Chapter five hundred and sixty-four: building momentum
Five surnames and seven hopes, the forces are intertwined.
If you want to uproot them all at once, it will inevitably cause turmoil in the entire Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, the best way to deal with the five surnames and Qi Wang is to separate them and defeat them one by one.
Don't look at it. Five surnames and seven hopes are linked together, and they are married for generations. It's like wearing a pair of trousers.
However, there is actually also some acrimony among these seven wealthy families.
Externally, they seem to be very united.
In fact, there is still competition and fighting among them.
The one who has touched Li Min's side now is Lu Yong from the Lu family.
Therefore, Li Min decided to start from the Lu family.
Li Min collected the main businesses of the Lu family and found that their businesses were mainly concentrated in the following points.
One is the carriage and boat business, which refers to the sale of carriages and boats.
More than 80% of the entire Tang Dynasty's carriage and shipping business was controlled by the Lu family. It's easy to imagine how huge the profits were.
The second is freight. The Lu family also accounts for 40% of Datang's long-distance transportation.
For example, if there is a grain merchant or a cloth merchant who wants to transport grain or cloth from other places to Chang'an, he has two options.
The first is to form a convoy yourself, as well as a convoy to escort them all the way to Chang'an.
In fact, the cost along the way is also very huge.
The second type is consignment. If you find the Lu family's fleet or fleet, as long as you pay a certain amount of employment money, the Lu family can help them transport the goods to Chang'an.
Of course, it is not limited to Chang'an, basically anywhere in the entire Tang Dynasty is possible.
The Lu family has a special fleet and a special escort team.
They usually escort a huge batch of materials at a time, which can reduce the transportation cost a lot, and then they can make a profit from it.
Even the taxes collected by the court were sometimes handed over to the Lu family.
In fact, the advent of trains caused a certain blow to the Lu family's business.
Since the advent of the train, transportation along the train has become many times faster than transportation in the ordinary sense.
The costs required have also been relatively reduced.
The advent of trains greatly reduced the Lu family's business.
However, the reason why aristocratic families are aristocratic families is because their heritage is extremely profound.
Under this situation, the Lu family adapted to the new rules very quickly.
They began to infiltrate the train's freight and gradually took control of the train's freight.
In this way, they use trains and reduce costs.
Not only did profits not decrease, but they actually increased.
Of course, for the railway department.
No matter who consigns the goods, they will be paid a lot of money.
The Lu family controls the freight and will not miss a penny.
And they only need to deal with the Lu family, which is a win-win situation.
Li Min, on the other hand, originally wanted to keep his reputation secret for the time being, but did not want to deal with Qi Wang of the fifth surname so quickly.
Therefore, they turned a blind eye to the Lu family's actions and did not target the Lu family.
Unexpectedly, the Lu family is so unethical now.
If that's the case, then don't blame me for being rude.
The last business of the Lu family is the escort agency business.
Escort agency sounds similar to freight forwarding, but there are some differences inside.
Freight transports are all bulk items, and at least a few trucks of goods, or even a dozen or dozens of trucks, are needed before freight is chosen.
As for escorts, they usually only have small and valuable items.
The Escort Bureau is actually not as bloody as described in later martial arts novels.
The role of the escort agency is similar to that of express delivery in later generations.
Of course, there was also an official express delivery company at that time, which was also called the Yizhan.
Of course, official means it is expensive and inefficient.
As for the private sector, most people still use escort agencies.
Above are the three businesses that the Lu family specializes in.
Of course, as a wealthy family, the Lu family owns an unknown amount of real estate.
The output of the land is also a very considerable income.
However, their key income is still in business.
Li Min decided to start with their business.
First, Li Min decided to start with their first business, the car and boat business.
As for the second and third cases, Li Min is still in preparation.
It was decided that after the preparations were completed, one more attack would be successful.
What Li Min is currently focusing on is understanding the Lu family's car and boat business.
A car is a carriage.
After the introduction of bicycles, the horse-drawn carriage industry was affected to a certain extent.
However, the impact was actually not that big.
First, the price of bicycles is very high, far exceeding the price of horse-drawn carriages.
Secondly, a bicycle can't carry much.
If there are too many people, or if you need to carry goods, you still need to use a horse-drawn carriage.
The carriages of this era were two-wheeled wooden carriages.
The violent turbulence can be imagined.
Of course, because of the introduction of rubber, the tires of horse-drawn carriages are now replaced with rubber tires.
The bumpy situation can be alleviated.
However, the rubber was in the hands of the Chinese trading houses.
