Gao Wu Da Xia: The fox demon lady at the beginning

Chapter 253 Cotton Cloth
"I didn't expect Qi Zaiyu and Ban Shaokui to be so ruthless in Yuzhou this time, killing more than 10,000 people." Geng Chunping said with some surprise.

Han Chufan's expression was a little complicated. 10,000+ killings was indeed a bit heavy. From such a distance, Han Chufan seemed to be able to feel the blood energy rising to the sky in the direction of Weizhou.

Although he did not kill anyone when he conquered the southern territory of the barbarians.

But it is a foreign race after all, so there is no such big psychological burden.

"Killing will not completely solve the rebellion in Weizhou, and it will probably arouse an even stronger rebellion." Han Chufan whispered.

Soon the imperial court rewarded Qi Zaiyu and Ban Shaokui.

Both of them were granted the title of uncle, Qi Zaiyu was granted the title of Nobunaga Bo, and Ban Shaokui was granted the title of Pingchuan Bo.

After receiving the title of earl, both of them were very satisfied. In Daxia, the title was very precious.

Before, Emperor Yingxuan had only awarded the title of earl to Han Chufan and Nan Jianzhi.

The two men led their troops and left Weizhou. Governor Chai Jingxu breathed a sigh of relief. The two murderers were finally gone.

Moreover, more than a dozen rebel thieves in Weizhou were also wiped out, which was considered a great achievement of his.

Chai Jingxu was in a very good mood, drank a few glasses of wine, and came to the secret room of the study, practicing his special hobby.

The worse it gets, the more perverted it becomes!

After receiving the news that Beizhen's soldiers and horses had left, the rebels who had hid in the mountains and forests were relieved.

These murderers finally left, and many rebels cried out in pain.

Many of their parents, brothers, and children were killed by Beizhen soldiers and horses.

The flame of revenge burned in their hearts.

Shitou also took the opportunity to go down the mountain and walked into a small mountain village called Nianzhuang.

When he saw his aunt washing clothes, he felt relieved.

This was his back-up plan. Two days before the battle of Tianchi City began, he hid his aunt in this small mountain village.

The woman also saw the stone, threw away the clothes in her hands, ran over quickly, and hugged the stone with tears in her eyes.

"Shitou, it's great that you are okay. I heard that those dog officers and soldiers killed tens of thousands of people under Tianchi City. I have been worried about your safety.

It's great that you're okay, that's great. "

Feeling the woman's warm embrace, the stone-cold heart felt a rare warmth.

"Don't worry, aunt, I am a powerful warrior and I will not die easily.

Now that the Beizhen soldiers and horses are gone, we can leave the mountain soon.

You wait here for the time being, and I will take you back when we have established a firm footing. "

"Well, okay. Haven't you eaten yet? Auntie will cook for you."

The woman wiped the tears from her face and said with a smile.

Because she was worried about the transition, she was obviously much more vicissitudes than before.

After eating, Shi Shi lay outside the thatched house yard, enjoying this rare peaceful time.

Not far away, there were a few children playing and a man returning from farming.

Shitou thought of his parents and how his village was so quiet and peaceful back then.

The location of the small mountain village is very secret, and the bandits and rebels have not discovered it yet.

Shitou discovered this place by accident.

Because it was safe enough, Shitou chose to temporarily place the women in this small mountain village.

The woman walked to his side and squatted down.

"Shitou, can we stay here forever? I don't really want to live in such a big courtyard and live such a wealthy life.

I just want you to be safe and sound for the rest of your life, and when you get older in a few years, I will find you a wife, and I will have no regrets in this life. "

The women's voices are full of longing for this stable life.

When I was in Tianchi City, my life was better. I lived in a big house with maids and servants.

But the women lived in fear every day, fearing that one day they would no longer be able to wait for the stone to come back.

Shitou was stunned. He also liked this kind of stable life.

But he quickly shook his head. Sooner or later, this small mountain village will be discovered by bandits and rebels, and sooner or later the tranquility and peace will be broken.

In this troubled world, living a stable life is a very luxurious thing.

Especially him, now completely tied to Kuiziying.

Shitou touched his sword. In this troubled world, if he wanted to survive better, he could only rely on the sword in his hand to fight his way out of the world.

"Auntie, I no longer have the right to choose. I can only continue to move forward instead of stopping and hiding."

The woman sighed and said nothing more.

She also knew that staying here for the rest of her life was an unrealistic luxury.

In the evening, in the woman's reluctant eyes, the stone slowly walked away into the distance.

