After the banquet, Chen called Sanchi to give a few instructions and invited Mr. Panshi, and several She ethnic elders saw tea in the study.
Chen went to the back to change clothes, and the guards brought in fragrant tea and left. Taking this opportunity, several Zong Laos quickly asked Pan Shi to justice: "Mr. Shi, what did he ask us to come here to do?" "You will know if you listen..." He didn't know what Chen Ju sold in the gourd, Pan Shi did not intend to waste his talk with them.
"No matter what he says, it is the most important thing to get the food down." Zong Lao said with a word and f6: "Panshi Gong, when Master Jianli comes later, you will tell him that we will go back after getting the food.
Pan Shigong nodded and signaled everyone to silence. Sure enough, after a while, he heard footsteps, and then the calm guard said, "Please wait in the study room, and you will arrive later.
As he spoke, the door opened, and five middle-aged men dressed well, smart and capable, came in. Sanchi said to Panshigong and others: "This is also the guest today." The few people who came in later smiled at Panshigong and the others with kind smiles. Panshigong only nodded without saying a word.
The guests were arranged to sit down three feet, and they were just a row of chairs on both sides, and they sat in a slight manner.
After working on tea for the new guests, Sanchi and the others stepped back. The remaining two groups of guests stared at each other. The guests who later wanted to chat, but had no choice but to raise the conversation several times, but they did not receive any response. They had to stop in awkwardly, and the scene was quite awkward.
In fact, Mr. Panshi was also quietly looking at the other party. Just looking at the big black jade ring on one of the fingers, he knew that these were all rich people. Looking at his smart and capable temperament, he should not be a scholar, but a business person, so he asked, "Do you do business?" Several people said, "You have good eyesight, we are indeed businessmen." "What kind of business people are proud of?" Mr. Panshi felt aroused in his heart and continued to question. "Yin Qi." One of them looked handsome and a little younger, and the man with a ring replied to his companion: "We are all dry-printing and dyeing." "Printing and dyeing?" Mr. Panshi was a little disappointed. What does this have to do with southern Gan.
Several businessmen were not the leader of this trip, and they did not dare to speak nonsense. Seeing that the other party had no interest in speaking, they stopped talking. Both sides sat quietly for a while, and a deep laugh sounded from behind the screen: "Let everyone wait for a long time.
The two gangs quickly stood up to greet each other. When they saw Chen, they changed into a dark blue cotton robe with dark flowers, which made them look more elegant and extraordinary.
He did not come out alone, but joined hands with an old man with a slightly rich and gray head. The two of them appeared in front of everyone in a close expression.
Chen Shu asked everyone to sit down with a kind attitude. The old man sat down on the left side, just opposite Panshigong, and was obviously the leader of the merchants.
Chen Ji also sat down in his seat, and said with a smile to Pan Shi: "Mr. Shi, this is President Ruan of Huizhou Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Changgong." "Mr. Changgong." Pan Shi said with a sing: "There is a courtesy in Pan Shi"
The old man smiled and said, "You must be the famous Panshi Gong, right?" Although he is a businessman, he is graceful and generous, so it is hard not to make people feel close to him. Even Angshi Gong smiled in a natural way and said, "What is the reputation of people in the mountains and fields? You are the one of the three major business gangs, and that is the famous one."
"It's just doing something for fellow villagers." President Ruan smiled modestly and said to Chen: "Thanks to this opportunity, I can meet Mr. Panshi and the patriarchs." The people in the scene will never neglect the Venerable.
"Since everyone knows you," Chen smiled and nodded, "Then let's get to the point." He said to President Ruan: "Mr., this time you came thousands of miles away, it will definitely be worth the trip. The big problem that has been bothering you, I have finally found a solution."
The eldest husband, whose courtesy name is Liangchen, was named Ruan Bi, and he is a person who must be mentioned. He was born in She County, Huizhou during the Hongzhi period. He was a small landlord family. He studied and studied medicine. Later, he asked his father for money, saying that he wanted to "Ji Yusifang". After going through setbacks and failures, he finally found his life goal in Wuhu.
