Chapter 028 The Boss of Ceramics
The next afternoon, Zhao Yulin crossed the river to go home. His mother, Si Niang, Si Mei and Chen Xiaomin went to the city gate to meet him, and the family walked home. Chen Xiaomin held his hand and leaned on his shoulder. His sister Zhao Sihan pouted and said that Chen Xiaomin wanted to monopolize her brother.
He looked at his sister and asked what was wrong. Why did Xiaomin bully her again?
Sihan said no, she just felt uncomfortable looking at their expressions.
Zhao Yulin patted his fourth sister on the shoulder and told her to think less about it and study more in the academy.
Zhao Sihan was done with her job, and she wanted to start a business to make money. She would hang around the docks all day to see what the ships brought in and what they took away. She had already started a silk business with her mother, and they were gritting their teeth to beat the other side.
In order to get Chen's Wugufeng wine, the wine-carrying ships from downstream competed to deliver cheap and high-quality goods, and the variety of goods in Sanjiangkou increased. Wine merchants from all over the country exchanged products here, and while they transported the wine, they also purchased other goods from here.
Therefore, as Zhao Yulin's mother's trade grew bigger and bigger, Liu Yuru was already considering building a separate freight terminal.
We had dinner together in the evening, but Wu Yuqi and Ma Ling'er were not there.
Zhao Yulin asked Chen Xiaomin, and she said that Sister Ma Ling said that Jiangbei is now peaceful, and she wants to go back to reopen Beggar Chicken, and Sister Yuqi followed her.
Zhao Yulin sighed and said that he owed a debt of heart.
He turned and went out to discuss matters in Xincheng's office.
Zhu Congwen was the first to arrive. He teased him and said that the third young master was very good and had conquered the mountain as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said it was not that easy and it all depended on the brothers’ sacrifice.
Zhu Congwen said he didn't understand the situation and was a little anxious, so don't mind it.
Zhao Yulin said that he had hit the nail on the head, that he had been too cautious and acted too late, which allowed the bandits to grow stronger. He was very happy to tell Zhu Congwen that the gun was very useful and the bullets could be used.
Zhu Congwen tapped the table and sighed, asking what other good things had been brought?
Zhao Yulin said he would come back and let him see it clearly.
Later, the elites from Cuiping New City arrived.
Lu Youpeng said that Si Niang was embarrassed to come, so she wrote a note.
Zhao Yulin looked at the situation and found that the financial income and expenditure were balanced, with the income mainly coming from wine, perfume and beggar's chicken. However, the re-export trade at the dock was growing rapidly, and he was very happy.
Liu Yuru said that the construction of the new urban area now requires a lot of manpower, and suggested that the old houses in the city be cleared out for repair and resettlement of the refugees. A city is not good until it has people living in it.
Zhao Yulin thought it was a good idea and asked everyone for their opinions. Everyone nodded, because when they came in, they all took up space in the branch offices, with a large group of people living together.
He said that since everyone agreed, let's do it this way, first repair the houses on both sides of the main street and allocate them to the brothers who came in first. However, he told Liu Yuru to find a place on the street to build a toilet, so that people passing by can't defecate and urinate everywhere without finding a toilet.
Everyone at the table laughed immediately , and Mr. Liu agreed and nodded.
Lu Youpeng said that the refugees who were resettled outside the city had already cultivated 15,000 mu of land, and every household had a thatched house, but they still had to distribute three months of relief food. Everything would be fine once the grain harvest was good.
Chen Zhongshun said there was no problem with food, as the winery’s granary was full of grain and enough for everyone to eat.
Zhao Yulin said that the grain reserve should be considered from the perspective of Cuiping as a whole. He asked Liu Yuru and Lu Youpeng to plan and choose a location to build another large warehouse. When the new grain comes out, they should purchase new grain to ensure that the people of Cuiping have enough new grain to eat for a year. In the future, when there are enough grain reserves, the warehouse will be vacated to make wine.
Everyone was moved when they heard that Zhao Yulin had such a long-term plan.
Lei Man said that there are now 800 militiamen, which is enough to maintain Cuiping's safety.
Zhu Congwen went on to say that the third young master established a new type of army not only to maintain the peace of Cuiping, but also to maintain the peace of Jiazhou and Shu, until the Mongolian army was defeated and the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were recovered, restoring the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties, right?
Everyone listened in surprise and looked at Zhao Yulin.
He knocked on the table and said that Mr. Zhu was right. We should wear shoes that fit our feet, raise soldiers according to the amount of money we have, and take one step at a time.
Chen Xian excitedly said that more manpower would be needed to manufacture military weapons, and he had asked Lu Youpeng to find skilled craftsmen through the Beggars' Sect and bring them to Cuiping Mountain.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said, "Master Chen, please. He will go to discuss it more often in the future. Mr. Zhu should also go to see how to improve tools and equipment under the existing conditions and speed up the production of military equipment and the manufacture of new weapons."
Zhao Yulin said that Cuiping Mountain was getting bigger and bigger, and there must be someone outside watching it. He would go to the county government office and ask the county magistrate to set up Cuiping Town here, and let Liu Yuru take care of the office at the city gate and hand it over to the town government for use. In the future, when everyone has a courtyard, we will restore the old county government office for the people of Cuiping Mountain to use.
After everything was agreed upon, Zhao Yulin pushed Zhu Congwen back and took out eight hundred million guns, grenades, hats, tactical vests and binoculars from the study. He said that he had used seven bullets and the rest were here.
Zhu Congwen's eyes were filled with tears as he touched each familiar object.
Zhao Yulin patted him on the shoulder and said, "We should make the best of it now. We should be grateful to be alive."
After a long time, he said he wanted to go back.
