Chapter 280

September was the begining of winter for others, and it was time to add clothes and prepare food, but for Xu Ran, it was time to get busy.

The factory had been built and and could be put into official production of honeycomb coal. The name of the factory was Yanzhou Coal Factory, which was unusually simple and rough.

The staff in the coal factory were beggars from Yanzhou and a group of outlanders. The day the coal factory was opened, King Yan invited the people from Yanzhou to watch it. He also explained that in the future winter, there was no need to worry about having nothing to keep them warm on cold days. As long as they bought a furnace and bought some honeycomb coal, it would be solved. The honeycomb coal was produced in Yanzhou, so the price would be cheaper for the people in Yan Zhou.

Most importantly, people were wanted in coal factory. Anyone who had no work to do, who could bear hardships and be obedient, could apply for it. The salary would be paid monthly, with bonuses for good work.

His words caused a huge sensation among the crowd, and many people were eager to apply for the job at once.

However, this was not King Yan’s business. After King Yan said this, he said another important thing, that was, it must be ventilated when burning Honeycomb coal, otherwise people would die. He deliberately emphasized that everyone should pay attention to it.

There was a director in charge of everything in the coal factory. This person was selected by Xu Ran from this group of beggars. He was the one who spoke to Xu Ran in the ruined temple. The person was chosen by Xu Ran. He felt that he was competent and King Yan had a good impression of this person, so he did not object it.

King Yan also gave him the surname Yan and gave him the name Yang. This name was the greatest recognition that King Yan gave to Yan Yang. Some things did not need to be said by King Yan personally, what comes out from other people was more likely to make people trust.

Many firecrackers were set off on the opening day of the coal factory. Apart from King Yan, Xu Ran and Lu Qi made a few speeches. One was about the direction of the coal factory in the future and the other was about the personnel recruitment.

What Xu Ran meant was very simple. Apart from the people who stayed in the coal factory and were in charge of production, they also had to form some sales teams. Modern knowledge would be needed then. Xu Ran had experience in this field and knew a lot about sales. He wrote a detailed information to Lu Qi and told him to study it slowly and ask him if there was a question. He was not going to interfere other things.

He would just be a handsome man in the background who was in charge of planning.

Xu Ran also saw the other side of Lu Qi in these things. As a military counsellor, he was really impressive. He gave advice and suggestions and plotted like everything was under his control.

Xu Ran had a feeling that he had found his bosom friend. He immediately told him everything he had never said to anyone else before. The two of them discussed these things for a long time before they finally smiled with satisfaction and prepared to do it.

These things were known only to them, and none of the others knew about these things. Xu Ran trusted Lu Qi and he didn’t care to whom the reputation belonged when it was done. Anyway, he didn’t care about this. All he requested was that Lu Qi didn’t betray King Yan and the people of Yanzhou. After all, he didn’t want Liu Tong to be sad.

This day’s opening ceremony was very successful. After all, with King Yan’s attendance, no one dared to cause trouble.

In addition to coals, the coal factory also produced stoves. The men who made the stove were the ones who made the stoves for Xu Ran at that time. King Yan had them hired. People here had never burned honeycomb before, and they certainly didn’t have a stove at home, so they needed to buy it.

As it happened, the first people to buy a stove would also get some complimentary coals. No one would complain the free coal even if it was not well used. But as long as it was well used, there would be absolute repeat customers.

Lu Qi had always been worried that this would be too much of a loss. After all, they started sending coals out before they had even made money, and they didn’t know when they would get their money back.

Xu Ran said that this was called publicity. It was Xu Ran and King Yan who had invested the money. King Yan had no opinions and Lu Qi naturally couldn’t say anything.

However, he soon saw the results, because all the people who had bought stoves at that time came back to buy new stoves and honeycomb coals. After all, one stove was certainly not enough.

Five days after the coal factory was opened, a shop called the Honeycomb Coal Store on the main street of Yanzhou was opened. There were only Honeycomb briquettes and stoves inside, but there were a lot of people coming to the store.

Xu Ran stood on the opposite side of the street, with his hands around his chest, and said, “You see, sometimes that’s how the benefits come. As long as the publicity is good and there are a lot of people who know about it, even if your things are not that good, people still would followsuit to buy them, not to mention good things, so you don’t have to worry at all.”

Lu Qi didn’t say anything. He just stared at the shops where people were coming and going and started to think about why Xu Ran’s idea was so effective. He was right almost every time and rarely made a mistake, forcing him to think about it seriously.

