When He Zhiyuan heard Cai Youliang say this, he remembered Lu Chuanmei, and it turned out that the opposite was Lu Chuanmei's husband. It was he who said: "Oh, it turns out that your daughter-in-law is Lu Chuanmei." I was very impressed with her, she was a clever woman, and some time ago she made a great contribution and was rewarded with thirty taels of silver. ”

The people around heard that Cai Youliang's family had rewarded him with thirty taels of silver, and everyone was envious for a while, and they all asked him to treat him. Cai Youliang thanked him and said, "Thank you Gongzi He for your help to my family!" ”

"No thanks, your hard work is the best thank you to me." He Zhiyuan said, and then asked, "Do you still plan to go back to Chaoyi now?" ”

"I won't go back, I'll settle down in Hejia Town in the future." Cai Youliang said happily, and then sighed: "We are really a blessing in disguise." At the beginning, we didn't want to come to Shandong, but my mother insisted on coming to Shandong. Now it seems that my mother's claim was right. ”

At this time, many people came around and asked He Zhiyuan various questions:

"Gongzi He, are we still recruiting people in the mine?"

"He Gongzi, I heard that more machinery will be used in the future, will there be fewer miners?"

"He Gongzi, can we sell so much coal from the mine?"

After He Zhiyuan finished eating the food on the plate, he stood up and said to everyone: "Ladies and gentlemen, the scale of our coal mine will continue to expand in the future, and the efficiency of coal mining will become higher and higher, and it is inevitable to continue to recruit miners. As for the sales of coal, we don't have to worry, in the future, all kinds of kiln workshops will continue to increase, steam pumping machines will continue to increase, and ordinary people's homes will use coal for heating and cooking, so the amount of coal will continue to increase. ”

When everyone heard He Zhiyuan say this, they were all relieved. As long as the coal can be sold, they will have a job to do, and they can even bring their relatives to work.

As soon as He Zhiyuan finished speaking, Shopkeeper Sun walked into the cafeteria, looked for He Zhiyuan, and said to Shopkeeper Sun: "Gongzi He, more than a dozen businessmen came this morning, and they have been waiting for you in Luoquanzhuang.

"Oh? Did they say what was going on? He Zhiyuan asked.

"They said they wanted to discuss with you about cooperating with a cement workshop." Shopkeeper Sun replied.

Hearing this, He Zhiyuan understood that they must have been those businessmen who did not sign the cement workshop cooperation contract years ago, and now they see that the supply of cement is in short supply, and the price is rising. These businessmen saw the huge benefits of cement, and now they want to cooperate with He Zhiyuan again.

However, now several cement workshops in Yishui are expanding their scale, and after normal production, the output of cement will be saturated, and the cement plant will be built at this time, I am afraid there will not be much profit.

Half an hour later, He Zhiyuan accompanied the shopkeeper Sun to the mansion in Luoquanzhuang, and when he entered the main hall, the dozen or so businessmen quickly stood up and saluted He Zhiyuan. After He Zhiyuan sat down with them, he began to ask, "Are you here for cement cooperation?" ”

Everyone nodded yes, and one of the older businessmen said: "Contemptible Sun Jianmao, blame me for being short-sighted and missing the opportunity to join He Gongzi." This time, I came to meet He Gongzi with a shy face, and asked He Gongzi to give us another chance to cooperate, even if the proportion of the share is reduced by one percent, we are willing. ”

He Zhiyuan shook his head regretfully and said: "You should have also seen that there are now seven or eight cement factories in Yizhou, and they are all expanding, if you build another cement plant in Yizhou, there will inevitably be a situation of oversupply, and then there will inevitably be mutual price reductions and vicious competition, then there will be no much profit." ”

When everyone heard this, their faces showed some disappointment, but what He Zhiyuan said was also the truth, and now the scale of the Yizhou cement workshop is at least three times more than originally expected, and it is indeed not a good time to build a cement plant. At this time, Sun Jianmao said: "He Gongzi, we are now optimistic about the prospects of cement, if Yizhou is saturated, we can go to other places, as far as I know, there are cement workshops in Juzhou and Yizhou in Qingzhou Prefecture, and there are no other places." Go to other factories to build factories, you can save a lot of transportation costs, I believe the profit is still very rich. ”

He Zhiyuan had such an idea for a long time, and now that these businessmen have put it forward, he naturally agrees with this way of cooperation. He said: "This is a good way, but the local government needs to negotiate with you, this is just to provide cement formula, I am not greedy for money, or according to the original sharing plan." ”

When everyone heard that He Zhiyuan agreed to Sun Jianmao's proposal, they were very happy and said: "There is no need for He Gongzi to worry about the construction of a cement workshop in the local area, we will find a way to negotiate with the government, as long as there is a cooperation contract with He Gongzi, we will immediately go to the local government to negotiate and build the cement workshop as soon as possible." ”

He Zhiyuan nodded in agreement, and then admonished them: "According to the current price, the profits of the cement workshop are very rich, but you can't be shoddy in the production process, you can't arbitrarily deduct the wages of workers, and you can't arbitrarily reduce prices and compete maliciously, otherwise I have a way to make your cement workshop can't open." ”

When everyone heard this, they all agreed to He Zhiyuan's request. Sun Jianmao also said: "He Gongzi, please rest assured, since we want to cooperate, we will never do anything against He Gongzi's will, in fact, everyone feels that everyone who follows He Gongzi has made a fortune, and everyone who is against He Gongzi is miserable, who will be a fool in this case?" ”

"Well said, since you are willing to cooperate with me, then we will sign the contract today." He Zhiyuan praised.

