Chapter 150: Though Paths Diverge, Their Aims Align

You and I follow different paths, and originally we should not have sought common ground in our endeavors. Yet I chose to recommend you, and this favor is one you cannot refuse. Even so, when I tried to show you goodwill once more, you responded with cold words. From this, it is evident that you are also an ungrateful person." Ye Chang mused for a moment and then said abruptly.

Nan Jiyun's face instantly flushed crimson. "This is not the same thing."

"How is it not the same? Lord He forced me to take the imperial examinations so that I might serve the country. I recommended you to Lord Yang so that you might also serve the country. What difference is there between the two?" Ye Chang curled his lip. "If you insist there is a difference, it is merely that Lord He enjoys a virtuous reputation spreading across the realm, while I am viewed as a petty man of narrow mind. Am I right or wrong?"

Seeing Ye Chang speak with such candor, Jiyun responded with equal directness.

"Heh..." Ye Chang chuckled.

Nan Jiyun stared at him, waiting to see what else he could possibly say.

"What kind of person I truly am—rumors are not necessarily entirely true, nor are my own words necessarily the truth." After pondering for a moment, Ye Chang uttered words that startled Nan Jiyun: "Hearing is deceiving, seeing is believing. In the days ahead, as you follow by my side, you might as well use your own eyes to see what kind of person I really am."

With that, Ye Chang waved his hand in a gesture. "Let us go. For the people, food is their heaven. Time to eat!"

He led the group back toward the city. Nan Jiyun could not help but stare blankly at his retreating back: just like that, he was leaving? Surely he would attempt to persuade him for a long while first?

Nan Jiyun did not know that, despite their brief acquaintance, Ye Chang had already thoroughly grasped his temperament: this was a man obstinate in his own views, one who could not be swayed by mere words.

It was only after Ye Chang's party had walked more than twenty paces that Nan Jiyun snapped out of his daze. Hesitating for a moment longer, he quickened his pace and hurried after them.

No matter what, this was a mission assigned by his superiors. As long as he remained constantly vigilant and refused to be deceived by the glib tongue of this scoundrel Ye Chang, all would be well.

Having made up his mind, he adopted a cold detachment, watching day by day as Ye Chang busied himself running back and forth across the city of Luoyang. Whether visiting wealthy merchants or mingling with influential aristocrats, he would rush through three or four appointments every day.

To Nan Jiyun's astonishment, amidst all this socializing and maneuvering, the construction work at the South Market actually commenced. At the very beginning, Ye Chang had intended to resettle the disaster victims outside the city walls to avoid disturbing the city residents; but somehow, through methods unknown to others, he managed to have the settlement relocated inside the city. At the eastern end of North Crossing Street in the South Market—precisely the plot of land Ye Chang had previously designated—a dirt wall one zhang high was erected. Inside this earthen enclosure, wooden structures were built using timber to provide the refugees with permanent homes.

"Director Ye is truly extraordinary."

On November 11th of the second year of Tianbao, merely fifteen days after Ye Chang officially took charge of the refugee resettlement, the enclosing walls were already standing, and the wooden huts for the refugees were currently under construction.

Gazing at the rapidly assembled complex before him, Director Ding remarked with a near-sigh.

Nan Jiyun glanced at him, saying nothing aloud, though he felt a faint sense of awkwardness in his heart.

"Nan the Eighth, you seem unconvinced?" Because they both served by Ye Chang's side, the two had grown quite familiar with each other. Although Nan Jiyun was merely a humble squad leader, everyone knew how highly Ye Chang regarded him, and thus Director Ding treated him with considerable courtesy, addressing him as Nan the Eighth.

"Director Ye certainly possesses talent. As for virtue... well, this piece of land seems to have been acquired for his own private benefit," Nan Jiyun said coolly.

"Pedantic views, utterly pedantic views!" Hearing him speak thus, Director Ding grew somewhat agitated. "Nan the Eighth, do you have any idea where the difficulty lies in settling these refugees?"

"They can simply return to their home villages and have their land restored to them. What difficulty could there be?" Nan Jiyun replied dismissively.

"Once they return home, can they possibly contend with the local gentry and squires?" Director Ding sneered. "If you were to do that, you would simply be driving them to their deaths. Among those gentry households, which one does not have officials or clerks serving in government? Which official would be willing to offend the gentry for the sake of these refugees? Their true hardship lies in having nowhere to settle. The imperial court can provide relief for a moment, but not for a lifetime. Director Ye explained it very clearly in his *Discourse on Post-Disaster Stratagems*: such refugees are the most dangerous of all; initially they are vagrants, and later they become bandits..."

Director Ding went on at great length, yet seeing that Nan Jiyun still wore a skeptical expression, he finally fell silent and shook his head. "It is useless to explain this to you; you simply do not understand. If Director Ye did not harbor a benevolent heart, he could never have devised such stratagems..."

"Benevolent? I have heard he is ungrateful and vengeful over the slightest grievance. How can one speak of benevolence?"

