Chapter 204 [The Bold Mr. Hu]
Jiang Lili only learned from what the groom said that when Lord Hu was the director of the Smelting and Foundry Bureau in Shu, he was in charge of a large quarry.
At that time, Emperor Qingning's younger brother, Prince Cheng, was building large-scale projects in the prefectures and counties near Shu, creating new cities and plundering the quarries in Shu. Prince Cheng was seriously injured while helping Emperor Qingning ascend the throne, and became frail and sickly with heart disease. Emperor Qingning was very indulgent to his younger brother.
The stonemasons in the quarry worked all night long to mine, and several miners collapsed from exhaustion every day.
Most of the stonemasons also suffered from various sequelae due to the three-month-long labor, such as mental exhaustion, eye diseases, muscle strain due to staying underground for a long time... In short, they were worn out.
The amount of work increased, but the wages did not increase much, and the stonemasons were miserable.
After Lord Hu wrote several letters to the emperor without success, he could no longer bear it and used his own salary to subsidize the stonemasons, trying his best to reduce the burden on them and improve their living conditions, but it was only a drop in the bucket.
Later, King Cheng was building a city, but he felt that it was too expensive and the silver required exceeded his expectations, so he stopped the construction.
The half-built new city was abandoned and became a deserted city.
King Cheng left everything alone and went to the capital to ask Emperor Qingning for money, reminisce about the past, and eat and drink to his heart's content. He even owed the quarry a balance.
However, due to over-exploitation, the quarry's mineral resources have been exhausted and there is almost no ore left to be mined. If this is reported, the court will simply close the quarry.
However, this quarry employs more than 3,000 stonemasons. Once the quarry is closed, more than 3,000 stonemasons will immediately lose their source of income.
These more than 3,000 stonemasons are the backbone of their families, and there are 3,000 families behind them!
The stonemasons vaguely knew that the quarry would be closed, so they came to Hu Chen for help because they knew that Hu Chen was a good official who would make the decision for them.
Hu Chen did something daring. He concealed the news of the depletion of the mineral resources and wrote a document saying that there might be gold mines under the quarry. He also forged some signs that would appear when there were gold mines underground. However, mining gold mines required purchasing auxiliary tools, renovating mines, and daily maintenance... Anyway, he tried every possible way to cheat money from King Cheng.
When King Cheng heard about the gold mine, he immediately waved his hand and allocated a large sum of silver to the quarry, allowing them to mine the gold.
Lord Hu distributed all the silver to the laborers, allowing them to recuperate. During the day, he sent 10 people to the mine to pretend to fish. At the same time, these 3,000 laborers were still receiving wages from the court. They fished in troubled waters for half a year and were finally discovered.
In the past six months, Lord Hu has gradually settled these stonemasons and found other jobs for them.
When King Cheng discovered that Lord Hu was deceiving him, he was so angry that he wanted to send someone to beat him to death.
However, these 3,000 stoneworkers and their families, a total of over 10,000 people, all pleaded for Lord Hu and wrote a letter in blood. The workers spontaneously formed teams to relay the letter and, after untold hardships, delivered it to the capital.
As people passed on the good reputation of Lord Hu, which had already spread throughout Shu, it became even more famous.
Faced with such a good official who loves the people like his own children, if Emperor Qingning ruthlessly allowed Prince Cheng to lynch Lord Hu, he would be standing on the opposite side of public opinion and felt that his throne was too stable.
So the cunning Emperor Qingning not only punished Lord Hu, but promoted him to be the governor of a county, but he was still the governor of the newly established Dan'er County on the south bank of Haizhou Island. This move was a promotion in name only and a demotion in reality. It was called a promotion but it was actually the same as exile. It could both calm the people's public opinion and appease his younger brother, King Cheng.
The reason why Lord Hu dared to do this was that he had anticipated that this day would come. He had already divorced his wife in advance and left all his savings and house to his wife and children.
After the groom and Jiang Lili finished talking about Lord Hu's deeds, they sighed with emotion, "I can't imagine what our Haizhu County would become if a brave and resourceful person like Lord Hu became the governor!"
Jiang Lili didn't dare to think about it, because Lord Hu was now in a completely bad state, the kind that only moved when pushed. If she hadn't heard about Old Man Hu's achievements from the groom, she would almost suspect that Old Man Hu worked so hard to make fire poles in order to obtain a roast duck and three big meals a day. But now it seems that Old Man Hu is still a good official who loves the people like his own children, and he has not changed.
This explains why Lord Tong Hu left these exiles who were sent to open up wasteland alone. If it were a county magistrate like that of Haizhu County, he would have left them alone and let them go up the mountains and down the sea to collect treasures such as agarwood and tortoise shells.
After thinking about this, Jiang Lili felt like she had survived a disaster.
She thought again, when she received the news from the Haizhou government office that they were to be the first group to go to the south bank to open up wasteland, was it a coincidence, or was there someone helping them behind the scenes?
Afterwards, the groom introduced Jiang Lili to the customs and culture of Haizhu County, but Jiang Lili's heart could not calm down for a long time.
"My lord, we're here!"
The groom shouted, bringing Jiang Lili's thoughts back to reality.
"If you need to travel later, please let the innkeeper know in advance."
The groom had a bright smile on his face, radiating optimism and cheerfulness. "I'm well-informed. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."
"Thank you very much."
Jiang Lili winked at the escort Cen beside her, and Cen gave the coachman a reward of some kind.
The coachman took it and drove the carriage away happily.
Bizhu Inn.
As soon as Jiang Lili showed the golden peony seal, the innkeeper arranged for Jiang Lili and the escort to stay in the best room of the inn. Soon, a maid prepared a wooden barrel full of hot water for bathing, and also thoughtfully brought dinner, oysters stewed with snow clams. The service was excellent.
The truth lies in the details. Jiang Lili feels that He Xiuzhu is someone worth working with.
After taking a shower and having dinner, Jiang Lili's fatigue was swept away. Calculating the time, Wen Qiao should be able to reunite with the seven-member pirate team that was sent out in the next two days.
I don’t know if it was telepathy, but when Jiang Lili was about to contact Wen Qiao, Wen Qiao sent her a message.
@Wenqiao: Li Li, is your team's flag patterned after a pear blossom? I saw a ship through my telescope.
Jiang Lili excitedly typed in response: [Yes! ]
It seems that we can see the current situation of this mysterious country of Mi today.
Jiang Lili and Wen Qiao initiated a video call, not only to verify the identity of the crew members, but also to facilitate Jiang Lili to observe the situation at any time and work with Xiaopang to provide timely support to Wen Qiao.
Jiang Lili was actually quite worried that Wen Qiao didn't have enough manpower, but when the video was connected, Wen Qiao was followed by a bunch of strange people!
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