Chapter 33 Begins

  Commencement of work

  Under the morning sunlight, Yao Fan rode his bicycle at high speed towards the city. This was a brand new mountain bike with a fluorescent yellow body that shone brightly in the sun.

  Yao Fan hastily gathered everyone back in the store and sternly ordered them all to follow him out.

  After receiving the notice, the partners of Zaoshang Hang also rushed over in a hurry. Together with the newly hired partners of the Yao family, they worked hard to cover the goods piled up like small mountains in the cargo yard with rainproof canvas. The four corners of the canvas were all tightly tied and fixed on the deeply buried wooden stakes around. Although it was a severe drought, Yao Fang still felt that the preventive work against rain had to be done before he could feel at ease.

  Yao Fan rushed back and forth on the site, urging everyone: "From today on, large-scale warehouse area construction will begin here. It's time for everyone to get to work! Everyone hurry up! Hurry!"

  He Shicheng hadn't seen Yao Fang for ten days, and now that he saw him again, he excitedly rubbed his hands together: "Boss, what do you say we do!"

  "Yao Feng asked, 'How much lumber has the wood shop prepared? Tell Wang Shouye, the owner, to transport it all over here. According to my plan, we need to build a large number of plank houses and flatten out a large drill ground. On the north side, we also need to set up a large-scale enclosure wall as a warehouse area.'"

  "Yes!" He Shicheng pushed his bicycle and rode into the city.

  He Guan Nian, who had hurried over in a small horse-drawn carriage, walked up to them and whispered into Yao Feng's ear: "Brother Yao, should we inform Liu of the Customs this time? If there is no one to verify the goods with a seal, he may not trust us."

  Yao Fan leaned in close and whispered to He Wannian, "Don't worry about it. I've never gone through customs before, so when the time comes, I'll just say the goods were transported overland. Who dares to question me? They'd need proof of a ship's passage to do that! Later, you give Liu Ziming, Sun Maowen, and Wei Guofu each 2,000 taels of silver. That should shut them up. This money will still be deducted from my account."

  He Wan Nian widened his eyes and saw that all around him were small hills of piled-up unknown goods. He was shocked and asked Yao Feng, "Brother Yao, what are you transporting this time? There's so much! If those pests see this, they'll probably drool all over the place."

  Yao Feng bit his lip, and said with difficulty: "Brother He's words are reasonable! Since ancient times, wealth has blinded people's eyes. I think this warehouse area should be established as soon as possible! In the future, when I put up high walls, outsiders won't be able to see inside, and only then can I be at peace. They don't know how much I've transported in, and my mind will be balanced."

  He Wan Nian nodded heavily, grasped Yao Feng's shoulder and gently shook it, saying with approval: "Exactly! It's good that Brother Yao understands! I think we shouldn't delay, Brother Yao's manor should be built immediately."

  Previously, Brother Yao had gathered a large group of followers and was treating them to good food and drink. I was puzzled and didn't know what Brother Yao was up to, but it turns out he had been planning for today all along! How clever!

  Yao Fan just smiled, he turned around and found a cargo box that he had brought this time, climbed up the wooden nail box, stood on top of it and looked around, only to see that the cargo yard was scattered with partners like ants, with more than 100 people busy working.

  Yao Feng cleared his throat and raised his head, saying: "Everyone put down their work for a moment, I have two words to say!"

  When Mr. Lao came to give a lecture, all the apprentices stopped their work and looked up at Yao Feng, who was dazzling in the sunlight.

  "All the folks from my Yao family are here today, I'd like to say a couple of words. These past few days, I haven't seen you all, so first let me ask, how was the food at my Yao family's place during this period?"

  The people below saw Yao Fan standing there shouting, and they were all extremely respectful in their hearts.

  Everyone in the crowd shouted loudly with their own high-pitched, sharp, or hoarse voices: "Good food! ... Good food! ... Thank you, Master Yao, for your great kindness! ... May Master Yao live a long life of one hundred years! May his descendants be numerous and prosperous! ... May Master Yao's business flourish! May wealth roll in! ..."

  Yao Fan stood there with great pleasure, apparently these beggars had regained their vitality after a few days of recuperation and now spoke with confidence. Yao Fan spread his hands out, making a slight pressing motion downwards, and the partners stopped talking, all quietly gazing at Yao Fan, listening to him.

  During this period, these young people, mainly beggars and poor farmers' sons, experienced a heavenly life in Yao's home. They ate their fill every meal, and the food was very good. At least this kind of white steamed bun and porridge was enough, and they didn't even have to work, which was simply a small paradise for these bankrupt households.

  The origin of beggars in the Qing Dynasty, 99% are bankrupt households. After becoming beggars, they generally do not live for more than three years! Most of them will silently die in the first winter, and the rest can only rely on physical endurance to survive a few more days. If they encounter a year of disaster, it is impossible to even hold on until the first winter, let alone live for three years! Therefore, these beggars know that Yao Fan is their savior, their reliance on survival. In this period of eating and drinking without working, they are also very anxious, and they urgently need an opportunity to perform well in front of their new master.

