Infrastructure masters in the red building

While Xia Sheng was convalescing, Jia Fang was indeed running around for malaria. His main job was to publicize the dangers of malaria and the importance of mosquito control, and his side job was to sell a series of mosquito control products.

Because of these products, Taoyuanzhai once again became famous in the southern region.The window and door screens made of hemp are cheap, large in quantity, and easy to use. They can be used by applying some paste and sticking them on the window panes and door frames. People who can't afford cotton gauze mosquito nets all fell in love with this for a while.Customers flocked to it, and even the counties sent purchasing groups to collectively place a large number of orders for "Jinhua".

The waterwheel of "Jinhua" does not stop day and night, and the women work in two shifts, spinning and weaving window screens without stopping.

There are also people in other places who are eager to imitate, but no matter how they imitate, even if they can make exactly the same, but the investment cost is not small, they will never be able to make "Jinhua" so cheap.

In addition to window screens and door screens, another best-selling product is mosquito coils.

Gui Xiaxue has completely handed over this technique, and now a group of women in Taoyuan Village are doing it.Tian Xiaomei is a leader.Her natal family is busy with the business of the sugar factory, but after she married Zhao Wuguang, she always lived a leisurely life. She couldn't take it anymore, so she came out and led several young women of the same age to pick her up from Gui Xiaxue. Learned the craft of making mosquito coils.

Tian Xiaomei's team has divided the work, some are responsible for collecting pyrethrum flowers from door to door, some are responsible for drying, some are responsible for grinding, and others are responsible for making incense and drying incense packaging - it is not too difficult at all, women do it , On the contrary, he did it faster and better than Gui Xiaxue, even Gui Xiaxue himself said that he was jealous after seeing it.

The mosquito coils produced in Taoyuanzhai are divided into two grades: high-end products for wealthy households, and the cheapest common products.

These two kinds of mosquito-repellent incense are exactly the same in terms of the content of pyrethrum components, and the effect of repelling mosquitoes is also exactly the same.But the difference is that benzoin is added to the high-end products.These benzoin are not locally produced, but purchased from Siam through a business company. After adding mosquito coils, not only does it smell fresh and elegant, but the style is also different-in addition to repelling mosquitoes, it can also keep you a good night’s sleep .

Big households in Wuyuan and other places think that these high-end products are worthy of them, while ordinary people think that the cheapest mosquito coils are enough, economical and affordable, and no mosquitoes can be seen overnight after ordering a plate.

Therefore, Tian Xiaomei also has a large backlog of orders for mosquito coils.

However, when Taoyuanzhai produces mosquito coils to other villages, it will give pyrethrum seeds as gifts, and the planting method and precautions are written, and even the ingredients and methods for processing pyrethrum and making mosquito coils are also written on it.

People from other places are mostly wondering: Does Taoyuan Village not want to make money?How can you sell things while giving materials to teach people how to do it?

Even Tian Xiaomei's own team has these opinions.

But Tian Xiaomei moved out Jia Fang as a shield.She said generously: "Our family went to ask Mr. Jia what he meant. He said that it is a thing for curing diseases and saving lives. We have no reason to take such unconscionable money."

As soon as the little girl said this, the women were speechless and nodded one after another. After all, this is a good thing that can accumulate virtue for future generations.

"We taught all the methods and scattered the pyrethrum seeds. In the future, others may not come to buy our things—as long as our products are good, others will still come to order from us." Tian Xiaomei said very Confident, "Like our mosquito-repellent incense that uses benzoin, spices are our favorite, and only we know the ratio of spices and medicines best. Why don't we worry about those rich people not wanting to be our customers in the future?"

"Yes, my little sister is right!" The other women also responded one after another.

"It is also necessary to disperse the seeds—really, there is only such a small area in Taoyuan Village, and the front and back of our house are full of plants. There are peppers and tomatoes everywhere. Now with pyrethrum, it is really impossible to plant. It’s good to disperse the seeds, and we can collect dried flowers from other places in the future, so they can be used as mosquito-repellent incense?”

"That's the reason. Don't we always sell chili and tomato seeds to other places?"

At present, a group of young women have formulated their own "development policy", but Tian Xiaomei and the others may never understand why: the pyrethrum they planted in Taoyuan Village will always bloom more than those planted by others later, and bloom more beautifully. quick.

This is later.

Although Jia Fang was busy, he still took the time to go back to Taoyuan Village.After all, this is his territory. The most delicious rice flower fish and sour soup are produced here. The bacon on the beams of the house is taken off and steamed to make a good meal; , is a big bowl of spicy peppers.As far as this taste is concerned, Jia Fang can hardly do without Taoyuanzhai.

Jia Fang can also be free in front of the residents here, without having to pay attention to etiquette in everything.The villagers kept calling him "Master Jia" and "Master Jia", but his attitude was as if they were their own relatives.

Another advantage of Taoyuan Village is that everyone believes what Jia Fang said. He reminded the mosquitoes to be wiped out, and all the villagers in the village would kill mosquitoes together; When he came up, Zhang Youshi treated him right away, and he was fine within two days.

