Chapter 32: Seize the Time and Expand Production

  （0032）

  Finally, Zhang Zhun said cautiously: "The workers we recruit are mainly the relatives of the guards. Yang Zhiyuan, Hao Linyong, Li Jiaxi and eight other families will each invite one first. As for the others, you can handle it yourself. We want honest and diligent ones. The wages will be temporarily set at 30 cents per day. You can establish a reward system, and those who do well can get some extra rewards."

  Benefit binding is always the most effective, he wants to bind most people in Yangjia Village to the benefit chain of refined salt production and sales. Thought education is a powerful tool that can play a huge role, but basic benefits cannot be ignored either. Only by combining both can we achieve the best results, and others will be willing to die for you.

  Yang Rui Feng naturally said there was no problem and thought for a moment before saying: "Will it be a bit too little?"

  He is also a kind old man and feels that the profit he has earned is too high, so he wants to give more to his fellow villagers.

  "Almost done, add more slowly later."

  Thirty wen per day, equivalent to one or two silver coins a month, is not bad for the poor military households. Can't give too much at once, otherwise, it's hard to fill the desire. If the starting point is set too high, it will be difficult to progress gradually later. Refined salt can now sell for 155 wen per catty, with extremely high profits, but as the volume of goods increases, this price will definitely drop.

  A few people discussed and decided that Yang Kaidi would take the lead, asking several villagers to come and help with tasks such as purchasing firewood and transporting private salt. Each person's daily wage was 30 cents, equivalent to three catties of grain per day. In addition, they were also provided with two meals a day, which could save one person's food ration. With such a good deal, the villagers naturally flocked to it, and soon gathered more than a dozen people, including the core members of the escort team's families.

  Yang Rui Feng made a simple division of labor among the workers and sent them to Maojia Tun to buy firewood. Among the nine Tuns in Fushan, Maojia Tun is closest to Laoshan, making it the most convenient place to gather firewood. Whether it's dry firewood or charcoal, there are large quantities stored. For every 100 jin of firewood, it only costs a few dozen cents, extremely cheap. A dozen or so fellow villagers made two trips back and forth, bringing back over a thousand jin of firewood in total.

  March 18th, Yang's crude salt refining officially started large-scale operation.

  Zhang Zhun chose a relatively independent open space, first piled up fifteen large stoves with mud bricks, and then set up fifteen large iron pots. Fifteen large pots started working at the same time, hot air boiling, workers busy non-stop. Each large pot can refine about ten kilograms of refined salt during the day, after a whole day's work, Yang Ruijing refined about one hundred and fifty kilograms of refined salt, packed in baskets.

  At night, the four nephews of Huang's family also arrived. The main responsibility of these four strong men was to refine salt at night and work overnight. The profit from refined salt was too great, no one wanted to stop even for a moment, so they worked all night long. Throughout the whole night, the fire in the big stove never went out. By the next morning, 300 catties of refined salt were freshly produced.

  These fine salts are to be sent to the county town of Jimo, and naturally, Zhang Zhun's escort team is indispensable. Zhang Zhun immediately dispatched Yang Zhiyuan, Yang Qiang and Hao Linyong, leading thirty team members to escort these three hundred catties of fine salt on their way. Thirty people are enough for escorting. As for the fifty people who stayed in Yangjiatun, under Zhang Zhun's command, they were enough to protect the safety of Yangjiatun.

  Carrying three loads of salt to Jimo County, the speed naturally won't be very fast. It wasn't until the second day's evening that Yang Rui and others returned from Jimo County. This time, they indeed had a big harvest. Last time, the salt merchant readily accepted all the refined salt at a price of 155 wen per catty. Three hundred catties of refined salt were sold for a total of 46 taels of silver.

  Originally, the other party was supposed to give silver, but Yang Rui felt that copper coins were heavier and had a better feel, and they were also easier to distribute, so he asked for half of the silver and half of the copper coins. More than 20,000 copper coins, packed in huge burlap sacks, weighed at least 167 pounds, which was impossible for an ordinary person to lift.

  "Yu Lin, you come and distribute them."

  Yang Rui Feng handed the money over to Zhang Zhun's hands.

  The Yang family had never seen so much money before, and for a while, they didn't know how to spend it. In their subconscious mind, this money was mainly thanks to Zhang Zhun's efforts, and handing it over to him to distribute was the most appropriate thing to do. Besides, Zhang Zhun wasn't an outsider either.

  Zhang Zhun made no bones about it and carried out the allocation.

  Labor costs are paid first, thirty cents per person per day, and no arrears. Food expenses are also to be paid, only after eating enough can they have the energy to work. The cost of firewood is also to be paid. The remaining money will be used to purchase iron pots and expand reproduction. Every household in Yangjia Village has a large pot for boiling sea salt, so Yang Ruijing just buys it, no need to go to Jimo County specifically.

  According to Zhang's design, the basic production scale was 50 iron pots. Later, as the amount of private salt purchased increased, more iron pots were added. The 50 iron pots worked overnight and could refine about 1,000 catties of fine salt per day. After selling it, they would get about 155 taels of silver. After deducting the cost of purchasing crude salt, firewood, labor, and other expenses, the daily profit was around 120 taels of silver.

