Chapter 115: Urgent Summoning of Villagers

He walked over to the dyeing shed, cut off a piece of un-dyed cotton cloth, and wrote a striking message on it with dye:

"The Joint Workshop urgently recruits villagers with R&D skills to develop production-improved looms. Piece-rate wages will be implemented, offering thirty copper coins per loom and a free working meal. Those interested, gather at the Joint Workshop."

Currently, the resident player population in the village and town had reached over six hundred, with another five hundred or so wandering players visiting daily. Although villagers with R&D skills were generally scarce, with such a massive player base, no matter how few there were, it should be possible to gather thirty or forty such villagers. Combined with the original craftsmen of Yanhuang Village and Town, it would take just one day for all villagers who joined the fabric supply agreement to use the improved looms, rapidly increasing clothing production.

Li Zhan dried the cotton cloth in the sunlight for a moment, and once the dye had dried, he handed it to a nearby female villager, asking her to post it on the bulletin board beside the plaza. The plaza was currently the most heavily trafficked area in the village and town. Wandering players traveling between the dock, the market, and the leveling grounds all passed through the plaza. With the bulletin board set up there, it attracted nearly a thousand views from wandering players every day. He believed that once this notice was posted, it would soon recruit a batch of villagers with R&D skills.

One by one, the wandering players who applied to join the fabric supply agreement were recorded. After verifying the details without any errors, the crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only the wait for the improved looms to be produced so that their subordinate villagers could officially begin weaving. By this time, Ocean Girl had already meticulously selected fifty garments, inspecting them thoroughly back and forth to ensure not a single flaw in quality before satisfyingly having the garment production workers bundle and pack them in cotton thread to be placed separately.

At this moment, Zhou Min also returned from the dock, followed by fourteen temporarily hired male and female villagers. Upon hearing Zhou Min's report and learning that the quality of the two boatloads of cotton was completely satisfactory without a single defective package, Li Zhan felt extremely happy. When handing over the gold to the two clan leaders, he deliberately included the cost of hiring the cargo ships (the cost of Ocean Girl purchasing the garments was directly deducted from it), for which the two naturally expressed their deep gratitude to Li Zhan.

Li Zhan paid each of the twelve temporarily hired male and female villagers a wage of ten copper coins. He also instructed a villager to call the female innkeeper to record the names of these villagers and provide them with dinner. Since wandering players were mostly reluctant to spend money on food and drink that only provided taste without any practical utility, the first-floor restaurant of the inn had now become the cafeteria for hired villagers. Every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the hired villagers would come to the inn to eat their working meals according to the record on the female innkeeper's list. As for the small number of NPC diners, the inn accommodated them in private rooms, where food and drink were prepared separately.

Having arranged all this, Li Zhan instructed these fourteen jubilant male and female villagers to help move the bundled garments and five improved looms onto the two cargo ships. Every villager in the town had their fixed post and could not leave for too long, leaving him with no choice but to have these idle wandering player-subordinate villagers lend a hand. The fourteen villagers had just received their wages of ten copper coins along with the perk of free working meals, and everyone was brimming with excitement. Hearing Li Zhan's words, without needing any further explanation, they hurriedly set to work and loaded the clothing and looms onto the two cargo ships with bustling hands and feet. At the civilian dock, Li Zhan bade farewell to Ocean Girl and Boastful, and watched as the two cargo ships sailed away before walking back into the town.

Sitting under the dyeing shed for a moment, watching the garment production staff work in an orderly manner under Zhou Min's coordination, Li Zhan was already plotting his next steps for expanding the clothing market. At this moment, his friend function was still under a wartime ban and could only be restored after tonight. Li Zhan decided that early tomorrow morning, he would notify all five honorary merchants of Yanhuang Village and Town (four merchant players and one NPC merchant) to gather immediately in the town and discuss with everyone how to increase the competitiveness of their clothing.

At that moment, three lumberjacks with advanced logging skills came running happily from the direction of the schoolhouse. One look at their expressions told Li Zhan that the research had succeeded—

Double-Sided Axe:
Description: Upgrades the traditional single-sided axe into a double-sided axe, extending the continuous usable time after each sharpening (usually after dinner cleanup) to twice the original. Eliminates the time spent on frequent sharpening (single-sided axes require sharpening twice a day: before work after lunch, and at cleanup time after dinner; the double-sided axe only needs to be sharpened once after dinner cleanup).
Effect: Increases logging efficiency by 10%.
Research Cost: 200 food, 200 timber (standard) ---- 124 food, 131 timber (actual).
Modification Cost: 1 iron ore.

