174: Chapter 174 West Garden Ranch

Time had passed noon when he returned from Yuanhong Trading Market.

Pei Qingyun did not stay for lunch, instead returning straight to the Pei Clan Estate.

Seven days passed in a flash.

The Wuyang Pei Clan began a new round of recruitment.

During the previous expansion of the Pei Clan Estate, all 1,500 commoners hired had received their full wages upon completion.

Wage arrears were common in his previous world, and even more so in the Great Jing Dynasty, where there were many Great Families. It could be said that such things were a frequent occurrence.

However, the Pei Clan at least provided a baseline—everyone had a meal to eat.

After those 1,500 commoners received their full wages, the trust the commoners in Wuyang had for the Pei Clan increased significantly.

In reality, Great Families and the commoners were two different classes, naturally existing in opposition.

The commoners at the bottom felt more fear than anything else toward the Great Families; there was not a shred of affection or trust.

The Pei Clan's actions undoubtedly made them stand out among the various Great Families.

Therefore, when the Pei Clan announced they were recruiting 5,000 laborers, the commoners in the city were instantly in an uproar.

The 1,500 laborers from the previous expansion immediately put down their work to apply to the Pei Clan.

"Did you hear? The Pei Clan is actually recruiting 5,000 people this time. They hired 1,500 for the last expansion, and that must have cost a fortune. I didn't expect the Pei Clan to make such a big move this time. 5,000 people is too many; I wonder what the Pei Clan is actually trying to do."

"Brother, it doesn't matter what the Pei Clan is doing. We are just here to work anyway. It's great that the Pei Clan is starting such a big project again. Two taels of silver a month—where else can you earn that? A month ago, when the Pei Clan Estate expansion was completed, I was hoping to find work with the Pei Clan. They aren't like other Great Families; they are truly good to us commoners. Not only do they not delay wages, but they also aren't as harsh as other Great Families."

"Old Brother, are you saying that for real? Is the Pei Clan truly that good? I worked for the Liu Family the year before last, and they still haven't settled my wages to this day, always finding various excuses. These Great Families only know how to bully us commoners."

"Little Brother, I have no reason to lie to you. Look at me—is my status any different from yours? The Pei Clan is truly different from other Great Families. This year, I worked for the Pei Clan for five months, and I received all my money. If you miss this opportunity, I'm afraid you will regret it."

"Wait for me, Old Brother. I believe you. I will go with you."

After the news of the Pei Clan recruiting 5,000 people spread, thousands of commoners from various districts in Wuyang rushed toward Shiming Street, where the Pei Clan Estate was located.

Compared to the last recruitment, which required much effort, the Pei Clan barely did any promotion this time, yet the number of applicants multiplied several times over.

This was the so-called catfish effect.

In less than a morning, the entire Shiming Street became congested, so much so that even horse-drawn carriages could not pass, and the temperature even rose by several degrees.

Yet, even under such sweltering conditions, no riots occurred.

Even if there was some trampling between them, they just laughed it off.

For one, the power of the Pei Clan was deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the commoners of Wuyang knew the consequences of causing trouble in the Pei Clan's territory.

Secondly, the commoners did not want to be driven away by the Pei Clan and thus lose this hard-won job opportunity.

Outside the Pei Clan Estate, at the recruitment center.

Pei Tianqi and several members of the Pei Clan were responsible for this recruitment work.

As the general manager of the first phase of the Yuanhong Trading Market project, Pei Tianqi actually did not need to do this. He could have completely handed this kind of grassroots work to others.

But adhering to the principle of personally overseeing everything, and since Pei Qingyun had transferred him from Qingyang Town, he did not want any mistakes to occur.

Therefore, on the first day of recruitment, Pei Tianqi still came in person.

What he did not expect was that this recruitment would be so popular.

At a glance, the commoners applying had already formed a long line with no end in sight.

Seeing such a scene for the first time, Pei Tianqi was very shocked in his heart and could not help but sigh, "There are really so many people here this time! I originally expected to finish the recruitment in five days. Looking at this situation, if there are enough hands, it can be finished in two days."

A Pei Clan member beside him said proudly, "In this Wuyang, only our Pei Clan can have such prestige. With one command, the commoners swarm in."

"Xiaoya, go to the end of the line. Rearrange the queue. This time, the recruitment will be divided into three lines and carried out simultaneously. Also, go to the clan and call Sixing and Siyun, those two boys, over here," Pei Tianqi instructed.

"Uncle Tianqi, I will go now," said Pei Xiaoya.

As time passed, the recruitment officially began.

In just two hours, Pei Tianqi had already recruited 1,000 people, averaging one person every fifteen seconds. If this efficiency were in the modern world, it would be unmatched.

Of course, the reason it was so fast was mainly because of the time saved on registration.

