Chapter 476: Imprisonment
These were what Wen Zhenyi heard from Ma Yuruo on the road. It was because of their united resistance that they were imprisoned for nearly a month.
It was from that time that they began to behave themselves.
When Wen Zhenyi returned to the workshop, it had been almost cleaned. Xiong Lu grabbed a few people to help assemble the equipment for distillation.
"Village Chief Li, go call all the villagers over here."
Village chief Li didn't dare to say anything and ran back to the village to call for help.
The villagers cleaned up the workshop and said, "We can go now."
"Don't be so anxious! I just asked the village chief to call the villagers, why are you so anxious to go back?"
"Alright, at worst I'll just go to jail for a few more days. I was the one who broke the lock. It has nothing to do with my family. I forced them to come here."
"Boss, what nonsense are you talking about?"
"Just shut up! While I'm in here, take good care of my family. Otherwise, I'll come back and beat you to death."
Wen Zhen raised an eyebrow and looked at the fierce-looking man in front of him. He thought he was quite interesting.
A man on the other side also stood up: "It's true that he picked the lock, but the idea was mine."
"I have a share."
"I'm involved, too."
The smile on Wen Zhenyi's face grew wider and wider.
Chen Hanxing and the others all smiled at the side. What kind of village is this Fengxi Village? How can it be so interesting?
The villagers didn't hear her speak for a long time. When they looked up and saw her smiling face, they were instantly annoyed: "What are you laughing at? If you want to arrest me, then arrest me. I am responsible for my own actions."
"When did I say I was going to arrest you?"
"Then why did you call the whole village here? Isn't it just to kill chickens?" The man turned to look at the people beside him and said, "What's that saying?"
Wen Zhenyi was speechless: "Killing the chicken to scare the monkey."
"Yes, yes, that's what I mean."
"Not really."
Village chief Li called people over after a while. To be honest, the population of this village is much smaller than that of Xinglin Village, but the workshop is still fully occupied.
“Mrs. Shen, everyone is here.”
Wen Zhenyi asked someone to call out Xiong Lushu and the others first, and then go back to work after they had finished talking about the matter.
After Xiong Lu and the others came out, they stood aside.
Huanhuan, Xixi, Wenwen and Naonao all stood aside obediently. None of the children made any noise or spoke.
Wen Zhenyi looked down and saw that everyone was present before she said, "I am the owner of this workshop. My maiden name is Wen, and my husband's surname is Shen. You can all call me Madam Shen."
"I've called you all here today to discuss a few things. First, I was entrusted by County Magistrate Lei to build this workshop to improve everyone's quality of life. Second, I'll provide you with job opportunities. Third, I hope you'll treat this workshop as your own money bag. As long as it exists, your life will be better."
The man who first came forward to say he was picking the lock looked at her in surprise: "Are you saying you're here to help us make money?"
"You can say that, but whether you can make money depends on you. My opinion doesn't count. In other words, I can afford to lose the money of your workshop."
"What should we do?" The villagers looked at Wen Zhenyi.
"Then I will tell you the first way to make money today. I will buy all the corn that you have dried now, which County Magistrate Lei asked you to plant."
"Really?"
"Yes, as long as the workshop exists and you continue to grow crops, I will keep buying."
“What does the workshop do?”
"The workshop is going to produce wine. As long as the wine is well brewed and sells well, I will also give 10% of the profits to the people in your village as dividends."
"You still give us money?"
"If you put your heart into it, I'm happy to give it to you."
"How much is one percent?" The villagers started discussing below.
"For example, if we sell ten taels of silver this month, one tael will be given to your village as a dividend. If there are ten households, you'll get a hundred coins. If there are a hundred households, you'll get ten coins."
"There are not a hundred households in our village. There are only more than 30 households in our village."
Wen Zhenyi smiled and said, "Then it's about twenty wen, which means about three hundred wen a year. What if it sells for one hundred liang, or one thousand liang?"
The villagers' eyes lit up, and they felt like they had money in their hands. This feeling was really great. Even if they were given twenty cents a month, they could buy a pound of fat meat.
"What do you think we should do?" The villagers seemed to be injected with chicken blood, each one more excited than the other, and they couldn't wait to start the workshop right away.
"You only need to do a few things: cultivate your own fertile fields, grow corn well, pay taxes on time, and those in the workshop must ensure the quality of the wine produced by the workshop and not leak any information. Once it leaks out, others will learn it, I will earn less, and you will be penniless."
"What if someone offers a high price for it?"
"You can sell it, but what happens after you sell it? Have you ever thought about this question?"
"What's the problem?"
"You are rich, but what are you going to do with all the people in the village? Are you just going to ignore their lives?"
The villagers fell silent.
Wen Zhenyi said calmly, "We all prosper together and suffer together. It doesn't matter if I lose one workshop, as I have more than one under my command. But can you afford to lose one?"
"I won't let that happen."
"Neither can I."
"Yes, yes, yes. If anyone dares to do such a thing, I will fight him to the death."
Wen Zhenyi looked at the villagers and said, "Don't envy those who work in the workshops. In addition to doing the work in the workshops, they also have to go back to do farm work and pay taxes when they get home. If they don't have that much physical strength, they probably won't be able to do it well."
"Hahaha!" At first, no one understood what going home to pay their taxes meant. Later, someone figured it out, and when they talked to each other, they all knew what was going on and couldn't stop laughing.
Wen Zhenyi glanced at the villagers present and said, "This is the situation. I won't be in the workshop for long. From now on, it's all up to you."
"When will the workshop start recruiting workers? I want to give it a try."
Wen Zhenyi looked at the man who was speaking and the people beside him: "Are you coming too?"
"Come."
"You guys can come to work tomorrow." Wen Zhenyi looked at the villagers again: "If anyone else wants to come, come find me here tomorrow."
"good."
"Wen Zhenyi thought for a moment and said, 'You can go back and break the corn into kernels, pack them in sacks and send them over. I will also start collecting the kernels tomorrow.'"
"Thank you, Mrs. Shen." After the villagers said this, they left with great enthusiasm, and they were still discussing reclaiming more wasteland to plant corn tomorrow.
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