Chapter 237 Continues to Open Source
The martial arts school will be temporarily located in Jiang Yuan's house, and Xie Wanniang will pay for all the tuition and holiday gifts for the martial arts instructors.
Considering that he had elderly parents and young children to support, and that it was not good for him to be separated from his family for a long time, Xie Wanniang wrote to Doctor Chen again, asking him to arrange jobs for the martial arts master's wife and father in the herb garden.
As for his mother, the old lady had difficulty walking and the children at home also needed her help to take care of, so Xie Wanniang did not find her any other jobs.
The three people on either side who receive monthly salaries are more than enough to support their family of seven.
In addition to the martial arts school, Xie Wanniang also plans to donate money to build a village school for Mingfu Village.
For this matter, she wrote another letter to Chen Lizheng, asking him to help arrange the purchase of land, materials, and subsequent house construction.
After much hesitation, Xie Wanniang ultimately did not write that she would regularly provide funds to the village school to ensure its normal operation.
The reason for abandoning the original plan was twofold. First, Xie Wanniang did not want to make the village school her sole responsibility. She could provide funds when she wanted to help, but she could not let others take her efforts for granted because of a promise. Second, Xie Wanniang planned to fund the construction of a girls' school after resolving the hidden issues surrounding her background.
Or more precisely, it was a vocational school-like place that taught girls how to survive.
She wanted to use such an institution to enable girls to study and understand principles, learn martial arts to strengthen their bodies, and then learn a skill to support themselves so that they would not have to depend on others for survival.
This is a massive project that she will find difficult to gain support from the outside world, and will inevitably face waves of opposition. It is quite unconventional for this era. Xie Wanniang needs more money and a simpler stance to complete it.
After writing three letters to Wang Xiaozhi, Doctor Chen, and Chen Lizheng, and sending a team of guards to escort the martial arts master she had hired and his entire family to Mingfu Village, Xie Wanniang finally resumed her work at her herbal medicine shop.
As mentioned before, many of her medicinal herbs were actually wholesaled from long-established pharmacies in the prefectural city, so the profit margin was actually very limited.
In order to maximize profit margins, Xie Wanniang plans to increase the planting and purchasing of medicinal herbs.
Regarding the acquisition, the manager and employees she hired were very reliable. Since the shop opened, they have been strictly following the standards set by Xie Wanniang.
Because of the higher income and better attitude, the herb gatherers gradually flocked to Xie Wanniang's shop.
As for planting, in addition to traveling to nearby counties and towns to search for more types of medicinal herbs to transplant, Xie Wanniang also plans to find one or two suitable places to plant medicinal herbs in Hejian Prefecture, south of Baoding Prefecture.
When Haitang and the others heard Xie Wanniang say that after the autumn harvest she was going to make a trip to Hejian Prefecture to find a suitable place to buy farmland and barren mountains, they couldn't help but wonder why she wanted to spread her assets so thinly.
Xie Wanniang explained, "The crops, fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs that are suitable for planting vary from place to place."
She showed Haitang and the others the account books of the herbal medicine shop, allowing them to intuitively understand the significant profit difference between growing their own herbs and wholesaling them from the herbal medicine shops in the prefectural city.
Haitang and the others were indeed shocked, but considering the management costs, Haitang still felt that instead of buying land and planting on her own in Hejian Prefecture, she should open a pharmacy like in Yi County and directly ask the herb gatherers to buy her herbs.
Xie Wanniang clapped her hands, "I do have plans to purchase medicinal herbs, but not in the way of opening a shop and waiting for people to come to me. Instead, I will go deep into the countryside and infiltrate the herb gatherers."
In other words, she not only wanted to establish a medicinal herb garden in the countryside, but also planned to have the person in charge of the garden also help her purchase medicinal herbs.
Alternatively, she could assign two people to handle different tasks.
Of course, that's all in the future.
She doesn't have much savings now, and even with the reward money Jiang Yuanxin received from His Majesty the Emperor, she still doesn't have enough money.
If she wanted to go to Hejian Prefecture to buy farmland and barren mountains, she would need to save money for at least another year.
Thinking this, Xie Wanniang took out the fruit wine recipe she had written down in her spare time some time ago, planning to try making some fruit wine once the first batch of fruit came in.
Winemaking is a highly profitable business, but unfortunately, she doesn't have a winemaking license issued by the imperial court. Once her fruit wine is successfully made, she will most likely have to collaborate with the Lady of the Marquis.
Lady Hou was the most reliable person she knew who was qualified to brew wine. Putting aside everything else, at least in terms of profit sharing, Lady Hou would never treat her unfairly.
Unlike other merchants in Yi County who run brewing workshops, she was considered to have a conscience if they didn't even try to steal her recipes, let alone give her dividends on time.
Moreover, there is another advantage to cooperating with Lady Hou: she only needs to provide the prescription and collect her share of the profits; she doesn't have to worry about other things such as venues, personnel, and sales.
As Xie Wanniang was thinking, she heard Haitang's cheerful voice coming in from outside through the doors and windows, "Miss! Miss!"
Xie Wanniang put down her pen. "What's wrong?"
Haitang looked delighted as she opened the door and came in. "Miss, the young master has sent a message."
She handed the letter to Xie Wanniang, "There's also a huge box of leather goods. I had them put it in the warehouse. Would you like to go and take a look now?"
Xie Wanniang took the letter, a faint smile unconsciously appearing on her lips. "Let's wait a bit. I'll see what he wrote first."
Xie Wanniang opened the letter and read it word by word.
Jiang Yuan's handwriting, like her own, was neat and tidy, but lacked any distinctive features. Touching the well-known, regular characters on the paper, Xie Wanniang felt a rare surge of tenderness in her heart.
In his letter, Jiang Yuan said that he would have a short vacation in a few days, during which he would return to Yi County and have a short reunion with Xie Wanniang.
In addition, he explained the origin of the leather goods, assuring Xie Wanniang that she could use them without worry.
After reading the letter, Xie Wanniang carefully folded the letter, put it back in the envelope, and then opened the small box she used to store Jiang Yuan's letters, and carefully put this letter into the box as well.
"Let's go see what Ah Yuan brought back."
Haitang cheered and went to the storeroom with her.
At the warehouse entrance, two guards responsible for moving things were waiting for Haitang to open the door for them.
Upon seeing Xie Wanniang, the two quickly bowed and greeted her, "Master."
Xie Wanniang smiled and nodded at the two of them, while Haitang quickly opened the storeroom door.
Under her direction, the two guards carried the box to the table closest to the door and placed it there before leaving together.
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