Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 455 Corvee

After the people had completed twenty days of corvee labor, the imperial court would supply them with about one stone of millet as food supplement for the period.

However, they had to take care of their own meals. Many people usually prepared food at home in the morning and brought it with them, and ate their own meals during the collective rest period.

As soon as the news of the corvée was released, all relevant government offices were mobilized. Because the corvée was mainly for the purpose of reclaiming wasteland and mountains, the Ministry of Revenue decided to impose corvée in batches.

The first batch of 500 people were recruited and divided into two groups to open up two basins at the same time. In this way, one basin could be basically completed in about 20 days, and the corvée labor of this group of people would also be completed.

The more than 200 people from the prison also formed a separate team to open up the basin, so they would not interfere with each other. The Forestry Bureau would send a herdsman or deputy herdsman to lead a group of people to supervise and manage the basin.

Hualei found that this arrangement was indeed very reasonable. She also knew that she would have to be busy in the days ahead.

Because the Silin Bureau needed to send a deputy envoy to supervise and manage, then as the lowest-level and last-to-come person in the Silin Bureau, I would definitely not be able to escape this hard task.

Sure enough, ten days later, when those who were doing corvée labor entered the basin, Hua Lei, as one of the first batch of managers from the Silin Bureau, "honorably" rushed to the front line. No, she was forced to rush to the front line.

The hours of corvée labor were also frighteningly long, starting at Mao time in the morning and ending at You time in the evening, which is equivalent to six in the morning to six in the evening in previous lives, a bit like the nine-nine-six cycle.

So the poor Hualei had to rush to the barren mountain at this time. Fortunately, it was summer and the sun rose early. Although it was extremely difficult for Hualei to get up, he still rushed to the basin at the right time of the morning in order to keep his official hat.

Of course, Gao Tiedan, Xiao Yuanzi and others arrived at the barren mountain at about the same time.

After Gao Tiedan and the others explained the requirements of land reclamation and the people who were doing corvée labor, they turned around a little bit and Hualei had nothing to do. However, they couldn't leave.

So, Hualei returned to her own carriage and began to catch up on her sleep. In the carriage, Qingying and Qinglian had specially placed thin blankets and cushions for Hualei to rest on.

The two female guards dressed up as followers and sat beside the carriage. This was Rong Jin's order. When Hua Lei went to work at the government office, she rarely brought guards with her. She would just let the carriage take her to the office.

However, because she needed to go out on a mission, Rong Jin specially asked her to take care of herself and let several female guards come out with her. Hua Lei thought about it and agreed. At this time, she leaned back in the carriage with peace of mind and closed her eyes.

However, Gao Tiedan and his friends did not receive the same treatment as Hualei. Their group of more than a dozen people, holding whips in their hands, kept wandering around the edge of the basin to prevent the people working there from slacking off.

For Hualei, it was a tough job to keep moving around. However, Gao Tiedan and the others also felt that it was quite impressive, so they worked very hard.

After taking a nap in the carriage, Hualei felt much better. She opened the carriage curtain and looked up. It was almost morning. She didn't expect that she had slept for so long.

The Forestry Bureau stipulated that the land reclamation workers should take a 25-minute break at the 9th hour in the morning to have breakfast, and also take a 25-minute break at the 5th hour in the afternoon to have lunch.

Hua Lei got off the carriage, stretched, walked for a while to the edge of the basin, and took a look. Everyone was in order and no one was slacking off. Seeing that it was almost time, she stopped the pioneers and started to rest.

I was also going to check the progress of the pond. Hualei passed by the pioneers sitting under the shade of the trees and found that they usually had a black bun or a mixed bun in their hands. There was nothing else to eat except the water in the bamboo tube.

Some pioneers didn't even eat the steamed buns, but just drank the water in the bamboo tubes. After drinking it, they ran to the river nearby and filled their tubes with new ones to use as drinking water for the rest of their lives.

Hua Lei frowned when she saw this. Although the water in the river was relatively clear, if she drank it like that, it would be easy to get diarrhea in the summer and she would drink a lot of water.

However, the rule of corvée labor in the Dasheng Dynasty has always been that, apart from distributing one stone of millet, the court did not care about anything else. Even when the corvée labor was particularly heavy and people died, the court was not responsible.

There was no food for sale nearby, so even if the people wanted to buy it, they couldn't. Looking at these people drinking raw water directly, Hualei sighed softly. In fact, clearing the land in the summer is not as comfortable as clearing the river in the winter.

In the basin in summer, the temperature is high, the humidity is high, it is very hot and stuffy, and there are no trees to provide shade, so land reclamation is actually very physically demanding. If you are not careful, you are prone to heat stroke or even fainting.

In the afternoon, the basin became even more hot and stuffy. When taking a break at noon, Hua Lei saw more people rushing to the river and pouring water into their mouths directly from bamboo tubes. The steamed buns they took out were a little rotten.

Hualei frowned even more tightly. She sat under the shade of a tree, looking at these pioneers who were sweating profusely, feeling a little sorry for them.

To be honest, although Hualei does not need to take responsibility even if something happens to these pioneers, it is still painful to see these pioneers, who are sons and fathers, struggling with the responsibilities they have to bear.

Although corvée labor must be collected every year, if not now, they will have to do it in winter. However, Hualei felt that it was she who proposed the idea of ​​planting rapeseed in October, and she indirectly caused the current situation.

Hua Lei felt guilty if someone got diarrhea, got sick, or even died from heat stroke or fainted due to drinking unclean water or eating rotten food.

So, before returning to the house in Yongningfang at night, Hua Lei first went to the house in Qingyun Lane.

Ask Mrs. Luo to immediately make an extra batch of black-flour steamed buns and mixed-flour steamed buns, as well as free vegetable soup, and send them to the reclaimed basin by boat tomorrow for sale.

The prices were the same as in the steamed bun shop, black flour buns were 1 cent each, mixed flour buns were 2 cents each, and vegetable soup was free. In addition, they also took a lot of mint and boiled mint cooling soup, which was free all day long.

Mrs. Luo wiped the water stains on her hands and asked hesitantly, "Miss, will we lose money if we do this? The profits of black flour steamed buns and mixed flour steamed buns are originally small, and the bun shop makes very few of them now.