While listening to the three lumberjacks detail their research results, Zheng Jun and a construction worker also walked over from the schoolhouse chatting and laughing. The result of their research on increasing construction speed was named scaffolding—

Scaffolding:
Description: Encloses the building under construction with sturdy, straight timber, making it more convenient for construction workers to move up and down while facilitating the passing of building materials. Particularly effective for high-rise buildings. Can be used during repair work to increase repair speed.
Effect: Low-rise buildings (such as residential wooden houses, small markets) increase construction efficiency by 5%; high-rise buildings (such as arrow towers, inns) increase construction efficiency by 65%.
Research Cost: 300 food, 370 timber (standard) ---- 220 food, 335 timber (actual).
Production Cost: Small scaffolding - 15 timber, Medium scaffolding - 35 timber, Large scaffolding - unproducible [requires related research???], Array scaffolding - unproducible [requires related research???].

As far as the current buildings in the town were concerned, small scaffolding was basically sufficient. However, if some large buildings—such as the town hall—were destroyed and needed to be rebuilt, medium scaffolding would be required (haha, Li Zhan didn't want to use that...). Therefore, Li Zhan did not feel any regret over the inability to produce large scaffolding and array scaffolding; when the car reached the mountain pass, there would surely be a way through, and when he actually needed large and array scaffolding, it wouldn't be too late to explore the related research then.

Since the next critical task for the joint workshop was to produce the improved looms, Li Zhan told Zheng Jun and the others to go back to work first, and promised that in a couple of days, once the joint workshop finished the task of producing the improved looms, they would start producing their research results.

After a few people left, Li Zhan sat down under the dyeing shed for a while longer. Suddenly, a fierce river wind swept past, causing the female weaving workers under the dyeing shed to let out a cry of surprise—the clothing patterns being cut on the tables, the dyed cloth drying on the drying poles, and the cotton piled up around them were blown scattered in all directions by the river wind. Zhou Min and more than ten female villagers hurriedly chased after them to retrieve the cloth and cotton fluttering everywhere. Most of the female weaving workers stopped working and laboriously untangled the cotton thread twisted together by the river wind.

Li Zhan frowned as he looked at the scene before him. Located near the open riverbank, river winds blew past irregularly every day. For other professions like lumberjacks, farmers, and fishermen, these river winds had no impact at all, but for garment production staff, it was a completely different story.

In the beginning, the scale of clothing production was small, and when a gust of river wind struck once or twice a day, blowing away three or five patterns, Li Zhan didn't pay much attention to it. Now it was different; after subjugating one hundred and fifty villagers, the scale of clothing production had suddenly expanded. The garment workers were packed tightly under the dyeing shed, so every time a river wind blew through, it would blow away a massive pile of items. Afterwards, the workers had to tidy up the messy scene, which inevitably impacted clothing production to some extent.

Li Zhan had also considered enclosing the dyeing shed with wooden boards, but that would make it look completely out of place. Now that the town was fully open to the outside world, with a massive daily influx of wandering players and NPCs, they had to pay attention to the town's image at all times. Picing together a bunch of messy things would not only severely harm the scenery but also become a laughingstock among the wandering players.

Under these circumstances, Li Zhan had once casually mentioned this matter to PigIsCallingYou. PigIsCallingYou told Li Zhan that while running around outside, he had heard that some NPCs who specialized in designing blueprints could design corresponding buildings according to player wishes. Upon hearing this, Li Zhan's eyes lit up. He asked PigIsCallingYou to keep a close eye out in the future; if he ever encountered an NPC who designed blueprints, he must invite them to Yanhuang Village and Town, as his goal was to design a formal garment processing factory.

He wondered if PigIsCallingYou had encountered any such blueprint-designing NPCs during this time. Li Zhan looked at his gray friend icon and shook his head. He could only wait until tomorrow morning when the friend function was restored to contact him specifically.

Setting this matter aside for the moment, Li Zhan stood up and walked toward the joint workshop. The notice had been posted for over half an hour, and he wanted to see how many villagers with R&D skills had gathered there.

As soon as he stepped through the gates of the joint workshop, a buzzing wall of sound reached his ears, along with the loud shouts of Wang Hui, the team leader of the general workshop—

"Everyone, please quiet down, please be quiet..."
"Your question will be answered later; allow me to tally the personnel list first."
"Hey! What is wrong with you? You don't even know how to wield a hammer, yet you come here to make up the numbers. Do you believe I'll report you to Lord Mayor and have the town permanently revoke your employment qualification?"
"Whose wooden wedge is this? Thicker than a fist, where is this supposed to be used?"

Seeing Li Zhan step into the workshop, Wang Hui looked as if he had seen a savior. He squeezed his way out of the encirclement, ran up to Li Zhan, and said:
"Lord Mayor, you're finally here. I simply don't know what to do with this bunch of players and villagers. Look at this..."