The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

When the two fathers were talking about their son, what was Lu An doing as the master of the topic?He is making money.

That's right, Lu Buwei's guess about his son was not wrong at all. Lu An is really a little baby with a special sense of crisis.

Not long after the family temporarily settled down, as the only man in the family (self-proclaimed), Lu Xiaoan had an open and honest talk with his mother and Zhao Ji after going up and down in the yard a few times, and then shared the family's financial affairs. After understanding the situation, the child's expression immediately became serious.

Of course, Lu Buwei did not leave his wife property. He is an old fritter who has traveled to various countries. Of course, the stupid things that happened to other people would not happen to him.In addition, he holds the official documents of Zhao State and Qin State, and no one would dare to embarrass him. He did not encounter bandits and bandits during this journey, and there were no unexpected expenses. When they arrived at Yewang City, Lu Buwei and others could say And the purse is full.

In fact, Lu Buwei had no hope for the foreigner's funds at all, and it was a surprise that the other party was able to bring back the gold piece.

Moreover, Lu Buwei started to make arrangements early on. If he is really at the end of his rope at this point, it would be too small to underestimate him.The Lu family also has some other fragmented properties in Qin State besides the land property. Apart from these, he also holds a lot of trump cards in his hand, but it will take some time to figure out how to use them.

But Lu Buwei didn't tell his son about these things.

During the journey westward, Lu Buwei told his son half-truths and half-truths about his plans and situation.He believes in his son, although the boy is only seven years old this year, and he will only be nine years old if he is older, and he did a naughty thing not long ago, stealing candy and breaking his teeth, but Lu Buwei just believes that his son knows the seriousness .

Although Lu Buwei became a merchant, the reason why he chose this path was for the future inheritance of the Lu family.If he taught his son to be a fool, then even if he earned gold and silver, he would still be a dowry to others, and all the previous sacrifices would be meaningless.

Is there a more important investment in this world than investing in your own children?

Lu Buwei knew this clearly, so he sought out the best scholars in the world for his son as a teacher. He also brought his son with him on weekdays to teach by example and encourage him to speak out about what he observed. , He also put the burden on his son's shoulders.

This is not to encourage seedlings to grow, but in the war-torn era of the pre-Qin period, children's childhood was very short.At this time, there was no law on the protection of minors. Under the pressure of survival, children in the pre-Qin period generally matured prematurely.

As a father, Lu Buwei naturally thinks that the child is very good, but as the head of the Lu family, Lu Buwei has to look at his heir with scrutiny.

But to observe a person, there are blind spots in speech and behavior. Only by observing his style of doing things, how to solve difficulties, how to behave after success, etc., can we make a judgment for an independent individual.

Therefore, being independent this time is also a test for Lu Buwei to his son.

From Lu An's point of view, the two families will stay in Yewang City for a period of time. During this period of time, the two adult men in the family will be struggling on the line of life and death. solve.

The so-called primary issue is personal safety and property safety. At critical moments, you may have to be prepared to run away and turn around to rescue - this is Lu An's own judgment.

Because it is uncertain when Lu Buwei and Yiren will be able to provide them with financial assistance, Lu An must live on a budget and try to last long enough.

To achieve this goal, throttling is useless.

Lu An has always had a strange value, and this value is also appreciated by Lu Buwei, that is-money is not saved, but spent.

In many cases, Lu Buwei was ashamed of his son's courage in money.Children are born with desires. According to Mr. Lu An Xun Qing's point of view, the process of learning is the process of teaching people to suppress human nature.

Also because children usually don't have more complicated thoughts, they are extremely protective of food.However, when Lu An was very young, he would not hesitate to hand over his small money bag to his father to "take shares" in his father's investment plan, and then the profits he earned would be used in other "investment" plans.

Except for a very small amount of pocket money, almost all of Lu An's funds were spent in Lu Buwei's various projects.

The Lu family is not a business family. Lu Buwei's business is all based on his instincts and the contacts he made during his youth study tours and observations. He did not expect his son to be more talented than him, especially when it comes to money.

Naturally, there are profits and losses in investment. Lu An is very considerate in terms of profit and loss. He does not get greedy when he makes profits, and does not get discouraged when he loses. He has a sense of freedom and ease.But Lu Buwei was a little puzzled by his son's persistence in many aspects.

