Chapter 312 Good Days Are Coming
The winter wind howled.
The hearts of everyone in Dahe Village were burning with enthusiasm.
The expansion of the patrol team was not the main topic of this meeting; the village head indicated that a specific set of regulations would be finalized later.
"Now, let's move on to the last item," the village head's voice was firm and clear. "Settle the wages."
The villagers beamed with joy. They had been busy lately, repairing the irrigation ditches on the mountain, planting trees for the Cao family, working on the Cao family's weaving workshop, and building the large brick house for Manager Yan... They had been working on these tasks for many days, but the village head still hadn't settled the wages. With the money, they could have a bountiful and comfortable New Year this year.
The village head had an account book. When a villager's name was called, he would come up to collect his money. Whether it was the Cao family or the Yan family, the wages were thirty coins a day. The group that had worked the longest had already worked for a month and seven days, which was one tael of silver and one hundred and ten coins.
The white silver ingots placed in the villagers' hands formed a stark contrast with their dark, cracked palms.
The villagers who received the money were all smiles.
There is nothing more joyful in this world than money.
The villagers of Xindahe Village watched from afar, their faces filled with envy. Even before they became refugees, they had never received so much money.
This village is far wealthier than they imagined.
As long as they work honestly, they will have two meals of porridge a day. As for wages, they dare not ask for more.
The wages for the workers in Dahe Village were settled quickly. The village head continued, "Bao Hong, you planted a total of 120 trees, which is 240 copper coins. After deducting the cost of meals for the past six days, at 5 copper coins per porridge, you still have 180 copper coins left! Bao Hong, what are you standing there for? Come up and collect your money!"
The man named Bao Hong was suddenly stunned.
He had been in this village for six days, constantly being supervised and given two meals a day. This was much better than when he was fleeing famine and sometimes going hungry and sometimes full. He never expected that he would actually be paid.
More than a hundred coins! Good heavens, he actually has money now.
Bao Hong walked unsteadily onto the stage. Zhao Tiezhu counted out 180 coins and handed them to him, asking him to put his fingerprint on the ledger.
He held the money, his eyes fixed on the coins, still feeling like he was dreaming.
He didn't watch where he was going and missed a step, falling to the ground and dropping all the copper coins in his hand.
He instantly snapped to reality. His money, the coins he'd worked so hard to earn!
He saw that everyone standing around him squatted down to pick up the money.
His heart felt as if someone had seized it, as if they wanted to cut off a piece of his heart and eat it.
He wanted to speak up and stop these people from taking his money, but he couldn't utter a single word; the winter wind rushed straight into his throat as soon as he opened his mouth...
"Be careful when you walk." Cheng Wanwan picked up the five or six copper coins at her feet and placed them in Bao Hong's hand. Her voice was gentle. "Don't hold the money in your hand. Be careful not to drop it on the ground. There are many people, and it's hard to find."
"The copper coin is round, it rolls around and rolls, and once it rolls into the river, it can't be picked up."
"Young man, what are you still doing lying on the ground? Get up now."
Many villagers gathered around, and each of them placed the copper coins they had picked up into Bao Hong's hand.
His nose suddenly stung, and a stream of hot tears uncontrollably welled up from the corner of his eye.
He had been fleeing famine for three or four months, and even a moldy steamed bun in his hand would be stolen. He never imagined that something that had fallen on the ground and been picked up by someone would actually return to his hands again... He counted it: 180 coins, not a single copper coin was missing.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
Bao Hong could only utter these two words; the thirty-year-old man's voice was choked with emotion.
Afraid of being noticed for his unusual behavior, he lowered his head and returned to the crowd in Xindahe Village.
The village head was still reading out names: "Chang Zhuzi, planted 132 trees, totaling 264 coins..."
The residents of Xindahe Village were called out one by one by name.
