Li Su wanted to get "the most delicate powder of this era", and of course he could not expect to compare the craftsmanship of grinding limestone with the ancients.

So, he directly used the most well-known experiment in junior high school chemistry textbooks: "lime water blows carbon dioxide". Because the precipitated flocculent precipitate is definitely finer than any abrasive.

However, it took him half an afternoon and several rework tosses to turn theory into practice.

The first time he had a little accident in the feeding process - when pouring quicklime, because of the dust, he subconsciously squinted and retreated, his hands trembled, and he poured too much in at once.

Then the water urn boiled and bubbled like a self-heating hot pot. Although it did not explode, the clay urn was heated unevenly, and soon a crack opened and the alkaline water flowed to the ground.

Thankfully, he was well prepared and was able to do it all over again.

The carbon dioxide blowing link, because there is no straw, can only be replaced by a reed rod. But the initial effect was still not good, probably because he was breathing too fast and exhaling too low carbon dioxide concentrations. He could only hold it for as much as possible after each deep inhale, and only exhale violently when his body was black in front of him and his body was deprived of oxygen.

After several twists and turns, a jar of flocculent precipitation was finally obtained. The effect of exercising lung capacity is almost the same as swimming across the Qiantang River.

During the period, there were some other hiccups and difficulties, such as "it was found that there were impurities in the quicklime itself, and the impurities needed to be filtered out in order to obtain pure flocculent precipitation" and so on.

In the evening, he finally made the most delicate abrasive of his time, tried it on a silver mirror he had just bought at a Mijia store in the city, and it took about an hour in the evening to polish a sample.

He tasted it himself for a while, and felt that if the old silver mirror originally used by the Mi family was equivalent to 180P resolution, then he grinded out this piece at least equal to 720P or even 1080P resolution.

It's done, and there is another bargaining chip, just wait for Mi Zhu to see you tomorrow.

……

Mi Zhu had actually returned to Qu County from the county in the evening of the same day.

However, because Li Su was an official guest, and the two sides knew each other for the first time, it was not in line with the etiquette of the Han Dynasty to meet overnight.

The next morning, after breakfast, Mi Zhu met with Li Su and his party.

Guan Yu has an official status and was received together. Dian Wei was not appointed by the imperial court, so he did not have this treatment.

Mi Zhu is now less than thirty, and he looks a few years older than Guan Yu. He has a delicate and decent beard and a ruddy complexion.

Historically, it was not until 190 years that Tao Qian was transferred by the imperial court to Xuzhou to clear the spread of the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army, Tao Qian recruited Mi Zhu to recruit Danyang soldiers in order to raise money.

Therefore, the current Mi Zhu is still completely white, even if he treats an official with six hundred stones, the etiquette is very polite.

"I have heard for a long time that Mi Gong is anxious and righteous, and his name is broadcast in Xuzhou, so I came to see him this time."

"How dare you be a gentleman, a certain businessman - I heard that Mr. is from Beijing?"

Li Su didn't take advantage of the other party, and directly singled out: "It's not a special trip to thousands of miles - Su Chengjun's life, he was going to Guangling, this visit, but it's just a hundred miles of detour, Mi Gong doesn't have to mind." ”

Mi Zhu said some polite words a little more, and roughly guessed that Li Su was here to fight the autumn breeze, so he took the initiative to make his words clear:

“…… Even so, Zhu has long admired Liu Youzhou and Xuande Gongyi, and this time he is willing to help 2 million yuan to do his best for the court to seek thieves and people. ”

2 million compared to the 10 million given by the Zhen family, of course, there is a big gap. But considering that the Mi family's business is in Xuzhou, it is impossible to see how Liu Bei and Li Su repay him at the moment, it is purely to make friends, which is already very good. He hasn't even seen Liu Bei in person so far, and it's completely out of his pocket because of the fame on "Filial Piety Record".

In comparison, the 2,000 grains donated by Lu Su are converted to a maximum of 1 million, which is still calculated according to the grain price of the spring famine in April. If it is calculated after the autumn harvest, it will be six or seven hundred thousand.

