At this time, Shi Er stood at the door of the official hall a little nervously, ready to ask the soldiers standing guard for directions, and ask the workers of the soap workshop where to report. However, the soldiers standing guard were all very strong, and they stood there with rifles very majestic, which made Shi Er, a farmer who had never seen the world, a little afraid.

Before he could speak, the soldier with the gun saw him standing there for a long time, and asked him: "Did you come to the soap workshop to report?" Shi Er hurriedly replied: "Yes!" Do you know where to report? The soldier pointed into the hall and said, "Report to the fortification hall on the west side of the lobby!" You will be assigned a house there! "Thank you, Master Bing!"

Shi Er cringed and walked into the Baihu official hall, looked to the west, and sure enough, he saw a large house with many people standing in the same house as himself, which was probably the public works hall. Shi Er walked into the house with a quilt and luggage on his back. "Reported by the soap workshop?" "Yes!" "Where's the interviewer's cards!" Card? Shi Er hurriedly took out the stamped card from the package and respectfully handed it to the officials in the public building hall.

"How many members of your family moved to Fanjiazhuang?" "I'm alone!" The Li family, who was in charge, nodded, looked at the account book in his hand and said, "Then I will divide you into a small villa room, and assign you to the west room on the second floor of No. 52 Zhengyuan Street, and share a hall, kitchen, bath room and latrine with three people, and the rent will be 70 yuan a month, and the rent will be deducted from the monthly money." Shi Er heard the official say a lot, and he didn't understand what the west room on the second floor of Zhengyuan Street meant, but he only understood that he didn't have to pay for this residence, so he quickly nodded and said, "Okay, okay!" ”

"Huang Laosan, you take this worker to No. 52 Zhengyuan Street. You wait and ask him if he is short of money, and if he is short of money, he will give him a month's money first! "Got it!" After the official finished speaking, Huang Laosan, who was in charge, walked out and took Shi Er to Zhengyuan Street. That Huang Laosan seemed to be a man of few words, and he didn't talk to Shi Er along the way. Shi Er observed Tianjing City while walking, only to see people everywhere who were repairing houses and building city walls, and the road was constantly shuttling ox carts transporting wood and bricks, although the weather was cold, it was a lively scene here.

After walking half a mile on North Street, Huang Laosan, who led the way, walked into Zhengyuan Street with Shi Eryi. The Zhengyuan Street is on the west side of the north of the city, and the brand-new villas are densely built on both sides. Finding the No. 52 villa, Huang Laosan looked at Shi Er with a smile and said, "It's here, it's here!" Shi Er looked at the house with his eyes, and saw that the house had two floors, with a black tile roof, a bluestone threshold, and a smooth wall of cement brushes coated with snow-white lime, which looked very beautiful. Shi Er was accustomed to seeing leaky earthen houses in Shijia Village, and felt that such magnificent houses were lived in by the old men in the city.

But how did this Huang Laosan lead himself here, this is the house for himself to live in? Huang Laosan knocked on the door, waited for a while and saw that no one responded, so he pushed the door open directly. "The others haven't reported yet, you're the first resident!" Huang Laosan stood in the house, and when he saw that Shi Er didn't follow him into the house, he asked with a smile, "What are you doing standing at the door?" Why don't you come in yet? ”

Shi Er's face was surprised, and he opened his eyes wide and asked, "This is the house for me to live in?" Huang Laosan smiled and said, "Yes, don't come in quickly!" Shi Er woke up from a dream, and then walked into the house with his luggage. Huang Laosan took him to the door of a bedroom on the west side of the second floor and pushed the bedroom open. The bedroom is three meters long from east to west and four meters wide from north to south, and is very spacious, with concrete walls painted with snow-white lime. Inside, there is a double bed, a wardrobe, a copywriter and a simple wooden chair with an oil lamp on the copy.

