Chapter 431: Southland Meeting

Southern Land

Xie Zhan and his party finally returned home two days before the Chinese New Year.

It was already evening when they entered the city.

The Xie family's land was in the West City. When they were about to return, Xie Zhan couldn't help but lift the carriage curtain to take a look. At this time, their carriage was just about to pass by a bookstore of the Lu family. A scholar with a basket came out and muttered something.

When the two sides passed by, Xie Zhan clearly heard the scholar saying some complaints.

When passing by the bookstore, Xie Zhan looked inside. The bookstore's business was neither good nor bad.

When he returned home, he first went to see his mother and then his wife.

Zhao Yutan recovered well after giving birth, but her son's body was weak, which made her eyebrows and eyes stained with light sorrow.

His son is now more than three months old. Because he was born prematurely, he currently weighs only eight or nine pounds.

Xie Zhan knew very well that this was the result of careful care.

Later, after Xie Zhan had dinner with his mother and wife, he went into the study. There were too many things waiting for him to deal with.

He first put the materials to be processed into categories, thought about it, and took the one related to Liaodong County to look at.

These materials mainly record the recent events and changes in Liaodong County and even the entire Pingzhou.

From these text descriptions, Xie Zhan can get a glimpse of the prosperity of Liaodong County.

Xie Zhan thought about the money and grain that Qin Sheng, Xue Xu and his party had looted from Nandi, and thought that Nandi also contributed to this prosperity.

Xie Zhan sorted out the policy direction and program he collected about Liaodong County this year.

Suppressing bandits, building roads, building kangs, building academies, and setting up various workshops for planting and breeding, he found that everything they did was related to people's livelihood.

In the past six months, Nandi has mainly focused on solving the problem of post-disaster reconstruction for disaster victims.

They organized the disaster victims to return to their hometowns, or settle nearby, and then helped them build or repair houses, giving them a place to live. In addition, the official roads and small roads that were collapsed by the flood were repaired, and the bridges that were washed away by the flood were rebuilt to ensure smooth roads.

He originally thought that the governance of the South was good. But now that he saw the information, he found that compared with the booming development of Liaodong County, their South was really developing slowly.

Xie Zhan flipped through the information in his hand again, and his eyes fell on a piece of information. In order to let the local people have a good New Year, the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce Grain and Oil Store supplies a large amount of salted fish, and each household is limited to purchasing ten kilograms?

Looking at this news, he unconsciously fell into deep thought.

At this time, Xie Zhan keenly noticed that there was something wrong with the salt in Liaodong County. Then he remembered that when the Lu family came to break off the engagement, they asked for compensation for the 100 acres of land in Zhonglong City.

During this period of time, he went out, in addition to meeting various talented people, he also gained other things.

This time, going out and communicating with different talents gave him a feeling of enlightenment and integration. He realized that what he had learned in the past was only the result, not the reason.

Like now, he vaguely guessed the reason why the Lu family insisted on the 100 acres of land in Longcheng, but whether the reason was as he speculated, he still needed to send someone to verify it.

If it was really as he thought, Xie Zhan's eyes darkened. Salt and iron were under the jurisdiction of the court, and private trading was tantamount to a crime.

At this time, the door of the study was knocked.

Xie Zhan frowned slightly, "Come in--"

After the door opened, Zhao Yutan brought him a bowl of ginseng tea, "Husband, it's late at night, isn't it time to rest?"

It would have been better if Zhao Yutan didn't mention it. When she mentioned it, Xie Zhan felt a sudden sense of fatigue. He pinched his eyebrows and hummed.

Thinking that he would meet with Gu Huaisheng and other family heads tomorrow, Xie Zhan felt that it was indeed time to rest.

So he stood up and took the ginseng tea from her hand and drank it all, "It's indeed time to rest, thank you madam for reminding me."

Seeing that he trusted him so much, Zhao Yutan smiled.

Xie Zhan put his arm around her and left the study together. He first went to see his son, and then they returned to the bedroom.

The next day, the current heads of the southern families gathered at the Xie family, including Gu Shengsheng, Lu Fei, and the heads of the Zhang and Liu families.

This time, Xie Zhan mainly wanted to unify the thoughts of the people on the ship, summarize this year, look forward to next year, and help them solve some problems.

After everyone was together, Xie Zhan couldn't help but ask about their recent business.

The four people present shook their heads. Since the flood, the economy of the south has been very sluggish, and their business has not been easy to do.

Xie Zhan nodded, "Okay, I know, come one by one, and discuss together to see if there is a solution. Master Lu, how is the business of your Lu's bookstore?"

Lu Fei said bluntly, "Since the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce bookstore did that half a year ago, the business of Lu's bookstore has not been very good." And they are always blamed. As long as they make the four treasures of the study a little more expensive, they will be criticized by the scholars. They would say, ‘It’s really expensive. If the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce Bookstore was still there, it would definitely not be so expensive.’ It’s infuriating to hear.

Although they had paid the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce Bookstore a sum of money to let the other party withdraw from the South. But the other party used a knife of 20 coins for snow-glossy paper to lower the price of their silver-glossy paper. It can be said that in the past six months, their Lu’s Bookstore has not only been losing money to gain publicity, but it has really not made any money.

“Hasn’t the Lu family been studying how to improve the papermaking process in the past six months? Is there any progress?” Xie Zhan asked again.

At this time, Lu Fei nodded, and there was a little smile on his face. These days, their Lu family’s papermaking master has been improving the papermaking recipe to try to reduce costs.

Later, their papermaking process did improve, but the selling price of 20 wen per cut was just enough to make them break even, and the profit was really not much.

Xie Zhan thought for a moment and said, "So, Lu's company should improve the quality of silver paper, so that it can at least be seen as higher quality than snow paper."

Lu Fei frowned, "But in this way, the cost will go up again."

Xie Zhan said, "It doesn't matter, we will also sell notebooks in the future!"

The Liaodong Chamber of Commerce Bookstore sells a kind of notebook, where they glue a cut or half a cut of paper into a book to sell. The notebooks they sell are of various specifications and thicknesses.

"We only make 240 sheets, and then sell them at the price of three cuts of paper."

Others were stunned when they heard Fang. So thick? And it's so expensive, will anyone buy it? You know, the quality of snow paper is also good, and it only sells for 20 wen per cut.

Xie Zhan continued, "On the title page of each book, excerpt one or two famous quotes from ancient books. You can tell the scholars that if they collect a collection of ancient books, they can exchange it for a book."

Books have always been a unique wealth of the aristocratic families. Not only does the Lu family have a lot of books, but their Xie family also has a lot of books.

The rich collection of books is their advantage. Moreover, shouldn't they pay for knowledge?

He had thought wrong before, always thinking about competing with Liaodong County. But reading books is elegant and precious. Only families with a solid foundation can raise outstanding scholars, and they just need to catch this part of people.

After others figured out the key, they couldn't help but praise, "Great! Master Xie, this way, Lu's paper will not have to worry about selling." You know, scholars are very eager for books and knowledge.