So when Gu Laoer stood in the queue waiting for the interview according to the Li family's rules, he was very nervous, fearing that when it was his turn, the number of people would already be full.
Fortunately, the Li family recruited a lot of people this time. The interview line moved forward little by little, from morning to noon, and finally it was Gu Laoer's turn before the owner of the Li family had lunch.
Gu Laoer walked into the main room nervously, answered a dozen questions from the young family head, and then heard happily: "You have been hired. We will meet here at 10:00 the day after tomorrow, and then we will take you to the weaving workshop together."
Gu Laoer seemed to have picked up the gold ingot all of a sudden. He smiled widely and felt light all over. He didn't know how he walked out of the Li family yard.
After receiving such good news, the first thing Gu Laoer did was to go to the pawn shop and pawn his cotton-padded jacket and trousers for sixty cents, and then went to the rice store to buy a bag of rice.
Walking home carrying the rice, Gu Laoer felt a sense of pride that he had not seen for a long time. As the head of the family, he finally got some rice to live on.
The family lived in a courtyard shared with others, and the three members of the family were crowded into one room. As soon as Gu Lao Er opened the door, he heard his wife's weak voice: "Gu Lao Er, what did you come back with?"
Gu Laoer proudly lifted the rice bag and said loudly: "I bought rice!"
"What? Did you buy rice?" Gu Lao Er's wife climbed up from the bed and grabbed Gu Lao Er's pocket anxiously. The family's money had already been used up. Gu Lao Er had never found a job before, and the family had already
There has been no cooking for two days. Gu Lao Er was running around outside looking for work. In order to support his strength, he ate a piece of flour cake yesterday. The Gu family's wife and old mother had not eaten anything for two days. At this time, they saw rice.
The Gu family's wife looked happy.
"Where did you get the rice?"
"I pawned my cotton-padded jacket and trousers and got sixty cents!"
"What?"
Hearing Gu Lao Er's words, the Gu family's wife was very disappointed and her face turned dark. He thought Gu Lao Er had earned dozens of pennies from somewhere, but who knew it was money from selling cotton-padded clothes. The Gu family's daughter-in-law thought of Gu Lao Er's money next winter.
The second child didn't have any cotton-padded clothes anymore, and tears suddenly flowed down his face: "Gu second child, how will you survive next winter?"
"Daughter-in-law, listen to me!"
Hearing the quarrel between her son and daughter-in-law, the old mother who was caring for the second child woke up on the bed. She raised her head and stared at the rice bag in her daughter-in-law's hand. The old mother said with straight eyes: "My son, I have been starving for the past two days.
I really can’t afford it. Since you bought the rice, hurry up and cook some porridge to drink!”
After saying this, the mother-in-law lay on the bed with her head tilted and had no energy to say another word.
After hearing what her mother-in-law said, the Gu family's daughter-in-law stopped arguing with Gu Laoer. She bit her lip and walked to the shared kitchen holding on to the wall. She lit a fire and cooked the porridge. After half an hour, the porridge was ready. The Gu family's daughter-in-law
Holding a small bowl of porridge with all his strength, he slowly walked back to his house.
Smelling the aroma of porridge, the old mother on the bed struggled to get up. Gu Laoer found a few broken bowls and first served the porridge to the old mother, and then served a bowl to his wife and himself.
The Gu family's daughter-in-law was still worried about Gu Lao Er's cotton-padded clothes, her back was turned to Gu Lao Er and she refused to speak.
The old mother ignored the fact that the porridge was hot, took a sip, and swallowed it all. The hot porridge flowed into her stomach, and the old mother perked up, and then said: "My son, I finally didn't starve to death. You should hurry up too."
Have a few sips!”
Gu Laoer, however, was not in a hurry to drink the porridge. Instead, he turned his back to his wife and said, "Daughter-in-law, listen to me. I dare to pawn my cotton-padded clothes because I have found a job!"
Hearing this, the Gu family's wife shook her body and slowly turned around: "What's the errand?"
"Being a weaver in the Li family, I get two taels of silver a month, and I have three meals a day with meat!"
"What?"
"The Li family in the east of the city! It's the Li family that sells soap that I told you last time! Their family has built a new weaving workshop and hired me as a weaver! I only have two taels of silver a month to take care of the food! So I
I dare to pawn my cotton-padded clothes. When I get the monthly payment next month, I can redeem my cotton-padded clothes!"
When the Gu family's daughter-in-law heard such good news, she felt that God had finally opened her eyes. She sat on the chair and froze for a long time, and then she laughed happily a few times. After laughing and laughing, she started to cry again. But this time,
She was crying with joy.
Two or two months' money was enough to buy two hundred kilograms of rice, enough to provide food, clothing, housing and transportation for three people. Finally, the clouds cleared and the sun rose in my house, and I had food to eat.
In this age of war and chaos, people are struggling to survive, it is such a joyful thing to have food to eat.
Gu Laoer quickly raised the rice bowl filled with porridge in front of his wife and said loudly: "Daughter-in-law, please quickly eat a few mouthfuls of porridge, and then go to the Li family for an interview. I heard that they are also recruiting female workers. If you are
If you are accepted, our family will be prosperous!"
The Gu family's daughter-in-law was stunned, then quickly wiped away her tears, picked up the porridge bowl and drank a big gulp of the porridge. After a few mouthfuls, she patted the firewood ashes on her clothes and was about to go to Li's house, but was stopped by Mr. Gu.
Second, hold on.
"Daughter-in-law, take a few more sips and don't fall to the ground halfway."
The Gu family's wife nodded, took two more mouthfuls of porridge, then ignored Gu Lao Er, opened the door and ran to the Li family's yard in the east of the city.
Recruiting 400 new people, Li Zhi divided the weavers into forty groups. Each organized worker was assigned a group leader, and he selected capable relatives from the soap workshop to serve as supervisors, who were paid three taels a month.
The forty positions vacated in the workshop will be replaced by newly recruited people.
At the end of March, the shuttle looms ordered by Li Zhi were all assembled. After Li Zhi repeatedly explained the confidentiality regulations to the weavers and warned them about the consequences of leaking secrets, he allowed the weavers to start working.
In order to protect the secret of the shuttle loom, Li Zhi did not emphasize weaving experience when recruiting workers, but valued the weavers' honest duties. Therefore, at the beginning, some weavers were not yet skilled in operation. But Li Zhi gave
The benefits are so good that the weavers are very attentive when working. Even unskilled people can become proficient after practicing for a few days.
Although they had not received monthly salary for less than a month after working, the weavers were still shocked by Li Zhi's benefit of having meat for three meals. Every morning, he would eat steamed buns or porridge, and there was always an egg. Every afternoon, he would eat enough rice.
Each person has two taels of pork. Not to mention that the boss provides an extra meal at noon every day, and there are also two taels of pork!
For the poor people of the Ming Dynasty who only ate two meals a day and rarely had any meat or fish, this was simply aristocratic treatment. In the minds of the poor people who had never seen the world: even those gentlemen who were doing big business could only do what they wanted to eat.
