The courtyard door was not bolted, so Liu Shigui swatted it open, causing the old courtyard door to creak.
Hearing the knock on the door, a young man came out. Seeing that it was Fang Ya and Liu Shigui, the young man took the two of them in and sat down in the main room.
Li Zhi looked at the house and found that it was indeed very dilapidated. The paper on many of the windows was broken and had not been repaired. However, Li Zhi was using the house as a factory anyway and did not care whether it was old or new. He asked some carpenters to come over for the broken doors and windows.
Just fix it and it'll be fine.
The two waited for a while, and a middle-aged man walked in. Seeing Liu Shigui, he looked embarrassed, clasped his fists and said, "Mr. Liu, our house is not for sale for the time being!"
Liu Shigui was stunned and asked: "We agreed on one hundred and eighty taels, why didn't we sell it again?"
The middle-aged man gave a bitter smile and said: "I borrowed money from my relatives, so I won't move out for the time being. After selling the house, renting a house also requires money, isn't it? It's not easy for us to rent a house as a big family!"
Liu Shigui said dissatisfiedly: "It's a waste of time for me to bring you guests to see the house!"
The middle-aged man sighed and said: "If my family's business in Xuanfu fails, I will still have to ask Mr. Liu to sell the house after a while."
Liu Shigui stood up impatiently, waved his sleeves and said, "Tell me after you think about it!"
After saying this, Liu Shigui took Li Zhi out. Li Zhibai walked around, yawned and asked, "Mr. Liu, is there another suitable yard?"
Liu Shigui nodded and said, "There are some. Mr. Li, let me look for them."
With his fingers dipped in saliva, Liu Shigui stood on the street and flipped through his book. After flipping through it for five or six minutes, Liu Shigui said happily: "Yes! There is a courtyard on Sanheng Street in the east of the city. Sanjin.
There are three rooms, ten wing rooms, seven south rooms, six wing rooms, two main rooms, and twenty-five rooms. The house was built seventeen years ago and is now priced at two hundred and sixty taels of silver."
When he heard that the courtyard was close to his home in the east of the city, Li Zhi cheered up and asked: "Is there no problem with this house? Don't go there and don't sell it."
"It's for sale. The landlord of this yard has been following his official relatives. Last year, his relatives went to Ganzhou to be promoted to the county magistrate, so he also went to Ganzhou to do business. The house is now empty, with only one
People stay behind and specialize in selling houses.”
Seeing that Fang Ya was so familiar with the situation of the house, Li Zhi suspected that Fang Ya had already made up his mind to sell the house to him, and the ramblings just now were all foreshadowing. But since the house met the requirements, Li Zhi said:
"Then go and have a look."
Fang Ya took Li Zhi to the east of the city and found Sanheng Street. That street was not far from Jingbianfang. It was a rare clean street with large yards on both sides and no shops facing the street. Fang Ya found what he wanted to sell.
The courtyard was a half-new mansion. He patted the door, and a middle-aged man opened the door.
"Mr. Liu is here!"
"I took my client to look at the house."
Li Zhi followed Fang Ya and walked in and took a look at the house. The house was not old, with a green brick floor. There were many rooms, and there was a row of relatively small back buildings behind the third courtyard, which were not listed.
Among the twenty-five houses, if Li Zhi expands production in the future, there are still some spare rooms that can be used. The key is that the street where the courtyard is located is quite quiet, which meets Li Zhi's requirements for keeping the formula confidential, and Li Zhi is quite satisfied.
If every house has a shop like Jingbianfang, and women are always sitting in the shop watching every move on the street, it is really not easy to keep secrets.
Although the price of this yard is a bit high, it is still acceptable. However, Li Zhi didn't want the seller to feel that he was eager to buy. He looked around and said to Fang Ya with a smile: "Let's look at other houses!"
Fang Ya looked at Li Zhi and said, "Master Li, are you dissatisfied with this house? The price is not expensive!"
Li Zhi smiled and said: "Look again, look again!"
