Chapter 221 Chang'an Official's Border Town Reconstruction Plan
Li Heng's words silenced the clamoring officials in Chang'an, but some were still unwilling to give in: "Since the border town can't accommodate us, then we will return to Chang'an!"
Li Heng was a little reluctant to persuade them. Don't these people understand what I'm saying? I've already said it so clearly!
You just offended Miss Ling. She punished you to settle refugees in the refugee camp. Once you complete the task, you can leave.
But if you don't take her seriously at all and want to return to Chang'an, you will offend His Majesty! Aren't there enough people who died in Chang'an Caishikou?
Li Heng advised for the last time: "If you need my help, I will do my best to help you for the sake of my colleagues.
But if you waste Miss Ling's efforts and cause trouble to His Majesty, don't blame me for not remembering our friendship!"
Cheng Yu didn't even show his face. He didn't want to say anything to these pedantic, stubborn officials who treated the lives of the people as worthless.
He even wanted to transfer the soldiers from the Black Feather Camp who were guarding them away to give them a chance to escape, and then take the opportunity to kill them as a warning to others.
The more officials, dignitaries, and nobles from Chang'an come to Border Town, the harder it will be to manage. If we don't teach them a profound lesson, they will assimilate the people of Border Town. That would be a waste of the good intentions of His Majesty and Miss Ling, and would harm the great cause of Border Town for generations to come! He resisted the urge to do so, because he wanted to do something else in private, which would also be disrespectful to Miss Ling's orders.
He simply sent his trusted aides to the refugee camp to serve as management officials, and treated these Chang'an officials equally. The men worked with the refugees to do basic work, such as repairing river embankments, roads, and going to construction sites.
No matter whether you are an official’s wife or a young lady, women must work in the workshop.
The whole process seemed quite funny to Jin Sui. She was just like when she first watched Huo Zian being a powerful official, watching these officials broadcast the "refugees are common" live.
She even specially let the officials from Chang'an see these people working with their own eyes, and she "made excuses" for them: "After all, they are officials appointed by the court. They can't just do the same work as refugees. What's more, you work worse than refugees!
How about this, everyone writes a report every day, a policy paper on the issue of "resettlement of refugees", and your thoughts on life in the refugee camp. Anyone who makes useful suggestions will be given points by me."
He also said to those officials in Chang'an who were not sent to the refugee camp: "You can also write policy papers and come to inquire about the situation in the refugee camp. It happens that there are colleagues in it now, so let's discuss together how to help the lower-class people get out of poverty."
We don't need military training, we can use this method to implement the Chang'an official reform plan.
The wives and daughters of officials also had to study, but Jinsui was relatively less strict with them and even allowed them to study in women's colleges.
As for those with elderly and children in their families, she allowed them to continue living in the officials' residences without being punished jointly. However, these officials considered them to be "hostages" and if they dared to escape, the elderly and children would definitely not survive.
At the beginning, these officials tried their best to escape and wanted to unite all the officials in Chang'an to resist. They looked righteous and awe-inspiring: "If she can do this to us today, she can do the same to you tomorrow!
We must let her know that we are imperial officials from Chang'an, not refugees or exiles, and we cannot be manipulated by her!"
At first, some people were interested, but that afternoon Cheng Yu took them to see the gunpowder test: "The new catapult is ready, let's test the range of the gunpowder today."
Then the officials saw that the catapults shot hundreds of meters away, blasting the rocks and creating huge deep pits on the ground.
Jin Sui was also there, and it was she who was there to instruct on the improvement of the trebuchet. She stood alone on a high place, and a group of military officials from the border town listened attentively to her instructions.
And the soldiers standing behind her were as domineering as javelins, but their eyes were full of admiration and conviction for this woman.
At that moment, the officials in Chang'an felt that even if she did not carry the jade token of "As if I were present in person", she could still command the entire army!
Faced with such a woman, there was really nothing they, the civil servants, could do except question and mock her gender.
Let’s put it this way, the fact that Gu Changxiao sent them here in advance meant that he was sure that they wouldn’t cause any trouble in the border town.
Anyone who had the ability to stir up some trouble would have his limbs broken, arms cut off, and then sent back.
He was originally still able to be angry about the fact that Liao just spoke too quickly and mentioned the problem of refugees, but was forcibly sent to the refugee camp by the unreasonable Miss Ling.
After watching the artillery test, the officials were all silent.
