Old Master Yan hurriedly interrupted Old Master Wu, regardless of anything else, Song Tao was still Song Jiyun’s cousin, and he was afraid that it might upset Song Jiyun.
"Her Liangyu Kiln Factory can’t monopolize all the business under the sky," Old Master Yan said, "the main issue is still Eunuch Wan."
He didn’t need to say it for everyone to guess, Eunuch Wan was helping the Liangyu Kiln Factory so vigorously, there must be something fishy going on between them.
But why hadn’t these kiln factory owners wanted to do this before? For one, because with each new emperor there come new officials, everyone feared getting too close to the current Supervising Pottery Officer, only to be disliked by his successor; secondly, these eunuchs had long talons, having worked so hard, they might still not be satisfied with their "tribute."
Li Zixiu said bitterly, "It’s like she’s calculated that Eunuch Wan will protect her for a lifetime." His words made Song Jiyun’s heart skip a beat.
Perhaps Song Tao really did know!
Then, there were some things she had to plan for in advance.
Song Jiyun contemplated.
Old Master Yan spoke up, "Boss Song, since I’ve come, I’m not afraid of you laughing at me for acting beyond my years. I was thinking, why don’t we also provide you with porcelain blanks or do painting? In any case, let’s unite our efforts and get rid of Eunuch Wan first!"
Resources were limited, and when everyone stood on the same level, competition was inevitable.
But Song Jiyun wouldn’t just agree so easily.
She looked towards Li Zixiu.
Li Zixiu hurriedly assured her, "Boss Song, rest assured, I will definitely serve you wholeheartedly."
He even swore, "If I break my promise, let me die a horrible death!"
Morals and conscience can never restrain a person’s ambition.
She and Old Master Yan discussed, "Please see how many others are willing to cooperate with our Song Family Kiln Factory, and I will prepare a deed in the next few days. At that time, if everyone feels it’s feasible, we’ll sign the contract and act according to the agreement. If they find it unacceptable, then we’ll discuss it further."
Old Master Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
He had great confidence in Song Jiyun.
He sincerely thanked Song Jiyun and asked about some interesting occurrences in Nanjing before rising to take his leave.
Song Jiyun immediately called Zhou Zheng to draft the deed and ordered Zheng Quan to go out and inquire about Liangyu Kiln Factory’s wages.
Zheng Quan hesitated, "Are we the same as the Liangyu Kiln Factory?"
"Of course we must be the same!" Song Jiyun said, "Human greed knows no bounds. We can’t compare our wages with the Liangyu Kiln Factory; we need to compare with others. For example, our kiln factory has more orders, and if they work hard, they can earn more money than others; they can learn some skills in our kiln; there’s even a chance to apprentice under our master craftsman."
Being able to exchange hard work for money, learn skills to stand on one’s own, and the opportunity for advancement, surely one of these would attract those people.
Zheng Quan walked away smiling.
Zhou Zheng, however, took Song Jiyun’s words to heart and mulled over them at home for several days. When Song Jiyun brought out Chairman Ma and had Old Master Yan and a few others act as mediators to discuss cooperation, and everyone was surprised by the wages, he threw out, "We are not employing kiln workers at our kiln factory; this is a mutually beneficial relationship. If you only rely on our kiln factory to get by, what will you do if something happens to our kiln? It’s better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. Isn’t that the rationale here?"
He even incited the crowd, "Look, wasn’t the third young mistress of the Liangyu Kiln Factory taught by our former owner? Have you ever heard of her reputation before?"
Everyone laughed, unable to deny that he made quite a good point.
The tension immediately dissipated, and everyone happily signed the deed.
Song Jiyun, along with Zhou Zheng, began visiting each kiln factory and workshop one by one, integrating all possible resources.
*
Eunuch Wan heard about this immediately after the Lantern Festival, with red firecracker paper scraps still strewn all over the streets, not yet cleaned up.
He kicked over the tea table beside him.
His legal advisor had no choice but to awkwardly comfort him, "Maybe her shipment of porcelain only sold for a few pennies!"
Wan Xiaoquan looked sinister and did not speak.
*
Song Tao, however, was not surprised by this.
In her previous life, Song Jiyun had not only sold porcelain to Nanjing but had almost turned Jingde Town into her own personal workshop and kiln factory. Seven out of ten families there made a living under her. Even the Imperial Kiln Factory had to tend to her preferences.
All these things had just happened earlier.
In her previous life, it was Eunuch Wan who had helped Song Jiyun expand to Nanjing.
She had also known early on that Madam Qian would give birth to a daughter.
However, that daughter had died young, and it was because of her death that Song Jiyun had fallen out with Song Sanliang and started to compete with him for control of the Song Family Kiln Factory.
Was there any underlying inside story?
But many things had changed in this life, and she could not solely rely on the memories of her previous life.
Song Tao felt that she needed to make her own way in this life.
She had been tirelessly making porcelain recently.
In her last life, she had never had access to a workshop that made sweet white porcelain, so she knew nothing about the secret recipe for making it.
Otherwise, she would not have made "Jade Porcelain" but would have made sweet white porcelain directly.
She knew that once the underglaze blue of sweet white porcelain came out, all their old blue-and-white porcelain would be left stranded on the shore, only able to compete in the mid to low-end market.
She wanted to earn enough money to escape the Hong Family and open a kiln factory entirely her own, before the new underglaze blue became well-known to everyone.
However, what she did not expect was that after Song Jiyun returned from Nanjing, not only did Old Master Wu and Old Master Yan build two dragon kilns on their hillside, but she also fired over fourteen thousand pieces of new blue-and-white porcelain in one go.
The residual heat from those porcelains hadn’t even dissipated when people from Nanjing arrived, squatting in the kiln factory waiting for the porcelains to cool down, and moved them onto ships overnight.
Song Jiyun even saved money on porters.
Those who followed her in porcelain making probably shared in a good amount of money, and fireworks sounded directly in the streets.
It was said that Eunuch Wan initially wanted to dispatch someone to forbid those merchant ships from docking, but the officials from the Inspection Division didn’t listen to Eunuch Wan at all. The casually speaking Inspector General surnamed Deng even sarcastically told Eunuch Wan’s men to go to the docks to stop the ships themselves, saying, "We can’t afford to provoke the ships of the Marquis of Wei’s Mansion, much less those of Duke of Ying’s Mansion."
Eunuch Wan fell ill with anger when he heard about this.
Song Tao also felt it was very tricky.
They were limiting sales here, but Song Jiyun was directly selling porcelain to Nanjing; wasn’t their so-called limit a joke then?
Because of this, there was quite an ugly scene at the docks, with many people going there to see what was happening. People who couldn’t buy wanted to know what Song Family’s new blue-and-white porcelain looked like, and some even hired thugs to steal broken porcelain pieces from the Song Family Kiln Factory.
Those who stole the porcelain pieces were amazed and hurriedly sent messages back to their owners; Song Family Kiln Factory these days was once again besieged by people.
With ill intentions, Song Jiyun told those merchants, "It’s not that I don’t want to sell to everyone, nor that there are no goods. It’s just that the Imperial Kiln Factory has set a quota this year, and our family’s porcelain can’t be sold in Jingde Town."
This statement somehow reached Prince Ning’s Mansion within a few days.
The newly appointed Chief Historian of their family personally visited Jingde Town, took a tour of the Song Family Kiln Factory, and directly ordered over one hundred and fifty pieces of new blue-and-white porcelain from Song Jiyun, stating they were to be sent to the palace.
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