White-robed Minister

0029 [Scenic Zhangcun Village]

"Xu Sanlang is back!"

On several hilltops outside the village, villagers on lookout duty took turns shouting.

Soon, men, women, and children gathered at the village entrance, and even those working in the fields came one after another.

People greeted the guests with great enthusiasm, banging on buckets and basins, much like beating gongs and drums.

The unmarried girls in the village all looked at Xu Lai with shining eyes. This was not only because he had exempted the entire village from corvée labor, but also because of the indescribable aura he possessed.

Aura is a mysterious thing, yet it certainly exists.

Cousin Bu Chao rushed over happily and slapped Xu Lai on the shoulder: "We've been waiting for you for days. If you hadn't come back, we were thinking of going to the county town to find out what happened."

Xu Lai Chao smiled and walked towards his family: "Dad, Mom, Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, I'm back."

Father Xu Yongnian nodded: "It's good that you're back."

Second Brother Xu An looked him up and down and said, "You've gotten even stronger since you went out."

"I went to Guangzhou and ate meat the whole way," Xu Lai said with a smile.

Mother Bu Erniang smiled as she wiped away her tears. She had feared that her third son would suffer the same fate as her eldest, serving in the government and never returning. At this moment, she was overjoyed, and the emotions she had been holding back were released, causing tears to stream down her face uncontrollably.

Second sister-in-law Tian Chunlan, carrying a baby on her back and holding Dou Niang's hand with her left, stood there smiling happily.

"Third Uncle, Third Uncle, I'm here too." Dou Niang tried to attract Xu Lai's attention.

Xu Lai pulled a packet of dried meat from his pocket: "It's delicious, take it and share it."

These dried meats were meant by the county magistrate to entertain distinguished guests, but Xu Lai not only blatantly took them, but also had the county yamen's servants wrap them up.

The damselfly was overjoyed and held up the bag of dried meat high, showing it off to the children in the village.

The children all gathered around, and the moment the damsel opened the paper package, all the children secretly swallowed their saliva.

The damselfly first put a piece in her own mouth, then shared it with her best friend, and then hesitated, not wanting to give any more.

Xu Lai patted her head: "We've already split it all. Your third uncle will buy you another one next time."

"oh."

The damselfly secretly hid a piece before reluctantly finishing off the dried meat.

Uncle Zhang asked, "How did things go?"

Xu Lai announced loudly, "Those patrol officers have all been arrested and taken to Guangzhou. The soldiers dare not come to our village. Magistrate Shen has also said that the three-year exemption from corvée labor for the entire village will not be changed!"

Upon hearing this, the whole village cheered.

Uncle Liu pulled Xu Lai along, saying, "Quickly go and pay your respects to Lord Su, thank him for his blessings!"

Uncle Liu was the village doctor, but he didn't know anything about the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine; he only knew how to use herbal remedies by guesswork. While administering medicine to his patients, he also liked to mutter incantations and perform shamanistic rituals.

Incidentally, he also works part-time as the temple keeper of the Su Gong Temple.

Yang Peng, who was carried back from a coma due to illness, had drunk the medicine prepared by Uncle Liu and was sent away by Uncle Liu chanting incantations and dancing.

Outsiders might find him unreliable, but the villagers have great respect for Uncle Liu.

Surrounded by the crowd, Xu Lai soon arrived at the Su Gong Temple.

This is a thatched hut built against the mountainside, without any inscriptions, only a stone statue of a deity.

The statues of deities were poorly carved; one could barely make out their human form.

Uncle Liu took out his treasured incense and candles, lit the oil lamp in front of the statue, and placed grains, chickens, and ducks as offerings.

Then, he called out to the villagers outside the thatched hut, "Lord Su has always been protecting our Qingxi Village. He was afraid we wouldn't be doing well, so he appeared in our dreams to teach Xu Sanlang to read and write, and to teach him how to deal with the government. Now that Xu Sanlang has returned, let's all worship Lord Su and thank him for his protection..."

The villagers all knelt down in unison, and Xu Lai had no choice but to kneel as well.

Uncle Liu danced and sang at the same time; it's unclear where he learned this ritual from.

