Host:1 To Page:1

In the afternoon of the next day, the Black Pearl reappeared at the Chiwan Pier. Captain Sparrow did not disembark at Canton in a hurry, and the next morning he got up anchor and rushed back, causing the sailors to complain until the captain promised a rich bounty.

It was still yesterday's berth, and Mu Fengchun welcomed Sparrow's return to the berth, but also officially informed the latter that the Liberation Army did not allow sailors to disembark, and the captain must undergo sanitary quarantine if he wanted to disembark.

This decision immediately caused displeasure among the sailors, but the port authorities did not care about their opinions. Although the sanitary conditions were much better than in the Age of Discovery, there were still various infectious diseases raging in Southeast Asia, and even in the 21st century, there were often Chinese people who traveled abroad for business to be infected with various tropical diseases, such as dengue fever. Therefore, we must be strict against these people from Southeast Asia.

Sparrow was here to do business, and of course he didn't want to mess up his business because of these trivial things, and he could understand what the Liberation Army was doing, so he tried his best to appease the sailors. Mu Fengchun also promised to provide them with enough vegetables and drinks, which calmed the sailor's emotions, of course, these things need to be paid for by Sparrow.

After counting the number of crew members, Mu Fengchun led Sparrow and the second mate off the ship, while the first mate stayed behind to discipline the sailors. At the end of the trestle, a Port Authority staff member was waiting there with an ear temperature detector. Fortunately, the Europeans of this era have broken the bad habit of not bathing for many years, and various drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases have been invented one after another, and the probability of contracting the disease is as high as it was hundreds of years ago.

The two Britons were surprised by the port staff's actions, and after listening to Mu Fengchun's explanation that this was to detect their body temperature, they were very curious, and they really didn't understand that the little thing could measure a person's body temperature with a drill in the ear, after all, at this time, mercury or alcohol thermometers were the only tools to measure temperature, and the British used Fahrenheit thermometers. After making sure that neither of them had any signs of fever, Mu Fengchun invited the two to the business car waiting on the road. Yesterday Sparrow had seen the trucks that carried so much cargo and were very fast, but he couldn't see the chimneys or what they were used to drive them. The car in front of me is obviously used to carry people, with a rectangular shape, front, back, left and right glass windows, a chassis lower than a carriage, and smaller wheels than a carriage, but the shiny paint all over the body looks very elegant. Mu Fengchun opened the car door and asked Sparrow to sit in the back row, and then let the second officer sit in the front row, while he sat next to Spyro, and the last accompanying staff member sat in the passenger seat. After everyone was seated, the driver started the car and slowly left the dock.

Sparrow was startled by the roar of the engine, and he looked around, but couldn't find where the sound was coming from. Looking at the scenery outside the window of the car retreating, he could feel that the speed of the car was much faster than that of the horse-drawn carriage, and it was much smoother than the horse-drawn carriage, and he did not even feel a trace of bumps. He couldn't help but ask Mu Fengchun, "Mr. Mu, what is this car powered by?" ”

"It's like a train, it's like a steam engine, but instead of using coal as fuel, it uses an oil type of fuel, and it's smaller and less noisy." Mu Fengchun himself didn't understand the principle of the internal combustion engine, so he talked nonsense, but the audience believed it.

"So, Mr. Mu, what is the price of this car?" Sparrow saw this as a business opportunity and believed that the country's wealthy would be interested in this new form of transportation.

"The cost is about a few thousand pounds, and the price needs to be determined by the commercial department." Mu Fengchun thought to himself, how could this car be sold for tens of thousands of pounds in the original time and space! Counting the currency depreciation, it is reasonable to count a few thousand pounds at this time!

The price scared Sparrow's jaw off, and he estimated his own cost and had to dismiss the idea. He sighed: "It's really not cheap, a carriage only costs a few dozen pounds." ”

"Its price is equal to its value," Mu Fengchun felt that he needed to justify the name of the car, "The car is a high-tech thing, its speed, comfort, flexibility, and ease of operation are incomparable to the carriage, and it is also a precision machine, and the complexity even exceeds that of the train of this era." Think about the price of the train! ”

"More complicated than a train?" Sparrow inadvertently ignores the phrase "this era", and while he doesn't believe it well, he can't find a reason to refute it. However, it is also relieved to think that cars can travel through the streets like horse-drawn carriages, and trains can only run on fixed railway tracks. Power machinery is too expensive, steam-powered ships have long proven to be faster and more agile than sailboats, but not many private owners have equipped their boats with steam engines.

At the time of this conversation, the van had already arrived at its destination, and the place of reception for business arrangements was also at the Navy Pier, and the accommodation was to be neighbors with Pashali and them. When he arrived at the place, Mu Fengchun's task was completed, and the reception work was handed over to Wu Fusheng.

As the manager of the Kowloon branch of Global Commerce, Wu Fusheng was supposed to stay in Kowloon to prepare his new company. However, the Kowloon branch was originally established to receive foreign businessmen, and Sparrow was the first foreign businessman to come to trade, so he personally came to receive it this time. After introducing each other, Wu Fusheng invited the two guests to take a bath and change clothes first, although Sparrow wanted to see the samples as soon as possible, but he thought that he was only wiping it with water in Guangzhou yesterday, and he was afraid that the owner would have an opinion on the smell on his body, so he gladly accepted the host's arrangement.

