Although other middle-aged refugees offered to sell themselves into slavery, Edwin refused them. After telling the mother where he should go, he left the group of refugees.

However, compared to his calmness, Zhang Jingxiu seemed a little unbearable, and he took out all the money he gave to the refugees.

In the end, when he set his eyes on Shi Yiwen, Shi Yiwen was stunned for a while. just said.

"I never go out with money."

Indeed, in the past, we either brought a maid ring or a servant with us, and we needed to bring our own money there.

On the way back, seeing that Zhang Jingxiu still looked worried, Shi Yiwen said.

"Zixuan, there is a sentence that I don't know whether to say or not."

Zhang Jingxiu said with a smile.

"Zhiyuan, you can speak out."

"Those people just said that the winter in Handan has not rained for two months since today, and there is more than one person who sells children's women? How many people can you help, besides, how long can that little money fall on them, and one person is a matter of more than a dozen dollars? ”

When persuading Zhang Jingxiu, Shi Yiwen's whole person also fell silent.

It's the seventh year of Wanli.

He didn't know whether he had entered the Xiaoice River period, but in this season of relying on the sky for food, the people's ability to resist drought and flood was almost zero, and how many people were affected in this kind of regional sporadic famine......

Zhang Jingxiu can't save much, but what about himself?

The only thing that can be saved is the mother and daughter.

"It's one that can help one."

Looking at Shi Yiwen with a smile, Zhang Jingxiu said.

"Do your best, besides, the imperial court will not ignore it, in fact, they fled to the capital because they knew that the imperial court would definitely open a porridge field."

"Zhiyuan ......"

Zhang Jingxiu, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said to Shi Yiwen.

"Actually, you can help some people, after all, when the government opens a porridge field, I don't know when, and I don't know how many people will starve by then."

"Porridge field?"

Zhang Jingxiu's proposal made Shi Yiwen stunned for a moment, and then the whole person fell silent.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Zhang Jingxiu just sighed and said helplessly.

"Didn't you say last time that you wanted to help the people? Why is it that when it comes to porridge now, there is no interest in it? ”

"I'm thinking about something else."

His question made Shi Yiwen laugh.

"I wondered if I set up a porridge field, how many people could I save with my financial resources? Hundreds? Thousands? How many days will they be saved? Ten days? How many people can I save when I run out of money on the 20th? ”

Zhang Jingxiu asked puzzled.

"Then what do you want to do?"

"I'm wondering how I can save more of the victims!"

"How much to save? How to save more? ”

Seeing Zhang Jingxiu staring at him, Shi Yiwen smiled.

"Cash-for-work."

Cash-for-work!

It is undoubtedly the best choice, and instead of opening a porridge farm, Shi Yiwen is more willing to find a livelihood for the victims.

"Zixuan, although setting up a porridge shed can give the refugees a full meal, it will also make the capital gather many middle-aged men who have nothing to do.

Shi Yiwen said as he pointed to the official road under his feet.

"Originally, I intended to pave the wooden track road to Zhangjiawan, and now it is just right to recruit refugees to build the road, they can always earn some money to live on the construction site, and it can also prevent them from gathering in the capital."

Cash-for-work.

It is indeed a very good choice, when Shi Yiwen told Zhang Weiliang his thoughts, he was just silent for a moment, and then agreed. Next, everything seemed to be going very smoothly, land acquisition, recruitment, road construction.

Those who had just gathered in the capital immediately had a place to go, and road construction was not a technical job, and for the people who were used to doing farm work in the fields, it was also a familiar road.

In fact, it is not only road construction sites that need to hire workers, but also women workers in the expanding yarn and cloth mills. In addition, when Edwin noticed the formation of a village market near the factory, considering that many of the workers in the factory did not live in dormitories, they had to travel miles back and forth.

"We should consider building a residential complex near the factory,"

Pointing to the warehouse-style dormitory in the factory, Shi Yiwen said.

"Keeping workers with families in dormitories is not a long-term solution."

The warehouse-style dormitories, which are ten meters deep and dozens of meters long, are filled with wooden bunk beds, and because the factory is far from the city, dormitories were built from the beginning, which also saves the workers the pain of traveling. However, it is not without its shortcomings, and the biggest shortcoming is that workers cannot be reunited with their families.

"You see, there are already hundreds of families of workers living there around the factory, but most of them live in adobe houses, that is, to deal with them temporarily, this is certainly not a long-term solution, rather than waiting for them to slowly build houses in the future and settle their homes here, it is better for us to plan now."

In front of Xu Sicheng, Shi Yiwen took out a piece of paper casually, recalled the planning of the new countryside in later generations, drew a planning map casually, and then said.

"You see, we can buy a piece of land one or two miles near the factory, and then plan and build a ...... Workers' New Village, what about this village? How to put it, just like the town, there are shops, restaurants, schools, in short, everything, the workers put their homes there, and it also solves their worries. Of course ......"

After a pause, Shi Yiwen smiled again.

"How to say that the construction of a new village for workers can also bring a lot of employment opportunities, at least thousands of disaster victims can be resettled, and thousands of families can get a livelihood, I have calculated, now the refugees who have fled to the capital, there are only so many people, their wages do not need much, one or two a month, almost enough for them to support their families."

Of course, it's just barely enough to make ends meet. One or two pieces of silver, that is, they can only buy one or two hundred catties of grain, and they still have to live and make a fire to cook, in fact, they can only maintain three or four people from going hungry, that's all.

But there is only so much that Shi Yiwen can do, indeed, he sympathizes with those people in his heart, but sympathy is sympathy, and things must always be clear. Just like the apprentice in the factory, at the beginning, Shi Yiwen planned to set a salary of one or two silver, but later reduced it to five yuan at Xu Sicheng's suggestion, even so, it still attracted many teenagers to enter the factory as apprentices.

"It's true that so many people can be housed, and there is enough for them"

Although the planning drawing was very simple, Xu Sicheng still saw the neatly arranged houses on the planning map, he first glanced at it, and then said.

"It's really nice to have workers put their homes near the factory, and it can also make ......"

Looking at Shi Yiwen, Xu Sicheng hesitated.

"Not everyone can afford to buy a house here."

Xu Sicheng's words made Shi Yiwen swing his hand casually.

"That's fine, just lend it to them!"