Li Xiaonan and Wan Qing returned to the inn. Yu Ting was standing at the entrance of the courtyard. He craned his neck to look left and right. When he saw the two of them, he hurriedly greeted them, "Second Master has come back. The food is ready. I'm just waiting for you two."
Now. Ah Wu, let them bring the food. What is this?"
Yuting took the package of silk from Wanqing's hand.
"Useless scraps." Wan Qing replied.
As Yuting walked inside, he took out a piece of material from the paper bag and said in surprise: "This is a good thing! How much does it cost?"
"One piece of skirt material, two pieces of small jacket material, a total of one tael of silver, and a lot of silk thread." Li Xiaonan said with a smile.
"The material is so fine and the color is so good. It's only one tael of silver? What a good thing!" Yu Ting carefully rubbed the material and was filled with envy.
Wan Qing stared at Yu Ting and Li Xiaonan and let out a laugh.
Li Wenru came out of the house to greet him, "There are indeed a lot of people in Yahang. It is said that all the weaving workshops have released some..."
"Eat first." Li Xiaonan passed Li Wenru and rushed into the room to drink tea. She was thirsty.
Awu came in with the food, and several people ate, made tea, and sat on the porch to talk.
"What did you say to those people? What did you find out? Why did you buy those useless pieces of material?" Wan Qing asked repeatedly while making tea.
"Let Uncle Er Tang speak first." Li Xiaonan put the tea leaves into the teapot.
"I asked carefully. Every one of the twelve weaving mills in Huating County has released several weavers to change hands. Xiangyunfang has the most, with sixteen weavers released, Ruifufang has nine, and the other weavers are all
It’s one or two.”
Li Wenru frowned.
"Yatou didn't mention anything else. He just said that the youngest was twelve years old and the oldest was fifteen."
"I just entered the weaving workshop when I was twelve years old!" Wan Qing said in surprise.
"They are all apprentices." Li Wenru continued.
"Not only are they all apprentices, they are also stupid apprentices who will most likely be unable to learn." Li Xiaonan sighed.
"These cannot be counted as weavers. These people are useless and cannot be used." Wan Qing said simply.
"If you don't want it, it means that our words don't count, and we don't want it after we let it go." Li Xiaonan sighed again.
"You went to buy those pieces of silk just to inquire about this?" Wan Qing turned to ask Li Xiaonan.
"I'm going to see if the weavers are doing well and whether the control in the weaving workshop is strict." Li Xiaonan replied.
"Selling these scraps cannot be regarded as lax control. When the weaving workshop in our house comes out with such scraps, we let the weavers take them back and make their own clothes, or sell them to get subsidies. The little stewards use these scraps.
Reward diligent or obedient weavers." Wan Qing explained hurriedly.
"Those weavers are clearly separated from each other and live their own lives. In the same compound, there is a strong sense of human touch." Li Xiaonan looked at Li Wenru and said.
Wan Qing frowned as she heard this, what do you mean by this?
Li Wenru didn’t quite understand either.
"Let's go to Yahang tomorrow and call over all the weavers who want to change hands. Let Wan Qing take a test one by one to see how far they have learned. We will bargain one by one according to their skills. As for other things, we will see them tomorrow before talking about them."
Li Xiaonan smiled.
"This is very true. In doing business, you have to adapt to circumstances and see what moves you make." Li Wenru nodded in agreement.
Wan Qing glanced sideways at Li Wenru.
He couldn't say this sentence of adaptability, but there was obviously no way for A-nan to move forward!
This Second Master Li is very similar to Shi Gun in terms of his ability to speak. Shi Gun is like this. No matter what happens to his family's son, Shi Gun can always find something to praise and flatter him with a look of admiration. p>
The next day, Li Wenru went to Yahang first and handed over the message. After lunch, the weavers from various weaving workshops who wanted to change hands gathered in Yahang.
Li Xiaonan did not shy away from others. She borrowed a heald box loom and other items from the carpentry shop and carried them into the Ya shop. In the large yard of the Ya shop, the Wanqing examiner examined dozens of young weavers one by one. p>
After Wan Qing finished one exam, Li Xiaonan called her over and asked her questions in a low voice for a long time.
Dozens of people finished the exam one by one. It was already dark, so we could only talk about it tomorrow.
Back at the inn, Wan Qing frowned and complained: "There is not even one who has actually worked on a loom! They are all small handymen, how can there be any weavers!"
