Chapter 149: In Difficult Times, See The Light
Five million money to buy a city is really not much.
Converted to gold, it’s just over two hundred taels. If those two hundred taels of gold are exchanged to merchants who need gold, it’s possible to get six million money.
Yun Ce watched Liu Che leave Jingkou Pass with five or six personal guards, driving seven or eight horse carriages. Those seeing him off included Liu Che’s deputy general, counselor, clerk, and two artisans. Everyone felt some sadness unbidden, but no sense of guilt.
Back at Jingkou Pass, after Yun Ce formally took the main seat, clerk Sun Li brought up a large basket of bamboo slips.
After looking them over, Yun Ce sighed and asked, “How long has it been since you all received your salaries?”
Sun Li looked at Yun Ce with expectant eyes, cupped his hands, and said, “We haven’t received any salary since the fifteenth year of Yuanlu.”
Yun Ce calculated: now it’s the twenty-third year of Yuanlu…
“You mean you haven’t received salaries for eight years already?”
Deputy general Tan Kai’s mouth twitched, and he said in a low voice, “Nine years, nine years… haven’t received any.”
Counselor Li Cheng let out a long sigh and said, “The five million money the general took away is just his unpaid salary for nine years. That’s not excessive, right?”
1 Yun Ce’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces, and he slowly said, “Why didn’t you all leave?”
1 Deputy general Tan Kai’s wrinkled old face trembled as he cupped his hands and said, “Doctor Yun, where do you think old men like us should go, and where can we go?”
1 Yun Ce turned his gaze to clerk Sun Li’s face again and pointed at the basket on the ground, saying, “No one’s salary has been paid?”
1 Sun Li said, “We are owed nine years, the soldiers six years, the artisan households three years. Doctor, General Liu really had no money to pay everyone, so he chose to leave.”
1 Hearing Sun Li say this, Yun Ce quickly had Feng An bring out the carrier pigeon, swiftly wrote a letter, put it in a metal tube, and let the carrier pigeon take it away.
1 After sitting down again, he continued to ask, “Do you all agree to this private transfer like this?”
1 Tan Kai smiled bitterly and said, “At least, doctor, you are an official, an official of the Great Han. As long as Jingkou Pass is handed over to an official of the Great Han, we have no objections. It’s better than letting it go to waste.”
1 Yun Ce’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces once more and said, “If—and I’m saying if—I fully make up all the salaries the court owes you over these years, and from now on, salaries won’t be paid annually but monthly, and no longer in grain, cloth, salt, charcoal, and such sundries, all issued in the form of green money, can we make this Jingkou Pass prosper?”
1 Hearing this, clerk Sun Li dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowed heavily to Yun Ce, then stretched out both arms and said, “If the doctor means what he says, I, Sun Li, am willing to serve the doctor loyally, without a second thought.”
1 Yun Ce glanced at Sun Li and said, “Get up. We’re all officials after all; don’t lose face. Calculate exactly how much is owed over these years, down to every coin. The failure to pay salaries might not be entirely the court’s fault; it could have been embezzled midway.”
2 “Remember, once you get the money, I allow you one day to celebrate. Three days later, I want to see a clean Jingkou Pass.”
2 Sun Li stood up, smiling at Yun Ce, and said, “With money, caravans will naturally come. Shops will appear in Jingkou Pass, and it will gradually improve.”
2 Yun Ce stood up and said to deputy general Tan Kai, “I now have heavy responsibilities for reclamation on my shoulders, and I will ask Clerk Feng from the Reclamation Office to stay at Jingkou Pass to oversee things.”
2 “At the same time, Clerk Sun, Counselor Li, and you two artisans, come with me out of the pass. Bring people to the reclamation area to hurry and build houses. We must get it done before the snow falls.”
2 “Deputy general Tan is familiar with Jingkou Pass military affairs. With salaries and provisions not lacking, I want to see the army as it should be. If not, Deputy general Tan, I won’t tolerate a single rice sack or wine bag.”
2 Tan Kai opened his mouth with only a few teeth left, cupped his hands to Yun Ce, and said, “This general is incompetent and fears he cannot fulfill the duties of deputy general. Please select someone more capable, doctor; this old man can assist from the side.”
2 Seeing Tan Kai was very sensible, Yun Ce then placed the responsibility of guarding Jingkou Pass on Zhang Min. If this Tan Kai had dared to accept the appointment, his end would have been very bad.
2 Zhang Min had returned after receiving Yun Ce’s urgent carrier pigeon message.
2 Actually, Yun Ce’s letter arrived a bit late. Zhang Min hated this guy for selling out the border pass and planned to tear the disgusting corrupt official to pieces. After chopping off one of Liu Che’s arms, she received Yun Ce’s letter.
2 After reading the contents, Zhang Min was filled with mixed thoughts: one moment feeling sorry for this Liu Che, the next thinking the guy was hateful.
3 After hesitating for a long time, Zhang Min still apologized to the terrified Liu Che.
3 A cry of “killed the wrong person” made the man Liu Che cry like a newborn in the month.
3 The original city garrison commander had run away himself, and the remaining city still needed someone to guard it. No matter how you looked at it, Zhang Min, this woman full of justice, was the most suitable choice.