  In a month, it's 3,600 taels of silver in profit. In a year, it's more than 40,000 taels of silver. If we can refine more high-quality salt, this profit will continue to increase. If the entire Yangjia Village is mobilized and all 150 large cauldrons are put into operation at the same time, it's not impossible. Of course, from the current situation, the difficulty is very great. The fundamental reason is that there isn't enough sea salt. The entire Fushan saltworks produces only about 2,000 catties of sea salt per day. This output is very difficult to increase, and the original method of boiling salt has too low a yield.

  "Three thousand six hundred taels of silver every month...... Is this true?"

  Yang Yinghua muttered to herself.

  Apart from Zhang, every member of the Yang family found this number hard to believe.

  They used to be busy every day, but they only earned a dozen or so coins. In a month, they would have only three or four hundred coins. But now, they can actually earn more than 3,000 taels of silver per month! This is silver, shiny silver, with each tael equivalent to 1,000 copper coins! For a while, everyone felt like they were dreaming.

  More than three thousand taels of silver!

  What is that concept?

  The best paddy field in a mu is worth no more than ten taels of silver!

  A healthy young boy or girl, sold into slavery, for a price of only twenty or thirty taels of silver!

  Seeing the expression of Yang's family, Zhang Zhun couldn't help but laugh and said: "We are too poor, we haven't seen money. I tell you, there are many rich people in the world! Some wealthy merchants, especially some wealthy merchants in Jiangnan, have an annual income of over a million taels of silver. What's three thousand taels? There are many places where money is needed."

  Yang Rui Feng swallowed hard.

  Over ten million taels of silver!

  The Yang family had never seen so much silver before, and they finally decided that from now on, all the money would be handed over to Zhang Quan for management. Listening to Zhang Quan's tone, it seemed like he didn't take the more than 3,000 taels of silver seriously at all, which was beyond the Yang family's bearing. Yang Rui Feng's first reaction after getting the silver was to dig a deep cellar and bury the silver inside.

  Zhang Zhun was both angry and amused, had no choice but to take on this heavy responsibility.

  Money is for spending, not for storing. With money, it should be fully utilized and play the role of every penny.

  However, he has more important things to do and does not have too much time to manage every penny. For financial management, it can only provide a general idea and control in the overall direction. In terms of details, others are still needed to take care of them. He flips through the accounts every day and has a basic understanding.

  Yeah, the one in charge of keeping accounts is naturally Yang Yingfang. In his interactions with her, Zhang Zhun discovered that she actually knew some characters. This was relatively rare among poor women in the Ming Dynasty. Upon inquiry, it turned out that she had learned from Huang Shi. Moreover, she also understood basic arithmetic, which was also taught by Huang Shi.

  Zhang Zhun couldn't help but look at Huang's family with new eyes. It turned out that the most unremarkable person in the household was actually the one with the highest cultural level. In a military family, it was extremely rare for a woman to be literate and understand arithmetic.

  Yang Kaidel laughed and said: "Xiao Yatou's mother was a student at the school, at that time her family was still well-off, but later they had no money, so she didn't attend."

  Huang looked very embarrassed, but also full of hope. She used to do hard labor and didn't need to recognize characters or calculate numbers, originally thinking that she would spend her whole life like this, but unexpectedly, she had the opportunity to change her fate and become a "boss's wife".

  Zhang Zhun then handed over all his money to Yang Yinghua for safekeeping.

  At the same time, in order to make it easier for Yang Yinghua to keep accounts, Zhang Zhun popularized and applied Arabic numerals, and also taught her mixed operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The simple ten digits were much more convenient than using an abacus, and Yang Yinghua quickly mastered them. As Huang was getting older, his ability to lead was not as strong, so he used an abacus for accounting. The mother and daughter could just check each other's work and find any errors.

  The profit from refined salt sales is first of all used for expanding production.

  When Zhang Zhun originally built the large stoves, he reserved enough space for future expansion. Now, Zhang Zhun decided to take it a step further. Everyone worked together and built 35 more large stoves, added 35 iron pots, and increased the production of refined salt to 1,000 catties per day.

  At this production efficiency, the accumulated 6,000 catties of private salt will soon be refined. Zhang Zhun was well-prepared for this. He had already arranged for Yang Rui to purchase all the accumulated private salt from each village in Fushan at a price of 20 cents per catty of rough salt, which is four times the original price, and immediately absorbed all the rough salt.

  Other villages in Fushan also produced private salt that no one would buy, and every household had a large amount of inventory that they were worried about. When they heard that Yangjiatun was willing to offer 20 cents per kilogram, they were overjoyed and rushed to transport their coarse salt to Yangjiatun. On the side of Yangjiatun, it was a pleasure to do business with them - one hand exchanged salt for money, without any delay in payment. At that time, the attention of the entire Fushan area was focused on Yangjiatun.

  No outsider knows what really happened at Yangjia Village.