After the ceremony, Uncle Liu called out again, "Come and distribute the offerings!"

The villagers lined up, each holding a bowl. Uncle Liu picked up the sacrificial grains and put them into the villagers' earthenware bowls. He then cut off a piece of chicken or duck and put it into the villagers' bowls as well.

The villagers would take these grains and meats home and cook them with other grains to make a meal for the whole family to share.

If you eat the offerings, Lord Su will bless you.

After all the tributes were distributed, Uncle Liu said to Xu, "Sanlang, I heard you're quite familiar with the magistrate. Could you ask him for Su Gong's name? Everyone says he was the first magistrate of Qingyuan County in the Song Dynasty. The government should still have a record of that, right?"

"Okay, I'll ask next month," Xu Lai agreed immediately.

Uncle Liu then said, "Zhang Er and the others said that Master Su appeared in your dream and taught you to write. After you figure out your name, write a memorial tablet for Master Su. I'll go get a piece of wood and carve those characters onto it."

When Uncle Liu spoke, his expression was serious and solemn; he truly believed in Master Su.

Xu Lai nodded, overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

An unnamed county magistrate, who simply strictly enforced the policies of the imperial court, was worshipped and worshipped by the mountain people for nearly a century.

If I become an official, how many people will remember me?

Gazing at the abstractly shaped stone sculpture, Xu Lai suddenly felt that the statue was full of divinity. The magistrate Su from more than ninety years ago seemed to come alive in an instant, standing there smiling at him.

At this very moment, a civil official who had died many years ago and a young man who had traveled from another time seemed to have completed a dialogue that transcended time and space.

Xu Lai, who had previously been extremely perfunctory in kowtowing and worshipping the gods, now bowed deeply and respectfully before the statue of the deity.

……

Xu returned to the village in the evening.

After paying respects to Lord Su, it was completely dark.

The villagers gradually dispersed, and Xu Lai returned home with his relatives.

His mother and sister-in-law were unaware that he had returned today. They secretly went to start a fire and cook, and even killed a chicken to nourish him.

Second brother Xu An brought over a brazier and placed it at the kitchen doorway to light up the space. Xu Lai and his father chatted around the brazier.

Before long, all of Yang Peng's former comrades who had been conscripted together, except for the deceased Yang Peng, came running over.

Li Tian asked curiously, "Sanlang, did you see the high-ranking official in Guangzhou?"

Xu Lai said, "I have seen him."

"Tell me quickly, what does Guangzhou look like?" Chen Da asked curiously.

Xu Lai recalled: "Guangzhou city wasn't big, only about the size of two Qingyuan county towns. The city walls were made of rammed earth, without a single brick. However, the surrounding streets outside Guangzhou city were quite large. The tallest buildings had several stories. The area outside the city was even more bustling than inside, with all sorts of shops selling everything... I even saw some foreigners..."

The crowd gathered around Xu Lai, listening to him recount his experiences in Guangzhou.

Even the damselfly squatted nearby, listening intently, while the mother and sister-in-law, who were killing a chicken and cooking, also perked up their ears.

"When I went to Guangzhou, merchant ships were busy setting sail. Those ships were huge, bigger than our row of thatched huts... I heard the merchants had just held a ceremony to worship the South Sea God..."

"The Nanhai Temple was expanded this year, and it now has a full three hundred rooms. This temple is by the sea, several miles away from Guangzhou city, and I've never seen it in person..."

"Do you know who the God of the South Sea is? It's Zhu Rong, who was bestowed the title of King Guangli by the imperial court. He was in charge of all the ships and merchants in Guangdong. King Guangli was the king who was in charge of abundant wealth..."

"We also went to the Military Commissioner's Office. The garden there is huge... The Military Commissioner, Yu Jing, is a short old man who speaks very slowly..."

"Have you ever seen a eunuch? Those eunuchs even have beards glued on..."

More and more people sneaked over to Xu Lai's house in the dark to visit him and listen to his stories about Guangzhou. People would occasionally exclaim in amazement.

After talking for about half an hour, Bu Erniang came over and said, "My Sanlang is going to eat. Please come again tomorrow."

The villagers dispersed with smiles on their faces.

