Chapter 84 - Colored Silkworm
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
When Ouyang Shuo went online the next day, he thought of the gift that the Xuanniao tribe had given him. He had not opened it and had asked Wang Feng to place it in his office.
Walking into his office, that wooden box was unsurprisingly on his table. He opened the box and inside, there were actually 30 odd colorful silkworms lying on thick layers of leaves. The silkworms were vibrant colored. There were gold, purple, blue, orange, red and green colored worms. Each color had at least 2 silkworms.
This was a really special gift. These mutated silkworms could only appear in the deep mountains and being obtained by the mountain barbarians by luck could be considered a gift from nature.
Seeing these colorful silkworms, Ouyang Shuo thought of the that he had gotten during the siege of beasts. Now he could finally use it.
Not only that, with these colorful silkworms, the mulberry garden, textile mill, and garment workshop, he had a chain of production from silk to garment. Based on economists, this could be said to be an industrial chain.
Knowing how valuable the gift was, Ouyang Shuo wiped cold sweat off his forehead. In his heart, he blamed Shi Xiong for being too bold and not telling him what was inside the box.
If Ouyang Shuo wasn’t courteous and ask his men to take the gift in his stead, he might have placed it in his storage bag , these cute silkworm babies would have all died. Thankfully Wang Feng was meticulous and even after crossing the mountains and forests, those babies were still ok.
Ouyang Shuo couldn’t sit still and called for Mu Qingsi and the others into the meeting hall. Those attending the meeting, apart from the 3 directors, was the agriculture secretary Sun Yannong, resource secretary Du Xiaolan, mulberry garden manager Zhao Youde, textile mill manager Yingcui and the garment workshop manager Wu Ni.
Seeing such a big lineup, Zhao Youde and the other two, for whom this was their first time entering the lord's manor, felt perturbed. Zhao Youde was a little better off as he was one of the first 10 people in Shanhai Village from Zhao Village, as was his brother Zhao Youcai. For the past period of time there was no use for their talents. Now of the two brothers, one managed the mulberry garden, and the other managed the fruit farm.
The factory manager of the textile mill Yingcui was a 23 year old female and an advanced weaver. The manager of the garment workshop Wuni was a 25 year old female, intermediate tailor and was Mu Qingsi's main working partner.
Ouyang Shuo sat at the head chair and glanced at the 10 odd people in the meeting, where there were actually 5 women. No wonder how some people said that in Shanhai Town, women could manage half the sky.
"Big brother, why did you call us here this time?" In this kind of atmosphere, no one dared to casually talk to Ouyang Shuo, only that little brat Qing'er.
Ouyang Shuo didn’t bother about her, opening the wooden box and smiled, "Take a look. What is this?"
"Ya, such cute baby silkworms. But, why are they so colorful? Qing'er remembered that they should be white!" Qing'er said and pointed at the baby silkworms.
Listening to her words, everyone else became very curious, and crowded around to take a look.
"Is this the colored silkworms of legends? I only read of them in old records but didn’t expect them to really exist." Out of all these people Yingcui was most familiar with this, and thus had a little understanding.
"These colored silkworms, are the silk that they spit out really colorful?" Yingyu who had a business eye saw the value of these colored silkworms, asking eagerly.
"Colored silkworms spit out colored silk, but how it works I am not sure." Yingcui said with uncertainty, after all they only existed in legends and no one have seen them before.
"I can confirm that they do indeed spit out colored silk of the same color as their body." Ouyang Shuo said confidently.
Yingyu's eyes brightened, filled with thoughts.
After he waited for everyone to sit, Ouyang Shuo opened his mouth and said, "I'm sure you have heard just now that the silkworms in the box are the coloured silkworms of legends. Coincidentally we also have a silkworm technical manual. With this and the already built mulberry garden, the Shanhai Town has all the requirements to produce and grow coloured silkworms. The coloured silkworm will be listed as a strategic resource and managed by both the Agriculture and Resource Divisions. We must keep it a secret and ensure that the silkworm eggs aren't spread outside."
