Chapter 80
Yu Ying found that when it came to love affairs, it was much more difficult for her to make a choice than to find ways to make money to live.
She had never been in love and still had high hopes of going back. Under these two circumstances, she really didn't know how to answer Fu Wei, so she could only run away.
Wen Xing poured a cup of lukewarm tea and handed it to her sister-in-law, who was sitting at the table in a daze. She said softly, "Don't worry, sister-in-law. I won't ask anything."
Yu Ying whispered "thank you", took the tea and took a sip, calming her pounding heart.
The sister-in-law really didn't ask any questions and thoughtfully let her stay for one night.
After a sleepless night, Yu Ying still had no answer.
She wasn't sure how deep her feelings for Fu Wei were, but they probably weren't too deep, which was why she didn't rashly start a relationship with him in this semi-unfamiliar era.
It's just the level of heartbeat.
Maybe she should wait, until she completely gave up hope of going home, until her feelings for Fu Wei were deep enough that she felt she could express them.
After hiding last night, we inevitably met in the yard early in the morning.
The two exchanged glances. Yu Ying suppressed her nervousness, smiled faintly at Fu Wei, and said, "Good morning."
Facing the calm Yu Ying, Fu Wei was slightly startled, but then he realized that she wanted to gloss over the situation and pretend that nothing had happened last night.
Fu Wei felt a little regretful that he had acted too hastily last night and forced the person to run away.
At the same time, it was also clear that she was a slow-warm person and had to do things step by step. If she was pushed too hard, she would be driven away like last night.
After figuring this out, Fu Wei smiled at her and said gently, "Good morning."
Seeing the faint smile on Fu Wei's face, Yu Ying tacitly understood the meaning of the smile, and at the same time secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After feeling relieved, he asked, "Aren't you supposed to be on duty at Chenshi? Isn't it too late to go now?"
Fu Wei replied, "The magistrate has agreed. I can go to the yamen later."
Upon hearing this, Yu Ying nodded, then went into the kitchen to see if there was anyone she could help with.
After breakfast, they locked the doors of their homes, asked the He family to help look after the house, and then went to Yu County.
After arriving in Yu County, they first went to Xikou Lane and handed Fu Ning to the care of Luo Shi before going to the government office.
The eldest brother and his wife went to report, while Fu Wei went to talk to Huo Yachai to find out the situation.
The yamen runner who had previously accepted money from the Wen family has confessed, and now the eldest brother and his wife are really just here to go through the motions.
The Wen family mother and son couldn't understand why, after so many years, the truth was suddenly revealed? They were even taken to the government office!
Three years ago, the imperial court suddenly issued an order requiring the three-year military service period of the low-class people in Lingnan to be changed to seven years for men and six and a half years for women.
As soon as the policy came out, there were cries of grief everywhere. Some people escaped, but were killed as an example to scare others and were whipped in public until their flesh was bloody.
The fearful mother and son of the Wen family thought about it for a long time and finally came up with the unethical method of using someone else as a substitute.
They almost emptied their family savings before they asked the yamen runners to let their niece serve in their place.
Therefore, when the mother and son of the Wen family saw Wen Xing, although they didn't know how she came back, they immediately realized that it was their niece who reported them.
In the courtroom, the Wen family's eldest aunt pointed at her niece whom she hadn't seen for a long time. Her face was distorted with anger as she cursed, "It must be you, a bitch, who sued us! Why don't you just go to hell!"
Wen Xing was stared at viciously, and the mother and son looked as if they wanted to eat her alive.
The memory of being tortured came to her mind, her heart skipped a beat, and she unconsciously looked at the crowd outside the hall. When she saw her husband who was as strong as a mountain, she was no longer afraid.
The Wen family mother and son also followed her gaze and looked into the crowd. When they recognized Fu Zhen who was looking at them gloomily, their faces turned pale instantly.
Fu Zhen is stronger than he was a few years ago.
After bribing the yamen runners, they moved to the city to hide because they were afraid of Fu Zhen's revenge.
Only after hearing that Fu Zhen had also gone to the quarry did they breathe a sigh of relief and live a carefree life.
They had originally planned to leave Yu County after the couple's service was completed and before they returned.
But their service period hasn't even ended yet, so why are they suddenly back?!
To the astonishment of the mother and son, the trial had already begun.
The yamen runner who accepted bribes was also arrested for serious bribery when he was dismissed from his post in Xianzhi County. His confession this time was just an attempt to find someone to take the blame for him.
County Magistrate Zhou was a man who would cut the Gordian knot and did not like to make small matters too complicated, so he quickly sentenced this "Li Dai Tao Jiang" case.
The mother and son of the Wen family bribed the yamen runners to replace the serving personnel without the consent of their cousin, which was a crime.
In addition, replacing male members with female relatives to serve in the army is an even more serious crime.
The eldest son of the Wen family was given thirty strokes of the cane, and the old woman of the Wen family was given twenty strokes of the cane. The mother and son were then imprisoned for another three months and required to pay six years of labor service.
