Chapter 421 - Wang Ci
Not only did he receive ice blocks, but like the monthly allowance, ice tickets were also distributed to the county yamen according to rank. The others in the county, however, didn't seem to share his misgivings. Wu Ya, who dealt with the Kun more than anyone else in the county, was eating and drinking in the yamen every day. This old schemer had actually taken to something called Langmu Wine from the Kun, along with its peculiar manner of drinking—mixing in some fizzing sour water, then adding crushed ice. Sometimes a few mint leaves were added too. It was said that drinking it relieved summer heat and quenched thirst quite comfortably. He repeatedly recommended it to Wu Mingjin, but Wu Mingjin felt this method, with water and fire mixing, ice and fire attacking each other, violated the principles of health preservation. He politely declined.
As for the Chief Constable, that was even more outrageous. Who does he even work for? Wu Mingjin fumed silently. The Chief Constable lived in the yamen but came running at the Kun' every summons. He was busy as a bee doing their bidding. When the Kun went to open mines in Nanbao, the Chief Constable led the yamen runners to clear the road, bustling about before and after. If they wanted paperwork done, he did paperwork. If they wanted land deeds drawn up, he drew up land deeds.
Why weren't you this diligent in the past! Wu Mingjin thought resentfully. From the increasingly ample food, clothing, and expenses emerging from the Chief Constable's household recently, and from his trips to the East Gate Market every "week"—this was the Kun' manner of reckoning time—the saying "money makes the mare go" was proven true indeed.
Wang Ci, the County Educational Director, was the most upright Confucian scholar imaginable. Wu Mingjin hadn't expected even him to seek the Kun' assistance. Now the several hundred mu of school endowment land outside the West Gate had practically changed hands. He had secretly observed from the city wall several times—the appearance of the school lands had transformed dramatically. This left him both pleased and uneasy. Pleased because he had long wished to support Lingao's cultural atmosphere but could never muster the funds. Now that the school lands had been reorganized, the county school's expenses would be covered. Uneasy because the Kun, through this tactic, would inevitably insert themselves among the literati.
Wu Mingjin cared little about what the mud-legged common folk thought. Though he knew sayings like "the people are more important than the ruler," "water can carry a boat but can also overturn it," and "the direction of the people's hearts," it was the attitude of the literati that worried him most. If the educated people who understood reason developed favorable impressions of the Kun—or worse, if a few treacherous wretches who betrayed orthodox teachings appeared—the people's hearts would become unmanageable.
Though ancient people lacked explicit theories on "ideology," they grasped the essential principles. So this matter had worried him greatly.
Wu Mingjin hadn't read extensively in historical records, but he had read works like Zizhi Tongjian. Generally speaking, once literate people became involved in rebellion and revolt, the harm and poison increased a hundred or a thousand times beyond mere mud-legs rising with bamboo poles.
Since ancient times, there had been no shortage of examples of literate people joining banditry. It was said there were also quite a few scholars among the Fake Kun—truly a disgrace to the literati! Wu Mingjin suddenly became alert. Could this Educational Director Wang also be unable to resist the Kun' lures? This was no small matter! Lingao was a small county with only thirty student quotas. If just a few xiucai sold out...
Wu Mingjin dared not think further. A xiucai joining the bandits—it seemed this precedent hadn't been set in this dynasty. Agitated by these thoughts, he ordered someone to fetch Educational Director Wang.
Wang Ci was at that moment entering the city through the West Gate, sighing repeatedly as he walked.
He had gone to pay condolences. A student with the rank of "Attaché" had just passed away. As an educator, this was an obligation he couldn't avoid. Fortunately, the Australians had built good roads, and the family didn't live far from the main road. Coming and going required only one day. In the past, he wouldn't have returned until the following morning.
Though the journey was easy, Wang Ci's mood remained heavy. The deceased student had been only in his early forties. When he arrived to pay respects, the deceased had left behind a pitiful widow and orphans. The family's circumstances were quite dire—they had originally subsisted by running a private school and teaching a few children to read. The county's stipend silver hadn't been paid for many years. If there had been money and rice to supplement their income, perhaps he wouldn't have died.
The cultural atmosphere in Lingao was originally weak. Now another one had passed. Though the vacant quota would naturally be filled when someone passed the examination, there simply weren't many scholars in the county to begin with...
Generally speaking, in ancient times, those who embarked on the path of study and examination wouldn't be in dire poverty. In rural areas, one had to be at least a middle peasant or above. But once someone devoted themselves to scholarship, the family lost a strong laborer. If there weren't enough family members, or if misfortune struck, falling into poverty became quite easy.
Many scholars in Lingao County were in poor economic condition. Not only were the xiucai impoverished, but the tongsheng who hadn't qualified for stipend silver were even worse off. At the last county examination, many tongsheng had appeared dressed in patchwork clothes, looking like beggars. Besides helping the xiucai, the tongsheng were the seedlings of the literati and also needed subsidies.
