Transmigrated To Ancient Time: Thrive With An Auction System!

Chapter 183: Paying Wages

After a moment of pause, Yao Zhi continued, ”As for the area near the mountain, I want to build bamboo water pipes so I can draw water directly from the mountain spring. If it’s possible to draw the water directly, we can dig canals for irrigation.”

After she finished speaking, both Yang Dalang and Yang Erlang were stunned.

”Sister Yao, drawing water from the mountain spring won’t be easy. What’s more, we don’t know if we can store the water even if we manage to do it.”

Yao Zhi thought for a moment and replied, ”Then, we will build several ponds to store the water. At the same time, I can use the ponds to raise fish and lotus.”

When they heard her words, Yang Dalang and Yang Erlang exchanged glances. While this method was possible, the cost was high.

”Sister Yao, you must think it through carefully. Although it’s possible to improve the soil quality, it will take a long time to see the result.”

”What’s more, the cost is high. You might think it’s a good plan now, but after 1 or 2 years, you will realize that you lost a lot of money and regret your decision today,” Yang Erlang reminded her.

Knowing that he meant well, Yao Zhi smiled and replied, ”Brother Erlang, I have discussed this matter with my husband. We will give it a try first and see how it goes.”

Since she had said so, the Yang Brothers could only keep their thoughts to themselves.

”Then, I will go find a group of workers who have experience in digging wells,” Yang Dalang said.

Yao Zhi nodded and added, ”Brother Dalang, I will draw the design for the bamboo water pipe first. You can hire people to collect bamboo first. They can be paid 10 Wen daily, or they can sell the bamboo to us. Either way is okay with me.”

”Sister Yao, I can handle this matter,” Yang Erlang said.

”Then, I will leave this matter to both of you,” Yao Zhi smiled.

”Don’t worry, we will make sure to handle this matter properly.”

Receiving their promises, Yao Zhi was happy. Before they left, she picked some vegetables for them. After she sent them off, she locked the gate and went to finish her unfinished tasks.

While she was busy, the villagers were waiting at the Village Chief’s house to collect their wages. When they saw the Yang Brothers return, they heaved a sigh of relief.

”Dalang, did you get the money?” one of the villagers asked.

Yang Dalang nodded and replied, ”I got the money. Everyone should line up so we can finish this earlier.”

After he said this, everyone lined up in order. To ensure that everything went smoothly, they even invited an old scholar from another village to help them calculate the wages.

With Yang Dalang reciting the number of days the villagers worked, the scholar used his abacus to count. When they were done, Yang Erlang and Yang Sanlang counted the money and handed it to the villagers.

The process took more than 2 hours before it was done.

When the Village Chief’s wife saw the remaining money in the wooden box, she was happy. That was the money earned by her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandsons over the past 2 months.

Although she didn’t know how much they earned yet, the amount of money was more than what she had saved for more than a decade.

This time, the villagers didn’t leave after they received the money. Instead, they waited to see if there was another opportunity to work.

As they had expected, the Village Chief finally said, ”Everyone, now that the wasteland has been opened, Yao Girl wants to hire experienced people to dig 2 wells, several ponds, and build a water pipe to draw mountain spring water.”

”Besides that, she also needs a large amount of bamboo. You can either sell the bamboo to her or work for her with a daily wage of 10 Wen.”

Hearing this, one of the villagers asked, ”Village Chief, how much is the wage to dig the wells and ponds?”

”We will go with the payment in town, 15 Wen daily.”

When they heard this, they were disappointed. They were hoping to get higher pay. But thinking that digging wells and ponds was not as hard as opening wasteland, a lot of them were still willing to take the job.

”If you want the job, you can register your name with Dalang,” the Village Chief said.

Since the workforce needed was limited, everyone rushed to register. Yang Dalang raised his hands and said, ”Everyone, no need to rush. We will hire everyone who wants to work.”

After his conversation with Yao Zhi, Yang Dalang knew that her goal was not only to open the wasteland. After they dug wells and ponds, there was still a lot of work to do. So, she would definitely hire people again.

The villagers calmed down after they heard his words. When they finished registering their names, the villagers finally returned home in a good mood.

In the evening, Yao Zhi finished her dinner and was writing the method to build bamboo water pipes in her room. This method was written in the record of technology she obtained from the reward box.

While the Shang Dynasty did use bamboo to make tools for water management, their methods and designs were still crude. The design and method recorded in this book were much more advanced, so she decided to copy them.

When she was done, she also copied the method on how to process manure and compost for fertilizer, and the method on how to improve soil quality from the record of agriculture. After all, using manure as fertilizer needed some processing before it was safe for use.

She copied the methods for almost 2 hours before she finished. When she was done, she kept the methods in her spatial bracelet, changed into her pajamas, and went to sleep.