Chapter 302 - Establishment of the Bureau

When a long train of carriages arrived at Ding Village, Zhao and Quan's difficult journey finally came to an end.

Ding Village is about 30 miles away from Luoyang City, and if the concrete road is built, then you can run once on a bicycle in two hours, and Zhao and Quan's farm is here. While his wife was directing the servants to pack up their belongings, he ran eagerly to the farm, looking out over the endless fields, and all the unhappiness along the way vanished.

From now on, he will take root here, the farm is in the country, the factory is in the city, no matter how the politics of the court changes, he can advance or retreat, compared to those clan relatives who count on the royal family to distribute hardcore crops, is not a hundred times better!

Thinking of this, Zhao Youquan smiled on his face.

"Master, do you want to meet the tenants?"

Seeing that he looked happy, the housekeeper, who was originally nervous, also relieved his heart and asked playfully.

"Well, you called them." Zhao and Quan said with their hands behind their backs.

He bought 10,000 acres of land here at the end of October last year, started to raise tenants last year, and now has harvested a season of cotton. Of the 1,500 acres of 10,000 acres of land used to grow rations, corn was planted on those hills and gentle slopes, and the remaining 8,500 acres were planted with cotton, and each mu produced about 15 catties of cotton (Song system), with 50 catties as a big bag, a total of 2,500 bales of cotton. Converted into money, it is more than 50,000 yuan, and if it is woven into cotton cloth in his own factory, the income will be more than 120,000 yuan......

Thinking of this, Zhao and Quan smiled beautifully.

If it weren't for the fact that he had emptied his savings by buying a field and opening a factory, he would still want to open another garment factory and weave his own cotton cloth into ready-to-wear clothes and sell them, which would be a small factory with 10 or 20 people, and there would be more than 10,000 yuan in income.

When they saw the tenants, the trembling appearance of the tenants made Zhao and Quan very majestic, and when they returned home, they had a rare intimacy with their wife at night, instead of staying at the concubine's place. In the next half of the decade, his joy was gradually replaced by an anxiety that would turn into a fire in his heart as he ran between Ding Village and Luoyang every day.

For example, there is a special column in each issue to announce the purchase price of cotton in Xuzhou, the purchase price of raw silk in Huating, the price of grain in Lin'an, and so on. Seeing that cotton prices are rising day by day, Zhao and Quan made a special feature on the reasons for the skyrocketing cotton prices in the Business Daily, and came to the conclusion that demand has raised prices, not hoarding. Correspondingly, the price of cotton cloth is declining, the reason for the decline is the expansion of production capacity, only in Xuzhou, there are more than 60 large and small cotton spinning factories, and the state capitals and commercial ports, there are also cotton weaving factories have started. The rise in cotton prices was something that made Zhao and Quan happy, but his cotton has not yet been deseeded, even if it is deseeded, his factory in Luoyang has not yet started, who knows what price the woven cloth can be sold after his factory starts!

"Master, the officials of Lang in Luoyang City are visiting."

On this day, he was sulking in the study that had just been arranged, when suddenly the butler came to report. This Lang official is one of the first friends that Zhao and Quan met after coming to Luoyang, named Lang Yonghe, like him, also moved from the south, and took advantage of the opportunity of the recovery to buy a Zhuangzi in the suburbs of Luoyang, but his capital is less, Zhuangzi has more than 3,000 acres of land, all planted with cotton. Zhao and Quan's hearts moved when they heard this, and the two had a verbal agreement that they would buy his cotton after Zhao and Quan's cotton weaving factory started.

He came to visit at the moment, could it be that his family's cotton had been deseeded?

"Lang Daguan is so interested, he actually came to my countryside in such weather." When he went out to welcome Lang Yonghe into the study, Zhao Youquan smiled.

"Brother Zhao dared to sit in the house for a long time, forgetting the season, and now it is the time when the grass grows and the warbler flies, and it is a good time to go out to visit friends. The northerners are vulgar, except for Brother Zhao in this vicinity, who else can Lang visit? ”

Hearing his praise, although Zhao and Quan were insincere, they couldn't help but feel a little happy in their hearts. After the two of them chattered for a while, Lang Yonghe finally got to the point: "Brother Zhao, I don't know when your factory will start?" ”

"Cotton is not ......yet good," Zhao and Quan said with some embarrassment.

"Why is Brother Zhao so desperate, who said that if the cotton is not good, you can't start work?" Lang Yonghe showed a sly smile: "Now that the price of cotton is rising, what is the benefit of starting to spin cotton, it is better to make cotton clothes, quilts, and medicinal cotton, and the profit is greater than that of spinning cotton cloth?" ”

Zhao Youquan listened to the heart moved, hesitated for a while, the recent price trend of cotton products is indeed strange, although the cotton cloth has fallen, cotton, quilts and cotton jackets are rising, and now the price of cotton wool and medicinal wine used to clean wounds in Langzhong is also obviously rising. Zhao and Quan are not hairy boys who are not familiar with world affairs, judging from the strength of this acquisition, it must be the imperial court preparing for a big war, and it can only be the Northeast if you want to use cotton clothes and cotton jackets. This is a good deal, but the imperial court collects quilts and cotton jackets, especially medicinal cotton, which have clear quality requirements, which are much more detailed than cotton cloth.

