The road to wealth of a peasant widow

The three brothers of the Chen family, along with Chen Dahai's eldest son Jin Zhu, have been cutting trees in the mountains these days, while the women are digging soil next to another residential plot.

Besides branches, the biggest consumption of charcoal burning is soil. Since Chen Cui's house is near the foot of a mountain and there are no houses outside the back door, she can dig soil as she likes.

But the Chen family does not have this convenience, they have to go to a slightly farther place to get soil.

Fortunately, Chen Dahe drove the ox cart over, and the excavated soil could be transported home by the ox cart.

With everyone working together, truckloads of soil were quickly brought back home.

Afterwards, the Chen family piled the soil in the open space in the backyard of the new house.

Like Chen Cui's family, Chen Shangen was afraid of rainy or snowy weather when making charcoal, so he also built a shed in the yard. Because they had enough manpower, their operations were more efficient and faster.

The shed is larger than Chen Cui's. Thirty or forty piles of firewood can be piled up under the shed to burn charcoal at the same time.

The adults were busy and the children were not idle either.

Among the seven boys in the Chen family's grandchildren, the oldest, Jinzhu, is eighteen years old this year and just got married last year. The youngest, Shuanzhu, is eight years old. The others are all teenagers who usually help with housework and are ready to be used.

Now, they were assigned the task of cutting all the branches in the yard into the same length and then stacking them up to dry.

These children had nothing to do in the winter, so when Chen Shangen gave the order, he also promised that if they did a good job, he would buy them real firecrackers to set off during the New Year.

Normally they set off firecrackers during the New Year, which are made of bamboo cut from the mountains. Although they can make crackling sounds when lit, they are not as good as real firecrackers.

Firecrackers were something that only two or three wealthy families in the village would buy. During the Chinese New Year, the children of those families would show off their small firecrackers with red paper wrappers, and most of the children in the village would be envious.

If it was about making new clothes, the little boys might not care so much, but if it was about buying firecrackers, none of them would not be tempted.

Therefore, encouraged by the firecrackers, the boys of Chen's family all turned into little laborers. They all worked seriously and no one was lazy.

Caixia, the only granddaughter of the Chen family, was also assigned a task, which was to help cut the long straw into small pieces and mix them into the mud.

With the concerted efforts of so many family members, the Chen family's charcoal-making business went smoothly. Every charcoal-making was very successful, and the charcoal produced had already filled a corner of the shed.

Every time Chen Dahe went to the county town to deliver charcoal, he would get it from his home and would not have to go back to Liujiaping.

Thanks to Chen Cui's instructions, Chen Dahe used the money from selling the charcoal to buy many sacks, as well as tools such as axes and saws, which further improved their efficiency.

Although the women of the Chen family also worked hard every day, they were very happy thinking that they could sell the charcoal and get paid for their work.

That’s right. Chen Shangen discussed it with his sons and told them that they were working for their daughter and would calculate her wages after the charcoal was sold.

He didn't mention his daughter's suggestion of a 30:70 split because he didn't intend to distribute it that way. The son-in-law taught his daughter how to make charcoal so that she could have the ability to make a living and raise several children.

It would be fine if the daughter passed the method to her parents without reservation. After all, her family needed help with the work and they had to learn it. If the money was divided according to what she said, he would feel guilty as an old man!

These days, Chen Dahe drove an ox cart back and forth between Chenjiagou and Liujiaping, transporting the charcoal that Chen Cui and several children had cooked to Chenjiagou, because the delivery location she had agreed with the carriage and horse company was Chenjiagou.

This was also the reason why she took a carriage back to her parents' home last time. She wanted the coachman from the carriage company to go and familiarize herself with the place first so that she could come over more easily when the time came.

Time passed in this busyness, and soon it was time to deliver charcoal to the capital.

Although the weather was colder during this period, fortunately there was no rain or snow, which did not delay their tree-cutting in the mountains or affect their charcoal burning, so they completed the delivery of the goods on schedule, and even had a little more.

This was the first time to deliver goods, so Chen Cui had to go with them personally, and Chen Dahe also went with them. As for her family, Chen Dahai rushed over to take care of them and help the children continue to burn charcoal.

Ten horse-drawn carriages arrived at Chenjiagou at midnight. Chen Cui had been here the night before. She watched the bags of charcoal being loaded onto the carriages, feeling an excitement that she could not conceal.

When they set out, she and Chen Dahe sat in the front and back carriages respectively, wrapped in old mattresses to keep warm, and headed towards the city in the starry night and against the cold wind.

The journey was relatively peaceful. Although the carriage was loaded with more cargo, it set out earlier and still arrived at the city at nightfall.

Chen Cui, a modern person, was amazed by the bustling night scene when she came to the city for the first time, not to mention Chen Dahe, who came to the city for the first time. He felt that his eyes were not enough to see.

The carriage drove directly to Huipintang. The shop was not closed yet and Manager Xu was counting the accounts. When he heard the clerk say that the charcoal delivery man had arrived, he hurried out to greet him.

This winter was extremely cold. Not only was the charcoal they had previously purchased often in short supply, but the price also kept rising. As a result, their store could not keep up with the delivery volume, and they had to give priority to supplying important customers and reduce deliveries to ordinary customers.

But this is not a solution. They are in the grocery store business and they are doing business for everyone. If possible, he doesn't want to offend any customer.

Fortunately, he made a prompt decision and signed a contract with the sister-in-law from Yinping half a month ago. Now the charcoal was delivered to his door in such a timely manner. He was really grateful for his cleverness.

Chen Cui just felt that the attitude of Shopkeeper Xu seemed to be more enthusiastic than before. She couldn't help but wonder, could it be that the price of charcoal in the city had increased again?

Because the delivery price is stated in the contract, regardless of whether the market price falls or rises, their supply price can only be settled at this price.

Shopkeeper Xu was so happy, Chen Cui thought, probably because the price of charcoal had gone up again, and his profit was higher, so he was so happy.

No matter what, since the price was agreed upon in advance, there was no room for change. She just wanted to get the money she deserved and she didn't want to care about anything else.

It would take a long time just to unload and weigh 20,000 kilograms of charcoal. Although Chen Cui did not need to do any unloading, she had to watch from the side to avoid any mistakes.

Shopkeeper Xu had snacks and hot tea brought to Chen Cui and Chen Dahe to warm them up.

After about twenty or thirty quarters of an hour, the weighing was finally completed, with a total of 23,400 kilograms. All the charcoal was moved into the warehouse.

Shopkeeper Xu had already had the silver and money prepared, and the total amount was one hundred and forty-two taels and four cents of silver, according to the actual weight.

With so much silver packed in a purse, it felt heavy when she lifted it, but Chen Cui didn't feel it was heavy. She just felt that the weight of money was really good!