Chapter 307 Hiring Beggars

Chapter 307 Hiring Beggars

The children used to be able to get by without eating a full meal, but now they can't even manage that.

Not only has it become more difficult to beg, but the things they manage to get are often snatched away by stronger adult beggars.

Those adult beggars are able-bodied and in their prime, so begging for food is naturally at a disadvantage. But if they can't get food, they can choose to steal or bully children.

Often, when children are begging, the adult beggars will follow them from a distance. If the children get something but don't eat it right away, the adult beggars will take the opportunity to keep it for themselves. They might even beat and kick the children if they resist.

They had originally intended to steal the steamed buns that Xie Wanniang's guards were giving to the children, but after being severely beaten by Xie Wanniang's guards, they dared not approach the temporary residence of Xie Wanniang's guards again.

That's why those little beggars had the idea of ​​drying the steamed buns and storing them at the temporary lodgings of Xie Wanniang's guards.

The guards who were sent out by Xie Wanniang to handle this matter were naturally experienced veterans. They were capable, honest, and willing to help these little beggars within their capabilities.

With protection, the little beggars worked even harder.

As they performed well, Xie Wanniang's guards naturally felt even more sorry for them. Many of them even took advantage of the time after dark when the children didn't have to go out begging to teach them some simple yet powerful self-defense techniques.

Those little beggars had all witnessed the wickedness of human nature, so they naturally knew that what the other party was teaching them was exactly what they needed right now, and the group of children learned with extra care.

Their thinking was simple—once they learned a skill, they wouldn't have to worry about being robbed of their food and coins by adult beggars anymore. With enough food and coins, they could barely survive to adulthood, and then they could find a proper job to support themselves.

It should be noted that the survival crisis for these children is far more than just whether they will freeze or starve to death, whether they will be bullied by adult beggars, or whether they will unintentionally offend a rich and powerful person one day.

In an era where human trafficking is legal, and where there are always people willing to take risks and engage in risk-free transactions to reduce costs, if these individuals were not disabled, there would always be unscrupulous people in the world who would want to capture them and sell them for money.

The fact that these little beggars were able to survive with their companions in such harsh conditions—lacking food and clothing, having no fixed abode, and surrounded by wolves—demonstrates their remarkable resourcefulness.

Several of Xie Wanniang's guards who had contact with them even suggested that Xie Wanniang stop going to the brokerage to buy people and simply pick a suitable little beggar to bring back and raise.

Xie Wanniang also felt sorry for those little beggars, but due to legal constraints, she obviously could not sign a master-servant contract with people she picked up on the street.

But if she didn't make those children sign indentures, she really couldn't feel at ease keeping them by her side.

After all, this is a key border town, and people of unknown origin are very likely to have questionable backgrounds.

Even if not all of these children are treacherous, but only a small portion of them might suddenly explode someday in the future, the consequences are still not what Xie Wanniang wants to see.

She couldn't risk the fate of her entire family just because she sympathized with others.

However, she did not simply abandon the matter. Instead, she had the head of the estate take some tenants to wealthy households and pawnshops in nearby towns to buy back some old cotton-padded clothes and cloaks.

Nowadays, wealthy families often change their clothes frequently. Even ordinary wealthy gentry families usually don't wear their cotton-padded clothes for more than two years.

Unlike ordinary people, who would wear even a simple winter coat filled with reeds, willow catkins, and scraps of cloth year after year.

Xie Wanniang had people specifically go to the homes of local gentry, landlords, officials, and wealthy merchants, as well as the backlog of pawnshops of all sizes in various prefectures and counties to collect old cotton-padded clothes and cloaks. Although the collected old cotton-padded clothes and cloaks were not as nice or warm as new ones, they were cheap because of the large quantity.

After carefully washing and disassembling the clothes, the old and hardened cotton was combed by a cotton fluffer. Then, the tattered or torn fabric was replaced with sturdy coarse cloth from the stock. A sturdy and warm cotton coat was then made.

The few cloaks made from the cheapest rabbit and sheep skins were cleaned and re-sewed by the women of the villagers, turning them into rabbit skin coats.

In addition, Xie Wanniang also had cotton and scraps of cloth bought and sent to Wang Xiaozhi, who then took the lead in hiring women from the village to make cotton shoes for the little beggars during the off-season.

Due to the drought, grain prices in Tang County have risen by about 30% compared to last year. This is good news for wealthy gentry and merchants who have surplus grain, but it is definitely bad news for ordinary people who have not enough grain to eat every year.

In previous years, most people in Mingfu Village lived a normal life, neither having enough to eat nor starving. Now that grain prices have risen, if they don't have new ways to make money, their families will inevitably have to tighten their belts and eat less.

When Xie Wanniang asked Wang Xiaozhi to assign tasks to the aunts, grandmothers, girls, and wives in the village, the villagers were naturally more than happy to oblige.

This resulted in the fact that what Xie Wanniang originally planned to do in five to six months was actually accomplished perfectly by this group of women in just two months.

To Xie Wanniang's surprise, she simply assigned them even more work to do.

In any case, besides the guards who were ordered by the emperor to protect her, she also received a chest of gold and a number of silver notes from the emperor, so she is now very rich.

Xie Wanniang knew perfectly well that the reason why the emperor's reward to her was so down-to-earth and targeted was because Jiang Yuan had asked the Chang family to pass on a message to the emperor in advance.

She didn't blame Jiang Yuan for acting on his own initiative. The reason Jiang Yuan asked her for guards and money was ultimately because those were the two things she needed most right now.

She could only be kept by the guards as ordered, but she had the right to dispose of their money independently.

It should be noted that because the blueprints she provided would remain top secret for a long time to come, the silver notes and gold that the emperor bestowed upon Xie Wanniang did not come from the national treasury, but rather from the private treasuries of the emperor, empress, and crown prince.