The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 490 Labor. Not Easy
Gan Minglan has quite a temper!
These notices have been posted for over half a month, and the 500 high-paying positions are still vacant.

One question a day.

When asked, no one said a word.

The head of the military logistics entrepreneurship center is almost driven crazy.

Gan Minglan couldn't help but complain to Zuo Wenkang:
"How difficult can ink making be? Among the more than one million people in the Ten Garrisons of Kansai, you can't find a single skilled ink maker! And brush makers, stonemasons who know how to select inkstones, and inkstone carvers are nowhere to be found!"

Zuo Wenkang helped her analyze:
“These skilled craftsmen won’t be given important positions unless they sign a life-or-death contract with the workshop! Even during those chaotic years, these artisans would be hidden away and supported by the family head, ready to make a comeback whenever the chaos ended.”

With skills and skilled workers, things can be set up in no time!

Currently, merchants from Jiangnan account for two-thirds of the stationery sold to Kansai!

"Hmph! There's no skill that can't be learned! As long as there's a sample and a production process, I, the general, don't believe I can't make it."

"What good ideas do you have, my wife?"

"I'm not going to use those skilled fighters who are kept under contract by wealthy merchants! I'll train them myself, starting from the newbie village!"

What is the "newbie village"?

"For example, we can have ceramic artisans pound ink paste! Or, for instance, the making of a calligraphy brush handle requires woodworking skills. Couldn't we also use woodworking skills?"

Making pen tips requires combing, sorting, and processing the hair, and these skills of weavers can be transferred over!

Craftsmen who make inkstones can most easily find substitutes.

The main material for inkstones is stone, and locals know the local stone best.

As long as each sanctuary offers a generous purchase price and specifies that it needs stones that are dense and moist, fine yet sharp, moderately hard, and relatively thick.

I believe that those indigenous children would turn over the stones all over the mountains and fields when they were herding sheep.

As for inkstone carvers? Skilled carpenters and stonemasons can both handle the job!

Zuo Wenkang once again expressed his admiration, praising his wife's extraordinary talent!

After some revisions, the job posting was reissued after the first round of no response.

really.

After taking a detour, the recruitment process became incredibly smooth.

With over a hundred competitors for each position, the best of the best are still selected.

Based on this, the workshops recruited hundreds more apprentices.

Apprenticeships in Kansai are paid, and you can find good young men who are literate and quick-witted.

The ink workshop was the first to start operations.

How difficult can it be to collect cigarette ash?

Just cover the oil lamp with a bowl and wait patiently.

Then, a problem that made the impatient person anxious was presented to them.

The collected soot needs to be washed, air-dried, and stored for at least a year before it can be used.

This step is called annealing in the ink-making process!
Because the raw materials such as oil fumes will carry "fire" after being burned, meaning that the raw materials treated at high temperatures have high activity and instability.

Annealing reduces the "fire" and improves the quality of the ink.

Furthermore, finished ink sticks need to be air-dried for at least six months before they can be used!

Gan Minglan: "."

She didn't want to wait a year and a half.

A year and a half is too long; to seize the market, we must act quickly!

If they cannot produce products that differentiate themselves from Huizhou ink, the cultural goods market and export share in Kansai will be monopolized by wealthy merchants from Jiangnan.

How can we obtain ink that is both immediately usable and mass-producible?

Looking at the word "petroleum" which is no different from "ink," Gan Minglan suddenly remembered that most people in later generations used ink to write with brushes and pens.

I wonder how well the ancients accepted this convenient ink. She even specifically sought out Fang Molin and others to conduct market research.

"Instead of making inksticks, we'll make ink?"

"Headmaster, the way ink is sold is very flexible; you can get a pound of ink for just three or five copper coins!"

"Grinding ink is a process that calms the mind!"

"Headmaster, it's ready to use right out of the box, saving a lot of time! You can't even grind a pound of ink from an ink stick weighing an ounce!"

Fang Molin: "If the ink workshop can produce ink that is the same as the ink made from ink sticks, and the price can be controlled within a few coins, I think it is worth a try!"

Cheap is definitely a killer move!

The scholar's only requirement was that the ink be as good as freshly ground ink.

This is something we must strive to achieve.

The workshop got busy as soon as it received the task.
Just as Gan Minglan breathed a sigh of relief, the manager of the writing brush shop said that they had encountered trouble again.

What do you mean by saying that Kansai wool is unusable?

"General, we have inquired about the sheep hair brushes used in Huzhou. They use hair from the armpits or neck of goats. The hair from this part is tough and soft, making it most suitable for writing various styles of calligraphy, such as regular script, cursive script, official script, seal script, and running script, as well as splashed ink landscapes and freehand flower paintings."

The sheep in our Guanzhong region are all sheep, and sheep wool isn't straight.

Their general, undeterred, asked again, "What about wolf hair brushes? If that doesn't work, we'll focus on high-end brushes!"

The manager explained in a low voice, "Wolf hair brushes are made from the tail hair of a weasel, which is also called a yellow weasel."

This wolf is not that wolf.

This thing is very rare in the Kansai region.

Rare means it cannot be mass-produced.

From initially believing she had everything under control to gradually eliminating her opponents, Gan Minglan finally realized the gap between imagination and reality.

She took a deep breath. "Isn't it said that rabbit fur can also be used? There are plenty of Angora rabbits in the snow-capped mountains and grasslands, so we can start from this direction."

If they could successfully tame wild rabbits in the border town, they should let the managers of the chicken, duck and goose sheds give it a try.

Goats in Jiangnan are not a rare breed. We can offer a high price to allow traveling merchants to Huzhou to bring some goats to Guanxi to sell!

Problems that can be solved with money aren't really problems.

The manager of the pen shop: "Yes, yes!"

Regarding the wolf hair, Gan Minglan exhaled a breath of stale air: "Weasel, I'll have King Atu search for it further away later."

We will never give up on the high-end market!

Pen shop manager: "."

King A-Tu: I, the mighty King of Dehua Rats, have to go out and earn money in addition to taking care of my cubs at home.
Kansai Trading Company then announced that it would purchase stone, wild rabbits, and weasels at high prices on a long-term basis.

Now, even the herders of the Ili River Valley and various tribes couldn't stay in their tents any longer.

People crowded in front of the various Kansai trading companies' branches.

"Tell us quickly, what kind of stone, and how big, can sell for half a tael of silver?"

"Do you have samples? Quickly bring out some sample stones so everyone can see them!"

"Hmm, I've seen this kind of mud and rocks in the XX Gobi Desert before. Is your trading company really willing to buy them with silver?"

The shop assistant repeatedly assured them, "We'll take them all, as long as the inside meets our requirements after cutting them open!"

"Young man, how long does your trading company require the fur of a long-haired wild rabbit to be considered 'long-haired'? Can you really pay five qian of silver per rabbit?"

The shop assistants quickly brought out several rabbit skins they had prepared beforehand to display:
"I want them all!"

"Weasels are rare, so you shouldn't catch them! They're good friends of grasslands and pastures; a single weasel can eat hundreds of mice a year!"

"."