Infrastructure masters in the red building

Jia Fang himself has never used honeycomb coal. Since he can remember, this fuel has been replaced by more efficient natural gas.Every household is connected to the pipeline of the gas company, and the fire can be ignited by turning on the valve.

However, he had heard of briquettes from the older generation. After working, he once participated in an old city renovation project. He saw with his own eyes the elderly people sitting in the yard "fanning the flames" and using this "briquette" stove to cook and burn. Water, quite impressed.

The design of honeycomb coal is quite exquisite. The cylindrical coal block is made of crushed raw coal mixed with a certain proportion of yellow mud, plus firelighters such as sawdust and charcoal powder. After all the materials are pressed into shape, poked There are dense holes on the top, which looks like a honeycomb.

The pores of the briquette increase the contact area between the fuel and the air, allowing the coal to burn fully; adding yellow mud to make the coal powder more viscous and easy to shape; finally, adding firelight on the surface of the briquettes to make it easy to ignite.

Although coal is used as fuel, there are still a series of problems such as insufficient combustion efficiency and air pollution, but compared with the current methods of lighting and heating for ordinary people, there is still great progress.

Most importantly, this briquette is cheap enough.The coal mines in Shuixian are all shallow mines. After being mined, they are mechanically crushed into coal powder, and after adding other raw materials, they are also pressed into shape by machinery.Immediately after that, it was shipped to Jimo, where it was used as a starting point for marketing throughout the northern region.

At first glance, this cost may be quite high, but considering that once Shuixian’s coal mine starts production, thousands of pieces will be produced immediately, and the cost per piece will be extremely low. It is even less expensive for the common people to spend a few pennies to buy firewood in the city.

When Jia Fang heard Jia She's question, he also felt curious. After all, Shui Xian has his own business and marketing channels, so why did he attract Jia She?

After careful questioning, I found out that the person from the charcoal shop came to Jia's mansion to sell this kind of fuel to the big families in Beijing.However, if a large family like Jia's family wants to make better use of this new fuel, it is best to change the stove in the kitchen of the house.The indoor part of the stove needs to have a stove door to separate the indoor from the air of the stove, and an air port for introducing fresh air and a flue for strong smoke exhaust should be opened outside.

"It is said to change the stove for our family for free, without money. But if our family uses it well, we can help and tell our relatives and friends."

Jia Fang immediately smiled and said: "I see, if it's good for our family, don't we always have to buy their briquettes in the future?"

Jia Amnesty was also shrewd, and he knew all about these businesses very well, so he immediately nodded and asked Jia Fang, "Do you think our family will agree to them? Let them change all the stoves in our kitchen? I'll see." If you want to change it back, I'm afraid it will not be too easy."

Jia felt relieved: If you are used to burning briquettes, it will not be easy for you to switch back to burning wood.

He thought for a while and said to Jia Amnesty: "After they sent the samples over, you should have someone try it first. The first thing is to see if the fire can be lit quickly; the second is to see how much the flame can ignite." High, what is the color of the flame, whether it is pure, if it can burn a blue flame, that is the best; the third is to check whether the slag can be taken out completely without breaking after burning. If these items are all good, you can let Let’s change the big kitchen to a big stove with two eyes first, and try it out.”

Of course Jia Fang knew that this was Shuixian's business, but the more Shuixian's business was, the more he had to have high standards and strict requirements.If there is anything wrong, at least the merchants in this capital can quickly send their opinions back to the north, so that the coal mines can improve their craftsmanship.

This is called the customer's opinion to force the progress of the production process.

When Jia Amnesty heard that even Jia Fang said that, he immediately said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

"Let's change it at home first. If you think it's good, you can recommend it to your relatives and friends. It's not in vain for others to work hard to change the big kitchen stove for us."

The Ningrong Second Mansion is the head of the Eight Dukes, and has quite a lot of influence in Beijing.Many people regard the customs of the two prefectures as their fashion, and with many relatives and friends, if the Rong Mansion is willing to recommend it to relatives and friends, it is estimated that the artisans who modify the stove will be busy for a long time in the future.

"The second item is snowflake candy."

Jia Amnesty went to the cabinet in his study outside and took out a paper bag, opened a corner, and handed it to Jia Fang.

