Traveling through ancient times: daily life on the run

Chapter 190 Establishing an Industrial Base

Luo Yu had already thought it through. After the furniture workshop was established, he would buy land and build a house nearby to prepare accommodation for employees and their families so that they wouldn't have to travel back and forth every day.

These expenses are all from the money earned previously, taken from the people and used for the people.

Money will make money anyway.

If she hadn't wanted to avoid the people from the Imperial City Bureau, she would have stayed in Wangzhou City to see everything completed.

Before leaving Wangzhou City, Qin Bingrui found the prefect, Lord Li, to have dinner together.

Luo Yu and I explained the matter of the library furniture city and the caravan guards to Lord Li. Whether Wangzhou City can rise up depends on whether the furniture business can be developed nationwide.

When Lord Li heard this, he almost burst into tears. He was a prefect, but he had not done as much for the people as the two women, and he felt deeply guilty.

Qin Bingrui saw through his thoughts and teased, "Master Li, there's no need to feel guilty. My sister and I were just doing this for the sake of convenience. Wangzhou City will still rely on you, Master, in the future."

Lord Li is a humble person. Although he has a straightforward character, he is very principled about what is right.

"Alas, it will take more than a year or two for Wangzhou to catch up with other prefectures in one go. However, this furniture city is indeed a good idea. We have abundant water and trees in Wangzhou. If we cut down trees and plant them at the same time, the resources will be inexhaustible.

By then, we can make the specialty furniture a feature of Wangzhou, and provide local people with a job they can rely on in the long term.”

One thing Luo Yu admired about the ancients was that they could quickly draw inferences from one instance. With just a hint, they could improve day by day without having to worry about messing up.

"Master Li, Miss Qin and I may not have the extra time to arrange that caravan. I hope you can lead the Zhao family to take the lead and lead the people of Wangzhou to establish this caravan. Once all the artificial fish ponds in Wangzhou are built, if the fish cannot be consumed locally, they can be shipped directly to the north and sold at a good price."

When Lord Li heard this, he thought, "That's right. All these industries can be developed to other prefectures through caravans. As long as they are not available in other places, it doesn't count as stealing other people's business."

If they could expand their business, merchants from other places could also come directly to Wangzhou City to transport goods. With goods and caravans fully equipped, the future of the people of Wangzhou would be saved...

Seeing that Lord Li's eyes were full of stars, Luo Yu smiled and told Lord Li the story of Jiang Qiu Ning's sister Jiang Qiuzi.

Upon hearing this, Lord Li was extremely angry: "I have heard of Lord Jiang, the former Tongpan of Wangzhou Prefecture, and his deeds as an official. He has always been an upright and honest person, but I never expected that he would be tortured to death in this way. It's a pity that his only eldest daughter was also imprisoned and abused outside the city by the He family. Alas..."

"Master Li, if Sister Jiang hadn't gone through so much trouble to provide the evidence Master Jiang left behind, I'm afraid Wangzhou City wouldn't have returned to normal so quickly. So, I'd like to ask for a favor."

"Whatever it is, as long as I can do it, I will definitely help Miss Bai get it done."

"I hope you can find a way to get Sister Jiang and He Dalang to divorce, and then help Sister Jiang to be independent. You can find her a job, even a library job. As a woman, it is best to be self-reliant.

Finally, please, Lord Li, help Sister Jiang find a safe place to live and some reliable servants and maids. Please don't say I'm helping her."

"Why can't I say it's you?"

"Because she and I have never met before."

"..."

Although Lord Li was puzzled, he knew everything about Lord Jiang. Since they were colleagues serving in the court, and Lord Jiang was unjustly executed, the children he left behind should also be properly resettled.

This shouldn't be done by Miss Bai...

He was once again ashamed of himself for not considering things carefully enough as the chief official of Wangzhou.

This seat should be given to Miss Bai...

Luo Yu didn't know what he was thinking, so he just asked Qin Bingrui to take out 10,000 taels of silver and let Lord Li give it to Sister Jiang, and asked Lord Li to say that it was the court's compensation for the families of the wrongly accused Wangzhou officials, so that Sister Jiang would accept it with peace of mind.

Lord Li took the banknote with a heavy heart. He thought carefully that without the help of the eldest daughter of the Jiang family, the Qingyang Marquisate would not have been so easily overthrown, and Wangzhou would not have been able to receive the large amount of disaster relief funds from the court for a while, and the people would probably find it difficult to escape poverty.

The Jiang family deserves rewards from the court. He has to ask for instructions from the higher-ups, not only to redress the grievances of the deceased officials, but also to obtain a pension for the families of the deceased, so that he can continue to sit in this position with the nerve!

Luo Yu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after being able to entrust all the matters to him.

The rest is up to fate...

After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant together, but they didn't expect that a strong wind would suddenly blow outside. It was only the beginning of September and the temperature had dropped sharply.

Luo Yu shook himself, and Qin Bingrui couldn't help but sigh: "I wonder how so many people will survive the winter when they are left homeless?"

Lord Li couldn't help but sigh. Although the court had confiscated the mansion of the Marquis of Qingyang and then sent a letter saying that it would allocate a million yuan to Wangzhou for disaster relief, the people's houses could not be built in a short time. It was unknown whether most of them could be built before the cold winter came.

Luo Yu wrapped the cloth tightly around her body. She didn't care about other people. She just thought to herself that she had to wear a big coat tomorrow, no matter whether it looked good or not.

