My lord, spare his life!

Yuan Xie carefully selected several suitable locations for building the factory.

Only Yin County was located in one place, and the old prefecture seat was located in another.

The rest were scattered throughout the counties of Tianyue.

Two particularly densely populated areas happened to be the regions least accepting of Zhang Yang as governor. She stared at the map Yuan Xie presented, examining it repeatedly. After a long while, she finally put it down: "If we were to build textile workshops in these locations, how large would the area be? How many spinning wheels would be needed? How many workers would be appropriate?"

She asked these questions casually.

To her surprise, Yuan Xie was able to answer each question one by one.

Spinning wheels utilizing water flow can greatly reduce labor costs, so Yuan Xie provided very few people, almost pushing the limits. Zhang Yang shook his head, "This is inappropriate, extremely inappropriate."

Yuan Xie asked, "Please enlighten me, my lord, what is wrong with this?"

Zhang Yang: "What do you think I need these spinning wheels for?"

Yuan Xie, who always prided himself on his intelligence, was taken aback.

It wasn't because the question was too tricky, but because it was too simple. Zhang Yang suggested improving the single-spindle hand-cranked spinning wheel to a multi-spindle foot-operated one, even utilizing human labor, naturally to increase output and save on labor costs. But what other intentions did she have?

In front of Zhang Yang, Yuan Xie deliberately wore his emotions on his face.

It was so obvious that even Zhang Yang could understand it.

She said, "Increasing production is to ensure that my children have cheap cloth to make clothes, and new clothes all year round, instead of making do with patched-up rags. It is also to ensure that every household has income beyond farming, not to compete with the people for profit, and certainly not to cut off their means of supplementing their livelihood. I do not need to enrich myself by exploiting my children's blood and sweat."

After speaking, Zhang Yang nodded solemnly.

She added, "Therefore, there is no need to reduce staffing positions."

Zhang Yang said solemnly, "I don't need to streamline operations. I don't need to make a small group of my children spin like tops, exhausting their energy and strength to complete a certain production task. Nor do I want another large group of my children to lose income because they can't compete with inanimate objects. If the textile workshop can operate with just 100 people working around the clock, why shouldn't I arrange 120 people? It's only 20 more mouths to feed. These 20 extra mouths won't cause the textile workshop to lose money, nor will they make me rich overnight."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yang added.

"Prioritizing the preservation of job positions is crucial."

Because the game has been operating for sixteen years, the average age of Zhang Yang's observation sample has gradually increased. In the early years, the observation sample consisted mostly of minors under the age of thirty, whose biggest worry every day was their academic exams. Later, the observation sample consisted mostly of working professionals.

Some people have smooth careers and happy families.

Some people are worn out by work and daily life.

In their words, capitalist bosses are like streetlights, slowly draining the blood and sweat of laborers to generate profits. Even though these bosses have accumulated wealth that several generations of their families couldn't spend, they are still insatiable.

The more remote the location, the more severe this situation becomes. Even the time when office workers eat and sleep is controlled by data models, as if they are spending their time not their own, but the boss's profits.

Zhang Yang thought of the observation sample who had cried her eyes out in front of her, and she thought, "Parents wouldn't treat their children like that, exploiting their blood lipids." So, she carefully corrected Yuan Xie's behavior.

Yuan Xie: "Overstaffing can also breed laziness."

This was just a textile workshop.

To see the whole leopard from a single spot—if this textile workshop were expanded, wouldn't it be no longer just a textile workshop, but a royal court? Such a lenient and cowardly nature would inevitably breed a problem of redundant officials. Yuan Xie knew that he should be subservient to Zhang Yang at this moment and do everything she wanted, but on this matter, he still had to offer a word of advice.

Zhang Yang said, "Can't we just find the right balance?"

Yuan Xie asked her, "How much?"

"Let me think about it... I don't know yet."

In fact, Zhang Yang already knew the answer in his heart.

This answer was inspired by an observation sample. This sample mentioned that her friend found a fantastic job on Central Planet. The boss was a relative of a top-level figure and had connections to the Central Planet's special medical center. She started the business not to make money, but purely to experience life. The company only needed to break even; even if it did, the boss only wanted 20% of the profits.

The remaining 80% was used as employee benefits.

Covering bonuses, medical care, education, housing, vacation...

Zhang Yang also wanted his children to live the kind of life that others envied.

However, she also knew that she couldn't do it right now.

She hadn't reclaimed her land deed, hadn't finished the side quests for her homestead map, and didn't have the right to have absolute authority over this world. However, she felt that day wasn't too far off.

So she became more cautious and kept her thoughts to herself.

Yuan Xie didn't press Zhang Yang too hard, but he also didn't deny her idea of ​​recruiting extra manpower. This wasn't just because he wanted to please Zhang Yang, but more importantly, the textile workshop was still far from being established. Before producing spinning wheels and building the workshop, they had to face another unavoidable reality. Without solving this problem, Zhang Yang's position as the Prefect of Tianyue County would be precarious.

Yuan Xie once sent a secret letter to the Puyang governor through a fat, strong man.

Initially, Yuan Xie's intention in sending the secret letter was not to help Zhang Yang, but rather to sit back and watch the two sides fight. He wanted the old and new forces within Tianyue to fight each other, the fiercer the better. With Tianyue in turmoil, the forces in the Eastern Fan Mountains could rest easy and he could even take the opportunity to gather troops. However, this plan was thwarted after he met Zhang Yang and Fan You.

Whoever becomes his lord is none of his business.

Why didn't he choose the option that best suited his interests?

Compared to the hasty and vague contents of the secret letter, Yuan Xie knew much more detailed information. He even knew that the group of people were also cowards who feared death—they knew that openly recruiting soldiers on a large scale would attract Zhang Yang's attention, but if they didn't do so, they wouldn't have enough troops to attack Weiyin County, so they made a compromise and assassinated the enemy.

Zhang Yang pointed to himself and said, "Assassination?"

Who to assassinate?

Assassinate her?

She was stunned for a moment.

Which assassin is so audacious as to openly attempt to kill her with a red name on their person? She's not blind, nor is she colorblind.

Yuan Xie said, "There's also poisoning."

Putting aside other details, this was indeed the best way to eliminate Zhang Yang—minimum risk, maximum benefit. Zhang Yang's makeshift group hadn't even settled in, and she had very few loyal followers. With her death, it was like a monster devouring Tang Sanzang, causing Zhu Bajie and the others to scatter on the spot. Fan You and the others also went their separate ways.

To avenge Zhang Yang?

To continue her unfinished work?

That's simply impossible.

If the assassination fails, those people can still escape if things go wrong. If it succeeds, they'll definitely make a profit.

Zhang Yang: "Poisoning?"

She picked up an item.

The system log displays the name of this item.

You pick up "Zhang Boyuan's paperweight."

You hold up "Zhang Boyuan's desk."

That is to say-

If Zhang Yang were to be given a bowl of food laced with something, the system log would most likely pop up with the message: "You have obtained 'a bowl of XX laced with XX'" once the food reaches her hands.

When are they arriving?

Zhang Yang was somewhat excited.

I guess some app's "shake" feature redirected me to some website, triggering an anti-fraud alert. Three police stations called me! _(:3」∠)_

Let's have some tea in the past ┭┮﹏┭┮

I just used the auto-clicker, and it's killing me!