Chapter 123: Only Officials Who Can Get Things Done Without Money Are Good Officials
Going against the old man.
Besides increasing the difficulty of realizing your ideal, it will also deepen your advanced understanding of society and human nature.
That’s right, going against the old man, especially a group of powerful old men, you will absolutely taste the warmth and coldness of human hearts that you shouldn’t have to taste, the fickleness of the world, as well as betrayal by all and abandonment by kin, not to mention the ups and downs of life.
‘I will climb the Taihang Mountains with snow covering them, I wish to cross the Yellow River but it is blocked by ice.’
These two lines come from a poem personally written by Yun Ce when he had been serving as the full-time director of Manshui Township for three months and enjoying deputy section-level treatment.
Before writing these two lines, Yun Ce, as a nationally selected graduate, still had some heroic spirit and youthful vigor, bold and unrestrained.
Three months later, he suddenly discovered that his greatest role in Manshui Township was promoting the benefits of raising small-tailed Han sheep everywhere, encouraging the villagers to abandon goats with hard hooves, sharp horns, and vicious teeth.
Goats are easy to raise; they eat anything, and no matter where the grass grows, they can eat it—even grass roots buried in the soil; they can dig with hooves, gouge with horns, gnaw with teeth, and ultimately eat it all clean.
It can be said that where goats pass, not a blade of grass remains, and Manshui Township is located at the junction of the Gobi Desert and the plateau, with an extremely fragile ecosystem.
Small-tailed Han sheep are different; not only are they mild-tempered, but the best way to raise them is in pens—pastoralists just need to plant some alfalfa or the like to raise them easily.
1 Yun Ce talked until his mouth was dry, but the people in the township wouldn’t listen; worse, when he said too much, those barbaric semi-nomadic semi-agricultural rural folk would push him and tell him to get lost, and those unattractive rural women would spit at him.
1 This actually isn’t a big deal; grassroots work is inherently difficult.
1 What Yun Ce found hardest to accept was that he realized if no one pulled him out at this time, he would need at least ten years to get out of Manshui Township—and even that was under the premise that he successfully promoted small-tailed Han sheep and made a significant change to Manshui Township’s ecology.
1 A person has only a few decades in a lifetime, and these are the best ones; he didn’t want to tie these ten years to sheep—not even big-tailed Han sheep.
1 Hard work isn’t a big deal; being forgotten is the most terrifying.
1 Like a blade of grass on the wasteland; even if it blooms into a geranium flower, it’s just a geranium flower.
1 Yun Ce went to see Yun Linchuan; the hanging flower gate he could easily enter before, which was clearly his home, was now blocked by staff, requiring the old leader’s approval to enter.
1 Yun Ce drank tea in the small living room all afternoon before finally seeing Yun Linchuan.
1 What greeted him was a mouthful of spit Yun Linchuan had been saving up, which carried the smell of smoke, tea, and some leftover bits of green and red silk.
1 “If you really settle down and resolve to serve the people at the grassroots, I’d still think a bit more of you!”
2 That mouthful of complex-tasting spit, along with that soul-engraving humiliating remark, Yun Ce felt he could clearly remember even in his next life.
2 Fortunately, he endured it, determined to accept such humiliation to leave Manshui Township, that dead land.
2 Sure enough, after suffering extreme humiliation, Yun Linchuan’s expression improved again, and he even praised him for having the official’s knack for wiping spit off his face and pretending nothing happened…
2 From that day on, Yun Ce understood a truth: every person is like a brick, each has its proper place, and Yun Linchuan was the craftsman who could arrange where this brick went—some for building pigsties, some for repairing latrines, some buried in the ground as foundation—all could be allocated.
2 So, when Liu Changsheng and that Zhou Bo asked him in a consultative tone if he could go reclaim land in the empty area between the Great Wall and Iron Enclosure Pass.
2 Yun Ce agreed without thinking; after all, agreeing at this time would gain the maximum support—they had already discussed it among themselves and didn’t really need to be so polite with him.
2 Sure enough, seeing Yun Ce agree without hesitation, Grand Marshal Zhou Bo patted his shoulder twice to show satisfaction.
2 However, Yun Ce still made one request: could they wait until the current crop at Yun Family Manor was harvested before going, so as to accumulate some experience for better carrying out the next phase of work.
2 Zhou Bo thought Yun Ce was being fussy, Liu Changsheng saw it as a prudent and strategic move; in the end, the two reached a consensus—Sangluo Moon could set off north of the Great Wall.
2 The Great Wall exists on Earth too, but without defensive function, only tourism; over half of the ten-thousand-li Great Wall is rammed earth—it’s unknown what this world’s Great Wall would be like.
3 “Are we really going north of the Great Wall?” E Ji looked at the newly built house with reluctance.
3 Yun Ce took E Ji’s hand and said, “If we don’t go, we won’t even be able to hold onto this bit of industry.”
3 “My father died early; my mother always wanted to leave something for me. She labored and toiled her whole life, and in the end left me only eighty-two coins.”
