After farming, I opened a family tree

Chapter 155 Business Undercover

It's already getting chilly in the south of the Yangtze River in October.

But Tangji Cotton Mill was indeed bustling with activity.

The machine provided by Shen Tang is not only labor-saving but also highly efficient. A lot of cotton thread has already been stored in the warehouse.

But Shen Dashan had a harder time, so Shen Tang picked a few strong men from the village and asked them to learn how to pick cotton from Shen Dashan.

Every time a new apprentice comes, Shen Dashan will personally teach him several times.

Even so, it didn't matter. He taught cotton-picking in the workshop in the morning, and he and his sister had to go home to study in the afternoon.

But Shen Qingqing fell in love with reading. In the past ten years, her mind has never been as clear as it is now.

Shen Tang also specially hired a female teacher from Lin'an City, who now lives in the house rented by Shen Tang.

In Tangji Cotton Mill.

Chuqi has become a small manager.

The children who were skinny in the past now have some flesh on their faces, and some of them have even grown a lot taller.

Shen Qingqing no longer weaves herself, she is responsible for teaching Chuqi and the others.

The leading tools have greatly improved the work efficiency of the entire cotton mill.

Since it was the first time for the girls in the charity hall to use these advanced tools, they had never been exposed to weaving before.

Although the cotton production is not large this year, there are fewer people, so there is a lot of work.

The cotton mill continued the same routine as the soap mill, but had even less time.

Shen Tang decided to recruit workers for the cotton mill for the second time. Once the news was released, the workshop entrance was crowded with people every day.

Many bold women even came to the workshop to inquire about the news.

Zhou family.

Ever since Shen Tang announced the recruitment a few days ago, many people from Zhou Family Cloth Shop have been secretly going to inquire about it.

Even the weavers hired by the Zhou family wanted to go to Tangji.

Speaking of changing, Zhou Zhenxiong became even angrier.

You run a workshop for four hours every day, not for the purpose of making money.

How much work can be done in these four hours? Besides, I heard that the workshop also provides lunch, which is much better than what some ordinary people eat at home.

Not only the Zhou family was angry about this matter, other families were also quite dissatisfied.

The workers under them began to secretly complain that they were not honest.

They don’t even think about the fact that if they hadn’t provided them with places and made money over the years, these people would not have been able to live a stable life.

Ultimately, this is Tangji’s fault!

Zhou Zhenxiong specially summoned several partners who have close relations with the Zhou family today.

"Boss Zhou, do you think Shen Tang's cotton cloth can really be made?"

After all, Tangji has started recruiting people now. This must be because they want to continue making cotton cloth!

Tangji Workshop was under strict supervision. The girls from the Charity Hall didn't know what kind of magic Shen Tang had put into them. Even though they had sent people to investigate, they couldn't find out any information.

The most common thing I heard was that they didn't need to work too hard and that they only used spinning machines and looms.

The Zhou family is in the silk business, so how could they not know about looms and spinning machines?

In other words, these girls in the charity hall who have never seen the world think that as long as they have food to eat, they will not feel tired doing anything.

The most skilled weaver in the Zhou family could only spin three pieces of cloth a month.

As for these young girls that Tangji had found and whom he had never met before, each of them could only weave two pieces a month at most.

"Boss, Tangji is hiring, which only means that the young girls they hired can't do much work.

In this way, Shen Tang will have to pay wages to the newly recruited people, and the cotton mill will have to close for so many days every month."

Zhou Zhenxiong's meaning was very clear. Shen Tang's operation would only increase labor costs. The cost of the cotton cloth was there, so how could the price of the cotton cloth be low?

"So what does Boss Zhou mean by calling us together today?"

"As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in every battle. Although this cotton cloth is not silk, you have all seen it. If it were truly made, it would have an impact on more than just our silk business."

The mulberry silkworm breeding industry will also be affected.

The Zhou family has their own mulberry fields and silkworm breeding workshops, but they mostly purchase supplies from other bosses who specialize in silkworm breeding.

"Isn't Tangji recruiting people now? We can take this opportunity to send a few of our people in.

By then, we will know everything about Tangji."

Zhou Zhenxiong spoke with confidence.

The others looked at each other. They were all old foxes, and they understood what Zhou Zhenxiong said as soon as he said it.

"My wife has a distant relative from her family who just happened to come and seek refuge with us."

"What a coincidence! My wet nurse's daughter-in-law has just finished her confinement and is looking for work."

As they talked, they looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

At the entrance of Tangji Cotton Mill, Luzhu and Chuqing were busy registering the people who came to sign up.

The company also informed that the cotton mill would announce the recruitment results in three days.

Shen Tang took over the information compiled by Lu Zhu and found that many experienced women had come to register for the job.

Although the workshop needs female workers with textile experience, such skilled female workers would be wanted by cloth shops wherever they come from, so why would they suddenly come to Tangji?

Shen Tang asked Luzhu and Chuqing to be careful, and indeed found that several of them had connections with the Zhou family and others.

Therefore, when the notice was posted, several families looked unhappy.

This Shen Tang actually didn't want the ready-made female workers. Almost most of their manpower were not hired. Only one embroiderer, Chen Xiu Niang, who only knew how to embroider, was hired.

It's better than nothing.

The newly recruited female workers all had clean backgrounds and most of them only knew how to do simple needlework.

But this is enough for Tangji. After all, the loom is not difficult to operate, it just requires a lot of patience.

After the workshop recruited people, its progress became much faster.

When the head of the Wu family met Shen Tang, he asked why they didn't use the water loom by the Qing River.

Shen Tang smiled and said nothing, just saying there was no rush.

At the end of October, Shen Qingqing personally rushed to make several vests and jackets, which were also taken away by Shen Tang.

The weather turned colder and the Northern Canal had stopped operating. Shen Tang packed away the two quilts, a cotton jacket and ten vests he had made.

The quilt had already been made, but the quilt cover took a lot of time to make. After all, it was a gift to the emperor, so it couldn't be too simple.

After these cotton products were prepared, it was decided to send them to the capital.

But this time, Shen Tang didn't plan to ask someone to deliver it, but to go there in person.

Now that she is a high-ranking official, she should go to the city to express her gratitude.

Besides, she had important things to do in the capital.

She wanted to open a branch shop in the capital, and move Tangji Soap Shop and Tangji Cotton Shop to the capital.

She will not give up the management rights of the capital and must hold it in her own hands.

When Shen Tang told Shen Dashan and Liu about this, they were both very worried and expressed their willingness to go with him to take care of him.

They were stopped by Shen Tang, who said that he had invited officials from the yamen to accompany them. Only then did the couple feel relieved.

Early in the morning of November 30th.

Shen Tang led everyone on their journey to Beijing.