Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 31: Days Pass Like Years

Three months passed in a flash. Winter was about to come and the construction team that Zhao Da had found was almost assembled. The next task was relatively simple, which was to build houses along the river and repair kilns.

With the help of his mobile phone, Xia Lin found that the construction of the old kiln was not difficult. As long as he had some skilled bricklayers, everything would be fine. All he had to do was pay the money.

"Sir, according to the plan, it should be completed by June next year. I heard that you also want to open a mine, so I found a lot of miners from other places. I don't know if you are satisfied."

"Satisfied, of course I am satisfied, but the overall pace still needs to be accelerated."

Xia Lin stood by the river and looked at the large construction site. He felt a little emotional in his heart. No wonder nine out of ten men love to play farming strategy games. It is so joyful to watch an area being built up bit by bit in his own hands. A sense of pride and accomplishment arises spontaneously. It is really a special and advanced hobby.

"Zhao Da." Xia Lin bent down, picked up a stone from the river and started to skip it on the water. "From these 1,500 people, you can probably get 10,000 taels of silver, right?"

"My Lord... My Lord, you are wronged. How dare I take money from doing things for you? I..."

"That's all." Xia Lin raised his hand and waved, "I know a senior official named He. He said that if you want your subordinates to do things, you have to feed them first. Only when they are well fed can they work. But the same thing applies. You take the money and do the work for me. If you don't do the work well, I will have to punish you. Do you understand?"

How could Zhao Da know any high-ranking official? When he heard what the young adult said, his heart started beating fast. The "high-ranking official with the surname He" sounded so scary. The words he said were indeed like those high-ranking officials in the lyrics. It seemed that this young adult was indeed from a prominent family. But think about it, who would be more impressive than the county magistrate?

"Yes, yes, I will do the job neatly for you."

"Yeah." Xia Lin nodded and turned back. "By the way, I gave you the location of the mine yesterday. If you have time, take someone to have a look."

Xia Lin’s first step was of course to make porcelain. He couldn’t make bicycles. Relying on the famous Jingdezhen, porcelain was an industry that he could enter with his eyes closed without any problems.

According to the available information, the steps of ancient porcelain making have been listed in detail, but it is difficult to attract investment now. Because Xinping Township at that time was far less famous than Yue Kiln and Xing Kiln when it came to porcelain alone, it was difficult to get those businessmen to invest in this remote area. So Xia Lin simply planned to operate the business in a completely new model.

After returning from the river, he called together the village heads and clan leaders of each village in the township and briefly introduced his idea to them: "The so-called village elders' cooperative system is that the township contributes half of the capital and each village contributes half. Those with money can contribute money, and those without money can provide labor instead of capital. In this way, a workshop will be opened first. After the trial production is successful, each village will gradually form its own characteristic pattern. At the end of each year, the current year's income will be distributed to the village and then distributed uniformly by the village."

The dozen or so village heads below looked at each other, all with confused expressions on their faces, completely unable to understand what Xia Lin meant.

Chun Tao, who was listening nearby, couldn't help herself any longer. She coughed and walked up to Xia Lin and said, "Master, what you said is too complicated. They can't understand."

"How should I put it?"

"Let me do it." Chun Tao glanced at Xia Lin with a smile: "It seems that there are times when the master can't do it."

"Hey! You said that."

After all, Chuntao was a maid carefully selected by the young prince, and her abilities were absolutely impeccable. She simply conveyed Xia Lin's ideas to these country bumpkins in a way that they could understand.

Simply put, a village can open a workshop without spending money. Each village has a workshop, and the villagers go to the workshop to work, and share the money according to the income at the end of each year. It is such a simple thing, and there is no need for any system. Ordinary illiterate people only care about two points - whether to spend money and whether to make money.

You can make money without spending any money, this can be done!
Xia Lin watched as the village elders finally pressed their fingerprints on the letter of surrender. He truly felt that being a cadre was not easy. They had to face this bunch of bullies every day. It was already a great feat to prevent them from starving to death, and to make them rich was even more amazing... What a great achievement.

Looking at the letter of surrender in his hand, Xia Lin didn't care much about it. He turned around and asked Chuntao to find a place to put it, because he knew that this thing was only useful when he made money. If he lost money, he had to pay those people the money every year, otherwise they would make trouble.

Now think about it, he said he came here to show off his political achievements, to put it bluntly, he just came here to help the poor, and in a twisted way it became "Reborn: I Fight the First Battle in Ancient Times".

But no matter what, this is a good start. What he is most looking forward to now is this time next year.

In the afternoon, the food, rice, flour, clothes and bedding that Xia Lin entrusted to the passing caravan to buy arrived, and he spent more than 700 taels of silver. These supplies will be sent to the widows and widowers in Xinping Township. As for why he did this, Xia Lin didn't know. Anyway, he just did it according to his memory. After all, winter is coming. When he visited the countryside a few days ago, he found that the lives of those lonely old men and widows were really difficult. If he didn't send them some things, these old people might not be able to survive this winter.

