Liang Kingdom, Qingzhou.
As soon as it was dawn, Aunt Wang got up.
Instead of drawing water from the murky well in the yard as usual, she turned on a shiny brass handle on the kitchen wall.
soon.
A stream of clear, clean water flowed into the ceramic basin, splashing onto Aunt Wang's smiling face, feeling cool and refreshing.
This thing is called tap water. It was designed by female officials sent by the Mountain Goddess. I heard that Tianyu County has been using these ingenious items for a long time!
I heard that the water here has been purified before being diverted from the upper reaches of the Long River and delivered to the kitchens of every household through a complex pipeline system.
We no longer have to drink that muddy well water.
Aunt Wang skillfully boiled water in the newly made iron pot, grabbed a handful of snow-white refined flour, kneaded it into a dough, and then scooped out a small spoonful of sparkling snowflake sugar from the jar and mixed it in.
In the past, this was a food that could only be dreamed of during festivals and holidays.
"Honey, get up! The textile factory and the machinery factory are hiring today. If you're late, you won't get a good job!" Aunt Wang called out to the inner room as she put the steamer on the pot.
Zhang Tieniu walked out yawning, wearing a new indigo-blue cloth coat, thick and without a single patch.
He quickly finished washing up, looked at the steaming white steamed buns on the table, and chuckled to himself.
"What's the rush? The Mountain Goddess's factory is bound to have plenty of work for us."
That's what he said, but he was quite fast at eating steamed buns.
Their five-year-old girl was already awake and squatting by the door playing with a new gadget from the machine factory—a very pretty little butterfly that, once wound up, could flutter its wings for quite a while.
After breakfast, the family of three went out. The street was no longer muddy, but paved with smooth bluestone slabs.
There is a public toilet with a flushing system every so often along the roadside, and there is not a trace of odor in the entire county.
The neighbors were all dressed in new clothes, their faces beaming with hope.
"Old Zhang, going for a job interview too?" Carpenter Li from next door came over carrying his toolbox, beaming. "I'm planning to try my luck at the machine factory. I heard they're short of carpenters, pay well, and even provide two meals a day!"
"I'm going to check out the textile factory. I heard they're hiring female workers too, so I'll send my wife there!" Zhang Tieniu patted his chest. "Both men and women can work and earn money. We never dared to dream of such a life before!"
Inside the teahouse, several traveling merchants were chatting animatedly, their spittle flying everywhere.
"If you ask me, Liang is still the best!" A cloth merchant who had just returned from Yan took a sip of tea and exclaimed with emotion, "I stayed in Yan for two months, and guess what? It's exactly the same as here!"
As soon as he said that, everyone around him perked up their ears.
"Wasn't the Yan state embroiled in war before? How can it compare to us?" Some people didn't believe it.
"Hey, times have changed!" The cloth merchant smugly slammed his fist on the table. "You wouldn't believe how fanatical the Empress of Yan is about our Mountain Goddess! She's even more fervent in her worship of her than we are in Liang! Whatever new rules Liang comes up with, Yan will copy them verbatim within three days!"
He lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I heard that the Empress of Yan said that whatever the Mountain Goddess likes, Yan must become! Opening girls' schools, appointing female officials, building factories... They have everything we have here! Even the job postings say that the Mountain Goddess will bless those who work hard and provide for them!"
The crowd listened with astonishment, their reverence for the mountain goddess deepening even further.
Meanwhile, the newly built factory areas in various places are already packed with people.
Under the huge recruitment archway, several long queues stretched for miles.
Textile factories, machinery factories, food factories, energy plants...
The recruitment booths at each factory were packed with people.
Jiang Dashan, dressed in a crisp dark blue overalls with a security captain's badge pinned to his chest, was leading a team of similarly dressed veterans to maintain order.
Looking at the dense crowd before him, he felt even more satisfied than if he had won a battle.
Back then, he was an undercover agent in the Mighty Army, and later he joined the New First Army.
Now, he has become the guardian of the Mountain Goddess Factory!
Jiang Le, the younger brother, felt that there was no more war to fight in the world, so he simply went to work in a machinery factory and became a key technical staff member, living a very comfortable life.
"Make way! Make way!" A man with a pointed face and a monkey-like appearance, leading a lazy young man, tried to squeeze to the front of the line.
Jiang Dashan frowned and stretched out his towering body to block them.
"Get in line at the back." His voice was steady and powerful.
The steward glanced at him, took out a small silver ingot from his sleeve, and quietly slipped it into Jiang Dashan's hand: "Brother, please do me a favor. My young master is the county magistrate's brother-in-law and is looking for a leisurely job at the machinery factory..."
Jiang Dashan didn't even glance at the silver. With a wave of his large, fan-like hand, he shoved the steward, sending him staggering.
"Stop with your nonsense!" he boomed. "On the Mountain Goddess's territory, connections don't matter, only rules! If you want to get into the factory, you'd better get in line at the back and take the test!"
The surrounding crowd cheered, and the steward and the young master slunk away to the back of the line amidst the scornful looks of the crowd.
Another recruitment point not far away was the labor and transportation team that Lin Anniang was in charge of.
The test was very simple: lifting a stone weight.
"Next!" Lin Zhu called out crisply. Despite her short stature and relatively young age, she had a very commanding presence.
Moreover, he is extremely strong, and very few people dare to provoke him!
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