Crimson Dawn

Like his peers born in the late 20th century, Chen Ke also participated in many entrepreneurial activities.Facing one failure after another, Chen Ke had no choice but to sum up the reasons.One of the important results he came up with was that the number of people engaged in production in the organization must reach 100% as much as possible.This time dyeing cloth can be regarded as a new commercial attempt.As a funder and key worker, Chen Ke is not only personally participating in all the work, but also observing his current colleagues.

Hua Xiongmao, as a martial artist in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, really has the qualities to be worthy of the title of Juren.As long as Chen Ke personally ordered and led the team to move the cloth, light the fire, and dry the air, Hua Xiongmao worked tirelessly.As a graduate of chemistry major, You Gou fully demonstrated the characteristics of chemistry major.Active in thinking, strong in creativity, and extremely observant of various "chemical experiment" disciplines.In terms of temperature control, time control, and test data recording of dyed fabrics, the performance of You Gou is extremely good.

Originally, Chen Ke positioned this deal as cheap and large.The discolored cloth and cheap foreign dyes have lowered the cost of this batch of cloth to a level beyond the reach of ordinary cloth dyeing companies.Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao, You Gou, and Zhou Yuanxiao, these four people are all working for free, and the labor cost is so low that other dyeing companies dare not even imagine.Through the information casually revealed during the chat, Chen Ke determined that the four workers, including himself, had received a high level of education. In China in 1905, it was also a level that ordinary Chinese could not reach in their lifetime.

Maybe we also really have the legendary "bad spirit"?In the past few days, Chen Ke, as the project leader, arranged work according to the characteristics of each person. The other three "colleagues" with high status and high education did not have any conflicts.While removing variegated colors from the cloth, everyone dyed the cloth at the same time.Yougou is a girl who arrives at eight in the morning and leaves at five in the evening.The other three people arranged shifts, and the workshop does not stop working 24 hours a day.The forty bolts of cloth were dyed in less than three days.

The cloth had to be washed after it was dyed. Zhou Yuanxiao's craftsmanship was really good, and the color of the cloth faded after washing was not serious.Zhou Yuanxiao doesn't like to talk, except when he has to talk, other than work, Zhou Yuanxiao doesn't say a word.How could such a master fall into such a situation, Chen Ke felt very puzzled.

At noon on the third day, Chen Ke sent Hua Xiongmao back to his residence and asked Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin to meet.At noon on the fourth day, Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao returned to their residence. Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin were already waiting in Xu Xilin's room.Hua Xiongmao put a piece of cloth on the table in front of Xu Xilin, which surprised Xu Xilin.

"Is this the cloth you were talking about?" Xu Xilin patted the cloth with his hand, and it felt okay.Then he pulled away the cloth head several feet long and looked at the bright spot. The dark blue cloth felt smoother than ordinary coarse cloth, but it was much thinner.But the color is by no means comparable to homespun.The dark blue is very uniform, which is very suitable for summer clothes.

As a woman, Qiu Jin has studied cloth more, she said with a smile after seeing the cloth. "Bosun, the cloth made by Wen Qing is really impressive."

"Brother Bosun, I said last time that I wanted to sell the cloth to friends of the Restoration Society who have business in Shanghai. This time I took this one that was just dyed, so that Brother Bosun could have a look and see the real thing. "Chen Ke finally has his own product, and even his voice is much clearer.

"Of course I want to help with this matter." Xu Xilin replied.Chen Ke could tell that Xu Xilin had no interest in buying and selling cloth.

"I've been busy with dyeing cloth recently, how is Brother Bosun doing in Shanghai?"

"It's hard to say." After Xu Xilin said this, he just sighed, his face was full of depression, far less energetic than Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao.

Lunch was boring, Qiu Jin didn't say a word, and Xu Xilin ate with a dull head.Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao didn't dare to say anything.After starting the dyeing business, Chen Ke didn't think about revolution at all.Revolution is not about starving to death. A revolutionist who can starve himself to death is absolutely unqualified.After eating, Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao stood up and said goodbye.

As soon as he went out, Chen Ke wanted to go for a stroll in the crowded street.When shopping a few days ago, Chen Ke went there specifically.The purpose is to find a buyer after the cloth is dyed.

After the two walked for a while, Hua Xiongmao said, "Wen Qing, I actually have a friend who is in the cloth business in Shanghai. If Wen Qing doesn't mind, let's see if he can buy these cloths."

