Chapter 93

"That's enough," said Song County Magistrate, calling for a stop.

As an official, not a merchant, when the money was sufficient, he would naturally stop.

Also, if he kept participating, it would prevent Li Yao from making much profit.

With 110,000 bars of soap, selling each bar at 500 wen, the income would be 55,000 taels.

The fragrant soap was 2 taels per bar. With 30,000 bars of fragrant soap, the income would be 60,000 taels.

And with total income being 115,000 taels, the total cost was only 5,000 taels.

With a profit of 110,000 taels, Song County Magistrate took 80,000 taels, leaving 30,000 taels.

This money belonged to Li Yao, Mr. Lai and Zou Boss. Li Yao felt it would be good to split it evenly, but Mr. Lai and Zou Boss insisted on taking only 2,000 taels each.

The remaining 16,000 taels all belonged to Li Yao.

Everyone was clever and knew not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, otherwise there would be no next time.

Li Yao was also polite with them. After pocketing 16,000 taels of silver bills, she started paying wages to the villagers.

Referring to the account book Wang Er wrote every day, she paid 50 wen in wages to everyone who came to work, regardless of gender or age, and also distributed 30 catties of pig fat residue to each person.

For ordinary villagers, pig fat residue was a good thing.

After the villagers happily took their wages and pig fat residue home, Li Yao started worrying.

With suddenly over 10,000 more taels of silver, how would she spend it?

So she went to Village Head Wang Jiafu, "I want to buy more land."

"How much?"

"All the barren hills in our village."

Wang Jiafu: "..."

There weren't many barren hills left in He Wan Village, at most 10,000 mu. At 150 wen per mu, it would only cost 1,500 taels of silver.

However, reclaiming these barren hills would require a lot of manpower.

The villagers of He Wan Village had things to do again. Every day, hundreds of people carried hoes, led by Da Zhuang to reclaim wasteland, dig tree pits, and plant cabbage, while He Xiaoya led over a dozen people cooking and delivering meals at home. Apart from the mandatory exercise, Li Yao would take time to walk around everywhere, watching her domain undergo changes bit by bit, filling her heart with endless satisfaction.

After receiving 80,000 taels of silver bills, Song County Magistrate immediately began organizing villages to start building reservoirs.

In order to make the dams more solid, he also planned to use Li Yao's method. But this way, a lot more cement would be needed, and Wang Yuanbang's side was already working 16 hours a day and still couldn't keep up with the supply.

Watching the earth-shattering changes taking place in his jurisdiction, Song County Magistrate also felt endless satisfaction welling up in his heart.

But his day and night hard work caused dissatisfaction among some people.

In a private room at Zhang's Restaurant, there were three people at the table.

Zhang Guangsheng, the owner of the restaurant, Yu Zhiping, the county magistrate of Baichuan County, and another middle-aged man with a haggard face and sinister eyes.

Zhang Guangsheng said, "This Song Lian is too unaware of the times! Just for a country girl, he actually made Prefect Hu lose face!"

Regarding the previous matter with the dry well, Prefect Hu wanted to cover it up and claim credit for himself.

Unexpectedly, Song Lian did not collaborate with him. With one move of "praying for rain in public", almost everyone knew that reopening the well was Li Yao's achievement alone.

Later, when he wanted to get rid of Li Yao, the people he sent never returned.

Although the current emperor was advanced in age, he was not muddle-headed at all. Left Minister Song An was even more perceptive. After a simple investigation, he figured out the truth.

Luckily, he was Right Minister Zhu Zilin's man.

The Right Minister suppressed the matter single-handedly and did not let the Emperor know, otherwise his hat as an official might not have been kept.

But even so, he was reprimanded by the Right Minister for dereliction of duty, causing him trouble.

So he resented Song County Magistrate and Li Yao deeply.

If he didn't avenge this grudge, he wouldn't even be able to sleep.

Thus he sent the shrewder Zhang Liao to Baichuan County to find a chance to remove Song Lian's hat as an official. But Song Lian governed cleanly and was increasingly well regarded among the people, so there was simply no dirt to be found on him.

"There is a way, but it requires the effort of County Magistrate Yu," said Zhang Liao. "Don't worry, as long as it succeeds, Prefect Hu will not forget to reward you."

Yu Zhiping was overjoyed.

He hated Song Lian so much. With Song Lian around, he couldn't skim a penny.

"Master Zhang, please tell me. As long as Mr. Yu can accomplish it, I will certainly not decline."

"You just need to do this and that," said Zhang Liao.

After hearing Zhang Liao's scheme, Yu Zhiping's eyeballs rolled several times before he steeled himself, "I'll do it!"

...

"My lord, don't go today. Rest for a day." "No, building reservoirs concerns people's lives, so I must personally supervise."

Madam Song sighed lightly in her heart.

Ever since he started this infrastructure business, Song County Magistrate had lost several circles. How could she not feel heartache?

"Then I'll go with you, so I can attend to you."

After Song County Magistrate left with a group of people, Yu Zhiping came to the county government. Seeing no one around, he sneaked into Song County Magistrate's study and rummaged around. Finally he took away the official county seal.

This was Zhang Liao's plan.

Losing the official seal would surely cost Song Lian his hat as long as it was investigated.

...

Today was the winter solstice.

Eating lamb on the winter solstice could keep one warm throughout the winter.

As the richest person in He Wan Village, Li Yao decided to take today off and treat everyone to lamb - all who worked for her family could have some!

To this end, Wang Yuanguo had bought over a dozen sheep and brought them back three days ago. Now, several skilled sheep butchers in the village had processed all the sheep. The stoves used last time to render lard came in handy again, with 10 large pots simmering white lamb soup simultaneously.

The fragrance of lamb drifted around the yard, and several villagers were vigorously making noodles. Those who were free helped out everywhere, with happiness and satisfaction beaming from their faces.

"Our Li Yao is just different," said an old lady. "Unlike others, she didn't forget her roots after making money."

"It's a pity she's a woman, otherwise she would definitely have been village head instead of Wang Jiafu," someone said disdainfully.

"What's village head worth?" someone else retorted. "If she were a man, she would definitely have become county magistrate!"

...

Li Yao had no thoughts of becoming a county magistrate. She was busy in the kitchen at the moment.

While the villagers ate stewed lamb, lamb soup and lamb noodle soup, she was preparing to have hot pot and lamb slices for dipping!

To eat hot pot, the soup base had to be prepared first.

Various spices, chili slices, Sichuan peppercorn were combined in proportion, soaked in water for 20 minutes, then drained and air dried. Bake over low heat to drive off moisture and set aside.

Heat oil in pot, add peanut oil, lard, and beef tallow. When oil is 40% hot, add plenty of ginger slices and green onion whites, fry until browned then remove from oil. Add chili paste and simmer for a moment. Finally add spices and a small amount of water, white sugar, and fermented bean curd. When the aroma of the spices has infused, remove from heat.

Then let it rest, allowing the various fragrances, spiciness and numbness to slowly develop.

When eating, just add the soup made from pork bones and beef bones.

As for ingredients, she had Wang Yuanguo procure quite a lot from the prefectural city.

Things like pork stomach, lamb slices, beef slices, duck intestines, goose intestines, duck blood... she basically got all she could.

Although it cost a lot, and was quite wasteful in He Xiaoya's eyes, Li Yao didn't care.

She had plenty of savings to begin with, and was earning several dozen taels a day. What was the harm in occasionally splurging a bit?