Loess is loess, and the Guanzhong Plain can be dug with tools and can be obtained anywhere.

The so-called coal, but it is something black, it is the coal of later generations.

Jing Dan and Eighth Jiao didn't know what Fifth Lun was doing with these things, and Fifth Lun didn't break it, so he only picked a few pieces and said to Fifth Fu: "You go and hammer the charcoal into powder." “

Fifth Fortune's face was full of reluctance, but after hearing Fifth Lun say that if he did well, he would have old fat to eat today, so he rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

Things have to start from the beginning of winter, the fifth Lun was a southerner in his previous life, and every winter, he often said that he was "injured by magic", felt extremely cold, and envied the heating in the north.

It wasn't until 2,000 years ago that he understood that heating was an elephant in the room in later generations, so convenient that modern people forgot how northerners could live in the era when there was no central heating.

Fifth Lun couldn't help but take a closer look at it.

The fuels of this era were mainly burns and charcoal, which was also made from wood burning.

In the fifth mile, there are forests and hills next to it, as long as it is not cut down indiscriminately, it can still be a virtuous circle, and there will be no firewood available.

But after coming to Chang'an, Wu Lun found that the population poured into Jingshi from all directions of the empire, whether it was the handicraft workshops and shops of the Nine Streets and Eight Mo, the East and West Cities, or the residents of one hundred and sixty Lu, the number was amazing. Not to mention palace maids, officials and slaves, the northern and southern armies, and as many as tens of thousands of students.

Two or even three meals a day, you have to make a fire, you need to heat it in winter, and the fuel has to be doubled, what do these 300,000 people burn on weekdays? And where did it come from?

He naturally set his sights on the vast Shanglin Garden in the southwest of Chang'an, a huge royal garden southeast to Yichun, Dinghu, Yusu, and Kunwu; Next to the South Mountain, west to Changyang, Wuqi; Surrounding the Yellow Mountain in the north, Binwei and east, hundreds of miles around, there are a lot of forests.

However, Shanglin Yuan is forbidden by the royal government, and Yu Yu (Shui Heng Du Wei) is set up to manage, and the forests in it are exclusively used by the palace, official workshops and hundred officials.

Every morning, there is a long convoy pulling Shanglin firewood into the city, the best is sent to the palace, the second class is distributed to various government offices, and the rest is sent to coinage and iron smelting workshops. According to their ranks, the directors and officials can receive charcoal ranging from three catties to half a catty.

Under the corridors of the official residences of the four auxiliaries and three dukes in the north of the Quejia, there are always piles of firewood. A lower-grade taxi like Wulun is not qualified to receive it, so he can only spend money to buy it like ordinary people.

"Chang'an City's salary is more expensive than Gui." This is the fourth joy of complaining, every day there are firewood cars passing by from inside and outside, and even can't grab it when it's late, and the price changes day by day.

"Where does all this firewood come from?" Fifth Lun asked him.

Fifth Lun observed when he came to Chang'an from Changling that there were no forests on both sides of the Weishui River.

The Han Dynasty was stable for two hundred years, and the population of Guanzhong has been accumulating. Although the imperial court issued a four-hour monthly decree, requiring that logging in spring and summer should not be allowed, and that tree planting be encouraged, the restoration would not be damaged quickly.

The ban only forbade the people, but the royal and heroic right were unscrupulous, building palaces and imperial tombs, and accelerating consumption. In addition, the land in Guanzhong is as expensive as one acre and one gold, and the benefits of land reclamation are too great, and the artificially created flames can't help but spread towards the woods.

At the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the forests on both sides of Jingwei had been exhausted, so that the loess plateau was exposed, and the Jingshui became more and more muddy. Confucian Gongyu said bitterly: "Felling trees is forbidden when they die, and the disaster of floods and droughts may not be due to this." ”

Another result is that the people of Chang'an have been out of the city for twenty or thirty miles, and they can't pick up firewood.

