At night, Sang Youshen took this basic literacy manual and walked into the night school of the wood processing factory. The night school occupied a shed that had just been built. The young man who asked him for advice during the day was teaching on the podium, and a group of newly recruited carpenter apprentices were listening attentively.
Sang Youshen's appearance made everyone in the shed turn their heads to look at him. He blushed and found a corner to sit down. The others didn't say much, and the young man on the podium continued to teach.
When Zhou Qingfeng was in Fushun, he did everything possible to carry out education and think of ways to solve the illiteracy problem. In the beginning, there wasn't much progress because there were too few literate people. But as the number of literate people slowly increased, with the establishment of the "Revolutionary Army", and with Yin Hu becoming the Minister of Education to coordinate the literacy work, the trend of learning when they had time spread.
Getting a diploma really could increase one's salary!
The wood processing factory hadn't been completely built yet, but the night school in the factory had already spontaneously organized. The people in charge of the classes were often young people who had just become literate, and those who were being educated were also refugees from all over Liaodong. People like Sang Youshen who had a bit of status but still came to class were relatively rare.
After two classes, Sang Youshen clumsily grabbed a wooden stick and drew on the ground. The conditions of the night school were poor, so everyone drew and wrote, making do with what they learned. The other laborers left after class. The young man in charge of the class came down and shouted, "Master Sang."
Sang Youshen raised his head with a bitter smile, "I've been a carpenter for thirty years. When I followed the young marshal in Fushun, I felt that my skills weren't bad and I could work for a lifetime. But I really didn't expect that in less than a year, my skills couldn't keep up. I can't understand the blueprints you brought today. No wonder I can't be the factory director. "
The young man didn't know what to say. Sang Youshen returned the set of blueprints to him and slowly left the shed to go back to rest. The next day, Sang Youshen came to the factory to work again. Seeing that the factory was changing day by day, he simply found a manual lathe and learned how to operate it.
Machinery looked simple, but it was actually a lot of knowledge. After all, to simplify a complex problem was real ability.
After working for a day, Sang Youshen felt that his mind was filled with ideas. Compared to those carpentry apprentices who only knew how to work according to the rules, he had 30 years of experience, so he could design more reasonable processing steps and components. He even thought of other variations of this manual lathe, which could be used to do more work.
These thoughts only lingered in Sang Youshen's mind. At this moment, the difference between being educated and not was reflected. He could only think about it by himself. There was no way for him to tell others, so he was very distressed. After pondering for a while, he decided to grab the students from the night school and think about them together.
In the processing plant, as long as the parts were round, the woodworking lathe would be able to process them very quickly. Even if it was driven by human power, it would still be more beautiful than purely manual work. Right now, it was just a simple process of processing stools, chairs, bookshelves, beds, and all kinds of tableware. The lathes that worked together could perfectly process the different parts.
Some of these products were ordered by the Revolutionary Army itself for internal retail. Some were shipped to Shandong and Tianjin for sale. Such a semi-mechanized processing plant could produce thousands of sets of furniture or tens of thousands of sets of tableware in a day. When the factory was completely built, there would be hundreds of lathes along the river bank. The processing capacity would be very considerable.
For example, the simplest wooden bowl was made by clamping a small piece of cut wood on the lathe and sending it to the cutter for two turns. It could be processed in one minute. The selling price of this thing was only a few copper coins. It was really very cheap. If a carpenter relied on hand to make it, it would take at least half an hour to make one. It was not as beautiful as the lathe processing.
The processed wooden bowls were put into standard transport boxes and directly loaded by transport boats on the river bank. A box could hold thousands of wooden bowls. After checking at the port, it would be shipped out. The wooden bowls that Sang Youshen participated in the processing were shipped across the sea. Two days later, they arrived in Tianjin along with other goods.
Wang Kai, who was in charge of the foreign trade of the Revolutionary Army, set up a warehouse in Tianjin to be responsible for selling these things. When the wooden boxes were opened, the merchants in Tianjin picked up a few wooden bowls and sneered, "The Revolutionary Army is really interesting. You guys are probably so poor that you've gone crazy. You even brought wooden bowls to sell? How much is this worth? "
The merchants were under Imperial Consort Zheng's faction. They had shops in Tianjin, the capital, and even many surrounding towns. Wang Kai also felt strange. His boss didn't have any other goods. Why did he even bring such worthless goods like wooden bowls? He picked up the list and said in a low voice, "Retail for two copper coins each. Wholesale for five copper coins for 1,000."
"How much?" The merchant was not young and was a little hard of hearing, but he was sensitive enough to hear the unit 'wen' that Wang Kai read out.
Of course, rich families used porcelain bowls to eat. They also had to be painted with patterns of flowers, birds, insects, and fish. But how many rich families did they have? Even if it was a rich family, the servants at home also had to eat. If a servant was given a porcelain bowl, he would be afraid that it would be broken. He would rather use a wooden bowl that was not afraid of being broken.
Wang Kai read out the price again. The merchant grabbed the wooden bowl in his hand again and knocked it. He found that the quality was actually good. After pondering for a while, he said straightforwardly, "This box of 5,000 is five copper coins? Sigh … I see that you traitors are quite pitiful. Sell them all to me. "
Wang Kai lamented in his heart. He felt that his family was also poor. How much could he earn by selling one box? How many carpenters would it take to make these 5,000 wooden bowls? Wouldn't he be making a loss by selling one box? The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the young commander was not as brave and valiant as before.