3 In the morning, Yun Ce threw off the blanket and got up. Seeing E Ji about to crawl out of the sleeping bag, Yun Ce helped her zip it up, touched her forehead with his hand, found it wasn’t so burning hot anymore, and soothed her to sleep well.
3 Leaving the tent, the ground was a vast white expanse, but fortunately it was all frost; the ground hadn’t frozen yet. Today’s main task was still plowing.
3 The red date horse had long refused to plow and didn’t know where it had gone. Yun Ce had no choice but to yoke the double plow onto a stupid ox. With a crack of the whip, the stupid ox began moving along the edge of the land plowed yesterday, continuing to reclaim wasteland.
3 The hillsides were full of people reclaiming and planting, but their attitudes were problematic. When Yun Ce stopped the ox and looked around, they bustled about furiously; as soon as Yun Ce resumed plowing, their movements slowed immediately.
3 Yun Ce wasn’t in a hurry. Everyone had tasks anyway. When night fell and they couldn’t finish, they would realize how stupid their current laziness was.
3 Here, slaves weren’t supervised; they could even run around freely. Even if men and women slipped into the small forest during work breaks, Yun Ce didn’t care.
3 He even encouraged it. After all, he wanted those newly born children. As for this batch of people, they should be the last slaves under Yun Ce.
4 Yun Ce had calculated that the temperature in the geothermal area was generally about six degrees higher than outside. Though only a six-degree difference, for slaves without enough warm clothing, it was the line between life and death.
4 Today, Yun Ce alone with one ox plowed ninety mu of land. He originally wanted to plow a hundred mu, but thinking of E Ji’s pale little face that morning when he left, he put away the plow before the sun set and led the exhausted old ox back to the geothermal area.
4 E Ji’s illness hadn’t fully recovered; she kept having runny nose, needing to wipe it from time to time. After too many wipes, her nose tip became red and sore, so she simply stopped wiping. When the snot flowed down, she sniffed it up; only when she couldn’t sniff anymore did she use a handkerchief to deal with it all at once.
4 Yun Ce tested the temperature on E Ji’s forehead with the back of his hand; her fever had completely subsided last night. Now, only severe post-cold symptoms remained.
4 The craftsmen and soldiers who came from Jingkou Pass were building a huge courtyard in the very center of the geothermal area. This would be the main living area for Yun Ce and the others in the future, and also the living area for all the small children. The edges of the geothermal area were where the slaves lived.
4 Though the central area was less than five hundred meters from the outside world, this short distance separated the small children from their parents into two parts.
4 Yun Ce believed that by next spring when flowers bloomed, the shadows of those slave parents would fade in the children’s hearts. Given the children a little more time, their shadows would completely disappear.
4 In the reclamation camp of over ten thousand people, aside from those children growing up carefree, everyone else, including Yun Ce himself, was working desperately.
4 Yun Ce believed the exaggerated saying “sow one grain in spring, reap ten thousand in autumn,” because here it was a common phenomenon. This farmland was actually a plain formed by soil deposited by the Qing River from the plateau long ago. Countless years of organic matter accumulation made the land here very fertile.
4 And all three hundred thousand mu were like this.
5 If the fields could be reclaimed all the way to the foot of that black mountain in the distance, Yun Ce figured there should be five million mu of such land. Five million mu of high-yield farmland could easily support a city of a million people.
5 “Cough cough cough…” E Ji coughed violently for a while. Seeing Yun Ce look over worriedly, E Ji rasped, “Find Zhang Min; I want to spank her buttocks.”
5 Yun Ce sighed and said, “She’s busy organizing Jingkou Pass’s troops. Let her off this once.”
5 “No, last time Young Master spanked vigorously too?”
5 Yun Ce scooped E Ji up horizontally, carried her into the tent, poured half a pot of water into her mouth, stuffed her into the sleeping bag to continue sleeping. For someone with a cold, there was no better way to recover than drinking lots of water and sleeping lots.
5 When night fell, Zhang Min returned, bringing E Ji a big pile of vulgar, unattractive, and worthless women’s items.
5 E Ji was very delighted, looked at them one by one, tried them one by one. In the end, finding none suited her when worn and not getting angry, she gave them all to An Ji and the others.
5 An Ji and the others, born into wealthy families, naturally looked down on them even more. In the end, Yun Ce took them to reward the most outstanding in the children’s group.
5 “A caravan has come to Jingkou Pass. This time they brought all cheap goods. They’ve discovered Jingkou Pass is wealthy now and plan to bring valuable good goods next time.”
5 “You bought all their goods?”
6 “Bought them all, useful or not.”
6 Yun Ce laughed and said, “Merchants are profit-seeking. As long as there’s profit, they will definitely make Jingkou Pass prosper.”
6 “But it’s still our money being spent.”
6 “Money is just a thing; it doesn’t matter whose it is. For a local official like me, money here is local money.”
6 Revised. Didn’t see anything inappropriate. Anyway, revised. If it still doesn’t post, I’ll start cursing.