All of this went much smoother than elsewhere—for the matter of malaria, Jia Fang went around the southern states and counties, and found that Mr. Yuan in Wuyuan County was already a very good and enthusiastic "capable official".Most of the rest of the prefectures and counties treated him enthusiastically, and then muddied things. The government didn't care much about the malaria.

Jia Fang: I finally understand what it means to "restrain" the states and counties. The feeling is to take orders from the officials of the states and counties, but not to intervene in any specific affairs!

Zheng Boyi: Who said no?

Fortunately, although the officials are slack, most of the people in the prefectures and counties are more sympathetic to their lives. Jia Fang only made a little publicity about Taoyuan Village, and immediately people came to Taoyuan Village to buy window screens and mosquito coils. more up.

Taoyuan Village is more lively than ever.

Although the officials of Jia Fang's "subordinate" prefectures and counties did not buy into the matter of malaria prevention, when they heard that the crown prince Taifu Xia Xingshen had arrived in Wuyuan County and lived in the official office of the Jiedu Envoy, they immediately became convinced They all expressed their desire to see Master Xia.

When they heard that Mr. Xia had malaria, the officials were immediately scared away, and no one dared to talk about seeing him again; but after a while, they heard that Xia Shengshen was being taken care of by Mr. Jia, the Jiedu envoy, and he was gradually recovering. , the malaria was almost healed, and the officials finally started to move, planning to wait until Xia Sheng's health was "better" and then it would not be too late to visit Wu Yuan.

Seeing that these officials were more "interested" in Xia Shengshen than in himself, Jia Fang didn't care - this also has an advantage: as long as he can pull Xia Shengshen into his camp, he will soon respond to everyone. It was easier for him to flex his muscles in the South.

Seeing that Xia Sheng's body was gradually recovering, he just went back and forth between the Grand View Garden and Taoyuan Village, busying himself with his own affairs.

Mi Sandao from the bee farm was waiting outside the Xianliang Temple early in the morning on this day, and Jia Fang was stopped by him as soon as he appeared.

Mi Sandao caught up and asked, "Master Jia, what the villain begged you for last time, is there any clue now?"

Jia Fang smiled: "Look at how anxious you are."

As he quickly walked towards the office of the Investment Promotion Office, he said, "But I've really made it."

When Mi Sandao heard this, his face immediately beamed with joy, and he followed Jia Fang closely.The two went to the office together, Jia Fang invited Mi Sandao to sit down, and then took out a small copper tube from the purse he was wearing, about two inches long and the thickness of a finger.

"You open it, then gently rotate it to see what's inside." Jia Fang laughed.

Upon hearing this, Mi Sandao carefully opened the brass pipe according to his words, looked inside, and then showed surprise.Then he gently rotated the base of the copper pipe, and a thin vermilion paste appeared from it and slowly rose.

Mi Sandao looked at the red paste that would rise automatically, and his first reaction was that he was so frightened that he almost threw the thing in his hand.He resisted this impulse, and then turned the base in the opposite direction, and the red paste turned back again.

"It's weird!" After Mi Sandao got used to this thing, he was no longer afraid of it, but found it very novel.

He unscrewed the red paste again, held it in his hand, and stared blankly.Jia Fang taught him to draw this thing on the back of his hand.Mi Sandao did as he did, and a scarlet mark appeared on the back of his hand, the color was moist.Mi Sandao rubbed it with his hands again, and felt that the color of the red ointment was not greasy at all. It didn't just float on the surface of the skin, but was absorbed by the skin. will smear.

He looked up at Jia Fang, and Jia Fang raised his hand to wipe the brass tube on his lips.

Mi Sandao smiled when he saw it, and said, "Thank you, Mr. Jia, tomorrow is my daughter-in-law's birthday, so I can finally do business in front of her."

He stood up, saluted Jia Fang, turned around and was about to run.Jia Fang quickly stopped him: "Don't run away!"

Mi Sandao slapped the back of the head, and said: "The villain is so happy and silly, Mr. Jia, do this... this..."

Jia Fang hinted blankly: "Lipstick!"

Mi Sandao immediately learned the term: "Lipstick. The third master taught me how to do it."

This Mi Sandao was originally a "single household" among the new immigrants in Yujiang. He was alone and lived alone.But when he got to Taoyuan Village, he got the favor of an indigenous girl in Taoyuan Village, and got married at the collective wedding in Taoyuan Village.After the two got married, they were equally as sweet as honey, and when they had nothing to do, they would lie crookedly in front of the folks.This lipstick is a birthday gift he intends to give to his daughter-in-law.

In addition, Mi Sandao also expressed his willingness to Jia Fang, if his bee farm can produce some other by-products in addition to honey, preferably products that his wife likes, Mi Sandao is also willing to try.

On the same day, a beehive was found on the other side of the Qingfang River. Jia Fang wanted to find someone to keep bees, and Mi Sandao volunteered to help him.His bee farm has grown from two boxes at the beginning to dozens of boxes of bees now, and the earliest bees have begun to produce honey in a steady stream—except for honey, these hard-working little creatures raised by Mi Sandao , and also produces another very important raw material: beeswax.

