Chapter 530: Stockpiling Coal
Because the winters in the past few years were warm, the price of charcoal has been relatively cheap in recent years, especially if you start stocking up now, the price will be even cheaper. In addition, Tong Huaqiong stocked up a lot at one time, so she can save a lot of money.
In winter, the stored charcoal is sold at a price one to three cents higher per pound than last year's charcoal. This not only ensures that ordinary people in Pingchuan have charcoal to burn, but also makes a profit, which is a win-win situation.
Tong Huaqiong's abacus was clacking loudly.
"Of these fifty kilograms of charcoal, fifty thousand kilograms are gold-thread charcoal, one hundred thousand kilograms are silver-thread charcoal, and the rest is ordinary charcoal." Tong Huaqiong thought for a while and instructed Gu Baishuang.
Ordinary people use cheap ordinary carbon, and it is this batch of carbon that mainly stabilizes the market price.
Silver charcoal is generally available from wealthy families, so the price can be higher.
Golden charcoal is mainly sold to wealthy families. They have money and don’t care about the price, so we take the opportunity to make a profit from them.
Gu Baishuang agreed and thought to herself that no matter whether this year was a cold winter or not, the charcoal had to be sold anyway. Even if she couldn't sell it all, it wouldn't go bad if left alone and she could continue to sell it next year.
It just means the payback period is slower.
Then Tong Huaqiong called Gu Dashu and wrote a letter to Lu Zhaozhao, asking Gu Dashu and Gu Baishuang to give the letter to Lu Zhaozhao when they went to the provincial capital to stockpile charcoal, so that the Lu family could also take the opportunity to stockpile charcoal.
Tong Huaqiong can only take over the Pingchuan market, but the entire provincial capital has one city and three counties, so the Lu family will take over the rest.
Firstly, the Lu family is rich enough to take over so much of the market, and secondly, Mr. Lu would not take the opportunity to raise the price even for the sake of his grandson's career.
If the Lu family can stabilize the charcoal price in Ningcheng during extremely cold weather and prevent more people from freezing to death because they cannot afford charcoal, it will be helpful for Lu Zhaoyang's career.
This was a gift from Tong Huaqiong to Lu Zhaoyang via a messenger, and also a political achievement for Prefect Yao.
She has a little dragon at home. What if his halo as the male protagonist is broken and the damn old emperor wants to massacre his entire clan? She hopes that Prefect Yao will plead for her based on her political achievements. After all, she has heard from Mr. Lu that the Yao family never takes sides and is trusted by every emperor.
"Mom, do we still need to tell the Liu and Huang families about the cold weather this year?" Gu Dashu asked.
Tong Huaqiong thought for a moment and said, "No need."
Magistrate Liu and the wealthy Huang family would never be short of charcoal, and Tong Huaqiong didn't want anyone else to get a piece of the pie.
What if the news gets out and all the charcoal is hoarded by other merchants? How would she get a share?
Other merchants are not as kind as her and will not think about the plague. Then the charcoal will be in the hands of other merchants and the scene of Tong Da Jiao freezing to death in her previous life because she could not afford charcoal will repeat itself.
"I'm not sure whether this winter will be extremely cold. Don't talk nonsense when you go out. The government will punish you if you cause panic." Tong Huaqiong warned.
Seeing Tong Huaqiong's serious face, Gu Dashu and Gu Baishuang hurriedly agreed.
After talking about hoarding charcoal, Gu Baishuang mentioned that Tong Huaqiong had entrusted her to buy maids and old women.
It is said that the matchmaker has brought the person here.
Tong Huaqiong has been so busy lately that she has forgotten about this matter.
The house in Pingchuan County has been busy recently with the maids and old women brought by Gu Baishuang. Tong Huaqiong, who is being served by others, now needs more and more manpower.
"Call them over, and call Taohua and Yue'e as well. They can choose their own maids." Tong Huaqiong said to Gu Baishuang.
Gu Dashu's eyes flashed with joy. He had long wanted to buy a maid or a servant to serve his wife. Thinking that his mother and sister had no one to serve them, he was afraid that Tong Huaqiong would be unhappy and have a opinion about Liu Yue'e.
