"Dare to ask what is the output of bath soap and laundry soap?" A wealthy businessman asked.

When all the wealthy merchants heard this, they all looked at Lu Yo with concern, and Lu Yo said: "I can't say for sure now, it depends on how big the workshop will be, but I can guarantee that the output will be huge." ”

At this time, a wealthy merchant said to Lu You: "I wonder when the envoy will be able to build a workshop?" I would like to order some bath soap and laundry soap first. ”

When all the wealthy businessmen heard this, they all rushed to order soap from Luyo, and Luyo raised his hand and said, "Don't be impatient, everyone. ”

The wealthy merchants then quieted down, and Lu Yo said: "If you want to buy bath soap and laundry soap, you need to pay for the 'soap guide' first, and then exchange the soap with the 'lead' after the workshop produces it." ”

Lu Yo borrowed from the Song Dynasty's "salt introduction" policy, allowing wealthy merchants to pay first and then pick up the goods.

When the wealthy merchants heard this, they were immediately disappointed, and everyone was afraid of being deceived, so they all fell silent.

At this time, Luyo was not in a hurry at all, because the benefits of soap were too great, and there would be people who could not resist the temptation.

Sure enough, soon a wealthy businessman gritted his teeth, and then asked Lu You: "Dare to ask the envoy, how to buy this 'soap induction'?" ”

The rich merchant thought that he had lent Luyo a lot of money, and if he did not believe in Luyo now, then all the money and grain he had borrowed would probably be in vain, and if he got his bet right, he would have made a very good profit.

The other wealthy businessmen thought the same way, so they looked at Luyo.

Lu Yao then said: "A thousand pieces of soap are a 'lead', and a guide costs twenty taels, one hundred stones of rice, and fifty stones of salt." ”

"Envoy, I want a thousand leads."

"I want three thousand."

"I want five thousand."

。。。

The wealthy businessmen immediately rushed to order the "soap guide", and each one asked for more than the other.

Lu Yo immediately said: "Everyone, at this time, the 'soap introduction' is in the process of being prepared, and you will come to buy it later." ”

When the rich merchants heard this, they understood what Luyo meant, so they took their leave to Luyo and went back to prepare money, food, and salt.

The wealthy merchants who lived in the vicinity of Lishui City returned to the state capital with money, grain, and salt that day to buy "soap guides", and by dusk, Lu You'd received 10,000 yuan of money, 50,000 stones of rice, and 25,000 stones of salt.

The next day, other wealthy merchants also came to the state capital with money, grain, and salt, and bought a large amount of "salt guides", and Luyo received another 55,000 yuan of money, 75,000 stone of rice, and 37,500 stone of salt.

Lu Yo immediately distributed the salt and rice to the counties, and sent people to Yuezhou with Qian Wanyi to buy salt and rice.

In total, Luyo sold 1,250 "soap sticks", which means that he already owes 1,250,000 pieces of soap to the wealthy merchants.

In order to prevent the leakage of the soap-making process, Luyo prepared to make sulfuric acid, soda ash, caustic soda and soap separately.

In this way, Luyo needed four workshops, so Luyo chose a courtyard in each of the east, west, north and south directions in Lishui City, which were used as sulfuric acid workshops, soda ash workshops, caustic soda workshops and soap workshops.

The four courtyards selected by Lu Yo needed to be renovated before they could be used, so Lu Yo drew four drawings and handed them to the craftsmen for construction according to the drawings.

The industrial production of sulfuric acid, soda ash and caustic soda naturally could no longer use alchemy furnaces, so Luyo designed the distillation kettle and reaction pot, and handed over the drawings to the craftsmen to make.

That night, an army quietly infiltrated from Taizhou into the eastern mountainous area of Jinyun County, Chuzhou, and this army was the Taizhou army led by Taizhou Thorn Shi Duxiong himself, with a total strength of 2,000 people.

