Poor family mother and son

Chapter 49

The person who came was a small official of the Yu Department.Said to discuss a business.Bai Jiaxing brought him into the reception hall, served tea, and went to invite Chu Qing.When Chu Qing came in, the little official only glanced out of the corner of his eye, without lifting his eyelids.

"Excuse me, what is this lord's name?" Chu Qing asked politely.

"Hmm!" The petty official cleared his throat, "I can't tell you anything! I'm looking for your boss!"

Yo ha!Who is this looking down on!Knowing that Bai Jiaxing is going to invite the master here, who is he giving power to?

I originally planned to ask and then salute, and then sit down and talk.After all, Chu Qing's current identity is a merchant.But now... Chu Qing didn't ask any more questions, just sat on the main seat and served tea!

This is a send-off!What a slap in the face!This little official can't bear it! "You are bold!" he shouted.

Chu Qing stood up and prepared to leave.The little official took a step forward, and stretched out his hand to stop him: "Wait!" He came with a mission, so he had to complete the mission first before venting his anger.

"Huh?" Chu Qing asked with his nose.

"You! Let me ask you, can you be the master of this place?" The little official endured first.

"This is our boss!" Bai Jiaxing replied politely.Chu Qing dared to shake his face, but he didn't dare, he was afraid that his master would offend the official.

"Oh? I underestimated it." The little official said disapprovingly, "I am here today to discuss a business deal!"

"Please speak." Since it was a matter of business, Chu Qing relaxed a little.

"Do you know that the imperial court is going to build a military workshop here? You need to buy some bricks and stones. How much does it cost for a car?" The one who pays is Party A. Look, Party A is bossy everywhere.

Without Chu Qing's instructions, Bai Jiaxing directly quoted prices for all three kinds of bricks.

When the little official heard that there were three kinds of bricks, he asked to have a look.Baijiaxing brought sample bricks and explained their characteristics and uses one by one.

The little official weighed, touched and knocked the sample bricks, comparing them repeatedly.He is satisfied with the quality.Compared with the No. [-] brick, the No. [-] brick, that is, the ordinary blue brick, is much inferior, and the No. [-] refractory brick is not available and is too expensive.

"Just the No. 500 brick!" The clerk decided, "[-] yuan per car!"

Baijiaxing was speechless!Not to mention that the little official didn't pay for the freight, but just to say that the ordinary blue bricks used by Chu Qing to build the house cost nearly 5 yuan.The bricks here are much larger than the modern red bricks. Calculated on the basis of one penny per brick, Chu Manchurian spent 50 taels on bricks.

Furthermore, in this era there are no rubber tires, and there are no flat roads. Even if a horse-drawn cart is used, how many bricks can be pulled?What's more, you have to go into the mountains, and a car is only 500 yuan!The money from selling bricks is not enough to buy fodder for horses!Not to mention that a truckload of bricks costs 2000 cash including shipping.

"We can't do this business." Chu Qing finally spoke.

"What?!" The clerk felt incredible.What do you think if you don't do the door-to-door business?This is a brick used by the imperial court, it's giving you face, isn't it!
"Our workshop is small, we can't produce many bricks, and our order has not been completed yet. So, you should choose another merchant." Chu Qing said.

"Haven't you already done so much outside? There are so many brick kilns, enough!" The little official scolded.This is completely taking Chu Qing for a fool.

"I told you, this is an unfinished order. It cannot be used by you." Chu Qing became a little annoyed again.

"I'm buying your bricks on behalf of the imperial court! Don't be ignorant of flattery!" the little official shouted.

"See off!" Chu Qing said.

"Officer, this way please!" Bai Jiaxing asked, feeling uneasy.

"Hmph!" The little official walked away with a flick of his sleeves.

It wasn't that Chu Qing chose to be tough, but that she didn't know how to deal with it.This person aroused his disgust as soon as he met him.

That pretentious and domineering attitude, coupled with the fact that he was able to offer such an unrealistic price after hearing the quotation, was obviously not here to negotiate a business in a serious way, or to use official authority to pressure people.

If he was really intimidated by him and made this deal with him, it would take all of Chu Qing's existing assets and delay the granary contract. Instead of losing money, he would lose his head.

Therefore, when the small official's bid was obviously unreasonable, Chu Qing resolutely stopped talking and did not give any further opportunities.

"Boss, did we offend the official?" Bai Jiaxing was very disturbed.

"Well, offended."

"That……"

"I heard that even if a small official can be admitted to an official, it is only below the eighth rank," Chu Qing said, "Our order is received from the Zhizhou, and the Zhizhou is the fifth rank."

"Oh." Bai Jiaxing felt more at ease.

"Have we opened the kiln twice now?" Chu Qing asked.

"Yes, one kiln produces bricks every four days. It has been ten days now, and another kiln can be produced the day after tomorrow. Each kiln produces 200 yuan of bricks, and the 16 kilns produce a total of 8000 yuan for the second brick. "Hundreds of schools list digital reports.

"Also, our kilns are all built with No. [-] bricks this time, and the gaps are sealed with kaolin mud. It is not the previous adobe kiln. The kiln body has always been stable, and the quality of the bricks produced is much better than that of the test bricks."

"Very good." Chu Qing was satisfied.

"Although casual workers are very late now, the workers have not delayed the construction period. The mood is no longer depressed. According to the current progress, we can almost complete the order more than half a month in advance. They are still laying the foundation."

"Continue to keep up with the progress. This time out of the kiln, leave two empty kilns for me to burn the No. [-] bricks." Chu Qing ordered.

