Chapter 66: Xu Jianyin

  Xu Jianyin

  "The East House, now our Chun Shang Hao is quite famous, not only are the umbrellas selling well, but also the soap and matches that came with them have started to sell well."

  Our matches are 30 cents a box, which is 40% cheaper than the foreign matches sold at 50 cents a box on the market! I heard that currently all the matchboxes in Jinan's shops have been squeezed out of sales by us!

  There is also soap, although it sells for two cents a bar and is twice as expensive as ordinary foreign soap, but after the local wealthy people use it, they all say that its fragrance is much better than foreign soap, saying it's like real flower scent, not pungent at all, and without any alkaline taste.

  All the servants who came to buy soap said that after their lady and young ladies used the soap of our Chun Xiang brand, they would no longer be willing to use other cheap soaps. They all specifically mentioned that from now on, they will only buy soap from our Yaohouse Chun Xiang brand!" Zhou Si was overjoyed, full of hope for the bright future of Yaohouse and his own future in the company.

  Yao Fan was also very satisfied with the sales situation in front of him. In less than ten days, the Jinan branch had recovered nearly 70,000 taels of silver, and this real gold and silver income was really exciting.

  "Fourthly, have you inquired about the price of the shop?" Yao Fang asked softly.

  As soon as Zhou heard Yao Feng mention this matter, he immediately turned his head to look around, saw no one eavesdropping, and leaned in close to whisper: "Boss, I asked several local famous informants about this, and the highest price this shop can sell for is just this amount! Nine hundred and fifty taels must be nonsense!"

  Zhou said on the fourth side, and made a V-shaped gesture with his hand.

  "I knew it!" Yao Feng coldly snorted.

  "The fourth one, after inquiring, can you tell what Hè Wàn has been busy with outside for the past few days? He hasn't even come to the shop!" Yáo Fēng said displeased.

  "Master, I heard from Qiu Mai Shun in the store that He San Ye bought a house in Pi Huo Alley and kept a young widow who is as beautiful as a spirit. I went around to ask about it, and the neighbors all said that He San Ye rarely goes out, hiding inside with that woman every day. That little widow was originally the concubine of Old Master You in the city, and she killed him after entering his house for only half a year... After Old Master You died, this little widow was driven out of the You family..." Zhou Si said, rambling on about the gossip he had heard.

  "Alright, don't say anymore." Yao Feng interrupted.

  "Shi Cheng has now gone to Tai'an to deliver the silver, I suppose it will take only a few days to complete my registration procedures. Once he and Luo Guangqun and Wang Chuannian have helped me enter the genealogy, we can leave as soon as they return. Just ask Luo Guangqun to stay behind and keep an eye on He Wanyou!" Yao Feng made up his mind.

  "Master, how much silver is left on the account?" asked Zhou Si.

  "Leave 3,000 yuan, can't be too much. You come back to Qingdao Port tomorrow and bring these medicines back to give to San Jie and Li Haoniu, there is also a letter inside, give it to them."

  "Yes, sir, I'll set out early tomorrow."

  ……

  Nowadays, on the streets of Jinan Prefecture, the traces of Tian Tang Umbrellas can be seen everywhere. The rich people who bought Tian Tang Umbrellas held various colorful rain umbrellas, which were colorful and competing with each other. Even in Mancheng, a inner city of Jinan Prefecture where only the Eight Banners lived, all kinds of umbrella flowers were in full bloom.

  "Hey, Pi Ye, you've also bought this heavenly umbrella."

  "It's true, the sun is too poisonous these days. I heard that there's a purple light hidden in the sunlight, and if people are exposed to it for too long, their skin will turn dark purple. Do you know why foreigners are so pale? It's because they understand this principle, so each of them secretly carries a small folding umbrella in their sleeves."

  "So that's how it is...... But, but you big and tall masters of the Zhenglan Banner, are also afraid of getting sunburned? You're not women......"

  "You don't understand anything! My great-great-great-grandfather was a servant in the imperial court of the Holy Emperor, and who knows when the royal family will need me to serve again. On that day, I'll be on the Golden Throne, with a fairer complexion, looking more presentable!"

  "Ah! Pi Ye, I think you're hoping to raise a little white face and get your hands on Zhan Wu's daughter!"

