Chapter 216 Hiring Workers
Through the window, the young governor of Shezhou saw a group of people wearing short brown cloth. The cloth looked thick, with the edges of fur faintly visible inside. There were nine people in the group, the oldest looked to be 23 or 24 years old, and the youngest was about 8 or 9 years old. Most of them were teenagers, who were coming forward one by one, holding a pen and dipping it in ink to fill in the list.
Many of them seemed particularly excited when dipping the ink to write. Apart from that, there seemed to be nothing wrong with their posture. Even the youngest one wrote quite well.
Are you really a scholar?
The governor and the chief secretary looked at each other with a hint of surprise in their eyes.
Are there so many educated people among the common people?
After everyone had left, the two men walked out from the back hall and took a look at the roster. The handwriting was surprisingly acceptable. One of the words was even written very well. Then they looked at the residences filled in at the back. There was a row of Daxingzhuang.
Daxing Manor? The young governor thought about it and suddenly realized, "Among the manors donated by the Wang family, the one closest to the city gate? Is that where the people are settled?"
"It should be." The military officer of the Ministry of Revenue would not report every detail of his work, so the chief clerk was really not clear about it and did not take it too seriously. His eyes fell on Wang Yunzheng's name, and when he saw the line of words behind it, he pointed it out and said, "This one is a member of the Wang family, and he actually came to register on his own."
He just said this casually. What made him even happier was that there were now 36 people who had signed up. Although the quota was still not full, the vacancy was not that big. There were still nine days left, right? So he asked, "Sir, are you still going to the lecture?"
"Go, why not? Today is a time to recruit talents, why do we need to be constrained by others like we are now? This is also the original intention of the emperor."
…
In Daxing Village, Chen Lie and his friends entered the city. Seeing that the sun was shining brightly today, Sang Luo did not rush to the fields. Instead, she picked up a bamboo basket and led Chen Ning to the stream in the mountains behind her own Yongye field.
"Sister-in-law, can tree bark really be made into paper?"
Paper is so fine and precious, she couldn't even imagine that tree bark could be made into something like that.
Sang Luo looked at her and said with a smile: "Isn't the cloth you are wearing also made of ramie? Why can't it be made into paper?"
Chen Ning tilted his head: "Cloth is woven on a loom, can this paper be woven in another way?"
I still can’t imagine it.
Sang Luo herself didn't know whether the method she had figured out was useful or not. The only thing she was sure of was that paper could indeed be made from things like tree bark, straw, ramie and bamboo.
"Just give it a try. It only takes some time and the materials are everywhere. It's worth a try. If you succeed, you will benefit a lot in the future." Not to mention the shortage of writing paper, she also wants freedom for toilet paper.
Chen Ning didn't know what her sister-in-law was thinking about yet, so she laughed when she heard that the materials were all over the mountain. A month ago, her second brother cleared the mountain path and brought back firewood, which her sister-in-law saw. That day, she and her second brother picked out a lot of branches, peeled off the skin, and left the bare stems to use as firewood, which did not delay its use at all.
"Let's try. If we can really figure it out, can we set up a stall to sell paper and pens? The pens we make at home are no worse than those sold outside."
Sang Luo's lips curled up when she heard this. The little girl is twelve years old now. She is much smarter than when she was nine years old. Not only is she full of knowledge, but she also has a head full of economics.
"No need to wait for the paper to be made. Haven't you already made very good pens? If the provincial school opens, you and the girls can just try making some." In this year, people are reluctant to send the food to sell, so these small items can still be made.
This sentence made Shen Ning’s eyes light up: “I’ll try it after I finish working in the fields.”
Shen Ning's subconscious response made Sang Luo think about something.
Having land is a good thing, but she and Shen Ning spend most of their time on the land. Although they are in good health and don't feel particularly tired, hoeing the land every day... who can't do this? Why does she have to do this all the time?
