It turns out that this briquette is only consumed in large quantities by officials.
But now, many ordinary people have also joined the rush to buy briquettes.
Originally there was a lot of briquettes backlogged in the warehouse.
But now, these briquettes are being used up at an alarming rate.
Nowadays, the briquettes shipped from the coal plant every day can basically be digested on the same day.
While the shopkeeper was happily flipping the account books, a young man in a black coat walked in from outside.
This person is none other than Hu Changan.
Seeing the big boss come in, the shopkeeper quickly stood at attention, respectfully handed last month's account book to Hu Chang'an, and gave a general report on this month's sales.
This is also Hu Changan's monthly routine inspection.
As a business owner, you naturally need to know the situation of your store very well.
Therefore, at the end of every month, Hu Changan would take a day to go around all the shops and factories under his name, listen to the voices of those workers who are active on the front line, and fine-tune the business strategy accordingly.
After listening to the shopkeeper's report, Hu Changan nodded with satisfaction.
Now the sales of briquettes are basically on the right track.
Next, it’s time to fulfill your promise to Prince Zhu Biao!
When making briquettes, Hu Changan borrowed the ironworks workshop of the Ministry of Industry from Prince Zhu Biao and promised to help Prince Zhu Biao use briquettes to solve the winter problems of civilians for the court.
Now, Hu Changan is finally free to fulfill this promise!
...
It happened that the next day, at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's small court meeting, the main topic of discussion was the cold winter.
As Qin Tianjian expected, today's winter is extremely cold.
Yingtian City is located in the south of the Yangtze River. Even if it snows in winter, it will only get a thin layer of snow.
But this winter, the snow has never stopped.
The snow on the road is already half a foot thick.
Luo Yong, commander of the Wucheng Army and Horses Division, was the first to speak: "Your Highness, the cold protection situation in Beijing this winter is very serious."
"Looking at the heavy snow, I'm afraid it will continue to snow for a few more days."
"Now our Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Department has all mobilized to clear the snow and clear the roads on the streets of Yingtian City."
"We have also distributed some hot porridge to the beggars on the road to keep them warm from the cold."
"But because this winter is really too cold, I think a large number of people may freeze to death this year."
In ancient times, it was very common to freeze to death in winter.
After all, the ancients did not have such superior heating facilities as today.
In winter, in addition to wearing more clothes, you can only buy charcoal fires to keep warm.
Those who are rich are fine, but those who are poor are miserable.
If you can't afford a charcoal fire, you can only wear more clothes and resist with your body.
If you are in good health, you may be able to get through it.
But those whose systems are slightly worse may have to close their eyes forever.
When Zhu Biao heard this, he nodded helplessly and said to the ministers: "Everyone, is there anything you can do?"
When everyone heard this, they all looked at me and me at you.
For a while, no one spoke.
Disaster relief is actually quite easy.
But the bad thing is, the court doesn’t have that much money at all!
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has always implemented a policy of frivolous corvee service and low tax collection.
This is also very consistent with the current national conditions.
After all, we have been fighting for a long time, and the people should take a good rest.
But if this happens, the treasury will be out of money.
So every time there was a natural disaster, the court always had a headache.
It would be impossible not to save it, but if we try our best to save it, we really don’t have that much money.
Therefore, the imperial court could only try its best to save people, and if they couldn't save them, they would pull them down.
The money allocated by the imperial court was only enough to distribute some hot porridge to the people.
When it comes to doing other things, there is really nothing I can do.
However, at this moment, Hu Changan stood up and said loudly: "Everyone, I suggest that free fuel be distributed to the poor people."
"In this way, the number of people freezing to death can be greatly reduced."
When the ministers heard this, they also laughed.
This Hu Changan is a bit too naive.
Does he really think that participating in politics is just a matter of paying lip service?
Where does the money come from, and where do the people come from?
Fan Min, the newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs, couldn't help but snorted with a smile: "Shilang Hu, how can any of the courtiers standing here not understand simple disaster relief methods?"
"The most critical issue now is the lack of money."
"In this matter, the Ministry of Accounts can only allocate a maximum of 1,000 taels of silver, and there will be no more."
Since the last corruption case, officials in the Ministry of Revenue have been purged.
Fan Min is the newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs.
Although Fan Min has a bad temper, he has always had a reputation for being upright and honest in official circles.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang overcame all opinions and appointed Fan Min as the new Minister of Household Affairs.
When Hu Changan heard this, he didn't take it seriously. He just turned to Luo Yong, the commander of the Five Cities Military and Horse Division, and asked: "Approximately how many people were affected by the disaster in the entire Yingtian City?"
Luo Yong made a rough calculation and gave Hu Changan a figure: "Shilang Hu, based on my experience in previous years, if we don't take any measures, at least 1,000 ordinary people will freeze to death in such a cold weather this year."
What Luo Yong said is actually just a relatively conservative number.
If the weather is colder this winter, the number of people who will freeze to death may be much higher than this.
When Hu Changan heard this, he made some calculations and said to Zhu Biao: "Your Highness, since I am a member of this court, I will naturally share your worries and do my part for the country."
"Now everyone knows that Hu's grocery store I own sells briquettes."
"If the imperial court pays, I am willing to provide briquettes to the imperial court at the price of 20 cents each."
"After the imperial court buys my low-priced briquettes, it can supply these briquettes to the people in Yingtian City for free."
"I did some calculations. If the imperial court can only spend 1,000 taels of silver as Lord Fan said, then it can be converted into 50,000 briquettes."
"With these 50,000 briquettes, so many people will never freeze to death this year!"
Although Hu Changan said this very righteously, if he explains it in detail, Hu Changan would not be at a loss for this matter.
Although the price of 20 yuan is low, for Hu Changan, this is actually just a cost price.
After all, when the coal mountain was purchased, it was actually purchased as wasteland, and the cost was not too high.
When mining coal later, you only need to pay labor fees.