Because he now has Wuhu as a place to achieve success. First, the geographical location here is very superior, with smooth water transportation, and is located at the center of important economic centers such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Hefei. It is an extremely important water and land transportation hub. It not only has high transportation but also has a well-informed business environment, and has a broad prospect of becoming a "big port of the Yangtze River and the backbone of Anhui".
More importantly, he found his career here, Heti. What is Heti? According to legend, it was a small tulle paper made by Zhao Feiyan's sisters back then. It was used as a synonym for dish paper after the Tang and Song dynasties.
At that time, Wuhu was already a heavy lock in the pulp and vegetable industry in the Ming Dynasty, but no one had yet to operate the dyed paper industry... It was mainly because this thing was not a necessity for life, but a thing to improve the quality of life, so it disappeared after the prosperity of the Tang and Song dynasties. However, several emperors after the founding of the State Dynasty advocated frugality, and the country was in the recovery stage, so for a long time, there was no market until the Jiajing period. However, Ruan Bi had a keen awareness of the changes in social atmosphere. He was intimately in line with the trend of society, and the social trend had undergone great changes, and gradually changed to Advocating extravagance. This trend is reflected in all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation. The various rules and regulations set by Emperor Taizu of the country were constantly broken through and overwhelmed... For example, in terms of clothing, corrugated brown hats, which were only literati and officials, had long become popular among the common people in the market; actors, prostitutes, and their heads were covered with pearls and jade; eunuchs in the palace all wore python clothes. These people were all in the beginning of the country, but now, even the censors were used to it, and even the emperor didn't care about it. Looking at a leaf, you can tell that the world has changed completely.
Ruan Bi keenly realized that people's requirements for quality of life would become higher and higher. Many things that were not popular decades ago already had excellent market prospects. So he sold his property and opened a dyed paper farm to make Hehoes.
How to sell Heti after dyeing it is another problem. But he had long been optimistic about the place where he fired his first shot. Nanjing! There are countless famous prostitutes, actors, literati and poets in the Six Dynasties, and of course the best market for Heti. And more importantly, it is popular across the country to look at Nanjing. What is emerging here, and major cities will soon rise and pass on it step by step. As long as the market in Nanjing is conquered, the market in the country will be fully under control.
As expected, he made a huge profit and became famous. Orders from various places came like snowflakes, which greatly exceeded the production capacity of Ruan Bi's family. Although he was trying hard to expand, it was still far from enough to meet market demand.
At this time, when other printing and handymen saw this, they all turned to producing Heti, not only on the ground of Wuhu, but also in other provinces, all those with pulp and vegetable industries rose to profit and followed the trend to produce. The output suddenly increased. The competition was very cruel, and gradually made little profits, and even no profit was made.
But Ruan Bi's business is still booming because in addition to his leading edge, he also mastered a unique technology called "Wannianhong". It is a kind of cinnabar paper, which is extremely bright and never fades, and no one can imitate it. Wannianhong has become a famous brand among Heti, widely sought after, famous all over the world, and sold overseas.
Just when everyone was jealous, Ruan Bi made an amazing suggestion to set up the Heti Bureau one by one.
It is jointly operated and sold by the owner of Qifang in Wuhu. This can save transportation costs and make more profits. In order to win the trust of everyone, he even offered the "Wannianhong" recipe. The owner of the vegetable shop in Wuhu suddenly realized and immediately established the General Administration. Sure enough, his business increased greatly.
Therefore, everyone elected Ruan Bi to offer wine as the General Administration, giving him great power. He did not disappoint everyone. He soon made Wuhu's Heti a popular boutique and set up branches in various commercial key areas across the country. Wuhu became the production and batch center of the national "Heti" production and batching; it became a nationally recognized leader in the dyeing industry, and even the local governments had to protect it.
