The evil mother-in-law does not whitewash, she only abuses her children

Chapter 584: The whole village joins in sewing cotton-padded clothes

Winter was coming soon, and they needed to hurry and stockpile charcoal and cotton. Mr. Lu and Mr. Huang left Qinghe Bay without stopping.

Lu Zhaozhao originally wanted to stay, but now that Mr. Lu was personally teaching her how to do business, she naturally could not stay in Qinghe Bay as easily as before.

This time, Mr. Lu intended to train her and asked her to follow the shopkeepers to stockpile charcoal, cotton, grain and other supplies.

After Mr. Lu left, Tong Huaqiong thought about asking Nie Xiaofeng to go to the Liu family in Pingchuan County. Usually, when there were happy events in Tong Huaqiong's family, County Magistrate Liu's mother, Han, would be present. She didn't come this time because she heard that she had caught a cold.

Tong Huaqiong asked Nie Xiaofeng to deliver medicine to Han, and took the opportunity to pass a message to County Magistrate Liu.

"When I was young, I caught a cold. My bones hurt every winter. This year, the pain is particularly severe. I'm afraid this year will be extremely cold."

Regardless of whether County Magistrate Liu believed it or not, she conveyed these words.

After much thought, Tong Huaqiong still hoped that the local officials could foresee the arrival of extreme cold weather.

The next day, Aunt Tang rushed over with 20,000 taels of silver.

Then, Prefect Yao sent someone to deliver the deposit for the cotton coat.

Tong Huaqiong's weaving workshop was originally just a test run, but now it's going to be a big deal.

After all, tens of thousands of cotton-padded clothes need to be delivered in two months, which is a large business for the rural weaving workshop.

However, rushing the work was not a problem for Tong Huaqiong. There was no work in the fields at this time of year, and most villagers had already begun preparing to spend the winter at home.

It's easy to gather people.

Her weaving workshop could not accommodate so many people, so she planned to put the cotton fluffing, spinning and weaving in the workshop, and distribute the sewing of cotton clothes to other places so that each household could sew them at home.

Thinking of this, she turned around and went to find the village chief.

After all, a lot of manpower is needed, and she needs the village chief to help spread the news to the surrounding areas so that she doesn't have to visit every village.

So, all the aunties, wives and girls from all over the country who envied the opportunity to work in Tong Huaqiong's weaving workshop suddenly flocked to the workshop again after receiving the news that it needed work again.

Tong Huaqiong asked Su Qing to take out the list of female workers who were not selected and directly employ them in the weaving workshop.

The reason they were not selected was not because they were not good at weaving, but because the people hired were better.

Tong Huaqiong specifically asked Gu Taohua to explain to them that the reason they were allowed in was because there was an urgent batch of cotton cloth and cotton clothes that needed to be rushed, and it did not mean that they could continue to work in the weaving workshop in the future.

Those who failed the selection didn't care. As long as they could work in the weaving workshop, they could earn some money to support their families even for just two months.

Besides, it doesn’t mean that the weaving workshop won’t need people in the future. If they do a good job, I believe Manager Tong will still let them into the weaving workshop if the workshop needs people again.

As for the work of sewing cotton clothes, every household was vying for it.

After all, from now until next spring, everyone will be at home doing nothing, and being able to sew cotton-padded clothes is a job that would be like pie in the sky for young girls, wives and aunts.

They don't have to go out or be exposed to the wind and sun, and everyone is used to doing needlework, so delivering the goods on time is not a problem at all for them.

The cotton-padded clothes worn at the border must be warm and lightweight. If they are bulky and you can't even stretch your hands, how can you march and fight?

Tong Huaqiong always believes that one should not underestimate the wisdom of people of any era. Even among rural housewives, there are clever women who can figure out how to make lightweight and warm cotton-padded clothes.

Sure enough, as soon as Tong Huaqiong mentioned the requirements for sewing cotton-padded clothes, several girls, wives and aunts came out to offer suggestions.

If we talk about who has the most skillful hands in the entire Qinghe Bay, it must be Liu Yue'e's mother, Zhao.

Tong Huaqiong had seen Zhao's craftsmanship, so she asked Zhao to sew a few cotton-padded jackets for her, intending to distribute them to various villages and have everyone sew them according to her standards.