  "Cut the crap! Scram! I've got better things to do and no time to waste on nonsense with you!"

  ……

  In the Four Seas Teahouse on Dongcaiyuan Street in Jinan Prefecture, the tea guests were also chatting.

  "Xun Dàye, you're quite stylish today, aren't you? You've even started using a lighter! What's wrong, has your ancestral fire starter broken?"

  "That's the lighter that has been passed down from my ancestors, with blue enamel and gold trim, it's a family heirloom! How could it be broken? I was too fond of it to use it, so I left it at home. Nowadays, the foreign lighters sold by Chunsheng Company are really cheap, thirty cents for a box, with eighty or ninety roots inside, calculated down to three roots per cent, and I'm not short of that little money, why bother carrying this heavy thing around?"

  "Alas, yes. In the past, a pack of foreign matches cost 50 cents, but now it's almost half that price. Seeing how foreigners' goods are getting cheaper and cheaper, everyone in our great Qing dynasty is using their stuff. Who will still buy firecrackers?"

  "Yes, you said that the foreigner's brain is how it was grown, how can they come up with so many strange and peculiar things? Just take that Encounter Spring soap for example, my daughter used it once at someone else's house, came back and insisted on buying it, saying that after washing with it, her body smelled fragrant. I couldn't persuade her otherwise, so I had to let her buy it. Ha! You won't believe it, after washing hands, they really do smell fragrant and not greasy at all! Just smelling it makes you feel comfortable."

  ……

  Yao Weng was summoned to Ding Baozhen's Shang Zhi Academy, where he received some books that Ding Baozhen had asked him to translate. He also met a group of academy officials and translators introduced by Ding Baozhen. Afterwards, Ding Baozhen instructed Xue Fuchen to take Yao Weng to the Machinery Bureau to meet Xu Jianyin.

  Yao Fan met Xu Jianyin at the Machine Bureau in Shandong under Xue Fuchen's leadership and introduction. He saw that Xu was wearing a white linen jacket and pants, with a wide border of blue silk on the cuffs and hem of the jacket. Although he was not tall and slightly stout, his eyebrows and eyes showed cleverness, and his body seemed to have a kind of wisdom that could be seen through at a glance.

  After some polite conversation, they got down to business over tea.

  "Yao Dongjia is worried about the establishment of the Machine Bureau at the moment." The topic was opened by Xue Fuchen, who would be in charge of the Machine Bureau.

  "Is it true that Mr. Yao Dongjia has seen how foreigners plan their gun and cannon foundries?" Xu Jianyin asked.

  Yao Fan felt like they were testing themselves and also seeking answers from each other at the same time.

  But these two have never been abroad and don't even know how factories are built in Europe nowadays.

  Yao Fang looked at Xu Jianyin, this person was one of the earliest batches of people in the Qing Dynasty who opened their eyes to see the world and actually did scientific research. Yao Fang very much hoped to be able to help him, perhaps one day, this person would have the opportunity to appear on the big stage provided by Yao Fang and help this country.

  Yao Fan decided to shock the two of them into submission.

  "Nowadays, the large factories of foreigners are all equipped with power workshops. The steam engine is installed in the power workshop and transmits power to the top of each working area in the factory through a transmission gear on the roof of the big factory building, and then uses a belt to guide the power down to drive the belt machine."

  "Except for small family-owned workshops in Europe and America, large factories no longer use individual small steam engines to drive individual machine tools. This is not only energy-inefficient but also makes the factory interior crowded and lacking in planning." - Yao Fangdao.

  "But I heard from Western missionaries that many European and American families' small factories are suppliers of gun parts."

  Yao Fan knew that even the famous John Browning, relied on manual lathes to start his business. After founding the Browning company in 1878, he bought a vertical 5-horsepower coal-burning and wood-burning dual-purpose steam engine to drive the lathe. However, Browning's real rise to fame came after joining the Belgian FN company, relying on FN's large-scale production workshops, which made him world-renowned.

  "That's true, but Brother Xu is planning a large factory that will provide firearms for tens of millions of troops in the Qing Empire in the future. Without mass production, how can we guarantee quality?" Yao Fangdao said.

  "What's your idea on how this factory should be designed?" Xu Jianyin asked.