Seeing her aunt and cousin, who had bullied her, being beaten and crying for their parents, Wen Xing finally got rid of the anger in her heart.
After the case of the Wen mother and son being forced to do hard labor in place of others was sentenced, many people came to the government office one after another to file complaints, saying that someone in their family was also forced to do hard labor in place of others, and asked the county magistrate to make a decision.
You wouldn't know this if you didn't investigate. Once you investigated, you found out that after the policy of slavery was changed three years ago, many people used this method to bribe people in the government and send people to serve in the quarry.
Among them, more men have been replaced by women.
For just 500 coins, you can change your name. For another 300 coins, you can even change your gender.
Almost all of these things were done three years ago when the Prophet County was in office.
The superiors are greedy, and the subordinates are even more greedy and unscrupulous.
Because of the simple case of the Wen family mother and son, it was revealed that many people were forced to go to the quarry. After dealing with these complicated cases, the government office was extremely busy.
Even Fu Wei was very busy. He had to deal with the Chamber of Commerce and the newly implemented policies, as well as these miscellaneous matters.
Fu Wei became busy. After returning home for lunch at noon, he went straight to the yamen to continue his work, and sometimes he didn't even come back.
Yu Ying was busy working on the newly reclaimed land.
Half a month later, she went to Yu County once. Coincidentally, Fu Wei had been in the yamen that day and had not returned, so she missed it.
After these "substitution" cases are verified to be true, it becomes somewhat difficult to determine how to punish them.
If we force those people to go to the quarry, there's a risk of loss of life. But if we don't go, it would be unfair to those who are forced to go.
After careful consideration, the magistrate accepted Fu Wei's suggestion.
- Release those who were forced to work in the quarry, and change the remaining service period into service silver, which will be paid monthly by those who were originally supposed to go. If they cannot pay it, they will have to go to the quarry and serve honestly.
It has to be said that after solving these cases of substitution, County Magistrate Zhou's reputation soared.
After a long time, Yu Ying suddenly realized that Fu Wei was not only handling her sister-in-law's case, but also helping Zhouzhi County to gain reputation.
Taking advantage of this wave of reputation, the county magistrate began to implement the policy of cultivating medicinal herbs and soybeans.
The people planted medicinal herbs, and the county magistrate also arranged for people with knowledge in this area to explain. These people would take turns visiting the villages under the jurisdiction of Yu County to teach the people how to plant herbs.
Finally, all the herbs grown, as long as they were not of particularly bad quality, were purchased by four medical clinics according to two standards: six cents per catty and four cents per catty.
I'm not worried about farmers selling to drug dealers themselves. The government registers all transactions with drug dealers. And according to investigations, only a few thousand kilograms of medicinal herbs are purchased throughout the year.
If one acre of land is managed properly, it is normal to produce 600 to 800 kilograms of herbs per year.
Such a large amount of medicinal herbs are common herbs that grow in one year, and the herbalists will not be willing to accept so much. Even if they do, due to the short growth period, the herbalists will not be able to give more than ten coins per pound.
However, the newly implemented policy stipulates that if the medicine is sold in bulk to drug dealers, the price must not be lower than thirteen coins per catty. If it is discovered that the medicine is sold at a lower price, a fine of ten coins per catty will be imposed.
This is a mandatory rule.
If the drug dealer really wants it, then there must be something fishy going on. It would be okay to investigate and use it as a deterrent.
Under these regulations, people could choose how to export their products, but in the end, most people would undoubtedly choose to send them to medical clinics.
According to the low price of purchase, after drying 600 kilograms to 70% or 80% dry, there are still more than 300 kilograms left. Even if calculated at four cents per kilogram, there are still about 1,300 cents left.
Apart from the annual rent of two hundred coins, there was still a surplus of about one thousand coins.
Moreover, you don’t have to pay money upfront when renting. The government will advance the payment for medicinal seeds and soybean seeds, and then collect the rent and seed money at a unified time next year.
But the land was not rented out freely. Each household was limited to reclaiming two mu of wasteland. They were also restricted to planting one mu of soybeans and one mu of herbs.
As soon as the policy was implemented, some people were not optimistic about it.
Some people say, "Cultivating land takes time and effort, and it's more cost-effective to grow some food than to grow herbs."
But because they truly felt that County Magistrate Zhou wanted to do good for the people, many people cooperated.
Moreover, this policy is undoubtedly a life-saving straw for those who have nowhere else to go.
The most active among them are the villagers of Lingshui Village.
They saw with their own eyes that the Daofu family made their fortune by selling herbs. Once this policy came out, how could they not be tempted?
They were the first group to go to the government office, and they pressed their fingerprints and signed a contract to reclaim two acres of wasteland.
Without waiting for the government to send someone to teach them how to grow herbs, they went to ask the Fu family for advice.
Afraid that the Fu family would not agree, they rushed to cultivate the ten acres of land they had newly rented to the Fu family.
