FID – Chapter 377

  Chapter 377: Hopeless situation

  Xinghua Village Winery was going to build new wineries!

  Xinghua Village, the envy of eight villages in ten miles, was opening new wineries in other villages!

  This meant that what they hadn’t even dared to think about before was about to come true!

  There were only so many people in Xinghua Village, and all of them were already working in the village’s winery, so the new wineries in other villages would have to recruit new workers!

  Everyone in the eight villages would have a chance!

  A chance to enter the winery with high monthly wages, bonuses, year-end dividends, and annual benefits!

  Citizens in the entire Xiangshan County ran around to spread the news.

  They rubbed their fists and wiped their palms, waiting for that opportunity.

  Once the wineries were built, there would be an influx of applicants!

  Liu Yusheng and Qian Wanjin did not procrastinate. Since the matter was decided, they immediately began implementing.

  Under the eager expectations of county people, the new wineries were built in five locations, namely Potou Village, Xiushui Village, Luxi Village, Malu Village, and Shangpo Village.

  It was two more than the original plan.

  And this was, as yet, only the first batch of the tentative expansion.

  The second batch would be built after the first batch was officially operational and stable.

  In the meantime, they could take their time to select the perfect locations.

  Qian Wanjin’s ambition was to develop all over Xiangshan County.

  After that, in a scalable manner, spread out little by little!

  He wanted to make Xiangshan County into a renowned wine township in all of Nanling!

  In the future, as long as wine was mentioned, the first thing that would come to people’s mind would be Xiangshan County’s Xinghua Village’s nourishing wine!

  Kang Shiming wasn’t idle either. He began to hold tea and wine parties, invited affluent businessmen and celebrities in the city to dinner, and lobbied them to raise money for disaster relief, using the carrot and stick method.

  Although he encountered waves of discontent, he finally had some gains.

  His task was to squeeze a layer of ill-gotten gains out of these filthy rich.

  Finally, the news reached the Xinghua Village. Liu Yusheng and the others only knew that County Magistrate Kang had made some gains, but no longer bothered to pay more attention to him.

  Each performed their own duties.

  Qian Wanjin completely ignored the situation over there. Someone had carried the burden for him, so why should he still care much about it? Wasn’t that asking for trouble?

  He should steer clear of it before it was too late.

  The wineries on their side were under construction. It wasn’t like he had nothing to do. On the contrary, he had gazillions to take care of.

  For example, the Village Chiefs were summoned to discuss the new wineries and give opinions on them. Among them, candidates who were suitable for managing the new wineries must be selected. In addition, each village was given a quota of sixty people. Once the wineries were completed, they could enter the workshops immediately for work.

  There were hundreds of families in each of the eight villages. Even if they picked one from the hundreds of villagers who wanted to flock to the new wineries, a quota of 60 was far from enough.

  So how could the remaining people who had not been selected get out of their current impoverished status?

  Farming and planting various raw materials needed by the wine shop, such as herbs and tea. So long as they kept themselves grounded and took good care of the crops in the field, the winery would be responsible for the harvest.

  This perfectly solved the source of livelihood of the people who failed to enter the winery.

  Lastly, it was said that craftsmen were among the people. As long as someone in each village and township had a craft which was suitable for the operation of the wine shops, they could recommend themselves and go to Liu Yusheng or Qian Wanjin for negotiation.

  For example, there would be a shortage of porcelain craftsmen once the wineries were completed.

  The Li family in Xinghua Village only supplied the winery in the village, but their products were barely enough. Even if they were to expand their porcelain workshop, there was no way they could supply the needs of several wineries at the same time.

  So porcelain workshops must be found for cooperation again.

  All of a sudden, there were many ways for the villagers to make a living, so the village chiefs were overjoyed.

  After the meeting, they ran back to their villages to tell the villagers everything they had discussed, ushering another furor in the eight villages in ten miles.

  Those who were chosen to enter the winery were overjoyed, and those who were not were no longer disappointed.

  They might not be able to work in the winery, but they could farm. Among all the households in the country, who didn’t know how to take care of crops?

  Xinghua Village had never grown herbs before, either. But now, it had become the best place to grow herbs in the whole of Xiangshan.

  What Xinghua Village could do, couldn’t they possibly do it? They were no worse than them!

  Even if they really couldn’t do it, they could still plant tea trees.

  If they still couldn’t, they could also plant fruit trees. There would always be one that worked.

  With prospects in their hearts, no difficulty was difficult!

  Hence, Liu Yusheng and the Qian family’s popularity skyrocketed among the people, and their limelight reached an unbeatable trend.

  Their deeds really benefited the people of Xiangshan, so the people also gave back.

  The development on their side was like a raging fire, with a scorching momentum.

  Hope sprouted in the hearts of the people, and the gloom after the disaster had long been washed away by the joy.

  The distress and desolation that once pervaded Xiangshan was completely gone.

  Meanwhile, there was turbulence in the capital.

  With Qian Wanjin’s departure, the nourishing wine shops and nourishing tea shops were temporarily handed over to Qian Baihao.

  That was a person who gave even Liu Huai headaches. Once the wine shops and tea shops were in his hands, in just half a month, the degree of popularity continued to rise to a new high, and then maintained a stable position that people couldn’t pull off with a raised hand.

  Qian Baihao’s tactics were far superior to Qian Wanjin’s by several grades.

  The Liu family, who was already badly battered, steadily declined downward and was almost powerless to turn over, failing at every means to recover the huge market they once occupied in the tea industry.

  The attempt to rely on tea farmers and tea merchants to jointly combat the Qian family was also cut off, unable to perform.

  Also, when the small tea jar was brought back from the Qian family tea house, the Liu family gathered more than a dozen expert herbalists. They researched all day and night, but were unable to discover what exactly was added to them. The tea leaves had the texture of ordinary tea, but it tasted better than whatever was carefully concocted extra fine tea in the market, plus with health benefits.

  It took the Liu family a lot of money to invite a bunch of useless waste. Liu Huai berated those expert herbalists in a fit of anger, so with what was left of their little pride, they all gave up and left Liu’s residence.

  The Liu family, from the elders down to the juniors, were all anxious and miserable, plunging the family into chaos.

  They, the Liu family, were on the verge of toppling.

  The sense of crisis had begun to hang over the hearts of every Liu family member.

  Liu Huai once again went straight to Qingning Palace and dropped a stack of account books in front of Consort Liu.

  ”The Liu family’s business has fallen sharply since years ago. Every once in a while, we had to pay a lot of money to you, Prime Minister Zuo, and General Qin! There’s only expenses, no income, so the shortage in the Liu family is getting bigger and bigger. Next time, the Liu family can no longer take out money to fill your holes! “

  Although the Liu family relied on their relationship with Dowager Consort Liu and Prime Minister Zuo and formed an iron triangle Qin Xiao, they were, in fact, only the vassal of Consort Liu, the money warehouse of the three parties to take whatever they wanted!

  With the fall of the money warehouse, how could the Liu family still take into account maintaining their relationship?

  The Liu family was on the verge of defeat, yet they still wanted to take money from them?

  Dream on!

  Liu Huai was furious. His face, which had little expression, was now crawling with anger, agitation, powerlessness, and deep fear.

  Consort Liu picked up the stack of account books in front of her and opened them page by page. Her expression did not fluctuate, but the hand holding the account book almost crumpled the pages.