The lipstick that Jia Fang brought this time is a solid tubular lipstick made of beeswax and red and blue flowers.

Before he started making this kind of lipstick, he asked Shuangwen for advice and did some market research to see if the tube-shaped lipstick that gradually appeared in his side in the early [-]th century had already appeared in this time and space.

Because of her previous experience in the Jiaofang Division, Shuangwen is very familiar with the cosmetics on the market, so she introduced them to Jia Fang one by one:

It is true that lip makeup is fashionable among women nowadays, and there are more than a dozen styles of lip makeup.Rouge is often used for lip makeup—the most common rouge is paste rouge, which is stored in a small porcelain box. When you need to use it, use a thin hairpin to pick out a little bit, put it on your hands, and stick it with your fingers. Be careful Dab it on your lips, and the rest in the palm of your hand melts and smacks on your cheeks.

In addition to this kind of rouge, there is also a kind of thin rouge, which is made of paper or gold leaf soaked with red and blue flower juice. It is more convenient to carry than paste rouge, but the disadvantage is that the coloring effect may not be particularly good. Sometimes women just sip their lips on the paper-like rouge. Although it can be stained with color, it is difficult to achieve the special moisturizing effect of creamy rouge.

Therefore, the most popular and commonly used are those creamy rouges.

But as a modern person, Jia Fang certainly knew that this kind of rouge had a fatal flaw - it was poisonous.

The ingredient of rouge is cinnabar. The method of rouge is described in "Qi Min Yao Shu", which is to roll two kinds of spices, clove and ageratum, into newly harvested cotton, soak them in hot wine, and soak them all day and night in summer. Two days and nights, three days and nights in winter, when the wine has absorbed enough aroma, put the butter into this fragrant wine, boil it over high heat, after a few boils, change to low heat and fry, and at the same time slowly put it into the finely ground Cinnabar powder, add clear oil and stir, and finally extinguish the fire and cool, and the ointment will be made into a smooth and bright red ointment.

In the original book of the Red Chamber, it was also mentioned by Baoyu that the rich family reprocessed the rouge sold in the outside market. It is roughly the process of wringing out the juice from the best rouge sold in the market, washing out the dregs, and serving it with floral dew. Steamed and stacked ①—but the raw material of the rouge remains unchanged, so the rouge of cinnabar is still used.

Cinnabar contains mercury, a heavy metal. Using cinnabar in lip makeup may shorten the life of the user.Jia Fang believes that no matter how much women in this time and space love beauty, they are even willing to sacrifice their lives for beauty—but they will definitely not refuse to accept a healthy cosmetic that is equally beautiful, easy to use, and safe and non-toxic.

Therefore, Jia Fang spent some time researching the formula of the lipstick, and finally chose red and blue flowers, beeswax, castor bean oil, and a small amount of spices.

The specific method is to melt the beeswax slowly over a low fire, then add castor bean oil soaked in red and blue flowers and spices, mix thoroughly, put the material into the mold from the fire, wait until it is completely cooled before demoulding, and put it in the The prepared copper lipstick tube is ready.

Beeswax is produced by Misandao Apiary, and castor oil is a by-product collected when the "Jinhua Textile Factory" collects raw materials. Red and blue flowers and spices need to be purchased from other places, but the amount of these two is not huge.Jia Fang also thought about mobilizing the masses to search for traces of cochineal insects in the mountains near Taoyuan Village. If he could find them, he could also consider breeding cochineal insects. Then Taoyuan Village would be able to supply all kinds of raw materials for lipstick. Self-sufficient.

Looking at Mi Sandao carefully writing down the ingredients and methods of the lipstick one by one, Jia Fang was very satisfied.

The reason why he took the initiative to support Mi Sandao's entry into the beauty industry, on the one hand, was because of his sincerity, and on the other hand, he felt that Taoyuanzhai could consider developing some luxury products with high added value.

This is the same reason he encouraged Tian Youming and his son of "Red Fragrance Sugar Factory" to make handmade brown sugar and high-end rock sugar.The added value of commodities is high, and it is easy to accelerate the return of wealth.

In addition, he himself wanted to find a way to earn more real money in Beijing—earlier, he issued "circulation certificates" in Taoyuan Village, promising to have sufficient reserves, but in fact all his assets came from water. The 8 taels of silver that Xian gave him at the beginning.Among them, the 8 taels will also be used for the construction of such a bottomless pit as the Grand View Garden.

Nowadays, "circulation coupons" have a tendency to circulate to surrounding villages and towns. These small-denomination banknotes that look fancy but are very convenient to carry and use are no longer just a small economy that supplies 5000 people, but gradually It is expanding to tens of thousands or tens of thousands of people.

Lao Tu from the Financial Office also mentioned that more and more people come to the Financial Office to exchange the negotiable notes. In addition, the banknotes are depleted during use. Now the Financial Office has an increasing demand for newly printed banknotes. Margins also need to be filled from time to time.

Therefore, Jia Fang's plan is to encourage Mi Sandao to make more and make tube lipsticks, and then he will send them to Beijing for sale.