A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 48 You look so cool when you spend money

It was dawn.

Li Yi woke up. As expected, women would only affect the speed of drawing the sword.

He never got up early during the three days in Chang'an.

Pushing open the old elm door, Li Yi stretched.

The most comfortable life is for a country rich man who does not bow to the temptation of rice. If he stays in Chang'an and becomes a prince's official, he will only receive thirty stone of rice a year and two and a half stone of rice a month.

A small house in the west of Chang'an City costs two or three hundred thousand coins.

If he became a court official, he would have to get up at four o'clock every morning to attend the morning court, which was around four in the morning. He would wait in front of the palace gate until it opened at dawn, regardless of wind, frost, rain or snow.

Is that the life people live?
"Good morning, Alang."

Lu Zhu and Su Jun stood at the door, one on each side, bowing to him. One was mellow and sweet, the other had a gentle temperament.
"morning,"

It’s a wonderful day to wake up early in the morning and be greeted by a beautiful woman.

Li Yi went to wash up,

Luzhu immediately drew some cool, sweet well water, sprinkled the tooth powder she had bought from Chang'an on the horsetail toothbrush, and handed it to him.
Tooth powder made from green salt with herbs and spices such as cloves is expensive, but not as convenient to use as toothpaste.

After he brushed his teeth, Luzhu wet the towel, wrung it out and handed it to him.

This Silla girl worked very hard to gain the position of a maid.

Ji Sujun just stood by, not fighting or competing.

"Last night, Ah Lang said he had to go out on some business this morning. I have already ordered the horses to be fed and watered."

"Well, let's go to the bridge head for breakfast and try it together."

At the bridgehead at the bottom of the slope.

The breakfast shop at the rice shed is doing well and is becoming increasingly bustling. Luo Sanniang is indeed quite capable in business. Now, she not only sells soy milk and tofu pudding, but also millet porridge, glutinous rice, and new products such as locust leaf cold pottery and steamed buns.

They also display and sell products from their own workshop, such as bean curd sheets, tofu puffs, natto, bean sprouts, and bean dregs.

By the way, I sell it to passing merchants and local people, and I can sell a lot in a day.

Li Yi was indeed right at the beginning.
Luojia Bridge is located between two official horse roads. Taking advantage of this traffic outlet, Li Yi combined breakfast, rest, and convenience together.
Here, the big trees provide shade and the river is cool.

The service is good and the price is reasonable, especially the clean toilets, which are very popular on the road.

Even if I don't eat breakfast or buy anything,

Free water is also provided.

If you make a purchase, they also provide free watering and horse washing services, and a bowl of soy milk will also be given with a handful of grass.

Now even villagers from several nearby villages like to come here to sit and chat with passing merchants when they have nothing to do. It is also a very good experience.

Li Yi brought two beautiful maids to the bridgehead.
"Sanniang, give me a bowl of soy milk."

Sanniang was busy. When she heard him calling, she looked at him, hesitated, and finally scooped a bowl of soy milk. She didn't look very good today, with thick dark circles under her eyes. In fact, she didn't sleep most of the night before, and she was thinking about the lip balm box all night.

"We have some locust leaf cold pottery. Once it's ready, hang it in a basket in the well to cool it down. Do you want it?"

"Forget it, I just woke up, so I won't eat something so cold. I can have a bowl of glutinous rice."

Li Yi turned around and asked Lu Zhu and the others, "Tell Sanniang what you want to eat."

Holding a ceramic bowl, I squatted on the bridge and ate while observing the flow of people in the morning. There were many people passing by, one after another.

Most people stop at the bridge to rest.
Only a few people were willing to eat and drink, and many people brought their own dry food.
But at the end of the day, the business of this service area should still be good.

In fact, there are many people coming in and out of that inconspicuous toilet, and basically everyone who stops here will go there to relieve themselves.

How much manure and urine have to be collected in a day? These things are good things. Farmland lacks fertilizer and the yield per mu is very low. With this thing, after the fertilizer is fermented, it can be applied to the field to greatly increase the yield.

As long as Li Yi is willing to sell the manure from this toilet, there will be many farmers who will rush to buy it, and he can sell it for a lot of money in a year. Many farmers get up early every day to collect manure, and they will not miss any cow manure, horse manure, or donkey manure, but none of them can compare to the size of Li Yi's toilet.

He admired his own vision.
Why didn't anyone discover the traffic and business opportunities here before? It doesn't cost much to set up a stall, but no one does it.

All I can say is that vision and courage are both indispensable.