These furniture, such a house, are already luxurious in the eyes of Shi Er, who was born in a farmer's household. "This is your room, seventy dollars a month's rent! Deducted from the monthly money. Shi Er asked again in disbelief: "This is a room for me to live alone?" Huang Laosan smiled and said, "Yes, the kitchen, bathroom and latrine in the hall are all downstairs, and you and the other three people in this villa share them together." Now there are many empty houses in the village, if you don't have enough one room in the future, you can apply to rent two rooms for 140 yuan a month. If you want to support the elderly, you can rent a whole villa. ”

Shi Er still couldn't believe that such a good house was for himself, so he asked, "How can you live in my lord's house for me?" Huang Laosan laughed when he heard this, and said, "What old man's house?" This is the worker's house. The lord's house is much bigger than this, and it has a big yard! Even the medium villa I live in is better than this. ”

Shi Er believed that this house was for him to live in, and bit his lip and stopped talking. Huang Laosan saw his restrained appearance and said with a smile: "What are you doing with the quilt on your back, hurry up and make the bed." When Shi Er heard this, he quickly took off his luggage and began to make the bed. Huang Laosan stood aside and watched Shi Er work, and asked, "Did you bring the money?" ”

Shi Er was stunned when he heard this, thinking that Huang Laosan was going to ask him for money, and sure enough, this house was not lived in for nothing. Shi Er bit his lip and replied honestly: "I only have fifty yuan on me." Huang Laosan smiled and said, "Where is the fifty yuan enough!" Look at your cotton jacket full of patches, look at your torn cloth shoes, how unseemly they look. Otherwise, you can borrow a month's monthly money from the Public Works Department to spend it, and the next month it won't give you the monthly money. ”

Hearing this, Shi Er was stunned for a long time before he realized that Huang Laosan was going to lend money to himself. I didn't know what to say. Seeing that Shi Er didn't speak, Huang Laosan directly took out two taels of silver from his arms, took out seventy yuan from it, and said with a smile: "This is your salary for next month, deducting seventy yuan rent, one thousand nine hundred and thirty yuan will be given to you." How decent are you going to make a new outfit? Now Tianjing City has not yet been built, but a few tailors have already come in to take the job, just east of Siwen Street! ”

Shi Er took Huang Laosan's two copper coins, like a drunken and a dream. "It's a month's money? Two copper coins? "The gentleman in the village only told Shi Er that Tianjing City was recruiting people to work, and he didn't say anything about the treatment at all. It is estimated that Mr. Na didn't believe the treatment written on the paper of Tianjing City at all, so he didn't tell Shi Er at all, and only told Shi Er that he had a bite to eat. So when he came here, he knew that he really issued two copper coins a month, and Shi Er was very surprised.

Huang Laosan took a breath and asked curiously: "Didn't you know when you came to apply, our city lord gives two copper coins a month and three meals of meat!" "Three meals, meat?" Shi Er felt that his brain was no longer enough, how could this hired city lord be so good, live in such a beautiful big house, give two copper coins a month, three meals a day to manage meat, and borrow money for himself first. Is this Tianjing City? Is this city lord a military attache of the Great Song Dynasty? What do you have to make these people be so good to you?

Shi Er had heard of Tianjing City a long time ago, and originally thought that this Tianjing City was a fire pit, and he had been a hard-working person all his life. Who knew that he would be treated like this here. With such treatment, wouldn't he live much better than his eldest brother who became a relative, or in a few years, he would be able to marry a daughter-in-law? It was a blessing for me and my eldest brother to come to Fan Tianjing City empty-handed?

Thinking about it, Shi Er's tears flowed. With a pop, Shi Er knelt down in front of Huang Laosan and said loudly: "Daddy Huang, Shi Er never thought that he could live such a life!" Shi Er thanked the city lord for his trouble, and asked Daddy Huang to say to the city lord, in the future, the city lord asked me to go west, and I will never go east. It was the sea of swords and fire that made me go and I went. ”

Huang Laosan laughed when he saw that this rural child was so upright, and quickly helped him up, and said with a smile: "What are you talking about stupidly?" Don't let you do that, you can work hard in the soap workshop in the future, and stick to the confidentiality regulations! Keep up with the city lord, and there will be more good days in the future! Shi Er got up, wiped a handful of tears, and nodded vigorously.

