Jin Wu arrived with several people, telling the others to wait outside before approaching Liu Yingying.
"Your Excellency, we have done as you instructed, harvesting all the ripe fruits and vegetables from the farm and storing them in the cellar. Please come and inspect them!"
Liu Yingying replied, "You've all worked hard for the past six months!"
Then she asked Huiyun and Zhaodi to bring out the small box from her room.
The small box was heavy, and it was full of bags of silver.
Now, there are ten people working for her at the Taoyuan Village farm, including Jin Wu.
“Each bag contains ten taels of silver. You are the manager of the farm, so you have two taels more than them. I will hand them all over to you.”
Jin Wu looked at the heavy silver coins and was shocked, but he dared not reach out to take them.
"Your Excellency, the wages you pay us each month are already higher than those outside..."
Liu Yingying interrupted him directly, "Because you have worked so diligently, and because you are guarding the farm, you have saved me a lot of trouble. You deserve all of this!"
"I'll still need to rely on you guys in the future, so you have to accept this money!"
As she spoke, Liu Yingying shoved the money into Jin Wu's arms, patted his shoulder, and earnestly made a suggestion;
"You're not getting any younger. The past is the past. People always have to look forward. Take advantage of the New Year holiday and find a matchmaker to help you get married."
Jin Wu was a little embarrassed by what she said, and he raised his hand and scratched his head in a simple and honest manner.
"Your Excellency, please stop teasing me. I'm used to being alone..."
Liu Yingying sighed softly. She knew that Jin Wu had never been able to get over the trauma of his wife and children's tragic deaths.
However, he is still young and has a long future ahead of him. Hopefully, he can have a warm little home of his own again.
After Jin Wu distributed the silver that Liu Yingying had given him to everyone, everyone was both happy and shocked.
"The Lady of Ning'an County is too generous! Brothers, let's make a deal for next year, no one can let us down. The Lady has treated us well, and we have to treat her well in return!"
There is no disagreement on this point.
Since Jin Wu was not from Qiushui Town, he returned home that same day.
All the farms and snack workshops in the village will be closed for half a month during the Chinese New Year.
The workshop could be shut down completely, but the secrets of the fruits and vegetables on the farm could not be exposed to outsiders, so Liu Yingying left three people behind to work overtime.
You can get triple pay for working overtime!
Far from complaining, those who weren't selected to work overtime actually felt regretful for not earning triple pay...
Liu Yingying went to check the cellar after finishing her work in the afternoon.
The farm is well-managed, so the growth cycle of these fruits and vegetables is much shorter than the normal planting time. In just six months, the cellar is already full of food.
Grain can be stored for a year or two without spoiling, but agricultural products with high water content, such as fruits and vegetables, cannot be preserved for long.
Therefore, Liu Yingying had people make unsold fruits into dried fruits and preserves, and vegetables into various pickles, kimchi, or simply dried them for storage.
As a result, these agricultural products face the problem of unsold inventory.
Previously, she only supplied the needs of Furong County and a few surrounding counties, resulting in a supply exceeding demand.
This only accounts for the Taoyuan Village Farm, not including the area in Baotian Township.
Baotian Town has cultivated more than 2,000 mu of fertile land!
Next year, once all of Baotian Town is planted with rice, the grain yield alone will increase several times over.
Therefore, Liu Yingying urgently needs to find new supply and sales channels.
But that's after the new year; right now, she has another plan to implement.
That evening, Liu Yingying had her child notify all the women and unmarried girls in the village to come to her house for a meeting.
Besides the women from this village, there were also a dozen or so women from several nearby villages who were familiar with the village, all crowding together in the courtyard.
The winter nights were cold, but Liu Yingying had already prepared by building a shed above the courtyard, and several braziers of glowing red charcoal were placed in the yard.
With so many people huddled together by the fire, eating sunflower seeds, fries, and potato chips, they didn't feel the cold at all.
"Sister-in-law, what exactly did you call us over to talk about?" someone asked curiously.
"Alright, everyone, please be quiet for a moment," Liu Yingying began to speak.
The emperor fell silent immediately, even stopping the act of cracking sunflower seeds.
"Over the past six months, my workshop and farm have been able to operate in the non-ferrous metals sector thanks to everyone's hard work. The farm is mainly the men's business, and I've officially given them a break today."
"The workshop is staffed entirely by women. Before the New Year, I'd like to hold an awards ceremony for everyone. You can vote to select ten outstanding workers, and each of the top ten will receive a reward of five taels of silver!"
As soon as Liu Yingying finished speaking, the crowd below erupted in chaos!
Five taels of silver! A family like theirs in a mountain village only spends two or three taels of silver a year.
Unfortunately, there are forty or fifty people present today, but only about ten of them may actually receive the money.
So who will be these ten lucky ones?
Finally, through a vote, the ten people who received the most votes were selected.
Zhang Yueying, Tian Sijie, Shi Sanmei, Wang Chunfeng…
The smiles on the faces of those who received the prize money were impossible to hide; they were also secretly delighted.
Those who weren't chosen had varying feelings; some were envious, while others were jealous.
Of course, there were also a few who liked to make sarcastic remarks, saying in a affected tone: "Look how capable they are, especially that Shi Sanmei, her daughter is so eager to move into the Zhu family's house permanently."
"Ha, we're not as lucky as her to have such a perceptive daughter."
Someone nearby couldn't stand her sarcastic remarks and sneered, "Don't you have a daughter too? If you're so capable, why don't you let your daughter work for Sister-in-law Zhu?"
As soon as the words were spoken, someone couldn't help but laugh again; "Her daughter is eleven or twelve years old, and she still has two yellow snot dripping from her nose all the time. If she really went to get close to Sister-in-law Zhu, wouldn't that be disgusting?"
"What did you say? Say it again, and I'll tear your mouth apart!"
The woman was immediately enraged.
Just as he was about to start copying, he was stopped in time by the people around him.
They are at Liu Yingying's home.
They are able to live a good life now entirely thanks to Liu Yingying. Even if there is any dispute, it cannot be made at Liu Yingying's house.
If we really offend someone, what if Liu Yingying doesn't want them to work next year?
Liu Yingying was an observant person; despite the large group of dozens of people below, she could see exactly what each of them was doing.
Where there are many people, there is conflict and strife.
But as long as she doesn't exceed her limits, she'll turn a blind eye.
After all, this is the way to conduct oneself in the world.
"Alright, everyone, quiet down and listen to me..."
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