Chapter 129: The Suffering Shift Craftsmen

The craftsman Huang Jiuer carried two bags of pastries and bought three strings of candied hawthorns. He wrapped them in a white handkerchief and walked for more than two hours before finally seeing the Jinchuan gate. After passing through Jinchuan Gate and reaching his home outside the city, it was already noon.

“Grandma, father is back! Father, I want a hug!”

A seven or eight-year-old girl ran out of the house and jumped into Huang Jiuer’s arms.

Huang Jiuer picked up his daughter and wanted to kiss her, but she covered her face and said, “No, your beard is prickly.”

Huang Jiuer laughed heartily and looked at his mother, who had come out of the house. He put down his daughter and knelt down to greet his mother, saying, “I respectfully greet Mother and hope Mother is in good health.”

“Get up. A craftsman like you doesn’t need to use such polite words,” Madam Liu, Huang Jiuer’s mother, said as she leaned on her walking stick.

“Father!”

“Father!”

At this moment, Huang Jiuer’s eldest son, Huang Erjin, and his second son, Huang Eryue, also ran out, joyfully shouting.

“I brought some pastries. Share them with your grandmother and little sister first. Also, I have some candied hawthorns.”

Huang Jiuer handed over the treats and watched the smiles on his children’s faces, feeling a deep sense of happiness.

Liu Shi sighed and said, “Try not to spend too much. Your eldest son, Erjin, is already grown up, and there will be expenses when he gets married. If you don’t have money on hand, it will be difficult, won’t it?”

Huang Jiuer’s face darkened a bit, but he quickly smiled and said, “Mother, I’ll be more frugal. After all, I only get to come home once a month.”

Madam Liu shook her head and said to Huang Erjin, who was eating pastries, “Go and see why your mother hasn’t returned yet. She rarely takes a day off, but now she’s gone out.”

Huang Erjin agreed and went to the inner courtyard.

Huang Jiuer helped his mother sit down, then brought a small stool and said with a smile, “Mother, I saw the Emperor today.”

“You saw the Emperor?”

Madam Liu looked at Huang Jiuer, shook her head, and said, “Let me think about it, you were probably hundreds of steps away from the Emperor. What does the Emperor look like, did you see him clearly?”

Huang Jiuer, feeling that his mother didn’t believe him, said in frustration, “Mother, I really saw the Emperor. He was right in front of me, as close as you and me. The Emperor even said that artisans are great, and your son is also great.”

Madam Liu raised her wrinkled hand and touched Huang Jiuer’s forehead, frowning, and said, “No fever? Why are you talking nonsense in broad daylight? How could the Emperor go to your run-down place?”

“It’s true…”

“Okay, okay, it’s true.”

“I…”

Huang Jiuer looked at his mother, not knowing how to explain.

Madam Liu sighed and said, “Jiuer, craftsmen are not great; they lead a tough life. Take your father as an example, he’s not even a resident craftsman but a shift craftsman. Do you remember how tough it was for him back then?”

Huang Jiuer lowered his head.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were two types of craftsmen: resident craftsmen, who lived permanently in the capital, and shift craftsmen, who were craftsmen from outside the capital.

The court organized the shift craftsmen into shifts, with each shift working for three years and then taking turns coming to the capital to work.

Some might think that going to the capital to work is a good thing; maybe you can earn more money and buy more land when you return home.

However, before you rush to see the land of the Li family, when you receive an order from the court, you’d better hug your wife and children, make arrangements for them, and then stand at the east end of the village for a tearful farewell.

For example, this craftsman is from Zhangzhou Prefecture in Fujian. Upon receiving the court’s order, he set out on his journey.

Wait, shouldn’t you prepare at least five taels of silver, and ask your wife for money, your wife sadly takes out three taels of silver.

This is our family’s last savings, so use it wisely.

