At this time, Shi Er stood nervously at the door of the official hall, preparing to ask the soldiers on guard for directions and where to ask the soap workshop workers where to report. However, the soldiers standing guard were all very strong, and they stood there with their rifles in a majestic manner, which frightened the farmer Shi Er who had never seen the world.
Before he opened his mouth, the soldier with the gun saw him standing there for a long time and asked him: "You came to the soap workshop to report, right?" Shi Er quickly replied: "Yes! The soldier knows where to report. Really?" The soldier pointed toward the official hall and said, "Report to the fortification hall to the west of the lobby! You will be assigned a house there!" "Thank you, Master Soldier!"
Shi Er timidly walked into the Baihu Official Hall and looked to the west. Sure enough, he saw a large house with many people like him standing on their backs and saluting. It was probably the Fortification Hall. Shi Er walked into the house carrying a quilt and luggage. "Reported by Soap Workshop?" "Yes!" "Where are the interviewer's playing cards!" Playing cards? Shi Er quickly found the stamped card from the package and respectfully handed it to the officials in the fortification hall.
"How many members of your family will move to Fanjiazhuang?" "It's just me!" The Li family member in charge nodded, looked at the account book in his hand and said, "Then I'll give you a room in a small villa, and give you a room in the third. The west room on the second floor of No. 52 Zhengyuan Street shares a living room, kitchen, bathroom and toilet with three people. The monthly rent is seventy cents, and the rent will be deducted from the monthly payment." Shi Er heard the official say. After reading a lot, I didn’t understand what Zhengyuan Street or the second-floor west room meant. I just understood that I didn’t have to pay for this place, so I nodded quickly and said, “Okay, okay!”
"Huang Laosan, take this worker to No. 52 Zhengyuan Street. You can ask him later if he is short of money. If he is short of money, give him a month's money first!" "Got it!" the official finished. , Huang Laosan, a steward, came out and took Shi Er to Zhengyuan Street. Huang Laosan seemed to be a man of few words, and did not speak to Shi Er along the way. Shi Er observed Tianjing City with his eyes as he walked, and saw people building houses and walls everywhere, and oxcarts transporting wood and bricks were constantly on the road. Although the weather was cold, it was a lively scene.
After walking for half a mile on North Street, Huang Laosan, who was leading the way, took Shi Er and turned into Zhengyuan Street. Zhengyuan Street is in the west of the north of the city, and there are densely built brand new villas on both sides. After finding the small villa No. 52, Huang Laosan looked at Shi Er with a smile and said, "We're here, it's here!" Shi Er opened his eyes to look at the house, and saw that the house had two floors, with black tiles on the roof. , bluestone threshold, and the smooth cement-brushed walls are coated with snow-white lime, which looks very beautiful. Shi Er was used to seeing leaky mud houses in Shijia Village, and felt that such grand houses were only lived in by urban gentlemen.
But how did Huang Laosan lead himself here? Is this a house for him to live in? Huang Laosan knocked on the door, waited for a while and saw no one responded, then pushed the door open. "No one else has come to report yet, you are the first resident!" Huang Laosan stood in the house. Seeing that Shi Er did not follow him into the house, he asked with a smile: "What are you doing standing at the door? Not yet?" Come in quickly?"
Shi Er looked surprised, opened his eyes and asked, "Is this a house for me to live in?" Huang Laosan smiled and said, "Yes, come in quickly!" He walked into the house with his luggage. Huang Laosan took him to the door of a bedroom on the west side of the second floor and pushed the bedroom away. The bedroom is three meters long from east to west and four meters wide from north to south. It is very spacious. The cement walls are painted with snow-white lime. There is a double bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a simple wooden chair. There is an oil lamp on the desk.
These furniture and this house were already luxurious in the eyes of Shi Er, who was born in a farmer's family. "This is your room. The rent is seventy cents a month! It will be deducted from the monthly payment." Shi Er asked again in disbelief: "Is this a room for me to live alone?" Huang Laosan smiled. Said: "Yes, the kitchen, bathroom and toilet in the main room are downstairs. You and the other three people in this villa share it. There are many empty houses in the village now. If you get married in the future and one room is not enough, you can apply to rent two A room costs one hundred and forty cents a month. If you want to support the elderly, you can rent an entire villa."
