The wages for Xu Genbao's house repair were finally determined by Tian Gui: "When Village Chief Jiang repaired the house, it was fifty coins a day."
Genbao meant well by wanting everyone to have money for the New Year. The amount of money doesn't matter, it's about us rushing to finish the work. Let's keep it fifty coins per work point!
With him mediating, Xu Gensheng, Xu Genqing, and the others didn't say anything more.
If each family can get a little over a hundred coins, they can buy two catties of meat, a catty of sugar, and a catty of oil to have a good New Year.
Even this small wish cannot be fulfilled!
Xu Genbao had previously earned five or six taels of silver, which he not only had to buy timber but also pay the craftsmen in charge of ink. Now, he couldn't pay each household in full, so he could only give each household fifty coins and leave the rest unpaid.
Fifty coins it is, life goes on!
As a result, each household whose name was listed in the ledger received fifty coins, which caused quite a stir.
Jiang Zhi found out about what happened in the village the next day, but she didn't go down the mountain.
Ever since the house was repaired in the village, she has been busy with her own affairs every day.
In the few days before the Lunar New Year, I tidied up the house on the cliff that had already been emptied.
The medicinal herbs were piled up inside the house, and the kang (heated brick bed) was kept for later use in drying things.
Xu Genyou and the others will handle the village affairs. He is just the village head, not the head of the household, and it is impossible for him to take on the affairs of every household.
Li Laoshi recounted how Xu Genbao distributed money to each household.
He laughed as he spoke, "This time, Wang Xiaoju acted like a real person, she was bolder than Xu Genbao, and even the trolls didn't say anything to her."
The term "argumentative person" originated from Jiang Zhi's description of Xu Gensheng, and Li Laoshi picked it up and used it every day.
Jiang Zhi smiled. Wang Xiaoju was a girl who grew up in the town. In terms of cunning and courage, Xu Genbao was indeed no match for her.
It's good that people can stand up for themselves.
As long as you walk the right path and don't have crooked thoughts, you'll eventually get ahead. The worst thing is to have a crooked mind and give up on yourself.
Li Laoshi continued, "Xu Genqing borrowed one tael of silver from me. He had an IOU written by Xia Xiucai and Xu Gensheng as guarantor, so I gave him the silver. Here, this is the IOU. I lent him the silver, so you have to pay it back."
As he spoke, he took out a piece of white paper with a promissory note written by Xia Xiucai and the fingerprints of Xu Genqing and Xu Gensheng on it.
Jiang Zhi agreed to lend money to the villagers, but she needed an IOU and a guarantor.
If this condition is met, Li Laoshi will immediately take out one or two taels of silver for emergencies.
If the loan exceeds one tael of silver, it can only be collected the next day, pending Jiang Zhi's consent.
This would both relieve the villagers' anxiety and prevent Li Laoshi from making rash promises.
"Alright, the New Year is almost here. I'll go down the mountain tomorrow to wish Clerk Zhao a Happy New Year in advance and also check on the situation in the village!"
Jiang Zhi received the IOU and repaid Li Laoshi for the money he had advanced. She planned to go down the mountain one last time before the New Year. Although she had already bought all the New Year's goods for the family, she still needed to buy some fresh meat.
In addition, we should also pay New Year's greetings to Zhao Shuli and Zhang Juntou.
Jiang Zhi, being a village woman, naturally didn't offer money. Instead, she packed the dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and dried fungus grown by Chunfeng into separate packages. Having such mountain produce was already quite prestigious.
There were only five days left until the Lunar New Year. The post station had not yet stopped working, but only some finishing touches had not been completed.
A row of neat houses stood on the open space by the roadside, the widest part of which was a livestock shed. Timber and stones were scattered haphazardly on the open space, and the construction site was in a mess.
Compared to his smooth and gentle demeanor a little over a month ago, Zhao Shuli, the supervisor in charge of the project, was noticeably more disheveled and irritable.
At this moment, he slammed his fist on the table and angrily yelled at the foreman and migrant workers who came to report: "For such a small matter, you've had to redo it several times. Do you even want to celebrate the New Year?!"
The foreman complained, "The workers want to go home; they're just too exhausted to keep going!"
Jiang Zhi understood Zhao Shuli's frustration. With the end of the year approaching, those who work overtime and still can't go home are usually in a bad mood.
"If you can't do it, I'll whip you. This is your last chance. You must finish it by today. If it's still not up to standard when I inspect it again tonight, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Clerk Zhao issued his final ultimatum.
The foreman left with a long face. Almost half a day had passed, and they needed to hurry to finish the work that night.
He walked along muttering curses, and the migrant workers under his command refused to put in any effort, only wanting to get by.
This kind of thing happens all the time. That's how we used to do things. A group of people would work outside until they had enough time and then leave. If the work wasn't finished, we'd wait for the next group of people to finish it.
But this time no one came to replace me, so if I don't do a good job, I can't leave!
Zhao, the clerk, was also furious. A section of the official road that needed to be widened had repeatedly collapsed, and the edges of the fill piles were unstable, requiring rework several times.
In the past, the tax would have been collected by force and "in lieu of labor," with money spent to hire workers, and county officials would still get a share of the profits.
But now that Magistrate Zhang is here, taxes are waived, so without money, this is the only way we can manage!
However, when he saw the mountain produce that Jiang Zhi had given him, Zhao the clerk smiled kindly and praised Jiang Zhi again and again. He also made a request: "Village Chief Jiang, since your village can pay taxes and grain in advance, can you also start your corvée labor in advance and do it for next year as well?"
The people of Xujia Village are hard workers; they can repair more than a dozen houses a month. If you take a couple of days off to work, you can finish your own job.
Jiang Zhi immediately refused: "We already took it last year. Alas, Zhao Shuli doesn't know that I, the village chief, was almost drowned in spittle. At that time, a group of refugees were starving and unruly. It was tough!"
He used a few words to shirk this thankless task.
Twice-cooked pork is delicious, but making it twice is difficult, especially since it's often leftovers from someone else's cooking.
Why not just relax and wait for the New Year? Why make yourself angry?
After exchanging pleasantries with both Zhao the clerk and Zhang the commander, Jiang Zhi returned to the village.
Now that the new houses have been built, the entire village has undergone a dramatic transformation. She had just crossed the intersection when she encountered several children running around outside.
Tian Xiaoquan and Shi Houzi were hiding behind a haystack when they saw Jiang Zhi and jumped out: "Village Chief Jiang!"
Jiang Zhi looked at the two children's full grass baskets and their faces, which were covered in snot from the cold: "After you finish picking the grass, hurry home. What are you doing standing around outside?"
Xu Caiming stood guard at the intersection for a month, and his post was removed once the houses in the village were repaired.
The thatched shed hasn't been demolished yet, and the village children come over from time to time to check on the migrant workers.
After a month of strict security measures, the migrant workers knew that outsiders were not allowed to enter Xujia Village.
With the children watching over them, almost no one comes to peek anymore.
Stone Monkey pulled up his pants, wiped his snot with the back of his hand, and said with a smile, "Old Lady Qin stole Sister Lotus's money to go to the market. We'll wait here to see what she buys."
Jiang Zhi frowned immediately. Qin Shi had been peaceful these past few days, and she thought she had changed her ways. Why was she starting to steal Lianhua's money again?
"How did she steal it? What else do you know?" Jiang Zhi started asking these honest Li acquaintances.
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