The daily struggles of divorced women in ancient times

After the opening of the trade, Pei Yanxu built a food street at a designated location. This street only sold food and nothing else. At the beginning, everyone was cautious and no one rented a stall. Seeing this, Xia Mianwan generously booked more than a dozen stalls, recruited a group of people to wear uniform clothes, and hung signs on these stalls, calling them Manyue Snack Stalls.

The snack stand sells various improved foods that Xia Mianwan and Xuan Xue have come up with, such as improved potato chips, meat jerky, instant noodles, small cakes, preserved plums, plum cakes, milk tea, etc.

On the day Manyue snack stand opened, Xia Mianwan specially found a troupe to perform. There were no local troupes in Xiyang, but there were in Dongyang, so Xia Mianwan went to Dongyang specially to invite a troupe to perform.

Manyue snack stand opened in a lively atmosphere. But what was unexpected was that Manyue snack stand was extremely popular from the day it opened. People from all over Xiyang seemed to have come to the stall. Four people were arranged for one stall, and they took turns in pairs. Even so, they were still very busy and could not handle it at all.

Because the business was so good, some people from Dongyang and Zhai Qiang came to rent snack stalls. The government accepted everyone and provided for first come, first served.

These newly joined vendors are all truly talented. Although the things they sell are ordinary, they are all delicious. Some people cannot buy food from Manyue’s snack stall, so they settle for food from other stalls, which is also very good.

The planning of the food street was a complete success, but in order to have a continuous output of delicious food, Xia Mianwan still mentioned a lot of modern and novel snacks and asked Xuan Xue to study them.

The food street is doing very good business now, but Xia Mianwan has no plans to expand further. Manyue snack stall was originally opened to help attract crowds to the food street. If she saw all of them by herself, it would be disadvantageous for the competition with ordinary people. After all, she is not really here to do business, and she will return to the capital one day.

After Pei Yanxu finished his work on the trade, he started to take his men to the county to find ways to get more mountain people to move down the mountain. The mountain people needed resettlement, and Pei Yanxu also needed a complete plan for their return home.

After the beginning of spring, Pei Yanxu almost took root in the county. Spring ploughing began, but there were still too few people working on the plough. Pei Yanxu was afraid that the officials below would pretend to obey his orders but actually disobeyed them, so he had to go down and supervise them himself.

After the spring ploughing, Pei Yanxu had visited all the counties under the jurisdiction of Xiyang. He already had a good idea of ​​what special products each county had and what was suitable to grow. After returning to the city, Pei Yanxu put the fragmented plans into words and then distributed them to each county, and then the county magistrates of each county led their people to implement the plan according to the plan.

Day by day, month by month, another year has passed in the blink of an eye.

This is already Pei Yanxu and Xia Mianwan's third year in Xiyang.

Manyue Snack Stall and Manyue Grocery Store had become the signature of Xiyang, and their reputation had even spread to the capital. Even Madam Yang and Madam Sang wrote to them one after another to inquire about Manyue Snack Stall and Grocery Store.

Xiyang has many specialty products, but it is too far away from the economically prosperous Jiangnan and the political center of Beijing. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Without roads, no caravans will come.

After the opening of the mutual trade, the transactions between Zhai Qiang and Xiyang increased a lot, and Xiyang's popularity did increase, but there were still too few people, and this demand was not enough for either Xiyang or Zhai Qiang.

Pei Yanxu wrote and drew in the study every day. When Xia Mianwan saw him, she would just go in to bring him a cup of tea and some snacks. Pei Yanxu finally remembered that his wife was an expert in economics. After coming to Xiyang, he could see Xia Mianwan helping him with economics everywhere.

"Mian Wan, there are still too few people in Xiyang. The popularity is not enough, and the interests are not bound enough. The relationship between Dachen and Zhai Qiang will never be stable." Pei Yanxu sighed and rubbed his forehead.

Xia Mianwan happily took a tooth stick that Shi Ge'er and Yuan Jie'er ate and stuffed it into Pei Yanxu's mouth, "Is it delicious?"

"You're right, it tastes good." Pei Yanxu nodded and took another one from Xia Mianwan's hand.

"If you want to be rich, build roads first," Xia Mianwan suggested.

Pei Yanxu said with a bitter face: "Life in Xiyang has only been good this year. The treasury is still clean. I patch up the money I have and invest it here and there. As soon as I saved up the money for road construction, people from several counties set their eyes on the money in my hand! Why don't you save money yourself? You always set your eyes on the melons and dates in other people's hands."

Pei Yanxu really gets a headache when he sees those county magistrates now. They ask for money whenever they open their mouths. Don’t they know that talking about money hurts feelings?

Xia Mianwan burst out laughing. Pei Yanxu was much more relaxed now. He was no longer as bitter and resentful as before. The burden that had been on Pei Yanxu in the past few years was indeed too heavy.

"Husband, actually there are quite a few new workshops being built now. If we want to sell the products of the workshops to the whole Dachen, we definitely need roads. Why don't you paint a rosy picture for these people and build a Xiyang express line." Xia Mianwan smiled and stuffed a teething stick into her mouth.

Pei Yanxu thought carefully about Xia Mianwan's suggestion and felt it made sense. When would it ever be enough to rely on oneself to rob Peter to pay Paul? It would be better to rely on the rich to make ends meet.

It is definitely not enough to just donate money. Who would be willing to spend money to help others? However, Pei Yanxu will take care of these details. She only needs to follow the big families and donate some money to set an example.

……

Chen Ge'er and Yu Jie'er now looked like a young boy and a young girl. Xia Mianwan sat by the window watching them in the yard, and suddenly realized that she had been in the book for several years.

"Madam, the porridge is ready." Rumeng said while holding the cooked porridge.

"Rumeng, you are nineteen years old this year, right?" Xia Mianwan asked.

Rumeng nodded shyly, "Madam, I am nineteen years old."

Seeing Rumeng's shy look, Xia Mianwan became interested. "Rumeng, what do you think about the future?"

Rumeng looked at Xia Mianwan and suddenly said, "Madam, I like Xiyang very much and want to stay in Xiyang in the future."

Xia Mianwan asked curiously, "Are you staying in Xiyang alone?"

Rumeng shook her head and knelt down. "I don't want to hide it from Madam. Since Madam asked, I will tell you. I like the young manager Chen in the wine shop a little bit."

Xiao Chen is the manager? Xia Mianwan has some impression of Xiao Chen. He is a native of Xiyang who Xia Mianwan personally hired to manage the wine shop. The Chen family has lived in Xiyang for generations. Xiao Chen is indeed a good person, smart and down-to-earth. For a woman in ancient times, he is a good candidate.