Zhao Xiu's brows furrowed, and he couldn't think of any good way to solve it for a while.

The time of day is not something that can be controlled by manpower, like the second house of the Zhao family, there is still a river passing through the land, which is already excellent, that is, the tenant farmers work harder, and they need to carry water every day to water the land, and those who are far away may have to walk for several miles. There were still people in the Zhao clan who didn't even have a water source in their fields, so they had to discuss with the clansmen and borrow some river water. As for those in the county who have no water source or lack of water source, there have been many fights with others over water in the past month or two. Tao County Ling is all focused on the dam, it is said that he has not been home for half a month, the county's affairs are the county's main book and a master in charge, but it is barely maintained, recently there is no less running around, bitterly persuading the people in the county not to be impatient.

The second room of the Zhao family didn't seem to have much trouble in a short period of time, but Wang Fulai was old and stable, and there was an old father Wang Siping behind him, and he faintly noticed a trace of unease. He feared that if this continued, the tenant farmers would sooner or later be overwhelmed and the harvest in the fields would be greatly affected. Even if it is a while, the tenant farmers in the second room of the Zhao family do not need to worry about irrigation, and they need to guard against drought this year. If it doesn't rain anymore, that small river alone can't save tens of thousands of acres of fields.

Zhang's eyebrows frowned: "What can I do about this?" You have to hire some people to repair the ditch and dig the ditch, and then ask people to go to the temples to put more sesame oil and pray for the Buddha to rain. ”

Zhao Xiu closed his eyes, helpless. Wang Fulai replied: "The county chief secretary is already discussing this matter, but Tao County Order has not yet nodded, so there is no accurate word." The villagers on Liang Dian's side just asked the Taoist priest to pray for rain, but unfortunately it didn't work out. The people in the county town felt that the Taoist priest they invited there was incompetent, and wondered if they should go to Suzhou to invite a monk who had attained Taoism. ”

Zhao Xiu snorted: "The rain is the errand of the Dragon King, what's the use of asking the Buddha?" The Taoist priests who have the ability are now practicing in the deep mountains, where can they be invited? We are all mortals, so let's use the methods of mortals. Pass the order down, let the family think of freeing up manpower. Ditches were dug and ponds were built, water trucks were erected, and the entire population of the family began to save water. Now that it's not raining, let's make preparations first. Wait for it to rain. Do your best to accumulate as much rain as possible, just in case. ”

Wang Fulai hurriedly agreed, but there was still a difficulty that had not yet been solved: "Where can I free up manpower?" The tenants below, all young and strong, were sent to the seashore to build dams. Most of the rest of the family are old and weak, women and children. Even if there are one or two men, and there are still heavy bodies in the fields, not a single man can be left behind. Now the famous men in the clan do not count, those with slightly better family backgrounds have used money to redeem them, and several masters with slightly worse family backgrounds are helping to move stones by the sea. There are still many young people in the hands of the envoys in the family, but they all have their own functions......"

Zhao Xiu interrupted him: "Among the servants in the family, how many young and strong men are there?" Who can be drawn? There are two masters in the house, my grandmother and me. My brother went back to Kyori. We are usually in the inner house, and the servants around us are all maids, as long as we don't go out, we don't need a few male servants in addition to the porter. Let them do physical work for a few days, and it doesn't matter if you think about it. ”

Wang Fulai choked.

There are naturally a lot of young and strong male servants in the second room of the Zhao family in the old mansion, in addition to the people who were already there in the old years, there are more than a dozen rooms that Zhao Wei voted for after he attacked the lord. At that time, the Zhang family was still in Fengxian, and they all accepted it one by one. After she went to Beijing, although there were still people to run. But no one dared to accept it. Although in the eyes of people like Zhao Xiu, being a servant with others hurts their self-esteem too much, and they are not free. Naturally, it is better to be a good citizen. But not everyone in the world thinks this way. Being a servant of the Jiannan Hou Mansion is much more decent than ordinary civilians.

