Chapter 96 Construction Begins
Compared to Jiang Yuan, the other villagers in Mingfu Village were much more enthusiastic. Along the way from the village entrance to the end of the village, many people came out of their courtyards to chat with Jiang Yuan, Master Jiang, and other craftsmen and laborers.
Of course, some people simply mingled with the group and went to the end of the village with them.
These people were all planning to work for Jiang Yuan and his group. Although the able-bodied men from the village would not be paid for their work, the employers would provide them with at least one full meal.
Right now is an awkward time of transition, when people eat out, the elderly, weak, women and children at home can at least get a few more grains of rice when they cook.
With this in mind, more and more villagers followed the construction team and headed to the end of the village in a grand procession.
Hearing the commotion, Chen Zhao's family of four, Chen Zhao's three brothers, and Chen Zhao's parents all came out of their house and headed towards the end of the village.
Chen Zhao, his father, and his three brothers went straight to Xie Wanniang's house site, while Chen Zhao's mother, Wang Xiaozhi, and her two children went to Hao Yu's house.
Not long after they arrived, the four women that Wang Xiaozhi had found for Xie Wanniang also hurried over.
The women had been busy for less than fifteen minutes under Xie Wanniang's direction when Jiang Yuan arrived at Hao Yu's house, which was separated from the construction site by only one wall, from the noisy construction site.
"Sister," he called to Wang Xiaozhi, "there are just too many people coming to help in the village. I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it all with just the few of you."
Wang Xiaozhi frowned. "Then should I find two more people?"
Jiang Yuan nodded, "I need to help you buy some more groceries. Buy more, because I'm afraid more people will come later."
"Okay," Wang Xiaozhi agreed, "I'll go now."
Aunt Chen was curious, so when Wang Xiaozhi went out, she also went out to take a look at the construction site. "Wow, good heavens, there must be over a hundred people here!"
Jiang Yuan nodded, "Including the laborers and apprentices brought by the craftsmen, there are more than 120 people in total."
In other words, more than seventy able-bodied men from the village have arrived.
Jiang Yuan was truly surprised by this scene. He, Hao Yu, and Xie Wanniang rarely interacted with the villagers. In his opinion, even if someone came to help them with their work in exchange for meals, the number of people who would come would most likely be only around fifty.
However, even as the two were talking, villagers were still walking towards them in twos and threes.
Seeing this, Aunt Chen frowned slightly. "Why don't you let all these people leave? Too many people will not only waste the food, but some of them won't work properly either."
As the saying goes, with so many people around, it's one thing to slack off and do nothing, but what if some heartless person steals all the bricks and tiles piled up on this land?
Jiang Yuan shook his head. "No rush. I can take in another twenty or so. If more people come after we've got enough, I'll ask them to leave."
He hired three master chefs in total, and each of them was assigned thirty people; they could manage that.
Of course, before that, he had to call together the people he trusted, such as Old Master Chen and the four Chen brothers, as well as Chen Lizheng's two sons and other young people in the village with whom he had a good relationship, and give them some instructions.
With a dozen or so pairs of eyes keeping an eye on him, he didn't believe anyone could take the opportunity to cause trouble.
As for the occasional slacking off, Jiang Yuan has already decided to turn a blind eye as long as it's not excessive.
“Then let’s do it your way.” Aunt Chen glanced at her old man who was wandering around aimlessly. “Although your uncle can’t do heavy work, he can still watch over people and things for you without any problem. Just ask him to do anything you need.”
Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Yes, I know."
Hao Yu can't do heavy work either, but it's not because of his age, but because his hand is injured. With him and Grandpa Chen around, Jiang Yuan is indeed much less worried.
Aunt Chen waved her hand at him, "Then you go ahead and get busy, I have to go back and help with the work too."
Jiang Yuan nodded. "Okay."
After the two parted ways, Aunt Chen turned around and went back to Hao Yu's house, where she talked to Xie Wanniang and the others about the number of people at the construction site outside.
When Xie Wanniang heard that Jiang Yuan's maximum planned staffing was ninety plus fifty, she immediately ran to the warehouse and took out three bags of flour.
At noon, Xie Wanniang planned to steam buns made from two kinds of dough. The dough had already risen, but the number of people far exceeded her expectations, so she had to make more dough.
The only thing to be thankful for was that Hao Yu's family not only had two large pots in the kitchen, but also two stoves and two large pots in the main room of the east wing.
Four large pots were enough for them.
Together with Sister Qing who came to help, Xie Wanniang carried the flour to the kitchen. She clapped her hands and said to everyone, "Let's make braised pork belly with cabbage and pork bone and radish soup."
She had originally planned to make two dishes and a soup, but now Xie Wanniang could only try to keep it as simple as possible.
Every woman in the village knows how to steam buns, and the women present here, having been carefully selected by Wang Xiaozhi, are all very skilled at making these home-style dishes.
Aunt Chen, Sister Qing, and Sister He took the initiative to do the work of making the dough, while the others helped to process the cabbage, radishes, and half a pig on the kitchen counter.
The pork had already been partially butchered by the butcher. Now, the group had two tasks: first, to clean the pork (which had a good balance of fat and lean meat) and slice it thinly, then cook it into a stew with cabbage; second, to chop up the pork bones (which had almost no meat on them), boil them in water to make a soup, and then add radishes to make pork bone and radish soup.
It was only at this moment that Xie Wanniang truly understood Wang Xiaozhi's words: there was no need for her excellent cooking skills.
Indeed, no matter how good her cooking skills are, her ability to cook large batches of food is not much better than that of Aunt Chen and others.
Everyone was busy working together when Wang Xiaozhi returned with the two women she had recently hired.
They didn't come empty-handed; each of them carried a lot of cabbages and radishes on their backs.
"Let's see if we can use this at noon today?" Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Wang Xiaozhi asked Xie Wanniang and her mother-in-law.
Xie Wanniang wasn't sure about this, but fortunately, Aunt Chen was experienced. She nodded and said, "That's enough, that's enough."
Wang Xiaozhi breathed a sigh of relief, "Then you guys go ahead with your work, I'll go ask around at other stores and buy some more to stock up on."
"Sister, don't rush off yet." After saying this, Xie Wanniang ran to her room, unlocked the door, and quickly took out two pieces of silver and two strings of copper coins from the small box that Jiang Yuan had given her that morning. "Sister, you can take these."
Everyone, including Wang Xiaozhi, stared at her with wide eyes. They hadn't expected Xie Wannian to give Wang Xiaozhi so much money all at once.
Wang Xiaozhi waved her hand forcefully, "Give me one string of cash, that's enough. Take the rest back."
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