Su He took the civil servants of the commanding government to a large factory by the river.
The water wheel outside rotates, driving the transmission shaft in the factory to rotate rapidly.
The rotating drive shaft makes a huge roar.
This factory has only six newly built machines, and they are not rotating.
There is a belt next to it. One end of the belt is connected to the loom, and the other end is not attached to the drive shaft.
There are three looms with the same specifications, and each loom has different pieces of cloth woven on it.
In front of each loom, stood a female weaver.
Su He pointed at these machines and said happily: "These are newly developed textile machines by craftsmen.
Our financial crisis can be perfectly solved by relying on these four machines."
Li Zhisheng's eyes widened and he asked in disbelief: "Commander Su, you only rely on these crude wooden machines.
Their output value can reach 200,000 taels of silver coins in three months, which is incredible."
"Tell me about your machine," Su He ordered.
After the craftsmen bowed and saluted, Wu Shengqiang, the developer of the loom, walked up to Su He and the others.
Wu Shengqiang has white hair, a face full of wrinkles, and age spots on his face.
There was an accident on the left hand in the early years, and only the thumb and index finger were left.
He still looks very strong.
"Give Mr. Wu a seat."
When Su He saw Wu Shengqiang, he was about to stand and introduce the shuttle loom to everyone.
He immediately asked his secretary to give Wu Shengqiang a seat.
Wu Shengqiang sat on a chair and introduced the shuttle loom to everyone.
He did not explain in detail how he made this flying shuttle loom.
Officials don't understand this technical detail, and they don't want to understand it.
Wu Shengqiang directly introduced the powerful efficiency of the shuttle loom.
Only one weaver is needed to operate the machine independently.
The cloth produced by weaving is of higher quality, and one hydraulic flying shuttle loom can weave cloth faster than ten traditional looms.
The shuttle loom can also weave wider pieces of cloth.
After Wang Zhongce listened to the introduction of the flying shuttle loom, he was still a little confused.
"Commander Su, let them operate the machine directly, and let's see the real thing."
Su He also found that most of them were civil servants. They had always looked down on craftsmen before, and they could not understand what the craftsmen said.
He immediately asked the craftsman to put the shuttle loom's belt on the drive shaft.
The shuttle loom started running at high speed.
Female weaver stands in front of flying shuttle loom.
She quickly operated the loom with both hands, and the cotton cloth was woven at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The civil servants' eyes widened. They were shocked when they saw the powerful production capacity of industrial machines for the first time.
When Su He awarded the craftsman a title, he discovered a silk-cutting machine that could be driven by water power.
Su He directly asked craftsmen to cooperate and transform all textile machines into water-driven ones.
Only water-driven machines can produce cloth on a large scale.
Wang Zhongce looked at the speed of the shuttle loom producing cloth, and he said in surprise: "This shuttle loom produces cloth too fast.
It also only requires one person to operate.
The price of a piece of our cotton cloth is now two hundred copper coins.
Produced on a flying shuttle loom, the price of a piece of cotton cloth should be reduced to one hundred copper coins."
Su He smiled and replied: "You underestimate the ability of industrialization.
Even if the cost of raw materials is the same, there is a huge difference in production costs between producing one piece of cloth and one thousand pieces of cloth a day.
I'm also going to sell a piece of our cotton cloth for 200 copper coins.
But it is not a small horse, but a big one.
A piece of cloth is 1.5 meters wide and 30 meters long.
Its size is almost equal to the size of the previous four pieces of cloth.
We directly reduced the price of cloth to a quarter of the original price.
The most critical point is that the quality of the cloth woven by the flying shuttle loom is better than other cloths.
The price is cheaper than other fabrics, and we can produce them in large quantities.
Many farmers in the countryside now don't even have decent clothes.
There is a huge demand for cloth, and the cloth we produce does not need to be exported.
A large amount of funds can be raised based solely on local demand.
Our cloth prices are low.
In this way, many people can buy a few feet of cloth and make a new dress."
