Chapter 80 Corvée Labor
"Oh my! Guess what I found out today? The roof of the Xu family's house collapsed under the weight of the snow! It's the only house in the village whose roof collapsed this year, what a karmic retribution!" Sister-in-law Wei returned excitedly after going out for a while.
"Didn't the village pay for people to reinforce the roofs this year? How could it still collapse?" Wei's mother found it strange.
"Back then, the village head asked her to share the cost of reinforcing the roof, but she couldn't bear to part with those few hundred coins. She insisted that the village head was making trouble for no reason and refused to pay. So her house wasn't reinforced. Now look what happened, her roof collapsed. Luckily, she was lucky; she woke up after injuring her leg and had to call for help for a while before anyone came to rescue her. Otherwise, she might have lost her life."
"Where does she live now?"
"They were carried to the barefoot doctor's place, and they still tried not to pay for the medicine! They were almost kicked out again, but they stubbornly stayed there and wouldn't leave no matter how hard they tried to get rid of them," Sister-in-law Wei was always shocked by Xu's outrageous behavior.
"It's all her fault. Wei Xiaohu left after the New Year, and now Xu Shi is all alone at home. She has no one to take care of her injured leg," Wei's mother said. She didn't understand why Xu Shi was still causing trouble at her age. Both of her sons had fallen out of love with her. How would she live in the future?
Xu is now filled with deep regret. She stubbornly stayed with the barefoot doctor because the roof collapsed and no one was willing to help her repair it.
The villagers all knew her character. Helping her repair the roof was a thankless task, and they might even be criticized by her in the future, so they simply turned a blind eye.
Seeing that even the barefoot doctor was getting impatient, she had no choice but to pay someone to repair the roof, even at a high price of twenty coins a day, otherwise she would have nowhere to go.
That's why someone was willing to help her repair the roof, and they even offered to pay her daily wages. There was no other way; they simply didn't trust Xu's character.
Every day, Xu felt like her heart was bleeding as she paid the workers' wages. If she and the villagers had split the cost of reinforcing the roof back then, it wouldn't have cost so much. She had originally wanted to save money, but now she was actually losing a lot of money.
After the roof was built, the people became much more well-behaved. Knowing they had made a fool of themselves this time, they stopped causing trouble.
Spring arrived in the blink of an eye, and Song Yushu had already begun the work of harvesting vegetables and opening a restaurant. Just as he was about to take Wei's mother and the others to the restaurant to clean up,
The village head suddenly arrived with two bailiffs, saying that the county was suddenly conscripting laborers, and every household had to send someone. If someone couldn't go, they would have to pay silver to make up the difference, two taels of silver per person.
This is far too heavy for ordinary people.
"This time we're going to dredge the upper reaches of the Lishui River. The prefectural city sent people down specifically to supervise, since it's related to this year's spring planting irrigation," the village head explained.
However, this year many villagers would rather grit their teeth and pay the money than go to serve in the military, since even if they don't die, they'll still be left with health problems.
Few people in the village were willing to serve in the military, and the officials didn't make things difficult for them after they all paid their dues. They just noted their names and rushed off to the next place.
Other places weren't so lucky. Fortunately, it was only for a month, so it wouldn't delay spring planting. Otherwise, it would definitely have aroused public anger.
Everyone thought it was just a routine corvée labor and didn't take it seriously. Song Yushu thought so too. After the Wei family paid the money, they began to help Song Yushu clean up the restaurant.
The advantage of having Xiong Erni overseeing the restaurant is that it doesn't get dusty, but the courtyard needs to be tidied up properly.
"We need to buy another batch of piglets and sheep," Song Yushu said, seeing that the restaurant was almost ready, and began to make arrangements for the next steps.
This matter was always handled by Wei's father and his family, with Song Yushu providing the funds for their purchases.
The Wei family's empty pigsties and sheep pens have been cleaned up, and they are just waiting for a new batch of piglets to enter.
The pigs raised by the Wei family were all castrated, resulting in high-quality meat. People in the town loved to buy from them, and the family gradually gained a reputation. They could earn several dozen taels of silver a month just from selling pork, which was much better than before.
The first guests this year were the group of students who were about to go to the academy. When Zhou Chengyu saw them coming, he stopped reading in the room and played with them for a while before he was willing to go back to the academy.
Most of these students will be taking the exams this year, so they are being strictly managed after returning to the academy.
Song Yushu, considering that the food at the academy was not very good, did not let Zhou Chengyu live there. Instead, he preferred to send him to the academy when delivering goods to Taixing Restaurant each day and then pick him up in the afternoon.
Wei's mother nourished Zhou Chengyu with three meals a day, causing Zhou Chengyu to become quite plump. In the morning, she had to run a short distance to the academy to maintain her figure.
As a result, he seemed much more energetic, and Song Yushu was quite satisfied to see that he was in good condition.
"Master Xue, the food is on your table," Zhou Chengyu said, not wanting to disturb Master Xue too much as he was still helping them correct their essays.
"Don't rush. Take a look at the policy essay you wrote yesterday. The annotations are on the side; read them yourself," Xue Huai'an wanted to give him some pointers during the mealtime and didn't let him leave.
Zhou Chengyu naturally appreciated the gesture and picked up his own policy essay to read. He had thought it was quite good when he wrote it, but after reading the annotations, he realized his shortcomings. Compared with Master Xue, his views were too naive.
"Don't rush, there's still time. I asked you to write a policy essay every day so that you can recognize your shortcomings and make continuous improvements, not to discourage you..." After finishing the breakfast that Song Yushu had prepared for him, Xue Huai'an began to point out the shortcomings of Zhou Chengyu's policy essay and how to improve it.
Then he was given another task, and Zhou Chengyu was on the verge of tears. He knew that Master Xue was doing it for his own good, so he could only reluctantly complete it.
"News has come from the prefectural city that there are problems with this year's corvée labor," Magistrate Gu told Xue Huai'an as he arrived.
"It has only been half a month since the dredging was started, and dozens of people have already been injured or killed. This newly appointed prefect is far too indifferent to human life."
"Have you found out which department that prefect belongs to?"
"Who else could it be but the lackey of the infamous Imperial Uncle?" Gu Cheng sneered.
This imperial brother-in-law was not a relative of the Empress, but the elder brother of Consort Gao. Consort Gao was deeply favored by the Emperor, and even the Empress had to avoid her. Consort Gao's family also benefited greatly from her rise to power, and her elder brother called himself the imperial brother-in-law without anyone daring to question him.
Matching his arrogant style was the fact that this brother-in-law of the emperor was notoriously greedy.
His cronies were all like ravenous rats, plundering the people and amassing wealth during their tenure, turning the areas under their jurisdiction into a chaotic mess. Unfortunately, the newly appointed prefect was one of the worst of them all.
"Find out the situation first, collect the evidence, and then present it to the emperor, so that the emperor's brother-in-law won't turn around and bite back in front of the emperor," Xue Huai'an knew this famous emperor's brother-in-law before, and knew that even if this matter was brought to the emperor's attention, without solid evidence, he wouldn't be able to do anything to him.
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