Li Wenru frowned and looked at Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan bit into a piece of glutinous rice cake and said vaguely: "Among these forty people, thirteen are not from weavers' families, but were newly bought from outside."
"Why so many!" Wan Qing said in surprise.
Most of the apprentices in the weaving workshop are the children of weavers, and they rarely buy from outside.
"Well, I said I picked out all the ones I bought outside." Li Xiaonan took another bite of the glutinous rice cake.
"Resale is a matter of removing human flesh and blood. No one wants to have their flesh and blood ripped apart, so it is reasonable to buy it from outside." Li Wenru sighed.
"Well, secondly, it is said that the most clumsy people are selected. However, there are also many people who are more stupid than these people who came here. The reason why they were not selected is because their parents or relatives are in charge of things.
"." Li Xiaonan continued.
"This is human nature." Li Wenru laughed dryly.
"Third, there are a few young girls who can weave silk. They are afraid of being picked by us, so they pretend not to know how."
"Those little girls even said this to you?" Wan Qing stretched her head and looked at Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan stretched out her hand to push Wan Qing's face back, "Fourthly, several little girls said that they listened to the stewards and said that the weaving shop had no intention of selling them, but had no choice but to sell a few."<
/p>
"What do you mean by this?" Wan Qing raised her eyebrows high.
"Is it possible that the prince is putting pressure on you?" Li Wenru stretched his neck and held his breath.
"How could it be the prince? It's not him!" Li Xiaonan squinted at her second uncle in silence.
"Go on, you haven't finished what you said! Then who is pressuring them to sell weavers?" Seeing Li Xiaonan paused, Wan Qing hurriedly urged.
"Those who can outdo these weaving mills to do this or that, the first one is the silk shop, followed by the government. It's definitely not the government, then it's the silk shop. Do you still have to ask?" Li Xiaonan looked at Wan Qing. p>
Wan Qing kept blinking.
No, it’s either/or, why bother asking? But why didn’t she think of it?
"Do we want these little apprentices?" Li Wenru asked.
"Ruifufang and Xiangyunfang each pick three of the best, and the other ten pick four of the best, and don't want the others. We are talking about we want weavers, and these people are not weavers at all. This
Those people know better than us, we can pick ten people, which is enough." Li Xiaonan said with a smile.
Wan Qing hurriedly flipped through the roster and glanced at it, "Seven of these ten people were born to families in their weaving mills and wanted to tear them apart."
"Well, I just want to have a son in the family. Second cousin uncle, we have to discuss how to write this contract." Li Xiaonan said with a smile.
"You tell me!" Li Wenru stood up quickly and brought a pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
Wan Qing took the inkstone and added water to grind the ink.
"First, let them redeem themselves for the original price." Li Xiaonan shook her finger.
"Second, how many steps are there in total for warping, sizing, reeding, making heddles, cutting out heddles, bolting, etc.?"
Li Xiaonan looked at Wan Qing and asked.
"Depending on what is being woven, heddle and tapestry are the most common, while plain silk is much less common."
"Plain silk."
"Sixty-four ways, large and small."
"Based on the plain silk, it will be the same as ten copper coins. If there is a sixty-four crafts meeting, it will be 640 copper coins per month. In addition, for every person taught to learn a craft, another ten coins will be given.
A lot of money.
"These should be written together when writing the personal deed. Let's have one copy and give them one copy. Just like the personal deed, it will also be stamped by the government as a witness." Li Xiaonan smiled.
Wan Qing stared straight at the calculations with her fingers, and took a breath, "If you follow the teaching method you taught in Guoxiang Town, and teach more than ten or twenty people at a time, then they can redeem themselves in a month or two! You
There will be no more people!"
"They haven't learned all sixty-four crafts themselves." Li Xiaonan patted Wan Qing, "I hope they can redeem themselves in a month or two. It would be best if they were gone."
"That's good! Let them learn from their parents, and these people have to stay in Huating.
"If this is the case, it is best for these ten people not to buy together. Buy two or three first, and let these two or three go back to spread the word. We will come back to buy again in a few days!" Li Wenru rubbed his fingers happily.
"Hmm, Uncle Er Tang is still thoughtful, so let's buy three first. After buying, we will rush to Jiaxing, draw the gourds in the same way, and then we will rush back to see how the next batch of people are doing." Li Xiaonan smiled.
