Free Web NovelChapter 464: Chapter 243: Building the Workshop (Part 2)
However, one new idea was adopted by Qingmu without reservation: the shareholding system.
Every household in the village held a share in the workshop and would receive dividends at the end of the year.
The number of shares was calculated based on household size; larger households received more shares, and smaller ones received fewer. Of course, the initial investment was also paid according to population, so larger households had to contribute more. This money was used to build the workshop and purchase equipment.
Furthermore, management and workshop positions were not distributed equally. Instead, the village head appointed people based on their specific skills. If your family members were incompetent, they could only wait for the year-end dividends; they might not even land an odd job. Conversely, someone with special skills, like Gou Dan’s grandmother, would be invited to the pickle workshop to offer guidance, despite her advanced age.
When Juhua heard from Qingmu about the various arrangements for the workshop, she felt that Li Gengtian had truly put his heart into it. He had also taken the words of Qingmu and Zhang Huai to heart, which meant that some of Juhua’s own suggestions had been adopted through them.
For instance, Qingmu and Zhang Huai were assigned to manage the sausage workshop, while Li Changming and Zhao San managed the pickle workshop. Big Mouth Zhao, Liu Ershun, Huang Xiaodun, Li Changyun, and others were also involved in management, with each person overseeing a specific task or section. Even Sun Tiezhu and Li Changliang, thanks to their imposing builds, were appointed to lead some of the young men in taking turns on night watch, essentially acting as security guards.
You wouldn’t notice it during the day-to-day farm work, but when it came time to handle real business, the young men and boys all proved to have their own ideas and insights; they were not lacking in the slightest. ’Talent really needs to be discovered and cultivated!’
The remaining villagers, under Li Gengtian’s leadership, managed village affairs. People were assigned to look after the acorn trees, wild chrysanthemums, fish pond, and bamboo forest. As for Li Changxing and Liu Sanshun, they naturally stuck to their old trades.
The workers in the workshops were mostly married women and grandmothers. Younger women like Juhua, Jinxiang, and Liu Xiaomei didn’t work inside, partly because it was inconvenient and partly because they were needed at home. Instead, they acted as technical advisors, teaching the other women the skills they knew.
Guizhi and Meizi naturally shouldered major responsibilities, each serving as a junior manager leading a group of women. The two worked with great energy, despite their protruding bellies—they were both pregnant.
Overall, there was no nepotism, nor were incompetent people given positions just to save face. The system of rewards and punishments was also clearly defined. For instance, anyone who developed a new, profitable product would be rewarded. At the end of the year, everyone would re-elect the managers to prevent people from slacking off, being shortsighted, or acting out of greed. If anyone was caught betraying the workshop for personal gain, the consequences would be dire—their shares would be revoked.
The Zheng Family was small, but they had a lot of land and a lot of work to do, so Mrs. Yang didn’t take a job at the workshop.
One day, Juhua and Mrs. Yang cut several hundred pounds of cabbage and sold it to the pickle workshop. This was in line with a village rule: the workshops would prioritize buying produce and livestock from the villagers.
Others might not have felt it was a big deal, but Juhua found it made life much easier. After cutting the cabbage and delivering it all to the workshop, she was free to do other things. Even when they slaughtered a pig, she no longer had to stuff the sausages herself; there were people designated for that job now. Besides, any profits would be distributed as dividends at the end of the year anyway.
After they finished with the cabbage, Zheng Changhe and Mrs. Yang carried manure out to fertilize the carrots. That plot of land had already grown a crop of Shanyu, and now that carrots and cabbage were planted for the winter, it was crucial to keep the soil fertilized.
Juhua was at home washing vegetables for lunch when Liu Xiaomei rushed over. "Juhua, my second brother is preparing to make a delivery to the market this afternoon. Do you want to go check it out? Whoa! It’s still early for lunch, why are you washing vegetables already?"
Seeing the hopeful look on her friend’s face, Juhua laughed. "What is it you want to buy at the market? If you want me to go with you, just say so. Here, have a seat. Is your mother making lunch?"
Liu Xiaomei bashfully averted her eyes. She took the small stool Juhua offered, sat down, and pulled out a shoe sole to begin stitching. Hiding a smile, she said, "Heh, my second sister-in-law is busy at the workshop, and my mom said she’d make lunch, so I had some free time to find you. Juhua, don’t you want to go to the market and see your family’s new storefront? I don’t really need to buy anything. I just want to go look. My third brother said it’s really lively. He went to sell fish the other day, and they sold very well. Plus, Changyu opened a shop there to buy dried wild chrysanthemums and acorn flour to sell in Qinghui. Our village’s sausage workshop also opened a storefront to buy pork. Can you imagine how bustling it must be?"
Juhua shook her head and chuckled. "We’re this busy, and you want to go wander around? How about we wait another couple of days? My dad and mom are out fertilizing the fields, my brother is busy at the workshop, and I need to hold down the fort here."
Hearing this, Liu Xiaomei set down her shoe sole, squatted, and started helping Juhua trim spinach. "You’re even busier than I am," she complained. "You have to make free time for yourself; it doesn’t just appear on its own. Besides, even if you weren’t cooking, you’d just be doing more needlework, and it’s all the same. Clothes and shoes always have to be made, after all."
Juhua laughed. "Stop complaining. It’s only busy for the next day or two; you just happened to catch me at a bad time. I spent the last two days cooped up at home doing needlework, and you didn’t come looking for me then. Once my mom and dad finish fertilizing the fields, won’t I be free?"
Liu Xiaomei started to say something but stopped herself. After a moment, she continued, "You’re right. Your family has so much land. I always forget about that and keep wondering to myself, ’Why is Juhua so much busier than I am?’"
Juhua burst out laughing at that. After they finished trimming and washing the vegetables, they sat back down in the sunlight to stitch their shoe soles and make small talk.