Next, they brought pen and paper and signed the cooperation contract one by one.

This time, a total of 15 cooperation contracts have been signed, and cement workshops to be established in the future are all over Qingzhou and Yanzhou. According to the current scale, these fifteen cement workshops can bring at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to He Zhiyuan in a year. At the same time, it can also bring tens of thousands of jobs to the local people and solve the food and clothing of tens of thousands of families. The emergence of cement has also greatly reduced the construction cost of the house, but also improved the local traffic conditions, the improvement of traffic conditions can promote the development of the local economy, later generations had "to get rich first build roads" said, and in the Ming Dynasty convenient transportation can also promote the local prosperity.

After the matter was discussed, the merchants thanked each other and left. He Zhiyuan walked on the mountain all morning, and his body was a little lacking, so he lay down on the bed to rest.

Not long after falling asleep, someone came over to report that Mine Chief Yin and his son Yin Lifu were waiting outside. He Zhiyuan turned over and got up and asked the next person: "Yin Lifu is back?" ”

The man replied, "He had just returned a little while, and when he saw the joy of their father and son, it seemed as if there was good news." ”

"Let them in." He Zhiyuan commanded.

He Zhiyuan came to the main hall and saw Mine Chief Yin waiting in the hall with a lean and dark-skinned young man, it was obvious that this young man was the son of Mine Chief Yin. When Mine Chief Yin saw He Zhiyuan coming in, he hurriedly gave He Zhiyuan a salute with his son, and Mine Chief Yin introduced: "This is my child, he just came back from the mountains this morning. ”

When Yin Lifu saw He Zhiyuan, he immediately knelt down and saluted, and said: "Thank you He Gongzi for saving your life, Lifu has nothing to repay, I can only use what I have learned from He Gongzi to prospect for the vein." ”

He Zhiyuan helped Yin Lifu up with both hands, and then said: "Don't talk about saving your life, you are not at fault, you were just framed by the villain, and saving you is also a matter of effort." Then, He Zhiyuan changed the topic and said: "I heard your father say that you have stayed in the mountains for more than ten days this time, and you will gain something from going out this time?" ”

As soon as he asked this, a smile immediately appeared on Yin Lifu's swarthy face, and he said with a spring breeze on his face: "This harvest is too great. Deep in the mountains to the west, I found a large open-pit coal mine, which was very shallow and of good quality, and could be mined as long as the road was repaired. ”

He Zhiyuan was very happy when he heard this: "Great, Lifu has made a great contribution this time!" Tell me more about this coal mine. ”

Yin Lifu thought for a while, then organized the language, and began to say: "This coal mine is about thirty miles away from here, located in a basin surrounded by mountains, the entire basin is about ten miles from east to west, and about thirty miles from north to south, and almost all of this basin is a coal-producing area. The shallowest part of the burial is about two feet deep, and it is so easy to mine that it will not be able to be mined in 50 years at the current scale. ”

"Good, good!" He Zhiyuan said three good things in a row, and then said to Yin Lifu: "It's really hard to trek through mountains and rivers and sleep in the open for more than ten days, you just have a good rest here and celebrate for you at night!" ”

After that, He Zhiyuan ordered his subordinates to clean up the room, and then Yin Lifu went to rest. Yin Lifu was really tired, so he didn't shirk and said goodbye to He Zhiyuan with his subordinates and went to rest.

After Yin Lifu left, He Zhiyuan said to Shopkeeper Sun: "Since the coal mine has been discovered, Shopkeeper Sun will immediately go to the Yizhou Mansion to find Lord Zhou to go through the relevant mining procedures, and first take down this coal mine." ”

Shopkeeper Sun replied and said, "I'll go to Master Zhou immediately and complete the relevant procedures as soon as possible." Then he bowed his hand and took his leave.

After that, the head of the Yin mine asked He Zhiyuan: "He Gongzi, we want to mine this open-pit coal mine, transportation is a big problem, more than 30 miles of mountain roads, there are rivers in the middle, if you build a waterway and build a bridge, you will have to invest at least 100,000 taels of silver." ”

He Zhiyuan shook his head and said: "Don't rush to mine now, first straighten out the coal mine in Heishi Mountain, and then consider building roads and mining that coal mine." ”

Then He Zhiyuan asked Mine Manager Yin again: "How many years did Yin Lifu study in a private school before?" ”

Mine Chief Yin said a little embarrassed: "He only studied in private school for seven or eight years, and I saw that he was not a material for reading, and I didn't like to read, so I taught him the method of prospecting and finding pulses, but I have a lot of experience in these miscellaneous studies." ”

He Zhiyuan thought in his heart that he estimated that he was a science student who didn't like to read the dead book, so he had a plan in his heart, and then said: "When I go back this time, I will take him with me, so that he can also follow me to learn some science and know, so as to lay a good foundation for better pulse exploration in the future." ”

When Mine Chief Yin heard this, he immediately got up and thanked him!