Lu Ming

Chapter 338 Opening of Port ([-])
Seeing the two piles of things on the table, Yu Bende immediately reached out and took one of them to his eyes, and looked at it carefully.

It started with a round roller-shaped object, white, soft, and light.After Yu Bende touched it with his hand, his first feeling was paper.Then when he turned it lightly, a thin layer suddenly fell off the roll. After rubbing it with his fingers, it turned out to be paper!
However, this kind of paper is different from all the papers he knows: not only is it extremely soft, but it is also rolled up layer by layer like a bamboo shoot shell, wrapped like a round stick, and there are small needle holes on it when you look closely. There will be a string.

"I'm afraid it's not easy to write?" Yu Bende questioned, while looking at Xiongdao through the hole in the middle of the scroll.

Although he had never seen this kind of strange paper, Yu Bende was not a knife and pen clerk for half his life. He immediately judged that it was a kind of inferior paper: although it was whiter than all the paper he had ever seen, this kind of paper was too white. Not to mention, the pores are still large, and the ink will spread out as soon as it is touched, making it impossible to write at all. The worst straw paper on the market is this kind of virtue.

Xiong Dao didn't refute, but just said with a smile: "Tear off a few sheets and fold them up again."

Yu Bende stretched out his hand to tear the paper as he said, and easily tore a piece from the row of needle holes—this made him immediately understand the function of the row of needle holes.

"It's exquisite." After muttering, he began to fold the pieces of paper.However, in this fold, I found a difference: the paper of this era, whether it is high-grade bamboo wood paper or inferior straw paper, is afraid of folding.Even good paper will break if folded twice, not to mention bad paper, which will fall off when shaken.

But Yu Bende didn't break the piece of paper in his hand until he folded the palm-sized piece of paper to the size of a thumb.

Plain white, easy to tear, soft, durable Yu Bende is not a fool, he now knows that this kind of paper is definitely not for writing, but where is it used?He had a faint feeling, but that layer of window paper just couldn't be pierced.

Just as Yu Bende was frowning and thinking hard, a voice came from beside him: "The so-called rabbit has three holes, and people have three urgencies."

"Here, this thing is toilet paper!" Yu Bendmao suddenly realized, and patted his thigh vigorously.

Xiong Dao saw that he understood, so he smiled and said: "You take all the twenty volumes on the table, and when you go back, ask the masters and ladies of the rich family to try it, and your own family members also try it, and you will know the beauty after using it. "

Yu Bende nodded again and again, he already had a premonition with his rich life experience that this is a good thing that can occupy the "high-end market".

Speaking of toilet paper, before the Yuan Dynasty, China did not allow paper to be used to wipe buttocks.Because paper production was not easy at that time, wiping your butt with paper was a blasphemy to culture.

This situation was changed during the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties, because the Mongols did not use the rhetoric of the literati.After the Ming Dynasty, the toilet paper industry has also developed to a certain extent, the most representative of which is the "Baochaosi", one of the 24 yamen in the Inner Palace.

Yes, Baochaosi sounds like it prints money, but this yamen specializes in making soft straw paper for the emperor to wipe his buttocks, and it is a high-grade institution like the Wine and Vinegar Noodle Bureau.

However, institutions like the Baochao Division are special cases after all.In the 17th century, the vast majority of China’s population still used toilet chips (bamboo sticks) when it was convenient. The soft and slag-free papyrus was quite expensive to make, and only a few wealthy families could afford it.

And what Xiong Dao is focusing on now is this high-end market.

Originally, he planned to distribute writing paper in the Jiangnan area this year, but after the annual meeting, this idea was stopped because he would grab the jobs of ordinary businessmen.

So Mr. Xiong had no choice but to turn around, take the high-end route, fill the gap in the market, and produce toilet paper to wipe the buttocks of the masters and wives—it is a good thing to earn money from rich people with luxury goods. The flowers are also buried in the cellar, and the cabinet is very supportive.

"I don't know if this tissue paper has a name? How to manage this industry chain?" Yu Bende has now begun to think about how to proceed with the implementation of the project.

"This is called Jierou toilet paper. In the future, regular products will have outer packaging." Xiong Dao began to explain to someone: "My side will soon set up paper-making workshops in Fuzhou and Jiangnan, specializing in the production of toilet paper. There is no shortage of bamboo and wood, and it is a good place for papermaking. But the Jiangnan side is not bad, there is one thing that is cheap and plentiful.”

When Master Xiong said this, he stopped and looked at Yu Bende.But the latter is blessed to the heart at this moment, his eyes lit up and a word popped out of his mouth: "Cotton stalk!"

"That's right, it's cotton stalks." Xiong Dao nodded, showing a pleased expression of "you are very business-minded": "Whether it's cotton stalks or rice stalks, bamboo wood, I can use my technology to make this kind of cotton." Paper."

Speaking of which, Xiong Dao threw Yu Shuban a cigarette, and then helped him light it: "This workshop, you want to produce land, factory buildings, workers, and 1 taels of cash in cash. Well, if we provide papermaking secrets and production machines, we will split the bill at 55."

Upon hearing this, Yu Bende nodded slowly after thinking for a while: "I've done this deal!"

