Chapter 40

The people of Ye Family Fort had to make two more trips before they brought all the remaining paper back from General Guan.Ye Family Fort also sent General Guan a flock of sheep.

General Guan was delighted, "This is good, it can be used to make sacrificial offerings for the officers and soldiers."

After drinking together, the men's relationships became easier.

General Guan also complained bitterly.

Now that Emperor Jin had entered the capital city, every inch his actual control expanded outward was Great Jin's land, and those circled in were people of Great Jin.

Although Henan Province could not compare with Jingchu, it was still an important grain producing area in the north. Emperor Jin would not allow his men to ravage Henan Province.

For the soldiers, if they followed the rules, life would be hard. Besides, unlike the west, General Guan's side was not at war here. There were more war spoils in the west, and it was easier to make achievements. So the warriors' money bags were easier to fill up there.

Naturally General Guan's side here was more peaceful than the west and north, but there was less oil and water.

After several trips back and forth, everyone became familiar. General Guan said, "You are locals, help me find out where I can buy southern goods. I'll pay a high price if there are any."

But the Ye family also said, "There is little southern goods now. You have to find the big businesses, and you need connections."

Merchants were really a magical existence. No matter how chaotic the world was, they still had their own channels to communicate between north and south, and could always bring in rare exotic items from afar through some ways.

However, the Ye family also promised, "We'll think of you first if we come across any."

When they returned and told Ye Suijin about it, Ye Suijin just smiled slightly.

Now that Dengzhou's four counties were under unified governance, if anything happened, messages could be delivered by express horses at relay stations, reaching the destination within a day.

Most of the paper was sent to Fangcheng, because many of the refugees who were willing to stay, plus the family members of the new recruits, were settled there. Some were distributed among Neixiang, Nanyang and Ranxian counties.

Whether they could safely get through this winter was set by Ye Suijin as an assessment of the officials in the four counties.

Seeing the documents issued by the Dengzhou Governor's Mansion led by Ye Family Fort - now also called Dengzhou instead of Ye Family Fort, but people were still used to calling it Ye Family Fort - with requirements listed one by one, the county magistrate of Ranxian felt a headache coming on: "She's just a woman, how can she be so good at being an official?"

He had thought that although this woman was fierce, she must be clumsy in public affairs and easy to fool. He didn't expect her to be like a seasoned official, thinking of everything, and directly plugging possible loopholes for corruption and trickery.

With this batch of paper, they could distribute the excess to the commoners to paste on their windows if there was any leftover after ensuring the refugees could get through the winter. But Ye Suijin went through great pains to obtain the paper, so the top priority was to provide for the refugees to survive the winter. Ye Family Fort tried making finished products first, estimating the amount of paper needed to make a winter coat thick enough to keep out the wind and cold for an adult man of average build.

Using this data as a benchmark, allocate by household.

Things went most smoothly in Fangcheng.

Because Fangcheng had undergone a major purge before, most of the current population were refugees moved in later. They were registered at that time, with mutual responsibility among neighbors. The records were clear, so it was easy to handle affairs when needed.

The troublesome thing was the homeless scattered in the other three counties. This required a lot of manpower to do paperwork.

The clerical staffs of the three counties were far from enough, actually literate people could be employed, after all there were literate people everywhere. But Ye Suijin mobilized all the adolescent children of the clan to go, everyone who could write was arranged to work.

Even those who were too young to work were encouraged to follow along and watch.

Although some pocket money was paid to the youth as wages, some well-off clansmen were still unwilling to go.

Ye Suijin didn't force them.

But there were more clansmen with insight: "Go, we must go."

"The child is young now, have him follow Sixth Sister to do trivial things."

"When the child grows up and gains experience, he can follow Sixth Sister to do big things."

"Look at Sixth Son of the Zhongyuan Hall! He is a county magistrate now!"

The teenagers themselves were very enthusiastic. Even some girls wanted to try it out, but most were held back by their fathers and mothers.

Eleventh Sister was held back.

Because Eleventh Sister was older, she was at the age to get engaged, so her parents forbid her to make trouble at this time.

But no one could hold back Twelfth Sister. She was Fourth Uncle's precious youngest daughter, spoiled since birth, unruly and unconstrained.

Fourth Uncle was so angry that he took off his shoe to whip her.

Little rabbit ran away, Twelfth Sister turned and fled, yelling as she ran, "My brothers even dare to kill people, how dare you not scold them! Sixth Sister lives in the barracks every day, how dare you not scold her! Why only scold me!"

