Post by Gongsun Chao on Nov 11, 2009 1:29:59 GMT
Tags:
Commerce/Trading
Chao's plans for the hat-shields had gone rather poorly, and after just a bit more testing, it had become apparent that these hat-shields weren't very useful against arrows, as they only weighed down his men. Xu scolded Chao for coming up with such a bad idea, but Chao just smiled, an idea forming in his head.
A few days later, Chao stole away from Changsha with only a few guards. He disguised himself as an affluent merchant from the North. Entering the city of Yun Nan, he approached the market with a carriage full of the hat-shields he had tried to use with his army. They hadn't worked for this purpose, but Chao thought he could find multiple ways to sell these rather useless items.
"Hear ye, hear ye!" yelled the disguised Chao, "I bring a product from the north, not before seen in this region of the land, the Reinforced Farmer's Hat-Shield!"
He showed up one of the hats, it was basically a normal straw hat between two slabs of metal. A worker passed by, carrying the hammer that denoted him as a construction worker.
"You there, good Sir! Have you ever been hit in the head by falling debris on the job? Well no more must this worry you, for with a hat-shield, your head will be safe on the job! Cheap, only two coins a hat!"
A few children passed by, dueling each other with wooden swords. Chao could hear them each boasting to their parents that they'd be the greatest warrior in the land when they grew up.
"Excuse me," said the disguised noble, "but might you need a good practice shield? These hats are perfectly constructed to withstand blows by practice swords, and so can be used to imitate both shields and helmets for you young aspiring warriors!"
A few older children were playing a game with a ball in the market, but one accidentally kicked their ball into a sword-shop, and the ball was cut in two. They all started yelling at the unfortunate kid. Chao approached them.
"Perhaps you need a new sport? Have I got the sport for you."
Chao took on of the hat-shields and tossed it to his guard, it spinning in mid air like a modern-day frisbee. The kids were amazed, and a few of them ran off to ask their parents for money.
Chao spent most of the day walking around the market with these hats, finding different approaches to use his outgoing personality to sell them to various people in the city. They weren't useful for their original purpose, but they did make good hard hats for construction, practice shields, frisbees...the like. Therefore, Chao exploited this and sold as many of the hard-hats as he could. After a while, when he had sold some of them, he made his way to a construction site. There he approached the overseer.
"Master Overseer, I have brought these hats from the North that they may aid your men in working without harm. The price is low, yet these are some of the mastercrafts of the North. Surely it hurts your business when your workers are injured and you need to hire less-skilled labor to replace them. With these, you can easily avoid that circumstance. What do you say?"
The overseer was certainly skeptical at first, but he liked Chao's bit about the injured workers. Truthfully, the overseer didn't care about the health of the workers, Chao knew that, but it did hurt his business when he had to hire unskilled labor to replace them. Therefore, the overseer wound up consenting and purchasing the hats from Chao.
Chao smiled to his guards as they left the gates of Yun Nan. He had made a few coins, not so many, but certainly enough to hire more soldiers and get his Standard into shape. Chao and his cheif bodyguard Zhang Ci just started laughing as Chao removed his disguise on the road back to Changsha.
Commerce/Trading
Chao's plans for the hat-shields had gone rather poorly, and after just a bit more testing, it had become apparent that these hat-shields weren't very useful against arrows, as they only weighed down his men. Xu scolded Chao for coming up with such a bad idea, but Chao just smiled, an idea forming in his head.
A few days later, Chao stole away from Changsha with only a few guards. He disguised himself as an affluent merchant from the North. Entering the city of Yun Nan, he approached the market with a carriage full of the hat-shields he had tried to use with his army. They hadn't worked for this purpose, but Chao thought he could find multiple ways to sell these rather useless items.
"Hear ye, hear ye!" yelled the disguised Chao, "I bring a product from the north, not before seen in this region of the land, the Reinforced Farmer's Hat-Shield!"
He showed up one of the hats, it was basically a normal straw hat between two slabs of metal. A worker passed by, carrying the hammer that denoted him as a construction worker.
"You there, good Sir! Have you ever been hit in the head by falling debris on the job? Well no more must this worry you, for with a hat-shield, your head will be safe on the job! Cheap, only two coins a hat!"
A few children passed by, dueling each other with wooden swords. Chao could hear them each boasting to their parents that they'd be the greatest warrior in the land when they grew up.
"Excuse me," said the disguised noble, "but might you need a good practice shield? These hats are perfectly constructed to withstand blows by practice swords, and so can be used to imitate both shields and helmets for you young aspiring warriors!"
A few older children were playing a game with a ball in the market, but one accidentally kicked their ball into a sword-shop, and the ball was cut in two. They all started yelling at the unfortunate kid. Chao approached them.
"Perhaps you need a new sport? Have I got the sport for you."
Chao took on of the hat-shields and tossed it to his guard, it spinning in mid air like a modern-day frisbee. The kids were amazed, and a few of them ran off to ask their parents for money.
Chao spent most of the day walking around the market with these hats, finding different approaches to use his outgoing personality to sell them to various people in the city. They weren't useful for their original purpose, but they did make good hard hats for construction, practice shields, frisbees...the like. Therefore, Chao exploited this and sold as many of the hard-hats as he could. After a while, when he had sold some of them, he made his way to a construction site. There he approached the overseer.
"Master Overseer, I have brought these hats from the North that they may aid your men in working without harm. The price is low, yet these are some of the mastercrafts of the North. Surely it hurts your business when your workers are injured and you need to hire less-skilled labor to replace them. With these, you can easily avoid that circumstance. What do you say?"
The overseer was certainly skeptical at first, but he liked Chao's bit about the injured workers. Truthfully, the overseer didn't care about the health of the workers, Chao knew that, but it did hurt his business when he had to hire unskilled labor to replace them. Therefore, the overseer wound up consenting and purchasing the hats from Chao.
Chao smiled to his guards as they left the gates of Yun Nan. He had made a few coins, not so many, but certainly enough to hire more soldiers and get his Standard into shape. Chao and his cheif bodyguard Zhang Ci just started laughing as Chao removed his disguise on the road back to Changsha.
