The officers and soldiers trembled at this sudden voice, and when he turned around to see the person who came, his face turned even pale, and his legs were weak with fright: "Gu Gu Gu Gu Gu Gongzi, you, why are you here?" ”

Gu Yunji's face turned blue with anger, the burning anger in his eyes almost erupted, and his whole body exuded a cold air, and his posture seemed to be about to eat people.

Without waiting for Gu Yunji to speak, an official behind him stepped forward in three or two steps, and kicked the officers and soldiers to the ground: "What kind of cooing, calling turtledoves?" You are so bold, you dare to leave your post without permission, and do things with women of good families, you still don't want to have a head! ”

The officers and soldiers were so frightened that they were incoherent, knelt on the ground and told him again and again: "Gu Gongzi spare his life!" Gu Gongzi spared his life! The little one is confused for a while, you can spare me this time! ”

Gu Yunji ignored the begging of the officers and soldiers for mercy, but instead looked at the woman behind him.

The woman looked like she was in her twenties, and as early as when Gu Yunji spoke, she knelt on the ground tremblingly. At the moment she was pale and trembling, and she hung her head and sobbed quietly.

Gu Yunji didn't hear the conversation between the two too clearly, he glanced at the torn clothes on the woman's chest, then quickly looked away, and asked in a deep voice, "He forced you?" ”

Before the woman could answer, the officers and soldiers hurriedly preemptively said, "No, no! She did it voluntarily! ”

I asked her! Got you talking! Gu Yunji's eyes froze, and the knife swept over, "Stay aside for me!"

Then he slowed down his voice, looked at the woman and said, "Don't be afraid, this lady, just say it, I will make the decision for you." If he forced you, I wouldn't have spared him! ”

The woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, bit her lip and whispered, "He, he didn't force me, I volunteered......"

Gu Yunji's breath stagnated, and he was a little incomprehensible: "Why?" ”

"Because, I can't live anymore......"

The woman took a deep breath and slowly raised her head, as if she felt embarrassed, she grabbed the clothes in her hand, and said slowly: "Looking back at Gongzi, the slave family's surname is Wu, and he is a native of Jiaocheng County, Taiyuan Prefecture, and his relatives are all gone on the way south, and now only me and my five-year-old son are left in the family." ”

"The first few months were fine, and I was able to eat every day. But these days, the government's soup kitchens have become less, and we often don't get them. I couldn't go out to work, so I had to dig up some bark and grass roots to fill my stomach, and the days suddenly became difficult, but even so, we still couldn't eat, and the children were always awakened in the middle of the night hungry......"

Speaking of the back, Mrs. Wu was already crying, her voice was a little trembling, and she was sad to hear it.

"Later, I saw that many women were embroidering handkerchiefs, and after calculating a few pennies a day, I could supplement the family, so I wanted to follow suit." Wu Niangzi sniffed and adjusted her emotions, "But we are homeless people, we can't enter the city, and we have to rely on officers and soldiers to buy needlework and sell handkerchiefs, which is very inconvenient." ”

"But everyone is scared, and finally there is a way to make money, so they naturally refuse to give up, and there are many people who want to sell handkerchiefs, and they flock around in front of those officers and soldiers who sell handkerchiefs every day, and it is not my turn at all. I was so anxious that I couldn't do it, and I couldn't do anything but watch. ”

"At this time, Zhou Dayong found me, it was this officer and soldier, and said that as long as I was ...... with him" Wu Niangzi's voice was astringent, and the fabric in her hand was crumpled, almost unable to speak, "...... He, he can help me sell handkerchiefs, I didn't want to, but I really have no way out, my son is so hungry that he can't speak......"

Wu Niangzi's eyes were red, her voice became smaller and smaller, and finally she bent down weakly, whimpering with emotional collapse.

Gu Yunji fell silent when she heard this, and waited until she cried to a better time before asking, "Can I see the handkerchief you embroidered?" ”

"Yes, you can." Wu Niangzi was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted, took out a handkerchief from her arms and handed it to him, "Gu Gongzi, look at it." ”

This handkerchief is made of cotton cloth, the material is a little rough, embroidered with a few pure magnolias, the stitches are fine, the lines are clear and smooth, although it is not called how exquisite and complicated, but it is also a little elegant, it can be seen that the embroiderer's female red level is not low.

Gu Yunji nodded and returned the handkerchief to her: "It's very well embroidered." You just said that the officers and soldiers helped you sell handkerchiefs, so how much did they give you? ”

"Most of the time, it's seven dollars a piece, and the material money is counted separately."

"It's only seven cents?" Gu Yunji raised his voice, a little incredulous, "Can you only get seven yuan at your level?" ”

The price of handkerchiefs on the market ranges from more than a dozen to several hundred, even if Wu Niangzi's handkerchief suffers from the loss of material, it can only be sold as a first-class product, but her embroidery is good, such a handkerchief sells for fifteen or sixteen wen, there is no problem at all.

These officers and soldiers are really dark-hearted, they can return to the city in shifts every day, and helping to sell a few handkerchiefs is just a convenient thing, and it doesn't take much effort. Who knew that they would be able to deduct more than half of the money in the middle, isn't this bullying the homeless women who are not familiar with the place and do not understand the local market?

Hearing Gu Yunji's tone, Wu Niangzi also noticed that there must be a lot of cats in it, but she had no choice but to smile bitterly: "What can we do, they buy the silk thread and they sell it, and the price is not as much as they say." My level is really nothing, there are more people than me who embroider well, and they can only get seven cents. ”

Gu Yunji's heart moved slightly, and asked, "Listening to what you mean, there are many people who can embroider handkerchiefs?" In addition to embroidery, can you weave cloth? ”

Wu Niangzi said: "Female red is a compulsory course in the boudoir, but if you are a woman, you will know a little, but the level of skill is just a matter of skill." As for weaving, we, the villagers, eat and wear from the ground, and we are rarely willing to take money to buy outside, and we all weave and wear our own cloth, so naturally we will do it. ”

Gu Yunji's eyes suddenly lit up, and he couldn't wait to ask: "What about weaving silk, will it too?" ”

Hangzhou is located in the south of the Yangtze River, the silk weaving industry has always been very prosperous, there are many government and private weaving and dyeing workshops, the silk produced is famous all over the world, even overseas supply is in short supply. And it is still in a period of vigorous development, and the output of silk is far from reaching the point of saturation, lack of silk, lack of looms, and even more lack of weavers.

More importantly, because of the social division of labor between men and women since ancient times, the textile tasks of the family are basically carried out by women, and the local weaving and dyeing workshops are basically female weavers. This means that women who can only do some in-home weaving and tailoring in other places can earn money with their own crafts in Hangzhou and become an important source of income for their families.

If these displaced women have good weaving and dyeing skills, then the government can come forward and recruit them to work as weavers in the factory, which not only solves their livelihood problems, but also promotes the development of the local silk weaving industry and reduces the cost of resettlement of displaced people by the government.

"Weaving silk?" Wu Niangzi was stunned when she heard this, and said slowly, "We haven't woven silk, but I think it should be similar to the principle of weaving, and there may be some differences in the size of the shuttle, the length of the warp beam, etc., but as long as I learn to observe it, I will be able to get started soon." ”

After receiving a clear answer, Gu Yunji felt that this idea was even more feasible, and almost wanted to go back to the city immediately to discuss with Lu Xianzhi. But until then, we still have to take care of the things at hand.

(End of chapter)