3 “I want to make this place good, to leave to our children later.”
3 “Mm, that’s good; we won’t have just one child later—north of the Great Wall should have a share of industry too. With more industry, the children won’t fight over not enough to divide.”
3 “Later, give more to the obedient ones, less to the disobedient…”
3 “You’re right; the key is to be filial to you—give nothing to the unfilial ones, let them fend for themselves.”
3 “Still give to the disobedient, give to the unfilial—we’re the parents; this is our intent.”
3 Yun Ce sighed and embraced E Ji; he knew E Ji always wanted a stable and prosperous home—for which she valued wealth greatly—but even so, the family’s wealth wasn’t squandered on herself; she wanted to leave it behind and accumulate more, not wanting her children to be like her: orphaned young, enduring all the hardships of the human world.
3 This was a very kind woman, and the most normal Chinese woman.
4 Zhang Min, who had been missing for many days, returned, bringing many things this time; An Ji told E Ji that Zhang Min had brought all her belongings, and it looked like she would live at home from now on.
4 “Let her live in the west wing room; the east side is where my son will live.” E Ji wasn’t surprised upon hearing this.
4 An Ji whispered, “She should live in the small courtyard in the back; the east wing is for the eldest son to live in later, the west wing for the eldest daughter; as a concubine, she can only live in the back courtyard.”
4 E Ji disgustedly dropped the dog in her arms and said to An Ji, “What do you know? This dead dog only has a big mouth, nothing else.
4 The young master said Zhang Min is pretty good at fighting; there are many in the house who can’t fight—having her live closer means she can help faster if enemies come to attack the young master.
4 Also, decorate her room nicely; concubines like those flowery, flashy, shiny golden things—give her more to keep her from getting other bad ideas, which would ultimately lose the young master’s face.”
4 An Ji looked at E Ji admiringly, thinking she was the best first wife in the world; back when she was at Zhang Yaliang’s house, she had seen how Zhang Yaliang’s wife tormented the other female family members.
4 Zhang Min naturally didn’t know E Ji was putting on a show of inner courtyard tactics with An Ji.
4 She came this time because the high priest had gotten her out of Panxing Tower; from now on, she was Yun Ce’s adjutant and assistant, not some concubine.
4 Yun Ce finished reading the document Zhang Min handed over, then passed it to Feng An and Liang Kun to review; after both had read it, Yun Ce said, “Convicted prisoners, disgraced officials, deserters, prostitutes, women and children, caravans—besides the caravans, couldn’t they give me some normal people?”
5 Feng An added, “Most importantly, not one in here knows how to farm; if the high priest wants us to reclaim land north of the Great Wall, the personnel should be useful.”
5 Liang Kun followed, “I think they don’t think much of this reclamation effort; you can tell from the personnel assigned—maybe they think if it grows, good; if not, no big deal.
5 What they’re doing completely disregards our hard work; moreover, the allocation of farming tools, draft horses, new-style cattle, armed personnel, and initial reclamation provisions are all major issues—not one can be short.”
5 Zhang Min shook her head: “Don’t think about it; when I received this military order, the transport commissioner said all the materials, grain, cattle and horses you want must be figured out yourselves—he’s already done the utmost in benevolence and righteousness.”
5 Feng An immediately said, “Just giving us a bunch of mouths—how is that the utmost?”
5 Yun Ce flipped through the document and saw the headcount at the end, frowning: “Originally for three thousand people, now five thousand; looks like these extra two thousand are our source for provisions, tools, cattle and horses.”
5 Zhang Min nodded: “The transport commissioner didn’t say it outright, but that’s probably the idea; he also gave me a name, Ren Hu; I checked with colleagues at Panxing Tower—this is the notorious slave trader of Chang’an City.
5 I think we select two thousand unnecessary women and children, prostitutes and such from the five thousand, sell them for money, and buy back the materials, cattle and horses we need.”
5 Yun Ce thought for a moment: “That place needs long-term garrisoning; without women, no children, it’s impossible to form a city.
5 So, none of these five thousand—we sell not one.”
6 Zhang Min spread her hands: “You planning to pay out of pocket?”
6 Yun Ce laughed: “Building our own city—using our own money is more reliable.”
6 Zhang Min shook her head: “That’s Great Han’s city.”
6 Feng An looked at Zhang Min: “Yun City—how could it be Great Han’s? That’s my patriarch’s fief.”
6 “Fief? Only marquises have fiefs.”
6 Yun Ce clapped his hands: “Too far ahead now; first, think how to squeeze the initial development funds we need out of this Ren Hu’s mouth.”
6 Zhang Min puzzled: “Ren Hu is the one the transport commissioner arranged for us to sell slaves—not the fat sheep in your mouth.”
6 Yun Ce glanced at Zhang Min: “That’s exactly what the transport commissioner means.”
