The Red Mansions Across the Four Seas

Chapter 24
Jia Min found a Wanjia kiln in the east of the city, which was a small folk kiln.

There are two or three people working here and there. It seems that the business is not very good.

That's okay, though, as long as he can make his stuff work out.

Shopkeeper Wan saw that he was a son-in-law and received him very warmly.Explaining the purpose of his visit, shopkeeper Wan called the kiln head, the master in charge of the kiln.

First the cooler, then the wine bottle.

Looking at the graphics given by Jia Min, the kiln head thought about having a cup of tea, and finally said to try.However, the tone is relatively positive, and it is estimated that there is still a little certainty.

The wine bottles are divided into two sets, one is hardcover, which belongs to the mother-child bottle, and one large bottle with two small bottles is a set.

In this era of wealthy families, the master has the habit of giving rewards.It is not only a show of kindness, but also a kind of showing off.The vial is for tipping.Of course, giving it away is also a relatively delicate gadget, which is both practical and decent.

The other set is normal.Just a wine bottle cap.

Color is white base with blue pattern.The picture is set as a market pattern, which is similar to the style of Qingming Shanghe Tu, but it is greatly simplified.

Ten sets of coolers were ordered first, and each set stated three taels of silver. The price was obviously not low, but Jia Min still accepted it.Relative to his profit, it is still very cheap.

Make samples of wine bottles first, and then discuss the price in two days. It depends on the final order quantity of Jia Min. Naturally, the more the more the cheaper.

Jia Min paid 10 taels of silver as a deposit and left.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of businessmen in this era are more trustworthy. Most business transactions are oral transactions, and there are not many written contracts.

After leaving Wanjia Kiln, Jia Min went to Zhoujia Carpenter's Shop.When Jia Min was walking around the city some time ago, he came to this place twice.

The shopkeeper is the master carpenter, leading three apprentices.

Jia Min came here to order wine boxes.This is the packaging box prepared for that kind of mother-of-pearl wine. Jia Min plans to turn this wine into a high-end gift wine.

He told shopkeeper Zhou his thinking, took out the graph, and explained it, and the carpenter finally understood.Then came the mounting and lining, explained everything, paid a tael of silver, and asked him to make a sample.Come back to discuss the price and quantity in two days.

In addition, I also asked the carpenter to make a larger sample of the packaging box, with 12 bottles in a box.This is relatively simple, as long as the general wooden box will do.It's just that Jia Min asked for thin wood boards.The thin boards of this era are just smoother planers.

Afterwards, Jia Min came to Hu's Winery.

This is a relatively large wine shop in the city. It not only makes wine by itself, but also operates some wine utensils, including wine koji.

Jia Min himself also knows how to make distiller's yeast, but the raw materials are not easy to collect, and it takes a lot of time and effort, so he just bought it out.I bought 20 catties of distiller's yeast, put it in a bag, and went to the butcher shop.

It is not to buy meat, but to understand the market of pork.

Fat meat is 40 Wen a catty, pork ribs are 35 Wen, pork ribs are 30 Wen, pig heads are 8 Wen, and offal is 20 Wen.

In this era, fat meat is more expensive than lean meat, because fat meat can be used as oil.Fat is the beauty in raising pigs.When slaughtering pigs, the most commonly used indicator to measure whether a pig is good or not is a few fingers of fat.It means that the pork thickness of this pig is several fingers thick.The thicker the better, the fatter the better.

In this era, meat is basically a high-end food, a quasi-luxury.It is not easy for ordinary people to eat a meal of meat.

After leaving the butcher shop, I went to the rice shop.It is not to buy rice, but to understand the market.

The main thing to look at is the price of corn.

Since the Ming Dynasty, corn has been introduced into China.Therefore, at this time, a lot of corn has been planted in the imperial capital.

At this time, corn was mainly used as food.The main grain for winemaking is sorghum.Almost no wine is made from corn.

An important indicator of whether raising pigs can make money is the ratio of meat to food.That is, the ratio of the price of live pigs to the price of grain.This ratio is 6 to 1.In other words, as long as the price of pigs reaches six times the price of grain, raising pigs will not lose money.

This is Jia Min's experience from his previous life, and it is a reliable conclusion drawn from expert research.

Looking at the price of corn, Jia Min made some calculations in his heart, and he knew it.

In fact, Jia Min's pig raising model is not suitable for him in comparison with the pig raising model in this world.

First of all, in his method of raising pigs, distiller's grains are the concentrated feed, which can be directly fed to pigs.According to this method, the distiller's grains can earn back the raw material money, and the wine is tantamount to free.

If he sells a catty of wine for one tael, he will make a net profit of one tael.

In addition, pigs in this world are basically not fed with grain.Many times people are not full to eat, where is there food to feed pigs?
However, it is not impossible to keep pigs. The main thing to feed pigs is grass. Therefore, killing pig grass is something that pig farmers often do.

Walking on the street, from time to time, you can see the advertisements posted by Ning'er and Nan'er, and there are indeed many people who see them, and there are many discussions.

Jia Min was overjoyed, and thought: Xiao Ping, tomorrow you will be busy receiving these people.

When Jia Min returned home, it was already dark, and Jiao Li, Ning'er, and Nan'er all came back.The rice should be ready, and we are waiting for Jia Min to come back and set the meal.

Ping'er had already prepared water for Jia Min to wash his face, and then served dinner.

