? Ever since the Liberation Army gained a foothold in Guangdong, the Guangzhou Commodity Trade Fair was held every April to May.
Ever since the Liberation Army gained a firm foothold in Guangdong, the Guangzhou Commodity Fair was held every April to May. Since the Liberation Army gained a foothold in Guangdong, the Guangzhou Commodity Trade Fair was held from April to May every year. Merchants from China and foreign countries sold all kinds of goods at the fair. The area with the best smell was the tea area.
The tea area, which was about 10,000 square meters in size, was filled with the fragrance of tea. Every kind of tea had its own fragrance. Some were mellow, some were elegant. The richness of scented tea and the bitterness of Maojian tea made people feel comfortable all over. Naturally, the tea merchants were not stingy. Whether they bought tea or not, as long as they came to the store, they would offer their main products.
Two years ago, the liberated areas did not expand to include tea production areas. In 1863, except for Sichuan and Yunnan, most of the tea production areas in China became part of the liberated areas. The group of foreign merchants also knew that Hunan tea was excellent. Later, because of the war, it was greatly affected. Now that they saw Hunan tea again, they naturally went in to have a look.
The tea bartenders always gave people a fair and slender feeling. This kind of elegant Chinese people sold tea. Not only Chinese people felt that it was very suitable, but foreigners also felt that it was very suitable. But this year, there were several strong men in the Hunan tea house. Seeing that many merchants had gathered, the tea bartenders went to the storage area and carried out a thick pillar-shaped object. It was about 1.5 meters long and 20 centimeters in diameter. It was wrapped with palm leaves and bamboo strips. This kind of rough style complemented the strong tea bartenders.
At this time, foreign merchants were not the only ones who came to see the bustle. There were also tea merchants from other areas. Everyone basically used the traditional bamboo tube packaging. Looking at the thick outer packaging, this group of people actually gave birth to a sense of inferiority.
After opening the bamboo strips and layers of bamboo leaves and palm leaves, a cylindrical tea cake was revealed. This was the Anhua black tea that the Hunan government promoted under the orders of Vézé. Anhua black tea had been used as a tribute in the past, but like Jingdezhen in this era, it had declined. The biggest characteristic of Anhua black tea at this time was that it was cheap.
If one wanted to stimulate the economy, it was not enough to rely on land reform. They wouldn't starve to death if they dug for food in the soil. If they wanted to make money, they had to have cash crops. In order to invigorate the economy, the new government of the liberated areas spent a lot of money in the tea-producing areas to directly purchase tea leaves that were extremely cheap because of the war and shipped them to Guangdong and Shanghai for sale.
Not long after the recapture of Shanghai, the customs' financial business had not yet stabilized, and the Liberation Army's large cargo ships had a tonnage of 5,000 tons, so they took on the job of transporting tea.
At first, Anhua Black Tea had different sizes, shapes, and weights. Later, it gradually became unified into a small cylindrical shape, weighing about ten catties. It was called "Hundred Taels Tea". In order to save costs, the Liberation Army chose better raw materials on the basis of the "Hundred Taels of Tea", increased the weight, and bundled them with brown and bamboo strips into a cylindrical shape. Each stick weighed 1,000 taels (16 taels was equivalent to 37.27 kilograms), and was called "Thousand Taels of Tea". The cylindrical shape was about 5 feet (166.5 centimeters) long and 1.7 feet (56 centimeters) in circumference.
After being roasted at high temperatures, the tea leaves would become dark brown and glossy, hence the name "black tea". Black tea was also a kind of tea made by fermenting fungi, so it had a special fragrance. This fragrance had already attracted everyone's attention. After brewing, the taste was mellow and mellow. If sugar was added, the taste would be even better.
Different people's tastes would indeed lead to different judgments, but everyone felt that this tea was good. European countries did not particularly like white tea or green tea. This kind of rough packaging and impactful taste immediately won the favor of European merchants. In just two days, more than 10,000 catties of tea were sold out. Russian merchants who came to participate in the Canton Trade Fair hoped to buy more of this tea.
Like in other aspects, Vézé's vision and choice were once again successful. Anhua Black Tea was not a particularly precious tea variety, and the Military Governor Vaize was also famous for not liking tea. But Vézé could accurately see the hot sales spots. The person in charge of the Hunan Pavilion was naturally grinning from ear to ear. Regardless of whether the tea sold well or not, the purchase of tea leaves and the establishment of a processing plant all required a large investment. Now that the results of such profits were clearly seen, the person in charge was naturally happy from the bottom of his heart. If the work was done well, it would be of great help to promotion. Needless to say, the work personally ordered by Vézé would be even better.
The lively sales naturally attracted people who wanted to tell Vézé the good news, but these people were now blocked in the secretariat. Vézé had no time to listen to these good news. Historically, the black tea bricks of the Yangtze River Valley sold very well in Europe, especially in Northern Europe. Russia was extremely eager for this tea, and the northwest region of China was also very fond of this tea. Vézé dared to invest in this area because he had seen it and he knew about it. If the sales of this tea were extremely poor, it would attract Vézé's attention.