Xu Lai said, "Before the Lunar New Year, I will take the county exam and use all the skills that Su Gong taught me in the dream. After passing the county exam, I will go to Guangzhou to take the exam for the prefectural school after the Lantern Festival next year."

Upon hearing this, the villagers were even more delighted.

"Sanlang, now that you've passed the prefectural school exam, does that mean you'll become an official?"

"Could you be the magistrate of our county?"

"Now that you're an official, can you continue to exempt our village from corvée labor?"

"Zhang Er and Bu Chao are going to become archers, and Xu Sanlang can even take the exam to become an official. In the future, the villagers will no longer be afraid of being bullied."

"..."

Xu Lai answered all sorts of strange and unusual questions posed by the villagers as simply and clearly as possible.

After laughing and joking for a while, the villagers finally left, and the farmhouse courtyard quieted down.

Second sister-in-law Tian Chunlan brought in the food and inquired in detail, "Sanlang, do you have to pay tuition when you go to the prefectural school?"

"No tuition fees, no accommodation fees," Xu Lai said. "At the Shaozhou Prefectural School, you only need to pay three coins a day for meals. The Guangzhou Prefectural School is even richer; you only need to pay one coin a day for meals."

Tian Chunlan breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good, that's good, our family can afford it."

In reality, it wasn't as easy as Xu Lai made it out to be.

The real expense is buying books and socializing!

If you don't have money to buy books, you can only borrow them and copy them slowly. It's normal to spend several months copying a set of books.

When classmates occasionally go out for a meal, they can't always let others pay, unless they bury themselves in their studies and don't socialize at all.

Xu Lai was racking his brains trying to figure out how to make money.

After dinner, they chatted for a while, and then Xu Lai went to bed.

The next day, I didn't wake up until it was broad daylight, and my father and brothers had already gone out to work.

During the winter off-season, there's not much work to be done in the fields.

My father and brother would go to the mountains and forests to collect withered branches and leaves, bring them home, pile them up to ferment naturally, and mix them with silkworm excrement, feces, and other substances.

Composting like this year after year can maintain soil fertility and even gradually improve barren mountain land.

My mother and sister-in-law, however, were busy weaving cloth.

In summer, kudzu vines are collected in the mountains, soaked to soften them, then boiled and dried to obtain kudzu fiber for textiles. During the off-season, it is then used to weave kudzu cloth.

Xu Lai sat in the courtyard reading "The Analects with Commentary," the sound of looms clanging in his ears from time to time.

The damselfly was playing and laughing with the village children, running around everywhere, while two local dogs frolicked alongside them.

If it weren't for miscellaneous taxes and corvée labor, this kind of life would actually be alright.

The regular taxes in the Song Dynasty were very light, affordable even for the poorest farmers. What was truly terrifying were the miscellaneous taxes and levies, which often amounted to several times, dozens of times, or even hundreds of times the regular taxes!

The villagers of Qingxi Village often default on miscellaneous taxes because they simply cannot afford to pay them; even killing them wouldn't make them pay.

Even landlords from outside the mountains were unwilling to lend them money at exorbitant interest rates, as it would be a losing proposition.

Why acquire land when you can't even pay off the principal and interest?

You can take over the land; it's all barren mountain land anyway. If you take the land away, the mountain people will have to become tenant farmers. An acre of land only yields so little grain; if the rent is too low, it's not profitable; if the rent is too high, the mountain people will starve, and who will farm the land?

"Sanlang, studying again?" Bu Chao called out from outside the bamboo fence.

Xu Lai replied, "Yes, reading."

"You said it's safe outside now, so Uncle Zhang and I want to go into town to sell firewood and also inquire about renting a house. We're starting as archers next month, so we need to find a place in advance," Bu Chao asked. "Do you want to come into town with us?"

Xu Lai said, "You guys go ahead. I'll go into town when I take the county exam. Remember, once you're in town, find Liu Yuan, the head archer. He'll take you to find cheap housing."

Xu Sanlang is quite famous, so the people in the county government will definitely give him face.

After chatting for a few more minutes, Bu Chao left whistling, while Xu Lai continued to bury himself in his book.

There are 36 days left until the county exam!