Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1224 Postscript 80·A lot of small money

The hunt lasted for three days, and Xie Yan had a great time.

On the afternoon of the second day, he shot a sika deer with his musket. Although he was only spanked, with the help of the hound, he was still able to take it down very easily.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much prey here.

After the Queen Mother and the Emperor left with their troops, the managers of the hunting grounds immediately brought in live animals and released them into the forest.

If we don’t artificially raise them, we won’t be able to play with them next year!

So much so that there were gentry landowners in the Dagonguan area who specialized in raising deer and pigs around the mountains. Every year, when the royal family's autumn hunting is over, they are caught, sold to the royal hunting grounds and released for sustainable hunting by the dignitaries of Luoyang.

"Hey, why is that carriage following you all the time?" Xie Yan asked curiously.

Zhu Tangxi said: "I asked the Queen Mother for something, and the carriage helped transport it back."

Xie Yan asked no more questions.

It wasn't until he arrived outside his home that Xie Yan finally knew what it was.

A big bundle of deer antlers!

Xie Yan asked doubtfully: "What does sister want deer antler for?"

Zhu Tangxi replied shyly: "I'm just replenishing Liu Lang's body."

To nourish the body?

Xie Yan thought of a certain function of deer antler, and suddenly said hard: "I am still very young and strong, so I don't need deer antler to supplement it!"

Zhu Tangxi turned his back, avoiding his own servants and the official who was carrying the deer antlers, and playfully stuck out his tongue at his lover.

"Forget it, keep it and use it again in thirty years." Xie Yan felt that he could remain strong until he was forty-seven or eighteen years old.

Zhu Tangxi did not give any face: "I asked the imperial doctor and he said that it is best to take deer antler within two to three years."

Xie Yan felt sorry for the bundle of deer antlers: "What wonderful medicinal materials, they are useless even if they are kept in my house."

"Pfft!" Qingluan covered her mouth and laughed.

Returning to the study, Xie Yan immediately looked for the business card.

During the last Royal Society meeting, Xie Yan met several famous doctors, and all of them left their business cards.

He found all the business cards and wrote letters to famous doctors one by one.

The general content is: I recently went hunting with the Queen Mother and the Emperor, and I hunted a few fat deer with great power and took the antlers home as a souvenir. I heard that this stuff can replenish the body. How should I take it best? Of course I don't need to make up for it myself. I sent it back to Huangzhou to honor my father.

Yes, I just honor my father.

After waiting for the famous doctors to reply, I sent some instructions for taking it together with the deer antler to my father to share.

I am such a genius and a filial son!

After copying seven or eight letters in one go, Xie Yan called Wang Xing and asked him to send the letters to famous doctors quickly.

Then he lay on the bamboo couch outside the study, feeling so comfortable that it was better to be at home. I just wanted to lie down like this for the rest of my life.

…

Cizhou Machinery Factory.

A small ball mill with an extremely rough appearance was finally welded and assembled.

Several trucks of hematite mined locally in Cizhou have already been transported. These ores come in different sizes and are sent to the ball mill after watering, waiting to be fired in the boiler to start testing.

After two or three minutes passed, the machine was temporarily shut down to check and record the ore crushing situation.

"Useful, useful, a lot of iron ore has been broken!"

"Roughly estimate what the proportions of ores of various sizes are."

"..."

The machine quickly turned back on and then turned off again after two or three minutes.

Then replace the steel balls of different sizes and continue the experimental recording according to the previous method.

After grinding the iron ore, it was replaced with limestone ore.

After that, you need to replace the gear set and adjust the speed of the ball mill to see at what speed the various ores have the highest grinding efficiency.

A few days later, the Ministry of Works received a telegram.

The telegram soon reached the hands of Bao Cweng, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry. He hurried to find Chen Wenzhao, the minister, and said happily: "Ms. Chen, the ball mill is really useful."

Chen Wenzhao asked: "How much can efficiency be improved?"

Bao Tsingweng said: "Cizhou is still continuing experiments, but according to what they claimed in the telegram, the ball mill is more than ten times faster than the previous steam hammer. Moreover, the ore ground out is more uniform. They plan to use the ball mill to Make it bigger.”

"Improved more than ten times..."

Chen Wenzhao muttered: "If we talk to Bachelor Xie about a patent buyout now, we will have to spend a lot of money."

