Chen Kai came and went, but it was only a few days. A few days ago, before Chen Kai set off, he issued a decree through the Yamen of the Separate Guarding Road, which was to set up a manure accumulation site outside the Chaozhou Prefecture, which collected feces for the accumulation of nitrate in accordance with the old practice of Nanao City.

As early as the beginning of Chen Kai's management of the Ordnance Bureau, due to the problem of gunpowder stocks in the army, a workshop for collecting fecal nitrate and the corresponding system have been established, and now it is nothing more than copying.

But the problem is that Nanao City is a military city, and most of them are military officers and their families, and the number of real households does not have much advantage. When a government order is issued and a ban is issued in the army, there is very little opposition, especially in those military camps. However, Chaozhou City is a government city, and there are no less than 50,000 or 60,000 people in the city alone, and the related interests in this are not comparable to that Nanao City at all.

At the same time as the decree was issued, Chen Kai set off for the Zhongzuo Institute to meet with Zheng Chenggong. He was gone, but the decree immediately sparked controversy among those involved.

The south gate of Chaozhou, Sanyang Gate is not far from the Guanwang Temple. Near the left side of the Guanwang Temple, in a restaurant, several richly dressed men drank wine while reprimanding the government decree that had just been issued for a long time.

"When the emperor was alive, the masters in the city and the countryside all said that the emperor believed the eunuch's slander and competed with the people for profit. Now there is no eunuch waiting by Chen Daotai's side, how can he come up with such a shady solution, isn't this taking away our jobs? ”

"It's not emasculating, but those Cantonese aren't fuel-efficient lamps. They are all foreigners, and they must not care how bad our Chaozhou locals are. ”

The oldest man complained, and the scar-faced man on the opposite side directly targeted the people of Guangzhou, especially the few Guangzhou officials in the yamen of the province, and there were even more people who came and went. In the end, even Chen Kai was not spared, and said that Chen Kai even fought for dung, and the eight achievements were reincarnated by the live maggot.

"Sixth, you've drunk too much. Be careful, be careful! ”

To put it bluntly, they collected the dung of the people in the city and transported it to the city to sell it to the farmers who farmed the land to fertilize the fields. This job, don't look dirty and smelly, but there is no ambiguity at all in the money. In Bianliang City in the Song Dynasty, there were many rich people who engaged in such transactions, and some of them could even leave their names in some folk notes. Although this Chaozhou City cannot be compared with the most densely populated giant city in the world at that time, it is also a prefecture-level city with tens of thousands of mouths all year round, and the natural feces produced every day are an innumerable number.

These people are all ancestors who have been engaged in this kind of business for generations. They didn't need to do it themselves, they were completely hired workers, bribed officials and officials, and the clothes were expensive, even for several generations, but in the eyes of the local gentry, they were completely despised.

At this moment, the scarface was speechless, and there were a few tables apart, just because he looked down on them, and he was afraid that he would smell the "ugly smell of dung" on them, so the two scholars who hid on the side even pointed to their noses and scolded. The reason is nothing more than insulting the officials, and they will immediately call the officials to lock them up and put them in prison.

Don't look at just two scholars, but the status of Confucian scholars in the people is very high, once someone takes the lead, a few tables of diners who also look down on them also helped, the oldest quickly apologized, and then threw down a piece of silver, and didn't care about anything to find money, so he hurriedly pulled those people out of the wine shop, that situation, as if he had escaped with his tail between his legs.

"As far as the students know, the government collects manure to produce saltpeter and make gunpowder, which was done in South Australia for a few years. Now, it is probably because the army is too much to consume, and the production of South Australia alone is not enough. ”

"What Mr. said is very true, and I have heard it below, this is the ancestral ability of Master Chen, and their family relies on this ability to provide gunpowder to the officers and soldiers of the Nine Sides. Now that Mr. Chen has taken out all his ancestral livelihoods to help Master Wang, I heard that the government did not want to treat those guys badly, but they still dared to insult Mr. Chen, they really didn't know anything. ”

Readers talk eloquently, showing insight, even if others echo it. With the process of piling up dung and accumulating nitrate, this Ming army has not spent silver money to buy saltpeter for several years, and like carbon, saltpeter has been able to be self-sufficient, and the cost of gunpowder production is nothing more than sulfur, at most some labor and silver money for the purchase of eggs and turnips.

Now the factory of manure accumulation is not only in South Australia, Feng Chengshi moved the Ordnance Bureau to the Zhongzuo Institute, and the Zhongzuo Institute also copied a manure accumulation plant. The number of people there is superior to that of South Australia, especially the large number of troops, and the daily excrement produced by the army is an astronomical amount.

"I'm afraid that they will make trouble for the government......"

"Hmph, a bunch of dung-digging goods, what are you afraid of them doing?"

Sure enough, the worry arose the next day. Unlike normal days, this morning, the dung truck did not pass through the streets and alleys as in the past, pouring the reincarnation of grains accumulated in the previous day into the dung truck and returning the house to a clean house.

When the people in the city heard about it, they sent people to send a few men, and their explanation was that the government's move had ruined the livelihood of those workers, and now those workers were no longer on strike, and they were all looking for other livelihoods, so they couldn't find the manpower to do these things.

"Don't think that you don't know what your plan is, now that the official is talking to you, you can still get out alive. When Chen Daotai comes back, he looks good with you! ”

A few men didn't get in on the oil, and they simply had to pay bribes to the same knowledge when they got to the back. If Tongzhi has no gray income, it is impossible, but he is not lacking in heart, knowing how powerful Chen Kai is, even if he lets the officials beat these guys out with sticks.

In the evening, Tongzhi was busy for a day and went back to his home to rest. He had already begun to think about using some strong tactics, because this matter always needed to be resolved before Chen Kai returned. Unexpectedly, as soon as he returned home, the scar-faced man sent a post, saying that he could help him solve the matter.

"Master Tongzhi, we know the difficulties of the government in this matter. Whether it is you or Mr. Chen, they are all worried about the people, and we naturally can't be ignorant. It's just that the government said to give us a few shops and let us do something else to make a living, and we have no internal and external channels, and the goods are nowhere to enter or collect, so it's not a loss of money? ”

"Then you mean to let the government spend money to buy manure from you?"

At this moment, Tongzhi frowned, and the man immediately licked his smiling face and greeted him: "Tongzhi is wise, let's think about not destroying the original method, who will sell the feces to when the time comes?" When the time comes, you, Mr. Chen, and the old men of the prefecture and county, we will all send them over with filial piety on a monthly basis. And with us here, we are not afraid of delaying Mr. Chen's affairs, so why not? ”

Tongzhi needed to consider the pros and cons, so he asked the man to go back and wait for news. Waiting until the next morning, after thinking about Chen Kai's past style of behavior all night, Tongzhi returned to the mansion and issued an order to arrest those dung merchants. Unexpectedly, the order was given, but the officials below were not able to catch anyone, saying that the families had run away from the shadows last night.

In this regard, Tongzhi was very helpless, so he had to order the officials to continue the pursuit. But under the hot weather, in just a few days, the entire Chaozhou City was smoked by the feces that could not be cleaned up in time. The smell of feces in the air exacerbates the disease.

There were complaints in the city for a while, and even those farmers who could not buy manure outside the city were also quite dissatisfied. This situation lasted until Chen Kai came back, sitting in the carriage with a curtain, he smelled some stench but didn't pay too much attention to it, until Chen Song told the truth of the matter, he suddenly remembered the sentence "Cutting off people's wealth is like killing parents".

"A few people who buy and sell feces want to take Lao Tzu, I think they are confused by those and urine, and forget who they are fighting against!"