Yang Peng was ready to move all his nearly 2,000 workers to Tianjing City. The first thing to move is the salt processing plant, and then the soap factory. The various processes of the salt processing plant are not closely connected, and as long as some semi-finished products are prepared, the production will not be affected, and the relocation of a certain process to other places will not be affected. The soap workshop is different, the various processes of the soap workshop are assembly line operations, and the entire production cannot be organized if any one process is moved to other places. So Yang Peng decided to move part of the salt factory first, and then move the soap workshop when the people who moved first made Tianjing City lively.

Single workers are easy to do, just move them to Tianjing City and rent a small villa. However, if the worker's spouse has other errands to do in the Acropolis, the workers are reluctant to let the spouse quit the errand and move to Tianjing City. Although the monthly salary of the errand outside is low, after all, it is also an income for the family.

Yang Peng asked Zheng Yuan to count the spouses of the workers in the salt factory and report to Yang Peng.

According to the last statistics, Yang Peng found that among the 1,770 workers in the salt factory, there were about more than 400 people in the first category who were single and unmarried, more than 900 people in the second category who had spouses but no jobs, and only more than 300 people who belonged to the third category, that is, their spouses who had errands outside. After all, in this era, women spin and weave at home to do more housework, and less go out to work, so there are more people in the second group. As long as Yang Peng finds new jobs for the spouses of more than 300 people in the third category, he can move all the industrial workers to Tianjing City.

Yang Peng felt that this was not a difficult matter, and in the future, Tianjing City would be lively, and there would be a shortage of people in all walks of life, and the spouses of more than 300 workers would be able to find new jobs in Tianjing City. Yang Peng decided to move more than 1,300 households in the first and second categories to Tianjing City first, so as to support the popularity of Tianjing City first. After making up his mind, Yang Peng asked the masons to repair the new building of the salt factory in Fanjiazhuang. After the new factory was repaired on December 24, Zheng Yuan notified the workers to move. Yang Peng organized people to carry the salt processing machinery, and tried to transport 1,300 pieces of machinery to the new plant within three days, and then continued production.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the salt factory left work early at noon. Gu Lao Er got off work and wandered around the north gate market of Tianjing City for a while, buying a pair of couplets, a firecracker, five catties of bacon, ten catties of fresh meat, twenty catties of flour and ten catties of various vegetables.

He had moved with the city lord to the official hall of Tianjing City, and now he rented a small villa on Dexin Street, renting two rooms. After 1,300 salt workers settled in Tianjing City, the traders in Cangzhou City immediately smelled the business opportunity - these salt workers are all consumer groups with stable monthly income and considerable spending power. Many traders left Cangzhou City and did business in Tianjing City, and sure enough, all of them had a prosperous business.

Yang Peng set up four markets in the four directions of Tianjing New Town, and by the last day of the third year of Zhidao, there were already quite a few vendors in these four markets. There are those who sell rice, noodles, meat, oil, vegetables, chickens and ducks, and groceries. The vendors knew that the workers in Tianjing New City had strong spending power and had enough goods on Chinese New Year's Eve.

Gu Lao Er carried the New Year's goods and returned to his villa with joy. In front of the villa, Gu Laoer's old mother was walking around the street on crutches. Now that Gu Lao Er is working in a salt factory, the old mother is full of food and her spirit is much better. After moving to a small villa in Fanjiazhuang, she likes to wander around the neighborhood.

Gu Lao Er greeted his mother and said, "Mother! I bought meat and went home to make dumplings! Gu Lao Er's mother said: "You and your daughter-in-law bag, I'll just wait and eat!" Seeing that Gu Lao Er was stunned when he heard his words, his mother said again: "When I raised you when you were a child, it was a hard work. Now let you make a dumpling for me to eat, what are you not happy about? ”

Gu Lao Er glanced at his mother, a little speechless, pushed open the door and walked into the villa. When he entered the door and went up to the second floor, he saw his daughter-in-law weaving cloth in the house. After Gu Lao Er entered Tianjing City to do things, he had two taels of money every month. After saving money for a few months, Gu Lao Er bought a traditional loom for his daughter-in-law to weave at home. Although this loom is far inferior to the shuttle loom in the textile factory, the woman can still earn some hard-earned money by weaving at home. A diligent woman can earn more than a tael of silver in a month.

