That night, the four of them gathered together to play mahjong and stay up late to celebrate the New Year. Even the two children stayed up late with them before going back to their rooms to sleep.
The next day, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Xu Han first took the two children to pay New Year's respects to Grandpa Zhao and the Taoist priest. Then Mu'er and Ze'er went on to pay New Year's respects to Yunhua and Zhao Yunyun, and without exception, the two prepared generous red envelopes for them.
After the family members exchanged New Year's greetings, the servants came to wish them a Happy New Year as well.
Li Wen led everyone to kneel down and said, "Wishing you and your wife a healthy, prosperous, and successful new year. May all your wishes come true, and may your business flourish. May everything go smoothly and may you be blessed with wealth."
Lu Chuan and Xu Han sat in the seats of honor, looking at the large group of servants in front of them. They were overjoyed, thinking to themselves, "Life is getting better and better."
Xu Han picked up a tray that had been prepared beforehand. The tray contained red envelopes, and she handed it directly to Li Wen, who was at the front, indicating that Li Wen should distribute them to everyone.
Li Wen took the tray she handed him and knelt down again. The people below shouted in unison, "Thank you for the reward, Master and Madam."
Xu Han waved her hand. "I said what I wanted to say yesterday. Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, so everyone should rest well and not go to the fields to clear land."
You're all on holiday for the next few days. You'll return to work after the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.
Hearing this, everyone laughed even more heartily; after working all day, who wouldn't want to get a good rest?
However, they also knew that this so-called rest did not mean doing nothing and lying at home sleeping all day.
The host family needs someone to take care of them, and the chickens, ducks, and geese need someone to look after them, so it's really impossible to ignore everything.
But since the host family said that, regardless of whether they could actually do it, they were grateful, at least the host family was thinking of them.
After the servants left, Xu Han started playing mahjong with a few other people.
They spent two or three days like this, but in the end, the Taoist priest and Lu Chuan couldn't stand it anymore, so on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, they went hunting in the mountains again.
Not only could they not stand it, but the servants in the house had also been restless for a long time.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, they didn't find it particularly boring, each taking time to handle their own personal matters.
The next day, everyone tidied up the yard together, organized the things inside, and fixed what needed fixing, replacing all the broken things with new ones.
On the third and fourth days, after everything was finished, Old Zhu organized people to go to the mountains to cut a lot of bamboo and started weaving baskets and hampers at home. He also wove a lot of drying nets and mats.
I'll take advantage of my free time to finish all these things so that I can start drying various kinds of mushrooms and other similar items when spring arrives.
While the men did these tasks, the women weren't idle either. Since they couldn't get acupuncture before the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, they would cook delicious meals for everyone in different ways every day.
Cleaning the house, changing clothes and bedding, etc., are all tasks.
There's a saying that's true: there are only lazy people in this world, not unseen chores. It just depends on whether you want to do them or not. If you do, you can clean and wash everything.
By the fifth day, the able-bodied men could no longer stay still and began clearing the land.
The women were also busy, making clothes for the spring and doing mending and patching.
After a few days of leisure, Xu Han couldn't stay idle any longer. On the afternoon of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, she called Juxiang and Li Wen over to start planning the tasks for the new year.
This task plan was something she had been sketching and writing in her spare time over the past few days, and she revised it many times before she was finally satisfied with it.
"The most important thing right now is the land at the foot of the mountain. There's too much land; we definitely can't cultivate it all."
Li Wen, you're tactful and reliable, and I trust you with your work. For now, you should teach the tavern and shop to others.
The tavern has gradually stabilized, so your absence isn't a big deal. Focus on the matters outside first.
Li Wen was somewhat unhappy upon hearing this, but he nodded in agreement.
Although he was reluctant to hand over the shop he had personally built to someone else, he also understood that his wife had more important things to entrust to him.
The lady has taken a liking to him and doesn't want him to be stuck in the shop all the time. She's thinking of him, and he should be happy about it.
Seeing that Li Wen understood, Xu Han didn't say anything more, and then calmly continued, "In a couple of days, Li Wen, you should go down the mountain and find the people down there to build the workshop."
I've already chosen the location for the workshop. It will be built at the intersection where we always go down the mountain. It's not far from the main road, so it's convenient.
After the house is built, you should lead people to repair the road leading to the official road, so that it will be convenient for vehicles to pass through in the future.
I've already drawn up the blueprints; you two take a look and see if there's anything that needs changing.
The new workshop is very large, and the locations of living quarters, storage areas, and workshops are all marked.
For convenience, Xu Han specially divided them into different courtyards, each of which was large and fully functional.
This blueprint was finalized after a long discussion with Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest.
Similar to modern factories, they are all located in a courtyard, with many large courtyards in the middle, making it convenient for drying things or parking.
Not only that, there is also a large open space at the entrance of the compound, so that vehicles coming to pick up goods will have a place to park.
In addition, there were dedicated granaries. All the land at the foot of the mountain totaled about two thousand mu. Although it was officially only seventeen hundred mu, the county magistrate had given them a lot of leeway when the land was measured!
In short, the entire workshop occupies an exceptionally large area and is quite large in scale.
If it weren't for the silver bestowed by the Emperor, Xu Han really wouldn't have dared to build it all at once, mainly because it was too expensive.
Although they are just ordinary brick and tile houses, their size is undeniable!
The entire construction would cost at least seven or eight hundred taels of silver. Just imagine how large it would be!
Of course, since Xu Han dared to build it, she certainly wasn't afraid of people causing trouble.
She held an official position, and none of the wealthy families near the county town dared to provoke her, much less cause trouble for her.
Otherwise, Xu Han wouldn't even need to take action herself; someone else would have taken care of him.
Xu Han herself is now very tough, standing tall and straight. As long as she doesn't court death by confronting people from the capital head-on, she is like a tyrant in this small county.
Despite saying that, Xu Han had no intention of oppressing the people.
At most, she just wanted to rely on her official position to avoid being bullied.
Bullying others is out of the question. Whether in her past life or before, she was from the lower class and knows all too well the hardships faced by those at the bottom.
It makes no sense for him to turn around and bully his former self now that he's successful. Neither he nor Lu Chuan has that kind of fetish.
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