Chapter 9                                                                                                                              

Zhou Mengchen's heart skipped a beat and immediately felt an unknown premonition.

Logically speaking, Yin and Yang officials only need to be responsible for their own affairs. However, county officials are not as good as the current management. Many times, the county government has insufficient staff, so they will bring Yin and Yang officials to help, such as flood control, such as going to the city when encountering chaos in the army, such as tax collection being too busy, etc.

Such things are common.

But generally speaking, these things are temporary, and now the atmosphere in the county government office can be seen, and there is no need to worry. It can even be said that Jiangxia County is not too busy to get busy. If Wuchang really encounters any major event, Jiangxia County is not responsible for it.

Although the Jiangxia County Government is in Wuchang City, it can really manage some villages outside the city, or some dirty and tiring work in Wuchang City.

In addition, Zhou Mengchen knew that the relationship between him and the county master was not so harmonious. The county master decided not to be a good job. However, he had to bow his head under the roof, and he was not qualified to refuse.

Zhou Mengchen said, "Please speak with Master Liu."

Master Liu said, "Do you know about the Yangjianyuan?"

Zhou Mengchen frowned slightly and said, "Didn't the Yangjiyuan be scrapped long ago?"

The Yangjiyuan is an ancient nursing home and a children's welfare home. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu established the Yangjiyuan, which means to support the elderly and widows and orphans.

However, with the decline of the Ming Dynasty's national strength, the Yangjiyuan gradually became in name only. Later, some gentry and celebrities raised some donations to maintain it. However, over time, there was no way. In Zhou Mengchen's impression, the Yangjiyuan in Wuchang City had this place. However, it had long become a gathering place for beggars to wander. I don't know how many years ago, no one cared about it.

Master Liu said, "How can I say it's aborted? It's just that the Yangjiyuan is under the management of local Lijia, but the county magistrate's previous inspection is quite heartbroken and has become a stubborn disease. A young talent like you cannot reorganize the situation."

"Do it well, the county master admires you very much."

Before Zhou Mengchen could say anything, he got up and left.

Only Zhou Mengchen was left to face the cup of herbal tea in front of him.

How could Zhou Mengchen not understand that this Yangjianyuan was used to control him?

Yangjiyuan has long been in name only, and even the house is dilapidated, with only one open space. Zhou Mengchen had never been there, and the impression was very biased. Because Jiangxia County was already squeezed to the edge of the west city by various yamen, Yangjiyuan was even more biased, and was squeezed under the north wall. There was almost nothing left.

But this is not the case in the court archives. It is estimated that the above records were still hundreds of years ago. Just as we were about to check this, Zhou Mengchen definitely had a hundred words that could not explain clearly.

Moreover, the county magistrate didn't want him to make it clear.

Zhou Mengchen took a deep breath and drank the herbal tea in one go.

First, go to Huang Zhubo and explain the situation clearly. After hearing this, Huang Zhubo immediately frowned and pondered for a long time, and said, "The county magistrate just said this today, so it's hard to refuse immediately. Let's do it. Let's delay it for three or two days first, and I'll think of a solution."

In fact, Huang Zhubo understood as soon as he heard it.

The county lord wants money.

However, the Zhou family's family's family's assets probably cannot satisfy the appetite of the county master. Moreover, he had joined hands with other people in the county to give the county master a great deal. The county master was probably full of resentment and decided to open his mouth.

An official is an official. It is not easy for the Huang Lord to offend the county magistrate too much, so he can only delay it first.

Zhou Mengchen took this bad news and left the county government office and returned home.

No, it’s not at home, it’s the bell and drum tower.

The three-story bell and drum tower is like a city gate tower, spanning the entire long street. The people coming and going on the long street are walking below the bell and drum tower. The bell and drum tower is also the highest point on this long street. From the bell and drum tower to both sides, they all go downhill.

Zhou Mengchen came to the bell and drum tower, on the third floor, there were big drums and carved holes on the second floor, and some living rooms, as well as Zhou Mengchen's room. On the third floor, a large bell was placed, which was made of copper. There were thousands of kilograms. Once it was ringed, it could shake the entire Wuchang city.

This is not the highest point of Wuchang City. The highest point should be on the top of Snake Mountain, which is where later generations moved the Yellow Crane Tower. But it is also relatively high. Looking from the Bell and Drum Tower, behind it is the winding Snake Mountain. Looking northwest, it is the city wall and the Yellow Crane Tower and the Yellow Crane Tower outside the city wall, which flows from the rolling Yangtze River in the sky. However, the surroundings are the five-mile long street connecting Wuchang City divided by Snake Mountain, which is also the bustling and prosperous place in Wuchang City.

But everything went smoothly when he was on the bell and drum tower.

The Zhou family's influence on this small bell and drum tower can be said to be deeply rooted.

To him, the Bell and Drum Tower is home.

At this moment, there are only three people on duty in the Bell and Drum Tower.

They are all old men left by Zhou’s father.

Mainly responsible for ringing bells and drums.

