The old wooden gate of the Manufacturing Bureau has been demolished, and now the entrance to the Manufacturing Bureau is a tall, square green stone gate that is more than ten meters high. On both sides of the stone gate are two bronze lions, which are upright and majestic, a bit like the entrance to the European-style castle that Yan Liqiang saw in his previous life. There are gatehouses on both sides of the stone gate for people to be on duty, and connected to the entrance is the castle wall that the Manufacturing Bureau has just built halfway. Just next to the gate, an open space covering dozens of acres has been leveled out. In the future, that open space will be where the Manufacturing Bureau parks carriages. Now, there are craftsmen driving oxen and pulling stone rollers to level the ground. After the parking lot is repaired, the problem of carriages queuing in front of the Manufacturing Bureau can be solved. The section of road connecting the Manufacturing Bureau to the Huanglong County official road outside has long been leveled out and turned into a thoroughfare that can accommodate four carriages at the same time.
After half a year, the Ganzhou Manufacturing Bureau, which had money, began to change greatly, and slowly became what Yan Liqiang had imagined. The current manufacturing bureau was producing things while carrying out construction, and the craftsmen in the manufacturing bureau had already become accustomed to this kind of change in the past six months. Every one or two months, one or two workshops would move to new workshops and factory buildings, or some craftsmen would move into new residences. Both the new workshops and factories (Yan Liqiang's words) were spacious, bright, clean, tidy and comfortable, which were much better than before. The morale of the craftsmen in the entire manufacturing bureau was high, and they devoted themselves to their work wholeheartedly.
The popularity of the four-wheeled carriages far exceeded the expectations of Yan Liqiang and Qian Su. The four-wheeled carriage production line in the manufacturing bureau now operates in two shifts, twenty-four hours a day. The number of four-wheeled carriages produced each month has reached ninety. But even so, the orders that continue to flow in from all over the Han Empire are scheduled for three years later.
The manufacturing bureau's profit this year from the four-wheeled carriages alone will exceed more than four million taels of silver.
This is a number that no one expected.
The so-called reservations made by the Manufacturing Bureau all required full payment in advance and the carriages would be picked up after they were built. As a result, the Manufacturing Bureau now had more than 15 million taels of silver in its hands.
After coming back this time, Yan Liqiang was shocked to learn how much money the Manufacturing Bureau had now. The speed and scale of this kind of capital accumulation was really amazing. If it were in his previous life, I'm afraid that only pyramid schemes could match this speed of capital accumulation. The Manufacturing Bureau was certainly not a fund-raising fraud. The reason why it was so successful this time was that the four-wheeled carriage was unique and outstanding, and the other reason was that Yan Liqiang's advertising was really successful.
Qian Su, who is now in charge of the Manufacturing Bureau's affairs, is no longer worried about having no money, but about having too much money and not knowing how to spend it. Because the Manufacturing Bureau now has so much money, Qian Su even had people dig a tightly guarded storage room underground, and hoarded the Manufacturing Bureau's banknotes and silver in the storage room.
For Yan Liqiang, if he could really make use of the stable and huge cash flow provided by the Manufacturing Bureau through the four-wheeled carriage, he could already do many great things. He had countless blueprints in his mind, but the reality that the Heavenly Dao Divine Stone could not create humans disrupted many of his plans. His biggest problem now was not that he had no money, but that there was no one around him who could be used. Many of his previous ideas had to come to an abrupt halt, or he had to suspend or change the plan.
In the blink of an eye, it had been half a month since Yan Liqiang left Liuhe Town.
In the past half month, he has spent most of his time in Yuntao County, busy with the affairs of the salt factory. Now the salt mine in Yuntao County has been taken over by Yan Liqiang. According to Yan Liqiang's idea, after taking over the salt mine in Yuntao County, he would use the function of the Heavenly Dao Divine Stone to create people and create a group of loyal and reliable craftsmen to control the key production links in the new salt factory. He could keep the secret of producing high-quality salt in his hands for a long time. However, the appearance of the Heavenly Dao Divine Stone disrupted Yan Liqiang's idea all of a sudden, which forced Yan Liqiang and Lei Sitong to make corresponding adjustments and compromises in their cooperation.
What is the secret to producing high-quality salt from brine mines? In fact, it is very simple, that is, the carbon precipitation method. As long as the traditional salt processing technology is slightly improved, some simple equipment is added, and the steps are adjusted, low-quality earth salt can be turned into the highest quality refined salt. This is the so-called turning stone into gold.
Yan Liqiang originally wanted to keep the secret in his own hands, but the reality forced him to pull Lei Sitong in to share the secret. This is because the carbonization method is very simple and can be learned almost at a glance. In such a large-scale production, there are many people involved. In order to prevent the participants from leaking the secret, strong control measures must be possessed. Since he cannot create a human being himself, Lei Sitong is currently the only one who has this ability.
Ideals are full of hope, but reality is very hard. Yan Liqiang once again experienced the meaning of this sentence.
As for the matters in Yuntao County, Yan Liqiang promoted several craftsmen and managers from the Manufacturing Bureau to take charge of the production and financial aspects. At the same time, he let Qian Su serve as the manager of the salt factory and run between the salt factory and the Manufacturing Bureau. Fortunately, the matters at the Manufacturing Bureau were on track and Qian Su did not have to worry too much. He could also take care of the matters of the Yuntao County Salt Factory. Anyway, a trip back and forth between the two places would take less than an hour if riding a rhinoceros horse, and two hours would be enough if taking a four-wheeled carriage. The specific production and confidentiality and security work was handed over to Lei Sitong, and the two parties still shared the profits 50-50.
Yan Liqiang's helpless adjustments and compromises were seen by Lei Sitong, who didn't know the reason, as a sign of Yan Liqiang's trust in him. Lei Sitong was naturally very happy. In order to ensure that the salt trade in Yuntao County would not be affected, Lei Sitong directly replaced a county magistrate of Yuntao County. At the same time, a battalion of troops was stationed next to the salt factory. As for the hundreds of workers and managers involved in key production links, they were all selected and dispatched by Lei Sitong. It was said that they were all selected from retired veterans in Lei Sitong's personal army camp, and there were also several masters among them. The entire salt factory also implemented the strictest militarized management, which was even stricter than the Manufacturing Bureau.
It took more than ten days to finish the work at the Yuntao County Salt Factory. Just yesterday, the Yuntao County Salt Factory produced the first batch of refined salt. And last night, Yan Liqiang and Lei Sitong separated in Yuntao County and returned to the Manufacturing Bureau.
For Yan Liqiang, his return from Yuntao County this time meant that his money-making and business matters had come to an end. Even if Yan Liqiang still had countless blueprints in his mind, under such circumstances, he would probably have to take a break for a while.
If you want to do big things and really make a breakthrough, you must have your own team and people on your hands. This is the deepest feeling Yan Liqiang had after returning from Yuntao County. However, there are too few people he can use now. Because he has no people, the only places he can truly control are Liuhe Town and the Manufacturing Bureau. Once he leaves these two places, he will be stretched to the limit when he really wants to do something. There are almost no available people around him, and people are the foundation of everything. With people, the current situation can be maintained and opened up. If there are no people, no matter how much money he can make, he is just a local rich man and a miser.
Early this morning, Yan Liqiang asked Hu Haihe to drive a four-wheeled carriage with Yu Qing out of the gate of the manufacturing bureau. After getting on the official road, they drove towards Pingxi City...
(End of this chapter)