At this time, they heard the officials in the refugee camp still talking about resistance, so they could only respond in silence. Finally, they said sincerely:
"You should just finish writing the policy paper that Miss Ling asked for, and settle these refugees. It is important that you leave here before His Majesty arrives."
Seeing that they could not win over an ally, these officials thought of another tactic, which was to bribe the officials in the border towns so that they would not have to work and would have better food and daily life.
I thought I could just stay in the refugee camp for a while, and then find a way to leave after the storm had passed.
As a result, the official did accept the bribe, but the next day he saw Cheng Yu coming with those things. Cheng Yu could match every coin, gold nugget, jade pendant... with its original owner.
After reading them one by one, he said loudly: "Miss Ling said that these things were donated to the refugee camp by officials in Chang'an, and they are all used to resettle refugees! Now, let us thank these officials with warm applause!
Of course, if you still have this intention, it would be better if you can donate more.”
Humph, you probably don't know Miss Ling's style of doing things! When it comes to bribery, of course, gifts must be accepted, but as for whether the matter can be done or not, there is no guarantee.
Those officials who had accepted bribes felt their faces turn red as they heard the applause from the ignorant people. They felt so ashamed that they wished they could dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it.
Someone secretly cursed, "Madman!" Madmen can be seen everywhere in Border Town from top to bottom!
Cheng Yu said to these officials with a half-smile: "Don't waste your time. It is better to write a policy paper as soon as possible and properly settle the refugees."
"Your methods are effective in Chang'an, where forming cliques and bribery are rampant, but they are useless in our border town!
The border town only recognizes strength. Family background, students, and party affiliation are not acceptable here! Here are some pens and ink. Miss Ling will show mercy and let you rest for an extra hour every day. Write your policy papers well! "
The reason why Jinsui insisted on asking them to write policy essays was that she felt that some of these civil servants were talented, but under the prevailing atmosphere in Chang'an, everyone just wanted to be fence-sitters and form factions.
People who are truly capable are unable to come to the fore, so this is also an opportunity she gives them. If they are truly talented and willing to work hard, she will not hesitate to promote them.
The officials were a little calmer now, and the ladies were causing trouble in the academy again. They didn't cause any big trouble, but they cried all day long, which affected other students in the group.
Chen Yunniang, who had a good temper, also came from a noble family. She was sold as a slave and almost buried alive. In the end, she married Cheng Yu and became an official wife, and also managed a women's college.
She felt that she could understand the feelings of these wives and daughters of officials, so she advised them at the beginning and took good care of them. She did not let them do heavy work, but only let them do some weaving and embroidery work.
Even so, these officials' wives and daughters still cried every day, crying about the simple food and the coarse linen and cotton clothes that rubbed their skin.
She also felt pain in her waist, legs and hands from sitting and weaving all day, and she cried because she had lived a life of luxury in Chang'an, but now she had to do the work of a slave in the border town.
Chen Yunniang couldn't listen any longer: "How can this be a slave's job? Do you think all the girls in our women's college are slaves?"
"Isn't it? They are slaves, and you are willing to be lowly. You are a wife of an official, but you actually live with a bunch of common people."
The female students were so angry. They used to sympathize with you, but now they realize that you guys have been high and mighty for too long and are not worthy of sympathy at all!
The female students were angry with themselves again. Why should we feel it is our duty to do the same work, but you, the daughters of government officials, feel pitiful when you do it? We are all human beings, born by our mothers and raised by our fathers. Why should you be more precious than us?
Chen Yunniang whispered, "You actually think this way. It's really a waste of Miss Ling's efforts. If that's the case, you will do the same as the students in the future, and you will no longer receive preferential treatment."
"Since you love to cry so much, then go ahead and cry! You deserve it if you cry until you go blind!"
"I forgot to tell you that you are not students, but refugees who need to earn basic work points, so if you don't finish the work, you won't have any food to eat!"
Chen Yunniang didn't tell Jinsui about this. Miss Ling is so busy, why bother her with such a small matter.
Since she has handed these people over to me, I must find a way to teach them well.
Soon, something happened that made the ladies and young ladies even more desperate: the academy actually required them to do morning exercises every day. They had not participated before, but now Chen Yunniang specifically asked them to join.
As soon as the day dawned, we gathered to run three laps around the playground, then practiced Hua Tuo's Five Animals Exercises, then had breakfast and were assigned tasks.
Chen Yunniang intentionally separated them from each other to do the work, and divided them into several teams to take turns. One team took a turn to go to the pastoral area to feed medicine to the cattle and sheep, and went with the military doctor and the medical team.