With Gu Lao'er's monthly money and the money earned by his daughter-in-law weaving, the Gu family can be regarded as getting rid of poverty, and it is no longer the family that has no food. Gu Lao Er rented half a villa from the city lord in Tianjing City, and shared it with another family, and the monthly rent was one hundred and forty Wen, which was nothing to the Gu family today. Gu Lao Er and his daughter-in-law live in the upper room, Gu Lao Er's mother has bad legs and feet, and lives in the downstairs room.

Seeing Gu Lao Er carrying firecrackers into the door, Gu's daughter-in-law ran out of the house happily and said with a smile: "Master, you have bought so many years of goods!" "Since Gu Lao Er got the monthly money for working in the salt factory, Gu Lao Er's daughter-in-law no longer called him by his name, but called him the head of the house. Gu Lao Er said with a smile: "Move to a new house this year, let's have a good year." The daughter-in-law of the Gu family looked at the New Year's goods on Gu's second-hand hand, her eyes were shining with tears, and she said, "This year, our family has eaten bacon!" At this time last year, there were only ten catties of flour left at home, which was not enough to survive the year! ”

Gu Lao Er smiled and hugged his daughter-in-law with his shoulder, and said with a smile: "It's all over, what are you going to do." Walk! Let's go to the kitchen to make dumplings! The daughter-in-law of the Gu family wiped her tears with her hands and said, "The He family is using the kitchen, we will go later!" The He family is another working family who shares this villa with the Gu family. The same husband works in the Tianjing City factory, and the wife spins yarn at home, and there is an old mother and a boy at home.

Gu Lao Er said: "This is not good for sharing a house, you still have to share the kitchen!" The daughter-in-law of the Gu family said: "What's wrong! Great! It's the first time I've lived in such a nice house! You see how strong and smooth this cement wall is, how decent this furniture is, ten times better than the house we rented in the courtyard of Hao's house in Cangzhou! If you want me to live in that room in the courtyard of the Hao family again, I will be crowded with my mother every day, why don't I go! ”

After thinking about it, the Gu family's daughter-in-law said again: "And the rent of these two rooms is about the same as the rent of one room in Cangzhou City!" The lord of the castle treats us so well! Gu Lao Er said: "This place is naturally much better than the Hao family's courtyard." But I mean, after a while we have children, we'll rent a small cottage on our own, and we'll not share it with anyone else, and we'll be two dollars and seven cents a month. ”

The daughter-in-law of the Gu family complained: "With a little money, you start to spend it indiscriminately!" Gu Lao Er asked: "Daughter-in-law, we now have money to raise children, has your stomach moved in the past few months?" The daughter-in-law of the Gu family complained: "Some time ago, when I was in the courtyard of the Hao family in Cangzhou, your mother sat in the room as soon as she saw you come back, and we didn't share a room a few times in half a year, how could we get pregnant?" ”

Gu Lao Er nodded and said, "My mother has a strange temper, my daughter-in-law has suffered!" The daughter-in-law of the Gu family said: "Okay now, there are two rooms, there is no need to be locked in one room with your mother every day!" Gu Lao Er said: "Why don't we go into the house now and try it, maybe we will be pregnant!" ”

The daughter-in-law of the Gu family nodded, turned around and walked into the house. After Gu Lao Er also entered the house, Gu Jia's daughter-in-law looked at the door, and after making sure that Gu Lao Er and his mother had not entered the villa, she carefully closed the door of the house.

In mid-February, the last 300 or so employees of the salt factory also moved to Tianjing New Town. These employees are employees whose spouses have errands in Cangzhou, and they were able to move to Tianjing New Town smoothly thanks to the various needs generated by the lively Tianjing New Town. At present, the residents of Tianjing New Town have great spending power: more than 2,000 masons have to eat and drink every day, 1,300 workers' families who have moved into Tianjing New Town have daily consumption, and 2,000 soldiers of the Xuanfeng Regiment who earn three taels a month occasionally go out to the camp to spend.

The consumption of tens of thousands of people has driven the demand of various industries, so that Tianjing New City has all kinds of industries to be developed: those who sell rice, vegetables, oil, meat, cloth and silk, tailors, clay pots, iron pots, iron, porcelain, gourds, chopsticks, boxes, firewood, furniture, door locks, turbans and hats, restaurants, tea gardens, hooks, storytellers, singers, private schools to teach, all kinds of shops and venues have gradually opened. They were all opened by the boss vendors from Cangzhou.

