Gu Laoer took his son down and gave him a paper pinwheel he made to play with. He let him run around in circles around the table while he drank tea and waited for his wife.
After waiting for an hour, the Gu family's wife came back. She was walking in the alley with a face full of joy and high spirits. But she also had the joy of being in charge of the family, as if she had become the master, and she deliberately wanted to make Gu Lao Er, the head of the family, anxious.
Yes. When she walked in, she deliberately pretended to be relaxed and walked into the living room calmly.
Gu Laoer asked anxiously: "How's it going?"
The Gu family's wife didn't answer him, but walked to the table and wiped it with a rag.
Gu Laoer turned around and asked, "Have you raised money yet?"
However, the Gu family's daughter-in-law is a person with no scheming ideas. She can't hide things. After being asked a few questions, she couldn't help it anymore and burst into laughter. Putting her hands on her waist, the Gu family's daughter-in-law said: "We are recruiting! The general is recruiting specially this time.
I have raised money for the families of old workers to work as weavers! Two or three meals per month will include meat!”
Gu Laoer jumped up happily, hugged his wife and said loudly: "Okay, now it's good! We can rent the whole villa! No! Let's borrow money from the General to buy a villa, and then we will have our own
house!"
The Gu family's wife glared at Gu Lao Er and said with a smile: "Looking at you, don't you just want to live in a big house? You want it during the day and night, and you want me to go out and work."
Gu Laoer rolled his eyes and said, "What's the point of going out to work? The wife of the He family is also helping people look after the shop! The 'female factory' in the textile factory is full of women, and you still have someone to talk to, which is better than weaving at home!"
"
The Gu family's wife smiled.
She suddenly remembered the days when her family had no food for two days before Gu Laoer entered the Li family factory in the seventh year of Chongzhen, and tears suddenly flowed down her face. She wiped her tears and said, "Okay, everything is okay!"
Gu Laoer took a breath, wiped away his wife's tears, and said, "This is a happy event, why are you crying? It's true!"
####
In early August, Li Zhi's second large pointed ship was built. Li Zhi named the second ship Xinde, had cannons and steam engines installed on the ship, and had newly trained shipwrights board the ship.
More than a hundred selected soldiers from the Front Regiment were mobilized to serve as sailors on the ship.
It was impossible for Li Zhi to personally lead the team for a long time. He went to sea once to set up the organizational structure, and then handed over the work to his subordinates. He asked Lu Hu, the deputy leader of the vanguard selection team, to be the captain of the two ships, specifically to lead the team.
The ship ran the Japanese route. Lu Hu was an artilleryman, and as the captain of two gunboats, he could use the firepower of the ships. Zheng Kaida was stationed in Japan and was responsible for selling goods. The two worked together to complete various tasks on the trade route.
However, the expansion of the textile factory had not been completed at this time, and Li Zhi did not have a large amount of fine cloth to sell to Japan, so he could only buy raw silk and other products for sale in the market. The Nova and Sindok could go back and forth to Japan once in twenty days.
, the two ships are large ships, each of which can carry more than 400 tons of cargo. Over the past few months, the large-scale purchases of the two ships have raised the price of raw silk in Tianjin to 190 taels per load, which has greatly reduced the price of raw silk in Tianjin.
The raw silk trade became a low-profit business.
However, Li Zhi's two large ships quickly traveled back and forth between Japan and Tianjin, and the shipping volume was really amazing. Although the price of raw silk increased, Li Zhi's two ships still made 15,000 taels of raw silk monthly income. Plus the Japanese copper they carried on the return trip
, Li Zhi could earn more than 20,000 taels a month, and he quickly earned back the shipping money.
Li Zhi asked Boss Wang to continue building new ships and continue to expand his maritime armament.
Li Zhi made money, but the maritime merchants near Tianjin suffered. The purchase price of raw silk has risen so high that the profit from running once a year is too thin. Fortunately, several maritime merchants near Tianjin are unarmed and can fight on their own.
But Li Zhi's cannons and ships, otherwise these merchants would have robbed Li Zhi's ship.
On August 27, Zha Yunke found Li Zhi and complained about the soaring price of raw silk in Tianjin.
"Grand Governor, if your two big ships continue like this, our other Tianjin maritime merchant ships will all suffer losses!"
