After eating and drinking, Du Zhongxiao stood up and clapped his hands and said, "Let's go and see the shopping mall here. I heard that after they started their business, their business was very prosperous, and they were quite a bit like stealing the limelight of Fancheng shopping malls. They must be outstanding."

Shisanlang went to pay the money, and followed Du Zhongxiao with a few followers, and walked forward.

After passing through the messy small market, I saw the crowds of people in front, the stalls on both sides were neat, and entered the formal shopping mall area.

Du Zhongxiao walked around and saw that it was different from Fancheng Shopping Mall. Each stall was independent. He sold goods, but did not charge money. Instead, he gave a wooden sign, and asked someone to take the wooden sign, and went to the other side to pay the money. After he came back, he took another wooden sign. The two cards matched and took the goods away.

After seeing a few businesses, Du Zhongxiao said to Shisanlang: "You see, buying and selling goods here does not pay the money at the same time, but takes the wooden sign to another place to pay the money. Let me ask you, why do you do this?"

Shisanlang looked at it for a while, thought for a while, and said, "As far as I want, like our shopping mall, we have to pay the money from the collection place and get the receipt before we can take away the goods. However, they have changed the various public notes we printed to wooden signs."

Du Zhongxiao asked again: "Why are the wooden signs of each family different? After coming back, do you have to match two wooden signs?"

Shisanlang said: "Who knows what these people are doing? This mall was bought by some big businessmen, and they used to be run by the selves. They have their own ghost names and are dedicated to cheating people and money. How can outsiders know about it?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Actually, there is no name, it's just the same set as before. I guess that the wooden signs in each stall here are different, as marks. When you take the wooden signs, you will record the amount of money sold by each store every day and then divide the accounts."

Shisanlang still didn't understand and asked, "Why do you do this? It's all about selling goods in the mall, why bother clearly?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Because the stalls they sell goods here are not from shopping malls, but from the businessmen who paid the money to sell goods here. The money sold by the stall owner and the shopping mall are divided into proportion, so they have to go there to pay the money. It seems that the old rules they are used to do business are not directly involved in the transaction, but just to share the money of the businessmen."

Shisanlang suddenly realized: "So that's it! These are the bad guys, and they don't do business properly when opening shopping malls! They are just officials, why do people who sell goods come to him to do business? Isn't it good to set up stalls and sell them by themselves? What's the difference between this approach and the market in the Tang Dynasty?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Because the most important thing in this kind of business is the abortion. The more people pass by the stall, the better the business will be, and the more money you earn. The shopping mall is complete, and I heard that there are still many houses here. How many people come here every day? What you just said is very good compared to the Tang Dynasty market, but only knows one thing, not the second. The Tang Dynasty's yard system was divided into categories, and each type of business was one shop, but there was a department store in the world, and it was all the same. It was a big difference. This is not a market, but a grass market outside gathered together, and at the same time combined the advantages of the market and the grass market, which was most conducive to people buying things. It also had food, drink and fun, and it was also good to stroll around. Those fangs learned the benefits of Fancheng Shopping Mall, and then built this shopping mall with their previous method of being a fang."

The shopping malls in Xiangyang look similar to the shopping malls in Fancheng, but are actually fundamentally different. The shopping malls in Fancheng are a complete commercial organization, and cooperate with the villages, workshops, fishing grounds and farms below. They pay attention to large-scale production and production, supply and sales in one-stop. Not only are the goods complete, but the quality is guaranteed, and they rely on reputation to do long-term business. However, they are different here in Xiangyang. They just provide a place to gather various businesses together, attract a large number of people to come here, and then rent stalls and charge handling fees.

Two different business models have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the competition will be very difficult in the future.

Du Zhongxiao has seen this kind of market in his previous life. It is low in construction and has quick money. In the early stage, the management is strict, and those who come here to rent stalls are also doing business in a solid manner. The price is low and can quickly become popular. However, this form has inherent disadvantages that are not conducive to management. Over time, it is colluded with internal and external forces, and lacks weight. If you use inferior products as good merchants, you will slowly squeeze out serious business people and slowly fade away.

But for the businessmen, what does it matter if they are deserted? Then they will just transfer the shopping malls here and open another location in another place. At that time, the money has already been making enough money.

If it is a private operation, Fancheng's shopping malls have many disadvantages in the face of this kind of competition, and they may be squeezed out if you are not careful. However, Pancheng's shopping malls are run by Changpingsi, which is different. Official methods do not require those who cannot get on the table, just strengthen supervision.

Along the way, there are all these small stalls, and the mall only charges money. The mall collects money because they have to share the money, rather than collecting fixed stall rent. People are very smart. If they collect fixed stall rent, they spend countless efforts to attract people and cannot lose the benefits.

Yaren was the former controller of business. They joined forces to cover almost all kinds of goods. Here, the goods are complete and there are all kinds of prices, both extremely cheap and extremely expensive. Good or bad, whether it is worth it or not, it depends on their own perspectives.

After roughly after reading it, it was already afternoon. Du Zhongxiao said, "It's getting late, let's go back. I've seen this place. In the next few months, I'm afraid that life will be difficult for the Superintendent Xu in Fancheng. It's okay, we don't think of a solution."

Just as I was about to leave, I turned around at a stall near the door and found that books were selling. A young man in his twenties was guarding there. There were several books on the stall in front of him, and a trick next to it said: "Print books with movable type, and get it at a low price."

Du Zhongxiao was curious for a moment. If he remembered correctly, movable type printing should have appeared at this time, but he had never heard of the name of Bi Sheng. Moreover, for various reasons in history, movable type has not been widely used, so how could it appear here?

I walked up and read the books on the stall, which were all the most common booklets such as elementary school textbooks, which were very simple. The stall owner was a young man in his twenties and looked a little dull.

He picked up a booklet and flipped through it. Du Zhongxiao asked, "How do you use movable type printing method for printing this book?"

The young man said: "This is a craft handed down from the family. It is made of pottery into movable characters, so there is no need for carved sheets, and it is very convenient to print."

Du Zhongxiao nodded and asked again: "Where are you from? What's your name? Why do you know this craft at home?"

The young man said, "The young Bi Wenzhong is from Qishui County, Qizhou. His ancestors were born in the family and printed the books. The ancestors were unique and made into clay and burned them hard. They can replace the carved version. The business has not been good in the past two years. I heard that Xiangzhou is extremely prosperous, so I come here to try my luck."

After hearing this, Du Zhongxiao asked hurriedly: "What's your grandfather's name?"

Bi Wenzhong said: "The family's ancestors are sold, and unfortunately fell ill and died two months ago."

Du Zhongxiao nodded, feeling a secretly regretful, but he didn't expect Bi Sheng to die. Seeing that his grandson was already an adult, he thought he was not young. movable type printing is not very strange for later generations. After knowing the principles and knowing some basic chemistry knowledge, it is not difficult to copy.

However, out of respect for the inventor, since he met Bi Sheng's descendants, he should help him to give full play to his strengths. Du Zhongxiao did not make movable type, and he had not used it for so many years. He could just invite Bi Wenzhong back and promote this technology.
Chapter completed!