Xu Ran didn’t know what Lu Qi was thinking. Seeing that he didn’t answer him, he ignored him. He just held his hands to watch the scene of bustle himself. He had a strong sense of pride in his heart. Success here would mean that he hadn’t wasted his time as a traveler, and that one day he might be able to return and show off.

The corner of Xu Ran’s mouth turned higher and the smile on his face grew bigger.

However, the doubts in Lu Qi’s heart were getting bigger and bigger. He had a feeling that these things were somehow contrived by Xu Ran. Of course he had done this himself before, but he had not always succeeded, so he began to wonder.

Lu Qi looked at the smile on Xu Ran’s face and couldn’t help asking, “Xu Ran, Why are you acting like you knew this was going to happen?”

Lu Qi’s words called Xu Ran back to reality. Xu Ran looked at Lu Qi strangely and asked, “Why do you ask this? Isn’t this a matter of course? Because the initial preparation was done well enough, the means of promotion was good enough, the things were good enough, plus we still have the backing of Yan King. Isn’t that normal? Don’t you believe in King Yan’s influence?”

After hearing what Xu Ran said, Lu Qi was stunned. wasn’t this normal? Why did he find it strange?

Lu Qi thought about it several times again, but he didn’t think of anything. So he simply didn’t think about it because Xu Ran’s explanation was reasonable.

Seeing that Lu Qi didn’t ask anymore, Xu Ran secretly breathed a sigh of relief and thought that he could not be too careless.

However, since Lu Qi did not mention it, this matter could be over. As long as the sales team was organized and everything was on track, he could get rid of these things .

He wouldn’t have to come up with some novel idea all day long to arouse suspicion. He only told Liu Tong about his identity and would only let him know. As for the others, he would not let them know his secret, especially since King Yan had threatened him with something about Liu Tong.

His eyes became cold and Xu Ran firmed his thoughts even more.

Xu Ran decided to take a vigorous action.

Early the next morning, after greeting Liu Tong, he walked out of the door and went straight to the coal factory. Xu Ran called all the people together, whether they were new staff or old staff here. Then he chose 20 people and took them to a small yard which was under King Yan’s name.

They would not be conspicuous this way. Xu Ran decided to train people here.

Fifteen of them were beggars and they didn’t know one word. And three of the other five were part of the group of refugees from outside, and two were recruited later.

The reason why Xu Ran chose these two people was because only they could read among all the people. In any case, the two men were able to do the accounting.

As for the rest, they were either bold or strong or eloquent. After all, all three must be needed elsewhere.

The training method was learned by Xu Ran himself. It was very general. Nothing was very important, but it could be used.Xu Ran would talk to them every day in a brainwashing way. Xu Ran estimated that it would take seven or eight days to produce a finished product.

This group of people had been trained for seven days. After seven days, Xu Ran could feel their difference himself.

Confidence, it was Xu Ran’s first impression, because what he had instigated them was to believe that their things were the best. Even if you didn’t sell the best, you had to say that they were the best, and it was a complete trick, but was very effective apparently. Most modern sales models were like this.

If you didn’t believe in your own things, then you could go find another job.

Xu Ran said all the things he should say, and he said many things he shouldn’t have. Xu Ran also made the commitment that as long as they did well, they would get more money than those who did coolies in the coal factory, or even more.

The most important thing was that they were a team, a whole, one won, all won, one lost, all lost. Nothing could be decided by one person, even if he was the captain. What Xu Ran wanted was this kind of binding method with a collective sense of honor.

The best thing was that this kind of consciousness of the ancient was very strong. Xu Ran didn’t need to say much and they could do it themselves.

This was what Xu Ran saw from the training these days.

When Xu Ran left the yard with his men on the eighth day, he looked confident.

He had brought them out and the rest of the matter had nothing to do with him. How to assign the tasks, where to go, whether there was someone to take over, what to do after that… Xu Ran would not manage these things. These people were under Lu Qi’s control now.

Xu Ran took these people to Lu Qi and said to him “I have brought them here, The rest will depend on you.”

Xu Ran turned around and left after saying that, without giving Lu Qi a chance to ask him to stay.

After walking far away, he let out a long breath. He hadn’t been home for seven days. And for seven days, he hadn’t seen his Tongtong and Baozi. He really missed them.

Recently, I have been working very hard to modify the wrong words. I would read it before I posted it, and then I could always find a few wrong words…

What made me very puzzled was that obviously there were not so many wrong words in the chat…