Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 183 Technological Progress
"Lord Yang is truly a business genius. I never thought that business could be done this way. I really admire him!"

“Yes, in the past, when we were doing business, we would wait until a disaster struck and the people could no longer wait, then we would start transporting food to the disaster area and then sell it at a higher price.

I never thought that Lord Yang could make this expensive wedding ring even more expensive with just a few words. My knowledge is really shallow and I have never thought of increasing the value of an item in this way."

Faced with everyone's flattery, Yang Chen did not take it to heart. Doing business is all about two effects.

One is the physical effect, such as food. You can fill your stomach by buying it with money and avoid starving to death in this chaotic world.

Another reason is psychological effect. Yang Chen copied the advertising slogan of a luxury jewelry brand in later generations.

It is also the most famous scam in the world, the diamond scam.

Love is eternal, diamonds last forever, and so on. Yang Chen has heard too many similar marketing scams.

Diamonds are actually made of carbon, which is found everywhere. As long as the two conditions of high temperature and high pressure are met, diamonds can be produced continuously.

Moreover, the purity of artificial diamonds can be many levels higher than that of natural diamonds.

This is something that everyone knows, but because of the bondage of love, things worth dozens of dollars are sold at hundreds or thousands of times the price.

As long as it's related to love, it's basically a matter of mutual consent.

In today's age of underdeveloped information, without any introduction from others, this colorful wedding ring launched by Yang Chen will definitely capture the wishes of most beautiful girls for a beautiful love.

In addition to wedding rings, Yang Chen also launched a series of luxury accessories, all of which are related to love.

He just didn't believe that there was anyone in this world who could resist the temptation of these things.

The four people are different dealers.

At the same time, Yang Chen also took out the blueprint that he had prepared long ago.

As long as everyone expands according to his business map, there will be a steady stream of income.

In addition, Yang Chen also asked Mr. Fan to cooperate with the court. When he heard about cooperating with the court, Mr. Fan was instantly stunned, his body stiff and unable to move.

His speech was somewhat slurred:
"What? Lord Yang, you mean I can cooperate with the court? Is this true? The power of the court is thousands of times stronger than mine. I am just a businessman who can only make a small business in the Central Plains. How can I have the opportunity to cooperate with the court?"

Yang Chen looked relaxed as he stared at Mr. Fan and said:

"Don't be surprised. If Your Majesty knew about cooperating with the court, he would definitely be happy, because the court cannot take care of everything and needs your cooperation.

Especially in recent times, the imperial court has begun to expand its territory, whether it is the old Northern Yuan Dynasty or overseas territories.

In the future, the Ming Dynasty will not stop in the Central Plains. At that time, you will need to unite all the people who can be united, follow the pace of the court, and expand business to the outside world together.

Don't you want to open your business to the whole world?
Everyone here is a business person, so I guess there’s no need for me to introduce what the outside world is like.

To tell you the truth, the territory currently occupied by the Ming Dynasty is completely insignificant compared to the entire world, that is, the ground under our feet.

In the future, the Han people of the Ming Dynasty will be spread all over the world, the sun will be visible to us Han people at all times, and the Han people will be the only ones respected in the world!
And now, for those of you who have joined the state-owned enterprises, I am giving you an opportunity, an opportunity to be ahead of everyone else.

As long as you are willing to become a part of the Ming Dynasty's outward expansion, the court will discuss future policies with you!"

"Hiss! The imperial court can actually discuss important matters with us! I never thought that a mere businessman like me could be treated like this. We would never have dared to think about it before!"

Some people sighed like this.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the rich could not be exposed too much to the eyes of the people. Once someone was reported to be showing off his wealth and parading around in public, Zhu Yuanzhang would make the person know what it meant to regret living.

Therefore, many people actually have a very contradictory view of businessmen. They envy businessmen for their wealth, but also despise their identity as businessmen.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously promoted the imperial examination system, which led to the spread of this saying among the people.

Everything is inferior, only reading is superior.

This is also the reason why so many merchants in the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of money to buy scholars to marry into their families.

At this moment, there is an opportunity before them. As long as they agree to it, they will have the opportunity to be on equal footing with court officials.

Anyone who comes here will be excited!

"I would like to ask Sir Yang, if we go overseas to do business, what kind of business should we do?"