They can stop the supply of rubber tires at any time.
Now, Chung Hwa Commercial Bank has stopped selling horse-drawn carriage tires for some reason.
In recent years, due to rubber production, tires have been in limited supply. For a while, the Lu family didn't care.
Next, Li Min began to set up a factory in Yizhou to make four-wheeled carriages.
A four-wheeled carriage is more comfortable to ride than a two-wheeled carriage.
If it is transporting goods, it can carry more goods than a two-wheeled carriage.
If the four-wheeled carriage is equipped with tires, it will definitely become a two-wheeled wooden carriage.
As soon as the four-wheeled carriage came out, the two-wheeled carriage was expected to lose its market immediately.
In ancient China, four-wheeled carriages never circulated on a large scale.
Of course, it is not that there are no four-wheeled carriages.
The four-wheeled carriages at that time could not complete the steering and needed to be lifted by manpower, which was very laborious.
In the West, four-wheeled carriages have been popular for a long time.
Because the West has developed a very clever arrangement, that is, the two wheels in the front and the two wheels in the back are on two axles, and the two axles are connected by a bearing in the middle.
In this case, the steering can be carried out easily.
Li Min set up a factory to make this kind of four-wheeled carriage.
Because Li Min has advanced technology here, the cost of making a four-wheeled carriage is not much higher than that of a two-wheeled carriage.
But Li Min believed that as long as the four-wheeled carriage came out, the two-wheeled carriage would soon be eliminated by the wheel of history.
As for Li Min's carriage factory, Li Min felt that the speed at which they could manufacture four-wheeled carriages should be faster than the speed at which the Lu family manufactured two-wheeled carriages.
Because steam engines have been used in their manufacturing plants.
For example, a saw for cutting wood is driven by a steam engine.
The sizes are all fixed. A new worker without any carpentry foundation can easily solve wood of different sizes after a short training.
The wood extracted in this way is smooth and regular, and almost identical in size.
It is difficult to do this by hand.
And those bearings and other things are all made uniformly using molds.
The speed is extremely fast.
In terms of technology, Li Min uses assembly line production.
Those who dismantle wood are responsible for disassembling wood, and those who assemble are responsible for assembling. In this way, everyone takes their own responsibility, and the efficiency is greatly improved.
At present, we have not recruited enough people. If we recruit all the people, we will need 2,000 people.
With full power, Li Min estimated that he could produce hundreds of carriages every day.
…
Next, Li Min built a shipyard by the river.
The Lu family produces wooden boats. Well, those produced in ancient times were basically wooden boats.
Making wooden boats is a very tedious task.
If you want to learn shipbuilding, you must first study carpentry for three years and learn to read drawings.
Then you have to learn how to select materials and determine the keel.
Without patience and perseverance, you cannot learn.
The wooden planks used in shipbuilding need to be planed smooth and discernable.
If it is not planed properly, the gaps between the planks will become larger and larger.
Water will seep out after going into the water.
After the boat is made, it needs to be painted, then left to dry for several days, and then painted with tung oil, etc.
Six skilled workers need to work hard for a month to build a boat.
The time it takes to build a boat is evident.
The cost of labor alone is considerable.
What Li Min wants to build now is an iron ship or iron-clad wood.
In terms of raw material costs, they are actually about the same, and even the cost of iron ships is lower.
Because these hulls can be produced using molds and then cut using cutting machines.
In terms of process and manufacturing costs, iron ships will save a lot.
Of course, iron ships have a weakness, which is that they are not resistant to corrosion.
After being used for a long time, the iron will rust.
Li Min's solution to this problem is to use the best anti-rust paint.
The craftsmanship of the Tang Dynasty was naturally unable to do this.
But it doesn’t matter, the production process of anti-rust paint can be purchased from the system.
For two whole months, Li Min was really busy.
After all, whether it is the construction of a four-wheeled carriage or the manufacture of an iron ship.
This was the first time this happened in the Tang Dynasty. The recruited craftsmen, even skilled workers, had experience in this area before.
I'm all confused now.
Because both of these are new things.
Although Li Min took out the drawings, how to assemble and how to produce them at the beginning must be watched by Li Min here.
That's all for the four-wheeled carriage.
Because various parts were produced and the first carriage was produced, they were surprised to find out after testing it.
This four-wheel carriage is indeed very useful.
When turning, it is very easy and not as cumbersome as those four-wheeled carriages on the market.
It's different at the shipyard.
Before this, there had never been an iron ship.