Shi Er still couldn't believe that such a good house was for him to live in, so Na Na asked: "How can I live in the master's house?" Huang Laosan laughed when he heard this and said: "What master's house? This is a worker’s house. The master’s house is bigger than this and has a big yard! Even the medium-sized villa I live in is better than this.”
Only then did Shi Er believe that this house was for him to live in, and bit his lip and stopped talking. Seeing his restrained look, Huang Laosan smiled and said, "Why are you carrying a quilt on your back? Just make the bed quickly." When Shi Er heard this, he quickly took off his luggage and started making the bed. Huang Laosan stood aside and watched Shi Er work, and then asked: "Did you bring the money?"
Shi Er was stunned when he heard this, thinking that Huang Laosan was going to ask him for money. Sure enough, this house was not for free. Shi Er bit his lip and replied honestly: "I only have fifty cents with me." Huang Laosan smiled and said: "Fifty cents is not enough! Look at your cotton-padded jacket, which is all patched. Your pair of ripped cloth shoes looks very disgraceful to others. Why don't you borrow one month's monthly money from the Ministry of Works' account to spend it, and I won't give you any monthly money next month."
Hearing this, Shi Er was stunned for a long time before he realized that Huang Laosan wanted to lend him money. I was stunned and didn't know what to say. Seeing that Shi Er didn't say anything, Huang Laosan directly took out two taels of silver from his arms, took out seventy cents, and said with a smile: "This is your salary for next month. After deducting seventy cents of rent, you will get one thousand I’ll give you nine hundred and thirty coins. You can use it to make a new suit of clothes. How decent would that be? Tianjing City hasn’t been built yet, but several tailors have already come in to take over the work, just to the east of Siwen Street!”
Shi Er took the two slings of copper coins from Huang Laosan, as if he was in a dream. "Is this one month's money? Two ounces of copper coins?" The gentleman in the village only told Shi Er that Tianjing City was recruiting people to work, but did not mention the salary at all. I guess that gentleman didn't believe the treatment written on paper in Tianjing City at all, so he simply didn't tell Shi Er and only told Shi Er that he had a bite to eat. So when he arrived here, he was surprised to find out that he was actually given two copper coins a month.
Huang Laosan took a breath and asked curiously: "Didn't you know when you came to apply for the job? Our city lord gives two copper coins a month, and you have to take care of meat for three meals!" "Three meals, you have to take care of meat?" Shi Er felt that he didn't have enough brains. Use it, why is this city lord who hires people so nice? He allows him to live in such a beautiful big house, gives him two copper coins a month, and eats meat three times a day. He also has to borrow money for himself to spend first. Is this Tianjing City? Is this city lord a military attaché of the Song Dynasty? What ability do you have to make these people treat you so well?
Shi Er had heard about Tianjing City a long time ago. He originally thought that Tianjing City was a pit of fire and that he would be a miserable person for the rest of his life. Who knew that I would be treated like this when I got here. With such treatment, wouldn't he live much better than his married eldest brother? Wouldn't he be able to marry a wife in a few years? Is it a blessing for me and my eldest brother to come to Fan Tianjing City empty-handed after we separated?
As he thought about it, Shi Er shed tears. With a pop, Shi Er knelt in front of Huang Laosan and said loudly: "Dad Huang, Shi Er never thought that he could live such a life! Shi Er would like to thank the city lord. Please tell Huang Laosan and the city lord in the future. If you ask me to go west, I will never go east. Even if you ask me to go through mountains of swords and seas of fire, I will go."
Huang Laosan laughed when he saw how upright the rural boy was. He quickly helped him up and said with a smile: "What nonsense are you talking about? I don't want you to do that. You can work hard in the soap workshop and stick to the confidentiality regulations." Come on! If you follow the city lord, you will have many good days in the future!" Shi Er got up, wiped his tears, and nodded vigorously.
