The black and bulky honeycomb coal was set up in a blazing charcoal fire, and the charcoal basin, which was originally very warm, suddenly became less warm after being blocked from part of the spark!

"Xuan'er, there is no shortage of charcoal in our house, why are you doing so many briquettes? It's hard to burn! ”

Li Jingmo frowned.

Although the briquettes that Li Zexuan sandwiched over have a different shape, coal is coal, and in Li Jingmo's opinion, no matter what shape this thing is, there will be no charcoal to burn.

Li Zexuan said with a smile: "Dad, it's true that our family can afford to burn charcoal, but most of the people's homes can't afford to burn it!" Your son is accumulating good deeds! Besides, honeycomb coal isn't just for fire, you see! ”

Li Jingmo saw that his son planned to be stubborn to the end, he shook his head and no longer dissuaded.

However, Mrs. Li's heart was as careful as a hair, and she asked softly: "Xuan'er, your honeycomb coal and stove are specially designed for the poor people?" If that's the case, my mother supports you! I don't know how many people in Chang'an City will freeze to death every year, you have immeasurable merit! ”

Women generally believe in cause and effect, and since Li Zexuan was rescued by Lingxu Zhenren, Mrs. Li has become a loyal Taoist believer, and at the end of every month, she will go to Xuandu Temple to ask for peace for her family!

"Xiao Xuan, grandmother also supports you! As the saying goes, there are three good things in one day, and the blessings will fall in the sky in three years; There are three evils in one day, and disasters will fall in the sky in three years! The Li family is now also a rich and noble family, and only by accumulating more virtue and doing good deeds can they be rich and prosperous! ”

Old Mrs. Ye patted Li Zexuan's arm and smiled kindly.

The four generations of the Ye family have cultivated Taoism, and under the influence of Mrs. Ye, many Taoist teachings have been engraved in her heart. She believes in the causal cycle more than Mrs. Lee!

"Huh! Thank you! Thank you grandmother! ”

Li Zexuan smiled.

He doesn't really care about the cycle of cause and effect, good deeds and good rewards, he just does good deeds to give himself peace of mind!

Gradually, after a while, the blue-yellow charcoal flames rushed out along the coal hole, and the inner wall of the coal hole was also burned red, Li Zexuan looked slightly excited and shouted: "Okay! ”

Then he picked up the honeycomb coal in the charcoal basin with tongs and carefully put it into the coal furnace, and then he piled another honeycomb coal on top of the honeycomb coal, and the coal holes between the two honeycomb coals overlapped.

After everything was finished, he looked at Li Jingmo and said with a smile: "Dad, how is it?" This honeycomb coal doesn't burn much slower than charcoal, right? ”

Before Li Jingmo could say anything, Ye Guozhong stared at the few honeycomb coals scattered on the ground in surprise, and said in amazement: "It's amazing!" This seemingly useless piece of coal, you have been so easy to burn by Xiao Xuan! This is really a means to turn stones into gold! ”

The price of charcoal in the Tang Dynasty was not cheap at all, especially in the early Tang Dynasty. There is a record in the "Old Tang Book" that "tens of thousands of righteous teachers, and in the Beijing division, the salary is expensive and the cloth is cheap", which refers to the situation that in the early Tang Dynasty, due to the early establishment of the country, all the righteous troops from all over the country were concentrated in Beijing, resulting in the increase in the price of salary and charcoal.

Although the price of Zhenguan was cheap, the price of charcoal was basically maintained at about seven or eight hundred wen per stone (100 catties), and the price of good smokeless willow charcoal was even more expensive!

Don't think that a pound of charcoal doesn't seem expensive, but this thing is a consumable! How long does a pound of charcoal burn?

For a rich and noble family like the Li family, they don't care about the charcoal money, but for the people, burning charcoal is equivalent to burning money! How many can afford to burn?

The Taoist poet Cao Tang of the late Tang Dynasty described the kitchen in the fairyland in his "Ninety-Eight Poems of Little Wandering Immortals": "What does the kitchen maid cook, the stove is full of smokeless jade and charcoal red. ”

In Cao Tang's view, cooking rice with charcoal is just a wonderful fantasy in a fairyland, and this poem just proves the reality of charcoal use at that time, that is, how difficult it is for ordinary people to use charcoal for cooking.

In fact, there was the Tang generation, and the consumers of charcoal were mainly the upper class of society. At that time, among the royal relatives and the officials of the first to the fifth grade, there was a supply of charcoal. During the Tianbao period, Tang Xuanzong even set up a position in the court to be responsible for related charcoal affairs, and in the imperial court, he also set up a special post of charcoal envoy to be in charge of related affairs.

