The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 466 Soft Knife

As the saying goes: All the people in the world come for profit, and all the people in the world go for profit. The honeycomb coal business is very profitable, so Jia Lian is tempted. However, Jia Huan alone holds 60% of the shares, which makes him unwilling, so he is still hesitant.

Jia Huan said confidently, "Brother Lian, there is no need to rush to answer. You can take the stove back and try it out for a few days before making a decision."

Jia Lian nodded and said, "Of course we will try it out, but I think the distribution of the shares is still open to discussion."

Jia Huan shook his head and said firmly: "There is no room for further discussion. If Second Brother Lian feels that he is at a disadvantage, I will find someone else to cooperate with."

Jia Rong said hurriedly, "Nephew, you don't have to think about it anymore. It's all up to Uncle Huan San to decide. You can send the capital of one thousand taels of silver tonight."

Jia Lian could not help but feel secretly annoyed. He had originally wanted to secretly conspire with Jia Rong to force Jia Huan to give in, but the latter had no willpower and surrendered first. He had no choice but to say, "Rong'er, I'm not looking down on you, but can you come up with one thousand taels of silver?"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "My nephew has saved some money over the years, so if we gather together we can still get the money out."

Jia Lian said angrily, "Okay, you haven't even become a housekeeper yet, but you have hidden so much private money. If Brother Zhen knew about this, he would probably expose your skin."

Jia Rong bowed and smiled, "These are all my nephew's savings from his frugal life. I didn't embezzle any public funds. Uncle Lian, please don't mention this to my father."

"Look how scared you are, that's all you can do." Jia Lian smiled and patted Jia Rong on the shoulder. He just wanted to give Jia Rong a warning and had no intention of complaining to Jia Zhen. Moreover, once Jia Zhen got to know about this, his father Jia She would certainly know about it as well, and in the end he naturally wouldn't be able to hide it from Wang Xifeng. In this way, even if he made money in the end, it would probably not go into his own pocket.

Jia Rong breathed a sigh of relief and said with a wry smile, "Second Uncle Lian, you also know that my nephew is most afraid of me."

"Who isn't?" Jia Lian muttered to himself. He was also afraid of his father Jia She.

Jia Lian lowered his head and drank a glass of wine. He carefully weighed the pros and cons for a moment, and then he made up his mind and said, "Forget it, 30% is 30%, but I can't work for nothing. I have to get a salary every month - ten taels of silver."

Jia Huan nodded and said, "I definitely don't have time to manage this business. Everything depends on Second Brother Lian. It's natural for Second Brother Lian to take wages. If the business can be done, ten taels of silver is not too much. I can increase it a little more depending on the profit situation in the future."

Seeing Jia Huan agreed so readily and even promised to increase his salary in the future, Jia Lian felt relieved, so he clapped his hands and said, "It's settled then."

Jia Lian's monthly salary is only twenty taels of silver. Now, regardless of whether the business makes a profit or a loss, he can still earn ten taels of silver every month. Why not do it?

Jia Rong was obviously a little jealous, and hurriedly said, "Uncle Huan, I am free to help you on weekdays, can I also get a share of the wages? I only need five taels of silver."

Jia Lian sneered, "What kind of help can you provide? And you want to take five taels of silver as wages? Just wait for the dividend at the end of the year."

Jia Rong said hurriedly: "The salary is not important. It is my nephew's good fortune to learn some skills from Uncle Lian."

Jia Lian smiled and said, "You are quite clever, okay? When you become more skilled, I can pay you five taels of silver as wages."

Jia Rong said with a smile: "Uncle Xie Lian is supporting me, so I will definitely work hard."

The three of them immediately signed a contract, agreeing that each of them would contribute 1,200 taels of silver as capital, with Jia Huan taking 60% of the shares, Jia Lian taking 30%, and Jia Rong taking 10%.

Half an hour later, when they had eaten and drunk their fill, Jia Lian called his servant Xing'er upstairs and asked him to take the stove and a bag of honeycomb coal back to try out, and warned him not to reveal any information to the Second Mistress.

"Thank you, Brother Huan, for your hospitality today. I have something else to do, so I'll leave first!" Jia Lian stood up and said goodbye.

Jia Huan nodded and said, "Brother Rong, you and Brother Lian go first. I will settle the bill later."

So Jia Rong sent Jia Lian downstairs. After the two of them walked out of Jianghai Tower, Jia Lian did not rush to get on the horse, but put his arm around Jia Rong's shoulder and whispered: "Brother Rong, you must not mention what happened today to your father, remember?" Jia Rong nodded and said: "Uncle Lian, don't worry, I will never tell you, if he knows about my business of making money, how can I put it in my pocket."

Jia Lian laughed and said, "You're a clever boy!" Then he patted Jia Rong on the shoulder, mounted his horse in a dashing manner, and rode away.

As for Jia Huan, after Jia Lian and Jia Rong left, he did not rush to pay the bill and leave, but slowly brewed a cup of tea and tasted it slowly. The reason why Jia Huan sought cooperation with Jia Lian and Jia Rong was, of course, to win over the two by taking advantage of the benefits, and secondly, to set a trap for Wang Xifeng.