——For example, my son is particularly fond of buying land.

Lu An persuaded him to enclose a lot of land in Qin State, and he especially likes to choose places that look barren. The selected poor place is not eye-catching.

Mrs. Lu rarely objected to her husband and son's decision, even this time when Lu Buwei made the decision to let Lu Anquan be in charge of their situation.

She just pursed her lips and smiled, and agreed gently.

Of course, Lu An also knew very well that if he really messed up the situation, his mother would definitely make a move.

but!

The little boy secretly clenched his fists, expressing that he would not give his mother this chance!

As for the choice of residence, from outsiders' point of view, it was decided by Mrs. Lu and Zhao Ji, and they mainly introduced it to the adults during the publicity. Turned around a few times.

The rent of the courtyard where the Lu family is currently renting in Yewang City is in the upper middle class.Originally, according to Zhao Ji's intention, they could live in a middle-to-lower house, and there was no need to spend too much money on rent.

But after Lu An hired a donkey cart to walk around the streets and alleys of Yewang City, he drew a few circles, and specified that he must choose a residence in these circles, and the rents in the places he marked out were not low.

Lu An's reason is very convincing - they are all women and children, and safety is the most important thing.

After demarcating this area, several people visited one by one and considered the second issue-neighborhood relationship.

Lu An persuaded the two female relatives in the family with the idea of ​​"distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors".

If the neighbor is reliable, you can always ask the other party to help you if you encounter trouble.Moreover, children who grow up in a harmonious and friendly neighborhood relationship will have a more sunny personality.

After this requirement is met, traffic factors and terrain issues are finally considered.

But this point is basically incompatible with the first point. If the location is good, it will be good for security if it is close to the government office. Since it is close to the government office, it is naturally the center of the city, and it is very convenient in every way.

After excluding several unsuitable housing sources, the Liu family's house came into the eyes of the Lu family.

This house itself is the house of Liu Dazhuang's second brother, but during the war, his second brother fled away with the burden of the old man in the family.Liu Dazhuang asked people to inquire several times, and waited for almost three years, but there was no news back.

According to such circumstances, it is basically certain that the family has been killed.

In times of war, people's nerves must also be tough, but no matter how tough they are, Liu Dazhuang can't do the thing of merging his brother's house, and he can't get over this hurdle in his heart.

But the house is easily damaged if it is not used for a long time, and Liu Dazhuang's family is not rich enough to support a house, so he rents out the house on behalf of him. Rent a child just in case.

The Lu family tried to live here for a few days, and after a short contact with it, they felt that it was not bad, and it was very convenient in every way, so they paid another two months' deposit and decided to continue renting.

After this part of the rent payment, the Lu family's financial income will be under some pressure.

Time has turned into summer, and the air is also a little hot.

While that means harvest time is approaching this year, the winter that follows summer and fall is a huge challenge in this day and age.At that time, whether it is buying thick clothes or buying fuel for heating, it will not be a small expense, and the Lu family has no food storage, so it must be purchased after the autumn harvest.

But this year, God did not care too much for this land. This year, the Yellow River Basin has a lot of precipitation, and the crop filling period is even more cloudy and rainy. The photosynthesis of plants is insufficient, and they cannot produce enough starch. The reflection of plants is that there are not enough grains.

When Lu An passed by the field, he could see from the frown of the farmer that something was wrong.

The most troublesome thing is that not only the state of Qin, but also the state of Zhao whose population has been forced to drop sharply, the surrounding Han and Wei states have poor harvests, which also means that the state of Qin cannot purchase grain from these two countries. Stabilize food prices.

It is needless to say what it means when the Qin State has just experienced a large-scale battle and encountered a shortage of harvests, which cannot be resolved through commercial means.

But all of this has nothing to do with Yewang City for the time being. Shangdang County, which has just returned to Qin, has been exempted from tax in the past few years, and in order to encourage the people to reclaim land, there are rewards for pioneers.Theoretically, this place can guarantee self-sufficiency this year.

This is why Lu Buwei chose this place as his foothold.

But the reason why we talk about theory is that no one can guarantee whether Qin will use local food to support other places.Even if the government does not do this, there is no guarantee that merchants will not buy at low prices here and sell at high prices elsewhere, so we still have to guard against skyrocketing food prices.

