Zheng Sheng was nervously reading the news from Luoyang and Sima Xin, how could Sima Liang and Yang Jun match?

A county king and a relative? This script is wrong! Isn't it the rebellion of the "eight" kings? Why are my relatives still involved?

But the stupid emperor Sima Zhen has succeeded to the throne, and Zheng Sheng feels that the careerists should jump out one by one! After all, this emperor is almost a character that can be bullied by "people and people"!

Can the kings not work hard?

Zheng Sheng felt that he had now officially entered a new stage, that the thirty years of stability and peace in the Western Jin Dynasty were over, and that the era of chaos was coming.

All kinds of gods and demons are about to appear!

Zheng Sheng suddenly felt that he didn't have enough time, and he had too many things to do now......

But no matter what, life goes on, and his path has to go down step by step.

The auction, which was originally scheduled for mid-May, had to be cancelled because Sima Yan was buried around that time, and no one would be interested in participating in the so-called auction during that time.

However, the new emperor ascended the throne, and this was another great opportunity to publicize it.

Zheng Sheng explained his idea to Sima Xin and Sima Dingyun: "We present fireworks as a celebration gift to His Majesty the Emperor. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of fireworks were all set off in half an hour. It not only shows his loyalty to His Majesty, but also shows the beauty of fireworks in front of the whole world, killing two birds with one stone. ”

To be honest, Zheng Sheng is really going to fight, he has never seen tens of thousands of fireworks set off in an hour! These fireworks, if you really want to calculate the current price, have reached millions of dollars!

Sima Dingyun was shocked, "Tens of thousands? Let it go in an hour, this, that's too much......"

Sima Xin shook his head: "You can't do this. ”

Zheng Sheng looked at him suspiciously, Sima Xin had never interfered in the business of Zheng Sheng and the Shunyang Palace, what was wrong today?

Sima Xin said calmly, "The first emperor has just passed away, although we don't have to follow the ancient rites of three years of mourning now, but we can't celebrate the new emperor in such a big way. ”

Zheng Sheng frowned, there are really a lot of rules. However, Zheng Sheng did not believe that the current Western Jin Dynasty nobles would be willing to mourn for the emperor, and their moral character was not very noble.

Sima Xin did enough funeral for the emperor, he only ate light rice porridge every day, which he had to drink for three months, and put on a shabby dress, which was a mourning dress. But his outfit always made Zheng Sheng feel familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

"So, let's send someone to Luoyang to investigate the situation, right? It's definitely not going to work now, wait another half a month, a month, and if the capital returns to the old scene, we'll do it again. That's all right, right? We don't want to be the first bird, just follow the situation in Beijing. Moreover, these fireworks are borne by the Zheng family, not the royal palace. ”

Sima Dingyun smiled bitterly, "Zheng Shizi, don't talk about ten thousand fireworks, the scene of thousands of fireworks blooming at the same time is unimaginable." Moreover, Can Zheng provide 10,000 fireworks? With so many fireworks, how long will it take to earn back the capital. ”

Sima Dingyun remembered the fifty fireworks that Sima Chang set off in Shunyang two months ago, and that kind of scene almost made him addicted. Thousands, tens of thousands? He didn't dare to imagine!

Zheng Sheng smiled, "It's really a little difficult, but the fireworks are to make the auction famous, and the fireworks are used as a guide to attract the attention of Luoyang people to the auction." ”

"Millions of dollars to make a name for yourself? Not necessarily. Sima Dingyun hesitated, in the name of King Shunyang, is it enough?

Zheng Sheng held the opposite opinion, "Yes." However, because the new emperor succeeded to the throne, the previous batch of auction items was not suitable. I'm going to have a new one. ”

Sima Dingyun nodded happily.

"By the way, dragons belong exclusively to His Majesty, right? Fortunately, the auction did not start. Zheng Sheng said with some embarrassment.

Sima Dingyun said yes, he had already understood this truth. However, this glass "dragon" does not resemble a dragon, and looks strange. He was going to auction it off under a different name.

"Why don't we sacrifice the dragon to His Majesty the Emperor?" Zheng Sheng proposed. He felt that he had not thought it through at the time, and that dragons could not be sold casually! Some people sell, but no one dares to buy.

"Great idea!" Sima Dingyun also agreed.

Sima Xin remained silent.

At the beginning of May, Sima Xin left Jushuiju. After all, he is a county magistrate, and he can't not be absent from the country for a long time.

But Wen Wei and Wen Xiaoting all stayed. Wen Xiaoting felt that Zheng Sheng was the most unrestrained here, with green mountains and green waters, and a gas bag that could be bullied at will. She certainly didn't want to leave.

After this period of understanding, Zheng Sheng knew that they had come to Jingzhou with Sima Chang before. When Wenyang fought against the bald department, Sima Jun was also guarding Guanzhong at that time, so the relationship between the two families was familiar.

But now Wen Yang is trapped in Luoyang, and the Wen brothers and sisters are also in Beijing all year round. This time she came to Jingzhou, because Wen Xiaoting was really disgusted with the life in Luoyang, Sima Chang went to Jingzhou, and she begged her father for a long time to come out.

As for Wenwei, it is her "bodyguard" and "guard".

Earlier, Sima Dingyun also gave him another news, Liu Min found the demolished fireworks from the Lohas village warehouse.

And Quan Rong told him that this was done by Liu Yang and those people.

