I want to be emperor

Chapter 400 Traditional Workshops in Transformation
Foshan Town, Song House.

Song Siyuan quietly flipped through the ledger in his hand, while a young man in front of him said with a smile, "Third Uncle, it's only been half a month, and in just half a month, I've earned more than the usual two months." money."

"Not to mention, these Chu thieves are really generous in giving money. If there are so many orders in the future, the workshop in our family can earn more than 3 to [-] taels a year, which is comparable to making iron pots. too much."

Song Siyuan looked at the account book and listened to his nephew's words. After looking through it a little, he said: "The cost is still a bit high, especially the cost of materials must be controlled."

After hearing this, his nephew expressed concern, "Third Uncle, the iron materials we use now are already second-grade, and if it is worse, we can only use third-grade materials. I am afraid that the armor made by this way will be..."

Song Siyuan interrupted him directly, and said: "It's okay, what we make here is armor, not guns, and it won't explode with inferior iron materials, and the iron pieces in this armor are all in the interlayer. , Those Chu thieves will not take apart the cloth mask to see the iron pieces inside."

As Song Siyuan said, he directly pulled an abacus, and after doing some calculations on the top, he said: "Just use third-class materials, and the cost can be reduced by at least [-]%."

After all, Song Siyuan stood up and walked to the window, looking out of the window with his hands behind his back: "This kind of good time has not been long, and you have heard that the Chu thieves have already built a large-scale construction in Guangzhou and set up some kind of arsenal , I heard people say that the arsenal in Guangzhou covers an area of ​​over a thousand acres."

"That's thousands of acres. The factories built by these Chu thieves are beyond ordinary people's imagination. Once the Chu thieves' own Guangzhou arsenal is completed and put into operation, there will be various ordnance orders and things like us in the future." what!"

"So, let's take advantage of this period of time to earn more and earn more. By next year, I'm afraid we will have to go back to our old business and make iron pots!"

"It's just that this iron pot is not easy to deal with. Han Guo is very popular now. Not only our family, but also the iron pots of several other houses in the whole town are not very easy to sell."

The words Song Siyuan said made his nephew think deeply, although he also said: But... But after all, he still didn't say anything, he could only say: Then I will give orders later, the follow-up armor list Use third-class materials.

At the same time, at the other end of Foshan Town, Li's workshop was also engaged in the iron products business, supplying a large amount of iron armor and even guns to the Chu army.

The Patriarch of the Li family, Li Guangsheng, was making calculations with his son.

After a while, Li Guangsheng put down his abacus first, and then said: "Although the Chu people's machinery is expensive, as long as it is done well, the production capacity of our factory will be greatly increased, and the cost will be lower. As for the machinery, I think it can be done.”

Li Guangsheng's eldest son said: "Father, I have already been to Guangzhou and talked with the people from the Guangzhou Machinery Factory. Although the Guangzhou Machinery Factory has just started construction, it is expected to start production in half a year, and their production capacity is estimated to be tight first. They use it in their own factory, but they also promised us that they will allocate some equipment to us at that time."

"With this batch of equipment, we will be able to transition smoothly next year!"

Li Guangsheng nodded and said: "The ordnance business seems to be booming today, but it must not last long. After the Guangzhou Arsenal is officially put into operation next year, not only us, but the entire Foshan factory has not lost the list of ordnance. At that time, we will start from I made up for it in other businesses.”

"As for the acquisition by the Chu people, there is no need to mention this matter again. Although the price they gave is good, this iron workshop is the century-old foundation of our Li family. It is impossible for me to let this foundation be destroyed in my hands. This year, we will do a good job in the Chu people's ordnance list, the price they give is not bad, and the checkout is also happy, working hard for a year is enough for us to accumulate a batch of funds to support the transformation next year!"

"Wait until next year, we will fully transform into cooking utensils. Isn't the Han pot of their Hantian Machinery Factory said to be mechanically produced, cheap and good in quality? Hmph, next year we will also adopt mechanical production to reduce costs, plus our Li family's exclusive I don’t believe that the Guangguo made by the advanced technology can’t be as good as their Hanguo.”

The Song family and the Li family, as the first echelon iron-making families in Foshan Town, each have large-scale iron-making and iron-making workshops. The first and second largest suppliers of supplies.

However, these two large suppliers fell down soon after.

On June 23, a group of policemen dressed in black uniforms came to the door and arrested dozens of members of the Song family on charges of shoddy goods and bribery of public officials.

When the patrolmen came to arrest people, Song Siyuan, who had been pampered and pampered for decades, could be regarded as having seen a lot of turmoil, shook his hand and directly smashed the jade beads in his hands, and then when the patrolmen started arresting people one by one, Song Siyuan still forced himself to be calm , said that he is a good family, and he is an important military supplier of Master Wang. He offended our Song family and destroyed the overall situation of military supplies. You can't afford it.