Chen Ke looked at Hua Xiongmao in surprise, "Why didn't Zheng Lan say it earlier?"

Hua Xiongmao smiled confidently, "At that time you hadn't dyed the cloth, how can I say this? I don't know how you talked with my uncle and aunt. Now the cloth has been dyed. I think you count on my uncle It’s probably useless to deal with this matter. Besides, Wen Qing, you never asked me, so how can you let me recommend myself.”

"Can that person eat so much cloth? A piece of cloth costs me at least one tael or five renminbi." Chen Ke said.

"Let's go see him now." Hua Xiongmao said confidently.

Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao went to meet the friend who was in the cloth business.He was originally from Wenzhou, and his cloth business was quite large.After looking at Chen Ke's cloth, he negotiated a purchase price of 100 yuan a piece, and the man bought all the cloth.Knowing that Chen Ke would still ship the goods, the Wenzhou businessman said that he would also buy them all.The only request made by the Wenzhou merchants was that they wanted [-] bolts of red cloth.

The cloth in Zhou Yuanxiao's Dyeing Cloth Workshop had been completely emptied, and there were 62 taels of silver on the table. Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao, You Gou, and Zhou Yuanxiao each occupied one side of the table.Chen Ke has always believed that his brothers will settle accounts clearly.After receiving the first payment, we really need to talk about it.

"Brother Zhou, I've worked hard for you these past few days. We agreed last time that we will use your workshop to dye 30 pieces of cloth, and we will give you [-] taels for the use of the workshop. I remember correctly." Chen Ke laughed. said.

The work has been very hard these past few days, half of Zhou Yuanxiao was exhausted, and the other half didn't seem to care about this matter, he replied listlessly, "That's right."

On the contrary, You Gou frowned after hearing Chen Ke's words, and Danfeng's eyes flickered, but You Gou didn't say anything.

"Before, I didn't know about Brother Zhou's craftsmanship. After seeing Brother Zhou's craftsmanship, I want to ask, how much are you going to charge for each piece of cloth, Brother Zhou?" Chen Ke continued to ask.

"Just watch it." Zhou Yuanxiao still looked listless.

"That's not right. Giving one renminbi is also giving, and giving five renminbi is also giving. Brother Zhou always has an attitude." Chen Ke's expression became serious.The next step is to dye a large amount of cloth. If Zhou Yuanxiao can't be satisfied, Chen Ke can't bear the loss if he moves a little bit.

Zhou Yuanxiao raised his eyes to look at Chen Ke, and he smiled wryly, "Brother Chen is worried about my hands and feet. I, Zhou Yuanxiao, just returned to Shanghai that year and wanted to open a cloth dyeing factory. In the end, I ruined the money of seven 8000 yuan. There are always two. Now there is only this ancestral workshop that has not been ruined. I think Brother Chen and this Brother Hua are both from rich families, but they never feel that they have lost their identity when they work as workers. I was very moved. And when I was in crisis, Yougou helped me a lot. Naturally, I will do my best to the people she introduces. It doesn't matter how much I want. But you can't lose Yougou."

Hearing this, You Gou grabbed Zhou Yuanxiao's wrist and said loudly: "Brother Zhou, I introduced this list to you just to cheer you up. You are such a good craftsman, you will recover your family business one day. Leave me alone." How to make money, I will naturally not lose myself. Brother Zhou, you are doing it wrong."

Zhou Yuanxiao shook his head, but stopped talking.

Faced with such a situation, Hua Xiongmao looked a little moved by his friend's loyalty, but Chen Ke showed no sign of being moved. It's not that Chen Ke didn't do this in the past few years, but the result of failure has already put Chen Ke's enthusiasm After cooling down, he said seriously: "Brother will settle the score, Miss You, since Brother Zhou said so, you should also give Brother Zhou some face. You decide what?"

You Gou listened to Chen Ke's words, then looked at Zhou Yuanxiao who was depressed, and then said: "If I say, you have to give Brother Zhou six silver coins for each piece of cloth."

Hua Xiongmao frowned when You Gou Shizi opened his mouth, and Chen Ke shook his head, "That's not acceptable. Let's not talk about the six coins. Miss You, besides the money for Brother Zhou, how much do you plan to ask for? "

Hearing that Chen Ke denied him, You Gou said angrily, "I don't want a cent, okay?"

"That can't be done. Absolutely not." Chen Ke immediately denied You Gou's angry words.

