Chapter 47 Chapter 47 Preparing to build a road
Lin Si never forgot the classic saying: If you want to be rich, build roads first.
The roads in Li County are not only bumpy and uneven, but also full of mud and muddy water when it rains. Since there is no rubber shoe now, most people wear straw shoes, which are extremely inconvenient.
Lin Si planned to use the waste carbon slag, gravel and broken bricks left over from iron smelting to pave the road.
However, the autumn harvest has just passed, so let’s wait until after the New Year to decide everything.
This was Lin Si's second year in Li County. After the New Year, it was her twelfth birthday.
Lin Si is very concerned about his height. Not only does he measure it every day, he measures it two or three times a month. Now it is finally time for him to grow taller rapidly.
Chun Yi looked at Lin Si with some envy, "The county lady has grown taller again."
In comparison, Chun Yi, who is the same age as Lin Si, grows very slowly.
Lin Si poked Chun Yi's forehead and said, "Don't worry about your height. How are your reading and simplified numbers learning going?"
This is a new rule set by Lin Si. The maids and servants in the county lord's mansion must know simple words and basic simplified addition and subtraction of numbers.
Spring is exciting at first.
As Lin Si's chief personal maid, she believes that she should set an example and take the lead!
Chunyi sat in the first row and the first seat in the literacy class for the children in the manor. Before the class started, her eyes were full of desire for knowledge.
But this desire did not last long, and Chunyi felt dizzy and distracted.
Even more distracted than her were the sisters Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao, who both fell asleep while sitting in the middle of listening.
Nan Qiao and Nan Shuang are the physical education teachers at the manor. When the children were called upon, they raised their hands and put them down again and again, but in the end, they just gave up.
Of course, there were also those who were diligent and eager to learn, such as a maid who was originally responsible for sweeping and cleaning. She sat more upright than anyone else and listened more attentively than anyone else.
She was bought in later and suffered a lot before entering the county lord's mansion. She knew that the opportunity to study and learn to read and write was not easy to come by.
Chunyi is a straightforward person and doesn't have many tricks. When she encounters something she doesn't know, she will humbly ask the maid named Tingyu for advice.
Chun Yi said embarrassedly: "I studied very hard! But it's just that the word recognizes me, but I don't recognize this one."
"But Tingyu studies very hard! She learns very quickly, and I ask her whenever I don't understand something." Chunyi fully agrees with Tingyu's hard work.
The children of the manor took turns to teach in the small class, and they would naturally tell Lin Si about the servants who performed well.
Listening to the Rain is indeed the best performance among them.
As for the worst, they must be the Nan Qiao and Nan sisters.
Although the other servants could not understand and learned painfully, they did not dare to be too presumptuous in class.
Only these two people slept openly and drooled while sleeping!
But the students didn't dare to call the roll in class, so they had to let them sleep.
Lin Si first met Tingyu alone.
Chunyi went out happily to call people, and on the way she gently told Tingyu not to be nervous, saying that the county master was very nice and asked her to go because she performed well in the literacy class.
Tingyu rarely sees Lin Si. She is usually responsible for cleaning. Even if she sees him, she only looks at him from afar.
Tingyu was very nervous. She had always been a very honest person. Her parents always said that she was dull and didn't like to talk.
Tingyu followed Chunyi and came in tremblingly.
Tingyu said dryly that the county lady was fine, then nervously twirled his fingers, waiting for Lin Si's instructions.
Lin Si really didn't have much memory of Tingyu, but he vaguely remembered that he was an honest child.
When it was other maids' turn to sweep, they would just sweep up the fallen leaves and wipe the rest of the place, but when it was Tingyu's turn, she would very honestly wipe the places that needed to be wiped until they were shiny.
"The teachers all said that you are the most hardworking and serious in class, and you learn the fastest." Lin Si praised her.
Tingyu's face suddenly turned red. She didn't know what to say at this moment. No one had taught her these things.
After trying hard to hold it in, he finally managed to utter the six big words: "Thank you, County Lady, for your praise."
Tingyu performed well in the literacy class, so it was naturally impossible for her to be a maid who only did chores like sweeping and cleaning. She had to do other things.
Lin Si had always planned to eliminate illiteracy, but opening a school was full of obstacles.
The first is the faculty. Except for Zuo You, there is nothing.
Lin Si doesn't like Dachen's very old-fashioned teaching methods. Since she has set up a school, she would like to incorporate some modern subjects and education.
But she has a shortage of talented people under her.
There are still many areas that need to be cultivated for the children in the manor. Reading and writing are just the basics. Fighting with swords, guns, sticks, language skills, information acquisition, intelligence analysis, and identity forging are all basic.
It's only been a year, and it's still a long way for them to start their journey.
Lin Si felt a little reluctant if Zuo You had to take care of both the manor and the school by himself.
This is too much exploitation.
We have to select some people to follow Zuo You and let her bring out some teachers.
Tingyu is the first person she has taken a fancy to.
So Lin Si ate his water balls while saying, "Once you graduate from the literacy class, you won't have to do the cleaning work anymore."
Tingyu was stunned for a moment. She lowered her head and asked, "If I don't sweep the floor, then what should I do?"
Lin Si smiled faintly, "You'll know when you graduate."
Then Lin Si found Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao.
Perhaps because they knew they were in the wrong, the two Huskies looked around with wandering eyes when they entered the door.