Walking out of the bathroom, Sparrow praised the guest house's bathroom facilities, not only the metal shower facilities, the ceramic bathtub and toilet, but also the daily necessities such as shampoo and shower gel. In order to make it easier for foreign guests to use these Host:1 To Page:2 things, the original labels have been torn off and replaced with reprinted instructions for use in English and French. This made Sparrow feel the attentiveness and thoughtfulness of these Chinese businessmen. Changing into a short-sleeved shirt provided by the Chinese, Sparrow felt light, so he asked Wu Fusheng to take a look at the sample first.

Wu Fusheng led the guests into the makeshift sample showroom, and the eyes of Sparrow and the second mate felt that it was not enough, and there were hundreds of samples in the space of more than a thousand feet, which was dazzling, but their eyes were attracted by the few two-wheeled vehicles placed in the middle.

After decades of development, although the bicycle is not yet popular, it is not a rare thing in Europe and the United States, and some people even bring bicycles to the colonies. Sparrow has seen it more than once in Mumbai, but the bicycles put out by the Chinese are different from the ones they have seen, at least the two wheels are the same size, and there are many more parts on them. With the experience of automobiles, Sparrow does not consider these parts to be decorative.

Finding that the attention of the guests was attracted by the main product this time, Wu Fusheng pushed a bicycle off the booth and asked, "Mr. Sparrow, do you want to give it a try?" ”

Sparrow didn't know how to ride a bicycle, but his second mate did, and the latter excitedly took the bicycle from Wu Fusheng, and a group of people came to the open space outside the door. Because of his experience in riding an old-fashioned bicycle, the second officer mastered the riding skills of this new bicycle under the guidance of Wu Fusheng, riding the bicycle in a circle in the open space, while Spyro observed carefully and found many differences between Chinese bicycles and European bicycles. First of all, the pedals of the European bicycle are installed on the front wheel, that is to say, the European bicycle is front-wheel driven, and the pedal of the Chinese bicycle is in the middle of the body, and the rear wheel is driven by the chain, which shows that the Chinese bicycle is driven by the rear wheel; In addition, the handlebars and seats of European bicycles are on the upper part of the front wheel, which is not easy to control when riding, similar to riding a unicycle, and it is not convenient to get on and off the bike. The Chinese bike, on the other hand, has a centered seat, which makes it very flexible to control while riding, and it is also very convenient to get on and off the bike. At this time, Wu Fusheng was afraid that Sparrow would not see the advantages of the bicycle, so he explained from the side: "Mr. Spyro, our bicycle is superior to similar European products in terms of structure and material. The design makes full use of ergonomics, the six-speed transmission device allows the rider to choose the speed he wants at will, the design of multiple shock absorption makes the ride more stable, and the unique rubber wheel pattern grips the ground firmly, not only on the road, but also on the grass, sand, field and other terrain, which is a necessary personal transportation tool for home travel. ”

A lot of new nouns almost made Sparrow dizzy, but as a means of transportation, speed is its most important characteristic, and everything else is just a foil, so he asked Wu Fusheng about this question. Looking at the second mate who was spreading joy in the open space, Wu Fusheng said: "If the frequency of the second mate's current trampling, plus the road conditions can meet the standard of the road you passed when you came, the speed can reach 20 kilometers per hour." Of course, it is impossible for ordinary people to maintain this speed all the time, and this frequency is very tiring. The most labor-saving speed is almost 12 kilometers per hour. ”

Seven and a half miles an hour, Sparrow mentally converted the unit of length, and the speed surprised him. To know that the speed of the horse-drawn carriage of this era was still unsatisfactory, and a stagecoach traveled on the best highway of the time? kilometers, it still takes an hour and a half to arrive. This makes Mr. Captain more eager to buy the goods, but before that, there is another question to ask, "What is the unit price of this bicycle?" ”

"This is more advanced, unit price? Pound sterling. Wu Fusheng quoted the unit price very much, because he participated in the formulation of the unit price of most of the goods.

Sparrow grinned, the price was beyond his expectations, "It's too expensive!" It's enough money to buy two horses. ”

Wu Fusheng knew that the time for bargaining had come, and while speculating on the psychological price of the British, he justified the name of his goods. "There is a saying in China that 'you get what you pay for', which means that the price of the goods is directly proportional to its quality. Although the price of this bike is about the same as that of a horse, the benefits are much more. First of all, you don't need to feed the bike, whereas the horse needs to be fed every day. Just put the bicycle aside when not in use, and even if the horse is not in use, it will die if it is not fed for three days; Secondly, raising a horse requires repairing the stable, taking care of it every day, and cleaning its manure. The bicycle can be placed in a corner casually, and it only needs to be cleaned; Again, all the accessories are standardized and can be replaced if they are broken. If the horse is wounded, it is useless; Most importantly, as long as you use it with care, the bike can last for decades. When have you ever seen a horse last for decades? ”

One by one, Wu Fusheng's in-depth analysis came to the conclusion that the cost performance of bicycles far exceeds that of horses. Although Sparrow admits that Wu Fusheng's words are reasonable, the nature of a businessman makes him not give up on lowering prices. However, Wu Fusheng had already thought of a way to deal with this situation, "Mr. Sparrow, if you want cheap goods, we have them too." He had a few more bikes pushed out, and then he pointed to one of them and said, "This one is very cheap, only eighteen pounds." However, it is women's, there is no shifting, and the wheels are the smallest. But it's cheaper, and even ordinary families can afford it. "Segmenting the market through the grade and specification of goods is a common marketing method in the 21st century, but it is still rare at this time.