mesbooks Chapter 205: Civil unrest?
Chapter 205: Civil unrest?
After the gunpowder issue was settled, Yun Hu gave Luo Xiaoran and the other two some detailed instructions, asking them not to leak anything about the place.
"Definitely!" Luo Xiaoran promised.
"I understand." Qiu Niang nodded.
"No, no, no!" Du Kongqing waved his hands quickly.
"Then send us out quickly! We still have to perform labor service." Luo Xiaoran urged.
Then he gave Qiu Niang a look, and Qiu Niang followed the previous agreement and said casually:
"It was also unfortunate that when I first settled in Hexi Village this year, I encountered the rule that I could not redeem corvée labor with money, so I could only work honestly for two months."
Yun Hu saw Qiu Niang's worried look and couldn't help but frown. When he heard what she said, his brows frowned even deeper.
"If Miss Qiuniang is under 21, she can certainly redeem her labor service with money, and wouldn't two months of labor service delay the spring ploughing?"
"Who said it wasn't?" Luo Xiaoran gave Qiu Niang a thumbs up in her heart and took over the conversation:
“It is said that the county magistrate will not allow redemption, and this year not only is the labor service period longer, but there are also many more people involved, which is particularly troublesome.
The rations given are very small, and I am afraid that the villagers will starve, so I borrowed food from you."
Qiu Niang looked very indignant, and continued, "They said we were asked to build a lime road, but in the end we were asked to burn the lime ourselves, and we had to go to the mine..."
Luo Xiaoran and Qiu Niang sang the same tune and filed a complaint in front of Yun Hu.
Since we know that Yunhu is the subordinate of King Yan, let’s not worry about whether they will interfere with the corvée.
But as long as they tell of their sufferings, rounding it off, they can be considered to be making things difficult for An Luhai.
happy!
……
When Luo Xiaoran and the other two were sent out of the military camp, they were still covered with black cloth to prevent them from knowing the specific location.
By the time the black cloth on their eyes was removed, the three of them were already in Yizhou City.
……
On the other side, Niu Shubao, following Luo Xiaoran's instructions, drove the carriage to the official road that everyone was thinking about.
When he walked out of the south gate of Yizhou City and headed towards Yangliupo, he didn't feel anything special.
But when we got on the road from Yangliupo to Fuyuan County, we could clearly feel that the road was not as bumpy as before.
Niu Shubao noticed that even the wheels of the carriage were less stained with wet mud, and he no longer needed to come down to clean them every incense stick.
Niu Shubao quickly found the people of Hedong Village who were working hard to repair the road after the rain.
"Village Chief Wang!" He walked towards the old man who had a skinny body but seemed to have endless energy.
"I'm Uncle Niu from Hexi Village. It's raining, so I came to see if there's anything I can help with."
"I see," Village Chief Wang nodded, and then asked the question that had been worrying him, "Can ash still be burned in the kiln?"
Niu Shubao answered truthfully, "The fire was put out on the day it rained, but now that the sky is clear, it should be possible to continue burning."
"That's great!" Village Chief Wang breathed a sigh of relief.
"When the rain was a little lighter, I asked some villagers to drive horse-drawn carriages to the mine, thinking that if they went earlier, they could help a little."
"Don't worry, Village Chief Wang! I calculated that we still have eight days, enough to burn two kilns of lime to build the road."
Luo Xiaoran rented a carriage in Yizhou and took Qiu Niang and Du Kongqing to meet up with Niu Shubao.
After the meeting, Niu Shubao told Luo Xiaoran about the estimates made by him and Village Chief Wang, but Luo Xiaoran expressed different opinions.
“I think we still can’t be so optimistic.”
"What do you mean, Miss Luo?" Village Chief Wang asked hurriedly, fearing that something unexpected might happen at the last minute of the road construction.
Luo Xiaoran pointed to the sky and said, "It is said that 'spring rain is as precious as oil', but this rain is really unfortunate for us road builders."
After saying that, Luo Xiaoran looked at Village Chief Wang and made no secret of her admiration for the old man.
“Under your leadership, the villagers of Hedong have built the official road very well, and everyone’s hard work has paid off.
Village Chief Wang, it is good that you protected the lime from water in time, but the situation at Chui'an Kiln is much more complicated than this."
Speaking of this, Luo Xiaoran glanced at Niu Shubao, and he missed some details.
It is precisely because of these details that Luo Xiaoran doubts whether there will be enough lime.
Therefore, before following Qi Tian and others, he reminded Niu Shubao that if there was not enough lime, he could add some river sand, just in case.
"The lime kiln we had before we arrived was ruined by the rain. We have eight days left to burn two more kilns of lime, and we will definitely be able to burn them all at the previous speed.
However, the lime kiln is wet. Does it need to be aired and dried for a day or two before it can be used again?
We wasted a kiln of lime, and I don't know how much lime and coal were wasted in the entire Chui'an kiln.
The mine supervisor must be speeding up the burning of ash now, and the coal is also for their own use. Can we exchange it for firewood so easily?
If for some reason the last kiln of lime is not burned out until the deadline, how can we have time to transport the lime here? Not to mention building the road!"
Niu Shubao thought about it and felt that what Luo Xiaoran said made sense, but deep down he still felt that Luo Xiaoran was worrying too much. He believed that the village chief and his men would be able to bring the two kilns of lime on time.
As it turned out, Niu Shubao was naive.
But Luo Xiaoran was also naive.
Will An Luhai allow her to repair the road so smoothly?
With seven days left before the labor service deadline, the people from Hedong Village who went to haul lime returned with a full load.
However, what was on the car was not lime, but the dusty faces of the people from Hedong Village.
"What happened?" Luo Xiaoran ran straight to Zhang Changzong.
When Zhang Changzong saw Luo Xiaoran, he felt like he had found his backbone. He had a bitter face and beat his chest and stamped his feet:
"Master Tu and the mine supervisor drove us out! They said the lime kiln needed to be repaired after the rain, and if it couldn't be repaired within ten days or half a month, they would not allow us to use it!"
When these words were spoken, the villagers in Hedong were furious again.
"What a bullshit reason! They just don't want us to burn lime!"
"It's not that they don't want us to burn lime, it's that they don't want us to finish building the official road!"
"You are wrong. You don't want us to fail to complete the repair of the official road. You want to punish us and let us die!"
"You're right! Damn it! I was wondering if An Luhai would do something bad? The devil is waiting for us here!"
"Yes! It's better for me to fight on the battlefield and kill the Northern Barbarians than to suffer the humiliation of An Luhai here!"
"Haven't we offended him before? It's been ten years! Is it necessary for him to push us to death every year?"
An elderly woman roared, her voice was extremely shrill and full of despair.
This sentence completely ignited the anger of the people in Hedong Village. Several young men looked at each other, as if confirming something.
Then a young man spoke up:
"Since the corvée labor cannot be completed, and An Luhai is using the eldest princess as a cover, we are doomed to die!
It would be better to rush into the county government office now, kill An Luhai, and drag him to be buried with you!"