When Xiao Zhenlei and Fast returned from Huxi, they brought back two men and two women. Uncle Gen, a bachelor of nearly fifty years old, with many wrinkles and furrows on his forehead and face, an old man who has been weathered, has a lame leg and has some difficulty in moving, Xiao Zhenlei arranged for him to be a gardener, tidy up the garden and lawn, raise horses to feed horses when he is fine, and take care of carriages.

Dogan, a young man in his twenties, looks thin, can drive carriages, is very clever, and has sharp hands and feet, Xiao Zhenlei arranged for him to be a groom, and usually do some chores.

Wu's mother, a local, is in her fifties, and her children have already started a family, so Xiao Zhenlei arranged for her to do housework and cleaning.

Sister Tao, a woman less than forty years old, a native of Xichuan, a chef, makes good Sichuan cuisine, and she is responsible for Xiao Zhenlei's three meals a day.

In the evening, the chef of Sister Tao made a table of dishes, and under Xiao Zhenlei's repeated compulsion, the whole family of seven people sat at the same table to eat, except for Sister Tao, the other six people were full of praise and spicy sweat, and Fast, a foreign devil, said straight with a mouthful of English Chinese: "Delicious, delicious!" ”

After dinner, the shopkeeper of Yaxing He came over with four people, this is the housekeeper he found, a total of four candidates, selected by Xiao Zhenlei, Xiao Zhenlei looked at these four people, one of them is wearing old-fashioned round-framed glasses, wearing an old gray robe about forty years old man and another man wearing a robe and horse coat about thirty years old is particularly eye-catching.

Xiao Zhenlei asked some questions, and after inquiry, he learned that the person who wore glasses and an old gray robe was called Fan Zhiyong. The state is a first-class old talent, who has a good calculation and a good handwriting. Wearing a robe and a horse coat, a young man about 30 years old is called Song Shijie, a generation of eunuchs, his father has been a local prefect in Liangguang, only because he offended Shangguan was dismissed, and then died depressed.

Xiao Zhenlei shouted at the shopkeeper of Yaxing He and said: "Shopkeeper He, I have taken a fancy to Fan Zhiyong and Song Shijie, I have one more person than I said in the morning, of course, the commission will not be less than you, you can rest assured of this, so let's take them all back first, and then bring Fan Zhiyong and Song Shijie to me tomorrow!" ”

One more person, He shopkeeper can charge two more commissions, for him, of course, it is unwanted, he immediately agreed with joy on his face: "Okay, okay, Master Xiao, as long as you are satisfied, you are satisfied!" ”

The next day, Shopkeeper He really brought Fan Zhiyong and Song Shijie as promised, and Fan Zhiyong and Song Shijie bowed to Xiao Zhenlei and saluted in unison: "Master Xiao!" ”

After Xiao Zhenlei sent away the shopkeeper He, he stretched out his hand to help them up and said with a smile: "I don't want to call me lord here, I am not a landlord or an old man, nor is it an official master, you can call me sir!" ”

Maybe they heard from Shopkeeper He that Xiao Zhenlei wanted the two of them before they came, so they had already been psychologically prepared, and when the two heard this, they looked at each other and hurriedly changed their names: "Sir!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei originally only needed one person to be a housekeeper, the original intention was to leave Fan Zhiyong, Fan Zhiyong's impression of Xiao Zhenlei was honest, good abacus, very clear about some etiquette, completely a typical representative of the old culture of the feudal era, let him be a housekeeper, Xiao Zhenlei was more satisfied, but after seeing Song Shijie, Xiao Zhenlei wanted to leave Song Shijie behind, although Song Shijie was still a gentleman a few years ago, but now he has no capital to be a gentleman, Xiao Zhenlei takes a fancy to his social skills, But all the children of the feudal era can make friends with all kinds of characters, and the Song Dynasty is an outstanding official family, and he is very familiar with the officialdom, Xiao Zhenlei himself feels that the number of times he will deal with the characters in the officialdom of the Qing court in the future will definitely not be less, so he must find a person who is familiar with the rules of officialdom and is good at dealing with officials.

Xiao Zhenlei smiled and nodded: "Okay, two, please come over today, I think you all already know, the contemptible people want to hire Mr. Song as the housekeeper of the cold house, and Mr. Fan as the account office of the contemptible mansion, Mr. Song's monthly case is two hundred taels, and Mr. Fan's monthly case is also two hundred taels, I don't know what the two of you think?" ”

Fan Zhiyong and Song Shijie were very excited when they heard this, what is the concept of two hundred taels of silver per month, Song Shijie knows very well, he was born in a family of eunuchs, and he thought that the housekeeper in his house only had a few dozen taels of silver, he thought that these two hundred taels of silver were only afraid that it would not be so easy to get, but since he had such a generous salary, he could only do his best to do things for the main family, so as to live up to the monthly money of two hundred taels of silver.

