Chapter 69 Everyone in the World Can Afford It
As soon as Wu Fugui entered the door, he saw a mahogany tea table.
There was a man sitting on each side of the tea table.
The man sitting on the inside had a handsome face, was dressed in plain clothes, and was over twenty years old.
The other one had gray hair and was dressed in silk and satin. He was about fifty years old.
The man with gray hair is Gu Qingning's grandfather, Gu Yan.
When Gu Yan heard Wu Fugui offer five hundred coins, he remained calm and leisurely took out a banknote from his sleeve.
"Then I will pay six hundred coins for a hu."
Not many people in Baiyun County know about the Gu family, but they are the richest family in the surrounding area of Qiancao County next door.
My ancestors used to have officials appointed by the imperial court. Although no one in my family is an official or engaged in business now, the land left by my ancestors is fertile and the granaries are full of grain.
Moreover, the Gu family treated their tenants well. When other landlords collected 40% or 50% of the rent, the Gu family only collected 20%, so they had a good reputation in the village.
Gu Yan is the boss of the family. He requires all his descendants, regardless of gender, to go to school. Perhaps one of them will be lucky enough to bring honor to the family again.
Therefore, the older grandchildren in the family were either studying in the provincial school or in other places. Even a little girl named Gu Qingning was sent to the academy in Baiyun County.
Gu Yan didn't like his granddaughter Gu Qingning at first.
She is weak and petty, just like the second daughter-in-law. She is pretty but starts crying over the slightest thing and can't stand up.
However, since last year, Qingning's temper has become a little tougher than before. He has become more generous in what he says and does at home, and he always mentions a classmate named "Zhizhi" in the academy.
Gu Yan came to Baiyun County today for something, and happened to meet Mingde Academy on holiday, so he went to pick up his granddaughter.
Gu Qingning was so surprised when she saw her grandfather. She didn't expect that her grandfather would come to pick her up.
She called out "Grandpa" and hurriedly carried the book box into the carriage.
But he was so flustered that the bookcase almost tipped over. The book didn't fall out, but a piece of ink did fall out.
The ink stick fell into a small puddle about one finger deep on the side of the road.
Gu Yan frowned: "Why are you so careless? You wasted a piece of ink."
Ordinary ink will disperse when it comes into contact with water
Gu Qingning was also anxious: "This is the ink Zhizhi gave me, I want to fish it out."
The servant picked up the ink stick and gave it to Gu Qingning while it was still wet.
Gu Qingning quickly took a handkerchief to wipe off the water stains on the ink stick, and then found a dry handkerchief to wrap it up.
Gu Yan looked at his granddaughter's actions, his eyes changed slightly, and suddenly said:
"Lime, bring it here for me to see."
Gu Qingning gave the ink stick to her grandfather as instructed:
"Grandpa, this is the ink made by my classmate Zhizhi in the village. It's better than the ink I bring from home. Tomorrow I'll use my New Year's money to buy some ink from Zhizhi."
Gu Yan is one of the very few people in Xunzhou who is willing to spend money on high-quality paper, ink, brushes and inkstones, and he has seen quite a few good things.
He was surprised to find that the ink stick was not damaged by moisture and did not dissolve in water, which showed that the ratio of glue and ash was excellent and the ash was fine.
Literati will definitely like this kind of ink stick.
It doesn’t matter where it is made. The key is that this ink stick can be given as a gift to grandchildren living outside the family to curry favor with them.
If it is given to the doctors in the official school, it will be much better than giving away gold and silver.
Gu Yan immediately went to the Black Mountain Restaurant to find Hao Ren.
Gu Yan chatted with Hao Ren for a while and was very impressed with this junior, and they got along very well.
If Hao Ren had not been married, he would have wanted to take Hao Ren into his family as a son-in-law.
As soon as Gu Yan opened his mouth to buy ink, Wu Fugui came in to bid.
The two of them lifted it from 400 coins to 800 coins.
Hao Ren sat behind the tea table and slowly filled the cups of tea for the two people in front of him.
He had never expected that after Zhizhi had studied in the academy for a few days, he would attract people to bid for the ink, and even named the ink "Black Mountain Ink".
Hao Ren asked Gu Yan and Wu Fugui to sit down:
"Don't worry, our village still has more than twenty Hu Mo ingots, which we can sell to you first."
