A peasant girl traveled through time and space, and she became prosperous

Chapter 333 The Cleverness of Using Favor is Exposed

"Okay, okay, I'll buy a bucket of water, is that alright?"

Wen Meijiu knew she couldn't offend them yet, so she took out a tael of silver from her pocket and handed it to the soldier.

"You know what you're interested in."

The soldier held the silver to his lips and bit it to confirm it was genuine. He didn't forget to make a few sarcastic remarks about Wen Meijiu:

"You're getting a good deal. If it were someone else, we wouldn't sell them a bucket of water at all; we wouldn't even have enough money to haggle over it."

"I know, it's the officials who have been so kind to me. I don't have any extra money. Thank you for your consideration."

"go Go!"

Wen Meijiu didn't have a bucket in her hand, afraid that if she went back to get one, she would be harassed by the soldiers again.

After thinking for a moment, she went back and asked the soldier for a receipt.

"What a hassle. You didn't even bring proper tools when you came out to buy water. I'm speechless."

Despite his impatience, the officer was afraid that Wen Meijiu would take the money back, since the man had come here to find someone.

"Write her a receipt."

Behind the soldiers was a small table with writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone on it, originally for keeping accounts. Next to it stood a man dressed in tattered clothes who looked like a scholar.

Upon hearing the soldiers' words, the man took out a piece of white paper and quickly wrote a receipt for Wen Meijiu.

Wen Meijiu stepped forward, rolled it up, held it in his hand, and bowed to the scholar and the soldiers in gratitude.

The soldiers waved at Wen Meijiu, who didn't dare linger, fearing they might change their minds again.

She quickly entered the village and wandered around the streets, but couldn't find the village chief and the others for a long time.

Just as she was about to ask someone, she saw a villager run out of his house, carrying a carrying pole, and run in the north direction.

"Uncle, where are you going?"

The villager turned around and saw that the speaker was a young girl from out of town, speaking in a local dialect, asking Wen Meijiu:

"Are you here to steal water too?"

Wen Meijiu quickly waved her hand at the villager: "No, no, I'm here to see my grandfather."

The middle-aged man looked Wen Meijiu up and down, and seeing that she didn't have any tools for fetching water, he relaxed his guard and replied irritably:

"Young lady, don't wander around our village if you have nothing to do. Be careful, my carrying pole might hurt you and I won't be responsible."

After saying that, the villager picked up his carrying pole and ran away.

Wen Meijiu sensed something was wrong and a bad feeling welled up inside her. She followed the man to the north from a distance.

After a few twists and turns, the villagers led her to a local earth god temple, where she disappeared.

Just as she was wondering where everyone had gone, she heard a noisy commotion, and it sounded like there were quite a few people there.

She followed the sound and eventually went around to the back of the earth god temple, only to find that there was a fairly large courtyard there, which was full of people.

"Pour the water back. This is our village's water, and we absolutely cannot give it to outsiders."

"Kill them, we absolutely cannot let them go."

"They're taking our water, and we can't let a single one of them get away with it."

……

After listening for a while, Wen Meijiu was horrified. She tiptoed to look inside, but there were too many people, and her view was completely blocked. She couldn't see what was going on inside at all.

"Excuse me, I need to go in."

She tried to squeeze in, but each time she was pushed out.

Anxious, she had a sudden inspiration. Standing on the perimeter, she imitated the accent of the soldiers at the village entrance, deliberately speaking with a Beijing accent, and shouted at the crowd:

"The lord commands! The lord commands! The lord commands!"

He shouted three times in a row, and the people nearby heard him and immediately ducked to make way for him.

"The lord commands! The lord commands! The lord commands!"

As she walked inside, she held up the certificate in her hand, shouting as if it were an imperial edict.

Those inside were unaware of the situation. Seeing that everyone around them had moved aside, they followed suit and lowered their heads to move aside as well.

Wen Meijiu raised her fist, held her head high, and walked in slowly and deliberately.

Wherever she went, the road parted to make way for her, all the way to the very end.

Her shouts not only frightened the people there, but even Zhizheng and the village chief moved aside, lowering their heads and not daring to look at her.

Upon reaching the innermost part, Wen Meijiu finally saw a well built into the ground. A lot of water was scattered on the platform around the well opening, and wooden buckets were scattered haphazardly on the ground, some already filled with water, while others were still empty.

She looked around and noticed that some of her own people were still carrying buckets of water, while some of the villagers surrounding them were carrying carrying poles, hoes, pickaxes, sickles, and some were even carrying machetes.

Judging from their posture, it seems unlikely that they will be able to successfully remove the water from here today.

The government officials and soldiers took their money, but when they came in to fetch water, they were stopped by these villagers. Wen Meijiu had no idea what was going on.

There are essentially two scenarios: one is that officials and civilians collude to swindle money from outsiders and then divide the spoils; the other is that officials and soldiers take money and disregard the lives of the villagers, who then band together to prevent disaster victims from getting water for their own benefit.

In either case, it would be disadvantageous for them.

"The lord has ordered that the water fee has been collected and no one is allowed to obstruct it."

Upon hearing what the visitor said, Zhizheng sensed something was amiss. He glanced upwards slightly and caught sight of Wen Meijiu's face, immediately overjoyed.

He quickly nudged the village chief standing next to him with his elbow, and the village chief also quickly looked up at him.

Fearing the village chief would make a sound, he put his index finger to his lips to stop the argument.

The village chief quickly stood up and said to his men:

"Fetch water quickly as ordered by your master."

At the village chief's command, none of the villagers dared to waste time and quickly sprang into action.

The village chief and the soldiers had agreed that they would take the lion's share, and the rest would be divided between the village chief and the villagers.

Because water resources are limited and a lot of money can be made, these people are greedy. When the government and soldiers receive money, they don't release water. The disaster victims who buy water are all refugees from other places. They have no connections or backgrounds and are easily swindled.

This cycle continued, and they gained money without suffering any losses, so they became increasingly outrageous. The government troops turned a blind eye, since the disaster victims were easy to bully.

"They're in cahoots."

Just as their own people were about to fetch water, a villager carrying a shoulder pole recognized Wen Meijiu and suddenly shouted, startling all the villagers present.

The crowd surged forward, and the situation changed abruptly; the road they had just passed was now completely blocked by villagers.

"Kill them, kill them."

"Not a single one of them will leave."

……

The surging crowd kept pushing in, eventually squeezing Wen Meijiu and everyone else to the edge of the well.

"Let's see who dares to touch her."

Zhi Zheng reached out and blocked Wen Meijiu's way. When they came in, Zhi Zheng was afraid that the soldiers guarding the village entrance would notice their secret, so he didn't let anyone bring any weapons. Now, they could only fight hand to hand.

"Hmph, you little liar, trying to trick us into giving you water? Don't you even know who I am?"

Emerging from the surging crowd was a tall, wiry, and slender elderly man who appeared to be a highly respected figure.