People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 732: The Dividends from the Women's Workshop Shocked Everyone
Before the morning mist dissipated, the entrance of the Women's Workshop in the east of Jinling City was already crowded with people.

The female workers came before dawn. Their coarse cloth clothes were starched and hard, and there was still indigo from yesterday's dyeing in the cracks of their nails, but everyone's eyes were as bright as newly polished bronze mirrors.

Today is the first day they receive dividends.

Zhu Youwei stood in front of the red lacquered accounting desk, holding a thick "Performance Book" in her hand, her fingertips wandering over the densely packed numbers.

Chen Han stood aside, holding a stack of brand new banknotes in his hand. Each banknote was stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Industry and glowed slightly silver in the morning light.

"Madame Liu!" Zhu Youwei's clear voice pierced through the crowd.

Aunt Liu, with mottled white hair, clutched the corner of her clothes and walked forward tremblingly.

The "Qianqing cloth" she wove was 30% thicker than others, and she worked with a few new girls to make cotton armor for the northern border military supplies for three nights, and her performance was rated as excellent. Zhu Youwei made a mark on the book with her fingertips: "Twelve strings of cash!"

Nanny Liu stood there in a daze, her lips trembling, until Chen Han stuffed the heavy string of banknotes into her hands. The crisp sound of the coins colliding woke her up from her dream.

She suddenly squatted on the ground, her rough fingers tightly grasping the money chain, and cried loudly: "My husband died in the war thirty years ago, and the pension was deducted to only three strings of silver... Now I can support my three grandchildren!"

There were soft sobs in the crowd.

When Xiaotao was pushed forward by several female workers beside the dye vat, the tips of her shoes were trembling.

The Songjiang cloth she wove had 20% more "blue" than others, and she led the girls to work overnight, so Zhu Youwei specially approved a reward of 15 strings of silver for her.

When the heavy string of banknotes was placed in her hands, the girl who had been sold to a weaving workshop suddenly turned around and hugged the spinning wheel. Her tears made the "3.14" engraved on the loom shiny: "If my parents knew that I could earn enough money to redeem myself..."

Suddenly, a muffled "bang" sound was heard from the corner of the workshop.

Aluta, a tall woman from the northern border, was resting her forehead on the blue brick floor, with ten strings of banknotes spread out in front of her... exactly the amount of compensation her late husband received when he died in battle.

Zhu Youwei was about to help her, but she suddenly opened her collar to reveal her hideous arrow scar: "Those officials said that a widow is not worth this price! But today..."

Before he could finish his words, half of the treasure note was soaked with tears.

At the restaurant across the street, Zheng Qingzhuo from the Ministry of Rites was making a clattering sound with his teacup.

He saw with his own eyes that the lame Mrs. Zhang received eleven strings of cash, which was thirty percent more than his own salary.

Even more eye-catching was Aju, a mute girl from the dyeing workshop, who kowtowed towards the imperial palace while holding a string of money, making a "ho ho" sound from her throat... The mildew-proof cotton cloth she wove was bought out by the Guanglu Temple, and she got a total of 13 strings of cash.

"Rebellion! The weaving lady's dividend is equivalent to the salary of a fifth-rank official!" Zheng Qingzhuo's roar startled the sparrows under the eaves.

Suddenly, there was an even louder commotion downstairs... It turned out that Xiao Tao had thrown all the copper coins she had been allocated into the Qinhuai River. She laughed like a bell amid the exclamations of the crowd: "I was sold as a weaving slave right here at the dock! Today I want to watch them sink to the bottom, so that the money I earn in the future will be clean money!"

The river surface was shining brightly, making the plaque "Women's School" in front of the workshop shine like the morning sun.

Chen Han suddenly pointed to the west corner gate: it turned out that the widows whose pensions had been withheld were stuffing banknotes into the merit box with "School of Physics Aid" written on it.

Madam Zhou, the thinnest, cried and laughed at the same time: "If there had been such a school back then, my son wouldn't have had to work as an apprentice in a pawnshop just to learn to read..."

As dusk dyed the eaves red, the roar of a steam engine came from the backyard of the workshop.

