Chapter 145: Fighting for Hetao (10)

There was nothing particularly important about the business tycoon Zhao Jie and Luo Ling. They came to visit Hou Dayong, but there was nothing particularly important, just to report it to Hou Dayong and told him that he followed his footsteps to Lingzhou. This is like in modern society, some subordinates who are proficient in officials always look for tricks and find a reason to run to the leader to report their work. Reporting the work is secondary. In fact, it is the essence of expressing loyalty to the leader in this way. Most leaders know this and agree or support this behavior. After all, leaders are also human beings. Everyone likes to obey their own people from the bottom of their hearts. If their subordinates are full of thorns, it would be boring to be such a leader.

Zhao Jie and Luo Ling are both old people, so they naturally know the three flavors, so they came.

Hou Dayong, Zhao Jie and Luo Ling chatted for a while in the conference room, and they all talked about business matters. Hou Dayong came from a business society with excessive information and studied political economy in school. Although he had not been through business in detail, he had never eaten pork but had seen pigs running. He still had a little knowledge of the basic theories of modern economics. The high position of the Jiedushi just requires a far-sighted vision. As long as the direction is correct, a large number of businessmen with practical experience will naturally follow their batons.

Hou Dayong picked up the tea cup, savored the fragrance of tea calmly, and said to Zhao Jie: "Shu is full of mountains, not only with mountains, but also many small hills that are neither tall nor short. The mountains are full of fog all year round, which is actually a place for producing good tea. However, compared with Fujian tea, Shu tea is too famous, and the price is even more in the sky and the other underground. It is a pity. I would like to give you a suggestion. Zhao Lang would rather find a mountain with convenient transportation and bring some Fujian tea seeds back and transport the Shu tea planted to Lingzhou. I will find a way to buy all of them with merchants."

Tea is an important business in Shu. Zhao Jie also has tea projects in his business. When he heard Hou Dayong talk about the taste of tea, he said: "Although the journey of Fujian tea is long, Fujian human traffickers often walk on the sea route. A medium-sized sea boat can be used to transport the transportation volume of a large horse team. After the sea boat docks in Shandong, the tea can be transported flat to Daliang, Damingfu and other prosperous places. Although Shu tea is good, it is difficult to transport the Shu road, so it cannot compete for Fujian tea. However, Shu tea is made into tea bricks and sold to all ethnic groups in the northwest. It has a very good business."

Luo Ling disagreed with Zhao Jiedi's opinion and said, "The journey from Qingzhou to the northwest of China is too far. Gansha has to sell a lot of high-quality Fujian tea in a year. The price of a small bag of high-quality Fujian tea is comparable to that of five horse-drawn tea. If the profit is large, it still has to be the best Fujian tea. I think the main problem of Shu tea is not that it is difficult to transport, but that the skill of stir-frying is not as good as that of Fujian tea. Therefore, the Uighurs' top people drink Fujian tea. The lower people drink Shu tea, which is divided into the level. The Shu people struggled to transport a horse team's tea bricks to the Uighurs, and the profit was not as good as the large bags of Fujian tea that they brought by the way."

Hou Dayong heard the two of them say this and said, "It turns out that there are these business practices in tea dealers. If you really have three people, you must have a master. In these few days, the shopkeeper of the Fujia shop, the largest merchant in the Central Plains, was going to Lingzhou. He was interested in tea, and there were also some masters of making Fujian tea in the Fujia shop. Why would he send some people to Hanzhong to produce high-quality tea, and Zhao Lang is responsible for providing fresh leaves. You two can join forces to grab the market occupied by Fujian tea."

Hou Dayong didn't say anything. Shu tea produced in Hanzhong can quickly reach Fengzhou. Then follow the newly opened new route of Qinzhou-Guyuan-Tongxin. You can quickly reach Lingzhou. At that time, just change the top Shu tea to Fujian tea brand. Sell it from Luo Ling to Uighurs and you can make a lot of profits by replacing it. This is also a kind of OEM production.

Zhao Jie and Luo Ling are both human sperm. Although Hou Dayong did not say it thoroughly, both of them understood the meaning. This was actually a joint business between the three companies: Zhao Jie's hometown is in Hanzhong, and he provided fresh leaves. Hou Dayong mastered the technology of making tea, and Luo Ling built ready-made sales channels in Ganzhou Uighurs, Gaochang Uighurs, Khotan, Saman and other places. In this way, it will definitely squeeze real Fujian tea out of the northwest market.

