Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 50 Embezzlement
The land in Sanhe Village is poor; even after a year of hard work, the harvest is meager.

Especially two years ago, during the winter, the village was struck by an epidemic, and many people died. As a result, Shi Yong and his fellow villagers were exempted from military service.

Later, as the situation in the Northwest eased, the imperial court no longer needed to conscript too many soldiers, so Shi Yong and his men stayed behind.

After that, Shi Yong continued to lead the villagers in doing odd jobs.

Shi Yong was somewhat intelligent, tall, and strong. In addition to cultivating the fields in the village, he also cleared a piece of wasteland outside the village. It was on this wasteland that they discovered coal.

An old man in the village had once worked as a craftsman and had seen the military industry use coal to smelt iron, so he knew that this stuff could be sold for money.

The villagers were overjoyed; if they could mine coal, life in the village would be much better. But then, the land was allocated to a wealthy family.

How difficult is it to reclaim wasteland? They painstakingly saved rice seeds, and the village only had two oxen for plowing. The villagers were afraid of exhausting the animals, so they had to work hard on their own. Now, not only is it not considered reclaiming wasteland, but the land has also been forcibly seized by wealthy households. The villagers could not swallow this insult. They went to the yamen to file a complaint, but not only did they return empty-handed, Shi Yong was also beaten for shouting in court.

Fortunately, merchants came to the village and hired the villagers to mine coal, which was a form of compensation. As long as the villagers could earn money to buy grain, why would they bother to go to the government office? They all happily agreed.

Shi Yong had no choice but to swallow his anger and lead the villagers in mining coal. After more than a year of this, they did earn some money, but the villagers were exhausted. Most of the money was spent on medicine and medical treatment, and the rest was used to reinforce their houses. They were hoping that the merchant would settle the final payment so they could buy some rice and grain to make up for the shortfall in this year's harvest. Who knew that the merchant would say that the coal couldn't be sold, give them coal fragments as payment for their labor, and then disappear without a trace.

At first, Shi Yong and his men weren't in a hurry. The merchants had run away, but the fields were still there. If all else failed, they could take the coal to sell. But after digging several times, they discovered that there were no large pieces of coal left in the pit. If they wanted to dig deeper, they would have to wait until next spring.

But will the villagers be able to survive this winter?
After winter set in, two of the older people passed away, and someone else was poisoned by burning charcoal. They wanted to sell some broken charcoal, but rumors spread that it was scattered everywhere and no one was interested.

Shi Yong refused to give up and went to the city to hawk his wares every day until he finally met Yang Qin.

“Yong-ge,” Shi Yong’s mother whispered, “Why don’t we just sell them all? The manager clearly said he wanted all the coal scraps. If we hide some and upset them, they might refuse to buy them… that would be terrible.”

Shi Yong frowned: "Haven't we suffered enough losses already? What if they just use this five taels of silver to cheat us? What can we do then?"

Shi Yongniang said, "We heard that the Xie lady who bought the coal was also a pitiful person. She was almost harmed by those people."

The whole of Daming Prefecture knew about Yang Liulang's wife, and everyone would always say a few words about it when they met.

After the Yang family bought coal scraps for the first time, Shi Yong deliberately inquired about the news. He happened to be nearby when the patrol office arrested people in Yong'an Ward.

“That’s formidable, Madam Xie,” Shi Yong said. “That’s why we need to be careful. Besides, we’ve sold quite a lot to her, so we should do something for the villagers.”

Shi Yong stood up. His tall figure resembled a mountain, and a fierce look appeared in his eyes: "This time, no one will be able to fool us again."

……

Behind the patrol office, there is a small courtyard, which the imperial court reserved for the residence of incoming officials.

He Tan and Wang Hechun live here.

Before dawn, Wang Hechun opened his eyes and looked toward the corner.

There was a sheepskin rug there, where the cat usually slept, but now... it was empty; the cat hadn't returned all night.

Sang Dian brought in hot water. He had been guarding the outer room and knew exactly how quiet it had been last night. Just as he had guessed, the cat had really run away this time.

He didn't know what to say. After raising them for ten years, he still hadn't managed to tame a single raccoon. He could only say that his husband was really not up to the task.

Wang Hechun dressed neatly, without his official robes or accessories, looking remarkably clean and appearing no different from usual.

Sang Dian, standing next to him, subtly pursed his lips.

She may appear glamorous on the outside, but who knows how much pain she's suffering inside? She might even feel wronged. If you ask where her husband's sore spot is, well, that cat is definitely one of them.

As soon as he stepped outside, a gust of cold wind blew through him, and the image of Xie Yuyan holding the cat immediately flashed into Wang Hechun's mind. He couldn't help but frown, wanting to beckon Sang Dian to go to the Yang family, but in the end, he strode forward.

