Chapter 5 The beginning of everything is difficult
When it gets dark.
When Zhu Niang and her son returned to the shop, Aunt Li hurriedly came over and asked: "Madam, is there any progress?"
Zhu Niang smiled and said, "Let's talk about the next three families."
"ah?"
Aunt Li didn't expect it to go so smoothly.
Zhu Niang looked at her son with loving eyes and said with a smile: "Thanks to Xiaohao, he talked more during the conversation, but now we have to quickly supply 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 be sales. Why don't we find more people and try to build all the ponds tomorrow?
Before the rainy season comes, get some more salt..."
The family suddenly came to life.
The salt drying went surprisingly smoothly.
Five days later, the first batch of salt, about three to four hundred kilograms, was dried out.
And judging from the current progress, three to four hundred kilograms of salt will be produced every day in the future. More than ten pools will take turns to store water and divert water. Zhu Hao uses special techniques such as pushing the brine and driving out the brine to produce excellent salt...
When Zhu Niang and Aunt Li looked at the salt crystals harvested in front of them, they were both attracted to the crystals sparkling in the sun.
"Mom, let's grind it quickly and deliver it to the restaurants that place orders. Remember to pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other. In addition, I'm afraid we won't be able to do it in the future, so we need to find someone to come back and help."
As long as Zhu Hao teaches Zhu Niang and others, they can actually do water storage and drainage.
But when it comes to the final grinding of the salt and shipping, you need help.
Zhu Niang understood the truth, nodded and said: "I will go to Uncle Zhong tonight to discuss whether they are willing to come to the house to do long-term work..."
Zhu Hao grinned and said: "Mom, actually we can find some strong women to work at home, and maybe we can save a lot of money."
Due to the backwardness of production tools in the Ming Dynasty, there was a huge gap in employment prices between male and female laborers. The current work could be done by women who had the strength to do it, so why did they have to find male laborers who were much more expensive?
"Xiao Hao is right, I will go right now..."
When Zhu Niang saw the harvest in front of her, she understood that drying salt depends on the weather and cannot be delayed.
The first batch of salt was successfully supplied.
Get the money back.
Finding healthy women to work for was also surprisingly smooth. According to Zhu Hao's suggestion, the women hired were all hired from villages outside the city.
Women from ordinary farmers' families usually spend most of their time digging food in the fields, working very hard every day and making little money. Now that they have the opportunity to gain income other than the output of the fields, they naturally flock to it.
As a peasant woman, she has strength, she is simple, honest, and illiterate, and she doesn't have so many evil intentions. Naturally, she doesn't have the ability to follow the same example and build salt ponds to dry salt by herself. If you hire them, you don't have to worry about the leakage of your skills.
"Four people can come here tomorrow. If necessary, we can expand the number at any time. It is difficult for other people to ask women to work in the city, but the situation is different here..."
Zhu Niang has the reputation of being a chaste woman, so she naturally has many inconveniences when she goes out to do business.
But it would be very convenient to hire female workers.
Naturally, a peasant woman doesn't want to be seen in the public eye, but if she works at a married woman's house, she can reassure her family no matter what she does, and she won't let the folks in the countryside make irresponsible remarks.
This is a special advantage possessed by chaste women.
"Mom, let's set up the store tomorrow. What I'm talking about is selling official salt. Let's get our name out there and let people know that our official salt is cheap and high-quality..." Zhu Hao suggested.
Aunt Li asked: "Brother Hao, didn't you say that we can't do business with the neighbors?"
Zhu Hao said: "But we can't keep selling official salt to the outside world! Everything is difficult at the beginning. I have calculated that if we only rely on the inns and restaurants in the city, it will be difficult to sell the salt we produce every day in time. Their daily
The consumption is not much..."
"We have to sell 10,000 jins of salt to recover 160 taels of silver and repay the foreign debt we owe, but 400 jins of salt a day will be difficult to sell without extra effort!"
Zhu Niang had forgotten her troubles because she was busy today, but when she heard this, she looked sad again.