In fact, Pei Tianqi did not question the applicants; he was not worried about whether those recruited could handle the work.

For this kind of manual labor, if anyone dared to slack off, they could just be fired directly.

It wasn't a capitalist world where there was anywhere to appeal.

Yet even so, the recruitment work lasted from day to night, and they had only barely completed half the task.

If Pei Tianqi had not divided the line into three, interviewing three people at once, it would have been impossible to recruit 2,500 people in one day, even if there were enough commoners applying.

The next day.

Pei Tianqi did not continue the recruitment work but went directly to the land where the Yuanhong Trading Market was located.

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed, and the first phase of Yuanhong was officially under construction.

Every move of the Pei Clan in Wuyang was no less than a major earthquake. Many forces were speculating on the purpose of the Pei Clan's actions.

Recruiting 5,000 people at once to build a project was rare even in the Prefecture.

Only a few forces that smelled the scent realized that this was an unusual signal.

But the Pei Clan currently did not lack funds.

For the first phase of the Yuanhong project, Pei Qingyun did not intend to raise funds or collect capital.

For future second and third phase projects, he might consider this step.

Now, the most important thing was to complete the first link in his plan.

Outside the Pei Clan Estate.

With these 5,000 people gone, the congestion on Shiming Street was significantly relieved.

Pei Qingyun was riding in a Dragon Scale Horse carriage, slowly driving along the main road.

After leaving the city, the Dragon Scale Horse carriage headed west. After driving on the main road for about half an hour, Pei Qingyun arrived at the ranch operated by the Wuyang Pei Clan.

Xiyuan Ranch.

Ever since taking down the Wang Family and the Liu Family over a year ago, Pei Qingyun had been thinking about the integration of resources.

Originally, the three family ranches were located in different places, with the Li Family's ranch being the largest. But after integration, it naturally could not continue to be called the Li Clan Ranch.

Thus, Xiyuan Ranch was born.

Integrating the three major Great Families, Xiyuan Ranch deservedly became the largest ranch within Wuyang County.

The pasture alone was 5,000 mu, and the herders working for the Pei Clan reached 200 households.

Yet even so, during the planting and plowing of the ranch, there was still a shortage of manpower. For this reason, the Pei Clan specifically hired 500 temporary laborers.

Even so, they were still overwhelmed. It was precisely because of having such a massive ranch that they could support the Pei Clan's large number of exotic horses.

In addition, the ranch also raised a large number of exotic cattle and sheep.

These exotic cattle and sheep were not for farming; their main purpose was to become meat.

Martial Artists practicing martial arts to nourish Qi and blood all needed to consume a large amount of energy. Ordinary meat could only satisfy their daily consumption.

If a Martial Artist wanted to go further, the effect of ordinary meat was not good. Only these exotic cattle and sheep could produce a very good nourishing effect for low-level Martial Artists.

Although there were many Martial Artists in the Great Jing Dynasty, in the final analysis, 99% of them were low-level Martial Artists.

Therefore, the market for these low-level exotic beast meats was extremely huge.

Not to mention, the Pei Clan had nearly a thousand members, with many Martial Artists.

Just supporting these Pei Clan Martial Artists required consuming a large amount of exotic beast meat. If all of it were purchased through the market, the resources consumed would definitely be an astronomical figure.

As for mid-to-high-level exotic beasts, the Wuyang Pei Clan did not raise them. For one, mid-to-high-level exotic beasts were extremely difficult to catch; it wasn't just a matter of catching one or two for breeding. They had to form a certain scale, otherwise, after one or two generations, they would completely disappear.

Secondly, the reproductive ability of mid-to-high-level exotic beasts was far weaker than that of low-level exotic beasts, and the cultivation cycle was simply too long, making the cost-effectiveness low, with a high possibility of losing money. Moreover, mid-to-high-level exotic beasts had a certain level of intelligence, making them extremely difficult to domesticate and very easy to hurt people.

Unlike low-level exotic beasts, which had already been domesticated and cultivated for dozens of generations, their wildness had completely disappeared, forming an instinct for reproduction.

In the words of his previous life, it was a meat field.

In addition, once mid-to-high-level exotic beasts rioted, it was not something an ordinary Great Family could suppress.

This was also why very few Great Families would fence in and raise mid-to-high-level exotic beasts; their own strength was simply not up to par.

The Wuyang Pei Clan was naturally the same.

In Xiyuan Ranch, the highest-level exotic beast raised was only Tier 2.

However, Pei Qingyun did not come to Xiyuan Ranch to see these exotic cattle and sheep.

Just yesterday, Pei Qingyun received news that Xiyuan Ranch had already successfully bred the first Dragon Scale Horse.

