The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 50 Immortal Stone Powder

"Give more examples. Even if you repeatedly tell the soldiers that the Dragon Guard Army is their home, it will be difficult to impress them deeply." In a large army tent, Zhu Linmi was explaining the ideological work methods of the army to the instructors, " But some simple examples are very effective, for example, when Song Quan from the first company was sick, the management team fed him, and Feng Shitou from the [-]th company had a broken beam in his house, and the platoon deputy helped him repair it himself.”

Of course, these are all required in the "Officer's Handbook".There are also similar officers who have to eat at the same table with the soldiers, and serve the rice in the same pot.Military pay must be handed out to each soldier by the officer himself.Soldiers are allowed to pick the munitions first, and the rest are used by officers, etc. There are many specific terms.

"Also, we need to set more models. The power of role models is infinite..." Zhu Linmei was talking when she saw Song Yingxing appearing outside the tent with a flushed face.

He ordered the guides to discuss among themselves first, and then walked out of the military tent, only to see Mr. Song and his nephew each carrying a basket of things waiting at the door.

"Your Highness, the students are fortunate enough to have fired this 'cement'." Song Yingxing lifted the lid of the basket after saluting, and it was indeed filled with dark gray powder. "Please have a look, Your Highness."

The previous batches of firing were not ideal, but Zhu Linmi felt that the basket of cement in front of her looked reliable.He hurriedly asked his soldiers to fetch water, mixed it with cement, and built a piece on the back wall of his camp.

Listening to Song Yingxing's narration of the trial production process, he knew that Song Yingxing found that the limestone and clay were not mixed evenly, so he added water to the raw materials, mixed them well, and then fired them to finally produce the cement in this basket.

Zhu Lin was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of a term: wet mixing process.It was used in metal smelting in later generations, but with the popularization of advanced mixing equipment, this energy-intensive process was eliminated.

But in the era of purely relying on human stirring, this "backward" technology can solve big problems.

This Song Yingxing is really a genius, I don't know how he came up with the method of "wet mixing".Zhu Linmei nodded secretly, this time he was in charge of the trial production of cement, which saved him a lot of energy.

After a few days, the cement on the wall of the camp was dry. Zhu Linmi found an iron rod and smashed it hard. The cement block remained motionless like a stubborn stone.

This cement can be regarded as a successful trial production!He sent someone to inform Song Yingxing to start burning cement in large quantities.On the other hand, he immediately went to the iron yard to teach Chanyi face-to-face instructions.

He has too few business talents in his hands. After much deliberation, the promotion of cement can only be done by her.

Fuyuelou is one of the most famous restaurants in Ganzhou Prefecture.Regardless of officials or gentry, anyone who wants to entertain guests with dignity must hold a banquet here.The location of the private room even has to be reserved a month in advance.

Recently, Fuyue Tower has opened a branch in the west of the city, and the scale is even larger than the main branch.

The opening was auspicious, and celebrities from all walks of life in Ganzhou came to join in.

Before everyone entered the store, they could see from a distance the elegant decoration, tasteful furnishings, and well-dressed staff. The entire restaurant exudes a luxurious and restrained charm.

After all, it is a century-old famous store, and in this environment, it is enough to beat all the competitors.

Soon someone discovered something even more strange—the steps outside the store, together with the entire floor of Fuyue Building, seemed to be made of a whole block of stone!

Those with good intentions really squatted on the ground to examine and knock carefully, and soon said in surprise: "The texture is hard and there are no joints, but I don't know what kind of stone it is."

When everyone heard this, they even forgot to eat food for a while, and began to study the ground under their feet.Some wicked people even picked up a small knife and stabbed it on the ground a few times, and the tip of the knife collapsed.

In the end, everyone came to the same conclusion-this flat ground is really a whole rock!

The news spread like wildfire, and the use of a huge rock as the foundation of the Fuyue Building branch immediately became the hottest topic at the moment.

In the afternoon of the same day, someone got new news that the ground of Fuyue Tower was actually not a rock, but something called "immortal stone powder".This substance is usually in powder form, it can be molded freely by adding water, and it is as hard as a stone after drying.

Immediately, celebrities, wealthy businessmen, and officials in the entire Ganzhou Prefecture, who wanted to build a new house or renovate an old one, all asked where they could buy this "fairy stone powder".The flat and solid ground of Fuyue Building left a deep impression on people.

Soon, a shop named "Su Ji Store" in the south of the city began to sell fairy stone powder, but when people went there, they were told that they were already sold out, and new products would have to wait for three days.

Immediately someone shouted: "I ordered two thousand catties!"

The others reacted immediately, "I'll order five thousand catties!"

"I order four thousand catties!"

"I want……"

Shouts rang out, and those who didn't know thought there was a fight outside Su Ji's shop.

"Immortal stone powder is one thousand catties and five taels of silver." Qiao Qian stood behind the counter and said unhurriedly, "If you make an appointment, pay half of the deposit first."

"So expensive!" Someone gasped when they heard the price.According to the news of Fuyue Tower, two thousand catties of fairy stone powder is needed to pave a three-foot-square floor, which means that it will cost dozens of taels to build a house just by paving the ground.

"Are you going to buy it or not? If you don't buy it, make way!"

