Chapter 143

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Song Miao

Since Cen Dezhang had agreed, Han Li did not press further face-to-face; he merely cupped his hands and asked politely, "I wonder until which day the extension runs? And what will the situation be at that time?"

"Is it only that the roster can be finalized, or can the reporting date for the corvée laborers also be confirmed? I wonder whether the various county yamen can arrange personnel to handle verification, registration, and the removal of corvée duties?"

He added, "Though it is troublesome, subsequent supplies must be arranged accordingly, so I must trouble Qian Zhongming to help give a definite answer."

Qian Zhongming frowned briefly, then smiled and said, "Let the student Han know: although this official is the one conveying things in the middle, I truly cannot control the progress of the various counties below."

He paused, then looked at Cen Dezhang and said respectfully, "But if the Tongpan wants a firm answer, I will find a way to ask—only I cannot guarantee it."

He sighed again, "It is not that I do not act; I truly cannot! The Tongpan knows: the people below each have their own ideas. We petty clerks reside in the prefecture, yet hold no authority; we can only urge them on. Once we urge too hard, there will always be cunning villains who seize the chance to fleece the common people, then push the blame onto the prefecture, so that the people below curse us in droves—please, Young Master Han, have a little more patience; this official will certainly do his utmost to follow up."

Having spoken, he excused himself on the grounds of being busy and hurriedly took his leave.

Han Li did not detain him, only turned to look at Cen Dezhang, neither praising nor blaming this Qian Kumu's conduct, merely saying, "Time is already tight; if we wait slowly, I fear it will be even more too late—what does the Tongpan think?"

Cen Dezhang sighed and said, "Zhengyan, I know you feel I am not strict in controlling my subordinates, but in the end I cannot push too hard. The craftiness of Hua clerks will not only ruin matters, but also harm people—do you know how the previous Tongpan left? It was because he pressed for the autumn tax to be handed in from below; in the end, layer upon layer of pressure, layer upon layer of fleecing, stirred up a rebellion in the lower villages. When the Judicial Inspection Office came to inspect, several cases did not match up, his performance evaluation was the lowest rank, and he suffered a formal reprimand and demotion."

"To accomplish things, one must still weigh two sides and proceed gradually. If it turns out badly, the clerks below remain clerks, while we officials are the ones who have to clean up the loose ends…"

Han Li nodded and asked, "This matter is urgent now. If I cannot wait for his side, and go find a batch of manpower myself to do it, would that work?"

Cen Dezhang was startled and asked, "Where would you go find manpower?"

Han Li said, "This is not an ordinary conscription of corvée laborers with forced apportionment. The court has allocated silver and grain. Now that disasters are everywhere, where could we not recruit some people to do the work?"

Cen Dezhang's face showed astonishment; he laughed and said, "Zhengyan, you… alas, you are still young after all. In water affairs, you have followed Fu Laoxiansheng for many years; your vision and ability are naturally far beyond others. But this matter of conscripting and managing manpower—it sounds easy, but is hard to do."

"Managing thirty to fifty people is easy; three to five hundred is barely manageable; but once it reaches three to five thousand, how do you manage? Right now, even with the clerks below leading the village heads, familiar with personnel deployment and the backgrounds of the corvée laborers, it is still difficult. How much more so for you, newly arrived, who may not even know the roads?"

Han Li said, "Those familiar with the backgrounds of the corvée laborers below are not only the clerks."

He added, "Empty words carry no proof. Let me first draw up a set of regulations; after the Tongpan reviews them, we can speak again. Is that acceptable?"

It was only a matter of reviewing a set of regulations; Cen Dezhang was no fool, so naturally he would not disagree. But after nodding, he added, "Don't rush yet. Wait two more days; I will urge Qian Zhongming to settle this matter. He is not stupid; he dare not drag it out too long."

The group of students reported to the prefectural yamen. Han Li arranged for them to each receive manpower, assigned river sections, and carry out hydrological measurement work. He also had people bring in local gazetteers and old documents from various counties, and set people to start combing through the old archives from today. Although there were many gaps and omissions, they could still serve for cross-reference.

Once arrangements were settled, they were busy for half a day. Seeing the hour had come, the students left behind to comb through the old archives—not a single one returned to the official post station; they remained in the yamen, busy without stop before a pile of old papers.

Han Li urged them, "Go back and eat first. Take advantage of this free time to rest properly; later there will be plenty of times for you to burn the midnight oil."

Because he drove them off, the people had no choice but to slowly file out together.

Han Li sent the people away, yet did not leave himself; he stayed in the yamen to work.

And that Kong Fuyang, seeing he did not leave, naturally did not leave either, staying on alongside him.