"I'll go call Yue'e and Taohua, and you go bring the matchmaker up, sister." Gu Dashu ran out happily.
Less than a cup of tea after Gu Taohua and Liu Yue'e came up, Gu Baishuang brought in the matchmaker.
Tong Huaqiong looked over and saw several maids and old women following the matchmaker.
"Shopkeeper Tong, these people were all carefully selected by me." The matchmaker said with a smile.
Tong Huaqiong waved her hand and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Aunt Lu."
Tong Huaqiong carefully asked the mother-in-law and the maid about their names, places of origin, and backgrounds...
They answered one by one.
Tong Huaqiong sighed inwardly, they are all pitiful people. Take these maids for example, some were sold because their families were poor, or sold to buy money for their brothers' studies. One of them was originally a daughter of an official family, but was sold because her brother was implicated in the officialdom.
The women were not much better off. Some of them were sold by their original owners, some were sold on the spot because their owners could not take them with them when they moved, or some were sold by their husband's family.
In short, they are a group of miserable people who have no choice.
Tong Huaqiong casually selected four smart maids, chose two maids to do laundry and cooking, and also selected a maid for Chen Sufen.
Gu Taohua selected two maids, and Liu Yue'e selected a personal maid.
Tong Huaqiong paid the money, and the matchmaker took the money and smiled so hard that her teeth were showing, then she took the rest of the people to the next house.
Tong Huaqiong looked up and saw the official lady looking at her with eyes full of desire. Tong Huaqiong couldn't bear it and bought the official lady.
The official lady bowed and kowtowed.
She was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and was really afraid that if she went to a wealthy family, the master or young master would take her as a concubine.
"Forget it. Come back with me to Qinghe Bay and teach my granddaughter." Tong Huaqiong said.
This way Maner doesn't have to go to a private school, and she and Duoer can have a teacher at home.
The young lady from the official family was named Su Qing, and Tong Huaqiong did not ask her to change her name.
After finishing all this, Tong Huaqiong looked up and saw that it was already late, so she walked out of Jufulai.
"Gu."
When Tong Huaqiong heard someone calling her, she saw her adopted nephews Tong Zhijie and Tong Zhaodi coming up to her carrying two chickens and some mountain products.
When Tong Huaqiong met the vampire Tong family, her hands began to itch.
Tong Zhijie and Tong Zhaodi didn't expect that Jufulai was opened by Tong Huaqiong. They just went in and took a look around and were dazzled by all the good things inside, but they had no money in their pockets.
At this time, they saw Tong Huaqiong standing at the door of Jufulai. The customers and waiters coming in and out called her the boss. Only then did they realize that Jufulai was opened by their aunt.
Wow, how come my aunt is so powerful?
The gap from the pastry industry to the department store industry is quite large.
Tong Zhijie felt a little regretful for offending his aunt, otherwise, according to his aunt's temper, Ju Fu would have given him a share of everything.
"Auntie, this shop is opened by you, you are really amazing."
Ever since Tong Zhijie witnessed Tong Huaqiong's methods last time, he dared not act rashly in front of Tong Huaqiong and just flattered her obediently.
Tong Huaqiong interrupted rudely: "It's not up to you to praise me or not. What are you doing here?"
The two chickens and mountain products in her hands, could it be that Tong Fusheng gave them to her out of a sense of conscience?
Goods can be received, but meals cannot be treated and requests cannot be agreed to.
Tong Zhaodi said, "Dad asked us to come to the Wu family to take a look."
Oh, it turned out that Tong Huaqiong had overthought. The things in their hands were for the Wu family.
Tong Huaqiong asked, "Wu Ji is over there, go ahead."
Tong Huaqiong thought about it. Tong Pandi had already divorced the Wu family. Logically, the Tong family and the Wu family should have severed their relationship. Why were they still visiting each other like in-laws? There must be something fishy going on. Maybe the two families were plotting against Tong Pandi together.
Thinking of this, Tong Huaqiong stopped the two of them and asked, "Tong Pandi has already divorced Wu Musheng, why are you still in contact with the Wu family?"