In fact, although the craftsmanship of iron ships is a bit complicated for this era, it is not impossible to manufacture.
But why hasn’t the iron boat been invented in this era?
Even within the entire world, it had to be postponed until more than two hundred years later, until the beginning of the Western Industrial Revolution, before the advent of the iron ship?
That's because people in this era first feel from the bottom of their hearts that iron cannot be used to build ships.
If you use iron, it will inevitably sink into the water.
The same was true for the shipyard established by Li Min. When the workers recruited by Li Min heard that they wanted to build iron ships, they refused at first.
Because they believe from the bottom of their hearts that the iron boat will sink when it enters the water, which is a complete joke.
These people were forced to start making iron boats under Li Min's orders.
After several days of hard work, I finally made an iron boat.
Li Min ordered them to put the boat into the river for a trial voyage to test the function of the iron boat.
Those workers refused because they were afraid that they would sink if they entered the river.
It was under Li Min's order that they put the iron boat into the river.
What shocked them was that the iron boat did not sink to the bottom, but floated lightly on the river.
This? How is this possible?
This is made of iron. It only uses a little wood in the cabin. How can it float on the river?
This is unscientific!
The people who were selected for the trial voyage saw the iron ship floating on the river just fine.
When he got on the boat, he was still cautious, fearing that the boat would capsize.
However, when he got on the boat, he soon discovered it.
This iron boat is very light and more maneuverable than a wooden boat.
It turns out that iron boats can really go down the river!
No wonder His Highness asked them to build iron ships!
This iron boat is much faster to make than a wooden boat.
It takes six skilled workers to build a wooden boat, but what about iron boats? One person can build five or six in a month.
Once you get used to it, it will probably be faster.
Of course, the manufacturing of this iron ship is actually an assembly line operation.
One person travels five or six times a month, which refers to the average speed.
Comparing the two, making iron ships is much faster than making wooden ships.
Making the finished product and passing it through testing is actually just the first step.
The next issue that needs to be addressed is the workflow of the assembly line.
The assembly line operation process has been tested by later generations and can greatly improve efficiency.
Each worker only needs to be responsible for his or her own process, and can become a skilled worker at a faster speed and produce more precise parts.
Of course, there is actually another benefit.
That is, if someone is poaching, and only one or two workers are poached, the complete process will not be obtained at all.
You have to dig a whole chain of workers to do it.
Of course, although assembly line operations can greatly improve efficiency.
But when it was first implemented, there were still numerous problems.
For example, the question of standards.
There is also the issue of personnel allocation for each process.
If the time required for each process can be guaranteed, the same frequency of problems can be maintained.
Li Min needs to worry about all these.
In this world, only Li Min understands this best.
…
Before I knew it, two months had passed.
Car factories and shipyards are finally on the right track.
Li Min was finally able to step aside and leave these two matters to Wu Meiniang to manage.
Li Min, on the other hand, went directly to Xia Yuntian, the editor of Yizhou Monthly, and ordered him to publish several pieces of news in Yizhou Monthly.
The next day, a new issue of Yizhou Monthly News was released. A piece of news in Yizhou Monthly News immediately attracted the attention of countless people.
Because this time, Yizhou New City once again held a grand new product launch conference.
The press conference is scheduled for five days later and will last for one month.
This news immediately caused a sensation.
Because a scientific research institute has been established in Yizhou New City, new products will be launched every now and then.
For example, electric heaters, hair dryers, etc.
Let’s talk about the electric heater. As long as it is plugged in, it can boil water. It is very magical.
Of course, not many people actually use it.
We are still in the Tang Dynasty, but we are not as lazy as the people of later generations.
Nowadays, every household burns firewood, and with just a few fires, water can be boiled.
As for the price of electricity, one unit of electricity costs fifty cents.
With such a high price, few people will use electric heaters.
Products like these will not be published in Yizhou Monthly News at all, and there will be a new product launch conference.
Whenever the Yizhou Monthly Newspaper publishes the news, a new product launch conference will be held.
Then all the products released will be sensational new products.
Therefore, when those rich people saw this news, they were all moved by it.
They all went to Yizhou to find out.
Of course, the new product launch conference will be held in five days.
Except for those along the railway line, others probably won’t be able to get there at all.
But it doesn’t matter, this new product launch conference will take place for a whole month.
In terms of time, it's totally in time.
And the people who came this time were not just the rich second generation, but also the rich first generation.
The purpose of their coming is not to act cool, but to discuss matters.
