novelraw Chapter 214
Chapter 214
Chapter 214 Merit Stele
Wei Yu had been in Wufu City for seven or eight days.
These days, he stayed in the inn.
The inn was carefully selected by Yi Shisan, the most grand inn in the entire County City.
The innkeeper Shen had close connections with many shop owners in County City, especially the grain shop keeper in County City—they were relatives.
Before entering Wufu City, Wei Yu arranged for the others to stay near Long County, thirty kilometers away.
Why not outside Wufu County? Simply because outside Long County there was a very spacious piece of land, very suitable for settling hundreds of people.
The main force staying in Long County would attract attention, so Wei Yu himself brought thirty people to Wufu County.
On the first day he arrived in Wufu County, even before entering the city, Wei Yu discovered someone was driving away refugees, forbidding them from crossing the boundary of Wufu County.
Although those people wore ordinary clothes, whether they were officials, bandits, or civilians, the aura they carried was distinguishable. Anyway, Wei Yu immediately saw that those people were government soldiers in disguise.
Without official orders, soldiers would not arbitrarily expel disaster victims.
After the flood, if the local officials did not think of resettling the disaster victims, that would be one thing, but they were actually driving people out?
If it wasn’t because local officials had already heard about the relief efforts and were trying to cover it up, Wei Yu definitely wouldn’t believe it.
What was the purpose of Wufu County’s actions?
Most likely it was to deal with the impending arrival of Wei Yu himself.
After all, he hadn’t hidden anything along the way.
As long as after he came, there were no disaster victims seen in Wufu County, then the responsibility for resettling them wouldn’t fall on local officials. Without responsibility, even more mistakes wouldn’t be exposed… In short, the County Magistrate of Wufu County probably intended to directly tackle the source of exposure.
Fortunately, Wei Yu saw all this.
Because of the County Magistrate’s preemptive move, Wei Yu realized that local officials in various places might already be colluding.
He didn’t even need to personally verify this instinct.
Because after spending several days in Wufu County investigating, he personally saw the local government continuously changing notices for several days.
The notices said that the Imperial Court’s relief team not only had his Third Brother inspecting disasters and comforting people, but also that he himself was dealing with bandits and managing refugees…
The notices seemed to publicly display the Imperial Court’s relief teams’ earnest diligence, right? Perhaps when the Ninth Wise King comes later and sees how peaceful the County City is, and how fair the notices are, he might even commend the County Magistrate’s responsibility…
Ugh!
Changing the notices every day—if they didn’t feel guilty as thieves, they would have already secretly assigned people to watch him and his Third Brother closely; why then would they change the notices so promptly?
Saying that the Wufu County Magistrate is clever—Wei Yu felt it was praise.
But his superficial work wasn’t thorough enough!
Enough about the County Magistrate, Wei Yu already understood the nature of local officials, he would collect evidence and settle accounts later.
What was most critical now was his main force in Long County!
So many people, they had to eat every day.
Therefore, the day after renting Innkeeper Shen’s inn, Wei Yu went to Innkeeper Shen and asked for ten thousand jin of grain.
He paid with real money.
No cheats or scams, after all, Wei Yu himself brought enough money when he left, and Fourth Brother also gave him a box of silver notes!
Of course, because of the flood, selfish merchants raised grain prices exorbitantly, which caused Wei Yu to spend a large amount of unnecessary money—this he recorded carefully.
How the money was spent and that silver—he planned to retrieve it from the source later.
Wei Yu’s rule: it’s okay to spend money, but not to waste money unnecessarily.
—
The Merit Stele sounded quite extraordinary, especially since it was related to the Imperial Court’s relief team.
Innkeeper Shen had just started to think when his mouth spoke first:
“Wait! Young Master Wang, Young Master Wang, please wait!”
The expected call rang out.
Wei Yu turned with an innocent face and asked, “What’s the matter, Innkeeper Shen?”
Innkeeper Shen came out from behind the counter, clasped his hands, eyes full of anticipation, “Well, Young Master Wang, actually it’s not that I don’t have a way, it’s just that, the thing you just mentioned—this Imperial Court relief, what exactly is Merit Stele?”
A little inarticulate, but Wei Yu knew what Innkeeper Shen wanted to ask.
He suddenly realized, “Oh, you want to know about Merit Stele? Huh, don’t you know about this?”
He had only heard of stone tablets in mausoleums and temples; he had never even heard of Merit Stele before!
Innkeeper Shen honestly shook his head, “I’m ignorant, Young Master Wang, please don’t blame me. Could you please explain in detail about Merit Stele?”
Since this was exactly what Wei Yu wanted to fish for, now that the fish was biting, he naturally explained carefully.
He smiled and explained, “Innkeeper Shen, you know, the Imperial Court has sent a provincial governor for flood relief; the inspectors are still surveying disasters around the country. Once the survey is finished, the Imperial Court will distribute money and grain for relief.”
“But this flood in Huzhou is severe, and who knows how many people were affected, this relief won’t be solved in just a few days, it will take two to three months at least. The Imperial Court might only allocate silver once or twice, they can’t do it repeatedly for every batch, so the inspectors had an idea.”
Hearing this, Innkeeper Shen couldn’t help but speak, “Merit Stele?”
“Yes, Merit Stele!”
Wei Yu clapped his hands, “I come from Xinshan Commandery, I heard people say the inspectors plan to create a Merit Stele—after relief ends, they will erect special steles outside County Cities, inscribing the names of great benefactors who donated money and grain to disaster victims, so people in the future can admire them!”
Innkeeper Shen’s breath caught.
He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, holding his pounding heart, and asked Wei Yu excitedly, “Young Master Wang, is this true? Could it possibly be a rumor?”
If there is one thing ancient people valued most, is it not the reputation during life and after death?
Who doesn’t harbor a grand wish to become a great person admired by all?
Innkeeper Shen couldn’t refuse such a prospect.
Just imagining his name carved on the Merit Stele, standing at the city gate, with passersby reading his name, Innkeeper Shen began to breathe faster.
He would be a great benefactor praised by the Imperial Court!
The stele erected by the Imperial Court—no one dared to move it. Hundreds of years later, future generations would see the name Shen Dashan and think of his great virtue!
Perhaps his descendants might even be treated well by the government, be admired by people, maybe even change their fortunes… Just thinking about it was exciting.
Innkeeper Shen suddenly became serious.
“Young Master Wang, rest assured, it’s only grain, right? Give me five days, I will definitely gather another ten thousand jin of grain for you!”