After more than ten years of prosperity, Ruan Bi gradually felt the industry's bottle beard. After all, Heti has limited uses, and it is difficult to expand after the market is saturated. We must find more promising growth points. At this time, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was set in front of him and his guild. Suzhou opened a port, and foreign trade increased. Of course, Heti's sales also rose, but this was not what he was concerned about. What he saw was that cotton cloth will definitely become the main force in foreign trade and will produce a sharp increase over a long period of time.
Although Wuhu does not have the innate conditions for producing cotton, as mentioned earlier, if cotton in the ground becomes the world-famous Songjiang cotton cloth, it requires many processes and no one can be saved. As long as you can participate in any of them, you can share the benefits brought by the industry's flying.
As the city with the best printing and dyeing technology in the country, Wuhu is obviously qualified to participate in this storing and dyeing! Because in addition to textiles, the quality of cotton cloth also depends on slurry dyeing. Only after slurry and coloring can the disadvantages of rough surface and single color tone be solved. The cotton cloth after slurry is flat and smooth and bright in color, which can greatly improve the value of the cloth.
So Ruan Bi came to Suzhou to show that the sample cloth they dyed was indeed much higher than the local self-dyeing level. One by one, the same piece of cloth was more colorful after they were calendered and dyed, and the cloth surface was smoother. However, the local self-dyeed in Suzhou looked rough and lighter.
More importantly, the pulp dyeing process was packaged to Wuhu. Even if the round-trip travel fee was included, it would save three costs than to do it yourself. Susong merchants were very interested, but they did not dare to act without permission. The Cotton Spinning Bank wrote a letter to Shen from Beijing to ask for instructions. As a result, he received a reply: 'Divide and cooperation are the prerequisite for technological progress. Only by specializing in technology can we strive for excellence. Pangbu subcontracted the pulp dyeing process in Wuhu, but the original workers must be properly placed."
After receiving the instructions, the Suzhou Cotton Spinning Chamber of Commerce negotiated with the Wuhu Sauce General Administration. Because Ruan Bi had great sincerity, the progress went very smoothly and he could get a large number of technical workers, he was even more desperate. So the two parties signed a contract, and one-third of the woven fabrics in the Susong Cotton Spinning Chamber were handed over to the Wuhu Sauce Dyeing Chamber for the woven fabrics.
As a result, the one-third of the outer coatings and vegetables factory tasted the sweetness. Not only did the cost drop a lot, but the product quality was greatly improved, and it was sold well across the country for a while, and the supply was in short supply. Two-thirds of the weaver factory were run and could not sit still. If the product was unsold, it would be a good idea to close the door. Although I knew that all the pulp dyeing was handed over to Hui merchants, it might make me passive, but Susong Cotton Spinning Chambers visited the whole country and could not find a second place even if the level was close. Later, they spent all their money to learn this set of technology, but the more they learned, the more they learned, the more they were discouraged, because there were countless unique processes in each process from material selection to coloring. This was the accumulation of Wuhu printing and dyeing industry for hundreds of years, especially in the past few years, the production of 'hetis' made them explore the dyeing industry more and more deeply, and it has reached a height that outsiders cannot reach.
In the end, Susong Cotton Spin could only give up looking for another way and handed over all the cloth to Wuhu pulp dye. Moreover, through convenient transportation, it was loaded with cloth goods, which did not waste time or cost much transportation costs.
After several years of cooperation, Wuhu's cotton pulp dyeing industry has passed its original dyeing paper industry and has become the local pillar industry. The city of Wuhu has also rejuvenated and has gained the reputation of weaving Shangsongjiang and Zhusongyang Wuhu, and has become the economic sub-center of Jiangbei.
Ruan Bi's status naturally rose and not only became a great figure on Wujun, but also was elected as the president of the Huishang Chamber of Commerce. After his career, Ruan Bi became more generous and generous, and was generous. Especially in the war against Japanese defence, his contributions were particularly outstanding.