I couldn't help but admire myself a little more. With such ability, Li Yuan only gave me the title of "Zheng". What a talented person! As the librarian of the Eastern Palace, I don't even have any books. What's the point of doing this?

After saying hello to everyone, I rode my horse to Fengjiabao.

Although Li Shimin only gave him a clerk position as a scribe, even if Li Yi refused, Li Shimin still gave him a good Turkic horse and a hunting bow, and had even given him a golden knife before.

The unskilled rider came to Mr. Dong's private school.
Li Yi had just learned riding skills, but the horse Li Shimin gave him was good, as steady as an old dog, and took him to his destination safely.

When meeting Dong Xiucai, Li Yixian gave him 4 sheets of A paper.
Sitting in the corridor and recounting his trip to Chang'an, Dong Xiucai was not too surprised, nor was he angry, about his resignation.

"If you don't want to be one, then don't be one. The Crown Prince's official is just a nominal position."

Dong Xiucai admired Li Yi's decision. He was so young and yet he was able to resign so decisively. Li Yi wasn't from a prominent family, so he didn't have that many opportunities. Perhaps if he refused this time, he would never have another chance at officialdom.

"The students are mainly reluctant to leave Wuji Primary School. I'm so irresponsible for jumping on the bandwagon and running off to become an official right after school starts. I talked to the clerks in the Donggong Sijing Bureau. They have nothing to do every day. Every day when they go to the government office, they just sign in and then have a book and a pot of tea.

I'd rather come back and do something real."

Mr. Dong praised him highly and offered him a cup of tea.

Went to Chang'an,
Li Yi is still the same Li Yi.
But in the village, his status has greatly increased.

When people met him, they no longer called him Li Yi, Wu Yi, or Village Chief Li, but called him Li Zhengzi.

Even though he hadn't officially taken office, everyone still addressed him by his official title. Although most people didn't understand why Li Yi resigned, everyone was saying that the emperor was not angry about Li Yi's resignation, but instead specially gifted him with ginseng, deer vine, donkey-hide gelatin, and other imperial medicines, as well as money, silk, and palace maids.

Within a few days, the rumors became increasingly outrageous, with some even saying that the emperor had rewarded Li Yi with 100 taels of gold and two beauties. Some even said that the two palace maids were one of Yang Guang's concubines, and the other was Yang Guang's princess.

Some people also say that the reason why Li Yi resigned was because both the Crown Prince and the King of Qin admired him very much, and Li Yi was caught in the middle and was too embarrassed, so he had to resign on the grounds of illness.

Anyway,
Amidst all the rumors, Li Yi's status in the village has risen rapidly. After all, he is the only village chief whose reputation is known to everyone.

After he resigned from his official position and returned home, he was still a commoner, but in the village he was already on par with the local tycoons and even had a higher reputation than them.

This growing fame brought many practical benefits. First, more powerful landlords and merchants came to buy dried bean curd sheets and fermented tofu. Second, Wuji Primary School received a lot of donations.

Even the Wannian County Magistrate issued a special notice to the village, commending Li Yi for running a school, and asked the village to specially approve two pieces of land for Li Yi.

One plot was for school use, not far north of Luojia Bridge, with an approved area of six mu. The other plot was farmland, with thirty mu of wheat fields on the plateau and thirty mu of rice fields along the He River.

Sixty acres of fertile land,
Although this is under the name of the school,

But Wuji Primary School is managed by Li Yi, and the land is actually controlled by him.

Li Yi guessed that the reason why the Wannian County Magistrate treated him so well was more likely because of his relationship with Sun Fujia. Sun Fujia was originally a legal officer under the Wannian County Magistrate, but now he has risen to become the Imperial Censor. He is the second in command of the Censorate. Although he and the Wannian County Magistrate are both of the fifth rank, it is hard to say what real power he has.

No official dares to offend the censor.

In a blink of an eye,
Twenty days have passed since Luo San, Luo Wu and others were called up for service.

In previous years, the service period would have been completed this year.

But now there is no movement at all. It seems that I really have to serve beyond the term for 50 days before I can go home.

However, among the three siblings, except for Lanxiang who is always thinking about when their father will come back, the two brothers Shitou Gousheng have forgotten their father so much that they have gone to Java. They have been living a very comfortable life during the time when their father is not at home.

Every day in Li Yi Wujiyuan, there is food and drink. Not only do I have enough rice to eat every day, but I often have meat as well. Every day I herd cattle and horses, read and play. Life is so wonderful.

Now, not only have the two brothers' stomach worms been killed, the lice on their heads and fleas on their bodies have also disappeared, they have also grown some weight and their complexions have become rosier.