In order to make iron, get involved in the business of iron ore.It is clear that this is a big circle, and now there is hope to circle back to the destination.

"Send someone to deliver some things to our parents and workers, and ask about the situation in the mining area." Chu Qing said again.We should pay attention to the mining area, when the mine can be mined, and what supervision process there is.Also, will that little official cause trouble?

It's really hard for ordinary people to do something.Often encounter unexpected troubles.

mine.

After the little official went back, he felt resentful.This time, not only was the business not negotiated, the bricks and stones were not available, but a woman was suffocated.

"How is it?" asked another official in charge of construction supervision and records.He looked older and calmer.

"Don't mention it!" the little official said angrily, "The owner of the brick kiln at the foot of the mountain is an indiscriminate woman! For such a big project of the imperial court, she would not buy some bricks from her! Tell me, if you don't Merchants, they can't wait to catch up with the business."

The old official said plainly: "The ordinary people in these places have little knowledge, you can't compare them with our capital. Besides, what a woman can understand, if she scares her, she will understand everything."

"But..." The clerk still wanted to speak, but was interrupted by the abnormal noise outside the door, "What happened?"

"Look and go." The old official said.

Outside, the laborers under construction were filled with righteous indignation, armed with sticks and hoes, and several supervisors raised their whips and wielded rattan canes, swearing at each other loudly, and the two sides were about to clash with each other.

"What's going on?!" The old official and the young official shouted together.But the noise was too loud to be of any use.

"What's going on?!" The old official and the young official hurriedly trotted all the way, and asked again when they got close.This time I finally heard it, and the noise was reduced.But the supervisor didn't dare to do anything, so he stood there and shouted: "My lord! These rascals are going to rebel!"

use up!This sentence aroused the anger again!The crowd quarreled and cursed again. "Presumptuous! Shut up!" the old official shouted, not knowing who was talking about presumptuous, "What's going on?"

"My lord, these gangsters insist on us giving out rice grains. Since when did we give out rice grains after serving in corvée? Corvée is not a hired worker!" said the impulsive supervisor.

"You fart! We were given rations a few years ago! It's just that they haven't been paid in the past few years. If we didn't get paid, we didn't get paid, and we recognized it. But you made us work for more than eight hours a day, and you didn't even let us go to the toilet. We’re so tired, our food is long gone, I’m begging you to give me some, and you’re still whipping!” the conscripts yelled at one another, and pushed out a wounded young man with bruises on his shoulders and face. Welt marks, and large shoe prints on the clothes on the abdomen.

"We are in corvée, not criminals! Why do you beat and curse people?" Someone shouted.

"If you don't work and yell nonsense, you just owe money!" The supervisors were not to be outdone.

"Shut up! You didn't bring enough rice, it's because you didn't think carefully, how could you make such a disturbance?" the old official shouted.

"Furthermore, mining is going to be done here, and everything has to be carried out at the same time. You are a little tired, I understand, but this is a major event for the court, for the country and society, and a great event for the benefit of the country and the people!" Being an official and an official is different from ordinary people. Everything you say is on the line.

"My lord, what you said is wronging people!" Someone in the crowd shouted, "No matter how capable the cows and horses are, they still have to be fed grass, right? You can't tell the horses to run and not feed the horses, right?"

"That's right! The rations we bring are the same as when we served in the military, but this time there is too much work, and the physical exertion is so great that there is not enough food at all! How much food can anyone bring! Just calculate it like this. Not enough. What do we do if we don’t have enough to eat?” Another person shouted.

"Besides, our village works in a brick kiln, and we still manage two meals! One meat and one vegetable. Although the meat dishes are not big fish and meat, you can also see slices of meat! Even if you don't care about the rice here, you have to give some rations, right? They didn’t say that we should work for 8 hours!” Among the forced laborers were those from Wukeshu Village.

"That's the reason. We don't want you to take care of the food, and we don't need you to distribute food all at once. It's just because of too much physical strength. We don't give out some food. After two days, we can go down the mountain and go home by ourselves. Take it. This will not work! What do you think we are? Prisoners or animals?" The crowd was fried again.

These days, the laborers have heard of the clear "Baolu Group".The more hungry you listen to the more.These forced laborers are from nearby villages.

The service rotation starts near the mine, and rotates from near to far.So many people know the brick kilns of Baolu Group.

Among them, there are many people from Wukeshu Village and Zhang Village and Li Village. The more tired and hungry they are, the more they miss the days of working for Chu Qing.It was so good at that time, you can pay for everything, and when it’s time to eat, you can eat on time. There are meat and vegetables, and you can see the smell of oil.

In some families, the whole family came to work, men digging and transporting soil, women and mud making bricks, old people and children weaving straw curtains or turning adobes for drying.After half a month, the whole family got a tael of silver.

"Our house is considered to be the house of the widow Ma, she works alone, and she paid 130 yuan last time!" Forced laborers often hear such words.

There is no harm without comparison.Especially when you are tired and hungry.

Therefore, when everyone almost ate all the food, and there were two days before the holiday, and today they begged the supervisors for some rations, but were beaten and scolded when they came back, the crowd became angry.

The supervisors are usually temporary workers who are called around, and they finally got a job as a manager. Naturally, they are very arrogant, consciously superior, and don’t treat hard labor as a human being. No, there will be a complete conflict today.

Helpless, if the forced laborers go on strike, the old official will feel that he can't afford to walk around.I had no choice but to calm down temporarily, and then find a way.

The crowd was unwilling but had no choice but to hesitate and leave.

(End of this chapter)