"Most of the current firewood comes from Zhongnan Mountain." Sixi replied: "Every year, hundreds of farmers flock to Zhongnan Mountain in Xinguang County, Jingwei County, cut down the trees on the mountain, sort and bundle them, and then transport them into Jingshi in animal carts. ”

Wang Mang's order also includes the famous mountain Daze, and the mountain is taxed for logging, and Zhongnanshan is more than 100 miles away from Chang'an, and the firewood sent there is attached to the six taxes, transportation fees, and customs duties, which are naturally expensive to death.

Sixi shook his head: "You have to grit your teeth to buy, and you can't spend the Cold Food Festival every day." ”

Now that a few people are talking about this matter, the eighth Pingsu buried his head in Jian, didn't understand this, and only said in amazement: "No wonder I heard people say that there were Zhu Maichen in the former Han Dynasty, and he often used to pay for food, and it turned out that chopping wood can indeed be used as a livelihood to do." ”

Jing Dan said: "I know that some people don't go far to Zhongnan Mountain, but find a good place for logging nearby. ”

"Where?"

"Tombs of the former Han Dynasty."

From west to east, there are Maoling, Pingling, Yanling, Kangling, Weiling, Yiling, Anling, Changling and Yangling, like a string of pearls placed in the north of Chang'an. In addition to the Baling Du Mausoleum in the southeast of Chang'an, eleven emperors of the Western Han Dynasty are buried under the mountain mausoleum, and there are many burial tombs of the queen mother, queen and ministers next to it.

Trees are widely planted in the mausoleum area, and they are still good pines and cypresses, and the control is very strict in the Han Dynasty, and each one is guarded by people.

Now that the Han Dynasty is dead, the living still have no food and clothing, let alone the dead. Although Wang Mang announced that "those who are in Beijing and the temple are in Beijing, don't stop, the ancestral hall is recommended as before", but except for the more special Gao, Yuan, Cheng, and Ping tombs, the rest are gradually declining. With the financial difficulties of the new dynasty, the officials guarding the tombs were also abolished one after another, so it was not only tomb robbers but also lumberjacks who patronized the tombs.

Even with the support of the grass and trees on the head of the emperor of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an's firewood salary is still expensive, and the fourth joy said: "Some families can afford rice, but they can't afford to buy charcoal, but fortunately, there are drafts." ”

Like the Han Dynasty, when the new dynasty collected rent, it also had to collect a "manuscript tax", which must be paid in kind, as a winter ration for livestock, or for the heating of the pavilion households. Astute businessmen often transport excess dry straw carts into Chang'an for sale, and these things are not resistant to burning, spring, summer and autumn are fine, but in winter it is still not enough for more than 300,000 people in Chang'an to burn.

So there was a situation that Wu Lun saw in the city: because of the difficulty of meeting the demand for fuel, the people in the city often had to freeze when it rained and snowed in winter.

"It's only the middle of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, and it's already cold like this, and it will be frost and snow in two months? I'm afraid that Zhumen's wine and meat stink, and the scene of frozen bones on the road is about to appear. ”

Fifth Lun muttered so secretly, but he also knew that he had a glimpse of a business opportunity, so he asked.

"Why don't you burn coal?"

……

This is not "why not eat minced meat", Wu Lun had seen large chunks of coal being transported on ox carts when he was in Changling, and it was evident that some places had already mined them.

But when the fifth Lun asked about the fourth joy, he felt that it was whimsical: "Lang Jun, the fourth clan has a small coal mine in Jingbei, an open-pit mine, and it is not difficult to mine. However, after it is mined, it is generally only used for burning mirage, making pottery, burning bricks and tiles, and even ironmaking is not good. ”

"Not to mention home cooking, it's expensive and not good, someone has tried it, and it smells bad!"

Fifth, it is clear that the high price, inconvenient burning, and burning produce harmful gases, which is the reason why people do not use coal, but the biggest reason is that the concept has not been reversed.

If the first two drawbacks can be solved and the third can be mitigated, coal is not a good choice when no charcoal is available.

So he ordered the Fifth Blessing to go to the pottery workshop in the city and buy the coal left over from the kiln.

