[Journey to the West] Wukong purchasing

"Why are you going to the Western Regions all of a sudden?"

"It's not our shop that sells artificial flowers. Steward Zhou said that there are not enough rubies for pomegranate seeds. I also have whole collections of gems here. If they are smashed, they are worthless. I want to go to the Western Regions to see Let's see if Sister Scorpion can help me get some broken gems."

Boss Wu doesn't want to go on a business trip either, and now Datang's army should have started to attack Qiucha, he has to avoid these people when he goes to the Western Regions, if someone sees him, it's over, he won't do it in Chang'an City in the future If he bought and sold, he would definitely be regarded as a surprise soldier by the inhumane His Majesty Li Er and sent to the front line to charge for him.

"It's just stuff, why do you have to go find rubies yourself?" Elder Tang was speechless when he heard that Wu Hong wanted to go to the Western Regions to find gems by himself, "Didn't Manager Zhou say he wanted to do something cheap? There are many large and small official kilns outside, find someone you know well, and ask the craftsmen to burn some bright red porcelain beads for you, the size is up to you, isn't it much faster than slowly polishing with rubies?"

"Besides, there are those who are not short of money and insist on using rubies to make pomegranate seeds. Let Manager Zhou tell them that the shop can help make orders, and they have to bring the broken gems themselves."

Worried that Wu Hong would not understand the truth, Elder Tang followed up and explained patiently: "The wealthy family of this dynasty has accumulated countless treasures for generations, and the jewelry ornaments made by them are also exquisite. You don’t need the defective products outside, the pomegranate tree bonsai in the shop is just a rare style. You just tell Manager Zhou that there are aristocratic families, officials, and rich people from Chang’an City to order pomegranate tree bonsai, and ask them to get the gems themselves. Come on, the quality of the preservation is better than the ones we found ourselves, and if there are those who are not short of money, it is not impossible to directly take the whole gemstone and ask the craftsman to carve it into pomegranate seeds."

In a word, the local tyrants in Chang'an City should show off their wealth with style.

Wu Hao: "..." It seems that he still doesn't know enough about the local tyrants in Chang'an City.

However, Elder Tang did provide him with a new idea. He did not expect that in this era, there were official kilns and private kilns dedicated to firing pottery and porcelain, but there were not many porcelains handed down from generation to generation. However, the damage was heavy, and the few remaining pieces were all national treasures. Anyway, Wu Kong had never seen the real ones, and was limited by his thinking. He did not expect to be able to fire porcelain beads of different colors as decorations.

This is much cheaper than real rubies.

"Okay! Anyway, we have two shops. Let's take this opportunity to do business segmentation. One shop specializes in high-end customization. The price is higher and the materials are selected from the best. The other shop takes the civilian route. Porcelain beads instead of jewelry, small profits but quick turnover, maybe can support some disaster victims.”

Firing porcelain beads is not a difficult task, so Wu Hong directly handed it over to Zhou Guanshi, asking him to find a folk kiln with a reasonable price and more careful craftsmanship. , The cost of official kilns is too high to be cost-effective.

Zhou Guanshi did not expect his little master to think of a way to deal with it so quickly, and it is good to use porcelain beads. Datang's porcelain firing level is hundreds of years behind the Western Regions. Zhou Guanshi even thought, should I take this opportunity to find some? Craftsmen who can burn porcelain, take them with you first and follow them. When the workshop asks for more, you might as well build a kiln by yourself. Besides porcelain beads, you can burn other things, such as fixed flower branches, Make pots of simulated flower bonsai and so on.

"That's a good idea. That's fine. Go talk to Lu Weng and ask him to pay attention. I will try to recruit some craftsmen who can burn kilns for you as soon as possible to go to some folk kilns with you. We use a lot. It’s more convenient to have a kiln, and it can support more people.” Now their family has thousands of people to support, so they can’t just keep doing infrastructure, can they?The family doesn't have that many houses to build. Thinking about it this way, building a folk kiln is really a good idea. At least it can solve a group of laborers, and it will provide long-term and stable employment.

Steward Zhou got an order, so he hurriedly went to the outer courtyard to find the butler Lu Weng.

The functional system of the Wu family is very clear. Managers like Zhou can be regarded as department managers. The housekeeper, Lu Weng, holds several positions. Those in the shop outside had to go through Lu Weng, the vice president in charge of personnel affairs.

Spring is warm and flowers are blooming, and the entire Chang'an City is filled with a happy atmosphere.This year, Empress Changsun is in much better health than in previous years, and the Spring Club is extremely lively. His Majesty Li Er gave an order, and the whole Chang'an city was in motion. There is also an omnipotent housekeeper, Lu Weng, who arranged all the chores for the Spring Society sacrifice a few days ago. Early in the morning, he arranged for the two most beautiful maidservants in the house to get up in the morning to fetch water for auspiciousness. It is said that this It is called "drawing water to lead the dragon".

The water brought in cannot be used casually. Lu Weng asked the kitchen to prepare exquisite dragon scale cakes and dragon beard noodles. The topping on it is snake meat. Snakes are commonly known as little dragons in the folks, and they are also considered dragons.

Wu Kong: "..." If I knew it earlier, I wouldn't have to bother Lu Weng to talk about his age, isn't it just a way of attracting dragons?He is an acquaintance with Xihai and Donghai Dragon Palace!The third prince is still his younger brother.

