After the supplies were escorted north and then handed over to the troops sent by the 7th Regiment to meet them, Lin Ziran and Hao Ren returned south. Without the burden of supplies, the return trip was much faster.
After returning to Qingshan Town, Hao Ren continued to return south the next day to prepare for the next shipment of supplies, and Lin Ziran also sent this batch of muskets directly to Boss Wang's iron workshop so that he could continue to help change the rifling.
Yesterday's battle made Lin Ziran realize the huge role of rifled muskets. At first, he relied on his advantage in range to fire from a distance. When the two sides did not have actual close contact, he forced the Guangna rebels to retreat.
Already.
This made Lin Ziran value rifled guns even more.
Boss Wang happily accepted this new order.
Recently, he helped Lin Ziran modify muskets and made a lot of money. At first, Lin Ziran offered him a price of ten yuan a piece. Later, funds were a little tight and the quantity was large, so the price was reduced to eight yuan a piece.
However, the cost of modifying hundreds of muskets is 3,000 yen. After deducting the wages of the craftsmen and the cost of materials, Boss Wang has made at least a gross profit of more than 2,000 yen.
It's a pity that the new governor of the governor's office is a bit ruthless in making money and is very evil. In addition to the original commercial tax, he also introduced a special commercial tax with a tax rate of 50%, which is simply inhumane.
But his boss, Wang, is just a small businessman. If the town government wants to collect taxes, he doesn't dare to refuse to pay them. What's more, they collect taxes directly from the patrol camp's orders, so they can't evade taxes.
As a result, as soon as I got the money, more than a thousand yuan in business tax was taken away from me. Then I came to my door again and again to ask for donations, but I was robbed of hundreds more.
In the end, most of the nearly 2,000 gross profits were taken away by the governor's office, leaving only about 500 constant dollars on hand.
However, in just over a month, he had made a net profit of nearly 500 yuan, which made him extremely excited.
He didn't know that most of the money taken by the governor's office went to Lin Ziran as soon as it changed hands.
This garrison seems to have nothing to do with the patrol camp, but Wang Jinquan and Lin Ziran jointly control Qingshan Town. Wang Jinquan serves as his guard leisurely, while Lin Ziran recruits and expands the army, helping each other without interfering with each other.
Su's life as a bandit has been very smooth recently.
After handing the musket to Boss Wang for rifling, Lin Ziran also suggested to Boss Wang to buy some equipment, such as a steam engine, so that the work efficiency would be higher.
However, Boss Wang hesitated and did not agree on the spot. He was worried that the gun modification business would not last long. If he rashly spent a lot of money to purchase machinery and equipment but had no follow-up orders, he would lose money to death.
This gave Lin Ziran another thought. Boss Wang's ironworks workshop could be used for a while, but it would not be reliable in the long run.
Now Lin Ziran has decided to stay in Qingshan Town for a long time.
In the past, he felt that it didn't matter and would run away if anything went wrong.
But now, he has discovered oil and is preparing to start a kerosene business, so he is thinking about operating Qingshan Town as a territory. After all, others can run away, but the oil field will not follow him.
After having this idea in his mind, he couldn't help it anymore and directly ordered Qingshan Trading Company to inquire about the prices of mechanical equipment and hiring technical personnel to see how much it would cost to set up a small arsenal or something.
I don’t dare to hope for anything else, but at least I have to build a small workshop that can rifling and produce ammunition.
However, Sun Guan, who went to Qingshan Trading Company, directly suggested to Lin Ziran that it would be troublesome to start from scratch. It would be better to directly acquire Boss Wang's ironware workshop.
Boss Wang's ironware workshop may seem inconspicuous, but it does have several pieces of machinery and equipment, and there are also five or six skilled craftsmen. If the equipment and people are fully accepted, then add a few more pieces of equipment and hire a few more craftsmen.
That's almost enough.
After hearing this, Lin Ziran felt that it was really feasible. No, he just called Boss Wang over that night.
"Sir, the new batch of muskets have already started rifling. We are all familiar with this matter. It can be completed in ten days and a half at most!" Boss Wang thought Lin Ziran came to him to ask about musket modifications.
What about.
But when he thought about it, Lin Ziran said: "Boss Wang, I wonder if you are interested in taking action in your iron workshop?"
"Take action?" Boss Wang was stunned for a moment. He did not expect that Lin Ziran would suddenly ask this.
He did not continue to speak, but fell silent.
If he takes action, he must be unwilling to do so. This iron workshop may seem small, but it is still his life's hard work. There are no competitors in Qingshan Town. Even if there are no ordnance modification orders sent by Lin Ziran, he has this
The profits of the ironware workshops are also stable, with net profits ranging from one to two hundred to several dozen per month.
But the reason why Boss Wang did not refuse immediately, but remained silent, was because he knew that since Lin Ziran had said this, he could not refuse easily.
Because Lin Ziran is the battalion officer of the patrol camp!
The people do not fight against the officials, and Boss Wang knows this too!
Then he recalled that during the day, Lin Ziran had suggested that he purchase equipment to expand production, and he vaguely guessed why Lin Ziran would be like this.
Boss Wang was deep in thought, and Lin Ziran was not in a hurry, drinking tea while waiting for Boss Wang's reply.
He was very confident that he would get the answer he wanted from Boss Wang!
After pondering for a moment, Boss Wang asked tentatively: "Mr. Lin, are you not satisfied with the scale of the workshop? Do you want to expand production?"
Lin Ziran didn't expect him to say that, but if he thought about it carefully, his reason was actually this. He only needed weapons and didn't care about anything else.
He immediately said: "That's not wrong. I plan to buy your workshop, Boss Wang, and then expand production. As for the price, it's easy to say!"
Boss Wang said: "Sir, do you think this is okay? How about investing part of the shares and us jointly expanding production?"
Boss Wang was unwilling to sell directly, but he didn't have the guts to refuse him directly. After much consideration, the only option left was to form a joint stock.
After hearing this, Lin Ziran thought about it for a moment and felt that this was okay. Boss Wang was still capable. It would be better to form a direct partnership with him than to acquire it from him. At least the management and technical staff did not have to worry about it first.
"That's okay!"
Hearing Lin Ziran say this, Boss Wang breathed a sigh of relief. It is not impossible to invest in joint stock. At least the orders from the patrol camp will be indispensable in the future. He may be able to earn more by then.
After finalizing the partnership, one of Lin Ziran's worries was resolved.
Later, he plans to continue to set his sights on kerosene.
It costs money to purchase ordnance, it also costs money to expand the production workshop, and it costs money to raise the army. If he doesn't produce kerosene to restore blood, his patrol camp will not be able to maintain it.