Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 256 How to fool Zhu Biao?

After failing to fool Zhu Biao with charcoal to purify the water last time, this attempt to fool the three brothers also failed.

However, it didn't matter. Magistrate Yang was not discouraged at all. Instead, he was determined to keep up the good work and try to succeed in fooling people next time.

If I, the dignified Magistrate Yang, can't even fool my three brothers-in-law, how am I supposed to fool that old tyrant Zhu Chongba in the future?

Having made up his mind, Magistrate Yang said with a smile, "What I really want to say is that the people have endured countless hardships and sufferings under the rule of the Hu Yuan dynasty. Now that they can finally build their own houses, how can we let prisoners build them for them?"

Zhu Biao, Zhu Lao Er, and Zhu Lao San remained silent, instead lowering their heads to ponder the matter carefully.

After a long while, Zhu Lao Er finally raised his head and looked at Magistrate Yang, asking, "Brother-in-law, as you just said, if we have a large number of prisoners, some people might use them as laborers. Would that affect your original plan to pay the people wages and have them perform corvée labor?"

Magistrate Yang nodded slightly, "This humble subject also does not know how to avoid this situation."

This is inevitable.

If a large number of prisoners were to flood in, those merchants with workshops would definitely target the prisoners—they wouldn't need to pay them wages, they wouldn't care about their lives, and it would be practically free.

As for bribing officials, it costs money... Compared to the profits the prisoners can generate, how much does it cost to bribe officials?

Besides, even without the capture of prisoners, these merchants still had to bribe the officials, and they wouldn't skimp on the money they were supposed to spend.

What do these people gain from bribing government officials?

It's all about getting the officials to do them a favor when needed.

For example, prisoners of war. Officials have a large number of prisoners who have been sent here to do hard labor. These merchants happen to need a large number of prisoners. As long as the officials just lift a finger and report a few more losses, the officials can benefit and they will have a group of hard laborers under their command who don't care about their lives. This is a win-win situation.

The key issue is that there is no solution to this problem at all. Even if Emperor Zhu sends out inspecting censors, it will be of no use. As the saying goes, "for every policy, there is a countermeasure." As long as the prisoners are made to hide during the inspection, there will be no prisoners, and the inspection will be in vain.

Therefore, Magistrate Yang only submitted a memorial requesting that prisoners be brought to Ningyang County to work as laborers, rather than submitting a memorial requesting that prisoners be used to perform corvée labor in place of the common people. This was because no matter how many prisoners were brought, in the end, it would only benefit the merchants, while the common people would not be exempt from performing their corvée labor for even a day.

Unless Emperor Zhu issues an edict to completely abolish corvée labor, thus forcing officials to ensure they have enough prisoners to work for them.

Zhu Biao, Zhu Lao Er, and Zhu Lao San had obviously figured out the problem.

After a long while, Zhu Biao sighed and said, "Then let's send the prisoners to Ningyang County first. At least there won't be any messy problems with my brother-in-law here, and the people will actually benefit."

Magistrate Yang gave a soft "hmm," then turned his gaze to Wang Wuqi and the others who were chanting work songs while ramming the earth.

Ramming is not just about pounding the ground with a ram. In this process, you also need to continuously add new soil to the trench. The added soil needs to be sieved to remove large stones, debris, and other impurities. This is also a physically demanding task.

Moreover, tamping is not something that can be done in one go. It is usually done in layers, with each layer about three to five inches thick. After tamping, it is necessary to wait for it to dry and stabilize. This drying process depends on the weather. On sunny days, it usually takes one or two days, while on cloudy days it takes three or four days.

In other words, even under ideal conditions of sunny weather, it would take three to five days to dig a trench one foot deep.

Once the foundation is laid, the rest is relatively easy, because using blue bricks doesn't require considering the drying issue like when building earthen walls. As long as there are enough blue bricks, you can simply build them up layer by layer.

Of course, laying blue bricks is not an easy task. It involves a whole bunch of messy things, such as stringing lines to make them straight, plumb lines to make them level, reserving space for doors and windows, and interior partitions. It will take about half a month to complete.

Then comes the raising of the roof beam and the sealing of the roof. There are many intricacies involved in raising the roof beam, and an auspicious day must be specially chosen.

In short, even with sufficient manpower, it would take about a month to build a proper courtyard.

As for Magistrate Yang's earlier statement that it would take three or four months to build a house, and that he would be busy until the following spring, that was complete nonsense to fool Zhu Biao. No one would choose to build a house in winter, because the foundation problem is difficult to solve, and the cement hardening problem is equally difficult to solve.

So how could they use the house-building project to fool Zhu Biao and also squeeze some benefits out of Ningyang County?

……

Before Magistrate Yang could figure out how to deceive the three Zhu brothers, Xu Da sent people to deliver prisoners from Ningyang County.

A thousand, a full thousand Semu prisoners.

These captives of Central Asian descent had their hands tied behind their backs and were escorted by a dozen cavalrymen and about a hundred infantrymen.

Upon seeing Magistrate Yang and Zhu Biao, Xu Da's personal guards were the first to bow to Zhu Biao, and then to Magistrate Yang, saying, "Magistrate Yang, I, Xu, was ordered to escort a thousand Semu prisoners of war, all of whom were uninjured. They have all been delivered and are now ready for your inspection."

Magistrate Yang immediately beamed and instructed Limpy Five, "Brother Limpy Five, count them out, then send two hundred to quarry stones, two hundred to repair roads, and two hundred to mine coal. The remaining three hundred will be taken to the iron mine in the east of the city."

Just as Limpy Wu went to count the number of prisoners, Magistrate Yang and the three Zhu brothers couldn't help but look at these Semu people with curiosity.

Then, Magistrate Yang watched as the three Zhu brothers simultaneously covered their noses with their sleeves, their gazes towards the thousand captives filled with disdain.

This piqued the curiosity of Magistrate Yang.

During their stay in Ningyang County, the three Zhu brothers showed no signs of being bothered by the stench of the dry toilets, the smell of chicken and pig manure when visiting villagers' homes, or the sweat on the villagers' bodies when they asked them questions. They were incredibly down-to-earth, only occasionally covering their noses with their sleeves when passing by the manure field in the west of the city and when there were no villagers nearby.

Now, things have gotten really out of hand. These three brothers, in front of a thousand Semu people, made no attempt to hide their disdain for them, openly and blatantly displaying their contempt for the Semu people.

Zhu Laosan, in particular, said in a muffled voice, "Brother-in-law, these Semu people smell terrible. If you send them to work on the road with those five thousand scholars, won't they suffocate some of them?"

Magistrate Yang looked at Zhu Laosan with the kind of care one would give someone with intellectual disabilities.

The reason why those five thousand scholars were sent to repair the road was because Ningyang County did not have enough manpower.

Now that we have these non-Muslim prisoners, we can spare some of the five thousand scholars to do other things.

Compared to the smell emanating from the Semu people, which is more important?

After a moment's consideration, Magistrate Yang smiled and said, "Your Highness may not know, but the reason I sent these Semu prisoners of war to repair the road is because those scholars have another use."