It's snowing heavily outside, but Fang Xuanling's home is as warm as spring.
But his mood didn't feel warm, it was very similar to the ice and snow outside the window.
Seeing her silly son Fang Yiai giggling around the stove, Fang Xuanling felt her head hurt even more.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Lu picked up the kettle that was boiling water on the stove, poured it into a cup and brought it to him. "I've been sighing all day long."
Fang Xuanling said nothing and pointed at the stove.
This kind of stove made of iron sheets with a long chimney leading out of the window was very popular in Chang'an City, and every household liked it.
"What's wrong with the stove?" Mrs. Lu was even more puzzled. "Isn't the thing given for free not good?"
Li Yunze used the brick kiln factory to make the furnace liner, and then obtained the ridiculously cheap iron sheets, so that the many people who had nothing to do after the autumn harvest built stoves and chimneys, and then gave them to Chang'an for free, and every household could get them.
From Lu's point of view, this is a great good deed, but why does his master seem to have lost his soul and not like it?
"It's not the stove, it's the coal in the stove!"
Fang Xuanling finally couldn't bear it any longer. "A few months ago, when Li Yunze wanted to buy coal, I offered him a price of two cents per catty. At that time, I thought it was too expensive and I was afraid he wouldn't buy it. After all, one shovelful of coal would cost one or two catties.
, carrying a basket on your back is worth a hundred cents. This price is as good as picking it up
Similar."
"I didn't expect that he actually agreed. He also signed a long-term supply and marketing agreement and bought the right to purchase all the coal around Chang'an City in the next ten years. He even gave away all the useless cinders at the price of one penny per pound.
Buy it."
Lu said thoughtfully, "It seems like this happened. I heard that everyone praised you at that time. This is a good thing."
"Yes, you praised me." Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly, "But now, everyone is scolding me."
"Why is this? You have created a financial source for the imperial court for ten years, and I won't tell you if I won't reward you. Why do you still scold you?"
"It's because of the briquettes burned in this stove." Fang Xuanling gritted his teeth when he mentioned this. He had been shrewd all his life, but he was repeatedly frustrated in front of a young man like Li Yunze. He was really fooled.
"Do you know how much a piece of briquettes costs?"
"How do you not know this?" The head of the house, Mrs. Lu, immediately laughed. "Two pieces of briquettes cost a penny. If you buy four pieces for two pennies, four yuan will be enough to seal the stove for a day."
Fang Xuanling, who looked even more ugly, smiled miserably, "Do you know how many pieces of briquettes can be produced per pound of coal sold to Li Yunze by the imperial court?"
Lu's curiosity also aroused, "How many yuan?"
Fang Xuanling opened his hand and said, "One pound of coal can produce five briquettes."
"Two cents per catty, four pieces of briquettes for two cents." Lu smiled after calculating. "I can only make half a fortune per catty. He must make some profit in business. How much money is this?"
"
"How much does this cost?!"
Fang Xuanling stood up suddenly, gritting his teeth and breathing heavily, "Did you know that in Chang'an City alone, no less than 100,000 households have bought stoves, and some families have bought more than one. Calculating four yuan a day, that's 400,000 yuan.
"
The more he talked, the angrier he became, "This is only in Chang'an city. Counting the ones bought by wealthy families, as well as those bought by villages and towns outside the city, at least 800,000 pieces of briquettes are sold every day."
After talking for a long time, Lu still didn't understand. She just felt dizzy and couldn't understand, "What next?"
"Then? He can earn half a penny by selling for five yuan. Ten yuan is a penny. Eight hundred thousand yuan is eighty guan. This is a day's income, eighty guan a day!!!"
Fang Xuanling was so angry that she called "profiteer!"
You must know that even if his Fang Xuanling, Lumi Zhitian, food, charcoal, rewards, meals, clothes, handymen, etc., all the income added up, he would not be able to get eighty guan a month.
As for Li Yunze, he can earn up to eighty dollars a day.
Of course, we are talking about apparent income here.
This is only the income of Chang'an City. When briquettes and stoves spread in all directions, it may not be a problem to earn hundreds of dollars a day.
How could there ever be such a crazy profiteer in this world? There is only so much wealth in the world, but he almost sucked it all up by himself.
As for Li Yunze, he didn't actually earn that much, and he still had many costs and so on. The officials of the Tang Dynasty naturally ignored it.
Anyway, in these days, many noble families have sent people over to either threaten or induce him to hand over his fat.
Those who were intimidated had their legs broken and were thrown into the snow.
The tempting ones were all broken off and hung on the tree.
It wasn't until Li Er spoke that the nobles stopped.
If the method doesn't work, then just show off your face and refuse to admit it, tear up the previous supply and marketing agreement, take away all the coal produced, and make briquettes yourself.
This thing has no technical content at all. It's just sawdust, lime, yellow mud, charcoal powder, etc. It's like no one can do it.
As for the thing about making briquettes, you can understand it at a glance, it's too simple.
The voices of these people were so loud that Li Er had to push Fang Xuanling out to jack up the cylinder.
It is precisely because of this that Fang Xuanling has been living a miserable life these days. He is scolded all day long for giving money that should be from the court to profiteers. It is considered a good thing.
