He Zifeng stayed comfortably at home for two days. Little He Ran could pick up many wheat ears every day. Both He Zifeng and Qiu Yu were people who could spoil children, so they played around with him, using old bricks at home to make a small stove, grabbing a handful of peanuts and a few wheat ears from the small kitchen to roast on it. After roasting, they’d peel them open to eat the kernels inside.
That little bit wasn’t satisfying enough, so He Zifeng went to find some vegetables and meat, discovering that everything could be roasted. Especially meat with seasonings on top – it was quite fragrant.
Little He Ran became somewhat addicted, wanting to pull everyone to roast things to eat every day. A neighboring village happened to have a butcher who got some mutton. After buying it, they went to the river to find a smooth stone, scrubbed it clean, and roasted on it. The whole family became addicted to eating this way. Qiu Yu even kept this stone, so they wouldn’t have to look for one next time they ate. Little He Ran very much agreed from the side.
When He Zifeng sent the child away, autumn was already quite thick. Next time would be New Year. Qiu Yu was afraid the child would be cold and prepared some extra cold-weather clothes. When the child wasn’t by his side, he always felt somewhat uneasy.
He Zifeng went to work. When he arrived at the government office, everyone was present, and they looked at He Zifeng with all kinds of reactions.
Sure enough, Chief Zhu assigned the tax collection tasks. He Zifeng’s small team was assigned to Lingshan Village. They needed to collect fifty dan of grain. If there was no grain, it could be converted to silver or silk cloth. They had been paying insufficiently for several years. The accumulated debt over the years came to two hundred dan, which converted to silver was about one hundred taels.
He also issued a warning that this year, if anyone acted like last year, they would send more people for armed suppression. When hearing these words, everyone else gasped. This was a death order. If they couldn’t collect it, there would definitely be bloodshed.
The surrounding villages were all watching. If they all followed suit, then they couldn’t function. This time, whether killing the chicken to warn the monkey or showing respect to the monkey, they had to take action.
After the meeting, He Zifeng kept Chief Zhu behind to talk. Everyone was speculating that He Zifeng must be scared now and was thinking of countermeasures. Even Chief Zhu himself thought so, which is why when He Zifeng finished speaking, he was stunned.
He Zifeng called him just to say this? Chief Zhu repeated what he’d just heard: “You’re saying you want to redeem the villagers from the mine.”
He Zifeng made an “mm” sound. Chief Zhu didn’t know what he was up to. The mine had death quotas, and the money for redeeming people ultimately went into the pockets of a few administrators. They weren’t afraid of people coming to redeem – they were afraid no one would come.
Chief Zhu said: “Let’s go. We’ll go tell them.” Then they made a trip there.
When the fat official heard that they wanted to redeem all the Lingshan Village people at once – nineteen people, five taels of silver each, that was ninety-five taels of silver – even if the brothers divided it among themselves, each person could get twenty or thirty taels. He was immediately overjoyed: “I knew you, old brother, had extraordinary abilities. Since you’ve opened your mouth, I definitely have to help.”
Then He Zifeng paid the money. This money was what Sanshun had placed with him in advance – a total of one hundred taels of silver. The remaining five taels were his service fee.
Soon, these raggedly dressed people were picked up by him. These people had been beaten and scolded for years, and now their faces carried a numb expression. Even being rescued, they showed no emotion, sitting in the horse cart not knowing where He Zifeng was taking them.
He Zifeng drove the cart outside. A total of three horse carts squeezed nineteen people. Only the youngest person said: “They’re not planning to kill us, are they?” His voice carried some crying tone.
Originally he had just wanted to protect his family, but was caught and brought here to do hard labor. He really wanted to go home.
This sentence caused some ripples among people, but they quickly returned to lifelessness. Five taels of silver per person – who would spend this money to buy useless farmers like them? They heard five taels of silver could buy a clean, decent servant from a labor market. They were definitely being taken somewhere worse.
The eldest among them, whom they called Uncle Le, said at this moment: “If we die, we die. In the next life, let’s reincarnate properly and not be so tired.”
No one spoke anymore. After a while, Sanshun got on the cart but didn’t lift the curtain. His mood was also heavy – finally he had redeemed his own people.
All the way to Lingshan Village, the horse cart stopped, and only then did they get down. The driver drove the cart away. When they got off and looked, they were greeted by the entire village.
These lifeless young people couldn’t react for a long time. Then their eyes became like springs, gushing tears outward.
“Mother, your son was unfilial. I’m kowtowing to you.”
“Big brother, I never thought I’d see you again. Even dying would be worth it.”