Su He's memory from his past life was that in the late Qing Dynasty, customs duties were paid on the foreign cloth shipped across the ocean.
Its price is less than half that of homespun.
Industrialized large-scale production, production efficiency far exceeds that of the small farmer period.
The establishment of textile factories and the production of large amounts of cloth will inevitably hit the small-scale peasant economy.
However, there are too few weavers here in Hanzhong, so the impact is not significant.
A large number of female weavers will be absorbed into textile factories.
The textile factory officially established by the Tongcheng Prefecture has a three-shift system and requires a large number of female weavers.
Textile factories are officially run companies, not sweatshops.
Maintaining social stability and making workers richer is more important than making money.
It is impossible to treat people as consumables like in the early days of the Western Industrial Revolution.
Su He stopped the looms. These three looms weaved silk, cotton and linen respectively.
He asked the workers to cut the cloth into a strip, and presented the three types of cloth to the officials for viewing.
Su Wuniu touched the linen in his hand and said in shock: "Such a fine linen doesn't cut your hands at all.
This kind of linen can be worn next to the body.
When I was in the village, I couldn't afford cotton cloth, so I cut and cooked flax myself to make linen clothes.
Wearing those fresh linen clothes made my body bleed, which was very painful.
But you must wear this kind of clothes. If you don't wear clothes, the gentry will not let you rent his land, saying it is immoral."
The officials looked at the shuttle looms weaving cloth.
The quality of these cloths is obviously better than the cloth they use.
Su He knew that the quality of cloth was mainly due to the quality of the yarn spun by the spinning machine.
He took officials to visit these three spinning machines.
Lu Fangyuan and other craftsmen who had just received the title of Lord saw Commander Su and some senior officials looking at them.
The nervous legs of these craftsmen were trembling, and they could not explain the situation of the spinning machine.
Lu Fangyuan saw his apprentice Wei Dayong, who was usually eloquent and not nervous now.
Immediately ask Wei Dayong to introduce the situation of the spinning machine to the officials.
Wei Dayong took over the task. He immediately stepped forward and introduced the spinning machine to Su He and the officials in a clear tone.
"Commander Su, gentlemen.
These three machines are all 12-spindle machines and can spin 12 spindles at one time.
They are mainly driven by waterwheels, but far away from the river, it can also be driven by hand."
After Wei Dayong finished speaking, he motioned to his master to put a belt on the spinning machine.
The spinning machine is connected to the drive shaft through a belt.
The machine runs at high speed.
The fibers that have been initially processed are turned into bundles of yarn through the spinning machine.
The spinning machine is driven by the belt, and the spindle rotates at high speed, and only the afterimage of the spinning spindle can be seen.
The working efficiency of one spinning machine is higher than the previous ten spinning machines.
Li Zhisheng saw the efficiency of the spinning machine and said happily: "With these textile machines, I can now believe that it can solve the current financial crisis of the Tongcheng government."
He looked at Su He and said with hot eyes: "Commander Su, please hand over the textile factory to our household department to set up."
Zhang Dezhi showed no sign of weakness and said immediately: "Commander Su, our Ministry of Industry has experience. Please hand over the textile factory to the management of our Ministry of Industry."
"You all, please stop arguing. I have carefully considered it over the past few days.
Yamen and enterprises cannot be mixed together, so I decided to separate steel plants and other factories from the Ministry of Industry.
There will be no changes in the factory personnel. The original officials from the Ministry of Industry will still work part-time in the factory.
However, the factory is directly managed by the Secretariat of the Government Office.
The secretariat will also be responsible for the preparation of newly established textile factories."
"Qian Mingyi, please make arrangements with the Ministry of Industry and prepare to establish a textile company."
Su He ordered Qian Mingyi, Director of the Secretariat.
He is in his twenties, a handsome scholar.
His work ability is very strong, and the tasks assigned to him by Su He can be completed quickly and well.
He is one of the few people who passed the Secretariat's assessment in this recruitment hall.
The most important thing is that Qian Mingyi's family came to seek refuge with him as early as his rise.
