A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 724 Five Hundred Adopted Sons
The nights of White Dew and Autumn Equinox grow colder with each passing night.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the wind is no longer hot, but rather cool.

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

Outside the earthen cave dwellings at the foot of the cliff, the familiar sound of a wooden fish being struck could be heard. Inside the cave dwellings, large communal sleeping platforms were built.

A row of children, their heads facing outwards, were sleeping on the bed. Upon hearing the sound of the wooden fish drum, they all quickly got up.

This is when people sleep the most soundly, but no one dares to sleep in late.

A boy of about eight or nine years old shouted loudly, "Get up, everyone! Hurry up and get dressed, make your beds, wash your face and rinse your mouth, and assemble on the playground."

"Anyone who's late will be punished by having to do a horse stance."

The cave dwellings were inhabited by a group of children, mostly around eight or nine years old, with ten people in each room, all of them boys.

They quietly packed up and left.

Nine-year-old Li Enyi is the foreman of this cave dwelling. He is the oldest, the tallest, and the strongest. His words carry weight. If anyone disobeys him, he will get angry and punch them. Several children of similar age have been beaten into submission by him, and no one dares to disobey him.

Draw water from the well to wash your face and rinse your mouth.
They helped each other comb their hair, tied it into two buns, and tidied it up before heading to the playground.

"Class One, report your numbers."

Li Enyi shouted.

"One, two, three... eight, nine, ten!"

The ten students in the class assembled and stood in a row.

At this time, the children from the other classes also gathered to count off.

Although the children were small, their voices were very loud.

The bell rang,

Dean Niu Yigan appeared with several teachers.

"Morning exercises begin, start with the Eight Pieces of Brocade, and lift the sky with both hands to regulate the three jiaos."

Niu Yigan stood on the stage leading the exercises.
Li Enyi practiced very seriously offstage. It is said that this Eight Pieces of Brocade was personally taught by the Prince of Dai. For the orphans of Wuji Puji Temple, the Prince of Dai was like their second father, the person they admired and worshipped the most.

Li Enyi practiced each move diligently.

After completing the eight movements, he felt refreshed and his stomach started rumbling.

Dean Niu waved his hand.

The children then walked in neat lines toward the cafeteria.

Class 1 was at the front of the line, and everyone was very orderly.

As I approached the cafeteria, I smelled a delicious aroma, which made me even hungrier.

The plump auntie in the cafeteria, holding a spoon, said, "Line up, everyone."

Li Enyi led the class to get bowls and chopsticks. Today's breakfast included millet porridge with cornbread and a bowl of egg drop and vegetable soup.

Buckets of breakfast, steaming hot and fragrant.

The children sniffed, as if inhaling the aroma would fill their bellies.

Beside Aunt Pang were several other women, all volunteers who had come to help; they were residents of the town.

Li Enyi got a bowl of millet and pumpkin porridge, two cornbread buns, and a bowl of egg drop soup. The oil and egg drop floating on the soup made his stomach rumble even louder.

"Thank you."

Li Enyi thanked Aunt Pang and the others loudly.

Aunt Pang kept working with her hands and said with a smile, "Why thank us? We should thank the Holy Emperor for unifying the world and ending the war, thank Minister Li for establishing this Wuji Puji Academy and taking in you orphans, and also thank the kind people who donated money and food, as well as the volunteers who came here to help."

"Go eat quickly, you have to go to early class soon."

Li Enyi nodded and went to the dining table. There were ten of them in the class, sitting around a rectangular table. Since there were no chairs, they ate standing up.

No one spoke; they wolfed down their food.

A half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home. This is the time when he can eat the most. The Puji Hospital does not give children a small amount of food rations, three dou of grain per month.

One liter of staple food is rationed per day, supplemented with some miscellaneous grains.

The millet porridge was very thick; if you stuck a chopstick in it, it wouldn't fall over. There was also a layer of rice oil on top. The cornbread was made from corn and bean flour, so it was rather coarse and a bit dry. It was perfect to have a bowl of egg drop soup instead.

