Chapter 332: Letting Skills Loose

To hell with passions and hobbies.

Shortly after this issue of the News Gazette was published, six of the eighteen clubs in the capital immediately switched to the new football league.

To be fair, these six clubs had actually been consistently at the bottom in old football competitions for years, with no hope of improvement in sight.

This was because old football was a highly technical sport that required extremely high talent, but was also very narrow in scope. In competitions, the luck factor played a very small role, which led to the United Cloud Society monopolizing first place year after year.

Unlike football, which had great potential for upsets, and had much broader talent requirements – speed, agility, and footwork could all shine on the football field.

The audience base was much larger.

Moreover, to put it bluntly, these six clubs that consistently finished at the bottom received very limited annual profits, almost like charity handouts.

This was unlike the football league, where even last-place teams could earn substantial profits.

First, the league would distribute earnings based on rankings. Second, for every match played, even losing teams could take twenty percent of the ticket sales, winners took fifty percent, and the remaining thirty percent went to the league.

The salaries were considerable, but winning brought even more.

This still incentivized them to become stronger.

However, beyond these six clubs, many other old football clubs were also considering switching.

After all, the Song Dynasty was a commercial society, and the old football clubs had backers who were also in it for profit. Now it seemed clear that new football offered more lucrative rewards.

Their only hesitation was that old football competitions had existed for a long time and were relatively stable, while new football had only held one match so far. Whether it could continue long-term remained a question.

But this caused great panic in the old Football Alliance.

While old football clubs could switch, the alliance itself could not. If all the old football clubs switched to the new football league, they would be completely finished!

But these people were no fools either – the annual prize money for old football clubs depended entirely on their sponsorship efforts.

They actively spread rumors that old football was doomed and that Zhang Fei had a conspiracy to eliminate old football.

It must be said, this tactic was very effective. These rumors immediately sparked widespread debate, especially since old football was the premier sport of the Northern Song.

Moreover, the vast scholar-official class included many old football enthusiasts. Asking them to play football would leave them either dead or disabled, and the key point was that their opponent was Zhang San.

Although the reformist and conservative factions were currently competing for Zhang San’s support, that was limited to political struggles and did not represent class issues or commercial competition.

Thus many scholar-officials expressed their intention to raise funds to support the old Football Alliance.

This caused many old football clubs to change their minds again. After all, having played old football for so many years, this was their comfort zone. Moving to new football would be full of uncertainties.

Zhang Fei made no response to this, believing no response was necessary. He had never intended to eliminate old football – the key issue was what competitions audiences wanted to watch.

Moreover, he currently had far too many matters to attend to, and even the football league had to be postponed slightly.

Today, Zhang Fei came with the major donors of the Great Song Charity Foundation to the movable type workshop in the western part of the outer city.

“So big!”

“This looks like an estate, not a workshop.”

“Such a large workshop – this is truly the first time I’ve seen one.”

“Zhang San, just how big is this workshop of yours?”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “It’s not very large – only one acre in total, with ten large courtyards and seven furnaces.”

Ancient workshops were all based on family models – individual courtyards. Even commercial workshops maintained this household production model, just like the Authentic Books Store. Zhang Fei had not changed this approach or insisted on creating a large factory building, as this involved many issues of sanitation and fire safety.

He still used courtyards as units to divide production areas.

Actually, this workshop wasn’t designed by him, but by the two master craftsmen Bai Ban and Hong Zhong according to the movable type production chain.

Operations had already begun.

The key point was that the movable type production workshop had indeed been in preparation for a very long time.

Fan Yong asked, “How much is the rent?”

Zhang Fei looked directly at Chen Maoqian.

Chen Maoqian said, “Twenty strings per month.”

“That’s not expensive at all!”

“Indeed! Although this place is rather remote, this plot of land is quite substantial. What a bargain!”

“This used to be a warehouse, but later the family moved their warehouse outside the city, so it was vacated. If we were to build houses for rent here, the highest rent in this area would be around one string of cash. Building houses would require considerable costs, so they simply rented the whole plot to us.”

“Did we build all these buildings ourselves?”

“Most of them, yes. Some were also converted from existing houses and warehouses.”

“We spent money on this, but what if the landlord takes it back later?”

“Don’t worry about that. Within ten years, if he takes it back, he must compensate us for the construction costs.”

Chen Maoqian said this while pointing to Zhang Fei: “This condition was set by Zhang San.”