His father, Qian Fuwen, is now a department store manager and manages the largest company in the Tongling Prefecture.
Candidates may have misunderstood the duties of a secretary, and most did not apply for the exam.
People who are incompetent are passed down by difficult test questions.
Most of the people who were admitted as secretaries were scholars from other places who came to Hanzhong to take refuge.
For such people who have no local family members, their identities are unclear even under investigation.
Suhe only focuses on training.
They will not be reused until they get married and have children.
It is very convenient for people who are alone to run away.
People with families have a lot of worries and it is not easy for them to defect.
People like Qian Mingyi, who joined the team when they first emerged and have been tested for a long time, will be trained by Su Hehe.
Su He had never thought of splitting the company from the household department so early.
Li Yuanzheng, the censor of Youqiandu, secretly reported that a serious corruption case had occurred in the Ministry of Industry.
According to his investigation, the Han River Reservoir in Xixiang County is a shoddy project.
He is now investigating other possible shoddy projects.
The evidence he had was that there was an eighth-grade official in the Ministry of Industry who embezzled the funds for the construction of the reservoir, including three thousand taels of silver coins.
This case involves a specific silver coin that may shock everyone.
Companies such as Suhe Iron and Steel Works were separated from the Ministry of Industry, attracting the full attention of officials from the Ministry of Industry.
It was convenient for Li Yuanzheng to secretly investigate serious corruption cases in the Ministry of Industry.
Zhang Dezhi's eyes were full of anger and he stared at Li Zhisheng fiercely.
He also understood the quarrel between Su Wuniu and Li Zhisheng outside Lingyun Palace that day.
Now President Su is splitting up the relationship between steel plants and other companies and the Ministry of Industry.
Li Zhisheng must be behind this.
These companies were cash cows for the Ministry of Industry, and now they are completely gone.
When Li Zhisheng saw Zhang Dezhi's eyes, he felt aggrieved.
He just said some angry words that day, he really didn't make any snitches.
He is already the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, so there is no need to offend anyone since his own major interests are not involved.
Su He asked Qian Mingyi to stay and carefully understand the performance of textile machines to prepare for the establishment of a textile factory.
Let Qian Mingyi mobilize capable craftsmen as soon as possible, recruit enough female weavers, and get the textile company up and running as soon as possible.
He took the civil and military officials with him and walked into a small factory.
They stood outside the factory gate.
You can see that inside the factory, there are more than ten huge stoves.
There is a large pot with a diameter of two meters on the stove.
The briquettes in the stove continue to burn, making the cauldron steam.
There was an extremely unpleasant fishy smell in the air, as well as an extremely strong aromatic smell.
The mixture of these two flavors makes people's nose very uncomfortable and makes them feel like they are retching.
Su He led the civil and military officials to the cauldron.
Many officials covered their noses.
This is a soap and soap production factory.
They can see the entire soap and soap production process.
Limestone is calcined into quicklime and placed together in bags.
Workers use shovels to shovel a shovelful of quicklime.
When placed in an iron bucket filled with water, a violent reaction occurs and the water in the bucket boils quickly.
When quicklime is added to water, it becomes an alkaline solution, mainly calcium hydroxide.
The water in the bucket no longer cools down, and workers add a large amount of plant ash into the bucket.
The main component of plant ash is potassium carbonate.
It reacts with calcium hydroxide, and the resulting calcium carbonate precipitates. The clear solution is mainly potassium hydroxide.
Workers poured the clear solution from the upper layer of the bucket into the cauldron.
Also add a lot of fat.
Adding cheap lard to an ordinary large pot has a pungent fishy smell.
In a large fragrant pot, add rapeseed oil and some spices.
Potassium hydroxide reacts with fat in a large pot.
The workers used wooden sticks to stir continuously until there was a lot of sticky objects in the pot.
They poured a lot of salt into the cauldron.
Through salting out, soap is directly precipitated.
Scoop out with a wooden spoon and place in molds.
After curing and shaping, the finished soap and bar soap are produced.
There is still a lot of viscous liquid in the pot, which is glycerol, a by-product of soap making.