It is based on this that Ye Guozhong will say that the honeycomb coal made by Li Zexuan is a means to turn stones into gold! After all, those coal blocks were difficult to burn before, so how different was it from stones? But now that Li Zexuan has done this, it is completely turning waste into treasure and turning stones into gold! There is some great wealth behind this honeycomb coal!

"What turns stones into gold? This is obviously a great merit! Xiao Xuan, this honeycomb coal should be cheaper than charcoal, right? ”

Old Lady Ye patted Ye Guozhong's arm, then looked at Li Zexuan and asked.

Li Zexuan nodded with a smile and said, "Of course it's cheap, and it's a lot cheaper!" Grandmother, even if this honeycomb coal is only sold for a penny, the grandson will not suffer! ”

He is now a real "family mine" type tyrant, honeycomb coal for him, only need to consider manpower and transportation costs, evenly spread to each honeycomb coal, the cost is even lower! For a penny, he really can't afford to lose!

"Yo~! A penny for one? That's so cheap~! ”

Mrs. Ye also has eyesight, and she feels that a honeycomb coal is a pound at least. The price of a pound is less than a penny, compared with charcoal, it is simply not too cheap!

"Yikes! Brother! That honeycomb coal on top is also burning! It's so warm~! ”

Lan'er stared at the coal stove for a long time, and suddenly screamed at this moment, her little hand was touching the outer wall of the coal stove to keep warm, and her little face was full of excitement!

Li Zexuan took a look, picked up a piece of honeycomb coal from the ground and sent it to the coal furnace, and at the end, he said: "This furnace generally needs to put three honeycomb coals at the same time, so that the heat in it can be transmitted to the furnace mouth!" Now that the two briquettes below are already burning, the one above will burn faster! Xiaohe, go to the kitchen to help me get a copper kettle, and fill it with water by the way~! ”

“..... Yes, young master~! ”

Xiaohe answered, and hurriedly pushed the door and went out.

Ye Fashan guessed Li Zexuan's intentions and asked, "Cousin, is this going to boil water on this stove~?" ”

"Hmmm! That's right! In addition to being used for heating, the biggest use of this honeycomb coal is to boil water and cook rice! And its advantage in this regard is irreplaceable by charcoal~! ”

Li Zexuan replied with a smile.

After a while, Xiaohe returned with a copper kettle.

The kettles of this era were made of pottery and copper, but they were still very different from modern kettles in appearance. Li Zexuan is too lazy to care about these things now, as long as he can use it to boil water, it will be.

The copper kettle was placed on the mouth of the coal stove and the lid of the coal stove vent was opened, and the fire became more and more vigorous after a while.

In less than half an hour, there was a "squeak" sound in the kettle.

Mrs. Li was surprised: "This honeycomb coal boils water really fast, much faster than firewood!" ”

Li Zexuan responded: "Mother! This thing not only boils water quickly, but also lasts for a long time, you don't see that there are only three pieces of honeycomb coal in it, but if it is only used to boil water, a piece of honeycomb coal can burn for more than three hours at most, and a total of four honeycomb coals need to be replaced every day!

If you just keep the briquette fire burning unextinguished, leaving only a small hole in the vent of the briquette, a honeycomb coal can burn for about six hours, and only need to change two pieces of coal a day. This way, you can avoid the hassle of lighting a fire every time! ”

Combustion requires a certain environment: combustibles, oxygen, temperature. A single honeycomb coal cannot be burned because it cannot maintain temperature. Honeycomb coal can only burn normally in the stove, and at least two honeycomb coals are needed in the stove, and the general household stove needs to put three honeycomb coals at the same time to boil water for cooking.

What Li Zexuan said was all his experience.

In his previous life, he burned honeycomb coal at home for at least ten years, so he knows the characteristics of honeycomb coal well!

Ye Yuzhu, Mrs. Ye and others next to him were stunned when they heard Li Zexuan's words!

When the coal stove burns for a day, it only takes four pieces of honeycomb coal, which is four dollars! If you burn charcoal for a day, it will cost hundreds of dollars! Four dollars to hundreds of dollars, this is a nearly 100-fold difference!

And even if you don't use charcoal, you have to use firewood! The people outside Chang'an City can indeed go up the mountain to chop firewood by themselves, but the people in the city are all paid for firewood! After calculating this, the firewood money on this day is actually similar to burning coal!

I have to say that this honeycomb coal is really money-saving! And this thing has no smoke, I don't know how many times better it is than Chai He!

"Xuan'er, this is a good thing! You don't know how easy it will be to boil water and cook rice with this coal stove and honeycomb coal! If this thing is taken out and sold, the people will definitely rush to buy it, regardless of whether they have money at home or not! ”

Mrs. Li smiled with a smile.

