Insufficient balance
Just as Liu Ye was busy arranging the goods, the small villa of the medicine factory was also tidied up. The 10 women bought from Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and other places also arrived one after another. These 10 women were all purchased according to Liu Ye's standards, all of whom were widows with boys under the age of 10, basically illiterate, and had a clean family background with a guarantor. At that time, when Liu Ye proposed this standard, Liu Fu did not object, but his eyes seemed to be full of contempt.
Liu Yi actually had his own ideas, wanting women because the pharmaceutical factory's work was suitable for females, those who couldn't read were afraid they would see the Chinese characters on the packaging of the medicine, and those with children had two layers of meaning: one was to use the children as hostages to be more secure, and the other was that Liu Yi planned to cultivate a group of people loyal to himself, wanting to brainwash them, it's best to start from childhood.
Arranging food, clothing, and work are all big expensive tasks. Liu Ye only requires that they must pay attention to hygiene and nutrition. Every week, they must take a bath three times, have three meals a day, which is dry rice, and once a week eat a big fish and meat dish. Each child has two eggs every day. Then before eating and sleeping, they collectively recite "En Qing Song" in loud voices. This is a short poem written by Liu Ye himself, with very few words, but full of disgusting phrases. The general meaning is that Third Master is heaven, Third Master is earth, without Third Master there would be no new life. When Da Gui was asked to memorize it at first, he couldn't eat for several days.
It's called a pharmaceutical factory, but in reality it's just a packaging workshop. 10 women work there every day, with 2 of them taking turns to take care of the children and cook meals, while the remaining 8 people's job is to unpack boxes of medicine, take out the pills, and repackage them into small ceramic bottles made locally, with 3 pills per bottle, then seal the bottle tightly. 10 bottles are packed in a box, and 10 boxes are packed in a case, which is temporarily stored in the warehouse of the Zhuangyuan estate. Da Gui is responsible for keeping accounts, and all the medicine taken from Liu Ye has to be accounted for, with the quantity matched exactly after repackaging, neither more nor less. All packaging materials are burned every day, and if there's a problem, everyone goes hungry and isn't allowed to eat. Although they're bought as servants, considered household slaves, Liu Ye still decides to pay them wages, 5 silver coins per person per month, and 4 sets of clothes and 4 pairs of shoes per year. As Da Gui puts it, this isn't working, it's being a pig, eating more than you work every day.
The local pharmacy is operating normally, and the pharmacies in Guangzhou have also opened for business. The pharmacy is located within the city of Guangzhou, and it's called "Jinxiang Pharmacy", specializing in Western medicine. In reality, they only sell one type of medicine, which is an anti-inflammatory pill packaged in small ceramic bottles. There are only five employees in the pharmacy, who claim to be partners but are actually temporary replacements from the governor's office. The position of chief physician is still vacant, and David promised to find a doctor from the British army when he goes to Hong Kong.
The pharmacy and the pharmaceutical factory have all opened, and David should also return to Europe. He took the several large procurement lists written by Liu Fei, hugged his son tightly, and reluctantly boarded a cargo ship bound for Hong Kong. In the cabin, there were 500 boxes of "anti-inflammatory tablets" specially prepared for him, not that they didn't want to give him more, but simply because they couldn't produce so many counterfeit boxes.
Watching the sailboat slowly leave the dock, Liu Fei's heart couldn't calm down for a long time. Whether his plan could succeed or not depended on David's trip to Europe to sell medicine this time, because most of the equipment and technical personnel in his planned Taiwan base had to be brought back from Europe.
In June 1886, Taiwan was no different from previous years. Farmers were farming, merchants were selling goods, and fishermen were going out to sea. The large blue-green iron ship that had been anchored in the harbor two months ago was still there. Because of the darkness at night, there were often lights flashing on the ship, and many fishing boats and cargo ships that frequently entered and exited Tamsui Harbor used this big ship as a lighthouse to determine the direction of the wharf.
