Chapter 110 There are policies from above and countermeasures from below

Chapter 110 There are policies from above and countermeasures from below

Seeing his smug look, Du Min curled the corners of his mouth. That's all he's got. He's so easily satisfied.

“Want to farm? It’s simple. I have 300 mu of official land in Heqing County. I heard from County Magistrate Sun that Magistrate Shen rented out these 300 mu of official land when he was in office. I also plan to rent it out. Since you want to farm, I’ll reserve a few mu for you,” Du Min said.

"You still own land in Heqing County?" Du Li asked in surprise. "Didn't you get five hundred mu of permanent land when you passed the imperial examination?"

“The two are different. The official land is part of my salary. After I leave office, the official land will no longer be mine,” Du Min explained. “How many acres do you want to cultivate? I have to remind you of something. Heqing County grows wheat. You have no experience in growing wheat, so don’t be greedy and ruin the land.”

Du Li stretched out a hand, "How about five mu? Is there any land near the Yellow River? I'll divert water from the Yellow River to grow rice."

Du Min's heart stirred. This was the same as what he had told the Vice Minister of the Imperial Secretariat. He wanted to dig rivers and canals to transform rice paddies, which would not only solve the Yellow River flood problem but also enrich the types of crops grown in Heqing County.

"Are you really going to try planting rice?" Du Min asked. "That's easy to solve. I can exchange my official land for farmland near the Yellow River."

Du Li nodded, "Let's exchange it for farmland near the abandoned granary. It's not far from the school, and I can come and help your second sister-in-law."

“Okay,” Du Min readily agreed.

Three days later, the head of the household led Du Li to select five acres of farmland planted with winter wheat, about half a mile away from the school.

“Because the Yellow River is prone to flooding in May and June, this land can only be planted with one crop of wheat a year. I heard from the county magistrate that you want to transform the paddy fields, and this land is suitable. After the winter wheat is harvested, the Yellow River floods will bring water over, saving you the trouble of carrying water to irrigate the fields,” said the Sihuzuo.

Du Li glanced at him and asked in confusion, "You make a lot of sense, so why didn't you implement rice-wheat intercropping before?"

The head of the household grabbed a handful of soil and shook it off. "Look."

Du Li immediately understood: the rice soil in the Jiangnan region is sticky, black silt, and fertile, while this soil has a high sand content, is loose, and has low fertility.

“The people of Heqing County are not good at growing rice, and they don’t like to eat rice either. Considering their habits and the economics, very few households grow rice. You have experience growing rice, so you can give it a try,” said Si Huzuo.

Du Li nodded, "Okay, after the winter wheat is harvested, I'll try planting rice on this land."

*

On the other side, Meng Qing led Meng Chun in a donkey cart to the county government office of Heyin County. After Magistrate Zhao greeted the registrar, Meng Qing introduced himself, and the registrar immediately took the two of them to look at the inn at the foot of Beiman Mountain.

The closer one gets to Beiman Mountain, the wider the road becomes. Paper money is laid out along the mountain path, and cart tracks cover each other. In the widest places, it's a hundred paces wide enough for twenty horse-drawn carriages to pass smoothly. Scattered along both sides of the road are workshops selling coffins and carved stone tablets, as well as stalls and workshops selling funerary objects. None of them are large, since funeral processions arriving here are already prepared with burial goods and coffins.

Further on, shops lined the streets, and feng shui masters' stalls were everywhere. People dressed in mourning clothes wandered among the restaurants, inns, and feng shui masters' stalls. As far as the eye could see, apart from the white of mourning clothes and the black and yellow of the earthen walls and rooftops, there were no other colors. The wailing from the mountains, accompanied by the hoarse cries of crows, added a chilling atmosphere to the bleak scene below.

"This is it." Sihu Zuo lowered his brows and eyes, removed the seal, and pushed open the inn's door.

Meng Qingchao glanced to both sides. To the left was a restaurant, and to the right was an inn. People on both sides were looking in this direction, each with a blank face and eyes like a pool of cold water, which made people shudder.

"The people here are even stranger than those in the antique shop," Meng Chun muttered as he walked beside Meng Qing.

Meng Qing pushed him into the inn and asked, "Chief Inspector, what was the reason for the murder that happened in this inn?"

"The landlord was overjoyed to have a son late in life. He was laughing and joking with the innkeeper when his laughter angered a funeral procession that was about to check in. The landlord was killed, and three of the innkeepers also died. The murderer slit his own throat after the killings," said the steward. "The place where you are standing is where the landlord's body lay."

Startled, Meng Chun quickly jumped away and pulled Meng Qing around to the stairwell.

