Transmigrated into the role of the matriarch, I ensured my family had enough to eat and wear during

Tang Chengyu clasped his hands in a fist and presented them to Magistrate Lu, saying, "Your Honor, the papers I have submitted record what I have seen and heard in the recent locust eradication efforts in Yangqu Village. All the data has been carefully counted and verified, and there is absolutely no falsehood in them."

Magistrate Lu was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. He stared intently at Tang Chengyu, then suddenly recognized him and asked, "Are you Tang Chengyu from Chongwen Hall? I often visit my son at the school and know that you have a very good chance of passing the county-level examination and will be taking the prefectural examination next year. Why would you be recording such trivial details about locust control?"

Clerk Yan, standing nearby, quickly lowered his voice to remind him: "Sir, it is said that Tang Chengyu was previously accused of cheating and has been expelled from Chongwen Hall. This matter caused quite a stir in the town at the time."

Although Yang, the village head, couldn't quite understand the conversation between the officials, he quickly stepped forward to add, "Sir, this is Tang Chengyu. He is Gousheng's maternal uncle, and Gousheng's mother is his elder sister. He has been staying in our Yangqu Village these days."

He deliberately emphasized Tang Chengyu's identity as a resident of Yangqu Village in his speech, without mentioning Xihe Village at all.

County Magistrate Lu suddenly realized that when he was looking for water last time, he saw Gou Sheng's mother, Tang Susu, and Tang Chengyu was by her side. No wonder she looked familiar when he first saw her.

He looked down at the neat and powerful handwriting on the paper and thought to himself: "The handwriting reflects the person. Such a person with integrity must be upright and would never cheat."

He then thought of his own son's messy handwriting and made up his mind to have his son learn from Tang Chengyu. At the same time, he secretly decided that Tang Chengyu's cheating should be carefully investigated and verified.

Magistrate Lu carefully laid out the papers submitted by Tang Chengyu, raised his eyes and said, "If these methods for eliminating locusts that you have memorized can truly be implemented in every town and village and completely eradicate the locusts, I will give you a great credit."

Tang Chengyu raised his eyes in response, then bowed again to explain, "Your Excellency is too kind. This method for eliminating locusts was actually found by my elder sister, Gou Sheng's mother."

"If we really want to credit someone, the credit should go to the eldest sister, Yang Lizheng, and all the villagers who participated in the locust eradication in Yangqu Village."

"Without the concerted support of the villagers, I, an ordinary citizen, would not have been able to record these methods and data so smoothly."

Yang Lizheng stood aside, his face full of disbelief, thinking to himself: He hadn't done anything substantial, yet he was still getting credit.

The villagers were trying to get rid of locusts to protect their own crops, but they ended up getting credit for it all.

County Magistrate Lu waved his hand, his tone solemn: "The matter of awarding merit can be discussed later. The most urgent task at present is to promote this locust eradication method to all villages in Dongtai Town as soon as possible, so as not to let the locusts spread."

He immediately ordered: "Registration Officer Yan and Clerk Yan, you must implement this immediately and promptly notify all the village heads under your jurisdiction to attend a meeting in the county to learn methods for eliminating locusts."

Magistrate Lu paused for a moment, then looked at the two men and instructed them, "You two will remain at the county office for now. Once all the village officials have arrived, you will need to explain the specific methods and details of locust eradication in detail."

Yang Lizheng and Tang Chengyu responded in unison, "Yes, sir!"

After receiving the order from the county government, all the village heads of Dongtai Town rushed to the town.

The news that Yangqu Village had discovered an effective method for locust control and that the county magistrate wanted to promote it throughout the town spread like wildfire, and soon reached Yangqu Village.

The villagers of Yangqu Village gathered together, discussing the matter with each other, all filled with joy.

Someone said, "The county magistrate wants to use our village's method to get rid of locusts. Ma'an Village, Xihe Village, and Liupo Village should all follow our example!"

Someone said with a face full of gratitude: "We have to thank Gou Sheng's mother for this. It was she who discovered that lantana could kill locusts. Otherwise, we could only watch helplessly as locusts ate the grain, and we could only stand in the fields anxiously and shed tears."

Others praised, "Tang Chengyu is quite good. He's only a student, yet he's willing to humble himself and work with us to fight locusts. He's a promising young man."

Some villagers, puzzled, huddled together and whispered, "Tang Chengyu was originally from Xihe Village, so why didn't he go there and instead stayed in our Yangqu Village?"

Some speculated: "It's probably to save up for the trip to Fuzhou to take the imperial examination next year. Fuzhou is a long way away, and it will take more than ten days to get there, which will cost a lot of money."

Some villagers secretly thought, "Tang Chengyu is a student who has passed the imperial examination. He is literate and knowledgeable. I want my son to learn to read under his tutelage. I am willing to give him some tuition fees as a way to support him in taking the exam."

The women of Yangqu Village chatted idly, from locust eradication to teaching their children to read. As they talked, they gradually gathered at Tang Susu's house.