Bao Tsien-Weng said: “Ball mills are widely used and no matter how expensive they are, we won’t lose money.”

It is indeed a sure profit. All factories and mines that need to grind materials are potential customers of various types of ball mills.

Chen Wenzhao said: "I have some connections with the Xie family. It is not convenient for me to negotiate the price with him. You can take charge of this matter personally."

If it weren't for Xie Yan's status as a consort, the Ministry of Works would not need Zuo Shilang to come forward. At most, he could be dismissed by sending a director of the Ministry of Works. Moreover, the price reduction will be extremely severe!

Bao Cweng took the order and left.

Soon, Zhang Mengxiong, the right minister in charge of the railway, came again: "Ms. Chen, this is the latest plan for the Zhentai Railway. The Hutuo River is too wide, and it is impossible to build the railway to outside Zhending City. It can only be built to Zhending City. On the other side of the river, if you want to transport goods to Zhending City, you must unload them and ship them instead.”

"The problem is not big," Chen Wenzhao said. "The main purpose of building the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway is to transport coal from Shanxi to the Central Plains, Nanjing, Huainan, and Zhejiang."

Although the problem is not serious, it must be reported to the cabinet.

The Hutuo River is not particularly wide in Shanxi. When it passes through the Taihang Mountains and reaches North China, the water suddenly slows down and the river surface suddenly widens.

How wide?

More than ten miles!

Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the river was still 12 miles wide. Due to the difficulty of construction and the high cost of building the bridge, the late Qing government had no choice but to give up building the bridge.

As a result, the terminal station of the Zhengtai Railway that was supposed to be built outside Zhengding City became Shijiazhuang.

In this time and space, we can only cultivate as far as Shijiazhuang.

Because the Hutuo River is wider now than in the late Qing Dynasty, it flows until Gaocheng before splitting into two. Its northern route flows through the north of Gaocheng, and its southern route even flows through Ningjin County.

Of course, there was no village called Shijiazhuang at this time, but there was a town called Shiyi nearby.

Shiyi City has a much longer history than Zhending City. It existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, and was reduced to a small town in the early Northern Song Dynasty.

The next day.

Chen Wenzhao came to the cabinet to explain the railway plan.

"The railway is built from Taiyuan to the other side of Zhending City, which happens to be connected to the water transport of Hutuo River."

"The goods are shipped to Zhending City and can be transported to Beijing by rail."

"Goods are shipped along the Hutuo River North Road and can be transported by water all the way to Baoding."

"Goods are shipped along the Hutuo River South Road and can be transported by water all the way to Guantao and connected to the Yongji Canal there."

Deng Gongwu carefully looked at the land and water transportation map, nodded and said, "It's feasible."

The Shijiazhuang area will definitely become prosperous in the future.

When the population gathered to a certain extent, it was time to restore Shiyi County in the early Song Dynasty. However, the county seat will be moved twenty miles north, facing Zhending City across the Hutuo River.

…

After Bao Cweng got off work from the Ministry of Industry, he went directly to the Princess of Qin.

He had already handed in his greeting card yesterday.

The carriage passed by the gate, and Bao Cweng glanced at the plaque.

The "Huama Di" sign hanging below has become a scene in Luoyang. Many people from out of town who come to Beijing will even come here to have a look.

He was just the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Bao Cweng was not qualified to enter through the main entrance.

He took a car and went around to the side entrance of the princess's palace, and was quickly taken to the living room to drink tea by a servant.

After a while, the princess came.

Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!

Bao Cweng stood up and bowed: "Greetings to Her Royal Highness the eldest princess!"

Zhu Tangxi returned the Wanfu gift and said, "My husband hasn't gone home yet. Taixue is quite far away. He is probably on the way. Minister Bao can talk to me directly."

Bao Cweng said: "The ball mill was provided by Prince Consort Xie with basic drawings, and was trial-produced and repeatedly improved by Cizhou Machinery Factory. Both parties enjoy half of the patent rights. The Ministry of Industry plans to buy the half from Prince Consort Xie."

"Five hundred thousand guan." Zhu Tangxi's lion opened his mouth.

Bao Cweng was shocked: "It's too expensive."

Zhu Tangxi said: "The permanent use rights of the government-owned cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway were sold together. They were all included in the 500,000 yuan."

"It's still too expensive," Bao Cweng shook his head repeatedly, "It's impossible for the Ministry of Industry to agree, and I can't go back to deal with Chen Shangshu."

