Chinese New Year

Chapter 1384 Education
"My Lord." Yu Wenjun quickly took a few steps and bowed to Shao Xiu.

Shao Xiu nodded slightly, then looked at the children in the courtyard.

Of all of Shao Xun's concubines, he doesn't remember many now, but he has the deepest impression of Yu Wenjun. This is because whenever she had free time, she would bring the Crown Prince and his wife to sit and chat for a while almost every day, and sometimes they would have dinner together at Xianju Palace.

She truly deserves the title of "kind".

Shao Xun stood up, took their youngest child, Ayan, from Yu Wenjun's arms, and happily held him while showing him to his father, Shao Xiu.

Shao Xiu reached out her trembling hand and gently stroked A Yan's face.

Five-year-old Ayan was very familiar with her grandfather and reached out her arms for a hug, but Shao Xun laughed and said, "Grandpa is tired and can't carry you."

Ayan nodded as if she understood, but was quickly drawn to the lively scene in the courtyard and wriggled to get down.

Shao Xun gently put him down, and his son disappeared in a flash.

“A-Yan is just like you, the most disobedient.” Yu Wenjun gently straightened Shao Xun’s robes, her tone carrying a hint of resentment.

“Ah Yan is much more handsome than me,” Shao Xun said in a low voice. “He’s as good-looking as his mother.”

Yu Wenjun lowered her head with a smile in her eyes, glancing around out of the corner of her eye as if afraid that others might hear her.

Shao Xun was both annoyed and amused.

With that appearance, where is the majesty of an empress? She's clearly just a petty woman.

"Father." Princess Jingfu, Fu Bao, approached, bowed, and then chuckled, "Shouldn't you return my husband to me now?"

Shao Xun was speechless.

Huan Wen had just returned to the capital with the emperor when he was immediately sent to Pingcheng to oversee the abolition of feudal lords and the establishment of prefectures. He has not returned home yet and even spent the New Year in Pingcheng.

“Yuanzi has indeed worked hard,” Shao Xun said. “After the matter in the north was settled, I allowed him to return home and recuperate for several months.”

Fu Bao blushed slightly, as if she had thought of something.

Yu Wenjun did not interrupt; she consistently avoided directly expressing her opinions on court politics. Furthermore, Huan Wen was only twenty-six years old, yet he had already served as a fifth-rank official for several years, a position that many envied.

Promoting him now doesn't seem like a good thing; Huan Yuanzi will definitely become the target of public criticism.

So she quietly left, leaving the father and daughter alone, and went to discuss the new Guangzhou artifacts she had received with the other concubines. A whale had accidentally stranded in the waters near Guangzhou, and the local people had hunted it down, dismantled it into various "parts," and sent them to Bianliang. The Imperial Household Department used the whale oil to make thousands of candles, and the harem received quite a few.

Shao Xun and Fu Bao strolled around casually.

"You're quite the celebrity in the market now. In your opinion, how are the goods traded between the north and south doing these days?" Shao Xun asked.

“Grandpa, you’ve lost a lot of money,” Fu Bao said bluntly.

"Why do you say that?" Shao Xun asked, somewhat surprised.

“Not everyone comes to the market to buy and sell,” Fu Bao said. “How much tax did the Bianliang market collect last year?”

Shao Xun thought for a moment and said, "We collected about two thousand dragon coins in the spring and autumn."

This amount of two thousand dragon coins is only on paper; it actually includes the copper coins, various silks, and even goods received, which the Imperial Household Department still needs to figure out how to handle.

“It’s even less than the year before last,” Fu Bao said. “Grandpa, are you aware that many merchants are secretly trading outside to avoid taxes?”

"It's unavoidable; the only solution is to catch them and fine them," Shao Xun said. "What do they use for their transactions outside the market?"

“Dragon coins,” Fu Bao said. “They’ve been to the market a few times and are already used to using this for pricing.”

Upon hearing this, Shao Xun not only remained calm but also smiled.

"Grandpa, you seem very happy?" Fu Bao asked.

"Grandpa has achieved his goal, of course he's happy," Shao Xun laughed heartily.

After laughing, he explained briefly: "Actually, there are quite a few people who trade privately outside, but even more come to the market. Why collect all the money in the world? The market has many advantages. The court has already screened out unscrupulous merchants, and you can compare prices and negotiate with multiple vendors. Who wouldn't like that? Besides, that's not what I value."

"Is it because commerce is booming?" Fu Bao asked.

“Yes,” Shao Xun said.

After saying that, as if he had thought of something, he asked, "How many paper mills do you own now?"

"One family."

How much paper can it produce?

"Three thousand pieces a year."

"You're not young anymore," Shao Xun said.

The paper sold wholesale on the market is relatively large, measured in sheets, approximately four zhang long and two chi two cun wide. When sold at retail, it may or may not be cut, and consumers may cut it themselves after purchasing it.

A sheet of this rattan paper sells for over two thousand coins in Bianliang, which is not cheap. Fu Bao's paper mill produces three thousand sheets a year. If all of them can be sold, the annual sales revenue would be over six thousand strings of cash, making it a truly large paper mill.

"Did Tiger Head buy rattan paper from you?" Shao Xun asked.

"A thousand pictures."

"You've made all the money," Shao Xun said with a laugh and a scolding tone. "How many paper mills are left in Jiangxia, Jingling, and Nanjun?"

"No fewer than thirty."

"How much does each produce?"

“The small ones have a few hundred sheets, the large ones have three or four thousand sheets, and most of them produce a thousand sheets a year,” Fu Bao said. “There are too many. The price of paper is declining year by year. There is even cheaper paper in Jiangnan. In the past, we couldn’t transport it all, but now that the country is unified, Kuaiji paper is flooding in. I think this year a sheet of rattan paper can only sell for 1,800 coins.”