"No need to wait. I'll ask someone later to hire two people to help. There will be more mountains in the future, and we'll need to hire people anyway. It's better to do it now."
Chen Ning was stunned for a moment, and then she became happy. As a little girl, she didn't like to swing a hoe in the field every day. Dancing with wooden sticks was more fun than this.
She hugged Sang Luo's arm and acted coquettishly: "Sister-in-law, you really love me."
"I hurt myself."
The aunt and sister-in-law chatted and laughed as they arrived at the mountain stream. There were eight small bundles of mulberry bark tied in the stream, with the other end of the rope tied to a stone. Each rope had a small wooden sign with some simple lines engraved on it that Shen Ning could not understand.
Sang Luo brought up two bundles and looked at them, counting the days. It seemed like they had been soaked for thirty-two days already?
The first experimental subject was the bark of the mulberry tree, or because she had the impression that paper had an elegant name, "Mr. Chu", and mulberry trees were everywhere in the mountains, so the relatively certain mulberry bark became her first experimental subject.
Following the method of extracting hemp, the bark was peeled off and the outermost layer of skin was removed, leaving the middle fiber layer. It was divided into eight bundles, four of which were directly soaked in the mountain stream, and four bundles were dried and then soaked in the mountain stream again.
Looking at it now, there is not much difference between the dried and the non-dried ones. However, the color, after a month of soaking, has changed from the original light green to a yellow slightly darker than rice paper.
Sang Luo took two bundles, one for soaking directly and one for soaking after drying, drained the water and put them into the basket: "Okay, let's go back. Let's try these first."
Because each family was allocated enough land, and each of the original farmers was in charge of a lot of land, the houses in Daxing Village were relatively scattered, and there was no need to avoid people. They built four temporary stoves with stones behind the house, took four large ceramic pots and added water to the racks, threw in a portion of soaked bark, left the bamboo plates not far from the corresponding stoves, and told Shen Ning to light the fire and boil.
There were a lot of jars and pottery pots of all sizes behind the house. They were all picked up by the boys in the village from the deserted village nearby every evening. Even several water jars were carried back. Every family had saved a lot of them. These things were just right for Sang Luo to use.
While Chen Ning was making a fire, Sang Luo went into the house and took out a large bag of wood ash. After waiting for the water to boil, she put the dried and undried ingredients in four earthenware pots, added the wood ash, stirred them, and then covered them and cooked them together.
She didn't know whether boiling was necessary to make paper, but when she lived in the mountains, the old lady who taught her to weave told her that if the cloth was to be soft and white, it had to be boiled with wood ash and water for a long time and washed over and over again.
The bark fibers after soaking were still quite hard, so they had to be boiled. Wood ash was a good thing, so she planned to divide the four parts of bark that had been dried and not dried before soaking into two parts, boil two parts in water, and boil the other two parts in water with wood ash, and then see the difference.
The same mulberry bark, these are the four ways to cook it. I told Shen Ning what I needed to pay attention to. Shen Ning was taking care of the fire, so she didn't need to be busy at this time. I went into the house and took out a roll of bamboo slips, ground ink and spread it out, and wrote down four numbered second-step processing methods on it.
After the ink dried and the things were put away, he closed the door and went out. After saying goodbye to Shen Ning, he left home and prepared to go to several nearby villages to find help.
…
The Shen family lives in the inner part of Daxing Village. Walking outward, you will pass by the fields of various families. The first is the fields of the Shen Jin brothers, and then the Chen family.
When Granny Chen saw Sang Luo coming out, she called out from afar. When she heard that she was looking for help, Granny Chen was stunned: "No need, ours will be almost done in three or four days. By then, the whole family can go over and help you for a few days, and then everything will be done, right? Why spend money to hire someone?"
Sang Luo shook her head: "It's not just one or two days, we also have to take care of the mountain land behind."
When this was mentioned, Mrs. Chen became more energetic: "A Luo, how do you take care of your land? Do you grow yam?"