I don't know how Ao Lie and Ao Qing are doing now, Wu Hong plans to take some things to see these two guys in a few days.That kid Ao Lie looked unscrupulous, but he didn't expect him to be very loyal. He was worried that he would hide in Chang'an City with Ao Qing. Jia and Elder Tang simply took Ao Qing to live in seclusion in the depths of the Qinling Mountains, more than 200 miles away from Chang'an City. They made it clear that they wanted to live a two-person world, and Wu Kong, a single dog, was too embarrassed to come and harass her often, but let's see It's good to see that Lu Weng has been busy for a few days, and he just wanted to attract a dragon to his family to make money. He happened to invite Ao Lie and Ao Qing to Chang'an City to relax, maybe they could really bring money to the family or something.

Just thinking about what souvenirs to bring to Qinling as a guest, Yuwen's family next door sent a message saying that Princess Zhao had returned to her natal family, so she came to invite Wu's family to the Willow Banquet in the Spring Society.

Jiang Su remembers this custom. Last year when she and her husband first moved to Datang, the neighbor next door didn't even have her natal family to pick her up when they saw her in the spring club, and even shed two lines of bitter tears for her.At this time, it is customary, in the February Spring Club, that married daughters will be taken back to their natal family for a short stay, which is called "Zhuchun".Ordinary people are fine. For Princess Zhao who has married into the royal family, the Er Yue Chun Society may be the only chance she has to stay in her natal family in a year. Such a good opportunity, early in the morning let the son take someone to pick up the eldest daughter.

The daughter gave birth to a little grandson in her first child, and she has gained a firm foothold in the royal family. Yu Wenzhiji was even happier than His Majesty Li Er. Fortunately, I specially posted a post to ask the Wu family to go to the banquet—according to the custom of Chang'an City, the first meal when a daughter returns to her natal home to "live in spring" is usually to invite relatives from the same family, mainly for the married daughter. It is an opportunity to reminisce and connect with relatives of the natal family. At this time, it is customary for a married daughter to have her natal family as a backer.

Yu Wenzhi invited the Wu family to the banquet, which is tantamount to further acknowledging the Wu family as "one of our own" to the entire Yuwen family. No wonder the housekeeper Lu Weng smiled happily. Now he has become a family with General Yuwen again, and Dalang will marry Tang Xuanzang, the big celebrity in front of the saint. Although the last point is still incomprehensible to Lu Weng, it has to be admitted that if Wu Kong did not marry Tang Xuanzang was engaged, and the Wu family might never want to get rid of the name of merchant for the rest of their lives.

In the second month of spring, apart from the warm houses of rich and wealthy families who can grow flowers, there are very few flowers that grow naturally in the wild. The first batch of artificial flowers made before did not have gradient colors. Later, the workers mentioned this point, and Wu Cong added a batch of synthetic yarns with gradient dyeing process from Xingwang. Therefore, exquisite and gorgeous simulated peonies, Peonies, roses, hydrangeas, magnolias, camellias, peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, etc. were all made by ingenious female workers, and then processed into hairpins and ornaments.

Wu Hao also ordered people to infuse different hairpin flowers with corresponding floral fragrances. The highly imitated gauze flowers, with the faint floral fragrance, look exactly like real flowers from a distance.

The female family members of the Yuwen family were a little unhappy about inviting such mud-legged members of the Wu family. After all, Cheng Fenglang from the eighth rank was nothing more than a small official and a worthless job in their eyes.However, after seeing the gift from the Wu family, all the female relatives of the Yuwen family fell silent.

Isn't this, isn't this the Tang family yarn flower that has swept the entire Chang'an city recently?

wrong!They also bought the Tang family's gauze flowers. The petals are not as exquisite and beautiful, nor do they have a flowery fragrance. If you look closely, you can even see the stamens carved with hair-thin gold and silver threads!

"Xiao'er and Tang Sheren had nothing to do, so I ordered someone to think about some flowers to wear with me. I saw that these flowers were so novel and lovely, and I couldn't bear to have them all to myself, so I asked someone to open two shops." In front of outsiders Naturally, Mama Wu didn't want Tang Xuanzang, the "son-in-law" who was an official, to bear the bad name of being a businessman, so she simply took over the matter herself. It's too late to envy.

really!Upon hearing that the two profitable shops were run by Jiang Su, the female members of the Yuwen family couldn't help showing envious and admiring eyes: the family background of the Yuwen family is really poor, even if they claim to be official family members , when I went to the Wu family's gauze shop, I didn't dare to pick the most expensive ones, so I could only choose some exquisite designs and not too high prices to buy for my enjoyment, but I don't wear them often, I usually wear them for banquets I only wear it when I go out, so as not to make people laugh that even Wu's family can't afford yarn flowers.

And the mistress of the Wu family, whom they looked down upon just now, just brought a large box of expensive gauze flowers worth thousands of guan to the banquet. Such a generous move instantly stunned the entire Yuwen family's female family members.

"Godmother." Yuwen Nishang started to learn to speak during the Chinese New Year. After more than two months of learning, the effect is remarkable. All kinds of delicious and fun things, and she will be given beautiful and soft gauze flowers. As soon as the little girl saw Jiang Su, she opened her small mouth and came over, yelling "Godmother" loudly.

Jiang Su really lived up to the little girl's expectations, and smiled and took out two pink rabbit-shaped headdresses specially made for the little guy from her sleeves. The headdresses were very delicately made, and the fur on the rabbit was made of soft cashmere. The rabbit's eyes are polished and inlaid with rubies, and a pair of fluffy ears hang softly on both sides, snow-white and lovely.

The little girls brought by the other female family members of the Yuwen family were envious of seeing this headdress so delicate, it has never been seen on the market.