Chapter 18 Countermeasures (2)
After hearing Magistrate Meng's arrangements, Constable Shi's eyes widened, and he was very excited. He immediately took out the register he had made the day before from his bosom: "Sir, it turns out you had planned this all along. What I wanted to tell you coincides with yours. This is the list of refugees that I copied yesterday. If we count by families, there are a total of 323 households, and if we count by population, there are a total of 1,089 people."
Magistrate Meng was greatly surprised. He reached out and took the booklet, opened it, and saw that the entries were clearly recorded, and the ink was still fresh: "Why would Constable Shi suddenly think of registering the names of refugees?"
Officer Shi gritted his teeth but still didn't reveal that it was Li Xiaoxiao's idea: "Sir, I think we can't let them eat the grain in our granaries for nothing. Either we should return the principal and interest, or they should settle here and have their taxes deducted for the next three to five years. Otherwise, how can we expect you to pay out of your own pocket for such a large shortfall?"
Magistrate Meng was even more surprised. He had been in office for almost half a year, and Shi Yi was the least cooperative of his subordinates, often disobeying his superiors and being a very difficult subordinate to negotiate with. He never expected that on this matter, he and Qi'er would think of the same thing and both proposed to register the person's household registration in Biyang County.
This time, he was in agreement with Constable Shi, so he coughed twice and said, "In that case, I'll leave this matter to you. Where should the refugees settle down? Are there any procedures?"
Officer Shi's spirits lifted: "Sir, I only registered the refugees yesterday. I dared not act on my own without your permission. Please give me some time, and I will work with my brothers to figure out where to settle these refugees..."
Magistrate Meng coughed a few more times, his hands trembling as he picked up his teacup and took a sip before barely managing to suppress his cough: "You are not good at government affairs, so I'm afraid you won't have a perfect solution. Here's what we'll do: you should find the village heads of each township. The refugees need the help of the locals to settle down."
Officer Shi bowed and agreed, immediately setting about carrying out the task.
Magistrate Meng coughed twice more, then lowered his head to continue handling official business.
Chief Constable Shi was quite efficient; in less than two days, all the village heads from the five townships under Biyang County arrived at the county government office, filling the entire hall.
Magistrate Meng, his cheeks flushed, met with the thirty-odd village heads despite his illness and explained the county government's decision: "In this way, our Biyang County must settle these 323 households in five towns. I would like to ask you village heads if you have any suggestions on where would be most suitable to settle them?"
What? More than 300 households are to be settled in their town? In Dawu, 100 households make up one li, so these 300 households would be more than 3 li. Once they settle in their town, how much land will they have to give up? Moreover, these are all outsiders, and who knows how many of them are petty thieves or scoundrels. How can they accept these people coming to divide up their already meager land and assets?
Each village headman firmly held onto the best land in their respective villages, and even if they couldn't finish cultivating it and it was overgrown with weeds, they would absolutely refuse to give it away. So when Magistrate Meng finished speaking, the entire hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and each village headman lowered their eyes and didn't say a word.
Magistrate Meng was filled with worry again. These thousand people had no houses, no land, and no food. If they wanted to settle down in the local area, they would need the help of the village heads. But now none of them were willing to accept the proposal. What should he do?
Head Constable Shi glared and shouted, "What are you all doing? Our Biyang County doesn't have a large population. As far as I know, there are many wastelands overgrown with weeds in the western suburbs of Baima Town, entirely due to a lack of manpower. Now that people are settling here, we can finally turn these abandoned lands into farmland. How can you be so selfish, preferring to leave the land barren rather than accept these homeless refugees? They also have families to support, parents and children to raise, and their ancestors have made a living by farming. They are not monsters!"
The village heads were so humiliated by his scolding that they didn't dare to breathe, and not one of them dared to refute him.
Magistrate Meng sighed inwardly: "Since you have no ideas, then I will make the decision. Select ten village heads from the villages with the most wasteland, each responsible for thirty-two or thirty-three households, and arrange for them to be assigned to the villages under your jurisdiction. Each village should mobilize the villagers to help them settle down. They should ask the villagers to help with building houses and clearing wasteland. The labor they contribute will offset this year's corvée labor, and I will not levy additional corvée labor."
Upon hearing this, the silence in the hall finally dissipated. A village head with gray hair spoke up: "Sir, if there are 32 or 33 more households per mile, that's 120 or 130 households. What if they don't obey our orders?"
Magistrate Meng looked at him and said, "Now that they've settled down, they're under your jurisdiction. If they make mistakes or cause trouble, handle them however you see fit. If there are any issues that can't be resolved, they can come to the county office and I'll take care of them for you."
The village headman relaxed, and Magistrate Meng added, "But you must also be fair and just. You cannot gang up with the local villagers to exclude or oppress them just because they are from out of town. Since they have settled in Biyang County, they are citizens of Biyang County. Their taxes and corvée labor in the future will be no different from those of others."
The gray-haired village headman continued, "Sir, according to past practice, no taxes are levied on wasteland for the first three years before it is cultivated. We can ask the villagers to help them clear the wasteland and build houses, but how will we solve the problem of seeds, farming tools, and food for them before they get a harvest?"
All the village heads in the hall raised their heads, their eyes fixed intently on Magistrate Meng. This was their biggest concern. If these three issues were resolved, then at most they could mobilize the villagers to help them clear wasteland and build houses, and it wouldn't be free. It seemed possible that they could be exempted from this year's corvée labor...