Everyone saw this and were long used to it. Once out the door, they could not help but whisper among themselves, sighing that being the leader is no easy task.

Someone said, "I sometimes think Leader Han doesn't need sleep—last time I got up in the middle of the night and came out, I saw the window of his and Kong Fuyang's room open. The sky was only just turning light, and he was already verifying figures and matching characters."

"If I had that energy, I might have gotten into the Taixue; who knows, maybe even into the Neishe!"

"Forget it. You think just spending time guarantees results? Last time he glanced once and caught a miscalculation of mine. Old Lu would have to calculate with yarrow stalks twice to match it, and even Kong Fuyang would have to carefully re-check."

"So the Taixue ranking really has its reasons; no wonder he ranks first, right?"

"What in the Taixue doesn't have its reasons? You don't know—I chatted with Kong Fuyang before and learned that Song Xiaoniangzi used to run a breakfast stall in the Taixue Back Alley, selling glutinous rice, shaomai, soups, and all kinds of food every day. With such good things to eat in rotation daily, how could Taixue students not study well!"

"No way?? Same students, why do Taixue students have such good fate! Why doesn't our academy gate have a breakfast stall like that!"

A group of people sighed with emotion, then someone else sighed, "Alas, now eating the official post station food, it's just filling the belly. I'm not even in a hurry to go back. Before, as soon as mealtime hit, my heart would keep thinking of it, wishing I could grow two extra legs!"

Someone chimed in, "Exactly. Now we have a place to live, and three fixed meals a day, unlike before when today we didn't know about tomorrow. I actually want to go back to the road to Hua Prefecture, where every day we had Song Xiaoniangzi's good food and dishes, just doing measurements and verifications, without having to deal with those troublesome clerks in the yamen."

"Right! I want to too!"

"Why not go back and tell Song Xiaoniangzi, ask her to help add a dish?"

"That wouldn't be right. Leader Han invited her; she's not actually in charge of our meals…"

"Secretly. If we give money, she definitely won't accept. How about we give her a gift?"

As soon as these words came out, the rest fell silent. You look at me, I look at you, and again they cast their eyes scanning randomly along the road.

After a moment someone coughed, pointing to another fork in the road ahead: "Last time I went to the front to eat, I saw a rouge and powder shop there."

Another said, "Since we're here, go take a look?"

"Exactly, it's right on the way!"

The group walked a teacup's time and finally found that rouge and powder shop. A bunch of them studied it for half a day, didn't buy rouge or powder, but pooled money to buy a box of hand oil, and went next door to buy several headscarves.

The student who suggested buying headscarves said, "I see Song Xiaoniangzi usually ties her hair with a cloth bundle when cooking. With these now, even if it rains more, she won't have to worry about headscarves not drying after washing!"

On the way back, seeing someone carrying a pole selling fruit by the roadside, someone said, "Buy some fruit! My sisters and Old Lady at home all love fruit; Song Xiaoniangzi surely loves it too!"

So the group went up and picked several baskets of fresh seasonal fruit, happily returned to the official post station, intending to find Song Miao—but came up empty.

Upon asking, they learned from the post station runner that Song Miao had gone out with Dabing in the afternoon to do business and had not yet returned.

For a moment everyone was dejected. They could only make do with the post station food, took turns going back to wash up, but no matter what, they had to leave someone outside to keep watch.

When Song Miao and Dabing returned and just entered the post station main hall, they saw two students sitting by a table inside. Hearing the sound, they stood up, each waving their arms anxiously, calling "Song Xiaoniangzi!"

She walked up and greeted them.

Those two hurriedly told her about wanting to ask Song Miao to help make a side dish tomorrow, and asked, "Don't know if it's okay, will it trouble the Young Lady?"

Song Miao smiled, "A trivial matter. I have to eat too; what's this about okay or not!"

She asked what they wanted to eat.

Both said, "Whichever is convenient to make!"

They hurriedly took out the pooled money, and took out the gifts.

Song Miao accepted the food money, saw the small package of gifts, but was slightly surprised and said, "Right now in the post station there are only us few people; not many remain. The rest have gone down to the various counties and villages. I'm only making one or two side dishes; how much time could it take? No need to send these things!"

One of them said: "Han Li already gave instructions earlier, saying that this time Song Xiaoniangzi was hired to manage people and affairs, and to handle the food for the laborers behind, so there's no need to mind us. It was just an accident on the road, unavoidable, and he told us not to make a fuss and disturb you."

Another followed up: "You've been eating so well all the way, and Song Niangzi has taken care of us. Even if there were no cooking to do today, we'd long have wanted to give some gifts, we just didn't know what to give. None of us are wealthy, we can't afford anything good, just these few unimpressive things—Song Niangzi, please accept them!"

