Dominate the Country

The winter wind is no match for the arrival of spring, and everything is revived for a new year. The spring of the 31st year of Qianlong.

The spring rain seems to have stopped, and it falls on the world. In the surrounding green mountains, it seems that the fine rain is also green, falling from the blue sky. The soil in the forest is mixed with a fresh smell, feeling the breath of spring, and being moistened by the spring rain. The grass slowly pokes its head out, at the roots of trees, in the bushes, and under people's feet, quietly spreading the unknown light green for the earth, like a light watercolor.

Xiang County, since the late autumn of last year, the Chen family has been carefully operating an iron trading place. Hidden in the mountains, the road is tortuous, but it is not difficult to walk. You only need to go up the mountain road and enter the depths of the dense forest, and you can smoothly come to the place where private iron gathers.

No one knows which big family is behind this den. What appeared in front of people was just a handful of poor families in Xiang County, which were obviously pushed to the front. Although this display seems to be able to make a lot of money. But everyone's eyes still want to see the person behind the scenes. Because this force is a bit frightening, it can produce 300,000 or 400,000 kilograms of good iron every month, which is comparable to the iron production of the entire Henan Province. Of course, no one has counted this, and those who are interested can only estimate the iron production in Ruzhou at most. There is no comparison between a firefly and a bright moon.

And the quality of these iron materials is not worse than that of Guangdong Iron. Because of the appearance of a large number of high-quality iron materials, the tyrants in Ruzhou who eat ironware rice quickly joined in like a cat smelling fishy smell, buying back good iron to make iron pots, kitchen knives, etc. The profit is much better than that of inferior iron, because they dare to sell such ironware directly to Shanxi and Hubei. Instead of just wandering around in the small area of ​​​​western Henan as before.

Then a large number of high-quality kitchen knives, scissors, axes, hatchets, sickles, hammers, iron pots, shovels, etc. quickly emerged in the market of western Henan. By the way, honeycomb coal and coal stoves are becoming popular in Ruzhou now, and they also use iron. This is a new product made by the Chen family in Lushan, who made bone china.

It only takes three or four coal balls to make a fire and cook a meal a day. For people living in the city, the money spent on buying coal balls every month is much more cost-effective than buying firewood. And it is convenient and fast. If you don’t mind the trouble, you can even buy a coal briquette machine for making coal balls yourself, go to the coal shop to buy a basket of coal, and then get some sawdust and loess, and you can make coal balls yourself, which is even more cost-effective.

Coal is not rare in Ruzhou, but most people in Ruzhou’s towns still burn firewood, who makes Ruzhou close to the mountains. This is not Beijing, with a population of millions. If you don’t burn coal or firewood, the entire Yingtianfu will not be enough to use it even if you shave it into a "bald head".

The reason why honeycomb coal has been popular for decades in later generations is that it has its own advantages. The Chen family only promoted it slightly, and it soon became popular throughout Lushan, and then rushed out of Lushan County to the entire Ruzhou and the entire western Henan.

The Chen family did not expect to make money from this thing. Just like bone china, the Chen family wanted to increase the application of iron materials and continue to brush up their own reputation. It was not to find a market or a way out for the inferior iron produced in Ruzhou. The Chen family did not need to care about that.

Although the hundreds of thousands of high-quality iron materials produced by the Chen family attracted the eyes of many powerful people in Ruzhou who made a living from iron materials and ironware, the stomach of Ruzhou was too small. After the initial month of madness, the total sales of Ruzhou in Xiangxian den could only account for one-tenth of the total production at most.

Ruzhou produced a lot of high-quality ironware, and from winter to the current spring, it has been beaten to Shanxi. But the inferior iron in Ruzhou continued to be produced without being impacted or shaken. Of course, the less shock the local economic interest groups in Ruzhou received, the smaller their rebound force, and the lower the possibility of Chen's exposure.

The monthly production of 300,000 to 400,000 kilograms of iron is a large amount, but if it is really put into the entire Central Plains market, it will not cause much splash. Because at this time, the demand for iron materials among the people was far greater than the iron material production of the Qing Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the price of a pound of good iron among the people was only one cent of silver. During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, the price of iron had exceeded one and a half cents. Now it is the 30th year of Emperor Qianlong. The Ministry of Industry has used the price of Shanxi Jin Iron to calculate the price of iron per pound, including the purchase price and the trip fee, at four cents of silver.

The iron production of the Qing Dynasty may not have decreased, but the population has greatly increased compared to the Kangxi period. In the 30th year of Emperor Qianlong, the total population of China was at least 250 million. Another 10 to 20 years later, by the late Emperor Qianlong, the population would have exceeded 300 million.

In addition, the preparations made by the Chen family in the past few months are far more than just Xiangxian. In Zhoujiakou, the Chen family directly opened two vests, using them as a cover to buy iron materials from Xiangxian, and then resold them in Zhoujiakou, a prosperous place, making a lot of profit. It also directly promoted the reputation of Xiangxian Iron Material Den, and now has attracted many big businessmen from Zhoujiakou for the Chen family.

These people are the main buyers of the Chen family's iron materials, so the hundreds of thousands of pounds of iron produced by the Chen family did not cause much impact on the local market in Ruzhou. If the inferior iron in Ruzhou was really unsalable, the Chen family would find a way to buy it. After all, it would just go through the furnace, and the price would double after it came out.

The magistrate of Xiang County did not pay much attention to the den in the mountains. Although iron materials are a sensitive industry, the money spent by the Chen family in Xiang County for several months is not without any effect. Besides, Xiang County is located in Henan Province, which is the heartland of the Central Plains. Now that the Qing Dynasty is at its peak, those officials can't think of the word "rebellion". Since the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, although there are many mountains and little land in western Henan, and the population is dense, there is really no tradition of rebellion here. Officials have lived in peace for too long, and their thinking has been formed and they can't get out of that framework. No one would associate the sudden emergence of iron materials with rebellion.

Up to now, the den has existed for three or four months, and its name has spread throughout western Henan. Countless eyes are staring at the source of the iron materials in the den in order to find the person behind the scenes, which has added a lot of trouble to the Chen family invisibly.

But these troubles, except for better training the armed forces of the Chen family, Chen Ming can't think of any other use. The road paved with silver, if you can find traces just by stalking, the Chen family doesn't need to make any plans, just go to bed, and take the silver to find a backer the next day.

Chen Ming really wants to go to Xiang County, he is curious, he feels that the feeling of walking on the dark road is very exciting from the bottom of his heart. But the son of a rich man cannot sit in the hall, Chen Ming's wish is impossible to realize.

ps: Next week is the first recommendation of this book, although the position is very bad, but still hope that book friends will support it strongly. You know, the performance of this first recommendation period is so important for a new book!