I played as an assistant in ancient times

Chapter 266

The next day, Shen Changsui came back and was welcomed by the whole village. Although he was not the first one from Jiuli Village, the Shen family was not like the previous scholar who moved to the provincial capital after passing the exam.

Moreover, he has been staying in the village to run a workshop, and tomorrow he will take everyone to the provincial capital to work.

Furthermore, Shen Changsui was not a noble person. He was still the same as before, calling others uncle when necessary and brother when necessary, and never calling others by their names.

He also toasted in front of the elders at each table, and his words were three times softer than before.

Who wouldn’t like such a junior?

During the banquet, some elders would ask: "Sui'er, can I put the land under your name?"

"Uncle He, I haven't passed the imperial examination and received a promotion yet. The court has only given me two places for exemption from corvée." It has not even been fifty years since the founding of the country, and scholars cannot use their achievements to help people hide their land.

Shen Changsui said: "You can encourage your grandson to study more. When he passes the exam in the future, he can be exempted from corvée."

"It's difficult." The old man said this, but he was thinking in his heart that his eldest grandson must continue to read this book. Eight liters of wheat a month is less than thirty cents, and his son earns thirty-five cents a day by dyeing cloth at the Shen family.

There are many people who think the same as him. They may not dare to think about passing the imperial examination, but if they can read and do arithmetic, they can earn more than others.

Zhuangzhuang, who didn't care about the money, was taken care of by Xiaoye because he learned to read quickly and a lot. The boy could earn 40 cents a day whether he worked or not.

Shen Xiaoye would never have thought that her admission of Zhuangzhuang would help encourage her neighbors to continue to send their children to school.

The buffet that day lasted from morning to afternoon. My grandparents were very happy. They prepared mostly meat dishes, which were delicious and filling, and who wouldn't like it?

Of course, some important guests would have their banquets specially held in the west wing of the east courtyard.

That’s right, not only was the main house built with bricks and stones in the east courtyard, but my grandfather Shen Shanyou also spent extra money to build three west wing rooms in a row. Although the upper part was still made of adobe, it was still very nice.

If a guest comes and a banquet is held, there is always a place to entertain them.

Shen Shanyou was worried that it would be too ostentatious, otherwise he would have built a house on the newly purchased land between the East Courtyard and the school.

After a day of excitement, the twenty women from Jiuli Village who were selected to wash and beat cloth went to the provincial capital first with their husbands who dyed cloth.

There are thirty more women dyeing cloth following, and they will not set off until a few days later.

Shen Xiaoye hired a very large boat, which not only carried people but also goods, such as bamboo racks, dyes and some daily necessities.

One day was enough for them to reach the provincial capital, and under the arrangement of the military manager, they took a car directly to the warehouse of Derun Cloth Shop.

The place here is not small, and they cannot enter the important warehouse, but the Wu family specially cleared out an open space near the small river and placed many water tanks and bamboos.

Not far away, there is a row of rooms, which should have been where fodder was stored in the past.

The people of Jiuli Village didn't despise it at all. In the past, it was common for people to come out to do odd jobs and sleep in dilapidated temples to save money.

Men and women each have a room, and they use the straw in the corner to make a bed.

Shen Xiaoye said, "I'm sorry to trouble you all. We can't afford the beds, but don't worry about the food. I can't say that there will be meat for every meal, but at least there will be a meat dish at noon."

"Xiao Ye, we are not here to enjoy ourselves. You just do what you need to do. I, the old man, will be in charge here. No one can ignore it." Dozens of people left the village at once, including men, women, old and young. Headman Qian was worried, as he had to make sure everyone returned home safely.

Shen Xiaoye thanked him. Her fourth uncle was responsible for arranging the dyeing and cooling racks. She was going to lead the male laborers to bring a batch of white cloth to be washed first.

Even though it seems like a simple physical job, it is not easy to do it continuously.

By the time the young master of the Wu family came over, hundreds of pieces of white cloth had been washed and hung in the open space.

If you look closely, you will find that this piece of cloth is 32 feet long and 18 inches wide. It is Shen Xiaoye's favorite cloth.

When the loom at home started working this time, she and her family agreed that they would weave 32-meter-long cloth in the future. When collecting the cloth, she also told the family not to weave 40-meter-long cloth anymore.

If you calculate carefully, the width of the four-foot cloth is two feet and five inches, and the price per foot is the same as that of the standard cloth, so it is a loss to sell it.

The young master of the Wu family has been involved in this business for many years. He rarely has cloth that is four meters long. Most of his cloth is standard cloth and narrow cloth of about two meters in the south.

Seeing that Shen Changsui was actually working with the craftsmen, he quickly walked up to him and asked, "Scholar, why do you come here in person?" Many scholars do not like to get involved in business matters, for fear of being accused of being greedy for money.

"Scholars also have to eat." Shen Changsui didn't have this habit. He put down the work in his hands and led the other party to patrol the busy open space. Oh, now it's full and it can't be called an empty space.

When they were almost at the place where Shen Xiaoye and her grandparents were boiling madder, he said "they are preparing the dye", and the young master of the Wu family wisely turned away.

In fact, Derun Cloth Shop had also considered opening a dyeing workshop, but everyone has their own expertise, and when no one in the main branch of the military family mastered the skills, it was easy for them to be fooled by the managers who really knew the business.

Coupled with the harsh treatment from the previous owner, the dyers gradually stopped working and the dyeing workshop went bankrupt just as it started.

Shen Changsui asked, "Boss Wu, may I ask you for some information about the cloth merchants?"

"Haha, if you want to find more merchants for printing and dyeing, I can recommend some." The young master of the Wu family wanted to make friends with him, so naturally he would not refuse.

But Shen Changsui was not asking about this. He said, "I want to ask about the merchants who have held the Datong Horse Market Certificate in previous years."

The horse market did not only trade horses with the Dada people, but also the furs they hunted, as well as live cattle and sheep. The Great Zhou used methods such as giving back cloth to complete the exchange.

However, Dada was a place where daily necessities were scarce, and they had to buy their food, cloth, and even cooking pots and salt from Da Zhou.

Relatively speaking, the Waqif was slightly better off because they occupied the Qinghai Salt Lake area. With salt they had money, which they could sell to the Mongol Timur further west, and they could also trade with the Gansu and Liang border states.

Of course, Dada also learned to grow some food, but the input was large and the output was low. Once the area was blockaded by the Central Plains court, a large number of herders would freeze to death from hunger and cold in the winter.

So they like to come south to rob things, with low investment and high returns. After all, there are more low-level herdsmen going to the battlefield than wild leeks, and if one batch dies, there will be another batch.

Even if the imperial court granted tribute and gifts, due to the shortage of supplies, people would often take things only to start looting and fighting again the next moment.

Under such circumstances, the Zhou Dynasty court could not keep chasing them, so it would allow a small number of merchants to enter the horse market and trade some daily necessities with Dada.

Shen Changsui continued, "To be honest, my niece wants to take some cloth to the horse market to see for herself."

The young master of the Wu family was puzzled when he heard this. He exchanged the cloth from me and asked me to introduce someone to sell it to him? Wouldn't it be more profitable if I did it myself?