Chapter 46: Silent Moistening

  Baima Temple is a village on Baili Zhou Island, just ten miles away from Lin Chunhong's shipyard. At a glance, the entire Baima Temple is an ocean of cotton. All you see are green fields dotted with white stars, which are the mature cotton flowers bursting open to reveal their cotton. This year has been dry and hasn't rained much, making it perfect for the growth of cotton. The cotton harvest in Baili Zhou was bountiful, bringing joy to the farmers who had put in a lot of hard work.

  Gu Da's family head, Gu Xiu Kai, moved to Baili Zhou at the beginning of the year and rented 15 mu of land near Baima Temple. He carefully tended to the land with his two sons, and the cotton grew much better than in other fields. Next to their land was the five mu of land rented by Gu Xiulin. The Gu Xiulin family had no strong labor force, as he worked outside and his wife had just given birth, leaving only his father to work on the five mu of land, which was a great struggle. Gu Xiu Kai remembered how Xiulin had introduced Da's wife to work outside, and often helped Xiulin's father with farm work, so the relationship between the two families was very harmonious.

  Gu Xiu Kai has been planting land for a lifetime, and cotton has also been planted. He has relatively rich experience. Gu Xiu Kai helps the old man with work and there is a return. The old man guides Gu Xiu Kai and his son as much as possible. The cotton in their field grows well, which is inseparable from the old man's guidance.

  When he had nothing to do, Gu Xiucai liked to chat with the old man and smoke a water pipe together. The old man was also skilled at wrapping tobacco, and the tobacco he wrapped was not only dense but also tasted good when smoked, and it didn't go out easily either. Gu Xiucai helped the old man light his pipe and lit one for himself too, took a few puffs, and said: "Uncle, looking at how well the cotton is growing this year, I think we can get at least 100 jin per mu of land, so with 15 mu of land, that's about 1,500 jin. At last year's price, one jin of ginned cotton was worth almost half a tael of silver, hehe, that's seven or eight taels of silver!"

  The old man tapped the ash off his cigarette on the wooden board, took a few more puffs, and said slowly: "Hehe, you and your two kids are willing to put in the effort. I'll tell you, people can deceive each other, but this land won't deceive you. The amount of effort you put in is the amount of things it will produce for you!"

  This remark made Gu Xiucai nod in agreement, nothing is more delightful than one's efforts being rewarded. He chuckled a few times and said: "However, this is less than what the kid's mother earns in a year, eh? What's going on here? The three of us are not even as good as a woman, this is really embarrassing!"

  The old man scolded, "You're always thinking about money! Everything is compared to money. Is there anyone left who cultivates the land? Remember, everything relies on farming. Your wife's wages come from working for the Zhang family, and you see how high her wages are? Can anyone outside make that kind of money? Besides, you can't calculate it like that. In another month, we'll be planting wheat, and you need to factor in the wheat harvest. Cotton is one thing, but wheat must be planted! The Zhangs said that after renting the land, they have to purchase grain. Think about it, if your family didn't have some stored grain, could you all work with peace of mind?"

  After finishing, the old man leaned his mouth to Gu Xiucai's ear and whispered: "I heard that Er Xiaozi said that Dian Shi is short of grain, last year he went everywhere to find food, even the red potatoes of the indigenous people were not spared. Who knows, maybe this year's grain prices will be very high! Look, there are tens of thousands of people repairing the river embankment, how much grain do they eat in one day?"

  Gu Xiu Kai followed the old man's pointing finger to look towards the riverbank, where a large number of refugees were repairing the river embankment. Since the floodwaters receded, the repair work had begun. The river embankment near Baima Temple was almost completed now, and it was said that grass would be planted to protect the dam. Gu Xiu Kai didn't care about the high price of grain, after all, his family had many mouths to feed, with old and young people, and a year's worth of food required a lot.

