A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu began to frequently mobilize troops along the lines of Iida, Suzuoka, Izumu, Yoshioka, and Kaminomine Castle, and raised military supplies, and transported iron cannons, bows, arrows, long-steeds and other equipment one by one. Come.

On the one hand, Xiao Pingtai made preparations for the transfer of the military station, and on the other hand, he began to openly purchase mountain burdock leaves, and the construction of the factory under the city was basically completed. First, they hired two to three hundred family members of the Ashigaru military servicemen under the castle to set up the stall.

The purchased mountain burdock leaves do not need to be washed or dried first. Put it directly on the chopping board, and then scrape it with a knife. The fine hairs on the back of the burdock leaves are quickly scraped off without much effort.

Then wash and filter these fine fluffs, beat them again with a water-powered mallet, and dry them in the shade or in the sun. Then carefully weave it into the hemp rope and straw rope, ensuring that the entire match rope is densely woven with fine velvet, and there is no omission.

Finally, it is compared with ordinary match ropes, which can be ignited at the same time when there is no moisture and wind in the room. The burning time of the hemp rope with the fine velvet of mountain burdock is increased by more than half compared with the ordinary match rope. It can burn continuously for more than six hours, which can fully cope with a whole day of fighting.

Although the straw matchmaking time is greatly shortened, it only takes more than two hours. But it has reached more than half the level of ordinary match ropes, not to mention its cost is so low that it is basically free of charge. The Yamauchi generals who watched the experimental comparison were immediately impressed.

As long as the price of this thing is reduced to half the price of ordinary match ropes, there will definitely be many people who want to buy it. After all, in addition to shortening the burning time, it perfectly surpasses the old match rope in two very important indicators: wind resistance and moisture resistance.

Especially Sukezaemon, who was specially invited by Koheita to watch the experiment. Their family originally also ran a weapons business. After seeing the various data levels of this match rope, I did not hesitate to place an order with Xiaoping Tai, and the quantity was required for production.

This immediately shocked the other merchants Yamauchi and Ejiri who were still calculating prices and profits. If you don't do business like this, everything must be rounded. Why don't others do it?

So other people also expressed their intention to place orders, fearing that they would fall behind Sukezaemon. Some people even want to issue Yuzha, which are handwritten check-style banknotes on the spot. It means payment first, delivery later, not just a deposit but full payment.

This result made Yamauchi Yoshiharu extremely satisfied. After all, three thousand gu was too little, not too much. You have two and I have three. If you can't borrow it from a few people, it will be exhausted. Moreover, it is basically set as an interest-free loan or a one-point low-interest loan, and it is simply impossible to generate benefits from the reserves.

At the same time, salaries must be paid to the colleagues who are responsible for actually handling the affairs, and several surveyors must also pay annual salaries. It will definitely not be a big problem at first, but within two years it may be a loss.

Nowadays, match ropes are very popular, and businessmen from all walks of life want to undertake this product. Even before the goods come out, you can see the money. This made Yamauchi Yoshiharu breathe a sigh of relief, and the reserve fund matter was finally completed. As long as the profits from the straw rope are continuously replenished, this reserve will not be a big problem.

Yamauchi Yoshiharu is still very confident about Xiao Pingtai's work. He is too lazy to care about the specific sales allocation. He only needs to confirm that the profit is sufficient. Does he care who gets this profit? He is a powerful and powerful person who has many things to do, and he does not have the leisure and elegance to care about such minutiae.

Koheita came back and wanted to test Heiroku, who was transferred to a new position as a match rope leader. After all, he is a businessman and should have his own views on the operation of the business model.

If his idea is more reasonable or more effective than Xiao Pingtai's contract management system, Xiao Pingtai doesn't mind overturning the original sales method at all. Then according to Heiroku's ideas, drastic reforms may be able to increase the income a lot.

Heiroku may still be a bit timid towards the samurai. After all, he was a soy sauce seller and was kicked out by his original store owner. There is no one of the same race or surname in the mountain, not even a wife or child who can warm him.

Before he was promoted to a samurai, he was a humble town citizen, and he was even a servant of Koheita. Compared to someone like Koheita, who has served in the military for three generations and has served the Yamauchi family for many generations, there is a huge difference in status and level.

Although the four levels of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce do not exist in Japan now, for businessmen, samurai are always superior. The main reason why Heiroku was promoted to samurai was that Uedahara fought with an iron cannon and killed Itagaki Nobukata, but Itagaki's head was counted on Koheita's head. No one knows that it was Heiroku who actually killed Itagaki Nobukata. Even those who know think that the servant's quest to kill the enemy general was also the master's credit.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Heiroku's mouth was the same as Heita's mouth last time, they were no different. In Ejiri, he deceived people and ghosts, and defrauded Yamauchi Yoshiharu of four thousand koku of grain. This contribution has been recognized by everyone in the Yamauchi Samurai Order. Now when everyone mentions Heiroku, their first impression is that this kid is very thief, and his abacus is so smooth that even ghosts can fool him into making money.

Anyway, Heiroku now has a firm foothold in the Yamauchi Samurai Order. When facing these business bosses that he once wanted to look up to, he can now face them with ease without being humble or overbearing.

Let’s go back and say that when Koheta was selling grass in Ejiri, he implemented a system of purchasing goods first, paying later, and suppressing all distribution. The Yamauchi family did not sell the goods at all. They forced the goods to the merchants according to their strength, and let them sell them, and then regularly collected the payment from the merchants.

The benefits are obvious, don’t bother, just sit on the ground and collect the money. The disadvantage is that small businessmen are completely inferior to big businessmen. Soon the business is basically concentrated in the hands of a few families, and the monthly shares are divided up in advance. Of course, since the shipping price is set by the government and the harvest is guaranteed regardless of drought or flood, no matter who undertakes the work, the Yamauchi family will always get a fixed amount of money.

Due to the intensive production of large-scale manual workshops, the overall level of the products produced in Yamauchi completely surpasses the manual production of small farmers. Yamauchi-made products have gradually become synonymous with excellent quality, but at that time the Yamauchi family and Koheta were the hands-off shopkeepers, and they only shipped products at a price of 90 yen a piece. But the price on the market has exceeded 120 yuan, or even 130 yuan, and a lot of profits flow directly into the pockets of the contractors.

This time, Pingliu changed Xiao Pingtai's seemingly convenient method of collecting money, and changed it to every six months to outsource the sales of products for the next six months based on the market conditions in the first six months.

The war in the entire country is becoming more intense, and weapons and equipment will only become easier to sell, not harder to sell.

Pingliu is definitely not doing so-called futures, but just like the last time he defrauded grain, he gave the merchants a chance to gamble. A starting price is set based on the market conditions at the time of sale, and this starting price allows merchants to bid for the production in the next six months. If the war is fierce in those six months, then there will definitely be a lot of profit. If the war is neither salty nor mild, then you may only earn a little money for running errands.

Anyway, Pingliu didn't care about the actual selling price. He only chose the one with the highest actual bid based on the lowest ex-factory price he gave, and gave him the exclusive rights for half a year.

The Yamauchi family only sells according to their bids, and the market risks are borne by the merchants, further guaranteeing harvests from droughts and floods than Koheita.

Sure enough, he is "full of bad things"!