Chapter 373
The wheels creaked and rumbled as the ox pulled the cart with seemingly no effort at all. Each sack of cement weighed over eighty or ninety jin, and there were more than a dozen sacks loaded on the cart—yet the ox didn't seem to mind the weight at all, tugging along so easily it could almost break into a trot.
[1 斤 (jīn) = 0.5 kg]
A small merchant who had come to gawk stuffed a few copper coins into a soldier's hand and asked if he could have a ride.
Of course he could.
Once aboard, he found the ride surprisingly smooth—not a single jolt. With fewer potholes and a flatter road, the ox moved along at a good clip. His mind immediately started racing with possibilities.
Excitedly, he asked, "Does that mean all the official roads in Hezhou will be paved with cement too?"
If the roads were paved with cement, it would be a godsend for travelling merchants like him hauling goods.
Nothing could be better than that.
The soldier shook his head, saying he didn't know—for now, they were only building roads inside the villages.
The merchant's face fell with disappointment.
The soldier flicked his whip and added, "But I did hear that Lord Li sent men over to Xiaya Village to scout the mountains again. If they were only building village roads, there's no need to go all the way to Xiaya for that—we've got dozens of villages across four counties. So the way I see it, they're probably going to pave the town roads and the main official roads too."
The merchant breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes gleaming with hope. "Now that would be truly wonderful."
Times had changed. At first, the villagers envied the townsfolk. Now, it was the townsfolk envying the villagers.
Why?
Because the villages had cement roads, while the town still had nothing but dirt roads. When it rained, getting around was a misery—and when it didn't rain, it was still a misery.
The dirt dried out, cart wheels churned it to dust, and the wind sent clouds of grit into people's faces. Nothing like cement roads, which stayed clean and tidy whether in wind or rain. They could sleep on them, or even lick them if they wanted to.
Over in Anhe County, the cement roads were finished too. The villagers didn't mind the heat one bit—they went out to walk on the new road every single day, as if they could never tire of looking at it.
Word had it that one fellow was so reluctant to leave he kept hopping and skipping on it until he collapsed from heatstroke and had to be carried home.
The villagers had earned some money during the road-building, and unusually, the scent of meat was already wafting through the village—and it wasn't even New Year yet.
Especially those working at the cement factory—every few days, their families would make the trip to town to buy a bit of meat.
Not much, just a few liang or so. And with the road so good, nobody minded the trip.
[1 liang = 50 grams]
Every time the villagers from Xiaping Village saw this, their hearts soured with envy.
In just over a month, Tieniu had already earned five hundred copper coins. When people had first asked his dad about it, they hadn't believed it—nine wen a day, over a month, that's just over three hundred copper coins. How could that be five hundred copper coins?
Tieniu's dad couldn't explain it clearly either—he just said something about a "full attendance" bonus, plus extra subsidies and rewards from the cement factory for working hard and doing a good job.
Over a dozen people from Xiaping Village had gone with Tieniu, but not everyone got those bonuses.
Only a select few.
When the villagers asked, those lucky ones explained: "We work in different workshops. Tieniu and Huzi have much harder jobs than we do—Tieniu breaks rocks all day, Huzi does hauling. I just fill the bags. If I got paid the same as them, that wouldn't be fair, would it?"
The villagers only half-understood—what was a "workshop"? What was a "base wage"? But deep down, they felt the reasoning made sense.
They'd earned some money during the road work themselves—just a few dozen copper coins—and then the job ended. But Tieniu and the others were still working.
And if the work was heavier, they got paid more.
Why hadn't they signed up back then?
Now all they could do was watch others enjoy their good fortune. Tieniu's household was visibly thriving more and more each day.
Hard work took a toll on the body, so proper nourishment was a must. If they wanted to keep earning money, they had to stay healthy.
Tieniu's dad understood that principle well!
After the villagers got the full story, another round of quarrels broke out.
Back and forth it went: "I wanted to sign up but you stopped me! Now look—they've left us in the dust, cooking meat every day. How many times has our son begged us for some?"
"Then just buy him some! What's all the fuss about?"
"Buy? With what money? My pockets are cleaner than my face! Buy what, exactly? The bold get fed, the timid starve—and you're a coward through and through. What was I thinking, marrying a man like you?"
Over in Xiaya Village, the poorest dozen or so households were finally doing better too.
Everyone watched with envy, though none bore any ill will. They couldn't help but notice that Niu family's fulang had put on a little weight and grown fairer lately. These days, a smile often graced his face—so different from the hollow, worn-out look he used to wear, his eyes empty and numb from hardship. Now that he was earning silver, his children finally had clothes to wear—even if the fabric wasn't the finest—and folks couldn't help but sigh.
Why hadn't the prefect come sooner?
If he'd come just a little earlier, the Niu family's little grandson and his old father wouldn't have starved to death the year before last. Old Man Niu was past sixty—he'd lived a good, long life, and while his passing was sad, it was at least understandable. But the little boy? He was only two and a half, he never even got the chance to grow up before he...
The villagers were superstitious. They believed that children were different from adults—until a child came of age, the underworld would not accept them, and no ghostly escorts would come to guide their souls away. Once a child stopped breathing, they couldn't be kept inside the house; otherwise, the soul would be trapped there forever, and the child's resentment would bring misfortune upon the home. So the Niu family had laid out a bamboo mat in the yard and placed the little one on it. Many in the village had seen him—so emaciated he barely looked human. A two-year-old child, his hands no bigger than chicken claws, his belly grotesquely swollen. When asked, they learned that in desperation, he had eaten tree roots, which had lodged in his stomach and could not pass through...
Everyone knew the agony of hunger—of going from one meal to the next in winter, never quite full.
But to be starved to death slowly, alive—what unimaginable suffering that must have been!
If the Niu family had already been working at the factory by then, that child would probably still be alive today.
The prefect was a good man!
He just came too late.
Over in Pingxiang Village, the road was finished too. The villagers had earned some wages, and seeing the cement road with their own eyes, they knew travel would be much easier from now on.
This road was built for them by the prefect.
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