In the tenth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng died of illness, the imperial examination was abolished, and the rules on the canal collapsed.
Su Wanhe, a female shopkeeper in Hangzhou, knelt down in front of the Water Transport Department's Yamen at the age of sixteen and issued a military order - her father was falsely accused of "deficit in water supply" and imprisoned. She only had ten days to make up for the "deficit" of 500 shi, otherwise all the family property would be confiscated.
From Hangzhou to Huai'an, from Yangzhou to Linqing, from Dezhou to Tongzhou, she went all the way north along the canal. There were only three things in his hand: the account book left by his father, the "Da Ming Hui Dian" handwritten by Zhao Yuanlang, and a needle for sewing the account book.
When the customs made things difficult, she fought back with rules. The salt merchant was framed, and she used the account books to reverse the case. When corrupt officials asked for bribes, she recorded every bribe in her account and settled them one by one. Everyone said that a woman running on water transport would have no idea whether she would live or die. She said: "Rules are for keeping, not for memorizing."
Along the eighteen hundred miles of waterway, she used the account books as a sword and the rules as a shield. From then on, there was a blue cloth flag on the canal, with the word "Yong" embroidered on it, and it rustled in the river wind.
There are mountains of account books. Can the mountain be moved?
She doesn't know. But she knew she wasn't moving alone. The clerk, who always wore a green shirt that had been washed white and whose cuffs had been stitched by her, was always standing next to her.