  Looking at Gu Xiucai's uninterested expression, the old man said: "This year your family will harvest over a thousand catties of cotton. If someone hulls and spins it into yarn, then weaves some cloth and sells it to Liu Xiang's warehouse, that won't be just seven or eight taels of silver, but several hundred taels!"

  "Uncle is being sarcastic again, our family has only one daughter-in-law who spins and weaves, how much cotton can she use in a year? The cloth she weaves is not even enough for our own use, let alone selling it?"

  The old man, seeing his own opinion being belittled, was very unhappy and said: "If there were no people, would you not find anyone? Look, those refugees over there are all strong men, where are their women? You go to Liu's alley and take a walk, many women live there, you can casually recruit a few to come back and help with spinning and weaving, just provide them with food and they will be grateful, what more do you want?"

  Gu Xiu Kai listened and felt that it was feasible, so he immediately stood up, patted his buttocks and said: "Uncle, I'll go first, I'll go back and discuss with the young ones." After finishing speaking, he lifted his foot and left.

  Looking at Gu Xiucai's back, the old man suddenly remembered something and shouted: "Xiucai, this year there is little rain and plenty of sunshine, so the cotton yield is high. Cotton fears water, if it gets soaked next year, not much can be harvested!"

  "Uncle, got it! I'll be careful!"

  ……

  There are many people who think like Gu Xiucai, and they are all over the place, making spinning wheels, looms, and weaving machines. Li Chengzong took Zhang Xiaocheng to seize this opportunity, and with the carpenters working day and night, they managed to make a small profit from these machines. To say that there are many carpenters on Baili Island now, but most of them were consumed by shipbuilding, leaving not many for Li Chengzong. However, making spinning wheels, looms, and weaving machines is relatively simple, and ordinary carpenters can do it, with materials readily available. Baili Island lacks nothing, including wood, and the timber market has stabilized, with annual sales volume changing little. But the wood from Qingjiang and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is increasing, all piled up on Baili Island, consuming a large amount of land for storage, and wasting a lot of manpower in transportation. Lin Chunhong has always been worried about the lack of development in the downstream market for timber, but Li Chengzong's creation of these machines has opened up a small path.

  There are two main areas of wood consumption, one is shipbuilding, but unfortunately, the shipbuilding industry along the Yangtze River in Ming Dynasty has almost come to a standstill. The other area is building houses and furniture, which market is also nearly saturated. Lin Chunhong thought of another major consumer, which is making four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages. However, when he discussed his idea with Li Chengzong, it was met with skepticism. Li Chengzong believed that the turning radius of a four-wheeled carriage was not a problem, and the parts required for steering were easy to make. The muddy roads were also not an issue, as they could simply use more good wood to make wider wheels, and the shock absorption could be solved by placing the carriage on elastic multi-layer steel rings. However, the key issue was that making four-wheeled carriages required a large amount of high-quality steel, which was in short supply everywhere.

  After Datoubao's large-scale manufacture of military equipment, the contradiction between supply and demand of steel became more prominent, becoming a heart disease for Lin Chunhong.

  As for the iron produced by Guan Renmei, Li Chengzong devalued it to be worthless. He thought that the iron produced by Guan Renmei was useless and too brittle to be forged! Last time, in order to build a ship, they bought a batch of iron nails from Guan Renmei, but they couldn't use them at all. In the end, they had to melt them down into farm tools. The iron nails had to be purchased separately. Now, the most idle people in Baili Island are actually the blacksmiths, who have nothing to do every day. It's not that they're lazy, nor is it that Baili Island doesn't need metalware. The key is that there's no source of raw materials.

  Lin Chunhong repeatedly polished and estimated that Guan Renmei's iron contained too much sulfur, but he didn't know how to reduce the sulfur content of steel. Later, through various channels, he learned that the Ming dynasty did not prohibit private mining and smelting, as long as one-third of the smelted iron was handed over to the government. After learning this, Lin Chunhong scolded Guan Renmei for being unrighteous, and didn't even tell him about it in order to prevent him from smelting iron. However, later on, Lin Chunhong comforted himself: after all, Guan Renmei had no obligation to help him, let alone a potential competitor.

