Chapter 47: Thirty Thousand People Have Arrived

Chapter 47: Thirty Thousand People Arrived

Bafang climbed onto the wall just as Meng Changqing was standing atop the ramparts, gazing toward the north.

"Young Master, what are you looking at?"

"I am looking at our magnificent landscape."

"The Madam told you to come back for lunch."

"Let's go." Meng Changqing ran down the slope toward the pit dwellings where his mother and nanny lived.

On the way, he saw the guards leading away groups of newly arrived laborers.

"How many people came this time?" Meng Changqing asked.

"I heard from Captain Zhang that there are over five thousand. The roster has already been handed to Laicai."

"There are still people coming," Meng Changqing remarked.

"Why is that?" Bafang asked innocently, unable to understand. "Even when Lord Wei issued the mobilization orders from the Prefect, no one listened. But you just give the laborers a day off, and suddenly everyone shows up?"

"How can an official be more trustworthy than a neighbor? One must also consider the heavy burden of corvée labor in Liangzhou and the suffering of the laborers." Meng Changqing suddenly turned back and asked, "Bafang, if you become an official in the future, will you be a corrupt one or an honest one?"

"Me, an official?" Bafang doubted himself. "Can someone like me really become an official?"

"Why not?" Meng Changqing said. "You and Laicai aren't truly servants. You've been studying alongside me since we were children. Once you have mastered your studies, I intend to send you for the imperial examinations."

Bafang burst into laughter, opening his mouth only to swallow a mouthful of dusty wind, before turning his head to spit several times.

"Young Master, stop joking with me. You should be the one taking the exams; you might even become a top scholar."

Meng Changqing said, "I won't be able to take them, so I'm counting on you."

"Don't count on me. You'd be better off counting on Laicai, he..."

Before Bafang could finish, he saw a man approaching from a short distance away, following Zuo Datou. The man was incessantly saying, "Just give it to me, it's the same if I give it back to him later."

"Get lost!" Annoyed by the man's persistence, Zuo Datou pulled out his whip to strike him. "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. Do you think I'm a fool?"

"Go ask what's going on."

"Hey!" Bafang ran over quickly. "Brother Zuo, what happened?"

"This fellow has dishonest intentions; I'm teaching him a lesson," Zuo Datou said. "He introduced someone who claims to know where to dig a well, and he's insisting that I ask the Lord to give him that one tael of silver so he can pass it on to the well-digger."

As Meng Changqing walked over, he found the situation quite interesting.

"What is your name?" Meng Changqing asked.

Just as the man on the ground was about to lift his head, Zuo Datou roared, "Answer the County Lord! You are not permitted to look up!"

The man shuddered. "Replying to the County Lord, my name is... this lowly one is called Chi Xing."

"How did he latch onto you?" Meng Changqing asked Zuo Datou.

"He saw me leading the Feng Shui master to work and assumed I had influence."

"Brother Zuo, go attend to your business."

Zuo Datou was uneasy, as Meng Changqing and Bafang were still quite young. "What if he's disrespectful and offends you..."

Meng Changqing replied, "I have a knife on me."

"What did you say to the Feng Shui master?" Meng Changqing asked the man on the ground. "How much do you intend to give him?"

"Tell the truth!" Bafang suddenly shouted, startling Meng Changqing.

"Replying to the County Lord, I intend to give him five hundred wen."

"Is that so?" Meng Changqing said. "I don't believe you."

Chi Xing trembled on the ground. "It's... it's three hundred wen."

"You summoned the Feng Shui master for that price?" Meng Changqing asked.

"Yes."

"I will send someone to ask the Feng Shui master. If what you told him is indeed that price, and the location he chose actually yields water, then I will give you the remaining seven hundred wen."

Overjoyed, Chi Xing kowtowed repeatedly toward Meng Changqing. "Thank you, County Lord! Thank you, County Lord!"

"Young Master!" Bafang jogged to catch up with Meng Changqing. "I don't understand your actions anymore. Why are you helping him take advantage of others?"

"Even if I give him those seven hundred wen, he won't be able to keep it. With ten or so people living in one pit, where could he possibly hide it?"

"Even if he can't keep it, what is your motive? Surely you aren't doing this just to save seven hundred wen?"

Meng Changqing replied, "I am letting him witness the treachery of the human heart."

Zhang Yuan had brought back over five thousand people twice. Combined with the laborers sent from other counties previously, the camp now held over twenty-six thousand people.

Among them, five to six thousand were women.

They were not far from the thirty thousand people Meng Changqing required.

By that evening, the third batch of laborers returned, bringing over three thousand more.

The total number exceeded thirty thousand.

The larger the population, the greater the logistical pressure. Currently, all laborers were divided into six hundred groups, requiring a total of one thousand eight hundred guards.

The soldiers sent from Hongjia County had only two hundred men left to handle logistics.

This was certainly not enough, so Zhang Yuan and the others naturally went to assist.

Regardless of what Zhang Yuan was thinking internally, the work was eventually getting done.

As dusk fell, Meng Changqing was in the county yamen working with an abacus. She was calculating intently when Laicai suddenly rushed in. "Young Master, someone has fainted near the kitchen. We don't know what happened."

Meng Changqing opened her book box, took out the silver needle case, and asked while walking, "What kind of person is it? Are there any external injuries?"

"It's a woman. She just arrived today. She suddenly collapsed while standing in line outside the kitchen."

"Is she still breathing?"

"She was when I arrived."

By the time Meng Changqing arrived, the unconscious woman had already been carried into the kitchen. Several people were crowding around her, blocking Meng Changqing's view.

"Make way!"

Laicai shouted loudly following her, "Make way, quickly! The County Lord is here!"

The crowd dispersed rapidly, and three guards cleared a path for Meng Changqing.

As Meng Changqing approached the fallen woman, she saw that the person's face was deathly pale, and her lips had no color at all. Although she was wrapped in a large cotton padded jacket, it was obvious at a glance that she was extremely thin.

Meng Changqing reached out to check her pulse and found her breathing to be very weak. She quickly used needles to stimulate life-sustaining acupoints before checking the pulse again.

She realized the woman had fainted from hunger.

"Go to the southernmost kitchen and fetch a bowl of thin porridge."

As soon as Meng Changqing spoke, a guard grabbed an empty bowl and ran toward the kitchen. Soon, a bowl of hot porridge was placed in Meng Changqing's hands.

Meng Changqing called over a woman from the crowd and instructed her to pry open the woman's mouth to pour the porridge in.

After half a bowl had been poured, the person on the ground slowly regained consciousness.

"She's awake, she's awake! Meizi, you scared us to death!" the woman said, supporting the newly awakened person.

Meizi was disoriented. Once her vision cleared and she saw the person in front of her, she nearly fainted again.

The person before her was holding needles and wearing a face veil, with only her eyes visible. "Who are you?" she asked, terrified and weak.

"This is the County Lord. He is the one who saved you; he even fed you half a bowl of porridge just now," the woman supporting Meizi said. "You should kowtow to the County Lord and thank him properly."

Meizi indeed tried to kneel up, but Meng Changqing stopped her. "Don't move, you are too weak. And the rest of you, stop staring. If you should be eating, eat; if you should be sleeping, go back to sleep."

Meng Changqing handed the porridge to Meizi. "Finish this."