As a typical woman in the current era, Wu Niangzi is unmarried and follows her father and husband, often doing whatever others tell her to do, and never has the right to choose for herself.

In the past, she just had to be a good wife and mother with husband and children, and although her life was not rich, she was also stable and plain. But since the plague of locusts came, everything changed.

First, she sold her ancestral property and went south to escape the famine, and then her family starved to death without starvation, until her husband died, and she completely lost all her support and became a widow.

Mrs. Wu's support is gone, but at the same time, she has also become her son's only support, and she must support the family.

But it is difficult for a woman in the world to survive, and it is even more difficult for her to be a widow with a child. In order to survive smoothly with her son, she tried all means, digging grass roots and picking tree bark to satisfy her hunger, picking up broken cloth that others didn't want and sewing it into clothes. Even when the officer and soldier Zhou Dayong wanted to do something with her in exchange for helping sell handkerchiefs, she did not hesitate too much.

Because, she has no choice.

But now it is different, she can learn to weave silk, she can work as a weaver, she can make money with her own skills, support her and her son, and no longer have to rely on others and beg others. Just like Gu Yunji said - she can control her own life.

Dominate her own life, she couldn't think of it before, but now the officials and lords tell her that it's all true, it's all real, how can she not be excited, not cry with joy?

Gu Yunji knew that Mrs. Wu's life was not easy, and she could also understand her mood, Seeing this, she hurriedly helped her up: "Okay, okay, get up quickly." You don't need to be a cow or a horse, in the future, as long as you work as a weaver and live a stable life, it is the best reward for us. ”

In order to reassure the women, Tao Jian settled the wages according to the amount of silk they had woven today. Although the women had never touched silk and were weaving slowly at first, they had woven a lot over the course of a long time, and each of them had received more than a dozen cents.

After getting the wages, the women immediately smiled, and after thanking Tao Jian and the others for their kindness, they went back happily with the wages.

Seeing that it was not too early, Tao Jian only made a simple verbal agreement with Lu Xianzhi about teaching homeless women weaving, and as for more details, he was ready to have an in-depth discussion tomorrow.

Now that the resettlement of displaced women has been settled, a big stone in Gu Yunji's heart has finally landed, and he feels that the whole person is a lot more relaxed.

Walking out of the gate of the workshop, Gu Yunji was about to say goodbye to Lu Xianzhi and the others, when he saw Xu Chengyu walking towards him with a smile.

"Teacher, it's not early, why are you here at this time?"

Xu Chengyu stroked his beard with a smile: "I'm here to tell you a good news, that is, the dredging project of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been decided." ”

Gu Yunji's eyes showed surprise: "It's already decided?" So, the displaced people can indeed go north along the river, work while earning travel expenses and return to their hometowns? ”

"Exactly." As he spoke, Xu Chengyu took out a letter and handed it to everyone, "I also just received the news, Lord Pan Shiliang wrote that His Majesty has decided to dredge the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and is ordering the Ministry of Industry to formulate regulations, presumably there will be a report and an edict delivered soon." ”

Lu Xianzhi took the letter and read it carefully, and then laughed out loud: "Hahahahaha, good, good wow!" In this way, both women and strong men will have a suitable place to go, and the problem of resettlement of displaced people can be satisfactorily solved! ”

Xu Chengyu didn't know that the women had passed the weaver assessment, and he was a little surprised when he heard this: "Oh? The recruitment of women as weavers has also been confirmed? Wouldn't that be a good thing? ”

"Yes, good things come in pairs!" Lu Xianzhi was full of spring breeze and was in a very happy mood, "Yesterday, the wasteland that can be reclaimed in Hangzhou has just been inspected, which is about enough to be distributed to 4,000 displaced people. I have thought about it, anyway, these northern refugees are not familiar with the cultivation of crops in Jiangnan, and instead of letting them adapt to the climate and environmental differences, it is better to learn a new one and teach them to grow mulberry and silkworms. ”

Gu Yunji raised his eyebrows: "Planting mulberry and raising silkworms?" It's a good idea. Women go to the factory to work as weavers, and men raise silkworms and sell silk at home, so the internal and external collocation, the proper division of labor, can not only increase the output of silk, but also increase the number of weavers, and become a boost to the development of the silk weaving industry in Hangzhou. ”

Seeing that Gu Yunji fully understood what he meant, Lu Xianzhi was very happy, and appreciated him more and more in his heart, patted him on the shoulder and said, "That's exactly what I meant!" Gu Gongzi is quick to think, he can have such insight at a young age, and he will have a lot to do in the future! ”

Saying that, Lu Xianzhi continued: "Actually, the silk output of Hangzhou Mansion is a big problem, and it has not been able to go up. In the final analysis, there are too few people who raise silkworms, and the output of silk cannot keep up. After all, mulberry is different from rice, it is a cash crop, and it will not be effective in the short term. ”

"But the situation of the displaced people is special, they have nothing before, and they can't talk about destroying rice and mulberry, which is naturally much easier to accept, and the women in the family work outside the home and have financial resources, so they don't have to worry about the livelihood of the fields before the crops are harvested."

Xu Chengyu said with a smile: "Lord Lu is really thoughtful and long-term. Master Pan also told me that His Majesty was very appreciative of the suggestion made by Lord Lu and the magistrates of various state capitals, saying that you have placed the displaced people so properly, which is exemplary and worthy of imitation and learning from all parts of the Yangtze River. ”

The magistrates of all dynasties have always been most distressed that they are far away from the court, and they cannot go to the emperor anytime and anywhere to brush their sense of existence.

There are so many prefects in the world, it is a great honor to be remembered by the emperor and praised in front of hundreds of officials. In other words, Lu Xianzhi's political achievements in resettling displaced people this time are quite outstanding, and he is not far from being promoted.

Lu Xianzhi's face was overjoyed when he heard this, his eyes could not hide his excitement, but he still said modestly: "Where is it, Mr. Xu has a good reputation." Whether it is to recruit women to be weavers, or to let Zhuang Ding go north and return to his hometown, this is the idea that you and Gu Gongzi came up with, I just put it on a name, and I didn't do anything. ”

Having said that, Lu Xianzhi can sit in the position of the prefect of the fourth rank at the age of thirty, and he still has some ability.

Since the gathering of displaced people appeared, he went from the very beginning of his self-preservation and inaction, to the great work after receiving the edict, without procrastination, and later actively trying to find ways to resettle the displaced people, trying to achieve comprehensive consummation, from the perspective of a magistrate, it can be said that he took every step right.

And when he faced a student like Gu Yunji, he did not neglect and despise it at all, but humbly listened to the suggestions and adopted them, which is not unusual.

Lu Xianzhi is modest, cautious, and at the same time doing his duty, he is also good at greeting and communicating, and he has done it extremely well in all aspects, and he will not stop here in the officialdom, and his achievements in the future will definitely not be low.

In any case, now that a few major events have been finalized, the next thing to do is to formulate specific regulations and discuss how to implement them, which can be done slowly.

Several people were in a good mood at the moment, chatting and walking in the sunset.

The sunset on the horizon is as red as a flame, and the clouds are all bright and brilliant, looking from afar, it is like a fairy cloud rising, and the gate of heaven is opened, leaking the golden light all over the ground.

Gu Yunji looked into the distance, his gaze was leisurely and far-reaching, and muttered: "Now, even if they are all settled......

(End of chapter)