Ling Ce led his men to escort Magistrate Wu and his entourage to Guangning Prefecture, where there was still much to be done.
Before leaving, he glanced at Shui Qing in the crowd, wanting to say something, but ultimately kept quiet and ordered his subordinates, "Let's go!"
Never mind, we'll know when the thank-you gift arrives. Talking about the gift in advance will only scare people and make them disgusted.
Anyway, he just said that these items are only compensation for Shanshui Village, and everyone should understand that this is not his way of thanking Hu Shuiqing.
Behind Shuiqing stood a few hundred people, young and old, from Shanshui Village. They waved excitedly and watched the large group of people walk away until they could no longer be seen. Only then did they excitedly rush to the livestock by the roadside.
"Don't scare the livestock! Lead them all back to the village, close the gate, and you can't keep an eye on them, can you?"
"Didn't you hear what the governor said? He's giving all the authority to Aunt Shuiqing. Anyone who has a problem with it won't get any!"
"Speaking of which, the governor must have come because of Ling Ran's influence. It's all thanks to Shui Qing and Jin boy. Otherwise, would the governor have come? Would he have given our village silver and livestock? What are you thinking? These are definitely gifts of thanks to Shui Qing and his family!"
"Yes, yes, let's not move yet, let's see how Sister Shuiqing divides it!"
People led horses and drove donkeys, rushing to the open space in front of the school. The last people closed the gate tightly, and everyone happily circled around the livestock to look at them.
They didn't care about the money; whether or not it was divided, or how much it was, was not their decision. Besides, everyone knew that these were gifts from the governor to Sister-in-law Shuiqing, so why were they getting involved?
But these livestock are different; there are dozens of them. Even if Sister Shuiqing were to share ten of them with the villagers, their lives would be much easier, whether they were busy with farming or out on the go!
Shuiqing, carrying a cloth bag filled with silver, invited the old village chief and the village's most capable elders to the study to discuss the matter.
Although Ling Ce gave her full authority, it was ultimately allocated to the entire Shanshui Village, so it would be better for everyone to discuss and agree on a distribution plan together—to share the responsibility equally.
The study room has tables and chairs. The elderly people sit in the chairs, facing the podium in front of them, and they seem to stand up straighter.
Shuiqing poured all the silver out of the cloth bag and carefully counted it on the podium.
Magistrate Wu was there to arrest people, so naturally he wouldn't have brought much silver with him.
However, when a county magistrate goes out with his entourage, his attendants will usually carry some silver in case of emergencies.
The refugees had no money, but the bandits and yamen runners all had some.
One or two taels or two or three taels of loose silver per person is not much, but there are so many people. More than two or three hundred people were searched and more than 240 taels of loose silver were found. Magistrate Wu brought whole ingots of silver, three ingots of twenty taels each and five ingots of ten taels each.
After counting twice to confirm the numbers were correct, Shui Qing looked up at the old men opposite her and said, "The total amount of silver is three hundred and fifty-three taels. How do you all think we should divide it?"
The old village chief, Old Man Xu, Aunt Li, Aunt Zhang, and their group originally thought that Shui Qing had called them over to inquire about livestock matters. However, upon hearing about the silver, especially the more than 350 taels of silver, they were so shocked that they almost fell off their chairs.
"Shuiqing, how much do you want?"
"What do you mean, 'how to divide it'? Isn't it you who's dividing it? No, that's not right, it's this much silver that's being divided among us?"
Let alone more than three hundred taels of silver, even thirty taels of silver would be a sum few of them had ever seen at the same time.
Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that there was so much silver. Shui Qing decided without hesitation to take it out and distribute it!
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