At present, the fifth blessing is next to the vegetable garden in the corner of the courtyard, holding a wooden pestle and pounding for a while, and has smashed all the coals into coal powder.

When Wu Lun was a child in his previous life, his hometown was still burning small coal stoves, and sometimes he was reluctant to buy it, and he would make it himself. He also rolled up his sleeves and started to mix the coal dust and loess with the Fifth Blessing, poured some water and stirred evenly.

In the whole process, the only link that can be regarded as a little technical is the ratio of coal dust to loess. This is not a problem, the fifth Lun is equipped with three piles according to different proportions, which can be flattened and smoothed on the flat ground that can be exposed to sunlight in the courtyard, and then used a wooden bowl as a mold, a bowl of briquettes.

In the beginning, Wu Lun wanted to make honeycomb coal, but if you think about it, why bother?

This thing has no technical content at all, loess is everywhere, and coal is also widely sourced, and others can learn it when they see it. Chang'an is highly competitive no matter which line of work, if it can be sold well, you make money this year, and I am afraid there will be countless competitors next year.

To do business, you have to learn from some game companies, and if you do the product in place at one time, will next year's DLC still be sold? Make it rough first, improve a little bit every year, be better than your peers, and make a few more money.

The ultimate goal is to sell honeycomb coal and small coal stoves together.

So the fifth Lun stopped, and was only satisfied with the simple little briquette.

Next, just hand it over to the sun and the wind, and turning around, the fourth Xi squatted at the kitchen door and looked at this scene with a puzzled face: "Can you still use charcoal with water and soil?" ”

He only thinks that Fifth Lun is child's play - just like peeing and sand when he was a child.

And in the evening, when Jing Dan came back, he was quite surprised to see a pile of black briquettes in the yard.

The next day was another sunny day, the moisture in the briquettes decreased little by little, and was picked up by the fifth blessing and stacked in the kitchen.

Fifth Lun brought more than 40,000 yuan, plus Jing Dan's share, and Wang Long, a local tyrant, sponsored, and meat could be seen in the kitchen every day.

The brick stoves, which were blackened by smoke and fire, were not much different from those of later villages. It's just that what is supported on it is not an iron pot, but a cooking utensil with strange names such as 甗 (yan), 甑 (zeng), and wok (huo), which can be understood as a cooking pot, a steamer, or a cauldron.

Fifth Lun picked out briquettes made in different proportions, stuffed them under the stove, beat the flint, and tried to light it—igniting a fire, which was a new skill he had learned since crossing over, and he had become more and more proficient.

As expected by the fifth lun, there is less loess, and the briquettes are crispy, and they cannot be used at all; There is more loess, which affects the combustion quality.

There was only no more, no less, but it burned very smoothly in the stove, and Jing Dan, who had rushed to see the excitement when he heard the news, also widened his eyes, and found that this charcoal cake mixed with soil and water actually burned no different from salary, and its heat was better than salary.

And the taste and smoke seem to be smaller than direct burning.

"It's finished."

Fifth Lun smiled, he calculated an account according to the price of coal in Chang'an, compared with charcoal. After mixing with the loess, even if the price of the briquettes is lower than that of charcoal of the same weight, it is still profitable. If you can buy it from a Chinese family in the city, it will be a good way to make money.

Wu Lun walked out of the kitchen and raised his head, and he could see the green smoke rising from the thousands of families burning charcoal for cooking in Chang'an City.

No matter what era it is, fuel is just needed, and no one can lack it. Even better, the ban on carrying copper charcoals in order to prevent the theft of coins was abolished a few years ago.

Fifth Lun is now missing only one thing.

"Missing a mine."

The Fifth Clan did not have a mine, but the Fourth Clan, as the industrial and commercial owner of Changling, had a small open-pit coal mine north of Jingshui, which was used as fuel for burning lime. Last time, the fourth salt complained that the lime was getting worse and harder to sell, and he didn't want to do it anymore.

"Two paths."

"Sell the coal mine to my family to run ......"

"Or cooperation."