Mr. Liu had a look of anticipation on his face, wanting to know if this business was suitable for him.

Although he has obtained the opportunity to sell exquisite glass artworks from Yang Chen, who would feel that he has little money?

Given an opportunity for an additional way to make money, they couldn’t figure out how to turn it down.

In response to the question, Yang Chen said frankly:
"It's actually not that difficult. All you need to do is transport some things to another place in your 'private' name, and then sell them as cheaply as possible. In short, you need to make the other party spend money to buy the materials you transported."

"So Easy?"

“It’s that simple.”

Everyone was confused when they heard this?
It is such a simple thing that the imperial court can do it itself, so why does it really need this group of merchants to do it?

While everyone was confused, Yang Chen's smiling eyes contained a strong murderous intent.

That's right.

What he asked these merchants to transport were actually materials infected with smallpox.

The time for the Ming Dynasty to go out and invade Japan is getting closer and closer. When that time comes.

The Ming Dynasty must win at the lowest cost. To achieve this goal, what must be done is to transport the smallpox from the Ming Dynasty to the Japanese islands.

The only way is to let Japan be infected with smallpox in the Ming Dynasty, so that these Japanese pirates will lose as many people as possible during the infection stage, and then the Ming soldiers will take this opportunity to land.

In this way, it couldn't be easier to win at the lowest cost.

Yang Chen has already investigated what the current situation in Japan is.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who occupied the capital of the Northern Dynasty, had 70% of Japan's population and military force, which is roughly estimated to be more than 60,000.

Emperor Daigo of the Southern Dynasty owned the remaining 30% of the population, which was approximately between 4 million and 5 million.

Overall, Japan's population was nearly a quarter of that of the Ming Dynasty.

Once the Ming Dynasty used tough measures to control these more than 10 million people, they were all sent to the mines for forced labor, and they were so full that they could not be used up.

Therefore, only about 500,000 people need to be left.

Smallpox can be used for screening. Whoever can survive the smallpox infection will be qualified to become a mining slave in the Ming Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Yang Chen couldn't help but laugh:

"I seem to see the Japanese struggling to survive in this virus apocalypse."

He didn't care what kind of torture Japan would suffer in the future.

Anyway, he only needs to stay in the rear, and the Ming soldiers are responsible for the front line. In this era, killing people is as easy as killing chickens, not to mention those soldiers who have been fighting on the field for many years. Facing life and death and flesh and blood, it is not a big deal to forget it in the blink of an eye.

"Then Lord Yang, from today on, we are partners?"

Mr. Qian asked cautiously.

Yang Chen looked at Mr. Cui and ordered:
"Lao Cui, since we have decided to cooperate happily, then the next thing is left to you. I still need to take care of other things."

"Don't worry, Lord Yang. I know what to do."

Then Yang Chen walked out on his own.

Inside the house, Mr. Cui began to tell the other four what they should do next.

After leaving, Yang Chen rode his horse out of the mansion and came to a huge desolate wilderness.

In fact, it is not a desolate wilderness, but compared with the bustling city center of Zhenjiang Prefecture, the equipment here seems very simple.

Many facilities have just been built. This is the center of Yang Chen’s experimental base.

This place is only a short distance away from the Yangtze River. It was for this reason that Yang Chen decided to place the temple in this place.

The waters of the Yangtze River allowed him to build a production line, a stamping shell technology production line.

With the help of a water wheel and gear equipment, stamping technology is no longer something that cannot be realized in Yang Chen's dreams.

Everyone here was busy, and they didn't even have time to nod or greet Yang Chen when they saw him.

Reaching a high position, Yang Chen looked into the distance and saw a familiar person standing there.

Zhu Chong.

At this moment, Zhu Chong kept giving orders to a group of women.

"Oh my! Auntie! These linens must be sewn tightly, but you have sewn this cotton and linen to be thinner than a hair. If you try to fly this thing into the sky, it will kill people!"

"Ah! Is it that serious? Sisters, you all heard it, right? The Second Prince said that we must be very careful when sewing these gauze nets and cotton and linen fabrics. We must not miss a hole as small as a hair, otherwise someone will die if they fall from the sky!"

“I know, Aunt Li, our skills are definitely enough to sew all this linen so well that it won’t even take a breath!”