As for the fight against the people, Zhou Mengchen was also responsible, but the village chiefs in each of the city were more likely to find people. After Zhou Mengchen's approval, they could take up their posts.

The Bell and Drum Tower also plays drums at night. People only need to follow the signals sent by the Bell and Drum Tower to play more.

Perhaps some people think that these people are treated poorly, but in fact, many people are rushing to do it.

The reason is nothing. Generally speaking, there is no salary for these things, and even if there is one, it is only a matter of a few dou of rice. But this is considered serving the imperial court.

In the Ming Dynasty's national policy, there were not high taxes and service, but there were many taxes and service. Even more were heavy service, such as transporting grain. There was no need to know how many miles and outside of a pole. In ancient times, I was likely to go and never go back. Therefore, many local people were willing to take a place even if they were asked for some money.

In this way, they are already in service and no longer need to serve re-service.

Moreover, there are 63 miles in Wuchang City. According to the Ming system, there are 110 households per mile. However, this is the data from the early Ming Dynasty, but this is not the case today. The population in the city is more than before. However, Lijia now corresponds to the concept of the city area.

There are 63 Lijia, a total of 63 people who change the quota, plus the people who work in the Bell and Drum Tower, they have two shifts day and night.

Zhou Mengchen directly managed about seventy people.

Of course, Zhou Mengchen does not really have 70 people under him. Many of them are too close to each other and do not need to be divided into two updaters. It is just that the people below want this share of exemption from service, and the Zhou family wants to collect money from this member. It can be said that the money from the Zhou family is almost earned from this convention. Otherwise, what is enough to do by relying solely on twenty-seven stones of rice a year?

Of course, the Zhou family has another income, which is to take on private jobs.

But Zhou Mengchen hasn't done it yet.

In ancient times, astronomical numerology was associated with many mysterious things, such as determining good and auspicious days. In fact, it depends on the corresponding stars on the ecliptic at that time, and the stars each have their own symbols, as well as choosing yin houses and yang houses. After all, they are officially certified Feng Shui masters.

It’s just that Zhou Mengchen did not get the true teachings of his father, so he couldn’t understand this.

In the second floor of the bell and drum tower, the famous lotus leak was created by Yan Su of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is one of the most accurate leaks. It is also the key to the entire bell and drum tower. All actions of the bell and drum tower are based on the time of the carving.

All Zhou Mengchen’s work is to maintain the accuracy of the leakage.

Generally, at noon, the amount of water leaking is increased or decreased to ensure that it is three o'clock in the afternoon.

As long as the entire tick does not encounter extreme situations, there will be no big errors when running for two or three days.

This job is easy and easy. It is difficult. It is probably possible to find someone now. In fact, it is just an alternative school chart. However, with such a high illiteracy rate, this job is not something that ordinary people can do. But for a scholar, you can do it with just a little training.

Of course, it is not too easy, because once there is a problem with the lotus leak and needs to be repaired, no one can help you. After all, the lotus leak is precise, and it is naturally not as precise as the various precision instruments in later generations, but not every city has it within the entire Ming Dynasty.

The lotus leaks in many cities were handed down from the Song Dynasty.

If you have enough knowledge about buoyancy, water flow speed, etc., it is not easy to repair.

This is another reason why the Zhou family can inherit this official position in the era. If something really happens, it will be impossible unless you go to Beijing or Nanjing to hire someone.

Most people can't play with it.

Zhou Mengchen's eyes swept over the lotus leak. The entire lotus leak had four water tanks, covering several square meters. The most successful thing about the lotus leak was that the flow of water instead of dripping water could maintain a relatively average water speed as much as possible. Use two water supply tanks and a flat water tank to adjust the water flow speed.

In the water tank below, there is a large lotus-shaped cover, with lotus roots exposed, and there are forty-eight holes, each hole is a bamboo tube with different depths. When the water in the bamboo tube below reaches a certain level, an arrow will emerge from the bottom of the bamboo tube. Forty-eight arrows represent one quarter of an hour, that is, half an hour.

This is the lotus leak that is known as the perfect time.

This is the lotus leak that Su Shi wrote for that time. However, the war in the late Song Dynasty was in chaos and the lotus leak was lost. Guo Shoujing later used this principle to replace the lotus shape with the shape of Baoshan, which was called Baoshan leak. It was immediately submerged in the dust of history. Today, the lotus leak is still retained in practice in many places. The current situation is also in this state.

However, the court no longer had the actions of the Song Dynasty to promote lotus leaks on a large scale, and even made them into carved on stone tablets.

After Zhou Mengchen checked the Lotus Leak as usual, he summoned two shifts of staff at the Bell and Drum Tower day and night, and asked someone to order a few hard dishes in the tavern on the long street to entertain these subordinates, so that they had a good meal, but they were not allowed to drink. After all, no matter how they ate or drank, they could not stop when they reported the time.

There is no need to mention the joy of the whole day. With the remaining shade of the Zhou family, Zhou Mengchen doesn’t have to worry about it at all.
Chapter completed!