Fan Zhiyong is an old talent who has fallen into the ranks, because the Qing court canceled the imperial examination as early as a few years ago, the way for scholars to become officials by studying was blocked, and the scholars represented by Fan Zhiyong can only find work to support themselves, he has also done master, housekeeper, master and other occupations before, but he has never taken such a high monthly case of two hundred taels, and now he heard that the monthly case has two hundred taels of silver, and this news smashed him into a dizziness.

The two saluted again, and Fan Zhiyong arched his hand and said affectionately: "How did I first arrive, before I did anything, Mr. promised a monthly example of two hundred taels of silver, which shows that Mr. attaches great importance to us, and he will do things loyally, so he can be worthy of Mr.'s kindness!" ”

Song Shijie also said with an embarrassed face: "I am really ashamed to receive two hundred taels of silver for a month when I first came, this monthly case is a high salary in the entire concession, but it can also be seen from this that Mr. is so ambitious, and the career he wants to do must be extraordinary, Mr. looks up to Song, Song will sell more than 100 catties to Mr., even if he rebels and kills his head in the future, he will die without regrets!" ”

"Huh?" Xiao Zhenlei heard a stirring spirit, and said in his heart that this Song Shijie is so powerful, and he immediately told my secret.

Xiao Zhenlei hurriedly hid his gaffe just now, and said: "Haha, Mr. Song is cautious, cautious, don't talk nonsense if you kill your head and rebel, it's terrible to be known by the imperial court eagle dog." By the way, the two gentlemen just came, I arranged for someone to arrange a room for the two gentlemen to live in, from now on, Mr. Song, you are my housekeeper, Mr. Fan, you are my account, I will hand over the accounts to you, and the family affairs will be entrusted to the two of you in the future."

Song Shijie and Fan Zhiyong hurriedly saluted: "Dare not do your best!" ”

Not to mention, since Song Shijie and Fan Zhiyong became Xiao Zhenlei's housekeeper and account office respectively, Xiao Zhenlei has a lot of peace of mind, and Song Shijie and Fan Zhiyong take care of things at home inside and out, plus Ma Xiaoshuang is on the side, many things are solved without Xiao Zhenlei to deal with them.

On this day, Xiao Zhenlei found Song Shijie and said: "Mr. Song, now the foreigners are strong and the ships are strong, and my Qing Dynasty is gradually declining. In my opinion, if you want to catch up with and surpass the powers, it is necessary to develop industry, especially shipbuilding, heavy industry of guns and cannons, I Xiao Zhenlei has Yan Huang blood flowing in my body, as a citizen of the Qing Dynasty, I should contribute to the future and destiny of the country, so I want to act as well as move, I plan to open a factory to test the water, and then slowly expand the scale, what does Mr. Song think? ”

Song Shijie looked at Xiao Zhenlei and was a little shocked, he was surprised: "Since Shijie saw Mr., he knew that Mr. was not small, but he didn't expect that Mr. was concerned about the future and destiny of the country, since Mr. has this ambition, and is ready to start now, Shijie thinks it is feasible, this matter should be sooner rather than later, what are the orders, Mr. just command!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei pondered for a moment and said: "The officialdom of the Qing court is dark, corruption and bribery are the norm, and officials protect each other, if we spread the stall too big all of a sudden, I am afraid that those officials will slaughter us like a hungry wolf who sees a fat sheep and slaughters a fat sheep, so I plan to build a machinery factory to test the water first, and produce some industrial machines and machinery, such as lathes, milling machines, planers, etc., to lay the foundation for future industrial development. This also requires us to reprocess ourselves into higher precision industrial machines, and the steel raw materials we need can only be purchased from abroad for the time being, where do you think we should choose the right site? ”

Song Shijie thought for a while and said: "The land price in the concession is too high, the cost is too great, it is not suitable to open a factory, there is a lot of wasteland in the Baoshan area, the price is low, and it is not far from the concession, whether it is a carriage or a steamer, it is not far from the railway station, I don't know what the owner thinks?" ”

"Baoshan?" Xiao Zhenlei thought about it and nodded.

Song Shijie said: "Zhejiang businessmen in the Shanghai factory, Shijie has also seen, not to mention the factory opened, just say that the training of workers is not a simple thing, the foreigners' machine is not easy to get, I Daqing people are not literate enough, I am afraid that those machines are not good, if the owner really decides to start the factory, this aspect can not help but carefully consider!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said: "I have already begun to think about it, and I am going to ask Fast to contact some foreigners to see if there are talents who understand machine manufacturing and machinery manufacturing among the foreigners in Shanghai, if you can't find it in Shanghai, go to the ocean to find it, and you must find talents who understand this area!" In addition, regarding the location of the factory, I also want to set up the factory in Baoshan, and I also fancy a piece of land, but I have never dealt with the government, and I don't know much about the officialdom.

Song Shijie arched his hand and said: "Okay! ”

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