0p0 Chapter 188 Division of Labor 3
Chapter 188 Division of Labor 3
At the same time, by leveraging their extensive business connections across various regions, they continuously provided Wei Ying and Qi Ye with real information about local people's lives and power dynamics.
With Qi Ye's help, along the extensive and intricate trade network of this increasingly robust commercial empire, they discreetly established a seemingly loose but actually well-structured and clearly organized self-help association for independent cultivators (similar to the alliances of independent cultivators or mercenary guilds that frequently appear in cultivation novels).
The Freemasons are essentially just a platform, providing a space for independent cultivators who live in the cracks under the oppression and suppression of powerful families to help each other.
Within the area covered by each stronghold, all the people can bypass the local garrison and post their requests for help that they would otherwise disregard. All independent cultivators can choose to accept a suitable task to exorcise evil spirits based on their own abilities and the reward (paid by the people requesting help) that follows each request.
In this way, the problems that troubled the people seeking help could be resolved in a timely and swift manner, and the independent cultivators also had work to earn remuneration (including the rewards paid by the people, as well as valuable parts of the evil spirits themselves), which also honed their combat skills and enhanced their reputation among the people.
At the same time, Freemasonry also supports independent practitioners to anonymously list their unused resources in their strongholds, allowing other independent practitioners to choose which to buy. The payment is transferred to the seller through Freemasonry (with only a 5% handling fee), ensuring that the private information of both buyers and sellers is not leaked, just like the online shopping platforms that are popular in China.
If independent cultivators wish to barter, they can submit an application at the base in advance. The base staff will provide a private and secure space based on the number of applicants and set a suitable time to invite the independent cultivators in need to gather there. With their assistance, they can successfully exchange for the materials they desire or need. Each person will only be charged a 3% handling fee each time.
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There are other functions that benefit independent cultivators, which I won't go into detail about. Although the Freemasons claim to be just an ordinary platform provider, in reality, they have integrated the resources and power of most independent cultivators to a certain extent, improved their strength and survival rate, and harmonized the relationships between them. This has created a cohesive force among the previously scattered independent cultivators, centered around their local strongholds. In places unnoticed by the immortal families and the mortal court, a huge, free but not loose, cohesive and growing super-large force has quietly formed.
At the same time, the Freemasons collected personal information from over 90% of the rogue cultivators without arousing their suspicion. This included information such as their cultivation techniques, lineage, background, approximate strength and moves, character and temperament, etc., providing Qi Ye, Lan Zhan and the others with real and powerful data to screen rogue cultivators who could be recruited.
Qingyan did everything like a highly skilled decorator, painstakingly building a spacious house for Wei Ying, Qi Ye, and Lan Zhan, adding plumbing, electrical work, furniture, tiling, and so on, giving this newly built, unfinished house a new lease on life, turning it into a grand, exquisite, elegant, and comfortable new home!
As for Wei Chaoyan, who was forced to stay at the base camp in Yiling, she made full use of all the culinary skills she had learned in the space. She also cleverly avoided getting involved in the home-style dishes, imperial banquet dishes, and exquisite pastries that were designated by the imperial court in restaurants and eateries. Instead, with the help of Lady Yan, she steadily promoted street food stalls little by little.
These are street food items that are cheap, delicious, inexpensive, easy to make, and convenient to sell, such as wolf tooth potatoes, hot and sour noodles, popcorn, roasted sweet potatoes, and fried stinky tofu!
Centered on Yiling, Wei Chaoyan would set up a number of food stalls in every village and town with a moderate economic population, based on the local consumption level. Each stall would have two to three people, with the artisans he assigned serving as stall owners, and the rest of the staff being recruited locally.
As for all the ingredients and equipment needed to make the snacks, they were purchased from remote villages under the jurisdiction of the local government through the procurement routes set up by the imperial court for restaurants and eateries. This provided these impoverished people with a job and extra income.
After deducting the salaries and benefits of the stall owners and their employees, all the profits from the food stalls are used to open Tzu Chi homes of various sizes in the local area to take in and house homeless beggars, abandoned infants, orphans and elderly people in villages who have lost the ability to support themselves.
As for how to manage the Tzu Chi Hospital after it was built and people were admitted, Wei Chaoyan simply handed it all over to her four outstanding and capable younger brothers to solve.
In any case, given her intelligence and abilities, she wouldn't be able to successfully maintain the Tzu Chi Foundation's smooth expansion without it collapsing! "When in doubt, the younger brother should take charge"—this is truly a wise saying!
Anyway, as long as the Tzu Chi Institute is open, it will be beneficial for them to select useful talents from among the children and train them from the bottom up, saving them the trouble of searching for and selecting people!
—Wei Chaoyan shrugged and spread his hands without any guilt.
In response, the four younger brothers (Lan Zhan, Wei Ying, Qi Ye, and Qing Yan), who were already so busy that they were like spinning tops with their feet barely touching the ground and wished they could have a clone technique or grow three heads and six arms, solemnly expressed their strong refusal!
However, the four of them, unable to resist their shameless older sister, could only accept this heavy burden with tears in their eyes, exhausted and powerless.