In the following days, the women in the village also came to see Zhou Quan's house and the clan chief's house. They were very envious. Such new houses were clean and tidy, just like the houses in the town. The blue bricks and tiles were neat and tidy. Just looking at them made them feel comfortable. Not to mention living in them, they would definitely be smiling in their dreams.
Seeing their envy, Zhao smiled and said that their houses would be finished in a while, and since everyone's houses were the same now, no one needed to envy anyone else.
They thought about it and realized that a month later, they would also have such a courtyard.
Seeing how beautifully the courtyards of Zhou Quan's family and the clan chief's family had been built, the men were even more motivated to work. Those families who had moved to relatives' homes also moved back, even if they had to live in tents on the mountain, they wanted to work with everyone and wait to receive their new courtyards.
As a result, another team was added to the cooking team.
After thinking for a moment, Li Mai simply arranged a shift system for the four teams. This way, the four teams would take turns cooking for the workers, allowing the other three teams to have more time to prepare for their new homes in advance.
Li Mai distributed the cotton and cotton cloth in the supply warehouse to each family. When there wasn't enough, she took two oxcarts to town to buy more, ensuring that each family had enough cloth and cotton for the winter. She told them to take advantage of their free time to make cotton clothes and shoes for their families, as well as new cotton quilts.
These are the essential items they need after moving to their new home.
After the clan chief and Zhou Quan learned that Li Mai had arranged everything for each family, they were relieved and focused on leading the men to help those people build their new houses.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed, and it was now September 20th. With the house still not half-built, the foremen began to worry. It seemed that it wouldn't be finished in a month, so they went to ask Zhou Quan what to do.
Zhou Quan had seen it these past few days, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "If all else fails, just add more people!"
As soon as the foremen heard that he agreed to add more people, they quickly went to find them.
They didn't dare to add more people before because the approximate number of people was determined when they signed the contract. After all, the wages were calculated based on fifty coins a day for an ordinary laborer, and seventy coins a day for a bricklayer and a carpenter.
If they add more people, Zhoujia Village will have to pay more wages, and they are afraid that the people of Zhoujia Village will not be willing to pay that wage.
Now that Zhou Quan and the others have agreed, it means they can afford the money, so they can feel more at ease looking for people.
By this time, all the farm work in each household had been completed, and there were plenty of people with free time. It was easy to find people who had worked with them in villages within a ten-mile radius.
Two days later, nearly a hundred more people joined the eight teams.
With more people, the work progressed faster. The foremen told Zhou Quan that they could probably finish the village work without any problems. If it could be completed on time, they could also help pave the roads in the village and build the walls outside the village, even if it took until November.
After discussing it with the clan chief, Zhou Quan agreed.
They were doing it to make money, and their neighbors were also hoping to move in before the ground froze.
On the fifth day of the tenth lunar month, all the houses in Zhoujiacun New Village were completed and their roofs were sealed. The tile setters were doing the final finishing touches.
Zhou Quan led his team to inspect each courtyard one by one. After the inspection, the foremen could start arranging for people to do the interior work, carpentry, paving, building walls, and installing gates.
Zhou Quan has been busier these past few days than last month. Although his leg is fine now, he's visibly gotten tanned. Fortunately, Li Mai gives him a bowl of spiritual spring water to drink every morning and evening, so he hasn't lost weight or gotten sick. In fact, he looks much stronger than before.
The clan chief's family moved into their new courtyard on September 28th.
The Zhou family set the date for moving on the eighth day of the tenth lunar month, while Li Mai and Madam Yu set the date for leaving home on the tenth day of the tenth lunar month.
Zhou Quan wanted to go out with Li Mai, so he needed to hurry up and finish inspecting all the houses in the next few days. He left Zhou Tao and the others to accompany Zhou Shifan to oversee the interior work. Finally, Shifan would inspect each house one by one to see the final result. Once he was satisfied with everything, he would pay the eight foremen the last batch of wages.
Their wages were paid in batches, since hundreds of people needed money to live, eat, and drink while setting up tents here. Their food was also brought back from the town in truckloads. A portion of the wages had been paid in advance from Zhoujia Village.
The clan chief paid 400 taels of silver for the first round of work, and one foreman paid 50 taels. After the house was inspected, another foreman paid 100 taels, bringing the total to 800 taels.
Zhou Quan calculated that after this batch of work in the village was completed, they would have to spend at least two thousand taels of silver in wages.
Most of the remaining money was spent on building materials such as bricks, tiles, timber, lime, clay, etc. This was after deducting the cost of free stones, sand, red clay, etc. that the villagers kept bringing back from the surrounding area. When it comes to things done by family members, money is not a factor.
A small portion was spent on food and clothing for the villagers.
The 10,000 taels of relief money given by the government was just enough. Zhou Quan even suspected that the government had asked the Ministry of Works to calculate how much money they would need to build a new village before allocating the funds, so that they would not have any extra money to do anything else, only enough to settle their new homes.
Zhou Quan spent two days inspecting all the courtyards of every household. Of course, when he inspected a courtyard, he also brought along the male head of the household.
Some people have some knowledge, and with Zhou Quan's guidance, they can naturally tell whether there are any problems with the houses they have built.
Fortunately, in the end there were no major problems, and the minor issues with a few companies were also resolved.
Next, the workers packed up the house, and Zhou Quan finally had time to move with his family.
On the eighth day of the lunar new year, Zhou Quan's family moved. The two tents they vacated were given to two families who were still living in the large tent.
After the family moved in, the two elders lived in the main house in the middle, Zhou Lin and Zhou Lei lived in the east room of the main house, and Zhou Tao and Zhuzhu lived in the west room.
This was arranged by Zhou Quan, because he and Li Mai were going on a trip soon, and when they returned, it would probably be the end of the year. By then, his little courtyard would be ready, and the two of them would move directly to their little courtyard to live.
As for the past two days since they moved in, the two of them have settled into one of the west rooms with a kang (heated brick bed) and turned the other west room into a granary.
After learning of his plan, Old Man Zhou and Mrs. Zhao agreed and offered to clean and tidy up his yard, paste paper on the windows, and help him dry the house while they were away.
Zhou Quan and Li Mai thanked the two elders.
When Zhuzhu heard that her parents were leaving home together, she asked pitifully if they would take her with them.
Li Mai and Zhou Quan comforted her carefully, saying that it was too cold to go out this winter and it wasn't suitable to take her with them, but they would definitely take her with them next summer.
Zhuzhu was relieved, knowing that her parents didn't want to abandon her; they just had to go out to take care of something.
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