After more than two months, all the pills were finally counterfeited. A small portion was sent to Guangzhou, and most of them were loaded into the ship's hold. These days, "anti-inflammatory tablets" have been selling well. Since Dr. Allen, who was invited by David to sit in the hall, used "anti-inflammatory tablets" to rescue the commander's mistress from the brink of death, these miraculous pills have slowly spread among the British troops stationed in Hong Kong and foreigners in Guangzhou. Although the price is very expensive, most people with ability choose the former between life and money. Moreover, Dr. Allen found that this "anti-inflammatory tablet" also has a significant therapeutic effect on sexually transmitted diseases, so the sales of the pills have increased several times again.
At first, "aspirin" was only circulated among the British army and foreigners. Gradually, compradors and warehouse owners who had closer contact with foreigners also came into contact with "aspirin". Who dares to guarantee that they will not get sick? In an era where even a cold or fever could be fatal, who wouldn't want to get some of this "magic medicine" to save their lives? It is said that even some merchants and pirates purchased "aspirin" from the "Golden Elephant Pharmacy" in Guangzhou through various connections. At that time, the price of medicine skyrocketed in Yangcheng.
In 2 months, more than 300 boxes of "Anti-Inflammatory Tablets" were sold, with a sales volume of over 4.5 million taels. After deducting all costs, including shop rental fees of over 200 taels, labor costs of over 300 taels, packaging costs of only a few dollars, and wages that are not worth mentioning, the largest expense was the 10,000 taels of gifts given to Guangzhou Governor Gao Qinxiong and the 5,000 taels of gifts given to the British Deputy Commander.
Although "anti-inflammatory tablets" were selling like hotcakes and spreading throughout Guangzhou and major trading ports, due to their high price, they were mainly spread among the middle to upper-income class, and very few ordinary people had heard of them. As there were foreign doctors sitting in the hospital, various forms of flattery were sent in a timely manner, and since it was rumored that they had connections with the family of the Taiwan Governor, although some people might have been envious, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
As Guangzhou's sales have basically reached saturation, Liu Ye opened two chain stores in Quanzhou and Fuzhou, with personnel allocated from the Guangzhou headquarters, and insufficient personnel were supplemented by buying people. However, this time it is not necessary to bring widows with children. In addition to pills, Liu Ye also repackaged Zhongnanhai cigarettes, using bamboo as the material, selecting bamboo of the same thickness, cutting them into sections, slightly longer than the cigarettes, drying and lightly polishing them, and simply engraving them. These tasks of making bamboo tubes were all outsourced to local bamboo shops in Taipei, with good quality and low price.
Each bamboo tube contains 10 filtered cigarettes, sealed with a wooden plug wrapped in silk. The name is also called "Zhongnanhai", not that Liu Ye didn't want to change the name, but the cigarette has a trademark printed on it, and even if you want to remove it, you can't. Anyway, during the Qing Dynasty, there was no such name as Zhongnanhai, so don't worry about getting into trouble with the imperial court.
These well-packaged cigarettes were put in the "Golden Elephant Pharmacy" and sold together with "Anti-inflammatory Tablets" for 5 taels of silver per tube, which was more expensive than cigars at that time. As for sales, Liu didn't consider it at all. So many cigarettes would go bad if they were left for a long time, and he couldn't finish smoking them himself. Putting them in the pharmacy to sell as a sideline made the store look too empty with just "Anti-inflammatory Tablets".
David hasn't sent a telegram yet, Liu Ye estimates that he hasn't arrived in Europe yet. At that time, the ship's speed was very slow, and it had to stop frequently to add water and coal. It's estimated that it will take four months to arrive in Europe. Even if David arrives in Europe, Liu Ye can't guarantee that he will follow the agreement. If he is ruthless, he might abandon his son and the noble tradition, and use his own resources to start a new life and make a fortune on his own. In that case, Liu Ye would be powerless. Anyway, now that Liu Ye has money in hand, he can temporarily put his mind at ease and take things one step at a time.
Liu Yi was doing great on this side, overnight becoming rich, and his old father Liu Mingchuan wasn't blind or deaf. With Liu Fu being a close confidant, it's likely that every step he took was immediately known to his father. However, apart from asking a few questions when Liu Yi returned home to visit his parents and brought gifts, Liu Mingchuan only expressed concern about the various influences and told Liu Yi to let him know if there were any places where he needed help through Liu Fu, without saying anything else.