The county naturally couldn't provide funds. Donations from the gentry had been mostly exhausted, and having asked too many times, Wang Ci couldn't bring himself to approach them again. It seemed they would have to wait until after the autumn harvest, when the autumn grain from the school lands came in and the school would have more money and rice. Wang Ci thought.
Walking past the West Gate of the county town, when he caught sight of the renovated School Land Manor, he would mutter to himself—had this step of his been right or wrong?
Judging by the condition of the fields, this was the best the school lands had looked since Wang Ci had arrived to take up his post in Lingao. Lush green seedlings, neat field ridges and irrigation channels, newly built fences in the garden plots with pumpkin flowers blooming on the vines—this beautiful rural scenery was something he had never witnessed in the school lands before. What he had seen was only large tracts of barren land and half-dead crops.
But then his gaze fell upon the road that simply extended to the West Gate, and the fortress-like house that had just been erected outside the city walls. The Australians had built this house for the school land tenants. It was quite well-constructed—actually a brick and tile building! Wang Ci had been inside several times. It contained threshing grounds, toilets, livestock sheds, and wells. All living facilities were complete, and the layout was so rational and convenient that he'd never seen anything like it. Of course, living inside were not only tenants but also laborers the Australians had recruited in batches from the Mainland, all of whom were also tilling the school lands.
Though Wang Ci couldn't identify anything specifically improper, looking at this small stockade standing newly renovated less than half a li from the city gate, he always felt uneasy inside.
Just as he was lost in thought, he encountered Lu Da on the road. He saw this tenant headman of the school lands pushing a brand-new wheelbarrow along the newly paved machine road, with two large wooden barrels with lids on the cart. From afar came a smell that was hard to describe—somewhat like manure but far more pungent.
Seeing Educational Director Wang approaching, Lu Da hurriedly stopped the cart and stood respectfully by the roadside, calling out: "Master Wang."
Wang Ci originally had nothing to say to mud-legs of this sort, but wanting to learn about the Australians' activities, he smiled and said: "Good, are you taking manure to the fields?"
"Reporting to Your Excellency, this isn't manure—it's ammonia water," Lu Da replied.
"Ammonia water?"
"Yes, it's transported from Bopu. Used to fertilize the fields. They say it works even better than manure or bean cake."
"Is that so?" Wang Ci was no longer much surprised by the Australians' novelties nowadays. Presumably this was another of their new tricks.
"How are the crops?"
"Excellent!" Lu Da's face broke into a smile. "I've been farming for decades, and I've never seen such fine crops! It's miraculous!"
Lu Da enthusiastically described the many new things the Australians were doing in farming. Some Wang Ci had heard of, others he hadn't. He listened with great interest to their various strange ideas and curious gadgets, sometimes feeling curious, sometimes amazed at the grand scale of their undertakings.
Wang Ci vaguely sensed that what made the Australians formidable was not merely their many "clever tricks" he didn't understand—it was their execution and boldness.
Several hundred mu of school land—they had simply gone ahead and renovated it. The land was turned over, all the irrigation channels completely rebuilt. In just one month, the entire appearance had been transformed. He estimated that if the county were to attempt this, even with ample funds and grain and Magistrate Wu personally supervising, it couldn't be accomplished in less than half a year. As for the road beneath his feet—that was something he wouldn't even dare to imagine.
Not only did they dare to do it, but they could do it. This realization inspired genuine admiration in Wang Ci.
"A scholar is the most useless of all!" This sentence flashed suddenly through his mind. Whether it was himself, or Magistrate Wu, or anyone in the county with an official degree—who among them wasn't someone who had read widely in poetry and books, with the Four Books and Five Classics memorized by heart? Why could the many things that needed doing in the county, the problems that needed solving, never get done? Just the problem of the school lands had been in his hands for seven or eight years; he had pondered it repeatedly but found no solution. The bandits and roads in the county—Magistrate Wu had convened the gentry repeatedly to try to address them, and they hadn't been solved either.
When the Australians came, it was like a typhoon had blown through, sweeping everything clean in an instant.
Pioneers of a new era! Wang Ci sighed. He already sensed that what the Australians were doing in Lingao wouldn't remain limited to Lingao alone.
Wang Ci also inquired about the internal affairs of the School Land Manor. Lu Da explained that currently, children under thirteen on the school lands had been sent to school. Room and board were provided by the Australians. Not only did they receive three meals a day, but all daily necessities—clothes, bedding, shoes—were supplied as well. The children basically needed only to show up with their mouths.
"What?!" Wang Ci exclaimed in alarm. "They're running a school?"
This struck Wang Ci's nerves profoundly. As the highest leader of Lingao County's education department, he worried about the county school daily. And here the Australians had quietly established a school—from Lu Da's tone, it seemed to be running quite well!
"Yes," Lu Da replied, looking at him strangely. "Doesn't Your Excellency know? My two little monkeys have been attending for several months already."
(End of Chapter)