Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 224 The power of surname is strong

At first, Uncle Zhao was a little hesitant and asked Hua Lei if the toothbrush business would be taken away by others. Hua Lei smiled and said, "How could it be possible? The bristles are all in my hands, how can they take them away?"

Even if others have similar farms to mine and also make toothbrushes, it doesn't matter. After all, the territory of the Great Sheng Dynasty is so vast that Hualei can't eat it all by himself. The business in the north should be unstoppable in the next few years. I am still developing the toothbrush and soap business in Yongjia Prefecture and Wuling Prefecture.

After listening to Hualei's analysis, Uncle Zhao readily announced the news. All of a sudden, a large number of bamboos in the nearby villages were cut down. Soon, a large number of high-quality bamboo-handled toothbrush handles were delivered to Baihua Village. After Uncle Zhao personally checked and accepted the goods, he readily paid the money.

Seeing that some people actually received the silver, more villagers who were still hesitant joined the team. More toothbrush handles with bamboo handles were collected.

Soon, the villagers in the northern part of the city also heard the news. There were relatively few bamboos there, but there were many ownerless large trees on the mountain.

Therefore, they also joined the team of making toothbrush handles with wooden handles. Although it is more labor-intensive to make toothbrush handles with wooden handles and the finished products come out slowly, the purchase price is higher than that of bamboo handles. After one or two months, the money earned is not less than that of bamboo handles.

As a result, more villagers started making toothbrush handles with wooden handles. After all, they didn't need to buy the wood themselves. They could just spend some time and chop down a tree, and the whole family could make a lot of toothbrush handles at home. Even children who couldn't use a knife or an axe could help polish the toothbrush handles until they were smooth.

It was much more convenient than asking the men in the family to go out and find temporary jobs. It was also easier and more profitable. The whole family could get together and chat about family matters while earning money. Why not? As a result, more wooden toothbrush handles were collected from Baihua Village.

Uncle Zhao only needed to lead people to sew the bristles onto the toothbrush handles, and soon, the production of toothbrushes increased significantly. After all, the power of ordinary people is strong.

Seeing that everything was fine at the manor and the shop, Hua Lei was relieved. She returned to the manor to rest. The next morning, before Hua Lei got up, she heard Qingying report that the ship to Chengyunzhou had also arrived at Yuanying Manor. Upon hearing this, Hua Lei hurriedly got up, had breakfast, and rushed to Yuanying Manor.

Tian Xiaocheng, Zheng Xiaomai and Hua Lei reported what had happened in the past two months. Since it was their first time there, they were unfamiliar with many of the rivers. Although Hua Lei gave them relevant river maps, they still got lost in a river.

So the journey that was supposed to take fifteen days took nineteen days. This was because Tang Yuancheng and Ruyi arrived at about the same day and saw that the ship had not yet reached the dock, so they sent people along the river to find Tian Xiaocheng and the others. Otherwise, the journey would probably have been delayed further.

After the ship arrived at the dock, everything went smoothly. Because the rivers in Chengyun State were relatively dense and the waterways were well developed, the time spent on the road to each state was relatively short. Tang Yuancheng also specially found local people who were familiar with the waters to help guide the way, so the original twenty-day time for handing over the books was reduced by three days and was completed in seventeen days.

Tian Xiaocheng and Zheng Xiaomai were supposed to return to Shangjing immediately, but Ruyi kept them for a few days, saying that she had found some fabrics for Hualei. However, because she was not sure whether it was what Hualei needed, she went to several fabric shops and brought back some fabrics that looked similar, so that Hualei could check them and confirm them. So she was delayed for seven or eight days, resulting in her returning a few days later than Hualei today. She also helped Hualei get a contract for 20% of the rice grid and field grid in Wuling Mansion, which was really a pleasant surprise.

Hua Lei listened and thought, it's a good thing, this is the advantage of having acquaintances in the local area, otherwise Tian Xiaocheng and Zheng Xiaomai, who have never been far away and are both honest, may not be able to solve this problem.

I hope Liang Xiangyi's ship can go smoothly. Although she directly delivers to two prefectures, and both prefectures can be said to be frequented by her, she should be familiar with the river route, but it only takes her eight or nine days for a one-way trip. Normally, she should be back in the next two days. I hope everything goes well for her. If she hasn't come back yet, maybe she has gone to look for fabrics again. Hua Lei suppressed her anxious heart.

Hearing that Ruyi had also found some fabrics for her, Hua Lei became excited and immediately went to the warehouse to look at the fabrics that Tian Xiaocheng and the others had brought.

The fabrics are mostly light colors, pure white, off-white, light blue, very dense and solid, but also very soft, should not be hairy, but not suitable for down jackets, all plain weave, no pattern, light color, not resistant to dirt, but can be made into goose down quilts. You can also match it with the fabrics you bought to make linings.

Hua Lei was very happy. She went to the study immediately and wrote a letter to Ruyi, selecting a few styles she liked and asking her to help place an order with the fabric shop in Chengyunzhou. She could make a batch first and have the caravan ship it back, the sooner the better.

Worried that Ruyi had mixed up the fabrics, he specially cut off a palm-sized piece of cloth from the fabric he needed to order, made a record of it, and the quantity of each fabric required, and sent it to Ruyi along with a letter.

Then she asked Tian Xiaocheng and Zheng Xiaomai to go back and have a good rest. She also gave the crew and several guards a few days off. She went back to the mansion directly. She was going to pick up Xiaoyuan from school in the afternoon. Xiaoyuan would have a day off tomorrow.

The weather was a bit hot, so Hualei went to the kitchen to make some red bean smoothies to bring to Xiaoyuan to cheer him up. Ordinary people in the Dasheng Dynasty could hardly afford ice cubes in the summer, but for the Marquis' Mansion, using ice was a small problem. They could buy ice outside to keep the room cool, or they could make a small amount of edible ice at home to drink to relieve the heat.

Hua Lei put the milk with brown sugar into the cellar last night and froze it to make milk ice. She took it out and used a clean file to file it into fine smoothie. She also added brown sugar and fresh milk to the red beans that had been boiled for the whole morning and stirred them evenly.

Carefully pour the red bean paste on the smoothie, cover it with a lid, and put it in a small wooden barrel. Ice cubes were placed under the partition of the barrel in advance. After putting four portions of red bean smoothie into the barrel, cover it with a small cotton lid and set off for the Imperial College.

Because the Imperial College had a fixed closing time, and Hua Lei calculated her time quite punctually, Hua Lei had just sat in Xiao Yuan's building for a while when she heard Rong Jue's loud voice outside the building.