  Just as Lin Chunhong had expected, Guan Renmei's mining and iron smelting had run into trouble. A large amount of pig iron was produced but nobody wanted it, which made him anxious like an ant on a hot pot. He thought that the pig iron and steel were too brittle and must be the problem of the craftsmen, so he severely tortured some craftsmen for interrogation, but couldn't get anything out of them. On the contrary, this led to a large number of craftsmen escaping, which made the situation even more dire and worrying.

  Guan Renmei had many other businesses, so even if he stopped smelting iron immediately, it wouldn't hurt him much. However, he was a man who wouldn't give up until he achieved his goal and made the iron-smelting business profitable. After some thought, he decided to go to Nanjing himself to find a way out for his steel industry. What shocked Lin Chunhong was that after Guan Renmei's trip to Nanjing, not only did the smelting work not stop, but it also expanded several times in scale. The more Lin Chunhong thought about it, the more frightened he became - wasn't the largest consumer of iron in Nanjing the Nanjing Military Equipment Bureau?

  Lin Chunhong thought Guan Renmei was playing with fire, and strictly ordered the core personnel to gradually reduce their business dealings with Guan Renmei in order to avoid trouble. But what about the iron materials he needed? Lin Chunhong had no choice but to order Zheng Tiancheng to frantically purchase as much as possible in Daye, downstream of Wuchang.

  But Lin Chun-hong still faced an urgent problem: in June, Teng Yu-hao reminded him that the cotton production of Baili Zhou this year exceeded 3 million catties, which would inevitably lead to a surplus of cotton in the entire Zhijiang County. The peasants could not sell their cotton and would accumulate resentment, even leading to unrest. Lin Chun-hong thought about setting up a flower-tying, spinning, and weaving workshop in Baili Zhou to digest this batch of cotton himself. However, Zheng Tian-cheng calculated an account for him: recruiting workers, training, building machinery, sales... all the costs added up would definitely not be able to compete with the cotton cloth from the Su-Song area, ultimately leading to a loss-making outcome, which made Lin Chun-hong give up this idea. Zheng Tian-cheng believed that instead of weaving cloth, it was better to purchase cotton and sell it to the Su-Song area, where the profit would be more substantial. For this reason, Lin Chun-hong prepared a large amount of silver to buy cotton.

  Lu Shi-yuan, due to his literacy, has been struggling in the business world for many years and has rich management experience. He was transferred to Hang Zhi Book Hall to take on important responsibilities. Now, the warehouse and agricultural production in Baili Zhou are all handled by Teng Yu-hao. After the last incident, Teng Yu-hao tried every means to restore his reputation, and his efforts were not in vain. Moreover, Lin Chun-hong attaches great importance to his management ability, so he handed over the affairs of Baili Zhou to him. Teng Yu-hao did not disappoint Lin Chun-hong's trust and managed Baili Zhou in an orderly manner. It can be said that this year's cotton harvest in Baili Zhou is inseparable from his efforts.

  According to Lin Chunhong's instructions, Teng Yu-hao set up a large sign at the Baili Zhou warehouse, which read: "Purchasing cotton, one and a half yuan per kilogram." This price was slightly higher than the market price. According to Teng Yu-hao's plan, the masses of peasants would enthusiastically come to sell their cotton, and he arranged for many partners to handle the purchasing affairs.

  What surprised Teng Yu-hao was that the cotton harvest season had already passed for half a month, and the warehouse had not purchased much cotton. Teng Yu-hao was shocked, after visiting Baili Zhou, he found that many workshops had appeared in Baili Zhou to purchase cotton, including Gu Xiu-kai. Moreover, people often came to ask if the warehouse would accept cotton cloth, and the price was cheap, two silver coins for one piece of cloth.