"I'm waiting for you to pick me up. You must be alive to pick me up." The woman shouted loudly.

Shitou nodded vigorously towards the woman, then turned and left.

safe city.

Han Chufan came to Pinganbao Textile Factory.

There is a big event today. Textile looms driven by steam engines are officially put into use.

The steam engine transmits energy to the textile machine through transmission devices such as belts and gears, so that it can run.

The emergence of this machine eliminated the need for textile workers to manually operate textile machines.

Instead, the energy of the steam engine can be used to drive machines, thus greatly improving the production efficiency of the textile industry.

The steam engine's boiler began to heat up and emit black smoke.

"It's moving! It's moving! It's really moving!"

The Ping An City officials and textile merchants who came to watch shouted excitedly.

"What a miracle." The students from Northwestern University said in disbelief as they looked at everything in front of them.

Many people also came to the women's hospital. Princess Ling Yue was among the crowd, staring dumbly at this machine that was running on its own.

They were witnessing a miracle and the beginning of a new era.

From then on, steam engines will be used in all aspects of the northwest military town.

Han Chufan looked at this steam spinning machine and nodded with satisfaction.

"Junbin, you are doing well. You are the founder of this new era."

Hearing Han Chufan's boast, Rong Junbin's face flushed with excitement, "This is not the result of me alone, it is the result of the hard work of all researchers at Northwestern University day and night."

Steam spinning machines began to be widely used in textile factories in northwest military towns, greatly improving efficiency and reducing costs.

The cotton cloth produced was of good quality and cheap, and it quickly occupied the entire cotton cloth market in Daxia, completely destroying the cotton cloth trading houses in the two southeastern states.

The backstage of the cotton cloth trading houses in the two southeastern states is the Southeast Party.

Because of cotton interests, the Southeast Party and Han Chufan completely broke apart.The southeastern party members began to attack the northwest military town in the court and attacked Han Chufan based on the eight sins proposed by Cai Xiansun, but they were suppressed by Emperor Yingxuan.

Emperor Yingxuan could not afford the price of breaking with the northwest military town.

"Sir, the price of cotton cloth in the northwest has been as low as one tael of silver per piece. The cotton cloth from our southeast trading house cannot compete at all.

Many shops are closing one after another, what should we do? "

Xia Jingping, the manager of the largest cotton trading house in the two southeastern states, came to the imperial capital and found Yan Xing, the leader of the Southeast Party, crying.

Yan Xing frowned after hearing this.

Most of these cotton trading houses in the two southeastern states are the property of their Southeastern Party members, providing the Southeastern Party with profits of one million taels of silver every year.

This Xia Jingping is Yan Xing's cousin, so he should be called cousin according to his seniority.

"Cousin, I can't do anything about this matter. The person behind the Northwest Cotton Trading Company is Han Chufan, and even I can't do anything about him."

In the two southeastern states, the Southeast Party can also rely on its deep-rooted influence to interfere with the northwest cotton merchants.

But in other states of Daxia, especially the three northern states and the imperial capital, the combined influence of all their Southeast Party officials is not as powerful as Han Chufan, the king of the North.

After the Northwest cotton cloth was produced using steam looms, the price was directly reduced by half. The cotton cloth that originally cost two taels of silver per piece was now directly reduced to one tael of silver.

The cotton in northern Xinjiang is good, and coupled with the standardized production of machines, the quality of northwest cotton has surpassed that of southeastern cotton.

The price is low and the quality is good. As long as people are not fools, they will choose northwest cotton.

In the past, the cotton cloth from the two southeastern states, because of its good quality, reasonable price, and strong backing, occupied 80.00% of the market share in Daxia, with an annual turnover of tens of millions of taels.

The total profit was about 200 million taels of silver, half of which had to be handed over to the Southeast Party.

These commercial banks need the protection of Southeast Party officials, and some of them are directly owned by Southeast Party officials themselves.

Cotton cloth and tea are the two most important ways to make money for the Southeast Party.

But I didn't expect that in recent years, northwest cotton cloth would emerge, slowly squeezing their market.

Especially after Northwest cotton cloth was switched to machine production, the price was directly reduced by half, which has taken away most of their market.

Southeast Commercial Bank cannot engage in a price war with Northwest Commercial Bank. If Southeast Commercial Bank lowers the price to one tael of silver per horse, it will be unprofitable.

After knowing that Yan Xing could not use official methods to suppress Northwest Commercial Bank, Xia Jingping was very frustrated.

In the past, Southeast Cotton Trading Company did not have no opponents, but they were all solved by their methods.

