"Okay, it's late at night, let's all take a rest." Mu Zichuan said.
Luo Fengtang nodded and quickly stood up.
"When will you leave for the county seat tomorrow? I'll row a boat to take you to the town's horse and carriage station." He said.
Mu Zichuan said: "I plan to go as soon as I get up. The sooner the better."
Luo Fengtang said: "Okay, I'll wait for you at the gate of the courtyard at dawn."
Here, Yang Ruoqing also stretched and stood up.
"By the way, you haven't seen your mother yet when you come back from this trip, right?" she asked.
Mu Zichuan was startled for a moment and said, "In the afternoon, while you and the third aunt and the others were cooking dinner, I asked the third uncle to row a boat to take me to the Earth Temple to see my mother."
Yang Ruoqing nodded: "It's good to see you."
"Your mother is so stubborn. She was ill and had a fever a few days ago. I asked her to come to my house to recuperate. She will not survive," she said.
A soft smile appeared on Mu Zichuan's face.
He looked at Yang Ruoqing with grateful eyes: "My mother told me, Qing'er, thank you for taking care of her."
Yang Ruoqing waved her hand: "As fellow villagers in our hometown, we should take care of each other."
"Okay, I won't disturb your rest, we're leaving too!"
She said, turning and walking towards the door.
Mu Zichuan followed to the door of the house and watched the two of them leave before turning back to the house.
Instead of undressing and getting into bed, he sat back down at the desk.
In his mind, he reviewed the two strategies for water control that Yang Ruoqing mentioned earlier.
After letting myself understand it better, I then picked up the brush and started writing seriously on the white paper...
…
Early the next morning, Luo Fengtang sent Mu Zichuan away.
The villagers all heard that Muzichuan had come up with a strategy to control the floods, and they rushed to the county seat to ask the two imperial ministers for instructions.
As long as the two imperial ministers in the county nod, water control will begin immediately.
By then, the floods will recede and everyone will be able to return to their homes!
Everyone was looking forward to it, craning their necks in hope that Mu Zichuan would come back soon.
And Yang Ruoqing was not idle either.
According to the agreement with Mu Zichuan, he went to ask for instructions, and she had to start preparations.
She first revealed the strategy of water control to Li Zheng in private, which required digging canals.
Digging canals requires manpower.
Where do you get this manpower?
Naturally, we have to leave from the village and several nearby villages.
As soon as Yang Ruoqing said it, Li Zheng and Yang Huazhong agreed without hesitation.
Li Zheng said: "I will go to the next few villages later, find their Li Zheng, and tell them about my service."
"Let every household in the surrounding villages prepare and send out labor," he said.
Yang Ruoqing listened carefully and nodded secretly.
As far as she knew, Daqi was almost the same as all the feudal dynasties in Chinese history in terms of service.
There are two main ones: first, unpaid labor.
Second, paid labor.
This unpaid labor means that in addition to cultivating the fields, farmers must also be recruited by the ruling class to do voluntary work during slack periods.
Build river embankments, build bridges and pave roads, etc...
Every household had to send a laborer to perform labor service.
The age range for service is sixteen to sixty.
During the service, the state does not care about food and drink, so you have to prepare your own dry food.
Of course, if you don't want to serve, you can pay someone to serve on your behalf.
The second type of paid labor is that the state uses money to recruit civilian labor.
Of course, the country's money comes from the sheep.
The exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes collected from farmers were then used to hire farmers to work.
Therefore, going around in circles, the prosperity of the people will be miserable, and the death of the people will be miserable. The common people will always be the target of being slaughtered.
…
Li Zheng went out for a walk and told everyone about his need to do corvee service.
The villagers suddenly started complaining.
"My house is flooded, I can't even eat, and I still have to work for the government. How can I live like this?"
"That's right, we have to prepare our own dry food. Everything we eat and drink is provided by Yang Laosan's family!"
"Hey, I can't live this life..."
When Yang Huazhong and others fed back the negative emotions of the villagers, Yang Ruoqing was calmly drinking tea.
"Everyone is not happy, and some people are blaming Mu Zichuan in private."
"He said he didn't come back to provide relief, but came back to harm everyone." Yang Huazhong said.
Yang Ruoqing twitched her lips and played with the lid of the tea bowl in her hand.
"Everyone wants to eat and sleep. If you sleep and eat, cakes will fall from the sky."
"But if you think like that, will the flood recede? Can the current difficulties be solved?"
"Do they really think they will just sit on a small island in the Tutu Temple and end their lives while our family rows boats to deliver porridge and steamed buns?"
Yang Ruoqing said.
His eyes fell on Mrs. Sun and several other women in the main room.
"Today's afternoon, I will deliver the last porridge and steamed buns. Tell them that from tomorrow on, we won't deliver any more, and we can't afford to deliver them, so they can fend for themselves!"
When Sun heard this, she was stunned.
"Qing'er, isn't this... bad?" she asked in a whisper.
Yang Ruoqing sneered: "I give them food as a favor, but if I don't give it to them, it's common sense."
"There are floods now. Even if the government doesn't come down and let them do corvee labor, those who have a little bit of consciousness will take the initiative to dig canals."
"We won't serve those who complain, let them fend for themselves!"
Such a domineering tone revealed indescribable decisiveness and courage.
Li Zheng and Yang Huazhong in the main room nodded secretly.
What does it mean to be able to retract and release freely? Qing'er has it.
In the afternoon, Sun and the others sent the last dinner and conveyed Yang Ruoqing's words exactly as they were.
At night, every household in the tent near the Tutu Temple could not sleep well.
The women were originally reluctant to send their men to do corvee labor, but now, with their hungry children in their arms, they had no choice but to make the men sign up at dawn.
Some lazy people want to sit back and enjoy the benefits, but they can't sit still now.
Because Yang Ruoqing said something.
For digging canals, every household must find a strong man.
Any house that doesn't smoke will stop providing food.
The next day, at dawn, the front door of Yang Ruoqing's courtyard was crowded with villagers who came to sign up.
All the men swam over with bare arms.
As soon as the courtyard door opened, everyone rushed in to sign up.
Seeing such a 'grand occasion', Li Zheng couldn't help but said to Yang Ruoqing: "Girl Qing, you are still the best. All of a sudden you come to conquer the corvee."
"In the past few years, our village has always been slow to collect corvee services from the government, which caused me to get scolded a lot by the security chief when I went to town," he said.
Yang Ruoqing curled her lips and smiled.
Use the big stick and the gold dollar together, this is the effect.
During lunch, Old Yang asked Yang Huaan, who was immersed in eating rice at the corner of the dining table.
"Boss, we are going to do corvee labor. We have to send out strong laborers from house to house. Have you done all the work? Which one should you send?" asked Old Yangtou.