…
…
Early the next morning.
Zhu Niang wrote the word "official salt" on the wooden sign and hung it at the door herself, so that the neighbors would know that the shop had restarted the official salt business.
"Oh, Third Madam, what are you doing? Selling salt? Do you have any salt?"
A man about forty years old came out of a grain store across the street. His lean face was full of wrinkles, and he spoke in a sinister tone.
Zhu Niang didn’t want to talk nonsense to the other party.
In Zhu Hao's few memories, this person's surname was Qian, and he was known as "Qian Chuanzi". He didn't know his real name, but there was no wrong nickname in the world. The shop he ran also sold grain miscellaneous products and official salt. Usually,
I am jealous of the good business in Zhu Niang's shop, and there is always a crowd of people talking about it.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Shopkeeper Qian, we sell our salt. If a customer comes to our door, we will sell it to him. Does this have anything to do with you?"
Qian Chuanzi pointed at Zhu Hao: "You are still such a naughty boy... Humph, if you are wise enough to advise your mother to cash out the shop as soon as possible, wouldn't it be better to do something to support your husband and raise your children in the future? Oh, by the way, your mother is now
I don’t have a husband to look after... I have high cheekbones, and I don’t need a knife to kill my husband. It’s a pity, it’s a pity...”
It’s really hard to pick up any pot!
Zhu Niang is actually very beautiful, with a typical oval face and round cheekbones that make her face very three-dimensional. She looks beautiful, delicate, dignified and elegant.
Zhu Niang dragged Zhu Hao inside. Zhu Hao looked back and asked loudly: "Aunt Qian has taller cheekbones than my mother. I wonder if she is also a coward? I must ask her face to face..."
"Bah, you slippery little devil!" Qian Chuanzi yelled.
Zhu Hao stuck out his tongue and made a face.
Just talk, lose the enemy but not lose the battle.
…
…
The shop put up a sign and said it would continue to sell government salt, but because the government had previously publicized the shop's salt eating bad people, who would patronize it for a while?
In the whole morning, not only those who came to buy salt, but also those who came to buy grains were gone.
But Zhu Hao is not worried.
In the morning, Zhu Niang took Uncle Zhong, Yu San and the others to the inns and restaurants around the pier to negotiate the sale of official salt. With the ready-made snowflake salt in hand, they could go anywhere without any disadvantage.
Zhu Hao and Aunt Li stayed to look at the store.
The business of the Qian's shop across the street was originally bleak, but due to the fluctuations and the Zhu's rice shop was in trouble, the business of the Qian's shop improved.
Whenever a business is done, Qian Chuanzi will deliberately send the customer out of the shop, and then give the customer a provocative sideways look, as if to demonstrate, you see that there are so many people at home, why don't you close the shop quickly?
Little did he know that the salt drying and sales activities in the courtyard were in full swing.
Thanks to God, it was sunny for half a month. Under the scorching sun, there was no delay in drying the salt.
However, the rainy season is coming soon in the Huguang area, and it usually rains continuously in June and July.
In order to "pick" the salt from the pond as soon as possible, Zhu Hao personally went to battle. After all, he was the only one who knew the brine extraction technology. Even if others copied the same technique, they would not be able to produce refined salt of such quality.
This morning, just after Mao hour.
The back hall of the Zhu family.
The old lady Zhu Jia called her son Zhu Wanjian to her side.
"Mom, what do you want from me?"
Zhu Wanjian looked tired. Recently, he often wandered the flower streets and willow lanes in the city and stayed away from home at night.
Zhu Jiashi pointed to Butler Liu who was standing beside him.
Liu Guanjia said: "I heard from Shopkeeper Zhao, who is in charge of the family's rice business, that several inns and restaurants that originally ordered official salt from us have recently broken off their contracts and did not say where they purchased the salt. I wanted to ask the government to come forward.
I checked to see if they were buying illegal salt, and later learned from some sources that they were buying salt from the Third Madam’s shop..."
"hehe."