Zhu Chong felt quite helpless facing the group of nearly a hundred middle-aged women in front of him.

But there was nothing he could do, since his responsibility this month was to make the canvas fabric for the hot air balloon, which would rise hundreds or even thousands of meters into the sky.

There must not be any mistakes, otherwise you will fall down without even the right to cry for help.

Only after seeing the aunties finish sewing a ten-square-meter piece of cloth did Zhu Chong leave.

Before leaving, he went to a place very close to the water and turned off the loom.

Using linen to sew a hot air balloon that can carry four people into the sky requires about hundreds of thousands of meters of hemp rope.

With so much cloth, I don’t know how long it would take to weave it by manpower.

The weaving equipment of the Ming Dynasty mainly relied on pedal looms.

The appearance of this loom can be traced back to the Warring States Period. It is a textile loom with a foot-operated sheath-lifting device. Lifting the sheath through the foot pedal is a major invention in the history of loom development, which greatly improves production efficiency.

The pedal loom is divided into several types, including double-pedal (i.e. pedal) single-heald loom, single-pedal single-heald loom, and double-pedal double-heald loom. The main components include the machine body, heald lifting rod, pedal, warp beam, cloth winding beam, heald, and reed.

The looms currently used in the Ming Dynasty are the pedal looms improved by Huang Dao Po in the Yuan Dynasty.

This loom also has other names, such as the shuttle loom.

In terms of productivity, one person operating a machine can weave two meters of cloth in a day.

Even with the help of these instruments, it would be very difficult to obtain the materials Yang Chen needed in a short period of time.

So Yang Chen relied on water conservancy to develop a loom similar to the spinning Jenny.

Compared to traditional pedal looms, the Spinning Jenny was eight times more efficient.

One person can weave more than ten meters of cloth in a day.

Currently, Yang Chen has established five assembly lines in this base, equipped with multiple vertically arranged spindles. Initially there were eight, but now it has increased to more than a dozen. The spinning wheel is driven by a hand crank, which drives all the spindles to rotate and spin at the same time.

Currently, Zhu Chong is the person in charge here. He manages the entire experimental base. Others tell him about everything, and he only goes back to Yang Chen if he cannot solve a problem.

I was just about to go back to my room to rest for a while, then take a look at today's schedule and decide where to go in the afternoon.

But Yang Chen, who was standing on a high place, shouted:
"Zhu Chong! Come up!"

Hearing the voice coming from above his head, Zhu Chong suddenly looked up and saw someone there who made him grateful but helpless at the same time.

Faced with Yang Chen's invitation, Zhu Chong gritted his teeth and walked to a higher place.

There was nothing he could do. It was because he couldn't beat Yang Chen.

But then again, Zhu Chong's attitude towards Yang Chen is very complicated.

First of all, it is an unchangeable fact that Yang Chen caused him to suffer many unexpected disasters, but to a certain extent, it was also Yang Chen who saved him, otherwise according to the original timeline.

He, Zhu Chong, was probably already in a situation from which there was no return.

Whenever he thought of these things, Zhu Chong couldn't help but sigh.

"The fate of life is really a trick of fate."

Zhu Chongkai walked forward and soon came to Yang Chen's side. He looked completely exhausted.

He looked at Su Chen weakly and said:
"Hey, I've been busy all morning. Why don't you let me go back and have a good rest? Why did you call me to such a high place?"

Yang Chen did not answer his question directly. He just wanted to go to an open space not far away and said:
"Do you think this place would look much better if we used it to display our stuff?"

Looking in the direction of the finger, Zhu Chong discovered that those places were originally planned to be empty. He felt very strange when he suddenly heard Yang Chen say this.

His eyes were dazed and he muttered to himself:

"This place has no use at all. Some time ago, Elder Wen said that he was going to use it as an explosion test site. Now that you want to use it, shouldn't you go and tell Elder Wen about it?"

Yang Chen maintained a warm smile and said:
"Mr. Wen will probably agree. After all, your elder brother and father will be coming over in a few days."

"Come here! What! You said my father and elder brother are coming here!!!"

Zhu Chong, who had been in a listless state, came back to his senses instantly, stared at Yang Chen with wide eyes in disbelief, wanting to know whether what the other person said was true.

After reading it for a while, I found that this seems to be true.

(End of this chapter)