First, he led the people to fight against the Japanese. In the 34th year of Jiajing, a group of Japanese pirates rushed into Huizhou from Zhejiang, and then went north from Huizhou to approach Wuhu. Wuhu had no cities, and the defenders were helpless, and the officers and soldiers rushed to flee. Ruan Bi, who was fifty-four years old, stood up and with his lofty reputation, the powerful young men and women of the guild, formed a Baoxiang Group, and vowed to fight against the Japanese pirates. Seeing that Wuhu merchants without cities were so united, the fierce Japanese pirates had to take a detour and did not dare to harass Wuhu.
The second is to donate and practice Taoism. After the Japanese lord fled from Wuhu, Liu Xian was ordered to lead his army to pursue him. As a result, it was a dangerous and muddy road for dozens of miles from Wuhu to Nanling, which made Liu Xian's troops suffer. By the time they rushed to Nanling, they were at the end of their strength and were defeated. After avoiding, the government wanted to build the road but had no money. Ruan Bi stepped forward again, donated a large amount of money, and advocated that Wuhu and the "all the merchants were unpaid to help. Soon, a flat road paved with bricks and stones connected Wuhu and Nanling from then on.
The third thing was to promote the construction of city walls. After the Japanese pirates retreated, the strong demand for Wuhu officials and citizens to restore the city walls was finally approved by the court. But where did the cost of building the city come from? The government found Ruan Bi and asked him to "help the righteous and promote the people". Ruan Bi agreed without hesitation and personally donated one million taels of silver. Under his advocacy, Wuhu merchants donated a lot of money to make the project progress smoothly. Until last year, Wuhu city walls had been completed as scheduled, and the city was completed and firm. The officials of the Ministry of Industry who were accepted were praised as the "Crown of Hundred Cities"!
In order to commend Ruan Bi's merits, the court first awarded him the third rank of Jiayi doctor, but named Wuhu Ximen Tower 'Bi Fumen' to commend him. Since then, Ruan Bi's reputation has spread all over the world and has become a nationally famous "Yijia".
However, in recent years, the old man has not come out to move around often, and the Chamber of Commerce has already delegated power, but he still has a high attention to the dynamic pulse of the industry. He encountered trouble when he was early to improve his production capacity. This time the trouble lies in the dyes. If you want to color the cloth, a large amount of dyes are essential, and the most important and main one is indigo, because it is the main dye of various blue cloth, blue cloth, and black cloth; indigo can become indigo white after treatment, and almost all colors are indispensable. This kind of Qike base is used.
Therefore, as the amount of dyed cloth continues to rise, the demand for indigo also increases, but the supply of indigo is difficult to ensure the demand, and the shortage has led to a surge in its price, which seriously affects the profit margin of the industry.
Moreover, Ruan Bi also found out that Suzhou Research Institute has developed a set of waterwheel spinning machines, which is said to increase the spinning degree by ten times. Although this will not lead to year-on-year growth in cloth production capacity, Wuhu's pulp and vegetable industry must also prepare for the future and solve its own bottleneck first. It is better to wait for others to improve themselves than let others wait. This is the principle that Tun Bi has always followed.
So Hui merchants began to look for the origin of Shenlan nationwide. Speaking of which, this is not a rare thing. The ancient books say: "All five kinds of blue can be indigo," which means that five plants such as Polygonum, Sanglan, Mulan, Prablan, and Amaranth, can all extract indigo. However, Amaranth is something in ancient books, and no one can fight. Polygonum and Sanglan are produced in the north, and their innate yields are low. In addition, in recent years, the north has had severe droughts year after year, and the yield can be ignored.
The remaining Benlan and Malan are all produced in Fujian, which are the main raw materials produced now. It is also because of the Fujian merchants who are raising prices that Hui merchants have to look for new sources of goods everywhere. As a result, they seem to be ordinary, but they really stumped Ruan Bi and the others.
Chapter completed!