"Thank you for your hard work, Sister Chuntao."

Seeing the supplies that needed to be distributed being packed and sorted by Chuntao and some women from the village, Xia Lin thanked her again. Chuntao had already gotten used to the poor days by now, and even liked the stability and casualness here. Her previous melancholy was long gone, and she had long since returned to her bright and pretty appearance when they first met.

"Master keeps talking about how hard it is, but he doesn't really mean it. In my opinion, he is no better than those handsome scholars who cheat girls in brothels. They can say sweet words, but not like Master, who keeps talking about how hard it is."

Xia Lin rolled his eyes at what Chun Tao said, then he rummaged in his pocket, took out a small box and handed it over: "I was planning to give it to you on New Year's Eve. Since you're in such a hurry, take it."

Chun Tao then curiously opened it and took a look, only to find a golden hairpin inside, which was gorgeous and beautiful. Chun Tao's eyes suddenly widened after seeing it, and she looked at Xia Lin in disbelief: "Master...you..."

"You followed me from spring to winter, and you didn't get a penny of salary. So I thought about buying you something to replace your salary during the New Year. After thinking about it, I decided to ask the caravan to bring a gold hairpin to replace your salary."

Chuntao turned her head to look at Xia Lin, her expression became complicated, because she was a servant, even if she was the servant of the young prince, she was still a servant, and servants were not qualified to wear gold and silver. She was sold to a matchmaker by her parents when she was young. When the matchmaker saw that she was pretty, she sold her to a matchmaker's shop that specialized in training maids for dignitaries. She could be said to have been through a lot since she was six years old. During her time in the matchmaker's shop, she was proficient in everything from playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and would be severely beaten if she slacked off.

Chuntao was bought by the prince's mansion when she was thirteen years old, and became the young prince's maid when she was fifteen years old. Because of her intelligence, ability, and erudition, she was deeply loved by the young prince, and he would take her with him wherever he went. But even so, in the eyes of the dignitaries, she was just an object that could be given away at will.

It's funny to say that the only time in Chuntao's life so far when she was treated as a human being was in this remote countryside. Although it was hard, it was indeed interesting to follow this boy who was one year younger than her.

What Chuntao could not have imagined the most was that he would actually prepare a gift for her carefully. This gold hairpin might not be expensive, but it was really beautiful. At least it was the only gift Chuntao had received in her life so far.

"That's all. It's just my salary. I specially chose a gold hairpin worth 70 taels. It's my salary plus my year-end bonus." Xia Lin yawned. "Someone just gave me two fish. I'll have them to eat in the evening. I haven't eaten meat for a long time..."

Finally, the year came to an end. The New Year came earlier this year, and according to the trajectory of the sun, it should be mid-January now. The township government office began to rest today, and Xia Lin distributed year-end bonuses and salaries to the yamen runners, accountants and other staff, and that was the end of the year.

The yamen, which had been bustling before, suddenly became deserted. He went out to inspect the workers who were still working there to celebrate the New Year and distributed their year-end bonuses. Then he took Chuntao and drove the ox cart to the only small market in the village.

The market is not big, with only a dozen peddlers from other places setting up their stalls to sell their goods. But today it is particularly lively because yesterday Xia Lin asked Zhao Da to notify the widows and orphans in the village to come here today to receive their New Year items.

It wasn't much, but not too little either. Twenty kilograms of rice and flour, half a kilogram of salt, a quilt and three ounces of bacon, enough for them to have a good year at least.

This move certainly drew unanimous praise from the villagers, and after more than half a year, no one looked down on this sixteen or seventeen-year-old village chief anymore. He was indeed a capable person and had brought a lot of benefits to the villagers.

As working people, they have had a simple value system since ancient times. Whoever can bring benefits to others and make their lives better is a good person. Xia Lin is obviously such a good person.

After distributing the food, Xia Lin walked to a millstone and shouted to the villagers below: "That's it for this year. Next year, I will try to make sure every household has meat, wine, and money!"

Without any nonsense, they served a big pancake first, but the key was that the villagers all bought into it... People cheered and clapped hard, but at this moment Xia Lin saw a familiar face in the crowd.

"Why are you back?" He jumped off the millstone: "Were you driven back by someone?"

"The end of the year is coming, where would I go if I don't come back?" Lao Zhang said with a smile, shaking his fan, and then he leaned to the side: "Look who I brought to you."

Xia Lin tilted his head and almost spit out a mouthful of blood. Behind Lao Zhang was the little princess in men's clothing. When she saw Xia Lin, she screamed and hung on his neck...

"Come down, come down. If someone sees us, something bad will happen..."

(End of this chapter)