Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 489 - 437: Is This Guy Really the Top Scorer in the Imperial Exam?

After Li Wenyuan left Su Jingchen’s study, Yu Xiaolian pushed the door open and entered. Both of them had been so busy lately that they hadn’t seen each other for over a month.

Upon returning to Yangcheng, Yu Xiaolian noticed many unfamiliar faces in the county government. After asking Su Jingchen, she learned that these people were sent by County Magistrate Qian to seal off villages with the epidemic, and now he had summoned them back.

"You’ve summoned all those people back. If they wander around, what if the epidemic spreads?" Yu Xiaolian handed the freshly stewed sweet soup from the kitchen to Su Jingchen as she asked.

Su Jingchen took the sweet soup but didn’t drink it; he placed it at the corner of his desk instead.

"I’ve reviewed many medical records. Although this fever has some contagiousness, it’s not uncontrollable. However, the Northern Land is too poor now, lacking medicine and doctors, which is the most deadly. Although the debt issue on the county’s account books has been resolved, to quickly control the epidemic and reduce the fatality rate, the only way is for the county government to provide free medical treatment and medicine to the villagers."

Su Jingchen wouldn’t shoulder the debt on the account books; the original Secretary of the county government took on that bad debt.

Upon hearing this, Yu Xiaolian understood Su Jingchen’s intention—no more than wishing to use his own money to help Yangcheng’s people.

The idea of holding a free clinic and treating the illness-stricken people had also crossed Yu Xiaolian’s mind on her way back, perfectly aligning with Su Jingchen’s thoughts.

Yu Xiaolian took out Silver, ten taels per ingot, totaling thirty ingots, and arranged them on Su Jingchen’s desk.

"Use this Silver to buy medicinal materials first; I wonder if it’s enough?"

Su Jingchen lightly shook his head, "Although Yangcheng’s population is massively declining, there are still over five thousand households, with more than forty thousand people. Besides the epidemic, there’s a need for Silver Coin for road repairs. I don’t intend to forcefully recruit the people but plan to spend money hiring young labor, which can also stimulate population return.

Beyond these, I also want to reduce this year’s onerous miscellaneous taxes..."

Yu Xiaolian calculated for Su Jingchen, "How much would be enough?"

Although Yu Xiaolian supported Su Jingchen’s cause, was it really feasible for a County Magistrate to rely on personal funds for construction projects?

"Preliminary estimates suggest I might need fifteen hundred silver taels."

It’s hard to perform a miracle on a shoestring budget; these days, without money, it’s practically impossible to get things done.

If Su Jingchen didn’t want to be at the mercy of County Magistrate Qian, he had to take action first; otherwise, with the approaching autumn taxes, County Magistrate Qian might still find a way to trip him up.

Now that he and County Magistrate Qian had torn faces, County Magistrate Qian pushed the Secretary out to take the blame for his clean escape, but this loss was unlikely for County Magistrate Qian to accept quietly; retaliation was certain.

And the approaching autumn taxes presented County Magistrate Qian with the best opportunity to suppress and manipulate Su Jingchen.

Currently, many commoners couldn’t pay tax grain and tax silver. County Magistrate Qian resorted to his own methods to fulfill the court’s hard targets, betting that without his help, Su Jingchen wouldn’t be able to make reports to the higher-ups.

Fifteen hundred taels are not a small amount for Yu Xiaolian either, considering she only had over eighty thousand taels of silver in total, but she didn’t hesitate to agree.

For no other reason than hoping to benefit Yangcheng’s people, though lacking the ability to save all lives, she could at least protect one piece of land.

Yu Xiaolian handed over fifteen hundred silver taels to Su Jingchen, "If it’s not enough, let me know again!"

She believed that Su Jingchen wouldn’t squander this silver and would surely spend it wisely.

In the following days, both Su Jingchen and Yu Xiaolian were very busy. Apart from purchasing medicinal materials and hiring doctors to set up a free clinic, Su Jingchen occasionally had to deal with trivial cases.

Since the original Secretary was sentenced to death, County Magistrate Qian became very cooperative with Su Jingchen, quite unlike the prideful disposition he had when Su Jingchen first arrived.

After a tour around Yangcheng and the River Bend, Yu Xiaolian discovered that many fields were left uncultivated without seeds planted; tall wild grass grew there instead. If this continued, fertile land might be retired to forest, and wouldn’t the land be plowed in vain?

It’s still timely for planting autumn vegetables, and Yu Xiaolian intended for Yangcheng’s people to plant a batch of napa cabbage toward the end of summer.

Though cabbage was available, it was mainly loose-stem cabbages rather than the wrapped-heart napa cabbage used for pickling sauerkraut.

Moreover, most people of this era had never pickled sauerkraut or mustard roots; they generally dried autumn vegetables for storage or kept some in cellars.

Of course, expensive salt was a factor, as the common folk struggled to afford salt for daily consumption, let alone for pickling vegetables.

Although Yu Xiaolian had salt in her supermarket space, she couldn’t blatantly distribute it to commoners. Despite Su Jingchen being the Yangcheng County Magistrate now, the court strictly controlled salt. If someone investigated the source of the salt, they wouldn’t be able to explain.

The top priority was to let the commoners plant autumn napa cabbage. Her cabbage seeds produced very large cabbage heads, typically weighing around ten pounds each, if tended well. Large cabbage heads were also easier to store.

Though excellent, these cabbage seeds were only good for one planting; saving seeds wasn’t feasible. Thus, once Yu Xiaolian started distributing these seeds, she’d need to hand out some each year but not too many, otherwise someone might question the source of the seeds.

After the free clinic tents were set up, Yu Xiaolian had Su Jingchen arrange a seed distribution spot nearby.

Yu Xiaolian instructed Cao Gen and Zhao Ping to wear the black masks she provided and distribute cabbage seeds free of charge to everyone coming for treatment—one small packet per person, limited in quantity, first come, first served.

"Our new County Magistrate is really good, unlike the previous one who didn’t care about our lives. Not only does he give us free medical treatment and medicine, but the County Magistrate’s Wife also gives us cabbage seeds. I feel that Yangcheng County is getting better!" Someone in the queue for seeds expressed their admiration.

After learning from Su Jingchen that although this fever had high contagiousness, it was also easily treatable, Yu Xiaolian realized that some of the herbs in the fever medicine were slightly expensive, causing many commoners to forego purchasing medicine and let their illness exacerbate.

Now Su Jingchen had set up free clinics, distributing medicine to every sick person. Some commoners knelt in gratitude toward the county government after receiving their medications.

This action by Yu Xiaolian and Su Jingchen completely bewildered County Magistrate Qian, making him speechless...

Could this young County Magistrate be a fool?

Actually spending his own money to treat illnesses and buy medicine for commoners, allowing them to receive medicine and seeds for free.

He had never seen an official act like this. Could this man truly be an awarded scholar rather than his tycoon father buying him an official position?