  Heng Yu Hao immediately wrote a report to Lin Chun Hong about the situation. Lin Chun Hong was overjoyed when he received the report, as these peasants had actually managed to produce rural handicrafts. He naturally wanted to encourage this behavior and with a stroke of his pen ordered: "Purchase all of it." However, he couldn't understand why the peasants were selling their cloth so cheaply. At this price, even adding transportation costs, they could compete with Suzhou's Songjiang cotton cloth. But when Zheng Tian Cheng had calculated the cost for himself earlier, one bolt of cotton cloth exceeded two silver coins?

  Lin Chunhong immediately ordered Zheng Tiancheng and Tan Yuhe to investigate the reason. The result of the investigation came out soon, and the reason was very simple: the labor cost of the workshop owners was extremely low. Most workshop owners recruited women from among the refugees to work for them, providing only food in return, with the highest annual wage not exceeding one or two silver coins, while Lin Chunhong's workers earned at least five silver coins a year! This made Lin Chunhong sigh: The original accumulation of capitalism is indeed full of exploitation.

  Gu Xiucai had just returned from Liu Xiang's warehouse, selling 40 pieces of cloth and earning 8 taels of silver. This finally put his mind at ease. When he first bought the spinning wheel, spindle machine, and loom, he didn't have enough money on hand, which almost made him give up on weaving. But Gu Xiulin found out and took a special leave to return home, contributing 100 taels of silver as capital, with each family owning 50% of the shares. Now the two families owned one spinning wheel, four spindle machines, and four looms, employing seven women to spin and weave, including Gu Xiulin's wife and eldest daughter-in-law. As for the spinning wheel, it was operated by him and his two sons. Now that Gu Xiucai had sold his first batch of cotton cloth, he exclaimed, "Fortunately, Liu Xiang's warehouse is open to purchasing cotton cloth; otherwise, I really don't know when we would have been able to sell it."

  Gu Xiu Kai was in a good mood, not only did he buy wine and meat for himself, but also treated seven women to a good meal, they just ate without asking for wages. Gu Xiu Kai called over Gu Xiu Lin's old father to drink together and chat.

  After a few rounds of wine, both of them were slightly drunk. Gu Xiucai said: "At this rate, the cotton wool from our two families will be used up by next March. It's still six months before we harvest the next batch of cotton in September. I was thinking if it's possible to collect some cotton from elsewhere, Uncle, what do you think?"

  The old man took a sip of wine and said: "Whether or not to accept the cotton flowers is not up to us, we need to ask the warehouse owner how much they are willing to pay for the cotton!"

  Gu Xiu Kai hehe smiled and said: "I asked General Manager Xu about it, he said that as long as we have goods, they will collect as much as they can!"

  The old man suddenly stood up and pointed at Gu Xiucai, saying: "Then what are you hesitating about? Hurry up and go buy it. Now the hundred-mile continent can't be received, so we can only take a look on the other side."

  "Uncle, I've calculated it. With four looms, we need at least ten spinning machines to supply the yarn. We still need to buy six more spinning machines. One warping machine is enough, my two sons and I can work hard to make do."

  "Let's buy it, but we'll have to hire six more spinning women. However, we don't have much silver on hand now, what can be done? Our two families buying these machines is already a case of selling pots and pans."

  Two men couldn't find a solution for the time being, so they just kept drinking and eating. Before long, the crispy pig's ears were gone. The old man looked at the empty plate and suddenly said: "Our second child is already a deputy general manager, let's see if he can borrow some money from Dian Shi through him. At this rate, we'll be able to pay it back by the end of the year."

  Gu Xiu Kai was overjoyed and kept saying: "It's still Gu Lao Er who has skills, haha, why didn't I see it before, hehe!"

  Two people drank and fantasized about the future, just like a profiteer calculating profits. Who would have thought that their current identity was just a farmer?