What about selling all the way south along the canal?

Shi Yiwen's words surprised Zhu Yijun.

"Selling all the way south? How to transport it? Don't sell wood for hundreds of miles, don't sell for thousands of miles, have you forgotten this truth? ”

The guest also looked at Shi Yiwen from the side, and even wondered why what he said today was so unreliable.

"Hundreds of miles don't sell wood, but isn't the charcoal from Taihang Mountain also sold to the capital? Thousands of miles away from selling, doesn't the grain in the south of the Yangtze River also supply the capital? ”

Smiling slightly, Shi Yiwen explained.

"The grain in the south of the Yangtze River has always been full of ships, and the empty ships come back, but what if the ships that go back are loaded with coal?"

Load the ship back with coal!

A seemingly simple suggestion made Zhu Yijun's eyes suddenly light up.

"Hey, Zhiyuan, tell me, how did you think of this kind of thing in your brain!"

Hundreds of miles do not sell wood, thousands of miles do not sell wood.

This sentence is that the freight is too high, and it is not worth losing if it is trafficked, but the cao ship is different, and it has always been an empty ship returning.

Almost after thinking about it, Zhu Yijun can also see the profits.

"Hehe, Shengshi Ziding, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the world has been peaceful for two hundred years, the people are prosperous, the people make fires to cook, naturally they have to cut down a lot of trees, the trees around the capital are exhausted, the forests in Shandong and other places are becoming more and more scarce, honeycomb coal makes it convenient, and the price is cheap, not to mention the villages along the canal, such as Linqing and other cities, naturally willing to use coal, four million stones of grain a year, if you return to the time, use an empty ship to transport four million stone coal to the south, I am afraid that the income is not less than the capital, And Cao Jun can also use this to supplement his life. ”

For the transportation and marketing of coal, Shi Yiwen has already thought about everything, from the introduction of modern coal mining technology to open mines, to the construction of new roads, to the use of honeycomb coal to expand the market, as for the "return utilization" of the boat, it is a simple way, empty ships are also empty, good use, not only can expand the coal market in Mentougou to the south, but also bring a series of benefits.

"Zhiyuan, that is, you, can come up with so many ideas, I think this thing will work, but using a boat to transport a ship, this thing is easy to say, but it is not easy to do, and it will definitely not be possible now. The court will definitely not agree. ”

Although he sees the benefits, Zhu Yijun also sees the resistance.

"This matter does not need to go through the imperial court, when the Cao army returns, it is allowed to carry goods to supplement the life, but there are few goods in the north, often from the south, when returning, most of them are empty, as long as the honeycomb coal market is opened along the canal, they themselves will find the door to transport coal. As for the imperial court......"

Shi Yiwen smiled and didn't continue, Cao Jun's life was difficult, so they were allowed to carry goods, how could those people miss the benefits of transporting coal? There is no need to call the government at all, it is just "private goods".

"You've said so much, but you still don't get to the point."

Looking at Shi Yiwen with a smile, Zhu Yijun smiled.

"There must be some trouble."

"Hey, I can't hide anything from you, this thing is easy to do, but it's hard to do......"

Sighing helplessly, Shi Yiwen said.

"The hardest thing to do is the road."

"Road?"

"Yes, it's the road, Mentougou Coal Mine is located in the mountain, and it used to rely on mules to carry coal out of the mountain, but in this way, the cost is naturally much higher, and if you want to reduce costs, you must build roads, and it is not possible to build ordinary roads, so I want to build a railway."

Looking directly at Zhu Yijun, Shi Yiwen expressed his thoughts.

Railway!

This is the best way to reduce shipping costs.

"Railroad?"

Zhu Yijun looked at Shi Yiwen puzzled.

"What is a railway?"

"It's laying two rails on the road, and then the carriage travels on the rails."

"What, rails? Paved on the road, that's forty or fifty miles? All on rails? ”

Without waiting for the emperor to speak, the guest was surprised.

"How much money does that cost?"

"That's fifty or sixty thousand taels of silver."

Hearing that he wanted so much silver, Zhu Yijun couldn't help but gasp, and even subconsciously thought that he had to pay half of the silver.

"What's this doing?"

"Transporting coal!"

Shi Yiwen said directly.

"Let's put it this way, use the six-pull carriage to transport coal on the stone slab, at most it is to transport more than 10,000 catties of goods, but if it is on the railway, the eight-pull horse-drawn small wheel flatbed truck, at least two or three hundred thousand catties of goods, the cost of transportation has dropped dozens of times, before the pit mouth 100 catties of coal sold for 50 wen, we transport it to the station outside the capital gate, at least 85 wen, and the freight is only five wen at most."

Build a railway!

This is the solution that Edwin has come up with in response to the difficulties of coal transportation. In fact, the crushed coal and coal powder at the mouth of the pit are only sold for 30 wen, but they are sold for 100 wen in the city, which is expensive in transportation.

However, this railway will definitely not be a steam locomotive, it can only be simply horse-drawn because of its ugliness, and horse-drawn railways, it seems that at the beginning of the railway, they also used horse-drawn horses.

"But if you don't build the railway, the freight may be as high as more than 30 Wen, a third of it is in transportation, in my estimation, we build a railway, it seems that it takes 50,000 or 60,000 taels, but at most a year and a half, you can recover the investment, and this railway can not only transport coal, but also can transport goods and pull people, considering that you want to borrow a boat to sell coal to the south, this railway is bound to be built to Zhangjiawan, every year from Zhangjiawan into Beijing there are many merchants from the north and south, and the goods are more than millions, can be transported to the capital by rail, If my estimate is correct, the profit of the railway from Zhangjiawan to Beijing is almost enough to maintain the daily operating expenses of the railway. ”

Zhu Yijun, who was so shocked by Shi Yiwen's whimsy that he didn't know what to say, asked rhetorically after a while.

"That, build such a long railway, is there so much iron?"

"Hehe, you forgot, did we open an iron factory in Zunhua? Originally, the output of the iron factory was a bit high, and the construction of the railway was just a good way to use the iron produced by the iron factory, which can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone. ”

Shi Yiwen's answer made Zhu Yijun think for a while, and then looked at him for a long time and said.

"Zhiyuan, in terms of doing business, it is estimated that there are few people in the world who can compare to you, since you want to do this, then I will definitely support you, say, what do you want me to do? As long as I can help, I'll definitely do my best. ”

Zhu Yijun's answer made Shi Yiwen breathe a sigh of relief, this was exactly what he needed, although he knew that under the suppression of Zhang Shoufu, Zhu Yijun, who was not pro-government, could not do much at all.

"This railway construction involves all aspects, I am afraid that I will not be able to build this railway by myself, and it is inconvenient for you to come forward, so I think we will inevitably need other people to participate, so as to come forward to deal with some things......