Zhu Yunhuan looked at the new spinning machines that the women workers had bought with their dividends, and smiled at Zhu Gaochi, "Did you see that, second brother? Aunt Liu just asked secretly if we could get coupons for our next dividend. She said that the banknotes were too eye-catching, and she wanted to sew the money into the lining of her grandson's cotton-padded jacket."

The moonlight climbed up the willow branches, and the last page of the dividend account book was blown up by the wind: a total of 980 strings of cash were distributed, and the minimum was 10 strings of cash.

In the basket of the flower girl by the river, there lay quietly a banknote with the seal of the Women's Workshop. The denomination was exactly one tael and two cents, and under the lamplight it shone with a silver glow similar to the tears of the women workers.

When the evening drum sounded from the direction of Xuanwu Gate, a few copper coins were still scattered on the bluestone slab in front of the Jinguo Workshop.

Old man Wang, who sells pancakes, squatted in the corner, rubbing his rough fingers repeatedly on the "Hongwu Tongbao" that was stepped into the mud on the ground, muttering: "If only my wife could weave cloth..."

"Come on!" Zhao, the butcher from the butcher shop next door, slammed his bone-chopping knife on the chopping board. "Yesterday you said that women should stay at home to nurse their children!"

The blade reflected the sunset, revealing the bloody scratch on his face caused by his wife's scratching... This morning, his wife heard about the workshop's dividend distribution and came to sign up with a rolling pin.

In front of the tea stall on Sanshan Street, several scholars in long gowns were arguing with each other.

"Ridiculous!" The old scholar with a goatee put down his teacup heavily. "The Instructions for Women says 'Be upright and respectful, and serve your husband'. How can you show up in public like this?"

The tea splashed on the bleached collar, leaving a dark mark.

The younger scholar opposite laughed out loud: "Master Zhou, didn't your daughter come to ask about the admission yesterday?" He dipped his fingertips into the tea and drew a "7" on the table. "I heard that % of the 'Quanqing cloth' purchased by the Guanglu Temple was dyed by her."

The old scholar's face suddenly turned red.

In the birdcage hanging under the eaves, the thrush suddenly fluttered its wings, startling the half-voucher waste that was at the bottom of the cage... There was still a cinnabar seal of the women's workshop on it.

Deep in the alley came the regular clacking sound of a loom. The mother-in-law of Aju, a mute girl from the dyeing workshop, was knocking on every door, holding the 13 strings of cash she had just received, and said, "Did you see it? This is what my wife earned!"

The sound of coins colliding startled the neighbor's child so much that he peeked through the crack of the door. In his hand, the child was holding a copy of the Thousand Character Classic distributed by the Jinguo Charity School.

"Pah!" Aunt Zhang from the opposite door splashed the vegetable washing water on the street, "What are you so proud of? My Cui Er is an apprentice at Xu Ji Cloth Shop, and she has been working for a month..."

The voices suddenly became lower because a few female workers wearing blue headscarves were walking by the alley. The copper abacus beads hanging around their waists were dazzling in the setting sun.

In the private room of the Riverside Restaurant, Xu Mingde, the young master of Xu's Cloth Shop, suddenly opened the window.

The peddler's voice came from downstairs: "Exchange coupons for spindles! Three coupons for one!" He stared at the backs of the female workers and suddenly threw the abacus to the ground.

"Boss, please calm down." The accountant bent down to pick it up, but was grabbed by the collar.

"Calm down?" Xu Mingde's voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, "The cloth woven by those widows is 20% cheaper than ours! All the orders from the Guanglu Temple have been lost!" He grabbed a piece of brocade produced by the "Women's Workshop" on the table, and the anti-counterfeiting patterns embroidered with gold thread were hot in his palm.

Cheers suddenly broke out outside the window.

The two rushed to the window and saw a lotus lantern floating in the middle of the river. On a piece of paper stuck next to the wick were six big words written on it: "Women's Workshop Recruiting Workers". The ink had not yet dried.

What was even more terrifying was that there were a few little kids with pigtails squatting on the shore, using branches to copy the textile symbols invented by the female workers on the mud.

"It's upside down." Xu Mingde's hand unconsciously stroked the window frame, where there was a newly carved mark, which was left when he secretly came to measure the size of the loom in the workshop yesterday.

