Yi Xin as a concubine

Chapter 219: Building momentum and gaining the support of the people

Just as the negotiations between the two parties became increasingly tense, a rumor spread among the people.

In fact, it cannot be said to be a message, but rather a real person's explanation, talking about his own personal experiences, recalling the good and bad times, and describing his past hardships and how he brought them out of the mountains and resettled them after the King of Dingbei came, so that they had food to eat, houses to live in, and money to participate in the reconstruction.

Moreover, the King of Dingbei also promised to distribute land and grain to them when the land thawed in the spring. They all saw public officials measuring the land.

Chu Xingchen indeed planned so. Spring planting was a big event. The biggest thing for the coming year was to restore the land to cultivation. Part of it had been restored before, and now that there were more people, the cultivated area would certainly have to be expanded. After all, food was the primary need of the people. As long as enough grain was taken away, there would be no need to worry about not being able to retain people or the prosperity of the north.

Nowadays, more and more people are coming from the north, and Chu Xingchen is fanning the flames with a purpose. Those who have no sense of belonging are gradually gaining a sense of belonging and have more attention and expectations for this new regime.

After this, Chu Xingchen began to order people to intentionally or unintentionally spread the conflict between the Northern Royal Court and the aristocratic families. After the people learned of this situation, they were very indignant.

There is no weighing of interests in the minds of these common people. They only know that the big families usually look down on ordinary people like them, and now in times of crisis, they are so indifferent.

The new king had already promised to repay them double the amount after the disaster, but they still kept the money and food and refused to help the homeless victims. This is simply inhumane.

However, although the people were ashamed of their behavior and even angry enough to catch them and beat them up, those people were powerful and were usually cautious and prudent. They, the ordinary people, had no way to compete with them except to vent their anger.

It was at this time that the Xin family, who had already made all the preparations, finally took action.

The Xin family took over the Chamber of Commerce previously established by Xin Baoer, and united with some small and medium-sized families to establish a larger community of interests, all of which were labeled as Xin family and acted in a unified manner.

The Xin family made a big move at the first move. Almost at the same time, all kinds of affordable shops related to people's livelihood sprang up like mushrooms after rain in the twenty or so counties of the three prefectures in the north.

At the same time, under the guidance of some interested parties, the related stores under the control of the major families were uncovered by the public one after another, and then such a picture appeared in various places in the north.

The shop with the Xin family's signboard was crowded with people, while the shop of the Shi family was deserted.

The Xin family had already started preparing the supply of goods when Xin Baoer was making the plan, and now it is quite sufficient. Not only is it sufficient, but the goods are also of good quality and low price, truly achieving the goal of small profits but quick turnover.

At first, those noble families did not take it seriously. After all, in their view, they were all low-quality goods with little profit to begin with. Plus with the opening promotion, they could either lose money or gain publicity.

They are a century-old family and they would rather not bother to compete with the common people for the tiny profits.

But three days passed, five days passed, and half a month passed, and the other party showed no intention of raising the price. The supply of goods was endless, but no one was interested in their shop. Not to mention making money, they couldn't even make back the workers' wages.

What kind of world is this now? There are more poor people than rich people. Those high-end products are not sold very well. In recent years, the daily household expenses of those wealthy families have been mostly dependent on the income from those grain, oil and grocery stores. Now that these stores have no income, they will definitely have to use up their capital.

How is this possible?

It was not until this time that they finally realized the seriousness of the problem. It had only been one month. If this continued for several months, their store would not only suffer losses but might even face bankruptcy.

Now it is the end of the year, and it is the time for every household to stock up on New Year's goods for the New Year. They can only watch the Xin family's money flow in, while their own...

They hated the Xin family so much that they tried to trip them up in many ways, both overtly and covertly. However, the Xin family had Chu Xingchen to protect them, so as long as no serious damage was done, it would not be a big deal for them.

As for those families who depend on the Xin family, they all hide in the dark and don't need to show up at all. If you want to cause trouble for them, you will have to spend a lot of manpower and resources to investigate. Those aristocratic families don't have the patience to investigate.