"I don't know why the county lady wants to talk to us, but is there another business trip? That's great, let me go quickly!" Nan Qiao's eyes lit up.
Nan Shuang retorted without hesitation, "County Lady, let me go. I love traveling the most. As for my sister, let her study hard in the literacy class."
The two sisters almost turned against each other.
Lin Si finished his last water ball and put down his bowl. "You two are always slacking off and sleeping in your literacy class, and you still want to go on a business trip?"
After hearing this, the two Huskies calmed down and replied sullenly, "It's not that I'm sleeping on purpose. I was just so sleepy listening to you that I couldn't help falling asleep."
Nan Shuang also nodded, his face wrinkled, "County Master, I wanted to attend the class, but when I realized it, I had already fallen asleep."
Lin Si had no choice but to find another way.
"Haven't you two been improving your martial arts?"
The two Huskies raised their heads with expectation in their eyes.
"Learning to simplify numbers will improve your martial arts skills."
Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao looked bewildered. "What do those tadpole characters have to do with improving martial arts?"
Lin Si patiently coaxed, "If you can't graduate from the literacy class, I will stop Feng Ling from sparring with you, and I won't allow you to discuss things privately. You won't get any new weapons, and you won't be able to eat more than three bowls at work."
Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao's eyes instantly turned into despair, "This! This won't do!"
If you can't eat three bowls of rice, what's the difference between this and taking their lives?
They don't want to go hungry.
But if you don’t want to starve, you have to study. The county lady is too cruel, too cruel.
"Remember not to sleep in tomorrow's literacy class." Lin Si smiled and sent Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao away.
The two sisters walked out of the house slowly and heavily, and Nan Qiao even staggered slightly.
＊
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. This year, people can buy meat and go home to prepare a fairly sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner.
Gong Jingxiu's stall business is so good that people come almost from morning to afternoon, and she also chats with those who come to buy meat.
Who made her love to listen to gossip and strange things?
The most discussed topic among the people who came to buy meat was the road construction after the New Year.
"I heard that the county lady and the county magistrate want to build a road."
"Repairing roads? That's great! When it rains, my shoes get soaked and I can't do any work."
"You don't know this, right? I have inside information. I use charcoal slag and gravel to pave the road."
"Cinders? Can charcoal slag be used to pave roads?"
"If the county lady says it's possible, then it's possible."
"Too!"
"I listen to the county lady. Whatever the county lady tells us to do, I will do it!"
Xubu Zhuo and Xubu Yan, wearing dyed cotton coats, lined up quietly at the meat stall.
All workshops are closed during the Chinese New Year, and the Hu people who smelt iron are no exception.
At first, the people would look at the Hu people a few more times, and then discuss them in whispers. Now it has become commonplace and they are treated like ordinary people.
Xubu Chuo's Chinese had improved a lot, and he could basically understand what the people cutting meat in front of him said.
He was born on the grassland, where there were no roads and the grassland seemed endless as far as the eye could see.
So he didn't feel much about the road construction. He even thought that the roads in Li County were already very good.
The person in the queue ahead continued, "When the road is built, they'll definitely need to hire more people to do the work, and the wages will probably be the same as when they built the manor."
"I want to go. My wife works in a textile factory now, earning a few hundred coins a month. I'm busy farming every day, but I only make enough to pay the taxes and have some food left over."
“There must be more than just a few left this year!”
"That's right, the harvest this year is really good."
Finally, it was Xubu Chuo and Xubu Yan's turn to buy meat. Gong Jingxiu was still enthusiastic, "What would you like to buy?"
Xubu Chuo liked to eat pork belly, and Xubu Yan liked to eat ribs. Xubu Chuo said in increasingly standard Chinese, "Cut some ribs and pork belly."
Gong Jingxiu couldn't help but praise, "Your Chinese is getting better and better!"
Xubu Chuo was a little embarrassed and said, "I want to become a part of Li County as soon as possible. Life here is so good."
The days in Li County were so happy that Xubu Chuo would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night afraid that it was just a dream.
Anyway, he has made up his mind to never return to the grassland, and he even thinks that his name is not good.
The Han people all have their own surnames and given names, but Xubu was the surname of the nobles on the grassland in the past, not their own names.
Xubu Chuo wanted to change his name and remove the two words "Xubu".
Not only are these two words difficult to pronounce in Chinese, Xubu Chuo also finds them unpleasant to the ear.
He wanted to have a Han Chinese name.
Xubu Chuo's entire family had no objection to the name change. Life on the grassland was too miserable, and the nobles only bullied the common people, so they had no sense of belonging.
After buying the meat, the brother and sister went home.
Xubu Yan asked in Chinese, "Brother, hasn't our name change application been approved yet?"
"There are so many things to do during the Chinese New Year. Our case is just a small matter. Let's wait a little longer."
The matter of changing the name was reported to the county government. Liang Nian chose the surname Xu, which has a similar pronunciation to Xu, and then removed the word "Bu".
When the brother and sister returned home, the county magistrate was about to get up with the paperwork in his arms. "Your family's application to change your name has been approved. The county magistrate has chosen the surname Xu for you. From today on, you are Xu Chuo, Xu Yan, Xu Bei, and Xu Tai."
Xu Chuo and Xu Yan stood there in a daze, talking to themselves excitedly.
"We...we have a name!"
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