Qingshui River, Linshui Town, Leiwo Village.
The once lifeless village is now welcoming a major happy event.
Lei Lizheng had just finished receiving the distinguished guests and sent them to the homes of the clan leader and the Ninth Master. He then shouted to his youngest son beside him, "Laifu, go gather the villagers. Let's quickly announce the recruitment and the main family's affairs to everyone."
"Yes, Dad!" Lai Fu took down the gong eraser hanging on the wall and turned to go out.
Village chief Lei thought of the villagers' negative attitude in the past and couldn't help but add a sentence.
"Also, I want to tell you that if you don't come, your family won't be included in future recruitments. They will be the first to be selected for military service and corvée labor. I'll go and discuss this with the clan leader. Let's gather everyone at the wheat field first."
.....
"Hey, look, isn't the village chief a little different today?" Mrs. Ma, who was the first to come to the wheat field to make shoe soles, complained to her best friend, Mrs. Zhou.
Old Mrs. Zhou dusted herself off with a wet rag and snorted, "I guess the guy who just came here gave him some kind of drug that made him crazy!"
Then he asked the old lady Xi who was twisting straw ropes beside him: "Don't you never come to meetings? Why are you here to join in the fun today?"
Mrs. Xi curled her lips and looked like she was being forced.
"You think I am happy? It's just that old man who can't help but assign more corvée labor. Otherwise, who would be happy to listen to their nagging and talking about things that make people upset? I haven't had time to feed the chickens at home yet?
From the beginning of spring till now, tell me which meeting has brought good news. There are either assignments here or tasks there. Our lives are already very tight. We are busy from the moment we open our eyes until dark and still cannot eat enough.
But the officials above us are blind and keep putting the blame on us. When will this day end? "
Old Mrs. Zhou and Mrs. Ma sighed and didn't want to discuss this topic anymore.
Every family has its own problems.
When everyone arrived at the threshing ground, they found that today's meeting was different from previous ones.
There was a row of tables and chairs on the temporary platform, with pens and paper on the table, which looked like they were used to record things. The Ninth Master, the clan leader, and the head of the village, who had not been involved in the affairs of the village for many years, were all sitting on it. There was actually a stranger sitting in the middle.
How many years has it been since the Leiwo Village held such a formal meeting?
For this meeting, Lei Lizheng carried all the gate boards and all the wooden stocks from his house here and built a platform.
In addition, he placed five or six small empty jars used for pickling pickles in front of the table.
At this moment, seeing Manager Cao looking at those jars, he couldn't help but explain with a smile.
"I heard from my kid that there are a lot of big vats under the theaters in the city, so that people can speak and sing louder."
Lei Lizheng was not lying. His youngest son Lai Xi was working as a waiter in the theater.
Cao Guanjia said: "It is true. I have seen it before. The village head is very thoughtful."
At this time, people gathered in groups of three or four on the side roads of each family: "It's not a festival, it's not harvest time, why are they beating gongs and drums to announce a meeting? Could it be that they are assigning new corvee labor?"
"No way! Didn't we just send people to repair the river dam last month? Why are they here again? Do you want us to survive? We still have a lot of work to do in our fields."
"It shouldn't be. I saw that Fu was very happy when he notified me. It doesn't look like a bad thing."
Some villagers who didn't know about this hurried to ask: "Really? How could it be that our village head could bring us good things?"
It's not that they are slandering the village head behind his back. What they fear most on a daily basis is that the village head scolds people in meetings.
There has been no good thing for all these years. They have never avoided corvée labor, military service, and taxes. They have no one above them in Leiwo Village, and they are poor and miserable. They can't raise any money to please their boss.
This means that sometimes their village not only has to complete its own share of the levy, but may also be forced to complete other people's corvée. Their village head never stands up straight in front of the people above him. Only when facing them will he straighten his back and keep talking, and everyone must stand up straight and listen to his scolding.
As more and more people entered, the several yamen runners who came with Steward Cao began to take the initiative to help maintain order.
When you enter, you should sit where you should. Don’t sit randomly or in groups. If you sit too far apart, you won’t be able to hear what is being said in front of you!
Seeing the yamen runners, everyone was instinctively afraid and didn't dare to speak casually, let alone let the children walk around the place. They all gathered together obediently.
There were more than a thousand people, a huge crowd. If no one helped maintain order, it would be difficult to hear what was being said from the back.
Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, Lei Lizheng stood up, raised his hand and pressed it down, signaling everyone to be quiet.
"Everyone, please pay attention. We have called you all here today because we have something important to announce concerning our Leiwo Village! A distinguished person has come to our village. Our village is going to make it big!
You should have heard of the Qiao family in Laohu Town. The person sitting next to us is Cao, the steward of the Qiao family. He has brought us good news. Please ask the steward to speak to us. "
After Lei Li finished saying "I'll give a speech to everyone", he stood up and saluted Cao Laosan who stood up to speak.
However, the applause from the audience was sparse and not very cooperative. Lei Lizheng blushed. Cao Laosan had investigated the situation of the village in advance and did not care about this situation.
He believed that after he finished speaking, if he didn't let the villagers applaud, they might not be happy about it.
"Hello, folks. I am the manager of the Qiao family in Laohu Town. I believe you have all heard of me. Today I am here to tell you two things. The large piece of wasteland near the river near Linshui Town has been granted to our Qiao Mansion by His Majesty the current emperor. Now we are going to start recruiting workers to open up the wasteland.
The second thing is that the wharf of Qingshui River behind your village is recruiting porters. We will start recruiting people from Leiwo Village. If you want to earn some pocket money, you can come to the village chief to sign up later.
Okay, that's all for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask now! I will try my best to answer them clearly for you. "
The village knew about the wharf behind the village from the day it was built, but the land did not belong to them. Everyone was busy with spring ploughing and repairing the river dam, so they did not pay much attention to it.
As for the wasteland at the west end of the village, they wanted to reclaim it at that time, but were told by the village chief that the land had also been taken away, making their village like a punching bag, being attacked from both sides.
At first they thought that the village chief wanted to occupy the land and didn't want them to mine it, but they didn't expect that this place actually belonged to the Qiao family.
It turns out that the village chief was really wronged!
When their Leiwo Village was getting worse and worse, they really didn't blame the village chief. They just had the right time, right place and right people. But without all the other conditions, how could they develop?
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