Chen Yunniang wanted to broaden their horizons, so she took them to see the forest full of corpses. Not surprisingly, some of the ladies fainted from fright.
"Now you understand, don't you? In the border town, no matter who you are, if you don't strengthen yourself, you will only wait for death when the enemy comes! Didn't the Hu people even invade Chang'an? Didn't you survive by crying? Miss Ling spent so much effort to give us women the opportunity to be strong and independent.
But you just think that this is Miss Ling's making things difficult for you, and that you are superior and the common people are inferior.
When the Hu people invaded Chang'an, did they spare the noble ladies? Did they give the wives of officials a chance to live? "
Chen Yunniang didn't know whether they listened to her words or were frightened by the corpses in the woods, but they became much quieter, cried less often, and no longer complained when assigned work.
Moreover, these wives and daughters of officials gradually found fun in the academy, starting with eating. They began to despise the communal dining system.
But after eating tomato fish balls, hot and sour vermicelli, tomato and potato braised pork and other dishes that they had never eaten in Chang'an, they fell in love with eating big pot meals.
What is even more miraculous is that the hidden illnesses of some ladies and young ladies have disappeared. For example, they used to be out of breath after walking a few steps quickly, feel dizzy when sitting down or standing up, feel full after eating half a bowl of food, and often have nightmares and insomnia when sleeping.
All the diseases that only the rich would get were gone. They ate well and slept well, and some young girls even fell in love with the Women's College from the bottom of their hearts!
I like to study medicine, listen to lectures given by military doctors, and read medical textbooks written by Miss Ling.
Some of them were fond of embroidery, designing new patterns and gaining the admiration of female students. That was a kind of happiness and satisfaction that they could never get at home, in a small courtyard, or in a boudoir.
They bravely told their mother that even if their father was reinstated, they would still like to stay in the college to study.
When the third batch of officials was sent to the border town, it was the cabbage harvest season.
Because the officials in the refugee camp had been behaving well recently, Jinsui asked them to go and watch the cabbage harvest together.
The newly arrived official was very reluctant and shook his sleeves, saying, "How can an official appointed by the court run to the fields as soon as he arrives? We have an important responsibility."
The first two groups of officials noticed their mentality and felt like watching a show, but also sympathized with them. So when we first came, we had such an attitude that deserved a beating! No wonder Miss Ling was angry! Then Cheng Yu said something that made them all run to the fields voluntarily, which was: "Chinese cabbage is a new vegetable in the border town, with an output of 4,000 kilograms per mu!"
Just like the officials who had watched the sweet potatoes and land being harvested before, the officials' first reaction was to pick their ears, and then look at Cheng Yu with contempt.
We are from Chang'an, not from the mountains! Do you officials from the border town want to suppress us officials from Chang'an, so you lie like this? The funny thing is that when they saw the cabbages that looked like fat babies in the fields, these people still didn't believe it.
They were convinced that this was a trick played by the people in the border town until they pulled out a vegetable root themselves, peeled off the old leaves, looked at the emerald-colored leaves and the white jade-like stem, and tried the weight.
Only then did I believe that these were real vegetables, and vegetables I had never seen before.
Then we weighed the cabbages after harvesting them, and we did so after peeling off the old leaves, because the old leaves were to be fed to cattle and sheep. We had been growing cabbages for more than half a year and had harvested them several times, so there was no need to falsify the yield per mu.
Even so, one acre still weighs more than four thousand kilograms!
Successfully shocked the newly arrived officials! The former produced 3,000 kilograms of grain per mu, and the latter produced 4,000 kilograms of vegetables per mu.
This border town is not a frontier wilderness at all, it is clearly a Feng Shui treasure land!
Jinsui didn't want to repeat what he had said before, nor did he want to use warnings, deterrence, and punishment again. The officials in the refugee camp had not graduated yet, so there was no need to add new members.
She directly handed the new officials over to the first batch of officials and said, "You are responsible for helping them get familiar with the border town.
Don't blame me for not explaining clearly, if something goes wrong, we will all be held responsible!"
I don't want to waste my time talking to you people from Chang'an.
Yan Shiyi spent the whole day chewing tomatoes and watching the joke: "Whose fingers are you going to cut off this time? Whose beard are you going to shave? Who will be sent to the refugee camp to do hard labor?"
Jin Sui rolled her eyes at him and said, "I am kind-hearted, gentle and quiet. I hate violence the most. Stop slandering me!"
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