Zhu Wanjian looked contemptuous and sneered again and again.
Zhu Jia's face was stern: "What did you say?"
"Tch, I don't think it's a big deal. It seems that those inns and restaurants that I've booked with don't want to do business anymore. The salt from Laosan's family is cheap, but it's common to eat the coarse salt fished out of the pool and get a bad stomach.
I’m afraid you’ll have to come back to us to buy salt in a few days!”
After speaking, Zhu Wanjian glared at Butler Liu.
He not only blamed the other party for not speaking up for him, but also felt that this person bypassed him and reported to the old lady. He obviously did not regard him as the boss of the Zhu family.
Zhu Jiashi waved her hand: "Bring the salt."
Immediately, Butler Liu took out the snowflake salt from a small baggage placed on the desk next to him.
Seeing the quality of the salt, Zhu Wanjian's eyes widened with disbelief on his face.
Zhu Wanjian pinched a grain of salt and put it in his mouth, then looked at Zhu Jia in surprise: "Mom, 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: "The kitchen salt stolen from those inns and restaurants through the hands of the waiters was bought back from the third lady."
"This...how is this possible?"
Zhu Wanjian was completely stunned.
Zhu Jiashi asked coldly: "How do you explain this matter?"
"Mom, listen to what my child said. The quality of this salt is so good that it is definitely not something that the third daughter-in-law can get. We have a close personal relationship with the big salt dealers in the city. If they have good salt, would they not want to hire me to distribute it? This
There...must be some fraud."
Zhu Wanjian couldn't understand what was going on. He just felt that he was being plotted.
Zhu Jia's face was filled with sullen expression, and she almost wanted to eat her unsatisfactory son alive.
"Let's just say that you are not a business person. The family's shop is entrusted to you. The annual profit is not enough for you. Now that something like this has happened, you dare to say that you don't know? It seems that it is better to leave this family business to outsiders than to leave it to you.
Take good care of yourself.”
"Mom, please don't rush to deny my children's hard work over the years... I'm going to take someone with me right now. I'm sure the woman will look good!"
Zhu Wanjian was furious and turned around to find trouble with his sister-in-law's family.
Zhu Jia's face was expressionless, but Butler Liu persuaded him: "Second Master, please calm down first. It is not appropriate to get into a big fight over this matter."
Zhu Wanjian said angrily: "Liu, you are a pickpocketing coward. You don't tell me anything, but you come here to report it to the old lady. I think you want to seize my position as the boss!"
"enough!"
Zhu Jia was furious and full of momentum, which suppressed Zhu Wanjian's arrogance in an instant. Zhu Wanjian drooped his head, with blue veins on his forehead exposed, wishing he could eat the old and weak members of the housekeeper Liu and his third daughter-in-law alive.
"Steward Liu, tell me what you think."
"Yes, old lady."
Butler Liu was unhurried and said, "From my humble point of view, it is not appropriate to go to the Third Madam to settle accounts at this time."
"First of all, we are not sure whether the salt is from the hands of the third lady. Even if it is, it is more important for us to find its purchase channel.
"Such a good salt, I guess it's still official salt. If you come to ask questions without any reason, I'm afraid you will be criticized by the countryside. It's better to call the third lady back to the house and ask her face to face."
Although Butler Liu is a servant, he can clearly distinguish the priorities of things.
Zhu Wanjian sneered: "Let's just say that woman must have hidden private money. No wonder she is emboldened. She may not have hooked up with some shady people... There will definitely be problems if a woman comes out in the public eye. Sooner or later, the Zhu family will be humiliated by her.
…”
Zhu Jia ignored the second son's slander against the third daughter-in-law and said to Guan Liu: "Go to the shop and inform her that it is not time today and there are important affairs to discuss in the house, so she must represent the third daughter-in-law in the house."
Attend."
"Yes, old lady."
Butler Liu glanced at Zhu Wanjian and walked out quickly.
Zhu Wanjian stood there, neither leaving nor staying. He was in a state of confusion and confusion, and his brain was completely insufficient.