After Zigong decided to become Zhi's retainer, he needed to show his talents.
In this way, Zhiyao discovered that Zigong was not only good at business, but also very good at eloquence. Especially rare, he also showed good views on management and other matters.
It seems right? Doing business itself involves many aspects. Without flexible and sharp thinking and a eloquent mouth, how can you conduct business negotiations with people and promote your own products?
If you want to make your business bigger and stronger, how can you lack proper management?
As for the observation of the pattern, which products are needed where, which products can be sold best and where, and to obtain the greatest profits, it definitely requires enough vision.
"It's a big profit!" Zhiyao was so happy.
However, Zhi Yao knew that Zigong would not be a retainer in the Zhi family forever, and it was hard to say how long he would stay.
Zigong himself was a noble, otherwise it would not have been possible to make the business bigger and stronger.
We are not yet in the Warring States Period, and many businesses require a certain status to do. For example, to do business, you must have the status of a noble. The reason is that non-nobles have no permanent property.
Constant property means land, labor and resources, which means having fiefs and subjects.
Of course, due to the late Spring and Autumn Period, too many countries were destroyed. Some nobles in the destroyed countries lost their fiefs. Those who fled to other countries had to have income in order to survive. Many nobles who lost their fiefs chose to join other nobles as retainers.
Part of it is to take care of other businesses, and more of it is to rest on one's laurels until death.
Those nobles who choose to engage in other businesses generally choose to be "cargo porters" in a pure sense...that is, they no longer produce their own goods, but specialize in purchasing goods from nobles and transporting them to other places for sale. They are considered to be the earliest second-level dealers in Zhuxia
.
In fact, it is very reasonable for the nobles who lost their fiefdoms to become the earliest second-class traders in Zhuxia. They took money and silk with them when they fled, which is equivalent to having original funds. Originally, the representatives of the noble family would have some connections, and the nobles always need to give some face to the same class.
Procurement of materials can only be carried out; for example, ordinary Li Shu, even if they have their own private property, they will have very little, and even if they have money, they are not dignified enough to purchase in bulk from the nobles, so how can they engage in commercial operations?
After Confucius left, Zhiyao asked Laozi and Zigong to teach her fellow students, while she went to do other things.
The Jin State is surrounded by mountains on many sides, and its geographical location is a mixed bag.
Being mountainous means there are dangers that can be defended, and being mountainous also means that the area that can be used as cultivated land is reduced. What is it but a mixed blessing?
Another point is that the land in Shanxi is not fertile, and the environment in the northwest and northeast is very bad.
In the northwest of Jin State, the soil salinization in the "Huo" and "Pu" lands is really serious. Let alone farming, the grass does not grow. The soil salinization here will be improved, and it will have to wait for the Yellow River to change its course and be washed away.
Called.
The northeastern part is a wetland, where floods often occur. There are swamps everywhere, and there are a frightening number of various beasts and snakes and ants.
What's more terrible is that the northeastern part of the Jin Kingdom belongs to the Zhi family's fiefdom. What's even more terrible is that the area later known as the Taihang Mountains is also the Zhi family's fiefdom. Even though the Zhi family's fiefdom seems to be quite big, in fact it is
Most of the land is difficult to develop.
Of course, it's useless to the Spring and Autumn people, and Zhiyao doesn't think so.
Let’s talk about the Taihang Mountain area, right? People in the Spring and Autumn Period were confused when they heard about the continuous mountains. They thought that the resources were only trees and various huntable animals. However, Zhiyao knew that there were quite a lot of high-quality coal mines there, which were considered very precious at present.
There are also rich reserves of copper, gold ore, iron ore resources, molybdenum ore and tungsten ore that are temporarily unavailable, not to mention various Chinese medicinal materials.
Zhiyao planned to figure out some smelting technologies at "Huang's Father" first, accumulate enough technology, and then set up a production base in the Taihang Mountains.
There are many open-pit coal mines in Shanxi. People in the Spring and Autumn Period knew that black stones are very easy to ignite. They also knew that smelling too much smoke from burning black stones would cause poisoning. Their ancestors taught us not to light black stones.
"Smelt iron to build a furnace and shape it into a pot..." Zhiyao actually didn't know much about it, so he tried to explain it more clearly with his limited knowledge.
What he was talking about was a shaft furnace. In fact, relevant technology already exists, and it is no different from smelting copper ore.
The transferred Zhishi craftsmen had relevant skills. When they were doing things, Zhiyao started to watch from the time of building the furnace. This was because Zhiyao didn't know much and just watched and rarely gave advice.
Of course, iron smelting has been known for a long time, but in the Spring and Autumn Period, iron was not popular because it was too brittle and easy to rust.
What Zhiyao needs to figure out is the quality of the iron, not how to smelt iron from scratch, how to produce iron ingots, etc. He doesn't have to worry about it.
Another point is that the use of coal for heating is Zhiyao's first initiative, otherwise smelting would actually use charcoal for heating.
Zhiyao, who knew a little bit about experimentation, did not risk human life. She prepared masks before the experiment, and then she made sure to prevent people from getting too close to the stove.
After the first experiment, Zhiyao clearly saw the shortcomings of being very brittle, and probably knew that the sulfur content was too high.
In fact, today's iron has the same problem. Even if it is not made of coal, it still has the disadvantages of being too brittle and lacking in toughness.
"I remember whether to use horse urine or lime powder to solve the problem of sulfur content?" Zhiyao decided to let the craftsmen try horse urine first.
If the horse urine could not reach the sulfur-free level, Zhiyao could only send someone to get lime powder.
As for lime powder, you can buy it from the Wei family, or you can ask people from the Zhi family to make it from Taihang Mountain.
The reason why the Wei family has lime powder is mainly because their "Lv" land has Huotai Mountain, which is also a place with many open-pit coal mines and limestone.
Later, Zhiyao discovered that using coal also required desulfurization procedures, and suddenly realized that it was really difficult to accomplish something.
Another point is that Zhiyao understood how difficult it was to liquefy iron only through real experiments.
In fact, the melting point of iron is 1534 degrees, which means the temperature at which iron liquefies is 1534 degrees.
Therefore, the requirements for furnaces are simply beyond imagination. If the furnace is not suitable and the coal has not been scientifically processed, the coal combustion temperature will only be about a thousand degrees.
Zhiyao probably understands the relevant basic common sense, that is, modern steelmaking uses coking coal. Ordinary coal cannot be used directly for steelmaking and must be coked and washed.
After the first batch of iron was smelted, Zhiyao saw sponge iron.
The production process is to cover a layer of coal with a layer of iron ore, then paste it with mud, and then slowly burn the iron to make it.
"So...don't even think about making steel, or should we first try to bring the relevant technology to the level of the Western Han Dynasty?"
After working hard for nearly a month, Zhiyao was a little frustrated when she came to such a conclusion, but she would never be discouraged.