It can be said that there are business opportunities and money everywhere in Yizhou New City. It depends on whether you have the ability to pick them up.
For five days, a large number of people poured into Yizhou every day.
Five days later, Yizhou New City was completely full despite repeated expansions.
Even the guest rooms are somewhat insufficient.
When the five days are up, Yizhou's new product launch conference is officially held.
The venue for this new product launch conference was placed in a square in the city.
In Yizhou New Town, there is a large square left, which was specially left by Li Min to prepare a venue for various activities.
On this day, the square was blocked by countless people.
And in the square, they saw today's new products.
It’s actually a four-wheeled carriage!
This actually made those who came today quite disappointed.
They had known for a long time that the steam tricycle had already been invented and was used in military applications.
Before coming, they naively thought that this new product launch would be a steam tricycle.
Unexpectedly, it was not a steam tricycle at all, but a four-wheel carriage.
They are really disappointed!
Because it's not like four-wheeled carriages have never appeared before.
The advantage of a four-wheeled carriage is that it is less bumpy and can carry more cargo.
But the disadvantages are equally obvious, that is, it is not easy to turn, and if the brakes are not applied in time, it is easy to hit the wall.
China Commercial Bank actually launched such a thing this time?
This doesn’t look like the work of Yizhou New City at all!
At this time, Li Min, who was presiding over the new product promotion meeting, seemed to have heard what everyone was thinking.
Li Min couldn't help but raise the microphone in his hand, smiled slightly and said: "I know that at this time, many people are probably very disappointed. This time, are the new products launched by Zhonghua Commercial Bank just these four-wheeled carriages?"
"This four-wheeled carriage has no way to turn, it's completely useless! How could Zhonghua Trading Company launch such garbage?"
"But do you think our China Commercial Bank will really launch this kind of garbage? The answer is of course no!"
"The four-wheeled carriage launched by our Zhonghua Commercial Bank can easily complete the steering!"
"Moreover, the shock absorption of the carriage is top-notch, and there are even deluxe and supreme versions!"
"The ultimate version of the four-wheeled carriage is definitely a must-have means of transportation for you to go out and travel long distances!"
"As the saying goes, seeing is better than hearing. Now, please get on the bus and let us test whether the four-wheeled carriage produced by our Zhonghua Trading Company is an exaggeration."
After listening to Li Minde's introduction, these rich people were somewhat interested.
Huh?
If this four-wheeled carriage could be turned, it would be a good means of transportation.
Next, everyone stepped onto the four-wheeled carriage parked in the square.
The four-wheeled carriage has a lot of space and can accommodate six people inside without any problem.
The square is very large, with a total of 200 carriages parked, enough to accommodate 1,200 people.
However, more people came to the scene.
Two hundred carriages are definitely not enough.
Those who got on the carriage were naturally full of curiosity, touching here and there on the carriage.
However, I always feel that there is nothing unusual about this carriage and ordinary carriages.
Those who could not get on the carriage immediately became unhappy and complained one after another.
Li Min immediately said: "Don't worry, everyone, don't worry. In this way, the first batch of carriages will take them to the second new sightseeing spot."
"Then after the first batch of people are delivered, the carriage will return immediately to transport the second batch of people. I promise that as long as you want to experience the new carriage, everyone will have a share today."
After receiving the assurance from the King of Shu, these people finally calmed down.
Under Li Min's order, the carriage began to drive out slowly.
The first group of tourists who boarded the carriage felt no bumps at all except for a slight vibration when the carriage started moving. This shocked them greatly.
This four-wheeled carriage is actually not bumpy.
These carriages soon drove out of the square, and they had to play around ahead.
The passengers in the carriage have not yet felt anything.
The tourists who stayed in the square were surprised to find that, yes, this four-wheeled carriage could really turn easily and easily.
This was indeed completely different from the four-wheeled carriages they had seen before.
I have to say, it's really amazing.
Not long after, they arrived at the next exhibition destination, the riverside.
They seemed to have spotted some boats on the river.
These ships seem to be a little different from ordinary ships.
However, it was obvious that they didn't care.
What they care more about now is the carriage they are riding in.
The rich second generation Qian Duoduo was among the first batch of passengers.
At this time, Qian Duoduo couldn't help but ask: "Your Highness, I wonder how much this carriage costs? What is the price of the Supreme Edition and the Deluxe Edition?"
Qian Duoduo now owns two electric cars, one for himself and one for Shutong.
But men will never dislike having too many cars.
When I see a new car, I always want to buy it.
Alas, this is probably a common problem among men, right?