Although the Longxi Pei Clan also sent personnel to help the Wuyang Pei Clan complete this matter, Pei Qingyun was still very happy after receiving this news.

This was undoubtedly good news for the Wuyang Pei Clan.

You must know that Pei Qingyun had only received 150 Dragon Scale Horses from Family Head Pei Yongsheng at the beginning. 150 Dragon Scale Horses were barely enough for the Wuyang Pei Clan of a year ago.

But with the continuous expansion of the Yuanhang Trade Caravan, the desire for Dragon Scale Horses became increasingly urgent.

As of now, the Yuanhang Trade Caravan was already a massive caravan with a scale of nearly a thousand people.

A caravan of a thousand people was definitely unique in Jinhuai Prefecture.

Mainly because the businesses involved in the Yuanhang Trade Caravan were too numerous, ranging from letters and love tokens to weapons, grain, and equipment.

Unlike other Great Families, even if they operated caravans, the businesses they were involved in were mainly the industries they operated themselves, and this part of the profit was considerable.

Therefore, the number of people in these Great Families' caravans would not be too large. It often would not exceed 100 people.

Even for the Four Great Families of Jinhuai, their caravan personnel were at most a few hundred.

The Yuanhang Trade Caravan was different; they would take even the smallest profits. This was one of the reasons for the large number of people in the Yuanhang Trade Caravan.

With more people, the demand for horses naturally increased.

In this way, 150 Dragon Scale Horses were naturally far from enough.

The number of horses needed was also extremely huge; 150 was far from enough.

This also meant that most of the people in the Yuanhang Trade Caravan were still riding the exotic Dragon-Blood Horses raised by the Pei Clan.

However, with the successful breeding of the Dragon Scale Beast, the number of Dragon Scale Horses would no longer be a constraint.

As for the Dragon-Blood Horses, Pei Qingyun also planned to keep a portion.

After all, the two types of exotic horses each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

With the arrival of Pei Qingyun, the Elder of the older generation in charge of Xiyuan Ranch, Pei Yongxiang, also personally greeted him at the gate.

"Old Ancestor, you have come," Pei Yongxiang said, stepping forward to bow when he saw Pei Qingyun get off the carriage.

From his appearance, Pei Yongxiang was about 70 years old, not much younger than him, but Pei Yongxiang's actual age was only 50-something.

Logically speaking, after Martial Artists stepped onto the path of Cultivate, they often looked younger than ordinary people of the same age, and their actual age would only be greater.

But Pei Yongxiang was just the opposite.

The reason for this was that Pei Yongxiang had once suffered a serious injury, which damaged his Foundation, causing him to look more than 20 years older.

So many years had passed, and Pei Yongxiang had also missed the best time for treatment. If the incident from back then were to happen now, with the current heritage of the Pei Clan, it would not be impossible to make up for the damage to his Foundation.

It would just require a lot of silver.

Of course, this did not mean that Pei Yongxiang had no hope of being cured. It was just that with the current heritage of the Pei Clan, it could not be done.

Looking at Pei Yongxiang like this, Pei Qingyun sighed in his heart.

According to the memories of his predecessor, Pei Qingyun knew very well the reason why Pei Yongxiang's Foundation was damaged.

Currently, he did not have the ability to cure Pei Yongxiang, so naturally, he did not bring it up.

Pei Qingyun slowly withdrew his thoughts and said calmly, "Yongxiang, how is the situation at the ranch recently?"

Pei Yongxiang's expression became serious. He took a small booklet from his pocket and read slowly, "Currently, Xiyuan Ranch has a total of 700 herders and 5,000 mu of pasture. In addition, the herders are also developing new pasture in their spare time. At the latest, by the beginning of spring next year, the number of pastures can be increased by another 2,000 mu."

"In addition, among all the exotic beasts, the ones ready for slaughter are 200 Tier 1 Short-Tail Cattle, 50 Tier 2 Short-Tail Cattle, 300 Tier 1 Spirit-Horn Sheep, and 80 Tier 2 Spirit-Horn Sheep. In addition, there are still 300 adult Dragon-Blood Horses."

Hearing this, Pei Qingyun fell into a brief thought.

After a moment, he spoke, "5,000 mu of pasture is still too little. I hope that by the beginning of spring next year, the number of pastures must be increased to 10,000 mu. In addition, the breeding scale of Short-Tail Cattle and Spirit-Horn Sheep must continue to expand. The annual slaughter quantity for each category cannot be less than 500. I want to see changes by the Summer Solstice next year at the latest. As for the breeding scale of Dragon-Blood Horses, it can be appropriately reduced by one-third."

After saying this, Pei Qingyun looked at Pei Yongxiang, "Yongxiang, do you have the confidence to do this? If there are any difficulties, you can raise them now, and I will find a way to help you solve them. But next year, I must see results."