The Three Spirit Stones

Dozens of miles north of the outskirts of Bianjing city, hundreds of women and children supported each other as they walked into the Cheng’s Soap Factory.

This land has several thousand acres. It was originally a wasteland, very barren, and nothing can grow.

But in Cheng Yu's impression, this area has rich groundwater resources. Later, he found several teams of well diggers, and they really dug more than a dozen wells. Although they were quite deep, the land could be used as long as there was water.

Sun Yuechan asked her father, General Sun, to buy the land at a low price.

General Sun is now very satisfied with his son-in-law. Not only is he a handsome man, but more importantly, he takes good care of the Sun family.

The Song Dynasty valued civil officials over military officials. Families with military honors were not as good as civil officials. As long as the children of civil officials could read, they had the opportunity to enter the officialdom, but military officials could only have a chance to gain fame and honor after fighting in wars. As civil officials and military officials were in opposition, it was very difficult for the children of military honors to enter the officialdom, so many families with military honors would secretly engage in business.

The city of Bianjing was very small and seemed prosperous on the surface, but what needed to be done had already been done long ago. Behind every restaurant, foot shop, and tile shop there was a connection between one or two royal relatives and powerful families!

General Sun had resigned from his post early in life due to injuries sustained on the battlefield, leaving only an honorary title.

He had three daughters and five sons. Sun Yuechan was the legitimate daughter. The eldest son held the sixth rank in officialdom and served in the Ministry of Works and the Junior Inspector of Military Equipment, and was also promoted to the Zhenwei Colonel. As for the remaining sons, except for the third son who was in the army, the others had no where to go.

After Cheng Yu's soap experiment was successful, he divided the shares of the soap factory into three parts, one for General Sun, one for his uncle Cao Wei, and 40% for himself. They each took 30%. The funds for buying land and building factories were also invested according to this ratio, and the year-end distribution was also based on this ratio.

Cheng Yu knew very well that the bigger the cake, the more people would be greedy for it. If he didn't want to be coveted by others, he had to involve powerful people and share some of the profits with them. This would be safe.

……

The men or fathers of the hundreds of women and children had been recruited to build the factory months ago.

These people were all former guards of the Cheng Mansion. In the past few months, they were found one after another by Cheng Wei and Zhong Sheng.

They followed the masons to build the factory, including wall construction, roof construction, road paving, etc. Now that the soap factory has been basically completed, they gave up the house they rented before and moved all the equipment to the new factory.

The factory needed more manpower for expansion, so they asked those people to sign up to bring their wives and children over, and each family was given a dormitory, so that the family could be reunited and both men and women could have work to do.

When the old soldiers heard that the prince had arranged jobs for their family members, they were extremely happy and signed up one after another.

The group of women and children walked into the factory gate with a sign hanging on it and saw neatly arranged brick and wood houses inside, with the ground rammed firmly and flatly.

These brick and wood houses are very spacious. One is at least six feet long and three feet wide, which is about two hundred square meters. Cheng Yu is not satisfied with this area for use as a factory. In modern times, it is common for a factory to have an area of ​​five to six hundred to one thousand square meters.

But there are no asbestos tiles, colored tiles, or steel pipes for roofing here. The roof can only be made of wooden tiles, and 200 square meters is the limit.

He felt that blast furnace steelmaking should be put on the agenda, and that research on building materials such as cement should also begin.

The women and children stood there uncomfortably, looking at everything here with curiosity and fear. How many times more splendid and spacious was this place than where they lived?

At this time, a woman in a pink and white dress came over with a dozen women in blue dresses. These people were all trained by Sun Yuechan.

The woman in white shouted to them, "Now you are divided into ten teams and follow your team leader to the cafeteria to eat first."

These women and children had come such a long way and were already starving. When they heard that there was food to eat, they all immediately became more energetic.

Soon, the more than 300 people were divided into ten teams and followed their respective team leaders to the cafeteria.

There are five canteens here, each of which can accommodate more than 200 people. More than 300 people have to share two canteens. There is a row of gutters on the wall to the left of the canteen entrance, with tanks of water on them and jars of soap ingredients next to the tanks.

These scraps are what's left over from the soap-making process. They can't be shaped but can be used.

The team leaders showed them how to wash hands before eating.

These people were whispering to each other, thinking it was quite novel. They never thought that poor people like them could wash their hands with soap after eating like the rich people!

After washing their hands, everyone lined up to walk into the cafeteria. Inside were rows of long tables, with two-seater benches on either side of the tables.

The team leader led them in through the door. Someone was waiting inside to give each of them a set of bowls and chopsticks. There was a row of tables against the wall, with buckets of steaming porridge on them.

When they handed over their bowls, someone filled them with porridge and gave them a big steamed bun.

When they saw it, they were surprised to find that it was rice porridge! There was also minced meat and white flour buns in the porridge!

Many of them hadn’t had a full meal for a long time, and happiness came so suddenly! Many of them secretly wiped their tears while wolfing down their food.

After everyone finished eating, the woman in white came in and said to them, "I am your team leader. My last name is Zhao. You can call me Miss Zhao."

"The ten people just now are your respective team leaders. They are responsible for your daily life and work. If you have any questions, you can ask them."

"After you have eaten, your team leader will give you two sets of factory uniforms. You must wear the factory uniforms here."

"Then, the team leader will take you to the dormitory, where your family members are waiting for you.

"Tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m., we will gather in the cafeteria to have breakfast. If you have children, they should go back to the dormitory after breakfast and not run around. If you can go to work, please come to me to register after you get your factory uniforms."

Hearing this, the group of women were very happy. Here, adults and children alike were provided with food and accommodation, and even had clothes to share. It was much better than at home!

Then, everyone was divided into clothes according to their own body shapes, including children. The clothes were all blue and made of much better fabrics than what they were wearing. Touching these clothes, everyone was happier than during Chinese New Year.

When it comes to the registration phase, some women who have two or three children let the older ones take care of the younger ones while they register to work. Some women who have only one child discuss with each other to entrust the child to one person to take care of the child. Some women who have all grown children work with their children.

There were about two hundred people who were able to work, which meant that Cheng Yu would provide free food and lodging to the remaining one hundred or so people.

After signing up, each team leader took the group back to the dormitory.

After passing through the factory buildings and turning a few corners, we arrived at the dormitories. These dormitories consisted of small rooms, each of which was about ten feet long, or about ten square meters, with a row of cabinets and a row of beds.

If there are many people in the family, they can apply for an extra room. If there are few people in the family, the whole family can live in one room.

There are public bathrooms, public toilets and hot water rooms in the dormitory area, where you can get hot water for bathing and drinking.

The women and children were led to the dormitory area. Their men had been looking forward to it. When they saw their wives and children, they happily went to pick up their luggage and take their children back to the dormitory that had been assigned to them.

The family reunited and was filled with joy! The place suddenly became full of life!