"Coal?"

Zhu Yijun looked at Shi Yiwen puzzled and asked.

"Zhiyuan, you come and hear it."

Then Zhu Yijun is a look of great interest, for his inner desire for wealth, what he appreciates most is that Shi Yiwen can find business opportunities in places that others can't see, and then bring rich returns.

"Your Majesty, as the so-called "firewood, rice, oil and salt", this firewood is the most important, without firewood, you can't raise the fire for cooking, and rice, oil and salt have become decorations. However, in the capital, most of the people use coal, and even the palace also uses a lot of coal. ”

Even during the Wanli period, because almost all the trees on the mountains of Fangyuan in the capital had been cut down, the source of fuelwood in the capital was scarce, and it had to rely on coal, but fortunately, the coal mines in western Beijing provided enough fuel for the capital.

For Shi Yiwen, who had just bought the large and small coal kilns in the Mentougou area, the reason why he mentioned this matter was to gain the emperor's support.

"So, I thought, I can make a fuss about coal."

As he spoke, he lifted a red clay stove and put it on the table.

"It's ......"

Looking at the two-foot-tall red clay stove, Zhu Yijun smiled.

"Shi Yiwen, isn't it you, Mencius, who are thinking about such a thing?"

Laughing, Zhu Yijun still looked at this red clay oven, two feet high, more than a foot thick, and this stove is a little bigger.

In the past two days, Shi Yiwen has really been thinking about coal, and finally figured out it, a gadget made of coarse water pipes, round steel, and steel plates in the space.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this stove is different from ordinary stoves, you see, ......"

Shi Yiwen's words made Zhu Yijun puzzled.

"What could be any different?"

Standing up and looking at the stove, Zhu Yijun immediately saw the difference.

"It seems that the briquettes burned are different, how can there be eyes on these briquettes?"

"Back to Your Majesty, this furnace burns honeycomb coal, which is similar to ordinary briquettes, and is also made of coal and yellow mud mixed with water,"

People in this era rarely use pure coal because of high-quality coal, which not all households can afford. Poor families often use briquettes mixed with clay and cinder, which is very suitable for their closed coal furnaces.

"Because there are twelve holes in the middle, because they resemble honeycombs, that's why it's called. Because there is a hole in the middle, it is easy to ventilate, and it burns larger than ordinary coal balls. This stove is specialized in burning honeycomb coal. The furnace is exactly the size of honeycomb coal, and three pieces of coal can be placed in the furnace. There is an air hole under this, which is usually covered with a lid, so that the stove is smoldering, but it is only a smoldering fire, and when the fire is smoldering, it can last for six hours, and as long as the air hole is opened, the fire will automatically rise......"

As he spoke, Shi Yiwen opened the valve of the stove.

"In this way, it will be saved to be like the coal burning ball now, which is used and raised now. Therefore, you can save a lot of charcoal, burn that kind of briquettes, and get up early every day to make a fire, so you must use charcoal, rich people can buy 100 catties and save it, and those who don't have money can buy 2 or 3 pennies a day from those who catch zero charcoal. In short, although the inhabitants do not do without charcoal, they do not use as much coal. You can put a pot of cold water on the stove at night, and you can get a pot of hot water in the morning, just enough to wash. ”

Looking at the stove, Zhu Yijun suddenly lost interest, after all, for him, the emperor, he couldn't understand his use at all. However, the guests who came with him heard that their eyes lit up. After all, he was from a poor family, and seeing that the emperor was not interested, he immediately asked.

"Shi Tongzhi, how is this briquette burning? How much do you burn in a day? ”

"If you use it normally, you can burn three pieces, and you only need three briquettes in the morning, noon and evening."

"Three briquettes, how much does this one weigh? How long can it be burned. ”

"Two catties, half an hour will definitely be fine."

"Two catties, the price of coal in the capital now is one hundred catties of silver, that is, two pennies of coal......"

Listening to the guest settling accounts with himself, Shi Yiwen said on the side.

"This briquette is also mixed with 30% of the soil."

"I know you have to mix soil, your thing is so round, and there are holes, the cost is definitely not cheap, it is estimated that the capital has to go out, this normal person, it will only take half an hour to cook a meal, almost ...... Well, you have to get three or four catties of coal, and you have to say twelve or thirteen catties a day, that is, thirteen or so wen, Shi Gongzi, you don't make much money. ”

This eunuch is quite shrewd.

Shi Yiwen, who originally looked down on the eunuchs, looked at the guests differently. In fact, he knew that the guests who had been waiting outside the palace since the eunuch did not burn coal, after all, most of the people in the capital now burn coal.

"It's really not a lot of money."

When the guest was talking, Zhu Yijun never interjected, he didn't know that the people were hungry and cold, but the people around him knew. When he heard that he didn't make a profit, he yawned.

"Mingzhi, if this briquette is made by hand, it will naturally not make much money, but this is made with a briquette machine."

As he spoke, Shi Yiwen took out the briquette machine he welded in the space from the side, and there was a box of slime on the ground that had been reconciled, and then he stepped on the briquette machine to make briquettes.

"Huh......"

Zhu Yijun, who was originally not interested, saw that the thing was fresh and had never seen it, so he immediately said.

"Come on, I'll try."

Learn Shi Yiwen's movements, step on the machine to fill the mud, and then push down.

"Yo, it's coming out so soon!"

Now Zhu Yijun is interested, this briquette is quite convenient to fight.

"Yes, as long as it's dried. Your Majesty, the minister has calculated, counting the labor at most no more than one penny eight, much cheaper than coal, a hundred yuan sold for three dollars and six cents of silver, calculated and the difference between the coal group is not much the same, it is cheaper than dozens of Wen, but the victory is in the convenience of the fire, no need to raise the fire every day, it also saves the firewood for the fire, and there is boiling water to drink all day long, calculated, it must be much more convenient than the coal group. ”

After hitting a few briquettes one after another, Zhu Yijun, who had lost any interest, looked at the wet briquettes on the ground and asked rhetorically.

"That, by selling briquettes, can you sell them for money?"

This is what Zhu Yijun is most concerned about.

"Ming Zhi doesn't know, the millions of military and civilian homes in the Beijing Division, almost all of them use stone coal as a salary, and the firewood salary is at most used to raise the fire, and this Beijing Division is not allowed to burn coal in a million taels of silver that year, and this business can indeed earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver."

In addition to explaining, the guest glanced at Shi Yiwen.

"However, from a small point of view, even if Shi Tongzhi gets this briquette stove and briquette machine, he will definitely not be able to earn so much silver! Breaking the sky is a business of eight hundred taels of thousands of children. ”