"You people who deal in funerary objects, are you afraid of this?" the Sihuzuo asked. "Think about it. The whole two-story inn, with a large courtyard in the back used as a stable and donkey shed, including the utensils inside, the owner's total price is six hundred guan."

"Six hundred strings of cash? That's more expensive than the three-courtyard mansion we bought in Xingjiaofang!" Meng Chun frowned.

The head of the household shook his head. "If you weren't family members of Magistrate Du from the neighboring county, I wouldn't say anything more. There are no markets or wards at the foot of Beiman Mountain. There are no more than twenty shops. People who wanted to buy land and build houses here spent one or two hundred strings of cash just to buy a way through. That's why the inn became a murder shop after the murder. If it had been resold before the murder, it would have cost another hundred strings of cash."

"Thank you for your guidance. We've bought it," Meng Qing said. "We only brought five hundred strings of cash with us this time. We'll send the remaining one hundred strings to the government office tomorrow."

The head of the household nodded. "Take another look. If there are no other problems, come with me to the county office to sign the contract later. Once the contract is signed, the money and goods are settled, and we will not be responsible for any further problems."

Meng Qing and Meng Chun went upstairs together. There were eighteen guest rooms upstairs, including five superior rooms, which were exquisitely decorated with brocade covers, screens, and bathtubs.

“We’ll keep the five superior rooms for ourselves,” Meng Qing said. “Little brother, I’ll set aside half of the inn for you. You can also open a paper horse shop here.”

"Should we leave the paper horse shop on the north bank of the Yellow River to our parents to manage?" Meng Chun asked.

Meng Qing nodded, "Paper-made funerary objects will definitely sell well here."

"Okay." Meng Chun listened to her.

After coming down from the second floor, the siblings went to see the five large communal rooms on the first floor. The space was quite large and could be dismantled and used as a warehouse and workshop. The thirteen medium-sized rooms on the second floor could be used to house apprentices and servants.

As for the stables and donkey sheds in the backyard, they were used to store paper effigies of funerary objects.

After planning the purpose of the money, Meng Qing immediately went back to the county government office in Heyin County with the clerk to sign the contract and paid 500 strings of cash on the spot.

The next day, Meng Qing and Meng Chun delivered another hundred strings of cash, and she received the house deed registered in her name.

Holding the property deed, Meng Qing led the yamen runners to remove the seal. She then invited a feng shui master to perform a ritual at the inn, took down the old signboard, commissioned a new one, and greeted the two neighbors on either side. After that, the siblings drove back to the other side of the river.

For the next four months, Meng Qing devoted himself to selecting servants, purchasing large quantities of materials, and teaching apprentices.

Du Li was also helping her. The couple guided the apprentices they had taken in last year through a series of processes, including skeletal construction, fattening, and papering, to speed up the apprentices' graduation process.

As for the fifteen servants that Meng Qing bought, she divided them into five groups of three. One group was responsible for splitting bamboo strips, another group was responsible for dyeing, drying and ironing paper, and the other three groups were responsible for binding, fattening and pasting paper respectively.

By May, it was harvest season for winter wheat, and Meng Qing's plan to convert followers was largely successful. She chose an opening day and moved fifteen servants to the free school at the foot of Beiman Mountain that day. Along with them, six cartloads of paper effigies were also transported and placed directly outside the school gate after being unloaded.

Meng Chun also moved here with his five servants.

To give them face and leverage their influence, Du Min swaggered over that day, dressed in his official robes.

The sky was overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain. The funeral procession at the foot of the mountain hurried on its way up the mountain, their steps rushed and their loads unsteady. For a moment, the foot of the mountain was filled with the muffled sounds of pottery and lacquerware colliding.

Du Min stood by the roadside with his hands behind his back, watching. Suddenly, he saw a group of people acting suspiciously. The leaders, carrying a spirit banner, hunched over and turned their faces away, looking like they were trying to hide. He walked into the school and said smugly, "It seems my name has spread to Heyin County. They're afraid of me. Do they think I can still control the people of Heyin County?"

Before he could finish speaking, Du Min sensed something was amiss. "A funeral procession traveling within the territory of Heyin County would be afraid of me, the magistrate of the neighboring county?"

"Could it be that they mistakenly thought you were the magistrate of Heyin County?" Meng Chun asked.

"How could the magistrate of Heyin County be as young as me? Besides, the magistrate of Heyin County doesn't care about elaborate funerals at all." Du Min walked out quickly, but the funeral procession had already disappeared.

Meng Qing came out and said, "Third brother, it's about to rain. You take the men and go back first. We won't go back tonight; we'll stay here."

Du Min glanced at the sky and asked, "When are you going back? Wang Zhou is still in the government office, so don't stay here for too long."