"why?"

Chen Ke said solemnly: "I don't care how Brother Zhou failed in the past, what we do now can only be done according to the current things. If we do business together, the score will be equal. Brother Zhou provides a workshop and leads us Dyeing cloth, of course we can’t lose brother Zhou. You, Miss You, me, and this brother Hua, work hard together, and we also get our benefits. Settlement means more work, more pay, no work, no work. And your The algorithm itself is also wrong, what we want to calculate is the money for dyeing the cloth, not the money for selling it. Although this sounds ugly, if you can’t calculate it like this, you will always lose money in business.”

After listening to Chen Ke's words, You Gou was so angry that he didn't make a sound.Zhou Yuanxiao, on the other hand, was still listless at first, after hearing Chen Ke's last words, he suddenly raised his head and stared at Chen Ke with sharp eyes. "Then Mr. Chen took out a charter for a penny and listened to it." Zhou Yuanxiao asked.

"This is the first time we have cooperated. Let's not talk nonsense about how much money we can make in the future. We can't make any money now. There is no future to speak of. There are only four of us. I will spend six dollars for each piece of cloth. When the money comes out, brother Zhou will get three and five coins, Yougou and I will each get one coin, and brother Hua will get five cents." Chen Ke explained his plan.

"Oh, you've made all the money." You Gou said mockingly.

"I paid the money for the cloth and the dye. Miss You, you are wronging me."

You Gou looked at Zhou Yuanxiao, and Chen Ke also looked at Zhou Yuanxiao. Zhou Yuanxiao thought for a moment and nodded, "I think it's okay. Mr. Chen's division is very reasonable."

After finalizing the matter, Chen Ke declared that the current 62 taels of silver will be used to buy cloth and dyestuffs regardless of division.Everyone is not short of food money, and everyone thinks it is acceptable after hearing this.

Coming out of Zhou Yuanxiao's place, Hua Xiongmao smiled and said, "I didn't expect that I can earn 50 Wen for a piece of cloth now, and I have earned enough money for meals this day."

"Does Zhenglan think it's a loss? I was just about to tell you that for the five renminbi you can earn by selling a piece of cloth, you will give Zhenglan one renminbi. Zheng Lan, please rest assured."

"Wen Qing, I don't mean that, I just think why you want to win over the two of them."

"Those two people are of great use, everyone cooperates well, more than this little money."

To such an affirmative answer, Hua Xiongmao could only shake his head and remain silent.

With the money, Chen Ke bought another hundred bolts of cloth.The workshop continued to work in full swing.With the previous experience, the hundred pieces of cloth were dyed in four days.Out of one hundred bolts of cloth, there are 80 bolts of blue cloth and 20 bolts of red cloth.

After selling the cloth, I distributed the money that should have been distributed last time for the forty bolts of cloth.Chen Ke announced a day off. The work is quite hard these days, and everyone needs to rest.You Gou is a girl after all, her body is not comparable to the three men.She proposed to hire two workers.

Chen Ke firmly opposed this suggestion.The reason is simple. If workers are hired, the wages are high, and everyone earns less.The wages are low, and the workers will not give you a good job.Chen Ke's suggestion is very simple, using small machines to solve the most labor-intensive links such as handling and drying.

After hearing this, You Gou laughed at Chen Ke's plan to spend more money, but Zhou Yuanxiao remained silent.Hua Xiongmao knew nothing about machinery and wanted to support Chen Ke, but he didn't know what to say.Chen Ke then forcefully announced the end of the meeting.Everyone was exhausted and didn't bother to entangle Chen Ke about this matter. Since no one was willing to be serious, everyone dispersed.

Back at the residence, Chen Ke and Hua Xiongmao slept all day like dead dogs.

The next day, Chen Ke took the carpenter back to Zhou Yuanxiao's workshop, where Zhou Yuanxiao and You Gou were already waiting.Ten square wooden beams were erected in Zhou Yuanxiao's yard, which Chen Ke had observed for a long time.Chen Ke asked the carpenter to nail several rows of slides on these relatively smooth wooden beams, and then made pulleys that could be pulled.After the carpenter left, Chen Ke and everyone made more than a dozen pulley blocks.This set of small mechanical equipment can easily lift cloth and bamboo poles for drying.You can also freely drag the position of the bamboo pole.