"How much does the Ministry of Industry plan to offer?" Zhu Tangxi asked.

Bao Tsien-weng said: "Fifty thousand strings."

Zhu Tangxi sneered.

Just this 50,000 yuan is for the sake of the princess.

If it were someone with no background, the Ministry of Industry would be able to get it done with at most 30,000 yuan, and that would include kickbacks from the negotiator and the contractor.

The real money an inventor can get is as much as 20,000 yuan.

Twenty thousand yuan is also a huge amount of money!

Of course Bao Cweng didn't dare to take kickbacks from the princess. He bit the bullet and said, "Eighty thousand yuan."

Zhu Tangxi picked up the tea cup and said, "Send guests off."

"Your Highness, please wait and we can talk again." Bao Cweng shouted quickly.

This job is too difficult to handle, a favored princess and a well-known prince-in-law.

No wonder Chen Shangshu asked him, Zuo Shilang, to come and talk in person.

If he were the director of a small Ministry of Industry, he might not even dare to bargain in front of the princess.

There is no point in delaying the discussion. This kind of trick is ineffective against Zhu Tangxi.

If the Ministry of Industry really dared to produce and sell ball mills without buying out the patent rights, Zhu Tangxi would definitely go to Queen Mother Ye to complain.

Bao Tseweng said: "One hundred thousand."

Zhu Tangxi drank tea and said nothing.

This attitude silenced Bao Cweng.

He was the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, and he actually bargained like a merchant, and the other party didn't bother to pay attention to him even halfway through the conversation.

Negotiations need to be carried out slowly, and it is normal to negotiate for three to five months.

The problem is that the status of both parties in this negotiation is abnormal!

There is no way to work slowly.

Straight bitch, it’s the Ministry of Industry’s money anyway, no matter how much you spend, it’s none of my business.

Bao Cweng said: "Twenty thousand yuan, buy out the patent of the ball mill and the patent use rights of the government-owned cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway."

Zhu Tangxi shook his head: "Not enough."

"This is the minimum price set by the Ministry of Industry. If it exceeds 120,000 yuan, it must be approved by Chen Shangshu personally." Bao Cweng told the truth.

Zhu Tangxi carefully observed the other party's expression, and she felt that it was about the same: "150,000 yuan. The Ministry of Industry will also build two more ball mills and give them to our cement factory."

Bao Cweng had no choice but to go back to ask for instructions and come back for negotiations the next day.

The negotiation results between the two parties are:

The Ministry of Industry offered 150,000 yuan to buy out 50% of Xie Yan's ball mill patents and buy out the patent rights to the government-run cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway.

The working part is paid three times, and the first payment of 50,000 yuan is paid when signing the contract. The remaining 100,000 yuan shall be paid in two installments, once every six months.

The Ministry of Industry donated a ball mill for grinding limestone, which was to be delivered to Xie Yan's cement factory within two months.

On the day of signing the contract, Xie Yan received a down payment of 50,000 yuan.

That’s a lot of money!

He tried to convert it into RMB, and after much deliberation, he decided to use the price of rice.

But the price of rice in the Ming Dynasty varied greatly in different regions.

In rural areas of grain-producing provinces, during the rice harvest season, a pound of rice only cost five or six coins. During lean months, a pound of rice only cost seven or eight coins.

But it was different in a megacity like Luoyang in the Central Plains. Even during the rice harvest season, a pound of rice cost more than ten coins.

It was cheaper in large southern cities, after all, because they were close to rice-producing areas.

Let's calculate it based on 10 coins per pound of rice. Assuming that a pound of rice cost 3 yuan, a string of coins would be 300 yuan. Wouldn't 50,000 strings be 15 million yuan?

Of course, this conversion is definitely not accurate.

"Sister is really amazing. She actually got the Ministry of Works to give in." Xie Yan said happily.

Zhu Tangxi smiled and said, "I borrowed the power of the Queen Mother. Even if it was another princess, the Ministry of Works would not be so easy to talk to."

Xie Yan whispered, "Two famous doctors living in Luoyang have already replied to my letter. Let's try the efficacy of deer antler today."

Zhu Tangxi looked around in shame and reminded, "We haven't even left the Ministry of Works yet, don't talk nonsense."

"Then I don't accept deer antler." Xie Yan teased.

Zhu Tangxi was so angry that he punched him, and couldn't wait to say, "Go home quickly."