is a new official, he really wants to start work from the streets and alleys, for the welfare of the common people and to earn a good reputation as an official. But the west side of the city … you know! "
Even those who did not understand understood after two days of whispering to each other. Most of the residents in the west side of the city were relatives of Magistrate Zhang. Therefore, Magistrate Ye ordered Ye Zhaomo to start from the west side of the city. Thus, this area became a half-finished project.
The Zhang family was the local tyrant of Tongren Province for hundreds of years. Even though the foundation of their authority was gradually loosening, this was only the feeling and reaction of the local chieftains. In the eyes of the commoners, the Zhang family was still the supreme ruler of Tongren Province.
The same thing had to be done anyway. Taking care of their relatives first was understandable. Even if they felt that it was unreasonable, who would provoke Magistrate Zhang? However, if the laborers all went to the West City, what would happen to the mess of the Three Streets and Six Alleys?
On Qing Lang Street, after being beseeched by the crowd of merchants, Hua Shou had a difficult expression on his face as he said, "How about this, I will put in a good word for all of you to the High Magistrate, explain your difficulties, and then recruit some laborers from the local area to clean up these places that have been stopped halfway. If not, then first restore the original state. In short, it will not affect everyone's business."
The merchants were overjoyed. Manager Hua said, "However, the cost of recruiting additional labor cannot be covered by the yamen. Do you have any ideas?"
Owner Shu of the Shu Family's Head Noodle Shop led the merchants to the side for a discussion. Right now, both sides of the street were covered in mud. Even if it wasn't smelly, it would still make the street unbearably filthy, to the point where there were no pedestrians. Every day of delay was not a small loss. If they could solve this problem with a little money, it would be worth it.
But why should he spend his experience to help? He still had to pay them for their services. With the plan set, all that was left was the question of how much each merchant would donate. This could be discussed later. Didn't you see that Manager Hua was already very impatient? Thus, Shopkeeper Shu and a few of the more popular merchants walked over and smiled apologetically as they told Manager Hua their plan.
Manager Hua indifferently said, "Then let's do it this way. I still have official business to attend to. We will talk again when you are ready."
That afternoon, the merchants collectively raised a sum of money. This sum of money was within the range of what each shop could afford, but when put together, it was a considerable sum. When the money was handed over to Manager Hua, Manager Hua readily agreed. The next morning, he arranged for people to quickly remove the mud and restore the original appearance of the street.
Manager Jiang, Governor Zhang, and the others all had roughly the same situation. The officials all returned from a rewarding journey. Apart from handing over the money to Li Dazhuang, they also received some benefits. This was especially so since the merchants owed them a favor. This was something that could not be bought with money.
… …
Legend has it that there was a couple who were extremely stingy. One day, the landlord entered the city on business. He suddenly wanted to pay his respects, but he was unwilling to let others take advantage of the fertilizer, so he could only hold it in. Eventually, he couldn't hold it in any longer and found a latrine pit. Unexpectedly, there was nothing but a few farts.
The landlord was very pleased with himself. When he returned home, he told his wife about what had happened. The landlady was furious. "You wastrel! How can you live like this? Wouldn't it be better if you saved a few farts to blow out the lantern!"
In this joke, the real point of ridiculing the landlord's stinginess was the use of those farts. As for "keeping the goodies within the family", it was a reflection of the objective reality at the time. In reality, at that time, many landlords even had special requirements for their workers. If they ate at their house, they had to use their latrine pit. This was a joke in the eyes of later generations, but at that time, it was not outrageous.
Chen Laocai was one such landlord. Chen Laocai had a paranoid love for the land. His name was Chen Miao. It was said that his parents had given him this name because he lacked water in the five elements. But from his performance all along, he should have lacked earth in the five elements.
When he was young, Chen Miao only had six mu of land passed down from his ancestors. He meticulously tended to the fields and crops. He was a very impressive farmer, and his annual harvest was always 20% better than other people's. Some people would buy wine and meat as soon as they had money, and some people liked to play with money. But Chen Miao only had one hobby — buying land.
He was so frugal that it made people's hair stand on end. When he had enough money for one mu of land, he would buy one mu of land. In this way, he already had 30 mu of land by the middle of the year. At that time, his family couldn't plant all of it, so they needed to hire temporary workers. Chen Laocai's family ate salted vegetables and porridge, but he also had to provide food for the hired workers so that they would have the strength to work.
