eurekapd Chapter 164 School starts
Chapter 164 School starts
Wu Deyong sent a yamen runner to inform Zhang Hulan and asked her to go to the county government office tomorrow morning.
Zhang Hulan also asked Luo Changqi to make a statistics of the specific amount of money each person lost so that they could reconcile the accounts later.
Early the next morning, Zhang Hulan took Zhang Xinyao and Zhang Xinyi to the county government office, along with two representatives who had lost their money.
When they arrived at the county government office, Zhang Hulan first thanked Wu Deyong, and then Wu Deyong went to court for trial.
The three men were escorted into the hall by yamen runners. Zhang Hulan did not recognize their faces, but she recognized their clothes at a glance.
The representative who lost the money recognized him and immediately cursed: "Fan Xiang, you are such a jerk! You actually stole our hard-earned money..."
Wu Deyong slammed the gavel and said, "Are you sure it's these three people?"
Zhang Hulan replied, "Yes, sir. We just discovered the missing money yesterday and immediately took a headcount. They were the only three missing. Others also saw them return to the dormitory at different times, and then they escaped."
Wu Deyong slammed the gavel again and shouted, "Do you plead guilty?"
The three of them lowered their heads, not daring to look at Zhang Hulan or Wu Deyong in the hall.
"Answer this officer's question. Do you plead guilty?"
Fan Xiang replied in a low voice: "I admit my guilt..."
"Why do you steal other people's money?"
All three of them hesitated.
This question was not important. Since they did not say anything, Wu Deyong changed the question, "Who among you is the mastermind?"
The other two pointed at Fan Xiang at the same time, "It's him."
Fan Xiang glared at the two of them. They were too disloyal.
Wu Deyong then asked the yamen runners to give three bags of copper coins to Zhang Hulan. "These are what we found on them. Count them and see if they match the amount we lost."
Zhang Hulan counted the money on the spot, and the final number she came up with was a few hundred more, which belonged to Fan Xiang and the others.
Zhang Hulan handed the extra money to Wu Deyong and handed him the number of people who had lost their money that she had asked Luo Changqi to count. She said, "Sir, this should be their own wages. Leave it to you to deal with. This is the data we counted ourselves. Please take a look."
Wu Deyong nodded after reading it, then said to Fan Xiang, "The three of you stole property from others. Although the amount wasn't large, the number of people involved was quite large, and you were the mastermind. I sentence you to two years in prison."
Wu Deyong then said to the other two, "You two are accomplices. You will be sentenced to one year in prison."
Prison sentence is essentially forced labor, free labor, and it's hard labor, the hardest kind of hard labor. Eating the worst food and doing the heaviest work, whether you can survive depends on your own strength of character.
Fan Xiang and the other two kowtowed and begged for mercy, "Sir, we know we are wrong. Please have mercy on us, please have mercy on us..."
Wu Deyong ignored the three men's pleas for mercy and dragged them away.
Zhang Hulan thanked Wu Deyong, "Thank you very much for this time, sir!"
Wu Deyong waved his hand and said, "No need to thank me, this is all within my duty."
The matter was settled, and Zhang Hulan returned home with her men.
Give the copper coins to Luo Changqi and ask him to return them to those who lost their money.
The children were very happy to get their lost money back, and then they all ran to Zhang Xinyao and deposited the money with her.
This is a lesson. It’s safer to leave it with the young lady. If it is stolen again, who knows if it can be recovered.
After the storm, the days went on one by one. Gao Guangtian sent chicken skin, chicken chicks, duck chicks and breeding eggs to Zhang Hulan and then stopped sending anything else.
He had almost bought up all the chicks, ducklings and breeding eggs in Changning County, and he also went to other counties to purchase some.
In the end, more than 2,000 chicks, more than 1,000 ducklings, and several hundred goslings were delivered to Zhang Hulan.
There are quite a few breeding eggs, more than 5,000 chicken eggs, more than 3,000 duck eggs, and more than 500 goose eggs.
Zhang Hulan also built a few more warm kangs. The breeding eggs she bought could not be kept for too long and had to be hatched as soon as possible.
Li, Xiang Chunhua and Zhang Dahua are specifically responsible for this matter.
Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing have already bought the fish fry. Since they have nothing to do at the moment, they are helping out.
Wang is now responsible for taking care of Zhang Yingchun every day, while Old Man Zhang is helping Zhang Hubing build the house.
Since Zhang Hulan moved, Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing decided to start building a new house.
They did not move to Zhang Hulan's house, and the two brothers took turns building it.
The foundation of the old house now belongs to Zhang Hujun, and Zhang Hubing will find a new place to build it. When Zhang Hubing's house is finished, they will all move there and then build Zhang Hujun's house.
Zhang Hulan also asked Zhao Guoliang to inform everyone in the village about the children's education. Those who wanted to send their children to school could send them to the school at that time.
In addition to the cost of textbooks, each child's tuition is twenty cents per month.
Several nearby villages have also been notified, and anyone who wants their children to learn to read and write can send them here.
Time flies, and it is the end of April in a blink of an eye.
The school started in early May. Of the thirty children in the village, more than ten chose to study. A dozen or so felt that studying was useless and that working to earn money was more practical.
Apart from the children in the village, there were only a few children sent to school in the village, and there were only a dozen or so children from other villages combined.
It’s not that the villagers don’t want to send their children to school, but the wheat harvest is about to begin, and after that, rice seedlings will be planted immediately, and the children have to help with the work.
Those who were sent to school now were all young and could not do much work at home. The older children would not come to school until the wheat was harvested and the rice seedlings were planted.
On the first day of school, adults in the family brought their children to the school to register and pay tuition, and then received books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone.
Song Yuzhang told the villagers, "Tuition is 20 wen per month. A copy of the Thousand Character Classic costs 30 wen. The brush costs 10 wen. The inkstone costs 20 wen. The ink stick costs 1 liang, which costs 50 wen. Thirty sheets of paper costs 50 wen. The total is 180 wen."
The adults felt a little overwhelmed by having to pay so much money at once, but they still endured the pain and paid for their children.
Song Yuzhang said: "Children don't need pen, ink or paper to write at first. Let them write with charcoal on the ground first. When they learn to write a few words and need to practice calligraphy, they can use pen, ink or paper.
One ounce of ink can last two to three months, and the same goes for paper. I'll basically write a large piece of calligraphy every day, so it should last about a month."
Song Yuzhang took the money, counted out 120 coins, and returned the remaining 60 coins to the villagers.
"You don't have to pay for the books and the brushes and inkstones. Madam Zhang said she paid for the children."
The villagers felt grateful.
Song Yuzhang gave the books to the children and asked the adults to take the rest of the things home and bring them to school when they needed them.
The child got the book and held it in his arms like a treasure, feeling extremely happy.
The older children on the farm earned enough to pay this fee, but after the younger ones paid this fee, they were left with only five coins.
They worked for a total of two and a half months and received exactly 125 cents. Fortunately, they didn't have to pay for food and accommodation, otherwise it would not be enough.
Zhang Hulan had calculated everything for them.