He then introduced the hand oil: "Song Xiaoniangzi uses knives and water every day. I heard from the assistant that this is made from mutton fat. Rub it on your hands and it'll keep them moist for a long time!"

The student at the front had already laid out seven or eight headscarves on the table, all different patterns. Though the fabric was ordinary, there were so many that spread across the tabletop, they looked quite full.

Seeing how thoughtful everyone was, Song Miao hurriedly thanked them, then smiled: "Both practical and beautiful!"

Speaking, she took a bit of hand oil with a bamboo chip in front of the two of them, dabbed a little on the back of her hand, rubbed it in lightly to try it, then praised: "Especially moisturizing!"

The two students immediately breathed a sigh of relief, also gave the large flatbread a baozi and a small box of hand oil, then happily took their leave.

Song Miao returned to her room and had to consider what side dish to make for tomorrow.

Thinking that the baked flatbreads and steamed buns made at the Yi Guan Guan these past two days weren't good, especially the rice which was dry and hard, it would be better to make something with soup and water.

Just as she had some ideas, she suddenly heard someone announce their name and knock on the door.

Hearing it was Han Li, she found it strange and hurried to answer the door.

Han Li stood outside, his tone quite apologetic: "It's so late, truly disturbing you—it's just that Wu Gong of the Du Shui Jian, assigned to come to Hua Prefecture for water affairs, has arrived. He and his two subordinates came in a hurry and are anxious to get on the road. They haven't eaten dinner, and unfortunately the Yi Guan Guan cook has something to do and isn't here for the moment..."

Song Miao smiled: "Originally said Young Master was overly generous, now you're overly polite."

Han Li paused, smiled, and said: "I'll lead the way for Stall Owner Song."

It wasn't too late yet, but hearing that three people had come and none had eaten dinner, Song Miao simply had the large flatbread bring out some usable condiments. She followed Han Li and left first; the two didn't go to the front hall but went straight to the kitchen.

Three people were lighting lamps and pacing around in the kitchen.

Song Miao heard talking from inside.

A voice said: "Official business, Zheng Yan said he went to find someone. Why not wait? There's only half a pot of rice, dry and cold, can't be eaten!"

"Wait for what? What's wrong with dry and cold? Isn't it still rice? At a time like this, filling your belly is already refined enough. It's the middle of the night—where are you going to find a cook?" This was another voice, clearly older.

The old voice continued: "You're young and don't know things. I've been running around outside for years and know these Yi Guan Guan cooks well. They say they'll stand night watch, but after all they have families. Most cook dinner and run off. Unless it's urgent business, you and I aren't high officials or nobles—no matter how you call, you can't call them."

He added: "Besides, you've searched for half a day and there isn't a single vegetable leaf in the room. Even if the cook came, what then? If you wait, you might wait until tomorrow morning and still wait for nothing!"

Speaking, he told the other two: "Look, after soaking in hot water, isn't it soft? Pity the cabinet is locked, otherwise we could find some sugar to soak it—still edible. No sugar, there's salt. Even a couple of pickled vegetable strips would be enough!"

Speaking, came the sound of gulping down rice.

Han Li hurried in first, saying: "Official business is too urgent. I've already brought Song Xiaoniangzi here..."

His words hadn't finished when he saw Wu Gong wipe his mouth and show the bottom of his bowl: "There isn't a single meat or vegetable dish here. No matter how skilled a person is, they can't make something from nothing. Never mind, I've already finished a bowl of hot water soaked rice. I'm about five or six parts full. I'll eat another half bowl in a while and be full."

Song Miao followed him in. Seeing the situation, she didn't waste words. First she asked the number of people, then went to lift the pot and flip the lid.

There was only half a pot of leftover rice in the pot, by now soaked in hot water. Not even fried rice could be made. Everything else was locked in the cabinet, and outside there was no meat or vegetables to be seen.

Fortunately, at that moment the yi zuo heard the news and came in a hurry, but he didn't have the key to the food cabinet either. He opened the locks on two jars in the corner. Inside, besides rice and flour, there was only a small basket of eggs.

Seeing only eggs, and though they had quite a bit of their own dried goods behind them, rehydrating them takes a while. With empty stomachs, they might not be able to wait. Song Miao asked the three: "There are still some eggs. I'll make a side dish to go with the rice. Do you all prefer sweet and sour or salty?"

"Eggs can be made sweet and sour?"

"Any flavor at all. Thank you, Young Lady. However fast, however it comes!"

The two younger ones almost spoke at the same time. The older one said: "Pity there's no oil. If there were, frying me a purse egg would be enough!"

While speaking, Da Bing had already brought in a basket of oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, and other condiments.