This time, the entire village's strength was united, and every household took the initiative to go to the village chief's house to hand over the silver.

Apart from Chen Dazhi's family, who were constantly being made a mess by the two women, Chen Mengqing didn't go home either. Their family was the only one in the village who didn't participate; everyone else joined in the soy sauce making.

"Su Luo, Su Luo..."

"The village's funds have been collected; I've brought them over for you to see."

The village chief, carrying an account book, rushed into the yard to find Su Luo, his face beaming with excitement. Even though the years had left deep marks on his face, they couldn't hide his joy.

"Village chief, slow down, you've dropped your pipe."

He was running so fast that his pipe almost fell from the viewing bridge into the fish pond.

He hurriedly picked up the pipe, not even having time to collect the tobacco that had been flung off the pipe.

"Su Luo, take a look. This is the account book we made for everyone."

The village chief's handwriting is poor; it's barely legible.

Taking the ledger and looking at the amounts inside, I saw that some families only contributed fifty or sixty coins.

Some people pay two or three hundred coins, but they usually use the soybeans they harvested this year to offset some of the cost.

Soybeans are priced at ten coins per pound at market price, so even the smallest household would have at least four hundred coins.

For example, Wang Tiezhu's family had four taels of silver, and some had one tael, but most households had between several hundred coins.

After calculating, there are about two hundred taels here.

Surprisingly, Li Niu contributed the most silver, fifty taels, while the village chief and Chen Ping'an each contributed forty taels.

The others combined have seventy taels, but if the budget is three hundred taels, Su Luo will need to contribute one hundred taels more.

"Uncle Li is so decisive. Aunt Li is pregnant. Doesn't he leave her some money for the baby?"

During the meeting, Uncle Li didn't say a word, but it turned out he had already made up his mind.

Li Niu has his own opinions and is not influenced by the words of others; he is a person with vision.

The village chief took a sip of the tea that Zhao Ruyun had poured for him, and before he had even swallowed the tea, he hurriedly said...

"I didn't expect this Li Niu either. I asked him, and he said that Li Shi still has four months before giving birth, and he can earn back the money by selling tofu in those four months."

He also said that his family's success today is due to listening to you, and now that you're saying you'll lead everyone in making soy sauce, he'll wholeheartedly provide financial support.

Su Luo nodded. The village chief would contribute forty taels of silver, and he still had more than twenty taels left at home, which he wanted to save for his grandson to go to school.

"Village chief, now all that's missing is my hundred taels, right?"

The village chief drank tea to cover his embarrassment, but still nodded with a smile.

Su Luo said to Zhao Ruyun, who was sitting opposite her brewing tea.

“Grandma, go open the box by my bedside and take out a hundred taels of silver notes to give to the village chief.”

"Okay! You guys keep chatting, I'll be right there."

Zhao Ruyun now supports whatever Su Luo does.

A hundred-tael silver note was casually placed on the bedside table.

Even the village chief of Changping Village didn't know how much money Su Luo actually had. Like everyone else in the village, he only knew that Su Luo was very rich.

“Village chief, you are in charge of the soy sauce drying yard for now, but when it’s really up and running, we’ll need to find a few people to manage it. Have you thought about who to choose?”

"I've shortlisted a few people for management, but everyone's favorite is you to manage our soy sauce factory."

Su Luo blew on the steaming tea in her hand, and after a long while said, "I will keep a close eye on the first batch of soy sauce."

But at this time, I need to select a few people from the village to learn from me. Later, I'll go out specifically to open up sales channels for our village, so I can't stay in the drying yard all the time."

Sales channels are the most important thing; otherwise, no matter how good the soy sauce is, it will just rot at home.

"Yes, I'll arrange it, don't worry about it."

After thinking for a moment, Su Luo added, "This soy sauce was made by the whole village together, so everyone in the village should have a say."

When selecting people, you should let everyone vote. Only those who can win the hearts and minds of the people can serve as administrators.

"good!"

Zhao Ruyun slowly walked down from the second floor with a 100-tael silver note.

"Luo Luo, here you go!"

"Hmm, Grandma, are you going to Shuiqing Village to visit Auntie again today?"

Zhao Ruyun: "No, you're busy right now. I'm cooking for Yanchuan and Yihuan at home, so I won't go today."

“Su Luo is busy with outside affairs every day, and now Zhao Ruyun is almost the one cooking for them. It seems we need to find a cook to take home.”

"Alright, when the New Year comes, you can ask your aunt and uncle to come to our house for the New Year."

"Forget it, Luo Luo. They have to go back to pay respects to their ancestors during the New Year, so they probably won't come over."

"oh!"

"Well then, Luo Luo, you chat with the village chief, I'm going back to the backyard."

"Um!"

Su Luo handed the one hundred tael silver note to the village chief.

After receiving the silver notes, the village chief wrote Su Luo's name into the ledger in his hand.

The two calculated that once the soy sauce was made, Su Luo would own 30% of the shares.

Li Niu gets 1.5%, the village chief and Chen Ping'an each get 10%.

The whole village contributed a total of 3.5%.

After returning, the village chief called another meeting for the whole village to confirm everyone's amount.

This also lets everyone know who contributed how much silver, so there won't be any suspicion when the silver is distributed later.

There are only twenty-odd days left until the Chinese New Year this month. The first thing to do after the funds arrive is to clear the wasteland to the right of Chen Dazhi's house.

When it comes to doing things for ourselves, the whole village works together, and everyone is united.

The woman removed the withered grass and used a hoe to smooth out the uneven ground.

Remove what needs to be removed, and fill in what needs to be filled in.

This wasteland is visibly transforming into something new.

All the men were making adobe bricks. Once the bricks were made and dried, they could be used to build walls. This was the hope of the whole village.

The village chief and Li Niu went to the county together to reserve the soy sauce vats they needed.

We must receive the soy sauce jar after the New Year.

The owner of the aquarium didn't expect to receive such a large order so close to the end of the year.

He called on his family and all his apprentices and workers to work together to finish the goods within the limited time.

Li Niu has an oxcart. He makes tofu at night and delivers it in the morning. In the afternoon, he takes the village chief to nearby villages to collect soybeans.

The villagers handed over all the soybeans they had just harvested this year to the village chief's family, but this only amounted to a little over two thousand jin.

The soybean harvest cannot be delayed for even a moment.

Su Luo was responsible for drawing design plans for the village's soy sauce workshop.

In my spare time, I also go to Shuiqingzhuang to check on the progress of the house. The main structure is almost finished, and it will probably be completed by February next year.

The foundation for the cowshed was laid, and two people were put in charge of building it.

The cowshed must be sturdy so that the cattle absolutely cannot escape.

Shuiqingzhuang is full of farmers; if a cow runs off and tramples them, the whole village is doomed.

We intend to build fifteen cowsheds in preparation.

If you don't use it all, you can use it to store other miscellaneous items.

Time slipped away quietly amidst all this busyness, and the Lunar New Year is just two days away.

The walls of the soy sauce factory were also built.

The three-meter-high wall looked so majestic in this small village.