SFS Chapter 349 New Year's Gifts, Feast, and Lottery
Chapter 349 New Year's Gifts, Feast, and Lottery
Emperor Taihe took the lead in doing charity and gave honeycomb coal as gifts to poor households in Beijing.
Taiping Coal Mine Company immediately followed suit.
However, Emperor Taihe directly gave each poor household one hundred pieces of honeycomb coal, while Taiping Coal Mine directly launched special-price coal. Within ten days, each piece of coal was sold for only twelve cents.
As soon as the special price coal was released, people in Beijing immediately rushed to buy it.
Especially the wealthy families and dignitaries in Beijing.
Although the nobles and masters did not use honeycomb coal, the servants and livestock in the family had to use it.
Moreover, Emperor Taihe took the lead in sending coal, so how could they just stand by and watch without saying anything?
In particular, when the eldest princess gave food to the poor households, they dared not be stingy.
Of course, the amount of coal delivered cannot exceed Taihe Emperor.
Then a strange sight appeared in the capital.
Poor families who used to be penniless and had a hard life have recently been able to frequently receive New Year gifts.
It’s either sent by this company or that company.
In short, they are all important figures that they cannot normally come into contact with.
The gifts were varied, including honeycomb coal, grain, salt, and even pickled vegetables...
A family may not give much as a gift, but all the gifts added together can help them have a good New Year!
This made them very happy, and every day felt like New Year's Day.
The neighbors around couldn't help but feel jealous.
But soon, they no longer envied their poor neighbors.
Because Taiping Coal Mine Company gave New Year gift packages to its employees!
And what they gave out was meat and candy!
Each gift package contains two cured fish, two kilograms of cured meat and two kilograms of cured sausage, as well as a bag of sesame candy and a bag of salt.
This is just the basic package.
The little leader’s gift package will include an extra cured chicken.
For the convenience of management, both miners and patrol teams are divided into groups.
There are ten people in a group, one of whom is the group leader.
Group 10 is a large group, and the group leader is appointed by the superiors. They do not need to mine on weekdays, and are mainly responsible for patrolling the mine, eliminating safety hazards and avoiding danger.
Above the team leader, there is someone in charge.
Therefore, the gift package for the team leader will include one more cured duck than that for the group leader, and the person in charge above him will receive one more cured rabbit.
In addition to these New Year gifts, the company also arranged red envelopes, dinners and raffles.
The red envelope for ordinary employees is two taels of silver, for team leaders it is three taels, for big team leaders it is five taels, and for higher-level managers it is at least ten taels.
The feast is much richer than usual meals. Not only are there delicious fish and meat, but each table of ten people can also share a roasted suckling pig.
The stewards roasted a whole lamb.
However, the managers were also very good at dealing with people and would share the roasted whole lamb with their employees. After all, they made a lot of money and had no shortage of food, but the employees under them were different.
So everyone enjoyed the meal very much.
The prizes for the lottery are even more varied, including chickens, ducks, fish, rabbits, pigs, dogs, sheep, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, pots, pans, clothes, shoes and hats, all of which can be won.
The worst is ten cents.
Wang Ada was very lucky and actually won a big fat pig!
His neighbor Liu Dong won five kilograms of sausages.
When Wang Ada found out about the prize, his face flushed with excitement and his chest heaved.
He tried to clench his fists and took a long time to calm himself down.
Who knew today’s surprise was yet to come!
After the lottery, the company manager personally announced that they would be given ten days of annual leave. However, the mine had to be staffed during the holidays, so people were needed to work. They could volunteer and would be paid double wages every day.
As soon as these words were spoken, there was an instant burst of excited cheers at the scene.
After everyone howled for a while, the steward made a gesture for silence.
Then he announced a list of ten outstanding employees and said that each of them would be rewarded with ten taels of silver.
The ten people whose names were called all widened their eyes in disbelief, and some even suspected that they had heard it wrong.
I actually became an excellent employee?
And there's a reward of ten taels of silver?
The ten people stood there in a daze until the steward asked someone to go up and get the silver. Then they were pushed by someone and strode forward.
Among them is Wang Ada!
The silver the steward gave was a silver ingot, exactly ten taels.
The silver ingot felt very heavy in his hand. After Wang Ada got it, he instinctively held it in his palm, fearing that someone would snatch it away.
He held the silver tightly in his hand, feeling mixed emotions, and still had a very strong sense of unreality.
Is he really not dreaming?
He had only been working there for a short time, and the company actually gave him so much!
It was only when his neighbor patted him on the shoulder that he finally came to his senses.
The neighbor asked him, "Brother Wang, what are you going to do with that big fat pig? I asked, and they said the pig is alive, but they can help me slaughter it in the kitchen, or I can take it home alive."
Wang Ada quickly said, "Then kill it and take it back!"
The people in the kitchen knew that Wang Ada had received an excellent evaluation, so they were very polite to him. Not only did they help him kill the pig for free, they also did a very clean job and lent him a large wooden basin and two wooden barrels.
One wooden barrel is used to hold pig blood, and the other wooden barrel is used to hold sewage.
In the large wooden basin were the cut pork and bones.
The meat and bones were also cut into pieces.
Wang Ada gave them some meat and bones as wages, and borrowed a wooden cart from the kitchen, and returned with a full load.
Because his hand was injured, his neighbor helped him pull the cart and he was responsible for pushing it from behind.
As long as the two of them thought about the meat in the car, they didn't feel tired at all, and they walked faster and faster.
However, thinking of the twelve taels of silver in his arms, Wang Ada couldn't help but worry, fearing that someone would come to rob him.
So I was always alert to my surroundings and was extremely vigilant.
Liu Dong pulled the cart, occasionally looking back at him and chatting with him about family matters to prevent him from feeling lonely on the road.
Seeing his alert expression, Liu Dong immediately became nervous: "Brother Wang, is there something wrong?"
Wang Ada looked behind him warily again, then shook his head: "I think I'm overthinking it, but it's right to be cautious."
Liu Dong thought of the twelve taels of silver he had just earned and nodded hurriedly.
Twelve taels of silver is not a small amount, and there are so many people in the mine, it is certain that someone has a bad conscience and deliberately spreads the news to let others rob Brother Wang's silver.
He gripped the handrail tightly and walked faster: "Then let's go back quickly."
After the two men pushed the cart away, a head suddenly popped out from the alley six meters away, staring straight in the direction they left.