Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 29 He has the desire to steal but not the courage; what a coward!

Limpy Wu chuckled and pulled out the silver given to him by Chang Yuchun and Xu Da from his pocket: "Your Excellency, this twenty taels of silver is a deposit from Minister Xu and Chang Pingzhang. Moreover, Minister Xu said that you can rest assured to manufacture lighters with confidence, and he will take care of the rest."

Yang Shaofeng's eyes lit up immediately, and he laughed, "With Prime Minister Xu's words, our Ningyang County can be considered prosperous!"

The cost of a lighter is about ten coins. If it is produced in bulk, the price can be reduced to six or seven coins. However, the price sold to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun is twenty coins. Even including the transportation cost, the final profit is about ten coins.

Based on manufacturing 100 lighters a day, the net profit would be about 1,000 coins, which is one string of cash, equivalent to one tael of silver.

The key point is that the lighters are currently only made by the young widows in Widow Village in their spare time, when they are steaming buns and delivering meals to the yamen runners and young men. If the women from the other eight communities and sixteen villages were to participate, at least six or seven hundred lighters could be made every day, and the profit would soar to six or seven taels of silver.

Although six or seven taels of silver might only amount to a few to a few dozen coins per person, this was the Ming Dynasty, an agricultural society where every household owned land. Earning a few or a few dozen coins a day was like a windfall for the people!

As for Magistrate Yang Shaofeng, although the money wouldn't end up in his own hands, and at most a portion would be retained by the county government, the fact that the county government had money and the people had money meant that the lighter manufacturing industry could generate profits for itself while also boosting other industries. Wouldn't that make him, the county magistrate, feel less troubled?

The more he thought about it, the happier he became. Yang Shaofeng simply called over a yamen runner and instructed him, "Go and tell those village heads and neighborhood chiefs to come to the county yamen first thing tomorrow morning. I have something to tell them."

After the constables left with their orders, Yang Shaofeng got up and walked to a cart loaded with food boxes. He took out a few buns from the food boxes and gave them to Lame Wu: "Try them. These were all made by the women themselves, and they even have eggs in them."

However, after receiving the buns, Limpy Five did not start eating immediately. Instead, he blinked and looked at the buns, then at the young widows who had almost finished tidying up the trays and wooden bowls and were now preparing to return to the county town.

Yang Shaofeng waved his hand in front of Limpy Five and whispered, "Brother Limpy Five? Brother Limpy Five!"

Limpy Wu blushed deeply, took a bite of the bun, chuckled, and said, "It smells delicious!"

Seeing the crippled man's worthless appearance, Yang Shaofeng's eyes darted around, and he couldn't help but laugh, "Is it the buns that smell good, or is it because these buns were made by your sweetheart that they smell good?"

Limpy Wu chuckled again and said in a low voice, "They all smell good, they all smell good."

Just as Yang Shaofeng was about to make a few more jokes, the youngest girl in the widow's village, only eleven years old, ran over and looked earnestly at Limpy Wu, saying, "Fifth Uncle, you haven't come to see me in so long. Don't you like me anymore?"

Upon seeing the little girl pouting and with tears in her eyes, Limping Wu immediately put down the buns, grabbed the little girl's arm, and said earnestly, "How could Uncle Wu not like you? It's just that Uncle Wu has been away on official business for a few days and was planning to come see you tomorrow."

The little girl said "Oh," then nodded again with tears in her eyes, and said, "Then Fifth Uncle must come to see me tomorrow, my mother..."

Before she could finish speaking, a young widow of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old came over, covered the girl's mouth with her hand, blushed, and said in a low voice, "The girl is ignorant and has disturbed the master and fifth master's conversation. Please forgive her, master."

Yang Shaofeng smiled and said "It's alright," but Limpy Wu was so nervous that he didn't know where to put his hands, and he even lowered his head.

After the young widow took the girl away, Yang Shaofeng coughed and said, "Everyone's gone, Brother Limpy Fifth, you can hold your head up now."

Only then did Limpy Five raise his head and let out a long sigh of relief.

Seeing how nervous Limpy Five was, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but tease him, "Brother Limpy Five, are you shy? Looking at how deeply in love you are, why don't you just tell her directly and then choose a good day to marry her?"

Limping Wu said with his neck stiff, "How can this be shy? I'm just not used to it, I'm just not used to it."

After offering a weak explanation, Limpy Five suddenly sighed softly and said, "Who knows if she's willing to marry me? Besides, I'm still lame. If I really marry her, I'll inevitably be a burden to her in the future. Alas."

Yang Shaofeng curled his lip: "What a coward."

In fact, Yang Shaofeng also discovered that the cowardice was not just limited to Lame Wu, but that all of these dozen or so wounded and disabled soldiers who had retired from the army were cowards.

Or perhaps, because of their own disabilities, they unconsciously feel inferior when facing these women. Even if they have thoughts in their hearts, they worry that they will become a burden to these women in the future, so they suppress those thoughts and only dare to say a few words while working.

In summary, they have the desire to steal, and a great deal of it, but they have absolutely no guts to do it.

That won't do. If those young widows aren't interested in them, that's one thing, but forced relationships never work. Even if Yang Shaofeng is the county magistrate, he can't just arrange marriages for them.

However, the young widows were clearly also interested in these dozen or so soldiers. It was a two-way street between them. If they were to keep dragging this out, who knew how long they could hold out?

Why do we have to wait until all those young widows are old?

As the head of a county, Yang Shaofeng felt it was his responsibility to help these dozen or so yamen runners find their life partners.

Thinking of this, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but spit out a curse in his heart.

I, Magistrate Yang, am actually being asked to do matchmaking and boat-pulling work?

After cursing under his breath, Yang Shaofeng simply got up and went to find the old lady who had helped sort the wild vegetables earlier.

"Anyway, that's the situation. Brother Limpy Fifth and his wife are in love, and those older women are also interested," Yang Shaofeng said with a smile. "However, as the county magistrate, I'm not really in a position to act as a matchmaker. Therefore, I'd like to trouble you, sir, to help Brother Limpy Fifth and his wife mediate."

The old lady glanced at the lame man, then at the soldiers working, and at the young widows who had already collected the trays and bowls and were about to turn back. She immediately smiled and agreed: "Don't worry, sir. I'll go talk to them about this when I get back. If they really have that intention, I'll make things clear to them."

Yang Shaofeng was overjoyed: "Then I'll have to ask Auntie to take care of Brother Limpy Fifth's matter."

After the old lady nodded in agreement again, Yang Shaofeng continued, "Actually, there is another matter that I would like to trouble you with."