Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 184: The One Who Wins the Hearts of the People

Outside Hongzhou City, an old man with a broken arm was walking towards the city, exhausted and carrying a pair of straw sandals.

The old man followed a group of peddlers, paid the entrance fee, and successfully entered Hongzhou City.

He came to a secluded street, drew a mark on the wall with charcoal, and then left in a hurry.

After a while, a beggar passed by and saw the mark on the wall. His eyes flashed slightly, and he reached out to wipe the mark clean, then ran away like the wind.

The old man hurried back to his residence, found some hidden weapons from the room and kept them close to him. Only then did he feel a lot more at ease.

He turned back to the yard, drew himself some well water, and drank it in big gulps.

After a terrifying journey, we finally arrived safely in Hongzhou City.

"call……"

The old man let out a long breath, took out a few pills and swallowed them to recuperate.

Just then, there was a barely perceptible sound of footsteps outside.

The old man looked alert for a moment, but then relaxed.

"Dong dong dong..."

There was a rhythmic knock on the door.

"Come in."

The old man spoke in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the gate.

The gate opened and a middle-aged man dressed in silk walked in.

The middle-aged man looked at the old man and frowned slightly when he saw that he was missing an arm. "How is it going?"

The old man laughed bitterly when he heard this and said, "Failed."

The middle-aged man asked, "Why? That man had guards around him, how could he hurt you like this?"

The old man shook his head and said, "No, he's not an ordinary scholar at all! I attacked with all my strength, but he stopped me with a single blow. He's incredibly strong, and his martial arts level is higher than mine. I can't tell how many more tricks he has..."

"How is that possible?" the middle-aged man was suspicious.

As a third-level killer in the organization, the old man is quite powerful and has attacked and killed practitioners of the same level before. How could he fail this time?

The old man said helplessly: "That young man is very powerful, not as the information you provided..."

The middle-aged man asked in confusion: "If that's the case, how did you escape?"

The old man said, "He was the one who let me go."

The old man told everything that had happened to him.

The middle-aged man frowned and said, "You shouldn't have come back. He let you go on purpose."

The old man actually felt that Lu Zheng deliberately spared his life so that he could follow the clues to find out the truth.

The old man said, "I understand. I was very cautious along the way and no one followed me... If I didn't come back, you would have to send someone to die again."

The middle-aged man thought for a moment and took out a small bag and threw it to the old man.

"I know what happened. Leave here immediately and don't show up in Hongzhou again."

The killers in the organization would occasionally fail in their missions, but he would not blame the old man for not completing the mission, or even kill him to silence him.

This time, both they and their guests underestimated the target.

The old man collected the bag and asked, "Where should I go?"

The middle-aged man said calmly, "You can go wherever you want. Just enjoy yourself for a year or two, and then we'll talk about it after the hype has passed."

The old man was silent for a few breaths, then he said, "I can still do things. I still have an arm."

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Let's talk about it later. Let's go."

Upon hearing this, the old man said nothing more, jumped out of the yard quickly, and headed out of the city.

When the middle-aged man saw the old man leave, he shook his head slightly and then quickly left the courtyard.

On the wall not far away, a sparrow tilted its head and preened its feathers.

When the sparrow saw the two people separating, it flapped its wings and chased in the direction the middle-aged man left.

……

Kaiyang County, Shiba Village.

At the entrance of the village, some villagers were working in the fields.

Although it is the slack season for farmers, there is still some work to be done in the fields. They are busy preparing for next year's sowing.

Two officers came from a small mountain path and hurried all the way to the village entrance.

When some villagers saw the officials coming, they all looked at them curiously.

The police came here not long ago, saying they were searching for demons and ghosts. I don’t know what they are here for this time.

The officer looked around and asked loudly, "Where is Muramasa?"

"I'm here, old man. What can I do for you two officers?" Upon hearing this, an old man hurried forward.

When the official saw Muramasa, he said calmly, "Every household in your village should prepare. We will send someone to help you build the road in two days."

The villagers' faces changed when they heard this. They were going to do corvee labor? That was tough work.

Sometimes the corvée labor was so heavy that it could make people seriously ill or even kill them.

"Where are we going to serve?" Muramasa asked hurriedly.

The official couldn't help but smile and said, "What kind of service are you doing? It's to repair the road for your own village! Mr. Lu Zheng is kind-hearted and has discussed with the county magistrate to repair and widen the village road for the township. You will be paid for it, and your labor will not be in vain!"

"Not only that, some villages will even build canals and ponds, and you don't have to pay for them... There will also be relief halls in the city where all the poor, lonely, elderly, and disabled people can go and get some food every month. There should be a few people in your village who are eligible. Master Lu has visited your village and he's got them all in mind! Remember to register with the county!"

