Three miles out of Suzhou City, refugees can be seen vaguely.
Five miles out of Suzhou City, refugees arrived one after another.
Clutching in twos and threes, sitting on both sides of the road, there is an endless corridor of pain, the dead are covered with flies, the living are full of emptiness, there is no hope and future, what is the difference between life and death?
The filming in the TV series is still too subtle. Only when you see it with your own eyes can you realize how unworthy the suffering in this world is.
As soon as Song Che stopped the carriage, before he could make any move, the refugees stumbled around him.
"Give me something to eat..."
They are walking zombies driven by hunger!
Song Che protected Shen Wenjun behind him, raised the gong, struck it three times, and said loudly:
“Dear fellow citizens, the purpose of our coming here today is to recruit workers, please listen carefully——
Due to market demand, we are now recruiting ten male workers. They are required to be between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five, over seven feet tall, in good health, and the stronger the better;
The twenty female workers are required to be between the ages of sixteen and thirty, and must be able to weave, preferably those who know embroidery;
The ten maids are required to be between fourteen and eighteen years old, articulate, good-looking, and preferably able to read;
Since this recruitment is for centralized accommodation, priority will be given to single men and widows, as well as to couples without children;
Finally, I hereby promise that once I am selected to join the company, I will receive full board and lodging, learn weaving and dyeing skills for free, and receive additional monthly wage subsidies! "
"I can take care of food and housing! I, I, I... I am very strong, I can carry three hundred kilograms of manure!"
"I can weave!"
"I can do it too!"
"Everyone, please don't crowd. If you meet the requirements, male workers will stand on my left, and female workers will stand on my right. Please follow the order, first come, first served. If there are people who jump in line or cause trouble, no matter how qualified they are, they will not be considered!"
Song Che's meticulous demeanor temporarily shook the chaotic situation, and soon, a long queue formed in front of the carriage.
Shen Wenjun was responsible for selecting people, and Song Che registered them.
A woman who is skilled in weaving and has been working with looms all year round. Shen Wenjun, an expert, can tell who is fishing in troubled waters and who meets the conditions at a glance.
In less than half an hour, all forty places have been selected.
"I was weaving at home when I was thirteen years old. It has been almost twenty years ago. Look at my hands. They are all calloused. Take me with you!"
"Treat two more! Please! I will kneel down for you!"
The refugees who were not chosen pushed forward, crying, growling, and even kneeling down to beg.
Shen Wenjun couldn't bear it and glanced at Song Che: "How about we recruit two more?"
Song Che shook his head decisively, dragged Shen Wenjun onto the carriage and pushed him into the carriage. He said loudly: "Everyone who has registered, please voluntarily gather at the gate of the city. I will wait for you there!"
"drive!"
After finishing speaking, he immediately galvanized his horse and drove away from the refugee area.
People living in slums, when their pity and begging are not reciprocated, will definitely do even crazier things——
Chasing, pleading, crying, screaming, cursing, and finally throwing stones, which made the carriage rattle.
If you slip and fall into the cave at this time, you will definitely be "eaten" until nothing is left.
How old is human nature in the face of hunger?
It wasn't until the soldiers appeared on the official road that Song Che slowed down. "Huh..." He took a long breath, which was more dangerous than escaping from death.
Soon, the selected refugees followed.
Song Che checked the number of people, and after confirming that they were correct, he held up the roster and led everyone into Suzhou City.
Back at Shuiyunfang, Lu Gu had already prepared forty sets of clothes. Qin Ruo also rented three nearby courtyards and emptied out all the brocade in the lobby on the left.
After distributing clothes to the new employees, Li Tian led the male workers, while Lu Gu and Qin Ruo each led a group of female workers, arranged food and accommodation, and agreed to gather in the workshop at noon to make unified arrangements for work.
Song Che picked up pen and paper and began to redesign the layout.
The original Shuiyunfang was full of brocades, and the styles were indeed dazzling, but it was always a bit dark and depressing. Now that half of it has been moved out, it feels a lot more atmospheric in an instant.
Song Che measured the length and width of the workshop and the location of the windows. Combining all the data, he drew a floor plan of Shuiyun Square. Then he designed the booth according to the proportions, reserved aisles, and reopened the windows.
Shen Wenjun was not idle either. He rolled up his sleeves and followed Song Che's instructions with the few remaining clerks to practice sketching with lime.
"This large carved window on the west side cost a lot of money to install. Why did you demolish it?"
There were of course doubts about the new layout and arrangements, and Song Che answered them carefully one by one.
"Yesterday I observed carefully. From morning to night, this window has more shade and less sunshine, and the lighting is very poor... No matter how good the materials are, they are difficult to be noticed when placed in a dark place, but once they are illuminated, the quality It will take on a new look, and as soon as guests walk into the house, their eyes will light up and they will naturally be attracted to it.”
