Chapter Twenty-Eight: Deeply Provoked

Qin Jun slipped away from the crowd and headed straight to another lime kiln.

The kiln, which had been extinguished yesterday, had already been cleared out. This time, it had been fired for his uncle Qin Zhiqi’s family; they hadn't needed Qin Jun’s guidance, having already transported the lime home themselves.

Hopping into the kiln, Qin Jun inspected the iron ore packed inside. After three days of firing, much of the ore had melted, leaving behind porous, honeycomb-like iron residue of varying sizes. Round, flat, honeycomb-shaped, and even water-droplet-like beads resembling steel balls were scattered throughout the kiln. All this iron oxide had been gathered into a pile, clearly collected by someone with intent.

However, this method was far too inefficient. Even if the entire kiln were filled with iron ore, the final yield of iron oxide would be only a few dozen jin. There was no helping it; he would have to make do for now.

Seeing Qin Han peeking over the edge of the kiln, Qin Jun asked, "Qin Han, can you load the kiln yourself?"

"I can stack the stones, but not the coal. I don't know how to manage the changes," Qin Han replied without hesitation.

Qin Jun smiled. "Then you can give it a try today."

"I'll need to wait a bit. We've been firing lime consecutively, and we're running low on limestone. I wasn't prepared for this yesterday."

Qin Jun nodded. He had already noticed the shortage; otherwise, Qin Zheng wouldn't have proposed establishing a formal lime kiln factory today. Establishing a factory was a good thing, but the process leading up to it was full of headaches. Qin Jun didn't want to get involved, but sometimes, staying out of it wasn't an option.

Many villagers who heard the news had already notified their families. Before long, a group of young men meeting the criteria had gathered. The village had quite a few bachelors, and in just a short while, twenty or thirty of them had assembled.

In truth, the current generation of young people in the village were either born before 1958 or after 1962. Those born after 1962, like Qin Jun, were at most seventeen or eighteen. Those born before 1958 were already in their twenties. The legal marriage age was twenty for men and eighteen for women, but in the countryside, how many actually married at those ages? Even in the nineties, there were still people marrying at eighteen or nineteen. As for now? There was a massive group of unmarried men in their twenties—a stubborn, long-standing issue.

Qin Jun knew that the next marriage boom in the village wouldn't arrive until after 1982. Because the land was partitioned in 1981, it wasn't until 1982, after a year of harvest, that they would have enough savings to marry off their children. But now, thanks to Qin Jun's appearance, everything was likely to be accelerated. Yet, breaking the established order was bound to bring chaos.

"Alright, alright, stop arguing."

"Arguing won't change anything. The criteria were set by Qin Jun."

"If you're not satisfied, go find Qin Jun and see what he has to say!"

Finally, unable to bear the bickering, Qin Zheng pushed the responsibility directly onto Qin Jun. There was no choice; Qin Zheng was just a small team leader. Although he had served in the army for a few years and seen the world, he had absolutely no experience in running a factory. Moreover, the young men before him were all his own kin—how could he pick one over another? Thus, he had no choice but to unceremoniously pass the buck to Qin Jun.

Qin Jun didn't mind this, but Qin Zheng failed to realize that responsibility sometimes equates to power. Even if it was only the tiny power within a small village, by pushing this responsibility onto Qin Jun, Qin Zheng was effectively delegating that power to him as well. Qin Jun had originally intended to accomplish certain things, and now, he had gotten his wish.

Qin Jun stepped forward. After Qin Zheng shouted a few times, the voices died down.

"The technology is Qin Jun's, and the factory requires his effort."

"So, whatever he says goes!" Qin Zheng declared bluntly.

As soon as Qin Zheng finished, the scene erupted again.

"Xiao Jun, recruiting by age isn't fair!"

"That's right, don't the communes and cities recruit based on education level?"

"This is just burning lime; what use is education?"

"Exactly, having strength and being able to work is what matters."