"Also, the county is planning to open a free school. Young Master Lu has asked you to erect a stele with pictures and text. Children under the age of twelve who can learn the necessary literacy and arithmetic skills can take the exam and enroll... The school is free of charge, and room and board are provided. However, there will be an examination every six months, and those who fail will be expelled..."

"Is this true?" some villagers said in disbelief.

They never thought that these good things would happen to them one day?
The officer took out a piece of paper and said, "This is an official document from the county government. There are notices posted outside the county town. If you don't believe it, you can go and see for yourself!"

Muramasa hurriedly moved closer to take a look, and found that it was indeed a government document.

The official continued, "Besides these, there will be many more benefits in the future! The county magistrate and Master Lu Zheng care about you, and this time they gave out a lot of money. It is said that Master Lu gave out 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver, just because he saw that you people were suffering..."

The villagers were all surprised. For common people like them, being able to save ten taels of silver was already a wealthy family.

Two or three hundred thousand taels of silver, what a huge sum of money that must be? It's hard to imagine.

What they couldn't imagine was that Lu Zheng actually donated so much money to benefit the people.

One villager excitedly said, "I've said before that Mr. Lu is a very good man!"

The official couldn't help but bow to the sky and said, "Mr. Lu is the God of Literature who has descended to earth. He is a blessing to our Kaiyang County..."

The two officers praised Lu Zheng for a long time, all at the instruction of County Magistrate Li.

Since such a great figure has emerged in Kaiyang County, it is natural to publicize it widely to increase Lu Zheng's fame.

In fact, Li Yuan didn't even need to give any instructions. These officials all admired Lu Zheng's behavior and were generous in praising him.

Just then, a man ran back to the village excitedly.

"Happy event! Very happy event!"

The man panted excitedly, "There's a notice in town saying the government will allocate money to our village to build roads, and..."

The man was very excited and told about what he had seen and heard in the county town.

Now that the county government has issued some new regulations and construction plans, it has caused a lot of controversy and the news has spread quickly.

He spoke for a while, then his eyes moved and he noticed that there were officials there. He quickly stopped talking and said with a chuckle, "The two officials are here!"

The officer laughed and said, "See, we're not kidding. You guys, you've come at a great time. Muramasa, select some capable people so we can organize the road construction in a couple of days!"

The returning man couldn't help but say, "There's no need to choose, right? All those in our village who can contribute should go together! We're building a road for our own village, and you're still talking about this!"

The officer said, "We need to calculate wages for these people. We can't just randomly recruit people to make up the numbers."

The man grinned and said, "How dare we cheat for wages? We are all indebted to the scholar. If we are not counted as workers, we are willing to work hard. We can just work without wages and eat! It can also help you save some money."

The other villagers also expressed no objection after hearing this. After all, there is not much farm work in the fields now, and the elderly and children are idle anyway. It is enough for them to help build the road and have something to eat.

The officer thought to himself, this is money you should have earned, why are you saving it...

The officer waved his hand and said, "Forget it. The people in your village can discuss it among theirselves. We are just here to inform you. We are not the ones responsible for organizing the road construction."

Muramasa couldn't help but ask, "When will the construction officially start?"

The officer said, "I've informed you today that someone will come to survey the road tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We'll make arrangements then."

"Okay, okay." Muramasa nodded repeatedly.

The official said, "Besides building the road, there are other matters to be taken care of. Don't forget them."

The two officers spoke a few more words and then left the village.

The man who came back said, "Village head, have you asked a stonemason to carve the things that the scholar gave me? I heard that a school will open next year. I must let my son take a look at it. Maybe he can go to school and become a promising person."

Muramasa heard this and said, "Not yet. We don't have any good stonemasons in our village, so we have to hire one from outside. We also have to go and select the stone materials. I'm busy these two days..."

The man said quickly, "Oh, how can we delay something like this? How about I go find someone?"

It is almost impossible for poor families to go to school.

Although these people were poor, they were not ignorant. They knew that studying was important. If there was a scholar in the family, the whole family could live a good life and would not have to work hard in the soil to make a living.

Now that the county is going to open a free school, how can we miss such an opportunity?
Muramasa nodded and said, "Alright! You're always out and about, so go find a stonemason in town and buy some good stone. Buy an extra piece and remember Mr. Lu's kindness. We can't forget it!"

……

In Xiaoshan's study.

Lu Zheng was immersed in various books, forgetting to eat and sleep, and had not rested for two days and two nights.

He had no idea what was happening outside these two days, but he would occasionally receive some literary inspiration, which was the people expressing their gratitude to him, and this helped him gradually improve his realm.

(End of this chapter)