A few days ago, the sign of Qinjia Bookstore had been removed, and the four-character plaque with iron hook and silver marking was replaced. Under the increasingly hot sunlight in early summer, the clusters of new golden characters reflected dazzling light.

In the bookstore, twenty or thirty strong men were busy. They were either busy back and forth between several printing plates, or carefully uncovered the printed newspapers and placed them aside for the final drying process. The fully formed newspapers were also constantly transported in front of the busyness of several people, and hundreds or thousands of newspapers were stacked together, stacking higher than others.

Looking at these new newspapers that were freshly released and never seen, Zhou Ji was even more confident and thought about what a glorious scene it would be after the newspaper was completely spread out. But at this moment, Shi Xiu came over with some concern: "The boss, I have always had a doubt, but I don't know whether to talk about it."

"We are all our own family, so we can just say anything."

"That... all these newspapers have been printed, but how should we sell them next? You must know that our bookstore has offended many bookstores in the city before. Even if they change their owners and signs, they may not believe it."

When Zhou Ji heard this, his brows quickly frowned. This was ignored by him. It was not until he was reminded that the situation was not right. He immediately patted the other party on the shoulder: "Old Shi, you are careful, I have to discuss it with the young masters quickly." As he said that, he turned around and went backwards.

In addition to the busy workshop behind the shop, there is also an accounting room. At this moment, Li Ling and his friends were busy with their own affairs in the room. On the table in front of him was a document from the Ministry of Revenue. While looking through the contents, they started writing and writing something.

Hearing the knock on the door, he paused a little: "Come in."

Zhou Ji came in and looked around a few people and said worriedly: "Several young men, the Shinshu remembered something and said that the newspaper we printed had not yet been sold in a good store. How to arrange this? It seems that three thousand copies have been printed, and five thousand copies will be printed by tomorrow and the next day. Someone must help sell it together?"

"This is not simple, just send it to the bookstores in the city. The newspapers are similar to books. If you give them some profits, these bookstores will naturally be happy to make this deal." Wan Lang said uneasy.

"But the Qin Family Bookstore had already offended the whole city's bookstore due to the quality of the booklets. They might not be willing to help, even if we have changed the signboard."

Yang Qingxiao was also stunned: "This is really a problem, and even if they are really willing to help sell it, the price will be higher than what we set, but what should we do?"

When he said these words, the few people looked at Li Ling. However, Li Ling was still buried in the accounts in front of him. He only reacted a little until he was stared at by everyone. His hand shook, but he wrote the wrong word. At that moment, he cut off a piece of paper from the side and skillfully pasted it to the wrong place.

This is the common "interrogation error" in the officialdom of Dayue. Generally, there may be traces of such patches on official documents, and only such changes are not allowed in the imperial examination.

It was not until the program was completed that Li Ling looked up at the people in front of him and smiled: "What Brother Yang said is indeed reasonable. Even if we really hand over the newspaper to the bookstores in the city to help sell, the initiative in pricing will not be in our hands. After all, the store is bullying customers, and those bookstores are much stronger than us. Therefore, I have made a decision long ago that it is impossible for the bookstore to help sell before our newspapers are popular."

"Then... how else can we sell it?"

"It's very simple. We hire people and sell them among the main neighbors in the city. Wherever there are many people, we will sell our newspapers."

"But how many people do you need in this way?" Zhou Ji scratched his head and frowned.

"I'll forget it. If the East City alone wants to completely spread it out, it will take about 30 people, so if it is placed in the whole city, it will be about 120 people."

"So much? How much does it cost to hire them?" Wan Lang was a little surprised this time.

"I thought wages and other things might not make them work hard, so I used the commission method, that is, every time I sold a newspaper, I would give them three cents."

Several people immediately lowered their heads and calculated, and they all looked shocked: "In this way, the cost of this newspaper has nearly doubled? Wouldn't we really have no money?"

"I said earlier that our bookstore should never want to make money by selling newspapers. Even if it is sold at a loss, it is OK as long as the newspaper can be quickly spread in Luoyang City." Speaking of this, Li Ling smiled again, "In addition, there is another point, I decided to sell all the first issue of newspapers instead of giving away."

