The four spinners were busy with their own work, and Chen Lin's uncle and nephew also had their own work. Chen Ding was busy inspecting the Shatian bought by Wu Yijun in Nansha and other places, supervising and inspecting the cotton planting status of the tenants. Chen Lin stayed in the village -
―He now faces a major challenge: winning the support of his tribe.
Originally, this was not a difficult task. Chen Lin is the eldest son of the clan and is naturally a candidate for the clan leader. It is expected that when someone reaches middle age, grows a beard and becomes the elder clan leader. Moreover,
His father has been running a silk mill for the entire clan for many years, and many of the family's benefits come from this silk mill. People in the clan are very kind to his family.
But now, the situation has changed. The second uncle relied on the chaos of the situation to usurp the position of being in charge of the case, and also took away the silk shop - the key is that he also got the support of the Australians, most of them were just helpless people, and his father was no longer here.
Whether they still recognize themselves as their "eldest grandson" is still a question mark.
Fortunately, after returning this time, Chen Xiaobing took him to see Li Yaoer, and the two parties had a conversation. Although Li Yaoer did not explicitly promise him anything, the implication would not disturb their grudges, as long as they
"Get the job well done".
If he wants to open a factory in Nansha, he has to attract all the tribesmen. But now he has nothing, all he has is "the future". The tribesmen are not stupid. Although the second uncle has done many unpopular things, since he occupies the workshop
, Ji Nen offered many benefits to bribe the tribesmen. Compared with the ready-made benefits of the second uncle, who would believe the empty promises from his side?
He thought for a long time in the cemetery. Naturally, once the construction of the textile factory started, the tribesmen would be able to benefit from it, and it would not be difficult to win them over.
However, the top priority is to form his own power in Nansha. Now the second uncle relies on people with foreign surnames to form a militia and suppresses the dissatisfaction of the tribe. He can continue to build a textile factory and unite the tribe to form a "second force".
In the past, he did not dare to confront his second uncle directly - after all, Elder Li's attitude was ambiguous. Now that Elder Li's opinion has become clear, and he has the support of two elders, Chen Xiaobing and Li and Zou, he can definitely fight with his second uncle head-on!
If we don’t get our clan rights back, we may find it difficult to move forward in the village in the future!
Fortunately, he has an advantage, that is, he was very popular in the village in the past, and many of the young people in the clan have good relationships with him. If he can use some means to win over, he should be able to recruit a group of people.
Of course, he can't blatantly say that he wants to create a "second militia", but he can definitely recruit young people through "recruitment and training" - this is part of the original plan.
He calculated in his mind that besides Chen Qing, he had seven other descendants of the clan who were his "best friends" in the village. If he could win over these eight people first, the rest of the matter would be easy to handle.
Not long after returning to the village, he called Chen Qing to work as a servant again on the grounds that he needed someone to take care of him. In the evening, he asked about his second uncle's movements at this stage.
Ah Qing shook his head and said: "Uncle Jiu, my second uncle has actually done nothing these days. He rarely goes to the ancestral hall. Apart from going to Chief Li's place to answer questions every day, he doesn't pay any attention to it. He also goes there often.
Eat flower wine in the county seat."
"If he doesn't serve Chief Li, then who will handle the various things assigned by the Chief? He is still the leader of the village."
"He entrusted all these matters to Mr. Lu."
Chen Lin frowned slightly. He knew Mr. Lu. He was originally the accountant of Silk House. Later, the tribesman who was in charge of the accounts in the ancestral hall had objections because the money was unclear. No one could trust his family, so he hired this person with a foreign surname.
He became the accountant of the ancestral hall. He settled accounts quickly, was well organized, and was quite upright, so the tribesmen trusted him.
Mr. Lu has been in Nansha for more than ten years, and his relationship with the Chen family has been "as light as water". The reason is self-evident. If he has a too close relationship with someone, there will inevitably be "private references" problems, which will affect his credibility here.
Therefore, his job in Nansha has been stable over the years.
It seems difficult to handle! He thought. Although Mr. Lu is an upright person, he will definitely look down on his second uncle's various ways. But he has always been a cautious person and will never get involved in intra-clan struggles. Uphold this
He should run his own affairs based on the principle of "whoever supports whom on stage". As long as the second uncle is still the clan's chief executive and workshop manager, he will definitely obey his orders. Unless he has the ability to abolish his second uncle's position.
Already.
"What else happened in the village recently?"
"Nothing happened..." Chen Qing blinked.
"Anything is okay."
"The men brought by the second uncle stole the chickens from Zhang Ran's house in the silk shop and caused a commotion. The dyer was punched. When he went to report the complaint to his second uncle, he slapped him several times instead. The dyer was angry.
I'm sick, so I stay at home and don't go to work."
"Zhang Dyer? Is it Zhang Laizi?" Chen Lin seemed to have the impression that many workers in the workshop were not from the Chen family. In his impression, Zhang Laizi was a dyer with good skills, but he was a gambler. He owed a lot of money through excessive gambling in his early years.