But as soon as he finished speaking, a young major wearing a dark blue military uniform came out from behind a large number of patrolmen. When he saw the young major coming up, he gasped him directly: "You are the one who caught you, bastard, and sold it to my army!" Armor dares to sell second-rate armor.”

"Damn, 25 taels of silver for a pair of full-body heavy armor. When the samples were delivered, they were all high-quality goods, but when they were officially delivered, the batches were worse than the batches. If they are a little worse, we will bear it, but The latest batch of armor you fucking sent over, the iron inside is thinner than paper."

"Don't say you're just a businessman, even those bastards from the Ministry of Industry wouldn't dare to treat our army like this. If you don't kill your whole family, outsiders will think our army is made of mud?
Speaking of which, the major was so excited that he wanted to draw his knife on the spot... Fortunately, the chief of the Guangzhou Police Bureau stepped forward and pulled it out!
Although the arrest operation this time was strongly demanded by the military after discovering the problem, it is the patrol police who are carrying out the arrest mission now, and the military personnel are here just to supervise.

If the people from the army kill the criminal suspect, the case will not go to trial... The superiors are still counting on this case to demonstrate their judicial authority of the Great Chu Empire and deter those large numbers of criminals. What about private businessmen?

The policemen took him away, but not long after, the tax bureau of Guangzhou Prefecture also intervened, saying that the Song family was evading taxes...

Ever since, the case of the Song family has become a multi-departmental joint review.

The case was very simple and not too difficult. Soon, the Song family was thoroughly investigated for shoddy goods, bribery, tax evasion and other issues. A series of issues such as seizing other people's land, workshops, raping women, and killing slaves.

After the review was clear, the censors of the Guangzhou Prefecture Procuratorate immediately filed a public prosecution against the Song family, and the Guangzhou Prefecture Grand Court held a trial.

After the trial, more than ten members of the Song family headed by Song Siyuan and more than 20 middle and senior managers in the Song family's iron workshop were sentenced to death, and the remaining more than one hundred people were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from several years. All were copied and confiscated.

The Song family was completely uprooted overnight, with not a single hair left.

And it's not just the Song family, there are more than 20 iron workshops in Foshan town, large and small, supplying the Chu army with military supplies, and sixteen of them are shoddy. Family ransacking.

The Great Chu Empire has always been very proficient in the matter of ransacking families and exterminating clans, but in the past, most of the ransacking and exterminating clans were due to tax issues, or because they were recalcitrant elements who wanted to guard the land desperately in an attempt to fight against Da Chu The super landowners of land policy.

In fact, the Great Chu Empire would not take action against businessmen who obeyed the rules, because there was no need for that.

As early as this time in Foshan, it was the first time that the officials of the Great Chu Empire took action against the merchants. It is really that the merchants in the iron industry in Foshan have gone too far this time.

The goods sent by many merchants are shoddy. When signing the contract, they clearly want high-quality products, and the price is also high-quality products, but when they deliver the goods, they are shoddy.

The quality of the armor is so poor that it can't even block bows and arrows, let alone block musket bullets.

The gun looks fine, but it blows up when fired.

Those people even shoddy things like military bandages. Bandages are used by soldiers to save lives. They need to be made of high-quality cotton, and they need to be sterilized, but there is a workshop that uses them directly. The moldy and rotten cotton was used to make it, and the disinfection procedure was omitted. Some soldiers on the front line used this kind of rotten bandage, which caused serious wound infection.

As a result, Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin ordered a thorough investigation of the matter within the military, and then he discovered that the batch of military suppliers found in Guangzhou were not authentic, and they were shoddy.

I don't know if the civilian officials can bear this kind of thing, but the military definitely can't bear it.

If it weren't for the separation of military and government in the Great Chu Empire, the merchants in the jurisdiction would be dealt with through administrative agencies, and the military would directly send troops to kill all the illegal merchants like the Song family on the spot!
Later, it was notified to the governor's office in Guangdong to let the civil service system handle it.

Ever since, there were many iron manufacturers in Foshan Town, and more than half of them were killed in just a few days.

And this kind of situation made the Li family in Foshan Town feel frightened...

The several workshops under their Li family, combined, are now the largest supplier of the Chu army in Guangdong, with guns, armor and swords.

Although they did not do shoddy things, they did business honestly, hoping to make money through a large number of orders in a short period of time, and prepare for the transformation of purchasing machinery and equipment next year.

It's just that even if they didn't do these things, they were still worried!
(End of this chapter)