dognovel Chapter 53 A Cruel and Harmful Corrupt Official!
Chapter 53 A Cruel and Harmful Corrupt Official!
By the time Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had painstakingly completed the registration of all the residents of the sixteen villages in Ningyang County, more than half a month had passed. The residents of the eight communities and sixteen villages inside and outside the city had already finished harvesting their wheat before the Grain in Ear season.
In the open space in front of the county government office, the head of Jia Yilu was directing the villagers of Jia Yilu to separate and arrange their wheat. The yamen runner Liu Ergou was leading an ox, which was harnessed with a yoke consisting of a yoke shuttle, a stick, a throwing pole, a hook, and a rope. The rope was connected to a stone roller.
After the people had spread the wheat out evenly, Liu Ergou shouted and gently tugged the rope on the ox's nose ring. The ox lowered its head, arched its shoulders, and started walking forward, with the stone roller behind it rolling forward with a clatter.
The millstone rolls over the wheat, crushing and flattening the straw and crushing the grains off the ears of wheat. After rolling it several times, the people collect the grains and let them dry in the sun. Then, they use a heavier stone mill to remove the husks from the grains and repeatedly roll them until they become coarse bran and fine flour.
Throughout the process, the wheat straw after threshing is dried and bundled by the people to be used as firewood. The ash from burning the straw is also collected and spread on the fields as fertilizer in the fall.
The outer husk that comes off wheat grains is called wheat bran. Its best use is as feed for chickens, pigs, cattle, and horses. However, when the harvest is poor, wheat bran is mixed with wheat bran into flour and becomes part of the people's staple food.
In order to survive, the people of Zhongyuantangkou have squeezed every last drop of juice from the wheat.
Wearing a seventh-rank official robe, Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, stood on the steps of the county government office, watching all this with a gloomy face. The clattering sound of the millstone grinding wheat only made him more agitated.
Who would have thought that the wheat harvested from the nearly forty acres of wheat fields belonging to the thirty households in Jia Yilu would not even cover the open space in front of the county government office?
After Liu Ergou drove the oxen and pulled the millstone to repeatedly thresh all the wheat, the people of Jia Yilu swarmed forward, repeatedly beating the wheat straw from their own homes, picking off all the remaining wheat grains by hand, gathering all the wheat grains, and piling all the wheat straw on an open ground in the distance.
Limpy Wu, accompanied by three or five yamen runners, used scales found in the county yamen's warehouse to weigh the items one by one.
"One hundred and twenty jin!"
"Ninety-five jin!"
"One hundred and thirty jin!"
"..."
As Limpy Wu finished weighing all the piles of wheat and reported the weight, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng's face immediately became even more gloomy.
Based on Yang Shaofeng's experience reading novels before his transmigration, even if a mu of wheat didn't yield three to five hundred jin, it should at least yield two hundred jin.
The weighing results before him shattered Yang Shaofeng's illusions—without the shells on and without long-term drying and dehydration, the average yield per mu was less than 150 jin!
Damn it, in Jiayi Village, there are thirty households and one hundred and twenty-three people. They are relying on this little bit of wheat to survive until the autumn harvest.
If the bean harvest is good after the autumn harvest, that's fine. But if the bean harvest is bad after the autumn harvest, how will the people of Ningyang County survive?
……
Just as Magistrate Yang Shaofeng was having a headache over the wheat harvest in Ningyang County, a caravan of dozens of carriages was heading towards Ningyang County on the main road from Yanzhou Prefecture.
When they were still half a day away from the county town, Wang Qiong, the head of the caravan, reined in his horse, raised his hand to signal the caravan to stop, dismounted, and instructed, "You may rest here for a while. I need to go to Ningyang County first."
The convoy stopped as ordered. Wang Qiong changed out of his official robes and put on a blue scholar's robe to disguise himself as a scholar. He then had a donkey brought over from the convoy and, with his page, took a detour to the west of Ningyang County.
On the surface, Wang Qiong was sent by Zhu Biao, the Crown Prince and Executive Vice Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to deliver some rewards to Magistrate Yang Shaofeng. In reality, he was sent by Emperor Zhu Chongba to observe the strengths and weaknesses of Ningyang County, with the key goal of figuring out the background of Magistrate Yang Shaofeng.
For example, their reputation as officials, their personal conduct, and how they treat the people.
Since he needed to investigate the situation, Wang Qiong naturally wouldn't take the main road, much less the south gate that faced the main road.
Wang Qiong chose to take a detour, heading north from the east, passing through the west gate of Ningyang County, and then quietly entering the city to scout out the situation. Once she had gathered enough information about Ningyang County, she would return to rejoin the convoy and then openly enter the city through the south gate.
They had only gone a short distance past Dongshu when Wang Qiong reined in his horse again. He looked at a field by the roadside with a bewildered expression, then looked at his page: "Are these yamen runners helping the people with their work?"
The page boy, equally bewildered, looked at the busy constables and young men, then at his master, and replied, "It seems that's how it is."