Yang Peng plans to move all his nearly two thousand workers to Tianjing City. The first thing to move is the salt processing factory, and then the soap workshop. The various processes in the salt processing plant are not closely connected. As long as there is some inventory of various semi-finished products, production will not be affected, and moving a certain process to another location will not affect it. The soap workshop is different. Each process in the soap workshop is an assembly line operation. If any one process is moved to another place, the entire production cannot be organized. So Yang Peng decided to move part of the salt factory first, and then move the soap workshop after the people who moved first made Tianjing City lively.
Single workers are easy to deal with, just move them to Tianjing City and rent small villas. But it is more troublesome for those with families. If the worker's spouse has other errands to do in the Acropolis, the workers are not willing to let the spouse quit his job and move to Tianjing City. Although the monthly salary for outside errands is lower, after all, it is also a part of the family's income.
Yang Peng asked Zheng Yuan to count the spouses of workers in the salt factory and report them to Yang Peng.
At last count, Yang Peng found that among the 1,770 workers in the salt factory, there were about 400 people in the first category who were single and unmarried, more than 900 people in the second category who had spouses but their spouses did not work, and only about 300 people in the second category. They belong to the third category, that is, those whose spouses are away on errands. After all, in this era, more women spun and weaved at home and did housework, and fewer went out to work, so there were more people in the second category. As long as Yang Peng finds new jobs for the more than 300 spouses of the third category, he can move all the industrial workers to Tianjing City.
Yang Peng feels that this is not a difficult task. When Tianjing City becomes bustling, all walks of life will be short of people, and the spouses of more than 300 workers will be able to find new jobs in Tianjing City. Yang Peng decided to move a total of more than 1,300 households in the first and second categories to Tianjing City first to boost the popularity of Tianjing City. After making up his mind, Yang Peng asked the masons to build a new building for the salt factory in Fanjiazhuang. After the new factory was repaired on December 24, Zheng Yuan notified the workers to move. Yang Peng organized manpower to transport salt processing machinery, striving to transport 1,300 machines to the new factory within three days, and then continue production.
On New Year's Eve, the salt factory closed early at noon. Gu Laoer got off work and wandered around the North Gate Market of Tianjing City for a while. He bought a pair of couplets, a firecracker, five kilograms of bacon, ten kilograms of fresh meat, twenty kilograms of flour and ten kilograms of various vegetables.
He has moved to the official hall of Tianjing City with the city lord, and now rents two rooms in a small villa on Dexin Street. After 1,300 salt workers settled in Tianjing City, vendors in Cangzhou City immediately sensed business opportunities—these salt workers were a consumer group with stable monthly income and considerable spending power. Many traders left Cangzhou City and set up business in Tianjing City. As expected, their business was booming.
Yang Peng set up four markets in the four directions of Tianjing New City. By the last day of the third year of Zhidao, there were already quite a few vendors in these four markets. There are those selling rice, noodles, meat, oil, vegetables, chickens and ducks, and groceries. Vendors know that workers in Tianjing New City have strong spending power, so they prepare enough goods on New Year's Eve.
Gu Laoer carried the New Year's goods and returned to the door of his villa happily. In front of the villa, Gu Laoer's old mother was walking around on the street with a cane. Now that Gu Laoer is working in a salt factory, the old mother has had enough to eat and is in much better spirits. After moving to the small villa in Fanjiazhuang, she liked to hang around the neighborhood.
Gu Laoer called his mother and said, "Mom! I bought meat and went home to make dumplings!" But Gu Laoer's mother said, "You and your wife make the dumplings, and I'll just go down and eat them later!" Seeing Gu Laoer listen, He was stunned by his own words, and his mother said again: "When you were a child, I raised you and it was a hard work. Now I ask you to make a dumpling for me to eat. Why don't you like it?"
Gu Laoer glanced at his mother, a little speechless, opened the door and walked into the villa. Entering the door and going up to the second floor, he saw his wife weaving in the house. After Gu Laoer entered Tianjing City to work, he got two or two months of money. Gu Laoer saved money for several months and bought a traditional loom for his wife to weave at home. Although this kind of loom is far inferior to the shuttle loom in the textile factory, women can still make some hard money by weaving at home. A diligent woman can earn more than one tael of silver in a month.
