Chapter 87 Zhao Ergou is back
Zhao Fugui was burning hot all over.
Although he was unconscious, he was still conscious and aware of what was happening around him.
He forced his eyelids open a crack and saw his wife. His voice, hoarse as a broken gong, rang out: "If Zhao Youjin lets me go this time, I'll... I'll live a good life with you from now on..."
Aunt Fugui twitched her lips and looked outside the circle, saying, "Zhao Fugui has a fever. Mother, go to Doctor Zheng and get some fever-reducing medicine. Boil it up and bring it over."
Zhao Fugui's mother hurriedly went to take care of it.
The crowd gathered under the big locust tree slowly dispersed, everyone still feeling lingering fear.
The sun had just risen a little higher when a horse-drawn carriage sped to a stop at the village entrance.
"The village head is back!"
"The village head, Zhao Anjiang, Wang Yongcheng, Zhao Yougui, and Zhao Ergou are all back!"
"My goodness, they are all dressed in new clothes. The magistrate is too generous."
“A new set of clothes is nothing. Didn’t we say before that it would be 100 coins a day? It’s been five days, so that’s a full 500 coins.”
"My goodness, five hundred coins, half a tael of silver, that's enough to get a wife."
The villagers, forgetting about their work, all gathered around.
Outside the carriage sat a servant from the county government office, who was in charge of driving. Inside the carriage were five people, the same people who had left with the county magistrate five days earlier.
When they left five days ago, they were wearing tattered clothes. Five days later, they returned wearing new blue robes. Although they had all lost weight and looked very tired, their eyes were full of joy and excitement.
The village head was the first to jump off the vehicle and shouted, "Everyone, gather under the big locust tree, I have something to say."
The village has been holding several large meetings lately, and each one has been to announce something good. This time, the village chief is in high spirits, so it must be something really good. The whole village is incredibly excited.
The village head's wife came over and whispered, "While you were gone, some trouble happened in the village. Let me tell you about it in detail..."
They were talking about Zhao Fugui's messy affairs.
"Shameless filthy thing!" the village head roared. "If it weren't for the fact that his surname is Zhao, I would have kicked him out of Dahe Village! Doing something like this is a disgrace to the Zhao family. If he survives this time, he will not be allowed to be included in the Zhao family genealogy!"
The village head was both the village chief and the patriarch of the Zhao family, so he held a very high position in the village.
After the village head's wife finished telling the story, the villagers gradually gathered under the big locust tree.
On one side, a crowd had gathered, and on the other side, Zhao Fugui lay on the ground, with his aunt feeding him medicine.
The village head didn't even glance at Zhao Fugui. Standing on the large rock, he looked at everyone present and said, "This time, we participated in the search for water sources and found twelve water sources in total. We helped more than thirty villages to draw water for irrigation and saved tens of thousands of rice fields. We have made a great contribution. The county magistrate has awarded our village a total of fifty taels of silver."
According to the previous calculation, the twelve water sources should have cost thirty-six taels of silver. However, they were hardworking and never complained. They were concerned about the magistrate's needs and thought what the magistrate was thinking, so the reward amount was increased to fifty taels.
The whole village was in an uproar.
"Fifty taels of silver!"
"I've lived for fifty or sixty years and I've never seen so much money!"
"The village head is going to get rich; he's going to become the richest man in our village."
The village head said calmly, "No, this money doesn't belong to me; it belongs to our Dahe Village."
His gaze fell on Cheng Wanwan's face in the crowd.
In truth, the money should belong to Da Shan's family, but Da Shan's mother suggested using it as start-up capital for the patrol team.
It's easy to understand what Aunt Dashan meant. The orphan and her son had separated from the family and were living alone at the end of the village. If they were targeted by bad guys, losing money and food would be a small matter. If they were killed, it would be too late to regret it.
Take Zhao Fugui's case, for example. If the patrol team hadn't been so lax, Zhao Fugui wouldn't have had the opportunity to do bad things.
“Starting today, Dahe Village will establish a formal patrol team. I will select ten people who have performed well in the past to be patrol team captains. Each of the ten people will work three days a month, earning eighteen coins a day.” The village head said solemnly. “Each captain will arrange twelve team members under him, patrolling in pairs. The captain will supervise them. That works out to two hours a day per person, which is six hours a month. The wage for six hours is eight coins.”
Everyone present was shocked once again.
After all, they didn't get paid a penny for patrolling before, and why would they need money for working for their own village?
But now, they can actually get at least eight coins. Eight coins isn't a lot, but it's definitely not a small amount either. In previous years, eight coins could buy four catties of millet.
"The village head is such a good person, isn't this just giving money to the villagers for free?"
“It’s not like they’re just giving out money for nothing. Only those who performed well before can become team leaders and get paid. My good-for-nothing son used to patrol diligently, but he would ask for leave every time it was his turn. This kind of good thing definitely has nothing to do with him.”
"There are ten team leaders, and each team leader has twelve people under them. That means only 130 people in the whole village can join the patrol team. But our village has four or five hundred able-bodied men."
“Village head, my son is big and strong, let him be the team leader.”
The village head glanced at the man and said coldly, "Your son only patrolled once, and he even snatched wild fruit from a child that time. Let him come back when he's older and more sensible. Now, the ten people I'm calling out are the patrol team leaders..."
The village head slowly read out the names of ten people.
The people whose names were called looked incredulous. They were the kind of people who worked honestly. When others slacked off, they worked; when others took leave, they filled in; when others went home early, they finished their work before leaving.
People with this kind of personality are commonly known as "silent types," meaning they're hard to talk to.
Such people are generally not valued by others.
But now, the village head was calling out the names of these people one by one: "Just the ten of you. The patrol team performed very well before. Keep up the good work. You can choose twelve members yourselves. I will check the patrol situation every month. The top three performers will each receive a reward of one coin."
"Yes, village head!"
All ten people were overjoyed.
Zhao Sanniu was one of them. Cheng Wanwan always sent Zhao Sanniu on patrols.
Although this kid is young, he has great strength and is very honest. He does what he's supposed to do and never tries to cheat or shirk responsibility.
As captain, he stood tall and felt a surge of pride for the first time.
He can earn money now, haha. He works three days a month, earning eighteen coins a day. In a month, that's... He silently calculated it over and over in his mind, and finally confirmed that it was fifty-four coins. He could buy lots and lots of meat, and his mother would definitely praise him for being so capable.
Seeing his silly look, Cheng Wanwan chuckled: "Hurry up and think about which ten people to choose as team members. I'll just remind you one thing: you're the youngest, so don't choose any of the elders from the Zhao family."
The ancients revered filial piety, which meant not only being filial to one's parents, but also to all elders in the same clan.
As the team leader, you must manage your team members, but if the team members are elders, it is easy to cause gossip when you try to manage them.
Moreover, San Niu is clumsy with words and might accidentally offend someone from his own clan, which would be a big problem.
It would be better to cut off the source of the trouble in the first place.
Zhao Sanniu nodded: "I'll listen to Mother."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