Thinking of such a good thing being at hand, Zhao Jie and Luo Ling's eyes were shining like searchlights.

Hou Dayong also had a more profitable business, which was the private salt sold by Wu Qilang. After planning in Tongxin City, Wu Qilang returned to Zhongmu County and found some partners who used to sell private salt and returned to the old business. With Hou Dayong's secret support, Wu Qilang used Lingzhou and Yanzhou as the rear to straighten out the salt sales channels. He continued to sell private salt to Lingzhou and Tongxin from important towns such as Hezhong Prefecture, Jingzhao Prefecture, and other salt-producing areas such as Yanzhou. Even a lot of well salt from Shu were transported over. Hou Dayong had always wanted to find an ideal next house. This next house must be a strong business, otherwise it would not be able to open up the joints of various regimes in the Western Regions at all. Luo Ling was originally a suitable candidate, but Luo Ling gave beauties everywhere and had a hand with key figures from all over the country, which made Hou Dayong a little wary. Therefore, he just handed over the sale of tea and private salt to him.

The guests and the host talked happily, Luo Ling and Zhao Jie achieved their goal of showing their loyalty. At this time, it was noon, and it was not time for dinner, and the Jiedushi did not mean to leave them for dinner. The two stood up and said goodbye. Zhao Jie walked to the door of the conference room, bowed and smiled, "Jiangsu, I brought a chef from Chengdu. I am very skilled. I have prepared several rare good dishes, and I hope the Jiedushi will enjoy the scenery."

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, the eight major cuisines had not yet taken shape, but they had already seen the first signs. Sichuan cuisine has become very famous in the Central Plains with its unique flavor. Hou Dayong thought of the fine Sichuan cuisine and Chongqing cuisine that he had eaten in later generations, and couldn't help swallowing. At that time, he didn't particularly like hot pot. At this time, he thought of the fiery red peppers, green peppercorns, and crispy duck intestines. His saliva couldn't help but flow down. Looking at Zhao Jie's fat smile, Hou Dayong thought: It really corresponds to the old saying "flies do not stare at seamless eggs". He likes delicious food, so Zhao Jie uses delicious food to lure himself. It seems that it is not easy to be a big man. Every move is stared at by countless people. If he has a little hobby, someone will immediately stick it up to meet his preferences.

Of course, Hou Dayong is still not ready to refuse Zhao Jie's small temptation. As a leader, sometimes he is corrupt and is for the overall situation and work. He smiled and said with a smile: "It's easy to say, the taste of Shu cuisine is the most for my appetite. When I want to have a delicious meal, I will notify you in advance."

When Zhao Jie heard the Jiedushi taste the face like this, his eyes were so excited that he shone with his eyes. He rubbed his hands and said, "This chef has a famous dish called "Five Lakes and Seas, all of which are fresh things from all over the world. Jiedushi must appreciate his face."

Just listening to the names of all over the world, Hou Dayong felt that eating too extravagant, and eating and drinking would become a bad example for his subordinates. He said: "A true good chef can make good taste even with the simplest dishes. If you use fresh things from all over the world to cook, you will not show your skills at all. I will give you a question and use the most common mutton. See if your chef can make an extraordinary taste. If you reach Huang Rong's level, I will have a lot of rewards."

Zhao Jie's head was like a chicken pecking at rice, and nodded frequently and said, "Okay, okay. I asked the chef to make a big meal with mutton." Zhao Jie didn't know who Huang Rong was, but he was embarrassed to ask Hou Dayong. After returning, he asked the accountant, but no one knew about it. Zhao Jie thought that since the person he admired so much, he must be an old senior in the food industry. He opened a restaurant on the most prosperous street in Chengdu, named "Huang Family Restaurant". He also set up a sign with the words "Huang Rong, a disciple of the chef's saint hand," and no one in Chengdu knew who Huang Rong was. However, because of the good taste, good environment and deep background, the guests entered the clouds and became a scene in Chengdu. Of course, this is a later story, so I will not say it here.

Feng Sha sent the guests to the door for Hou Dayong. As soon as Zhao Jie and Luo Ling were out of the hospital, the merchants in the north were both riding horses. The two rode on horseback and started to joke with each other again. Luo Ling smiled and said, "No wonder Brother Zhao is so fat. It turns out that there is a good chef. Today, I will invite my brother to taste it first." Zhao Jie immediately replied, "Brother Luo is so thin, he thinks he is the beauty in the mansion. He has worked too much for a day. Let's do this. I'll treat you to Shu food for dinner, and you can invite me to taste the beauty after midnight snacks."