Zhang Fei chuckled: “If we can’t earn back this little money within ten years, then this business isn’t worth doing.”

Zhou Yan, the timber merchant, asked: “Do we really need such a large workshop? Can movable type really make this much money?”

The others nodded in agreement, expressing their doubts.

Zhang Fei smiled: “In just the past three days, we’ve already received orders worth approximately two thousand strings.”

“What?”

“How much?”

“About two thousand strings.”

Everyone looked at each other in amazement, seemingly questioning their understanding of reality.

Huang Can, the paper shop merchant, said: “Gentlemen, you may not know this, but on the very first day our movable type workshop opened for business, the government office received applications from fifty newspaper publishers. Twenty-one of them have already been approved.”

“How did so many suddenly appear?”

“Actually, many people have long wanted to print newspapers and have been waiting for this movable type workshop.”

“I heard that most of the owners of these newspaper publishers are scholar-officials from the capital.”

Everyone now deeply understood the power of newspapers, and they all realized that in the future, whoever controlled newspapers would control public opinion, which scholar-officials valued greatly.

Although the Authentic Books Store welcomed all customers and would print anything as long as you were willing to pay—you could even criticize Zhang Fei—almost everyone shared the consensus that they absolutely could not allow the Authentic Books Store to monopolize newspapers.

Today he might agree, but tomorrow he might not!

However, while they wanted to print newspapers, they didn’t want to hire another batch of craftsmen to carve movable type, as this would be very uneconomical. After carving was complete, they couldn’t dismiss the craftsmen, since clay movable type had a limited lifespan. When pieces broke, they would need to hire people to carve new ones, and such skilled workers were hard to find.

Due to the Authentic Books Store’s large-scale hiring previously, wages for craftsmen with these skills had been rising steadily.

But keeping them permanently employed wasn’t cost-effective either.

Fortunately, they heard that Zhang Fei was going to establish a movable type workshop.

Buying ready-made type was the most economical option.

Especially since this movable type workshop was controlled by a charitable organization, and many scholar-officials were donors.

They weren’t afraid of Zhang Fei monopolizing it.

Zhang Fei also explained to everyone: “When our workshop sells complete sets, each movable type character costs ten coins. For commonly used characters, one set contains two thousand characters, making one set twenty strings. If bought individually, each character costs fifteen cash.

Generally speaking, a bookshop needs to buy at least two sets, or even three sets, to print newspapers quickly. You should all know that today’s newspapers require speed.

At the same time, they also need to purchase characters that aren’t commonly used but aren’t exactly rare either. Therefore, calculating everything, each newspaper publisher’s investment in movable type costs at least fifty strings.”

“Fifty strings per shop—you’d need forty shops to reach two thousand strings in revenue.”

“Fifty strings is just the minimum cost for movable type. One shop ordered a complete set of movable type—ten full sets—plus auxiliary materials like adhesives and typesetting plates.”

“What are typesetting plates?”

“Please follow me, gentlemen.”

Zhang Fei led them into a small courtyard, where they saw craftsmen making large rotating wheels with small square compartments—clearly designed for storing movable type.

Zhang Fei smiled: “Gentlemen, can you discern the method here?”

Huang Can, the paper shop merchant, said: “Radicals?”

Zhang Fei chuckled: “Mogul Huang, being in the stationery business, you spotted the trick immediately.”

Huang Can pointed to the markings on the wheel: “They’re all carved on there.”

Everyone looked closely and finally noticed that various radicals were carved at the top of each wheel.

Zhang Fei nodded and said: “Exactly so. These wheels categorize characters by radicals and further divide into compartments by stroke count, making it convenient for typesetters to find characters. Since this reduces considerable manpower, those newspaper shops have all purchased these wheels.”

This was essentially introducing the dictionary method of character lookup, then using a rotating wheel system for easy retrieval.

Huang Can suddenly said: “This looks like Academician Sima’s calligraphy?”

Zhang Fei shrugged: “That’s right. Academician Sima has one set, and Academician Wang also has one set.”

Fan Yong said: “Hiring them to write must not have been cheap, right?”

Zhang Fei sighed: “Since I have a good relationship with them, I was too embarrassed to ask them for money.”

“What?”

“What did you say?” Fan Yong asked in shock. “You thought to ask them for money?”

“Of course!”

Zhang Fei said: “Did you think I should be paying them instead?”

“Yes.”

Everyone nodded in unison.