Ganzhou is a rich and prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River, and it has its own loud shouts that are not bad for money.

"Buy! Of course I will. Three thousand catties!" The person who called out earlier took out more than ten taels of silver not to be outdone.

Paving the ground with fairy stone powder soon became a fashion in Ganzhou Prefecture.Especially those who do business are flocking to it the most. The floor of the store is paved with fairy stone powder, and those who come to talk about business will know that the store is strong and can trade with confidence.

For a while, all the large and small shops in the entire Ganzhou Prefecture were lifted up and redecorated.

The shopkeeper of Fuyue Building watched the flood of customers in the new store, and couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.Half a month ago, someone gave him two carts of fairy stone powder, saying that it was very good for paving the ground, and that if there was any problem, he would pay twice the reconstruction cost.

He took the risk and did not expect that the new store would cause a sensation in the entire Ganzhou government. Recently, a large number of customers came to see the "whole stone" floor, and of course they would stop by for a meal. The number of customers was three times that of his old store!
After the diners left the Fuyue Tower, they all sent their servants to Suji store to buy fairy stone powder.

Suji Store is exactly the store that Chan Yi bought, it is located in a remote place, and it didn't cost much.

The fairy stone powder is naturally just made cement.Zhu Linmi was well aware of the importance of commercial packaging, and asked Hong Si to help him change the name of the cement.

The newly hired accountant of Su Ji Company has already counted the money and his hands are cramping.Those who pre-ordered the fairy stone powder were all in a month's time. If the owner hadn't insisted on pre-selling for only one month, he estimated that the goods would be sold out in half a year.

The cement kilns in Longnan can produce nearly 5000 catties of cement every three days, and they can sell a total of 300 taels of silver every month, while the cost is only [-] taels, most of which is the freight from Longnan to Ganzhou along the river.

Zhu Linmei was not surprised at all when she heard the news from Ganzhou that the sale of fairy stone powder was booming.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the merchants were extremely rich, and extravagance prevailed. Anything new would soon become popular.

He found time to take Song Yingxing to Foshan again, and bought two iron-making furnaces in this Ming Dynasty iron-making center.

Song Yingxing was in charge of leading people to convert the ironmaking furnace into a calciner. In less than ten days, the two blast furnaces started firing the first batch of cement.

Later, Chanyi also came to Foshan, where she reproduced the business promotion plan that Zhu Linming taught her.Like Ganzhou Prefecture, Foshan soon set off a craze for fairy stone powder.

Soon after, a cement building stood in the street in Ganzhou, Foshan, and even the busiest part of Shaozhou, standing out from the crowd of wooden buildings around it.

The three concrete buildings are all of the same shape, with a gold plaque at the gate, engraved with three big characters: Temple of the God of Wealth.

Although it took a lot of cement to build these three God of Wealth Temples, since they were built, they have become a major sight in their respective cities, with incense burning every day.

Some people even came from hundreds of miles away to burn incense in order to see the spectacle of the "Stone Temple in the City".

Soon, it became popular among wealthy households to use fairy stone powder to build walls, which is said to be able to get the god of wealth and immortality.Of course, there are also many people who have taken a fancy to the strong and fire-resistant characteristics of the fairy stone powder wall.

Foshan and Longnan now produce 40 jin of cement every three days, but the supply is still in short supply.Net profit of nearly 2 taels per month.

There are too few manpower available now, and it is impossible for Song Yingxing to keep working on cement kilns, otherwise Zhu Linmi really wants to build ten or eight cement kilns in various places immediately.

We can only wait for skilled craftsmen to be trained in the future, and then let them be responsible for the expansion.

Zhu Linmi roughly calculated that the current income from the iron yard plus cement has reached more than 4 taels per month.It only takes about two months to pay off all the money for the purchase of armaments.For the time being, there is no big problem with military expenditure.

When the scale of the Dragon Guards expands in the future, it only needs to build a few more cement kilns to solve the problem.It can even be exported to Southeast Asia and European countries, and the sales volume must be an astronomical figure.

Of course, Zhu Linming knows very well that the cement monopoly cannot last forever.

He didn't intend to monopolize this infrastructure raw material for a long time, as long as he could maintain the monopoly for a few years, it would be enough to provide him with financial support for defeating the Qing army.

Soon after, Song Yingxing learned that the proceeds from the cement plants he presided over were all military expenditures of the Dragon Guards, and he couldn't help feeling very emotional.

He lived for most of his life, and the generals of the Ming army he saw basically only asked the court for military pay.When the court has no money, most of the soldiers will flee and the army will collapse.

Some "capable" military officers allowed their soldiers to plunder the people, just like robbers.The army did not break up, but wherever it went, the people were in dire straits and the places were corrupt.

The best situation is like Yang Tinglin, who relied on his influence to raise money from the gentry and pay them.But relying on donations is not a long-term solution after all.

Only the king of Chenzhou, who is so powerful and unconstrained, does not rely on the imperial court, does not rely on righteous money, and independently supports the entire army with ease.

He looked to the north, and had a strong premonition in his heart, with His Royal Highness King Chenzhou and his Dragon Guards, this time the Ming Dynasty would surely be rejuvenated!
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(End of this chapter)