Most of the problems are solved using shopping mall methods. If the problems cannot be solved by shopping mall methods, official methods are used to solve the problem.

The Southeast Party has power over the ruling and opposition parties, and there are many ways to kill Southeast Commercial Bank's competitors.

But this time they faced Han Chufan, but they didn't have much to do. Han Chufan's current power and prestige were greater than their Southeast Party.

What's more important is that Han Chufan has the Northwest Army, the strongest army in Daxia.

With military power in hand, the Southeast Party must think twice if they want to attack Han Chufan.

"Cousin, please go back first and then think of a solution." Yan Xing said.

"Okay, I'll go back first." Xia Jingping left disappointed.

"Han Chufan!" Yan Xing whispered through gritted teeth.

As the saying goes, cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.

The cotton cloth of Han Chufan's Northwest Trading Company seized the market of their Southeast Trading Company, and Yan Xing was full of hatred for Han Chufan.

"No, we still have to find a way to bring down Han Chufan's Northwest Trading Company."

Qingzhou De Ancient City is a large city with a population of hundreds of thousands. It is located on the main road to the imperial capital and has many merchants coming and going.

The Northwest Cotton Cloth Trading Company has a large branch here, responsible for the supply of cotton cloth throughout Qingzhou.

"Check everything carefully for me. There are tens of thousands of cotton cloths in the warehouse. Don't let anything go wrong." The shopkeeper of the Degucheng branch of Northwest Cotton Cloth Trading Company ordered.

"I got it, shopkeeper, I'll check it carefully twice later." said the thin shop assistant.

The shopkeeper's name is Cheng Shenyu, a first-year student of Northwest University.

After graduation, he was assigned to work in the Ministry of Finance, and then transferred to the Degucheng Branch of the Northwest Cotton Trading Company, where he served as the shopkeeper for more than half a year.

The Northwest Cotton Trading Company was directly managed by the Ministry of Finance, similar to later state-owned enterprises.

Cheng Shenyu nodded. This man was an old man in the store, so he felt more at ease.

Cheng Shenyu looked around carefully and found that there was no problem, so he went back to the house to rest.

This time, letting him serve as the shopkeeper of the Degucheng branch of Northwest Cotton Trading Company is also a training for him. If he performs well, he will soon be transferred back to the Ministry of Finance in Northwest City.

Therefore, Cheng Shenyu worked very seriously and was careful and cautious in everything.

"Tomorrow we will send another thousand pieces of cotton to Jincheng." Cheng Shenyu whispered to himself.

With its low price and high quality, northwest cotton cloth has quickly seized most of the market in Qingzhou. Now it can be said that the supply exceeds demand. The more than 1 pieces of cotton cloth in the warehouse will be emptied in a few days.

Cheng Shenyu thought about tomorrow's work and fell asleep.

"Shopkeeper, it's bad, something went wrong."

In the middle of the night, shouts came from outside Cheng Shenyu's room.

Hearing that there was a fire, Cheng Shenyu woke up with a cold sweat on his forehead.

Cheng Shenyu quickly put on her clothes and rushed outside.

Then what I saw was that the fire soaring into the sky was particularly conspicuous in the dark morning.

Cheng Shenyu fell directly to the ground and shouted in pain: "My cotton cloth, more than 1 pieces of cotton cloth."

Cotton cloth is inherently flammable. In such a big fire, more than 1 pieces of cotton cloth will definitely be burned.

What would he do without these more than 1 pieces of cotton? His future would be completely ruined.

Cheng Shenyu's heart sank to the bottom.

The fire burned for a full hour before it was put out.

"What's going on? Why did it suddenly go off?" Cheng Shenyu asked after calming down.

The skinny guy was also in a state of confusion.

"Impossible, I have checked several times, and there is no open flame, how could the warehouse suddenly catch fire."

Cheng Shenyu also calmed down, knowing that this matter was not simple, he also checked it carefully when he left, and there was indeed no flammable point.

"This may not be a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster." Cheng Shenyu thought in his mind.

"Call Captain Sun of the escort team."

Such an important commercial bank branch, like the First Bank branch, is equipped with a guard.

There is a team of ten people. The leader is Sun Hu, a sergeant in the Northwest Army.

Sun Hu was called out and checked carefully.

"It was indeed a man-made accident. We found footprints and oil stains outside the warehouse. It is very likely that someone deliberately set fire to our warehouse."

"These bastards, Captain Sun must catch these bastards." Cheng Shenyu shouted angrily.

Sun Hu nodded. Everyone who came from the northwest military town had a strong sense of belonging.

(End of this chapter)