Chapter 95 Wang Sanhu is punished

Chapter 95 Wang Sanhu is punished

On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Hao Yu, accompanied by a matchmaker, went to the Chen family to present betrothal gifts and a dowry.

The gifts and betrothal money he prepared exceeded the Chen family's expectations. In addition, the Chen family, including their relatives, were all looking forward to marrying off Miss Chen as soon as possible. Therefore, the engagement ceremony went very smoothly on the day of the engagement, and no one jumped out to find fault or nitpick.

With the matchmaker as witness, the two families chose the auspicious date of March 26th to hold a wedding for Hao Yu and Miss Chen.

***

After the first month of the lunar calendar was over, it quickly came to the third day of the second month. Early that morning, Chen Lizheng summoned the villagers to the threshing ground.

Today is the day Wang Sanhu is to be punished. His parents pleaded and begged, and finally the village head relented and changed the person who whipped him to Chen, the village head's eldest son.

This greatly displeased Jiang Yuan, who had originally planned to take matters into his own hands. He ran up to Chen Lizheng and argued, "He broke into my house, don't I have the right to hit him?"

Chen Lizheng thought to himself, "Is this a matter of qualifications? I sent my son because I was worried that even if you used a whip, you could still beat that Wang Sanhu badly, right?"

He glared at Jiang Yuan and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. You'd better stand aside and behave yourself."

Jiang Yuan was about to speak again when Xie Wanniang softly called out, "A Yuan."

She waved to Jiang Yuan, who looked over upon hearing the sound. Jiang Yuan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately walked over to Xie Wanniang.

"Let's listen to Uncle Village Head." She looked at Jiang Yuan with a smile. "If you really beat him up, his family will definitely come to our house to make trouble every day, which will be a lot of trouble."

Jiang Yuan, knowing that Xie Wanniang preferred quiet to noise, could only nod regretfully, "Alright then."

Hearing their conversation, Chen Lizheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, there was Miss Xie who could persuade this stubborn young man.

Amid the murmurs of the villagers, Chen Lizheng, with a stern face, waved his hand at his son.

His eldest son understood, raised his whip, and lashed it hard across Wang Sanhu's back.

With just one lash, Wang Sanhu cried out, "Ouch, it hurts! It hurts so much! It hurts so much!"

He was crying and begging for his parents, but Chen Lizheng's eldest son was completely unmoved. This kind of scoundrel who climbs walls and picks locks and doesn't follow the right path needs to be taught a lesson, otherwise who knows what kind of trouble he'll cause in the future.

Blow after blow, Chen Lizheng's eldest son was hitting with all his might.

Wang Er's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and his wife was wailing and howling with Wang Sanhu. However, not a single person in the crowd felt sorry for Wang Sanhu because of his pitiful crying.

As the saying goes, every family has young wives and daughters, and every family has some hard-earned money or silver. Wang Sanhu's previous actions have already touched upon the fundamental interests of the villagers.

In everyone's eyes, he deserved to lose money and he deserved to be beaten.

Amidst the agonizing days of the Wang family and the applause of others, Chen Lizheng's eldest son finished delivering the fifty lashes that Wang Sanhu deserved.

He was just an ordinary person. After being lashed fifty times with all his might, he was sweating profusely and his breathing became rapid. However, he was in a very good mood and did not care whether he was tired or not.

Wang Sanhu was in a sorry state. His cotton-padded coat had been torn into strips of cloth and fluffy cotton everywhere. His undershirt was also torn in several places, and there were faint marks on his back.

In addition, he was crying so hard that his face was covered in snot and tears, making him look both filthy and miserable.

Chen Lizheng cursed under his breath, "Serves him right," but his face remained as stern and impartial as before.

He looked around at everyone present and said, "You don't do anything productive all day, you just think about stealing chickens and dogs, breaking and entering. I don't care how you mess around outside, if you dare to do anything inhumane in the village, I will deal with you without hesitation!"

Upon hearing this, several local hooligans who spent their days loitering around immediately shrank back and hid behind their parents or brothers, fearing that the village head would call their names and embarrass them in public.

Chen Lizheng didn't do that. After giving a warning, he waved his hand to indicate that everyone could leave.

***

In mid-February, the temperature rose above zero, and the river and soil thawed completely. Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan officially put the construction of a new house on the agenda.

The materials that had been ordered long ago were transported to the end of Mingfu Village by oxcarts one after another. On February 12th, the craftsmen that Jiang Yuan had previously booked also came to Mingfu Village with his two junior apprentices, as well as their apprentices and laborers from their respective teams.

These people all live in nearby villages and towns. They do not need the employer to provide them with accommodation when they come out to work. They only need the employer to provide them with lunch, or lunch and dinner.

Of course, those who only provide lunch need to pay the craftsmen and laborers three to five more coins per day than those who provide both lunch and dinner.

Considering that building houses is hard work, and that the people should at least be fed well, Jiang Yuan did not try to save trouble by simply giving them extra money. Instead, he made an agreement with the foreman, Master Jiang, that they would be provided with two meals a day during the construction period.

They provide meals, and although those people will take some home to supplement their families, they will at least eat half of it themselves in order not to cause dissatisfaction to the host family.

This is much better than letting them take the money home and then just having some soup or water to tide them over; it helps them maintain their energy.

To show their importance, Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan got up very early.

Jiang Yuan went to relieve Hao Yu, who was in charge of keeping watch for the second half of the night, so that Hao Yu could come back and catch up on sleep before dawn. Xie Wanniang practiced martial arts and washed up first, and then quickly made breakfast with Xiao Yang.

After Hao Yu had slept for an hour and got up, Xie Wanniang, who had already eaten a simple breakfast in the kitchen, went to the open space outside the courtyard wall to replace Jiang Yuan.

After having breakfast, Jiang Yuan went to the village entrance to pick up the people as the first golden rays of the rising sun shone down. Hao Yu, on the other hand, ran to the open space outside the courtyard wall and switched Xie Wanniang back with him.

He guarded the materials on the homestead, Xiao Yang washed dishes on a small stool in the kitchen, and Xie Wanniang ran to the storeroom to bring out all the ingredients needed for the day.

Jiang Yuan waited at the village entrance for a short while before Master Jiang, with his dark skin and robust physique, led a construction team of about fifty people toward Mingfu Village from afar.

"Master Jiang." Jiang Yuan raised his hand in greeting, then quickly walked a few steps to meet up with the sizable construction team. "Please follow me, everyone."

He wasn't the talkative, outgoing type, so he wouldn't engage in the meaningless small talk with Master Jiang and his group. If Master Jiang hadn't kept asking him questions about building the house, he could have remained silent all the way to the end of the village.