Jia Fang took a look and saw that the candy was slightly yellowish in color and the size of the sugar particles was uneven, so he asked with a "Huh", "Is this snowflake candy?"

The quality of this kind of candy is far from the quality of the snowflake candy that Shui Xian sent to him at the beginning.Jia Xin couldn't help but despise a little: Is this also called snowflake candy?

Unexpectedly, Jia Amnesty added another sentence: "Not only that, there are people in the market who call this 'Snowflake Foreign Sugar', which is said to be shipped by overseas merchants." He lowered his voice: "But I can hear clearly, this It’s not coming in from overseas, it’s the cane sugar produced in the south, under the banner of overseas sugar, it’s transported by sea from those southern seaports.”

"Snowflake... foreign sugar?"

Jia Fang suddenly felt that he had been overwhelmed.

According to his history in that time and space, things like "foreign sugar" were when the local sugar-making process was still lagging behind, and overseas refined sugar was dumped into the country, completely destroying the local sugar-making enterprises.

But in the current time and space, this is obviously the local "soil sugar", but it has to be named as "foreign sugar". After boarding the ship from Quanzhou or Guangzhou Port, and going around the sea, it is Call yourself "Yang Tang" - what is this, can foreign monks recite scriptures?

He stretched out his hand to pick up a small handful, brought it to his mouth, tasted it, and felt that this kind of sugar had neither the purity of industrial sugar nor the "soul" of handmade sugar. rather embarrassing.

"Who found the eldest brother?" Jia Fang asked Jia Amnesty.He is now completely sure that he can never be Shui Xian's person.

Jia She mysteriously stretched out three fingers and said, "The 'oldest'."

"The one who supervises the country..." Jia Fang was taken aback, "Isn't that one busy with the Ministry of Punishment? Why do you have time to take care of this?"

Mentioning the Ministry of Punishment, Jia She let out a "ha", as if quite relieved: "Don't mention the Ministry of Punishment, last time he came to our mansion to interrogate you, but he was taught a lesson by the emperor, and he made up his mind to ignore the work of the Ministry of Punishment when he returned. Now, since he is in charge of the country, he should take a look at the overall situation, and can no longer just focus on the affairs of one department like before."

Jia thought at ease: ... that's right.

"It is true that he has gone to supervise the country, but you also know that there are so many people behind him and so many businesses. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of this time to come out and flex their fists and occupy a piece of territory?"

"Besides, although the third child is in charge of the country, his subordinates have a lot of places to spend money. He hasn't even earned the position of a crown prince, and he doesn't dare to use government affairs to collect money in his own pocket, but Can't you rely on these businesses?"

"No, I found out about this sugar. They said it was foreign sugar produced in the south using the new law. I asked if Ningrong Second House would like to eat a batch and then sell it in our own way. He also said absolutely make money."

At this point, Jia She lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the new method of making sugar in the south is to mix yellow mud into the sugar... The original brown sugar water is clarified and turned into white sugar. Third, what do you say?" , Will the sugar be mixed with mud and sand?"

When Jia She said this, Jia Fang suddenly realized: it turned out that yellow mud was added—yellow mud is also an adsorbent, which can absorb impurities and pigments in sugar.It's just that the adsorption effect of yellow mud is far behind that of bone charcoal or activated carbon, which is why the "half white but not white" color of Tutang is created.

As for the centrifugation process, Jia Fang carefully observed the sugar grains in his hand, and saw that the crystals were very uneven, so he knew that the other party did not use a high-efficiency centrifuge, which also means that the possibility of small particles of impurities mixed in the sugar is also very high. high.

So Jia Fang said decisively: "No, even if this kind of candy is branded as 'foreign candy', it can't compete with our own 'Snowflake Candy'."

Jia Amnesty believed in Jia Fang's business vision [-]%, and immediately said: "Then I will reject him, and say... our family's money is in the hands of the wife, and now I am just a little prince in name only. Powerless. How?"

Jia Fang rushed to Jia She to take a look, Jia She scratched his head in embarrassment, and said, "Actually, my father has entrusted me with all the accounts of the house."

In other words, Jia Amnesty has now taken over all the finances of Rongguo Mansion.But rejecting the third prince's invitation on the pretext that the financial power in the mansion is unclear, this sounds like a quite real reason.

