allonlinenovel Chapter 52 Is it that this official doesn't want to get a wife?!
Chapter 52 Is it that this official doesn't want to get a wife?!
Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, did not mean to wander aimlessly. Instead, he brought paper and pen and began registering every household in the county, starting from the two courtyards where the young widows of Widow Village lived.
Name, age, date of birth, ancestral home, residential address, head of household, number of family members—basically, all the information that could be found on the household registration book before the transmigration, except for the ID number, was registered.
The advantage of doing this was that Magistrate Yang Shaofeng gained a better understanding of the situation of the people in each village and community of Ningyang County. In the future, whether it was collecting taxes or conscripting laborers, Magistrate Yang would have the most direct data support, instead of having the village heads and community leaders do the statistics for everything.
However, Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, also took advantage of the opportunity to register household registers to engage in a case of using public office for private gain.
For example, the young widow Liu Shi, whom Limpy Wu had his eye on, was originally from Liu Miao Village. Her name was Liu Xiuniang. Apart from her daughter who was just eleven years old, she had no relatives in her husband's family. She also had a younger brother who was two years younger than her on her maternal side. However, Liu Xiuniang did not want to go back to Liu Miao Village to cause trouble for her brother's family, so she lived with a group of young widows in the widow village.
"Got it?" Yang Shaofeng pointed at Limpy Five with a look of exasperation: "Xiuniang has a younger brother, and her daughter's father has no relatives left. You just need to appease Xiuniang and her daughter, and suck up to her brother, and that will solve the problem, right?"
The lame man said with a pained expression, "My good magistrate, I understand everything you've said, but understanding is one thing, but really... really..."
After stammering for a long time without making his point, Limpy Wu finally steeled himself and said, "Let's take it one step at a time. Besides, Your Excellency is not married yet, so we wouldn't dare to get married before you."
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback, then flew into a rage.
You damn cripple, I'm only thinking of you bachelors, and you're the one who's mocking me for being a single dog too.
Besides, is it that I, this official, don't want to marry a wife and bring her home to cuddle?
That's because there's no suitable one, you know?!
Look at all the young ladies and maids in the villages and communities. The older ones are all married off early, and I can't bring myself to do anything with the younger ones. Can you blame me for this?
What's even more infuriating is that Ningyang County is such a poor and dilapidated little town that there isn't even a brothel. I'm exhausted from working like a dog all day long, and I can't even find a place to relax!
Damn it, if it weren't for that heartless Chang Yuchun who insisted on forcibly conscripting my men and forcing me to become the magistrate of Ningyang County, I would have already found a way to make money, buy land, and open a clubhouse!
After mentally ranting and cursing a whole bunch of things, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng could only helplessly snort and say, "I'm not even twenty yet, so I'm not in a hurry to get married. But you, Brother Limpy Fifth, if you drag this out for a few more years, I don't know if you'll still be able to give me a little nephew."
After exchanging a few words with Yang Shaofeng, Yang Shaofeng stepped forward and said, "Let's go, while it's not too late, let's go to Jia Yilu to continue the registration."
……
The famous decadent writer Xun once said: "Watching others carry loads is effortless, but carrying them yourself will break your tendons."
Before he transmigrated, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng knew that the household registration book was a valuable thing and had seen how it was processed. That's why he wanted to complete the household registration of the people in Ningyang County before Limpy Wu went to Yanzhou Prefecture.
However, when the registration actually started, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng discovered that household registration was not an easy task. Just running from house to house, asking questions, and registering was enough to drive a normal person to the brink of collapse.
What annoyed Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate of Ningyang County, even more was that in later generations, the work of registering household registrations was never done by one person, but by a large group of people, and these people even had computers as an auxiliary tool. However, when it was Yang Shaofeng's turn to register the people of Ningyang County, he could only rely on himself, with just his mouth, a stack of paper, a pen, an inkstone, and a stick of ink.
After a long day of work, it was completely dark, and Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, had only registered thirteen households, not even half of the households in Jia Yi Lü.
On the way back to the county government office by moonlight, Lame Wu asked cautiously, "Otherwise, I'll have all the people of Jia Yilu register at the county government office tomorrow, so that the county magistrate won't have to run from house to house?"
Yang Shaofeng shook his head slightly and sighed, "It's easy to get the people of Jia Yilu to register at the county government office, but if the people come to the county government office, who will go outside the city to reclaim wasteland and cultivate it? The land is the least deceiving. If the people don't reclaim wasteland and cultivate it, the land won't yield any grain. If the people have no grain to eat, how can I, the county magistrate, sleep soundly?"
This is obvious.
If ordinary people could eat their fill every day, have meat every few days, and buy new clothes a few times a year, would they care whether a county magistrate was greedy or frequented brothels? Even if the county magistrate was arrested for greed, there might still be people who would plead for his innocence.
If ordinary people can't even afford to eat, can't eat meat even once a year, and can't even afford a set of clothes without patches, even if you, the county magistrate, eat chaff and wild vegetables with them, they will still suspect that you are greedy for money and that your integrity is just a facade for show!
After walking a while longer, Yang Shaofeng suddenly stopped and asked, "Are the two hundred new brothers settling in alright?"
Limpy Five was used to Yang Shaofeng's unconventional thinking, and upon hearing this, he honestly replied, "I'm used to it. They are actually the same as us. They joined the army because they couldn't make a living, and later had to leave the army because of their injuries."
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement, then asked, "And what happens after you leave the military?"
Limpy Wu sighed softly and said sadly, "In the past, I would receive a sum of money, then take it home to farm. If I was lucky, I could buy more land and get married. If I was unlucky, hehe."
Although Limpy Wu didn't say it outright, Yang Shaofeng could hear the helplessness and melancholy in his chuckles.
If you're unlucky, you'll run out of money, sell your land, and still not get married, eventually dying quietly in some corner.
It's easy to see from a little thought that these veterans were almost all ruthless killers. They were used to fighting on the battlefield, and it would be hard for them not to feel a sense of loss when they put down their knives and wielded hoes.
In addition, the battlefield is a place where there is no tomorrow, and these veterans, who have almost no family, cannot develop the habit of saving money. The small amount of resettlement allowance given by the imperial court will soon be spent.
These two reasons combined make it difficult for these veterans to integrate into the lives of ordinary people, and it is also more difficult for them to find wives than for the children of ordinary families.
After a long silence, Yang Shaofeng finally spoke, "As long as the brothers can get used to it, the rest can always be resolved gradually."
Limpy Wu grunted in response and continued to follow Yang Shaofeng silently forward.
solve?
Originally, there were more than twenty young widows in Widow Village, while Ningyang County only had about ten wounded soldiers, so there were more meat than wolves.
But now there are suddenly more than two hundred wounded soldiers, while the widows in the widow village still only have more than twenty. The situation has become one of too many wolves and too little meat.
Even if all the young widows in the widow village were willing to remarry, wouldn't the remaining soldiers still have to remain bachelors?
Magistrate Yang Shaofeng naturally thought of this as well.
However, the problem that Limpy Five was worried about was not a big problem for Magistrate Yang Shaofeng. In Magistrate Yang's memory, Emperor Zhu Chongba would soon launch a massive migration from Shanxi. At that time, a large number of people would move from Shanxi to Shandong. Although Ningyang County was a poor and small county, at least several thousand people would be allocated to it.
When the time comes, I'll see if there are any widow villages that have been relocated here. If there are, I'll take them all back. Even if there aren't any widow villages that have been relocated here, it doesn't matter—as long as these wounded and disabled soldiers become rich, they won't have to worry about finding wives in the future.