The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Although there are many women among the lower classes who are out in the open to make a living, they are all married women, and most of them run small businesses with their husbands. There are almost no unmarried girls who actually work.

Even for poor farmers, unless they really can't make ends meet, they will not let their daughters go out to work in the fields every day when they grow up. They usually let them do some housework at home, for fear that if they are exposed to public too much, it will damage their reputation and delay their marriage.

The female students in Yucai Girls' School all came from families that were not well off, but not the worst either. In addition, the parents loved them quite a bit, so they were able to send them to school to learn a craft.

If girls have a skill, it will not only bring more income to the family in the future, but also help them find a good husband and gain a foothold in their husband's family. In the long run, it will be a greater help to their natal family.

The economic base determines the superstructure. From ancient times to the present, improving and developing productivity have been the unremitting pursuits of mankind.

Why is the status of women in Jiangnan generally higher than in other places? Isn't it because Jiangnan has a developed economy and a thriving textile industry, and there are many women engaged in embroidery and textile industries, who bring a lot of income to their families?

If we want to improve the status of women, we must start with the transformation of the social structure. The reason why Jiangnan is richer than other places is inseparable from the fact that there are many fertile fields and high grain production in this area.

No matter what you want to do, you must first meet the most basic survival needs, which is to fill your stomach!

Thanks to the large-scale promotion of the cultivation of corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes in recent years, and the various measures taken by the government, the entire Zhou Dynasty, from south to north and from west to east, is filled with the shadows of these crops.

Due to the increase in the planting area of ​​these crops, the average grain yield per mu has increased from less than 200 kilograms to 400 kilograms, achieving a geometric growth. The number of people who starve to death due to famine every year is decreasing.

Although it is not possible to ensure that everyone has enough food to eat for the time being, as time goes by, more and more people will no longer die from hunger, which is already a huge progress.

When people could fill their stomachs, they began to pursue more things, such as buying some cloth to make clothes and buying some meat to improve their lives. These things only developed when grain production increased.

These positive phenomena brought about by the growth of productivity are not only good things for the imperial court, because they stabilize people's livelihood and help social stability and harmony. It is also a great benefit for ordinary practitioners in all walks of life!

When people become wealthy, they have more spare money to spend, which stimulates the vigorous development of all industries. For the Zhou Dynasty, which had suffered severe blows from famine and war in previous years, this was a process of repair and development.

For Chen Cui, all this means more prosperous business and increased income.

Their canned food, hot pot and perfume are not necessities in people's lives. However, with the increasingly prosperous social economy, sales are rising year by year, which has led to an increase in her annual dividends.

Even in the girls' schools, as people living near the capital had become better off and had more spare money, more girls began to be sent to school.

In the past two years, when the female students went home for vacation every month, their condition was watched by everyone. At first, they were yellow and skinny girls when they were sent to the school, but they grew fatter and bigger in the school.

Moreover, these girls not only learned to read and write, but also spoke and acted very differently from before. They became increasingly different from the girls who were raised at home, and began to behave like the girls from wealthy families.

Their relatives and neighbors are not fools, and the lower class people have their own wisdom. These girls have only been sent to school for two years, but they have changed so much. Each of them has a skill. No matter where they work in the future, it will be better than staying at home!

More importantly, the tuition fees can be paid on credit, and even if it needs to be repaid, the girl can pay it back herself when she earns money in the future. It means that our family does not spend any money, and other people have raised our children for several years for free, and have trained them to become successful and found jobs. This deal is really a good deal!

As a result, more and more people came to inquire about the girls' school's enrollment, and even many parents of existing students wanted to send their other girls in.

However, Chen Cui refused. She had already decided not to accept new students before this class graduated.

Firstly, the school had limited teachers and could not recruit more people to teach; secondly, she wanted these students to find jobs after graduation, use them to build a reputation, attract new teachers and students, and truly achieve the goal of expanding enrollment.

When the girls' school becomes really famous, it will recruit students one after another like modern technical schools.

At that time, many old students were able to stand on their own, and they could even select outstanding students to stay in school to teach, forming a situation where the old could guide the new.

One day in March, the weather was sunny and windy. Chen Cui had the rare leisure time to go out with her three daughters-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren.

Although the men were all on duty and only the women and children went out, the group was still very large. The master brought his maids, servants, and guards, totaling dozens of people, sitting in five or six carriages. It was quite a spectacular sight as they were heading out of the city.

The three daughters-in-law each had a carriage. Qin Ruozhi and Zhang Hongjuan brought their children with them. Princess Fuyou had a separate carriage, while Chen Cui shared a carriage with Suisui and her daughter.

On the way, Chen Cui lifted the curtain of the carriage window and looked out. She saw either passers-by in a hurry or a team of carriages traveling like them.

When she saw a family riding in a mule cart heading out of the city, she thought of their family's mule cart and the days when she drove the mule cart herself.

Chen Cui couldn't help but talk about the hard days she lived before she became rich, and how she had to drive an ox cart to sell charcoal in the middle of winter. She was shivering in the cart, and was afraid of the cold wind, so she curled up under an old mattress, not daring to show her head.

When Chen Cui said this, there was a smile on her face, but when Sui Sui listened, tears almost fell from her eyes. She reached out to hold Chen Cui's hand, touched the place on the palm of her hand where calluses had formed, and kept rubbing it.

"Mother, you have suffered!"

Sui Sui's tears fell into Chen Cui's palm one by one, warm, as if they were going to drip into her heart.

Chen Cui quickly wiped her daughter's tears with a handkerchief: "Silly child, why are you crying? I was just talking casually. What happened in the past is in the past. Now our family is rich, and your brothers are doing well. In the future, mother will only enjoy endless happiness!"