Chapter 142 Yi County
One of them replied with a smile, "We were sent by the Crown Prince. He has already arranged accommodations for you in advance."
Hao Yu was taken aback. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to accept Chang Yao's kindness. "Then I'll have to trouble you two brothers."
Jiang Yuan and the other man did not get back into the carriage. Instead, they sat on the carriage shaft and chatted idly with the two burly men who were waiting for them at the city gate.
Yi County was not very big. After about half an hour, the carriage slowly stopped at the signal of the two burly men.
Xie Wanniang and the others got out of the car and found themselves in a wide but relatively quiet alley.
Hao Yu looked around and asked, "What's this?"
“It’s a two-courtyard house that the Crown Prince had cleaned in advance.” One of the burly men walked over and knocked on the dark brown gate closest to them.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early forties poked his head out.
Upon seeing the burly man knocking on the door, the middle-aged man dressed as a servant relaxed. "It's you, Erdao. Did you pick them up?"
As he asked the question, the middle-aged man looked around.
Upon seeing Xie Wanniang and the others, before the burly man could reply, the middle-aged man exclaimed, "Oh my, these must be the distinguished guests the young master mentioned?"
The burly man nodded and introduced Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan to him.
Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan nodded to him, while the middle-aged man bowed repeatedly, saying, "This humble one is Chang Ping, greetings to Master Hao and Master Jiang."
Upon hearing that his surname was Chang, everyone knew that this person must be a servant of the Chang family and was highly trusted by the heir apparent, Chang Yao.
Chang Ping warmly invited everyone inside to take their seats, and then called over the other servants in the house to greet Jiang Yuan and the others.
Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu introduced them to each other, and then introduced Chen Shi, Xie Wanniang, and others to Chang Ping, the two strong men, and the other servants in the house.
Xie Wanniang and the others did not expect Chang Yao to be so thoughtful, so they did not prepare small purses for tips in advance. However, they did make some emergency preparations for the journey from the city gate to the house.
At this moment, the servants came over to pay their respects, and Xie Wanniang and Chen Shi took out the loose silver and copper coins they had prepared in advance.
Ordinary servants, regardless of gender, each received a small string of copper coins. The stewards in various places each received a small piece of silver weighing about two qian. As for Chang Ping, he was Chang Yao's second steward in the general's mansion in Zijing Pass, so it was not appropriate to give him money directly.
Fortunately, they also brought a lot of local specialties with them. After the other servants left, Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan could take three portions of the specialties and give them to Chang Ping and Chang Yao's two personal guards respectively.
With the help of servants, Xie Wanniang and the others quickly moved into different courtyards of the house.
Just like in Mingfu Village, Hao Yu lived with Chen Shi, Xie Wanniang, Xiao Yang and other girls lived together, and Jiang Yuan lived with Atai and Atai's dog.
The coachman who brought them also stayed in the house for one night. The next morning, they drove their carriage back to Tang County.
Following them, Jiang Yuan was also taken to Zijing Pass by the two guards.
This was something that had been agreed upon beforehand, so Xie Wanniang and the others weren't particularly surprised.
After settling the expectant Chen Shi in the house, Hao Yu first asked Chang Ping to help find a reliable midwife, paid the money to reserve her, and then went with Xie Wan Niang to find a reliable broker introduced by Chang Ping.
Firstly, they wanted to find a place to move out as soon as possible, and secondly, they also needed to plan for their future livelihood.
Xie Wanniang had already made up her mind to open a restaurant, while Hao Yu thought it over and over and finally decided to open a small martial arts school.
He owns a house, farmland, and shops in Tang County. Even if he does nothing, he and Chen will not have to worry about making a living. However, he does not want to stay idle at home, so he plans to go out and do something.
The two had a clear goal: to target the less bustling streets of Yi County and select commercial and residential properties that met their requirements, with shops in the front and residences in the back.
After running around with the broker for two days, Hao Yu and Xie Wanniang finally bought the two shops they wanted.
Although the two shops are not on the same street, they are not far apart, and it only takes about 15 minutes to walk back and forth.
Xie Wanniang wanted to open a restaurant, so she chose a shop near the intersection of two secondary bustling streets and one bustling street. Hao Yu wanted to open a martial arts school, so he chose a shop with a larger area at the end of one of the secondary bustling streets.
The shop had only two storefronts, but the two adjacent courtyards behind it occupied a very large area.
Hao Yu only needs to level and compact the vegetable garden in the front yard, and then he can hang up the sign for the martial arts school and start officially recruiting apprentices.
Xie Wanniang, however, wanted to renovate the shop first, refurbish the storefront, buy back tables, chairs, counters, tableware, and cooking utensils, and then slightly modify the several rooms in the front yard according to their different functions.
In addition, she also needs to recruit three to five more people from outside to help with the work.
Ms. Chen is currently heavily pregnant. For a long time to come, she will be either giving birth, in postpartum confinement, or taking care of and teaching her child. In her condition, she can manage to weave cloth at home, but it would be too much of a strain for her to go out and do other work.
Atai is going to join the army in the future, so Jiang Yuan's original plan to have him stay with Xie Wanniang, Hao Yu and others will no longer work.
In order to give him a better chance of survival on the battlefield, Hao Yu will definitely train him hard in the next few years.
Hao Yu opened a martial arts school, Chen raised her children, Atai practiced martial arts to prepare for joining the army, Xiao Mei was keen on studying medicine, and Xiao Yang was still a complete child, so he should focus on practicing martial arts.
As for Haitang and Xie Wanniang, Xie Wanniang also planned to continue to improve her martial arts skills.
As a result, none of them could stay in the shop for long.
Thinking about it this way, hiring people is absolutely necessary.
But in Yi County, a place where they were completely unfamiliar with both people and things, Xie Wanniang dared not just casually post a job advertisement.
We don't want to find the right people to help us, only to have saboteurs sent by our competitors sneak in first.
Of course, that's not the worst part. The worst part is that if she accidentally recruits spies, she could lose her head.
With that thought in mind, Xie Wanniang no longer dared to make any rash moves.
She found Hao Yu, told him her concerns, and asked him for some advice.
Hao Yuzhen had a good idea for her: "You can write to A Yuan and ask him to ask General Chang to help introduce you to some retired soldiers and widows of fallen soldiers."
It just so happens that Xie Wanniang also needs some reliable people to protect her personal safety, so this can be considered killing two birds with one stone.
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