Smoke rises from the small village. At this time, people who work outside have just returned. Someone at home has cooked a meal for them, so they can eat when they return home. No one at home has cooked a meal, so they start cooking when they return.

In Caojia Village now, as long as you are not lazy, you have a job to do. Both the husband and the brother in the family go out to work, and the family can live a good life in a month. The family's fields are usually taken care of by the father and mother, and the vegetables they grow can be sold at a good price. The children who have grown up don't need to be taken care of anymore. These days, some children in some families have made a lot of money by picking fruits.

After the family had some income, they had some money, meat appeared on the table, and they could eat the rice cooked in the pot to fill their stomachs. It was no longer like before, when there were only a few grains of rice in a pot of porridge, and the children would cry out in hunger after eating it, not to mention the adults who had to work all day. They could only eat two bowls of porridge a day without any oil or salt, and both adults and children were hungry and skinny.

But now, everyone can eat their fill, and their lives have improved.

Now everyone's life has improved. Everyone in the village knows that they rely on Cao Silang. Those who grow vegetables grow vegetables, those who raise chickens and ducks raise chickens and ducks, and those who work do their work. They heard that Cao Silang was going to build a school, and that children who went there didn't have to pay tuition. In the future, their children could also go to the school to study, learn a few words, and not have to work as hard as their parents.

At sunset, the boy in the small kitchen was cooking. The man who came back from home sat on a small bench to rest for a while, and a group of people came to their house.

"Village, village chief, why are you here? Come in and sit down." The man sitting at the door stood up quickly when he saw the group of people coming into their house, and pulled out a small bench for everyone to sit on.

The boy who was cooking inside heard the sound, came out, and helped to move out a long bench for the guests to sit on.

"We are here for something today." Chen Hong followed Cao Gang's team and explained his purpose with a smile.

"...Next year, the academy will be built, and your children can be sent to the academy to study. In the future, children aged four to seven can go to school without paying tuition. I think your two children are just right. You can send them there to study next year without paying tuition. After a few years of study, they will learn to read and it will be easy for them to find a job in town." He had sharp eyes and saw that the two children playing in the yard were old enough to go to school.

"Yes, yes, this is a good thing, and we will pay for it." The young brothers all wanted to send their children to school. They never dared to think about their children going to school before, but now they can send their children to school by spending some money.

Now the village chief is leading everyone to raise money to build the school, and they can't refuse to give it. It's a good thing that the school is built.

The two went back to the house to discuss, and when they came out, the boy took out a few coins and said with some embarrassment, "We don't have much money at home. This is a little token of our appreciation. Please don't reject it."

"No, no, it's a token of appreciation." Chen Hong took the money, counted it carefully, wrote down the names and amounts, stood up and said, "We still have to visit other families in the village, so we won't bother you anymore."

"Okay, okay, take care."

Most of the families in the village would give them some money when they explained their purpose, but there were also some who said they had no money at home and were reluctant to give even a single copper coin. They didn't force themselves to do so.

The group walked from one house to the next until it was almost dark, and then they stopped walking.

Sun Yanmiao's group went to the other village and returned to the village after dark.

Every morning, everyone gathered at the village management office, counted the money collected the day before, and put it away, handing it over to the village chief Cao Gang for safekeeping. Three teams then set out from the management office to raise funds for the academy. They

walked for three consecutive days before they finished raising funds.

Three days later, everyone arrived at the management office in the morning. Today they had to count the money they had raised. The money collected by each team was sealed in money bags. When the money bags were opened, the copper plates poured out made a clattering sound. There was also silver coins mixed in, which filled up half of the table.

"I have never seen so much money in my life." Someone said with a smile.

It's true. Many people here have never seen so much money in their lives.

Among the three teams, it was undoubtedly Cao Xiangnan's team that collected the most money. His team basically collected silver and banknotes. Cao Xiangnan took out a money bag filled with banknotes, both large and small. He remembered clearly who gave these banknotes. "This is from County Magistrate Wang, this is from Yipinzhai, and this is..."

Money given by County Magistrate Wang?

Money given by Yipinzhai in the town?

Many people in the room opened their mouths slightly.

All the money was counted out and matched one by one with the numbers they recorded. There was no problem with the numbers. They all matched.

