As the sun set, smoke slowly rose over Jintan Village. While it was still dark, Ma Defu dragged his tired body back home.
Today is his first day in office. The work of the village party secretary is indeed as imagined and not easy.
Early this morning, Uncle Wudun first asked him to read a letter, and then something happened to Huwa's sheep.
Before these two matters were settled, I met Uncle Xiang again on the way back to the village. He had a dispute with someone else over the issue of borrowing fertilizer. When Ma Defu went to mediate, the two almost started fighting.
They finally tried their best to persuade the two of them, but accidentally, the time reached noon.
After settling this matter, Ma Defu finally had time to take Huwa to the village headquarters to get some baking soda.
After getting the baking soda, Ma Defu went to Uncle Wudun's house again and helped him read the letter home. Just when he was about to write a reply to Uncle Wudun, Uncle Dayou found him again.
Li Dayou recently went to work in the brick factory again. Not only did he go there by himself, but he also brought a group of young laborers from the village with him.
Then, the villagers quarreled with the person in charge of the brick factory over wages.
As soon as Ma Defu heard about this, he quickly put down the paper and pen in his hand, and without even having time to take a bite of his meal, he rode straight to the brick factory on a big bar.
This trip lasted for most of the day, and it wasn't until about three o'clock in the afternoon that he communicated with the foreman of the brick factory and took back the villagers' portion of their wages.
However, after such a fuss, although the brick factory paid the money, 'Liangzi' ended up settling the knot.
The person in charge of the brick factory directly said on the spot that he would not hire people from Jintan Village in the future. After all, there are so many villagers in the surrounding area, and the brick factory is not afraid of you not going there at all.
After today, the road to work in the brick factory has been cut off, at least in the near future.
As the village party secretary, Ma Defu must find a new way for the villagers to make money. In fact, jobs like this in the brick factory are difficult to find and easy to find.
The reason for the difficulty is that there are no large settlements around Jintan Village and there are very few factories. It is really not easy to find a place to do odd jobs nearby.
The reason why it is easy is that as long as you go to the district, or nearby counties or cities, there are many such opportunities. The only disadvantage is that it is relatively far from home.
As soon as Ma Defu entered the yard, Shui Hua noticed something was wrong with his expression. He looked frowning, as if he had encountered some problem.
"Defu, what's wrong with you?"
"Well."
Looking at his concerned wife, Ma Defu adjusted his emotions slightly and replied with a smile.
"It's not a big deal."
Then, Ma Defu told Shuihua what happened in the afternoon. There was nothing to hide about it. Even if he didn't tell Shuihua today, Shuihua would probably know it from others tomorrow.
After all, Jintan Village is only such a big place, and "working odd jobs in a brick factory" is closely related to the income of the villagers.
Now that this road is gone, the villagers will definitely discuss it.
In addition, it is foreseeable that the group of people who recently went to work in the brick factory will definitely be drowned in the comments of the villagers.
Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents. The brick factory is like this, knocking down a boatload of people with one stroke. The villagers have no place to make money, so something might happen.
Therefore, before Ma Defu returned to the village, he discussed with Li Dayou and others not to tell the villagers what happened at the brick factory today.
However, there is no airtight wall in the world. If you can hide it for a while, you can't hide it for a lifetime. Sooner or later, the villagers will know that "the brick factory does not want workers from Jintan Village."
After listening to Ma Defu's story, Shui Hua's face changed slightly. She was not fooled by Ma Defu's "relaxed" tone. Obviously, she knew the seriousness and difficulty of the matter.
If this matter is not resolved as soon as possible, the group of people who went to work today will most likely be resented by others.
Seeing the worry on Shui Hua's face, Ma Defu straightened up and pretended to be relaxed.
"It's okay. Well, I'll go to the brick factory tomorrow and talk to them to see if there's room for negotiation."
"Um."
Although Shui Hua was smart, she still had too little experience. Faced with this situation, she didn't know what to do, so she could only nodded with worry.
Seeing that Water Splash was still frowning, Ma Defu directly used his ultimate move.
"Don't worry, if the problem can't be solved tomorrow, then I'll ask dad if he has any good ideas."
As expected, after hearing these words, the brows on Shui Hua's face relaxed unconsciously and she spoke.
"Well, look, I don't want to do it tomorrow. Why don't I go after dinner later?"
"Let's do it tomorrow."
Ma Defu was silent for a while before giving an answer. He still wanted to try to solve this problem first.
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…
The next day, Ma Defu ran to the brick factory early in the morning. As a result, the person in charge of the brick factory saw him as if he were seeing a god of plague. He had no intention of talking to him and just wanted to hide.
After working hard for a long time, Ma Defu finally started talking to the other party.
But the result was not satisfactory. The foreman of the brick factory refused to give in and refused to recruit people from Jintan Village to do odd jobs.
The negotiations failed, and Ma Defu had to return without success.
There is nothing that can be done about it. After all, the brick factory belongs to others. It is their freedom to recruit people from where they choose. They cannot force them to drink water.
Back in the village, Ma Defu found his father in a depressed mood and planned to seek help from him.
"Dad, this is probably what happened. What do you think we should do?"
After hearing the whole story, Li Jie touched his chin and pondered for a moment.
"There is no road ahead, so just find your own way!"
Ma Defu didn't know why, and looked at his father with confusion and curiosity on his face.
"Actually, it's very simple." Li Jie smiled slightly and pointed to the open space to the east of the village: "There is an open space in our village. Since we can't work at the brick factory, we will build one ourselves.
Brickyard!”
Ma Defu said in disbelief: "Build it yourself?"
"Yes! If you don't have guns, if you don't have cannons, you can make them yourself without asking anyone!"
Looking at his father with a determined look on his face, Ma Defu was startled. He had to say that he had never thought about it in this direction.
A brick factory cannot be built casually.
First of all, start-up capital has become a big problem. Brick presses, mixers, brick kilns, etc. do not cost money. If you want to set up a brick factory, you will need at least tens of thousands of yuan.
But how can the villagers have money?
Secondly, firing bricks is also a technical job. If you don't understand the proportions and heat, most of the bricks fired in the kiln will be waste.
Thirdly, even if the financial and technical problems are solved, the bricks will always be sold after they are produced. Jintan Village has no way of doing this.
Finally, brick-making is also a labor-intensive industry. It cannot be done without a small number of people. Even with such a small amount of labor in Jintan Village, there are not so many workers.