He suddenly turned around and grabbed the accountant's ear: "Go! Burn all those Women's Commandments in the warehouse! Now go print the Essentials of Textiles!"

As dusk deepened, a dark figure slipped out from the corner door of the Ministry of Rites.

Zheng Qingzhuo, wrapped in a plain cloak, sneaked to the back wall of the Women's Workshop.

He had just taken out a charcoal pencil to write down the structure of the steam engine when he suddenly heard a clear recitation from inside the wall: "Three times seven is twenty-one, four times seven is twenty-eight."

The old minister's hand trembled, and the charcoal pencil drew a long black mark on the wall.

Through the cracks in the bricks, he saw Aju, a mute girl from the dyeing workshop, holding the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and drawing neat Arabic numerals on the sand table with her fingers.

"Grandfather?" The boy suddenly turned his head, frightening Zheng Qingzhuo so much that he stumbled and fell into the gutter. As the muddy water soaked through his official boots, he heard his granddaughter's voice coming from inside the wall: "Brother Zheng, this is how to calculate pi"

The sound of the gong at the fifth watch woke up the night watchman.

The old night watchman rubbed his eyes and saw a drunk lying on the corner of the street, holding a half-jar of wine in his arms, talking nonsense to the lanterns of the women's workshop: "My wife said she wanted to learn weaving and divorced me."

The wine jar rolled to the middle of the road, startling a few sparrows that were pecking at it. Under their claws was exactly half a banknote that had fallen when the dividends were distributed yesterday.

In the early morning light, white smoke began to emerge from the chimney of the dyeing factory.

Xiao Tao tied her blue headscarf tightly and smiled at the new girls behind her: "Today we are going to dye 300 pieces of 'π-shaped patterns'. The Physics Institute is waiting to make covers for the new measuring tools!"

What she didn't notice was that the proprietress of the grain store across the street was secretly stuffing the recruitment brochure of the Women's Workshop into her sleeve.

When the woman turned around, a wet fingerprint was left on the counter...it was the morning dew from when she wiped her tears.

……

The morning mist gradually dissipated, and smoke rose from the streets of Jinling City.

When Madam Liu pushed open the door, clutching the twelve strings of precious coins, her son standing by the stove suddenly stood up and dropped a clay bowl to the ground with a clang.

"Mom, is this... is this really issued by the workshop?" The son stared at the stack of banknotes with a big vermilion seal in her hand, his Adam's apple rolling up and down.

The sound of a wooden stick hitting the ground came from the inner room. The father-in-law, who had been paralyzed for many years, actually moved out by himself, supporting himself on the door frame, his cloudy old eyes fixed on the sleeve pocket of Madam Liu.

With a clang, Matron Liu poured the copper coins onto the Eight Immortals Table.

The father-in-law trembled as he touched a Hongwu Tongbao coin, and suddenly burst into tears: "When your husband died in the war, the pension given by the Ministry of War...is not even half of this!"

The son knelt down and was about to kowtow, but Aunt Liu grabbed his arm and said, "Go with me to the workshop tomorrow to sign up for the yarn transport team. You will get free meals and wages."

The same scene was played out at the home of Aju, a mute girl working in a dyeing workshop in the south of the city.

As soon as she gestured with the fifteen strings of cash, her husband, who had been addicted to alcohol for many years, kicked over the wine jar, stuffed the last half a string of cash in the house into her hand with red eyes, and stammered that he wanted to quit drinking and become a porter.

Aunt Zhang from the opposite side peeked through the window frame, and in a blink of an eye, the whole alley was telling about the rare incident of Aju's husband kneeling down to put on her shoes.

The busiest shop is the butcher shop along the Qinhuai River.

Just as Zhao the butcher was about to raise his bone-chopping knife to scold his wife for wasting the money for buying wool yarn, he saw her bidding for twenty strings of precious coins.

"The shopkeeper said that the crimson yarn I dyed was more evenly matched than that dyed by the old master!" The young wife held her chin high, and Zhao the butcher was so frightened that he couldn't hold his knife steadily.

Old man Wang, who sells pancakes next door, just laughed at him for being afraid of his wife, but his daughter blocked his mouth with the Songjiang fine cloth bought with the dividends.