This result was much better than Cao Xiangnan had imagined. Originally, he thought that if the money raised was not enough, he would make up the difference here. Now it seems that the land for building the academy is very good. In the future, we can buy dozens of acres of land to be used for the academy. In the future, we won't have to worry about the salaries of the teachers in the academy.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. If we get this started well, we will get twice the result with half the effort later.

Cao Xiangnan also told everyone about the academy in detail. Although he did not hold any position in the village, he was the one who started the academy. Now he is still responsible for most of the things in the academy, and everyone has no objection to this.

He also did not plan to take care of everything by himself. Wouldn't that be exhausting himself to death? So Cao Xiangnan divided the tasks one by one and handed them over to everyone, letting everyone be responsible for a part. He just needed to control the overall situation.

As for Cao Gang, Cao Xiangnan explained to Cao Gang all the matters that needed attention.

After the clothing workshop was built, Cao Dapeng's family had already picked a date and started to build a new house. Some of his people were transferred to Cao Dapeng's place to build the house, and the rest of the people who wanted to go home took a few days off to rest for two days, and then came back the day before the foundation of the academy.

In the afternoon of this day, Master Feng came to his place, Cao Gang also came, the two deputy village heads and the remaining ten representatives were also invited to come over, and everyone came to discuss the matter of building the academy.

On the original drawing, Cao Xiangnan expanded the drawing. Originally, we thought we would do as much as we could with the money, but now we don't have to worry about money. Since we have prepared the academy with great fanfare from the beginning, we should build it well.

After discussing with Master Feng, we decided on a basic outline of the academy. We will have to discuss the rest in detail step by step before making arrangements.

"We will build the east house before winter, and it will be ready for use in March next year. When the academy opens in March next year, the children will have a place to study and attend classes."

"As for the houses on these three sides, we will wait until after the New Year, when the first snow melts, before we start to build them." So now it is after the expansion. Originally, we wanted to finish it before winter, but now it seems impossible, Cao Xiangnan has to postpone this time.

But fortunately, they can build a part of it first, and then continue to build the rest, and the academy will be gradually improved. Now even if the academy is built all at once, there may not be so many people coming next year, not to mention that it cannot be built in a short time now.

Think about the engineering teams in the previous life, they could build a community in just three months, and each building had dozens of floors. But in this era, people still rely on human and animal power, and building an academy is not a trivial matter. It would be fast if it can be completed next year.

Master Feng nodded, knowing that they could only finish one side of the house before winter this year, and said, "The construction of the other three sides will not start until next year."

As for the arrangement of personnel, Master Feng's people were under his care, and Cao Xiangnan did not interfere in his affairs. As long as the house was built this year, everyone could come back to build it next year. However, everyone would not leave the good money unearned, so there would be no need to worry about the construction period for the next year.

No one stayed at his place for dinner, because the foundation of the academy would be laid tomorrow, and everyone had to go back to arrange other things, so they all left in a hurry.

But Master Feng and Cao Gang stayed at his place for dinner before leaving.

Everyone drank a little wine at the dinner table. Master Feng liked the rice wine after taking a sip. So when Master Feng was leaving, Cao Xiangnan gave him a small jar of wine to take away.

If the construction period of the academy is extended, his own plan will have to be changed. Originally, he wanted to wait until Master Feng built the academy before building his food processing workshop next year. Besides, he also wanted to add another yard to his house, so he could only arrange it when the time came.

After Master Feng left, the remaining old acquaintances sat down together to drink.

"Bai Shu, are you guys staying at Brother Cao Gang's place for now? We'll arrange a new place for you next year." Originally, they planned to arrange Liu Bai Shu and his friends to live in the dormitory near the garment factory, but there were guys coming in and out of that place, and it was not convenient for a few men to live there. Cao Xiangnan asked Liu Bai Shu about it, and wanted to hear their opinions.

"Otherwise, we can continue to build two more courtyards here, it depends on what you want." After

discussing, they simply decided to build a courtyard here after the beginning of next spring.

After everyone left his house, Cao Xiangnan collapsed in his seat and exhaled a long breath. He really felt that this day was too tiring, and the important thing was not over yet.

A hand touched his back, he grabbed the hand, turned around and saw Qi Wanfeng standing behind him and smiling. Qi Wanfeng saw her husband like this and knew that he was tired, and felt a little distressed.

"It's okay, I'm not tired." Cao Xiangnan rubbed his hand against his face and said.