My domineering ex-husband is living off his wife in ancient times.

Chapter 131 The Hardships of Military Households

Cheng Ruoan was completely stunned when she heard this.

She frowned slightly: "Why were they all sold?"

She had previously agreed with Madam Guo and Zhao Dongjia that this batch of bamboo ointment was for the livelihood of ordinary people, and she would rather earn less money than lose more reputation points.

Cheng Ruoan had already planned it out. This batch of green bamboo ointment would be sold in two parts. On one hand, Dapeng and Dakun would carry the loads to sell it in various villages, and on the other hand, the women of Yang the tiler's family would help sell it to the servants of wealthy families in each town and county.

Originally, when she made hand cream, her first target audience was embroiderers.

But this one customer group can be completely taken care of by Mr. Zhao and Mrs. Guo.

Seeing that Cheng Ruoan wasn't very happy, Madam Luo remembered what Master Zhao had told her and quickly explained, "Second Madam Cheng, please rest assured, it wasn't sold to other merchants, but to a few towns in the far north, where military households live."

"Military households?" Cheng Ruoan understood that meant military dependents. "They probably buy more cloud ointment, right?"

A large jar of bamboo ointment costs two hundred coins; that's for families with at least four members who all do heavy manual labor.

Lady Luo: "How can I spend one or two taels to buy cloud ointment? I'll just use green bamboo ointment. Even Madam Guo and the master of the house are subsidizing half of each jar out of their own pockets."

Cheng Ruoan asked in surprise, "Huh?"

Seeing that she really didn't understand at all, Lady Luo explained it to her in detail.

In the Great Xia Dynasty, there were households designated by the government to serve in the military, which was different from conscription.

For ordinary families, one male member was conscripted for military service. Single-member households were exempt from military service. Some families had more than ten male members, from grandfather to grandson, all within the conscription age range. However, since they had not separated their households, they were considered as one household. Even with more than ten male members, only one man needed to serve in the military.

However, the situation is different for military households.

Military households consisted of one able-bodied man from each household who was directly enlisted as soldiers.

What's infuriating is that, despite being enrolled in military households and destined to serve as soldiers for generations, protecting the borders of the Great Xia Dynasty, military households have an extremely low social status.

This stems from the fact that the earliest military households in the Great Xia Dynasty were all criminals, but the Great Xia Dynasty has been around for more than fifty years, and the current military households are now three generations old.

No matter how guilty they are, they should be forgiven.

"Life is tough for military households, especially in recent years with the constant border clashes. Almost all the men in military households are conscripted as soon as they reach the age of enlistment, leaving behind only orphans and widows at home."

To survive, orphans and widows had to tend the fields, raise cattle and sheep, and make woolen fabrics. In short, as long as they were alive and breathing, they had to keep working.

Cheng Ruoan felt a pang of sadness upon hearing this, "Doesn't the imperial court offer any subsidies?"

Madam Luo couldn't help but chuckle, but quickly realized her lapse in composure and put away her disdain, replacing it with a friendly smile.

"The reason why the military households in the north have been able to survive all these years is because of Madam Guo's generosity. Madam Guo's cloth shop has been buying wool, which has also increased the income of the military households' wives."

Cheng Ruoan, observing the situation, realized that her question was inappropriate to continue, so she just smiled and said, "Since it's not sold to other merchants, but to ordinary people, that's fine. We can negotiate the price down a bit more."

Madam Luo nodded, "Then I thank Madam Cheng on behalf of the military households in the north. Heaven have mercy, those military households really can't even gather a pair of good hands from several households."

Two years ago, my husband and I went to collect wool. We saw many young girls from military households who hadn't even reached marriageable age yet. Their hands looked like those of old women—red, swollen, purple, and covered in sores and oozing pus… Oh my, it was a pitiful sight.”

"Is three hundred cans enough?"

“Of course it’s not enough, so I came to see you today, Madam Cheng, not only to pick up the cloud ointment I ordered, but also to ask when the green bamboo ointment will be available again…”

"If Mrs. Guo needs it, I can arrange for production to start immediately. It's best to start applying this hand cream about two weeks before winter to greatly reduce the chance of getting chilblains..."

Cheng Ruoan paused here.

Even the best hand cream can only prevent chapped skin.

As Luo Niangzi said, if a sore has already formed and is oozing pus, it's best to apply medicine until it scabs over, and then apply hand cream, right?

Cheng Ruoan thought that her master, such a powerful and mysterious old doctor, should be able to make a cheap and effective frostbite cream, right?

It is specifically for severe cases of chilblains.

The three of them arrived at the Cheng residence by carriage, and Cheng Ruo'an asked Xiaomian'er to take all the baking trays to Cheng Ruotong.

I was worried that the little girl might not be able to lift them, since they were four large pieces of iron. But it turns out that Xiao Mian'er was just a little soft-hearted, but actually quite strong.

Cheng Ruoan struggled to carry the four baking pans herself, but she carried them away as if they were floating on air.

Manager Luo and Madam Luo, each carrying an order for cloud ointment from Youjian Inn and Youjian Embroidery Workshop respectively, followed Cheng Ruoan to the warehouse in the backyard to retrieve the goods.

Zhao Dongjia listened to Cheng Ruoan's advice and started selling cloud ointment at the inn as well.

Therefore, the cloud cream that the inn ordered was in two different sizes.

One type is the large one, which is in a relatively large ceramic jar, weighing eight ounces. Manager Luo would take it back and have the waiters repackage it into lip rouge boxes and place them in each guest room for trial use.

One type is the small white porcelain jar customized by Zhao Dongjia, which contains three ounces. This is currently the main product used by Cheng Ruoan to make cloud cream.

If a guest likes the product after trying it in the room and wants to buy it to take home, then they should buy the full-size porcelain jar.

The final price of the full-size Cloud Cream was two taels of silver per jar, but in some inns it was sold at a 20% markup, costing two taels and two cents per jar.

Even so, some inns in several towns in Songshan County can still sell three to five cans every day.

This is just retail, and only in Matsuyama Prefecture in the northern region!

Manager Luo thought that if other customers were interested in the cloud cream, he could introduce them to the workshop, which would increase wholesale orders.

Zhao Xuejin was naturally aware of this principle, so she used the inn managed by Manager Luo in Songshan County as a "demonstration point" to try selling in this way for a month or two.

If it works well, she will arrange for inns in other counties and prefectures to be included.

Cheng Ruoan picked up the goods for Manager Luo according to the list: "Twelve large jars, forty-eight taels; one hundred and twenty small jars, two hundred and forty taels; the wholesale price is two hundred and one taels and six mace."

After a moment of surprise, Manager Luo paid the money.

Cheng Ruoan gave him the delivery slip to sign.

After counting the quantity, Manager Luo signed the form and said with a smile, "I was just about to get the abacus, but Madam Cheng has already calculated it."

Cheng Ruoan smiled and didn't say much before going to help Madam Luo check the goods.

Manager Luo was still marveling, "Cheng Er Niangzi's accounting skills are amazing. No matter how many times I see them, I'm still amazed."

The cloud-shaped ointment from the embroidery workshop was brought directly by Zhao Xuejin. This was the first time that Madam Luo had come to pick up the goods, so it was the first time she had witnessed Cheng Ruoan's arithmetic skills.

I was surprised and amazed.

"Yes, you have to understand that the wholesale price is 70% of the retail price. It's not something you can just calculate by simply adding them up."