Chapter 242 16. Ping Liu's Calculations Are Working Well

Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu began to frequently mobilize troops along the lines of Iida, Suzuoka, Izuki, Yoshioka, and Kamimine Castle, and raised military funds to transport iron cannons, bows, arrows, long-shots and other equipment one by one.

On the one hand, Kobayata made preparations for the transportation of military stations, and on the other hand, he began to publicly purchase mountain burdock leaves, and the factory under the castle was basically completed. First, he hired two or three hundred family members of the foot soldiers under the castle and spread out the stall.

The purchased mountain burdock leaves do not need to be washed or dried first. Just put them on the chopping board, and then scrape them with a knife. It doesn't take much effort, and the fine hairs on the back of the mountain burdock leaves are quickly scraped off.

Then wash and filter these fine hairs, beat them with a hydraulic mallet, and dry them in the shade or in the sun. Then weave them into hemp ropes and straw ropes to ensure that the fine hairs are densely woven in the entire fire rope without any omissions.

Finally, it was compared with ordinary matchlocks, and ignited at the same time in a non-humid and windless room. The hemp rope with burdock hair increased the burning time by more than half compared to ordinary matchlocks, and could burn continuously for more than six hours, which was enough to cope with a whole day of war.

Although the time of the straw matchlock was greatly shortened, it was only more than two hours. But it also reached more than half of the level of ordinary matchlocks, not to mention its low cost, and straw was basically free. The generals of Yamauchi who watched the experimental comparison were immediately convinced.

As long as this thing was sold at half the price of ordinary matchlocks, there would definitely be people who wanted to buy it. After all, in addition to shortening the burning time, it perfectly surpassed the old matchlocks in two very important indicators, wind resistance and moisture resistance.

Especially Sukezaemon, who was specially invited by Kobayata to watch the experiment. Their house was originally engaged in weapons business. After seeing the various data levels of this matchlock, he placed an order with Kobayata without hesitation, and he wanted as many as he could produce.

This shocked the other Yamauchi merchants and Ejiri merchants who were still calculating prices and profits. Business is not like this. If you want to buy everything, will others do it?

So other people also expressed their willingness to place orders, fearing that they would fall behind Sukezaemon. Some people even asked to open a yuza on the spot, which is a handwritten check-like paper money. It means that the payment comes first and the goods come later. It is not just a deposit but a full payment.

This result made Yamauchi Yoshiharu very satisfied. After all, 3,000 kan is not too little, nor is it too much. You have two kan and I have three kan. If you don't borrow from a few people, it will be exhausted. And the basic setting is an interest-free loan or a low-interest loan of one cent, so it is impossible to generate profits from the reserve fund.

At the same time, the co-workers who are responsible for the actual handling of the affairs must be paid, and several kantais must also be paid annual salaries. There will definitely be no big problems at the beginning, but it may be lost in less than two years.

Now that the matchlock is well received, merchants from all walks of life want to undertake this product. Even before the goods are out, you can see the money. This made Yamanouchi Yoshiharu breathe a sigh of relief. The reserve fund was completely settled. As long as the profits from the straw ropes were continuously replenished, there would be no major problems with the reserve fund.

Yamanouchi Yoshiharu was still very confident in Kobayata's work. He was too lazy to care about the specific sales distribution. He only needed to make sure that the profits were sufficient. Who did he care about who the profits came from? He was a powerful and powerful lord who was busy with all kinds of affairs, and he didn't have the leisure to care about such details.

Kobayata wanted to test Heiroku, who was transferred to a new position as the fire rope magistrate. After all, he was born a businessman and should have his own views on the operation of the business model.

If his ideas were more reasonable or more effective than Kobayata's contract management system, Kobayata would not mind overturning the original sales method. Then, according to Heiroku's ideas, a drastic reform might increase revenue a lot.

Heiroku might still be a little timid towards the samurai. After all, he was a small handyman who was born to sell soy sauce and was kicked out by the original store owner. There is no one of the same clan or surname in Yamanouchi, and there is not even a wife and children who can warm him up.

Before being promoted to a samurai, he was a lowly town dweller, and even a servant of Kobayata. Compared with Kobayata, who has served in the military for three generations and has served the Yamanouchi family for generations, his status is much lower.

Although Japan does not completely have the four levels of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans now, for merchants, samurai are always superior. The main reason why Heiroku was promoted to a samurai was that he killed Itagaki Nobukata with a cannon in the Battle of Uedawara, but Itagaki's head was counted on Kobayata's head. Everyone does not know that it was Heiroku who actually killed Itagaki Nobukata, and even those who know it think that it is the master's credit for the servant to kill the enemy general.

If it weren't for the fact that Heiroku's mouth was the same as Kobayata's last time, they were equally good. He lied to people and ghosts in Ejiri, and made big promises, defrauding Yamanouchi Yoshiharu of a full 4,000 koku of grain. This achievement was recognized by the Yamauchi Samurai Corps. Now when people mention Heiroku, their first impression is that he is a thief who is very good at calculating. He can even trick ghosts into giving him money.

Anyway, Heiroku has now completely established his foothold in the Yamauchi Samurai Corps. Facing these business tycoons that he once looked up to, he can now face them with ease without being humble or arrogant.

Let's go back to the story. When Koheita was selling grass in Ejiri, he implemented a system of first goods and then payment, and overall suppression of distribution. The Yamauchi family did not come forward to sell at all. They forced the goods to the merchants according to their strength, let them sell them, and then collect the payment from the merchants regularly.

The advantages are obvious, no need to worry, just sit and collect money. The disadvantage is that small merchants are completely inferior to big merchants, and soon the business is basically concentrated in the hands of a few families, and the monthly share is divided up in advance. Of course, since the official shipping price is set, the income is guaranteed regardless of drought or flood, and no matter who undertakes it, the Yamanouchi family will always get a fixed amount of money.

Due to the intensive production of large-scale manual workshops, the overall level of the products produced by Yamanouchi is completely beyond the manual production of small farmers. Yamanouchi products have gradually become synonymous with excellent quality, but at the beginning, the Yamanouchi family and Kobayata were hands-off shopkeepers, only shipping at a price of 90 coins per stack. The price on the market has exceeded 120 coins, or even 130 coins, and a lot of profits flow directly into the pockets of contractors.

This time, Heiroku changed Kobayata's seemingly convenient method of sitting and collecting money, and changed it to contracting and selling the products for the next six months every six months according to the market conditions of the first six months.

The war in the whole country is happening more fiercely, and weapons and equipment will only sell better, not harder.

Heiroku is definitely not doing so-called futures, but like the last time he cheated grain, he gave merchants a chance to gamble. He set a starting price according to the market conditions at the time of sale, and let merchants bid to buy the production of the next six months based on this starting price. If the war is fierce in that six months, then he will definitely make a lot of money. If the war is neither hot nor light, then he may only make a little money for running errands.

Anyway, Heiroku doesn't care about the actual selling price, he only follows the lowest ex-factory price he gives, selects the one with the highest actual bid, and gives him the monopoly right for six months.

The Yamanouchi family only sells according to their bids, and the market risks are borne by the merchants, which is a step further than Xiao Pingtai in terms of guaranteed income regardless of drought or flood.

It's really "full of bad water"!