After taking Na Fang Ya to look at three more unsuitable yards, Li Zhi pretended not to be very enthusiastic and made a bid for the yard on Sanheng Street:
"The yard on Sanheng Street, two hundred and thirty taels, no more."
Fang Ya glanced at Li Zhi and secretly thought that this young man was quite smart, so he quickly agreed, "I'll go talk to him!"
Sure enough, two days later, Fang Ya hurried to Jingbianfang to find Li Zhi and told Li Zhi that the other party had agreed to reduce the price to 230 taels.
Li Zhi was happy when he heard the news, so he took out his money and took Li Xing to do the deal with Fang Ya.
Fang Ya asked someone to write the house deed, went to the general manager of Sanheng Street, collected Li Zhi's deed tax of three taels, four cents and five cents, and another one cent, two cents, one cent and five cents for the deed, and went to the Qing Military Hall to have it stamped.
Then he handed over the property deed to Li Zhi.
Li Zhi looked at the house deed and saw it said:
"Zhang Youde signed a contract to sell the house. It will be located in Sanheng Street with 25 rooms in a new state with three entrances to the courtyard. It has door walls, windows, tiles, bricks and wood on all four sides, and a patio and bright hall. It is bounded by Wang Tengyuan's house wall in the east and Wang Tengyuan's house wall in the south.
Sanheng Street in the east of the city is bounded by the wall of Fan He's home in the north and the wall of Chen Shengkong's home in the west. With Liu Shigui in the middle, the price was negotiated and the pawn was left in charge of Li Zhi. The three parties agreed that the price was two hundred and thirty taels, and the price was one day.
It has been fully collected and there is no shortage. There are no overlapping transactions for the house, and there are no disputes with others. If there are any disputes, it will be argued by the pawnbroker and has nothing to do with the current owner. It is empty talk and this document is established as evidence."
Under the house deed were the signatures of the seller Zhang Youde, the witness general Wei Jiemin, and the agent Liu Shigui. The signing date was marked on February 19, the seventh year of Chongzhen, and it was stamped with the red seal of the Tianjin Qing Military Hall.
After obtaining this deed, the yard belongs to Li Zhi, and the soap factory building is finally secured.
After buying the factory, Li Zhi began to recruit people. To make 200,000 pieces of soap within a month, Li Zhi needed to recruit 50 more people.
As soon as the recruitment news was released, the head of the Li family, Li Yousheng, was brought in again. This time, Li Yousheng not only recommended his relatives surnamed Li, but also recommended the children of his aunt Li Zhi, his cousin's husband. It was a one-time recommendation.
Twenty-five people.
When Li Zhi's mother, Mrs. Zheng, saw that Li Yousheng had also recommended people from her married daughter's family, she became unkind and found nineteen honest and responsible relatives in the Zheng family to recommend them to Li Zhi.
For the remaining places, Li Zhi recruited from his childhood friends in Jingbianfang.
When she heard that Li Zhi was recruiting people again, Aunt Lan immediately took her son Zhong Feng to Li Zhi's house. Before she entered the yard, she saw that the Li family's yard was already full of people: relatives from the Li family and Zheng family were crowded.
The courtyard of the Li family was quite full, and one by one they were walking into the main room to receive questions from Li Zhi - that is, interviews.
"Xie Min, you are seventeen years old, why haven't you gone out to do things before?"
"Brother Zhi, the war is in chaos right now, and there are few places that are short of people. I haven't found a suitable job before!"
"What are you doing at home?"
"Brother Zhi, I have been guarding the paper shop with my father."
"What do you think about selling paper?"
"My experience in selling paper... is to do things sincerely! If you deal with customers sincerely and don't deceive, the customers will feel at ease and will be happy buying paper!"
“What should I do if the customer bargains too hard?”
"If it's a normal quote, it's negotiable. If it's an unreasonable quote, if you ignore it, he'll know it's boring and will increase the price!"
"You have some experience. Okay, you passed! Next one!"