It must be explained that the effect of this set of gadgets is much lower than that of the previous manual cloth drying position, and the drying effect is almost worse.Fortunately, the work intensity has been greatly reduced and the efficiency has been increased several times.The most important thing is that the total cost was no more than two taels of silver.The cost of employing two workers is much higher than this indicates.Zhou Yuanxiao was quite interested in seeing Chen Kezuo's set, and Yougou kept silent, but she didn't have any objection either.Hua Xiongmao has been doing the heaviest physical work with Chen Ke, and this set of equipment helped him the most, Hua Xiongmao applauded repeatedly.

Although Zhou Yuanxiao's workshop is not small, but this time there are almost 400 pieces of cloth, and the space for drying the cloth is still limited.Only 50 bolts of cloth were dyed, and the space in the workshop was filled with hanging cloth.

"Hey, push the cloth a little further in!" You Gou shouted to Hua Xiongmao.

"If you get any closer, you'll touch one piece. Didn't Wen Qing say to pay attention to the speed of evaporation?" Hua Xiongmao said while raising his head, pulling the rope.

"What is volatilization, that's called evaporation!" You Gou didn't even have the strength to laugh at Hua Xiongmao, she explained it seriously.

The use of small machines brought a problem that Chen Ke did not expect, the arrangement of the process flow.In the past, Zhou Yuanxiao was in charge of drying the cloth.This time the amount of cloth was large, and after using the pulley block, the labor intensity was reduced and the efficiency was improved.You Gou showed great interest in how to use the space more effectively.Chen Ke is a layman in this respect, and Zhou Yuanxiao has no better way.So You Gou and Hua Xiongmao, who had learned a lot of new knowledge through labor, started a new discussion.

Chen Ke ignored the new discussion, he pulled the rope and hoisted a piece of cloth out of the vat.This is the last piece of cloth to dry.Zhou Yuanxiao dragged the rope moving horizontally, and dragged the cloth to the washing sink.Chen Ke loosened some ropes, and Zhou Yuanxiao untied the knots.What originally required three people to work hard, can now be done by two people in a few minutes.

Enduring the soreness in his arms, Chen Ke tried his best to wash the cloth.It would be great if there was a washing machine. Although he knew the idea was stupid, Chen Ke still couldn't help but hope so.

The improvement of production technology means the improvement of labor efficiency.With the same physical exertion, more work can be done now.But this requires a more efficient team of workers. It took three days to dye 25 bolts of cloth a few days ago.When an average of ten pieces of cloth is used a day, Chen Ke feels quite relaxed.Later, with 36 pieces of cloth a day, Chen Ke felt that he was working at full capacity.Now that 50 bolts of cloth have been produced in [-] hours, Chen Ke has become numb.

Fortunately, he drank his own blood. Chen Ke finally understood the term "sweatshop".If you work in another factory, you have to work day and night for the benefit of capitalists, and you have to ensure product quality.Chen Ke estimated that he had already joined the labor movement.

Zhou Yuanxiao also washed the cloth together without saying a word. Like Chen Ke, his face was pale and his eye circles were dark.With the help of You Gou, in terms of cloth washing, a large amount of data summed up what strength to use can be optimized.The "professional spirit" of Chen Ke and Zhou Yuanxiao has exerted sufficient power. Although they are close to exhaustion, they still do their best to ensure the quality of work.If it were ordinary workers, Chen Ke would not believe their product quality at all.

As a communist who considers himself a materialist, Chen Ke never thought that there was anything wrong with capitalists using machines to produce and causing mass unemployment of workers.Compared with machines, workers are indeed unreliable.This hard work of dyeing the cloth has thoroughly proved this.Not to mention the workers, Chen Ke couldn't believe the average work quality of himself as a funder.The four people in the cloth dyeing workshop are all of high quality and have enough enthusiasm for their work.With such four people working together, there is no guarantee of doing things. Using workers, the efficiency and quality will definitely not make Chen Ke optimistic.

While thinking wildly, Chen Ke's hands and feet were still nimble, and the cloth was cleaned very quickly.You Gou and Hua Xiongmao adjusted the space for the last cloth and came to help.After finally drying, hang the cloth to dry.Four people sat around the table rubbing their sore necks and arms.

Everyone was very tired, and no one spoke, so they just rested quietly.Yougou brought a pillow from home, and a few days ago she complained about the smell of dyed cloth on the pillow, but now she doesn't care about the unpleasantness at all, she put the pillow on the table, lay down on it and fell asleep.