It's not surprising that Wang Qiong and his servant were confused. Ever since they had any memories, the yamen runners had been officials responsible for collecting taxes from the people. They had never heard of yamen runners helping the people with their work.
But in Shawo Village, not far north of Dongshu, Wang Qiong saw several yamen runners driving oxen to plow and turn the soil, while several women followed behind them sowing seeds and then kicking soil to fill the ridges.
The oxen were strong and turned the ridges quickly, while the women were slow at sowing and filling the ridges. Before long, they were left far behind. The strong young men leading the oxen didn't care and just drove the oxen to turn the ridges in the adjacent fields.
At the edge of the field, an old woman was tending a small clay stove with a kettle of water boiling on it. Next to it was a small table with a large basin steaming on it, and next to the basin were a dozen or so rough porcelain bowls filled with water.
Wang Qiong looked at it for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he simply got off the donkey, walked to the old woman's side, cupped his hands and said, "Auntie, I'm from Jiangnan and I'm thirsty. I'd like to ask you for a bowl of water. Is that alright?"
The old woman hurriedly stood up, first wiping her hands with the corner of her clothes, then pushing a large, rough porcelain bowl filled with water toward Wang Qiong: "Young master, please have some water."
Wang Qiong didn't pretend. She picked up the bowl, took a sip, and found the water was neither too hot nor too cold. She then gulped it down in a few mouthfuls. After putting down the bowl, she said, "Thank you, Auntie."
The old woman waved her hands repeatedly, saying, "It's nothing, it's nothing. If the young master is tired, he can sit down and rest for a while."
Wang Qiong thanked the old woman, lifted his clothes and sat down on a wooden stool next to her, smiling as he asked, "Auntie, the man leading the ox in the field looks like a county yamen runner? Does this land belong to those yamen runners?"
The old woman smiled and shook her head slightly: "It's true that the ox-leading men are yamen runners from the county government, but this land belongs to Shawo Village, not to those runners."
Wang Qiong became even more curious and asked, "Where are the villagers? Why are the yamen runners helping to plow the fields with oxen?"
The old woman said, "All the able-bodied men in the village have been taken away by the county magistrate to dig lakes, and the women who are more diligent and quick have also been taken away by the magistrate to work in the workshops. There is simply no one in the village who can take care of these lands."
"Fortunately, the magistrate sent these yamen runners to help lead the oxen and plow the fields. The remaining clumsy women and teenagers sowed seeds and filled in the ridges. I, an old woman, have bad legs, so I stayed here to boil water for them."
Despite it being the hottest time of the year after the Grain in Ear solar term, Wang Qiong was so angry at the county magistrate the old woman mentioned that her hands and feet turned cold and her limbs trembled. This was the Grain in Ear solar term! What kind of corrupt official could force people to dig a lake during this time?
Just as Wang Qiong was getting angrier and angrier, the old woman said, "Actually, this is for the best. With those women working in the workshops, many families will have no one to cook. The young and strong men in the village might as well go dig the lake."
Amid the old woman's rambling words, Wang Qiong felt that she had pieced together the "truth" of the matter.
Yang Shaofeng, who appeared out of nowhere, was rescued by the Ming army by chance. With his silver tongue, he bewitched Chang Yuchun (Chang Pingzhang) and Xu Da (Xu Xiangye) and was appointed as the magistrate of Ningyang County.
Then, this corrupt official "forced" the people under his jurisdiction to collect chicks and piglets for him, and also "forced" them to harvest wild grass, which he then sold to Chang Pingzhang and Prime Minister Xu's army as fodder, thus deceiving Chang Pingzhang and Prime Minister Xu into rewarding him with a large number of cattle and horses.
Then, the corrupt official forcibly conscripted able-bodied men from Ningyang County to dig an artificial lake, and also forcibly conscripted skillful women to work in his own workshop.
Then, the corrupt official sold the lighters made by the women to Prime Minister Xu and Chang Pingzhang, tricking them into praising him. He himself then acted like a tyrant in Ningyang County, and would have the able-bodied men whipped to vent his anger if anyone disobeyed him.
Suppressing his anger, Wang Qiong inquired about the location of the so-called artificial lake from the old woman, then bid her farewell and hurried towards the lake with his page.
When they arrived at the artificial lake, Wang Qiong was so angry at the sight before her that she almost fainted. She wished she could kill the county magistrate that the old woman had mentioned right now!
A dozen or so constables, some with disabilities, were either resting and cooling off under the shade of trees or patrolling the construction site. You could even hear their loud shouts and curses from afar.
"Hurry up! Haven't you all eaten yet?!"
"Anyone who delays the master's arrangements will have to think twice!"
"Hurry up, you guys digging the ditch! The dogs can't just eat for free!"
"..."
Wang Qiong grew angrier the more he listened, but when he thought of Emperor Zhu Chongba's instructions and the entrustment of Emperor Zhu Biao, the Executive Vice Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had to suppress his anger.
No, I must personally expose the true colors of that corrupt official surnamed Yang!