With the monthly income from Gu's second son and the money earned by his wife's weaving, the Gu family has finally escaped poverty and is no longer a family without food. Gu Laoer rented half a villa in Tianjing City from the city owner and shared it with another family. The monthly rent was 140 Wen, which was nothing to the Gu family today. Gu Laoer and his wife lived in a room upstairs. Gu Laoer's mother had bad legs and feet, so she lived in the room downstairs.
Seeing Gu Laoer carrying firecrackers couplets in the door, the Gu family's wife ran out of the house happily and said with a smile: "Master, you have bought so many years of goods!" Ever since Gu Laoer got his monthly salary from working in the salt factory , Gu Laoer's wife no longer calls him by his first name, but calls him the head of the family. Gu Lao Er smiled and said, "We are moving to a new house this year. Let's have a good New Year." The Gu family's wife looked at the New Year's goods on Gu Lao Er's hands and said with tears in her eyes, "Our family has all eaten bacon this year! This time last year , there is only ten kilograms of flour left at home, which is not even enough to survive the New Year!"
Gu Lao Er smiled and hugged his daughter-in-law with his shoulders, and said with a smile: "It's all over, what are you talking about? Let's go to the kitchen to make dumplings!" The Gu family's daughter-in-law wiped her tears with her hands and said, "The He family is here Use the kitchen, we'll go there later!" The He family was another working-class family who shared this villa with the Gu family. The husband also works in a factory in Tianjing City and his wife spins yarn at home. There is an old mother and a boy at home.
Gu Laoer said: "That's the only disadvantage of sharing a house. You still have to share the kitchen!" Gu's wife said: "What's not good about it! It's great! This is my first time living in such a good house! Look at how many cement walls there are. It's strong and flat. This furniture is so decent. It's ten times better than the house we rented in Hao's courtyard in Cangzhou! If you want me to live in that room in Hao's courtyard again and squeeze in with my mother every day, how can I I’m not going either!”
After thinking about it, the Gu family's wife added: "And the rent of these two rooms is about the same as the rent of one room in Cangzhou City! The city lord treats us so well!" Gu Laoer said: "This place is naturally better than the Hao Family Courtyard. It’s much better there. But I mean, when we have children some time later, we will rent a small villa by ourselves instead of sharing it with others. It only costs two cents and seven cents a month.”
The Gu family's daughter-in-law complained: "When you have a little money, you start spending it randomly!" But Gu Laoer asked: "Daughter-in-law, we have money to raise children now, has there been any movement in your stomach in the past few months?" The Gu family's daughter-in-law said He complained: "When we were in Hao's courtyard in Cangzhou a few days ago, your mother sat in the room as soon as she saw you come back. We haven't shared a room a few times in half a year. How could she be pregnant?"
Gu Laoer nodded and said, "Mom has a weird temper, and my daughter-in-law has suffered!" The Gu family's wife said, "It's better now. We have two rooms. We don't have to stay in the same room with your mother every day. I’m pregnant!” Gu Laoer said, “How about we go into the house and try now, maybe we’ll get pregnant!”
The Gu family's wife nodded, turned around and walked into the house. After Gu Lao Er also entered the house, the Gu family's wife looked at the door and made sure that Gu Lao Er's mother had not entered the villa, then carefully closed the door.
In mid-February, the last 300 or so employees of the salt factory also moved to Tianjing New City. This group of employees are employees whose spouses have errands in Cangzhou. They were able to move to Tianjing New City smoothly thanks to the various demands generated by the bustling Tianjing New City. Now the residents of Tianjing New City have great spending power: more than 2,000 masons need to eat and drink every day, 1,300 worker families who have moved into Tianjing New City earlier produce various consumption every day, and there are 2,000 monthly workers. Soldiers from Qian Sanliang's Selection Regiment occasionally go out to the camp to spend money.
The consumption of these tens of thousands of people has driven demand in various industries, making Tianjing New City a prosperous business: rice sellers, vegetable sellers, oil sellers, meat sellers, cloth and silk sellers, tailors, and earthenware pot sellers. Those who sell iron pots, blacksmiths, porcelain, gourds, chopsticks, boxes, firewood, furniture, door locks, headscarves and hats, restaurants, tea gardens Those who sell hook-bars, storytellers, opera singers, and teach in private schools, all kinds of shops and venues are gradually opened, all opened by bosses and merchants from Cangzhou.