This level is not easy.

"I'm only afraid of ...... about this matter" Zhao Youquan expressed his worries, and then shook his head, but Lang Yonghe pouted disapprely: "Those people in the court, Brother Zhao is still not clear?" No matter how honest the princes of Lin'an are, can they manage this Jingxi Province? Although the provincial officials do not enter the oil and salt, but these small officials near the left, aren't they all the original goods? Money money, what's so difficult, Brother Zhao, this matter will be wrapped up in me, as long as Brother Zhao is interested, I will ensure that your cotton will be collected, and a good price will be charged! ”

Zhao and Quan were overjoyed in their hearts, but then they thought about it: "The three thousand acres of cotton in Brother Lang's house ......"

"It's not a secret, the younger brother also wanted to take a hitchhike and sold it with Brother Zhao." Lang Yonghe said: "In addition to the younger brother, there are cotton fields in the left near home, and they all have general thoughts, but Brother Zhao's family has the most cotton, so I asked the younger brother to come to the door, and everyone asked for a unified price, and the oil and water were all stained!" ”

Hearing that they were all involved, Zhao and Quan were relieved.

Leaving Zhao and Quan's courtyard, Lang Yonghe rode back to Luoyang, and when he returned home, there were three people sitting at home waiting for his news. As soon as he entered the door, one of the three laughed and said, "How?" ”

"Naturally, it's a success, the colorful gold dollar coupons, who doesn't love it?" Lang Yonghe laughed and said: "With the face of his clan relatives to open the way, and then Brother Cao, your connections, this matter will be done, do you have enough cotton in your hands, do you want to take the opportunity to operate this matter, and then go to various places to collect some?" ”

"When we found out that we were transporting food and materials to Xuzhou a few years ago, we began to prepare, and now everything that can be collected has been collected." One said: "I can't make any tricks in terms of quantity, and now I have to find a way to make the imperial court position higher in quality." ”

Everyone's eyes were staring at the one surnamed Cao, and the one surnamed Cao patted his chest and said: "This matter is wrapped up in my body Cao Mantun, since there is a clan to carry this black cauldron, what are we afraid of?" ”

Everyone was complimenting, but Lang Yonghe sneered in his heart, this person just gave birth to a good sister, and a brother-in-law is just a powerful official.

After sending everyone out, Lang Yonghe thought about it and did not go back to his house immediately, but walked on the streets of Luoyang with his hands behind his back for a while. Mo said that compared with Lin'an and Xuzhou, it is compared with Bianliang, which was also recovered more than two years ago, and the streets of Luoyang are still that lifeless. There were not many pedestrians on the street, but there were many beggars, and they could be seen from time to time on both sides of the dusty dirt road.

"This city of thieves and birds is a gold cave for fun, and it is not worthy of a county seat on Liangzhejiang Road." Lang Yonghe scolded and sighed.

Further west of Jingxi Province is Shaanxi Province, where the situation is not much different from that of Jingxi, where the poor live on the streets begging for a living......

When he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard someone shouting on the street: "Express Express, Bianliang, Xuzhou recruitment, anyone who has the strength and diligence can sign up with me, and when you get to the land, you will pay the settlement fee, and you can buy a house for two years and marry a wife for five years, and then you can go home and buy land and become a rich man!" ”

The person who shouted was no more than twenty years old, with a sharp beak and monkey cheeks, and judging from his appearance alone, he definitely could not be seen to be a reliable person. But he waved a stack of pieces of paper in his hand, which were all gold dollar coupons, although the face of the tickets was a small amount of money with very few denominations, but it still made the eyes of the beggars on the street red. In a few moments, a large crowd gathered around, shouting and boasting of their diligence.

Lang Yonghe felt curious, he had also heard about the lack of labor in Bianliang and Xuzhou, but when he recruited Luoyang. He didn't care about the beggar's dirtiness, and squeezed into the crowd to see the excitement, only to see the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man move a small wooden stool and sit down, take off a pen and a box of ink clay from his ear, and he had a companion by his side, who was taking out a stack of papers from a cloth bag.

"See no, see no, this is the contract, if you can write, you only need to sign on it, if you can't, just report your name and we will write it, and then press a handprint, then you can become a worker in Bianliang or Xuzhou factory!" The sharp-beaked monkey cheek said.

So at least dozens of hands reached out to the man's companion, and Lang Yonghe also took a piece of paper, and before he could read it carefully, he heard a good deed read it.

"I volunteered to enter Xuzhou Youfu Factory and obeyed the work arrangement of the factory......"