Luo Ling laughed and said, "There is a famous saying in the Central Plains, called food, sex, and nature. It is said seriously." Zhao Jie is from Shu, and Shu people are very humorous and funny, and he is no exception. He said, "This is what a sour literati said." After hearing this, Luo Ling laughed so hard that he lay on the horse's head and couldn't straighten his waist, but Zhao Jie looked serious. The two business masters happily arrived at Zhao Jie's mansion.

Feng Sha sent the guest and was walking towards his room when he saw Hou Dayong coming out of the inner courtyard.

Hu Qiuyun's yard is composed of three courtyards. The front yard is where the maids, servants and their guards live, and the middle yard is where Hou Dayong's office is, with a meeting room, a guest room and a house for sealing sand. The inner yard is where Hou Dayong, Shi Gao Yueming and Shi Gao Luqi live. The study is also located in the inner yard. In addition to sealing sand, Luo Qingsong can enter and exit freely. Others cannot go to the inner yard without any trouble. Shi Gao Luqi was originally a maid, so there was no other maid in the inner yard. Hu Qiuyun was a wealthy businessman. In order to prevent people from climbing into the yard to steal, the entire Hu Mansion was surprisingly high, with a thick wall of five meters. A wall separates the inside and outside the courtyard into two different worlds. The inner yard has a back door, and the back door is very narrow, so that only one person can pass through. The wooden door adopts a design similar to a city gate, which can withstand the fire of a knife and axe. This was designed for emergency escape.

Hou Dayong said to Fengsha who was walking back: "Let's go and see the situation of Zhang Ji's blacksmith shop."

After Hou Dayong entered Lingzhou City, he divided the labor of Tongxin City and Lingzhou City. Lingzhou was mainly a place where commercial gatherings, and Tongxin City mainly gathered handicrafts. In the northern city of Tongxin City, industries including ordinary iron shops, carpenter shops, pottery shops, weaving and dyeing offices, papermaking workshops, carriage shops, winemaking workshops and other industries were concentrated. These handicraft workshops were mainly used for daily life products, and were mostly industries transferred by Fengzhou merchants. These handicraft workshops were big and small, such as the blacksmith shops run by the rich shops, which specialized in creating agricultural tools, small ironware and other daily necessities. The scale of the scale was already very large and occupied a large area of ​​land in Tongxin City. The carpenter shops opened by Shu people were not small. As for pottery shops, the weaving and dyeing houses were newly opened by Daliang merchants, and the scale was much smaller.

As for Doutian, a place where the Black Eagle Army produced weapons, Guo Baoyu and Zhangji Iron Shop, who had recently dug from Guyuan, these blacksmith shops were important factors for the Black Eagle Army's outstanding military power, and were Hou Dayong's heart-to-heart treasures, and they were all concentrated in Lingzhou City.

Dou Tian, ​​Guo Baoyu, Zhang Qinghai and Chen Lingxin were each responsible for a blacksmith shop. Dou Tian Blacksmith Camp was mainly responsible for building Hou Family Knife, Mo Dao and Carriage, Guo Baoyu Blacksmith Camp was mainly responsible for building bows and crossbows, and Zhang Qinghai was mainly responsible for building Qing Party Armor and Shield. Chen Lingxin was a well-known craftsman in Lingzhou, and was good at building carriages and various accessories.

Strictly speaking, Chen Lingxin's blacksmith shop was not a blacksmith shop, but a workshop for producing carriages. When the Yongxing Army's Jiedu governor Wang Yanchao fought fiercely with Fangdangdu's Fang, the situation was unfavorable, but the Yongxing Army connected the carriages that transported food together to form a good defense line against the impact of cavalry, which greatly inspired Hou Dayong. The Black Diao Army was a pure cavalry army before. This army had many advantages, but one of the biggest problems was that it lacked offensive ability and defense ability. If a special carriage was used in the infantry, it could not only improve the mobility of the infantry and enhance the protection ability, but it would greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Black Diao Army.

Hou Dayong came to the blacksmith shop where Dou Tian was. It was still far from the shop door and heard the knocking of the blacksmith shop, the sound of the bellows, the shouts and scoldings of the craftsmen. As soon as he entered the camp, he saw the busy work scene. Although it was a biting cold winter, under the reflection of the blazing fire, the muscular craftsmen still went into battle with red chestnuts, and sweat kept dripping from them.