"Good luck with the beam raising!"

The master craftsman shouted,

The master, Li Yi, followed up with a loud shout.

Then the laborers, the villagers who worked, even the students in the school and the little kids in the village all followed suit and shouted.

Li Yi climbed the scaffolding and came to the gable of the main house in the west courtyard.

There were villagers and children watching below.

Li Yi smiled and grabbed a handful of fruits from the basket and scattered them down. Dried red dates, melon seeds, lotus seeds, rice dumplings, walnuts, steamed cakes, etc. immediately fell like rain.
Adults and children cheered and scrambled for it.

Last time when the beam was raised, there was no scattering of auspicious fruits. This time, since Li Yi had the conditions, he decided to make it more lively. He prepared a lot of dried fruits, white flour steamed buns, and yellow rice cakes in advance.

Building a house, getting married, and having children are major events in people's lives. What they want is prosperity and liveliness.

After sprinkling a few handfuls of dried fruit cakes,
Li Yi took out a handful of copper coins from the cloth bag on his shoulder.

"Good luck with the raising of the beam!"

This is the Kaihuang five-zhu copper coin I exchanged for, it's golden.

Money rains down from the sky,

The villagers and children below cheered even louder and scrambled more fiercely. Even the old aunt and the young wife tried their best.

All the things you spread are good things.

Besides, who wouldn't want to share in Li Zhengzi's happiness?

Li Yi scattered six baskets of dried fruits and cakes, and eight baskets of copper coins.
Everything will go smoothly and you will be prosperous.

Li Yi came down from upstairs and everyone congratulated him. Today, all the important people from all over the country came, and it was much more lively than last time.

Guo Erlang's face was flushed. "The way Li Zhengzi threw coins just now was really cool."

Li Yi's smile froze on his face.

Spread coins?

That's called throwing money around to celebrate. What do you mean by throwing money around? How could I possibly throw money around? Can you speak?

"Thank you, Guo Erlang, for coming to support us. Next time Erlang has a wedding, he'll spend more money than me."

Guo Erlang's gift this time was much more generous than last time: a pair of big geese, a hundred steamed buns, and a piece of cloth.

The children were still crouching on the ground looking for lost copper coins and dried fruits, while Li Yi had already taken Guo Erlang's hand, greeting the guests and friends, and inviting the craftsmen to start the meal.

"Let's eat!"

The world is not yet settled, so there is no condition for doing eight or nine big bowls.

Today, they prepared several dan of millet. In the workshop, they set up the large pots that usually make yuba (bean curd sheets) and steamed the rice in the large steamer. Luo Er bought two pigs weighing over 100 jin yesterday and, before dawn, he and several villagers slaughtered and cut up the pigs.

Cut the meat and bones into pieces, boil them in a large pot of water, scoop them out into a winnowing basket, sprinkle with salt and stir evenly, sprinkle with chopped green onions, and the dish is ready.

In Wujiyuan,

There is no table or chairs.
The villagers brought their own bowls.
Millet rice is enough to fill you up.
A few pieces of meat per person,
Then a big bowl of pork soup with heart, liver, intestines, lungs, kidneys, etc.

Everyone just finds a place to sit and share this delicious food and joy.

"Everyone, enjoy your meal and drinks. Please forgive us for our poor hospitality. We will serve more after we finish eating!" Li Yi kept greeting his fellow villagers and guests.

Mr. Dong also came to support the event today. His grandson Liu Lang gave him a bowl of meat. This was the first time that Mr. Dong had seen such a bold way of eating.

The meat was about 200g each, but it tasted surprisingly good. It didn't have the fishy smell I'd imagined, nor was it greasy or even hard or tough.
It is fat but not greasy, crispy but not dry, and the more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes.

Dong Liulang also ate with great relish, enjoying the large chunks of meat and sipping the soup. He felt really good. "Li Zhengzi is such a big crowd today. There are two or three hundred people here, and he's eating two pigs for one meal. How generous!"

"I've never seen pork and meat eaten this way before. It's really delicious."

The boss eats more politely: "Wu Yi is two years younger than you. You should not only know how to eat, but also learn how to behave like him."

Dong Liulang said very bluntly, "I can't learn from him. If I had his ability, I would be so happy if the emperor appointed me as the crown prince's secretary. I would never refuse the position, let alone run away to the countryside to teach and sell tofu."

"Grandpa, what do you think Li Yi is thinking?"

Old Dong shook his head and looked at his grandson with a look in his eyes that showed that the wood was rotten and could not be carved.

　Hello 2025, I wish all my fellow book lovers good luck in 2025!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)