These days, Tang Susu's house is always bustling with people coming and going. In the backyard, strong men are making lantern seeds and old women are filtering the ashes from the fire. In the front yard, a temporary stove is set up and village women are lining up to brew five-colored plum juice, making it a very lively place.

This time, eight or nine more village women arrived, making the courtyard even more crowded.

Yang Dahuang and Yang Dabai ran forward, smelled the scent of fellow villagers, jumped up happily, wagged their tails, and ran into the yard.

A village woman squeezed up to Tang Susu and asked with a smile, "Gousheng's mother, how long will Tang Chengyu stay in our Yangqu Village?"

While brewing the five-colored plum juice, Tang Susu replied with a smile, "That's hard to say."

She originally wanted Tang Chengyu to stay for a year to pay off his debts before leaving, but after getting to know him, she realized that he was of excellent character and did not want to delay his future because of personal grudges. She hoped that he could successfully participate in the provincial examination next year.

But she secretly hoped that he could stay for another month or so, so that her sons could learn to read and write, and she could have an easier time in the future. Finally, she vaguely said, "Maybe, he can stay for a month or so."

Upon hearing this, the village women pleaded, "Gousheng's mother, please help us, so that our children can also learn a few characters from Tang Chengyu."

Some people say, "I don't expect my child to be very knowledgeable, I just hope he can recognize a few words so he won't be illiterate and disgrace our ancestors."

Some people also said, "Tang Chengyu was a student who had passed the imperial examinations and was well-behaved. When children followed him, they were able to restrain their tempers and stop being unruly."

Tang Susu had long harbored the idea of ​​having Tang Chengyu open a literacy class to help the villagers become literate. She recalled the previous night school for literacy and hoped that the villagers would learn more characters and broaden their horizons.

Yangqu Village has produced few educated people in the past hundred years. Now that Tang Chengyu has the opportunity to change his fate, he should help the village cultivate some scholars.

She tentatively mentioned the idea of ​​starting a children's class, and as soon as she finished speaking, about a dozen village women agreed to send their children to the class.

Later, many more women signed up, and eventually, a total of thirty children were gathered.

Although the autumn harvest is just around the corner and the busy farming season is about to begin, the villagers all understand that the young men are not strong enough to help much.

Instead of hoping that children will work in the fields, it is better to let them learn from educated people, become more literate and knowledgeable, so that they can bring glory to the family in the future.

Regarding the payment, the villagers privately agreed that after receiving the grain, each person would give Tang Chengyu at least ten catties of grain.

At that time, grain was priced at around thirty copper coins per pound, so ten pounds of grain would cost around three hundred copper coins, which was a huge sum of money for an ordinary farming family.

As dinnertime approached, Tang Chengyu returned to Yangqu Village from the county government office.

As soon as he entered the house, Tang Susu told him in detail about the villagers' desire to send their children to learn to read and start literacy classes.

Tang Chengyu readily agreed, smiling as she said, "Don't worry, elder sister, this is no problem."

"It's the same whether you herd one sheep or thirty sheep. It's just a matter of preparing some more sand trays for writing. It's not much trouble."

Tang Susu then asked, "How's the situation at the county government? What arrangements has the county magistrate made for the locust eradication?"

Tang Chengyu sat down and explained in detail: "Lord Lu has issued a strict order that all villages in Dongtai Town must use the method of 'throwing five-colored plum blossoms into the fire to fumigate them or boiling them into a juice and spraying them' to eliminate locusts."

"If any village still uses mugwort to drive away locusts, causing them to migrate to other villages, the responsible persons will be directly imprisoned and punished."

"This matter is extremely urgent. In the coming days, Magistrate Lu will arrange for officials to go to various villages to supervise and prevent any mistakes."

"In addition, he also had his clerk and Registrar Yan copy multiple copies of locust eradication methods and send them to several neighboring towns to promote locust eradication throughout the region and completely eradicate the locust plague."

Tang Susu nodded slowly, agreeing, "Only when everyone works together and every town and village joins forces can we completely eliminate the locusts and save this year's grain."

Evenings continued, with every household in Yangqu Village burning lantana to fight locusts.

The pungent smoke filled the air above the village, perfectly masking the aroma of chicken wafting from Tang Susu's yard.

Tang Susu put the cooked chicken into a bamboo basket and placed it at the entrance of the courtyard.

She planned to use the chicken meat to ward off wolves, to avoid being disturbed all night, and to let the wolves feed on their own when they came at night.

The next morning, before dawn broke, the heavy darkness still shrouded the earth.

The entire Dahe Village was still asleep, even the most hardworking farmers were still sound asleep in their quilts, and the village was quiet.

In the silent darkness, Zheng the Rascal's wife slowly walked from the entrance of Dahe Village.

She had always wanted her own niece to marry Tang Chengyu, and originally planned to go back to her parents' home to bring her niece over after the harvest.

But after hearing yesterday that Tang Chengyu would only stay in Yangqu Village for a little over a month before leaving, I decided to act ahead of schedule.