Du Xiong learned that Yu Huang was in trouble in Chuzhou, and heard that Lu You's life and death were unknown, so he made an appointment with Zhu Bao, the assassin of Wenzhou, to attack Chuzhou together.

Originally, such a poor and remote place as Chuzhou was not worthy of Du Xiong and Zhu Bao's joint attack, but when they saw the high-quality and low-cost weapons produced by the quenching workshop, they were bound to get it.

When Du Xiong set out from Linhai in Taizhou, he sent an envoy to Yongjia, Wenzhou to deliver the news, and the envoy sent by Du Xiong had already arrived in Yongjia.

At this time, Zhu Bao's personal commander 2,000 troops sailed up the Ou River and entered the territory of Qingtian in Chuzhou.

After Zhu Bao entered Qingtian, he quickly hid in the mountains, preparing to go straight to Lishui with Du Xiong the next day.

As soon as Zhu Bao sent an envoy to Jinyun, he received the news that Yu Huang's army had plundered Wenzhou at dusk, so Zhu Bao sent an envoy to Jinyun again and then the army rushed back to Yongjia overnight.

In the Taizhou military camp in the eastern mountainous area of Jinyun, Du Xiong scolded Yu Huang after learning that Zhu Bao had returned to Yongjia, and said: "Niang Xipi, don't come out early, don't come out late, but come out at this time to cause chaos." ”

Du Xiong didn't know that Lu Yo had already gotten money and food from the wealthy merchants in Chuzhou, and he also thought that the capital of Chuzhou must be short of money and food, so he felt that now was the perfect time to attack Chuzhou.

Du Xiong was unwilling to return to Taizhou, so he decided to raid Lishui immediately at night, striving to take Chuzhou in one fell swoop.

Du Xiong then reined in and sneaked in, and quietly came to the mountainous area north of Lishui.

At this time, it was still midnight, so Du Xiong ordered his soldiers to collect local materials and began to assemble the moat bridge and bamboo flying ladder.

Originally, Du Xiong's plan was to besiege Lishui with Zhu Bao's troops, and he also carried parts of large siege equipment such as ladders, trebuchets, and ramming vehicles.

Now Du Xiong only has 2,000 troops, and he can only storm Lishui City, and he must quickly break through the city defenses with one blow, so those bulky large-scale siege equipment are useless, and he can only use the trench bridges and light bamboo ladders that must be used.

The moat of Lishui City is relatively wide, and ordinary moats cannot be erected, so Du Xiong ordered his soldiers to assemble a folding bridge with a more complex mechanism.

The so-called folding bridge is to connect two moat bridges together with a turnaround (pin). The folding bridge is equipped with a roller (winch) to control the angle of the extended bridge deck, and is also equipped with wheels with a relatively large diameter.

When moving the folding bridge, fold the two sections of the bridge; When in use, the folding bridge is pushed into the trench, and then the two sections of the bridge are unfolded to form a long bridge.

The bamboo flying ladder is made of a single pole and a large bamboo as the material, about two or three zhang long, two wheels are installed at one end, and the wheel is erected when climbing the city with the wheel against the city wall, and a multi-level rungs are set up, so that the hands and feet can climb.

When the Taizhou soldiers assembled the trench bridge and the bamboo flying ladder, they had already heard the rooster's crow, so Du Xiong immediately ordered the Taizhou army to launch a surprise attack on Lishui City.

On the upper floor of the northern city of Lishui, the soldiers on duty did not dare to slack off, because Lu Yo reiterated to them Article 17 of the "Seventeen Prohibitions and Fifty-four Beheadings": If you don't judge the thief, you don't know how to detect the thief, if you don't say anything, if you say more, you will say less, and if you say less, you will say more, this is called a mistake, and the offender will be beheaded.

When the Taizhou army rushed to the moat, the defenders of Chuzhou discovered them, so the sergeants of the defenders of Chuzhou hurriedly sounded the drum of warning.