According to Chen San'er's instructions, Zhao Yan really found the oil mill he said, but he didn't go in, just glanced at it from a distance and turned around and walked back.

"Senior brother, why don't you go in?" Wang Lin followed Zhao Yan and walked back a few steps, and couldn't help but ask.

Zhao Yan waved his hand and didn't explain, when he passed by a grocery store just now, he vaguely saw white alkali (soda) in the store, but he was not very sure, so he needed to go back at this time to make sure.

The grocery store owner was a half-centenarian with a goatee under his chin and a look of joy.

Zhao Yan led Wang Lin into the store, pointed to the open sack on the ground and asked, "Shopkeeper, what is this?" ”

Goatee took his eyes off the abacus, saw what Zhao Yan was pointing to, and said slowly: "That's alkali stone, mined from Henan, it is a specialty of Nanyang Mansion, and it is the most suitable for steaming steamed buns." ”

Sure enough, it's it, but this alkali stone is not pure, if it is used to make soap, it still needs to be purified, fortunately, Zhao Yan still remembers the method of purification.

Originally, if he couldn't find the alkali, Zhao Yan also planned to replace it with plant ash, who knew that it was better to be in a hurry than to be in a hurry, just happened to meet here, and after secretly sighing a word of luck, Zhao Yan asked again: "Then how to sell this alkali stone?" ”

The goatee squinted his eyes and looked at Zhao Yan twice, and then said casually: "Twenty dollars a catty, no bargaining." ”

Twenty yuan a catty, it is still within the acceptable range, but Zhao Yan still plans to make a counteroffer, after all, he will not be able to buy this alkali stone in large quantities for purification in the future.

"Shopkeeper, can it be cheaper? Henan is not far from us, your alkali stone is generated by heaven and earth, and all you need is mining and transportation, the cost is not high, and it is indeed a bit expensive for you to sell 20 wen a catty. ”

Hearing this, the goatee said: "Little brother, to tell you the truth, this alkali stone was sold by someone else here on behalf of the old decay, and the price has been set to death, and it can't be cheaper for half a penny." ”

Zhao Yan saw that the other party's words were resolute, and it didn't seem to be fake, but he still didn't give up and said: "If I want more, can't I get a penny cheaper?" ”

Hearing this, the goatee sneered and said, "Little brother, let's open the door for business, and the people who come in are all customers, but if you say something that shouldn't be said, you don't look like a rich person when you dress up, and you don't look like a guy in charge of buying in a restaurant, even if you want more, how much can you have?" Besides, this alkali stone has no other use except for steaming steamed buns, so there is not much stock in this store, even if you want it all at once, this price is also this price, or half a penny is not cheaper. ”

Zhao Yan didn't let go when he saw that the other party was biting to death, so he didn't say anything more, just turned around and said to Wang Lin lightly: "Let's go, let's go to other shops to go around, there is no way that there is only this one selling alkali stone in the entire Shenzhou City." ”

"Oh." Wang Lin agreed in a daze, and then took a step and followed Zhao Yan out.

Seeing that the two of them were about to walk out of the store, Goatee suddenly shouted, "Wait." ”

When Zhao Yan turned around, the goatee continued: "Little brother, it's not that I don't want to do your business, it's just that this alkali stone is indeed sold for others, I don't know how much the little brother wants?" The old man can pass a word for you, and if the owner of this alkali stone is interested, then the two of you can talk face-to-face. ”

Zhao Yan pondered for a moment before saying: "At the beginning, I will definitely not ask too much, it will always take a while to know what the effect of this alkali stone is, if it is combined, I will increase the purchase volume month by month in the future." ”

"This ......" Zhao Yan said is also a reasonable reason, the goatee was embarrassed after hearing it, and finally he looked around at the deserted shop, gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, the old man will be the master for his wife and brother, if the little brother wants, I will spare you a penny per catty, as long as 19 pennies a catty, if you buy more than 100 catties per month in the future, the price can be negotiated again." ”

Zhao Yan smiled: "Okay, then thank you to the shopkeeper, but I don't know what the price and texture of the alkali stone in other stores are, so we always have to shop around, and please forgive the shopkeeper." ”

"It doesn't matter." The arrogance in the goatee's eyes flashed, and while pulling his beard, he said: "Little brother, go and see, this alkali stone is already 19 wen per catty, and the price can not be lower, if there is any lower, the old man will give you 100 catties of alkali stone for nothing." ”

This goatee is also a wonderful person, Zhao Yan smiled and clenched his fists, and walked out of the grocery store with Wang Lin one after another.

As soon as he came to the street, Wang Lin said what was in his heart: "Senior brother, the old man just now spoke unclearly, first said that the alkali stone was not his, and it was not cheap for half a penny, and then when he saw that we were leaving, he directly gave you a pound and a penny, isn't there something wrong?" Do you think the alkali stone is his? ”

"Haha......" Zhao Yan was amused by Wang Lin, and said casually: "Isn't there something wrong, but this is a common problem of businessmen. As for the alkali stone, it should really be someone who put it there to sell it on his behalf, but he also said that the owner of the alkali stone is his wife and brother, otherwise he would not dare to take it upon himself to reduce the price for us. ”

There were some contradictions in Zhao Yan's words, Wang Lin was dizzy when he heard it, and when he wanted to ask carefully, he found that Zhao Yan had already strode away, and he had to take steps to chase away.

