This kind of royal car weighs more than seven tons. Don't think that this weight is very heavy. In fact, a gold-plated carriage that Li Xuan rides on daily weighs more than four tons, and a carriage used for important occasions weighs more than four tons.
It weighs more than six tons. Nowadays, it is not surprising that these royal cars weigh seven tons.
There is no way. All kinds of luxurious decorations are inevitable for royal vehicles. At the same time, they must be large and long. The whole car is more than nine meters long. What, you said this is very long. Sorry, Li Xuan's royal carriages are generally
Six or seven meters in length.
Of course, for a car of this size and weight, and considering the current technological level, the power of this car is actually seriously insufficient. It is okay to be used as a ceremonial car on weekdays, but how fast you want to run?
Don't count on steep slopes and the like.
On the other hand, other ordinary vehicles used by the royal family are more practical, and they are basically luxury cars ordered from Suzhou Power Machinery Company.
It's not a Xihu brand car, but a customized version of the royal car. There is no Westhu brand car logo, but the royal emblem is hanging!
But royal cars are only for use by members of the royal family, not officials from the Palace Affairs Department and other agencies.
At present, Datang's official agencies have not yet said about the provision of cars to officials. Generally, carriages are provided.
The main reason is that the current car prices are too expensive. A Xihu brand car starts at 8,000 Tangyuan, and a cheaper Zhongyuan car starts at 6,000 to 7,000 Tangyuan. Although Datang’s fiscal revenue is high, it is not high enough to give
Officials are equipped with these luxury cars.
Of course, there are also some wealthy officials who purchase their own cars as their own vehicles. For example, Chen Lifu, the minister on duty in the imperial study, bought a West Lake car as his vehicle.
But not every official can be like Chen Lifu, who can have such a rich net worth without relying on corruption and other illegal means. Although most officials are not short of money, if you ask them to spend tens of thousands of Tang Yuan to buy a
A car will also cause heartache, and there is no need for it.
As for those officials who rely on corruption and other means to make money, they are even less courageous. Buying a car is not the same as telling the censors directly: I am a corrupt official, come and arrest me!
Therefore, so far, there are still very few officials who own and ride cars. Generally, they are only used by people like Chen Lifu who are not short of money.
As for ordinary officials, don't expect that.
Now the people in the Palace Affairs Department heard Li Yubo say that he donated several cars to the Palace Affairs Department, which was easy to say. Several senior officials in the Palace Affairs Department were already thinking about how to allocate and use these cars.
The director and deputy director of the Palace Affairs Department must allocate one vehicle, and the remaining vehicles can be used by several department heads in rotation.
Not to mention the thoughts of the officials of the Palace Affairs Department, Li Yubo was in a good mood. After taking the train all the way back to Wuchang from Jinling City, he began to prepare for the official sale of Qixiang cars.
Prior to this, Qixiang Automobile Company had spent a lot of money and conducted intensive publicity in various newspapers, and now it was time for the official sale.
Not long after, Li Yubo once again set off for Shanghai, and this time he not only went alone, but also brought a large number of staff and hundreds of Qixiang cars with him.
He wants to hold a special exhibition and sales conference in Shanghai to try to open up a niche in Shanghai, the largest market in the empire.
The market size of the Songjiang Prefecture area is unmatched by other cities. Even the market size of the imperial capital, Jinling Prefecture, cannot be compared with the Songjiang Prefecture area.
Songjiang Prefecture not only has a population of four to five million, but its people's income is generally higher than that of other parts of the empire. Not only does it have a large number of middle- and high-income classes, even the purchasing power of ordinary people is far higher than that of other places.
of people.
Therefore, many manufacturers regard opening the Songjiangfu market as a strategic task, especially for some products with relatively high prices, and they regard the Songjiangfu market as a key market.
The same is true for the automobile industry. So far, cars are still considered luxury accessories. Even the Qixiang brand car wash from Qixiang Automobile Company, its price of 2,600 yuan is still very high.
The sales volume of this extremely expensive thing may be available in other places, but it will definitely be very small. In many prefectures and counties, the sales volume may only be a few units.
But it's different in Songjiang Prefecture. An estimate report made by Qixiang Automobile Company's marketing department pointed out that the potential consumption capacity of the Songjiang Prefecture area is at least 15,000 units.
If we can win over all these potential customers, Qixiang Automobile Company's first batch of mass-produced production capacity can be sold directly in Shanghai without having to go to other places for marketing.
Not to mention the 2,600 yuan Qixiang car, even the West Lake brand luxury cars with prices starting at 8,000 yuan, their main market is the Songjiang Prefecture area.