"We'll head back as soon as the rain stops," Meng Qing said.

“Alright.” Du Min stopped dawdling, got into the donkey cart, and was driven away by the yamen runner.

Just as Du Min crossed the Heyang Bridge, a heavy rain began to fall. He called the yamen runners and servants guarding the bridge to take shelter from the rain in the school, and also to inquire about their performance in guarding the bridge that day.

"There are three funeral processions passing by today, two from other counties and one from this county. All three deceased are merchants. The funeral items are pottery and lacquerware, and the porters are carrying paper replicas of funerary objects. There is no violation of regulations," the yamen runner recounted.

"So obedient? I remember they arrested two people for violating the rules in two consecutive months?" Du Min asked.

The constable nodded, and he flattered, "Under your rule, the custom of lavish funerals has disappeared in our Heqing County."

The five servants nodded repeatedly. "Sir, you don't know this, but everyone is very grateful to you now. For many people, funerals don't need to be extravagant or compare who has prepared more burial goods. Everyone is at ease now."

“Yes, according to the customs of previous years, a funeral for a poor family could bankrupt them, and some even had to take out loans to pay for it, for fear that an unsatisfactory funeral would be seen as unfilial. Now, with paper offerings, we can burn paper offerings for the deceased on Qingming Festival, Ghost Festival, the anniversary of our parents' death, Cold Clothes Festival, and at the end of the year when we worship our ancestors. It’s like burning the offerings in batches. In this way, the living can fulfill their filial duties without taking out loans, and the deceased will not lack offerings in the afterlife.” An apprentice in the free school chimed in, “Four years ago, my family sold ten acres of land for my grandfather’s funeral to prepare enough burial goods. After all, you can’t dig up the grave and add more burial goods after the burial. If we had paper offerings back then, we wouldn’t have needed to sell land. If we didn’t have enough money at once, we could have burned the offerings over several years.”

The other apprentices nodded in agreement. They were from the lower classes, with limited means, and were the ones who could best understand the benefits of suppressing extravagant funerals. After their initial resistance subsided, they outwardly followed the crowd in calling Magistrate Du a plague god, but privately they all felt relieved.

Du Min was pleased, but he didn't show it on his face. He took the opportunity to chat with them about the family's harvest and the land distribution.

It wasn't until nightfall, when it was dark and the rain had stopped, that Du Min led his constables back to the government office.

Magistrate Sun was still at the government office with Wang Zhou. When Wang Zhou saw Du Min return, he shouted and rushed over, "Third Uncle, why didn't you come back? Where are my parents?"

"They've been held up by the rain and are still in Heyin County." Du Min picked up Wang Zhou and carried him to the eaves. "Lord Sun, you're so thoughtful to stay here with Wang Zhou."

“I was also held up by the rain,” Magistrate Sun chuckled. “Now that the rain has stopped, I should go home.”

“Let the yamen runners take you back,” Du Min said.

Magistrate Sun nodded. "I know. I'm leaving."

"Get down, I can't carry you anymore." Du Min couldn't hold on any longer. He tore off the taffy from his body and said, "There are yamen runners on duty in the county government office, and four servants in the government office. Are you afraid at home?"

"It's already dark!" Wang Zhou punched him lightly. "I haven't seen you guys all day."

"Coward," Du Min laughed at him. "Don't worry, your parents, your uncles, your grandmothers, and I will all be back every day. Come on, let's go eat. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, your parents will be back."

The rain stopped at noon the next day, and Meng Qing and Du Li hurried back. As they crossed the bridge, they encountered a shabby funeral procession. There were no paper offerings, only a load of pottery offerings. She glanced at them a few more times, and after crossing the bridge, she told Du Li that Du Min's governance methods were remarkably effective.

But the next morning, on her way to Beiman Mountain, she encountered the funeral procession again, this time with forty more burial goods.

"Third brother, there's always a way around the rules. Our funeral teams here prepare burial goods and pallbearers in Heyin County. As soon as the coffin arrives, the team is immediately organized." Meng Qing returned in the evening and immediately complained.

Du Min suddenly stood up.

"My lord, funeral teams from Heqing County and other counties to the north are buying burial goods in large quantities in our county. Heqing County has managed to suppress the trend of extravagant funerals, but people are flocking to our area," the magistrate of Heyin County complained to Magistrate Zhao.

Magistrate Zhao was so surprised that he stood up.

"My lord, I have already prepared the burial goods and tomb guardian beasts in Heyin County. As you instructed, there are eighty loads of burial goods and ten cartloads of paper effigies. Please take a look." The steward handed five lists to General Lu.

Lu Zhen smiled with satisfaction.