First-rank palace maid Su Jixiang

Chapter 342 Border Trade Begins

The stove was launched by Su Jixiang, but she did not use her own name. Instead, she used a business name opened in another city or county.

The promotion of this stove was not very smooth.

Most of the people in Mangcheng use earthen stoves. It is not winter now, so the benefits of burning coal in stoves have not yet been realized. Therefore, Su Jixiang first introduced honeycomb coal.

Because honeycomb coal is very cost-effective and can be the best supplement to earthen stoves.

The gimmick of the business's lottery is still very effective. After all, everyone finds new things like honeycomb coal stoves novel, and people always have a curiosity mentality. If they have to spend money to buy them, they will not be willing to do so, but if they are given away for free, they are still willing to try them.

The feedback from the first batch of stoves sent out was very good. Many people have already burned up the donated coal briquettes, so they came to ask how to sell the new coal briquettes.

Su Jixiang struck while the iron was hot and launched a big discount on coal briquettes, buying ten and getting two free. The more you buy, the more you get! If you buy 200 coal briquettes at once, you can get 50 for free!

Ordinary people like to calculate when doing things. If you do the math, the price of burning honeycomb coal is much cheaper than burning firewood. Therefore, the first batch of people who won the honeycomb coal stove in the lottery bought a lot of coal briquettes to use as long as they had some conditions.

One advantage of a honeycomb coal stove is that it can be sealed. Even if the stove is not extinguished, as long as it is sealed, only two coal balls at most will be consumed in one night of burning.

Moreover, as long as you open the damper, the fire will quickly become big, which is very convenient and quick to use for cooking or boiling water.

Honeycomb coal stoves are much safer than earthen stoves.

After a series of operations and publicity, about two months later, the coal briquette stove has established a firm foothold in Mangcheng.

The first batch of houses on the land that Su Jixiang and his team had previously purchased have almost begun construction.

Su Jixiang bought a large piece of land in the east of the city. She took out one of the pieces of land to build a house together with Liu Xiaojuan and other widows of the Black Tiger Army who followed her to run Hongpeifang.

These widows all work in her bakery and have a stable income every month. Although they cannot come up with so much money to build a new yard at once, Su Jixiang can provide the money.

She signed an agreement with Liu Xiaojuan and her friends. Su Jixiang was responsible for building the new houses. Liu Xiaojuan and her friends only needed to pay 30% of the house cost as a down payment, and they could move into their new houses after the houses were completed. In the future, they would pay the remaining amount to Su Jixiang in batches every month according to the agreement, until all the balance was paid, and the houses would be completely theirs. Before that, the ownership of the houses was in Su Jixiang's hands.

This was Su Jixiang’s first real estate project.

But the interest she paid to these people was not high, and everyone including Liu Xiaojuan could afford it.

There are three types of courtyards that Su Jixiang launched for the first time. To put it simply, they are large, medium and small. The large one has two entrances and exits, the small one has only one entrance, and the medium one is between the large and small.

Liu Xiaojuan is now the manager of Su Jixiang's place. She has several children, so she chose a large courtyard.

Su Jixiang was very attentive to the first batch of houses she launched. She installed heating stoves inside, and even the bathrooms and toilets were treated in a unified manner.

It was Su Jixiang’s first time building a house, so she supervised the construction herself.

Fifteen houses were launched at the beginning, and although only five were sold, Su Jixiang already felt it was very good.

After all, a house is not an ordinary item that can be bought just by saying so!

The large bazaar planned by Su Jixiang has also been basically completed.

Mangcheng had already begun to recruit merchants from various countries in early summer.

At this time of year in previous years, many merchants from various parts of the north would come to Mangcheng.

They would bring spices, furs and herbs from the north in exchange for silk, porcelain, medicine and tea from the Central Plains.

In previous years, Mangcheng was one of the regions with very developed border trade. However, due to the subsequent invasion of the Turks and various harsh taxes imposed by the Daxie Dynasty, the trade became increasingly deteriorating.

However, Mangcheng has been recuperating in recent years and has shown signs of recovery.

This year, Xie Yingfeng announced that anything traded in Mangcheng will be tax-free!

This policy spread quickly and spread to all the tribes in the north along the patrol routes of the Black Tiger Army!

Those foreign merchants who do business travel long distances just to make money. Mangcheng’s transactions are tax-free this year, which is great news for them.

No matter which city they go to for trade, it's not a trade. As long as Mangcheng has it, they don't mind going a little further and coming directly to Mangcheng!

So when it was early summer and the big market was just completed, it already had a prosperous look.

Previously, all the big businesses in Mangcheng were controlled by the clans and gentry of Mangcheng. They had all participated in the auction before, so they all knew that Xie Yingfeng was going to do a big job this year. After they returned, they also prepared enough supplies, just waiting for the merchants from the many tribes in the north to come.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, this big market became very prosperous as soon as it opened.

Moreover, Xie Yingfeng had discussed with Wei Ling and Su Jixiang before. The management of the big market is very complete. Every merchant who comes to Mangcheng to trade is registered and has a designated residence area. This protects the people of Mangcheng to the greatest extent, and also protects the safety of these merchants.

As long as big merchants contact the market, there will be special people to look after their goods, and the Black Tiger Army will be responsible for the safety of their caravans until they leave Mangcheng.

Such services make almost every caravan coming to Mangcheng feel safe.

What they feared most while traveling through mountains and rivers was being robbed. Now, as long as they contacted the government office in Mangcheng, someone would escort them and only charge a very small fee. Why not do it!

The Black Tiger Army is supposed to patrol the border, and now escorting these caravans is just a side job. They can also make money, so the soldiers of the Black Tiger Army are very happy.

All soldiers who participate in the escort operation will receive additional subsidies!

This is something that everyone likes to see!

The arrival of these merchants attracted many customers to all the restaurants in Mangcheng every day, and long queues appeared in several large restaurants.

Especially Caidiexuan!

Originally, Caidiexuan's business was good. When these foreign merchants came, they also heard of Caidiexuan's reputation. So as long as they had some money in their pockets, they all wanted to see Caidiexuan's dishes and services.

Caidiexuan also has a tea room, which is decorated in a fresh and elegant style. The tea and snacks inside are also unique, which cannot be imitated by other places! Therefore, Caidiexuan's business is busy from the time you open your eyes to the time you close your eyes, and there is no time to rest!