Joint Liability

"Conscript laborers like sedan-chair bearers had it better. The hardest were those at the express post stations, those tending the waterworks, and the corvée laborers who had to repair roads and build bridges every winter," Wang Fei Yin said. "As soon as spring began this year, he claimed the weather would be unusual, so he issued corvée orders far and wide, commanding every township to send people to build waterworks and official roads."

Pan Yun said, "He wasn't wrong about that."

Wang Fei Yin said helplessly, "He wasn't wrong. Before issuing the corvée orders, he had, like the previous County Magistrates, invited me and several Daoist priests from Laozi Palace Temple and Fuqing Temple to observe the weather. The weather would indeed be unusual this year; we calculated it too.

"We even mapped out the mountain roads and ditches that needed attention for him, and calculated the required manpower..."

They did this sort of thing often. When Ming Ren had been here, they had often been used much like clerks. In any case, such matters cost them no effort.

They normally observed the stars and calculated the climate. Yushan County was also where they lived, and they went out every so often. They knew full well where problems lay.

Arithmetic was even simpler. They could calculate all of it in their heads.

Whenever the need arose each year, they could provide Ming Ren with plans and figures.

How had Wang Cong become acquainted with Ming Ren and become his friend?

Wasn't it because Wang Fei Yin had been lazy in earlier years, shoving Wang Cong forward whenever such matters arose?

Like the County Magistrates before him, Ming Ren had been quite sensible. Whether or not he used the Daoists' plans and figures, he at least listened carefully, then made adjustments