“What are you thinking?”

Zhang Fei said: “For a scholar, if newspapers throughout the realm all use their calligraphy, what kind of prestige would that bring them? My not asking them for money is already generous enough. Should they be asking me for money instead? Let me tell you, this is only temporary anyway. After all, their calligraphy is just so-so. We’re making do with it for now, but in the future we’ll use even better characters.”

Wang Anshi’s and Sima Guang’s calligraphy, and you’re just “making do” with it.

Domineering!

Absolutely domineering!

We love it!

But this was indeed the truth. When Zhang Fei had casually mentioned it to them, they had immediately agreed.

Opening a newspaper and seeing nothing but your own calligraphy—how exhilarating that feeling must be.

Actually, their writing wasn’t bad, but this was the golden age of the Northern Song.

Great calligraphers were everywhere—Su Shi, Mi Fu, Cai Xiang, Huang Tingjian. In the future, these movable type characters would definitely be priced according to whose calligraphy they were based on, and by then Wang Anshi and Sima Guang might represent the budget option.

There was no helping it.

Next, Zhang Fei led them on a tour of the premises.

Basically all the tools for movable type printing were sold here, and these were all profitable.

This even included woodblock carving services.

But for those scholar-officials, spending less than a hundred strings to hire a few typesetting craftsmen to print newspapers was an absolute bargain.

After all, when it came to content, they were the experts themselves.

Moreover, movable type printing had one problem—the clay type was quite fragile. If only one piece broke, the production cost would be very high, but here you could buy replacements anytime, at just fifteen coins per piece.

Very convenient.

What a pleasant surprise!

This brought tremendous delight to the donors!

After all, their expectations had been so low, but now seeing this, it seemed they could actually make quite a profit.

What a wonderful surprise!

The next day, they went out of the city again with great anticipation to inspect the second major project invested in by the Great Song Charitable Foundation—the carriage and horse rental business.

This was another reason for leaving the city, because this headquarters couldn’t be located within the city walls. After all, large-scale raising of horses and donkeys required space that simply wasn’t available inside the city.

Conveniently, Cao Ping had directly donated a small ranch to the charity, located west of the city.

Zhang Fei used it as the headquarters for the carriage and horse rental business.

Cao Ping’s small ranch had an interesting history. This place had originally been a large ranch belonging to the court, but later the entire ranch had been encroached upon by high officials and nobles, and even common people who bought sections and converted them to farmland.

The Cao family had also acquired a piece, but since the Caos were a military family, they had wanted to keep this small ranch to raise some horses. The key problem was that the surrounding area was all farmland, so the horses had nowhere to graze. When they did graze, they kept wandering into other people’s fields.

This had caused many incidents.

It had almost become a source of constant worry for the Cao family.

The key issue was that this ranch kept getting smaller.

The Cao family had originally planned to convert this ranch to farmland as well, but they happened to encounter this charity, so they donated the ranch to the charity—whether for farming or grazing was up to them.

This showed that the Song Dynasty’s existing territory actually wasn’t lacking in places to raise horses.

At the founding of the dynasty, there had been a huge horse ranch west of Kaifeng, and the Imperial Horse Administration was still located there. Many prefectures and counties in Shanxi, Hubei, and other places also had suitable locations for raising horses and could produce relatively high-quality horses.

So why was it said that the Song Dynasty had no place to raise horses?

The reason was that these ranches had all been converted to farmland.

There was no other way—people had to eat, and when territory could not be expanded, ranches could only be converted into farmland.

Moreover, from a fiscal perspective, farmland did indeed generate more economic benefits than ranches.

The imperial court simply turned a blind eye to this.

“They’re here!”

Zhang Fei looked toward the west and smiled.

Everyone immediately turned to look.

They saw a very impressive four-wheeled, double-horse carriage slowly approaching.

“A four-wheeled carriage?”

Chen Maoqian looked somewhat surprised.

Fan Yong immediately said, “Zhang San, this four-wheeled carriage looks impressive, but it has plenty of problems too. I’ve personally seen a four-wheeled carriage tip over while making a turn.”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “This is the latest four-wheeled carriage developed by our carriage rental service. It can handle turning problems very well.”

If he wanted to monopolize rentals and gradually phase out private carriages, he had to come up with some new innovations.

“Really?”

Fan Yong asked with pleasant surprise.

