204 – Rebuilding Kui County

The river that Qin Mian and Lei Tie had discovered was a little far away; meanwhile, the lake was relatively near and was soon found.

When the civilians learned that there was a lake nearby where they could wash up, they didn’t have to be urged by others and took the initiative to ask where the lake was. Lei Tie arranged a team to guide them and bring some water back by the way.

Qin Mian pondered for an afternoon before he decided to migrate Kui County, just beside the lake. Most of the civilians were farmers. Being close to the water source was convenient for irrigation. Afterward, they only needed to open up a large area of farmland.

Early the next morning, Qin Mian went to find the original county magistrate to take office. After he formally became the county magistrate, he changed into the county magistrate’s suit – it made him look more handsome and awe-inspiring.

However, it was not the time to exchange feelings. The couple discussed and went into the work of rebuilding Kui County.

Qin Mian first asked people to gather all the civilians together and frankly said that he would migrate Kui County to a nearby lake. Some of the civilians were willing and some were unwilling. They were willing because Kui County was obviously a dangerous place – if they didn’t move away, weren’t they just waiting for the next earthquake? They were unwilling because they had lived here for generations, hence, it was hard to leave their hometown.

Qin Mian, however, ignored their various opinions and straightforwardly said, “From today on, we will start rebuilding Kui County. All those willing to stay in Kui County will be divided into two teams – one team is responsible for making the road outside the mountain smoother and wider; the other team is responsible for opening up wasteland and building houses in the new Kui County. By then, the cultivated land will be distributed equally according to the headcount. Also, from today on, the implementation of three meals a day will be distributed according to work. That is to say, only when you work can you get food. You not only have enough food but also meat and vegetables. If you don’t work, you should find a way to solve the food problem yourself. As for those unwilling to leave, this official will give each person 2 taels of silver, and henceforth, you won’t have anything to do with Kui County.”

Due to the huge amount of compensation from Tuluo, Emperor Xiaohui granted Qin Mian a lot of relief money. Therefore, giving 2 taels for each person was not really much. However, it was not that Qin Mian wanted to be ruthless, but that he was confident that Kui County could be built better, so he hoped to keep people in such a way, so that they would not have to go far away to relatives and friends for shelters, relying on others’ charity. Secondly, some civilians were feudalistic and obstinate. It might be better to use this tough manner to frighten them than to waste time disputing and explaining to them. One had to know that delaying one day meant one day more of danger. If it rained, the situation would get worse. When Kui County was built, the civilians would naturally understand his good intentions.

Indeed, as soon as his voice fell, the civilians began to clamor. Most of them lost their loved ones in the earthquake, so they were already grieving. Now that the new county magistrate wanted to send them away with only 2 taels of silver, they felt angrier and dissatisfied. Some people even cursed him, dog official.

Lei Tie frowned and wanted to do something but was stopped by Qin Mian.

Qin Mian had expected this situation, but he didn’t persuade them. He ordered several loud soldiers to shout out.

“Those who want to stay, come and line up. Get ready to work.”

Only a small part moved.

Qin Mian assigned tasks to them, completely unconcerned.

At noon, when no one prepared food for the protestors, they finally realized clearly what Qin Mian’s identity was now – the county magistrate, which meant the parental official¹, as well as the Lady of the State Defender Duke and the Prefect Cai’s escort! They were so flustered that they quickly found the soldiers brought by Lei Tie. They agreed to move and were willing to stay and work.

Of course, there were still people who didn’t want to stay.

In order to prevent some people from cheating him out of money, Qin Mian also made it clear that those who left could come back only for the first ten days after leaving. While others could eat two steamed buns at each meal, including meat and vegetables, the returnees could only eat one steamed bun and drink a small bowl of soup at each meal.

It was true that some people were going to cheat him out of money first and leave for a few days before coming back and pretending that they hadn’t found relatives. However, as soon as Qin Mian said that, they immediately gave up this idea and went to line up honestly.

Even so, a few people still chose to leave. Qin Mian didn’t lie. In front of all the civilians, he asked Deputy General Cheng to give each person who wanted to leave 2 taels of silver. He wrote their names on the paper and asked them to stamp their thumbprints.

Only a few people left – a total of six families, adding up to less than 30 people. Qin Mian had people inquired thoroughly in secret, not only making sure that these six families had relatives in the prefectural capital, but also that the relatives would most likely able to help them. Only then he was relieved and asked people to secretly give 10 taels of silver to each family to ensure that they had enough travel expenses to reach their relatives.

These people realized that the new county magistrate was not as bad as they thought. They left with gratitude.

“To be rich, build the road first.” This sentence was true. Hence, Qin Mian arranged for one-third of the people in Kui County to build the road. For the time being, they first built a level dirt road. When the new Kui County was properly built, they would be reorganized to dig sand to lay the road or use bricks to pave the road. As for the remaining two-thirds of the manpower, one part was responsible for leveling the ground of the lakeside to facilitate building houses, while the other part was responsible for carrying usable bricks in the [ruined] county town to the lakeside.