Just as the cotton-padded jacket was about to be sent out, Gu Fengnian's wife, Wei, came to the door.

She was holding a cotton coat with fine stitching and handed it to Tong Huaqiong.

Tong Huaqiong's eyes lit up when she took it in her hand. This cotton-padded coat was lighter and warmer than the one stuffed by Zhao. Moreover, Wei had the ingenuity to add an extra layer of cloth on the elbows and an extra layer of cotton on the knees.

"Auntie, I heard that this cotton coat is sold to the border. I think marching and fighting is very hard, you have to crawl and hold weapons, and your elbows and knees are easily rubbed, so make these two places thicker." Wei said.

Tong Huaqiong gave Wei an appreciative look.

Gu Youtian and Jia were lucky to have married such a smart daughter-in-law.

I'm afraid that even if Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e were tied together, they would still not be as good as Wei.

Tong Huaqiong only revealed to everyone that the cotton clothes were to be sent to the border, but she did not say that they were military supplies. Even the village chief thought that Tong Huaqiong had opened up a border market, and advised Tong Huaqiong that the risk of a war at the border was too great, and asked her not to invest so much.

Only Wei noticed the clue and knew the real destination of these cotton clothes.

Seeing that Tong Huaqiong didn't say anything, Wei was a little panicked and said, "Auntie, don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Tong Huaqiong waved her hands and said, "I believe you. How about this? Not only will I assign you the job of sewing cotton-padded clothes, but I will also ask you to be the supervisor when someone delivers the goods."

Although it was the first time that Wei heard of the supervisor, she guessed that Tong Huaqiong asked her to check whether the cotton-padded clothes were qualified.

"Don't worry, I will definitely check it carefully and will not accept any that are unqualified."

Wei's face was filled with joy. She had originally just wanted to show off her needlework skills in the hope that Tong Huaqiong would assign her more cotton-padded clothes to sew, but she did not expect that Tong Huaqiong would give her such an important job as supervision and inspection.

It turned out to be the right decision to separate from my parents-in-law.

Although many people in the village talked about her behind her back, saying that she was not virtuous, encouraged Gu Fengnian to split up the family, and was unfilial to her parents-in-law, so what? As long as her aunt-in-law had no prejudice against her, it was fine.

Then Tong Huaqiong asked Gu Xiaoxue to get more cotton and cotton cloth and asked Wei to sew a few more cotton-padded clothes for her, and then distributed them to various villages together with the cotton-padded clothes sewed by Zhao.

After the preparations were completed, the village heads brought their villagers to collect cotton cloth.

Since the weaving workshop had just started operation, sparks were caused by stepping on it during the past few days, and not much cotton cloth was produced.

Therefore, the first group of people assigned to the work were women from each village who were nimble and skillful.

Since sewing cotton clothes was basically done by women, Tong Huaqiong required that only women from each family came to collect cotton and cotton cloth. This move made many heads of families very angry.

But there's nothing we can do about it, since they can't sew.

"Let me be frank with you. I have all the records of the cotton clothes and cotton cloth that were distributed. Don't try to fool me. If you cut corners or replace the cotton with reed fluff, you will have to pay ten times the compensation for my cotton and cotton cloth, and you will never be able to work for me again."

As Tong Huaqiong finished speaking, Su Qing took the contract and stepped forward to read out the rules and penalties for sewing cotton-padded clothes, and then asked everyone to put their fingerprints on it.

"Pressing your fingerprints means you accept the conditions and penalties. If you cut corners, you will either have to pay ten times the compensation or be reported to the government." Su Qing shook the paper with a smile and said, "You can also not press your fingerprints, which means you don't accept the job and can go back."

No one had ever seen such a scene of pressing fingerprints, so no one dared to move forward.

Aunt Qin was the first to step forward and press her fingerprints, then she took out some cotton cloth and said to everyone, "My son and daughter-in-law all work for Shopkeeper Tong and have pressed their fingerprints. As long as they don't cheat people against their conscience, they won't be punished."

Aunt Qin made a good start.

"That's right. I won't cut corners."

"We just sewed according to the instructions and nothing happened."

"This fingerprint is also a protection for us. You only heard about the punishment, but you didn't hear that the wages were also written down."

After some discussion in the crowd, everyone came forward to press their fingerprints to receive the cotton cloth.