Chapter 60: Building a Pier 2/3

Not long ago, Zhang Yunquan announced that henceforth, the townsfolk would have to pay a penny every time they used a public toilet, and wealthy families like theirs would have to pay a monthly fee of one or two taels of silver for sanitation services.

Before Zhang Yunquan’s downfall, those who didn’t want to provoke him, like Wu Baichuan, had already paid up.

Wu Baichuan feared Zhang Yunquan greatly, so when Hong Hui approached him earlier, he agreed without hesitation. However, after a few days, Zhang Yunquan fell.

Seeing this situation, Wu Baichuan naturally didn’t want to listen to Hong Hui anymore. Hong Hui also realized this and invited Wu Baichuan to dinner once again.

Upon entering the tavern, Hong Hui immediately heard the storyteller recounting the story of Magistrate Guo solving a case.

That Magistrate Guo had only solved a few ordinary cases, yet he was being portrayed as almost divine!

And as for Magistrate Guo dealing with Zhang Yunquan… Magistrate Guo’s actions were clearly about seizing power. Only the ignorant masses would believe otherwise!

After calming his mood, Hong Hui ascended to the upper floor. Last time, he had waited early for Wu Baichuan, but this time, he deliberately arrived late.

Moreover, whereas he had been courteous and welcoming to Wu Baichuan last time, this time his attitude was lofty, and he didn’t even show Wu Baichuan a friendly face.

Hong Hui’s lofty demeanor actually intimidated Wu Baichuan. Initially determined not to collaborate with Hong Hui, Wu Baichuan ultimately chose to continue their partnership.

“If you do business with Jin Xiaoye, who is my enemy, it’s equivalent to opposing me,” Hong Hui concluded. “I trust you will make the right decision.”

Wu Baichuan could only say, “Rest assured, Young Master Hong, I will help you.” Rejecting Jin Xiaoye’s goods would only result in some financial loss, but if he collaborated with Jin Xiaoye, he would offend Hong Hui!

His relatives lived in Chongcheng County, and he didn’t want to get into trouble.

In the end, he was just helping to suppress a small merchant, which wasn’t a big deal.

Jin Xiaoye had no idea about Wu Baichuan’s intention to breach the contract; she was busy making the items Wu Baichuan had requested.

The deposit Wu Baichuan provided was inadequate, so she had to invest all the money she had and even borrow some from Sister Wang.

“You’re really meticulous,”Sister Wang remarked to Jin Xiaoye.

“Wu’s shopkeeper is taking the goods to sell in the capital, so I have to be careful,” Jin Xiaoye replied.

“That’s right,” Sister Wang agreed, nodding. “We can’t let others think that our Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop produces inferior goods!”

Last night, while chatting with Li Qingzhi, Jin Xiaoye was advised to give her shop a name.

Although Jin Xiaoye didn’t have a shop yet, there was no harm in choosing a name early.

The name should be simple, so they settled on “Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop.” Li Qingzhi also suggested that Jin Xiaoye embroider a small leaf as a mark on the more valuable products to quickly establish the reputation of the Jin Ye Embroidery Workshop.

Jin Xiaoye accepted Li Qingzhi’s suggestion and informed Sister Wang and the others about the name today.

Upon hearing that they had a workshop, Sister Wang and Mrs. Xu were particularly pleased and had already begun considering the workshop’s reputation.

As they were discussing, someone came to deliver completed work and brought news: Magistrate Guo was going to publicly interrogate Zhang Chuqian and his men.

A public interrogation? That sounded interesting! Sister Wang kept talking about it and even wanted to go and see.

However, she was just thinking about it. She wasn’t really willing to squeeze in among a bunch of smelly men.

The “smelly men” referred to here were literal – it was cold today, and most people hadn’t bathed, so many of them had an odor.

Time flew by, and it was time for Magistrate Guo to publicly interrogate Zhang Yunquan and his henchmen.

In the past few days, Li Qingzhi has been going to the county town every day, providing some advice to Magistrate Guo. Meanwhile, he also took a stroll around the county town.

Today was the day of the public interrogation, and Li Qingzhi arrived at the county government early.

However, he didn’t participate in interrogating the prisoners. Instead, he found a place and started writing.

Magistrate Guo wanted to be a good official, and Li Qingzhi intended to help him achieve his dream.

As for how to help… it would start with this winter’s corvée.

Corvée was a general term that included many things, including military service.

When there was a war, the government would send people to villages to recruit suitable individuals for military service. The strong and young would go to the front lines, while the weaker ones would do tasks like transporting supplies.

Of course, Daqi was not currently at war, so most of the time, the common people would engage in corvée to contribute to national infrastructure projects.

When the original owner’s father was the magistrate of Yu County, he would annually have the people reinforce the Yao River embankment. These people didn’t receive wages, and sometimes they even had to bring their own food; this was corvée.

The original owner’s father was a good person who didn’t excessively exploit the people doing corvée, nor did he allow the officials to beat them. With just this, the people of Yu County considered him a good official.

Generally speaking, the poorer the area, the more terrifying corvée was for the people, as they might have to do heavy labor and could easily become sick or die due to insufficient food.

In Yu County, many people would die each time they reinforced the riverbank.

Chongcheng County was relatively affluent, so there were very few deaths from corvée.

As to why… with the people being wealthy, they could bring more food, and with their bellies full, they wouldn’t easily succumb to exhaustion from heavy physical labor.

Moreover, officials in affluent areas didn’t lack money, so their temperaments were relatively better. They wouldn’t casually beat or scold the people who were doing the corvée.

Under this virtuous cycle, there were fewer deaths from corvée.

But there would still be deaths; after all, the medical conditions of that era were very poor, and the common people were still afraid of corvée. Basically, those who could afford it would choose to pay a sum of money to the government to exempt themselves from corvée.

The Li family was too poor to afford it, so Li’s father had participated in corvée many times—Li’s second father never participated in corvée. Whenever there was corvée, it was always Li’s father who went.

According to Li’s father, it was very hard every time he participated in corvée. Fortunately, he was small in stature and thick-skinned; he could cry to the officials, which led to him having to do less work.

The food given by the Li family was not enough, so he would shamelessly ask for food from others, even eating the leftovers that the officials didn’t want.

Although the officials looked down on Li’s father, they didn’t mistreat him.

Later on, when Li’s father turned forty, he no longer needed to participate in corvée.

The common people in Chongcheng County didn’t all do corvée in winter; sometimes it would be in summer. Generally, they did corvée in summer to clean the river channels, and in winter, they would repair bridges and roads.

The corvée work for this winter was to repair roads and docks.

In the ancient times without any machinery, this was an extremely arduous task, especially since the ones doing the work were often the poorest and most malnourished individuals.