Chapter 5: All things are difficult at the beginning
When it gets dark.
When Zhu Niang and her son returned to the shop, Aunt Li came over and asked, "Madam, is there any progress?"
Zhu Niang smiled and said, "Talk to the next three families."
"ah?"
Aunt Li didn't expect the progress to be so smooth.
Zhu Niang looked at her son with a loving gaze and said with a smile: "Thanks to Xiaohao, he talked a lot during the conversation, but now we have to quickly supply the salt..."
"Mom, there is no problem with supply. We will start drying salt in large quantities in two days. As long as the salt is good and the price is not high, there will definitely be a market. Why don't we find more people and try to build all the ponds tomorrow, so that we can dry more salt before the rainy season comes..."
The family suddenly had life.
The salt drying went surprisingly smoothly.
Five days later, the first batch of salt, about three or four hundred kilograms, had been dried out.
And judging from the current progress, three to four hundred kilograms of salt can be dried every day. More than ten pools take turns to store water and drain water. Zhu Hao uses special techniques such as pushing and driving the brine to produce excellent salt...
When Zhu Niang and Aunt Li looked at the salt crystals harvested in front of them, they were attracted by the crystals sparkling in the sun.
"Mom, let's grind it quickly and send it to the restaurants that placed orders. Remember to hand over the money and the goods at the same time . Also, I'm afraid it won't be possible for just a few of us to do it in the future, so we need to find someone to come back and help."
Things like water storage and drainage can actually be done by Professor Zhu Hao and Zhu Niang and others.
But when it comes to the final grinding of salt and shipping, someone is needed to help.
Zhu Niang understood the situation and nodded, saying, "Let's go find Uncle Zhong tonight and discuss whether they are willing to come to our house as long-term workers..."
Zhu Hao grinned and said, "Mom, we can actually find some strong women to work at home, and maybe we can save a lot of money this way."
Due to the backward production tools in the Ming Dynasty, there was a huge gap in the employment prices of male and female laborers. The current work could be done by strong women, so why must we find much more expensive male laborers?
"Xiaohao is right. I'll go right away..."
When Zhu Niang saw the harvest in front of her, she realized that salt drying depends on the weather and cannot be delayed.
The first batch of salt was supplied smoothly.
Get the payment back.
Finding healthy women to work was surprisingly easy. According to Zhu Hao's suggestion, the women hired were all from villages outside the city.
Women in general farmers' families usually work in the fields to make a living, working very hard every day but earning very little money. Now that they have the opportunity to earn income in addition to the output of the fields, they naturally flock to it.
As peasant women, they are strong, honest, and illiterate. They don't have many evil ideas and naturally don't have the ability to build salt ponds and dry salt by themselves. There is no need to worry about technology leakage when hiring them.
"Four people will be here tomorrow. If necessary, we can always expand the number of people. It is difficult for other people to hire women to work in the city, but the situation is different here..."
As a chaste woman, Zhu Niang naturally encountered many inconveniences when doing business.
But it is very convenient to hire female workers.
Naturally, peasant women don't want to show their faces in public, but if they work for a chaste woman's house, no matter what they do, their family can rest assured, and the villagers will not gossip about them.
This is a special advantage that a chaste woman possesses.
"Mom, let's set up a store tomorrow. I'm talking about selling official salt. We should make a name for ourselves and let people know that our official salt is cheap and of good quality..." Zhu Hao suggested.
Aunt Li said in embarrassment: "Brother Hao, didn't you say that we can't do business with our neighbors?"
Zhu Hao said: "But we can't stop selling official salt to the public forever! Everything is difficult at the beginning. I have calculated that if we only rely on those inns and restaurants in the city, it will be difficult to sell the salt we dry every day in time. They don't consume much in a day..."
"We need to sell 10,000 catties of salt to get back 160 taels of silver and pay off our foreign debts, but 400 catties of salt a day is hard to sell without some effort!"