Zhang Fei nodded and pointed to the front two wheels: “Look, the front wheels are small and the rear wheels are large—this is all to address turning problems. However, this is still just a prototype, but I believe it won’t be long before this type of four-wheeled carriage appears in rental services.”

The steering mechanism for this four-wheeled carriage was actually very simple. Even Zhang Fei, a lawyer, knew about it. If he hadn’t ridden in a carriage, hadn’t he at least driven a car? It was just that there were many detailed issues that still needed to be resolved, such as durability, shock absorption, and so forth.

Zhang Fei also knew some methods, but current craftsmanship couldn’t implement his approaches. He could only let the current craftsmen figure it out themselves. But as long as there was money to invest, he believed success was just a matter of time.

After all, this wasn’t a problem that current technology couldn’t overcome—it was just that the research and development costs were relatively high.

But once it was made, there would naturally be people willing to pay for it.

So it was just a prototype after all.

Everyone felt slightly disappointed.

Walking closer, they discovered that there were actually two two-wheeled, single-horse carriages following behind—also the current mainstream carriages, except one had a canopy and one didn’t.

But the wheel hubs were all very large, making the carriages larger than ordinary ones as well.

What was visible to the naked eye was that all three carriages were desperately pursuing one thing: comfort.

But regardless, the four-wheeled carriage was obviously more luxurious and impressive, with the longest carriage compartment.

Huang Can said, “If there were four wheels like this, who would still ride in two-wheeled carriages?”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “The cost of a four-wheeled carriage is five times that of a two-wheeled carriage, and can be as much as ten times more. Would you ride in the four-wheeled or two-wheeled one?”

Huang Can immediately said, “Then the two-wheeled one would be better. At worst, I could rent two of them, which would still be much cheaper.”

Chen Maoqian said, “With such expensive prices, would anyone rent them?”

Zhang Fei chuckled and said, “We developed this four-wheeled carriage mainly for the high officials and nobles in the capital. They don’t lack that bit of money. What they pursue is comfort. I dare guarantee that our carriages are much more comfortable than their sedan chairs. Since that’s the case, why would they still ride in sedan chairs? The law cannot prohibit them from riding in sedan chairs, but more spacious and luxurious carriages can phase out most sedan chairs.”

Fan Yong said thoughtfully, “The comfort of sedan chairs lies in not being subject to bumping, but if these two-wheeled carriages encounter potholes, they bump once, while four-wheeled ones would bump twice.”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “But if sedan chairs pursue spaciousness, that requires quite a few people to carry them. If they don’t pursue spaciousness, even if carriages have some bumping, the comfort of sedan chairs still can’t compare to these spacious carriages.”

Zhou Yan said, “But these carriages can’t even turn around on small roads, and their turning radius is much larger than two-wheeled carriages.”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Mogul, you’re absolutely right. That’s why this type of carriage can currently only run around within our greater Bianjing area. After all, the roads in Bianjing are still very flat and wide. If you want to go to south to Jiangnan, wouldn’t you just take a boat?”

“That’s true.”

“Can we ride in this four-wheeled carriage now?”

“Of course! Please, everyone.”

“Hey, hey, hey—the side door!”

Zhang Fei stopped Chen Maoqian, who was trying to rush ahead.

“Oh, so this carriage door opens to the side.”

“Comfort isn’t just about sitting inside, but also getting on and off.”

The side door opened, and a servant immediately placed a small wooden ladder.

“Oh my! This experience is really nice!”

Chen Maoqian hurriedly climbed into the carriage.

Then Fan Yong, Huang Can, and Zhang San successively got into the carriage.

The others could only wait for the next trip.

“Oh my! These seats are all soft, and it’s so spacious. You can even open the windows—this is really comfortable!”

Chen Maoqian sat inside the carriage, opened the window, looked around in all directions, and was overjoyed.

Fan Yong said, “But rental services have their inconveniences. If we can’t provide convenience to those high-ranking officials and nobles, it will be difficult to replace private carriages.”

Zhang Fei nodded and said, “It’s impossible to completely replace them all at once, but we’ll do our best to work toward that goal. We’ll set up multiple rental points in wealthy districts. Rich people generally have servants, so as long as they give notice, the carriage will arrive punctually and stop right in front of their mansion gates. As long as the itinerary is planned well, whether long-term or short-term, it won’t be affected at all. For impromptu trips, we can arrive within an hour at the latest.”

Chen Maoqian said, “There’s also the privacy issue. Some nobles don’t want us to know their whereabouts.”

