Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 856 Expanding the Team
Zhao Yingong looked at a dozen or so children of different sizes who were sitting or standing in the yard in front of the hall, all of them were unkempt and skinny, some looked healthy, some barely walked in, but sat down immediately. Can't get up on the ground.

I couldn't bear it, but I felt itchy all over my body—I brought the girl back a few days ago, and I also brought back the fleas and gnats on her body. Red packets and pimples.I had no choice but to get up, take a bath, change clothes, and apply medicine to repel the insects.Looking at the few in front of him again, one doesn't need to think about how many parasites are peeking at his body under the tattered clothes.

"Everyone knelt down and kowtowed, I have seen the master." Cai Shi yelled loudly.

A few knelt down, while some staggered and fell directly on the ground.Zhao Yingong couldn't bear it, and said: "No need to salute." Looking carefully, most of them are boys, and there are also a few girls.They are as young as four or five years old, and as old as thirteen or fourteen.However, Zhao Yingong knew that the children of the poor were malnourished and their development was generally delayed, and their actual age might be older.

"They are all orphans?" Zhao Yingong asked, "Are they voluntarily serving as slaves in my house?"

"It's true." Cai Shi hurriedly said, and then hurriedly shouted to the children: "Say it yourself!"

"It is indeed a wish." The voice was scattered, slow and long.

"Masters, look..." Cai Shi turned his face to a dry and thin book office next to him - this is the household book office in Renhe County, and he was specially invited here to file the certificate today.Generally speaking, this kind of thing does not have to be moved by the government, but when they were trained, they were warned that they should be very cautious in taking in people in places beyond the power of the crossing group, because at that time there was only a group of gangsters. This is a career, and it is easy to be left out of money and people.The intelligence agent is alone and inconvenient to directly conflict with people.

"Okay, okay, I've seen it all." Zhu Shuban took a big red envelope, and he was happy in his heart, and of course he wouldn't be picky, "Let's get a coupon."

Cai Shi cheered up, asked the children to press their fingerprints on the deed of selling themselves, and took them all down to shave their heads, take a bath, and change their clothes.Zhao Yingong repaired several rooms on the abandoned garden of the mansion, and temporarily used them as dormitories.Another doctor was hired to treat the children, and a full set of "purification" procedures were carried out in the same way.And sent someone to take care of it.The dozen or so entourages he brought were all from the purification camp, and they were no strangers to this system, nothing more than the specifics.When the orphans recover a little bit, they take the children to clean up an open space in the abandoned garden to use as a playground, do exercises and run every day to exercise, and grow vegetables and raise chickens in the abandoned garden to exercise and supplement food.Zhao Yingong asked Feng Hua to be a literacy teacher, and to carry out elementary education according to the requirements of the C-type diploma.

Zhao Yingong knew that it would be very difficult for him to make a big difference in the C&E population right now, especially because of the lack of enough manpower.Therefore, he pays special attention to the older children over the age of [-] or [-], and focuses on the cultivation of personality and knowledge—in the future, they will be the basic cadre talents that can be put into use in Hangzhou Station soon.As for children under the age of ten, they will still have to be transported back to Lingao to study one by one in the future.

Only the little girl who was taken in from the bridge deck, he decided to stay with him and educate himself.Name her He Ning.He also named the other children one by one.Among them, six older children over the age of 12 were named by him: Donghua, Xihua, Funing, Furong, Lizheng, and Yanhe.These names, like Fenghua and Hening, are the names of palaces in the Song Dynasty.

The older children lived in a dormitory alone, and Zhao Yingong took a certain amount of time every day to teach them in person.Although older children are more mature in mind, children who have been homeless and begging for a long time usually have distortions in their personality and heart, and they will also be infected with various bad habits.Lingao has a set of methods and methods for managing and educating refugees, and anyone can use them.But here he had to be cautious, so when taking in children, he took special care of Cai Shi. He didn't want any street beggars with good looks and words. For the time being, he only took in those children who were about to starve to death and were abandoned.

As a result, he felt that there were actually fewer people now.At present, Cai Shi and Sun Wangcai are being taken care of, and those who have reliable sources and are willing to sell themselves will be taken in——all of them will make a "definite contract".

In addition to taking in children and expanding the team of servants, Zhao Yingong also spent a few days on the spot to survey the main markets in Hangzhou and the markets for various goods.Have a general understanding of the trade situation in Hangzhou.It seems that the silk industry and the tea industry are the easiest to get money in Hangzhou.

Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Jiangnan has been famous for planting mulberry and raising silkworms, especially in the Ming Dynasty.Especially Suzhou and Huzhou in the lower reaches of Taihu Lake.Songjiang, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Hangzhou are all important sericulture production areas, producing a large amount of raw silk and satin every year. As an important transportation hub, Hangzhou not only circulates goods from Zhejiang Province, but also from Nanzhili Silk products from Suzhou and Huzhou are also distributed and traded here.