There are only three masters in the second room of the Zhao family, and there are not many servants, and the family is in Beijing, and the servants who stay in the old mansion of Fengxian are in addition to completing their daily duties. It's mostly laid-back. Many of the new defectors came with their families, fields, houses, and shops. With Jiannanhou on their heads, in addition to cutting off the road to the imperial examination, they are still living very well, and they have also saved taxes, smirked, and even made some extra benefits for their own families. People who already have furniture live in the same mansion and compound, calling slaves and maids, and wearing fine clothes and food. People who originally had a mediocre family can also use the threats and connections of the Zhao family to make some money for themselves. Even if it is not good, you can find an errand and earn a few months of money and silver. Anyway, if the master doesn't take the initiative to ask for it, they don't even have to do the work of waiting for people, so why not do it?

Even if he is not a new recruit, the old servants in the family for many years have learned to serve people from elementary school rules, but farm work has never been done. Except for those who do rough work, others don't even do heavy work, and they don't bother to do it. Wang Fulai himself is a child of the family, how could he not know this? Therefore, when Zhao Xiu asked, he guessed her intentions and couldn't help but hesitate.

Zhao Xiu saw that he didn't answer, and he didn't ramble: "Don't you know? That's right, you were originally on an errand in the Hou Mansion in the capital, so you don't know much about the old mansion, right? Call Wang Shuangfulai. He's been guarding the old mansion for a few years, and he knows better than you do. ”

Wang Shuangfu saw that he had another opportunity to show his face in front of his master, and he was overjoyed. Originally, he should have had some scruples, but now he only wanted to please Zhao Xiu, so he answered her question without hesitation: "The young and strong people who work on errands in this house, if they are counted as those over sixteen years old and under the age of forty-five, there are a total of fifty-six people. There were twenty-four errand men in the Zhuangzi. There are still 63 people who work on errands in Jiading, Nanhui, Hangzhou, Songjiang, Suzhou and other local industries. ”

That's a lot of people. The people on the Zhuangzi can be called directly, and the fifty-six people in the house can be squeezed out at least forty people, and there are more than sixty people, and it would be better if there were enough hundred people. Zhao Xiu hurriedly asked: "What are the sixty-three people in Jiading and other places doing?" Is it working in a six-room shop? Or is it responsible for collecting rent? ”

Of the sixty-three people, most of them were new servants and their nephews or servants, many of whom had their own estates. These people can't be drawn, at most they should send some servants or tenant farmers to help. In addition, there are more than 20 people who are responsible for collecting rents or managing rental houses and shops in various places. This part of the income, according to the number of the first quarter just past, there are four or five hundred taels of silver in a quarter, and more than a thousand in a year, which is a good income.

Wang Shuangfu also said: "Now Nanhui is becoming more and more lively, and the rent is much more expensive than in previous years. Our family rented a warehouse near the port, and the rent quadrupled. I heard that there are still many people who want to start now, and some people have a maximum of five hundred taels, who cares about him? ”

Zhao Xiu smiled. The house over there in Nanhui. Now it has added 18 rooms, which is the majority of the two-bedroom rental business. When the original houses were bought, the highest price for each house was one or two hundred taels of silver, but now it has more than doubled. It's going up really fast. However, considering the return on investment, let alone five hundred taels of a room, I am afraid that if I add another one hundred taels, some people are willing to buy it. These houses were not rented to people, but used as warehouses. I also have to assign people to watch the door, so it takes up a lot of places. Zhao Xiu is now short of people, so he wonders if he wants to take advantage of the high price.