If the Lu family has spare money, hoarding food now is a good choice, but the Lu family can only choose one between keeping warm and storing food.

Lu An walked around the street a few times, and then took Madam Lu to the grain shop. When she came out, Madam Lu had already placed an order for wheat beans.

Taking advantage of the fact that local grain farmers intend to empty out the old grain warehouses at this time, and grain prices are cheap, Lu An bought a lot of cheap crops and went home.

Wheat Shu was not used as the main grain in the pre-Qin period, because the processing technology was not good enough. Both of these things were very unpalatable. According to dietary standards, anyone who used them as food would undoubtedly be looked down upon.However, because these two crops do not need to be cultivated too much, and there is always demand from farmers, the output is not low.

Lu Xiaoan borrowed a mill for free through the relationship of the neighbor next door, and he ground the unhulled wheat into flour, regardless of whether it was flour or chaff, and brought them all back home.

Flour is better stored, all stuffed in crocks and placed in a dry and ventilated place, and these bran husks with flour were made into dough by the little boy adding water and salt—although this dough contains impurities It doesn't look very tasty at first glance, but after washing it, all the starch and impurities are washed away, and the rest is gluten!

Gluten is steamed to be roasted bran, boiled to be wet gluten, fried to be oily gluten, and the washed starch can also be used to make cold noodle.

The trial production was relatively successful. Although the first attempt was a bit exhausting, the adults of the Lu family all expressed their approval for this new food, but they had different opinions on Lu An's next plan.

Lu An intends to sell the method of making gluten to the manager of the grain store.

at an inexpensive price.

"Why is Xiao Lang like this? Wouldn't it be better for us to have this gluten-making method in our hands and sell it?" Zhao Ji was very puzzled by Lu An's decision while holding the child: "Xiao Lang is worried that we won't be able to do it? "

Zhao Zheng, who had grown up a lot, arched back and forth in her arms, waving his small arms as if to express that he fully agreed with his grandmother's opinion.

At this time, Lu An was carefully experimenting with making gluten by the stove, using lard.During the post-war restoration period, the price of pork in Yewangcheng was not cheap, so Lu Xiaoan could only save a little, and changed the frying to frying. Naturally, he had to be very careful and quickly turn around in order to find a way to make the gluten a round one. individual.

——But in fact, gluten is not so easy to deceive, it doesn't eat this at all, and Lu Xiaoan made the fat gluten that should be round into a weird square cube.

"We really can't do it." Lu An fished out the weird-looking gluten. After a little luck with the gluten, he patiently explained to Zhao Ji: "Washing gluten is not an easy job. If you If we open our own shop to ensure the output, we must hire people. But the money back is slow, and the process can be completed even by a child like me. As long as we are careful, we will be discovered easily. When the time comes, we will be foreigners. Must not be able to compete with the locals.”

"And most importantly..."

"We have no source of food."

They purchase wheat on a large scale, and they have to borrow other people's grinding tools, and they will soon be deciphered what the raw material of gluten is and what is the key point of making it.That's all, but the key point is that the raw materials are not self-sufficient at all, and it is a seller's market at this time. Once the grain stores are ready to raise prices, they will have no way to fight back and can only be passively beaten.

It's not that there are other ways, but Lu An thinks it's unnecessary, and they don't plan to operate here for a few years, so there's no need to spend a lot of effort to manage it carefully.

Lu An continued: "For the owner of the grain store, with this method, whether he plans to open a store, or announce the method to promote the sale of wheat, it can increase his profits. So he will definitely buy it, and We go directly to find him, and he will accept our love.”

After all, gluten is the difference from food to vegetables, and for ordinary people, the difference is quite big.The price of wheat is low, even if it is processed, it will not be too expensive, and it can be sold all year round. In winter, if you can have an extra dish, you will have a little more happiness index.

And the Lu family, which increased the happiness index of the locals, would naturally gain a wave of favorability.

Don't underestimate the invisible and intangible thing of good-looking, in fact, it is very important.

The Lu family are foreigners, and outsiders who come to the local area to earn money from the local people will always make the local people uncomfortable.But if it makes a contribution to the local people, it is the introduction of talents, and the situation is completely different.

With a base of favorability, many things in the future will be much more convenient.

For example, the primary problem they are facing now—there is no place to buy milk for Zhao Zheng’s children—maybe it can be solved.