Wu Deyong sent a yamen runner to inform Zhang Hulan and asked her to go to the county government office tomorrow morning.
Zhang Hulan also asked Luo Changqi to make a statistics of the specific amount of money lost by each person so that they could reconcile the accounts later.
Early the next morning, Zhang Hulan took Zhang Xinyao and Zhang Xinyi to the county government office, along with two representatives who had lost their money.
When they arrived at the county government office, Zhang Hulan first thanked Wu Deyong, and then Wu Deyong went to court for trial.
The three men were escorted into the hall by yamen runners. Zhang Hulan did not recognize their faces, but she recognized their clothes at a glance.
The representative who lost the money recognized him and immediately yelled, "Fan Xiang, you are such a jerk. You actually stole our hard-earned money..."
Wu Deyong slammed the gavel and said, "Are you sure it's these three people?"
Zhang Hulan replied: "Yes, sir. We just found out that the money was missing yesterday, and we immediately counted the number of people, and only the three of them were missing. At the same time, someone saw the three of them return to the dormitory at different times, and then they escaped."
Wu Deyong slammed the gavel again and shouted, "Do you plead guilty?"
The three of them lowered their heads, not daring to look at Zhang Hulan or Wu Deyong in the hall.
"Answer my question. Do you plead guilty?"
Fan Xiang replied in a low voice: "Admit, plead guilty..."
“Why do you steal other people’s money?”
All three of them hesitated.
This question is not important. Since they didn't want to talk about it, Wu Deyong changed the question to "Who is the mastermind?"
The other two pointed at Fan Xiang at the same time, "It's him."
Fan Xiang glared at the two of them. They were too disloyal.
Wu Deyong then asked the yamen runners to give three bags of copper coins to Zhang Hulan, "These are what we found on them. Count them and see if they match the amount we lost."
Zhang Hulan counted the money on the spot, and the final number she came up with was a few hundred more coins, which belonged to Fan Xiang and his friends.
Zhang Hulan gave the extra money to Wu Deyong, and also handed the number of people and the amount of money she asked Luo Changqi to count to Wu Deyong, saying, "Sir, these should be their own wages, give them to you to deal with. This is the data we counted ourselves, you can also take a look."
Wu Deyong nodded after reading it, and then said to Fan Xiang: "The three of you stole other people's property. Although the amount was not large, the number of people who stole was not small, and you were the mastermind. I will sentence you to two years in prison."
Wu Deyong then said to the other two, "You two are accomplices. You will be sentenced to one year in prison."
Imprisonment is also called forced labor, which means being a free laborer, and it is hard labor, the hardest kind of hard labor. You eat the worst food and do the heaviest work. Whether you can survive it depends on how strong your life is.
Fan Xiang and the other two kowtowed and begged for mercy, "Sir, we know we are wrong. Please have mercy on us, please have mercy on us..."
Wu Deyong ignored the three men's pleas for mercy and dragged them away.
Zhang Hulan thanked Wu Deyong, "Thank you very much for this time, sir!"
Wu Deyong waved his hand, "No need to thank me, this is all my job."
The matter was settled, and Zhang Hulan returned home with her people.
Give the copper coins to Luo Changqi and ask him to return them to those who lost their money.
The children were very happy to get their lost money back. Then they all ran to Zhang Xinyao and deposited the money with her.
This is a lesson. It’s safer to leave it with the young lady. If it gets stolen again, who knows if it can be recovered.
After the storm, life went on day by day. Gao Guangtian sent chicken skins, chicken chicks, duck chicks and breeding eggs to Zhang Hulan and then stopped sending any more.
He had almost bought up all the chickens, ducklings and breeding eggs in Changning County, and he also went to other counties to purchase some.
In the end, more than 2,000 chicks, more than 1,000 ducklings, and several hundred goose seedlings were delivered to Zhang Hulan.
There are quite a lot of breeding eggs, more than 5,000 chicken eggs, more than 3,000 duck eggs, and more than 500 goose eggs.
Zhang Hulan also built a few more warm kangs. The breeding eggs she bought could not be kept for too long and had to be hatched as soon as possible.
Li, Xiang Chunhua and Zhang Dahua are specifically responsible for this matter.
Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing have already bought the fish fry, and they have nothing to do at the moment, so they are helping out.
Wang is now responsible for taking care of Zhang Yingchun every day, while Old Man Zhang is helping Zhang Hubing build the house.
Since Zhang Hulan moved, Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing decided to start building a new house.
They did not move to Zhang Hulan's house, and the two brothers took turns to build it.
The foundation of the old house now belongs to Zhang Hujun, and Zhang Hubing will find a new place to build it. When Zhang Hubing's house is finished, they will all move there and then build Zhang Hujun's house.
Zhang Hulan also asked Zhao Guoliang to inform everyone in the village about the children's education, and those who wanted to send their children to school could send them to the school at that time.
In addition to the cost of textbooks, each child's tuition is twenty cents per month.
Several nearby villages have also been notified, and anyone who wants their children to learn to read and write can send them here.
Time flies, and it is already the end of April.
The school started in early May. More than 30 children in the village chose to study. A dozen of them thought that studying was useless and it was more practical to work and earn money.
Apart from the children in the village, there were only a few children sent to school in the village, and there were only a dozen children from other villages combined.
It’s not that the villagers don’t want to send their children to school, but the wheat harvest is about to begin, and after that the rice seedlings will be planted immediately, and the children have to help with the work.
Those who were sent to the school now were all young and could not do much work at home. The older children would come to the school only after the wheat was harvested and the rice seedlings were planted.
On the first day of school, adults in the family brought their children to the school to register and pay tuition, and then received books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone.
Song Yuzhang said to the villagers, "The tuition fee is 20 wen per month. A copy of the Thousand Character Classic is 30 wen, a brush is 10 wen, an inkstone is 20 wen, an ink stick is 50 wen, and 30 sheets of paper are 50 wen. The total is 180 wen."
The adults had a headache paying so much money at once, but they still endured the pain and paid the money for their children.
Song Yuzhang said: "Children don't use pen, ink, or paper to write at first. Let them write on the ground with charcoal first. When they learn to write a few words and need to practice calligraphy, they can use pen, ink, or paper.
One ounce of ink can last for two to three months, and the same goes for paper. I will basically write one large character every day, so it can last about a month."
Song Yuzhang took the money, counted out 120 coins, and returned the remaining 60 coins to the villagers.
"You don't have to pay for the books and the brushes and inkstones. Mrs. Zhang said she paid for the children."
The villagers felt grateful.
Song Yuzhang gave the books to the children and asked the adults to take the rest of the things home and bring them to school when they needed them in the future.
The child got the book and held it in his arms like a treasure, he was extremely happy.
The wages of the older children on the farm were enough to pay this fee, but after the younger ones paid this fee, they were left with only five cents.
In total, they worked for two and a half months and received exactly 125 cents. Fortunately, they didn't have to pay for food and accommodation, otherwise it would not be enough.
Zhang Hulan had calculated everything for them.
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