The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 121 Promoting sweet potato powder

Wang Wenlong explained to Xu Guangqi: "If you want to promote sweet potato powder, it's useless for a few of us to shout at our throats. Even if the governor of Fantai goes out in person, he won't be able to sell many kilograms. The key is to make the people realize the benefits of this thing. This It is called the first to advocate its custom."

"For example, Jinglun and Jingnan go to promote it among literati. If these literati become popular in eating food made from sweet potato powder, then other arty people will naturally follow suit."

"We go to the streets to find merchants to promote it. If there are several snack stalls that make profits from this sweet potato powder, then naturally, over time, some people will be willing to gradually start eating it."

"So that's it." Xu Guangqi felt very inspired and nodded in agreement: "Changing customs starts from such small things."

Wang Wenlong also knew Xu Guangqi's character and said with a smile: "Moreover, the effect of educating the world in schools is often not as good as actually making practical things for the people. The people are not stupid. Whatever is good for them, in their hearts They all know that if you really want to leave a reputation in the world, you can't achieve it by just writing books."

Xu Guangqi nodded more and more, thinking: "This is exactly what we need to do!"

Xu Guangqi and Wang Wenlong exited Fuzhong Street and walked towards a busy commercial street.

Wang Wenlong found a restaurant on this street. After entering, he saw that the store had a pine and mahogany floor, several paintings and calligraphy by local famous artists hanging on the walls, and a large cornucopia on the countertop made of manchurian ash oil. The decoration of a medium-sized or above restaurant.

Wang Wenlong smiled and went to the restaurant owner and said, "Hello, I'm from Xu Fantai's house."

The hotel owner looked confused and subconsciously raised his hands: "I wonder what you do for me?"

Wang Wenlong said in detail: "Fuzhou will promote sweet potato cultivation this year, and Lord Fantai asked me to help people sell food made from sweet potato powder. I wonder if you are willing to use it in your store?"

The boss didn't know that the person in front of him was Wang Wenlong. He just thought he was a somewhat respectable figure in the Fantai family. After being stunned, he asked: "Master Fantai, do you want a small shop to sell sweet potato noodles?"

Wang Wenlong said: "It's not forced, I just want to find some stores to try."

Wang Wenlong asked Wang Pingbao to take out the sweet potato flour from his backpack and introduced that it could be made into flour dumplings and other foods.

The boss looked at it for a long time, shook his head and said with a smile: "I'm not refuting the master's reputation, but this small shop really doesn't dare to try it."

"Why?" Wang Wenlong asked.

The boss said: "No one has sold this thing in Fuzhou City, and our cooks don't know how to make it. I'm afraid it will be ruined if I buy it."

Wang Wenlong asked again: "If other stores succeed in doing it, will you be willing to sell it?"

The boss said matter-of-factly: "Of course I'm willing, but we don't dare to be the first one."

"Okay, thank you very much." Wang Wenlong said, "I wish the boss a prosperous business."

"Thank you for your kind words." The boss said goodbye to the guests.

After Wang Wenlong went out, he asked several business people one after another, whether they were well-established shops or small traders, and told them about the difficulties faced by potato farmers, but the answers they received were almost the same: no one wanted to do the sweet potato flour business at all.

Xu Guangqi followed Wang Wenlong for half a morning and said discouragedly: "These businessmen are really mercenary. They clearly know the hardship of farmers, but they are not even willing to hang up a sign in their store."

"It will be natural in the beginning, don't worry." Wang Wenlong said.He also stopped a merchant carrying a load, who was selling wontons in fish soup.

I heard that Wang Wenlong’s store had sweet potato starch that was cheaper than mung bean flour. The vendor was interested and asked, “Can this stuff be used to make fish soup?”

Soup soup is a popular way of eating in Fujian. It involves putting starch-marked meat into boiling soup and cooking it. There are ways to make fish soup, meat soup and so on.

In the later generations of Wang Wenlong, the most authentic version of this thing had to be made from local sweet potato flour. As for other things made from corn flour and mung bean flour, they were inferior.

Wang Wenlong had not eaten much street food in Fuzhou before. He didn't know that someone was already selling fish dumplings at this time, and he didn't even think of looking for a stall that made fish dumplings.

He nodded quickly and said: "This is also starch, it should be fine."

The businessman was immediately interested: "Sir, are there any real objects here?"

Wang Wenlong said to the hawker: "There is sweet potato powder here now. Why don't we buy you three bowls of fish soup, and you can try making it with this sweet potato powder."

When someone offered money, there was no hawker who wouldn't agree, so he put down his burden and started working.

In a short while, three bowls of fish soup were ready. The vendor felt it when he was working on it. After finishing it, he said strangely: "It is easier to make fish soup with sweet potato powder than mung bean powder. It is convenient, but I don't know how it tastes."

Wang Wenlong handed the spoon to the vendor: "Why don't you try it yourself."

The vendor took another spoon, filled a small bowl, and sucked the hot food into his mouth. Then his eyes lit up: "It's tender and smooth, and it tastes better than the one made from mung bean flour!"

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "If there is sweet potato powder on the market and the price is cheaper than mung bean powder, would you be willing to buy it?"

The vendor said: "Don't say it's cheap, even if it's more expensive than mung bean flour, I'm still willing to buy it!"

Wang Wenlong said quickly: "This pound of sweet potato powder will be given to you first, but you will also promote it with your colleagues."

The hawker also had a cheerful personality and said with a smile: "Many people in our village are vendors. I will naturally tell everyone about the benefits of this sweet potato powder when I go back." Seeing the hawker leaving with his burden, Xu Guangqi said to Wang Wenlong: "Finally, there is one The merchant is willing to use this sweet potato powder."

Wang Wenlong said: "I know who to sell to. Zi first, let's go to the south of the city."