Zhao Yulin called Li Chuan outside the door to push Mr. Zhu back.
He didn't ask Zhu Congwen what had happened, but put the items back one by one.
Xia Dingtian came in to report that Lord Lu had invited him, and Zhao Yulin followed him to Lu Youpeng's room, but saw Lei Man and Chen Zhongshun were also there, already drinking.
Zhao Yulin sat down, picked up his wine glass, asked someone to go, and then drank it all. He grabbed some fried soybeans and started eating. Lei Man hesitated for a moment and said, "If they don't tell me, I'll ask. Are you going to rebel?"
Zhao Yulin had just picked up the cup to drink, when he looked up at the three people at the table in confusion and said, "What are you rebelling against? The emperor of Lin'an? I have never thought of wearing the yellow robe."
Several people were confused after hearing what he said.
Lu Youpeng said he believed the third young master would not do that.
Zhao Yulin said that they didn't know yet, that the Mongolian army had robbed at the border last year. Although Genghis Khan was dead, the Mongolian army was becoming more and more powerful and fierce. After destroying Western Xia, they would definitely attack the Song Dynasty. Therefore, we must speed up training and expanding the army. In the future, the army will march north to fight against the Mongols and defend our own homeland.
Chen Zhongshun said these were all matters of the imperial court.
This is his short-sightedness. He thinks that if he pays money to the government, the government will protect him?
Zhao Yulin said: "The Lin'an court is unreliable. If we only rely on the Lin'an court, we will all live in disgrace under the iron hoof of the Mongolian army. Let's wait and see."
Lei Man simply said that he saw it clearly from Xuzhou Prefecture across the street, and he believed in his brother, so he would follow him.
Lu Youpeng also said that he had received information from the Beggars' Gang. The Mongolian army burned, killed and looted, and was indeed as brutal as the Jin people, or even worse. Last year, Mongolia destroyed Western Xia and killed everyone in the city without leaving a single person alive.
Zhao Yulin nodded and told Lei Man to discuss with Zhu Congwen to set up an information office to increase intelligence gathering efforts, and let Lu Youpeng be the chief manager.
He told Chen Zhongshun that the Shenwei Army would become bigger and bigger in the future, and the difficulties and dangers would become greater and greater, so it would be best for his winery to be separated from Cuiping Mountain to avoid being implicated.
Chen Zhongshun no longer hesitated and said that since he had come this far, there was no need to worry about being involved.
Zhao Yulin was a little depressed. Everyone was determined to get the job done, so who was worried that he would lose his head if he rebelled?
He stopped thinking about it, shook his head, picked up the glass and said, "Cheers."
The next day, Zhao Yulin went to see Chen Xian to discuss steelmaking.
Chen Xian told him that Liu Yuru was firing refractory bricks. The new blast furnace was large in size and required very high quality building materials.
Zhao Yulin ignored all that and handed the drawings of the flywheel, eccentric wheel, connecting rod and other workpieces he had drawn to Chen Xian. He said that if the workshop wanted to be more efficient, it was necessary to promote mechanization of the workshop. It would not be enough to just swing a sledgehammer with all your strength.
Chen Xian was shocked again when he saw the schematic diagram of connecting his workpieces to the waterwheel. When he looked at Zhao Yulin again, he was already astounded.
Zhao Yulin inspired him to manufacture steel wires, iron ropes, steel cables, winches, hoists, and rail cars to replace the current rope-pulling transportation, which would greatly increase the transportation capacity. Otherwise, the transportation of iron ore and coal would consume a huge amount of manpower.
At the Xuzhou government office, Prefect Xu was having dinner with several Tongpans and prefectural soldiers. Xu Chaolin had benefited from Zhao Yulin's help this time, and Prefect Xu attributed a lot of credit to him. He believed that the Lin'an court would definitely reward him handsomely, so he bought Zhao Yulin's Wu Gu Feng to host the banquet and kept toasting all the gentlemen.
Those officials were all drunk and their faces were red, and they were very happy.
Prefect Xu said that Denggao Mountain had been taken down, and the next step was to continue the efforts according to Jiazhou's request and wipe out all the bandits in Xuzhou in one fell swoop.
The generals shouted that they would go through fire and water without hesitation.
After the banquet, these red-eyed wolves went to Yihongyuan or went home to recharge themselves. They wanted to vent their anger and prepare to go out to fight the bandits.
Zhao Yulin went back and drank the Qingcheng tea that Yu Yangzi had given him and had just been reading a book for a while when Manager Ju of the Jiangbei Porcelain Workshop and his father-in-law Chen Zhongshun came to talk to him about their stories.
Because of the Chen family's huge business of making wine jars, white jade cups, and perfume bottles, Shopkeeper Ju's business doubled in less than a year and he became the boss of Yibin's ceramics industry.
Now seeing the booming construction of Cuiping Mountain, he decided to move his porcelain workshop here.
Zhao Yulin asked Dingtian to make tea for the two of them, and welcomed Shopkeeper Ju to settle down in Sanjiangkou and become a family. He also said that a town was going to be built in Cuiping Mountain, and he planned to recommend Shopkeeper Ju to be the chief guard of Cuiping Town.
Shopkeeper Ju was so shocked that his teeth dropped. He said, "Mr. Chen is here, so how come it's his turn?"
Zhao Yulin said that Chen Zhongshun and he were father-in-law and son-in-law, so it was inconvenient for him to get involved in official affairs, and he should just do his best to ensure a good harvest.
Shopkeeper Ju couldn't refuse and agreed.
Zhao Yulin said that Manager Ju was the first workshop to come in. He could choose the site and size it as needed, but he could not pollute the surrounding water sources, and he also had to find a place to pile up the waste residue after shipment.
As for the price, how about ten taels of silver per mu?
