Chapter 322 Personnel Arrangements

Chapter 322 Personnel Arrangements

After asking around, the head of the guards concluded that only two guards, whose parents were selfish and unwilling to let any of their children go too far or escape their control, insisted on keeping all their children under their watchful eyes, even at the cost of their children's happiness and future, chose to give up their jobs with Xie Wanniang out of filial piety.

The vast majority of the remaining people either brought their families with them or temporarily separated from their parents and siblings.

Of course, the vast majority of these people only brought their wives and children, or their wives, children and parents.

After all, Xie Wanniang could only offer a maximum of two jobs. If they brought too many people, those people would have to find other ways to make a living or stay at home doing nothing.

Normal adults would definitely not want to live like this, and if those abnormal, weird relatives don't take the opportunity to get rid of them, are they really going to support them for the rest of their lives?

With Xie Wanniang's financial support, the guards quickly settled their families, and then Xie Wanniang sent them to escort the servants she had just bought.

Those people all came from the disaster-stricken areas of Hejian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture. Perhaps because they knew that a single elderly person could not be sold, there were only five or six elderly people who sold themselves with their families. The others were young people under forty and over five years old.

Among these young people, about 70% are young girls aged five to seventeen.

Xie Wanniang was not surprised at all by this.

After all, girls in this era have historically had a low status in their families. If something happens, they are easily abandoned by their families first. Unless the whole family sells themselves together, the girls in the family are usually the ones who get sold.

Of the remaining 30%, 20% are boys under the age of 18, and the remaining 10% are adult men and women between the ages of 20 and 40.

This group of adult men and women sold themselves along with their elderly parents and children. Compared to those who abandoned their own children to make a living, they were clearly more compassionate and righteous.

Xie Wanniang had a good impression of them. After having someone investigate their background and secretly observe them for a while, Xie Wanniang promoted a few people among them who were of good character, quick-witted, and thorough in their work, and put them in charge of temporarily managing the group of people Xie Wanniang had just bought.

Xie Wanniang had already informed them in advance that she was going to send them to the estate in Jingzhou.

Of course, she also promised that if their families came to redeem them within the stipulated time, she would resell them back at the original price.

Because of this prior promise, Xie Wanniang will not arrange marriages for eligible men and women among these people until this promise is void.

She had already planned to assign all men under forty and over sixteen to farm, while women could freely choose whether to farm or learn silkworm rearing, silk reeling, and weaving.

Limited by their physical strength and age, the elderly can only do light work such as raising chickens, ducks and geese and planting vegetables and fruits with children under the age of sixteen.

Fortunately, these "elderly" people were not actually very old and were relatively healthy, otherwise Xie Wanniang would not have dared to make them travel such a long and arduous journey away from Baoding Prefecture.

If she were to die on the way, it would be a tragedy she deliberately created.

With this in mind, Xie Wanniang simply did not allow children under the age of twelve who did not have relatives accompanying them to take care of them to go along.

Since they were all still young and couldn't do much work, Xie Wanniang simply left them at the village in Tang County to learn from the adults.

After arranging for the buyers, she also had a trusted broker find several shops and estates for her. After inspecting them, she bought them one by one, and only then could Xie Wanniang finally stay at home and take care of her child in peace.

Linlin, who was just a month old, was a mischievous child. Xie Wanniang had to work much harder to take care of him than she had with An'an. Fortunately, she had many servants at home, so she had plenty of people to help her look after the child.

Because this place is very close to Mingfu Village and Xiejia Village, Wang Xiaozhi, Dr. Chen's wife and daughter-in-law, Chen Lizheng's wife and daughter-in-law, as well as the female relatives of the Xie family, would come to visit her and her two children from time to time.

Especially Wang Xiaozhi, a traditional woman born and raised in this era, was overjoyed that her younger brother finally had a son and wouldn't have to worry about his old age. She was as happy as if she had found a large sum of money out of nowhere.

Xie Wanniang had different views from her, but considering that although she valued her son more, she also loved her daughter very much and did not mean to mistreat her daughter because of her son. On the contrary, she always thought of her daughter's future, so Xie Wanniang did not say anything.

Besides those who were already close to Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, Xie Wanniang's temporary residence would also receive many uninvited guests every day.

These people were mostly the female relatives of local officials, gentry, and wealthy merchants. Although they had not had much contact with Xie Wanniang, they took the initiative to come to her because Xie Wanniang was a princess and had a husband who was a third-rank military officer.

Since guests are guests, Xie Wanniang couldn't turn them away. However, if they brought her something, she would return the gift of something of similar value if it was inexpensive, but she would always return anything valuable untouched.

Of course, the vast majority of these people never actually saw Xie Wanniang herself; those who greeted them were usually Xie Wanniang's female guards or officials.

These women all came from the palace. Although they were now under Xie Wanniang's command, their background and experience were still there. They were perfectly capable of keeping order among the women of the minor officials, gentry, and wealthy merchants in Shangtang County.

As for whether Xie Wanniang will be criticized for being too arrogant, there is absolutely no need to worry about that.

These days, anyone with a bit of power and status uses the same tactics. After all, no one is willing to spend time and energy on people who are insignificant to them.

Xie Wanniang lived a comfortable life, but Jiang Yuan went through a lot of twists and turns before he finally managed to sort out all the affairs of Guangchang Guard.

As mentioned earlier, he went to Guangchangwei to serve as the commander of the garrison, which is the top position in the garrison.

With the imperial appointment document, and being a close confidant and trusted subordinate of Chang Yao, the heir apparent, he should have received some respect from the garrison.

However, the situation of Guangchangwei was quite special—before Jiang Yuan, this garrison had always been controlled by a local family surnamed Yang.

The Yang family originated from military households and had been guarding the northern border for generations. About fifty years ago, the great-grandfather of the former commander of the guard, Yang Guangtong, became the commander of the Guangchang Guard because of his great merit. Since then, the Guangchang Guard has never had a commander other than the Yang family.