Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 206 There is a new project

After the first month of the lunar year, more and more villagers came out to look for work, and another group of people came to Yuanying Manor. They were the soldiers who retired with the disabled soldiers at the end of last year. They heard about the happy life of their comrades in Yuanying Manor, and they also came to the manor to find Hualei, hoping to find a job. After asking Mrs. Pei for advice, Hualei tried out this group of retired soldiers for a month and signed a five-year contract with more than 120 of them.

After the manpower was sufficient again, Hualei assigned the newly contracted people to various groups, especially the planting group, the slaughtering group, the picking and cleaning group, and the germination group, leaving only the Tian Changmu brothers to take care of it. The farmers with indentures were slowly brought back to the farm, and the tofu shop, the stewed food group, the roast duck group, the soap group, and the pickling group were expanded.

Yes, Hualei has set up a new pickling group. The old marquis of Mobei sent a message back saying that he hopes to send a batch of cured meat and salted pork every two months, as well as salted duck eggs.

If there are a lot of chickens, ducks, geese and pigs, it would be best to deliver them once a month, because the people also like these cured meat and salted pork very much. Lord Pei specially bought a shop in Mobei Town to sell his own rice wine and the cured meat sent by Hua Lei, and his business is booming.

Therefore, Hualei set up a pickling team to supply Mobei. They specialize in pickling cured chickens, ducks and geese, because it takes at least half a month from slaughter to completion, plus pickling salted pork and salted duck eggs. After a month, the pickling team is also very busy.

When it was time to deliver goods to Mobei, Hualei also packed a batch of various soaps from the warehouse, as well as a large batch of tofu strips. As long as they were suitable for long-distance transportation, Hualei would not let them go and exchange them for silver. Of course, Hualei's pockets were bulging very quickly.

By the time Liang Xiangyi returned to Shangjing City and met Hualei, it was already mid-to-late February. Unfortunately, Liang Xiangyi did not find the right fabric for down jackets this time, and Hualei was very disappointed. However, Liang Xiangyi's fleet was about to go to Sucheng in the south, and he said he would continue to help her look for it. Hualei had no choice but to wait and see.

Although Liang Xiangyi did not find the fabric for the down jacket, she also brought a piece of news to Hua Lei.

"Are you asking me to form a fleet with you?" Hua Lei asked Liang Xiangyi who was sitting opposite her in the study room in Qingyun Lane.

"To be honest, I think we shouldn't get mixed up. I'm a businessman. Although you may become an official in the future, you are also a businessman at heart. We have known each other since childhood. I haven't been in business for a long time, but I have seen a lot. For the sake of profit, many fathers and sons, and brothers have turned against each other and become enemies.

I don't want to lose you, a rare friend, because of profit sharing in the future. To be honest, you and I are not short of start-up funds now, and it's no problem for us to set up a small fleet, so there is no need to get together. "Liang Xiangyi also spoke the truth.

"What do you mean by setting up a fleet? Are you kidding me? I'm not familiar with fleets at all. I don't even know where to buy ships, let alone how to train the crew.

Although I have a lot of goods to transport and do need a fleet, I also maintain a respectful attitude towards fields that I don't understand at all. Although I don't lack the start-up capital now, I don't have as much wealth as you." Hua Lei rolled her eyes at Liang Xiangyi and smiled.

Liang Xiangyi rolled his eyes at Hua Lei and said, "If it weren't for the fact that Grandfather Hua didn't accept my father's money, and if it weren't for the fact that you gave me all kinds of advice, I would never have come to you to tell you about this good thing." He picked up the teacup and took a sip, then said.

"It's like this. Recently, my fleet's business has been getting better and better. Two ships are not enough, so I want to expand it and add a few more ships. The reason I came back so late this time was because I stopped by the Jiangnan Shipyard on the way. They now have six ships ready to launch.

I originally wanted to prepare four ships, but the other shipyard persuaded me to buy all six ships and gave me a preferential price. If I bought four ships, they asked for 6,000 taels, and if I bought six ships, they asked for 8,000 taels. I bargained for 5,000 taels for four ships, but they didn't agree, insisting on 5,600 taels. They agreed to 7,500 taels for six ships.

I thought that spending less than 2,000 taels of silver to buy two more ships was a good deal, but if I bought all of them and added the training of the crew, I was afraid that my funds would not be able to turn around all of a sudden. You know, I still have some fabrics on hand, so if I do that, I will fall into the same problem of capital turnover as before, similar to the Lotus Manor.

So I thought, if you are interested, I will give you another ship, you can have three ships, I can have three ships, I will pay for the ships together, and you can pay for the three ships privately. Then I will let my old crew members train them.

I will split the cost of training the crew with you 50/50 based on the actual cost. What do you think? It can usually be completed in about three to five months." Liang Xiangyi looked at Hua Lei and smiled, "I won't charge any additional training fees or technical fees. I will just consider it as repaying your original favor. You won't suffer any loss."

Hua Lei couldn't help but smile. She calculated in her mind that the cost of the three ships was a total of 3,750 taels, plus the crew training fee of up to five months would not exceed 4,000 taels, so the total was about 8,000 taels of silver. She had tens of thousands of taels of silver notes in her hand, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Now there are more and more things on my farm, and it is a bit too late to rely on the land carriage caravan of the Marquis's Mansion to transport them every time. In addition, the wine produced by the Marquis's brewery this year may be more, and the caravan will be even more late. If I set up a small fleet of three ships, it will be no problem to go to Mobei once a month with two ships. And when I come back, I can bring some specialty gadgets from Mobei to sell in Shangjing City. Maybe it is also a business opportunity. Many gems and furs in Mobei are good things.

There is also Chengyun Prefecture. If Sister Ruyi obtains the right to sell the imperial examination books, she will also have to transport various books and grids from Shangjing City. She also has a ship that can be flexibly dispatched. This is not bad, but the five-month training time is a bit long. It is not a problem of training costs. It would be best if it can be used in early June.

It was already February, and the number of candidates for the imperial examination would be finalized in May, so she might need a boat in early June. She had a boat but couldn't use it, and if she asked Liang Xiangyi's fleet to deliver it, her fleet might not be in time. However, Hua Lei didn't say anything. She hadn't decided whether to build a fleet yet, so it was not appropriate to say such things.