My house was confiscated and I was exiled. I emptied the emperor's warehouse and fled.

Nan Ruofu put down the tea cup and asked with a smile: "We inquired about the news yesterday and learned that there is already an escort agency in Youzhou City. In order to avoid vicious competition, I want to set up the Zhenyuan Escort Agency in Yanyun County. I wonder if it is possible."

Su Yunwan: "Of course. Your previous customers were basically people from Jizhou City. Now they have moved to Yanyun County. You will not have a problem in establishing yourself as a regular customer."

"Now Yanyun County is waiting for development and is in need of practitioners from all walks of life. Zhenyuan Escort Bureau is welcome to join." Qin Junyi offered tea instead of wine and toasted.

Afterwards, he said to Xia Yiming: "Mr.

"Please allow me to think about it." Businessmen pursue profit, and Xia Yiming does not engage in loss-making transactions. He needs to investigate the market demand before making a decision.

Su Yunwan smiled and said: "That's right. If you don't leave in a hurry, I happen to have a new gadget that will definitely make a lot of money."

"Oh? What is it?" Xia Yiming was very interested.

Su Yunwan, however, kept it secret: "You will know in a few days."

Xia Yiming: "Okay, I won't leave until I see what you said!"

"Ha ha......"

Xia Yiming and Nan Ruofu stayed one night and returned to Fucheng after breakfast the next day.

Before leaving, Xia Yiming gave a generous reward and took away the two brothers Lian Zizuo and a little girl Pan Yuer.

Pan Yu'er was one of the group of children rescued at the Shanyehuang Temple and had a close relationship with Lian Zizuo.

After arriving in Beiling Village, these children were placed in a corner of the village and practiced martial arts every day to improve their physical fitness.

Lian Zizuo entrusted his little brother to Fang and joined in to train together.

He said goodbye to Pan Yu'er last night, and the two were inseparable. Lianzi impulsively came up with the idea of ​​taking Pan Yu'er with him.

Pan Yu'er nodded repeatedly after hearing what he said.

In this way, in addition to the reward, Xia Yiming gave an extra amount of ransom money and took Pan Yu'er with him.

Su Yunwan glanced at Pan Yu'er twice, wishing that the childhood sweethearts could have a bright future.

But she knew in her heart that this possibility was very small.

As an orphan, Pan Yu'er would most likely become his personal slave if he followed him to Lian Zizuo Mansion. Even if there were other arrangements, there was little chance of becoming his first wife at a time when people were very particular about being well-matched.

But no matter what the future is, she must walk on the path she chooses.

After they left, Su Yunwan asked Qin Junyi to recruit people to officially mine the coal mine, mix the coal powder with lime slurry, clay, and spices in a certain proportion, and use the flower-shaped iron molds made by Li Mao to make each of them. Small briquettes.

Put it on the stove to burn, and it will emit a light fragrance. It is definitely an elegant thing that the rich love to use.

After trying it out, Xia Yiming praised it repeatedly and immediately placed an order, trying to open up the market for upper-class people in Youzhou.

Due to heavy snowfall in winter and road closures, transportation was difficult. After considering the risks along the way, Xia Yiming gave up the idea of ​​delivering goods to Jiangnan for sale, and only waited for a good season in the coming year before purchasing goods.

He also personally prepared a variety of unique spices and shapes for Su Yunwan to customize and enrich the products.

For a time, coal cakes became a highly praised and loved item among the wealthy gentry and wealthy households in Youzhou.

This winter, Xia and Qin families made a lot of money from coal cakes, which also enabled the Yanyun County government to obtain its first generous commercial tax revenue.

After the officials in the state capital learned about it, they were very enthusiastic and sent people to survey the coal mines in an attempt to make similar coal cakes.

However, those surveyors encountered the same problem as Qin Junyi - heavy snow covered the mountains and could only return without success.

Mr. Dongfang was ordered to cooperate with the Qin family to introduce pulverized coal for processing. However, the coal cakes they made had a pungent smell and the quality was completely unmatched.

Zhou Mu asked him to buy the secret recipe from the Qin family, but Qin Junyi refused unsurprisingly. After that, he started to make small moves behind the scenes, but found that all the long-term workers were under closed management, making it difficult for outsiders to contact them. Again, his efforts were in vain.

And even if he used a trick to bribe the long-term workers who made coal cakes, they would not know it.

The Qin family was able to eliminate the smell of coal cakes by replacing part of the clay with lime slurry, and this recipe was only in the hands of the Qin family.

After Su Yunwan made the coal cake, Li Mao's experiment also came to fruition: "I can indeed smelt refined iron according to my wife's method. It's just that the temperature cannot be raised, so it is difficult to smelt it successfully."

"Don't worry, this problem will be solved after a while."

Just a few days ago, she had people pull refractory bricks into the mountains to build a coke oven. Once the coke is available as fuel, she will build an iron-making blast furnace, and then she can use the iron ore collected before and put it into production.

She has already drawn the design drawing of the iron-making blast furnace, and also designed the hydraulic blower and hydraulic forging hammer. Once completed and put into use, it can save a lot of labor.

"By the way, I have asked people to spread the news about recruiting iron-making disciples. Many people have signed up. You first go and select thirty people to train them together."

"There are so many people, I'm afraid I can't take care of them!" Li Mao exclaimed.

A blacksmith can lead an apprentice, with a maximum of three or five people. When can dozens of people be together?

Su Yunwan smiled and said: "To be honest, I plan to make as many curved shaft plows as possible before farming next spring to open up wasteland. So I will provide you with various tools for teaching, and help me bring them as soon as possible. Send out a group of people and forge plowshares first.”

"What is Quyuanli?"

"You'll know later."

*

Time is like fine sand, passing through your fingers inadvertently. As the harsh winter recedes, the northern lands begin to awaken.

The cold wind gradually becomes gentle, blowing the breath of growth in all things. The snow-covered earth is slowly replaced by new greenery. On the branches, green buds burst out of their shells to welcome the warm sunshine.

All the people who migrated from Jizhou City walked out of their cave dwellings and headed to the allocated villages. On the homestead sites obtained by each family, adobe houses were built on the ground. As their houses were built, people gradually moved out of Beiling Village.

At this time, the official offices and street shops in the center of Yanyun County had been completed before the severe winter, and the people serving in corvee were committed to the construction of the inner city wall.

Deep in the mountains of Beiling Village, the Cast Iron Villa was finally built, and the first batch of curved shaft plow plowshares were successfully cast.

As early as in Maodong, Su Yunwan gave the drawings and production methods of the Quyuan Plow to the Qin family's carpentry team and asked them to make wooden accessories.

Now that the steel plowshares are cast, the first curved shaft plow is soon available.

In the land of Youzhou, the technology of iron plow and oxen plowing has not yet become popular, and manual plowing is still used on a large scale, making it impossible to plow deeply.

There are only a few iron plows and oxen plowing, and the straight-shaft plows are used, which is laborious to plow the land and difficult to turn.

The curved shaft plow changes the straight shaft into a curved shaft, and adds a plow disc on the shaft head, which can rotate freely, making turning, U-turn and other operations flexible and saving animal power. In addition, plowing and leveling are added to the entire structure, which can be used for both deep and shallow plowing to meet different requirements for intensive farming.

This morning, the first Quyuan plow was put into the ground.

Su Yunwan took off her thick cloak and put on light spring clothes. She walked through the melting snow and walked with Qin Junyi to the cultivated land near the village.