"Vengeful over trifles? Given our discourtesy towards him, has Director Ye ever sought revenge?" Director Ding shook his head. "As for acts of ingratitude, I have also heard rumors, but... Nan the Eighth, do you think the Director Ye you have witnessed these past days resembles an ungrateful wretch?"

Nan Jiyun fell silent.

He cast his gaze toward Ye Chang, only to see him wrapped in a fur coat, dozing lightly on a folding couch. Having completed the preparatory work for refugee resettlement in a mere fifteen days, Ye Chang had expended vast amounts of mental and physical energy. By day he directed operations at the construction site, and by night he socialized with nobles and wealthy merchants. In truth, he was exceedingly tired.

If Director Ding's words were true and Ye Chang was indeed forging a path of survival for the refugees, then his benevolence and compassion certainly did not make him appear ungrateful.

"Enough, let us put aside Director Ye's character and speak only of his brilliance—these wooden huts you see, who could possibly believe they were manufactured in a mere ten days?"

***

Manufactured in ten days to house over two thousand disaster victims, the wooden huts were built using a trick Ye Chang had employed before. It was nothing more than standardization and modular disassembly: fixing the length, width, thickness, and height of every component of a wooden house, then distributing perfectly uniform measuring rulers so the refugees could process the materials themselves using tools. Each group of refugees was assigned to process a specific part. On the first day, they were clumsy and the defect rate was extremely high; by the second day, defects were rare; and by the third day, their speed increased significantly. In this manner, within a mere eight days, extra hands could be spared to dig foundations and trenches to begin erecting the wooden houses.

Over the course of two days, two hundred and eighty wooden huts appeared neatly within the earthen enclosure. Although the wooden houses were still crude and cramped—housing eight to ten people per unit—it at least provided the refugees with shelter against wind and rain.

This was practically a miracle.

"They are coming, they are coming!"

Nan Jiyun, unwilling to listen to Director Ding continue praising Ye Chang, immediately called out as the line of refugees began to file in.

"I will go wake Director Ye." Director Ding could no longer afford to indulge in emotion and stepped forward to gently nudge Ye Chang awake.

Ye Chang blinked sleepily, looked around, and seeing Director Ding's smiling face, straightened his posture. "Director Ding, have all the people arrived?"

"They have all arrived, waiting only for the Director's instructions."

Ye Chang stood up and walked to the street in front of the cluster of wooden houses.

The refugees had been whispering and laughing among themselves, but seeing him stand up, they all fell silent. Ye Chang fetched a folding couch, stepped directly onto it, and smiled. "Today we are only assigning houses, not brides, so there is no need for you to be quite this joyous..."

The crowd burst into laughter.

Blind fear was never a sustainable method. While ensuring his authority over the refugees, Ye Chang also took care to use witty remarks to narrow the distance between them. To the refugees, he was now both respected and cherished; when he spoke, it was not merely with grand and empty promises, but with words that deeply moved the refugees.

"Ten days. Had I told everyone at the beginning that in ten days I could provide you with homes capable of blocking the wind, rain, frost, and snow, would any of you have believed it?"

Among the crowd, the clever minority all shook their heads.

Who would have believed such a thing? Even now, everyone still felt as though they were living inside a dream.

Yet after ten days of sawing, drilling, measuring with rulers, and marking with ink, they had actually managed to build a set of houses—much like the "building blocks" recently launched by the Qin Family Sundry Shop following the Right Army fans!

"Therefore, today I will not tell you that in a month or two I will teach you the skills to make a living, nor that in half a year you will truly own houses of your own instead of crowding into these small wooden huts." Ye Chang said with a straight face.

Some people laughed again. Although Ye Chang claimed he would not say it, he had practically said it all, and in the form of two massive promises!

Yet, with these wooden houses standing before their eyes, the crowd found the promises painted by Ye Chang far more trustworthy than those typically uttered by ordinary government officials.

"For now, there are only two hundred and eighty wooden huts because this plot of land is only so large. Once the adjacent area is also cleared, there will be five hundred wooden huts, and by then we will be able to live more spacious lives, allowing individual families to dwell together." Ye Chang continued.

Everyone nodded. At present, living arrangements required scattering individual families according to Ye Chang's regulations. Had Ye Chang proposed this ten days ago, everyone would have resisted fiercely. But with these wooden houses standing before them, proving that Ye Chang's promises were not mere empty words, coupled with the stern severity they had witnessed from him, even if reluctance lingered in their hearts, their outward expressions all indicated support.

"Next is the matter of lighting fires. As the weather grows colder day by day, fires are essential, but there are two taboos you must all listen to carefully. The first taboo is the danger of fire; thus, when people leave the house, the fire must be extinguished. Violators will be punished according to the agreement... The second taboo is the danger of suffocation. Burning coal requires ventilation, so windows must be left slightly ajar."

Listening to Ye Chang explain these fine details, Nan Jiyun felt it was altogether too fussy. Especially the instruction to leave windows ajar to prevent suffocation—that was something he had never heard of before.

