Among the entourage that Luo Kuang brought was a feng shui master. He examined the feng shui of the area and nodded repeatedly.
This place is located in the southeast of the village, on higher ground, with good feng shui, making it the first choice for building a marquis's mansion.
The next step was to measure the land. Due to the existence of large tracts of wasteland, and considering the integrity of the entire land, thirty acres were finally measured out for the construction of the Marquis's mansion.
After the land was measured, someone erected a boundary marker. Luo Kuang told the village head to calculate how much the land would cost, including compensation for land acquisition and demolition.
These funds will be paid by the Ministry of Revenue, and the next step will be the construction of the Marquis's Mansion, with the entire project being overseen by the Directorate of Works.
After the Marquis's mansion was completed, Zhao Xian simply moved in and lived there.
Seeing that things were mostly settled here, Luo Kuang walked up to Zhao Xian and said:
“Lord Zhengyang, craftsmen will arrive in three days to build the Marquis’s mansion. The construction period will be one and a half years, and Lord Zhengyang will be able to move in next summer.”
The construction period is one and a half years, so it seems that the Marquis's mansion project is quite large. Building a mansion on thirty acres of land must be extremely luxurious.
Although I didn't want it to be this way, it was a gift from the emperor, and I had no choice but to accept it.
After completing the site selection for the Marquis's Mansion, Luo Kuang did not leave Shuixian Village, but instead urged the village head to resolve the issues of land acquisition and demolition.
The village head was very efficient and got the matter done quickly. Since it would take some time for the Ministry of Revenue to process the funds and deposit them into the account, the village head paid the money out of the village's account first.
Three days later, all the craftsmen arrived, and the construction of the Marquis's mansion officially began.
Since the construction of the Marquis's Mansion was handled by the Imperial Workshop, Zhao Xian had little to do, so he focused his energy on starting and putting the new workshops into operation.
Before production could begin, Zhao Xian had one more important task: to recruit a large number of laborers.
Working at Zhengyanghou Workshop was a prestigious job. Since the recruitment did not discriminate between men and women and only required young and strong men, people from all around came to apply.
Successful applicants first learn on the job in the old workshops and factories. After mastering the production skills, they are then transferred to work in the new workshops.
The new workshop is too large to produce products overnight. The products produced must keep pace with sales and production must not be carried out blindly.
At this time, the shops, restaurants and inns of the third phase of the project also opened for business one after another. People knew that in Shuixian Village, the sooner you opened for business, the sooner you could make money.
The vast majority of those who bought the residential houses were from other places and had by then become villagers of Shuixian Village.
Since they had no farmland, they could only choose to do business or work in workshops or factories to earn money to support their families.
In Narcissus Village, there are many opportunities to make money. As long as you are not lazy, you will have no worries about food and clothing.
Zhao Xian calculated the time and estimated that Li Guang and Li Xue would return to Shuixian Village in a few days.
With spring plowing just around the corner, Li Guang will be busy with farm work as soon as he returns.
This year is a pivotal year for Shuixian Village. The completion of the third phase of the project has laid the foundation for the village's rapid development.
For my business, everything is going smoothly, and I hope nothing unexpected happens this year so I can focus on developing my business.
My business has grown to a certain size, but it doesn't cover a wide range of areas, and there are still many areas I haven't ventured into.
Take starting a fire as an example; convenient and quick fire-starting tools must be introduced as soon as possible.
At that time, the most advanced way to start a fire was by using a tinderbox. The principle was very simple: combustibles would not be completely extinguished in the absence of oxygen and would reignite when they encountered oxygen.
Although convenient to use and easy to carry, the high price meant that only wealthy people used it, while ordinary people generally used flint and steel to start fires.
Starting a fire with a flint and steel is relatively troublesome, but it is also relatively inexpensive, making it a widely used method.
Zhao Xian plans to produce and promote matches soon, which will greatly facilitate people's daily lives.
Besides matches, there are other daily necessities. Zhao Xian came up with a variety of daily necessities, and by manufacturing and promoting these products, he could greatly change people's lives.
In addition to daily necessities, Zhao Xian also thought of some vegetable crops that he wanted to promote this year.
Vegetables like lettuce, spinach, loofah, carrots, tomatoes, and onions didn't exist at that time, so they could have been promoted to enrich people's lives.
In addition, some melon and fruit crops will be introduced in the coming years and promoted throughout the Great Northern Dynasty.
After some consideration, Zhao Xian decided to start producing matches.
Because match production involves certain dangers, match processing workshops must be located far away from other workshops.
Furthermore, relatively independent warehouses should be built so that even if danger occurs, it will not affect other areas.
After the equipment was installed and debugged, the first batch of matches was finally produced a few days later. The next step was to promote the matches.
Promoting matches is very simple; people will know whether the product is good or not once they try it.
Zhao Xian arranged for people to deliver these matches to shops along the street, including restaurants and inns, regardless of the size of the shop, giving each shop one box to use for free.
After people started using matches, they discovered that these things were very easy to use; they lit with just a strike.
In terms of practicality, tinderboxes and flints cannot compare to matches. Matches are easy to carry and can be used anytime, anywhere.
An ordinary tinderbox can only be used for a few hours, but it can be sold for at least five hundred coins.
A good quality tinderbox can be used for several days, but it costs more than one tael of silver.
Therefore, fire starters were considered luxury items at the time, and ordinary people could not afford them; they were exclusively for the wealthy.
As a brand-new fire-starting tool, a box of matches could last for many days, and the method of use was extremely simple: just strike it and it would light.
So people began to speculate how much a box of those matches would cost, guessing that it would cost several taels of silver to buy one.
At this time, Zhao Xian did not give the price of the matches, but only ordered several workshops to produce matches in large quantities.
A few days later, with a certain amount of matches in stock, Zhao Xiancai officially began to launch the matches to the market.
Surprisingly, the price of matches was less than ten coins, and that was the retail price; the wholesale price would be even lower.
To prevent some merchants from hoarding goods and raising prices, Zhao Xian set up a direct-sale match store in the market, where matches were sold at a fixed price under any circumstances, and the supply was guaranteed.
This stabilized the price of matches in the market, allowing them to be sold at low prices and benefiting the general public.
Once the matches were introduced, demand surged. To increase production, Zhao Xian outsourced the production of matchsticks, which greatly reduced the pressure on the workshop and increased output.
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