Soap workshop.

Last night, Liu Yan and Chen Xun, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Chen Jiangshi, Qian Soap, Chu Yunfei, and picket Shen Donglai gathered in the official hall of 100 households.

At this time, Dapanbao had been upgraded by Liu Yan to a hundred households, and Shen Donglai, the picket officer of the former battalion, concurrently served as the officer of the management team.

After everyone gathered for a night, early in the morning, Liu Yan took everyone to start the inspection.

At this time, the soap workshop was already quite large, occupying almost two-thirds of the area to the north of the castle, so that now many military families and civilians have moved out of the fort, and many houses have been built in the north and east of the castle, forming a large area of "castle town" in the north and east.

In the soap workshop, Chen Jiang's family led more than 500 people to work in the workshop, and now the output has increased to more than 60,000 per month, divided into different varieties of ordinary soap, sandalwood soap, etc., and the price also ranges from the most ordinary six cents of silver to one or two pieces of silver.

"My lord, now our soap workshop has a monthly income of more than 40,000 taels of silver, and after deducting the cost, there is also a net profit of more than 30,000 taels!"

Liu Yan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Is there still room for improvement in the output of the workshop now?" ”

Chen Jiangshi had already been prepared, and had already kept the situation of the soap workshop in mind, and said: "My lord, now the soap workshop has more than a dozen production lines, and his subordinates are preparing to build three more production lines. ”

"How much can it be increased?"

Now Liu Yan is not afraid that soap will not be sold at all, although the amount of soap produced by himself is huge, but it is still in short supply, and even Jinan Fucheng and other prefectures and counties are sold, and they will be sold out in the middle of each month.

"The subordinates have calculated that they can probably increase the output by one percent, and the net profit can also increase by almost one percent."

"Okay, get it done as soon as possible."

"Yes."

Chen Jiang's family had just given birth at this time, and at the end of last year, he gave birth to a son for Chen Xun, who had not yet chosen a name, and Chen Xun on the side said with a smile: "My lord happened to come over today, so I might as well name my subordinate dogs." ”

The rest of the people also coaxed, and Chen Jiang's eyes were full of expectations, and Liu Yan could choose a name, which was also an honor for Chen Xun and his wife.

But this made it difficult for Liu Yan, and he didn't have any expertise in this area, so he pondered for a while and said: "I think, let's call it Chen Yaozu, how about honoring your Chen family in the future?" ”

Everyone applauded, and Chen Xun and Chen Jiang's hands agreed with smiles.

Liu Yan was embarrassed in his heart, such a cliché name, everyone really gave face.

Before leaving, Liu Yan specially rewarded Chen Jiang's fifty taels of silver to nourish his body, and then said goodbye to Chen Jiang's and took everyone to the winery.

Like the soap workshop, the brewery has expanded its original size by one-third at this time, and the number of steamers has increased to twenty-two, with more than 300 craftsmen and a large output.

Now the winery consumes almost 2,000 stone of sorghum every month, and produces nearly 140,000 catties of wine. Now the price of roasted pot wine has also increased, and each catty of roasted pot wine can be sold for a price of 80 wen.

In this way, after deducting various costs such as sorghum and labor, the net profit of the winery can reach about 11,000 taels of silver every month.

After listening, Liu Yan thought about it for a while, to be honest, this income was still lower than he expected.

So Liu Yan asked: "We looked around just now, there are still some empty houses in the winery, and I think the production capacity of the winery will continue to expand." ”

Qian Soap said: "What the Lord said is very true, his subordinates have drawn up a plan to increase production, and it will be submitted to the Lord for approval in the next two days." The subordinates estimated that after the increase in production, the monthly output of the pot wine could reach about 190,000 catties, and the monthly net profit could be 15,000 taels of silver. ”

"Okay, report it as soon as possible."

