228: Chapter 228 Preparing to Build the City Wall of Qinglan Base

In just one day, the messenger pigeon arrived at Xianyang City with Zhao Fusu's letter.

Upon hearing his subordinate report that His Majesty the Head of State had sent a letter, Zhang Han immediately received Zhao Fusu's correspondence with respect.

He furrowed his brows.

He could understand increasing the clothing production lines, but what did "distributor" mean?

As if anticipating Zhang Han's confusion, Zhao Fusu explained the meaning of "distributor" in the letter.

"A distributor is an enterprise or individual that purchases products from a manufacturer and then resells them to other merchants or consumers. They hold the sales rights for the products within a specific region or channel and earn a profit through the price difference."

"For example, if we designate a distributor to be responsible for selling Wool Sweaters in the Jingzhao region, they would obtain the Wool Sweaters from us, the manufacturer, and transport them to Jingzhao for sale."

"Since the distributor purchases in large quantities, we can sell to them at a wholesale price lower than the retail price."

"When the distributor sells the Wool Sweaters, the retail price remains thirty coins per piece."

After reading this, Zhang Han was deeply shocked; he hadn't realized Wool Sweaters could be sold this way.

Guanzhong spanned a vast area, stretching over four hundred kilometers from east to west.

Important cities in the Guanzhong region included Xianyang, Yueyang, Yongcheng, Feiqiu, and Gaonu.

Yueyang was the capital from the reign of Duke Xian of Qin to the early reign of Duke Xiao of Qin.

Yongcheng was an early capital of the State of Qin.

Feiqiu, located southeast of present-day Xingping City in Xianyang, was an important city during the Qin Dynasty; when Zhang Han was enfeoffed as the King of Yong by Xiang Yu, he used it as his capital. The terrain was treacherous, making it a vital military stronghold and transportation hub in western Guanzhong.

Although transportation between these cities was convenient,

if they were to sell the Wool Sweaters to other places themselves, it would involve distances ranging from dozens of kilometers to two or three hundred kilometers.

The transportation costs alone would amount to a significant sum!

However, if they found local distributors, it would be a different story.

Nowadays, everyone knew that Wool Sweaters were a hot commodity, and everyone was trying to find ways to secure a supply for resale.

Due to the limited supply of wool, the production of Wool Sweaters was restricted.

They were unable to obtain any stock.

With Zhao Fusu obtaining large quantities of wool from the Xiongnu, the production of Wool Sweaters would only continue to increase.

The market in Xianyang was limited; as the manufacturer produced more and more Wool Sweaters, the local demand would decrease, and they would need to sell them elsewhere.

"His Majesty the Head of State is truly farsighted!"

In his heart, Zhang Han's admiration for Zhao Fusu grew even stronger.

He immediately followed Zhao Fusu's instructions and went to look for distributors.

After conveying the instructions to Zhang Han, Zhao Fusu no longer worried about it.

With Zhang Han's capabilities, he would surely be able to handle the distributor arrangements properly.

He only needed to solve the issue of wool supply.

Zhao Fusu wrote another letter and had a messenger pigeon deliver it to Lu Jia.

He instructed Lu Jia to purchase wool from the Liefeng Tribe, Chiyanju Tribe, Shuangzong Tribe, Lingyu Tribe, and Qinglan Tribe.

Even without Zhao Fusu's letter, Lu Jia knew his lord required a large amount of wool.

Therefore, he had already told leaders like Qing Ying, Chi Yan, and Lie Yun that wool could be exchanged for honeycomb coal and honeycomb coal heating stoves.

The leaders, including Qing Ying, Chi Yan, Lie Yun, and Ling Yu, looked at each other in disbelief.

They still found it hard to believe that something they considered almost like trash could be exchanged for honeycomb coal and honeycomb coal heating stoves.

Lately, leaders like Qing Ying, Chi Yan, Lie Yun, and Ling Yu had been staying in the high-level yurts of the Tuan Tribe.

The honeycomb coal heating stoves were so warm, and the honeycomb coal burned for a long time.

They all wanted to get their hands on honeycomb coal.

Trees were scarce in the Southern Desert, and most had been cut down by the Xiongnu Royal Court.

This left them without much wood to survive the winter.

Even as tribal leaders, they often suffered from the cold.

If they had honeycomb coal, not only would these tribal leaders be warm, but the high-ranking members of their tribes—and even their entire clans—would not freeze!

This was definitely a boon for their tribes.

"Rest assured,"

Jin Tu said with a smile, "The honeycomb coal and honeycomb coal heating stoves our Jintu Tribe has were all exchanged for wool with His Majesty the Head of State!"

"Is that so!"

The leaders like Qing Ying, Chi Yan, Lie Yun, and Ling Yu still maintained a wait-and-see attitude.

The Qinglan Tribe was the largest among the six tribes.

Qinglan Grassland was their base of operations; Lu Jia and Cao Jiacheng collected seventy thousand catties of wool from the Qinglan Tribe.

After being packed, the transport team, escorting seventy thousand catties of wool, formed a long caravan and headed toward Yangshan Mountain under the protection of the cavalry unit.

After receiving Zhao Fusu's letter instructing him to first prepare the foundation for the city walls and quarry the stones needed for construction, Tian Ju sought out leaders like Qing Ying, Chi Yan, Lie Yun, and Ling Yu to discuss the matter.

Upon learning that over fifty thousand cavalrymen were driving a massive herd of cattle to attack the Qinglan Grassland, they were scared witless.

They panicked even more when they heard that the Xiongnu Royal Court intended to use the Fire Bull Array to charge the Qinglan Grassland.

Their Qinglan Tribe did not have that many cattle.

They had no way of countering with their own herd.

The current strategy could only be to build city walls on the Qinglan Grassland to withstand the cattle's charge.

Under the call of leaders like Qing Ying, Chi Yan, Lie Yun, and Ling Yu, the able-bodied men of various tribes began quarrying stone.

When Zhao Gang arrived at the Qinglan Grassland with five thousand cavalrymen, he brought many quarrying tools.

They searched everywhere for stone, and after transporting it back, they carved it into rectangular stone blocks.

The reason Zhao Fusu had them quarry the stone first was that he had not yet produced cement.

If they only used yellow mud as a binder, the strength of the city walls would be limited.

To produce cement, a cement rotary kiln was required.

This thing worked on a principle similar to a drum washing machine.

Through rotation, it allowed the raw cement material inside to be mixed evenly, turning it more effectively into clinker.

Zhao Fusu looked at the blueprints.

This cement rotary kiln mainly consisted of the kiln shell, support device, transmission device, sealing device, and combustion device.

The kiln shell was the main body of the rotary kiln, usually made of welded steel plates and lined with refractory material to protect the shell and provide a high-temperature environment.

The kiln shell was installed at an incline, allowing the material to move from the higher end to the lower end under gravity; meanwhile, during rotation, the material was constantly tumbled and fully exposed to hot gases to achieve calcination.

The support device included supporting rollers, thrust rollers, and bearings.

The supporting rollers bore the weight of the kiln shell, allowing it to rotate smoothly.

The thrust rollers were used to limit the axial movement of the kiln shell, ensuring it moved within a certain range.

Bearings were installed on the supporting and thrust rollers to reduce friction and ensure flexible rotation.