In the village committee's largest meeting room, dozens of people had gathered together, every face radiant with joy.
On the dais, Jinyi cleared her throat, and the surrounding chatter instantly fell silent. Every eye turned to her with undivided attention.
"Everyone, this meeting is of great importance."
"Taoyuan Village now has more than eight thousand registered residents, and Xinghuo Village on the other side has surpassed two thousand."
"Our total population has broken ten thousand!"
"Therefore, after discussion with the Master, we have decided to elevate Taoyuan Village from a village to a town. From this day forward, Taoyuan Village shall be known as Taoyuan Town!"
Enthusiastic applause broke out at once, filling every corner of the meeting room.
"The following appointments are hereby announced."
"The Master has appointed me as Mayor of Taoyuan Town, with overall responsibility for all affairs."
"Zhao Jinxiu is appointed Deputy Mayor, overseeing economic affairs."
"Zhao Jinwen is appointed Deputy Mayor and concurrently Village Head of Xinghuo Village, with full responsibility for all Xinghuo Village affairs."
"Zhao Jinyuan is appointed Deputy Mayor, overseeing public security."
"Lin Xuejin is appointed Deputy Mayor, overseeing public welfare and education."
"Taoyuan Town currently has a large population, so we will provisionally divide it into six districts. The three main streets and their associated buildings will form three districts, the two residential areas in the middle will each constitute one district, and the area north of the small lake will form a separate district as well."
"Each district will have a director, equivalent in rank to a village head, drawing a Grade Five salary."
"The appointments of the six district directors are as follows…"
Enthusiastic applause rang out again. The elevation from village to town signaled that Taoyuan Village's fortunes had climbed yet another rung.
For Zhao Baihui, however, this was an advancement in name only, bringing him no material benefit whatsoever.
But for everyone else, the gains were real and tangible.
The Mayor, for instance, would draw a Grade Seven salary — 3.7 times the base wage.
Deputy Mayors would draw Grade Six — three times the base.
Village heads and district directors drew Grade Five — 2.4 times the base.
Deputy positions drew Grade Four — 1.9 times.
Middle management such as administrators and team leaders drew Grade Three, while ordinary staff drew Grade One.
Grade Two was reserved as a reward for ordinary workers who had made notable contributions or served for a long time.
"Taoyuan Town grows better with each passing day, and that is inseparable from everyone's hard work and dedication. The Master has approved a raise for all staff."
"The Grade One base wage will be increased by twenty percent, effective immediately!"
A cheer went up from the crowd — a cheer that was, with only the rarest exceptions among those who had no need of money, entirely heartfelt.
The Grade One daily wage would rise from one yuan to one yuan and two jiao. Even the elderly men and women who worked the streets as temporary hands for the village committee fell within the payroll system, and would now earn an extra jiao each day.
For someone like Mayor Jinyi — oh, Mayor now — her Grade Seven salary at 3.7 times the base worked out to that corresponding daily amount.
When news of the elevation to town status and the pay raises for public officials spread, it caused barely a ripple among the general populace.
Most people expressed little interest, since for the majority there was no visible, tangible change in their daily lives.
After all, even with the raise, public servants' wages were hardly impressive.
In the people's eyes, Jinyi, Lin Xuejin, and even some of the middle managers ought to be living like true masters and lords.
In their understanding, a proper lord should be raking in dozens or even hundreds of taels a year, shouldn't he? Even the dogs in his household should be eating meat at every meal — that was only fitting.
And yet these officials were only earning three to five times an ordinary person's wages — not even enough to keep a personal attendant or a maidservant. Nobody envied them in the slightest.
Some even felt aggrieved on the officials' behalf. Why should the lords of our Taoyuan Town live worse than lords everywhere else?
What truly caught people's eye was the two-jiao raise in the ordinary worker's wage — but even that was no cause for resentment, since they and their families had every chance of becoming such workers themselves.
At present, just over a thousand people in Taoyuan Town stood to enjoy this benefit, and they were, naturally, overjoyed.
The result was that every last jar of ordinary rice wine on the streets sold out by day's end.
That evening after work, Jinyi rode home in a horse-drawn carriage to the newly built Zhao family compound.
The compound was still under construction, but the few small buildings at its center had already been completed and were being lived in.
One could hardly leave the Master without a home to return to — he was a man who dearly loved home. During the days when there was no home to speak of, even his games of hide-and-seek with the children seemed somehow less than spirited.
Returning to her own building, she found a man sitting in the front room. Even alone, he sat with perfect posture, back straight, spine erect.
"Mingwu, what brings you here?"
Mingwu leapt to his feet. "Jinyi-jie."
"Sit down. How did things go?"
"Smoothly. The armor and weapons have all been forged — we now have two hundred full sets. I think it's time we ran some exercises."
"Then give it a try. The four of you must be careful. I'd sooner every last one of the others die than lose the four of you — otherwise I fear the Master will never forgive me for the rest of his life."
"Yes!" Mingwu snapped to attention, stamped his foot in acknowledgment, then turned and strode out.
Clean and efficient to the last — a man of few words and swift action.
Jinyi watched his retreating figure, something flickering in her eyes like a flame dancing.
…
That autumn, drought ravaged the western regions, leaving many areas with nothing to harvest.
The imperial court was powerless to provide relief. Officials and local gentry not only did nothing of substance, but even skimmed from the meager aid supplies that did trickle down, each layer of hands taking its cut.
A handful of conscientious gentry and wealthy households extended what help they could, but it was a drop in the bucket.
In the end, the flames of rebellion erupted across the land, and in several places the banner of revolt was raised.
If there was no hope of living, then let everything burn together.
The largest swarm of displaced people swept into a county seat. The starving were pitifully weak — but when the starving took up weapons and became roving bandits, they were still no great fighting force…
Yet they were more than savage enough, and utterly without restraint.
The fate of that county seat was not difficult to imagine. Those gentry lords who had watched the storm clouds gather and done nothing — one wonders whether they repented, in those final moments, for what they had done and left undone.
The displaced people who had broken through the city walls transformed entirely into something feral. They spread in all directions like a contagion, their numbers and momentum swelling without end.
The imperial court ordered the nearest military forces to suppress the uprising.
But decades of neglect had left the military soft to the bone. The hastily assembled troops shattered at first contact with the roving mob, and were themselves swept up into it.
A bitter irony, to say the least.
In the end, the central court was forced to grit its teeth and dispatch its last elite forces to put down the rebellion.
The capital garrison was rotten enough in its own way, yet still retained some fighting capacity. It crushed several of the roving bands in succession — but faced with what seemed an inexhaustible tide of desperate people, the court's final crack troops found themselves bogged down and mired.
They could not be destroyed by the mob, yet neither could they destroy it.
And so they were stuck — deadlocked, at an impasse, with nowhere to go.