Shaopan wine has become a "business card" of Dapanbao, and with the sale of a jar of Shaoguo wine everywhere, the name of Dapanbao and Liu Yan has also spread to all parties, which is very helpful for Liu Yan's prestige. Therefore, Liu Yan also hopes that the winery will increase its output to another level as soon as possible.

After inspecting the winery, it was already afternoon, Liu Yan looked at the sky, and said to everyone with a smile: "Let's go to the salt drying field, let's live there tonight." ”

Shen Donglai also wanted to save it, although a lot of houses had been built on the side of the salt drying field, which could be used by more than 400 people over there, but after all, the conditions were not as good as those of Dapanbao.

Chen Xun said with a smile: "Since the adults said it, then let's do it." ”

"Yes."

At dusk, Liu Yan, Chen Xun, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Shen Donglai and others led hundreds of iron cavalry soldiers to leave Dapanbao, and everyone went all the way south and arrived at the salt field at nightfall.

At this time, the work in the salt drying field is still not over, many craftsmen and young people are cleaning the salt ponds everywhere, and preparing to bring in seawater after cleaning for tomorrow to continue drying.

Liu Yance stood on a high place, and saw that a lot of torches had been lit in the entire salt drying field, and in the dim light, there was a little firelight, which was very spectacular.

"My lord, it's early spring, and the sun on the beach is not very sufficient, so the yield of sea salt is not high now, and it is considered an off-season."

Liu Yan nodded, the salt drying field is like this, relying on the sky to eat, the output of sea salt will naturally increase or decrease with the change of seasons and weather, which is normal.

"Let's go, let's stay first, and look around early tomorrow morning."

"Yes."

Everyone stayed that night, the salt drying field was on the beach flat, the sea breeze in early spring was unusually cold, even Liu Yan felt very uncomfortable, but fortunately, most of the houses here were newly built, at least there would be no wind leakage, and Dapanbao also sent enough cold bedding, so there was no need to worry about being frozen.

Early the next morning, Liu Yan and others inspected all parts of the salt drying field.

Today's salt drying plant has cleaned out all the abandoned salt ponds, which can be regarded as "full power" production.

Moreover, under the auspices of Chen Xun, all the salt ponds in the salt field have been unified in size, and all of them have been sorted out according to the large salt ponds, and there are as many as 25 standardized salt ponds in the entire salt drying field.

With so many salt ponds, if it is the peak production season in summer and autumn, the salt drying field can produce about 53,000 catties of sea salt a month, and even in the current off-season, it can also produce about 35,000 catties of sea salt every month.

“…… Based on the current selling price of one or five taels per catty of sea salt, the salt drying field can earn about 53,000 taels per month, and 78,000 or 9,000 taels of silver in the peak season. ”

"After deducting labor and other costs, on average, the salt drying farm can net about 63,000 taels per month."

At this stage, the salt farm is the most profitable industry in Liu Yan's hands, and it can be called a "pillar industry", so he attaches the most importance to it.

"Let's look around today, the production capacity of the salt drying plant should have reached the limit, and the rest is normal operation and maintenance. In addition, when selling to the outside world, we should also pay attention to it, and try not to hedge with the official salt sold by the imperial court, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble to us. ”

Although Liu Yan is the integrity officer of Lingshanwei, the sea salt produced in this salt drying field is still in the nature of private salt after all, so it is better to keep a low profile in everything and make a lot of money.

"Yes, my subordinates obey."

A day later, Liu Yan took Chen Xun, Miao Shao, Xu Ming and others to the iron yard located in Tiepu Mountain.

The Guzhen Inspection Division, which is responsible for the defense here, has been waiting here in advance. The chief Gao Yunshan and the two apprentices, Chen Luo and Tang Yuan, were also waiting here.

"My subordinates have seen adults!"

Liu Yan greeted Guo Mingxu with a smile and said, "Let's go, we've been busy in the past two days, and we have to inspect all the mines in Tiepu Mountain." ”

"Yes."

