GBP Chapter 361 The upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked
Chapter 361 The upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked
"Is this a village?"
Shen Hao rubbed his eyes, then stared blankly at the inspector beside him: "Inspector Xu, I must be seeing things. Look at the courtyards in that village ahead, what are they made of?"
Xu Ergou responded blankly, "The roof is made of blue tiles, the house is made of fish-scale blue tiles, and the courtyard walls and house walls are also made of blue bricks. Imperial Censor Shen should not be mistaken."
Shen Hao remained silent for a while before suddenly speaking, "Let's go into the village and take a look, and while we're at it, let's ask around at a local house."
After touring the entire village, Shen Hao was completely dumbfounded.
The village wasn't very big, with only a few dozen households at most. There was a big willow tree on the west side of the village, where many elderly people would bask in the sun, and a group of little children would run and play wildly there.
What Shen Hao found somewhat strange was that the villagers' reaction to seeing his group was very calm, as if they were not afraid of the official robes they were wearing at all.
Tsk tsk, this is quite interesting. After all, I've passed through quite a few villages along the way, but I've never seen any villagers as bold as the villagers in this village.
Just as Shen Hao was filled with curiosity, wisps of smoke rose from the village.
Shen Hao looked up at the sky, his curiosity growing even stronger.
It's just past noon now. It's too late to call it breakfast, and too early to call it dinner. But if we call it lunch, then we're implying that the villagers in this village eat three meals a day.
Three meals a day...
Shen Hao looked at the small village before him with suspicion, muttering to himself, "Ningyang County has become this wealthy? If I remember correctly, there are still many people in the capital whose houses have thatched roofs and who only eat two meals a day... This..."
The more he thought about it, the more curious he became. So Shen Hao randomly picked a house and knocked on the door. After entering, he immediately revealed his identity and asked the host about the family's situation. He then asked, "Old Hu, I just looked around and it seems that every house in our village has blue brick and tile roofs. Is our village just relatively wealthy, or are all the villages in Ningyang County this wealthy?"
Old Hu waved his hand repeatedly and replied, "Your Excellency, our village is not considered wealthy. These houses with blue bricks and tiles were built by the magistrate out of pity for us poor people, and he allowed us to use bricks and tiles fired in the county's brick kiln."
Shen Hao smiled and continued, "What about those salted fish and cured meats that were drying in the yard?"
Old Hu chuckled and said, "Those salted fish were caught from Chengnan Lake and the village ponds. Every household has some. The cured meat was bought from the pig farm in the county. It cost five coins a pound. I have two little grandsons at home, so I bought two extra pounds."
Shen Hao and Xu Ergou exchanged a glance, then looked at the clerk who was frantically taking notes, and then asked Old Man Hu, "Do you have any grain stored at home?"
Old Hu rubbed his hands together and replied, "Yes, yes, but my family is small and we don't have much land. This year we only have about 200 catties of wheat, 200 catties of soybeans, 400 catties of sorghum, and 200 catties of millet left."
Suppressing his shock, Shen Haoqiang continued, "Do other families in the village also have stored grain?"
Old Hu nodded and replied, "Every household has some. Families with more members have more land and therefore store more grain. Families with fewer members store less grain."
Despite having been somewhat prepared, Old Hu's answer still left Shen Hao speechless.
Every household lives in a house with blue bricks and tiles, and every household has stored grain. They are even richer than the people in the capital!
After leaving Old Hu's house in a daze, Shen Hao turned to Xu Ergou and said, "Inspector Xu, shall we go and take a look at a few more villages?"
After visiting the two villages in the south of the city and then the two villages in the west, Shen Hao couldn't quite articulate his feelings, only vaguely feeling a sense of lingering resentment.
I am, after all, a seventh-rank imperial inspector, right?
Logically speaking, a seventh-rank imperial inspector should be considered a proper official, but his own courtyard still had a thatched roof, and he had never dried so much salted fish and cured meat at home!
So, even a seventh-rank imperial inspector is not as well off as an ordinary citizen of Ningyang County?
Especially those ordinary people's honeycomb briquette stoves, they really don't care about the cost of burning honeycomb briquettes, they're more willing to burn them than I, a seventh-rank official, as if honeycomb briquettes were something they picked up for free.
And in families with teenagers, any child in any household is holding a book and reading. When did books become so worthless?
Especially when Shen Hao arrived at the Ningyang County government office in a daze and said he wanted to seal the account books and household registers for an audit, the behavior of County Magistrate Wu Yanhu and Registrar Chen Mo completely shattered Shen Hao's worldview.
The two men calmly replied that Censor Shen could either go directly to the Sixth Office to review the case files, or have someone bring the files to the County Magistrate's office for him to review.
Then, those two guys took a set of transparent glass teaware and started brewing tea.
Transparent glass teaware.
Make tea.
Wu Yanhu also invited Shen Hao: "This glass tea set was made by our Ningyang County glass workshop. I bought a set myself. The tea is also grown in Ningyang County. Imperial Censor Shen, you may want to try it."
Chen Mo then added, "However, this tea is still a bit lacking. After all, it was grown haphazardly in a remote and impoverished area and cannot compare to the many famous teas of Jiangnan. I hope Imperial Censor Shen will not find it offensive."
Upon hearing the words "remote and impoverished area," Shen Hao, whose resolve was already wavering, nearly collapsed on the spot.
Listen to this! Is this even human language?!
A remote and impoverished area?
A poor, remote village where every family lives in a house with blue bricks and tiles, and every household has stored grain.
The tea leaves were a bit lacking, damn it.
Yes, the tea might be a little off, but even the worst tea will become much more valuable when brewed in a transparent glass teapot!
Damn it, Yang the Madman is no good, and his county magistrate and registrar are no better!
Snakes and rats are in cahoots!
In cahoots!
They're in cahoots!
That's your mother!
This truly is a case of the upper beam being crooked, and the lower beam being crooked as well. I, a mere seventh-rank official in the capital, have been outmaneuvered by the seventh-rank county magistrate of Ningyang County and the eighth-rank registrar!
Having completely lost his composure, Shen Hao was too lazy to pay any more attention to Wu Yanhu and Chen Mo, those two pretentious bastards. He said with a forced smile, "I appreciate your kindness, but I have my duties to perform, so I will go to the Sixth Office to investigate myself."