Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

Inside the textile factory, Fang Zheng led Li Yuanzhao on an inspection tour.

He was confident in entrusting the Liu Xun case to Xie Xian. Xie Xian was one of the few highly educated talents in the county, skilled in both business and, well, robbery.

Apart from his personal combat ability being weak, he was an excellent choice both theoretically and practically.

Currently, his most pressing task was the textile factory.

While the construction of the textile factory was partly due to the princess...

...the main reason was to provide warm clothing for the people of the capital during the winter, and to promote the new textile machine.

The capital was the core of Dajing's economy and politics. Once new inventions exploded from here and generated huge profits, they would quickly spread throughout the country.

For Fang Zheng, romantic love was certainly wonderful, but people should always have ideals and ambitions.

Now that he had left Taoyuan County and taken on greater responsibilities, he had to leave something good for this world.

At this time, the textile factory was nearing completion. Even the female workers had already been recruited and were just waiting for the notice to start work.

The only things lacking were some simple facilities and basic furnishings for the female workers' dormitories.

The main body of the factory occupied a large area and was basically designed according to the assembly line method.

First, there was spinning, and then the various parts were gradually sewn together according to the processing steps.

As for the sizes of the clothes produced, they were generally on the larger side.

Ordinary people in Dajing usually didn't buy clothes that fit perfectly; larger ones were better to wear.

Firstly, it was more comfortable for working, and secondly, it was easier to pass on to the next generation.

If the child grew taller than themselves, they could still wear the clothes of the previous generation. If they were too small, it would be much more troublesome.

This was similar to the early black rap singers.

They were all poor kids who could only wear the baggy clothes of their relatives.

Of course, they also had a large gold chain with a density less than water to cover up their unfortunate childhood....

In order to improve production efficiency, the textile factory also built dormitories.

After all, it was located outside the city, and going back and forth was extremely inconvenient and time-consuming. To increase production efficiency, this was a necessary facility.

The female workers' dormitory had eight people per room, with desks, chairs, and benches, looking similar to a university dormitory.

Well, not exactly, because the dormitory area looked much larger than a university dormitory.

There was also a special place outside for drying clothes, as well as some dedicated recreational areas.

There were wells between the dormitory groups for easy access to water, and the cafeteria was not far away.

The cafeteria was free, and there was also a special childcare facility.

If conditions permitted, in the future, they might even find some teachers to bring the children to class.

It wasn't that Fang Zheng was being so considerate, but the age at which women had children was generally earlier now.

It was common for women to have children at the age of fourteen or fifteen.

The recruitment of female workers was limited to fifteen years old. Most women had children, and the men went out to work before dawn, leaving no one to take care of the children.

If a childcare facility was not established, it was likely that the workers would not be fully recruited.

The remaining part was the raw material warehouse and the finished product warehouse.

This part was arranged for male workers to be responsible for transportation... after all, women were still far behind in physical work.

After looking at the whole place, Fang Zheng felt that there were no problems, and turned to Li Yuanzhao and asked: "Your Highness, what do you think of our textile factory?"

Li Yuanzhao nodded and asked: "It's good, but isn't it a little too good?"

"Oh... compared to this, it feels like our reporters in the early days lived worse than dogs...."

Who pays dogs a salary?

Fang Zheng curled his lips: "It's already difficult to recruit female workers. If it's built any worse, who would be willing to work here?"

"Don't look at the higher cost of this part, but female workers are cheap!"

"If we recruit male workers, it will cost two coins a month, but what about female workers? One and a half coins! Saving a quarter! And they do better work than carpenters!"

After hearing this, Li Yuanzhao's expression was solemn: "Women save so much money, then why doesn't the newspaper use female reporters?"

"Aren't female reporters uneducated? Who doesn't like female reporters!"

Fang Zheng vaguely remembered that his girlfriend or wife in his previous life was a female reporter, named Bingbing or something...

"Besides, which well-educated lady is willing to show her face in public every day?"

Li Yuanzhao's expression was a little regretful: "That's a pity."

Fang Zheng sighed: "Yes, our newspaper hasn't even made uniforms yet. This time, we should customize a set at the textile factory."

"What uniforms?"

"It's nothing. When our textile factory is built, we will not only sell clothes and fabrics, but also textile machines!"

"Huh? The same textile machine as in Jianjiang?"

"Yes!"

Li Yuanzhao asked doubtfully: "Lao Fang, I can understand needing to urgently recruit people in Jianjiang, but there is no need for that in the capital."

"If we sell the textile machines to them, won't we earn less money? Wouldn't it be better for us to keep them for our own production?"

Fang Zheng chuckled: "Your Highness, I can understand if others think so, but I can't understand you thinking so."

"You are the crown prince of the country, and you shouldn't focus on the petty profits of one time or one place. The promotion of new textile machines benefits the country and the people."

"This is actually good for us too."

"Once the new textile machines are promoted nationwide, the price of clothing will quickly fall, and people will naturally be willing to buy clothing. In this way, all the production links before clothing will increase accordingly, and everyone will benefit from it. This is win-win cooperation."

Li Yuanzhao smiled and said: "I understand this principle. When I first went to Taoyuan County, the book stalls in the county sold books, and you told me this when you used vernacular to fill the word count. I told my father about it later, and he said you were being eloquent!"

Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow: "How can filling the word count be eloquence?"

"Let me give you an example. Suppose our newspaper has no news to report, but it has to be published tomorrow. What should we do at this time? We need to fill the word count!"

"Just do a celebrity interview transcript and publish the conversation between the two people in the newspaper. Then, you can have as much content as you want!"

"There are other methods... In short, you can fill as much as you want!"

Li Yuanzhao said hesitantly: "Wouldn't that be ugly? Who would want to read things that are watered down."

"Who cares if it's good-looking? It quenches your thirst!"

"Alright, let's not mention this. Filling the word count is a science. Your Highness, find two books to study carefully when you have time."

"When the textile factory is officially operating, gather all the cloth merchants in the city for a meeting! We want to buy as much of their goods as possible."

Buy all the cloth from the cloth merchants in the city? What kind of operation is this?

Li Yuanzhao asked timidly: "Why buy it? How much money would it cost to buy it all?"

Fang Zheng thought: "It's said to buy it all, but they may not sell it all! I think fifty to sixty thousand taels should be enough!"

"Once our textile factory starts, the price of the products produced should be overwhelmingly competitive compared to other cloth merchants in the capital!"

"If we start work and hoard goods without saying a word, it will be a fatal blow to those small businesses."

"First of all, the goods in their hands will not be sold, and there will be no chance to sell them in the future. Even if they sell them, they can only sell them at a loss, so it is basically equivalent to being stuck in their hands."

"On the other hand, it is one thing for us to be able to produce fabrics or ready-made clothes, but it is another thing to sell them! Selling them a favor can also use their existing shops to distribute goods on the market. This is a win-win situation, understand?"

"I understand! But where can our workshop find fifty to sixty thousand taels of silver?" Li Yuanzhao asked.

Fang Zheng's expression straightened: "In order for the people of Dajing to wear high-quality and inexpensive clothes! I will pay for this money!"

.....