Fifth Lun asked Fifth Blessing to put away all the remaining briquettes and put them on the wagon, and clean up the yard as if nothing had happened.

But when the fourth joy came back in the evening, he saw that none of the briquettes in the yard were gone, and he was immediately happy.

"Lang Jun, I'm not wrong, and the charcoal of the water and soil can't be burned, so are they all thrown away?"

Jing Dan smiled and said nothing, the fifth blessing was admonished, and he was silent, and the fifth Lun said: "The day after tomorrow, it is Xiu Mu's turn, and I want to go back to Changling." ”

……

The official vacation system of the new dynasty was the same as that of the Han Dynasty, with a five-day holiday. Tomorrow is the second day of rest in October, and the faces of the pre-serving officials from all the counties are filled with a happy atmosphere.

After all, it took several days of brainwashing...... No, it's a meeting and class to talk about the virtues of the New Deal, and they can't stand it. No matter how wooden people are, they will get tired of listening too much to Wang Mang and the new dynasty's praises.

What's more, it's the fifth Lun's ill-intentioned reprieve?

Even Jing Dan looked forward to finishing things as soon as possible today, so that he could go home to reunite with his wife and children, and turned around and joked with Fifth Lun.

"Bo Yu has heard that when Emperor Cheng of the former Han Dynasty, Zhang Fu took the initiative to give up Xiu Mu and work in the official office?"

Oh? Dahan also has migrant workers who consciously and voluntarily practice 996?

Wu Lun shook his head, but heard Jing Dan smile and said: "Zhang Fu is Zuo Feng Yi's thief Cao Peng, who is in the same county as us. ”

His prefect, Zuo Fengyi, Xue Xuan, persuaded him, saying that the officials had been on vacation for a long time in accordance with the regulations, and although there were public officials in the official office, the family also looked forward to private affection. It is suggested that Zhang Fu follow everyone's habits, go home to accompany his wife and daughter, set up wine and food, invite neighbors, and laugh and have fun together, which is appropriate. ”

"And then?" Fifth Lun asked, did Zhang Fu refute the leader with righteous words?

Jing Dan said: "Xue Xuan's words made Zhang Fu ashamed, and the officials and subordinates were all good at Xue Xuan's words. ”

Fifth Lun smiled: "I am also good." ”

Wang Long next to him interjected rarely: "It's a good time for us to catch up, when the former Han Zhaoxuan was announced, it was not easy for Langguan to rest and take a Mu." ”

"At that time, the order of Lang Guan's retirement was determined by how much money was paid to bribe his boss, and some Lang officials were not allowed to bathe for more than a year."

"When Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, the Pingtong Marquis and Zhonglang General Yang Yun rectified this, so that Lang Guan's illness and rest and wash Mu acted in accordance with the law, until today."

Fifth Lun bowed, I really have to thank the person named Yang Yun, but I heard that he didn't end well.

In addition to their trio of lieutenants, the filial piety officials of the rest of the county could not hide their joy, and the fifth Lun heard a few people next to him talking about where to go to play tomorrow.

"Zhangtai Street, of course!"

A young Lang official tilted his head excitedly, and the crown was about to fall off. Wu Lun has been learning dialects with Lao Yangxiong these days, which is considered to be a rough passage, and he can hear the accents of these Lang officials, which belong to the line north of the Zihe River of Zhao Wei. I just don't know which county it is, Handan or Julu.

As for Zhangtai Street, it is a well-known red light district in Chang'an City, which has been held for a long time. Fifth Lun looked down at his eighteen-year-old body, ashamed, he had been a little long.

Just when everyone's voices were a little noisy, they heard an angry shout.

"Silence, gentlemen!"

Zuo Zhong Lang General, who is responsible for managing the foreign lang, and Sun Ling, the Marquis of Qiwu, walked into the Lang Office.

"Zhulang bow down! The national general, the United States and the new public have arrived! ”

……

PS: The earliest briquettes were found at the iron-smelting site of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Recommend a new book: "The Emperors Who Pull Homely in the Group", the emperor chat group type, if you are interested, you can Kangkang.