The workers scooped out the glycerin and put it in a bamboo tube next to it.
Li Zhisheng covered his nose and asked curiously: "General Su, you can make a lot of money by spinning cloth. Is this also a product that can make a lot of money?"
Su He saw many officials covering their noses, so he asked his secretary to walk out of the factory with a basket of soap, soap, and glycerin in a bamboo tube.
They walked outside, and many officials took a deep breath.
Some people even retched, and the fishy smell inside was mixed with the fragrance, which made people uncomfortable.
Su He asked his secretary to distribute soap and soap to every official.
Wang Zhongce opened the box in his hand. The box was very rough, just an ordinary cardboard box.
A box is made of porcelain and has very fine workmanship.
Inside the carton, there was a long yellowish strip, as long as chopsticks, and it had a fishy smell.
Inside the porcelain box is a piece that is even whiter, very small, and can be held with one hand.
It also smells faintly fragrant.
Su He introduced to everyone: "The scented soap is mainly used for bathing.
The non-scented soap is mainly used for washing clothes.
They are all the same thing.
You all know that soap locust is used to clean the body and clothes.
Soap and bar soap are similar to soap locust.
Its cleaning efficiency is far greater than that of soap locust.
It can wash clothes as clean as new and has strong stain removal ability.
When taking a shower, you can clean the stains on your body.
It's now available in department stores today.
A bar of soap sells for three copper coins.
A piece of soap sells for one hundred copper coins."
Wang Zhongce looked at the soap in his hand and said in surprise: "This little thing can be sold for a hundred copper coins.
Commander Su said that soap and toilet soap have the same effect, how stupid people would buy toilet soap."
When Su He heard this, he smiled and said nothing.
Soap is only used by wealthy people. After they try soap, they will no longer use soap.
The price of soap is so low to ensure people's hygiene.
Now let alone the common people, there are some officials in the governor's office who may not be able to take a bath once a year.
When you get close to them, you smell a strong smell of sweat.
In addition, the clothes cannot be washed cleanly and smell bad for a long time.
When dozens of people hold a meeting together, the smell is worse than a pig pen.
They don't take a shower, mainly because they don't realize the dangers of not taking a shower.
Even with plain water or soap locust, the body and clothes cannot be cleaned.
If you don't take a shower, there will be a lot of lice on your body and hair, and a lot of bacteria will breed.
These little bugs can transmit many diseases.
When Commander Su launched soap, he also wanted to change customs and make people bathe more frequently.
In places with severe drought, it is understandable not to take a bath.
If you don't like taking a bath by the Han River, it's just a matter of habit.
Su He looked at Wang Zhongce and the others with confused expressions on their faces.
"Take the soap and soap home and use them and you will know that what I say is true.
The soap and bar soap have been patented and I am ready to disclose this patented technology.
A company established in the Ministry of Accounts can obtain authorization by spending one thousand taels of silver coins."
Suhe licensed the patents on soap and bar soap.
His main purpose is to withdraw funds quickly.
Just relying on selling soaps and soaps, a commodity that has not yet opened up the market, will bring back funds too slowly.
Only by collecting patent fees can a large amount of funds be withdrawn.
Soap and soap technology are not difficult at all.
Even if the confidentiality is strengthened, it can be cracked quickly.
After all, if you want to keep the raw materials coming in and out of the factory confidential, the cost is too high and it's not worth it.
Li Zhisheng looked at the bamboo tube in the secretary's hand and asked, "Commander Su, are the things in this bamboo tube also products that can earn a lot of silver coins?"
"This stuff isn't very valuable. It's glycerin."
Su He took the bamboo tube and poured some into his hand.
This kind of glycerin diluted with water is a good skin care product.
"It can protect the skin very well. The weather in winter is too dry, and many soldiers have chapped skin on their hands and feet.
The skin on some people's hands is cracked and bleeding, and they are unable to hold weapons.
I am going to ask the doctor to develop a medicine suitable for treating frostbite and add it to the glycerin.
