Jinyi Town Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 766 Golden Beans

It's spring time.On the wasteland in the south of Shunde Prefecture, four or five hundred laborers were working enthusiastically to level the land with iron hoes.The broken stones in the wasteland were carried aside in bamboo baskets.

He Liu and Li Hanjiao put on the coarse clothes of ordinary people and came to the edge of the wasteland.

A [-]-year-old man is drinking water and resting at the edge of the wasteland.

Li Hanjiao walked over and said, "Brother, are you also here to open up wasteland for Master Cao?"

The man replied: "Yes. I have been working here for more than a month."

He Liu asked from the side: "Oh? I don't have anything to do with my grandson. I also want to open up wasteland and farm here. I don't know how much you get paid for working for a month?"

The man shook his head: "How can there be any wages?"

He Liuqi said: "You work so enthusiastically every day, doesn't it mean that Mr. Cao doesn't pay you wages? Could it be that Mr. Cao's servants are forcing you to work for him for nothing?"

The man shook his head again: "No, we all volunteered to work here."

He Liu was very surprised: "I don't give money, but I volunteer? This is strange."

The man smiled slyly: "Don't you know...ah, forget it, I should work."

After the man left, Li Hanjiao said to He Liu: "See? Grandpa, this is just so strange."

He Liu looked around the wasteland, and then said to Li Hanjiao: "Hanjiao, look, there is not a single servant or person dressed as a villain around the wasteland. No one is watching these laborers, and they are still working so hard. Maybe, this Master Cao really didn't coerce them."

Li Hanjiao said: "Two days ago, I suspected that Mr. Cao was the leader of some kind of cult. He used the theory of ghosts and gods to coax the laborers to work for him. Later, I sent the yamen servants to investigate secretly, and there was no such thing."

He Liu said to Li Hanjiao: "There are a lot of things in the government office. You go back to the government office to deal with official business. I will watch here."

After Li Hanjiao left, He Liu stayed by the wasteland for three full hours.

He discovered a strange thing.

In the evening, a man who looked like a housekeeper came to the edge of the wasteland and shouted: "Let's rest today! The folks have worked hard!"

The stewards all said to rest, but there are still many people who are unwilling to leave and continue to work hard in the wasteland.

It is already night.The people in twos and threes in the wasteland finally dispersed and went home.

He Liu saw the man who had struck up a conversation with when he first came here.

He Liu walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder: "Hey, let me tell you, buddy, do you want to make some quick money?"

The man glanced at He Liu: "What quick money?"

He Liu was wearing the coarse clothes of ordinary people.The man could not help but underestimate him three points.The man thought to himself: They are all bitter peasants, what money can you make for me?

Unexpectedly, He Liu directly took out a five taels of silver coin from his sleeve, and waved it in front of the man's eyes: "I am a servant of the government office. Our magistrate plans to open a wasteland in the backyard and plant some flowers." .You help to dig the ground. The five liang of silver is yours."

Some of the poor people in Ming Dynasty have never seen silver in their entire lives.They use copper coins for their daily expenses.Seeing this five taels of silver, the man's eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed: "Sure! We have dealt with the land all our lives, and we are experts at work."

He Liu led the man towards the government office.As he walked, he asked, "I don't know what my surname is, and where does he live?"

The man replied: "Our name is Lin Hangou, and we are from Shilipu in the south of Shunde Prefecture."

He Liudao: "Oh. So it's Brother Lin."

Unknowingly, the two arrived in the government office.He Liu led Lin Hangou to the back office, pointed to a piece of land, and said, "This is it. As long as you turn the land upright and plant flower seeds, the five taels of silver will be yours."

Lin Hangou couldn't believe it: "Just such a piece of land the size of a palm? I can fix it in one night!"

He Liu heard the words, and handed the five taels of silver to Lin Hangou as a gesture.Lin Hangou reached out to pick it up.But He Liu withdrew the silver curly back.

Lin Hangou took the time and asked, "Why, have you changed your mind?"

He Liu smiled slyly: "That's not true. I'm easy to inquire about things. If you want to get the five taels of silver, you have to tell me why you are willing to work for Master Cao."

Lin Hangou thought for a while and said, "Okay. Let me tell you, there are golden beans in the wasteland in the south of the city!"

He Liu frowned: "Golden Douzi?"

Lin Hangou nodded hastily: "Two or three months ago, Mr. Cao hired a hundred laborers to open up wasteland for him. When opening up the wasteland, Yuan Yangbaa from our village unexpectedly dug out a grain of soybean size from the soil. Gold! Yuan Yangbaa is an old bachelor, and it is because of this golden bean that he married a big yellow girl as his wife! Yuan Yangbaa once drank too much wine and said something wrong. People from ten to one hundred. All of us in Nanshilipu knew about it. So more than 500 people in our village went to Mr. Cao to open up wasteland for him.”

He Liu asked, "Has anyone discovered Jindouzi since then?"

Lin Hangou replied: "Yes! Every seven or eight days, someone will pick up golden beans in the wasteland."

He Liu's first reaction when he heard the words was, isn't there a gold mine buried under this wasteland?

On second thought, no.Most of the gold producing areas of Ming Dynasty are located along the coast of Jiaodong and Liaodong.Have you ever heard of a gold mine in Beizhili?
Lin Hangou said from the side: "If we can find golden beans, we would rather not pay wages, but work for Mr. Cao! You know, it is real gold! If you find a grain, you will get rich."

He Liu gave Lin Hangou the five taels of silver in his hand, and said, "Well, you can level the land here. I'll go find our master first."

He Liu found Li Hanjiao and told him what Lin Hangou said.

Li Hanjiao was also full of suspicion: "That's not true. After I came to Shunde Mansion, I read through the Shunde Mansion Chronicles. In the Mansion Chronicles, it has never been recorded that Shunde Mansion produced gold mines."

He Liu said with a smile: "The golden beans in the wasteland should be planted by Mr. Cao! The purpose is to deceive the people to work for him for nothing! This Cao man can come up with such a brilliant idea, it's not like some place A rich man is like a member of a thousand families. You send a post tomorrow and ask this old man Cao to come to the government office, I want to see him."

Li Hanjiao said: "If it's what grandpa expected, how can I punish this rich man Cao?"

He Liu smiled wryly: "The common people work for rich man Cao because they want to take advantage of it! The rich man Cao threw golden beans into his wasteland, which one of the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" violated? Punishment cannot cure the crime. At most I Let him see the face of me, the crown prince, and give back the wages of the past few months to the poor people."

(End of this chapter)