Thinking of this, Ruan Zhenggang spoke up:
"Since we are establishing a school, we must build the best school possible. Considering that the village will have more and more people in the future, the construction standards of the school must be high, and it should be able to enroll at least one hundred children."
In addition, the school must also have a kitchen and dormitories, so twenty taels of silver would definitely not be enough.
Here's what I'll do: I'll set aside two hundred taels of silver to build the school, and every year I'll set aside some silver to help children who can't afford to go to school.
At the same time, we will also invite several teachers to instruct the students, so that all the children who enter the school will achieve something."
Ruan Zhenggang's generous gesture delighted the village head. If Ruan Zhenggang's vision were followed, the school he built would be enormous, equivalent to an academy in the town. This would attract more children to study there, and Shuixian Village would become famous.
Ruan Zhenggang's change from initial reluctance to strong support in the end puzzled Zhao Xian. Building a high-quality school would greatly benefit the development of Shuixian Village. He was already well-off and would definitely provide more financial assistance to the school in the future.
Once the matter was settled, construction began. This school was a traditional one, only admitting boys, so it wouldn't have any impact on Master Lin's school.
But this is bad news for Fang's school; without a doubt, Mr. Fang's school will have to close down.
However, Ruan Fang had already thought it through. She could hire Mr. Fang to do some other things, but not have him teach.
The villagers were overjoyed to hear that a school was going to be built in the village. Most of the villagers had young children and had long wanted to send them to a reliable school. Now, there was finally hope.
Some villagers began to come and help, hoping that the school would be built as soon as possible so that the children could start school quickly.
After staying in Shuixian Village for two days, Ruan Zhenggang left with Ruan Jingui, while Ruan Fang stayed behind. Her current task was to build a school.
A few days later, the soap workshop's output had reached 1,000 bars of soap per day, but it still could not meet the market demand. Every day, people would come to Zhao Xian's house to wholesale soap.
Some people come in groups to buy in bulk, and then divide the soap among themselves. Since soap is a household necessity and doesn't spoil easily, they can buy more because it's much cheaper than the retail price in the market.
During this period, more people entered and left Narcissus Village, which kept the patrol team very busy. They questioned everyone entering the village and only allowed them to pass after confirming that there were no problems.
It seems that my soap workshop needs to expand production, at least five times. Fortunately, I still have some empty buildings in my workshop and factory. With a little renovation, they can be used to process soap, and expanding production five times should not be a problem.
Now he would have to hire workers again. He was just about to go out to find the village head when, unexpectedly, the village head came looking for him.
"Look how happy Uncle Wang is, is there something good happening?" Zhao Xian asked, seeing Uncle Wang's beaming face.
"Here's what happened. This morning, I was helping out at the school when Miss Ruan chatted with me. She told me that Narcissus Village is different from ordinary villages and has huge development potential."
If the village's resources are utilized and its advantages are fully leveraged, Shuixian Village could be developed into a market town.
Zhao Xian really hadn't thought of developing Shuixian Village into a market town. All market towns are formed gradually over a long period of time.
Most of these towns were originally small villages, but as the population gradually increased and a certain industrial base was established, they eventually developed into market towns.
Thanks to the imperial court's previous bestowal, the area of Narcissus Village has almost doubled, and the village now has several industries, with villagers gradually developing large-scale duck and pig farming.
This will lead to an increasing number of merchants coming to the village, and transactions will become more frequent, with the beginnings of a market town emerging.
This is indeed a golden opportunity for the development of Shuixian Village, and we must not miss it. We can use our existing industries as a foundation to drive the development of other industries in the village, just like producing preserved eggs can inspire villagers to raise ducks, and producing soap can drive the development of pig farming in the village.
If more and more merchants come to the village and transactions become more active, it will drive the development of more industries in the village.
Zhao Xian didn't think about it any further. Since Ruan Fang could see this, it meant she had her own ideas. He could talk to her and see what she thought.
Zhao Xian forgot about his own business and went directly to the school construction site with the village head, intending to talk to Ruan Fang about it.
At this moment, Ruan Fang was busy. When she saw Zhao Xian and the village head coming over, she immediately dropped what she was doing and went to greet them.
"Sir, Village Head, you've arrived."
“Miss Ruan, you’ve had a long day. Let’s find a place to sit down and talk about something,” Zhao Xian said.
"Okay, please sit here."
There were a few chairs under the shade of a tree nearby, so the group went over and sat down.
"What does the Registrar intend to discuss?" Ruan Fang asked.
"I just heard from the village head that you have the idea of developing Shuixian Village into a market town. Could you tell me about your thoughts?"
"I don't have any ideas, I was just saying it casually, please don't take it seriously, sir."
"Miss Ruan, please don't be so polite. Actually, I've had this idea for a while, but I've been too busy to have time to think about it."
From now on, Miss Ruan will be residing permanently in Shuixian Village and will be a member of the village. If she has any good suggestions, she should definitely speak up and contribute to the development of Shuixian Village.
Ruan Fang smiled and said:
"These are just some of my immature thoughts. If there is anything inappropriate, please forgive me, sir."
Ruan Fang paused for a moment, then continued, "I visited Shuixian Village a while ago and stayed there for a day. Only twenty-odd days have passed since then, and the village has undergone tremendous changes. The main changes are as follows."
First of all, the village has become more popular. A lot of people have come to the village these past few days, mainly for the soap. Some have come to buy in bulk, but many more have come to place group orders. No matter what, these people have definitely boosted the village's popularity.
I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a group of villagers gathered in an open space next to the clerk's workshop. They're selling things there, including food and drinks.
Some people also brought their own vegetables and poultry to sell, and they actually managed to sell some. So, the number of people coming here to buy and sell things gradually increased.
After Ruan Fang mentioned it, it turned out to be true. In the past few days, some villagers had indeed been buying and selling things near her house, but she hadn't noticed it.
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