Wang Wenlong went directly to the south of the city, found a shop that made mung bean powder, and then showed them the sweet potato powder.

Those stores were indeed interested and immediately started experimenting with production.

The mung bean flour skin is crystal clear and white, which is pleasing to the eye, while the sweet potato flour skin is dusty when made. At first glance, it seems unsatisfactory, but it is only after you actually cook it that you can see the benefits.

Mung bean vermicelli is suitable for cold salad, but sweet potato vermicelli becomes more elastic and softer as it is cooked. Good sweet potato vermicelli can be stewed for an hour without becoming rotten, and the texture is smoother and more chewy than mung bean flour.

However, these stores that make mung bean flour are still reluctant to try it easily. They generally say that they have never sold it before. Although they can be made into vermicelli, they don't know how the market will be.

Wang Wenlong kept talking and revealed his identity, and finally got the two stores to agree to make some sweet potato powder skin and try to sell it.

It was almost dark when he walked out of the store. Xu Guangqi couldn't help but sigh: "It's really difficult to get people to accept new things."

Wang Wenlong said: "If you want to promote new things, there is only one way. To make people accept it from the bottom of their hearts, you must let them know the benefits of new things."

With the experience of promoting melon and vegetable substitution, Wang Wenlong understands how difficult it is to promote new crops and new products in these days. This era is still a small farmer economy, and people have little money in their pockets, so investment and consumption naturally tend to be conservative.

It's just a beautiful fantasy to come up with a new item and make the people's eyes light up and flock to it.

Fortunately, we have found an idea for selling sweet potato powder. Basically, sweet potato powder can be used wherever mung bean powder can be used.

The next day, Wang Wenlong went to Chen Jinglun and Deng Zhimo to tell them about the matter, and asked them to go to a cultural meeting where people gathered in Fuzhou to promote sweet potato powder skin. Promoting eating sweet potato powder skin as helping farmers would definitely arouse the interest of some scholars.

……

In the early morning, when Wang Wenlong got up, he saw Xu Guangqi standing in the hall neatly dressed, waiting for him. Wang Wenlong smiled and said, "Zixian is quite energetic."

Xu Guangqi said: "I have been out promoting sweet potato powder with Jianyang these days. Watching something being made from scratch makes me more interested than reading."

Wang Wenlong nodded, thinking that Xu Guangqi was indeed a person who made things happen.

He smiled and said, "I'm afraid I'll feel tired first. In that case, let's go. Let's go out after dinner."

The two had breakfast with Deng Zhimo, and then went out to pick up Chen Jinglun and borrow his carriage to go to Fuqing County.

Wang Wenlong has always wanted to buy a horse, but he never got around to it after returning to Fuzhou. Moreover, riding a horse in this era was not comfortable. Riding a horse from Fuzhou to Fuqing would be painful enough.

Chen Jinglun's family is rich, so the carriages he bought in Fuzhou City are all with iron wheels, which are more stable than ordinary wooden wheel carriages. Although there are no shock absorbers, it will still hurt your butt when you walk a long way, but it is still safer than riding a horse in the wind and rain. Well come.

The most comfortable means of transportation in this era is the sedan, and the more people carrying it, the more stable it is because the force is dispersed. The sliding rod carried by two people may make people dizzy, but it is said that a large sedan carried by eight people is very smooth to move. It's stable. As for the eighteen-carriage sedan that the emperor used when he went out, it was so stable that you could make tea and drink it in the sedan, and use people's shoulders as shock absorbers. People also have the ability to adapt. As long as you don't consider the problem of useless people, the effect will naturally be better. The air suspension is reliable.

As soon as he got on the carriage and before leaving Fuzhou City, Wang Wenlong met an acquaintance.

But it was Lin Zongwen, the leader of the Tiqi under Gao Yin and now supervising the Municipal Shipping Department in Fuzhou on Gao Yin's behalf.

In the past, when Wang Wenlong was in Gao Yin's mansion, Lin Zongwen and Lin Shiqing were both civil and military, and they were both Gao Yin's lackeys. Wang Wenlong naturally knew Lin Zongwen.

Although Lin Zongwen and Wei Tianjue were brothers, he had no resentment at all towards Wang Wenlong, who indirectly killed Wei Tianjue.

Lin Zongwen was walking around the market with his people. When he saw Wang Wenlong sitting with the car curtain open from a distance, he immediately rode up and said hello with a smile.

"Brother Jianyang, where are you going today?"

"I'm out of Fuzhou on business." Wang Wenlong replied.

Lin Zongwen laughed and said: "Brother has become more and more important to the feudal lord. He is running up and down Fuzhou all day long."

Wang Wenlong also smiled and said: "It's not worth it. Brother Lin is the one who has grown his hair."

The two of them passed by each other. After lowering the car curtain, Xu Guangqi asked strangely: "Who is this person?"

Deng Zhimo curled his lips and said: "The minions of the tax eunuch Gao Yin. Jianyang was captured by Gao Yin and worked as his staff for a few days. Fortunately, he escaped early, otherwise he would have been forced onto the pirate ship now."

Xu Guangqi was quite surprised that Wang Wenlong had such an experience, and then he felt that Wang Wenlong was very interesting. Just from watching the conversation between the two just now, he knew that Wang Wenlong was well-mannered and capable of stretching and contracting.

Xu Guangqi is not the kind of scholar who doesn't know the sufferings of the world. He went to the Guangdong Guest House to be a guest. He knew the difficulties of being a guest. Just think about it and you know how desperate Wang Wenlong must have been when he was captured by Gao Yin to serve as an aide.

As for Wang Wenlong, who worked as an aide to an eunuch, he still has such a good reputation in Fuzhou. This Wang Jianyang is indeed a wonderful person.

(End of this chapter)