For the next three days, Fu Xiaoguan did not go to the work shed again, but asked Zhang Ce and Yi Yu to count the people who could read and write and various craftsmen.

During these three days, he met with these people in the inner courtyard of the Xishan Villa.

Zhang Yang was one of them. He was only eighteen years old and had studied in a private school, so he had a certain foundation in mathematics.

Li Yi, 22 years old, is literate, has strong hands-on skills, and likes to make strange things.

Zhou Gang, 30 years old, can read and write, and used to be a private school teacher.

Zheng Duo, 33 years old, is literate and has a good understanding of business.

Lu Zhengjun, forty years old, literate, blacksmith.

…

A thick list was in Fu Xiaoguan's hand. He did not expect that among the more than 33,000 people, there were more than 300 literate people, and there were also thousands of craftsmen of various kinds.

This is a huge fortune, and next, he needs to dig it out carefully.

He then met with the clan leaders and gentry among the refugees, whom he showed great care and took them to visit their own granaries.

"Even if you eat as much as you want, my family's surplus food is enough for you to eat for a year."

This is to make them feel at ease. As long as these clan leaders and gentry can feel at ease, the rest of the people will naturally feel at ease as well.

As a result, the people living in the shed became more and more convinced that this was a living Bodhisattva who came to earth to save them, which made Fu Xiaoguan dare not go to the shed to meet those people.

So he simply decided not to go and meet him.

Three days later, he gathered all the people on the roster and went to the martial arts training ground in the outer courtyard. There were too many people and the inner courtyard was a bit small.

Yi Yu and Zhang Ce were still present at the meeting. Yu Wenjun and Dong Shulan dressed up as men and sat behind Fu Xiaoguan, while Su Mo and Hong Zhuang sat further away.

"Are you all satisfied with your current life?" Fu Xiaoguan stood on the stage and asked in a friendly voice.

The people sitting below looked at Fu Xiaoguan carefully. Although they had seen him before, it all seemed like a dream.

"Very satisfied, thank you very much, young master!"

This was Fu Xiaoguan's strong request. He did not allow them to call him a living Buddha, so they had to call him Young Master.

"If you have any requests, please feel free to raise them. I will definitely do what I can for you."

"No, young master, we are already very satisfied to have enough food and shelter now. But we do have a request..." The speaker was the country gentleman Lu Dongping, who was in his sixties. He was thought to have died on the way to escape, but he was unexpectedly rescued.

"Mr. Lu, please speak!"

"I dare not. The truth is, we all don't want to be supported by the young master for free food and drink. We are all capable people, and we hope that the young master can give us some work to do."

"Yes, yes! Master, we can all work. Even if I can't plow or harrow, I can still plant rice and dry grain. Please, Master, arrange some work for me."

"I heard that the young master has a winery. I know a little bit about brewing and I'm willing to work there as a handyman."

"I'm a blacksmith and have a few apprentices. I heard that the young master is planning to open a mine, so I'm willing to do my best to help him!"

"I can make fireworks and firecrackers, and I'm quite knowledgeable about gunpowder. If you need any help, please let me know!"

…

Su Mo had never seen any landlord or powerful person in the world who could gather such a strong group of people. These people were considered representatives of the refugees. They were literate, had a skill, or had prestige. Fu Xiaoguan directly hit the key point here. He did not face more than 30,000 people. He only captured this part of people and had control over all the refugees.

His method was simple. While his previous propaganda was somewhat shameless, it was undeniably the best way to immediately establish his prestige among the refugees. He then immediately sought out this small group of refugees, chatting with them, listening to their stories of the past while he spoke of a bright future.

He was extremely patient and succeeded in getting these people to open up to him, and he also succeeded in instilling his own ideas into them.

In this way, you will feel at home.

Su Mo could foresee that from now on these 30,000 people would follow Fu Xiaoguan's lead. If all of Fu Xiaoguan's subsequent actions could make these refugees taste the sweetness, then next spring, very few people would leave Xishan.

If this person leads an army...it's a pity that he has never read military books.

Fu Xiaoguan's face was full of smiles, and he was very friendly. He pressed his hands in the air and said, "I understand how you feel. I called you all here today to hear about any difficulties you still need to solve, and secondly, I do have a lot of things I need to assign to you."

"There's a cement workshop on the back hill of Xishan. I need another thousand people. I want strong men. The daily wage is 20 wen. Women who are willing can help with cooking. The wage is 10 wen."

"You see that large, leveled area over here. I need to build many workshops, which will require approximately two thousand people. Ordinary workers will be paid twenty wen per day, and master craftsmen will be paid sixty wen per day."

"The most important thing is Fenglin Mountain. There's a mine there that hasn't been mined yet. I need to build a road into the mountain first, which will require over 20,000 people. The daily wage for those who build the road is 20 wen, and those who know how to survey, plan, and arrange the work are paid 60 wen a day."

"According to statistics, there are 34,822 people who arrived at Xishan this time, including 2,418 elderly people and 4,679 women and children. These people will be doing logistics, such as helping with boiling water, cooking, cleaning, etc., and will also be paid five cents a day."

The people sitting below suddenly became jealous. Their lives were saved by the young master. According to their thinking, they would do whatever the young master needed them to do, and they never thought about getting paid.

At this moment, the young master actually said that they would be paid for their work, and the money was so much. These people became even more excited. After all, they had lost their homes. If they wanted to return home during the Spring Festival next year, it would cost a lot of money to rebuild their homes.

"So that means we have about 7,000 support personnel, and the remaining workforce is over 27,000. Besides the 23,000 I need, the remaining 4,000 will be divided between 1,000 for the brick kilns and 1,000 for the clay mining. The remaining 2,000 will be the strongest young men. They will stay here, and I will arrange for people to train them."

"This is my general arrangement. The details will be handled by Steward Yi and Steward Zhang. They will select some leaders from among you to take charge of various details. This is the preliminary arrangement for now. I will make further arrangements after everything is completed."

"For example, after Xishan College is built, your children can study here, and those of you who can read can teach here. For example, after this R&D center is built, talents like Lu Zhengjun and Li Yi will stay here and focus on research. I will provide technical guidance, but of course you will have to figure out how to complete the specific tasks."

"This is just a rough plan. Please believe that things will get better and better in the future!"