Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 129 - 128: Recruiting Workers

Chapter 129: Chapter 128: Recruiting Workers
After dinner, the two families gathered under the eaves, enjoying the cool breeze while discussing this year’s harvest.
The yield of 500 jin per mu from Qin Yao’s family was indeed a miracle, as even the best land of Old Liu’s family barely yielded 320 jin per mu.
The rest was around 280 jin per mu. The farthest and most barren dozen or so mu yielded only 160 jin per mu.
There’s nothing they can do; it’s truly hard to manage so much farmland.
Hearing this, Liu Ji suddenly felt a bit proud, "Wife, the two mu of wheat fields we harvested in February really produced well without any care, yielding 80 jin per mu."
Qin Yao was speechless and didn’t even want to respond to him, turning to Old Liu, she brought up the method of transplanting seedlings again, recommending that they try it next year.
Old Liu had this intention, or rather, everyone in Liu Family Village wanted to follow Qin Yao in using this method.
It definitely wouldn’t work on a large scale, but the best land at home could be set aside, even if each mu only produced ten more jin, it would add up to several hundred jin over dozens of mu.
Moreover, judging from Qin Yao’s family’s harvest this year, it’s more than just this amount!
If the weather is good next year, every household having enough to eat will no longer be a mere fantasy.
Thinking of this, Old Liu and the three brothers Liu Bai couldn’t help but feel excited.
As night fell, everyone was exhausted from being busy for so long and headed back to their respective homes.
Liu Ji boiled several pots of hot water, and the whole family washed from head to toe before having a comfortable sleep.
Liu Ji was the last to wash and he washed especially slowly.
He had to get up before dawn the next day to go to the county town back to the academy for studying; the dorms there don’t have showers, so he had to wash thoroughly to get through the next half month.
Qin Yao happened to be going to town to buy some meat and saw Liu Ji off, dropping him off at the official road outside town; he would reach the county town after walking another hour.
It was still early, just beginning to get light, and if he walked a bit faster, he wouldn’t be late.
"Remember to bring back the past exam questions and answers that I asked you to copy next month." Qin Yao reminded him.
Liu Ji nodded dismally, carrying his little bag, moving forward step by step, too sleepy to keep his eyes open.
Qin Yao watched him until he disappeared from view, then rode into town to the butcher’s shop to buy meat.
Two jin of ribs, two jin of pork belly, and a piece of pig liver, to take home and make soup for nourishment for herself and her four children.
But with Qin Yao’s cooking skills, the pig liver vegetable soup always tasted a bit odd; she drank half a bowl and left it, focusing on the plate of stir-fried meat.
The ribs were kept in a long bamboo tube, then placed in a bucket of cold water in a cool place, which could extend its keeping for an extra day; Qin Yao planned to use them to boil meat soup the next night.
After breakfast, she instructed her four children to spread the millet in the yard to dry, and then hurriedly went to Liu the carpenter’s house.
His family has a lot of land, but a lot of people too, and in five days they managed to finish most of the harvesting, gaining a bit of free time.
The two of them quickly planned to start recruiting people to set up the production workshop.
It didn’t have to be too sturdy, but a thatched hut to shield from the wind and rain was necessary.
Qin Yao had long decided on the design and spread out the blueprint. Liu the carpenter leaned forward to see that it was a house closed off on all four sides with an open area in the middle.
Four rectangular rooms with roofs were built on each side, enclosed on all sides, with two rooms for processing wood, one for drying paint, and one for grinding stones.
A large open space in the middle was for stacking stones, and a shed could be built for a stove to serve as a canteen for the workers.
That wasn’t all; each room was subdivided into several areas, designated for planing wood, sawing boards, assembling, painting, and inspecting.
Each had a sign saying "Workshop of Such-and-Such," with distinct areas.
The stonework area had much simpler processes, with just two stations: one for polishing wheels and one for carving patterns, so one room was sufficient.
Liu the carpenter looked at the blueprint repeatedly, exclaiming about its intricacy.
However, he was puzzled by one part, pointing to those workshop signs on the blueprint, and asked, "Why call it a workshop?"
Qin Yao was taken aback, "Ah, hmm... what do you think would sound better? Department of Such-and-Such?"
She had copied the modern assembly line without considering local adaptation, and the term "workshop" was indeed unsuitable for ancient times.
Liu the carpenter was also taken aback, "Department doesn’t sound good either, so let’s just call it a workshop."
"You mentioned setting up an assembly line before, is this what you meant? Specialists in different roles, each doing their part, easy to learn, only needing to master one task."
Qin Yao nodded, "That’s exactly what I meant."
Liu the carpenter muttered "assembly line" several times, finding the term extremely fitting.
With the blueprint ready, Liu the carpenter knew what materials to prepare and led the two short-term workers to move the wood previously collected in the yard to the new factory site.
With two tripods in place, the long logs were laid on top, and they picked up tools to start processing the wood, getting ready to build the factory workshop.
Qin Yao took the freshly made recruitment sign to the village well area, chose a large stone, and stood on top of it.
She placed the sign before her and shouted, "The water mill factory is hiring!"
Instantly, the villagers drying their grain in the open space looked over in unison.
The villagers had been anticipating this since Qin Yao’s family rented the overgrown land.
So, as soon as Qin Yao mentioned the number of hires and conditions, the number of people in the open area decreased by more than half—everyone rushed home or to the fields to notify the menfolk.
For the strenuous jobs, Qin Yao planned to hire eight male workers for the stone mill department.
Four would quarry and transport stones, and four would handle grinding and chiseling.
Quarry workers would earn twelve coins a day, with breakfast and lunch provided.
Grinding and chiseling workers would earn ten coins a day, with breakfast and lunch provided.
For the waterwheel department, ten skilled craftsmen regardless of gender were needed, earning twelve coins a day, with breakfast and lunch provided.
Additionally, a head chef was needed, responsible for breakfast and lunch, regardless of gender, earning 300 coins a month.
The number of workers could be adjusted based on work progress, with an initial estimate of eighteen people.
The crowd only focused on how much the monthly pay was, ignoring the fact that there was no gender restriction.
Therefore, among those who came to apply, only two were women.
One from the He family and Yun Niang from the Liu Huolang family.
Seeing Yun Niang, He assumed she was applying for the chef position.
Turning on her instantly, "Isn’t your little shop keeping you busy? How come you have time to cook for others? With your small frame, you might not even be able to lift the big cast iron pot for communal meals."
Yun Niang helplessly replied, "Sister-in-law, rest assured, I’m not competing with you for the chef position; I’m applying for a carpentry job."
He was shocked, "You know how to do carpentry?"
Yun Niang nodded confidently and said, "My father is a carpenter; I’ve watched him since I was a child and helped him make tables, chairs, and benches at home."
Despite her confident appearance, when the men also applying for carpentry looked over, she nervously gripped her sleeve, started breathing heavily, and felt a bit of regret.
She was drawn by the offer of twelve coins a day with two meals included, and unconditionally for both genders, and impulsively came because of the skills she learned from her father.
In the past, there were no work opportunities for women, and even if there were, they were far away in the county, and involved positions like maid or nursemaid, job types that her in-laws wouldn’t allow and she herself wouldn’t dare take on.
But this was close to home, a legitimate carpentry job, and in a moment of passion, she wanted to give it a try!
As for why she dared, it was because the one recruiting was Qin Yao.
With Qin Yao there, she strangely felt unafraid.