However, Tianjing New City is sixty miles away from Cangzhou City. It is impossible for these business owners to hire people from Cangzhou City to do work. Otherwise, hired workers would come from Cangzhou City to Tianjing New City every day to work, and they would have no time to sleep. These shops and businesses have to hire local people, which creates a huge demand for manpower in Tianjing New City. However, the residents of Tianjing New Town are all craftsmen and workers, and there are very few idle people who can go out to work to meet the labor needs of these service industries. The vendors in Tianjing New Town have always been in a shortage of workers.
It was not until Yang Peng moved the last 300 or so workers from the salt factory and the soap workshop to Tianjing New City that the labor demand in Tianjing New City was alleviated. More than 300 worker spouses appeared on the labor market and were immediately absorbed into various industries that were short of workers. For example, after Huang Gui, a laborer of Yang, a salt factory worker, moved to Tianjing New City, he quickly found a job as a handyman in a restaurant. He paid for one dinner a day and earned one or two or four yuan a month, which was much lower than what he originally earned in Cangzhou. The money is still high.
With his new job, Huang Gui no longer had to worry about leaving his hometown, and he quickly integrated into the life of Tianjing New City. That night, Huang Gui waited for the restaurant to close, washed his hands, and walked to his villa on Chongwu Street.
Huang Gui's family rented an entire villa on Chongwu Street. Huang Gui's wife Yang works in a salt factory and earns 20 taels per month for food. Her income plus Huang Gui's 1 tael or 4 taels per month gives the family an income of 3 taels or 4 taels per month. It’s enough to cover the expenses of a family of four. When Yang moved to Tianjing New Town, she said she liked the cleanliness of a single-family house, and Huang Gui couldn't resist her insistence on renting an entire house.
However, the rent of two cents and seven cents a month is not high, and the Huang family can afford it now. Huang Gui walked home and saw his daughter Daya and son Shitou playing with other children in front of the house under the moonlight, playing a game of catch. When the two children saw their father coming home, they stopped playing and ran to Huang Gui's side.
"Daddy is home!" Huang Gui touched Shitou's head and asked Da Ya with a smile: "Have you eaten tonight?" Da Ya said: "We scooped out the rice and vegetables in the pot and ate them. I'm full! Shitou and I each ate half of the meat buns in the pot!" Shitou was about to speak when Daya snatched him away. He could only look at Huang Gui with wide eyes.
"Has mother come back?" Daya answered eagerly: "Mother has come back. Are you lighting a lamp in the room upstairs and reading something?" Huang Gui was stunned and asked, "What is mother looking at?" Da Ya rushed to say: "I don't know!" Huang Gui nodded, let the two children continue playing, and opened the door to enter the house. After entering the house, Huang Gui saw a bright light upstairs and walked upstairs.
The small villa has four rooms. Huang Gui and Yang live in a room downstairs. The two children live in a room upstairs. There is also an empty room for storing sundries. The one with the light on is for storing sundries. room of things. Huang Gui walked to the door of the room and saw Yang's face full of joy, looking at a piece of paper with unknown content there. In front of the tung oil lamp, the 26-year-old Yang was illuminated golden yellow by the light of the oil lamp. She looked very beautiful, which made Huang Gui fascinated.
His wife was also a beauty before marrying him. She has endured hardships with him these years, Huang Gui thought to himself. Yang suddenly noticed Huang Gui at the door and hid the paper in his hand behind his back in a panic. Huang Gui walked into the room and said with a smile: "You are off work!" Yang shook his head and spat: "You are off work!"
Huang Gui asked again: "How are you getting along with the co-workers today? What's new?" Yang tilted her head and said, "There's nothing new. Every day is just work, eating, making salt, and eating!" Huang Gui echoed. Said: "It's quite boring to say, doing the same thing every day."
Yang glared at Huang Gui and said, "Isn't it just making salt? It's hard to find a job with such a high monthly salary even if you are holding a lantern! With money, you can support your family!" Huang Gui said with a smile: "That's true, since If you go to the salt factory, our family's life will be much better!" Yang smiled. Since she worked in the salt factory, her status in the family has improved a lot. Now my husband always obeys me when he speaks and doesn't argue with me.