As soon as this thought came to her mind, a new idea suddenly emerged in her mind.

Isn't a heater what we need most in winter? A fireplace, a kang, a firebox, an iron stove...

Wait, the fire box is a very practical wooden fire box in the southwest. Non-burning charcoal fire can be placed at the bottom of the box, and a horizontal wooden frame is built on top. The frames around the wooden box can be widened for people to sit on it. If a layer of quilt is added to cover the heat, the whole person will be warm.

This kind of wooden box can be designed into a square box of about four feet, where the whole family can gather inside to keep warm and chat to increase the family atmosphere. It can also be made smaller and a wooden table can be placed on it for students to learn to read and write in the brazier.

This thing is actually not difficult to make, but the design concept is good and the heating effect is very good. Since ancient times, people in the south have used fire boxes and in the north have used kangs. This is all the wisdom of the working people.

However, the poor don’t care whether they can afford a firebox or not. After all, burning charcoal is the most expensive thing.

An iron stove that can burn firewood is suitable for the villagers in the village, but the cost of making an iron stove is expensive. It is estimated that it will cost several hundred coins to make one.

Never mind that, ordinary people can afford it if they grit their teeth. Luo Yu immediately went to find Zhao Laosan and the carpenters.

Qin Bingrui laughed at her: "Sister, your brain must have not stopped for a quarter of an hour."

Luo Yu smiled helplessly: "I wish I could design everything this dynasty can come up with. No matter if it's temporarily useful or not, as long as it exists, the people will make better use of it."

"That's true. Besides working, most people these days spend their evenings dreaming about having children. They could definitely spend more time on inventions!"

"We have to provide them with a platform. For example, in the furniture sector, we can collect ideas from the public. As long as the ideas are reasonable and can be realized, we will reward them..."

"Sister, your idea is excellent. Let's go talk to Zhao Laosan right away. A place can't just wait for others and the court for relief, nor can it rely solely on farming for a living. If we can build this piece of land into a dedicated production base, we can ensure that everyone has a job and everyone has food to eat. This way, everyone will have the spare money to study and learn to read."

"That's true, but we're lucky enough to have solved the employment problem for some people. You can't become fat in one go, so let's go!"

……

When Zhao Laosan and the carpenters heard about these inventions, they were all surprised and excited.

"Miss Bai, what's wrong with your brain? How can you think of everything? The craftsmen have been racking their brains lately, inventing innovative furniture, but few of them are practical."

Zhao Laosan shook his head repeatedly.

"Oh, let me see what creative ideas you have."

Luo Yu was quite curious.

Zhao Laosan walked into the guest room and took out a stack of papers and handed them to Luo Yu. It’s true, a carpenter who can’t draw is not a good carpenter.

Luo Yu took each one and looked at them carefully, which made the carpenters very nervous.

Miss Bai wouldn’t call them brains full of mush, would she?

Qin Bingrui took the book handed to him by Luo Yu and looked at it. The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to laugh.

No, I have to stay serious. Sister Luo Hong always says that a beautiful girl like her has no manners, and that when she laughs, she looks like a giant toad, which completely damages the good reputation of Miss Ling Hong back then...

It was originally a rotating round table, but now the carpenters have a sudden idea and thought of a rotating square table, where the rotating disc in the middle becomes a square, hahahaha...

There are also movable desks with four legs and wheels. The idea is good, but the wheels cannot be folded up. If you get sleepy while reading and accidentally bump into the desk, won’t the desk move away by itself?

What's even funnier is the rocking chair that can block out the sun and rain. Who would sit in a rocking chair outside on a rainy day...

In addition, there are various cute animal-shaped stools and tables, which are suitable for children.

Next are the baby strollers, the special carts for buying groceries and grains, the tea table that can be used to pour water for drinking tea directly... Each idea is very interesting and practical.

Finally, I saw a folding wooden sofa that can be used as both a sofa and a bed. This idea that Luo Yu gave me has always been there. The key is that this bed has four foldable wooden wheels, which makes it very convenient to push it around after it is folded down.

These masters really put their heart into it.

Luo Yu was very happy and gave great encouragement. He gave Zhao Laosan a few taels of silver and asked him to take the masters to eat more good food to nourish their brains.

Qin Bingrui laughed heartily. Sister Luo Yu was really stingy. How could a few taels of silver be enough to feed so many mouths?

Luo Yu glared at him. This was her own private money.

His Royal Highness Prince Ning and His Royal Highness Prince Rui each used fifty-three thousand taels to buy two large courtyards outside the city, two exhibition buildings inside the city, and a temporary staff dormitory. They planned to use the rest to buy several dozen acres of land outside the city to build new houses and a manufacturing site for the furniture store. If there was any left, it would of course be used to invest in caravans and pay employees. Money was not easily spent...

Feng Xiucai was put in charge of all the accounts for these projects. He thought, "I just went out to listen to some fun, thinking about improving my brother-in-law's life, how come I ended up with so much work?" Luckily, the employer paid him a good salary of fifteen taels of silver a month! He heard that the prefect only made a hundred or so taels of silver a year. How could he be as tired as the prefect?

Thinking of this, Mr. Feng grinned from ear to ear. He decided to do a good job and pass it on to his son in the future. If that didn't work out, he could give it to his daughter and son-in-law.