These steamed buns are quite filling.

Li Enyi ate very quickly, without wasting a single bite.

Soon, the porridge and soup bowls were all cleaned up.

Auntie Pang's voice rang out.
"We also have boiled sweet potatoes today. Come and get one if you want some, one for each person."

Li Enyi smiled, surprised that there would be an extra meal today.

The sweet potatoes were delicious, very sweet, and even seemed to release sugar when steamed.

He went up to Aunt Pang and took a sweet potato. It was a white sweet potato, quite powdery and not as sweet as a purple sweet potato, but it felt more filling.

"Thank you."

Back at the table, I ate it bite by bite, not wasting a single piece of the skin.

After eating,

After washing and arranging the dishes, I rinsed my mouth and then went to the classroom with my classmates.

This Puji Orphanage takes in children aged five to nine. Younger children are adopted into the orphanage, while older children are sent to workshops to become apprentices.

Here, orphans also work part-time while studying.

In the morning, we have cultural classes, including literacy, arithmetic, and writing. In the afternoon, we do some simple handicrafts.

Li Enyi was from Guanzhong, but his father died in war and his mother died in famine, leaving him an orphan at the age of five. He wandered, begged, and even stole.

Just to survive, I lived in a daze, in a daze, but thankfully I survived.

Three years ago, he begged his way to Yusu Township, where he fainted from hunger in front of Wuji Fort. From that moment on, his fate changed, and he was adopted by the Puji Orphanage run by the Li family.

They have food to eat and clothes to wear.
He was still able to sit in the classroom and listen to the teacher's lectures. Although the conditions here were simple and not as good as Wuji Academy, he was very satisfied.

He wanted to grow up quickly so he could serve the Li family.

Recalling those days of wandering, being bitten by dogs and chased by geese, almost being kidnapped by human traffickers, being so hungry that I ate grass roots and tree bark but couldn't defecate, so I had to use tree branches to dig it out.

When they're starving, they'll steal. Most of the children in this orphanage have had similar experiences of homelessness and begging, and they've all stolen before.

They didn't care about anything back then; when they were starving, they would do anything.

I've been here for three years.

He still often wakes up in fright from his dreams, fearing that everything he is experiencing now is just a dream.

three years,
He grew taller and stronger, became more polite, and even learned to read quite a few words and do arithmetic and bookkeeping.

He will have to leave this place next year, and he will be very reluctant to leave.

These children will be recommended to various workshops and shops to become apprentices, learn a skill, find a job, and then they will have to walk their own path in the future.

Apprenticeships typically last three to five years. There is no salary, but room and board are provided, and there may be some bonuses during holidays.

Regarding the future,

Li Enyi wasn't so confused. He was looking forward to it. He had survived the hardest days, and now with the Li family's help, he was sure things would get better and better.

In class, he listened attentively. He was considered one of the smarter and more hardworking students in the class. Dean Niu had spoken with him and said he would recommend him to take the entrance exam for Wuji Academy Technical School.

If the grades are good,
Then some large workshops and shops will sign him up, pay his tuition, and entrust him with technical school training at Wuji Academy.
It's much better for him to study at the academy than to go directly into a workshop or shop as an apprentice. After graduating from the academy, he would be a shop assistant with wages.

Li Enyi's name was also given at the Puji Hospital. He only remembered that his parents used to call him Xiao Er, but he didn't know his surname or given name.

Most of the children in the Pujiyuan (a medical institution) were surnamed Li. Like Li Enyi, they didn't know their own surname, so they took the surname of the Prince of Dai.

They regarded the Prince of Dai as their own father.

The name Enyi will forever remember this kindness.

During recess,

Li Enyi picked up a willow branch and wrote on the sand table, while tapping on the abacus with his other hand. The abacus was a gift from Dean Niu and was his outstanding award from last year.

He wanted to be an accountant. He felt that accountants could be called "sir," wear long robes, and sit behind the counter or in the accounting room, protected from the wind and rain, with good pay and high wages.

