Hearing his granddaughter mention 'mouthpiece', Mu Sinian's mind started to work. He sat at the long dining table in the cafeteria in deep thought, repeatedly weighing the pros and cons — if he wanted to learn martial arts, then sell it to the royal family. Mu Sinian had once vowed to amaze the world with a single feat, but unfortunately, he was only a village teacher now that he was almost sixty years old. He had taught for his entire life, but he had not produced a single talent.
As for working for Zhou Qingfeng … Mu Sinian was not a pedantic person, he could even be said to be extremely open-minded, and had thought of many ways to fulfill his ambitions. Although Zhou Qingfeng was still young, in his eyes, he was already a hidden dragon, showing his talent.
"Grandpa, I'm going to class." Mu Qiaoling chatted with Mu Sinian for a long time, and only reminded him when the bell rang for the afternoon class. "Why don't you accompany your granddaughter to class? We have a nature class in the afternoon, it's going to be interesting. "
Nature class? The name of the class sounded strange.
Mu Sinian had not thought it through, but he knew that listening and watching was never wrong, so he happily went. There were people who came to Zhou Qingfeng's class every day, as long as they did not disturb the order of the class. If someone could understand, they could even apply for formal admission, and if they did well, they could even receive subsidies. Zhou Qingfeng believed in education without discrimination, and was eager to recruit more intelligent people.
For the nature class in the afternoon, the teacher was actually a girl called Chun Ni. Although this girl mostly read from the book, the content was still quite attractive — today's nature class started from observing the weather, and mainly talked about the changes in the weather. How did rain, dew, and frost come about?
Poor Mu Sinian, who had lived for more than fifty years and read many books, still did not know how 'rain' came about. When he heard the proverb, 'the morning glow does not leave the door, the sunset glow travels a thousand miles', he slapped the table and loudly agreed. When he heard the effect of rain on the growth of plants, he was even more intoxicated, and felt that once he understood it, he would understand it all.
When he woke up after class, Mu Sinian remembered that the teacher was a girl younger than his granddaughter. When Chun Ni left after class, he subconsciously wanted to go up and ask for advice. When he got closer, he could see clearly with his presbyopia, but pointed at Chun Ni and asked curiously, "Aren't you the second wife? Why are you here? "
This caused Chun Ni to be extremely frightened. She glanced at Mu Sinian, then turned and ran.
Mu Qiaoling came up and asked what was going on. Mu Sinian, on the other hand, did not dare to be certain. He only said that the lecture he had just given was very good, and that 'if one hears the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening without regrets'. He no longer had any doubts in his heart, and instead urged him to meet Zhou Qingfeng, saying that he was willing to be his mouthpiece.
Zhou Qingfeng had just settled with Li Yongfang yesterday, so they were all busy. Now that Li Yongfang had become his puppet, all the officials in Fu Shun, big or small, were as silent as cicadas in winter; all of them were afraid of his fearsome methods. However, when he began to take over such a large city, he felt a great deal of pressure.
In the past, rather than saying that Li Yongfang ruled Fushun, it was more accurate to say that he appointed a group of subordinates to do the work and collect the tributes on time. This set of administrative system had been destroyed by Zhou Qingfeng, so naturally, it could not return to its original state. Zhou Qingfeng was a person who especially liked to meddle in everything. Everything was not pleasing to the eye, and he had to manage everything, so naturally, he would be exhausted to death.
When Mu Sinian came to Li Yongfang's residence to pay a visit, Zhou Qingfeng was working in a side room. Xu Bing was in charge of the confiscation of the house, and Li Shuwei could only be the scapegoat for the internal management. His job was to manage the army well. However, the expansion of the Imperial Guard could not be achieved by recruiting more people. He had to carry the matter of formalization deeply.
When the guards announced Mu Sinian's visit, Zhou Qingfeng only asked the old man to sit down for the time being. He was leading a few tailors in the city to ponder over the military uniform of the Imperial Guard. A practical and handsome military uniform was the foundation of establishing the prestige of the army. Liaodong was about to be in chaos, and Zhou Qingfeng was ready to establish his own mountain, so the military uniform also had to be different.
The fat coat of the Ming Army absolutely could not be used, and ordinary clothes were also not suitable for marching and fighting. Zhou Qingfeng did not lack all kinds of good-looking and high-end clothing styles, but the problem of fabric and tailoring could be a problem to death.
The fabric was not strong enough, and it could not be worn at all. In ancient times, there were no colorful dyes for Zhou Qingfeng to use. He wanted to make an eye-catching and handsome red shirt army, but there was no suitable red color, and there was not enough tough fabric.
The tailors in the city brought several kinds of fabric for Zhou Qingfeng to choose from. There was no need to consider silk, and the remaining three materials could only be cotton, linen, and leather. The cotton was soft, breathable, and comfortable. Zhou Qingfeng was more inclined to it.
The tailor held a piece of cloth and introduced, "Baihu Laoye, this is Songjiang cotton cloth shipped from the south by ship. One piece of white cloth is sold for seven silver coins. This is a three-woven cloth, one piece is sold for one silver coin and two silver coins. The best is the twill cloth, two silver coins for one piece. "
"You can actually ship cloth from Songjiang to Liaodong?" Zhou Qingfeng was a little surprised. Songjiang was the place of Shanghai a few hundred years later, a prosperous place of commerce and rich in products. But Songjiang was far from Fushun.