Zheng Sheng sensed the danger, but unless he stopped the fireworks business, he couldn't avoid the possibility of exposure.

He can only raise his guard. His method is very simple,* after all, in fireworks, wouldn't it be enough to make the pretender unable to turn off the fireworks?

The paper shell can be disassembled, but what about the iron one?

Zheng Sheng handed over the drawn drawings to Li Baiguo: "The upper mouth is slightly narrower, the lower mouth is slightly wider, and the specific dimensions are marked on it." Can you make 100 in a month? ”

After Li Baiguo looked at the picture, he shook his head and said, "This thing is difficult to do well." It is impossible to make a hundred in a month. First, there is a shortage of iron and stone, and one needs 20 catties of iron and stone. There is not so much iron in the valley. The second is manpower, there are not many craftsmen in the valley who can make this thing, which needs to be slowly chiseled out. You can make up to 10 sticks in a month. ”

Zheng Sheng was a little disappointed.

There was a shortage of manpower, and he had no way to solve it. In addition to recruiting and training craftsmen. The idea that Zheng Sheng could think of was to make a machine to replace human labor. Hydromechanical is the most likely. But Zheng Sheng can't do anything now!

It is indeed labor-saving and time-saving for the waterwheel to push the shaft to drive the hammer to replace the blacksmith's labor, but now the waterwheel can only be used to draw water, and he can't think of how to design the shaft.

Zheng Sheng asked him to make one first. Zheng Sheng is not very confident about Li Baiguo's technology, after all, this is an iron pipe. They will make a hole in an iron rod.

Zheng Sheng didn't know if such a pipe was practical.

In his memory, the Chinese craftsmen of the Ming and Qing dynasties were in this way, but there were many explosions and wastes. Now it's the Western Jin Dynasty, and the technology is definitely worse, so he can only make one first.

It really didn't work, he could only redeem it. If you exchange iron ore for iron pipes, the exchange ratio will not be hundreds of times, right?

Along with Li Baiguo were some people from Chunfengli, Lijia Village, and the vicinity of Qingzhuling, with a total of about 100 households.

Zheng Sheng began his reclamation plan.

In order to attract villagers to this barren mountain and forest, he set the condition that each household only needs to pay 30% of the harvest of 100 acres of land, and all the grain harvested from all the fields they reclaim belongs to them.

The only condition offered by Zheng Sheng in favor of the Zheng family was that if the households wanted to sell the excess grain in their hands, they could only sell it to the Zheng family's rice store. The price of grain purchased by Zheng's Rice Store from households is the average grain price in Jingzhou in the previous year.

Zheng Wen vigorously opposed Zheng Sheng's approach.

Zheng Wen had a lot of complaints about Zheng Sheng's "begging" from Sima Chang for this barren mountain that is thirty or forty miles long from east to west and nearly 100 miles long from north to south. After all, although the Zheng family "owns" the land, they have to bear the taxes of the registered households, and this transaction is very unfavorable to the Zheng family.

The only point that the Zheng family can gain is to reclaim the land and recruit tenants by themselves.

This is indeed a long-term plan, a good thing that can bless future generations, and Zheng Yuan was so happy that he drank three more glasses of wine with him.

However, is Zheng Sheng recruiting tenants now? What other benefits can the Zheng family have in collecting rent like this?

Zheng Wen persuaded bitterly: "Kewu, is it good for a household to harvest three grains in a hundred acres of land?" There are too many three, can two and a half be done? In short, the rule you set will never work! ”

"It will allow them to cultivate more land and get more food." Zheng Sheng elaborated.

"Yes, but that's their food. Even if we buy it, we have to buy it at the market price! Zheng Wen was angry and helpless.

"Brother, you have to look farther." Zheng Sheng said unhurriedly: "For example, two years ago, I made steamed buns and wanted to sell them to civilians. You don't agree either. But now there are hundreds of early shops and steamed bun shops in Jingzhou, and you know better than me how much you have earned. ”

Zheng Wen smiled awkwardly, "I do understand this now." But tenants are different! ”

"It's the same." Zheng Sheng explained, "We always have to let people eat and drink enough to have the strength to farm. Have the strength to cultivate more fields. As long as we take back the surplus grain in their hands and transport it to the rice bank to sell in the desolate land, use it to make wine, or store it ourselves, we will make money. ”

Zheng Wen has to argue again.

"The first batch of 100 households has arrived, and it can't be changed." Zheng Sheng made the last move, "I can't be untrustworthy, right?" ”

Zheng Wen sighed, "In addition, I heard that you are going to offer ten thousand fireworks for the new emperor?" That's 10,000 fireworks! ”

"Brother, you know. Counting all kinds of expenses, the cost of each firework is only around 33 yuan. A firework can net nearly 160 dollars. How much benefit can be exchanged for 300,000 dollars, think about it! ”

Zheng Wen said gloomily, "But for nearly half a year, only nearly 1,000 have been sold, and less than 100 were sold last month." It's decreasing month by month. How much can it sell in Luoyang? 10,000 is too much. After all, the market price is three million! ”

Zheng Wen left with a sad face.

Zheng Sheng went to the south bank of Fangju Creek, where a new village was emerging. The new village is not far west on the opposite bank of the Jushui Gathering.

Zheng Sheng stood on the periphery, looking at the busy crowd, speechless for a long time.