In June 276, Hanoi County, Yongzhou, Jihan, Yewang County. Fan Yang Lu is in a courtyard here.

On a hot summer day, the huge banyan tree in the yard began to chirp. And in the house under the shade of the trees, a young man in his twenties, who looked very energetic, was half-lying on the soft collapse.

Behind him, a huge block of ice. A maid stood behind the ice cube, holding a fan and gently fanning it towards the ice, which brought a cool breeze and made the man on the soft collapse feel comfortable for a while.

He supported his head in one hand and read carefully in the other hand a book of "The Charter of the Han Dynasty" that had been turned up.

Beside him, another maid squatted slightly, holding a bowl of cold shrimp with ice cubes. Slowly holding the spoon to his mouth......

There was a slight sound of footsteps outside, and the visitor saw that the young man was reading, but he did not dare to go further. But the sound of his footsteps was felt by the young man after all.

"What?"

"Young Master Qiqi, Lu Xuan is back and is asking for a meeting outside."

"Oh? Is it finally back? Good, let him come in quickly. ”

"Whoa!"

After a while, a dusty middle-aged man was ushered in. At the moment he saw this young man, the middle-aged man named Lu Xuan quickly knelt on his knees, and then lay on the ground and didn't dare to move.

Seeing the person who came to behave like this, the young man chuckled in his heart: "Lu Xuan, what's wrong?" Is there something wrong with the goods? ”

"Young Master, there is no problem with the goods. But after waiting in Chang'an for two whole months, he did not see Agassi's caravan. Not to mention the caravan, even a single living person in their family has not been seen! Therefore, now my family's warehouse in Chang'an is almost full, but the goods have never been able to be sold. ”

"How so?! How dare Agasina treat us like this? Isn't he afraid that we won't supply them anymore? ”

Ji Han's concentrated and strong household tax clearance campaign has just ended, less than two months ago. In this round of special rectification activities, the Kanto family suffered extremely heavy losses.

However, on the one hand, all beings are equal in front of the sword, and in the face of the country's army and the firm will of those in power, the family's resistance is very weak. On the other hand, Guan Yi clearly pointed out a new way out for these guys.

Well, if it's not desperate, who wants to die? So, after the previous "land-population" model was greatly restricted. Some of the more open-minded and receptive families began to turn their energies to business and commerce.

Because Guan Yi classified the entire Greater Yongzhou as a "special economic zone" with a low tax rate, the families who were ready to turn to Yongzhou have entered Yongzhou to buy land and set up factories. It was in this context that the Fan Yang Lu clan was the first Kanto family to devote itself to industry and commerce. I bought a large piece of land in Yewang County, Hanoi County.

This site is located in Yongzhou, and the production cost has been controlled. At the same time, he does not belong to Chang'an, nor to Luoyang, so the land price is relatively cheap - the cost is further reduced.

However, from here to the south, it is not far from Luoyang. From here, if you go northwest, you will soon be able to connect to the straight road from Chang'an to Wuyuan - it is also very convenient to go to Chang'an. Moreover, I heard that in the 30-year road paving plan of the imperial court, the Luohuai Highway between Luoyang and Huai County, where Hanoi County is located, is one of the lines in the first batch of road construction plans. And this line also has to pass through the wild king. Therefore, the traffic is very convenient to set up a point in Yewang.

After Yewang got the land, the Lu family spent 300 million yuan to buy soap production technology from the Fuxing Society. After that, the factory was quickly built and recruited. By the end of last year, the first batch of soaps had finally been produced.

There's a reason why soap technology is the first choice.

Due to the complete opening of the land trade routes between Rome and Persia in Ctessi. Therefore, in recent years, the trade route of the Western Regions has been extremely prosperous.

Since it is transported by land, and the distance is extremely long. Therefore, porcelain and other things are not welcomed on this land trade route. At present, the most common goods on this trade route are silk, white paper, and soap.

Silk products, no one in the whole Han can compete with Yizhou's Shu brocade. The production of Shu brocade is still a state-owned industry of the central government of Ji and Han, and everyone cannot get involved. Therefore, the Lu family naturally gave up the meaning of silk production - the weaver Lu family has it, and silkworm cocoons can also be bought. But its products are far from comparable to Shu brocade.

And what about blank paper? Ahem, this thing is really polluting the environment. Guan Da Sima has issued a strict order not to set up factories along the rivers. But if you don't set up a factory along the river, this cost will increase indefinitely.

Besides, in order to prevent the outflow of technology, it is guaranteed that Huaxia can sell a worm and a handful of soil for a large price. The central government of the Ji and Han dynasties now has extremely strict control over silkworm cocoons, weavers, and porcelain workers. In the unlikely event of an outflow of silkworm cocoons or the abduction of skilled workers by spies from Rome, Persia or even Kushan. Then the person in charge of the relevant manufacturer is going to be beheaded! His family will also be fined for bankrupting - if that is not a big deal. Guan Da Sima has already spoken: Whoever caused the outflow of Huaxia technology, then he will write this guy's deeds in the history books, so that he will be remembered for 10,000 years!