There were only five boxes of the first batch of wooden bowls and they only sold for 25 copper coins. Wang Kai did not take it seriously. But in less than two days, another batch of wooden bowls arrived by sea. This time, twenty boxes were delivered in one go. The Zheng family's merchants all wanted to leave. This time, the price of the goods was 100 copper coins.
It did not seem to be much.
But in just one or two days, tens of thousands of wooden bowls arrived from Tianjin Acropolis. The peddlers walked the streets selling them. The retail price was only three to four copper coins each. It was really cheap. Bowls and chopsticks were necessary in every family. It did not cost much for a family of three to buy ten bowls. Everyone felt that they were cheap and good. It was also good to buy and use them.
These wooden bowls looked inconspicuous, but they sold quickly. In a few moments, they were all sold out. This fast in and out made the money flow extremely smooth. Although they did not earn much, the Zheng family's merchants were also very satisfied. They also felt that the Revolutionary Army would need to stock up for several months to make so many wooden bowls. If they wanted to sell them elsewhere, they would probably have to wait for a long time.
But in less than a few days, a ship carrying 2,000 materials delivered 100 standard shipping boxes in one go. This time, it was not only wooden bowls. There were also sets of furniture. Most of them were wooden beds. In one shipping box, there were 10 sets of large beds in the form of spare parts. Each set of beds was only sold for one copper coin.
These beds were all assembled the same, as if they were made from the same mold. The Zheng family's merchant was stunned. Then, he thought about the wooden bowls that were exactly the same. He blankly asked Wang Kai, "Wong Yuanwai, does your family's young commander have some kind of magic that can turn stone into gold and wood into wood? Otherwise, why are these beds all the same? "
How could Wang Kai explain it clearly? He was inexplicably happy in his heart. He fooled around and said, "How can we guess my family's young commander's ability? How about it … do you want this batch of furniture? If money is not convenient, I will retail it in the market. This kind of sturdy big bed is really not expensive for one copper coin. I will definitely be able to sell it. "
Although not all of the 100 shipping boxes were wooden beds, the total price was still a few hundred taels of silver. It was not that the Zheng family's merchant could not afford it, but he felt that this amount of money was too much of a loss. After thinking for a while, he said, "I want this batch of goods, but money is indeed not convenient. Doesn't your 'Revolutionary Army' want iron? I will use iron to barter for you. "
Wang Kai found it very strange. "Didn't you say that there is only so much iron a month and there is no more?"
The Zheng family's merchant chuckled and said, "Our Zheng family doesn't have it doesn't mean other families don't have it. Just Tianjin Garrison alone has quite a few iron ore yards belonging to the officials. As long as we give them more aged rice, wouldn't those iron yard craftsmen be grateful and work hard? Wouldn't it be easy to get more than a hundred thousand catties a month? "
Wang Kai was immediately angry and happy. He asked in reply, "We sold you Suxiang Pills and Dragon Tiger Pills before for tens of thousands of taels of silver, but you were not willing to give us more iron? How can you exchange a few hundred taels of furniture for more iron? "
"There are few people who can afford to eat pills, but there are many people who can afford furniture. Your furniture is cheap and the workmanship is not bad. It will definitely sell quickly. I think your young commander must have some secret method to be able to transport so much at one go. There will definitely be more later.
As long as the price can continue to be this cheap, we can transport it elsewhere to sell. I'm afraid the carpenters around Tianjin will have a hard time. They can only make a few beds a month. How can they compete with us? "
The Zheng family's merchant chuckled. Wang Kai was dumbfounded when he heard that. He really did not think about what would happen if his family's' Revolutionary Army's' production capacity exploded. Tianjin was close to the Liaodong Peninsula. It was easy to travel dozens of ships a month. If it was a few hundred taels of silver each time, it would not be a small amount after a month.
At that time, not only would the carpenters in Tianjin be squeezed out, but all the carpenters in Northern Zhili would not have a good life.
Wang Kai quickly looked at the goods list again. It was really a complete set of tables, chairs, furniture, and cutlery. There was even a letter attached to the goods list. The administrative department had even written that they would try their best to use the cargo ship's capacity to transport large amounts of wood products to Tianjin and Shandong.
Currently, the 'Revolutionary Army' could not take out any other goods. With the idea of not wasting production capacity and not wasting transportation capacity, they would earn as much as they could. Xu Bing even specially reminded Wang Kai to arrange for a few more ports to unload the goods. She said that there would only be more and more goods being dumped.
Dumping!
Wang Kai immediately understood the word literally. This was really a torrent of sales and an overwhelming supply of goods. This was much more radiant than the few pills in the small porcelain bottle. The number of people affected by it also increased by hundreds and thousands.
At the end of the letter, Xu Bing specifically told Wang Kai to pay attention to the purchase of cotton in addition to coal and iron. Currently, the 'Revolutionary Army' was preparing to produce cotton textiles on a large scale. They urgently needed raw materials and a market.
Hiss … cotton textiles?
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