Yang Congyi spent half a day completely teaching Tang Xun the Arabic numeral counting method, and even taught her the four-digit vertical addition and subtraction method.

After teaching, after half a day of practice, Tang Xun, who often deals with accounts, has completely mastered the Arabic numeral counting method, and even the simple addition and subtraction vertical calculation is also proficient.

Soon after, Tang Xun learned the simple multiplication vertical form, and mastering this technique, it was much easier to check the accounts.

After surviving a storm, the fleet set sail north along the coast and headed towards Quanzhou, where Quanzhou would be the first stop for the Hui Yi fleet.

All the ships set sail and sailed north with the wind, day and night.

The accounts for the sale of two ships of cargo in Canton were finally calculated on the fleet's return to the north.

"Brother Yang, guess how much money we made in Guangzhou?" Tang Xun closed the account book and looked at Yang Congyi with excitement on his face, his eyes were bright.

"500,000?" Yang Congyi thought about it, two boats of spices, the value is different, and it is a normal estimate to be able to sell it for so much money.

"Five hundred thousand? We're worth half a million when we come back so far? Tang Xun exclaimed.

"A million?" Yang Congyi will be suspicious, most of these spices are very ordinary, and there are not many precious spices, although they are rare in the Great Song Dynasty, but they are not necessities of life, no matter how high they are, they can't be high.

After hearing this, Tang Xun shook his head again and again, handed the account book forward, and said, "If you are allowed to make it easy, we will definitely lose all our money." See for yourself, I'm afraid I'll scare you by saying it. ”

took the account book and opened it, and the final number really startled Yang Congyi, and he couldn't help but shout: "Two million 170,000, you can't be miscalculated, right?" ”

"Be quiet!" As soon as he heard Yang Congyi scream, Tang Xun almost came over to cover his mouth as soon as he stretched out his hand, but his hand stopped in mid-air halfway, and then put it down, his face turned red.

Yang Congyi coughed dryly and said to himself: "I really didn't expect that these things could make so much money, and there were too many rich people in the Great Song Dynasty." ”

After a while, after Tang Xun's expression was normal, he replied: "Rich people are everywhere, those who have a few acres of land at home, who don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars, and those who are slightly better are not thousands of dollars." The area around Guangzhou is not wealthy, and those restaurants and big households can spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy spices, and when the spices are transported to Lin'an, they may be doubled. ”

"Isn't it just spices, it's really worth so much money?" Yang Congyi is really incomprehensible, they are all things that grow in the ground, they don't have much scientific and technological content, and they can't be used as life-saving food, just seasonings, why is it as expensive as gold?

"Brother Yang doesn't understand the life of rich people, they have nothing else to do except eat, drink and have dinner. Eating, drinking, and having fun, eating comes first, boring meals have been eaten for decades, and now there is a seasoning spice, and ordinary meals suddenly become delicious, so why not want to spend money on eating. Rich people have a lot of money and have nowhere to spend it, so instead of rotting in the warehouse, it is better to take it out to improve the meal, and it is not bad for that money anyway. Restaurants are even more so, good restaurants are places where rich people go, people who can go to restaurants, their mouths are shy, whose food is delicious, who can retain customers, attract more customers, and every restaurant will be indispensable for spices in the future. We're definitely going to make a lot of money this time. The more Tang Xun spoke, the more excited he became.

"Brother Yang, if we can make a lot of money, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, it's enough to have three meals a day, not to worry about food and clothing, what to do with so much money." Yang Congyi is not a rich man, and he used to spend only five cents a day, and when he asked him how to spend it when he had money, all he could think of was to buy a few more roasts*.

"We've got seven cargoes, so how much can we get for that?" Tang Xun said in a low voice, for fear that the wall had ears and would be heard by others.

"You can do it, I don't know how to make money, and I don't know how to spend money." Yang Congyi is not thinking about how much money he can make now, but whether Lord Huang will fulfill the official position he promised if he really makes enough profits from the Yi fleet.

"Okay, I'll deal with it, and when I get to Quanzhou, I'll find an opportunity to transfer those seven ships out of the fleet. Anyway, these seven ships are ours, you don't care, then I'll take care of it, and when you want to use the money, ask me if it's okay. Tang Xun's eyes looked at Yang Congyi with an ambiguous meaning again.

Yang Congyi panicked for a while, and the closer he got to Quanzhou, the more uneasy he became, and he didn't know how to tell her that he had actually married.

They used to be close classmates, and Tang Xun was also his first friend after coming to the Great Song Dynasty, but since he knew her identity, Yang Congyi has always been worried about losing this friend.

Maybe I should tell her earlier, so that she can be prepared in advance, otherwise when she returns to Quanzhou, she will suddenly tell her the news, I am afraid that she will not be able to bear it, and I don't know what chaos will happen at that time.

Thinking like this, he said, "I have always wanted to tell you, but I haven't found the right opportunity, and I don't know how to speak......"