This morning I finished drilling a well at Chen Hanlin's house, and in the afternoon I went to another house and dug another well.One well received 6 taels of silver, and two eyes were 12 taels. After removing the cost of 2 taels for one well, a net profit of 8 taels of silver was made.

It's just because there is no well pipe yet, although the money has been collected, the goods have not been paid yet.

As for Chen Hanlin's well, although it was originally agreed that no money would be required, Chen Hanlin still forced the money.Probably because he was not short of money, and he was a decent literati, so he didn't want to take advantage of it.

Moreover, due to the demonstration effect, there are still more than a dozen companies waiting to be numbered to drill wells.

Jia Min also talked about the scene when he saw the advertisement. Nan'er and Ning'er also said that when they posted the advertisement, many people wanted to come to Yeduju to see it.

Therefore, Jia Min arranged at the dinner table that Jiao Li would continue to lead people to dig the well tomorrow.Ask each family to prepare stones, and install them after the well pipes come out in the future. It will be very fast.

Now, the supply of Blacksmith Liu and other blacksmith shops has become a key issue.

This matter was also handed over to Jolly.

Liu Tiejiang's family lives in the place where Yedu lives in Sanli, and he went home today.So Jia Min told Ping'er that when Blacksmith Liu came tomorrow, he would prepare a residence for him and told him to live here from now on.One is to save time on the way back and forth, and the other is to save money for meals at home.

The advantage of Jia Min here is that Liu Tiejiang can have more time to work here, and it is convenient to work overtime when necessary.Of course, work is not for nothing.

An unspoken plan was that Jia Min wanted Blacksmith Liu to attend training and learn some cultural knowledge.In the future, he will be even more useful to Blacksmith Liu.

The main task of Ping'er, Fenghua and Xueyue these days is to receive those who come to ask about well drilling.Demonstrate, explain, register and rank them.

Ning'er and Nan'er's task tomorrow is to follow Jia Min and build a pig house.

Tonight, the training session started.

Except for Joli, the enthusiasm for learning is actually not high.

This has something to do with their origins and their current identities.

These people, except for Nan'er, are all servants of the Jia family.Joli is the son of a family.The so-called family birth means that his ancestors were slaves.Among the descendants, they are basically slaves of the Jia family.Although Ping'er was not a servant of Jia's mansion before, she was a maid bought by Wang Xifeng's family. After she married Wang Xifeng to Jia's mansion, she became a member of Jia's mansion.In fact, he is also a servant of Jia's mansion, just because he is a senior servant in Wang Xifeng's room.

For the maid who made a mistake, Jia's mansion would always say that she was matched with a certain boy, referring to the servant.In fact, it is not much different from slaves.

Those like Xiren belong to the maidservants who have been bought.If the Jia family wanted to, they could sell them again.Later, when the Grand View Garden was built, 12 actors were bought from Suzhou, and some of them were sold later.

These people, first of all as children, did not have the opportunity to receive an education.Even if you have received education, study well, and want to get fame, you still have to agree with the Jia family.

Even if there is culture, it doesn't matter, it's up to Jia's house, it's not up to them to decide.Their learning motivation is actually not strong.

Therefore, here is actually a question of cultural monopoly.

But now they all belong to Jia Min, and Jia Min wants them to learn, but they dare not stop learning.

The reason why Jia Min forced Ping'er and the others to study was mainly because of their future needs.However, there is also a little bit of my own selfishness.This selfishness is mainly aimed at Ping'er.

Ping'er's appearance is first-class, so he is called "Qiao Ping'er".In Jia Min's opinion, if such a beautiful woman is illiterate, it would be a bit of a shame.

It's like in his previous life, when he was walking on the street, he met a handsome Bai Fumei. She drove a sports car, stopped in front of you, and then told you, handsome guy, where is there a bank?At this moment, there was a bank in front of her eyes.So you said, isn't this the bank?Isn't that what the sign on it says?She said, sorry, I don't know how to read.

It is this feeling.

"When you were in the mansion, you often saw young ladies and gentlemen reading and writing, and reciting poems to match. You might think that they are very good, but in fact, it is not difficult. Anyone can do it. I am also illiterate. , After studying for a while, I can compose poetry.”

Jiao Li and Heping all knew that Jia Min was illiterate, so he didn't believe him when he said that he knew how to compose poetry.Jiao Li didn't say anything, but Ping'er pursed his lips.

Seeing Ping'er's expression, Jia Min knew what she was thinking.

"Maybe you don't believe it, okay, then I'll make a poem for you, listen carefully, this is a poem about flowers."

So Jia Min began to read poems.

"One piece, two pieces, three or four pieces, five pieces, six pieces, seven or eight pieces, nine pieces, ten pieces, eleven pieces..."

"Fourth Master, you are counting, where is poetry?"

When Ping'er said that, several people laughed together.

"Don't worry, add this last sentence, it's a poem. Fly into the bushes and you won't see it."

This poem is easy to remember, and Gioli memorized it immediately.He has a little fluency in writing, and thinks this is really a poem.

"Look, isn't this poetry? It's very simple, and you can do it too. So, it's not difficult to learn."

"I'll make another song for you, this one is called "Ode to the Duck", and it's a song in praise of ducks."

"Duck, duck, raise your head and croak to the sky. The black hair floats in the clear water, and the white palm paddles under the water."

After Jia Min finished reading this poem, Jiao Like thought about it. Why does this poem sound so familiar?
(End of this chapter)