Wang Shuangfu couldn't quite understand this: "Why did the girl make a move? Now that the rent in Nanhui has risen sharply, these houses have only been bought for a few years, and it is the most profitable time! ”

Zhang also advised Zhao Xiu: "Why do you need to sell all the houses? If you just want to add some people, just ask them to come back and work for a few days. It's good to find someone else to do the errand of guarding the warehouse. ”

Zhao Xiu said: "The dam in Nanhui also needs to be repaired, where can I find spare people to help?" Moreover, although Nanhui Port is now lively, the port is still smaller, which is not as good as those prestigious ports. I heard that there are also foreign companies stationed in the port of Ningbo today, which has taken away a lot of business from Nanhui Port. Foreign goods over there in Hangzhou. More than half of it came from there. Now Nanhui has to be distracted to rebuild the embankment, to say the least, it will take a few months, and business will be affected, but Ningbo is not in this trouble. What if all the foreign businessmen are attracted over there? I think the housing prices in Nanhui are high enough now. In Fengxian, 500 taels is enough to buy a three-entry mansion with a garden, but in Nanhui it is only enough to buy a small yard as a warehouse, which is already a bit outrageous, and I think it is difficult for the house price to rise again. At this time, he will not take action, and wait until Nanhui is affected by the dam project and the depression comes down. Housing prices have fallen, where are we going to regret it? ”

When Zhang heard this, he felt that there was some truth in what she said, so he stopped stopping it: "It's okay." Those houses were originally what you said you wanted to buy, and they have made a lot of money in recent years, if you want to sell, then sell them, and our family is not short of this industry now. ”

Zhao Xiu nodded and was about to give the order. Wang Shuangfu said a little anxiously: "Big girl, you are too worried. How many years has it been since the dam in Nanhui was built, and it has not affected the foreign goods business there before? ”

Zhao Xiu shook his head. The embankment in Nanhui is basically the one that was repaired more than ten years ago, and it was personally accepted by the king of Guangping at that time, and the quality is acceptable. At that time, the port had not yet developed, and there were not many Western merchant ships docking, so naturally it would not have any impact. In the past few years, the so-called rebuilding of the embankment was actually just a renovation project on the outside, but it has not changed on the inside, and the officials have been greedy for the project money. The dam has not undergone major construction at all, so how can it affect the operation of the port? Now the government has to seriously repair the damaged parts of the dam, and it is impossible to have no impact on the ships and commercial activities docked in the harbor.

If there are no other competitors, everyone will be fine after a few months. But now that Ningbo is eyeing the side, who is willing to miss a few months?

Zhao Xiu still issued an order to let people sell Nanhui's house, and the best person to take over promised to continue doing business with the tenant and not affect the previous contract. In order to sell it at a good price, she didn't force all the houses to be sold in a short period of time, but ordered Wang Shuangfu to transfer a few more people from Nanhui back. At the same time, we will transfer manpower from some unimportant positions in the family, plus the people who are errand workers in Zhuangzi, and we can make up at least seventy or eighty people. When these young and strong servants arrived, they were divided into several shifts and went to the fields to build water conservancy. The mud ditch quagmire is too easy to be washed away by water, so I find some stone slabs and stones to build on, and change it to a stone ditch and stone pool. This year, I sold my house in Nanhui and made a windfall, which happened to be used for water conservancy facilities, and I spent a lot of money on blood, which also saved me from rebuilding it every year in the future.

Wait for the water conservancy facilities on the fields under the name of the second house of the Zhao family to be built, and then help the clansmen build them. Anyway, there are knowledgeable people to guide him, and Zhao Xiu feels that these young and strong servants in the family can still be competent to help them do some physical work.

Wang Shuangfu agreed with some surprise, Wang Fulai looked at it coldly, and laughed in his heart. He didn't care what happened to the other party, and stepped forward to return to Zhao Xiu: "Big girl, Mr. Wells of the foreign bank, I have passed the words several times, saying that I want to bring his wife to meet you and the old lady." You see......"

Zhao Xiu perked up: "It's his new wife, right?" I've heard from the Jiang girl. I wanted to see him for a long time, but I was stranded in Hangzhou after the year, but I didn't have a chance. They haven't left yet? That's just right. I'm free tomorrow, so please invite them to come. (To be continued.) )