The housewarming ceremony was not very grand. In the eyes of many people, it was even very low-key. The Feng family did not hold any celebrations. They simply notified relatives and friends to let everyone know that they had moved. Feng Ziying didn't even bother much, leaving everything to the daughters in the back house to take care of. It wasn't until the move was almost complete that he, as the head of the family, went to take care of it.
"Satisfied, why are you dissatisfied? You ladies have worked so hard these days to take care of things well. For my husband, I just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my life. I should be grateful to you ladies for my husband's good life."
The three girls Shen Yixiu, Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu led the way, followed by Baoqin, Miaoyu, Yingchun and You Erjie, and a group of girls gathered behind. Taking advantage of the good weather and bright sunshine, they could cover the entire garden. The pattern here has been settled.
Yuanyang and Jin Chuaner walked in front and led the way.
"My husband, please don't say that. You are busy with big things outside. I and my sisters are unable to share your worries for my husband, so we can only take care of the trivial things in the back house so that my husband will not have to worry about it when he comes back." "
Shen Yixiu smiled sweetly and looked forward to his appearance.
"It's all thanks to the two sisters Baochai and Daiyu, as well as Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er, who have carefully discussed with me during this period of time, and finally managed to make a rough move here, because considering that it may still happen in the future, Some sisters are coming in, so I have reserved some..."
Baochai and Daiyu kept saying modestly, while Yuanyang, Ping'er and Jinchuan'er were all too busy saying they didn't dare.
"Sir, please see, this was the original study room of Mr. Bao. It has been changed now. It is mainly used for daily assignments. On weekdays, the slaves Heping'er and Jin Chuaner take turns arranging daily doorkeeping, driving, driving, etc. Kitchen, cleaning, masonry, flower seedlings and other matters...
Since Feng Ziying was invited to come here today to take a look at the entire arrangement of the Feng Mansion, Yuanyang did his part and took over the main introduction. This was what Feng Ziying and Shen Xuelin had agreed upon at the beginning.
The daily chores in the house are managed by Yuanyang, with Ping'er and Jinchuan'er as assistants, assisting the three grandmothers.
If there are large financial expenditures in daily life, then the three daughters of Shen Xuelin must be invited to take charge.
If it is a general matter, Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er will handle it and keep it in a file. At the end of each month, it will be reported to Shen Xuelin and the other three girls for review.
Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jin Chuan'er also work in shifts, so they don't have to work too hard.
Although there are fewer women, servants, and servants in the mansion now, with the addition of children and people in the house, and the huge courtyard and garden, the number will definitely continue to increase, so the logistics management of the entire mansion is also quite complicated. .
Now a rough calculation shows that in addition to the grandmothers, aunts and their personal maids, there are more than 80 male servants in the entire Feng Mansion, such as concierges, night watchmen, coachmen and grooms, gardeners, masons, carpenters, purchasers, and warehouse keepers. People, this does not include Li Guibao, a large-scale professional bodyguard.
In addition, there are women as the main servants in the kitchen, laundry, and cleaning, as well as many maids in each room, which adds up to more than a hundred people.
Feng Ziying couldn't believe how there could be so many people before. Later, Yuanyang simply introduced the situation in Daiyu's house with three bedrooms, and Feng Ziying finally understood.
In addition to the two personal maids Zicuckoo and Xueyan, there are four young maids, eight rough maids, and four women who are responsible for keeping vigil at the outer door in Daiyu's house. In addition, Miaoyu originally only had one personal maid. , two little maids, four maids, four maids, and four women keeping watch at the outer gate. The same goes for Xiuyan. Now that Miaoyu and Xiuyan have given birth to children, they each have a wet nurse, a little maid, and a maid. Maid, that is to say, there are more than 40 servants in these three rooms alone.
Feng Ziying originally found it unbelievable that the two houses of Rong Ning had thousands of people. Now it is her turn. According to a rough calculation, excluding the male servants common to the whole house, the number of female servants in each house is forty. is growing and will likely continue to grow.
In other words, not counting his mother’s aunt, there are two servants in his third house.
There are more than a hundred people, and if you include my mother and aunt, the number will probably exceed 300.
In addition, he also has professionals who are responsible for bodyguard protection. There are dozens of them. Even if they don't all need to be stationed at his house, some of them will definitely stay at his house on night duty every day.
So after all this calculation, Feng Ziying felt that the artificial labor force in this era was really worthless. It was no wonder that Rong Ning's second mansion had such a grand event with thousands of people.
Feng Ziying also asked about the wages of the servants in her house - that is, the monthly salary, which was basically the same as that of Rong Ning's second house, slightly higher. After all, Rong Guo's house had begun to decline at that time and could not make ends meet. In this way, it is considered very competitive in Beijing, so the monthly income of the Feng Mansion is relatively abundant, and the servants are quite satisfied, especially at the end of the year, the Feng Mansion basically gives out a bonus - a red envelope. , is also a large number, so the loyalty of the entire Feng Mansion's servants is much stronger than that of Rong Ning's Second Mansion.
Of course, the Jia family is a century-old family, and there are many Jia clan members in it. These are people who don't do farming but just ask for money to eat. In addition, the population is large, so they can't afford it.
For example, in the Rongguo Mansion, Wang Xifeng's monthly allowance is about five taels of silver, and Li Wan's monthly allowance is ten taels because he has to take care of Jia Lan. The girls and aunts who have not left the government have the same monthly allowance, which is two taels per month.
