Chapter 34: The Prodigal Merchant Liu
And at this time.
What Liu Zheng never expected was.
Chen Kui, who had fled from Yinzhou, did not let the Liu family father and son go. It had been a month, and Chen Kui first ran to Liangzhou to seek help from Chen Batian.
Who would have thought that Chen Batian's request to him was just to shout: "How dare you take the crime of treason? It's a blessing that Mr. Liu didn't kill you. Just be an honest man!"
Chen Kui was unwilling to accept this, and only then did he realize that Liu Dahao had some prestige in the military of Liangzhou. Although he had no direct relationship with Chen Batian, when Chen Batian fought against the Huns, he ate the food and grass donated by Liu Dahao. He was still very grateful to this former richest man in Liangzhou.
As for Chen Kui, he was already a distant relative of Chen Batian, and his guilt had already been proven, so Chen Batian didn't bother to care about him.
Now, Chen Kui has been in Yangzhou for half a month.
"Is Lord Lu willing to see me?"
He came to seek Lu Zhengyi's help.
However, he had already lived in the inn for half a month, but had not even seen Lu Zhengyi.
This made Chen Kui, who had always been a local tyrant, very angry.
The old butler said, "Master, we are already trying to smooth things over. Please wait for a while..."
"Unblock, unblock your ass!"
Chen Kui was so angry that he smashed the wine pot and said angrily: "Thinking back to the time when my Chen family was so powerful, these county marquises were just like my children and grandchildren in front of me! Now, now..."
He sighed deeply.
The hatred towards the Liu father and son thus deepened.
The old butler also bowed his head helplessly.
"Go tell the person who is doing the liaison that if I can't see Lu Zhengyi tonight, I, Chen Kui, will return to Liangzhou tomorrow! Even if he doesn't want the 100,000 silver coins, there are plenty of people who do!"
Chen Kui snorted coldly.
This time he brought 100,000 silver notes with him, which was his last fortune, just to ask Lu Zhengyi to send troops to help him flatten Yinzhou! When the Chen family returns to Yinzhou, won't 100,000 taels of silver be easily obtained?
"Yes, sir!"
The housekeeper went down.
"Hahahaha, Mr. Chen can't wait?"
Who would have thought that before the butler even left the house, several people came in, and the one leading them was none other than Lu Zhengyi, the county magistrate of Yangzhou City!
Chen Kui sneered in his heart, but walked over with a flattering look on his face: "I am Chen Kui, a humble person, and I am honored to meet Lord Lu!"
Lu Zhengyi quickly helped him up and sighed, "Mr. Chen is too polite. The Chen family and Yangzhou have always been close friends. When Yangzhou was in trouble, the Chen family provided a lot of help. Lu Zhengyi has always remembered this in his heart!"
Chen Kui laughed it off but was cursing in his heart, "You've got to keep it in mind. Just leave me here in the sun for half a month?"
A few people laughed hypocritically and sat down.
Lu Zhengyi asked knowingly, "Mr. Chen, what is it this time?"
Chen Kui immediately knelt on the ground, crying bitterly: "Lord Lu, please make a decision for me! The Liu family father and son are too bullying! They destroyed the foundation of my Chen family, raided my Chen family, and killed everyone! I think the county lord has great ambitions, Lord Lu must make preparations early!"
"Liu family father and son?"
Lu Zhengyi was stunned and laughed: In fact, he had heard about Chen Kui's property being confiscated a long time ago, and he also knew the father and son of the Liu family, and he had dealt with them before.
After several fights, he knew that Liu Dahao was just a fool, but the young master of the Liu family was quite capable.
So he narrowed his eyes and asked, "What does Mr. Chen mean?"
Chen Kui raised his head and said loudly: "The Chen family is willing to pay 100,000 taels of silver and ask Yangzhou to help our Chen family return to Yinzhou!"
"One hundred thousand taels?"
Lu Zhengyi took a deep breath.
I ignored Chen Kui for the past half month because he was waiting for a higher price. From the initial promise of 50,000 taels to hire 3,000 soldiers from Yangzhou, to the current 100,000 taels...
Who wouldn’t be moved?
However.
Lu Zhengyi knew that the soldiers from Yangzhou were not very good.
In fact, when Liu's father and son passed by Yangzhou, there were only 1,000 soldiers in the whole Yangzhou. Later, Liu Zheng defeated the horse bandits, and many nearby horse bandits lost their organization and came to surrender, which barely gathered 3,000 soldiers for Yangzhou. In addition, Lu Zhengyi's meritorious service in suppressing the bandits, Liangzhou Governor Chen Ping issued a reward, and Yangzhou could barely afford to support these 3,000 soldiers.
"this……"
Lu Zhengyi was very tempted, but at the same time he was also very embarrassed.
Chen Kui immediately said, "Don't worry, Lord Lu. I will hire another 2,000 elite soldiers from Liangzhou. With 5,000 soldiers and horses, Yinzhou will be conquered!"
"oh?"
Lu Zhengyi smiled and said, "We can consider this matter in the long run."
Chen Kui cursed inwardly that he was an old fox. He knew that Lu Zhengyi was a man who would not release his eagle until he saw the rabbit, so he immediately took out the silver note.
With these 100,000 pieces of silver, Lu Zhengyi can continue to recruit soldiers and add weapons and equipment.
One gains while the other loses.
Only then will there be a possibility of taking over Yinzhou!
Lu Zhengyi's eyes flickered.
Hearing that the young master of the Liu family in Yinzhou had made several kinds of fine wine and made a fortune, how could he not be tempted?
As for the official side.