"Anyway, big brother, don't get involved in this sugar thing. I also say hello to the buyers in the mansion. This kind of 'foreign sugar', no matter how nice it is, don't buy it in the mansion. You really want it later. If you use it to make snacks, anyone’s teeth will be broken.”

Jia Fang solemnly told Jia She - what he can do now is to advise Jia She not to get involved in the matter of the third prince and Tang, whoever gets involved in the business of the third prince will suffer a blood loss.

Jia Sheng agreed, thinking about which close relatives and friends need to be reminded.His father-in-law's Zhang family must send a letter, and his uncle's Shijia must also remind him. Jinling, Gusu, his second son's father-in-law's family, and his brother-in-law all have to write letters. As for the others...just figure it out .

After the third prince took care of the affairs of supervising the country by himself, he realized that it is not so easy to be a king and handle so many government affairs of the whole country.

In the past, I watched the prince govern with ease, listened to music and watched plays every day, and lived a comfortable and leisurely life.Once it's my turn, it's not like that at all—it's like a huge machine is running, but there are always a little bug here and a little flaw there.And he was able to fill it up with his own strength, and suddenly felt that even if he had three heads and six arms, it was not enough.

After dealing with the mountain of documents, the third prince still has to face all kinds of favours.

Those who supported him behind his back in the past are all begging on their heads now, saying one by one: "Third Highness, it is said that 'it is easy to add flowers to the cake, but it is difficult to give charcoal in the snow'. For the sake of giving charcoal in the snow, you are now pulling Give it a hand, little ones!"

The third prince wanted to jump a little bit: Where did he need to "send charcoal in the snow" when he was so good at the beginning?

But these people behind him can't be offended - after all, he is only supervising the country by order now, not even a prince.Most of these people are rich businessmen, who hold the lifeblood of a party.If they were, it would be a turmoil for one side and the livelihood and well-being of tens of thousands of people.

Besides, the third prince is also greedy for their money.

The frontier army in the northwest, the big camp in the south, the banks of the Yellow River, the seawall in the East China Sea... the third prince found out that money is needed everywhere as soon as he started to supervise the country.

Without these people secretly subsidizing, the third prince felt that he would not be able to sustain his successful ascension to the throne.

So he could only see each other patiently.Today's turn came up with tens of thousands of taels of gift money in both hands, and then cried to the third prince: "Third Highness, please save the little one!"

After hearing what he said, the third prince sneered, and said: "You are not as skilled as others, you can't make good candy like others, and you even use the banner of foreigners to earn money from the local people... Are you ashamed?"

The big sugar merchant had a thick skin and was not at all ashamed. He said directly: "But the sugar factory in the south is made in that way. I asked all the sugar factories in the south. They either only make brown sugar and brown sugar, or they are the same as ours. How to make snowflake sugar—who knows how the white sugar on the market is made?"

"What is the price of the opponent's sugar? Since you are shipping a large amount of white sugar from the south to the north, then lower the price and squeeze out the opponent."

The sugar merchant quickly waved his hand: "No, it's really not possible. We counted all the costs and directly offered the reserve price. The sugar price of the other party is only about half of ours?"

"So cheap?" The third prince was stunned for a moment, and immediately realized, "It doesn't matter, the other party is losing money to make money—take back your gift box, the money is considered to be given to you by the king, since the other party's sugar price is low, you can buy it." Collect at a low price, keep everything in your hands, and then sell at a high price..."

This trick was used when the major grain stores in the capital stirred up grain prices back then. If it wasn't for the "Baiguchang" shopkeeper Shao turning against the water and creating some "gold and silver rice", this trick would have worked .

"No, no, no," the sugar merchant was about to cry.

"That kind of cheap snowflake candy is everywhere, not only in the capital city, but also in the whole country, and even in the places where sugar is produced in the south... If you want to collect it, you won't be able to collect it at all!"

"How could this happen?" The third prince was extremely shocked, he couldn't figure it out, how could it happen, how could there be so much candy all over the country at the same time?

"They sold the sugar to the sugar-producing regions in the south, and they transported it for thousands of miles. Aren't they afraid of losing money on the freight?" the third prince asked.