It is used to prevent soldiers’ hands and feet from getting chapped and frostbite in winter.”
When Li Zhisheng heard that this kind of thing was used to prevent skin chapped, he stopped caring about it.
…
The officers went home with soap and soap.
A large number of soaps and soaps immediately appeared on the shelves of department stores.
When Wang Zhongce returned home, he took off his coat directly.
The clothes he was wearing were only washed last month and looked very clean.
It doesn't have a strong odor.
This kind of silk clothes is very expensive. With his worth, he would not be willing to wear it for only a few days and then throw it away.
He threw the clothes into the tub and soaked them in warm water.
He took out the soap, dipped it in water, and rubbed it directly on his clothes.
The soap box comes with instructions for use.
The simple drawings on it show how to use it. Even illiterate people can understand how to use soap.
Wang Bonuo walked into the house and saw Wang Zhongce washing clothes.
"Second brother, why didn't you let your servants wash the clothes and why did you wash the clothes yourself?"
Wang Zhongce looked up and saw his elder brother coming back, and asked: "Brother, are you going to Huguang to buy some salt?"
Wang Bonuo said helplessly: "We can't get out, so that old guy Zhu Xieyuan ordered the Han River to be blocked.
Now, only the well-connected gentry caravans of the Ming Dynasty can pass through the Han River waterway.
Our caravans cannot pass even if we spend money to manage them.
The three large ships I sent have been captured.
The people on the ship had to go to your father-in-law, Ding Wannian, Mr. Ding, to redeem him through connections.
I don't plan to go out in the near future. Their goal is too big and they have already been put on the Ming Dynasty's reward list.
I'm going to do some business in Hanzhong City.
We cannot rely on the power of my brother-in-law. This will not be a good reputation for my sister in the future, and it will also affect your career."
Wang Zhongce heard that his eldest brother's fleet could be released if the Ming army provided money.
They could not send caravans out, and the gentry caravans of the Ming Dynasty passed freely.
The Ming Dynasty blocked them, but not completely.
It is normal for this to happen. Shanxi merchants could cross the Great Wall and do business with Jiannu.
Chu Shang will definitely not lag behind others in this aspect.
When Wang Zhongce was talking to his elder brother, he was still washing clothes with a washboard.
He saw that the water in the tub had become very turbid.
I didn't expect this dress to be so dirty.
He changed another basin of water and washed it again.
This time the water in the basin became much clearer.
Wang Zhongce washed it several times until the water in the basin was no longer turbid.
He took out the clothes and they were almost like new clothes.
Wang Bonuo looked at the washed clothes and said in surprise: "What is this? It's so effective.
If it is sold cheaply, there will definitely be many buyers. This is a big business.
It’s just that we can’t do this kind of business.”
Wang Zhongce briefly introduced soap and toilet soap to his elder brother.
“It can be done, but it’s not suitable.
Department stores sell soap for three copper coins each.
I just observed that soap uses lard.
Currently, the only large-scale pig farming is the Hanzhong Farm in Tonglingfu.
The royalties for soaps and soaps are only one thousand taels of silver coins.
Our family can afford this money.
But if the cost cannot be reduced, there is no way to compete with the government."
Wang Bonuo was a little disappointed after hearing this.
"I'll think about it again, I heard that rice mills are very popular now.
But your father-in-law is in the grain business, and he now also runs a hydraulic rice mill.
If we open a rice mill again, we will compete with your father-in-law, which is not a good idea."
Wang Zhongce broke open the soap box and gave the other half to his elder brother.
"I heard that this soap is for bathing, and the cost is slightly higher than soap.
The department store sells one hundred copper coins.
If it works really well, we sell it for 10 copper coins.
There should also be some profit, and it’s no problem to make some hard-earned money.
It’s just that doing this is very bad and affects the government’s ability to make money from soap.”
Wang Bonuo took the soap and kept thinking about what business he would do next.
When Wang Bonuo woke up early in the morning and looked at the people around him, he was shocked.
"You, you are the mother of a child."
"Husband, why don't you recognize me?"
