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

Chapter 89 Only I, the official, am a beast of burden!

Raindrops the size of beans pattered down, and a wisp of smoke first rose from the street in front of the county government office, followed by a rustling sound, and then a splashing sound.

Magistrate Yang Shaofeng looked up at the sky with a gloomy expression, only to see that the dark clouds in the sky were still heavy and had not thinned at all.

It's over.

If it weren't for this rain, the people would have harvested the beans in a few days, dried them, and brought them to this stone road to be threshed with a stone roller. Then, the county magistrate would take some beans from whichever family had the best beans, put them in a bag, and have them roasted in a pot until the surface of the beans was slightly charred, making them crunchy. The people of Ningyang County called these roasted beans "scorpion claws." The greedy children ate them year after year, but they could never get enough.

But looking at the current rainfall and the thick, mountain-like dark clouds in the sky, Magistrate Yang felt that even if this rain didn't cause a flood, it would soak the beans in the fields.

If the sun doesn't shine for several more days, even if the people harvest all the beans in the fields, they won't be able to dry them, and in the end, they can only watch helplessly as the beans sprout.

My scorpion claws...

Magistrate Yang Shaofeng suddenly had an idea. He turned to Lame Five and instructed, "As soon as the rain stops, I will take out the money that Chang Pingzhang gave me this time, as well as the money that the county government has saved up before. I would trouble you, Lame Five, to take your brothers and go and buy back all the beans that the people have at the market price. As long as they haven't sprouted, we will take them. If we don't have enough money, we will pay them on credit. I will write them a note and pay them when we have the money."

"Once all the beans have been harvested, find a few women and some places with pavilions, set up a fire, and use a low fire to dry all the beans. Use all the beans that can be pressed for oil, and store half of the remaining bean cakes. Have someone grind the rest into powder, then fry it until dry and cooked, and then mix it into fried flour."

If we calculate based on average yield per mu, the yield of wheat per mu during the Hongwu period was about half that of soybeans per mu. However, if you were to mix it into fried noodles, you would only mix about one tael of soybean flour into ten taels of fried noodles, otherwise it would be easily noticeable and would affect the selling price.

In order to prevent these beans from being wasted and to prevent the people from suffering too much loss, Magistrate Yang not only became a heartless grain merchant, but also started buying beans with IOUs.

But instead of finding Magistrate Yang's actions wrong, Limpy Wu thought Magistrate Yang was practically a living bodhisattva.

In other places, who the hell cares whether the common people have enough to eat? For these county magistrates, as long as the people don't starve to death and don't rebel, that's all that matters!

However, Limpy Five did not immediately agree. Instead, he raised a different opinion with a troubled expression: "Your Excellency, the beans are easy to harvest and easy to dry, but these beans have been rained on, so they can't be dried or hulled, this..."

Yang Shaofeng turned and glanced at the lame man, "Have you ever heard a poem that goes, 'The beanstalks burn beneath the pot, the beans weep within'? When roasting beans, roast the beanstalks along with them, then thresh the beans, and then use the beanstalks as firewood. As for crushing and shelling..."

Magistrate Yang sighed softly, "It's too late to say anything now. If all else fails, just have someone peel them off by hand. Anyway, with this heavy rain, there's nothing else we can do."

After Limpy Wu agreed, Yang Shaofeng once again turned his gaze to the stone pavement in front of the county government office, staring blankly at the bubbles formed by raindrops on the ground, and then inexplicably added, "By the way, leave me some scorpion claws when you're roasting the beans..."

Upon hearing the words "locust claws," Limpy Wu felt an overwhelming urge to vent, but after thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure out where to begin.

Such a good county magistrate, what's wrong with him just having a craving for scorpion claws?

After silently grumbling to himself, and seeing that Magistrate Yang still looked uninterested, Lame Wu suddenly rolled his eyes, chuckled, and said, "Your Excellency, you're having a headache here, do you think the people inside and outside the city are having a headache too?"

Yang Shaofeng chuckled, half self-deprecating and half helpless, and said, "Whether they have a headache or not is none of my business. I eat the emperor's rice; I'll never starve, whether there's drought or flood. They all depend on God for their livelihood, and now God has suddenly changed his mind..."

However, Limpy Five chuckled and said, "Then you're mistaken, sir."

Seeing Yang Shaofeng looking over, Lame Wu continued, "It's true that the people of Ningyang County rely on the weather for their livelihood, but they also depend on the imperial court and the government."

"With a county magistrate willing to request relief grain from the imperial court on their behalf, and the imperial court willing to allocate relief grain, plus the grain confiscated from the mountain caves, the people have no need to worry about going hungry at all, so what is there to be troubled about?"

Yang Shaofeng stared blankly at Limpy Wu, his face filled with disbelief: "So, I'm the only one with a headache?"

Limpy Wu chuckled and stabbed Magistrate Yang in the heart: "Anyway, I don't have a headache, and the people of Ningyang County, as well as the people of other nearby prefectures and counties, probably don't have a headache either."

"After all, when the county magistrate reported the drought, the imperial court allocated relief grain to our Ningyang County and several nearby prefectures and counties. At most, it's just that the people in other prefectures and counties didn't encounter such a good magistrate. No one cared about their farming and harvest, and no one thought about digging lakes to store water, so their harvest was less than that of the people in our Ningyang County."

"But they certainly won't starve."

You definitely won't starve to death...you won't starve to death...you won't die

These words echoed in his mind. When he looked at the stone road again, a song suddenly came to mind: "The cold rain is slapping my face haphazardly." The reflection of his blue clothes in the rain was scattered by the raindrops and then slowly transformed into the shape of cattle and horses.

I knew it! I knew it! Only I am a beast of burden!

While thinking angrily to himself, Magistrate Yang pointed at Lame Wu, then suddenly snorted coldly and turned to walk towards the back hall of the county government office.

And now there's a severe drought followed by a severe flood? To hell with it, give this official a good flood!

Watching Magistrate Yang storm off, Limpy Five chuckled again, stood with his hands in his pockets under the eaves in front of the county government office, and his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the steamed bun shop not far away.

……

The sudden downpour lasted for a day and a night. By the time the sky began to clear, the land and roads outside Ningyang County had become muddy and impassable.

Liu Sanshier led the villagers of Liumiao Village, wading through the mud, shouting, "Quickly cut down all the bean vines and send them to the magistrate. Also, don't waste the beans that have fallen on the ground; pick up as many as you can."

"Damn it, if there's a drought, we'll die of drought; if there's no drought, we'll drown. If it weren't for the master, we'd all starve to death!"