Li Zhi smiled and said: "When my fine cloth factory is built, I will no longer engage in the business of raw silk!"
Zha Yunke spat: "But Grand Governor, you are still building new ships. No matter how fast your fine cloth factory expands, can it be built as fast as your ships?"
Li Zhi relied on Zha Yunke's introduction and help before he could go to sea. At this time, he heard Zha Yunke complaining. He really couldn't show a bad face to Zha Yunke, so he could only smile and said: "Next month I will buy some ordinary cotton cloth and sell the ironware to Japan.
Go and buy less raw silk, the price of raw silk in Tianjin can be reduced!"
Zha Yunke regretted introducing Li Zhi to the sea. He did not expect that Li Zhi's steam engine ship was so powerful that it could make a round trip to Japan in twenty days. This machine was so amazing that it completely rewritten the pattern of maritime trade.
Originally, Li Zhi said he would try not to engage in the raw silk business, but now he does it anyway driven by profits. Li Zhi also wants to build new ships, so to what extent will the profits from traveling to Japan near Tianjin be diluted in the future?
Zha Yunke sighed and secretly thought that Li Zhi couldn't help, and the gang would kill everyone and take away everyone else's jobs.
Zha Yunke was thinking about how to do this business in the future and whether he would still have a job. His face turned pale and he was speechless for a moment.
Li Zhi thought for a while and secretly told Zha Yunke to help him start his own business. He couldn't cut off people and make money like this. He smiled and said: "Mr. Cha, one of my ships plus a cargo of goods costs 100,000 taels, plus the technology investment is priced at 3
One hundred thousand taels. Why don't you come to me and buy a 30% stake in a ship. For example, if you invest 90,000 taels in this new ship I'm building, then 30% of the profit every month will be yours."
Li Zhi paused and said: "My boats run very fast. One boat makes a profit of 10,000 taels a month. The profit of 30% in a year is more than 30,000 taels, which is about the same as the profit of your four small sailboats sailing to Japan."
!”
Zha Yunke was stunned. He didn't expect that Li Zhi had such an idea. He said excitedly: "Is what the general said true?"
"How could I lie to you?"
Zha Yunke thought for a moment, his eyebrows lit up with joy, and he said with a smile: "I will send money to buy shares tomorrow, and I will not go to sea from now on. I will live solely on the general's dividends!"
Li Zhi smiled and said nothing.
"The general is indeed a loyal man!"
Zha Yunke regained some of his energy now, took a sip of tea and said: "Does the general know? The elder Yang Sichang went to supervise the division to pacify the thieves! The emperor gave him the Shangfang Sword and asked him to go to Xiangyang to destroy the thieves."
Li Zhi was stunned and asked, "Can he become the supervisor?"
Zha Yunke shook his head and said, "I don't know. He insisted on negotiating a peace and forced Lu Xiangsheng to death. As a result, the Qing army entered the pass and looted. If he can't succeed in pacifying the traitors, the emperor will definitely kill him!"
####
By the beginning of September, more than 500 new villas had been built in Fanjiazhuang New Town. With the houses now available, Li Zhi began to recruit new textile workers in surrounding counties and counties. This time, in order to increase the income level of the workers, Li Zhi tried his best to bring the couple together
Recruit them together. In this way, the couple will receive double wages and their living standards will be much higher.
However, Li Zhi did not recruit people randomly. In order to prevent Manchu spies from being mixed among the new workers, Li Zhi required that the applicants must have residents of Fanjiazhuang City as guarantors. Of course, soldiers from the Huben Division could also be guarantors.
The positions in Li Zhi's factory were in short supply and everyone wanted to work there. As soon as the nearby residents heard that Fanjiazhuang was recruiting new people, they all wanted to come. As a result, the guarantees of the residents in the city became very valuable.
If someone is guaranteed to be admitted to Fanjiazhuang, a good life will be guaranteed for life! Relatives and friends of Fanjiazhuang residents come to beg, hoping that they can be guaranteed and selected to work in the textile factory and become a member of Fanjiazhuang.
Li Zhi's workers and soldiers were all busy at once, and they were all busy dealing with relatives and friends who came to ask for guarantees.
However, Li Zhi stipulated that one soldier and one household of citizens could only guarantee one household, and the competition among those seeking insurance was fierce.
