189: Chapter 189 Purple Has a Charm

After melting down the batch of jijin sickles sold to him by Xiang Liang and Fan Zeng, he obtained a total of one thousand yellow-red bronze swords.

Looking at these bronze swords, Zhao Qian couldn't help but feel a surge of heroic ambition.

With these one thousand bronze swords, he could raise an army of a thousand men.

With these thousand people as the core, he would be able to form a force of tens of thousands.

When the people of the world began to rebel against the Qin, wouldn't he lead his own troops back to the Zhao State to restore his nation!

Restoring his nation could be said to be Zhao Qian's sole pursuit for the rest of his life.

However, to obtain these thousand bronze swords, Zhao Qian had squandered all the savings he had accumulated over many years.

Fortunately, he could sell grain recently; by selling grain, he had another hundred gold in his hands.

Zhao Qian looked forward immensely to his uncle and Prime Minister Father coming to find him sooner; he wanted to buy another hundred bronze swords from them.

In Xianyang City, inside the Mi Home Clothing Store, customers who had been let into the shop were picking out wool sweaters.

As they picked, they praised, "This purple is really beautiful; it looks so wealthy and noble!"

A woman picked up a purple wool sweater, unable to put it down.

Her face was full of pleasant surprise.

Buying a wool sweater only cost thirty coins; buying fabric would cost her three or four hundred, and she still couldn't get such a beautiful color.

She truly felt that buying it was a bargain.

"I want to buy 10!"

She said to Xiao Ming.

"Limited to one per person!"

"This is the wish of His Majesty the Head of State!"

Xiao Ming said, his voice somewhat raspy.

He had spoken too much today.

Not everyone was willing to buy just one, so Xiao Ming had to tell them that this was the wish of His Majesty the Head of State.

He explained it over and over until his throat hurt.

"Then I'll come back tomorrow, surely that's fine!"

The woman said, unwilling to give up.

"That is fine."

Xiao Ming nodded.

The woman finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Such a good wool sweater; if she didn't buy a few more, it would be a real loss!

Her greedy eyes looked toward the sweaters in different color schemes.

That red was festive, perfect for the children at home.

And this olive green, it looked so spirited!

After the woman left with the purple wool sweater, other customers also mostly chose the purple ones.

The purple wool sweater was the best-seller.

After all, purple had a certain charm.

The purple wool sweaters were snatched up by customers at an astonishing speed.

Xiao Ming hung up a sign indicating that purple was sold out.

This forced many customers who wanted to buy purple wool sweaters to choose other colors instead.

In the Qin Dynasty, green had not yet become a color used by those of low status.

By the Tang Dynasty, green became the clothing of the lowly.

The Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty stipulated that men from the families of prostitutes must wear green headscarves, red sashes around their waists, and pigskin shoes with fur; they were not allowed to walk in the middle of the street and were only permitted to walk along the sides.

Consequently, when people saw someone wearing a green hat, they knew that person's family belonged to the brothel trade; "wearing a green hat" also became a colloquialism for a man whose wife or daughter was a prostitute or whose wife was having an affair.

The people of the Qin Dynasty were quite fond of the fresh-looking olive green.

Olive green was the second color to be sold out by customers.

The third color was red, followed by Lava Orange, Meteor Blue, Gulf Blue, Elegant Gray, Cambrian Gray, and Diamond Black.

Pearl White was the least popular.

Zhao Fusu looked at the sales profile of the wool sweaters.

The buyers were all commoners; most were workers in his factories. Others were merchants, servants hired by nobles, and laborers recruited by Qin Officials.

Zhao Fusu thought to himself that this was likely because the main clothing worn by commoners was white.

Therefore, they yearned even more to buy clothes of other colors.

Moreover, white clothes got dirty easily and the stains were quite obvious.

Commoners mostly did heavy labor, and buying a white wool sweater would make it very easy to get dirty.

Zhao Fusu thought that it seemed he could appropriately reduce the production of white wool sweaters and concentrate production capacity on other colors.

Even though selling other colors of wool sweaters had higher costs.

But many people came to buy the wool sweaters for the sake of his influence.

Producing more wool sweaters in colors that commoners liked could be considered a small benefit for these people.

The explosive debut of wool sweaters in Xianyang City was like a shot of adrenaline for Zhao Fusu. It gave him more motivation to conquer the Xiongnu people to obtain large quantities of wool to make sweaters and gain profit.

In ancient times, the ancients did not import wool from the Xiongnu to make sweaters not because they were stupid, but because they lacked the Steam Textile Machine and Steam Power Looms; the cost of making clothes was too high, and the market value was not significant. Transporting wool back from the grasslands also included travel expenses, making the economic value even lower.

The nomadic tribes of the grasslands had nothing that the Central Plains dynasties needed too much, making it difficult for the Central Plains dynasties and the grassland tribes to form a bond of mutual interest.

On the contrary, the south occupied by the Central Plains dynasties had better climate conditions and plenty of grain, which deeply attracted the nomadic tribes, so they often came south to raid.

They wanted to come south to live in a habitable environment, and Zhao Fusu decided to satisfy this demand of theirs.

He decided that after he developed cement, he would gather a group of architects to develop real estate and build cement buildings; if the Xiongnu people bought a house, they would be given a household registration.

"His Majesty the Head of State."

Zhang Han came to find Zhao Fusu with a smile on his face.

"The wool sweaters are a great success; it seems we can increase production!"

"No!"

To Zhang Han's surprise, Zhao Fusu shook his head.

He spoke: "We can only sell one thousand orders of wool sweaters a day."

"What?"

Zhang Han asked in confusion.

Zhao Fusu replied, "To keep the popularity of the wool sweaters going and to obtain greater benefits, a clever marketing strategy is needed."

Zhang Han listened patiently.

"Husband, why is that?"

Wang Xia asked in confusion as she handed tea to Zhao Fusu and Zhang Han, "Doesn't selling more mean earning more?"

"Xiaer, you don't understand."

"Besides the current limited supply of wool and our limited production capacity."

Zhao Fusu smiled slightly and explained patiently, "A thing is valued if it is rare. If we sell them without restraint, the people will quickly lose interest."

"Selling only one thousand orders a day will make them feel that these wool sweaters are hard to come by, thus they will cherish the opportunity to buy even more, and it will trigger more people to come and scramble for them. Moreover, this can also create buzz, allowing the reputation of the wool sweaters to spread further."

"So that's how it is!"

Both Zhang Han and Wang Xia's eyes lit up as they suddenly understood.

The two of them looked at Zhao Fusu with faces full of admiration.

Zhang Han spoke up, flattering him, "Your Majesty the Paramount Leader's insight is profound; Zhang Han truly admires you."

Thus, Zhao Fusu ordered people to post an announcement in front of the stall.

"Due to the limited production of wool sweaters, not only is each person limited to one, but only one thousand orders of wool sweaters can be supplied daily, on a first-come, first-served basis."

Once this announcement was posted, it immediately caused a sensation in Xianyang City.