A journey of over two thousand miles, considering the need to cross mountains, navigate winding paths, and the wear and tear of walking too much during the day, it’s bound to be aching feet, and for safety, rest is needed during the night. To reach the capital, it would take at least a month and a half.

Three taels of silver, which equals about sixty wen per day.

One flatbread costs less than ten wen, at least you can eat your fill.

Let’s go, hit the road.

On the first day, he ate three flatbreads, which cost him twenty-five wen. By evening, it’s time to find a place to sleep, isn’t it?

There’s an official relay station up ahead, but craftsmen are not allowed to stay there. However, next to the relay station, there’s a guesthouse where he can manage for a night.

Upon inquiring about the price, the minimum was twenty wen, right next to the horse stables, if you didn’t want to stay, just leave.

In the desolate wilderness, there was no choice but to pay.

Upon closer examination, not much money would be spent in a day, and after walking for more than ten days in a row, if your shoes were torn, you could take out a new pair from your bag. But if your feet got injured, what to do?

Yesterday, you ran over a hundred miles, but today you can only walk fifty miles?

With a slow pace, limited provisions, plus sleeping outdoors and inadequate nutrition, after twenty days, you fell ill.

After finally recovering from the illness, you checked your purse and found it empty.

There was no way around it. Even if you died of illness or exhaustion on the road, there would be no one to provide you with a coffin. So, you continued to move forward.

Begging all the way, it had been nearly two months, and you finally reached the capital city. You were nearly half-dead from hunger, but luckily, the court provided some rice to prevent you from starving.

You were working for the court, provided with food and shelter. Your health improved, and you finished your work. It was time to go back home.

But…

You didn’t have any money. How could you return home?

You looked longingly towards the palace, but the person inside was so stingy that they wouldn’t even give wages to officials. Who dared to ask for anything from them?

Oh well, after three months of labor, you hadn’t received a single coin.

You decided to use the little rice you had left to buy ten or so steamed buns and hit the road.

Unfortunately, your health wasn’t strong enough, and the weather turned cold. You caught a chill, but here, the local doctors saw you had no money, so they refused to prescribe any medicine. The pharmacies were equally unscrupulous; they wouldn’t dispense any medication without payment.

As a result, you perished.

Wait, not perished. When a doctor died, they used the term “卒,” but for common folks, it was just “死.”

You were a craftsman, not an official. You deserved nothing more than “死.”

Of course, the court wouldn’t mourn your death. After all, it adhered to the principle of hereditary succession. If you died, your son would come to the capital in a few years, and the court wouldn’t suffer any loss.

Huang Jiuer’s father was a shift craftsman, but compared to other shift craftsmen, he was somewhat luckier. Their family hailed from Huizhou Prefecture, and it was closer to the capital. Moreover, his father had more determination. When he embarked on his second shift assignment to the capital, he brought his whole family along and relocated to the capital.

Later, his father excelled in his work and got promoted from a shift craftsman to become a craftsman in the Directorate of Ceremonial’s Printing Office. But, due to excessive toil, he fell ill and eventually passed away.

Then Huang Jiuer took his father’s place and entered the Printing Office.

From Madam Liu’s perspective, all craftsmen appeared to be filled with sorrow, struggling, and lacking hope.

Let alone meeting the Emperor, even if they met the Jade Emperor, it would be the same.

Greatness?

Could greatness solve their hunger problems?

Could it arrange marriages for their grandchildren?

Huang Jiuer sighed in agreement. As he was about to stand up, he heard his wife Madam Wang calling out from behind, “Jiuer, your friends from the Printing Office have come to visit you.”

“Friends?” Huang Jiuer was puzzled. Although there were a few good colleagues at the Printing Office, most of them had already left to return home and be with their wives and children. Who could have time to visit today?

“Please, come in, sirs,” Madam Wang hurriedly invited them in and arranged for her son, Huang Erjin, to fetch some chairs.

Huang Jiuer looked at the visitors and was suddenly struck, with wide-eyed amazement, his legs weakened, and he knelt to the ground…

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