At this time, in front of Vézé were Shen Xin and Wang Mingshan. Both of them took a tea ship back to Guangzhou. At this time, two important personnel of the Huainan Land Reform were sitting in front of Vézé, reporting the situation of the land reform.
Under Wang Mingshan's insistence, the sweeping up of the Huainan landlords was extremely ruthless. Shen Xin didn't want Wang Mingshan to leave a bad record on his hands, so the work of dealing with Wang Mingshan's distant uncle was finally taken over by Shen Xin. In the end, he was sentenced to ten years in prison on the grounds of human trafficking. He was sent to the new Maanshan Iron Mine for labor reform. The development of the Maanshan Iron Mine and the Huainan Coal Field together could naturally lead to a new coal and iron complex enterprise.
These places needed a large number of miners, and at this time, the tens of thousands of heavy smokers in the Jiangnan Camp were sent to these places for labor reform. Just like the heavy smokers in Guangdong, these guys had enough coarse food, and they had to bear heavy physical labor while quitting smoking. This kind of treatment, of course, brought a cruel death rate, but these guys lost their source of smoking and could only be called a scourge of society. So not only Vézé, no one in the Liberation Army thought there was any problem with this treatment.
After learning the final verdict, Wang Mingshan didn't say anything else. But throughout the land reform process, Wang Mingshan completely stuck to his position and took an uncompromising attitude towards the old tradition. Thus, in less than a year, Wang Mingshan, as a civil official, was given the nickname 'King Yanluo' in Huainan Province.
After experiencing these things, the impatient boy who lacked his own ideas was gone. What Vézé saw was a rather calm young man.
After listening to the two report on the land reform, Vézé said to Shen Xin, "Comrade Shen Xin, I'm going to transfer you to the General Political Department as the Party Secretary. You should have heard about this from the comrades in the Human Resources Department, right? "
Shen Xin replied firmly, "That's right. I'll obey the organization's arrangement! "
Looking at Shen Xin's reassuring appearance, Vézé was very satisfied. He turned to Wang Mingshan and said, "We have some ideas about your work arrangement. But first, I want to ask for your opinion. Which department do you want to work in? "
Wang Mingshan replied, "I still want to go back to Anhui to work."
"Oh? Why? "Vézé smiled.
Shen Xin hadn't seen Vézé for the past few years, and he wasn't one of Vézé's old subordinates, so he wasn't familiar with Vézé. But Shen Xin sensed a lot of things from Vézé's smile. For example, although Shen Xin didn't dare to ask for confirmation, he was very suspicious that Vézé might know that Wang Mingshan wanted to stay in Anhui because Wang Mingshan wanted to find out news about his sister, Wang Mingxiu. There was nothing wrong with this action, and it was also what a normal person would do. It was just that completely immersed in his own thoughts and actions would have a great impact on Wang Mingshan's future.
As a political commissar of the General Political Department, Shen Xin believed that Vézé wasn't an unreasonable person. If there was news, the new government would certainly help Wang Mingshan get his sister back. But Vézé didn't give Wang Mingshan this position to let Wang Mingshan use this power to find his sister at all costs.
"Then why do you want to stay in Anhui?" Vézé asked.
Wang Mingshan didn't hide it and replied, "Anhui is close to the Xiang Army. If there's a chance, I want to find out about my sister who was taken away by the Xiang Army. My sister is the only family I have left. "
Vézé said seriously, "Comrade Wang Mingshan, I've heard about your situation from my comrades in the Organization Department, and I sympathize with you. If I boast and say that I can definitely help you find your sister, I can also say that. Moreover, it's true that we should find your sister for this matter. But you also know that it's like looking for a needle in a haystack to find such a person. So what I can say now is that there are many cases of family members in the Liberation Army getting separated. We also have a special department that organizes specialized personnel to search for our comrades' lost relatives. But you are not allowed to use your authority to do this for your own benefit. Do you understand? "
"Commander-in-chief. Oh, Your Majesty. I know. Many comrades in Anhui have been separated from their families. I also know the department that is searching for them. After seeing the mass graves after the massacre by the Xiang Army, I know that people are gone … gone … "Wang Mingshan wanted to say that he would obey the organization's arrangements, but when he mentioned the possibility of death in this chaotic world, he choked up.
Vézé waited for Wang Mingshan to calm down before continuing to ask, "You know that the organization won't refuse to help our comrades. Then let me ask you again, which department do you want to work in? "
Wang Mingshan saw that his situation was already known by Vézé, and he saw Shen Xin looking at him with a burning gaze, so he finally answered, "I'll follow the organization's arrangements!"
Vézé nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. We want to build a brand new Guangzhou city. This is a very big project, and we need an outstanding budget consultant. Comrade Wang Mingshan, you did a good job when you were in the Ministry of Finance, especially when you dared to speak the truth. So I hope that you can work in the city's engineering department first. "
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