At present, the area of fifty miles around Tiepu Mountain is basically blocked by Guo Mingxu's troops, and there is a new army guard stationed here.

After two years of development, there is not only an iron yard here, but a large number of mineral deposits have been excavated one after another.

In the vicinity of the iron stockyard, Liu Yan successively approved the new mining of coal mines, quarries, gypsum mines, lead mines, copper mines, manganese mines, logging yards, etc., and almost dug up the area around the Tiepu Mountain Valley.

For this reason, Gaoyun Mountain has successively recruited a large number of people, and these mineral deposits have gathered about 1,300 people, and the number of various mineral deposits excavated and smelted every month is very considerable.

"Director Gao, let's introduce me."

Gao Yunshan is now exposed to the wind and sun in the iron yard of Tiepu Mountain, and he has aged a lot, but his mental state is very good, and his eyes are full of energy.

"Yes, sir."

After the introduction of Gao Yun Mountain, a huge mining base has now been formed on this side of Tiepu Mountain, and Gao Yun Mountain is the main thing here.

Among them, the output of copper ore, iron ore, coal mine, lead ore, manganese ore, and gypsum ore is basically supplied to the Firearms Supervision Office and the Armor Supervision Office, which is used for the construction of new military equipment and related equipment.

At present, 30 blast furnaces have been erected on the side of the iron yard, which can smelt tens of thousands of catties of refined iron every month, and the output of the rest of the copper, lead, and manganese is also thousands of catties, which can basically meet the construction consumption of new military equipment.

The output of the coal mine is basically used for smelting, and Gao Yunshan also built some coking ovens next to the iron yard, and then used coke to smelt, which greatly improved the quality of various metals.

"My lord, please see, behind the mountain peak over there, there is a quarry, which can produce tens of thousands of catties of granite and other stones every month. At the other end of the trail where adults go up the mountain, there is a lumber mill. ”

"The output of these two places is sold to the outside world, and now there is a surplus of more than 8,000 taels per month, which can basically cover the expenses of the Tiepushan Mining Base."

Liu Yan pointed at Tang Yuan and Chen Luo, and asked with a smile, "What are the two of them responsible for now?" ”

Gao Yunshan said: "Chen Luo is now in charge of quarries, lumber yards, and external sales, and Tang Yuan is in charge of the mining base. ”

Liu Yan said: "Well, Director Gao, you have done a good job here, and the Tiepu Mountain Mining Base can be responsible for its own profits and losses, which has solved a big problem for the official and saved a lot of money and food." ”

After these days of inspections, the three industries of the salt drying factory, the winery, and the soap workshop have an income of more than 110,000 taels of silver per month, plus a little income from field taxes and other incomes everywhere, and at most there are a few thousand taels of silver.

At present, there are more than 90,000 officers and men of the new army under Liu Yan's command, and the military expenditure alone is 40,000 taels of silver every month, plus the cost of raising soldiers, the expenses of the Firearms Supervision Office and the Military Armor Supervision Office, and other expenses of various places, and about 20,000 taels of expenses every month.

Although calculated in this way, Liu Yan can have a net income of 50,000 taels of silver every month, but this silver still has to be allocated to purchase grain, as a reserve for military rations, and pay taxes to the Shandong Metropolitan Division.

In fact, Liu Yan only has more than 30,000 taels of silver left at most every month.

This silver looks very considerable, but it can't help but be spent, in Liu Yan's plan to develop strength, many things are very expensive money and food, especially with the expansion of the army, the beginning of casting artillery, replenishing various military equipment, and the rectification of Lingshan Wei, under the leadership of Zhang Lei, all over the fire road pier and tunbao are in the wasteland, preparing for spring ploughing, Liu Yan can be said to spend money like flowing water, the money in his hands has decreased sharply, even if there is a net profit of 30,000 taels of silver every month, but the treasury can not see any silver deposits.

So on the way back to Lingshanwei, Liu Yan began to think about a new way to make money.

Some people died, but not completely......