"I'm planting, but not all of them. I'm also planning on planting some other things, but I haven't thought about it in detail yet. I'll plan as I sort it out."
"Well." Mrs. Chen put down her hoe and said, "Come on, come on, I know which family in the nearby village has a lot of laborers. I'll go with you to find them."
Unlike Sang Luo who spent most of her free time reading books and practicing with the long stick, Chen Po became very familiar with the surrounding areas of the village within a few months after moving out of the valley. She knew every boy and girl in every family and how old they were.
…
After finding out that Sang Luo wanted to hire two helpers, Mrs. Chen asked Chen Dashan a few words and took Sang Luo out of the village.
They did not go to the other two villages next to Daxing Village where the Feng family and Zhou Laizi and their families lived, but went in another direction, to the first batch of neighbors from the villages outside the village who came out to resettle.
On the way, she said to Sang Luo, "I'll take you to a family that's absolutely suitable. Their surname is Zhao, and they're all very honest. Most importantly, they have four families living together, and the children aren't yet adults. I remember there are six or seven boys between thirteen and sixteen, and there are a few younger ones, so they're definitely able to spare some strong labor."
Very well said, this is absolutely appropriate!
But Sang Luo never expected such a scene.
This family of four brothers, plus three boys around fifteen years old, were originally going to work in the fields, but now they turned a corner carrying their farm tools, and the seven of them all went to Daxingzhuang.
It's free, and you have to go even if you don't want to. The Sangluo people are still being held back by the old lady of the Zhao family, while the seven people, father, sons, uncles, and nephews, have already set off.
There were a few teenagers aged twelve or thirteen at home. They heard that they were going to help Master Shen's family. As soon as their father left, they ran away very fast. They were almost stopped by their mother: "There are no farm tools left, don't go and make trouble."
The old lady of the Zhao family watched happily, holding Sang Luo's hand, smiling so kindly: "Mrs. Sang, don't refuse. You don't know that you have saved many of our lives. Without you teaching us how to remove poison from konjac, how to dig and plant yam, and how to make fairy tofu, we don't know how to get by in the past few years. We can't even survive and get out of the mountains safely. We still need the court to give us so much land to settle down. Isn't it just turning over □□ acres of land? I can turn it over for you neatly in two days. If there are not enough farm tools, we can get a few more. There are many people in the family, so I will help you for two days without delaying our own affairs."
Sang Luo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. When she first taught some things out, people from several nearby villages had always been keeping track of them. Whenever there was any new food in the mountains, she would always receive it. She didn't expect that the same thing would happen when she hired people to do farm work after she got out.
She could only explain, "Grandma, I appreciate your kindness. I really want to hire someone. It's not just a matter of one or two days. I don't have enough labor at home. Chen Lie was asked by the military officer to go to the mountains to find someone to explain the court's policies to everyone and then take the person away. I can't take care of my family. There are still mountains behind us. How can I use your family members to work for nothing?"
As for studying, there was no mention of it, and it is still unknown whether I can pass the exam.
The old lady knew that Chen Lie and Chen Dashan were helping the court, and that they were able to get such a good position thanks to Chen Lie's help in finding the official. She looked at the more familiar Chen Po and asked, "Are you still running back to the mountains? Are there any people in our area who haven't come out yet?"
Mrs. Chen knew it very well. Sang Luo was telling the truth, but she just hid the fact that she was studying. On the ninth day of the first lunar month, if Shen Lie and Shen An passed the exam, they would go to school. If Shen Lie didn't pass, he would have to go to the mountains and it would be difficult for him to take care of his family.
He nodded and said, "We have to run, right? There are almost no people in the villages next to us. If we go further, there may be some. Doesn't the court want A Lie, Da Shan and others to help look for them somewhere else? To be honest, it's not in vain. The court has also given us some benefits and some mountain land to use."