Zhu Niang had forgotten her worries because she was busy today, but she looked worried again after hearing this.
…
…
The next morning.
Zhu Niang wrote the words "official salt" on a wooden sign and hung it on the door herself to let the neighbors know that the shop had resumed trading official salt.
"Oh, Madam San, what are you doing? Selling salt? Do you have any salt?"
A man in his forties came out of a grain store across the street. His thin face was full of wrinkles and he started speaking in a sarcastic tone.
Zhu Niang didn't want to waste time talking to the other party.
In the few memories Zhu Hao had, this man's surname was Qian, and he was nicknamed "Qian Chuanzi". He didn't know his real name, but there is no wrong nickname in this world. The shop he ran also sold grains and official salt. He was usually jealous of Zhu Niang's good business in her shop and always tried to bully her with words.
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Shopkeeper Qian, we sell our salt. If a customer comes, we will sell it to him. Does it have anything to do with you?"
Qian Chuanzi pointed at Zhu Hao and said, "You are still so naughty... Humph, be smart and persuade your mother to sell the shop as soon as possible. Wouldn't it be better for her to do some work to take care of her husband and children in the future? Oh, by the way, your mother has no husband to marry now... With high cheekbones, she can kill her husband without a knife. What a pity..."
You are really bringing up something that is not related to the topic!
Zhu Niang was actually very pretty, with a typical oval face and round cheekbones that made her face very three-dimensional, making her look beautiful, delicate, dignified and elegant.
Zhu Niang dragged Zhu Hao inside. Zhu Hao turned around and asked loudly: "Aunt Qian has higher cheekbones than my mother. I wonder if she is also unlucky in marriage? I must ask her in person..."
"Bah, you slick little brat!" Qian Chuanzi cursed.
Zhu Hao stuck out his tongue and made a face.
If you talk big, you may lose the game but not the battle.
…
…
The shop put up a sign saying that it would continue to sell government salt, but because of the government’s previous publicity that the shop’s salt was used to buy bad people, who would patronize the shop for a while?
In the whole morning, not only were there no one coming to buy salt, but there were no people coming to buy grains.
But Zhu Hao was not worried.
In the morning, Zhu Niang took Zhong Shu, Yu San and others to the inns and restaurants around the pier to negotiate the sale of official salt. With ready-made snowflake salt in hand, they were able to win every deal.
Zhu Hao and Aunt Li stayed to look after the store.
The Qian family's shop opposite had originally had poor business, but as one family declined, the other grew. The Qian family's business began to pick up while the Zhu family's rice shop fell into trouble.
Whenever a deal was done, Qian Chuanzi would deliberately see the customers out of the store and then glance at them provocatively, as if to protest, "Look, there are so few customers here, why don't you close down the store?"
But little did they know that the salt drying and sales operations in the courtyard were in full swing.
Thanks to God, the weather was sunny for nearly half a month, and the salt drying was not delayed at all under the scorching sun.
However, the rainy season in Huguang region will soon arrive, and it will generally be cloudy and rainy in June and July.
In order to "mine" the salt in the pond as early as possible, Zhu Hao took action himself. After all, he was the only one who knew the brine-making technique, and even if others learned it by copying him, they would not be able to produce refined salt of such quality.
It was early in the morning, just after the hour of Mao.
Zhu family back hall.
Old lady Zhu Jia called her son Zhu Wanjian to her side.
"Mom, what do you want from me?"
Zhu Wanjian looked tired. Lately he had been hanging out in the city's red-light districts and not returning home at night.
Zhu Jia pointed at Butler Liu who was standing beside her.
Steward Liu said, "I heard from Shopkeeper Zhao, who manages the family rice business, that several inns and restaurants that originally ordered official salt from us have recently terminated their contracts and refused to say where they bought the salt from. I wanted to ask the government to investigate whether they bought private salt, but later I learned from some channels that they bought salt from the Third Madam's shop..."
"hehe."