Yu Shuban seemed solemn, but in fact he was already happy in his heart - even if he got the secret technique of papermaking, he would have already made money, at worst, he would break up and start a new mountain, wouldn't he?However, he would never have imagined that without the sulfuric acid supplied exclusively by Mr. Xiong, he would not be able to make paper.Not to mention the machine, if a bearing is broken, you have to lie down.

"Yeah!" Xiong Dao added with a smile after taking a puff of cigarette: "In the beginning, I took 5% of the shares, and it was also to help you block the knife. Besides, you don't have the strength to be a channel at all, so you should be an honest worker first." The owner of the workshop is wonderful."

"But when you gain a firm foothold in the future, I promise you to repurchase shares at any time, and the price will be based on the current price."

When Yu Bende heard this, he wished he could kneel and kowtow to Master Xiong on the spot. If he refused to agree to such a condition, he would be mentally handicapped.

But there was a surprise later: there were more than 20 rolls of toilet paper on the table, and several black lacquered boxes stacked on top of each other.

When Yu Bende opened one of the boxes, he found that inside were square bamboo cards the size of a thumb, engraved with patterns, colorful and colorful, a bit like dominoes in a casino.

"This is? A horse tag?"

"Of course! These are called mahjong tiles, which are much more fun than horse hanging tiles."

The horse tag is the predecessor of mahjong tiles. There are 40 tiles in the whole set, which are divided into four suits: Shiwanguan, Wanguan, Suozi and Wenqian.

Horse cranes were very popular in the Ming Dynasty, especially at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the scholar-bureaucrats indulged in playing horse cranes all day long. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Weiye of the Qing Dynasty even believed that the Ming Dynasty died of horse cranes in "Suiguan Jilue" .

Although this statement is biased, it also proves from the side the absurdity and idleness of the gentry class in the late Ming Dynasty.And the mahjong tiles launched by Xiongdao at the right time are aimed at the pockets of the scholar-bureaucrats: the 40-card mahjong can be played lingeringly, and the 144-card ultimate killer king, isn’t it a big deal?Just look at the people in later generations who fought on the mahjong table for three days and three nights.

Yu Bende quickly figured out the basics of mahjong, because there are not only mahjong tiles in the box, but also a beautifully printed drawing in his eyes, which not only has text explanations, but also various types of tiles.

Xiong Dao began to explain the operation of mahjong tiles to Friends Yu.Generally speaking, like toilet paper, factories are set up locally and then sold nationwide.

However, mahjong is different from toilet paper, which is easy to imitate, so Xiong Dao told Yu Bende that his own workshop will only produce high-end products in the future and follow the brand strategy.As for the low-end bamboo and wood mahjong imitated by folk craftsmen, let it go, it should be regarded as promoting employment.

So what is high-end mahjong?These are the boxes on the table.

These few boxes of sample mahjong are all machine-processed, with bull-domino faces, bamboo bottoms, and celluloid facets.In short, they are all made of composite materials, polished by mechanical processes, the surface is very smooth, and the cards are uniformly patterned high-end mahjong.

And Xiong Dao also told Yu Bende that if he wants to set up a factory, he needs to recruit a group of veteran craftsmen—in the future, he will launch handmade jade mahjong, jade mahjong, and Indian gemstone mahjong, which are exclusively for the top rich men.

After some business experience, Yu Shuban was scratching his head and scratching his head. He wished he could start rolling up his sleeves tomorrow and earn a lot of money. However, Xiong Dao told him that he could only choose one of the two businesses of toilet paper and mahjong.

In the end, Yu Shuban had no choice but to go home with a lot of samples in his arms.

After returning home, he discussed with his eldest son who was working in the Yamen, and the next day, Yu Bende ordered his second son to pass the most famous "Embroidered Lady" in the county to his family.

Although this class of embroiderers is not the same as the "three aunts and six wives", but with their good needlework and eloquence, embroiderers are more popular in terms of going in and out of the back houses of rich families.

Of course, this life is not a good thing: "Use good needles to go in and out of everyone, because please use it to teach your daughters, and there will be many people who will lure you out of the cabinet in the future."

Yu Bende didn't invite this old woman to abduct people, but to order her to advertise—whether it's toilet paper or mahjong, in fact, the female relatives who stay in the back house every day doing nothing are more suitable sales targets.In addition, ladies and wives will only tell the embroidered lady whether the user experience of toilet paper is good or not.

This truth is the conclusion that Yu Bende and his eldest son came to after discussing for half a night.

So the embroiderer distributed the two samples to the back houses of several big families.

Later in the day, the feedback from customers started pouring in.Unsurprisingly, both products were wildly successful.

Treated with sulfuric acid, the only toilet paper that can truly be called "white" in this plane is not only extremely soft, but also can be divided into different sizes at will. Quite a shocking user experience.

Not to mention mahjong, someone asked for it to be delivered on the same day - it is not a problem to easily make up three or five tables in the back house of a big family, counting the wives, young ladies, younger children, third children, and aunts and sisters-in-law.

So the second son of the Yu family who went to collect user feedback was scolded bloody: If there is no product, what are you promoting here?
(End of this chapter)