When she married Li Jingmo in her early years, she went from a rich lady who didn't touch the spring water with her fingers to a virtuous wife who could go to the hall and the kitchen, and she knew the difficulties of the kitchen best.

Before coal and oil were developed on a large scale, there was hardly any energy source that could match the importance of fuel. Among them, the fire is mainly used for cooking, and firewood is still used! The smoky smell of fire is a real pain!

"Cousin! How much does this coal furnace cost~? ”

Ye Fashan suddenly asked.

Li Zexuan groaned: "This coal furnace is made of pure iron, and the cost is naturally more expensive, and the cost price of each furnace is about one hundred and fifty Wen~!" But the life of each furnace is at least more than five years, and there will be basically no problems within five years! ”

"One hundred and fifty... Five years! When you think about it, it is indeed very cost-effective to cook rice with a coal stove and honeycomb coal! But it is estimated that many poor people are reluctant to spend so much money to buy coal stoves at once! ”

Ye Fashan, who is precocious in mind and knows much more things than his peers, can see at once what the biggest obstacle will be if the coal burning law is to be implemented on a large scale!

"Xuan'er, can we sell this stove to the people at a loss? Anyway, our family is not short of money now, and we should do good! ”

Mrs. Li was kind-hearted, and after listening to Ye Fashan's words, she couldn't help but suggest to Li Zexuan.

"Mother! Children don't care about money, but that's not how to do good! There are thousands of poor people in this world, and even if all this money from our family is scattered, it won't be able to set off a few waves! In the child's view, doing good deeds should also be sustainable, and if you can't do it this time, there will be no next time! Regarding the price of the coal stove, the child will find another way, mother, you don't have to worry~! ”

Li Zexuan shook his head and said.

Those world-class billionaires in their previous lives, such as Bill Gates, donated almost all of their wealth to the fund under their name for charity after leaving office! At that time, they also persuaded Ma (Yun) to donate all his property like them, but Ma's father did not agree, because Ma's father felt that if the money was donated to the poor, it would become dead money, and when the poor ran out, that part of the money would be completely gone, but the money in his hands was living money, which could be used to create more jobs, help more young people start businesses, and even help more poor people!

Li Zexuan felt that Daddy Ma's approach was very clever!

And he is rich now, but not so rich that he can help all the poor people in the world! Only by accumulating strength can we continue to do good!

"Xuan'er is right! There are too many poor people in the world today, if you want to help all the poor people if you want to lose money, it is tantamount to killing chickens and eggs, and it can't last long~! It's just Xuan'er that you said there is a better way, what is that way~? ”

Li Jingmo has been a businessman for half his life, and of course he understands the stakes, he first agreed with Li Zexuan's opinion, and then asked.

Except for Lan'er in the family, everyone's eyes were on Li Zexuan.

Seeing Li Zexuan condensed his eyebrows and thought about it, and then said with a smile: "This method, wait until I come back from a trip to the palace tomorrow!" Now that we have a coal stove, let's eat hot pot tonight~! ”

In the winter, the whole family eats hot pot around the stove, which is probably the happiest thing in winter!

In Li Zexuan's mind, he couldn't help but think of the situation of their family eating hot pot during the New Year in his previous life, and his heart was inexplicably a little sour.

"Hot pot? What is this hot pot? Can you eat it? ”

Ye Guo had lived a lifetime, but when he heard the word hot pot for the first time, he couldn't help but ask.

Li Zexuan was stunned, and said in his heart, is there no hot pot in this era? After searching for the memories of his predecessor, he quickly changed his words: "Ahem! This hot pot is similar to antique soup, but the hot pot I make will taste better! Lady, go, help prepare some food for your husband~! ”

The Book of Wei records that during the Three Kingdoms period, when Cao Pi was the emperor of the Han Dynasty, hot pots made of copper appeared, but they were not popular at that time. In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people used hot pot to shabu pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, fish and other kinds of meat, and later with the increasing development of domestic economy and culture, the further development of cooking technology, all kinds of hot pot also appeared one after another. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the tavern in Kaifeng, Bianjing, had hot pot in winter.

However, at that time, the hot pot was not called hot pot, but antique soup, which was named after the "coo" sound made when the ingredients were poured into the boiling water. It is an original delicacy in our country, in Bai Juyi's poem "Ask Liu Nineteen", "Green ants make new wine, red clay small stove." If you want snow in the evening, can you drink a glass of nothing? It vividly describes the scene of eating hot pot at that time.

"Good! Messire! ”

Han Yuxi smiled, and hurriedly got up and followed Li Zexuan towards the back kitchen!

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2-in-1 chapter

(End of chapter)