Miao Chu

Chapter 174 Practical
People came to apply in waves.

At first there were only a few scattered ones, but then they formed large groups.

Registering the roster was quite time-consuming. It required writing down the person's name, conduct, address, physical characteristics, the street and alley they belonged to, and the name of the village head, etc. They also had to put their fingerprints on the roster and were given stamped and numbered papers.

It sounds like just a few steps, but it's actually quite complicated. So when there are a lot of people, the queue can get long and the flow can be slow.

Fortunately, Song Miao had arranged the tables in a row beforehand, maximizing the number of queues and preventing excessive congestion.

Seeing that there were many people around, she followed Kong Fuyang out and went through the process. The two of them quickly realized where they were stuck.

“Copying is too time-consuming!” Kong Fuyang said anxiously, his eyes red. “Why don’t we ask the engraver to help us with some seals and carve the streets and alleys on them as well? Then we can just stamp them on.”

Song Miao shook her head and said, "There's not enough time to carve so many. Besides, there are many streets and alleys in Huazhou, and there are more than ten queues here. How many chapters will we need to carve in the end?"

As she spoke, an idea suddenly came to her mind. She suggested, "There are only so many streets and alleys in Huazhou. Most of the people who come here to enlist are concentrated in a few areas. The village heads' names are all the same. Why don't we make a registration, rank them, copy out the rankings, and distribute them to each table? Everyone who makes the copy should have a copy. Then we can just fill in the serial numbers A, B, C, D, Z, Chou, Yin, Mao, and then do the journal entries. Wouldn't that save some time?"

Kong Fuyang clapped his hands and said, "Great idea!"

After praising them, he thought for a moment and then came up with a new idea: "Why don't we guide people to line up by street and alley when they are queuing up? That way, people from nearby streets and alleys will be on the same piece of paper, saving time for the person registering them, and it will be easier to group them later!"

Song Miao immediately nodded and praised, "This is good!"

As they were talking, she looked up and saw Wang Shuji standing a few steps away. She immediately went up to him, mentioned their idea, and asked, "Does Master Wang think it is feasible?"

Wang Shuji had overheard their previous conversation and stroked his beard as he smiled, "That's quite appropriate, but who are you going to assign to this team? I don't think we have enough manpower."

Song Miao pointed to the long line of people behind her and said, "Let's find a few people who have signed up and pick two out from each street to help divide the teams. This will help maintain order and identify people. We can treat them as if they are starting work today and pay them daily. I wonder if this is feasible?"

Wang Shuji nodded and said, "That's feasible, let's do it."

He further reminded them, "We just need to count the people first. Some streets and alleys have more people, while others have fewer. It's best to distribute them according to the expected number of people. For streets and alleys with fewer people, we can combine them into one team, and for streets and alleys with more people, we can add two teams. If there are any changes, we can make adjustments accordingly."

After listening, Song Miao didn't leave. Instead, she stood there, bowed, and said politely, "Thank you for the reminder, Master Wang. However, we are currently short-staffed and simply cannot spare enough people to transcribe the names of the street and neighborhood heads. Could you perhaps..."

As she spoke, she glanced at her nephew, who had just returned carrying a tray.

Wang Shuji, who was stroking his beard, paused. He could easily guess Song Miao's meaning. However, seeing his nephew running around with great enthusiasm, he felt a mix of amusement and sigh. Finally, he said, "You should discuss it with him yourselves."

When Song and Kong found Wang Er Gongzi, the latter responded immediately upon being called.

When Feng Ganban stepped forward, he saw that the man was in high spirits, following the students of the state school to each take a portion of the materials, copying down the existing streets, alleys, and village heads' names. When the state map was sent, he hurriedly helped organize and copy it. Then he went to ask the people in line behind him who were applying for the position. He was so busy that he couldn't bear to watch.

He held back for a long time, but finally approached Wang Shuji and said, "Deputy Director, how can we let the Second Young Master work so hard for free?"

Wang Shuji shook his head and said, "Let him be. He's been with me for the past six months, and he hasn't had much time to spend with other people his age. He's been too constrained by his studies. It's good to let him do some actual chores."

Having served as an official for many years, he possessed extensive knowledge and experience. After taking a tour of the area and offering some pointers, he saved people a lot of effort. Once he finished his tour, he didn't linger and returned to the official post station. He had just sat down and picked up his pen to write a letter when he heard a knocking sound at the door—it was his nephew who had entered with a document in his hand.

"Uncle, look at this!"

Wang Shuji took the manuscript, glanced at it, and immediately realized it was a method for allocating manpower. He casually asked, "Where did this come from?"

Wang said, "That's what Miss Song gave me—she asked me if I could help group the people we recruited today according to this procedure."