I have already received a secret letter from the governor, "Observe his character, correct his behavior, and if necessary, act according to your discretion!"
This is equivalent to an imperial sword, which can be used to fabricate a crime against him temporarily and later.
In this way.
Yinzhou is an unruly place. Who will take care of it if we conquer it?
Lu Zhengyi’s calculations were very good.
…
And here in Yinzhou.
Liu Zheng is still doing his own research.
His perfume workshop is not called a perfume workshop, but a "daily chemical workshop"! This term, which has never appeared in this era, has confused many people.
That's right.
This time, Liu Zheng is not only making perfumes, but also many daily chemical products!
These daily chemicals can actually be made at the same time as perfume. While making perfume, Liu Zheng felt that there was something else worth making in Liangzhou, a place with a bad climate.
That's vanishing cream...
Mmmm, sounds retro.
But in this era, it is quite advanced.
Skin care products!
Who has seen it?
The method of making vanishing cream is actually very simple. The oil materials can be coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, essential oil and water.
Well, the vanishing cream is available.
What about soap?
Since we're going to do it, let's do it together!
Because since they are daily chemicals, they inevitably need the same substance, that is lye! Soap needs lye, and vanishing cream also needs lye.
The preparation of lye is not complicated, it can be filtered out using wood ash and water.
The entire workshop was originally a relatively complex but interconnected assembly line. And all these complex things had to be completed by Liu Zheng alone - at least, before others mastered these things, he was the one who did it. Therefore, Liu Zheng had already drawn such a large workshop blueprint.
Several distiller's, several alkali making machines, several cooling containers, this huge amount of work has kept Liu Zheng awake for several days and nights.
There are also various molds and the production of bottles and jars.
"It's done!"
Four days later, Liu Zheng, with panda eyes, burst into laughter.
This daily chemical product is indeed possible!
Why? Because Liu Zheng made a surprising discovery these days. When he was making vanishing cream, it would fail due to the problem of thickness... However, those failed products turned into another product in his hands. To put it simply, the thinner ones can be used as skin care products, the thicker ones can be used as lipstick, and adding some colors can make lipstick!
This suddenly reminded Liu Zheng of a joke.
What kind of business is sure to make money? Make tofu. When it’s done, sell it. If it’s hard, sell it as bean curd skin. If it’s watery, sell it as soy milk. If you can’t sell it, go back and make stinky tofu. It’s sure to make money!
These daily chemical products are actually similar!
After a few days of hard work, he finally managed to get the vanishing cream, lipstick, and skin care products!
The other craftsmen who were sleeping gathered around.
"Sir, what are these?"
“Smells so good!”
“Is this pancreas?”
None of the craftsmen could understand what was going on because there were bottles and jars in front of them, some big, some small, and of different colors.
Liu Zheng laughed and said, "Palm? That's about right! Let me go to Fengming Tower first, and then I'll teach you when I come back!"
These days, although he has been teaching these craftsmen all the techniques, they will definitely not be able to master them before the final product comes out. But there is no rush, what Liu Zheng wants to see now is Zheng Yueru's expression!
Go go!
It was afternoon and Fengming Tower was not open yet, but it was also time for those prostitutes to get up.
"Sister Lianxiang, the weather has been so dry lately! Look, my lips are cracked!"
"Yeah, they do this even when it snows. I really can't adapt to the weather in Yinzhou. When I first came to Yinzhou, my lip was cracked! I was almost returned by Miss Zheng! It's scary to think that they don't want me here, and I can only be sent to the frontier to serve those military lords."
"When can I save enough money to redeem myself?"
"Hurry, Xiao Xiyu, the wind is blowing, come back quickly! Otherwise, we will be embarrassed to show our faces again!"
Liu Zheng walked into Fengming Tower and couldn't help shaking his head when he heard these discussions.
The weather and climate in Liangzhou are really unbearable. Therefore, the skin of the people here is not very good and is very rough.
As soon as Liu Zheng arrived, the shopkeeper, Old Cui, immediately sent someone to invite Zheng Yueru.
When Zheng Yueru heard that Liu Zheng was coming, she also ran over impatiently. Seeing all these bottles and jars on the tea table, she was stunned and smiled bitterly, "Brother Liu, is this your Guci water?"
“It seems there are quite a few categories?”
She laughed.
She actually didn't have high expectations for Liu Zheng's Gu Ci Shui.
Liu Zheng, however, stopped Zheng Yueru from taking it to examine it carefully, and smiled at her: "Miss Zheng, it's not just the ancient thorn water, you accidentally made some other things out of it, but, this, we have to talk about it again..."
"What?"
Zheng Yueru said unhappily, "Brother Liu, you want to renegotiate the 70% profit? Why are you so greedy?"
Liu Zheng shook his head and explained, "Different products naturally have different ratios. Guci water is still 30% to 70%, but the others are different."
"oh?"
Zheng Yueru looked at him puzzled.
Liu Zheng sighed.
This is also unavoidable. The various skin care products with the beeswax lip balm formula cannot be preserved for a long time, so if you want to make a profit by mass production, you can't compare it with perfume. But after all, a streak is better than nothing, and this is also something Liu Zheng developed for his own territory, Yinzhou, so this is a foil product. Unlike high-end luxury goods such as perfume, these skin care products can only go the middle-level route.
Due to the backward storage, transportation and logistics conditions of that era, these daily chemical products could probably only be circulated within Liangzhou.
so.
Since there is not much impact on logistics costs, why can't he order more?
He found that he was increasingly becoming a profiteer.
Zheng Yueru was so angry that she looked at Liu Zheng coldly for the first time.
How come I didn't know that you were such a person?