However, there was an uproar at the home of Zheng Qingzhuo, the Minister of Rites.

The "π-patterned" handkerchiefs that Mrs. Zheng and her maids had made overnight were sold out at the tea party. When she came back, she had the loom moved into the main hall.

Zheng Qingzhuo was so angry that he smashed the inkstone, but he heard his granddaughter's crisp recitation from the backyard: "Three threes are like nine, three forty-two..."

The old housekeeper came trembling with fear and reported that the young ladies had pasted the "Instructions for Women" on the windows and were using Arabic numerals to trace the accounts in red.

As dusk fell, black smoke suddenly rose from the backyard of Xuji Cloth Shop.

The night watchman rushed in, only to see the young master leading his men to burn the carved blocks of "Biographies of Women". The firelight reflected the brand new "Secrets of Weaving" in their hands.

The foreman was about to scold when a silk-screened booklet was suddenly stuffed into his arms… The words “Eighteen New Dyeing Methods” on the cover sparkled brightly in the sparks.

After the night watch drum had been struck three times, the oil lamp in the home of Alutai, the widow from northern Xinjiang, was still on.

She was teaching her ten-year-old son to use charcoal to write mathematical equations on blue bricks when she suddenly heard some noise under the window.

When I pushed the door open, I saw the little kids from next door squatting in half of the yard, each holding a piece of rough paper with numbers written on it.

Some grandmother in the dark spat, "What's the point of learning to count, little girl?" Her little granddaughter immediately retorted, "Grandma was praising Aunt Liu for making money yesterday!"

Amid the sound of bangzi at the fifth watch, a burst of laughter broke out in the house of dyer Zhou Dajiao.

He ran around the yard holding the Ryukyu sea sand samples his wife brought back, and told everyone he met that he wanted to change his career and open a dyeing workshop.

Several old masters who originally kept their secret recipes and refused to pass them on to others were now crowded in the Zhou family's kitchen, researching new recipes. An old man with a white beard even took out his ancestral book "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" to exchange ideas.

At dawn, the steam engine of the School of Physics suddenly roared.

The bachelor on night duty rushed in with a lantern, only to see Xiaotao and a dozen female workers adjusting the flywheel. The copper coins in their hair were shining brightly in the steam.

The leading female worker smiled and added more coal to the furnace. The whistling sound of steam startled the sparrows in the tree.

When the first ray of sunlight passed over the wall of the imperial city, a flower girl walked past the women's workshop carrying a bamboo basket.

The newly posted job recruitment notice on the gate was crowded with people. A scholar in a long gown was humbly begging his wife to teach him how to write numbers.

A crisp "pop" sound came from deep in the alley. I don't know who dropped the carved block of "Four Books for Women".

……

The news of the dividend distribution of the Women's Workshop spread like wildfire overnight.

The female workers who returned home with heavy piles of precious money could not hide the joy on their faces, but this made some people feel jealous.

Inside the Ministry of Revenue, several officials gathered together, holding the salary books that had just been delivered, their faces changing from gloomy to bright.

"Have you heard? The women workers in the women's workshop, who weave cloth and dye yarn, can earn more than ten strings of cash a month!" A tall and thin manager lowered his voice, his tone full of disbelief.

"Isn't it? Madam Liu, a widow, received twelve strings of cash, which is equivalent to our monthly salary!" The other round-faced manager smacked his lips, his eyes filled with envy and jealousy.

In the corner, Zheng Qingzhuo had a gloomy face and held the teacup tightly in his hand.

He recalled Zhu Yuanzhang's meaningful words when he left the court yesterday: "Mr. Zheng, I know the accounts of the Jinguo Workshop better than your Ministry of Revenue."

At that time, he only felt a burning sensation on his face, as if he had been slapped in public.

"Ridiculous!" Zheng Qingzhuo slammed the table and stood up, splashing the water in the teacup all over the table. "A woman is out in the limelight and earns more than an official in the imperial court. How shameful!"

But as soon as he said it, he regretted it. Because several young clerks in the government office were secretly exchanging glances, and one of them even whispered: "If my mother could go to the Women's Workshop, our family wouldn't be so tight..."

……

(End of this chapter)