When the Shangjiao Village people heard this, they perked up and asked, “Your market still has grain to sell? Is it expensive?”

“Not expensive. It’s a stall set up by the County Magistrate’s order, selling grain brought in from outside. It’s slightly cheaper than the grain shops, but it’s only sold to people doing work-for-relief, and each person can only buy a maximum of five dou at a time.”

Chen Fang said, “If you want to buy grain, you’ll need to get wooden tokens from me later. You can only buy grain with the wooden tokens, and you’ll have to return the tokens to me afterwards.”

The Shangjiao Village villagers happily agreed and asked in passing about the market’s location. Learning it was in another large village not too far away, they felt relieved.

This was a welfare benefit Zhao Hanzhang had specifically left for the workers.

Since the winter solstice, grain prices had begun to rise, and the increase was not small. After Zhao Hanzhang announced the work-for-relief program, grain prices dropped slightly but still continued to climb slowly upward.

The closer it got to spring, the higher grain prices rose.

Zhao Hanzhang knew that Xiping County’s situation was relatively good. Since taking over Xiping County, she had continuously provided work-for-relief. Although families didn’t have much stored grain, they wouldn’t go hungry in the short term.

The situation in other counties was much more serious than in Xiping County.

She didn’t want to clash with Xiping County’s gentry over grain prices, especially since a considerable portion of the grain shops in Xiping County were opened by members of the Zhao clan.

So Zhao Hanzhang didn’t release large quantities of grain to stabilize prices, but she did take some measures to make her position clear.

For example, she had people set up grain distribution points in the village and town markets below, selling grain to all people participating in work-for-relief.

In such cold weather, those who came out for work-for-relief basically all had difficult family circumstances. And the work-for-relief content announced by the county office—aside from some tasks like making quilts, making clothes, and twisting straw that women could do—most other work involved heavy labor that only able-bodied people could do, like road repair, digging irrigation channels, and reservoirs.

They might eat their fill, but they still had elderly parents, wives, and children at home.

So Zhao Hanzhang specifically set up grain distribution points to allow them to buy grain at slightly lower prices.

To prevent people from exploiting loopholes, she gave each supervisor the authority to issue wooden tokens. Workers who wanted to buy grain at the distribution points could go together with their wooden tokens to purchase.

Once this measure was implemented, grain prices in Xiping County dropped slightly again. Everyone was quite tactful and didn’t cause her trouble over this matter.

Plus, a considerable portion of the grain shops in Xiping County still belonged to members of the Zhao clan. With Zhao Ming present, they wouldn’t trouble Zhao Hanzhang over this.

Eight days later, Chen Fang took the account book to the county office to withdraw copper coins and brought them back, then distributed them to each person.

According to custom, they were given a day off with each payday.

The Shangjiao Village people took their money and rushed to the market, using their freshly distributed copper coins to buy grain.

One hundred wen for ten days. Current grain prices were: wheat at twenty wen per dou, beans cheaper at twelve wen per dou, and rice more expensive at twenty-two wen per dou.

These were the prices only available at Zhao Hanzhang’s grain distribution points. In the county town grain shops, all types of grain cost two to five wen more.

This was also one of the reasons why Zhao Hanzhang could recruit so many workers in winter. Because of this benefit, the value of work-for-relief copper coins increased by twenty to fifty percent.

So families that could endure hardship and were willing to endure hardship—even if they were somewhat well-off—would come out to participate in work-for-relief.

Some of the Shangjiao Village people spent all their money on grain, while others kept part of the money and only bought some grain.

Then they teamed up to carry the grain home.

The remaining people in Shangjiao Village all stayed home without moving. With some of the able-bodied eaters gone from their families, they could eat a bit more each day, but they still didn’t dare eat freely—they just added one more meal where they could see the bottom of the wheat gruel bowl.

When Qian Jin and the others entered the village, it was very quiet, but the young men were excited, with smiles they couldn’t suppress on their faces. Just reaching the village entrance, they started shouting loudly, “Wife, wife, we’re back! I brought back a lot of grain—”

The quiet village stirred. Someone leaning against a wall came out, saw the young men either carrying or shouldering grain bags, was overjoyed, and their feet seemed to gain strength. They walked forward steadily a few steps and asked urgently, “Is it grain?”

“It’s grain! I bought five dou.”

A young boy had already passed them and headed home. As soon as he entered, he was surrounded by his mother and younger siblings. He said proudly, “I bought five dou too.”

Not everyone bought wheat. Some people bought a portion of beans, so they could both buy five dou of grain and have some money left over.

A family gathered around looking at the copper coins he brought back, exclaiming in wonder, “There really is money.”

“It’s paid every ten days. We asked—we have to work at least another twenty days before that riverway can be cleared. That way we can bring back grain two more times. I figure if we’re careful at home, we can eat until the spring wheat is harvested.”

“If you dig more slowly, couldn’t you work for a long time?”

“We don’t dare slack off. There was a good-for-nothing in Xiajiao Village who slacked off while digging irrigation channels. After being warned twice and still not changing, he was arrested. No one knows where he was sent.”

“The Xiajiao Village people are all like that—what more for us outsiders? I heard that if you don’t obey, the officials will directly arrest you and throw you into the mountains to mine. You’ll never get out for the rest of your life.”

The family members were startled and quickly urged, “Then don’t slack off. Work hard.”

“We’re working hard. Hmph, unlike the Xiajiao Village people who don’t know when they’re well off. They’re just digging irrigation channels and dawdle around. We’re the ones dredging the riverway.”

At this time, Chen Fang was lecturing the Xiajiao Village villagers. “A few days ago, with the Shangjiao Village people here, I gave you face in front of them, so I held back and didn’t say anything. Now that they’re not here, let’s talk about this.”

Chen Fang scolded, “Do you usually drag your feet like this when doing corvée labor? You won’t be worked to death—that little bit of channel work took a whole day longer than planned to complete!”

“It’s cold. The ground is frozen. That top layer is very hard to dig.”

“Nonsense! No matter how hard it is to dig, can it be harder than clearing the riverway?” Chen Fang sighed. “Look at the Shangjiao Village people. Sometimes they even have to step into ice water, but they still do good work.”

“Don’t take advantage of my good nature and slack off. You all saw what happened to Zhuzi. Next time if you don’t complete work on schedule, he won’t be the only one arrested.”

Hearing Zhuzi mentioned, his family immediately wailed and asked, “Village Head, where did they take Zhuzi? Are they going to take his life?”

“Who wants his life?” Chen Fang said. “What use is his life? Rest assured, he won’t die. He was slacking off, wasn’t he? Taking wages but not doing proper work. The County Magistrate punished him by sending him to push grinding stones.”

He said, “To prevent people from slacking off and running away, all the punished people have to change locations. Right now all the convicts pushing grinding stones in our area were brought from elsewhere. If Zhuzi doesn’t run, that’s good—after a while he can come back. But if he runs, he can forget about ever entering Xiping County again for the rest of his life.”

Zhuzi’s family was shocked. They had originally wanted to find Zhuzi and have him run, not knowing the County Magistrate had even considered this.

—