Seeing that Hong Dashou could only ride a mule when he went out, he showed no dignity as a noble of the two classes.

Min Tingyue suddenly remembered that while the entire envoy was frantically buying Chinese silk, patent medicines, and luxury goods, Hong Dashou was the only one who stuck to his heart and purchased a large number of books.

In the entire mission, there is a figure like a white lotus!

He estimated that Hong Dashou brought special products from the Li Dynasty and sold them in Yanjing. Most of the money he earned was used to buy books. He must not have much left, otherwise he would not be riding a mule to travel.

Even if he couldn't afford a sedan, raising a horse was just a drop in the bucket for an attaché of an envoy carrying more than 400 kilograms of goods to and from the Qing Dynasty.

Anyway, Min Tingyu has made nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver, and the Min family will not be short of money in recent years.

And he thought that Hong Dashou, who only bought books, must be a poor man!

He simply gave a horse with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters to Hong Dashou. However, the horse was already thirteen years old. Even if it was a sacred war horse before, it is now very old. At most, it would be given to Hong Dashou to train.

Riding is just a matter of running two steps occasionally.

I picked up an old horse for free, and the groom hired by my family said it must be a good horse imported from the Northeast. Because domestic horses are considered good horses if they are one meter tall at the shoulder, and only imported horses can be such good horses.

Hong Dashou didn't care what kind of horse it was. Anyway, he wouldn't ride a horse out again in winter. Even if he wanted to learn to ride a horse, he would wait until spring.

It was more important to continue studying the scriptures at the moment. The cold Siberian wind blocked Hong Dashou from all thoughts of going out.

Yu Dashun braved the cold wind and took the trouble to make a trip. Xiang Lai Yi Zi Ming Zhong took action and sold it to Cao Yunda, the great scholar of Hongwenguan. This man also served as an envoy to the Qing Dynasty and saw the scenery of the Qing Dynasty.

I am a person who loves this exquisite self-taught statue and cannot put it down.

I got two thousand five hundred taels, and I’ll get a few more if I have the chance!

The book scholar Jiang Dajiang never came together again, but every time he came he was extremely respectful and in a happy mood. Since the first "Blessing Tablet" was sold to them, the two brothers would always come every ten days or so.

trip.

Firstly, Ma Zhiyuan's books are really good. Secondly, because of the cold weather, many Hanyang residents have reduced outdoor activities. Indoor entertainment activities are so scarce, so naturally they want to find novels to kill time when they have nothing to do.

Jiang Dajiang Er made a lot of money!

The subsequent novels sold by Hong Dashou were engravings with illustrations. Similar to "The Story of the West Chamber", some content must be read with illustrations to have flavor and artistic conception.

Naturally, these engravings were packaged and sold to Jiang Dajiang Er with a zero added. The illustrations are the essence and must be tasted.

In just over two months, these things have brought Hong Dashou a lot of money. Min Tingyue completely miscalculated, Hong Dashou was very rich!

"Brother Hong, what does this say?" Han Sanshi bought Spanish mackerel and rice cakes for the New Year from outside and handed them to the kitchen.

The weather was very cold and freezing. He knew that there was a stove burning in Hong Dashou's house and it would definitely be warm, so he came in to get some warmth.

"The policy theory is useless before it is finished."

Han Sanshi didn't seem to understand, so he picked up a piece of paper on the floor. On it was a discussion about the Land Equalization Law. Hong Dashou scribbled on it and only wrote a small part of it.

Although he has been traveling all over the country for more than ten years, Han Sanshi can only recognize a few words, and he is still far from being able to read them all. After looking at Hong Dashou's strategy, he doesn't quite understand it. It's a pity that only half of it is written on a very good piece of paper, and the back side is

Also completely wasted.

"Can't you write on the back of this paper?"

"It's not that you can't write on the back, it's just that the imperial examination papers don't use the back."

"What a pity, the paper is quite good."

After Han Sanshi finished speaking, he picked up the waste papers on the ground one by one and gave them to Hong Dashou to put away. Maybe which one of them was written well can be used as a reference in the future.

Looking at a pile of paper, Hong Dashou suddenly remembered something.

"Brother Han will go out again and ask about the price of ordinary paper."

Han Sanshi was asked to go out to inquire about the paper price, while Hong Dachuan found Jin Douji.

"Why are brothers Hong interested in chatting with me today?" Jin Douji sat down next to the small stove.

"Isn't this urgent? What does Brother Jin think is the best and most valuable in Hanyang in these two months?"

"Two or three months?" Jin Douji put his hand to the stove and thought while roasting, mumbling something.

"It's nothing more than an example of the tribute food required for the New Year, including dried fruits, sea fish, etc.

Then there are silk and cotton fabrics. Whether it is the queen and queen in the palace or ordinary people. As long as they live a decent life, they will always sew new clothes in the New Year.

The other thing is frostbite medicine. It seems to be particularly cold this year, so applying frostbite pills will definitely be good."

Jin Douji talked about his treasures one by one. Hong Dashou also nodded, because these are bound to be good sales for the New Year.

"Brother Jin missed something!"

"Huh? What?"

"Paper!"

"Paper?"

"That's right, in two months, the imperial examination will be held after the spring begins!"

"Ah! Yes!" Jin Douji suddenly realized.

"Brother Hong, what do you mean? Let's go hoard paper now?"

"That won't work! If Li Cao Yamen wants to buy paper, we have no power or position, and we are not even as strong as the relationship behind the paper shop proprietor. How can we sell it at a high price?"

"What?" Jin Douji was happy at first, but now he became confused.

The Hanyang Imperial Examination is about to begin, and tens of thousands of people from both classes from all over the country will come here to take the exam. Not only the Jinshi science and literature exam, but also martial arts and miscellaneous subjects will be tested.

The amount of paper required is simply astronomical. It cannot be calculated in sheets. It may be more appropriate to use a knife.

If the arrangements could be made in advance, the Li court would definitely not slap themselves in the face and say that there is no paper and the exam will not be taken. Everyone should go back to their respective homes.

In order to conduct the imperial examination, even if the price of paper increases, the court will hold its nose and buy it. At most, it will use official coercion to make the forces behind the paper shop earn less.

Although Hong Dashou has a golden figure like Min Tinghye, if he is hired, he will probably only earn a small amount of money for running errands. Only by himself, can he get the maximum profit from it.

Directly monopolizing the market and hoarding paper are too easy to cause trouble and are easy to be investigated.

So let’s think about it differently, where did the paper come from?

Mulberry bark and hollyhock!

One is pulp and the other is paper medicine.

The hollyhocks can be replaced by other ones, but the bark of the mulberry tree grows on the tree. If you peel off the branches and peel off the bark, you have to wait until it grows again next year. You will definitely not be able to find any substitute in a short time.

.

Anonymous sent people to buy out the Chu bark near Hanyang, and Li Chao would soon start purchasing paper.
Chapter completed!