Those who planted trees received wages, those who built houses received wages, those who dug lotus ponds received wages, and of course, those who chopped firewood also received wages... Everyone received some money, some as much as two hundred coins, and some as little as fifty or sixty coins. Holding the copper coins, the people's eyes were filled with tears, and some women couldn't hold back their tears and sobbed.
When one person cries, a whole group of people start to cry.
They thought they would die on the road, that they would starve, die of disease, or be beaten to death, but when they reached a dead end, they were greeted by a bright and smooth road.
They received grain, land, and copper coins; good days were coming.
"What are you all crying for!" the village head scolded irritably. "We don't do mourning in Dahe Village, so hold back your tears!"
Cheng Wanwan stepped onto the stage, looked at the crowd, and said, "This time, the soap workshop made over a hundred extra winter clothes and also sewed some winter quilts. The prices aren't too expensive. Anyone who needs them can go over there and take a look."
These refugees were all wearing only a single layer of clothing, or one or two layers of cloth. It's hard to imagine how they managed to survive the harsh winter months. With snow just around the corner, they couldn't keep dressing like this. What if they got sick and caused an outbreak of plague?
Since the workshop needed to make a batch of work clothes anyway, they made them together, resulting in a total of three hundred sets of winter clothes and a small number of winter quilts.
Zhao Dashan and Zhao Ergou took out all their clothes and quilts and set them up at their doorstep to sell.
Winter clothes cost forty coins each, and winter quilts cost sixty coins. They also sell warm fillings such as reed catkins and willow fluff.
Those refugees had just received their money and naturally wanted to improve their lives. Food and clothing were the top priorities. Ten catties of grain per person could last for a while, so the immediate priority was to keep warm.
Basically, everyone bought a set of winter clothes and a quilt. As for the filling, they chose to find it themselves in the wild, saving money wherever possible.
A meeting made the displaced people lower their guard and begin to truly decide to integrate into Dahe Village.
With fresh blood injected into it, Dahe Village began to radiate a unique vitality.
The refugees settled down one by one, and after a night's rest, they all threw themselves into work the next day.
The more than 300 newly added people, who have survived the famine, are all in relatively good health, whether they are elderly or children, and can be used as part of the labor force.
With over a thousand people in the village working together enthusiastically, the 200 mu of mulberry trees were quickly planted.
The blue brick courtyard of Manager Yan's house and the cloth weaving factory of the Cao family are almost finished. The next step is to raise the beams and put on the roof.
Only Cheng Wanwan's lotus pond is half-finished. Her goal is to finish it before the Lunar New Year. Of course, it doesn't have to be finished. As long as it's dug before spring, it will be fine. Otherwise, once spring arrives, the continuous spring rains will make the place muddy and difficult to work on.
Previously, the soil that was dug out needed to be transported to the other side of the mountain, but now these new Dahe Village residents are transporting the soil to their own doorsteps.
During the day, they dig lotus ponds, and after work, they are busy making adobe bricks. In the dry winter, the adobe bricks dry quickly, and after the spring planting season, they can build adobe houses.
Thatched huts are more like temporary dwellings, while mud-brick houses make people feel truly secure and at ease.
Before we knew it, it was the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The weather is getting colder and colder, and even the boys who aren't afraid of the cold have started to light the kang (a traditional heated brick bed).
There were seven or eight boys in the family, all crammed together on one kang (a heated brick bed) to sleep. Every night it would take a long time for them to quiet down.
"Auntie, it's snowing!"
Chunhua returned from her busy day outside, her hair covered in tiny snowflakes.
Cheng Wanwan hurriedly got up and went outside to take a look. It was indeed snowing. Small snowflakes were falling one by one, getting bigger and bigger, and denser and denser.
As the saying goes, a timely snowfall promises a bumper harvest.
After the second crop of rice is harvested, the whole village burns the rice stubble in the fields, but that may not kill all the locust eggs. Now, a heavy snowfall will surely freeze the locust eggs in the soil that were not burned to death, making next year a bumper harvest.
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