"We should listen to Xiao Jun. Without him, the lime kiln wouldn't even exist. If you don't listen now, will you kick the ladder away later?"

"Right, listen to Xiao Jun! Who wants a traitor in the factory?"

"Let's follow the Qin family rule: the one with the biggest fists makes the calls. Qin Jun has the biggest fists, so we listen to him!"

Soon, the idea of following Qin Jun's lead gained the upper hand. After all, it wasn't just the young men present, but their parents as well. Clearly, the parents were willing to follow Qin Jun's rules, as the older bachelors needed the work more than anyone.

Seeing that a consensus had been reached, Qin Jun raised his arm. Slowly, everyone fell silent. Qin Jun was quite satisfied with this. Compared to other villages, their village had stronger discipline because every young person became a militiaman upon turning fourteen—this was also a rule of the Qin family.

"It seems we've reached a consensus, but I still want to share my thoughts."

"How did the idea of burning lime and building a kiln factory start?"

"Wasn't it because families needed to build houses? We needed lime, yet we couldn't even buy any."

"Is burning lime hard? It's really not. I’ve been doing it for a few days, and some of you uncles have been watching me work; you should have seen enough by now, right?"

"However, even if you’ve watched and learned, you lack confidence. You don't believe you can do it, and you don't dare to try, because you might waste money, and none of us can afford that."

"So, we've built our own lime kiln factory. If we give you the chance, will you be able to fire a kiln yourselves?"

"You'll definitely learn; it’s not a difficult technical task. But so what if you can burn lime? Can you build a lime kiln factory on your own?"

"That’s why we need to pool our strength to accomplish big things."

"We've started with one lime kiln factory, and we need ten laborers. This is just the beginning!"

"Why do I say it's just the beginning? Because do you only need lime to build a house?"

"We have stone masons in the village—all you uncles. You could actually be up on the mountain quarrying stone right now."

"As the supply of lime increases, more families will buy stones to lay their foundations."

"This is an opportunity. And there are many more. Once we have lime and stone, we'll need bricks and tiles. Our village already has a brick and tile kiln!"

At this point, Qin Jun stopped talking; he wanted to see how the villagers would react. Sure enough, hearing this, everyone’s expressions became quite vivid. Was it hard to find work? Burning lime was technical and had a threshold, but did quarrying stone not have a threshold? Stone masons and blacksmiths were never jobs just anyone could do. Besides, Qin Jun knew how to burn lime; if he could burn lime, it was only natural he could burn bricks and tiles, right?

"Look, if you really want to find work and earn some money, it's actually quite easy."

"Lime kilns, brick and tile kilns, stone masons, carpenters, bricklayers—as more people build houses, these skilled laborers will all earn money."

"But don't rush; we'll take it one step at a time."

"After all, people in the village would rather not spend money if they don't have to; everyone wants to do everything themselves."

"But one day, they will realize that there are some things they just can't do well on their own. That's when those with the skills will make money."

"We have a lime kiln factory now. Next will be a stone processing plant. Once we have stone, we'll open a brick and tile kiln."

"If there's a need, we can even form a construction team. After all, not every family has enough able-bodied labor to help build a house!"

"And is it over once the house is built? No. The spending has just begun. You need to craft doors and windows, right? Furniture? Pots and pans?"

"Actually, these aren't hard to make."

"If you're willing, we can slowly start making everything ourselves."

"Perhaps then, we really could build a five-room brick house without spending a penny."

"Today, we'll start with the ten oldest bachelors. If they don't earn some money soon, they really will be bachelors for life."

"Most of our Tenth Team is surnamed Qin, and even those who aren't are relatives and friends."

"This time, we are prioritizing the older youth. Ten spots cover nearly a third of the families in the village. Who can be dissatisfied with that?"

"Satisfied!" everyone roared in unison.

There was no helping it; they had been deeply stirred by Qin Jun’s words.