Of course, Lin Feng knew that the capital region of the late Ming Dynasty was a dangerous place. Every few years, Jin would break into the capital region and plunder.. Tianjin was located near the capital, and it would definitely not be able to escape the attack of the Jurchen in a few years.
However, the Jurchen had always broken through from the western side of the Great Wall, and it would take a certain amount of time to reach Tianjin. Once there was an alarm, Lin Feng had enough time to withdraw the loom into the city.
As for the factory, it was not worth much. When the time came, the Tartars would burn it down. If the Tartars leave, we can rebuild them. Compared to buying a mansion in the city, the cost was much lower.
After making up his mind, he found Fang Ya Liu Shigui and bought 20 acres of cheap yellow mud land through his intermediary. The yellow mud field was located in the east of the city. It was 450 feet long and 200 feet wide. It was only half an hour's walk from home, so it was convenient to manage.
After buying the land and obtaining the title deed, he went to Barracks Street to find fifteen carpenters and ten masons. He asked them to buy wood and lime and start building the factory on the yellow soil outside the city. He planned the orientation and size of the house. The plan was to build ten large houses of 120 square meters each, surrounded by a two-meter-high wall.
The carpenter's leader told Li Zhi that the factory would be completed in a month. Including the cost of materials and labor, it would cost about a hundred taels of silver.
A hundred taels of silver was not a large sum to him at the moment. Li Zhi paid 30 taels in advance and gave each of the craftsmen a silver reward. The craftsmen were so happy that they beamed with joy and worked very hard.
Craftsmen chose the site of the house on the yellow mud ground, tamped the ground, and then placed the cypress wood in the tamped foundation soil as a pile foundation. On the foundation of these piles, carpenters would build beams, and masons could lay the ground, build the walls of the house, and lay the roof tiles.
Wood, bricks, and tiles were transported in batches and piled up like a small mountain on the yellow mud ground.
After finishing the layout of the factory building, he contacted the blacksmiths and carpenters who made mechanical furniture and began to manufacture 400 flying shuttle looms. They needed the machines in a hurry, so they hired more people. The blacksmiths were still fine. It would only take four blacksmiths more than ten days to create 400 sets of flying shuttles. Carpenters needed a lot of people. He hired more than 80 carpenters in Tianjin to produce the frame of the new loom. He hoped to produce 400 units in a month.
However, while he was busy with the weaving factory, something happened in the soap workshop. On this day, his good friend Qian An, Wang Lei, found Lin Feng at night and told him something that made him wary.
"Big Brother, there have been a few people sneaking around outside the soap workshop these days. They stood in the alley early in the morning and counted the raw materials we brought in. One time, they even climbed up the wall of the neighboring house, as if they wanted to peek at the situation in our workshop."
"What?"
Hearing this, he became alert. Although it was announced that the key production process of soap was not in his place, some cunning businessmen might not believe it. They might even see through the complete production process in the soap workshop. If these people wanted to steal the soap formula, they would obviously send people to the workshop to spy on them.
These sneaky people might be corporate spies sent by these greedy people.
Fortunately, they had always paid attention to confidentiality. All the steps of the soap were placed in the room, and the workers were only allowed to operate a single step that was separated. These spies would not be able to pry out any information.
Although the amount of raw materials used to make soap could be checked, if one did not know the specific production method and only boiled those raw materials together, it would not be possible to produce soap. For example, if one did not filter out the calcium carbonite, the product would not be soap but stone paste. In addition, the two steps of salting out and alkalizing were also indispensable. Without these two steps, the product would only be a pasty mixture mixed with a large number of impurities, which was completely useless.
Only by carefully understanding every step of soap production could one truly master the formula of soap and produce qualified soap.
However, although there was no risk of the formula being stolen at the moment, he thought further. Since there were people who wanted to steal the soap formula by spying, would these people use more intense methods if the spying failed? How could A resist the more intense methods of the Greedy?
Lin Feng needed to build a force that could protect his industry.
After thinking for a night, he decided to let Qian An take the lead and build a security team. Or according to the name of this era, it was called recruiting a group of servants.
Qian An grew up with Lin Feng and was a reliable person. Moreover, he liked to wield knives and guns and worshipped martial arts. He was more suitable to be the captain of the servants.
With his own equipment, he would have more power to deal with those who coveted the soap formula.
The next day, Lin Feng found Qian An, who was busy operating the soap reaction in the soap workshop.
"Qian An, are you happy doing this job?”
He stirred the solution in the deep furnace with a stick and said,"To tell you the truth, stirring this iron furnace all day long and doing the same thing every day, I'm almost out of breath. The thought of having to stir by this stove for the rest of my life made me very depressed.”Qian An sighed and said,"But don't worry. In order to be worthy of your salary, I will do it diligently even if I don't like it. I won't cause you trouble."?”
Lin Feng smiled and teased him." This is for you to get married. If you don't work hard, how are you going to earn money and start a family?"”
Qian An nodded and said,""Yeah! I also understand! As long as I persevere, I'll be able to save more than twenty taels of silver to marry a wife next year! When we have a baby, we can also live a warm life with a wife and children?”
After saying this, Qian An laughed heartily, as if he was looking forward to his future life. He stirred the stove harder.
Lin Feng looked at Qian An with a smile and said slowly,""What if I let you get rid of this furnace and become a warrior who uses swords?”
"What?" He looked at it in surprise and stopped the stick in his hand. He smiled and said,"You must be joking. If I become a martial artist, will you still pay me this salary?”
"I will pay! It was still two taels a month and meat for three meals!”
Hearing this, Qian An was stunned and only reacted after a long time. "What good thing are you talking about? Could it be that you want me to be your servant?”
Lin Feng nodded." That's right. I want you to be my servant, but you're just the captain." In the future, lead a team of servants to listen to my orders and deal with those enemies with ulterior motives.”
When Qian An heard this, he placed the stirring stick in his hand on the stove and said loudly,"I'll do it, I'll do this! I'll definitely be a good captain and bring out a team of good servants for you. I don't care what kind of monster or snake comes, I'll bring people up to beat him up!”
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