Royal Gold Magistrate

Early the next morning, when the common people of Banshan District walked out onto the streets, they immediately noticed the unusual changes in the district!

The walls of streets and alleys, big and small, were all painted with stripes of white paint, with large colorful characters written on them.

【Create a picturesque Banshan, where small actions reflect our spirit!】

【Be civilized citizens, work together to build a beautiful future for Banshan!】

【People can be shameless, but cannot relieve themselves anywhere】

【The Heavens are watching you when you poop and pee randomly!】

【The ancients said, randomly relieving yourself makes it hard to have children.】

【Pooping and peeing everywhere brings death to the whole family!】

………

Countless eye-catching, elegant phrases swept across Banshan District overnight.

Fang Zheng had ordered people to paint these overnight, and he had also painstakingly crafted these slogans throughout the night.

Combining kind persuasion, threats, curses, superstitions, plain language, and all sorts of other advantages, the goal was to immediately change the living habits of Banshan residents.

Considering the high illiteracy rate among the people of Banshan, each wall also had a down-on-his-luck scholar serving as an interpreter.

Whenever they saw a crowd passing by, they would loudly shout out the content on the wall or specially explain it to them.

Originally, these scholars were extremely reluctant.

There’s no law against people shitting on the streets!?

Later, Zhang Biao knocked out two ringleaders who were nitpicking, gave each person five taels of silver, and everyone happily took up their posts.

At this moment, an old man carrying a shoulder pole walked by on the street, looking at the large characters on the wall in puzzlement. “Eh, tsk tsk, what does this say! Looks really nice!”

The interpreter hurried forward to explain.

They didn’t dare slack off. Fang Zheng had long instructed the City Garrison to send minor officials to inspect the work of these interpreters. If anyone was found slacking off, they would be fined.

“This is about a new activity in our district!”

【Encourage the use of public toilets, enter a random draw after pooping, lucky folks can win up to five taels of silver!】

The old man rubbed his head and laughed, “In all my years, I’ve never heard of being able to win prizes for taking a dump! Scammers are even on the streets now, and the government doesn’t do anything about it. Sigh, what times we live in!”

With that, he turned to leave.

The interpreter hurriedly grabbed him and said loudly, “It’s not a scam! This is an activity organized by the government. Look at that public toilet over there, there’s a person holding slips of paper. Take one when you go in.”

“Then the government will hold a prize draw on the street at the end of each month! The first prize is five taels of silver, but there’s only one slot! Not lying to you, I already went!”

The old man smiled without a word, shook his head, and walked straight away.

The interpreter became anxious and quickly pulled him back. “What’s the matter? You don’t believe what I said?”

The old man looked irritated. “What do I believe! Get a slip of paper and you can win a prize, who are you trying to fool! If the government could really give out silver for this, I’d do a handstand while shitting!”

The interpreter quickly said, “Why don’t you go and see for yourself? There are words on that slip of paper. After getting one, you also need to stamp your fingerprint. After going in, you must come out of the latrine within half a cup of tea’s time, otherwise your entry will be void!”

The old man looked towards the public toilet with a mixture of doubt and belief. “Really?”

“Really!”

“Then I’ll give it a try.”

With that, the old man turned and went to the public toilet. He took a slip of paper and looked at the Arabic numerals written on it, rubbing his head in confusion.

Then, under the guidance of the attendant, he dipped his finger in the ink pad and pressed a fingerprint on the corresponding number in the ledger.

This method was also devised by Fang Zheng – get a number when you go to the toilet and enter a draw.

The draw had prizes ranging from first to fifth place. The bottom three prizes were five to a few dozen copper coins each, with a total of one hundred winners. The first and second prizes were one and five taels respectively, with two winners in total.

Of course, he didn’t expect such a crude design to be problem-free. There would definitely be cases of false claims and fraud over time.

The first issue was one person claiming multiple times, but the population of Banshan District wasn’t large, so the issuing clerks stationed at the public toilets should be able to tell.

The second was forgery, which wasn’t a problem either. First, fingerprints corresponded to unique numbers. If anyone dared to make a false claim, they would definitely be found out. Anyone who dared to commit fraud would be taken out to repair toilets as a volunteer.

There would also definitely be all sorts of strange situations, like work oversights making it impossible to distinguish real from fake. Fang Zheng didn’t mind spending a bit more silver. Added together it wasn’t much. He didn’t feel distressed giving it to the common people, and it could also achieve a better publicity effect.

Finally, this was just a short-term activity that couldn’t go on forever. Once habits changed, even without Fang Zheng saying anything, the people would condemn those who randomly relieved themselves. After all, who doesn’t like walking on clean streets?

Seeing the common people gathered in threes and fives around the interpreters, Fang Zheng smiled with gratification.

He was now going to recreate the miracle of Taoyuan County in the capital, and he had at least gotten off to a good start.

Li Yuanzhao also looked at the slogans on the street with a grin. As expected of Old Fang, he could always come up with all sorts of strange things.

Although it seemed absurd, it should work!

Ding Quan stood beside the two, his eyes twitching as he looked at Fang Zheng with awe.

He thought to himself, so this is the Crown Prince’s teacher… indeed extraordinary…

“Ding Quan, how is the site selection for public toilets going? And when will the manpower be in place?” Fang Zheng inquired.

Ding Quan quickly replied, “Reporting to you sir, the site selection is almost done. The houses of those commoners have all been bought, just waiting for them to move.”

“Also, the recruitment of manpower will be slower and will take another two days to be fully in place. And because of the rushed recruitment… the wages will generally be a bit higher.”

“No matter. What I want is speed. If it costs a bit more, then it costs a bit more,” Fang Zheng stated decisively.

Then Fang Zheng pointed to a row of houses at the end of the street and said, “There’s another task for you! Buy up this section of houses at the end of the street in the next few days, demolish the houses, and clear out an open space!”

“From today onwards! That place will be called Banshan Square!”

Li Yuanzhao asked in confusion, “Old Fang, when are we building houses? What’s the use of a square? You can’t eat it or drink it.”

“Wrong. This square has great use. The common people lack entertainment in their lives. We must first enrich their spirits. Only when people are happy will they have motivation,” Fang Zheng explained patiently.

“We’re also doing a draw. We must do it in front of all the people! Don’t tell me we can draw in secret and announce the results after half an hour? Then I, Fang Zheng, would become a lottery ticket seller!?”

Li Yuanzhao looked puzzled. “What’s a lottery ticket?”

“Ahem, ahem,” Fang Zheng coughed awkwardly a couple of times, saying he misspoke. “This lottery ticket is a good thing. We’ll do it in the future. It’s also a draw, but it needs to be done well, not so crudely.”

There was actually another point. Fang Zheng felt that the current publicity efforts were still not enough.

He planned to set up a stage in the square and invite opera troupes to perform every day. It would be best to find some young people from Taoyuan County to write some new scripts.

In addition to advocating for everyone to be hygienic, do good deeds, and spread positive energy, it could also feature some advertising and such…