So, it's too risky to engage in these things. Let's get soap! After all, both the Romans and the Persians were obsessed with soap to a breathtaking degree. As long as it is produced, it will definitely not be marketable.

It was based on such considerations that the Lu family sent Lu Zhi to Yewang to take charge after a family meeting.

As a branch of the Lu family that is responsible for taking care of the home, Lu Zhi's management ability is actually good. He keenly realized that the Lu family had just set foot in the soap industry, and the quality and variety of its products could not be compared with the old factory of Fuxing Society. Therefore, if this soap is sold in China, it can probably only be sold with small profits. Therefore, he was very clever in contacting a Tocharian merchant named Agassi. The two signed an agreement: the Lu family was responsible for supply, and Agassi organized caravans to the Western Regions, Persia, and Rome to sell.

Just as the Lu family had just entered the production of daily miscellaneous items, Agassi was also a weak chicken among the merchants of the Western Regions who had just joined the industry. Therefore, the first cooperation between the two sides was extremely careful: Agassi did not cross the green mountains, but only sold the Lu family's 100,000 pieces of soap in the Western Regions.

The sales situation is excellent, and the population of the Western Regions is limited, so there is not enough to eat. But the merchants of the Western Regions could buy it here in Agassi, and then transfer it to Persia and Rome. Therefore, this sale, after deducting all the costs, the profit of the Lu family is actually three million!

God, three million dollars. If we had simply grabbed grain from the land in the past, how could we have to have more than two or three thousand acres of land to have such a profit? And that's just for sale in the Western Regions. What if it could be sent directly to Persia or even Rome?

Therefore, the Lu family, who tasted the sweetness, made a bloody investment in the second round of production: not only did they send more serfs and tenants from the old nest into the workshop. It has spent a huge amount of money to build its own pig breeding base.

Outcome! After this batch of 300,000 pieces of soap was produced, it couldn't be sold?!

"Lu Xuan, what's going on?"

"Young master, ask around in Chang'an. The exact news should be that there is a problem with the trade route in the Western Regions. ”

"Huh? Now that I am a big man and famous, which small country that does not open its eyes dares to stand up and obstruct the trade routes? Which horse thief would dare to rob my big man's goods? ”

"Young master, it's not a small country or a horse thief in the Western Regions. Rather, the people from the north went south. It is said that this tribe has the size of tens of thousands of cavalry, and those small countries in the Western Regions are simply unable to resist. It is said that several caravans that had crossed the Green Mountains and transported the goods of the Han Dynasty to Persia had been wiped out. I just don't know if this Agassi is also in these caravans that have been destroyed......"

"It's these barbarians again! I don't know if I'm alive or dead! How come these guys only know about robbery? Look at the Qiang people in Yongzhou and the Xianbei people in Pingzhou, Youzhou. People are honestly shearing sheep to sell now, isn't this life very good? Well, you were in Chang'an, didn't you report it to your uncle? ”

"Of course, I reported to the head of the family. The head of the family also submitted a recital to the imperial court. It is reported that the Great Sima Mansion has given an order to Ma Zhongying, the general of Zhenxi, instructing him to send troops to the north to attack the Da people. Moreover, Captain Si Li has also allocated 10,000 cavalry to the west. At the same time, the Returning Hou State also dispatched a thousand Hou State Guards. If you want to come to the countries of the Western Regions, you will more or less cobble together some troops. At that time, General Zhenxi should have forty or fifty thousand troops. Moreover, Da Sima also sent a message to the new Persian Shazhongsha, asking the Persian side to also send troops to attack. ”

"Well, that's good. In this way, this stumbling person will not be able to jump for a few days. It's just that no matter how quickly the war progresses, it always lasts for a while. Our goods? ”

"I want to report to the young master because of this time. Less master, because our products, uh, are relatively low-end, so we can only export them. The land passage in the northwest is not safe for the time being, so we can only consider going by sea from the southwest. In Chang'an, a caravan from Nanzhong has been contacted, and they are willing to eat all our goods. They then took care of the transport to Nanjiaozhou, where they were embarked, and then transported to Gupta and Kushan for sale. ”

"Well, that's it. Is that the price? ”

"The young master really saw the sky. Due to the extremely long distance from Chang'an to Nanjiaozhou, the cost is raised. Therefore, the merchants of Nanzhong were only willing to eat at the price of fifteen yuan per dollar. In this way, our profit is only five yuan per dollar....... subordinates report the matter to the head of the family in Chang'an. The head of the family said that the young master was responsible for this matter in the family, so he still asked the young master to have an idea. ”

".......Hey, sell it. There's no way around it. Hum! Isn't Guan Zifeng known as invincible? Why did you keep Dongwu for a long time? If the whole country of Dahan is unified, our maritime trade routes can be fully connected. When the time comes, Ben Gongzi will invest the money in the production of porcelain! ”