The morning classes have ended.

Food is served in the cafeteria.

The orphanage provides three meals a day. Breakfast consists mainly of porridge and cornbread, while lunch includes steamed buns and vegetables.

What I ate in the morning was digested long ago by the morning.

Li Enyi enjoyed his lunch very much, and he had an extra snack today – an extra ear of corn.

The corn wasn't too old yet; after steaming, it was soft, sweet, and powdery. Li Enyi ate it with great satisfaction, finishing it all off, and even chewing up the tender part at the front of the corn cob.

"What day is it today? Why did you add sweet potatoes in the morning and corn at noon? Are you going to add stewed pumpkin tonight?" Li Dezhong asked.

"Even food can't shut you up, so don't talk." Li Enyi fulfilled his duties as squad leader.

Take a half-hour nap after lunch.
Li Enyi is still memorizing the text.

in the afternoon,

Doing handicrafts,
The orphanage would take on all sorts of handicrafts from workshops in town, which would not only earn money to subsidize the orphanage's expenses, but also teach the orphans some job skills.

The child is too young to do anything more than simple handicrafts.

The work itself isn't tiring, but it takes three hours, from noon until dark, which is quite arduous.

You can't be lazy; there will be tasks to complete. If you don't do well, you'll be punished, but if you do well, you'll receive a small reward.

Li Enyi never slacks off and always exceeds his assigned tasks.

···
"How many orphans has this Puji Nursery taken in?"

There are five hundred in total.

"so much?"

"Not that many. In the years when the world was in chaos, there were too many abandoned babies and orphans."

In the courtyard,

Li Yi accompanied Li Shimin to the orphanage. Li Shimin made a special trip incognito to visit and take a look around.

Watch the children's breakfast, watch them attend classes, watch them practice exercises and play, and watch them earnestly make handicrafts to earn money.

"This place feels like a military camp to me."

"Yes, the management is quite strict. There are children aged five to nine, both boys and girls, but a wall divides them into two courtyards."

"Raising so many children must be quite expensive, right?"

"Fortunately, I established a charity society and took the lead in donating some land and money to it. In recent years, many people have joined as members and donated money and food. We have a council to elect council members and a leader."

They will also recruit some teachers, school staff, and volunteers.

The president, directors, and volunteers do not receive wages.

Everyone is doing good deeds.

The donated funds and supplies are substantial, and we have assigned dedicated personnel to manage them. The accounts are reviewed regularly, and the funds beyond expenditures will be used for investment, such as buying land for rent, lending money for interest, and even setting up small workshops in the future.

Puji Orphanage has not only been built in one place, but there are also other places, and it continues to open in various locations.

The Puji Society also had orphanages and baby care homes, which were specifically for taking in and raising infants under the age of five. Once they were over five years old, they would be transferred to the Puji Home.

Doing these things must have cost a lot of money and supplies.

But this is charity, it's about accumulating good deeds. Led by the Li family, many people are willing to donate, especially the Yushu Town gathering, where they have been donating for a long time.

Li Shimin sighed.
“These should have been government affairs, but the court has been too busy to take care of them in recent years. If it weren’t for your kindness, the five hundred children in this courtyard would probably be gone by now.”

"Let's take it slow. Community participation in the establishment and management of charitable organizations is a supplement to the government's role."
Since the imperial court currently lacks the resources to directly undertake construction and relief efforts, it will be best to temporarily focus on providing guidance and supervision.

Charitable acts by charitable organizations and associations must be guarded against by unscrupulous individuals who use abandoned infants and orphans to defraud donations and embezzle funds, and even more so by those who traffic children and consume human blood.

Li Shimin nodded solemnly.

Today, he saw once again the dark side of this unified Tang Dynasty.

"Governing the world is a long and arduous task."

"These orphans are also my subjects."

These orphans are lucky to have been adopted and now have clothes to wear, food to eat, and the opportunity to work and study. But since the chaos of the Sui Dynasty, how many orphans across the land have died because they were left without anyone to care for them?
(End of this chapter)