Wang Bonuo handed over the bronze mirror.
"See for yourself, I can't be surprised if the changes are so drastic."
Wang Monuo looked at his wife. Her previously sallow skin had become white and smooth.
After the skin turns white, the whole personality changes.
There is no sweat odor on my body, but a fragrant smell.
"How is this possible? The effect of soap is too strong.
When I took a shower yesterday, the candlelight was very dim and I didn’t notice it.”
When Wang Bonuo heard his wife say this, he remembered.
Yesterday, when I returned home, I threw the soap that my second brother gave me next to the bathtub and told my wife to use it when taking a bath.
Wang Boce was very excited. This was an excellent business.
One hundred copper coins, the price is so worth it.
After discussing with his second brother, he immediately purchased the patented technology for soap.
Recruit a group of craftsmen to specialize in improving soap.
They remove fragrance from soap.
The original spices have no characteristics at all.
Wang Bonuo adds a few fragrant herbs, which make people feel relaxed and happy when they smell it.
He directly applied for a patent for this formula.
…
Yuelai Restaurant.
At dawn, there were very few people coming to the restaurant to eat, and they were all wealthy people.
In the hall downstairs.
"Dragon Zhang, come here and see if you can do business."
Zhang Kangming heard someone yelling and thought the waiter was not providing good service.
He immediately walked over with a smile on his face.
"Sir, if you have anything to do, please tell me directly. Don't get angry and get yourself in trouble."
The diner points to the plate of stir-fried eggplant on the table.
"How did you prepare this dish? It's too bland.
You can’t put more salt in it.”
Zhang Kangming quickly apologized: "My guest, I'm sorry.
The current price of salt is too high. Yesterday, the price of salt rose to fifty copper coins per catty.
My shop is a small business, so it would be nice if I put some salt in it for you."
There were also diners around to help make peace.
"The price of salt has really gone crazy right now.
The well salt from Sichuan cannot be transported. The north is now in chaos and trade cannot be carried out, and the salt from there cannot be transported either.
Only the salt from the Huguang area is left.
Those stingy Chu merchants, seeing this situation, went to hell and raised their prices."
"That's true. I heard that some people want to raise their prices to one hundred copper coins per catty.
Officials from the Tongcheng Mansion interviewed several Chu merchants and finally negotiated a price of forty-eight copper coins.
It's sold to us for fifty copper coins per pound."
Someone said angrily: "All these damn businessmen should be arrested.
The governor's office has arrested so many gentry, and many merchants in Hanzhong City, so why not arrest them."
There was a young man dressed in silk and wearing a hat.
He brought his old servant and the shopkeeper to dinner.
He laughed twice and said: "You are too simple in your thinking. If you really want to arrest Chu merchants, who will come to transport salt?
It’s good to have salt to eat now, but when there is no salt to eat, you won’t be able to cry.”
He said this, but he also looked down on Chu merchants who took the opportunity to increase prices.
The Wu family had privately dug salt rocks and stored a lot of salt. They persuaded his father to sell the salt at a fair price and not to be greedy for small temporary profits.
Now Su He is forced to have no choice but to swallow this breath. When the situation is reversed, these profiteers will spit out whatever they eat.
They have just been notified that they can purchase the cloth and soap patent produced here in the Tongling Mansion.
Cloth is available everywhere, and soap is a popular product now, especially Wang's medicated soap, which costs 200 copper coins each and is in short supply.
After taking a shower with soap, there will be no odor on your body.
I didn't think this was of any use in the past, as everyone had a certain smell.
Now everyone has no smell after taking a shower with soap.
People who have never washed themselves with soap will have a very prominent smell.
Such a person talks about business with other people or contacts officials of the commanding office.
The smell on my body is too strong and I can't talk about things smoothly.
Others thought this was disrespectful to him and offended others for nothing, which was a big loss.
Women are also very keen on soap. In recent days, its sales volume is greater than that of rouge.
The Wu family in Hanyang Prefecture would definitely make a huge profit by transporting the soap back to Huguang.