At this time, it was nearly noon, Zhao Yan took Wang Lin to a few more shops, among which there were two or three shops selling alkali stone, but the unit price was more than 20 yuan, and even more, one store sold the alkali stone to a high price of 30 yuan a catty.

Zhao Yan has made the raw materials for making soap in his heart, in addition to grease and alkali stone, the third raw material is quicklime, which is very easy to buy, after all, quicklime has been widely used by the ancients since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the price at this time is still very cheap, a pound of limestone only needs two pennies.

In addition to the above three raw materials, there is the last raw material, which is also the most valuable raw material, and that is salt.

In Zhao Yan's memory, he once read an article, saying that the price of salt in Huguang and Jiangxi during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty fluctuated between three or four cents of silver to one and a half cents of silver, one or two pieces of silver is ten cents, one cent of silver is equal to ten, and one cent of silver is ten cents, that is to say, the price of salt in the south during the Jiajing period fluctuated between thirty and forty cents to fifteen cents, and there were few salt-producing areas in the north, and compared with the south, the price of salt should be one to half times more expensive.

Most of the salt in the Ming Dynasty was coarse salt, and was divided into two kinds: official salt and private salt, the official salt was official, the price was stable, and the price of private salt was greatly affected by the government's crackdown, origin, quality and other factors, but it was definitely cheaper than official salt, but if you bought and sold private salt, you also had to bear a certain risk, in case it was found by the government, it would definitely make you unable to eat and walk around.

Orthodoxy is about 80 years from Jiajing, it is the era of official salt all-round crushing of private salt, Zhao Yan went to the shop that sold official salt and asked, and couldn't help but be surprised when he learned the price of salt at this time.

Eight catties of alkali stone can probably make four catties of caustic soda, which is one hundred and fifty-two dollars. Alkali stone purification for caustic soda also needs quicklime, eight catties of soda stone need at least eight catties of quicklime, one catty of limestone two cents, this is sixteen cents. Four catties of soybean oil are calculated at 30 wen per catty, which is one hundred and twenty wen, and one and a half catties of salt is 150 wen, which adds up to a total of 438 wen.

The above raw materials, in the end, about eight catties of soap can be divided into forty pieces to sell, one piece is sold for one hundred yuan, a total of four taels of silver, excluding costs and labor costs, the profit is about nine times, even if it is sold cheaper in order to accommodate ordinary people, if a piece is sold for fifty yuan, the profit is more than four times.

After Zhao Yan calculated clearly, he silently kept these data in his heart, and when the father and son had eaten in the evening, when Zhao Xin was boiling herbs, Zhao Yan hesitated for a moment before he exclaimed: "...... Father. ”

This is the first time Zhao Yan has verbally addressed Zhao Xin, and he is naturally very awkward in his heart, but Zhao Xin didn't notice it, he turned his head to look at Zhao Yan, and asked with a smile: "Something?" ”

Zhao Yan nodded and asked, "Have you thought about what business to do?" ”

Zhao Xin was stunned when he heard this, but he replied immediately: "I haven't thought about it yet." Now we don't have much capital, if we do business, we always have to think more, in case we lose our capital, I'm afraid our father and son can only go back to Taocun to plow the fields. ”

"I had a great idea." Zhao Yan calmed down and explained the idea of producing and selling soap to Zhao Xin, and finally in order to explain the origin of the soap formula, he added: "This recipe was told to me by an old Taoist priest, when the old Taoist priest went to Taocun with a fortune-telling sign, but there was no one who looked for him to tell his fortune. At first, the old Taoist priest refused to accept the food I gave him, saying that it was useless, but I didn't want to tell his fortune, so he was so hungry that he had to exchange the soap recipe. ”

The story made up by Zhao Yan has some loopholes, but Zhao Xin didn't expect his son to make up a story to deceive him, but he believed it 100%.

"According to what you say, this old Taoist priest is very similar to those pedantic scholars in the books." Zhao Xin laughed twice, and said: "Since you have already calculated the accounts, then I will go to the city with you tomorrow to buy all the things, and then our father and son will try to boil it according to the recipe, if the soap made is really better than the honey locust and soap ball, then I will quit my job, and then rent a small yard to do this business." ”

Zhao Yanyu couldn't believe that he had persuaded his cheap father Zhao Xin so easily, in his mind, even if Zhao Xin was enlightened, in the face of the formula that he said as a half-grown child, especially the formula of unknown origin, how could he not easily let go and agree, who knew that he completely complicated things.

From Zhao Yan's expression, Zhao Xin seemed to guess the doubts in his heart, so he poured the boiled medicinal soup into the bowl and said, "Stinky boy, I have heard someone say that it is up to people to make things happen. Since I can't think of a good idea to make money, and God asked that old Taoist priest to tell you this soap recipe, why don't we father and son gamble? If we win the bet, then our father and son will have a unique business, no matter how much money they make, they will always have the ability to settle down, don't you say? ”