"What?" Even Yang Qinghou couldn't sit still at this moment, "Are you saying that you plan to give all the five thousand newspapers in the first issue for free?"

"That's right, I'll give it all for free, just to let the people of the whole city know that we have this singular report!" Li Ling answered firmly, "However, not everyone gives it to you. We should tell those who help us distribute newspapers to you. They need to send newspapers with a target, and specifically find men who look like they have read books and are best wearing long robes to give it to you. So in order to give them enough rewards, the first issue of newspapers should also be more rewarded, so they will be rewarded with five cents for every copy they send out!"

The three of them completely widened their eyes at this time. If they weren't familiar with Li Ling's character, they would have thought that this guy was crazy. But even if they were familiar with him, it still made people unable to accept his crazy decision - this is not a business, it is clearly a big loss!

"You... are you telling the truth?" After a while, Wan Lang ate and said authentically.

Li Ling looked at him solemnly: "Of course it's true, am I kidding?"

"But, how can we do this kind of business in the world? We actually gave the newspaper we worked hard to freely, and we paid for it to send it to people everywhere for free..." Wan Lang could no longer describe his shock in words. If he hadn't had some confidence in Li Ling, he would have left directly, which would have been too messy.

Li Ling smiled and said, "Have you ever calculated that if you follow my wishes, we will invest or lose a lot of money in this first issue of newspaper?" Seeing a few people frowned and silently, he replied, "I have calculated that the cost of a newspaper is four and a half months, plus the labor costs and the expenses paid by the employer should be counted as ten cents per piece, five thousand pieces are 50,000 pieces. If you count at present, seven or eight hundred cents will be exchanged for one or two taels of silver, that is about seventy taels of silver..."

"Ahem..." Yang Qingxiao suddenly interrupted him and said, "Actually, this little money is not too much for us, and we can afford to lose. But the question is, is this really useful?"

"Of course it's useful." Li Ling looked confident, "You have read our newspapers, what do you think of the content?"

"That's of course very good. Even if you don't talk about your two novels, the first two editions of the anecdotes about the city and the story of the courtesans will be enough to attract many people..." Wan Lang said immediately, "In this way, we have to add the effort to make these articles. The cost of this newspaper is much greater than that of ten articles."

"Haha, I won't talk about these details now." Li Ling waved his hand, "Since this newspaper is indeed outstanding, then do you think if you read it in vain, will many people become interested in it?"

"Of course." Yang Qingxiao nodded, "But the question is, are you planning to send newspapers to others for free in the future, and have you spent money to make a name for yourself?"

"Of course not. In this first issue, we need to let everyone accept the newspaper as soon as possible, so we will give it for free, but by the second issue at the end of this month, they should spend money to buy it."

"But, I'm worried that they may not be willing to spend money to buy it in the next issue. You don't know that it is easy to reduce prices in the business world, and once something is reduced, it will be hindered by many people if you want to raise it back. Unless you are as indispensable as rice and grain..."

"Young Master Yang is indeed very knowledgeable. You are right. Generally speaking, the most taboo thing for commodities is to reduce prices, because once the price is reduced, it will leave people with the impression that this thing is very cheap. However, I think there are still things in this world that cannot be described as high and low, that is knowledge, or knowledge! Our newspapers convey knowledge and knowledge. As long as people who have read books, they will naturally understand this truth. What's more, our newspapers are really not expensive, each one is only sold for a few cents. Who in Luoyang City can't save these few cents?

"Of course, the more important thing is that we really don't want to make profits by selling newspapers. Now the most important thing is to make our newspapers quickly become famous. Is there any seemingly extremely stupid behavior in the world that is more concerned about when delivering newspapers for free? So, this practice can further promote our newspapers and be known to more people. So in my opinion, these dozens of taels of silver are not only not a loss, but also make us a lot of money."

The three of them opened their mouths and stared at him, but they couldn't come back to their senses for a long time.

Finally, Yang Qingxiao sighed quietly: "I don't know how to evaluate you now. Your thoughts are indeed completely different from what I knew in the past, but it seems to make some sense. Since you are so confident, I decided to bet with you!"

"It's me too." Wan Lang also said.

After they said this, Zhou Ji naturally couldn't object to him anymore, so he could only smile bitterly.
Chapter completed!