You are unlucky and I am tough

Because there were yamen runners walking around every day, the village seemed unusually quiet these days. The villagers watched as Master Wang led people from house to house to register the population and measure the fields, and they were all puzzled as to what they were doing.

When Master Wang led his men to the next village, the village became lively. Every household was talking about it. Some speculated about the purpose of the government's actions, and some speculated about what was in the mountains that made these officials go into the mountains again and again.

However, they could not figure out the reason after all. Cheng Lizheng and several clan elders who knew the truth were very worried. They ran to the ancestral hall every day, but could not think of any useful solution.

The headmen of several other villages learned the news after being informed in advance by Cheng Lizheng. At first, they did not believe it, until Li Lizheng from the next village saw the yamen runners really come to their door, and immediately ran to Chengjia Village to inquire about the details.

Wei Qinglang came out of the mountains on the sixth day, bringing only a small half of the people with him, while the rest stayed in the mine.

Cheng Shuang wrote prescriptions and prescribed medicine to detoxify the people coming out of the mountains, and also had batches of medicinal materials carried into the mountains by mules and horses. The group of yamen runners in the mountains could not come out for a while, so the supplies and medicine had to be sent from outside the mountains.

In order to open a road to facilitate the transportation of supplies, the villagers could hear explosions coming from the mountains every day, making people more and more panicked.

The day after County Magistrate Zheng came out of the mountains, he took his men back to the county government office. However, Prefect Zhu did not leave and wanted to stay in the village to wait for the arrival of the imperial envoy from the court. He was not used to living in a tent for a long time and had not had a good rest, so after coming out of the mountains, he moved into Wei Nanxing's room.

Prefect Zhu had to handle official business, and the Wei family began to see officials and yamen runners coming in and out every day. After several days, the family got used to it. Even Cheng Guqiu and the two daughters were no longer nervous and frightened, and they just did what they were supposed to do every day.

The boldest among them were a group of little brats who came to class every afternoon. After Governor Zhu curiously watched them in class a few times, they dared to call Governor Zhu "Uncle Zhu" without any respect.

Wei Xinyi obediently brought tea to Prefect Zhu every day when he was handling official business in his room. They got along very well, and Prefect Zhu even gave her a set of pen washers.

On the last day of September, the imperial envoy finally arrived, and a large group of people marched into the village. The one who came was a fifth-rank censor, whose official rank was one level lower than the prefect. However, because he had the title of imperial envoy, he was much more arrogant than Prefect Zhu, and he moved directly into the headman's house on the first day he arrived in the village.

Then he ordered the magistrate of Zheng County to ask craftsmen to find a place in the village to build a row of wooden houses for them to live in temporarily, and asked the accompanying southwestern army to surround the mountain to prevent people from entering the village.

For a while, the entire Chengjia Village was plunged into a heavy atmosphere. The villagers did not dare to speak loudly when they went out, and they were extremely well-behaved.

County Magistrate Zheng hired many craftsmen to work day and night, and soon a row of twenty or thirty wooden houses were built in the village for the imperial envoy, accompanying officials, and several miners to live in. Prefect Zhu also moved into the wooden house and began to go to the mountains with the imperial envoy every few days.

More and more troops came, heading into the mountains in batches. It was roughly estimated that there were more than 10,000 people in. Mules and horses were transporting various supplies into the mountains every day.

A month passed like this, and by the end of October, the temperature had dropped very low, and everyone in the village put on thick clothes.

That day, after Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang sent their two younger brothers back to the private school, they went to hand in the remaining forty chapters of Liangshan, eight volumes in total, five chapters each, for which they received one thousand six hundred taels of silver. They bought two sets of thick winter clothes for each family member, as well as new thick quilts and charcoal fires for heating before returning to the village.

After entering the village and returning home, I was just unloading my things when Cheng Fu came running over in a patched cotton-padded jacket. He said with a gossipy look on his face, "Brother Qinglang, sister-in-law, the prefect has invited the village head to the wooden house. Not only our village head, but also heads from several neighboring villages. It's been over an hour, and I don't know what they talked about."

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang looked at each other after hearing this, and both guessed that the relocation site should have been decided, and it was time for the village heads to start doing ideological work with the villagers.

After packing up their things, the two went to find Cheng Lizheng. After waiting for a while, Cheng Lizheng came back slowly with a cane. The expression on his face was a little complicated. The first thing he did when he entered the door was to ask his family to notify each family to send representatives to the ancestral hall for a meeting.