Luckily, it was in ancient times. Most of the houses were one-floor, which was convenient for excavation. The civilians pulled farm tools out of the collapsed ruins and then threw themselves into work in a frenzy.

But of course, the 10,000 elite soldiers brought by Lei Tie were not idle. He sent a team of 500 people every day to hunt, improving the food for everyone. A small part was responsible for supervising the work to prevent the civilians from being lazy on purpose. The other part also helped to cut down trees, dig soil, and so on.

There were many children in the county. Qin Mian found four entry-level scholars among the civilians and arranged two rooms for them to teach the children to read and also prevent the working adults from worrying about them.

In this way, after Qin Mian’s careful arrangement, nearly no one in the county town was idle. Even the old women and old men, who couldn’t do physical labor, helped mend clothes, looked after the children between one to five years old, or dug wild vegetables.

Prefect Cai didn’t leave. He admired Qin Mian for arranging all the important things for the reconstruction of Kui County in less than three days. In the case of Kui County, he originally had the thought of “a wise man looks after his own hide”. At this time, his mind suddenly became intelligent at the approach of happiness – he thought that he could never miss this opportunity. There was practically no problem with Qin Mian’s arrangement. It was a matter of time before Kui County was properly built. If he could help Qin Mian from time to time, Qin Mian and Lei Tie would certainly say a few good words for him in the accounts they gave the emperor. By that time, the distance from being promoted and gain wealth was not far away.

After he was convinced of this, he began to actively cooperate with Qin Mian’s work.

Qin Mian secretly sent someone to the prefectural capital to inquire about Prefect Cai’s character. Before the information came back, he arranged for Prefect Cai to be responsible for the road construction, mainly to supervise the road construction process and the laborers’ food to ensure the civilians were enthusiastic about the road construction and that they could eat enough every meal. Of course, he also arranged for Lei-Qin Jian and Lei-Qin Yuan to assist Prefect Cai. It was said to assist, but both parties understood that this was to prevent Prefect Cai from taking advantage of the opportunity to deduct the laborers’ food.

Prefect Cai didn’t mind that very much. Qin Mian didn’t know him, so it was not unusual to be on guard against him. He, Cai Yongxin, might not be a good official, but he would not steal food from the affected civilians.

Qin Mian and Lei Tie were responsible for all the affairs of the new county. Qin Mian tried his best to recall the curved mould-board plough he had seen in his previous life. After few days of pondering, he asked the craftsmen to try making a few and eventually made the curved mould-board plough. The curved mould-board plough was composed of ploughshare, mould-board, heel, pressuring trowel, horizontal support, vertical support, beam, handle, regulator, hitch, and ploughing plate. The installation of a freely rotating ploughing plate at the thrush not only made the plough frame smaller and lighter but also made it easy to tune and turn. The operation was flexible and saved manpower and animal power.

Once the plough was produced, Prefect Cai was shocked. The plough with long straight beam, which was used by the civilians, was difficult to turn and laborious – extremely inefficient. How could it not be surprising that this curved mould-board plough only made a few changes on its foundation and could do half the work, twice the effect? If this plough was generalized to the whole country, would not the productivity level of Great Xia be improved? However, looking at Qin Mian, he didn’t seem to realize the significance at all.

Before this, Qin Mian didn’t have the “grand” idea of improving the productivity of Great Xia, so he didn’t think about it. If not for the reconstruction of Kui County, he would still be unlikely to have this idea. Now though, he naturally knew the importance of the curved mould-board plough to the farmers, but he still refused Prefect Cai’s suggestion to report the matter to the imperial court immediately. He dared to say that once Emperor Xiaohui learned about the plough, he would send high officials for an on-the-spot investigation. In Kui County, he and Lei Tie had the highest statuses. Therefore, no one would make indiscreet remark or fuss about the reconstruction of Kui County. It was unnecessary for any more high officials to come, which surely would hinder the progress.

Hence, his idea was not to tell the emperor about the new plough until all the land near Kui County was opened up for farming. Anyway, the civilians had used old plough for hundreds of years, so it didn’t matter to wait for a few months.

Qin Mian and Lei Tie had imperial edicts on them. Lei Tie also had the imperial sword² which allowed him to execute first and report later. Prefect Cai dared not oppose their unanimous decision.

Qin Mian promised Prefect Cai to record his contribution later, and so, Prefect Cai calmed down.

Thereupon, the curved mould-board plough was not mentioned in the accounts of Qin Mian and Prefect Cai to Emperor Xiaohui for the first report on the progress of the reconstruction of the new county.

With the curved mould-board plough, the progress of opening up the land was faster. The civilians looked at the square farmland by the lake increasing day by day, with heartfelt smiles hung on their faces and hope of life rekindled in their eyes.

At the lakeside, rows of houses had gradually taken shape. From a distance, they looked neatly arranged, much prettier than the old county.

Footnotes