"Ahem... Be serious, be serious! Hahaha!"
Qin Jian smiled, straightened his posture, and said seriously, "You've done a great job again this time, brother, you're really something!"
He couldn't help but admire him, saying that if it were him, he would definitely be extremely cautious and wouldn't dare to do such a risky thing.
But Sun Qi not only did it, and succeeded, but he also managed to get away unscathed.
When he first met Sun Qi, he felt that Sun Qi was inferior to him, especially in martial arts. At that time, Sun Qi was no match for him at all.
But I didn't expect this person to improve so quickly. In just half a year, I was no match for him. Moreover, he was able to advise Prince Chen and accomplish several important things.
Later, when he was sent to Nantai, Sun Qi became his direct superior.
At first, he was somewhat resentful, after all, he had been by Prince Chen's side since he was a child and felt that he should be given an important position.
As a result, after seeing Sun Qi's journey, I can now say that I am completely convinced and utterly impressed.
"The Southern Thai royal family already has few male heirs. Now, the sixth prince, who was once the most promising candidate, has been publicly discovered to be mentally ill, thus ending his chances of the throne. He only has a few young children under his command, and the emperor is getting old. As a result, other royal relatives will start to have designs on him. It seems that it won't be long before Southern Thailand falls into chaos!"
Qin Jian slapped his thigh excitedly. This allowed them to evacuate ahead of time, which was a great achievement!
Sun Qi shook his head, downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, and said, "You're thinking too simply. This fire has only just started. We need to give it a little more wind to make it burn brighter!"
They are currently putting the Southern Thai Emperor in a weak position. If those royal relatives become more assertive, it won't be long before the country changes dynasties.
Once the new emperor ascends the throne, he will naturally continue to think about expanding the territory, and then Bei Yan will still be disturbed.
What they need to do is to make the emperor able to contend with other imperial relatives, to keep them fighting amongst themselves, and preferably to have several civil wars to deplete the country's strength, so that the people of Beiyan can have a peaceful life.
With this opening, Bei Yan can take the opportunity to develop, and by the time Nan Tai realizes what's happening, it will have already been left far behind.
What do you want to do?
Qin Jian was stunned, wondering how Sun Qi's brain worked and how he could think of everything so thoroughly!
Sun Qi curled his lips into a smile, a glint of light flashing in his eyes. He tightened his grip on the wine glass, but his tone was light and cheerful, even carrying a hint of amusement: "Naturally, it's to help the Emperor of Nantai."
...
Anping Village, Beiyan Kingdom.
By this time, the clothing workshop had been completed, and during this period, the women of the Lu family had made a lot of clothes, mostly regular styles, which were then handed over to Zhang Song and Lianhua to sell.
Lu Guilan felt that there was no point in going there, and she might as well stay home and make clothes for a while longer.
Next up was the recruitment of female workers for the workshop. After so much anticipation, everyone in the village was eager to get started, and many people came to sign up, feeling that being selected would be like having a secure job.
On the first day of registration, He Jiuniang wrote down the names of all the applicants in her notebook. Just when everyone thought they would all be selected, He Jiuniang said, "Those who have registered their names, come for an interview tomorrow."
What kind of noodles?
Everyone stared blankly, completely unable to understand.
He Jiuniang patiently explained, "It's a talent show. As you all know, our family makes clothes, so only those with good skills can come. Tomorrow, our two embroiderers will personally assess you and sew clothes on the spot. We don't require you to be skilled in embroidery, but you must know basic cutting and sewing. The fabric is precious, so we can't waste it. The fabric we'll be using for the demonstration tomorrow is coarse linen. If you cut it badly, you'll have to pay for it and you won't be hired. If you don't cut it badly and successfully make the clothes, you'll be hired as a workshop worker. We can sell you some scraps cheaply to make small clothes or shoe uppers."
These words immediately sparked a flurry of discussion among the crowd.
