Once the dike breaks, Baotian Town downstream will be the first to be affected and will suffer the consequences!
After hearing her plan, Lu Daikui couldn't help but show a shocked expression; "Young lady, you're going to hire people to dig a canal downstream of the Luohe Dam?"
Liu Yingying nodded solemnly; "That's right,"
"The only people I can trust are you few, so this matter can only be handled by you!"
Seeing how much Liu Yingying trusted him, Lu Daikui felt a warmth in his heart, but then he scratched the back of his head and said;
"But we few are also responsible for looking after your small farm in Peach Blossom Village, this..."
They were neither able to spare the time nor had the capacity to deal with it.
However, Liu Yingying had already planned ahead; "This isn't a big problem. Jin Wu can stay at the small farm alone. I'll select other capable people from the villagers later. Brother Lu, you take Guan Xiaolu and the others to Baotian Town, but just the few of you definitely won't be enough..."
"You still need to help me find some more people to work... With so many people working, they need to eat well. Go home and ask Sister Zou for her opinion, and see if you can ask Sister Li and the others to help cook for everyone?"
"Oh, and remember to make it clear to everyone that the workers are paid 15 coins a day, and the cooks are paid 8 coins a day!"
Lu Daikui was both delighted and stunned, his only reaction being to nod repeatedly; "Okay, okay! No problem..."
When he got home, he told Zou Xiuzhi about it.
Zou Xiuzhi found it hard to believe that such good days had come so quickly.
She had just roughly calculated that if a man earned 15 coins a day for working and a woman earned 8 coins a day for cooking, the two of them could earn 23 coins a day.
That's nearly seven strings of copper coins a month.
During this period, an ordinary family of five from the lower classes would only spend fifty coins a month.
"Da Kui, our good days are coming!" Zou Xiuzhi excitedly hugged her husband and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.
This made Lu Daikui a little embarrassed...
Then, Zou Xiuzhi tidied herself up and hurriedly went out to find Li Chunmei and the others.
"Yingying is still thinking about the hardships we went through together, otherwise, how could we have gotten such a good opportunity?"
Li Chunmei nodded happily, unable to hide the smile on her face; "That's right, I'm saying it's our good fortune to have met Yingying!"
Zou Xiuzhi wholeheartedly agreed with her; "That's absolutely right!"
The two then went to find other women who had gone up the mountain with them.
Finally, thanks to the efforts of Lu Daikui and Zou Xiuzhi, the workforce expanded to a full two hundred people, and the women's support team also numbered nearly thirty.
After receiving the message from Lu Daikui, Liu Yingying immediately gave the order that everyone should start work the next day.
Then she went back to her room, took out paper and pen, and began to do some calculations.
The combined wages for two hundred workers and thirty support staff amounted to a little over three taels of silver per day. This did not include the cost of purchasing materials or daily food expenses...
She still has three thousand taels of silver in hand, which should be enough to last her for quite a while.
But the dredging of the river channel needs to be done as soon as possible, because the upstream dam could burst at any time.
Two hundred workers are clearly not enough...
So Liu Yingying asked Jin Wu to pass on a message to Lu Da Kui, asking him to find a way to recruit another two hundred people.
With the number of people doubling, she found herself short of money.
Liu Yingying stroked her chin. No, she needed to come up with a few more ways to make money...
The village chief, Wang Delu, quickly learned that Lu Daikui and others from the small farm had been transferred.
He had always been envious of Lu Daikui and the others' jobs. To be honest, he had also resented Liu Yingying in his heart for not thinking of the villagers first when there was such a good job available.
On the contrary, it benefited a group of outsiders.
But then he thought about it again, and he knew how the people of Taoyuan Village treated Liu Yingying.
Furthermore, Liu Yingying's personality has changed drastically and she's become quite difficult to deal with, so naturally he didn't dare to go up to her and complain...
But now, this opportunity has arrived!
Early in the morning, Wang Delu, in a good mood, was about to leave home after drinking half a bowl of thin porridge when he was bumped into by his clever nephew, Wang Dabing.
"Uncle, where are you headed?"
Wang Delu gave him a slightly smug look; "Where else could I go? I'd be going to find a way out for you youngsters..."
Wang Dabing immediately guessed what was going on and leaned forward to whisper, "I heard that there's only one person left on Sister-in-law Zhu's farm now, so she definitely needs to bring in some more people. Uncle, why don't I go with you to find Sister-in-law Zhu?"
It's not harvest time yet, and compared to working for the local gentry or doing work relief, it's definitely more worthwhile to work for Liu Yingying.
After all, it's no secret that she's generous and pays high wages.
There are quite a few people who are envious of that small farm job!
Wang Delu thought about it and realized that his nephew was always clever and had performed well in his previous interactions with Liu Yingying, so he agreed to take him along.
Liu Yingying had just finished breakfast when she sent her six children to copy the "Rules for Children".
Well, we currently have four children, plus Lin Cuicui and Bao'er, that makes six.
Of the children, only Bao'er is the youngest at five years old; the others are all quite old.
However, Zhu Jiawang and Zhu Jiafu are exceptions, as Zhu Xiucai personally taught them for several years when he was still alive.
Because Zhao Di was a girl, adhering to the traditional belief that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent, the scholar never taught her to read.
However, Liu Yingying treated everyone equally, and all the children, regardless of their prior knowledge, started learning from scratch for her.
Lin Cuicui felt flattered by this; "Aunt Liu, you can teach Zhaodi and Huiyun, I won't follow along."
"Hmm..." Liu Yingying frowned as she looked at her; "What, you don't like reading and writing?"
"No!" Lin Cuicui subconsciously defended herself, then blushed and lowered her head.
"Pen, ink, paper, and inkstone are too expensive; they're not something a family like ours can afford. I...I don't want to add to your burden!"
By the end, Lin Cuicui's eyes were filled with tears.
How could she not want to study?
There used to be a schoolteacher in the village, and she had secretly gone to listen to his lessons a few times.
The teacher said that reading can enlighten the mind, make people understand principles, and prevent them from living their whole lives in a daze...
She wanted to study back then, but there was no reason for girls in the countryside to go to school!
Liu Yingying reached out and patted her little head, smiling as she said, "Alright, Auntie doesn't lack this little bit of money. As long as you want to learn, you can follow Zhaodi and the others from now on. After a while, I'll try to find a teacher to come back and teach you!"
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