Chapter 30

In no time, the five men selected by She Tongcheng had already planted the five bamboo poles in their respective positions.

Once everything was set up, Ye Yu turned the wheel to face the crowd and said loudly, "Everyone, today I, Ye, am here at the Toad Pond to give out benefits!"

Benefits? Upon hearing Ye Yu's words, the already puzzled crowd became even more confused.

Seeing the crowd discussing among themselves, Ye Yu then continued, "As you all can see, I have had five bamboo poles set up in this pond! Whoever can hit the copper coins on top with a stone will receive one string of cash! If you hit the central copper coin, you will receive ten strings of cash!"

Wow!

As soon as Ye Yu finished speaking, the crowd immediately became agitated, wondering if such a good thing could really exist in the world.

A few people expressed doubt about Ye Yu's words, but Ye Yu smiled and said solemnly, "Not only that, but everyone who participates will be provided with a free bun to satisfy their hunger!"

At this point, the already eager citizens could no longer contain their excitement. As soon as Ye Yu finished speaking, they began picking up stones and throwing them into the pond.

For a moment, the crowd surged forward, creating a spectacular scene. The bun makers also started the fire to steam the buns.

Ye Yu, watching the enthusiastic crowd under the willow tree, nodded in satisfaction. He then called over She Tongcheng and instructed him to spread the news throughout the streets and alleys as quickly as possible.

She Tongcheng immediately handed the task to Fatso and Big Yellow, while he personally supervised the Toad Pond to prevent any disorder.

"Brother, this move of yours is truly ingenious. With the entire city's citizens throwing stones, I believe it won't be long before the Toad Pond is filled! This way, we save a lot of labor!"

She Tongcheng, watching the increasing number of citizens, was deeply impressed by Ye Yu's method.

At this moment, Su Quanzhong stroked his beard and laughed heartily, "Nephew, your move of using others' resources to achieve your goal is truly masterful!"

"Father, if you put it that way, isn't Brother Yu becoming a Buddha?"

Su Yueyun looked at Ye Yu with bright eyes and then smiled, "But although Brother Yu's move is for his own benefit, there are many beggars in the county, and this also provides them with some relief!"

Su Yueyun's words made Ye Yu pause, realizing that his intentions had been guessed by this girl. At this point, the stones by the Toad Pond were gradually running out.

Ye Yu then called over She Tongcheng, "Tongcheng, instruct your men to transport more stones over the next three days, but remember, the stones should not be too large, just enough to throw!"

"Brother, what should we do after three days? From my perspective, with the reward money, more and more people will gather here..."

Regarding She Tongcheng's concerns, Ye Yu waved his hand and smiled, "Tongcheng, your concerns are reasonable, but some things are not set in stone! You'll understand later. Remember my instructions: stop transporting stones after three days, but continue supplying buns! You and your men just need to maintain order here!"

"Yes, I will follow Brother's instructions!"

Although She Tongcheng still didn't understand Ye Yu's intentions, he didn't want to speculate too much. He firmly believed that following Ye Yu's instructions would be the right thing to do.

...

Through Ye Yu's clever approach, what was once an unsolvable problem was instantly resolved. In the following days, with the vigorous promotion by Big Yellow and Fatso, a large number of citizens gathered by the Toad Pond every day.

Money knows no class, and with a free opportunity to earn money, who would be willing to give up such a good chance?

Moreover, even if they didn't hit the copper coins, they could still enjoy a hot bun afterward. Who would refuse such a benefit?

As time passed, the Toad Pond was crowded with citizens from morning till night. Initially, there were prepared stones by the shore, and the citizens threw them casually. However, after three days, She Tongcheng instructed that no more stones be provided.

She Tongcheng thought the citizens' enthusiasm would wane, but to his surprise, their madness exceeded his imagination.

Whether women or children, they carried baskets filled with stones, all to hit the copper coins in the pond. This madness delighted She Tongcheng and further impressed him with Ye Yu's foresight.

In Qingliu County, wealthy people were few, so Ye Yu's benefits quickly attracted a large portion of the population within five days.

With the power of the masses, in just five days, the Toad Pond was half-filled with stones! This made Pan Chengfeng, who had been waiting to see Ye Yu fail, extremely frustrated.

Seeing the Toad Pond gradually fill, Pan Chengfeng, though angry, was helpless, as the Toad Pond was not his property.

