Yue Xiuniang and the others sent Zhou Man and the princess out of the door, and also sent them to the alley. If it didn't seem like they were too fawning on sending people back to the county government, they wouldn't mind sending them all the way to the county government.
After all, princesses are rare.
Sending people to the alley, Zhou Man was about to hold Xibing's hand to get on the cart, when two people rushed out from the diagonal stab, but before they got close, the guard stretched out his foot, drew his knife, and directly put him on the back of the car. neck.
The other party only yelled, "Master Zhou..." and she was scared to pee by the knife on her neck. She was kicked to the ground and hurt, but now she didn't dare to cry out the pain, and watched with trepidation. The knife on the neck said: "My lord, I, I have no malicious intentions, I just want to ask the princess and my lord to be merciful."
Both Zhou Man and Ming Da were taken aback by her, but fortunately they had someone to support them, they just had their hearts skipped a beat.
Seeing the two people lying limp on the ground, a young woman was holding an eight or nine-year-old girl by the hand, and both of them fell to the ground.
The little girl was brought down by the young woman, and she looked up at them with a pale face.
Zhou Man frowned and asked, "What do you do?"
Jiang Zhiniang and Yue Xiuniang hurried up, stared at the people on the ground with hatred and fear, then knelt on the ground and said to Zhou Manming, "Forgive me, my lord, these mother and daughter are here to seek work."
Jiang Zhiniang paused and said: "But we two tried their mother and daughter's hands, and neither of us is suitable to be Zhiniang and Xiuniang."
The woman hurriedly said: "Master, we can learn, we are not afraid of suffering, really!"
Jiang Zhiniang was indignant, "This is not something you can learn if you are willing to endure hardships. Your talent is inferior to others, so we will spend more time teaching you, and you will waste more thread and fabric."
They have so many choices, and they are not short of people. Why do talented people not want them, but use them
It would be fine if it was their own linen fabric, but it was from the county government, and it was public money.
The woman ignored Jiang Zhiniang, but continued to stare at Zhou Man and Ming Da, with tears in her eyes, "My lord, princess, please be merciful, let us enter the weaving workshop, we are really good For those who endure hardship, we can spend ten times and a hundred times more time than others to study and practice, really!"
Sijing, who was kneeling on the ground with Yue Xiuniang and the others, was furious when she heard the words, but she was born as a servant, so she habitually raised her head to look at her master before speaking.
So at this moment, she quietly raised her head to look at Mr. Zhou, and saw that Mr. Zhou had a strange expression on his face.
It's not sympathy, nor anger, but rather... interest, so she lowered her eyes and thought for a while before she said: "The embroiderers and weavers in our weaving workshop are also from poor backgrounds, and they start studying after dawn every day. And practice making clothes and weaving, and rest after dark, not to mention that you mother and daughter want to spend ten times and a hundred times more time than us, even if it is twice impossible, can you still not sleep and eat? ?”
The woman immediately said: "I don't need to sleep."
Sijing sneered, she saw such people a lot when she was in the world, "If you don't sleep, can you still weave clothes in the dark? You can't light a lamp, right? Do you have money to buy candles?"
The woman choked, and decisively dropped Sijing again, and continued to look up at Zhou Man and Mingda, with tears falling drop by drop from her eyes.
Not to mention Zhou Man, even Mingda sensed something was wrong.
She couldn't help turning her head to look at Zhou Man, and seeing that she was watching with great interest, she couldn't help reaching out and pushing her.
"Oh," Zhou Man came back to his senses, and said hastily: "Since you are so able to endure hardships, then go back to the county government with me. I will ask Zhao Ming to register for you. Since you have no talent in knitting, you can go to Zhuangzi to plant Vegetables, raise chickens."
After a pause, Zhou Man looked at her deeply and asked, "By the way, you know how to farm and raise these poultry, right?"
"Yes," the woman hesitated for a moment, but still said, "But my lord, I just want to go to the weaving workshop, not Zhuangzi."
"Why is this? Didn't you come to ask for a job?"
"My lord doesn't know," the woman knelt on the ground and said mournfully, "I'm now guarding my husband's filial piety. After the child's father died, my parents-in-law disliked me and gave birth to a daughter, so they took back all my fields and houses. I had nowhere to go, and I rushed here when I heard that Beihai County was recruiting workers."
Zhou Man nodded in understanding and waited for her to continue.
Seeing that Zhou Man didn't respond, she could only lower her head slightly and wipe her tears, and continued: "It's not that my family is so ambitious and unwilling to farm, it's just that I'm a young widow, and it's not easy for me to bring a girl into the village and mix with a group of men." middle."
Zhou Man smiled slightly and said: "So that's the case, you can rest assured, I can tell Zhao Ming to let the officials in the county government assign you among a group of women."
She said: "There are now a total of 128 female workers recruited in the farms of the government office, and they have been gradually distributed to various villages. Now there are only 38 male workers left in the farms outside the city, but there are still female workers. Forty-two, women outnumber men."
Mingda endured it, but he didn't, he covered his mouth with a handkerchief, his eyebrows and eyes curled up.
Woman: "..."
She paused for a long time before sitting back gently, trying to avoid the knife on her neck, but when she moved back an inch, the knife also moved back an inch, and it was always pressed firmly on her neck.
Now she was really crying, she covered her eyes with a plain handkerchief, and cried: "Your Excellency, be merciful, I really can't bear the heart of my daughter to follow me to the Zhuangzi to endure hardships, she has no father, I just miss her Learn some skills, and you will have the ability to stand on your own even without me in the future."
The more she talked, the more tears flowed, mainly the strings of teardrops quickly slid down her cheeks. Coupled with her pale face, everyone felt sorry for her. The people around her, even women who were also women, were all crying because of her. My heart softened, and I couldn't help but look at Zhou Man and the princess.
She continued to cry: "She doesn't have the support of her father and brother, and I don't plan to marry again. She will be the only one in the future. If she has no skills, she will be bullied when she marries and goes to her in-law's house. Please be kind and forgive me. Wait to learn in the weaving workshop."
Zhou Man sighed and said, "It's really pitiful for the parents of the world..."
The woman and the onlookers thought that Zhou Man agreed, but she turned around and said, "But rules are rules, and there is nothing perfect without rules."
woman: ...
Even the onlookers couldn't help talking about their love for her, "Master Zhou, you have always been kind, so you should agree to her. Anyway, there are only two mothers and daughters."
"That's right, that's right."
Zhou Man said with a smile: "That's what I said, but there are countless poor people like your mother and daughter in the world. If I don't consider the gains and losses and the rules and take them in, then the weaving workshop may be closed in less than a month." Stopped."
"But you are merciful, so I decided to find another way to fulfill you," Zhou Man said, and everyone's eyes lit up like the mother and daughter. There is a class in the Shantang, which specializes in teaching knitting, and Yue Xiuniang and Jiang Zhiniang will teach. There is one class every three days. Anyone who wants to learn can bring needles, threads and fabrics to learn, and then hand it over to the fourth class of Shantang every month. Ten Wen's tuition is enough."