As the saying goes, men become bad when they have money. A playboy like Jia Lian, who is not picky about food and drink, is like a teddy bear. He can have a secret meeting with Bao Erjia's wife while Wang Xifeng is having a drink. Just imagine what would happen if he had a lot of money? Would he still obey Wang Xifeng in everything?

Wang Xifeng is a strong-willed woman with a vicious temper and a strong desire for control. Even Ping'er was on guard against her like a thief. If she found out that Jia Lian was having an affair outside, it would be strange if she didn't get furious.

For example, in the original novel, Jia Lian could not stand Wang Xifeng's dominance, so he secretly married the gentle You Erjie as a concubine and bought a house outside to hide his beauty. As a result, Wang Xifeng became jealous when she found out, but she did not explode on the spot. Instead, she endured it and waited until Jia Lian left Beijing for business. Then she began to manipulate You Erjie. First, she pretended to be pitiful and tricked You Erjie into her home, then she showed her sharp teeth and poisonous tongue, and abused and teased her in various ways, eventually forcing You Erjie to swallow gold and commit suicide.

After Jia Lian returned to Beijing, he found that You Erjie had died tragically, and all the private money he had deposited with You Erjie had fallen into the hands of Wang Xifeng. He could not help but gnashing his teeth in hatred, but under the threat of Wang Xifeng's powerful means, he dared not say a word. In the end, he could only silently collect the body of You Erjie. As he had no money to buy a coffin, he had to borrow money from others. It was extremely cowardly. It was probably from that time that Jia Lian had the idea of ​​divorcing his wife.

As written in Wang Xifeng's verdict: All birds come from the end of the world, and they all know how to admire the talent of this life. One obeys, two orders, and three people become wooden, crying towards Jinling, which is even more sad.

It can be seen that Wang Xifeng's final fate is to be divorced by Jia Lian and then die in loneliness and misery. Therefore, Jia Huan's current attempt to cooperate with Jia Lian in business is undoubtedly equivalent to putting money in Jia Lian's pocket, giving him the confidence to go against Wang Xifeng and speed up the process of divorcing her.

It can be predicted that once Jia Lian has money in his pocket, the couple will definitely have constant conflicts, and Jia Huan can only wait and see.

This is called killing with a soft knife. Although it is very harmful, it is just right for dealing with a vicious woman like Wang Xifeng. Jia Huan also has no psychological burden. After all, it was this vicious woman who provoked him first. She even dared to have evil thoughts about Mandarin that day, which undoubtedly touched Jia Huan's reverse scale.

Jia Lian brought the honeycomb coal stove home to try it out. He told Wang Xifeng that it was a new thing he bought from outside and wanted to see if it worked. The next morning, Wang Xifeng happily urged him, "This new thing is really useful. Second Master, buy a few more. I want to honor my old lady and my mistress. They will be very useful in the winter."

Jia Lian immediately understood what was going on, and he collected 1,200 taels of silver that day and made a meeting with Jia Huan and Jia Rong to discuss starting this business immediately. After all, most people buy this thing in winter, so they had to hurry up and produce it in order to make the first pot of gold before the weather got hot.

Jia Huan admired Jia Lian's initiative very much, and immediately took out a thousand silver coins and gave them to Jia Lian and Jia Rong, asking them to take charge of it.

It has to be said that Jia Lian is quite capable. Within three days, he had selected a workshop for making honeycomb coal and contacted the mine for supply. At that time, the mine will directly supply coal to the workshop at a very favorable price.

So, Jia Huan sent the "technical director" Tie Niu to the workshop to guide the workers in making honeycomb coal. In order to ensure that the secrets were not leaked, the principle of divided production processes was adopted. Each group of workers was only responsible for a specific step, and one of the key additives could only be completed by Tie Niu alone. In this way, no one knew the specific manufacturing method, not even Jia Lian and Jia Rong.

In this way, the first batch of honeycomb coal was produced in just six days, and the corresponding honeycomb coal stoves were "outsourced" to other individual craftsmen. After all, this thing does not require any technical content, and others can imitate it by just buying one, so there is no need to keep it secret.

It is said that Jia Lian is also a marketing genius. He started with his own family members and used his power as a housekeeper to purchase fifty stoves and one thousand coal cakes, which he then distributed to the masters of the two mansions and the important stewards and servants for use.

As the saying goes, good wine needs no bush. This honeycomb coal is indeed a good thing. Everyone who has used it says it is good. They have begun to actively buy it and recommend it to their familiar friends and relatives.

In addition, Jia Lian made full use of his personal connections to introduce this new thing to other nobles. For a time, honeycomb coal became popular in the upper circles. Not only did officials rush to buy it, but even the imperial palace began to purchase it for trial use. In just about a month, it spread to the people.

Tsk tsk, the speed of this spread was far beyond the expectations of Jia Huan and others, so that the workshop produced tens of thousands of honeycomb coals every day and they were still not enough to sell, and they were sold out almost as soon as they were produced.

Jia Lian was naturally overjoyed and immediately hired more people to expand production, increasing the output to 30,000 per day. However, the supply still could not meet the demand. This is the benefit of monopoly.

Of course, these are all later stories. After Jia Huan handed the business over to Jia Lian, he no longer cared about it. After celebrating Laba Festival in the mansion, on the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, he packed his luggage, said goodbye to everyone, and set off for Diecui Academy to take extra classes.

(End of this chapter)