"By placing it higher, everyone can save a lot of effort. When we build a sluice, just open it when you need water. There’s no need for everyone to carry water in buckets every day."
Lin Caisang explained.
"During the dry season, it’s hot. It’s not ideal for each household to carry water every day. Besides, overheating could lead to heatstroke. Look, I’ve drawn ditches here, and they lead to each household. When the sluice is opened and water is released, it will flow directly into these ditches.
By using water in this way, everyone doesn’t have to work so hard and can conserve energy for other things. Isn’t that great?"
During the dry periods in Yejun, that’s precisely when the men from their village go up the mountain to collect cubilose or forage for wild goods to sell in the town for silver. This factor must be taken into consideration.
"Also, the sluice would be opened during set times chosen by the clan, so nobody would feel it’s unfair if someone uses less water. Everyone has the same access. There wouldn’t be anyone stirring up trouble."
There should be no disruptions.
"Making a sluice ... it must cost a lot, right?" Ya Molian looked at her and asked softly.
"The sluice on Manghuang Mountain cost over two hundred taels of silver. Building two similar sluices for the two clans, in addition to the money for buying the mountain land, if the cost is spread evenly among the households... my rough estimate is that half a tael of silver per mu of land will suffice."
Half a tael of silver per mu of land, for those in the village with more land, they’d have to cough up six or seven taels of silver.
"Sang’er, don’t blame me for being a stick in the mud. People like my adoptive father won’t spend six taels of silver just to grow some rice. The same goes for people like Ya Tu. There are plenty of them in Ya Village."
"That’s not something I can manage. That’s something the clan leaders have to figure out." Lin Caisang shrugged.
She couldn’t be expected to handle everything. It was already good enough for her to draw up these diagrams, let alone being expected to cough up all the silver. She wasn’t a big easy mark!
"That’s true. We can leave it to them to handle when the time comes." Ya Molian nodded too.
"Actually, I had also thought about that. If those people refuse to pay silver, it’s not the end of the world. When they run out of water, they’ll get their just deserts." Lin Caisang said afterwards.
"Anyway, those who pay will have water, those who don’t will continue to face droughts. Everyone knows very well and will not, out of a moment’s soft-heartedness, allow people attempting to freeload to succeed. Right?"
Ya Molian looked helplessly at her.
"Why didn’t you say that people who pay will protect their own interests?"
"Hehe, same thing." Lin Caisang laughed.
That’s exactly what she meant. My family paid silver, dug the pond, and now we have water. Why would we let you, who didn’t pay, use the water? That’s using our silver and cutting into our interests.
Nobody can get over this hurdle in their heart.
Even if some could, with so many families in the village, there will definitely be those who can’t get over it.
"When those people want to use water later on, they can just continue to pay, right?" she said.
"Speaking of which, the roads in our village need some maintenance too, as well as the school. It’s quite rundown and needs some refurbishing. I actually hope some people don’t pay."
"I’ve already purchased the maids. I will take you to see them tomorrow." Ya Molian suddenly said.