Sang Dian sighed silently again. If the cat could return, the young master would naturally have nothing to worry about. The only fear was that the longer the time dragged on, the more anxious he would become. If he searched for it again and there was no news for a while, wouldn't he be the one who would suffer?
……

Xie Yuyan sat in the carriage, with a cat dozing with its eyes closed in his arms.

The carriage was rented by Mama Yu. At times like this, using the carriage from the clan would inevitably lead to various troubles. The fewer people who knew about it before everything was settled, the better.

As for those spies, let them be. By the time they figure out what's going on, Madam has already stabilized the situation.

"That's it."

Mother Yu pointed forward, and Xie Yuyan nodded. Although she hadn't seen a map, Yang Qin had drawn a simple map of Sanhe Village for her, just as she had imagined. There was a lot of coal underground in Sanhe Village. Later, a coal mine was set up here, and it was easily visible when carriages and horses passed by on the official road.

Xie Yuyan said, "You're saying that their village only has coal scraps and can't extract large pieces of coal anymore?"

Mother Yu nodded: "That's what the villagers say."

The coal mine couldn't extract any coal, either because they didn't dig deeper or because they were cheated.

As Xie Yuyan stepped down from the carriage, several tall figures immediately surrounded him at the village entrance.

Perhaps not expecting that Xie Yuyan only brought a stewardess, Shi Yong, who was in charge, was a little stunned. The young lady was really bold to go out like this.

"Where is the coal dust?" Xie Yuyan asked directly. "Take me to see it."

Shi Yong snapped out of his daze and immediately led the way.

The place where they dug coal was not far from the village. There was a huge pit in the ground. Originally, there were coal fragments scattered around it. Now that they knew the Yang family wanted to buy it, the villagers took back all the coal fragments that could be dug up from the surrounding area.

“If it had been earlier, we could have dug up more,” Shi Yong said. “Those merchants only wanted large pieces of coal, and the broken pieces were just left aside. After the snow, they all froze here.”

"Didn't you think about burning the ground with straw?" Xie Yuyan suddenly asked.

"Burned..."

"without……"

Different responses came out spontaneously.

Shi Yong's face immediately froze, and the men next to him avoided eye contact with Xie Yuyan. The women even took a few steps back, and the younger ones hid in the crowd.

Xie Yuyan asked, "Is it there or not?"

The men looked at each other, and this time none of them dared to speak. Then Shi Yong, who was standing at the front, said, "We tried to burn it, but it was too frozen and we couldn't burn it down, so we didn't try again. If... you want more, we'll try again."

After saying that, Shi Yong added, "You can go into the village and take a look. We've found quite a bit of coal scrap, which might be enough for you."

Xie Yuyan didn't respond to his question, but instead looked at the villagers around her: "A lot of people have died in the village since winter, haven't they?"

Hearing about everyone's pain, Shi Yong said in a deep voice, "Yes... it's too cold in winter, and we lack food and clothing..."

“It’s not that winter is too cold,” Xie Yuyan said, “but that merchants don’t want to spend money…”

Shi Yong didn't understand: "What did you say?"

Xie Yuyan pointed to the village: "Buying your land and houses will require money. If you are unwilling, there will inevitably be trouble."

"Isn't it simpler to just have everyone dead?"

Xie Yuyan raised his eyes: "If we don't give you money to get through the winter, and then tamper with the grain seeds in the spring... perhaps before autumn even arrives, the people in this area will either die or move away, and the fields will be swallowed up by others."

“Those people aren’t in a hurry because not many people use coal yet. Once this winter is over and my lotus root charcoal gets out, they’ll start to worry.”

Before Shi Yong and the others could react, Xie Yuyan walked into the village and asked, "Where else did you dig up coal?"

As he watched Xie Niangzi walk forward, Shi Yong frowned, and in a moment of impulse, he instinctively stepped forward to block Xie Yuyan's path.

A fierce glint appeared in Shi Yong's eyes: "What are you going to do?"

His tall figure exuded an imposing aura, and he aimed to suppress the person in front of him, at least instilling fear in her.

He was full of confidence, but when he met those eyes, he couldn't help but shrink back. There was no ferocity in those eyes, only indifference, like a dark night, silently invading him, carrying with it a strong killing intent.

She stepped forward, while he retreated repeatedly, but Shi Yong still refused to give up until someone grabbed his collar: "You can't even see three inches of ground under your feet, and you still want to play other tricks?"

"It will only kill more people."

After saying that, he pushed forward with his hand, and Shi Yong suddenly lost his strength for some reason. He staggered back two steps, and the sunlight that he had blocked fell back onto Xie Yuyan.

(End of this chapter)