Zhang Fei replied, “As long as they pay a deposit, they can have their coachman drive the carriage himself. We’ve calculated that for anyone who doesn’t need to go out and travel around every day, from keeping horses to employing coachmen, it’s definitely not as cost-effective as renting. Moreover, the service we provide is no worse than their private arrangements.”

“Those high-ranking officials and nobles don’t go out running around every day anyway.”

“Exactly so.”

Zhang Fei smiled and said, “At the same time, we’ll also specifically provide rental services for different types of carriages and donkey carts for families of various social classes, including some public services like meal delivery and short-distance cargo transport. On each round trip, we can make a profit on every mile of road traveled.

After a year, we’ll be able to compile statistics on which types of carriages are in high demand and which are in low demand, then make adjustments accordingly. I’m confident we can capture seventy percent of people’s transportation choices through our rental service.

In this way, those high-ranking officials and nobles will naturally rent their carriages to us for use, creating a virtuous cycle.”

“It does sound quite promising.”

“With carriage and horse rentals, the more we rent out, the lower our costs become.”

“Not only that, the government will also favor us, since collecting carriage license taxes from just one company is much more convenient.”

“That’s right.”

Sitting in this luxurious four-wheeled carriage filled them with anticipation for the carriage and horse rental business in their conversation.

As always, their expectations were set too low. Originally coming to avoid taxes, they now found themselves absorbed in one major project after another.

After completing the circuit, they got off the carriage, and Zhou Yan and the other three couldn’t wait to board.

The carriage had barely departed when they saw a man riding rapidly toward them on horseback.

It was Fan Zheng.

The reason he hadn’t come today wasn’t because he needed to mind the shop at home, but because he had to negotiate with Ma Tianhao, which was also why Ma Tianhao hadn’t come.

“Whoa!”

Fan Zheng dismounted, and his father Fan Yong immediately asked urgently, “Zheng’er, how did your talk with Brother Ma go?”

Fan Zheng said, “Four thousand strings of cash in interest annually, twenty thousand strings total over five years, with the principal to be repaid in the fifth year.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Maoqian immediately flew into a rage. “This Ma Tianhao is being far too ruthless. Sitting there doing nothing, he’ll earn twenty thousand strings in five years—this is more profitable than salt trading!”

“Exactly. We’re putting up so much land as collateral with him, he bears no risk at all, yet charges such high interest.”

Everyone felt dissatisfied with this interest rate.

It sounded like a lot—a full twenty thousand strings.

Zhang Fei asked Fan Zheng, “What was his reasoning?”

Fan Zheng replied, “He originally wanted six thousand strings per year in interest, because our principal requires repayment only after five years, unlike housing loans where principal can be recovered every quarter.”

Chen Maoqian snorted, “As if he could actually lend out a hundred thousand strings all at once.”

Zhang Fei’s gaze swept around. “I deeply respect the board’s suggestions. Since everyone thinks it’s too expensive, then forget it. How about this—you all pool the money together, and you can earn this profit yourselves.”

Everyone looked at each other, but no one agreed.

It wasn’t that they minded mortgaging their land to themselves, but the requirement to repay the principal after five years was quite demanding. Most of them were merchants who urgently needed cash flow.

Actually, Ma Tianhao couldn’t come up with that much money either, but he had Xiang-guo Temple backing him.

After the housing loan business, Xiang-guo Temple had developed a very close relationship with the Ma family, with the temple basically conducting all its lending through the Ma family.

Only Xiang-guo Temple could put up so much money and leave it tied up for a full five years. For the temple, money sitting at home couldn’t generate income.

In Zhang Fei’s view, this interest rate was quite reasonable. After all, current high-interest loans often carried annual rates of one hundred percent. However, the merchants standing here were all wealthy traders who were more or less involved in high-interest lending themselves. When they lent to common people, no amount was too much, but when others lent to them, even a mere four percent made them very unhappy.

Of course, it was also because they were borrowing too much—a full hundred thousand strings. Four percent of that was still four thousand strings.

Zhang Fei said to Fan Zheng, “Let’s go with this amount!”

Chen Maoqian worried again, “Can we really earn that much money each year?”

Just the interest alone was four thousand strings, so their annual net profit would definitely need to exceed that amount.

Zhang Fei said confidently, “If we can’t even earn that much, what’s the point of doing charity? We might as well become beggars.”