Wu Yiming wrote down his ideas, and Yunrong received them soon after. Looking at Wu Yiming's sales plan, Yunrong felt that Wu Yiming was indeed suited for business.
Then Yunrong gave the order that the first batch of cars produced by the bicycle factory must look luxurious and valuable.
Wu Yiming's plan was simple: bicycles are all about the technology. As long as you have the technology, the cost of labor and materials is not too high. Wu Yiming planned to build a batch of bicycles that looked like they could only be used by the rich and powerful.
Before the bicycles are auctioned, the public's interest must be whetted. For example, members of the royal family may demonstrate how to ride a bicycle in public, or a few may be selected as rewards for meritorious officials.
Once we establish a reputation, we can release the news later and not worry about not making money at the auction.
A year has passed, and the bookstore has been completed under Zhu Tao's construction. Interior decoration has also begun, as it is a place for reading and should be done with care.
Reading makes one clear-headed, and the place where one reads should naturally be bright and spacious.
The interior of the bookstore began to be renovated, and Zhu Tao began to cooperate with the Hanlin Academy to collect books and organize them into categories. According to Yinzhen's wishes, this bookstore should collect as many books as possible from all over the world.
Yinzhen's initial goal for Zhu Tao was to have as many books as possible inside.
Collecting books is no small matter. In ancient times, people valued reading and books. Moreover, reading often required a certain level of cultural refinement, which meant passing down knowledge and culture through generations. This meant that the more cultured a family was, the richer its collection of books would be, including not only books available in the market but also rare and unique editions.
The variety of books is one aspect, but another is that most of them contain annotations by talented ancestors, which is a treasure that is hard to come by.
Books by scholars are exceptionally precious, and people generally don't give them away easily, so this batch of books is actually not very easy to collect.
Finally, with no other option, Zhu Tao had someone advertise in the newspaper to see if anyone was willing to donate books.
The result was somewhat unexpected for Zhu Tao. Quite a few people were willing to donate books. Although the annotations on them were not as good as those of great Confucian scholars, they were sufficient for some poor students. At least they were more insightful than some rural scholars.
Wu Yiming had heard of this bookstore before, but she didn't suspect Zhu Tao anything, assuming it was set up by the Emperor.
She checked the money in the account book, so she ordered someone to send one million taels to the Education Bureau, saying it was for the bookstore to buy books.
Upon receiving the money, Zhu Tao had no other thoughts but felt that the people at Wu's Department Store were very clever. Seeing that Wu's Department Store didn't seem to care at all about taking out one million taels of silver, Zhu Tao knew that this amount of silver was insignificant to them. However, this one million taels would be used to buy books, which would be placed in the bookstore for scholars to use.
If this matter is publicized again, Wu's Department Store may not have been prominent in recent years, but there are always some capable scholars who, even if they only say a few good words about the store in the future, will surely be enough for the store to break even.
Furthermore, this bookstore was built under the auspices of the imperial court, so it's conceivable that the Wu family's shop would have a place in the imperial court's purview.
At the same time, it also won the praise of today's readers, after all, donating books to bookstores is indeed a good deed.
Zhu Tao was also very kind. Since the other party was willing to spend money, he was also willing to spend his own face. So he went to have tea with his colleagues in the propaganda department and spent a long time promoting the good reputation of Wu's Shop.
Wu's Department Store has no shortage of customers, but a good reputation is never too much.
Besides, since she gave the money, she didn't say she wouldn't ask for anything in return; she doesn't have such noble thoughts.
Yinzhen and Yunrong had both heard about this, and they had no objection to Wu Yiming's actions. Since she was willing to take out the money, Yinzhen and Yunrong were not afraid of her becoming too famous.
Just then, bicycles were produced to a certain extent, with a capacity of one hundred bicycles per month. In the first few months, Yinzhen and Yunrong worked together to raise the value of the bicycles. Yunrong gave one to her own family, and Yinzhen also gave one to the Fucha family.
Bobo's teacher, Zhang Ying, was rewarded with a bicycle... and other important ministers in the court all received a bicycle, even Zhu Tao received one. He naturally knew that in this era, according to the course of history, it was impossible for bicycles to exist.
Besides high-ranking officials in the court, members of the imperial family also received bicycles as a reward. Even Yinzhen's nominal brothers each received two bicycles.
Not only did Yinzhen bestow gifts, but he also specially prepared a place in the palace. The floor inside was smoothed with cement, and there were about thirty bicycles inside. These bicycles looked quite ordinary, unlike the luxurious ones that were given away.
Emperor Yongzheng named this place "Driving School," a name derived from Yunrong, since there were no driving schools during the Republic of China era.
Those who received a reward could have their children learn to ride bicycles there. There were separate areas for boys and girls; boys were taught by palace eunuchs, and girls by palace maids.
As a result, bicycles became popular among the upper echelons of the capital. Although they were popular, there were no places to sell them yet, and they could only be obtained through imperial rewards. Since Emperor Yinzhen valued personal ability more when it came to rewards, the court became much more efficient for a period of time, which made Emperor Yinzhen somewhat amused and exasperated.
Because of the tight security, many people are proud to own a bicycle.
Bicycles are currently enjoying a great reputation, so the auction of bicycles on the third floor of Wu's Department Store is bound to cause a sensation.
This sensation was different from before. Most ordinary people were unaware of it, and it only caused a stir among the wealthy. In ancient times, class distinctions were clear, and ordinary people were more concerned about their own food and clothing. It wasn't that they didn't want to care about the rest, but they simply didn't have the energy to.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