After understanding the whole story, Mr. Lu asked doubtfully, "What kind of agreement is that? It shouldn't be enough. The government can sell the coal to whoever it wants. Why should he be allowed to take it all away?"
Fang Xuanling, who was exhausted, waved her hands repeatedly, "Stop talking, you don't understand."
The ancient imperial court really didn't care about credit, and there were many cases of turning back and refusing to admit credit.
But this time is different, because Li Yunze has unimaginable power in his hands, and offending him for a mere piece of property is truly a loss that outweighs the gain.
But Fang Xuanling couldn't say this to others.
Thinking of this, he regretted why he sold his village to Li Yunze in the first place, which made him smell filthy now.
Fang Yiai, who had been silent all this time, sat by the fire and felt the warmth, not knowing what she was thinking in her mind.
At the same time, Li Er, who had blamed Fang Xuanling, was drinking in Li Yunze's new yard.
Li Yunze not only built a new yard for himself, he even demolished all the old houses in Zhuangzi and transformed them into new houses with red bricks and blue tiles.
Every time Li Er came here, his eyes would light up when he looked at the neatly planned and rows of beautiful houses. He hoped that he could see the entire village of Tang Dynasty be so beautiful and wealthy in his lifetime.
"Selling bricks is no problem, just pay as much as you want." Li Yunze poured wine into Li Er's glass. "If the demand is large, I can expand the production scale of the brick kiln. It will not be difficult to produce tens of thousands of bricks at a time."
This is what Li Er envies the most. The most awesome thing about Li Yunze is not that he can come up with a few rare items, but that he can have as many as he wants!
Li Er, who picked up the wine glass, asked again, "What if you want a kiln?"
"No problem." Li Yunze responded readily, "This thing has no technical content. If you want it, I'll give it to you in its entirety."
Naturally, the Tang Dynasty also had kilns, and it was natural that they could make their own bricks.
However, the output of their kiln factory is not as large as that of Li Yunze, and the quality is even more incomparable.
The reason is that Li Yunze has professional equipment and temperature measurement capabilities.
Li Er didn't understand this, so he was very happy and took the initiative to meet Li Yunze.
After drinking a full glass of wine, Li Er, with a reddish complexion, picked up the chopsticks to pick up the fatty beef in the hot pot. It was really delicious.
"Recently, many people in the DPRK have taken a fancy to your briquette business." After eating for a while, Li Er started talking about business again. "I can guarantee that the agreement is valid, but they are transporting a large amount of coal from afar to make briquettes."
, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Of course, there is no such thing as patent rights in Datang, and we will not accept lawsuits arising from this.
Li Er indeed had good intentions and was worried about affecting Li Yunze's business.
"In this snowy weather, coal is transported from hundreds of miles away." Li Yunze couldn't be happier. "The travel expenses alone far exceed the cost. There is something wrong with my brain."
"Aren't you worried?"
"What's there to worry about?" Li Yunze picked up the wine glass again. "The briquettes look simple, but they are actually very simple. But the problem is that they don't have a combustion accelerant."
Li Er has never heard of the word "combustion accelerant? What is this?"
"Sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium permanganate, nitrate, etc. are all. Without these things, it is difficult to ignite the briquettes, and it is difficult to burn for a long time once it is ignited. The most likely thing is that it will burn out halfway.
.”
Li Er‘w(?Д?)w’
Although he didn't understand, Li Er believed Li Yunze's words. The matter was indeed not that simple.
The chopsticks holding the fat cow paused for a moment, and Li Er suddenly turned his head and shouted toward the door.
The guard quickly opened the door and came in, with his hands tied and waiting for orders.
"Go to Changsun Wuji's house quickly and tell him to sell the coal he sold immediately and not to make any briquettes."
When the guards left in a hurry, Li Yunze was immediately happy, "This is really good at helping relatives."
"This is natural." Li Er said matter-of-factly, "Of course I have to help my relatives."
Combustion accelerants were nothing to worry about in the industrial age. Under the horrific industry, you really need as much as you need.
But in the agricultural era, let alone using it, we had never even heard of it.
Li Er quickly changed the subject, "Your stove is still made of iron, why should you give it away for free?"
This is something he doesn't understand very much. Such good things are given away for free, and each gift is given in units of 100,000 yuan. This is no longer a matter of being rich, this is a good boy.
"First of all, the cost of the stove is not high. It's just an iron sheet and a furnace. It's not worth a lot of money."
"Secondly, what I am gifting is not a stove, but a business."
Li Yunze explained seriously, "People in the Tang Dynasty were accustomed to using wood and charcoal. Coal was also used in the past, but the smoke was not only high but there was also carbon monoxide poisoning, so it was not easy to promote it."
"But I give it away for free, so I can naturally open up the market quickly, especially since it solves the problems of smoke and poisoning, so everyone can use it with peace of mind."
"In this business, it's not the stove that makes money, but the sale of briquettes."
Li Er is very smart, and he understood it after thinking about it for a while.
He nodded appreciatively, "You have the talents of Guan Zhong, Tao Zhu."
Li Yunze was noncommittal about this. Compared with those profiteers in the modern world, Guan Zhong, Tao Zhugong, were nothing. He could think of all kinds of tricks to deceive people.
There are only things you can’t think of and nothing you can’t get into!