"If nothing goes wrong, the natural coloured silk from the silkworms will become our specialty, and hence we must ensure that only we produce it. The textile mill will also be listed as a government entity and prohibited from privatisation, managed directly by the territory."
Everyone nodded their heads, only Qing'er worriedly said, "Big Brother, you called Sister Wu Ni and I here, is it to take our garment workshop for the territory to manage?"
This money grubber, Ouyang Shuo really couldn't handle her. Even Yingyu who sat at the side couldn't see this anymore and pulled her to the side, shoving her mouth shut and not letting her speak.
Ouyang Shuo impatiently said, "Why would I need your garment workshop? Everyone can see that the silk produced from the mulberry garden will be made into textiles by the mills, and then into garments by the workshop. This chain will involve many divisions. The mulberry garden is managed by the Agriculture Division, the silkworms by the Resource and Agriculture Divisions, and textile mills are under the charge of the Administration Department. The garment workshop is a private property. It is a very complicated matter."
"Sire's meaning is to build a specific department to be in charge of all of this?" Thinking about the Armoury division, Tian Wenjing hesitated before saying.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "No, if every industrial chain needed a new department, then what will it become? It would not make cooperation easier and instead create many organisational tumors. Regardless of organisational planning or political methods, it isn't logical.
"Then what is sire's intentions?" Tian Wenjing couldn't understand.
"My intention is that this thing need not be done by the government and can be used to show the people's power. More specifically we can create a textile association. Each step of the industrial chain will become a unit in the association. The president, vice president and secretary will make up the board of directors, who will be in charge of the only industrial chain." Ouyang Shuo didn't want to hide anything and as such revealed everything.
This was something new and refreshing. Everyone in the meeting realised the reason why they were called here, to set up the textile association.
After all, Yingyu had came out of a business family and had the most knowledge in such matters. "I agree with Big Brother. How will you arrange the people in the association?"
The others looked at Ouyang Shuo with concern. He did not let them down, saying directly, "For the first people in the board of directors, I will make the decision for you all. After the association works normally, you can pick internally. The board includes Mu Qingsi, Sun Yannong, Du Xiaolan, Zhao Youde, Yingcui, Wu Ni and the next manager of the silkworms. To put things simply, government officials like Du Xiaolan and Sun Yannong cannot join in the decision to pick the president, vice president and secretary.
Sun Yannong and Du Xiaolan nodded their heads to show that they understood. "The textile association president will be Yingcui, and Mu Qingsi will be the honesty president. The vice president will be Wu Ni, and the secretary will be the manager of the silkworms." Ouyang Shuo followed on by saying. Upon hearing that she would have such a great position that didn't need her to do anything, Qing'er felt delighted.
Yingcui was surprised that she would be pushed to be the president, and nervously said, "Sire, I'm afraid I can't do well."
"Factory manager Ying doesn't need to be overly modest. I trust you."
Yingcui nodded her head, not saying anything further.
None of the people expected that such a haphazardly placed together association would be of so much importance in future territorial economic activities.
After settling the issue with the textile association, Ouyang Shuo took time to visit the market to buy a gift for Song Jia. He opened the skill tab and bought basic swordsmanship, basic movement, basic internal strength and basic investigation, spending 1 gold in total. He went to the special goods section and searched for sword techniques. Ouyang Shuo shook his head as none of these sword techniques were real. He spent 50 gold to purchase a real technique, the .
After returning, he went to the arsenal and took out the only gold-level exquisite iron sword that was plundered from the water stronghold and also the silver-level leather armor suit. Lastly, he sent all these items anonymously to Song Jia, spending 1 gold on mailing fees.
With all these things, Song Jia could be considered well armed. As long as she leveled up slowly, she would become a strong chivalrous expert and make up for the 2 month gap between her and the other players that had started the game earlier.