Wang Tiancheng came over every day afterward to supervise Hu Lao'er as he collected reed bundles. His standards were much higher than Hu Lao'er's: substandard bundles were firmly rejected, and pulling strings did no good. That left people like Tao Dayong, who were good at exploiting loopholes, rather helpless. If the bundles weren't accepted and didn't count toward his quota, he could no longer send the good ones to Li Long and slip the poor ones in with Hu Lao'er.
Yet the number of qualified reed bundles Li Long received each day didn't fall. Instead, it increased. Some people working extra hours began supplying Li Long as soon as they finished their quota for Hu Lao'er.
The people Han Benzhong had brought were still highly motivated, and the number of reed bundles they pressed each day kept increasing. Li Long found that rather surprising.
But it made sense when he thought about it. Each of those three households was bringing in an average of around ten yuan a day. How could they not work hard?
At times during this period, the Corps was even poorer than the local communities. What they planted was centrally assigned, since farming supplies, seeds, and the like were all distributed from above. As a result, their autumn harvests also had to be collected by the higher-ups. Expenses and required contributions were deducted, and only what remained was distributed to the workers.
That meant each worker's household received very little at the end of the year. Some even ended up owing money, just as local farming households had in the past, and life wasn't easy.
The Corps kept fairly strict control over its workers during the busy farming season, but there were fewer restrictions during the slack season. That was why Han Benzhong and the others