However, Tianjing New Town is sixty miles away from Cangzhou City, and it is impossible for these business owners to hire people from Cangzhou City to do things, otherwise they will come to Tianjing New Town from Cangzhou City every day to do things, and there will be no time to sleep. These shops and stores have to hire local people, which creates a huge demand for manpower in Tianjing New Town. However, the residents of Tianjing New Town are all craftsmen and workers, and there are very few idle people who can go out to work to meet the labor needs of these service industries, and the vendors of Tianjing New Town have been in a state of shortage.

It wasn't until Yang Peng moved the last 300 or so workers and soap workshops of the salt factory to Tianjing New Town that the demand for labor in Tianjing New Town was alleviated. More than 300 workers' spouses appeared in the labor market, and they were immediately absorbed by all walks of life that lacked people. For example, after Huang Gui, a laborer of the Yang family, a salt factory worker, moved to Tianjing New Town, he soon found a chores in a restaurant, and he paid one dinner a day for one or four yuan a month, which was higher than the monthly income he had when he was in Cangzhou.

With a new job, Huang Gui did not have the trouble of leaving his hometown, and quickly integrated into the life of Tianjing New Town. That night, Huang Gui waited for the restaurant to close, washed his hands, and walked to his villa on Chongwu Street.

Huang Gui's family rented an entire villa on Chongwu Street. Huang Gui's wife, Yang, works in a salt factory, and has two taels of monthly money for a month's food, and her income plus Huang Gui's monthly money of one or four dollars is enough for the family to have three or four dollars of income every month, which is enough for the expenses of a family of four. When the Yang family moved to Tianjing New Town, he said that he liked the cleanliness of the independent courtyard and insisted on renting a whole house, but Huang Gui couldn't resist her.

However, the rent of two dollars and seven cents a month is not high, and the Huang family can afford it now. Huang Gui walked home and saw his daughter Daya and son Shi Shi playing with other children in front of the house in the moonlight, playing a game of catching people there. When the two children saw their father come home, they all stopped playing and ran to Huang Gui's side.

"Daddy's home!" Huang Gui touched the head of the stone, smiled and asked the eldest girl, "Have you eaten at night?" The eldest girl said, "We scooped the rice and vegetables in the pot and ate them ourselves, and we are full!" I ate half of the meat buns in the pot with the stone! As soon as the stone wanted to speak, he was robbed by the big girl, and he could only look at Huang Gui with wide eyes.

"Has my mother come back?" The eldest girl hurriedly replied: "My mother has already returned, what about lighting the lamp in the upstairs room to watch things?" Huang Gui was stunned and asked, "What is my mother looking at?" The big girl hurriedly said, "I don't know! Huang Gui nodded, let the two children continue to play, and pushed the door into the house by himself. After entering the house, Huang Gui really saw a bright light upstairs, so he walked upstairs.

There are four rooms in the small villa, Huang Gui and Yang live in a room downstairs, two children live in a room upstairs, and a room is empty for sundries, and the light is on this room for sundries. Huang Gui walked to the door of the room and saw Yang's face with joy, where he looked at a piece of paper that he didn't know what it was. In front of the tung oil lamp, the twenty-six-year-old Yang was illuminated by the light of the oil lamp, which was very beautiful, which made Huang Gui look stupid.

His wife was also a beauty before she got married, and she has suffered with herself all these years, Huang Gui thought to himself. Yang suddenly found Huang Gui at the door, and panicked to hide the paper in his hand behind him. Huang Gui walked into the room and said with a smile: "You're off work!" Yang shook his head and said, "It's time to get off work!" ”

Huang Gui asked again: "How are you doing with your co-workers today?" What's new? Yang tilted his head and said: "Nothing new, every day is work, eating, making salt, eating!" Huang Gui echoed and said: "It's quite boring to say, do the same thing every day." ”

Yang glared at Huang Gui and said, "Isn't it just making salt!" It's hard to find a job with such a high monthly income with a lantern! If you have money, you can support your family! Huang Gui smiled: "That's right, since you went to the salt factory, our family's life has been much better!" Yang smiled, since he worked in the salt factory, his status in the family had improved a lot. Now the husband speaks according to himself, and does not raise the bar with himself.