A maid like Yuanyang who is by Jia Mu's side can probably get one tael of silver per month. Jin Chuan'er who is by Mrs. Wang's side can also get this amount, and the attacker who is by Baoyu's side can get the same amount.
If it is a big maid in an ordinary house, such as the She Yue Qiu Wen, it will cost about one ounce of money. According to the conversion ratio of silver and copper coins in the Dazhou Dynasty, one tael of silver can be exchanged for 1,200 copper coins, that is He said that in the entire Rongguo Mansion, except for Yuanyang, Jin Chuaner, and Xiren who could get one tael of silver per month, the other maids could only get one sling of coins, which was one thousand copper coins. While ordinary maids received 500 copper coins, rough servants could only get 200 to 400 copper coins.
For a rural family in the suburbs of Beijing, the annual income is only twenty taels of silver. This family basically refers to a family with three strong male laborers and two or three female laborers. The maids in the Rongguo Mansion, even the income of the maids. They are also very enviable.
For example, the monthly income of a maid in the Rongguo Mansion can reach twelve taels of silver, which is ten taels of silver. If you add the three to five taels of silver red envelopes awarded by the mansion at the end of the year, you can occasionally get it from the masters once or twice. With rewards such as silver beans, the income of a maid can reach fifteen or six taels of silver, which is almost equivalent to two or three strong laborers in the suburbs of Beijing.
The farmer's income does not include the maids the government has to pay every year.
We buy some clothes, coats and trousers, which is also a big expense.
Calculated based on current commodity prices, the grain price at Zhangjiawan Port in Tongzhou in a normal year is about 9.5 cents per stone for corn, about 1.25 cents per stone for japonica rice, and about 1.24 cents per stone for inferior flour. The annual income can buy about ten shi of flour, which is 1,500 kilograms of flour, or fourteen shi of japonica rice, which is 2,100 kilograms of japonica rice, or ten kilograms of corn, which is indispensable to poor people in the north. Seven stones of corn can be broken down into 2,600 kilograms of corn.
Of course, in the later stages, the Rongguo Mansion could no longer afford such expenses, so not only were the monthly payments of the maidservants deducted a lot, but they were often in arrears, and even calculating characters like Wang Xifeng and Tanchun couldn't solve the problem. This conundrum.
It's really hard for a good woman to make a living without rice. With nothing to make ends meet, the Rongguo Mansion is in decline and even dilapidated. Even if there is no case of rebellion, it will be difficult to maintain it.
It can be said that the case of Fu Ni was a fig leaf for the Jia family's collapse, lest they could no longer survive and could only shamelessly sell the things in their own house. In fact, this kind of thing It has been done for a long time, but it is just a method of pledging it at a pawn shop and then not redeeming it when it expires.
Compared with the income of the servants in the Rongguo Mansion, the Feng Mansion was still a bit chaotic in the early days. Later, when Shen Yixiu and Xue Baochai married in, they began to standardize it. But generally speaking, the income of the servants in the Feng family is about the same as that in the Rongguo Mansion. It has increased by about 20% to 30%.
For example, generally
If the servant girl takes a sling of money in Rongguo Mansion, then she will take one or two silver coins in Feng Mansion, which is an extra two hundred copper coins, such as Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Ying'er, Zijuan, Xueyan, Siqi, Xiuju , a personal maid like Ling Guan only gets one, two or five coins from the Feng Mansion.
Of course, Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Zijuan, and Siqi had already been taken over by Feng Ziying. The maids who usually had to sleep with them were different. Two silver coins per month, that is, doubled every month.
Concubines like You Erjie, Yingchun, and Xiuyan received five taels of silver per month. However, because Yingchun and Xiuyan had children, in addition to doubling their monthly wages and receiving ten taels of silver, the government also In addition, the two daughters will be given an additional ten taels of silver per month as child subsidies, which will be used by the mother-in-law.
These ten taels of silver are not used for the children's food, clothing, housing and transportation. Those expenses are uniformly spent by the government. This silver is a special allowance given to mothers alone and is used to encourage women in the government to have more children. Raising a daughter, to help the Feng family continue its incense and flourish, was also a reward specially used by the Duan family from their own private money.
As concubines, Miaoyu and Baoqin received eight taels of silver per month, but because Miaoyu gave birth to a child, the monthly salary doubled to sixteen taels per month. In addition, the child allowance of ten taels of silver was added, reaching 20 taels. Six taels, this is already a quite astonishing amount for a woman's family. The actual monthly payment of the three mistresses is actually more of a formality, but rules still have to be set.
The monthly allowance for each of the three of them was thirty taels. Because Shen Yixiu gave birth to Tong Niang, the monthly allowance was doubled to sixty taels. In addition, the subsidy for the additional twelve children reached an astonishing seventy taels per month. After one year, Eight hundred and forty taels is equivalent to the income of 42 rural households in the suburbs of Beijing, and is almost as much as the official salary of a fourth-rank official in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
After such a calculation, Feng Ziying herself felt very appalling, but when she thought about it, compared with the two million monthly pocket money of the wealthy ladies in modern Hong Kong, it seemed that it was beyond the pale.
All in all, the total amount of expenses in the house every year is quite staggering, but for a family that is prospering, it seems to be a normal phenomenon.
