The winter rain finally stopped, the morning mist gradually dissipated, and the long-lost sunshine shone on the earth.
The soap workshop is about to start trial production today, so Fu Xiaoguan arrived here early.
The person in charge of this workshop is a middle-aged man named Lin Chengbing. Zhang Ce said that this man was his cousin. He was previously a teacher in a private school in Xiacun, with a monthly salary of only 500 coins. With elderly parents and young children to support at home, life was quite difficult, so he simply asked him to quit his teaching job and come to this workshop.
Fu Xiaoguan had no objection. He was very confident in Zhang Ce. With his constraints, he thought there would be no problem with Lin Chengbing being in charge of the workshop.
Lin Chengbing is now leading hundreds of people in the workshop. He has already memorized all the procedures by heart, but he is still a little nervous at this moment.
For a scholar, this was not a respectable thing, but he heard from his cousin that Master Fu's daily salary was one hundred coins, which meant three taels of silver a month - a huge sum of money. With this money, the family's conditions could be greatly improved, so he finally compromised. At a time when even the problem of food and clothing could not be solved, face was obviously not very important.
Lin Chengbing took a deep breath and was about to do it himself, but when he saw Young Master Fu coming, his heart tightened and he hurried forward and bowed.
Fu Xiaoguan smiled and pulled him aside. "Mr. Lin, there's no need to be so polite. I'm just taking a look. Everything here is up to you. Go ahead and do it boldly. Don't be afraid of failure."
Lin Chengbing was slightly stunned, thinking about how his cousin had told him many times that Young Master Fu was different from other young masters, and it seemed that he was indeed different.
"Young Master has such trust in me, Cheng Bing will definitely do a good job here!"
Young Master Fu trusted him so much that he suddenly felt full of confidence. Facing hundreds of workers, he felt like he was standing on a podium. He glanced at the group with authority and said loudly, "Let's do a small trial run first. You all watch me. I'll do it first, and then I'll arrange the process. You just follow the instructions."
Lin Chengbing rolled up his sleeves and began to try it out. He was very careful with every step, following the requirements on the paper. Fu Xiaoguan looked at it for a while and found no problem, so he walked out quietly.
Then I went to the perfume workshop, the wine-making workshop, and finally the paper-making workshop, which was also under preparation and it was estimated that trial production would be able to begin before the New Year.
Finally, he went to the place where the simple shed used to be. Now, a school and a nursing home have been built here. The school will enroll the first batch of students next year, and the nursing home is inhabited by the lonely elderly people among the former refugees.
The arrival of Fu Xiaoguan made these old people very excited. They surrounded him and expressed their gratitude. They also listened to the young master talk about the interesting things that happened in Beijing. The conversation lasted until noon. Zhang Ce came over and said that the master had come to the Xishan Villa.
Fu Xiaoguan then said goodbye to these old people and returned to the villa with Zhang Ce.
"I've sent you a batch of stuff. I'll send you the rest when it's ready... Son, are you planning a rebellion?"
The father and son were sitting at the stone table in the backyard. At this moment, Fu Daguan was leaning over the table, staring at Fu Xiaoguan, and asked in a low voice with a very nervous look on his face.
Fu Xiaoguan laughed, "What are you thinking? I'm just training some guards."
Official Fu looked at him suspiciously, "Really? I don't understand those uniforms, but I do understand these weapons. Whose guards need so many weapons? Three thousand of each type, and you have daggers, knives, crossbows, and bows... Son, were you wronged in the capital? Did the emperor dismiss you from your position? Tell me, I won't tell anyone."
Official Fu couldn't help but be nervous. His son came to Xishan in a hurry after returning, and then wrote a short letter not long after, speaking very urgently. Although these weapons were not under control, there were too many of them.
Four types of weapons, each worth 3,000, can't this equip 12,000 soldiers?
My family is just a landlord. We can have guards, but private soldiers are not allowed. In Linjiang, only Prince Xian’s mansion has 500 private soldiers. Could it be that my son’s action really means he wants to rebel?
Official Fu still did as he was told, but he also came here in person. He really wanted to see what was going on. If his son really wanted to rebel, he had to prepare a way out in advance.
For example... going to another country.
"No, I'm just training a group of guards. Currently, there are only a little over 2,000 of them. Dad, think about it. The industry here in Xishan is getting bigger and bigger. Doesn't it need a large number of guards to look after it? The guards in Linjiang Mansion are no good and must be replaced. And the Fu Mansion in Shangjing is so big, doesn't it also need a lot of guards? Besides, why would I rebel? Didn't I tell you that the Ninth Princess will be my wife in the future, and the Emperor is my father-in-law. Why would I rebel against my father-in-law?"
Official Fu frowned and thought, yes, was my worry in vain?
"Why do you need so many weapons with only two thousand people?"
"Everyone must be equipped with these four weapons."
Fu Xiaoguan pried open a box and took out a dagger from it. He looked at it carefully and then cut the stone table. The blade was bent because the steel was not heated enough and the iron impurity content was too high.
"This thing definitely can't cut stone."
Fu Xiaoguan nodded and said, "Just use it first. It will be improved once your own iron is smelted."
Then he pried open another box, which contained clothes. He took out a set and looked at it. It was green and could not be made into camouflage. The fabric was not bad, but of course it could not be compared with real tactical clothing. It had no properties such as fire resistance and tear resistance.
"Doesn't this kind of clothing look very strange when worn?" Official Fu was quite curious. The clothes were so short, the pants were so loose, and there were so many pockets on the clothes and pants. If he hadn't knocked his father-in-law unconscious with silver, people would not have made this thing.
"It's actually very comfortable to wear like this, and it's neat and tidy. These pockets can hold a lot of things and can also hang a lot of things. Anyway, I have to thank Dad for this."
Then Fu Xiaoguan ordered Zhang Ce to call Bai Yulian and ask him to bring more people to move all these things to the camp.
"Dad, have my five mothers reacted? It's been over two months now. You have to hurry up on this matter."
"Oh... don't mention it. Except for your Fifth Mother, no one else has reacted yet. Dad used the fact that your Fifth Mother was pregnant to threaten your father-in-law, otherwise he wouldn't dare to make these weapons. The old man was cunning. He said that according to the rules, weapons exceeding 500 must have official approval. How can this be approved? It was obviously impossible to approve it, so I said if you don't do it, I will divorce your daughter. Haha, the old man was so angry that he gnashed his teeth, but in the end he agreed."
Fu Xiaoguan couldn't help but admire this fat father, he was indeed a talented person!
However, he did not understand this rule before, and now it sounds like a troublesome thing. He has to go back to Linjiang and find Liu Zhidong to get an approval document.
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