To pay 10,000 strings of cash was a huge loss for the eldest prince. If possible, he would certainly want to default on the debt, embezzle it, or even use other more covert but effective means to offset the money.
But Lu Sanlang was a slippery man, and he did not leave that place to return to the Imperial College that night. He could not even use the trick of luring the tiger away from the mountain like the second prince, and he did not dare to cause trouble near the Imperial College, which was now at the center of the storm. The next morning, Lu Sanlang and Ah Liu came out with two spinners, but they shouted something after they left the house.
"The loom inside has been burned to ashes. I'll take the people back to the weaving and dyeing workshop to help for a few days. Don't bother with it!"
When the spies in the surrounding areas brought back the news, the furious eldest prince had no choice but to accept the deal. He had to send another supervisor who was loyal to him to deliver a letter to Lu Sanlang, finalizing the price of five thousand strings of cash plus five hundred acres of cotton fields in Cangzhou. Although the prices in the counties near the capital were not as high as those in the south of the Yangtze River, ten strings of cash per acre was still a bargain.
Ten days later, when the Ministry of Rites was making a fuss about the selection of concubines, and Shuntian Prefecture Governor Wang Jie was directly interrogating the two guards around the second prince without any hesitation, the deal between the first prince and Lu Sanlang was completed. What made the first prince angry was that the entire 100 spinning machines were not in the capital, but in a temporary carpenter's workshop in the suburbs of Beijing.
That was long before Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu bought the weaving and dyeing workshop. Zhang Shou, through Zhao Si and Luo Xiaoxiao, asked Carpenter Sun and Blacksmith Zhang to bring a dozen apprentices to work for more than a month to finally finish the product.
According to what Lu Sanlang had said to the eldest prince, this place was remote and quiet, just right for recruiting spinners to work quietly and make a fortune without making a sound. The workshop was a gift to the eldest prince. He even suggested that the eldest prince recruit spinners directly from Cangzhou to avoid alerting others. Of course, if it really didn't work out, it wouldn't be too late to train people right away.
After all, a skilled spinner is relatively easier to train than a skilled weaver.
Although he felt frustrated, when the eldest prince secretly left the city and took several spinners to test the spinning machine, he was not disappointed. Zhao Si and Luo Xiaoxiao were encouraged by the generous reward, and Guan Qiu also came in to discuss the matter. They came up with a good idea. The new spinning machine improved by the three people had 18 spindles, which was several times faster than the three-spindle spinning machine commonly used in Jiangnan before!
The eldest prince immediately sent people to Cangzhou to invite the owners of the most famous weaving workshops to discuss important matters. At the same time, he sent people to the Jiangnan Guild Hall to contact the representatives of the Jiangnan clans in the capital. He was very confident that with his unique skills, he would definitely be able to attract those wealthy businessmen.
While the eldest prince was busy starting his own business of making a fortune, the small blacksmith shop next to the Xiao family compound near the Imperial College in the north city also officially opened with gongs and drums. However, there was also a sign of Zhao's woodworking workshop. The neighbors all shook their heads at the fact that two businesses were doing the same business in the same store.
It is said that gold defeats wood... How can these two things be put together
Zhang Shou put the blacksmith shop and the woodworking workshop together just for the fun of playing games, but he put them together to satisfy Luo Xiaoxiao and Zhao Si's wishes, and he didn't expect them to make daily necessities. He still expected these two people, together with Guan Qiu, to develop various equipment for him.