The law does not punish the masses, and with the entire county's citizens participating in the filling, Pan Chengfeng found it pointless to raise the issue of feng shui.

After a month, the Toad Pond was finally filled. Although it took a long time, it saved labor and expenses, which was an undeniable fact.

Most importantly, it silenced Pan Chengfeng, which was Ye Yu's ultimate goal.

Initially, many people were just there to watch the show, waiting to see how Ye Yu would fail.

However, Ye Yu's true intention was not to fill the pond but to do so at a much lower cost than hiring people to fill it with soil, while also avoiding Pan Chengfeng's feng shui argument. This dual-purpose strategy was truly remarkable.

Many years later, when someone wrote a book about Ye Yu's entrepreneurial journey, they commented that this move showed Ye Yu's initial brilliance. The bamboo poles and copper coins were not for fishing or for a golden toad, but to easily attract tens of thousands of citizens from Qingliu County!

After this, the construction of the dyeing workshop proceeded as scheduled. Ye Yu made significant reforms to the workshop's facilities.

Although he couldn't create modern dyeing machines, he could easily solve the problem with basic screw-driven wheels to replace manual labor.

The old dye vats were abandoned, and several large dyeing pools were built instead. This allowed better coordination with the screw-driven wheels for dyeing.

The era of using wooden sticks to stir dyes was over. Now, the wheels would immerse the fabric in the dye. This modern-style dyeing workshop, carefully set up by Ye Yu, was about to start operations.

At the same time, Ye Yu put the spinning machine design he had sketched into practice. However, it was still in the experimental stage, so he only built five spinning and weaving machines.

Thus, on the land of the Toad Pond, not only did advanced dyeing equipment appear, but a complete production line for weaving and dyeing was also gradually taking shape.

This provided a good guarantee for the fabric industry, especially for the supply of raw fabrics.

Ye Yu knew that if the Pan family cut off the supply of raw fabrics, he would have no fabric to dye, even with advanced dyeing equipment.

To prevent this, he integrated weaving and dyeing. Since he couldn't compete with the Pan family for raw fabric supply, he decided to purchase large amounts of silk and cotton.

With advanced spinning and weaving machines, he could produce raw fabrics, which could serve as an emergency supply for the dyeing workshop.

With everything in place, Ye Yu's fabric business flourished in the following half year.

Although the Pan family had three dyeing workshops and Ye Yu had only two, the new workshop's output could match the combined output of the Pan family's three workshops.

This massive supply volume overshadowed the Pan family. Additionally, the non-fading quality of the "Zhonghua" brand fabric made it the most popular in Chuzhou.

With the government's advertising and the fabric's excellent quality, the "Zhonghua" brand began to gain a foothold in Chuzhou.

As the "Zhonghua" brand gained popularity, the girls at the Drunken Spring Pavilion, who had received many benefits from Ye Yu, promoted it vigorously. As a result, the shopkeepers who used to buy from the Pan family switched to Ye Yu.

Now, Ye Yu was no longer the same. In terms of wealth, although he was not as rich as the Pan family, he was still a wealthy man. In terms of influence, he had the support of the Liu family in the government and She Tongcheng's gang in the underworld.

After a year and a half in the Song Dynasty, Ye Yu finally had a solid foundation and could breathe a sigh of relief.

Since the fabric supply in Qingliu County and the surrounding areas was no longer dominated by the Pan family, Ye Yu kept his promise and, through price adjustments, reduced the fabric price to 33 coins.

Although the reduction was only two coins from the original price, it was a good start.

After all, his current strength was still small, and he had only been in the dyeing industry for a year. As the saying goes, the beginning is always the hardest. Ye Yu believed that with the market opened, the future would be smoother.

During this period, Ye Yu thought about the bathing and washing items he used daily, which he found unacceptable.

Thus, he had the idea of making soap and shower gel. However, he was disappointed because making soap required caustic soda, which was not introduced to China until the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Therefore, making the first soap in the Song Dynasty was not as easy as in other穿越 novels. It would require more effort.

Although Ye Yu knew the electrolysis method to produce caustic soda, it was not feasible in an environment without electricity.

Thus, the electrolysis of salt and the later Hou's soda process were not applicable. However, Ye Yu knew a very primitive method: using salt and coal to produce soda.

With this method, making soap became much easier.

After repeated experiments, Ye Yu finally created the first soap.

What Ye Yu did not expect was that he would be the first to "pick up the soap"...

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