Fourth Uncle was choked speechless by her.

Damn it! Who dared to scold Ye Suijin!

Third Son coughed and stepped forward to block: "Dad, actually it's not a big deal. The Ye family's daughters shouldn't have weak and delicate dispositions in the first place."

Fifth Son desperately gestured to Twelfth Sister to slip away, and blocked from the other side: "That's right. What's wrong with learning from Sixth Sister? Sixth Sister leads a prosperous life, does her husband dare say no to her?"

Fourth Uncle was blocked by his two strapping sons and couldn't get past them. He humphed: "Look at what she's become now!"

Third Son said, "It's better for a girl to be fierce than weak and bullied, suffering later in her husband's family."

Fifth Son said even more directly, "Think about Third Sister."

Third Sister was their cousin, Seventh Son's sister. She was raised to be timid and had a bad life in her husband's family.

Once when Seventh Son was out hunting, he passed by Third Sister's husband's home and dropped by to visit her. He saw Third Sister with half her face swollen. In a panic he grabbed her arm and she cried out in pain. Her arm was badly bruised from being beaten.

The slap was from the mother-in-law and the arm was beaten by the brother-in-law.

Seventh Son was young then. He flew into a rage on the spot and wanted to beat the brother-in-law. But Third Sister desperately stopped him.

Seventh Son was furious and told the family after going home. But his parents just said, "We'll tell her husband to hit her more gently."

Seventh Son was so angry he almost died. He told Sixth Sister Ye Suijin about it. Young as she was, Ye Suijin lashed her horsewhip and charged over with a bunch of clan brothers and family guards.

The other side was also a prestigious household. Seeing her momentum, they also called out their guards.

Under Ye Suijin's command, her side clashed fiercely with the other side, beating them badly. Third Sister's husband was punched by several uncles until his face was black and blue.

But Third Sister cried and blamed Ye Suijin and her brothers for meddling and tried hard to protect her husband.

Ye Suijin was so angry she said, "Then we won't care about you in future!"

When she returned, Third Sister and Seventh Son's mother even went to tell on Ye Suijin to her father: "Third Sister's reputation as a virtuous wife was ruined by her."

Thus Seventh Son couldn't hold his head high among his brothers.

The next year, Third Sister died in childbirth.

It was later learned from the maid who accompanied the marriage that because Ye Suijin and her cousins had beaten Third Sister's husband before, Third Sister was mistreated by her husband's family during pregnancy, ruining her health, so she didn't make it through.

Although Ye Suijin had said "we won't care about you", she still couldn't swallow this anger in the end.

She told her father, "Don't stop me, whoever dares to stop me! I'm going to rip open their roof!"

The elders also held grievances, so they tacitly approved this time. Ye Suijin led her brothers to attack the doors again. This time even the crone mother-in-law was beaten.

"I respected you as an elder, yet you are old without virtue!" Ye Suijin slapped the old mother-in-law back and forth with her palm. She even spat in her face.

She also took back all of Third Sister's dowry.

This time, Third Sister's mother didn't complain again.

She quietly sent thick gifts and apologies to the second wife's quarters.

"I only thought of my daughter's reputation and good marriage. I never imagined that family would be so vicious. Poor my Third Sister..." She regretted it later, covering her face and crying bitterly, "If Third Sister had even one-tenth of Sixth Sister's fierceness, she wouldn't have endured such wrongful treatment during pregnancy and didn't dare tell anyone at home."

After that, the husbands' families suddenly treated the married daughters of Ye family more politely.

It could be said, they benefited from Ye Suijin's prestige.

Too bad Third Sister didn't get to benefit from it.

At the mention of Third Sister, Fourth Uncle's raised hand froze in place.

He slowly put it down, his shoe also tossed on the ground, and he put it back on his foot.

Third Son obediently squatted down to put on his shoes for him: "Let Twelfth Sister go. She's the daughter of the Vice Commander of Dengzhou now. No fear of not marrying well."

Fourth Uncle thought about it and realized he was right. He was now the second most powerful figure in Dengzhou after all.

He humphed, "Send her to Nanyang and have Yongxiu keep an eye on her."

Hands behind his back, stomach stuck out, he walked away cursing.

At the end of September, pulp-beating to make paper clothes could be seen in refugee households across the four counties.

The blue-shirted and black-panted Ye Family Army - actually it should be called Dengzhou Army now, but people were still used to calling it Ye Family Army - patrolled everywhere.