“Yingmei, why did you wait for me? We agreed that if anything happened to me, you’d find someone to marry. Listen to me…”
The emotions accumulated in their hearts burst forth in this instant. Even the village chief at this moment had tears streaming down his face. Looking at these young men’s tired and thin bodies, he knew how much they had suffered. Originally he had prepared some words, but now he couldn’t say anything, just repeatedly saying: “It’s good that you’re back!”
Then he quickly had each family take their own children home. There were three who had no parents, so Sanshun took them to the village chief’s house first. Hot water had already been heated to let them wash and change clothes, then burn their old clothes – this would be saying goodbye to the past.
The bustling village entrance now had only the village chief left. The village chief still had tears in his eyes. He directly knelt down before He Zifeng: “Our entire village remembers your great kindness. When I go back, I’ll build you a merit monument and place it in our village ancestral hall for generations to worship.”
He Zifeng helped him up, but he broke down crying. When their ancestors chose the location for their village, they chose poorly. Over several generations it became more and more desolate. Forget about growing grain in the fields – even wild grass wouldn’t grow. What could they use to pay taxes to the government?
Last year, when he was kicked to the ground by several officers, the young men of their village fought with the officers. The village chief also felt hatred, wishing he could throw away his old bones and smash his own skeleton, as long as the village could survive.
Later it became a big incident and all their village’s young people were taken away. He had no face to meet his ancestors. But things had taken a turn for the better.
After Sanshun settled everyone, he went to find his father and heard him crying miserably, knowing he must be thinking of past sad events again. He quickly consoled: “Father, what will the benefactor think if you act like this? Today is a reunion day – please don’t cry.”
When the village chief heard this, he wiped his tears, took several deep breaths, and said: “I’m getting old and have developed the habit of crying.” Then he opened the small box beside him, which contained one hundred taels of silver arranged neatly. This was for paying taxes.
Then he took out five more taels of silver and said: “This is for you to buy wine and food.”
He Zifeng had received another dividend some days ago and knew they didn’t have much silver in their accounts. He said: “Keep these five taels of silver for yourselves.”
The village chief said: “There are many people making sacrificial offerings before the New Year, so our whole village can stay busy for a while. When heavy snow blocks the mountains, we won’t be able to get out. Then the whole village can learn more techniques for making things.”
The more they researched now, the more they discovered that what they had made before was just scratching the surface.
Sanshun introduced to He Zifeng that now they combined the whole village’s strength, everyone ate together, and all earnings were pooled. In some days, they would distribute wages according to skill levels, but the whole village would eat from one pot. Before, everyone ate chaff and vegetables, but now they could eat meat every meal.
The village chief now also knew that although they could earn some money, they couldn’t open for business every day. They could be busy three to four months a year. But just these three to four months could make them rich. They now depended entirely on Taoists to make money.
They planned to improve their craftsmanship further. After building their reputation, they could become a century-old craft village or something similar. The money earned, besides giving to He Zifeng and the others, was all used for school fees and practice. Even with money, no one mentioned building houses. Only this way could the business last long.
When He Zifeng heard this, he said: “Not bad.”
While they were talking, two officers walked over. These two were Big Fatty and Siye. Although they were the advisor’s people, they usually had decent relationships with all the brothers at the government office. Seeing He Zifeng there, Big Fatty said: “Brother He, I was afraid you couldn’t handle things here and thought of coming to help you. How about it? If they’re not behaving, you don’t need to be polite with them.”
These two had come with sabers. They said they were helping, but actually also played a supervisory role.
He Zifeng said: “No need for help. I’ve already collected the silver.”
Both were stunned. Then Siye smiled and came closer: “Brother He is still amazing.” Then he asked what had happened – he needed to investigate clearly and report to the advisor.
The village chief briefly explained. These two officers were greatly shocked that the village had thought of a solution in such a short time. They quickly went back.
When He Zifeng handed over the one hundred taels, the entire government office was shocked. When the county magistrate heard about it, he personally called He Zifeng inside to commend him. He had not only paid this year’s amount in full but also recovered the previous bad debts – this was solid merit.
The county magistrate said: “The deputy chief position is yours. No one can change that. At year’s end, go to the accounting office for ten taels of silver. In the future, you’ll still need to help me resolve concerns!”
In the advisor’s room separated by only a wall, his face showed shock: “He really collected it all?” It couldn’t be – even county people would have difficulty pooling together this silver: “Did he advance the money himself?”
Siye said: “They found a livelihood. The whole village makes funeral supplies, very exquisitely made.” He was quite impressed too. He knew what the village was like before, and now it had completely changed. They had literally changed their fate and achieved a great reversal. In such a short time – really amazing!
Siye secretly glanced at the advisor and said: “Then He Zifeng’s merit…”
The advisor was in a bad mood: “This time he really got a bargain!”
R : that slap in the face um
R tmi : More chapters next week !!