This was another unavoidable expense. Even Chief Constable Shi looked at Magistrate Meng with a troubled expression. Seeds and farm tools were manageable, but the food for these three hundred households, which would take at least half a year, was no small sum.
Biyang County was too poor. Every village head in the hall was covered in patches, and this was the best-off among the hundred households in the village. You can imagine how poor the villagers were. They were struggling to feed themselves, so how could they have any extra grain to lend to these thirty-odd outsiders?
But the food problem remained unresolved, and the village officials absolutely dared not bring people into the village. What if they became hungry and started robbing the villagers? People were starving to death; they couldn't care less about such things…
Magistrate Meng thought for a moment: "Isn't the rice harvest almost ready for this year?"
Officer Shi was shocked, instantly understanding the meaning of his words, and couldn't help but step forward: "Sir!" Is Lord Meng going to lend this year's taxes to these refugees first? But these taxes are different from the county's grain reserves. These must be handed over to Prefect Song, who will then submit them to the Ministry of Revenue. If they are not paid in full by the deadline, Prefect Song can directly write a negative review on Lord Meng's performance evaluation and send it to the Ministry of Revenue. Unauthorized misappropriation of the Ministry of Revenue's grain is a serious crime!
Lord Meng raised his hand to stop him from continuing, and said gently, "I will write a letter to the Ministry of Revenue and His Majesty explaining the situation. If anything goes wrong, I will take responsibility. Shi Yi, I'll have to trouble you from now on. Select ten village heads according to the household registration and land area, distribute the refugees at the city gate to these ten village heads, and supervise their settlement progress. If you encounter any difficulties, just let me know."
The head constable's face was full of complicated emotions, but he couldn't think of a better way, so he could only bow and agree.
Several village heads stepped forward and said, "Sir, our village has lost several households in the past six months, and we are willing to accept these migrants to fill the gaps."
Magistrate Meng said with satisfaction, "That's very good. Shi Yi, make a note of this and assign the people to these village heads first."
With Magistrate Meng's approval, what could the village heads possibly refuse? Anyway, the rice harvest was almost here. After collecting the tax grain, they would lend it to the newly settled migrants to eat, and then repay them when the land they cleared and grew crops. Although it would take a while, they couldn't default on their debts, could they?
So the village officials readily accepted Magistrate Meng's arrangement and followed Constable Shi to the city gate.
Before they had gone far, they saw Magistrate Meng's attendant, Zhao Jian, rushing out of the county office and running forward with great speed.
"Hey kid, stop right there!" Officer Shi called out to him, frowning. "Why are you running so fast?"
Zhao Jian looked anxious. Seeing the village heads behind Constable Shi looking at him with curiosity, he leaned close to Constable Shi's ear and said, "Lord Meng has fainted! My father told me to hurry and fetch Doctor Xie."
Officer Shi's expression hardened: "Go now!"
Zhao Jian didn't dare to linger and ran quickly towards Huichuntang.
Officer Shi glanced back at the county government office and sighed inwardly. With a magistrate like this, he couldn't even muster the anger to be angry.
He's such a kind-hearted person, how could he be a county magistrate?
But did he do anything wrong? Chief Constable Shi was torn between two conflicting thoughts. He had been in office for twelve years and had seen four different magistrates. Some were indifferent to everything, some tried every excuse to add various fees to plunder the people's wealth, and some were obsequious and sycophantic. But he had never met anyone like Magistrate Meng, who, in order to save refugees who had nothing to do with him, had plunged himself into dire straits, not only giving them money and food but also getting himself sick.
In the end, Officer Shi sighed and thought, "Well, a soft-hearted magistrate, no matter how many faults he has, is still better than all those previous magistrates who were indifferent to everything and only focused on climbing the ranks."
Magistrate Meng is ill, and Biyang County has no assistant magistrate, so let's leave the rest to him, the head constable!
Head Constable Shi led the ten village chiefs to the city gate and loudly announced Magistrate Meng's decision: registered migrants would be settled in Biyang County from today onwards. Families who knew each other could be grouped together, with one village chief allocating 32 households. The three extra families would each choose a village chief and immediately return to their respective townships to settle down.
The refugees at the city gate were overjoyed. They had all been driven to desperation, but now they could settle down in Biyang County and be taken care of by the village head. They no longer had to worry about having nowhere to stay or starving to death.
As a result, the city gate was bustling with noise. The yamen runners went back and forth to assign people to the village heads. The earliest refugees who had arrived in Biyang County had been there for more than a month and already knew some families. So they quickly gathered together, chose a village head, packed their things, and followed closely behind the village head, afraid that he would run away.
After shouting for a long time, Chief Constable Shi finally managed to divide the people up and register all the households assigned to each village head before letting them leave.
Li Xiaoxiao sat on the tree, watching the lively sounds on the official road. The refugees, carrying their last few bags, followed the village headman happily toward their new village.
Migrants kept passing by, seeing her sitting in the tree and the old cow grazing leisurely under it, but their hearts and eyes were filled with anticipation for a new life, and they didn't bother to greet her at all.
Li Xiaoxiao jumped down from the tree and glanced back at the road she had come from. Most of the people had already left. It seemed that Constable Shi had persuaded Lord Meng to settle all the refugees in Biyang County.
It was getting late, and the oxen had eaten their fill. Li Xiaoxiao then mounted the cart back on the ox's back, cracked the whip, and said, "Old ox, time to go home!"
The old ox strode steadily toward the city gate, ruminating as it went.
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