Before the New Year, resettlement work in various places was coming to an end, and Chu Xingchen generously distributed a batch of supplies to the victims for the New Year.

This batch of supplies was sent back by Xin Baoer's people via a newly opened trade route. This was the first news since Xin Baoer left. Along with the supplies came several letters, one to the Xin family, one to Mother Lin and others, and one to Chu Xingchen.

The letter did not say where she had gone. The contents of several letters were similar. She only said that she would find a way to bring back more supplies, and that she was fine, asking everyone not to worry about her, and asked everyone to take good care of themselves.

The letter was very short, but with this letter, Chu Xingchen's face, which had been cold for more than a month, finally relaxed a little. Just this little bit of relaxation made the people under him spend the New Year comfortably.

The refugees had been settled before the New Year, and after happily spending a new year without having to suffer from hunger or cold, the joy gradually faded, and people's hearts began to become restless again.

Several years of hard life have taught them to be prepared for danger in times of peace. Too much leisure would only make them feel uneasy. However, it was still freezing cold outside and they could not do anything.

At this time, the Xin family was stunned again.

Successive natural disasters and man-made disasters have caused a break in many folk techniques and skills, and some are even on the verge of being lost. Xin Baoer remembers that many intangible cultural heritages of later generations came from folk craftsmen.

It is said that there are many masters among the people. What the Xin family will do next is to discover these craftsmen and revive the folk technical skills.

With the support of Chu Xingchen, the Xin family could naturally easily obtain the registration manuals of refugees from all over the country. When the registration was first made, the special talents had been specially marked. Now they just had to send someone to find them.

No matter how large the area controlled by the Dingbei Palace is, it is still limited. It takes only five or six days to travel from south to north or from east to west.

This matter was not difficult to accomplish. The Xin family contributed money and manpower to support those people, and their contribution was not small-scale. Those who could build a market built a market, those who could open a shop opened a shop, and those who lacked raw materials helped to find raw materials.

In short, as long as you have skills and a reasonable development plan, the Xin family can fund you. You only need to sign a loan agreement with extremely low interest. The repayment date is set at three months after profitability, and repayment can be made in installments.

Such terms are equivalent to giving them free money, and basically no one can resist such temptation.

As for those who cannot come up with a plan, the Xin family can send guidance. Of course, when there is profit in the later stage, they will have to pay the wages of the people sent to provide guidance themselves.

There was also a case where the Xin family had the recipe but no one in the family could take over, so they simply spent a large sum of money to buy it out and then arranged for people to produce it themselves.

When those noble families were preparing to open for business after the Lantern Festival, the Xin family had already begun to organize people to start working. Refugees from all over the country began to have work to do again. Although it was still very cold outside, the busy days made them feel at ease.

They felt at ease and were full of energy. At the same time, they were more grateful to the new northern master who took them in, King Dingbei, and their sense of belonging to the north became stronger.

This was not what the aristocratic families wanted to see, so several of them decided to follow the Xin family's example and sponsor some of the private industries. However, they had no information about those craftsmen, and they didn't know the specific conditions offered by the Xin family, so they had no idea where to start.

And because the people they sent out to do the work showed a condescending sense of superiority, as if they were giving alms, it made people very uncomfortable, and as a result, their favorability levels did not increase, but instead made people hate them even more.

Of course, this is also due to the fact that the Xin family signed a confidentiality agreement when they first negotiated with this group of folk masters in order to prevent the aristocratic families from doing this. This was discussed by the three masters of the Xin family, which shows how high the Xin family's business sensitivity is.

Another half a month passed, and it was already March. All the industries sponsored by the Xin family had been completed, but some of them still needed raw materials and could not be produced for the time being.

Among them are those who raise silkworms and reel silk, weave and dye cloth, make paper and grind mills, press oil using traditional methods, make wine, make all kinds of woven products, sculptures, and even make many kinds of soy products. In short, the folk skills are ever-changing, and there is everything for food, play, and daily use.