"There will be a new batch of ink every month. You can order in advance. Large quantities will be discounted. If you need to add gold foil, musk, etc., the price will be negotiated separately."
"What do you two think?"
Gu Yan and Wu Fugui both nodded.
"Okay, I can pay the deposit today and order twenty huts."
"Brother Hao, I will order fifty hu tablets."
Boom boom boom——
The knock on the door came again.
This time, it was the shopkeeper Li, with a cheerful face, who walked in excitedly:
"Village Chief Hao! Sold out, all sold out!"
"I want to order one hundred hu!"
…
The first batch of ink sticks tested were well received in Baiyun County.
Some lucky literati bought the first batch of Black Mountain Ink from Bimozhai and recommended it to their classmates and friends with surprise.
Many people went to the county's pen and ink shops to ask if they had Black Mountain ink.
More shop owners learned about Black Mountain Ink and began to ask where they could get it.
Several of Su Zhizhi's classmates also wanted to buy ink and asked Su Zhizhi if there were any special discounts for classmates.
Principal Liu and several other teachers had already taken the initiative and went to the Black Mountain Restaurant to order ink from Hao Ren.
Under such circumstances, Liangmin Village held a meeting overnight and put ink making on the priority agenda.
After discussion, we made three decisions:
1. Use Zhizhi’s name “Black Mountain Ink” as the signboard, it sounds nice!
2. Divide Black Mountain ink into different grades.
The most basic ink is called "Guangxian Ink", which costs one hundred coins; if deer glue is added, it costs three hundred coins, gold lacquer, four hundred coins, gold foil and pearl powder, seven hundred coins, and musk, borneol, borneol and other spices, the price starts from two thousand coins, with no upper limit.
3. The number of people working in the fields remains the same, but idle personnel from the hunting team will be assigned to join Song Yu's ink-making workshop to expand production.
The villagers of Liangmin Village acted promptly and implemented their plan the next morning.
When another batch of ink was ready the next month, Hao Ren gave the ink ingots to Wu Fugui, Gu Yan, Manager Li and Mingde Academy as agreed.
Merchants who come later place orders in the order of first come, first served.
Liangmin Village has one requirement for merchants who come to purchase goods:
"Gold lacquer ink, pearl ink, and musk ink can be sold at as high a price as possible, but the most basic Guangxian ink cannot be sold for more than two hundred coins on the market.
Violators will no longer be supplied."
There are few rich people in the world, and the majority are ordinary people.
The exquisite and expensive gold foil pearl ink is sold to wealthy families, while the affordable and basic Guangxian ink is sold to students.
Wu Zhan's little head didn't quite understand this request.
Guangxianmo could obviously raise the price but didn't. Only a fool would not make money.
He wanted to ask his father, but his father had already hurried away.
Wu Zhan asked Su Zhizhi in the academy:
"Su Zhizhi, if the price of the most common Guangxian ink can be raised by another 500 or 600 coins, your village will earn more money. Why are you trying to suppress the price?"
"Because the villagers said that gold foil ink is already very expensive, we won't raise the price of Guangxian ink. If all inks are sold at a high price, fewer people will be able to afford it."
Su Zhizhi's pen tip slid across the inkstone, using up the last bit of ink.
Xue Che, who had come to wait for Su Zhizhi to have dinner together, came over and helped Su Zhizhi put away the remaining small pieces of ink.
Although the village knows how to make ink, Su Zhizhi and Xue Che are more frugal when using ink.
They saw firsthand how difficult it was to make ink.
They know that every piece of ink represents the villagers' strength and sweat, and is the rice that Brother Song eats and the endless nights he endures.
Wu Zhan thought that Liangmin Village did not understand the prosperity and prices of other places, so he kindly explained:
"Your village hasn't done business outside of the province, so you might not know this. One sale to a rich person is worth a hundred sales to a poor person. My father said that in Chang'an, the more expensive something is, the more people will buy it. Even if all the Black Mountain ink is expensive, there will still be people who buy it."
Upon hearing this, Xue Che asked, "Wouldn't the price of ink on the market be even more inflated?"
Wu Zhan: "Isn't it true that only high prices can make money?"
Xue Che: "It's okay for a while, but it's not a long-term solution."
Su Zhizhi put down her pen and said, "I don't know if our village can make the most expensive ink in the world."
The sunlight from the window fell into her eyes, and her eyes were bright and clear:
"But I think it's amazing to be able to make good ink that everyone in the world can afford."
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