CHAPTER 426: CHAPTER 423: THRIVING AND PROSPEROUS

The crowd quietly waited for Village Chief Wang to calm his emotions.

Village Chief Wang first looked at a woman in the crowd: "Sanjin’s mother."

The woman had just lulled the child in her arms to sleep. Suddenly hearing Village Chief Wang call her, she raised her head in a daze.

Village Chief Wang gestured with his hand: "Come over, you earned the most money, totaling two strings and two hundred thirty copper coins."

Sanjin’s mother, Mrs. Zhu, was a quiet woman, not good-looking, and shorter than average women. Her first child, Sanjin, as her mother-in-law put it, was not much bigger than a piglet, with the weight of only three pounds all together.

Mrs. Zhu’s husband passed away last winter, and the burden of two elders and two children suddenly fell on her shoulders, making Mrs. Zhu feel it would be better to die at times, until Sanjin suddenly fell ill.

Mrs. Zhu still remembered the look in Sanjin’s eyes, trying hard to comfort her. Sanjin said, "Mother, I’m not afraid. Even if I die, I won’t know or feel sad. When I wake up again, I might be your son once more. Besides, if I’m gone, there will be more food for you. You eat too little... it pains me to see that."

Mrs. Zhu cried until her eyes turned red. At that moment, she decided to cast aside her sorrow and truly support this family. She always hoped for officials from the Daqi Court to come, thinking that perhaps there would be a turning point when they arrived.

Then, Song Jiedu came, and people from Zhenzhou arrived, and the Commandery Princess set up spinning wheels in the village.

Mrs. Zhu had waited for this opportunity for too long. She learned to use the spinning wheel, spinning thread tassels just like Liu Erniang. She poured almost all her energy into it because she knew nothing came easily.

In this way, the seldom-speaking Mrs. Zhu became the most industrious worker in Wang Family Village.

Mrs. Zhu, carrying her child and holding two strings and over two hundred copper coins, felt bewildered, as if everything was a dream.

"Sanjin, you come too," Village Chief Wang said, "Here are your ninety-six copper coins."

Sanjin looked at his string of copper coins, looking excitedly at Mrs. Zhu: "Mother... look, I have money too, I can earn money too."

Their voices were so loud that they woke the daughter on Mrs. Zhu’s back. Hearing the child’s crying, Mrs. Zhu snapped back to reality. Everything was true, not a dream.

Sanjin ran into the crowd to show Hu Zi: "Brother, I told you, we all have money."

Village Chief Wang simply called over Hu Zi and the others, distributing the money for these children.

Hu Zi returned to his usual clever self, starting to plan how to use the money, to save some to buy things for the Commandery Princess.

Village Chief Wang smiled and said, "Take the money home and discuss what to do with it. Your family doesn’t have much rice left, right? With elders and children, go buy some rice and bring it home. The house is also in bad shape, if you need help from the villagers, just come and tell me."

Mrs. Zhu opened her mouth, wanting to say many things, but not knowing where to start, so she bowed to Village Chief Wang and softly said a few words: "Thank you, Village Chief."

The heavy copper coins, held in her arms, gave Mrs. Zhu a feeling she couldn’t describe, but warmth filled her heart.

Village Chief Wang began to call the names of others. The villagers following were given around two strings of money, with the least getting one string and five hundred plus copper coins.

The villagers, after receiving the money, didn’t know what to do for a moment, all lingered in Village Chief Wang’s courtyard, not leaving.

"Look at your lack of ambition," Village Chief Wang said, "Why are you all standing around? Do you think the money isn’t enough, and want me to give you more?"

"No, no..."

The villagers hurriedly denied.

Wang Lao Liu was pushed forward by the crowd: "Village Chief, we just want to know, is all this money really for us? Isn’t the wool and spinning wheel brought by the court and Zhenzhou? Do we need to return this money to the court? Zhenzhou can’t just help us for nothing..."

So that was the reason.

Village Chief Wang, both amused and exasperated: "I already explained it to you all when I returned from Prefect Qu. After the new county magistrate took office, I went to the government office again, and upon returning, told you that the money for the wool will be returned to the government office after the thread tassels are taken away by the caravans, and we don’t have to pay back Zhenzhou all at once."

"The money in your hands was given after deducting these. You don’t need to give it to anyone. Spend it as you wish, but don’t waste it. You need to buy food and clothing for your family, eat well to have strength, and prepare until after spring cultivation."

Now the goods have been sold, and the money distributed because spring planting needs to start. Everyone can prepare the necessary things and, after being busy for two or three days, will begin farming officially.

After Village Chief Wang finished speaking, the villagers of Wang Family Village looked at each other and started chatting in the courtyard.

Village Chief Wang was quite annoyed listening to them: "I spent a day calculating accounts with the caravans, then went to the government office to verify, and then calculated and distributed the money to you one by one..."

Before Village Chief Wang could finish, the people of Wang Family Village said: "Village Chief, you’ve worked hard."

Village Chief Wang extended his hand: "What I mean is, I’m very tired, and if you have more to say, go home and say it. I need to rest."

Only then did the crowd understand and quickly said their farewells to the village chief and exited.

Once everyone finally left, Village Chief Wang took a deep breath.

It was finally peaceful.

"Husband," Mrs. Ge came over and said, "How should we spend this money? When shall we go out to buy rice and grain?"

Village Chief Wang closed his eyes, smiling with a mix of helplessness and joy. No matter how tired he was, having money brought a sense of security beyond words.

"Let’s go buy now," Village Chief Wang said, "Buy as much as you want, we have the money."

But before that, he needed to gather his energy to make a trip to Xinzhou, to thank the Military Governor and the Commandery Princess on behalf of the whole village, and to help the Dai State government office bring back supplies for spring cultivation.

Last spring cultivation, Xie Liangchen was in Zhenzhou, but this year she was busy in Xinzhou.

The newly appointed Prefect of Xinzhou reported to Song Xian yesterday that with the plow oxen, Xinzhou’s fertile land would all be planted with crops. But that was not enough to satisfy Song Xian, who also wanted to reclaim land.

Reclaim the land and plant medicinal herbs on the mountain.

The Prefect, along with the county magistrates and other officials, worked the fields with the common people on the first day of spring cultivation, indeed boosting morale.

With the plow oxen and farm tools arranged properly, after seven or eight days of hard work, several county magistrates of Xinzhou were almost in tears. They were truly exhausted but also saw results. With favorable weather, there would be a good harvest in the autumn.

Among these county magistrates, two were students of the Capital Governor. Thinking back to when they left the capital, remembering the hand their teacher placed on their shoulders...

It turned out that their teacher had predicted correctly. The trip to the eight states was even more arduous than they had imagined. Song Xian was different from others, not tolerating the slightest carelessness.

With Song Xian, there’s no such thing as being unable to accomplish something. Everything must be done to the utmost effort.

Even if something couldn’t be done well, they shouldn’t think of asking for forgiveness in front of Song Jiedu. Instead, they needed to figure out a way to solve it first.

The officials coming from the capital quickly changed, looking haggard as if they had rolled in the fields.

The officials from the Ministry of Revenue visiting the eight states, upon arriving in Xinzhou, suddenly found they didn’t recognize these colleagues. They were then invited all the way to the government office by the officials of Xinzhou, and were greatly astonished.

This wasn’t a government office, it was surrounded by villagers at the door, holding plow oxen and farm tools, as if they had moved the farmland here.

A Ministry of Revenue official couldn’t help but ask: "Where is Song Jiedu?"