Some unskilled craftsmen intended to pass off inferior goods as superior ones, thinking that since it wasn't their own fabric, they could use it however they wanted, and maybe even keep some for themselves to take home, saving a lot of money on fabric and wearing new clothes every day.
But I never expected this. If I cut it badly, I have to pay for it, and I have to pay for the scraps. Isn't this a rip-off?
As a result, many people backed down, because they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't make mistakes. They didn't want to end up losing money instead of making any.
Looking at the reactions in the crowd, He Jiuniang said, "If anyone doesn't want to participate in tomorrow's interview, they can say so, and they don't need to come tomorrow."
Some people hesitated and struggled for a while, and then actually backed down.
After much effort, a total of 123 people were recorded, but 21 people withdrew, leaving only 102.
After tomorrow's screening, there should still be seventy or eighty people left, which should be enough.
After everyone dispersed, He Jiuniang and Sun went to cut the fabric, dividing it into 102 pieces according to the requirements for the children's clothes. This was to prevent some people with ill intentions from hoarding the fabric.
There was nothing they could do; these were all native villagers of Anping Village, and they harbored some resentment towards the Lu family. If they wanted to cause trouble, they could easily find a way to do something wrong.
It's better to be safe than sorry; we must take precautions.
"Mom, I need to write down some rules and regulations later to prevent some people from cheating and shirking their responsibilities. This will protect our rights as well as the rights of the workers. We need to let the workers see the benefits so that they will feel at ease working for our family."
Sun had no objections to these matters, since she didn't understand them very well anyway, and left everything to He Jiuniang to handle.
So, after dividing the fabric, He Jiuniang spent another afternoon in her room writing a simplified labor contract.
There were clauses requiring workers to keep the secret or face compensation. These were for orders made for brothels, and the clothes were bound to be criticized. If word got out, the villagers would be considered old-fashioned, and it might damage the Lu family's reputation. There was even a rudimentary form of insurance.
There were no insurance institutions in this era, but this was a special benefit provided by He Jiuniang. For example, the female workers in the workshop could enjoy benefits such as maternity leave, work injury leave, medical care, four days off per month, and paid leave during the Spring Festival.
Maternity benefits allowed female workers to take two months of maternity leave, with a monthly allowance of one hundred coins. In those days, families had many children, and to prevent some people from taking advantage of the situation and having multiple children in a row to avoid being lazy, it was stipulated that only female workers with excellent performance could receive this benefit. They had to return to work after their maternity leave, or they would be compensated tenfold. Moreover, a woman could only receive this benefit twice. If she had to have a third child, she would have to resign and go home to have more children.
Work injury benefits are divided according to the severity of the injury: ten coins for minor injuries, twenty coins for moderate injuries, and thirty coins for serious injuries, with the Lu family responsible for medical treatment.
Medical benefits were even simpler. Since He Jiuniang was skilled in medicine, the female workers could see her for free and get half-price medicine. It was a more than generous benefit.
We get seven days of paid leave during the Lunar New Year, paid at ten coins per day.
I start work at 7:00 AM every morning, go home for lunch at 12:00 PM, start work again at 1:00 PM, and finish work at 7:00 PM every evening, working eleven hours a day.
The daily wage was not fixed, but calculated based on the number of clothes made: 25 coins for an adult man's garment, 20 coins for a regular woman's garment, and 15 coins for a child's garment.
Making clothes is a delicate job. Even if you put in all your effort in a day, you can only make one small garment at most. You can barely make one men's garment and one children's garment in three days. So, you can earn more than the fixed wage of ten coins a day. Most importantly, the more you work, the more you earn, which can also stimulate the workers' competitiveness.
As for the high-end custom-made items for nobles and the custom-made items for courtesans, they can only be made by professional embroiderers. These have high costs and high prices, so the embroiderers are naturally paid a high price as well. This needs to be calculated separately.
When He Jiuniang handed the sheets of paper she had written to Sun Shi, Sun Shi felt dizzy and lightheaded, because she couldn't read at all!
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