Chen Ke was also lying on the table to rest, half asleep, half awake, what revolution, saving the country, had already flown to nowhere.There was only one thought left in Chen Ke's mind.It takes a day for this large amount of cloth to dry, and my colleagues, including myself, need a day off.

He didn't know if he fell asleep or not, and he didn't know how long it had been, but Chen Ke heard someone outside the door shouting, "Is anyone inside?" in Shanghai local dialect.

No one in the yard made a sound, the people outside yelled again, and then knocked on the door.This kind of harassment was the most irritating in the dream, Chen Ke sat up, only to see Hua Xiongmao sleeping in a daze, looking up with sleepy eyes.Zhou Yuanxiao, who was opposite Chen Ke, had already sat up. Hearing this voice, his expression became gloomy.You Gou also heard the sound, she turned her head slightly like a cat, put her face into the pillow, blocked her ears with her upper arm, and continued to sleep.

Chen Ke picked up Hua Xiongmao, and the three men went to the door together. Chen Ke rubbed his face with his hands, sobered up, and then opened the door.

There are two people outside the door, one tall and one short. The short one looks like Shanghai himself. He is in his 40s, not tall, and has a thin body.The eyes of Chen Ke, Hua Xiongmao, and Zhou Yuanxiao moved away from the short man, and then moved upward at the same time.The tall man looked less than 30 years old. He stood on the bluestone steps at the door, his head almost touching the beam of the door.In addition to being as tall as an iron tower, this guy is also very strong, with broad shoulders that almost block the gate of the courtyard.Chen Ke looked up at this man, secretly guessing that he must be 1.9 meters five in height and weigh at least 190 centimeters.The man had the chubby face of a muscular man.This chubby face had an expression that seemed to be a smile but not a smile, looking down at everyone from above, and it was quite majestic.

"Which one is the boss?" the short man asked.

Hearing the sound, everyone turned their eyes back to the short man, and Chen Ke suddenly had an inexplicable association. If the short man had a rope tied around his neck, and one end of the rope was held in the tall man's hand, it would be a A substandard burly brown bear holding a monkey.

Chen Ke and Zhou Yuanxiao took a step forward at the same time, "I am the boss." Chen Ke said first.

"Boss, I want to talk to you about business," said the short man.

"We don't have any business to discuss here. Please come back, both of you." Chen Ke flatly rejected the other party.Dealing with hooligans must not give them any chance.Once you invite them in the door, they will definitely become entangled.Thinking of this, Chen Ke took another step forward and blocked the door, "I really don't have any business to discuss with you."

When the short man saw Chen Ke directly blocking the door, he became anxious immediately. He yelled a few words in the local dialect, but his speech was fast and the local accent was very strong. Chen Ke didn't understand what he was talking about at all.

"I don't understand what you said, go back quickly." Chen Ke said.

"You can understand what I said." The tall one suddenly said with a Hebei accent.

Chen Ke was stunned, he just used Mandarin, and it was really inappropriate to say that he couldn't understand the tall Hebei dialect.Chen Ke had no choice but to bite the bullet and replied, "What advice does this brother have?"

"I just want to make a fortune with Xiongtai. The cloth dyeing business in Xiongtai is booming. Now that the world is in such a mess, Xiongtai didn't want to find a few people to help protect it. In case there is a fire or bad people come to make trouble .It must be better to have someone to help, right?" The tall man didn't have the airiness he had seen just now when he spoke, he said threatening words in his mouth, but his expression looked very sincere.Just listening to that tone, it is simply a friend's sincere concern.

This also met the protection fee.Chen Ke thought helplessly.There is absolutely no way to back down in the struggle, Chen Ke replied: "We can deal with it ourselves, so I won't bother you two."

Before the two of them could speak, Hua Xiongmao behind Chen Ke suddenly said a few words, and the two people on the opposite side were stunned.Hua Xiongmao walked up to those two people, and communicated with them for a while using black words.Those two people bowed their hands to Hua Xiongmao, turned and left.

"It belongs to the Heaven and Earth Association." Hua Xiongmao said.

"What do they want?" Chen Ke was more concerned about this.

"Over there, let's have tea together tomorrow. I think we can go there with a gift money." Hua Xiongmao's sleepiness disappeared, and he said, "There is no need to give them anything else, just give them a piece of cloth, and then It can be appeased by giving a few taels of silver. But we have to hurry up on the matter of dyeing the cloth."