Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 031 Primitive Capital Accumulation (VI)
"Your servant greets me, Master. I haven't seen you for almost two months, and I missed you so much. Seeing you today... wuwuwu..."
"Hahaha, alright, alright, Zhongxian, you need to practice your flattery skills more. Well, how have you been doing with the things I asked you to do in the past two months?"
"I basically did it according to my request, but the time was too tight and we were short on manpower, so there are still some finishing touches that have not been completed."
"Well, lead the way. I want to check it out myself."
In mid-March of the lunar calendar, the temperature in Beijing rose significantly. On his day off, Zhu Youdong brought Zhang Yicheng, Xiong Tingbi, Xu Guangqi, Li Chunzhong, Zhang Shize, Wang Chengen and others, and under the protection of Li Shizhong, he once again came to Honghezhuang.
After he completely regained control of Honghe Manor, Wei Zhongxian basically lived and ate in the manor throughout the winter. Taking advantage of the slack season, he spent a lot of money to effectively organize the laborers in the manor and carried out construction on hundreds of acres of land along the river in strict accordance with Zhu Youdong's sketch.
"Look, young master. This is the dam that was built on the river after the Yu River entered our village according to your request. The entire dam is ten feet high (ten feet in the Ming Dynasty is about 3.11 meters in modern times). The sluice gate in the middle is a whole piece of thick wood. It has now achieved full water storage."
"Well, okay, but it's only spring now, and the water flow is smaller. I just don't know if it can hold up in the summer."
"Oh, Master, please rest assured about this. I can't say that the things I'm responsible for look good, but the quality is definitely no problem. If the dam breaks in the summer, Master will just have someone beat me to death."
The purpose of building a dam is to provide power for future hydraulic machinery. However, Zhu Youdong was not very interested in hydraulic machinery that was limited by natural conditions. On the other hand, the imperial manor upstream of the Yu River belonged to a concubine. Therefore, he was unwilling and dared not build the dam too high - this place was still too small, just a place for him to practice.
"Young Master, please look ahead. That row of houses is built according to the drawings I gave you. Uh, it's a factory building."
"Well, it looks pretty good. Have you prepared all the ingredients I told you about earlier?"
“Everything is ready.”
"Very good, then let's start the production right away while the three gentlemen are here today."
"Yes, sir!"
With Zhu Youdong's order, this row of factory buildings seemed to come alive in an instant.
In the first house.
First, a huge fat pig that was supposed to be slaughtered during the New Year was cut in the neck with a shrill scream. Several villagers skillfully gutted the fat pig. The only difference from the previous New Year pig slaughtering was that after this slaughter, all the fat of the pig was taken out intact and sent to the second house.
After the lard was delivered, two villagers had already heated the cauldron to boiling point. After the jelly-like lard entered the cauldron, it quickly turned into liquid. Then, they avoided the third room through a side door and entered the fourth room.
At the same time, the villagers in the third room mixed the baking soda and quicklime thoroughly , carefully collected the layer of liquid floating on the top in a ceramic container, and then sent it into the fourth room.
At this point, it is very clear what Zhu Youdong wants to do: he wants to produce a killer weapon for many time travelers who travel back to ancient times to make money: soap!
Of course , he was the grandson of the emperor, so his position was different. And the so-called civilian products, in this era, were naturally the best at the beginning, so simple soap would not work.
Zhu Youdong had a plan for this: when the saponification reaction was basically finished and the soap was taken out, villagers would mix the forsythia juice prepared in advance and stir it vigorously. Finally, the soap with a strong floral scent was divided and put into various molds before it was completely hardened...
The entire production process was extremely fast. With one pig and two pieces of lard, sixty bars of soap were produced in less than two hours.
The entire production process basically achieved assembly line production. The villagers (workers) in each link were only responsible for one task, and the overall production process was only mastered by Zhu Youdong and Wei Zhongxian.
Of course, he did not hide the fact that Zhu Youdong brought Zhang Yicheng, Xiong Tingbi and others with him that day.
"Come on, gentlemen, and all of you, try to use this thing to wash your hands."
After a while, a burst of exclamations were heard one after another.
"Grandson, why is this thing so magical? I can see clearly that the raw material of this thing is oil, right? How come after all these changes, it can wash my hands so clean?"
"Yes, it is much better than soap and soap. I feel that all the old dirt has been removed at once."
Zhu Youdong thought these people's reactions were normal, because the Chinese at that time were not ignorant Europeans.
It is said that in ancient Egypt, people had already discovered the saponification reaction and made primitive soap. As a result, plagues broke out many times in dirty cities in the Middle Ages. Instead of reflecting on their own hygiene level, Europeans at that time said that it was a problem caused by soap... So in the historical plane, soap would not be revived until the 1870s, when European cities had widespread running water systems and water heaters.
Of course, now there are time travelers in Western Europe, and soap will be revived in Western Europe sooner or later. But in the East, with my presence, China does not need to wait until the early twentieth century to introduce soap.
"Hehe, gentlemen, what do you think, if I mass-produce this thing and sell it, how much can I charge for it? How much profit can I make in a year?"
At this time, if Shen Li and Lu Kun were present, they would inevitably scold the Crown Prince for being too snobbish. However, among the three present now, Zhang Yicheng was indifferent, Xiong Tingbi had already completely fallen in love with the Crown Prince, and as for Xu Guangqi: the rational man's attention was no longer here, but was struggling to figure out why grease would become such a thing.
"Grandson, I think this thing should be priced at at least three taels of silver per piece."
"Oh? Mr. Xiong, what is the basis for this?"
"I saw it clearly just now. The raw material of this thing is the fat from pigs. Two pieces of lard from a big pig can only produce sixty pieces of this thing. I don't care what the pork and pig offal are used for. In short, a pig is only enough to produce dozens of pieces of this thing. Add to that the things that are added later, labor and so on... So, the sales price of these things together should be enough to buy back two pigs, right? And the current market price of pigs in my Ming Dynasty is about one tael and a half to two taels for a big pig. So, three taels of silver, no less."
"Haha, Mr. Xiong is right."
"Grandson, I have another suggestion."
"Sir, please speak."
"The transformation of this oil into this substance is truly miraculous. And the effect of this substance is also extremely good. So the Crown Prince should try to protect the manufacturing process and not let it be spread to others. To be honest, I shouldn't have come to see it."
"Hahahahaha~~ The three gentlemen and you are all my right-hand men. There is nothing to hide from you."
Is this to win people's hearts? Yes, there is this reason. But in fact, as a time traveler, the production process of this soap is really not a big deal.
In Zhu Youdong's opinion, in modern society, almost any workshop can make soap from lard, and the technical difficulty is actually very low. For a time traveler, this golden finger is really nothing.
In fact, after soap is produced, the remaining lard residue can also be used to produce candles and glycerin. Especially the latter, its role in modern society is too extensive.
Therefore, if the people he brought today had evil intentions towards soap production, and wanted to start their own business after secretly learning from them: Sure, but you will not get any share of the various benefits for time travelers in the future.
This is an attempt to win people's hearts and minds, and also a silent test!
