Now is the winter leisure time, but the Tiebi Pass is not as cold as usual, but a little lively. The war between the rich merchants and the powerful could not affect the ordinary people, but a new policy introduced by the city lord's mansion attracted many people.

Once again, the City Lord's Mansion recruited ordinary people to work in the workshop. Of course, the workshop is mainly a wool weaving workshop and a cotton weaving workshop. These two large workshops recruited 2,000 people at a time. In addition to the young and strong workforce, there are also women.

The workshop eats and drinks and pays the wages. This makes the poor people who are hungry and full of food every day in the long winter, who have nothing to do, but only to save food, and to be hungry every day.

Like most of the people in the northwest, the people of Tiebiguan are poor and destitute. Most of them do not own land. This is true in both the north and the south. Most of the land was in the hands of the landlords and officials. They could only work as tenants, renting land from the landlords. Every year, the meager harvest must first pay the taxes of the officials, and then hand over to the landlord for rent, and the rest is his own. In particular, the climate in Tiebiguan is very cold, the land is barren, and the crops can only be harvested once a year, so they get less food.

For the sake of the family's food and drink, they can only work harder, tenant a little more land, and cultivate more, so that they can receive more goods and wrap their stomachs. If you encounter a little thing, such as someone in the family who is sick, or even a new child is born, or a natural or man-made disaster, it is really over, and maybe the family will go hungry. Spring. In summer, there are still some wild vegetables and the like in the fields, which can make up for the lack of rations for the people, but the winter is over, and the iron wall in winter is frozen and permafrosty, where can there be food? The people of Tiebiguan were busy from spring to autumn, and the little food they stored had had to be kept for the long winter.

Many people froze to death in winter. Starve. Some people really have no choice, either sell their sons and daughters in the winter, or flee the famine in the winter. However, the iron wall is frozen for thousands of miles. These people who fled the famine. Most died on the road.

Right now. The workshops run by the government, to be precise, run by the county lord's family, can recruit people to work in the winter. It's nice to be able to eat enough and be paid.

You must know that as long as one person in the family can be recruited as a worker, it is equivalent to saving a ration for the family, and the family can store food for a longer period of time. Maybe the whole family can get through this difficult winter.

Not to mention that there is still a salary to be paid? What does it mean to have a salary, it means that the family can save some money for a good year. You can even buy better farming tools next spring, so you can plant more land next year and have a better winter next year.

The hearts of the common people are on fire. Before, the government also posted such a recruitment notice, but there were very few applicants, because the four major families controlled it, and they all rented the land of the four major families, and they did not dare to disobey the words of the four major families. So, none of them applied.

Now that the four major families are gone, the new proprietors are merchants from the south of the Yangtze River, and they are very reasonable and agree that their tenants will go to work in the slack time.

As soon as they let go, the people of Tiebi Pass became excited, and the biting cold wind could not stop them from applying for jobs.

After some elimination, after two days of hard work, the workshop has recruited enough workers.

How many people are there in Tiebi Pass? There were about 100,000 people. Some of these people have lived here for generations. Some of them were forcibly relocated here by the government in successive dynasties. And there are also people who have sinned, and they have been sent here. Half are the descendants of the military, as well as retired soldiers.

With so many people, only 2,000 people are enrolled, and there is not one in each household, so naturally Cui Tou is elated when he is selected, and Cui Tou who is unsuccessful is depressed.

In a few days, the people who had already entered the workshop began to show off to their relatives, friends and neighbors that they were working hard in the workshop, but the food was good, and every meal was enough white flour steamed buns, as well as vegetables, of course, only radishes, cabbage and the like that were easy to store. However, this is also much stronger than the common people who gnawed on miscellaneous grains before. They can generally only eat white flour steamed buns during the Chinese New Year.

In addition to these, there is also a meat dish for each meal. This suddenly made the people who were not elected red-eyed. Some of these poor people have never eaten meat in their entire lives. It's the meat that most of the people who have eaten meat on the battlefield, trapped, killed horses, and eaten. As for pork, mutton, beef, I have never eaten it.

Not to mention this, the people who came to work as workers also received a set of cotton clothes, which were warm and thick, and suddenly kept the severe cold out of their bodies. This is a life that only landlords can enjoy. Nowadays, ordinary people, because they have entered the workshop, have enjoyed it.