Tang Xun interrupted him: "I know what you want to say, I will continue to do it as an official, I will definitely not be able to get rid of it in the short term, you are a person with great ambitions, concentrate on your business, don't worry about me for now." It's been so many years, don't worry about this year or two, as long as you are willing to wait for me, I will definitely not fail you! ”

"Actually, what I'm going to say is......" Yang Congyi saw that she would be wrong, and was about to explain again, but was interrupted.

I saw Shen Jin push the door in, and shouted excitedly: "Lord Yang, this is really a good thing!" ”

Seeing that someone suddenly broke in, Tang Xun's expression froze, and he instantly put away his gentle eyes, and his gaze immediately became cold.

Shen Jin may have been too happy, especially unconscious, and walked to the desk and continued: "My lord, those stones are rare and good things. You see! As he spoke, he unfolded a painting on the desk.

Yang Congyi's words were interrupted, and he was a little unhappy in his heart, and when he saw that Shen Jin was so excited, he didn't say anything.

"What does this have to do with stones?" Tang Xun coughed dryly, looked at the painting and asked.

Shen Jin pointed to the painting and said: "The two adults look at the color of this painting, this azure color is used in the painting, and the whole painting immediately becomes calm and dignified, no matter how casual the painting is, with this color, the painting will immediately increase the color by three points, it is really a magical pigment!" This is absolutely not found in the Great Song Dynasty. ”

"This is extracted from cyan ore?" Tang Xun asked suspiciously, and looked at the painting again, after the embellishment of azure paint, it was indeed very beautiful.

"It's not refining, it's a pigment powder obtained by pounding cyan ore into powder and filtering water. Painting with this pigment and keeping it properly can keep it unchanged for hundreds of years and thousands of years. Azure pigments are rare, and if they are used for painting, they will really add a lot of color. Shen Jin explained.

"It does look like a very good pigment, I wanted to use it as a pigment when I exchanged these ores back, since I have been able to paint, then the process of turning this ore into pigment Brother Shen should have figured it all out." Yang Congyi had a smile on his face.

Shen Jin smiled: "Thanks to the help of those craftsmen, we also studied for a long time before we made the stone into a pigment that can be used for painting. The process is somewhat complicated, from stone to real pigment, it takes seven steps. But to have such a pure pigment as a color, no matter how complicated it is, it is worth it. ”

Tang Xun glanced at Yang Congyi, and then said with a smile: "Fortunately, Brother Shen." If Brother Shen likes it, when you get to Quanzhou, I will send you some ore to paint. ”

"Thank you, Lord Tang." Shen Jin hurriedly thanked him. He came for this, azure pigment is too rare, this fleet belongs to the imperial court, if he doesn't sell ore, he can't buy it, and now Tang Xun took the initiative to give him some, it was really a good thing that he couldn't ask for.

Yang Congyi suddenly remembered something and asked, "Brother Shen, how is the development and research of glass?" ”

Shen Jin replied apologetically: "The glass needs to be fired by fire, and there are many inconveniences on the ship, and without this condition, there is no way to study it." However, the news from the Seljuks was very helpful in firing glass, and as long as there were materials, it should not be difficult to fire it. When I return to Lin'an, I will definitely step up my research to make usable glass and transform the needle disc. ”

"Then there is Brother Lao Shen."

"Your Excellency doesn't have to be polite. Excuse me, farewell. Shen Jin left the cabin and continued to do his research.

"This ore is what you want to get back, you should have known what it was used for." Tang Xun was a little puzzled.

Yang Congyi smiled: "If you don't know, can I let you change it back?" I saw a lot of buildings painted blue in Baghdad before, and then people said that this azure actually looks more like sea blue, and the Seljuk side lacks water, and you like what you don't like, so this azure color is particularly popular, and then I asked the craftsmen in the mission, and I knew that the Great Song Dynasty did not have this pure cyan, so I let people speak, and later there were merchants who pulled stones to trade. I also asked the accompanying craftsmen, this kind of mineral pigment has many uses, in addition to painting, the most common is to color porcelain, we have white porcelain, there are three colors, but the color of celadon is too light, it looks more like gray, if these are used on porcelain, firing blue and white porcelain, this is a creation. After thinking about it for a long time, he finally said this idea, blue and white porcelain, this is the idea that suddenly flashed after he saw the cyan ore, the value of this porcelain in the future life is too high, if it can really be made, it is definitely a good thing.

"Blue and white porcelain, it sounds beautiful. I really want to see what it looks like when it is burned, and see what it can be, I guess everyone will go crazy to grab it by then. Tang Xun was full of smiles, and she seemed to see piles of gold.

"Let's keep some of the ore." Tang Xun thought about it again.

"Why do you keep it, you want to burn porcelain?"

"I burn some porcelain, I just think it's good, so I want to keep some."

"If you like it, you can take a few pieces, there is no need to keep too much, it is clumsy and heavy, except for burning porcelain and painting, there is no more use."

"Okay, listen to you, we'll ask for spices and herbs."