The man read it so badly, Lang Yonghe couldn't wait, he spread out the paper and looked at it, but it was the employment contract of several Xuzhou and Bianliang factories, and there were a lot of provisions in the contract, in short, all the employed people had to obey the owner, and if there was a dispute, they must provide high compensation to the owner, and then the owner gave a certain amount of settlement expenses. In Lin'an, Huating and Jinling, and even in Xuzhou and Bianliang, such terms are too harsh on the employed, but in the area of Luoyang, a large number of laborers have nothing to do, and even become beggars, they are always just called by others, as long as they take care of food and housing, they are not effective anywhere?

Therefore, someone in the crowd immediately shouted "I, I", took a pen and signed his name, and then pressed his handprint with ink. Immediately, the sharp-beaked monkey-gilled man stepped forward and handed him two gold dollar coupons, and the man excitedly waved two pitiful banknotes: "Really, really, really true!" ”

With him taking the lead, there were more people who followed, and a bunch of people rushed up, but they were all those who couldn't write, and the people with the sharp-beaked monkey gills wrote their names on their behalf, and then pressed their handprints, and more than ten people signed up in a moment. Lang Yonghe turned his eyes around, and found that most of these people were wanderers on the street, and he knew a little in his heart that most of these people were hired nurseries.

"Is there any, is there any?" When the sharp-beaked monkey saw that others no longer handed in the paper, he was so anxious that sweat oozed from his head, and he began to play tricks again. Lang Yonghe wanted to see what tricks he would play, so he didn't leave in the crowd, just waiting to see the excitement.

"Do you know Bianliang and Xuzhou, in the past two years of Bianliang, under the rule of Zhengong Dexiu, it has long been no longer the bad luck of the Great Jin Dynasty, there are more than 1.2 million people in Bianliang City, and sixty or seventy factories have been opened, and what these factories lack is labor!" The sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man roared hoarsely: "Every factory not only recruits strong men, but also recruits some little ladies who are like flowers and jades, you know why, it is worthy of these men as wives!" As long as you press this fingerprint, not only will you have a livelihood, but you will also have a beautiful wife and concubine! ”

"Look at me, look at me!" As he spoke, he pointed to himself, "Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, have you ever seen anyone more sincere and kind than I am?" How can someone like me lie? Listen to me right, the sooner you enter these factories, the sooner you can enjoy the blessings! ”

"Are you full?" The sound of an urn sounded in the crowd, Lang Yonghe glanced at the man, but saw that it was a man with a thick skeleton, and his eyebrows and eyes were only nineteen or twenty years old.

"Full of food? Don't just eat full! The sharp-beaked monkey gill laughed as if he had heard some joke: "Don't talk about rice, it's oily braised pork, that's enough!" ”

"I eat a lot, do I really have enough?" The thick-framed man asked again.

"It's enough, but you're still afraid of you being a pot-bellied man? No matter how much you eat, can you eat the first 300 catties of fat pigs in one meal? The sharp-beaked monkey gills were a little impatient, and shook the paper: "If there is anyone who has not gone, if there is a go, sign up immediately, if you miss this village, there will be no next store!" ”

"Can I take my grandmother?" Another voice said.

Lang Yonghe looked over there, but he was a poor Confucian student, with patches on his clothes, and he was very thin. Seeing him like this, the sharp-beaked monkey cheek man was stunned: "I said Mr. Xiucai, don't you come to make trouble, this is the livelihood of our hard-working people, what are you doing to make a fuss?" ”

The poor Xiucai lifted his sleeves, revealing his thin arms like dry firewood: "I have strength." ”

"No matter how powerful you are, you should go to a good student to study and seek fame, what are you doing here?" The sharp-beaked monkey gills looked a little embarrassed, obviously reluctant to let this scholar get involved, Lang Yonghe smiled faintly, the reader's brain is better than that of a rough person, this person with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, he should be afraid of the poor show to see what flaws.

"It's not a secret, Yan Ci died early in the family, and the old grandmother pulled Xiaosheng to grow up, and now he has changed the court, and the original fame is countless, and Xiaosheng is not good at making a living, and there is almost no rice in the house." The scholar was calm: "If Xiaosheng is alone, he should just not eat Zhou Su, but the old grandmother always has to be supported, if Xiaosheng is allowed to take the old grandmother, Xiaosheng is willing to serve your master." ”

Before the sharp-beaked monkey-gills could answer, a person next to him whispered in his ear twice, and the sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked man muttered, and then said: "Your old grandmother can't bring it, but I can give you thirty wen for settling in, read it on your reading and literacy, ten more than the rest of the people, and in the future, your salary can be sent back to support your grandmother, what do you think?" ”

The scholar hurriedly thanked him, borrowed a pen, wrote the word "Luther" on the contract paper, and sighed as he put it down.

"Mr. Xiucai, help me write a name too!" The thick man from before squeezed over and handed him the paper: "My name is Tang Shili!" ”

When Lang Yonghe saw this, he felt that the excitement had been over, he glanced at Lu Thor and Tang Shili, these people who fell into the middle of the gang will never be seen again in the future.