Wang Shuji chuckled and said, "This young lady, the Water Conservancy Bureau paid one person to come and asked her to do two jobs, and she's working so hard. It's quite a bargain!"

Wang's nephew continued, "I've taken a look. Although the meaning is clear and the writing is quite detailed, it's just a bit wordy and lacks any literary flair. I wanted to help revise it, but no matter how I revised it, it just didn't feel right. Since I know my writing isn't good, I'll just bring it here for my uncle to take a look."

Wang Shuji nodded, leaned back in his chair, and skimmed through the manuscript.

However, after reading only half of it, he unconsciously sat up straight and turned back to the first page to read it carefully from the beginning.

When he held these many documents in his hand, he felt they were a bit too thick. Only after reading them did he realize that what looked like one document was actually three documents inside one, each used to arrange different sizes of recruited personnel.

This includes how to allocate and arrange resources when recruiting fewer than 1,000 people, fewer than 3,000 people, and more than 5,000 people.

Based on Wang Shuji's own perspective, he could naturally discern the quality of this work.

"Who made this?" he couldn't help but exclaim, "It's very well done!"

When Wang Shuji received the letter written by his nephew, he only glanced at it briefly and sighed inwardly.

My nephew has been with him for almost a year. He is gentle, patient, and hardworking, but unfortunately, he has absolutely no talent when it comes to writing.

The elder brother sent the person over early on, and he naturally knew the intention behind it. He also put in a lot of effort to first send the person to the county school, hoping to use this opportunity to take the exam for the prefectural school, and then see if he could be promoted to the Imperial Academy.

Unfortunately, the younger generation failed the state school examination several times. In desperation, he asked his son's father-in-law for help and got him into Jixiang Academy, where his father-in-law taught.

Unfortunately, he only stayed for half a year before his father-in-law sent him a message suggesting that he take the person back, saying that he was not capable enough to bring the person out and that keeping them here would only delay the younger generation.

When Wang Shuji opened the letter and read his nephew's article, he found that it showed almost no improvement. Helpless, he hurriedly brought the man back.

He searched everywhere but couldn't find a suitable place. His nephew, Wang Ji'an, couldn't take it anymore. He carried thorns on his back and knelt down like an ancient person to apologize. He said that he was really not cut out for studying and that memorizing and writing were more painful than going to a grave. He asked if he could give up going to the academy and taking the imperial examination.

My eldest brother's family only has one son. What can he do if he doesn't study? They do have a few acres of land and a few shops, but are they really going to farm or do business?

He dared not tell his elder brother this, but seeing his nephew's expression, he knew he really hated studying, so he couldn't force him. He could only keep him by his side and let him see what it was like to do odd jobs, and whether it was better to study.

Who knew that this errand would last for more than half a year, and the nephew was actually enjoying it, like a fish in water. Wang Shuji had recently been talking to the other party about the ways of officialdom, just to see if there was any hope of saving him.

Seeing that what the other party had written was even better than the original version given to him by that young lady Song, he finally lost all hope and could only sigh. After all, he was his nephew, so he had no choice but to explain to the other party in detail.

"You might think this document is verbose and poorly written just by looking at it, but take a look at your own revisions..."

As he spoke, he placed the same passage from both manuscripts side by side and pointed it out to his nephew: "Read this sentence you wrote. Although it's missing seven or eight words, doesn't it create ambiguity?"

Seeing his nephew frowning as he compared the text, Wang Shuji's brows furrowed as well. He sighed and said, "I told you last time that writing should be concise. I'm not saying that all writing should be short. This document, you could call it a set of rules, but it's more like a process. Its purpose is to teach people how to do things and what steps to take. It doesn't emphasize literary style. As long as it's easy to understand without causing ambiguity, that's enough."

"This document is not written for scholars, but for lower-level officials and clerks. As long as you follow it, you will not make mistakes, and there will be no chaos."

He continued, “Besides, you think this writing lacks literary merit, but if it were to be revised, even I wouldn’t know where to begin—you can’t create something like this just by writing something on a whim without actually doing it.”

Wang Shuji already had a great appreciation for the manuscript, and the more he analyzed it, the greater his appreciation became. He then said, "Go and ask that young lady Song who made this thing—the canal transport from Sanmen Gate to Tianmen Gate is currently congested, and we need manpower right now. I'll see if I can bring this person back with me."

"Huh?" Wang Ji'an never expected that he would suddenly be assigned another task after simply delivering a manuscript.

He couldn't help but say, "Who knows which official from the Water Conservancy Bureau did this? How can we just walk away like this?"

Wang Shuji disagreed, waving his hand and saying, "It's just a canal to be repaired here. Anyone can do it. The Water Conservancy Bureau and the Transportation Bureau can select anyone. The whole country depends on this canal. Talented people should be doing something truly important."