He was crippled by his creditor due to debt. After his father paid off the debt for him, he signed a contract to work in the workshop until the family debt was paid off.
It's a pity that this dyer's bad habit is hard to change, and he continued to gamble all these years. As a result, he always owed money to the clan, which meant that he had to work in the silk mill for the rest of his life.
"Exactly, now that the master is ill, several apprentices in the dyeing room are not doing their job well, and all the defective products are produced, and the silk cloth is backlogged. The second uncle slaps the table and curses, and calls the militiamen to bring Zhang Laizi to ask him to work.
But when he tried it, he still couldn't do it. He was so angry that he asked someone to beat him with a pole... In the end, Mr. Lu dissuaded him. My second uncle had no choice but to send someone to load the silk cloth and transport it out for dyeing."
"Ship it out for dyeing? Isn't this a sign of destroying the workshop?"
Although Zhang Zizi is not a good person, his dyeing skills are still first-class. He also has a secret dye recipe that he has prepared for many years. The dyeing effect is unique and he is famous in the county and even Guangzhou. If you change the dyeing in the dyeing workshop, maybe laymen will not be able to tell, but
An expert will know it at a glance.
"Mr. Lu said the same thing, but my second uncle said he couldn't wait any longer, otherwise he would have to lose money if the delivery was delayed."
"Haha, if he does this, everyone in the village will probably complain."
"Although it's not true." Chen Qing lowered his voice, "Uncle Jiu, someone in the village said that this Kun man stole chickens - he was not a Kun man at all, but Qiu Xiao, the second uncle's subordinate, and it was that leper who did it.
.Because my second uncle wanted to protect him, he deliberately spread the word that it was the Australians who did it."
"I'm going to see Zhang Laizi tonight. Ah Qing, I'd like to thank you for your hard work in the past few nights to gather a few young people from the clan - I don't know who they are. I have a plan."
"Okay, I'll go and do it after dinner!"
After dinner, Chen Lin also quietly set off to Zhang Zizi's house.
Zhang Laizi is not from the Chen family, and lives in a relatively remote place. Thanks to this, it is very convenient for him to go to the cemetery. After passing through several field ridges, he saw seven or eight thatched houses on the river branch. The people living here are all foreigners from Nansha Village who are trying to make a living.
People either farm for the Chen family or work.
Zhang Laizi worked in the silk workshop and originally earned a good income. However, his bad habits made his house the most dilapidated among them. The small courtyard did not even have a door, and a standard wood door...
Entering the courtyard, I saw Zhang Laizi's wife spinning yarn in the small courtyard under the light of the sky. Nansha is mostly sandy land, which is suitable for cotton planting, and there are many families growing cotton.
Although Zhang Laizi is a gambler, he has a bottom line: his wife and house are not on the gambling table. But this is just talk. He has owed gambling debts more than once. If the Chen family hadn't helped him take care of it, his wife's house would have been taken away long ago.
.
"Sister-in-law Zhang!" Chen Lin greeted.
When Sister-in-law Zhang saw that it was Chen Lin who was coming, she hurriedly stood up and said blessings.
"How is Uncle Zhang doing now?" Chen Lin asked, not wanting to be polite to her.
"What else can I do, just lie in the room and sulk." Sister-in-law Zhang said with a bitter smile.
"So the disease is almost healed."
"What's wrong with him? It's just that he made himself angry!" Sister-in-law Zhang continued to spin and murmured, "I said you haven't been beaten enough in your life? In the past, you owed gambling debts and were beaten by others.
You hung me on a tree at the entrance of the village, took off my pants and whipped me, and you put up with being ugly, but now you get punched and slapped on the ear and you get angry, and you say you quit - what will you eat if you quit!"
Chen Lin originally wanted to go in with a few perfunctory words, but he didn't expect that there was obviously something in Sister-in-law Zhang's words, so he didn't rush in and went in. Let's listen to what Sister-in-law Zhang said.
"I didn't expect this old guy to be so convincing. He said that when Mr.
Just bullying people..." Sister-in-law Zhang said and sighed, "I told him that Mr.
, I laughed and said, "Look, I'm talking nonsense again! It's time to slap me!"
Chen Lin secretly laughed at this lame man who, despite his age, still believed such nonsense. No wonder he always lost all his money in gambling. He quickly said: "Sister-in-law, you are sensible! I think you are much better than Uncle Zhang!"
My uncle is indeed Meng Lang this time, I’ll help you out on his behalf first!”
After saying that, he picked up the straw curtain and entered the house. The room was dark. Looking at the sky outside, he could see that Zhang Laizi was not lying on the bamboo couch, but sitting alone on a broken bamboo chair.
His left eye was purple, so swollen that he couldn't open it, and his right eye was also bruised. He really couldn't work in the dyeing room with this look.
Chen Lin smiled and said: "Uncle Zhang, are you even better? I really can't help you this time."
Hearing Chen Lin's voice, Zhang Laizi reluctantly opened his eyes, quickly stood up from the bamboo chair, and said with some resentment and helplessness: "Master Jiu, don't do this, I can't bear it."