Although it was said that landlords rarely treated their workers harshly, once the hired workers bore a grudge against them, it was still a light punishment to slack off and miss work. It was very hard to tell if they deliberately tampered with your crops. When the harvest was bad, who knew if they would blame the heavens or the earth? But it was rare to see someone like Chen Miao who was treated worse than the hired workers.
After a few decades, the strong young man's waist was bent and his back was hunched, but he already had more than 100 mu of land. He became one of the biggest landlords in his village. In this place with eight mountains, one water, and one piece of land, it was not easy.
Little Miao became Chen Laocai, but he was still frugal as before. When he went out, he would always bring a basket. If he saw cow and horse dung, he would grab it and send it to his own field. Of course, other people's mules and horses mostly had a sack behind their butts. No one wanted to give fertilizer to others, but there were always people who didn't know how to live.
Chen Laocai was old, and his once straight back was now bent. The family's fields were mainly handed over to his sons to tend to, but he still habitually walked in the fields every day, inspecting his kingdom. As long as he saw the crops grow strong, his heart was incomparably satisfied. He looked forward to continuing to save money and continue to buy land.
Today, after breakfast, Chen Laocai took the small basket and went out again. When he was about to reach his own land, Chen Laocai suddenly found a large pile of silt on Old Man Qin's land. It was black, and the surface that was shoveled even shone with a black light.
What fertile soil! Chen Laocai's eyes immediately lit up. He quickly walked over and grabbed a piece of mud. The silt was already dry, and when he squeezed it hard, it turned into fine soil. "Good soil, good soil, full of fertility!" Chen Laocai seemed to see the crops growing wildly in this fertile soil. When he woke up, the crops would grow taller.
"Where did Old Man Qin get this kind of fertile soil?" Chen Laocai's heart immediately felt like it was being scratched by a cat. He saw a long-term worker of the Qin family weeding. Chen Laocai quickly called him over.
Hearing Chen Laocai's question, the old farmer smiled honestly and shook his head, "I don't know about this …"
The old farmer had a simple and honest smile, but it could not hide a trace of slyness in his eyes. This kind of farmer's slyness, Chen Laocai was very familiar with it. He did not say much, but endured the pain and took out two glistening yellow coins from his chest.
The coins were in the old farmer's hands, and Chen Laocai heard this news — — Tongren City was currently cleaning up the silt, and the silt was fertile soil that had accumulated for hundreds of years. But when the silt was being cleaned up in San Jie and Six Alleys, the laborers were transferred to the west side of the city, causing San Jie and Six Alleys to stop working, and the silt filled the dam.
Old Man Qin had a relative who worked in the Prefectural Magistrate's office, and it was this relative who told Old Man Qin this news. Old Man Qin then thought of transporting the silt. When the silt was transported to his family's fields, it would be an excellent fertilizer.
When Chen Laocai got the news, he turned around and left. He didn't go to the fields anymore. He carried the basket and hurried home. He was afraid that if he was a step late, the fertilizer would be transported away by Qin Laocai's family. Very soon, there were a few more cars at the intersection of San Jie and Six Alleys. Chen Laocai brought his sons and long-term workers to join the fight for the silt.
The silt had been drying on the dam for a few days, and was in a half-dry state. It was not difficult to transport it. Li Qiuchi stood at the intersection, gently waving his small fan, "Looking at the situation, the silt will be transported away by tomorrow. When the time comes, the laborers will come back and pave the road again. It will only take less than half a day."
Su Xuntian shook his head and laughed, "Li Dazhuang, you really have a good plan! Not only did you help Your Excellency win the hearts of the subordinates of the Punishment Office, but you also helped Your Excellency earn a sum of money. Now, there are so many free laborers volunteering to help clean up the silt. Admirable! "
Li Qiuchi laughed, "This is the joint decision of Li and Dongweng. Li does not dare to take credit for it alone!"
Su Xuntian said, "Oh yes, speaking of Your Excellency, I have not seen him since early this morning. Where did he go?"
Li Qiuchi replied, "Your Excellency went to Yu Ji Brick and Tile Factory."
Su Xuntian was stunned, "Brick and Tile Factory? Does Your Excellency want to build a big mansion in Tongren? "
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