"Thank you Mi Gong for your kindness, Mi Gong is a cheerful person, and he is not pretentious and polite." Li Suxian recognized the sincerity of the other party, and then changed his words,

"In the past few days in the Zunfu Mansion, Su has also patrolled everywhere inside and outside this Qu County, and has some superficial views on Mi Gong's livelihood, perhaps, there can be greater cooperation between you and me."

Mi Zhu subconsciously didn't believe it, but he was still very polite and humble: "Oh? I would like to hear about it. ”

Li Su cleared his throat: "This time, I have two suggestions for cooperation. First of all, dare to ask Mi Gong, Xuzhou, Jiangdong and other places, compared with Youzhou, what is the difference between horse prices? Mi Gong has such a family business, why doesn't he expand his business in the horse trading business? ”

Mi Zhu didn't even think about it: "There are no horses in the south, and the freight is twisted and turned, plus the heavy taxes on the state and county passes along the way." The price of horses increases by two or three percent every time they pass through the state. The price of horses in Xuzhou has doubled compared with Youzhou, and when it comes to Jiangdong, it is at least three or five percent more expensive. ”

The commercial tax of the Han Dynasty was 6% of the value of the goods for each pass according to the regulations, which was very heavy.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had just set this tax rate, and there were still relatively few passes. But over the centuries, it has developed to the point that every time the border between counties is crossed, it is charged at 6%, and even 12% is received when crossing the state border. Coming down from north to south, the tax must not be more expensive than the original goods?

Of course, merchants will also try their best to avoid taxes or buy the defenders of the county border, such as the power of Mi Zhu, in the counties in Xuzhou, almost symbolically less tax. But if you get a state controlled by a competitor, you will be strictly on business.

The Mi family, the Zhen family, and even the bigwigs in the business circles of Yuzhou Weizi and Jingyi Guanzhong all rely on this trick to suppress their opponents - when the opponent reaches their territory, it is very difficult to evade taxes.

Li Su saw that Mi Zhu had a full understanding of the difficulties, so he took the initiative to make it clear: "In my opinion, the main difficulty of your Mi family's horse trafficking is that you are completely unable to pass through the sphere of influence in Jizhou and must pay taxes in full. As for Qingzhou, you and the Zhen family's forces should be about the same. And in Youzhou, the source of goods, you can't get the supply of Liaodong County - but Xuande Gong can help you solve these problems. ”

Mi Zhu's eyes lit up instantly: "Please elaborate!" If it is feasible, Zhu will definitely have a good reward! ”

The businessman just spoke simply, not so much crepe, and directly talked about the reward.

Li Su: "I see that you have more than 100 Mijia sand boats, and most of them can go to sea, why don't you take the sea route north to Youzhou?" Now there is Zhang Chun in Youzhou, and in my opinion, this chaos will not be settled soon. A large number of horses can definitely be captured in the battle with the Wuhuan people, and if you can buy the thief capture of Xuande Gong, you don't have to worry about the supply of goods, and you won't offend the Zhen family. ”

If you directly use the regular purchase source of the Zhen family or other wealthy businessmen, it will be a cross of the line, and it will offend people, and Li Su will not do this kind of thing.

But just selling the horses captured by Liu Bei in the battle, this is not a taboo, and no one can accuse - killing the enemy for the imperial court, is it not allowed to flexibly dispose of the spoils?

On the other hand, Li Su also didn't want to make money to subsidize Liu Bei, so he also had to help Liu Bei sell the backlog of goods.

At present, their camp has 10 million yuan on hand, and Li Su's profits from selling books and paper have accounted for more than half of the 10 million balance. If all the subsequent expenditures are made from here, wouldn't it be equivalent to private funds for public use? Li Su doesn't do this kind of thing.

Even if it was his own money to buy officials, he felt that it was more reasonable to use Liu Bei's - because the 6 million that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei bought officials was also from Liu Bei! It's all for the overall interests of the camp, and you can't be careless.

Zhen Yan and Mi Zhu will be positioned as "capital shares" in the Hero Group in the future, while Li Su is "technology shares", so they can't mess up the order.

Mi Zhu listened to this suggestion and quickly calculated it: even if the quality of the horses is not good, according to this year's horse price, the average purchase of a horse in Youzhou is at least 50,000 yuan, and it was originally shipped to Xuzhou with taxes doubled, and then calculated freight, loss, and profit, the price here in Xuzhou is at least 120,000, and Jiangdong can sell 150,000. Now you can save the tax on passing all the way, and the profit is several times higher.