“That’s exactly what we need to do,” Shao Xun said with a smile. “These days, a single sheet of paper can be cut into less than a hundred pages for writing or copying books. Even the families of soldiers have to use it carefully. You guys still need to lower the price and sell more. My father calls it ‘small profits but quick turnover.’ You might not earn less.”

"Grandpa, do you have some kind of plan?" Fu Bao asked softly, his eyes darting around.

“That’s right.” Shao Xun didn’t hide anything and laid out his plan in its entirety: “Nowadays, there are very few county schools and prefecture schools. There are more than twenty prefectures, more than two hundred counties, and more than a thousand counties in the country, but very few have prefecture doctors or county doctors. If we were to gradually establish county schools, taking thirty students as an example, how much paper would I need to pay per year?”

"Including books, the daily needs of the county doctor and county instructor, as well as various miscellaneous and official items, twenty sheets of paper are always needed." Fu Bao quickly did the mental calculation.

"That makes sense!" Shao Xun said. "County schools, prefectural schools, and even the Imperial Academy and the National Academy easily use tens of thousands of sheets of paper a year. But now, they're mostly mixed with other types of paper, which isn't very efficient. If you can lower the price of rattan paper, I can open a few more county schools. Oh, and by the way, there are also the military schools in the military government; that's not a small amount either..."

After saying that, Shao Xun glanced at his daughter and said, "Tell me the truth, is papermaking profitable?"

"It's quite profitable," Fu Bao whispered.

Shao Xun nodded.

The fact that she could offer Tiger Head a 20% discount means the profit margin is more than 20%. It's great to have a daughter deeply involved in manufacturing and commerce; otherwise, Shao Xun really wouldn't have known about the room for price reductions.

"You should lower the price first," Shao Xun said expressionlessly.

Fu Bao glanced at his father a few more times, and seeing that he was serious, he nodded in agreement. At the same time, he also realized that his father's efforts in promoting the study of officialdom had been stumbling and faltering, and although there had been some results, he was clearly not satisfied with this and wanted to push it further.

The purpose of promoting official schools is self-evident. It can only be said that these actions, along with the recent land grants to powerful clans like the Taishan and Langya Wang families, are two sides of the same coin; he genuinely wants to create a new world in the north.

Even though human strength is sometimes limited and complete success is impossible, we should do our best and do what we can – this was probably the father's true thought.

Seeing that his daughter was easy to talk to, Shao Xun was also quite pleased, so he asked her a few more questions: "How is your estate in Xuancheng doing?"

“We’ve already recruited four hundred farm households, and transferred over a hundred more from Xuchang to grow millet for several years. This year, we’ve opened up some new paddy fields and transferred fifty more households from Jiangxia to try growing one season of rice,” Fu Bao said.

"This is the largest manor under your name, isn't it?" Shao Xun asked.

“Yes, but so far we can barely support ourselves,” Fu Bao said.

"Why?"

“There are still some rebel soldiers and bandits hiding in the mountains and marshes. To the south, there are also descendants of the Yue chieftains, who are brave and fierce, and are always fighting over water and land.” Fu Bao sighed, “I spent a lot of money to build the fortified village. I stayed there for a few days, but I never went back. I don’t know if the manor’s accountant, the officers of the troops, or the like have embezzled or deceived me.”

"How are you going to get to Xuancheng?" Shao Xun frowned.

"It's alright, Grandpa, I won't go next time." Fu Bao gently hugged Shao Xun's arm and smiled, "From now on, I'll let the Liu family manage things for me."

"The Liu family of Pingyuan?"

"Hmm." Fu Bao nodded: "My mother has a younger cousin who bought a piece of land south of my manor. He plans to bring more than 300 farmhands south so they can take care of each other in the future."

After listening to his daughter's explanation, Shao Xun gained a relatively intuitive understanding of the development of Jiangnan.

He had previously only understood the macro level, such as how many people went to a certain area and how much land was cultivated, but he didn't understand the micro level very well and could only rely on his imagination, although the actual situation was not much different from what he imagined.

“One manor in Xuancheng is enough,” Shao Xun said. “From now on, you should do more practical things.”

"What constitutes a fact?" Fu Bao asked, blinking his eyes.

“Sending people to plunder wild silkworm cocoons in Xuancheng and then reselling them to the north is not a real thing,” Shao Xun said. “But if you give needles, thread, cloth, and wild silkworm cocoons to the villagers so that they can make cotton clothes in their spare time, that is a real thing.”

"The price of cotton-padded clothes in the north has dropped, and my daughter also contributed to the effort," Fu Bao explained.

“You did put in the effort, but it wasn’t enough,” Shao Xun said. “Making quick money is addictive.”

He sighed halfway through his sentence and said, "Well, a daughter grows up and can't be controlled anymore. You can decide for yourself. I just hope you won't end up like those people who spend their days scheming and plotting."

Fu Bao was silent for a moment, then muttered, "We can't make cotton clothes, otherwise we'll be completely outmatched by kraft paper. If we have to make them, we should make linen or banana leaf shirts, those can last longer."

“Sure,” Shao Xun said. “When you have time, you can go to Shouchun and take a look. Madam Yang’s estate is there. After you see it, you’ll know how best to manage the industry. I sincerely hope that more and more of Jiangnan’s output can be exported to the north. Perhaps one day—”

Shao Xun shook his head and didn't continue.

"After the market opens in April, accompany your grandfather to take a look," he said.

(End of this chapter)