Zhu Wanjian had a look of disdain on his face and sneered repeatedly.
Zhu Jia's face was grim: "What do you say?"
"Tsk, I thought it was a big deal. Those inns and restaurants that stopped booking seem to not want to do business anymore. The salt from the Third Brother's shop is cheap, but it's a coarse salt taken from the pond, which is common for people to get sick from eating. I'm afraid they'll have to come back to us to buy salt in a few days!"
After saying this, Zhu Wanjian glared at Butler Liu.
He blamed the other party for not speaking up for him, and he also felt that this person went around reporting to the old lady, obviously not treating him as the head of the Zhu family.
Zhu Jia waved her hand and said, "Bring the salt."
Then Butler Liu took out a handful of snowflake salt from a small bag on the desk next to him.
When Zhu Wanjian saw the quality of the salt, his eyes widened in disbelief.
Zhu Wanjian pinched a grain of salt and put it in his mouth, then looked at Zhu Jiashi in surprise: "Mother, where did you get this salt? Not to mention Anlu, even in the whole of Huguang, I have never seen such good salt."
Butler Liu said, "It was the kitchen salt that was stolen from those inns and restaurants by the waiters, and then bought from the third lady."
“This…how is this possible?”
Zhu Wanjian was completely stunned.
Zhu Jia asked coldly: "How do you explain this?"
"Mother, listen to me. The quality of this salt is so good that it is definitely not something that the third son's wife can get. I have a close personal relationship with the big salt merchants in the city. If they have good salt, wouldn't they think of asking me to distribute it? There must be something fishy going on here."
Zhu Wanjian couldn't figure out what was going on and felt that he was being plotted against.
Zhu Jia's face was filled with anger, and she almost wanted to eat this disappointing son alive.
"I told you that you're not cut out for business. The family shop was handed over to you, and the annual profit is not enough for you to run it. Now that something like this has happened, you dare to say you didn't know? It seems that it's better to find an outsider to run this family business than to let you run it."
"Mom, please don't be so quick to deny my efforts over the years... I'll take people there right now and make that woman pay!"
Zhu Wanjian was furious and turned around to cause trouble for his brother's wife's family.
Zhu Jia had no expression on her face, but housekeeper Liu tried to persuade her: "Second Master, calm down first . It's not appropriate to make a big fuss about this matter."
Zhu Wanjian said angrily, "Liu, you are a traitor. You didn't tell me what happened, but came to report to the old lady. I think you want to seize my position as the chief manager!"
"enough!"
Zhu Jia was furious and full of energy, and she suppressed Zhu Wanjian's arrogance in one go. Zhu Wanjian hung his head, veins popped out on his forehead, and he wished he could eat the old and weak family of Liu Guanjia and the third son's wife alive.
"Butler Liu, tell me what you think."
"Yes, ma'am."
Butler Liu said calmly, "In my opinion, it is not appropriate to go to the Third Madam to settle the score at this time."
“Firstly, we are not sure whether the salt comes from the Third Madam. Even if it does, it is more important for us to find the source of the salt.
"Such good salt is probably official salt. If I go to your house to question you without any reason, I'm afraid you'll be criticized by the people in the village. It's better to call Madam back to your house and ask her face to face."
Although Butler Liu is a servant, he can distinguish the urgency and importance of things.
Zhu Wanjian sneered: "That woman must have hidden some private money, no wonder she is so fearless, maybe she has hooked up with some questionable person... If a woman shows up in public there will be problems, and the Zhu family will be disgraced because of her sooner or later..."
Zhu Jia ignored her second son's slander against her third daughter-in-law and said to housekeeper Liu, "Go to the shop and tell them that there will be important matters to be discussed at noon today. Ask her to represent the third son's family and come to the house to attend."
"Yes, ma'am."
Butler Liu glanced at Zhu Wanjian and walked out quickly.
Zhu Wanjian stood there, not knowing whether to leave or stay. He was in a state of confusion and his brain was completely inadequate.