"Uncle, I also have doubts. Why do you want to divide the workshop into left and right? Isn't it good for us to sell one pot?"
"Different products and different positionings must of course be sold separately. The left is the 'affordable price area', which sells goods that are more suitable for the public. The right is the 'bargaining area', which sells our high-end brands of Yunshuifang." , silk and satin, Song brocade and Su embroidery."
"Oh...are they the high-price area and the low-price area?"
"Hey! That's the truth, but you can't say it like that, otherwise there will be a gap in the minds of the customers. No matter who you are, as long as they cross the threshold, they are our customers, and they must be held in the palm of your hand."
"Uncle, you are... so attentive!"
"Sure? That's not necessary! My uncle, I'm so majestic!"
…
A skinny camel is bigger than a horse.
The Shen family also runs a silk mill in the west of the city, and any materials for textiles can be directly supplied from there.
The backyard of Shuiyunfang is the dyeing workshop. As long as the supply of materials is sufficient, it is very convenient to produce cloth.
Song Che was a layman when it came to fabric knowledge. After surveying and mapping the store, he took Shen Wenjun to the back warehouse.
"Madam, are most of the cloths in this warehouse made of brocade?" Song Che picked up a piece of cloth and stroked it gently. It was smooth and bright, with fine lines and full color. I have to say that this texture is better than three or four. The floors are even higher.
Shen Wenjun said: "If the warehouse was full of unsalable good brocade, our family would have been drinking the northwest wind. The warehouse has silk, silk, satin, brocade, everything you want, and the furniture is a precious fabric."
"Beautiful clothes, jade food, silk and satin are often mentioned on the lips. I wonder what the difference is between these materials?" Song Che asked.
Shen Wenjun walked, picked it up, and introduced: "Fabrics are usually divided into six grades——
The lowest level is coarse cloth, woven from silk;
The next best thing is linen, which is spun from coarse linen silk;
The above two types are low in price and suitable for ordinary people;
The third grade is satin, which is woven from fine linen silk and has a smooth, bright appearance and is very delicate;
The fourth grade is silk, which is woven from a mixture of silk and linen. Silk, silk generally refers to it;
People who can afford to wear silk and satin must have a solid family background, no matter how rich they are;
From the fifth grade silk fabrics on up, they are all made of real silk."
Speaking of this, she gently twisted the corner of her skirt, "Look, this is silk gauze, sparse, clear, light, and cool. It is often used for shawls, gauze clothes, and summer clothes. The silk gauze is exquisitely matched Rich people will also frame the embroidery art and use it as a hanging screen decoration;"
"I have to take a good look at this." Song Che reached out to pull up the hem of her skirt, but Shen Wenjun slapped it away with a palm and rolled his eyes: "Which girl can lift the hem of her skirt casually?"
Song Che smiled: "So, the best material is brocade cloth?"
Shen Wenjun nodded and said: "Of course, brocade cloth is mostly supplied to princes, generals, ministers, and dignitaries. Even a seller like me only has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven or eight pieces of brocade clothing."
"What's the average price of these expensive materials?" Song Che asked again.
Shen Wenjun said: "Based on the pricing of major cloth shops in Suzhou, a brocade cloth sells for 5,000 renminbi; a damask is sold for 2,000 renminbi; silk and satin range from 500 to 1,000 renminbi; and coarse linen clothes are about 80 to 100 renminbi. Fifty Wen;
Brocade cloth is mostly produced in the south, so the price of cloth in the north will naturally be higher. Coupled with the current lack of freight transportation, the supply in the north exceeds demand, so there will inevitably be a premium. "
Song Che pursed his lips and thought to himself: If he could take risks and sell goods from the south to the north, his profits would definitely be doubled.
"By the way, where do our Shen family go for business?"
"That's a lot," Shen Wenjun said, raising his finger: "Go south, along the coast of Ludao, go east to the imperial capital Luoyang, go north to the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, go west to the Chang'an... In addition to the territory of Daliang, there is also the most famous 'Silk Road', which sells to the Western Regions, Tianzhu, and even further places."
"Does our father do all the business by himself?" Song Che asked again.
Shen Wenjun sighed softly: "Unfortunately, the Shen family is withering away, and my father is very strict and doesn't trust the business to outsiders, so I am responsible for the production and he is responsible for the business."
Song Che continued to ask: "The sales are so wide, how can my father-in-law sell it all by himself?"
Shen Wenjun said: "Only the expensive and plentiful Jinxiu dad will make it himself. The other fabrics will be distributed or wholesaled to other small cloth shops in the city, and they will resell them, and we will make a profit from it."
It turns out that the term "dealer" has been around since ancient times.