Some refugees regretted and timidly went to the Ye Family Army: "Army Lord, if people want to go to Fangcheng now, are you still taking people in?"

There were instructions from above already.

Ye Jiajun said, "Hurry up and collect them. Those who come late will get worse houses and fields than those who come early."

That was certain.

Those who hesitated too much at the time and wanted to continue southward, and who were reluctant to leave this place of stability and wanted to stay longer, missed out on the earliest benefits.

There were also some latecoming refugees, and some men who had hesitated at the time and refused to serve as soldiers, who asked, "We heard that soldiers get fed until full, are you still recruiting?"

Not all soldiers can eat their fill.

In some places, not only do they have to sell their lives, but their rations get skimped on.

But now it was already September. The families of the men who had joined General Guan's army in the first batch back then had all received their sitting grain on time, full catty and full tael, which made people's hearts stir.

Of course they wanted more.

They had always wanted more, never too many.

Once enough people for a carriage had been gathered, they could be sent to Ye's Fort.

This time, the families did not cry and wail again.

Not only Ye's tenants, but many refugees could also take on General Guan's army's winter clothing work, as long as they could vouch for each other.

At the places where they got the fabric, there were scales on both sides. On one side there was fleece, on the other side there was cattail down. The coats of poor families were also padded with cattail down. Cattail down could also keep warm, but was far inferior to fleece. Of course the best was floss silk, but only the rich and noble could afford that.

It could be seen clearly that with the same volume, the heavy fleece weighed down the cattail down.

Fellow villagers, those of the same clan, neighbors vouched for each other. When the materials were given out, they would be weighed, and when the products were inspected, they would still be weighed. If anyone had secretly substituted cattail down for fleece, those who had vouched for them would also be implicated.

This would guarantee that no one embezzled the army clothing materials.

This was quite good, General Guan's army could get qualified army jackets, and the refugees could get paid.

The new Governor also distributed paper to the refugee households for making paper clothes, looking ahead, it seemed they would be able to get through this winter.

Actually everyone should be happy.

Only one person was completely unable to feel happy. Sᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

This person was called Jiang Yinyu, he was the head clerk of the Ruiyun Company's Dengzhou branch Yangzhou sub-branch.

Although merchants were of low status, they often had many clever people among them. Jiang Yinyu was one such clever person. Starting from when Ye's Fort had carried out that massive massacre in June, he had sensed that power in Dengzhou was about to change hands.

In July, that woman from Ye's Fort had actually obtained an imperial edict of appointment from the new dynasty, and just like that she had become the Governor of Dengzhou.

Now many trade routes were blocked. But after a little thought, Jiang Yinyu had made the decision, and had tried to figure out ways to get in a large shipment of goods, which finally arrived some days ago.

The quantity was considerable, the bulk of it coarse hemp fabric.

Coarse hemp fabric had never been in the considerations of rich people for clothing. But coarse hemp fabric was often used by the poor for clothing. Especially this batch of coarse hemp was thick hemp, meant for winter clothing.

The second-in-charge had advised against it.

Because for fabrics, the better they were, the higher the profit margin. Rare fabrics could be worth thousands of gold per bolt.

This kind of coarse hemp had extremely low margins, and would not earn much money.

But Jiang Yinyu had said, "Don't worry, there will definitely be people who come to buy it on their own initiative."

The second-in-charge had asked: "Who?"

Jiang Yinyu had been very confident: "Our newly appointed Governor."

Although she was a woman, since she could get to this position, she was no ordinary person.

People sitting in that seat tended to have vision and caliber. Especially since she was also using refugees to populate her Fortress City, Jiang Yinyu had confidence in her.

"Such a person cannot bear to watch the refugees freeze to death in winter," he had said. "Even if just for show, to comfort the people's hearts, she has to show some benevolence."

"She must be trying to find ways to keep the refugees warm."

"This thick coarse hemp of mine, I won't earn much from it, I'll only take one and a half percent from her... No, two percent profit will do."

"Low margin high volume."

It had seemed a pretty good plan.

He just hadn't expected this woman of Dengzhou to be even more crafty than him. She had calculated and gotten paper from the Emperor, endless convoys pulling it.

And distributed it to the refugees for making paper clothes!

Jiang Yinyu was left holding this batch of thick coarse hemp fabric!

Finished!

The second-in-charge was even looking at him strangely now.

He might even secretly write to their boss, wanting him replaced!

Jiang Yinyu had encountered the biggest crisis in his career as a head clerk. His job was about to be smashed!!