“The brick kiln has stockpiled plenty of bricks and green tiles, hasn’t it? Use them all to build houses.”
Jin Feng waved his hand decisively.
The bricks by the river were almost overflowing. Rather than letting them sit there exposed to wind and rain, it was better to turn them into houses.
“How many?”
Zhang Liang asked.
“We’re planning to recruit thirty veterans, so let’s build thirty sets for now.”
Jin Feng thought for a moment and answered.
“This…”
Zhang Liang wanted to say it would cost a lot, but since Jin Feng was doing this for the benefit of the Iron Forest Army veterans, and he himself came from the Iron Forest Army with Zhong Wu and others standing nearby, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Zhang Liang couldn’t ask, but Man Cang had no such reservations and directly said, “Sir, building so many houses will probably cost quite a bit, won’t it?”
“It’s fine. Build them first. We can’t let the brothers’ families come and have nowhere to live.”
Jin Feng shook his head. “But these houses aren’t being given to them. The houses are still mine. They can only live here, and if someone stops working for me, I’ll take the house back.
Besides that, they’ll need to pay ten wen a month as rent.”
“That’s fair, that’s fair.”
Zhong Wu quickly nodded.
Compared to a wage of three hundred wen, ten wen was a small sum.
After all, Jin Feng was spending so much to build the houses, so charging some rent was reasonable.
What Zhong Wu didn’t know was that Jin Feng would never do a losing deal.
The bricks and tiles were readily available, and timber could be cut from the back mountain. Jin Feng only needed to pay some wages.
In these times, wages were the cheapest thing. Two copper coins a day could make men work desperately.
Besides, Jin Feng wasn’t planning to build thirty courtyard houses, just thirty rooms in a row, like the tenement buildings from his previous life.
By this calculation, building these houses wouldn’t cost much at all.
But to the veterans, this was an extraordinary gesture.
When Da Zhuang and Tie Chui returned after eating and heard the news, they were so moved they nearly kowtowed to Jin Feng.
Not only them, even Zhong Wu and the other personal guards were a bit envious.
Goodness, not only arranging work for their families but also providing brick and tile houses right away…
The benefits were just too good.
Many guards privately decided that when they retired, they’d come to join Mr. Jin.
“Sir, my life is yours from now on. No matter the danger, just say the word, and I, Tie Chui, won’t even flinch.”
Tie Chui choked up as he raised his hand to swear. “If I break this oath, may lightning strike me dead.”
“Me too!”
Da Zhuang quickly raised his hand to swear as well.
Jin Feng wasn’t fond of such formalities, but the atmosphere had reached this point, so he could only nod and say, “Work hard, and I’ll never mistreat my brothers.”
Most people in Da Kang were uneducated and simple-minded. Once they chose to follow someone, they’d usually stay loyal for life.
Da Zhuang and Tie Chui started looking for tasks that same day, helping Zhang Liang run around and move things, eager not to leave a bad impression on Jin Feng.
Early the next morning, they joined the team searching for Iron Forest Army veterans.
Jin Feng wasn’t idle either. The new textile workshop was much larger than the old shed, requiring additional spinning wheels. His own courtyard, the tenement building, and the soap workshop all needed to start construction simultaneously, keeping him busy.
He ran back and forth, directing the village men to transport bricks and lay foundations while finding time to oversee the construction of a new furnace, thoroughly enjoying the hustle.
Zhong Wu and Zhang Liang made quick progress. Each veteran they found often knew the whereabouts of other close comrades, and like a snowball, the more they searched, the more veterans they found.
Those who had served knew that retired veterans often felt a strong sense of loyalty to their old unit.
Learning of Jin Feng’s achievements in Wei Zhou City, the veterans were filled with admiration, and with Jin Feng’s generous recruitment terms, nearly all the veterans they found agreed to join the escort team at Xihe Bay.
In just three days, Zhong Wu recruited thirty-two veterans, exceeding the target.
The extra two came because he and Zhang Liang split up on the last day, each recruiting one more than planned.
Since Xihe Bay would need more workers in the future, Jin Feng kept them all.
The next day, Zhong Wu found a spot on the back mountain for simple retraining.
Jin Feng knew the veterans’ primary concern was their families’ resettlement. To let them train with peace of mind, he paused the soap workshop and his own courtyard construction, gathering all the men to focus on the tenement building.
Unfortunately, Xihe Bay had more women than men, and with the men gathered at the site, there weren’t many strong young workers, most of whom were novices at building brick houses, so progress was slow.
When Jin Feng urged them to hurry, the village head simply called up the village children to join the construction team, helping move bricks and pass materials.
The green bricks weren’t light, weighing five or six jin each. Older children carried two at a time, younger ones carried one.
Jin Feng even saw a five-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother struggling to carry a single brick together to the men building the walls.
Neither wore shoes, and when they set the brick down, it fell on the brother’s foot, making him cry.
“Don’t cry, little brother, don’t cry.”
The sister wiped his tears and whispered something in his ear. The boy stopped crying and limped after her to carry another brick.
“Isn’t this nonsense?”
Seeing this, Jin Feng angrily confronted the village head in charge of the site. “Uncle Liu, how could you let children come here? What if they get hurt?”
“I saw you were anxious to build the houses, so I called the village’s half-grown kids to help. One copper coin a day, two meals included. I didn’t expect the little ones to follow.”
“If they came, why not send them back?”
“Do you think I didn’t try?” The village head said helplessly. “Did you see Xu Laosan’s two kids?”
“I did.”
Jin Feng nodded.
Those two children were Xu Laosan’s.
“You know Xu Laosan went to war two years ago, and his wife died of illness. There’s just a blind old mother at home. She can’t spin for you, and their family has long run out of food.”
The village head continued, “Before, the kids could gather firewood from the back mountain to trade for scraps from families wanting bricks for houses. Now the kiln’s stopped, and no one wants their firewood.
The girl came begging me, saying she and her grandma were starving, asking to help out, not for wages, just for meals.
We’re all from the same village. I couldn’t bear it and agreed.
They’re good kids. At noon, they got wheat porridge but couldn’t bear to eat it themselves. They took it back to share with their grandma…”
The village head choked up, unable to continue.