As for tea, Zhejiang itself is a major tea-producing province, and the neighboring southern Anhui is also an important tea-producing area. Every year, a large amount of Anhui tea is transported to Hangzhou via the Hui-Hang Ancient Road, where it is processed and distributed.

Silk and tea were both important commodities in overseas trade and popular commodities in domestic trade.If you can control every trace of tea in Hangzhou, it will not be much worse than Leizhou's sugar in terms of profit.

However, how to intervene in these two industries, Zhao Yingong still can't make up his mind for a while.He is not familiar with sericulture or tea industry, let alone the situation in the 17th century.

After much deliberation, it is better to find someone who is familiar with the industry to lead the way—just at this time, Cai Shi took in another family surnamed Shen from outside, saying that he was willing to serve as a slave in the house.

"His family is willing to serve the whole family in the government." Cai Shi said and handed over a post.It lists the names, ages, and genders of the entire family.

Zhao Yingong saw the new family on the post: a couple in their thirties, with three children.The oldest is 13 years old and the youngest is only five years old.

All selling price is only ten taels.It’s unbelievably cheap—not to mention, the 13-year-old daughter of their family alone can be sold for at least 20 taels at a human tooth dealer.Zhao Yingong was a little hesitant, what is the origin of this family's prostitution?
Cai Shi said that this family is a sericulture farmer in Renhe County. They originally had a few acres of mulberry land in their home, but last year there was a shortage of mulberry leaves when they were raising silkworms. Desperate, willing to sell himself as a slave.It is only required to indicate in the deed: "The flesh and blood cannot be separated" and "The master's family moves away from Hang Zhun for self-redemption".

No wonder they only want ten taels of silver, Zhao Yingong thought to himself, so there is a foreshadowing here.I have heard that Zhejiang people are shrewd and capable in dealing with things. It seems that this has a long history and tradition.

"My lord, they were originally silkworm farmers. They were experts in raising silkworms, planting mulberry, and reeling silk. If my lord bought a few acres of mulberry land and let them take care of it, I wouldn't worry about spending a hundred taels of silver every year... ..."

Cai Shi spoke with enthusiasm—he recently saw that the master often pays attention to the matter of silk, satin and raw silk, and thought that he must be interested in it, so he added this remark.

Zhao Yingong nodded to express his satisfaction: "Not bad. Just stay."

"Do you want to come and kowtow to the master?"

"Of course. Call them."

After a while, Cai Shi brought people over.The whole family huddled under the steps to kowtow to Zhao Yingong.Zhao Yingong took a look, even though he was a farmer in the countryside, he looked neat.Especially the housewife, who is 28 and nine years old, looks petite and exquisite, with delicate features, and looks like a woman from a water village in the south of the Yangtze River.And the mother and daughter are both natural feet - Zhao Yingong is very satisfied.

"Allocate a room in the lower room first." Zhao Yingong told Cai Shi, "According to the rules. All the necessary clothes and food will be allocated according to the rules, and there will be no shortage."

"Yes, I understand." Cai Shi said with a bow.Then he scolded, "Why don't you thank the master quickly?"

Several people quickly knelt down and kowtowed again.Zhao Yingong asked: "Are you silkworm farmers?"

"Yes, my little one used to grow mulberry and raise silkworms..." the man said hastily.

"So you are very good at raising silkworms?"

"Little people used to make a living out of this," said the man. "The little ones planted mulberry trees, and their wives and daughters raised silkworms and reeled silk. After reeling the silk, they sold it to silk merchants, making a living from it."

"Well, then tell me, what is the business of sericulture in this place? Come and listen to me in detail."

"Yes, master!" The man was new to the mansion, and he was anxious at first, but now he heard that the owner of the family talked about planting mulberry and silkworms, thinking that the owner had something to borrow from himself, he immediately started talking continuously .

He speaks Hangzhou dialect, and the country people are less contacted than others, so his speech is not coherent, and he can't help talking incoherently.Fortunately, Cai Shi was there to translate and explain, and only then did Zhao Yingong get a general idea.

Sericulture must first have mulberry leaves.Therefore, every family that raises silkworms must have a few acres of land for planting mulberry and picking leaves.If you have little land or not enough mulberry leaves, you have to pre-lease or purchase from others.Therefore, there has been a "leaf market" specializing in the trading of mulberry leaves for a long time.The former is to pay a deposit in advance and pick it when the time comes; the latter is to follow the market.After three sleeps in silkworm rearing, silkworm leaves are greatly consumed. If the land is scarce and the market for mulberry leaves is high, silkworm farmers have to buy mulberry leaves at a high price, and often have to borrow usury.

However, the income from silkworm farming is very high: if the market for cocoons and raw silk was passable, the income left after silkworm farmers paid off their principal and interest would not only be enough to pay taxes, but also cover the whole family’s annual expenses.In terms of income, it is much stronger than planting rice and cotton.However, if the silkworm cocoon market is not good in those years, it will be reduced to the point of selling land and houses or even selling children and daughters to pay off debts.

(End of this chapter)