In such cold weather, wouldn't leaving a crack open ruin the warmth of the fire?

Yet at that very moment, he heard Ye Chang say, "Do not take this matter lightly. Just watch."

With that, he waved his hand, and several attendants walked over carrying bamboo cages. Inside the cages were chickens, ducks, dogs, and sheep. The attendants placed the cages inside one of the wooden houses, set a brazier of burning coal inside, closed the doors and windows tightly, and came back out.

"We shall now draw lots to assign the houses. Each squad leader, step forward to draw your lot!"

Ye Chang did not explain the purpose of those chickens and ducks, proceeding directly to the drawing of lots. Among the more than two thousand refugees, nearly nineteen hundred possessed labor capacity. Ye Chang divided them into squads of eight, appointing a leader for each. Every squad would live in one wooden house, hence the squad leaders drew the lots. The order of drawing was determined by how efficiently each squad had completed their work over the past ten days.

The elderly and those without labor capacity were not left idle either; Ye Chang organized them into separate squads to handle logistical duties. Altogether, there were more than two hundred and sixty squads, so by the time the leaders finished drawing, an hour had already passed.

Those who drew satisfactory lots could not resist boasting to their squad members, while those dissatisfied inevitably muttered complaints to one another. Ye Chang climbed back onto his folding couch, and seeing that he had more to say, the crowd quieted down once more.

"Next, I must ask several elders to enter that house and bring out the cages from earlier." Ye Chang called out the names of four old men.

Looking somewhat bewildered, the four elders followed Ye Chang's instructions, opened the doors and windows of the wooden house, and stepped inside. Moments later, gasps of astonishment echoed from within. And when they finally carried the cages back out, cries of shock erupted across the entire crowd.

Those standing in the back, unable to see what was happening, stretched their necks and anxiously asked, "What is it? What happened?"

"Don't push! They're dead, they're all dead!"

"What's dead?"

"The animals we put inside just now—they're all dead!"

Words alone could only stir the crowd's thoughts, but reality could leave them utterly shaken. Whether the refugees could fully absorb Ye Chang's repeated warnings beforehand was hard to say, but now, seeing the proof with their own eyes, they clicked their tongues in profound awe.

Nan Jiyun clicked his tongue in awe as well.

For people not yet accustomed to using coal as heating fuel, this was the finest lesson possible.

"If Zhang Xiu were here, he would undoubtedly ask why the chickens and ducks died..." Ye Chang muttered inwardly, feeling thoroughly satisfied with the outcome.

"Now, everyone return to your rooms, rest for the span of an incense stick, and then prepare for dinner. There is still work to be done tomorrow!" Ye Chang declared.

Far from feeling exhausted or bitter about having to work the next day, the crowd surged with high morale, wishing they could begin working through the night.

Hope seemed to hang right before them, close enough to pluck with a hand. This filled the refugees with tremendous drive, forcing Nan Jiyun to ponder once again just what kind of person Ye Chang truly was.

"Tonight I am going to the Drunken Immortal Pavilion. Will you accompany me?" Hearing Ye Chang's question just as he was lost in thought, Jiyun collected his composure and replied.

Such occurrences had grown frequent of late. Almost every night, Ye Chang would visit various taverns in the South Market of Luoyang, either hosting others or being hosted by them.

Not long after they departed, the refugees began to eat their meal. At that moment, a carriage approached, and the soldiers maintaining order around the perimeter immediately stepped forward to block its path.

"By order of Lord Yang, the Magistrate of Luoyang, unauthorized persons are forbidden to enter!"

The attendants leading the carriage were furious upon hearing this and rebuked them, "Such impudence! Do you know who is inside this carriage?"

"Director Ye gave orders that no matter who it is, even if Lord Yang himself arrives in person, no one is allowed to enter at will." The soldiers, having witnessed Ye Chang execute assassins outside the North Gate with their own eyes, dared not treat his rules lightly. With a ingratiating smile, one of them said, "We are merely following orders. Since the person inside the carriage is a person of high status, why make things difficult for a humble wretch like me?"

"Knowing you are a humble wretch, why haven't you stepped aside? Our esteemed guest wishes to go inside for an inspection," the driver arrogantly demanded.

Yet the soldiers stubbornly refused to let him pass, infuriating the driver. Just as he stood up to shout angrily, a cold snort sounded from behind him.

That single snort made the driver tremble all over, his arrogance instantly evaporating.

"Sister, let us just take a look from right here at the gate." The cold snort inside the carriage shifted into a soft, gentle voice, and immediately afterwards, two young maidens stepped out, supporting one another.

They were none of the others—they were the young ladies Li and Cai.

Only now, they had discarded their Daoist nun attires and resumed the normal garments of noble young ladies. The moment the soldiers guarding the walls caught sight of them, their eyes lit up.

Although Luoyang was hardly short of beauties, ones of such appearance were still exceedingly rare.