Hangzhou Power Machinery Company has sold more than 500 vehicles in Songjiang Prefecture.
Don't think this number is small, Xihu brand cars have only produced and sold a few thousand units so far.
The importance of Songjiang market requires any enterprise to pay attention to it.
Li Yubo also attached great importance to it, so he personally led the team there. After arriving in urban Shanghai, Qixiang Automobile Company aroused public opinion again.
Directly promote this exhibition through reports. After seeing the reports, many people who have always bought cars have the idea of taking a look. If Qixiang Car is really as good as what the newspaper said, then
Just buy one and bring it back.
Shi Liqun is one of them. He is from Hangzhou. He was born in the 10th year of Xuanping. His family was a member of the Ming Dynasty in the early years. He can be regarded as a traditional squire family. He has a scholarly family and is considered a respectable family in the local area.
It's just that although he has achieved social status, he is still a little poor. His father can only live in a few shops, and in the end he becomes more and more depressed.
Fortunately, he was very smart when he was young and received a scholarship all the way to study, and finally graduated from the Department of Economics of Jiangnan University. Otherwise, he would not even be able to afford the preparatory course...
After graduation, he first took the examination to enter politics, which is also a common choice for many students from scholarly families. However, he was not very suitable for the life of politics, so he resigned from the official position within a year and accepted the invitation of his mentor to work at the Third Investment Bank.
, and later gradually rose to the position of investment manager.
The Third Investment Bank, even the largest investment bank in the Tang Empire, serves as the investment manager.
Now his annual income has reached more than 2,000 Tang Yuan, which is considered a high income in the entire Tang Empire.
It's just that his income was not that high in the early years, and his family expenses were not small, and his daily expenses were quite large.
His wife came from a big family, and she insisted on marrying him despite her family's objections. Alas, Shi Liqun was quite handsome, and she graduated from college with extraordinary talents.
It's just that his wife has lived a luxurious life as a young lady. Despite her family's objections, she came to marry without any dowry. At the same time, her living habits cannot be changed by simply changing them, and he also feels that his wife married him.
I feel a little wronged, but I have tried my best to make my wife's life better these years.
On weekdays, the family hired chefs, maids, and grooms all year round, so I didn't actually save much money in the early years.
In the past two years, my income has been higher, but I also took out a loan to buy a two-story single-family building in a high-end community in the suburbs of Shanghai.
Originally, he had no interest in cars. He was more traditional and always felt that horse-drawn carriages were better. But not long ago, his father-in-law bought a Xihu brand car, and his wife also mentioned it after seeing it.
After a few times, he said that this car was more comfortable to build, so he started to pay attention to it.
But Xihu cars are definitely not affordable. It costs more than 8,000 Tang Yuan. There is no such thing as installment payment these days. You have to buy the car in full cash.
But after Qixiang Automobile came out, he paid attention to it, and Qixiang Automobile Company's publicity was also very clever.
From the beginning to the end, they did not say that this was a cheap car or an affordable car. What they promoted was a new era lifestyle, a lifestyle of owning a car.
The overall tone is very high-minded!
So after his wife read the newspaper, she also thought this was pretty good.
In this way, he came up with the idea of buying one!
Two thousand six hundred Tang Yuan, this price was only for his annual income, which was only one year's income. Although he didn't have much savings, he gritted his teeth and bought it.
At the same time, he also made some calculations. After buying a car, he could no longer use his private carriage. This way, he no longer had to raise horses or hire a coachman. He could drive the car himself.
Calculated in this way, although the purchase cost of a car is high, the later use cost is still lower than the current private carriage.
Of course, the more important thing is to satisfy my wife’s wishes!
I took the newspaper and told my wife about it.
His wife was also well-educated. Although her daily expenses were a bit high and she had said good things about the car, she also knew that it was expensive, so she immediately asked a few more questions.
Naturally Shi Liqun patted her chest and said, your husband’s income is quite high and he can afford it!
At the same time, I thought to myself: I'd rather work overtime. Not long ago, my boss said I was going to start a new project. It's a lot of money, but it's very tiring. Other colleagues are not willing to go. This time, I can take over and work on it.
Then his wife smiled and said, "Then let's go take a look?"
"Go and see!" Shi Liqun responded with a smile.
A few days later, the couple, dressed in formal attire, rode their private carriage to the exhibition venue.
After we went there, we found that there were quite a few people coming, and the square outside was full of carriages. When we got off the carriage and went in, we saw at least several hundred people.
Look at these people, most of them are respectable people, and many of them come with their families just like Shi Liqun.
Shi Liqun didn't pay attention to these people. He paid attention to the cars. Soon, he saw a row of cars inside!