The tailor smiled and said, "This is transported from the shop of Wang Kai and Wong Yuanwai in the city. He has a way to go through the sea."
"Wang Kai. This Minister Counsellor is quite capable. "Zhou Qingfeng repeated the name a few times, and then said to the tailor," I want all of these pieces of cloth. Give me two hundred of the cheap ones, and fifty of the expensive ones. Use all of them to produce underwear, and make them according to the style I set. "
The tailor was suddenly tongue-tied, and said, "Baihu Laoye, we don't have that many goods. We are all small businesses, and the storage capacity is limited. Usually, we rely on Wong Yuanwai to supply. "
Zhou Qingfeng frowned, and casually wrote down a few things in his notebook, and said, "I'll send someone to find Wong Yuanwai to get the goods."
"But Wong Yuanwai is now …" The tailor wanted to say something but stopped.
Zhou Qingfeng skipped to the next topic, and said, "The clothes I want are all fixed, divided into men's and women's styles. Each model comes in about ten sizes, ranging from children to adults. I think you definitely don't have enough manpower, so you need to hire more people to work. Try to hire as many women as possible, and don't skimp on the wages. "
The tailors looked awkward again, and one of them said, "Baihu Laoye, we are all ordinary families, and we really don't have the capital to hire too many people."
Zhou Qingfeng frowned again, and after thinking for a while, he asked, "Then I'll open a large clothing workshop, are you willing to work here?"
The tailors immediately looked at each other, not daring to agree, but also not daring to disagree. They had all started out as apprentices, and it wasn't easy for them to accumulate the capital to open their own shop. How could they give up their own business and work for someone else?
Zhou Qingfeng raised his head, still waiting for the tailors to reply, but old man Mu, who was sitting at the side, said, "These people are afraid that the baihu lord will take over their business, so they naturally won't agree. But if you want to open a clothing workshop, why do you need these tailors? The women in the countryside are all skilled and diligent, and sewing and making boots are all household chores. Why not hire them to work here? "
This time, Zhou Qingfeng turned his head to look, and after confirming that it was Mu Sinian, he went forward to greet him. Mu Sinian was in a hurry to give Zhou Qingfeng some advice, and hurriedly said, "We haven't seen each other for two months, this old man congratulates Lord Zhou on being promoted to the position of baihu. If Lord Zhou wants to make clothes, you really don't need to find the tailors in this city. They work slowly and are expensive, so you might as well hire some women. "
Seeing that an old man had jumped out to steal their business, the few tailors that were invited glared at him. Zhou Qingfeng said, "Hiring people is easy, but managing them is the difficult part."
"Then let's ask these tailors to take care of it. Just spend more money. This was better than letting them work alone. As long as you give them enough money and don't take over their businesses, there's no reason for these tailors not to work. " Mu Sinian stepped forward and looked at Zhou Qingfeng's table. There were a few sketches of clothes on it. "These designs are all very simple. We don't need too many skilled people. We do need more people."
What Old Mu said was very reasonable. Zhou Qingfeng took out the other sketches and said, "In addition to underwear, I also need this kind of coat. It's very different from the style we have now."
In ancient China, the buttons were on the side, and the sleeves were slanted. Those with status wore robes, and those who wore trousers were lowly people. On the other hand, Zhou Qingfeng was wearing a modern, tight-fitting shirt with a center seam button. To wear trousers, it wasn't just a belt, but a real leather belt.
Not only did he need clothes, but Zhou Qingfeng also needed high-heeled leather boots. In comparison, in Daming's society, the rich wore cloth shoes, the poor wore straw sandals, and the poor naturally went barefoot. Wearing boots required leather, which was really not something that ordinary people could afford.
"I also need a gourd to hold water, a Y-shaped belt as equipment, and a vest with a lot of pockets. Oh, I also need a hat. These are just summer clothes. All winter clothes need to be made of leather, or else it won't keep warm. " In order to improve the combat power of the army, Zhou Qingfeng would not be stingy with money. Instead, he kept improving and asked for more.
In ancient times, China had a small-scale peasant economy, which was characterized by self-production and self-marketing. They tried their best to solve everything by themselves. Commercial trade was actually only concentrated in some big cities. The countryside and the city were completely different worlds. The disadvantage of this economic model was that development was very slow, and it was difficult to withstand disasters. The advantage was that manpower was cheap. People with manual skills might be limited, but there were a lot of them.
In response to Zhou Qingfeng's requests, Mu Sinian expressed that he could let the villagers do it. However, Zhou Qingfeng suspected that the villagers who had never left their hometown would leave the village and follow him around. Mu Sinian said with a bitter smile, "I don't know about other villages, but our village can definitely do it."
"Why?" Zhou Qingfeng knew how ignorant and crazy the stubborn forces in the village could be.
Mu Sinian continued with a bitter smile, "Because Sister Xu killed a lot of people in our village. The reason is really hard to explain. Now, many people in the village are complaining about me, saying that I've caused trouble for the village. But I'm a scholar after all, and I can tell right from wrong. Some people really deserve to die, and it's good that they died. "
"This can be considered a benefit of transforming the countryside." Zhou Qingfeng said with a sinister smile, "That's right, there's not much reason in this world. For those who are unwilling to go with us, it's better to send them to hell. "
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