If Liu Bei had a thousand horses to sell, the gross profit of the increased part alone would be as much as forty or fifty million.

Li Su was very moved when he saw Mi Zhu, and hurriedly added a fire: "As long as Mi Gong is willing to work, we can give you two conveniences: First, at that time, Mi Gong's fleet can directly sail into Xuanshui and deliver goods to the dock of Liangxiang County, which is the territory under the full control of Xuande Gong."

Moreover, there are three tributaries of Bashui, which pass through Changping and Yuyang, no matter how it is mobilized in the future, Xuande Gong guarantees that you have a place to receive goods.

In addition, in order to show our sincerity, I will today point out Mi Gong a sub-plan that can slightly improve the stability of the sand boat at sea. ”

The route suggested by Li Su is basically equivalent to driving directly into the Haihe River from the gate guards and Dagu mouth of the later Shishi, and reaching the bottom of Yanjing City.

In addition, in the Yellow Sea, because of the shallow water and many swells, the seafaring ships in ancient times used flat-bottomed sand boats, which are roughly the same as the structure of inland river ships. This kind of boat can go as far south as the mouth of the Yangtze River or even the mouth of the Qiantang River, and the sea area further south can not be eaten, so it has to use the pointed bottom boat that only appeared in later generations, that is, the "lucky boat".

This is also why until the end of the Ming Dynasty, the merchant forces in the coastal waters of China were still divided into the Shachuan Gang in the north and the Fuchuan Gang in the south, with Zheng Chenggong in the south and Shen Tingyang in the north. The structure of the two sides is different, and they can't get to each other's turf to cut.

Therefore, when in the Three Kingdoms, if you want to do some navigation in the north, you can still do it, and the ready-made goods can be slightly changed, and there is no technical difficulty. But don't think about it in the waters south of Fujian, you have to climb the science and technology tree again, it's too troublesome.

Mi Zhu was slightly surprised: "This route is not bad, but our ship never goes out to sea, and it is a long way to go around Qingzhou close to the shore - Mr. actually understands the art of ship construction?" Can a sea vessel not have to sail close to the coast? ”

The coast of the Shandong Peninsula is tortuous, and it is very time-consuming and laborious for the sea ships of this era to sail around the shore.

Li Su decided to push it again: "I read a lot, and I just have one occasional gain - now the sand boats in the Zunfu are mainly for inland river navigation, so they haven't been specially repaired for going to sea, right?" That's why I'm afraid of the swells and don't dare to stay away from the coast. ”

Mi Zhu: "That's true—but all over Xuzhou and Jiangdong, all sand boats entering the sea are like this." ”

Li Su: "You can nail two more narrow planks sticking out from the bottom of the boat below the waterline, just like the side fin of a swimming fish." In this way, the performance of the sand boat against turbulence in the swell can also be improved like a swimming fish. ”

What Li Su proposed was the most basic trick for building sea ships in later generations, adding a lateral stabilizing fin to the ship. This kind of knocking was about the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, and it was summed up by the craftsmen, and there was no technical difficulty.

Li Su felt that his camp would not find a base on the coast in the future, and since only the Mi Zhu family had a sea ship business among the friends he knew, he would throw bricks and jade to show his sincerity and change some bargaining chips.

After listening to this, Mi Zhu decided to go back and give it a try right away.

However, if he wants to say it beautifully, even if it has not been verified, he has to raise his bid first: "Zhu has already deeply felt the kindness of Mr. and Xuande Gong, so let's do it, I will raise the money to help the army to 10 million, in addition, the purchase price of horses in the future, I am willing to buy horses from Youzhou at the price of horses in Jizhou." ”

The meaning of Mi Zhu's sentence is that he is willing to buy Liu Bei's loot by an additional two to three percent of the purchase price than the normal market price. The extra part is equivalent to a dividend to the horse sellers in Liu Bei's camp.

Li Su was very satisfied, and it was just right to propose the cooperation of the silver mirror business.

Of course, he will also set the tone and make it clear at the beginning: selling horses is Liu Bei's business, and Yinjing is his own business, and public and private funds must be distinguished.