Just when Yu Ying was about to hire someone to cultivate the land, half of it had already been plowed.
There will always be someone to teach you how to grow herbs, and there is no need to keep these things to yourself, so when people from the same village came to ask for advice on how to grow herbs, Yu Ying taught them.
The days passed one by one.
Near the end of the year, Fu Wei sent back a letter.
Fu Wei was busy, and she was also too busy to go to Yu County. They hadn't seen each other for more than a month since the case of the Wen mother and son.
Yu Ying was a little dazed when she suddenly received Fu Wei's letter.
Wen Xing urged: "Sister-in-law, open it quickly and take a look at what your second brother wrote to you."
Yu Ying woke up as if from a dream and quickly opened the letter from Fu Wei.
After a moment, Wen Xing asked, "Sister-in-law, what did my second brother say to you?"
Yu Ying folded the letter and said, "Erlang said that in a few days, all the county magistrates under Cangwu County will go to the county seat to report. He will go with them, but because of his mobility issues, the magistrate has allowed him to bring his family along."
Wen Xing was stunned for a moment and asked, "Would you like to go with me, sister-in-law?"
Yu Ying thought that this time she was going with the people from the yamen, which would be much more convenient than the previous time she went to the county government, and she could also take this opportunity to check out the stalls in the county government.
After pondering for a moment, Yu Ying said, "We should go."
The time was three days later, but because Uncle Chen no longer drove the ox cart in winter, Yu Ying had to walk to a village ahead to get an ox cart to Yu County, and the trip also took two days.
There happens to be one tomorrow.
After a simple packing, he went to Yu County the next day under the escort of his elder sister-in-law and elder brother.
*
Fu Wei reported to the magistrate on the situation of villages renting land and reclaiming wasteland over the past half month.
After listening to this, the magistrate nodded and said, "It's hard to tell what's going on right now. We can't plant the medicinal herbs until February next year. Let's talk about the Chamber of Commerce first."
Fu Wei continued, "The Chamber of Commerce has been established, and the first batch of medicinal herbs is almost ready and waiting to be sent away."
The first batch of medicinal materials were mostly purchased from several medical clinics.
This year, the number of drug dealers coming to Yu County to purchase medicinal materials has decreased, so that several medical clinics have not been able to sell many medicinal materials in time.
As for the escort, the yamen recruited ten people from outside, and several medical clinics each sent two people to accompany them. The yamen also sent four yamen runners with relatively good skills to accompany them.
The magistrate asked, "When are you leaving?"
"Send it after the New Year. At that time, it will be sent to the north where the weather will be warmer and not as icy and snowy. At that time, medicinal herbs are in short supply, so it can be sold at a good price."
The magistrate said "hmm".
If this batch of medicinal materials could be sold successfully, Yu County’s finances would not have to be so stretched.
After a few questions, the magistrate thought of Sun Muliao's matter and frowned. He asked Fu Wei, "Two months have passed in three months, and it seems that Sun Muliao has no intention of leaving the government office."
Fu Wei thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you ask Sun Muliao to give him some serious advice? I'm sure he'll understand."
Hearing this, County Magistrate Zhou laughed and said, "Are you relying on the fact that I still have some use for you, and not planning to find a way to get Sun to resign?"
"I dare not."
"I dare not, then why don't you find a solution quickly. In this Cangwu County, I have never seen a county magistrate with three staff members. After going to the county seat this time, I might be scolded by the county governor."
Thinking of this, County Magistrate Zhou felt a headache.
The magistrate has not assigned any work to Sun's staff yet, and just wants him to figure it out on his own and then resign voluntarily.
But Sun's staff pretended to be stupid and refused to resign.
This man is getting more and more confused as he gets older. He doesn't want any respect left to him.
In the end, the magistrate didn't want to save his face anymore.
He was just afraid that if he didn't give him face, those yamen runners who had been taken care of by him would feel disheartened.
Fu Wei replied, "Sun's staff will voluntarily leave before the New Year."
The magistrate raised an eyebrow and looked at him: "I hope so."
Coming out of the magistrate's study, a light drizzle was falling outside the eaves, and Fu Wei's expression darkened slightly.
He knew the travel time of all the ox carts from Lingshui Village to Yu County, and he also knew that Grandpa Chen was old and therefore did not come to Yu County in winter.
If Ah Ying wants to go to the county seat with me, she will come to Yu County today.
In such weather, I guess Aying won’t come to Yu County today.
This time, if we miss the chance to meet again, we will have to wait until the New Year to see each other again.
Fu Wei sighed secretly, and white mist came out of his mouth.
He withdrew his gaze and let the officer who came over push him away.
It was drizzling today, so the officer volunteered to take him back.
When I got home, I knocked on the gate and it was Fu An who opened the door.
Fu An pushed his uncle into the yard. When he was about to close the door, he heard a familiar voice: "Wait!"
At that moment, Fu Wei thought he was hallucinating.
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