"Have you forgotten? There is no walking tax on sea freight, our freight is very cheap, and so are theirs!" The sugar merchant reminded the third prince.

The price of snowflake sugar sold in Beijing is only half of that of southern sugar, and the cost will not increase much if it is shipped to the south in large quantities. Therefore, even in the southern sugar production area, it is very competitive.

In the past, sugar merchants in the south transported sugar by sea, which immediately lowered the price of sugar in Beijing, and the sugar merchants made a lot of money in an instant.Later, the third prince let more than [-]% of Nantang Tang go northward by water.

Unexpectedly, others are now repeating the old tricks, and the overwhelming sugar is also transported to the south by sea.As a result, the industry of Southern Sugar is about to be lost.

"Third Highness, please help us. Sugar making is a big business in the south. Including sugarcane farmers, it is at least the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people, and an industry of several 10 taels of silver. Seeing so much People have been taken out of their jobs, this south...is designated to be chaotic, designated to be chaotic!"

The sugar merchant painted a rather dire picture for the third prince.

"Have you found out where this candy came from?" The third prince turned around and asked in disbelief.

"It was only found out that the sugar sold in the north was landed from Jimo Port, and then sold everywhere."

"Go ashore at Jimo Port?" The third prince showed a puzzled expression, "Could it be that the other party is the real 'Yangtang'?"

The sugar merchant quickly shook his head: "No, it's not. All participating firms, from the shopkeepers to the staff, are all locals. Only the sugar is shipped to Jimo Port before distribution. The little people guessed that it was probably from Jiaozhou in the north. Bring it here."

"Nonsense, where is the sugar cane produced in Jiaozhou? Didn't they all freeze to death?" The third prince always boasted that he "knows farming" and refuted the sugar merchant's nonsense on the spot.

The sugar merchant had a bitter face: "This villain really doesn't know."

The third prince looked at the map hanging on his wall, the land on the map looked east to the sea, and the coastline was winding.He gradually narrowed his eyes: "Take the sea route to avoid road tax?"

"Yes! That's what we do too." The sugar merchant tried to remind the third prince: don't do to others what you don't want.Don't levy a new tax in the blink of an eye this guy.

Unexpectedly, the Third Prince laughed suddenly, and said: "I heard that there have always been pirates along the coast, and the sea area around Jimo, Jiaozhou is very unsettled. The owners of some cargo ships, even if they want to send their things safely to the ground, they can't get it... If this snowflake candy falls into the sea, can the sea water in Bohai Bay be less salty?"

The sugar merchant looked at the third prince who was grinning all over his face, and thought in shock: What are you talking about?A prince who supervises the country, and those pirates who kill people and steal goods on the sea... shouldn't have anything to do with it!

In Taoyuan Village, Hongxiang Sugar Factory also really felt the impact from "Snowflake Candy".

When they harvested sugarcane this year, there were a lot of sugarcane farmers flocking.Many people even drove for three days and three nights to deliver the sugar cane they had just received to the sugar mill.

"The sugar mills in our area are all closed, and they say they won't harvest sugar cane this year. You are the only one in eight townships all over the world." The sugarcane farmer complained to Tian's father and son, "Old Tian, ​​what do you think we should do?"

Tian's father sympathized with these sugarcane farmers, and said, "As long as you come to my place, I will definitely accept it. You will receive as much as you want!"

"Brother, righteousness!" The sugarcane farmers looked at Tian's father, all teary.

Tian Youming smiled wryly at the side: "Father—"

The sugar mills have a limited ability to process fresh sugar cane, and they cannot handle all the new cane sent in at once. Once the sugar cane deteriorates, the loss will become the sugar mill's.

Father Tian shouldn't have given such a promise.

But Tian's father said: "It's not easy for everyone. Naturally, you can help if you can." The sugarcane farmers saluted to Tian's father one after another, and Tian Youming, the young boss, was not very popular.

Tian Youming was in a dilemma, when he saw Jia Fang approaching from a distance, he suddenly seemed to see a savior, and quickly waved: "Mr. Jia, Mr. Jia... this way!"

"You said, what should our sugar mill and these sugarcane farmers do?"

The author has something to say: The second update is here, see you cuties tomorrow!