This made the people of the whole city envious.

Just when they were envious and jealous, the government posted a second notice. said that the wealthy businessmen from Jiangnan bought many houses left by the four major families, because they were too few to live in, so they donated some of them like the government. These houses are sturdy and good houses, the most sheltered from the wind and rain, sheltered from the wind and cold, and even most of them are equipped with fire walls, ondols and other heating measures.

Now, after the government got these houses, they hired people to clean them up and opened them to the people of the whole city, because these houses were packed up and turned into schools. As long as there is a child with a household registration in Tiebiguan, they can go to the school for free.

Not only can you go to the school for free, but the school also provides one breakfast and one lunch every day. Of course, children who go to school are only over 6 years old and under 18 years old.

All at once, the whole city exploded. Go to school. What a noble thing this is, when will the children of ordinary people also be able to go to school? Literacy and reading are the things that the aristocratic lord does. When will children with mud legs be able to read and write?

Not to mention, you can also eat two full meals a day for free. What a lot of savings you have to make for your family. As the saying goes, half the size eats the poor. The daily chewing of these children is also an important expense for a civilian family. What a great thing it would be if all these children, who had been idle all winter, went to school, not only could they learn, but they would also save food for their families.

If the previous recruitment only benefited more than 2,000 or even 1,000 families. So this time, letting children go to school for free is a good thing for the whole city. The people of the whole city were excited, and many people rushed to send their children to school.

The school not only serves food, but of course, white flour steamed buns and meat dishes. Each child was also given a padded jacket. I heard that this is not issued by the government, but by the government. However, the things that the children eat every day and the padded jackets they wear are all given by a place run by the county lord called Yangzentang.

The name of Yangshantang, no one in Dachu now doesn't know. This is a charity dedicated to the relief of the people, with a good reputation, and was founded by the current Queen Mother. Many noblewomen in the capital participated. Helped hundreds of people. However, most of them are in the capital and Gyeonggi areas, but there are really none in the northwest.

Now, with the arrival of the county lord, Yangzentang has also opened to the northwest. The first one benefited the people of the whole city.

After the people of the city received the benefits, they not only began to be grateful to the Northwest Duke and his wife, but also had a good impression of the Jiangnan merchants who donated their houses.

At this time, the government once again issued a third notice. It is still necessary to recruit a large number of people. This time, the wages were higher. It is also given to cotton jackets, food to eat, and a sheepskin jacket for each person. Not everyone has a leather jacket. Although the people of Tiebi Pass can hunt a lot, but the animal skins and furs must be kept and sold, who is willing to wear them. Anyway, the body of the poor is not worth much, and it doesn't matter if it freezes.

Now when I heard that the government gave such generous conditions, I was excited. In addition to these, the wages paid are also higher. However, this time the recruitment requirements are also stricter. This time, it's all strong men. There were not many of them, about two or three hundred, and they were not working in warm workshops, but they were going to fetch ice from the bitter cold river. Then, the sickness is transported to a prepared ice cellar.

This job is no stranger to the people in Tieqiangguan. The landlords had to take ice every winter, store it, and prepare it for the summer to cool off.

Therefore, the people of Tiebiguan are enthusiastic to apply. Unfortunately, there are too few people recruited this time.

When the people who were in Tiebi Pass were a little disappointed, the government issued a notice again, and they were still recruiting. This time, there are too many houses offered by wealthy merchants in Jiangnan, except for some of them, there are still a lot left, and after this period of cleaning up, the third workshop of the county lord's mansion has also opened. In fact, strictly speaking, it can't be the workshop of the county lord's mansion, it is the workshop of the county lord's mother's family, that is, the workshop opened by the Xiao Chen family of Heqinghelou's family. It is a workshop for making ready-to-wear and shoes. It's also about working in a warm room. It is also three meals, meat to eat, two sets of cotton clothes, and wages.

However, this time there were 1,000 recruits, and most of them recruited women with needlework skills.

This time, the people of the Iron Wall Pass are more enthusiastic, and the women in the family can make money. What a wonderful thing to do.

In the days that followed, the people paid attention to this bulletin board every day, which was released by the government. What did not disappoint these people was that every once in a while, there was always information about recruitment. As a result, more and more people are working at Tiebiguan. The people have had a very hot winter this winter. (To be continued......)