Old Madam Zhao said, "As it should be. It's very dangerous in the deep mountains. If we hadn't been led by them, would we have been able to get out safely?"
Mrs. Chen was happy to hear this and said with a smile, "That's right. If it's just a few acres of land, why would we need to go out to look for it? All of Alie's apprentices are here, and so are our neighbors. We left early, and there are more laborers at home, so the work will be finished in a few days. Then we can all go to help, and each person can help finish the work with a few hoes. A'luo didn't want it. In addition to the fields, there is also work in the mountains. We are indeed short of laborers, so we said we wanted to hire two, so we came out to look for it. I know your family's situation, and you should be able to spare two laborers. I asked where you were settled in Dashan, my family, and brought her to your house."
Mrs. Zhao thanked them and said to Sang Luo, "Okay, Madam Sang, don't even bother hiring people to till those acres of land. Just think of it as asking us to do our best and return a little. The kids at home will be happy too. You can take a look at them these two days to see if they are doing their job efficiently and if they are worthy of your attention. If you like them, you can ask them to do the work in the future. Just give them some food to keep them half full."
The old lady was speaking the truth. What the family lacked at that time was food. For families like theirs with many people, who could handle the work in the fields, they would be happy to take the job if anyone was willing to give them enough food to keep them half full.
Sang Luo had thought about it long ago. She also had an impression of the Zhao family. They were indeed a real family, just as Mrs. Chen said. So she smiled and said, "Thank you first. This time I want to hire two people. The work is very diverse, in the mountains and fields, whatever I can think of, I am not sure about the future situation, anyway, I will hire them monthly. If you eat with us, you will be provided with two meals a day, and you can eat what we eat. The monthly salary is 300 coins per person. If you eat at home, in addition to the 300 coins per person, each person can be given 10 liters of soybeans and 10 catties of smoked meat or fresh meat. Of course, there is no pork now, so whatever you hunt in the forest will be used."
Mrs. Zhao and her four daughters-in-law were all stunned: "What? So much?"
Three hundred coins is not a small amount of wages. Ten liters of soybeans, plus some wild vegetables, are enough to make a strong laborer half full. The key is that there are still ten kilograms of meat.
Because Sang Luo was a girl, Old Man Zhao, who had been silent all this time, couldn't help but look over.
They had been here for a long time, and the city no longer charged a fee. They had also been in the city to see that food was valuable, especially meat, which could be exchanged for food from the housekeepers and servants of wealthy families. Although they had not inquired about it in detail, it was possible to exchange 10 kilograms of meat for 40 to 50 kilograms of soybeans, depending on what kind of meat it was.
Old man Zhao subconsciously took two steps towards this side, then stopped: "Madam Sang, this is too much. The meat can be exchanged for food in the city."
Sang Luo nodded: "I know, but a lot of it is hard work. You can exchange some of it for food, and keep a few pounds for yourself to eat and replenish your energy."
In peaceful times, pork was 18 wen per catty, 10 catties of meat was 180 wen, 10 liters of soybeans was 40 wen, plus 300 wen for wages, a total of 520 wen, it was a good deal to hire a strong laborer to do short-term work for a month.
She also knew that the prices of grain and meat were high at the moment, but rice and paddy were grown in the valleys, and they were not enough for their own consumption, and they could not be brought out into the open. As for soybeans, they grew a lot in the mountains, and could produce about 20 liters a month. As for meat, she was not so distressed. Chen Lie always brought a lot of meat when he went into the mountains to pick people up. With just the few people in their family, including the three brothers Shen Jin, they would never have to worry about food. This was the thing that Sang Luo gave with the least reluctance among all the wages.
When Old Man Zhao saw her say this, he nodded and said, "Okay, then Madam Sang, wait until the land is turned over tomorrow and pick two. We will bring our own food. Just have a little fire to heat it up. I will definitely give you some hard work."
Sang Luo smiled and said, "Then it's settled."
Old man Zhao nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, it's settled, it's settled."
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