Seeing Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang there, he told them the exact news he had just received.

"Huanhua County is the closest to the city?"

After hearing the relocation address given by Li Zheng, the two were in disbelief. Cheng Shuang asked, "Li Zheng, did you hear correctly? Are we really moving to the provincial capital?"

"You little girl." Cheng Lizheng scolded with a smile, "Although the old man is old, he is not deaf. Lord Zhu said it very clearly. It is in Huanhua County outside the southern city of Luohe Prefecture. The house has already been built. After the New Year, we will start moving. The government will send an official ship to pick us up."

"That's great. The villagers' lives will get better and better after moving to prosperous areas. The village head can relax." Cheng Shuang was very surprised. This was simply a dream come true.

Cheng Lizheng smiled bitterly and nodded. This was the only thing worth being happy about.

Hundreds of people soon gathered in the ancestral hall. Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang also went there and found a place to stand at the back.

Cheng Lizheng didn't waste any time. He stood on a high place with several elders and told everyone straight away that the entire village was going to be relocated.

He did not mention the reason for the relocation. This was also what Governor Zhu had instructed, that the matter of the mineral veins should not be spread outside to avoid being spread by too many people.

Hundreds of villagers looked at each other in confusion at first, but when they realized what was happening, the crowd was in an uproar. In their view, relocation was something that only happened when fleeing from war and famine. Relocating to a new place meant building houses and reclaiming the land from scratch. This was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for the villagers, and some began to shout that they would not move.

Feng Tiegen's family had lived in their newly built blue-tiled house for less than ten days when they heard that the whole village would be relocated. Tiegen's father was so shocked that he almost fainted and was supported by two people next to him.

Cheng Lizheng looked at the noisy villagers and said hurriedly, "Fellow villagers, calm down and listen to me. The imperial court will properly accommodate us during this relocation. The settlement is in a county outside the prefectural capital, which is an excellent place. The yamen runners have been going door to door to register the population and measure the houses. They are going to build houses for us in our new home. According to the size of each household, new houses will be built for everyone to live in.

Tiegen Dad, your family has a brick and tile house, so the court will give you a brick and tile house of the same size, as well as land. Each family will get as much as they have here, and you won't lose a cent. In addition, each family will be given five taels of silver as resettlement allowance."

The village head's words calmed the restless villagers. Then another village elder raised the question of the ancestral hall and the relocation of graves. Cheng answered them one by one, "The new ancestral hall is already under construction. We will choose an auspicious day after the New Year for the whole village to relocate the graves. After we move to the new home, we can choose a good feng shui site for the reburial."

After learning about this, the crowd was in an uproar again. This time, their mood was completely different from when they first heard the news. If they moved to a county under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital and settled there, they wouldn't lose a single penny of house and land. Isn't this like pie in the sky?

"Then we can go to the capital city anytime in the future."

"I heard the capital city is very beautiful, full of rich people wearing silk and satin."

"Huanhua County has a nice name, so it must be richer than our Qushan County."

"That's nonsense! They're definitely richer than here."

"If we go there, the villagers who are going to take the college entrance examination won't have to travel thousands of miles to the provincial capital. That would save a lot of travel expenses."

Amidst the bustle, Wei Changgui made a discordant voice. He shouted, "What's good about it? The capital is a place where everything is expensive. We have houses and land, but five taels of silver per family for resettlement is not enough. We might not even be able to buy food. If we go there, we will be the poorest village and we will be looked down upon. I think the resettlement fee should be at least several dozen taels of silver per family."

"Wei Changgui, what nonsense are you talking about?" Cheng Li was angry. "The imperial court has always controlled the price of grain. It's the same everywhere. How come you can't even afford it? And they're still giving you dozens of taels of silver. Do you think the imperial court's money is just stones picked up from the roadside?"

Several elders of the clan also started to reprimand him, but Wei Changgui snorted and shut up in dismay. Of course he was happy to be able to move to the place closest to the provincial capital, but he felt that the settlement fee was too little.

Only a few taels are left of the eighty taels given by Wei Qinglang. How can he live a carefree life in the provincial capital with such a small amount of money? No one knows where Wei Nanxing has died. He has not been seen for almost two months, making it impossible for him to find anyone when he wants some money.

Thinking of this, Wei Changgui turned around to look at Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang behind him, and secretly cursed these two ungrateful people for corrupting his son.