Chapter 357: It doesn’t matter if the path is niche, as long as it can make money

Early in the morning, Ou Zanghua sat in Yue Lingshan's small courtyard and had breakfast with her.

Liu Qing liked to sleep in, and it was inconvenient for him to get up, so he usually had to eat at 9:00 p.m., when Ou Zanghua would already be sitting in court at the government office.

So most of the time, Ou Zanghua had breakfast with Yue Lingshan.

After eating a few bites, he looked up at the beautiful woman with bright eyes, red lips and pink face sitting opposite him and asked, "Where are my father-in-law and mother-in-law?"

In early spring, Ning Zhongze wanted to return to Huashan. Yue Buqun wanted to stay in the capital for a few more days, but he could not find a reason. So, under Ning Zhongze's persuasion, he set off in mid-March.

After Ou Zanghua found out, he gave them many gifts. Yue Lingshan also took out some advance money from Liu Qing and gave it to her parents.

Judging from their pace, they should have arrived at Mount Huashan.

Yue Lingshan smiled and said, "Brother, don't worry. I received a pigeon message from my mother yesterday. They have been in Huashan for several days. It's just that they were away for too long and many places in the house needed cleaning, so they didn't tell us in time."

"That's good." Ou Zanghua nodded, thought for a while and then said, "When my father-in-law and mother-in-law left that day, I looked at my father-in-law's face and saw that his forehead was bright and smooth. It should be good things that happened."

Yue Lingshan was stunned for a moment, and asked stupidly: "Could it be that my mother..."

"What are you thinking about!" Ou Zanghua said with some amusement: "It's not that. My mother-in-law is not young anymore. It's a miracle that she gave birth to Lingfeng. Don't make things difficult for her."

Yue Lingshan blushed and said a little embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, I was thinking wrongly."

Seeing this, Ou Zanghua held Yue Lingshan's hand and said gently: "It's not your fault, I didn't explain it clearly. What I meant is that there should be treasures on the top of Mount Huashan, and you can let your father-in-law go and have a look."

"Okay, I'll write the letter later." Yue Lingshan nodded and kept this matter in mind.

"By the way, how is your Sunflower Point-Acupressure Technique going?"

"It's time to get started, but it will take some time to get familiar with it."

"Okay, don't worry, take your time."

"Uh-huh!"

After breakfast, Ou Zanghua got on the carriage and headed towards the Qingning Palace Imperial Farm.

The carriage traveled for nearly an hour and passed by a busy construction site. The morning light was shining gently. Nearly a hundred craftsmen were working hard under the brilliant sunrise. Some were sweating profusely while carrying heavy stones, while others were carefully carving wood.

This is the new village of Weiyang Palace Imperial Farm. Under the leadership of Lao Liu, two hundred working villagers raised six hundred taels of silver to build their new home here.

As the project progressed steadily, more and more villagers would come to check on the progress after work. If the new home was really as good as Manager Liu said, they were willing to raise funds and ask the Ming Dynasty First Construction Bureau to help repair it.

Ou Zanghua sat in the carriage and looked at the situation outside through the gap in the window. Many courtyards have already taken shape. In the future, after the villagers move in, they can raise chickens and ducks in their own yards and no longer have to argue for three days and three nights over an egg.

As his thoughts wandered, the carriage slowly passed through a bamboo forest and entered the Qingning Palace Imperial Farm. Right Shaoqing Meng Zhao and four men had been waiting for a long time again.

Seeing Ou Zanghua's carriage approaching, he immediately stepped forward to greet him, bowed and said, "Sir, these four are the flag officers, village heads, family members, and servants that I temporarily arranged. They have lived in the Qingning Palace and the Imperial Manor for decades and know everything about this."

The four of them stepped forward, knelt on the ground, and in unison, they shouted, "We are here to greet Lord Ou!"

Ou Zanghua glanced at the four people, nodded and said, "No need to be polite, thank you for your hard work."

"Thank you, Lord Ou!" The four of them stood up and looked at Ou Zanghua with eyes filled with various emotions, including excitement, fear, and admiration.

"Let's change these titles to follow the pattern of the Weiyang Palace and the Imperial Manor!"

As Ou Zanghua walked in, he said, "From now on, the flag school will be called security, responsible for the safety of the imperial manor. The head of the manor will be called personnel, responsible for handling internal disputes and personnel registration. The family will be changed to manager, in charge of daily operations and administrative affairs. The attendant will be changed to secretary, responsible only to the manager of the imperial manor."

"Yes, I will arrange it right away."

The group walked along the road. The green forest and green bamboos looked even more tender and juicy under the nourishment of the spring rain. The quiet and mysterious green made people want to explore.

When the breeze blows, the bamboo shadows sway gently, making a rustling sound.

"How big is this bamboo forest?" Ou Zanghua asked curiously.

"Your Excellency, our bamboo forest is divided into three parts, which add up to nearly one hundred acres." The newly appointed secretary quickly replied: "There are special bamboo weaving craftsmen in the manor who make various items for the palace."

"Do you have a paper mill here?" Ou Zanghua nodded and asked.

The secretary replied, "Yes, we learned the papermaking technology in our village from the palace, and the paper we make is quite popular in the capital."

After hearing this, Ou Zanghua did not say much, but followed the guidance of everyone and went directly to the paper mill for a visit.

Because it is backed by a bamboo forest, the Qingning Palace Huangzhuang Paper Mill produces bamboo paper.

In fact, the paper industry was a well-known industry in the Ming Dynasty. Due to the development of the printing and publishing industry in the Ming Dynasty and the demand for paper in daily life, the need for paper expanded, so the paper industry also received attention. One of the five major handicraft industries in the Ming Dynasty was the paper industry, and the center of the paper industry at that time was in Qianshan, Jiangxi.

Where there is demand, there is innovation, so there were many paper products in the Ming Dynasty. Among them, the famous brands include Lianqi paper and Guanyin paper from Xishan in Jiangxi, Zouben paper from Qianshan, Bang paper from Changshan in Zhejiang, Luzhou and Yingshan in Anhui, small paper from Linchuan in Jiangxi, large paper from Shangyu in Zhejiang, and so on.

The paper products used in the palace were even more exquisite, including fine gold-sprinkled five-color powder paper, five-color large curtain paper, gold-sprinkled paper, and many others.

A closer look will reveal that these famous paper brands are all in the south and almost none in the north.

This is why, although the Qingning Palace Huangzhuang mastered the papermaking technique in the palace, its sales in the capital were average.

The technology in the palace is not as good as that of the people, and people there are not stupid, so why would they only buy expensive things instead of the right ones?
Ou Zanghua stood in the workshop, observing the work of the craftsmen while thinking about how to make a profit. He knew that he would not be able to compete with those southern brands using conventional methods, so he had to find another way.

纸业
Suddenly, Ou Zanghua thought of a very niche way.

That's toilet paper.

In fact, toilet paper has appeared very early, but its development is very slow.

According to some historical records, the use of toilet paper became popular among some aristocratic classes during the Tang Dynasty, but Li Yu, the last emperor of Southern Tang, had slid the toilet paper across his face many times to test its smoothness.

This shows that at least in the late Tang Dynasty, toilet paper and toilet slips were used in parallel.

In the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu established a special institution called Baochaosi. The name sounds very high-end, but it is actually an institution dedicated to the production and management of toilet paper for the imperial palace.

But among the people, toilet paper is still a rare commodity, and most people still use toilet brushes.

Of course, those poor people who have trouble even getting food are not Ou Zanghua’s target customers. His target customers are those who have a certain economic foundation but cannot buy affordable toilet paper.
(End of this chapter)