After thinking about it, Mrs. Yang suddenly took out the piece of paper hidden behind her, placed it gently on the table, and said to Huang Gui with a smile: "Let me show you!" Huang Gui saw his wife put the paper behind her back. He took out the things and looked at them under the lamp curiously. He saw that the paper was densely written with small characters, and there were two fingerprints at the bottom, but Huang Gui couldn't understand a single word.
"Shitou, what is this?" Yang proudly pointed to the two names at the bottom of the paper and said, "You always recognize these two names, right? This is your name Huang Gui, and this is my name Yang Xiuniang !”
Huang Gui nodded and said: "I recognize these two names!" Yang proudly puffed up her chest and said loudly: "This is the land deed! The land deed of our house!" Huang Gui was stunned for a moment and finally understood. . He thought for a long time, swallowed his saliva and said helplessly: "You still don't listen to me and bought this house?" Yang suddenly put away his pride, glanced at her husband with fear, and said: "I If I don’t listen to you and buy a house, you don’t want me?” Huang Gui said helplessly: “How could I not want you?”
Yang laughed again after hearing this and said loudly: "That's OK! Look, our family has our own house. This beautiful villa now belongs to our family. What a happy thing!" Huang Gui Na Na said: "Didn't I tell you not to buy? It's better to rent than buy!"
Yang didn't listen, and shook her head and said: "It costs two yuan and seven cents to rent this house every month. After fifteen years of renting, the city lord will recover the cost of building the house. At that time, we will still have to pay rent every month. If we buy a house, we will have to pay rent." It’s different. I borrowed fifty taels of silver from the city lord to buy this house, and borrowed another five taels to buy the furniture furnished by the city lord. Calculating the interest of 4%, the city lord deducted four cents and three cents of silver from my monthly money, and deducted ten cents. The loan will be paid off in five years, and the house will be ours! Then we won’t have to pay to live in the house!”
"Huang Gui, you said that if you spend an extra six cents a month, you can have your own house. How can there be such a good deal in the world? Wouldn't it be a fool not to buy such a good thing?" Huang Gui sat there. There was no talking in the bed. Yang asked dissatisfiedly: "Huang Gui, do you think what I said is true?"
Huang Gui said angrily: "When you insisted on renting an entire villa a few days ago, didn't you make up your mind to buy this house?" Yang was a little panicked, looked at her husband's face and said nothing. After thinking about it, Huang Gui said angrily: "This costs four dollars a month! What if we have another child and the family doesn't have enough money?"
When Ms. Yang heard her husband's words, she breathed a sigh of relief and said loudly: "The head of the house has enough and enough money. In addition to paying back the money to the city lord every month, our family still has two taels, nine cents and seven cents of silver every month. Even adding one more person is enough money. At worst, we can save more and make a few new sets of clothes. If money is tight, we can rent out this unused room, and we can earn an extra seven cents a month!"
"Besides! This house is so big! When Shitou gets married, we won't have to buy a house for him!" Huang Gui looked better when he heard that Yang was willing to have another child for him. After hearing what Yang said about Shi Shi's marriage in the future, Huang Gui gradually figured it out and put away his angry face. Huang Gui said: "If you are willing to have another child, I will follow you!" Yang glared at Huang Gui and said, "If I have my own house, I will be willing to have another child! If I rent a house, I will not have another child!"
The knot in his heart was opened, and Huang Gui opened his smile and leaned in front of the oil lamp to read the land deed with his wife. "With this land deed, this house belongs to us?" Yang said: "Of course! Look at these two words, these two words are 'land deed', and look at the name, 'Yang Peng', this is the city lord My lord’s name, this land deed means that the deputy city lord sold this building to us!”
Huang Gui murmured: "I never thought our family could have such a good house!" When Yang heard this, she said with a smile on her face: "Yes, our family can also have such a good house! Look at this The walls, the roof, what a nice house! Before I came to work at the City Lord Salt Factory, I never dreamed that I could live in such a nice house!"
If you want to know what happens next, let’s look at the breakdown in the next chapter.