Dou Tian came to Hou Dayong with sweat on his face. The exhaled heat formed a ball of white mist in the cold air. Dou Tian bowed and said, "The governor is here. The blacksmith shop has created several new Hou family knives and is about to send them to the mansion."

Hou Dayong met Dou Tian in Cangzhou in the third year of Guangshun. He was very familiar with Dou Tian's expression. He smiled and said, "Dou Lang hurriedly wanted to send the knife to me. Could it be that there is any new technology?" Dou Tian said to a burly man holding a big hammer: "Wang Laowu, bring the newly-beaten Hou's knife over."

Wang Laowu, a big man from Shu, was a Shu language. His words were basically the same as those of Zhongyuan dialect, but his tone changed slightly. He replied loudly, "You have to wait." Then he smashed a heavy hammer before putting the hammer aside, and then came over excitedly with a newly made waist knife.

The style of the sword is still the sword of the Hou Family Knife. The sword is drawn from the black ground scabbard. The blade has some beautiful cloud patterns. You can see the cold light by turning a little. Hou Dayong used his finger to test the blade. The blade seemed to have life under the fingers, just like a beast that sniffed the smell of blood and kept beating. Hou Dayong waved it a few times. Under the pressure of the blade, Wang Laowu took a few steps back and left the blade before he felt relieved.

Hou Dayong said repeatedly: "A good knife, what a good knife." Dou Tian was proud of himself, but said: "This knife is still very different from the short knife of the Jiedushi." Hou Dayong danced several more moves and asked, "How is this knife made?"

Dou Tian raised his eyebrows several times, and finally showed a proud expression that could not be concealed. He said, "Since I saw the short sword of the Jiedushi, Guo Baoyu and I thought about the method of making swords day and night, and made countless swords. Although they were extremely sharp, they were still far inferior to the short sword of the Jiedushi."

Hou Dayong thought to himself: "My short knife is a killing weapon configured by special forces in the 21st century. It is the crystallization of modern technology. With the technology of Dazhou, this level of technology will never be able to reach this level."

Dou Tian was immersed in his own smelting world and did not notice the expression of the Jiedushi. Then he said: "After arriving in Tongxin City, our blacksmith shops were the best in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Both bellows and coke could greatly increase the temperature. With the best steel filling technology, this cloud pattern was made by the cold forging method of the Tubo people and left traces of the ground. He also learned the Uighurs' quenching method. After the four technologies were combined, we have created more than 20 good knives. This knife is the best knives. Now our blacksmith shop is going to present this knife to the Jiedushi."

Hou Dayong took the knife, carefully dedicated Xiang for a while, and said, "I have used three waist knives in the Black Eagle Army. The first knives were long knives given by the Khitans, and the second knives were broken wave knives. This is the third knives. There are cloud patterns faintly visible at the sharp edge of this knives, so it is called the Flying Dragon Knives." Hou Dayong suddenly thought of another question and said, "Can this knife be mass-produced? How many can it be made every month? Will the quality of the Hou Family Knives be reduced?"

Dou Tian raised his eyebrows several times and said, "The blacksmith shop is different from the sword-casting master. The sword-casting master has been sharpening a sword for ten years. Our blacksmith shop is to provide weapons to the army and must be able to produce in large quantities. According to the requirements of the governor, we remember each process, including how much material to use, the order of the materials used, etc., and can be copied at every step. The quality of more than 20 knives is similar, all better than the original Hou Family Knife, but this knife is much sharper than other knives." Speaking of wonderful things, Xiaoyu Mouse said, "All procedures are the same. Why is the flying dragon knife far sharper than other knives, I didn't think clearly."

Hou Dayong was not very clear about the specific casting process. He just remembered that adding different elements during smelting would result in different characteristics. The Flying Dragon Sword might have been added by chance, so it became particularly sharp. However, this element could not be detected under existing conditions, so it was difficult to copy the Flying Dragon Sword. After thinking of this layer, Hou Dayong smiled and said, "Since it cannot be copied, it should be considered a magic weapon."

At this moment, a personal guard led several people into the blacksmith shop. The first person quickly walked to Hou Dayong, gave a standard military salute, and shouted: "Report to the Jiedushi, Meng Shu came to report."
Chapter completed!