Wang Ji'an dared not disobey his uncle and could only agree. However, when he went out, he could not find any Miss Song. After asking around, he learned that she had taken a group of women and aunts out of the city long ago.

***
The section of the river to be excavated is located northwest of Huazhou City, about seven or eight miles away. Since all the people recruited this time were going for the first time, and time was tight, and there were still many things that had just been purchased to take, Song Miao simply arranged for mule carts.

The kitchen was a temporary shed set up at the entrance of a village outside the city. Although it was two or three miles away from the section of the river to be dug, the advantage was that there was a well shared by the villagers there.

Even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice, just as a cook cannot cook without water. But with water available, all other difficulties can be overcome.

Because she had placed the order early on and drawn up the kitchen layout and stove arrangement she wanted, giving it to Han Li, and had come over several times to check on the progress, Song Miao was quite familiar with the place.

As soon as they arrived at the place with Aunt Ma and her entourage and entered the house, almost everyone exclaimed in surprise.

The eldest son lived in a huge shed, with rows of stoves packed together inside. At first glance, the stoves were densely packed, with at least dozens of people inside.

The stove is new, as are the other pots, pans, knives, and cutting boards. The firewood was only recently delivered and is being dried in the backyard; it's still coarse wood and hasn't been chopped yet.

Song Miao and Da Bing led everyone in chopping firewood, cooking, washing cutting boards, knives, basins, and so on. While doing so, they reviewed the fifty-two rules from that day.

When it was almost noon, she asked everyone who was good at making noodles, and asked those who raised their hands to come out and knead the dough together. Then, she led the others to take the new stove and griddle and make some pancakes.

Once the flatbread was baked, Dabing called over two aunties, and together they carried the two pots from the mule cart into the house and opened their lids.

One pot contained sliced ​​and braised pig's head, which was still warm due to the warm weather. The other pot contained pickled lettuce and lettuce peel, and there was also a small covered bowl containing shallots and scallions.

Song Miao then asked the knife-wielding women for advice and got five or six of them. She asked them to either cut pig ears or pig face meat, or to cut cleaned scallions and green onions.

Everyone chose the wooden handles and cutting boards from the far side, and the meat and scallions they cut were all of uniform size.

With the remaining pork cheek meat, Song Miao sliced ​​it into extremely thin slices herself.

After everything was tidied up, Song Miao stepped aside, called out a few names, and first asked everyone present about their dietary restrictions—indeed, no one had any—before letting these people help with the pancakes.

She watched as everyone deftly wrapped the vegetables.

Everyone knew this was a test, and the atmosphere was right. Everyone was working hard and doing their best, practically vying for the top spot. It wasn't this stressful, not even for being reborn. Not only that, but when it came to the cabbage, they gave everyone a little bit of everything, without shaking or giving too much, as if afraid of missing a single bit and making Song Miao think she wasn't doing a good job.

The pancakes are made according to the number of people, and they are slightly larger than the palm of your hand, with two for each person.

Once the food was served, everyone lined up to receive their portions and eat.

Song Miao also took two others, filled a small bowl with some pickled lettuce and lettuce peel, ordered some flatbread, and the two of them went to the next room together.

The shed wasn't very soundproof, and as soon as the two sat down, they could hear faint voices coming from the shed.

Dabing, holding a pancake, couldn't help but ask, "Wife, why bother? These two pancakes can be eaten in a few bites. After that, we still have a lot to do—aren't we going to test everyone's memorization of the rules later?"

Song Miao laughed and said, "If the two of us were sitting in that room, who could eat well? When you were in the yamen, did you like to eat with your master?"

Big Pancake muttered, "The past is the past. Now I just love eating with my wife!"

Song Miao suppressed a laugh, but pushed the pickled lettuce towards him and said, "Just eat your pancake. If you get tired of it, add a bite of this."

Big Pancake happily let out a "hello" and took a big bite of the pancake.

In the shed next door, Aunt Ma was also eating a pancake.

The hot, thick flatbread is baked until crispy on both sides, while the inside is soft and slightly chewy, with distinct layers. It's hollow and already stuffed with plenty of meat and vegetables.

The meat and vegetables inside were lukewarm. Song Miao had braised the pig's head in the morning and brought it over to soak for half a day, so it was very flavorful. Everyone sliced ​​it thinly and packed it carefully, so each pancake contained everything.

Pig's head is troublesome to cook. If it's not cooked thoroughly, it's hard to remove the meat. If it's cooked thoroughly, it takes too much firewood. If it's not handled properly, it will have a gamey smell. Aunt Ma rarely eats it, which made her a little stunned when she took her first bite.

Is pig's head meat really that delicious?
(End of this chapter)