Chapter 136: To Repair or Not to Repair

Upon hearing County Magistrate Liu Rui’s words, the wealthy gentry who had just been whispering among themselves fell silent.

Repairing the river embankments was a good deed, and the gentry were willing to contribute both money and labor. But these embankments... they had to be repaired every single year!

To put it bluntly, none of the people qualified to be brought to the riverbanks by Liu Rui were simple figures. They would never lose their heads and act on impulse just because of someone else’s words. Having been scammed countless times, they were worried that this Magistrate Liu would take the opportunity to line his pockets!

Do not talk nonsense about Magistrate Liu being a county magistrate and therefore incapable of such a frantic and utterly devoid of conscience act. A magistrate was a migratory official who could run away the moment he finished making his fortune. Even if the entire Dangyang County were washed away by a flood, as long as Magistrate Liu himself remained safe and sound, he would dare to reach out and grab silver!

In the current state of the Great Yan Dynasty, everyone had long since seen through the reality of the world: there was nothing a civil servant dared not do, and no silver a civil servant dared not pocket!

"Gentlemen, if we want to hold back the upcoming flood, we must drive in wooden stakes and set up barricades according to the rules!"

Seeing that everyone had gone quiet, Liu Rui’s voice remained calm, as if without any emotional fluctuation. "Every single foot, a wooden stake must be driven in. The stakes must penetrate the soil by at least three feet. Behind the stakes, bamboo poles must be nailed horizontally and firmly to form a barrier. After piling earth on top and ramming it solid, can it be considered a sturdy embankment capable of resisting the impact of the flood!"

The method Liu Rui described was nothing new; everyone present had heard of it to some extent.

The wealthy gentry looked at each other, and eventually, Elder Li, the oldest among them, stepped forward to reply.

"My Lord, in the past, our Dangyang County has also repaired the river embankments strictly according to these rules."

Elder Li chose his words with great caution. "However, even with such strict repairs, once the river water rises, apart from soaking the wooden stakes and barriers, we are constantly forced to pile up more earth to raise the height of the embankments. Once the embankments are raised, the previously constructed stakes and barriers will collapse in massive chunks because they cannot bear the steadily increasing weight!

The magistrates preceding Magistrate Liu also repaired the embankments every year, only they chose not to exhaust the people and drain the treasury. After levying contributions, they simply had people reinforce the existing levees. After all, breaches in our Dangyang County only happen once every decade or two..."

"That’s right, that’s right. Previously, we just piled up more earth to raise and reinforce them."

"Wooden stakes and barriers exhaust the people and drain the wealth while yielding poor results. It is not that we are unwilling to cooperate with Your Honor."

Once someone took the lead, the wealthy gentry began to chatter away, offering all sorts of excuses. Although they sounded obscure and seemingly unreasonable on the surface, they all ultimately conveyed the exact same meaning.

The embankments? Everyone can just casually pool some money and fix them somehow. Magistrate Liu, you go ahead and pocket a bit as you please. We would rather bear the losses caused by a flood than be dragged into a bottomless pit because of embankment repairs!

We all understand the tricks of civil servants, having witnessed them more than once in the past...

Hiding behind the crowd, Zhao Zhenghui almost burst out laughing, even though the spot most likely to breach happened to directly threaten Yushu Bay.

The reason these wealthy families were unwilling to invest large amounts of manpower and financial resources into repairing the riverbanks was certainly not because they were unconcerned about a potential breach.

On the contrary, every single one of these wealthy gentry living in the county seat had farmland, manors, or other properties threatened by the flood!

However, the losses inflicted on those properties were simply not on the same scale as the silver and grain consumed by being thoroughly bound to the magistrate’s chariot of levied embankment repairs!

At the same time, these fellows were not entirely wrong about one thing: Dangyang County only suffered from floods once every ten or twenty years. Even though the water level of the Liu River was currently rising and the drizzle was ceaseless, who could say for certain that a breach would definitely happen this year?

It was human nature to harbor wishful thinking. Besides, once the precedent for repairing the embankments was set, Magistrate Liu would probably demand they be rebuilt to high standards every single year. No wealthy family, no matter how grand, could endure such a relentless drain!

"Gentlemen, I, Liu Rui, understand your concerns."

Magistrate Liu waited for the gentry to finish their performance before speaking again. "Your worries boil down to nothing more than silver and grain. This time, the funds for repairing the embankments will be strictly earmarked for their intended purpose. Every single wealthy family present here may send two representatives to audit the accounts. All the corvée laborers required will be exempted from taxation in exchange for their labor... As for the imperial court, I, this official, shall take full responsibility!"

A dead silence fell over the pavilion. The only sounds remaining in everyone's ears were the patter of the drizzling rain and the sound of breathing.

Labor in lieu of taxation... This was the Great Yan Dynasty, a place that regarded tax collection as more important than life itself! Once this precedent was set, the wealthy gentry present might not care much for themselves, but their extended clans and patriarchal kin would drag even the babbling infants from their homes to work on the riverbanks!

If Magistrate Liu was not lying... just the reduction in various taxes across Dangyang County resulting from substituting labor for taxation to repair the embankments would likely be several times higher than forcibly levying cash contributions!

Earlier, all the wealthy gentry had been worried that being dragged out to the riverbanks at dawn meant they would inevitably have to bleed some money. Every single household had already calculated in their hearts how much silver they should shell out just to get through this chore.

Yet looking at it now, this county magistrate—who had previously played deaf and dumb and had only revealed his sharp and capable methods over the past few months—seemed... as though he genuinely wanted to fix the river embankments?!

"The major share of the expenses has already been resolved for you by this official. As for grain, tools, and manpower, shouldn't you gentlemen also resolve them for me?"

Liu Rui waited for the crowd to digest his words before his tone turned stern. "You are all gentry and scholars of Dangyang County. None of you can escape losses if the Liu River breaches its banks. Even if you all hide safely in the county seat, what about the farmland, workshops, and businesses outside the city... do you no longer want them?

Will you simply ignore your clansmen and relatives when disaster strikes?

Gentlemen, last night this official received an urgent report: further upstream in Chuanji County, a section of the river embankment has already collapsed. The water is surging fiercely, destroying countless fertile fields and sweeping away nearly a hundred commoners!"

The wealthy gentry who had not yet received the news were instantly terrified!

Chuanji County was even poorer than Dangyang County, with terrain far worse... suffering a breach almost once every three to five years. Yet even so, having a ready-made example right before their eyes carried immense weight!

"Yushu Bay will take responsibility for the embankment section at the sharp bend! Manpower, tools, grain... all expenses will be prepared entirely by our village!"

Zhao Zhenghui had watched the show for quite a while and finally stepped forward on his own initiative.

"I deeply admire Magistrate Liu for being a public servant devoted to the people! As it happens, I have an invention that can reinforce the river embankments without exhausting the people or draining the treasury. Why not let everyone wait while our Yushu Bay demonstrates it first at this sharp bend? If it proves useful, the other river sections can follow suit and learn from it!"

As this shockingly young Zhao Zhenghui took the initiative to speak, the wealthy gentry, still in a state of shock, finally realized that this young man was none other than the rising star of a merchant, Wealthy Zhao!

Although Yushu Bay’s businesses had little interaction with the gentry in the county seat, everyone had heard that Yushu Bay was currently thriving, having recruited a large workforce for labor. Almost everyone present had sold grain to Yushu Bay at some point.

"Splendid indeed! Thank you for your trouble, Master Zhao. Our county shall begin by repairing this sharp bend!"