Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 404: Carpenter Makes Trouble
Fortunately, Chen Xiuyun was there, and fortunately, Chen Xiuyun was cautious and careful and stopped the bleeding in time.

Even so, Meng Lanxin fell into a semi-comatose state due to the difficulty of childbirth and heavy bleeding.

Seeing this, Chen Xiuyun didn't dare to leave and stayed here to take care of the child for three days.

Only after Meng Lanxin's condition stabilized did she hand her over to Chen and Yang Qionghua for care, and she went back to rest.

Qu Shaoyang's third son, whose nickname was Youqing, was given by Meng Lanxin.

The birth of this child was difficult. If it weren't for Chen Xiuyun, there would have been two deaths.

That's why Meng Lanxin gave her this name, which means she is glad that Chen Xiuyun exists.

Qu Shaoyang had no objection to this. He thought the child could be called whatever he wanted.

It was difficult to give birth to Youqing, but he was quite easy to coax after he was born. He just ate and slept all day long.

At the beginning, Meng Lanxin had no milk, so she asked her wife who had recently given birth to a child to feed her.

When Meng Lanxin had enough milk, she fed her baby herself.

Seven days later, the baby opened his eyes. Looking at his features, he looked quite similar to Qu Shaoyang.

The family is very busy at the beginning of spring. Meng Lanxin is in confinement and Chen Xiuyun is unable to handle the situation by herself, so she can only ask Yang Qionghua to help.

The task of taking care of Meng Lanxin during her confinement fell on Chen.

Fortunately, there were many people in the family, and there were two more maids serving Meng Lanxin.

Chen no longer had to do the work of washing clothes or cooking; she just had to concentrate on taking care of Youqing.

With a new grandson in the family, Mr. Qu was very happy.

Of course, what made him even happier was that the gold field had started operation.

With the machines, gold sand can be washed without manual labor, and there is no need to worry about the freezing cold river water in early spring.

The metalworkers only had to dig out the ore from the mine. It didn't matter if they encountered frozen soil, as they could just use some smoked mulberry trees to thaw it and then they could start working.

So, on the second day of March, the gold mine started working, and Qu Laokouer began to watch the gold bowl and weigh the gold every day.

This is much more interesting than delivering supplies to the mountain field every three days.

The work in the mountain field was completed early this year, in mid-February, and the workers were paid this year's wages at the counter.

The woodcutters who had gone to the mountains to hibernate would now carry their axes and saws down the mountain and go home to prepare for spring plowing.

The rest of the wood was left in the mountain field to be strung together for the rafts, so that they could be sent to Andong after the water level of the Yalu River rose.

Since the promotion of soft threading that year, various mountain farms and material warehouses have gradually adopted the method of soft threading.

Soft penetration has many advantages, but it also has a disadvantage, which is that it uses fewer carpenters.

There were many carpenters in places like Tadian, who relied on working in the mountains to earn money during the spring.

Nowadays, soft thread is used and carpenters are basically no longer needed. The carpenter can do the work with an axe.

As a result, many carpenters had no work to do and lost their income, and many carpenters were dissatisfied with this.

No one knows what happened this year, but these carpenters gathered together and went to the Wood Tax Office to protest.

"Sir, what should we do? There are more than a hundred people gathered outside, all carpenters from the villages along the river.

They said that they had lost their wages due to the soft wear and that every family was having a hard time now, and they wanted an explanation from the adults.”

That morning, Qu Shaoyang was handling official business in the yamen when a policeman came in and said something.

Qu Shaoyang stopped writing and rubbed his temple.

"There's never a moment of peace and quiet these days, and these carpenters are joining in the fun. Let's go out and take a look."

Qu Shaoyang, as an inspector, encountered all kinds of things every day, and he was used to it. So he put down his pen and followed the officer to the outside of the government office.

More than a hundred people gathered outside the yamen.

When they saw Qu Shaoyang coming out, these people rushed up, surrounded Qu Shaoyang, and started complaining at once.

The content is nothing more than that. The soft wear has harmed the interests of these carpenters and they can't make any money.

"Stop, stop, stop, shut up." Qu Shaoyang was almost annoyed by these people, so he shouted loudly.

"It's just a small matter, what's the big deal? If you lose the income from the platoon, don't you have other things? It's fun to quarrel with each other?"

"Sir, that's not the case. In the past, we would make money by working in the mountains every spring.

Sir, tell me, what kind of work can we do at this moment?
The ground hasn't thawed completely yet, so construction can't start. Naturally, no one will ask us to make beams, doors, windows, furniture, etc.

We can't all wait with empty bowls in our hands and empty stomachs, right? The adults have great wealth and great fortune, so they naturally don't understand our suffering."

Someone was not convinced and shouted loudly. When others heard it, they followed suit.

"Isn't it just that there is no work to do right now? Look how anxious you are. If there is no work elsewhere, how can there be no work for me?
I want to build a few ships this year to transport goods to Anton. Since you are here, let's talk about shipbuilding."

Qu Shaoyang said last winter that the purchased grain would not be shipped to Andong for the time being, but would wait until spring to build a few large ships to transport it there.

A boat can carry much more than a horse-drawn sleigh. When we send it there, we can dismantle the boat and sell the wood, killing two birds with one stone.

It’s just the beginning of spring now, and the rafts at the material warehouses have not been put down yet.

Qu Shaoyang didn't want to compete with the Pai Gang for the waterway, and was also afraid of any danger so he thought of waiting for a while.

As a result, before he could even release the news, these carpenters became unhappy and actually came to make trouble.

When Qu Shaoyang said this, the carpenters were stunned.

"My lord, what are you talking about? Shipbuilding? We have never done that kind of work, and we don't know how to do it."

The carpenters looked at each other in bewilderment. Boats could not sail upstream on the Yalu River before, and they had never experienced this before, so they had no idea what was going on.

"It doesn't matter if you don't know how to do it. You can learn. I have sent people to the shipyard to ask some old masters to give you some pointers.

Then you can all learn from me. If you learn one more skill, you can earn more money in the future." Qu Shaoyang said with a smile.

These carpenters are not bad people, they are just trying to make a living.

Now that Qu Shaoyang has made his attitude clear and is willing to provide them with an opportunity to make money, these people are naturally happy.

As a result, everyone's attitude immediately took a sharp turn.

"Oh, thank you very much, sir. You are really a parent official, and you care about us ordinary people."

I don't know who took the lead, but everyone started praising Qu Shaoyang.

"No, please don't say that. I'm just an inspector, not a county magistrate. I don't want the title of a fatherly official."

Qu Shaoyang laughed and waved to everyone.

"That's it, everyone go away and do whatever you need to do.

Two days later, when the master craftsman from the shipyard arrived, I asked someone to gather everyone to help me build the ship.

Don't worry, I will definitely not treat you unfairly, I guarantee you will earn no less than the platoon leader."

When these words were spoken, all the carpenters were delighted.

"Everyone, since Master Qu has said so, we should stop gathering here. Go home and do what we need to do, and wait for news from Master.

Mr. Qu still has a lot of official business to deal with, so let's not delay him." Several leading carpenters said immediately.

(End of this chapter)