  And the happy life of these beggars is simply infuriating to the residents of Qingdao Port: "These lazy bums and good-for-nothings actually have new clothes and shoes! It's outrageous! Is that Yao Fang an idiot or something?!"

  After Yao Fang's hired workers exceeded one hundred, the treatment he provided directly led to a shortage of pawned clothing in the Wan Nian Pawnshop. Following Yao Fang's orders, San Jie resolutely executed the command to buy new clothes and shoes for the workers, buying out all the suitable clothing from the estimated clothing stores at Qingdao Port. Afterwards, San Jie continued to withdraw money from the internal account house, directly purchasing new clothes and shoes from the ready-made garment stores. This move made the owners of the ready-made garment stores ecstatic, praising Yao's family for their kindness towards their workers behind their backs. Indeed, Yao's family's thick treatment of their workers shocked everyone in Qingdao Port. As for Yao's beggarly workers, they revered Yao Fang as if he were a living Bodhisattva who saved them from suffering and hardship!

  Yao Fan composed himself and shouted, "I, Yao Fan, am a man of my word. If I said I'd let you live a good life, then I'll definitely make it happen! But I also said before that working is very tiring, and that's not just talk."

  Everyone knows that this wasteland has been bought by my Yao family, and it will be surrounded by walls to build a large warehouse. The surrounding area is the Yao family's estate, where many warehouses and houses will be built.

  But if no one works, these ideas will not be realized. To turn ideas into reality, to build warehouses and houses, we need everyone's hard work! Whether the Yaojiazhuang can be built, whether the Yao family can take root here, depends on who? It depends on you! On your hands and labor! Are you willing to help me, Yao Fang, with this matter?"

  When people heard Yao Fan say this, they felt that the time to repay kindness and make contributions had arrived, and they became excited, saying "Willing! Willing! Willing..."

  The leader of these beggars is now Li Haoniu, who shouted loudly with his arms raised: "Master treats us so generously! Are we still afraid of hardship? We will work day and night to cover Yaojiazhuang!"

  "Right! Cover up Yaojiazhuang!" A slogan of "Cover up Yaojiazhuang" burst out from the crowd.

  Yao Fandao achieved the purpose of boosting morale, so he jumped down from the wooden box and personally walked into the group of peasant workers, directing them to start work.

  A bundle of iron hoes and pickaxes were distributed, a fleet of construction site hand trucks was assembled, with the tools at hand, the work of leveling the land became much easier.

  The owner of the wood shop, Wang Shouye, arrived with his apprentices an hour later, followed by a four-wheeled cart loaded with wooden boards.

  Yao Feng furrowed his brow: "Boss Wang, this piece of wood is not enough."

  Wang Shouye said: "Don't worry, Yao Dongjia, I have stored a lot of wood these days. After I split it open, I will send car after car to you."

  Yao Feng brought Wang Shouye to a pile of boxes, opened one, and pulled out a handful of iron nails from a plastic bag, putting them in Wang's hand. "Wang, the nails are all here, 50 kilograms per box, with a total of 800 boxes, twenty tons in various sizes, or 40,000 kilograms of nails. These nails are galvanized and won't rust easily. You said last time that one house needs about thirty kilograms of nails, but I have enough nails here to build over 1,300 houses. So now you need to hurry up and saw the wood into planks to supply me for building houses."

  Wang Shouye stared at the shiny iron nail in his hand, stuttering: "Galvanized? Did Yao Dong say that this silver stuff is on it? Can it prevent rust? How much silver does it take?! Oh my god!"

  Wang Shouye grasped the nail, looking left and right, swallowed his saliva and said: "Yao Dongjia, where did you buy such good iron nails? There are even round heads on them! Are these round heads made for the convenience of hammering with a chisel? And this nail mouth, it's not a sharp edge forged by a hammer, but rather like a cut one. The workmanship is really meticulous, and what's most difficult to get is that all these iron nails are identical! It's really hard on these blacksmiths!"

  Yao Fan disdainfully said: "What blacksmith, now foreigners make nails, where do they use blacksmiths? They're all machine-made. Steel wire is sent in and nails are cut out, it's incredibly fast. I've also brought two hundred bow saws and ten thousand saw blades, I reckon you'll need them to split wood."

  "Master Wang, if you can teach my apprentices to build this kind of plank house I mentioned, I'll give you some of these bow saws."

  Yao Feng smiled slyly, but in his heart he was thinking that maybe someday he could still make some money from sawdust.

  Wang Shouye was overjoyed when he heard that he could get this bow saw.

  He picked up a hacksaw as if it were a treasure, clumsily imitating Yao Fang, adjusting the bow length, putting on the saw blade, and tightening the screw mouth.

  Yao Fang pointed at a wooden box with nails and said: "You try?"

  Wang Shouye nodded "Give it a try."