After thinking about it, Yang suddenly took out the piece of paper hidden behind him, gently put it on the table, and said to Huang Gui with a smile: "Show it to you!" Huang Gui saw that his wife took out the things behind her, so she curiously leaned under the lamp and looked at it, and saw that the paper was densely filled with small characters, and there were two handprints at the bottom, but Huang Gui couldn't understand a word.

"the stone, what is this?" Yang proudly pointed to the two names at the bottom of the paper and said, "You always recognize these two names, right?" This is your name Huang Gui, this is my name Yang Xiuniang! ”

Huang Gui nodded and said, "I recognize these two names!" Yang puffed up his chest proudly and said loudly: "This is the title deed!" The title deed of our house! Huang Gui was stunned, and finally understood. He thought about it for a long time, swallowed his saliva and said helplessly: "You still don't listen to me, buy this house?" Yang suddenly put away his smugness, glanced at her husband with a wince, and said, "I don't listen to your house purchase, don't you want me?" Huang Gui said helplessly: "How could I not want you?" ”

Yang laughed again when he heard this, and said loudly: "That's fine! You see, our family has our own house, and this beautiful villa is now our family, what a happy thing! Huang Gui said: "Didn't I tell you not to buy, it's better to rent than to buy!" ”

Yang didn't listen, shook his head and said: "It costs two dollars and seven cents of silver to rent this house every month, and the city lord will recover the cost of building a house after fifteen years of rent, and we will still have to pay rent every month at that time." Buying a house is different, and the city lord borrows fifty taels of silver to buy this house, and then borrows five taels to buy the furniture arranged by the city lord, and calculates four percent of interest, and every month the city lord deducts four cents of silver from my monthly money, and the loan is paid off after fifteen years, and the house is all ours! Then you won't have to pay for housing! ”

"Huang Gui, you said, if you spend an extra dollar and six cents of silver every month, you can have your own house, how can there be such a cost-effective thing in the world? Isn't it a fool not to buy such a good thing? Huang Gui sat on the bed and didn't speak. Yang asked dissatisfiedly: "Huang Gui, did you say what I said?" ”

Huang Gui said with some annoyance: "When you insisted on renting a whole villa a few days ago, you made up your mind to buy this house, didn't you!?" Yang was a little flustered, looked at her husband's face and did not speak. After thinking about it, Huang Gui said angrily: "This costs four dollars of silver every month!" What if we have another one and the family doesn't have enough money? ”

Yang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard her husband's words, and said loudly: "The head of the family, enough, enough money." In addition to the money paid back to the city lord every month, our family still has two taels and nine cents of silver every month, which is enough to spend even if one more person is added. It's a big deal that we save a little more and make a few new sets of clothes. If you are short of money, we will rent out this unused room, and we can get an extra seven cents a month! ”

"Say it again! This house is so big! In the future, when the stone gets married, we don't have to buy a house for him! Hearing that the Yang family was willing to give birth to another one for himself, Huang Gui's face looked better. Hearing what the Yang family said about the marriage of the stone in the future, Huang Gui gradually figured it out and put away his angry face. Huang Gui said: "If you are willing to have another one, I will follow you!" Yang glared at Huang Gui and said, "If I have my own house, I am willing to have another one!" Rent a house, and I won't give birth! ”

The knot in his heart was opened, and Huang Gui opened his smiling face and leaned in front of the oil lamp to look at the title deed with his wife. "With this title deed, this house is ours?" Yang said: "Of course! Look at these two words, these two words are 'land deed', and then look at this name, 'Yang Peng', this is the name of the city lord, this land deed means that the deputy city lord sold this building to us! ”

Huang Gui muttered: "I didn't expect our family to have such a good house!" When Yang heard this, he said with a smile on his face: "Yes, our family can also have such a good house!" Look at this wall, this roof, what a house! Before I went to work in the main salt factory of the city, I never dreamed that I could live in such a nice house! ”

If you want to know what happens next, let's see the next breakdown.