When Su Hao returned home, he saw his mother Yang Gendi and his sister Lu Xiuer sitting in the hall, and when they saw him enter the door, both of them looked a little relieved. As soon as Su Hao inquired, he learned that his mother and sister saw that he had not returned late at night and were worried about him.

"I'm with the Dai scribe in the workshop, and I'm going to walk around the county clerk, the chief bookkeeper and the canonical history, you don't have to worry." Su Hao said.

Yang Gendi has been living in the county seat for almost a month, usually chatting with neighbors, and also learning about the structure of some officials in the county government, listening to Su Hao said that they are all in the county government's house, although she doesn't understand what her son is going to do, but she is still a little happy in her heart. After all, being able to go to the home of a senior official is also a symbol of qualification.

"Hao'er, if you want to go to meet these masters, you can go during the day, how peaceful is this night? What happened to you and Xiu'er this afternoon scared my mother. Yang Gendi said.

Su Hao said: "This matter should be almost over, although I don't know who is behind the mastermind of that gang of bachelors, but I visited the county with Dai Shuzhi today, and there should be no one who can't get along with us in the future." ”

"So, I can still sell tea eggs?" Lu Xiuer is still thinking about her money-making career.

Su Hao sniffed and said with a smile: "I smelled the fragrance of your boiled eggs when I entered the door, if I said that this matter has not been resolved, then do you want to sell these boiled eggs?" ”

Lu Xiu'er said: "Of course you have to sell, Brother Deng and Brother Hao said, they will take turns to go with me in the future, and whoever dares to make trouble, they will beat him." ”

Su Hao patted his forehead with his hand: "Xiu'er, have you made a mistake?" Just to sell a few tea eggs, you asked Deng Zongbing's personal soldiers to be your bodyguards? You calculate if the little money you earn is enough to pay them both. ”

"They're idle anyway." Lu Xiu'er said with a grin. Today, Deng Kui and Hao Tong went to the rescue, which made Lu Xiuer have a good impression of them, and she felt that they were her own brothers, and they spoke more casually.

Su Hao said: "Speaking of this, I just have something to tell you." Xiu'er, don't sell tea eggs in the future. ”

"Why?" Lu Xiu'er asked dissatisfiedly. The income of seventy or eighty yuan a day is a great amount of money in the eyes of the little girl, and she is willing to give it up casually.

Su Hao said: "Today I discussed with Scribe Dai, and I plan to open a business and do some business. I am a person from the county government, and it is not suitable to come forward as a shopkeeper directly. But if I let someone else be the shopkeeper, I don't feel at ease. Thinking about it, only it is most suitable for you to be the shopkeeper. ”

"How can a woman be the shopkeeper?" Yang Gendi interjected on the side, "This is to deal with guests as a shopkeeper, and it is not appropriate to let Xiu'er show up." ”

Su Hao said: "It's okay, right? Xiu'er is now selling tea eggs, isn't it also showing up? Being a shopkeeper is much more glorious than selling tea eggs, right? ”

"I'm not going to be a shopkeeper." Lu Xiu'er shook her head like a rattle, with her hands behind her back, as if she was afraid that Su Hao would insist on stuffing the authority of the shopkeeper into her hands, "I don't know how to settle accounts, and I don't know how to do business." ”

Su Hao said: "I've thought about it, you are just being the shopkeeper, and Mr. Bookkeeper asked Chen Guanyu to be the shopkeeper, that old Taoist will settle accounts, and he will also deal with people from three religions and nine streams." You just have to take care of him, you don't have to do anything specific. ”

Yang Gendi had some insight in this regard, she frowned and said: "Hao'er, what kind of business are you going to do, you are a scholar, how can you do business, don't go back and lose all your capital." ”

Su Hao smiled and took out more than a dozen ingots of silver from his body, put them on the table, and said to his mother: "Mom, look, this is the silver I earned from the first transaction. The business I did was very simple, that is, to let the people in the workshop build a stove for every house in the county, in the same way as the stove I had built at home. I raised a penny of silver in a stove, and eventually I had an income of a few hundred taels. These are the first profits I got. ”

"With just this stove, can you make so much money?" Yang Gendi picked up the silver and checked it in her hand, knowing that there were as many as seventy or eighty taels, her heart was really beating, both happy and a little uneasy. The county government promoted Han's stove and also pushed it to Longkou Village, so she knew about it, but she didn't expect that this matter was related to her son, and her son could earn so much money from it.

Among them, the silver that Su Hao showed Yang Gendi was not all a commission on Han's stove, but also included the bribes from the countryside that he himself brought to the county government in the morning to prepare to hand over to Han Wen, as well as the reward given to him by Fan Lai, the prefect of Nanchang. Su Hao didn't bother to explain so much, he only needed to use this to prove to his mother that he had the ability to do business.

"Brother, is the business we want to open also to help people build stoves?" Lu Xiu'er asked, although she verbally refused to be the shopkeeper of the business, but she unconsciously began to enter the role.

Su Hao shook his head and said: "This matter of the stove, let the people of the county government do it, I just need to take my share of the profits." I want to open a business, and I can do a lot of things, I am going to mine coal, burn lime, smelt iron, make glass, make cement, etc., in short, do whatever you want to make money. ”

"Coal mining, lime burning, iron smelting...... When did you understand this? Yang Gendi was very surprised.

Su Hao said: "Some of these things I read from books, and some of them are going to ask the officials of the workshop to help with them. As long as the business is done, just ask someone else to do the things that you don't know. ”

"That'...... How much money can we make doing these deals? Lu Xiu'er asked, it seems that Su Hao really didn't choose the wrong person if she wanted her to be the shopkeeper, this girl is definitely a money fan.

Su Hao smiled: "Look at how you are doing, according to my estimates, you need some investment in the first year, and you may not be able to earn too much money, that is, three or five thousand taels, wait until ......."

"Three five thousand taels!" Lu Xiuer lost her voice. Yang Gendi quickly covered her mouth with her eyes and hands, not letting her shout, otherwise, with this voice, half of the county knew that Su Hao was going to get rich.

"Just talking about coal mining. Now the price of 100 catties of coal is 2 yuan, and if you mine 10 million catties a year, it is 10,000 taels of silver. The mining tax is about 1,000 taels, the hired workers are 2,000 taels, the consumption of various materials is 2,000 taels, and the rest is ......" Su Hao calculated the account for Lu Xiuer.

"The rest is 5,000 taels." Lu Xiuer hurriedly said.

"Don't you know how to count?" Su Hao said depressedly, Lu Xiuer has not received compulsory education, how can the four-digit subtraction be calculated so quickly?

Lu Xiu'er said: "Of course I don't know how to count, but I can count money." ”

"Uh...... All right. Su Hao was defeated by Lu Xiu'er, and he said, "You are right. You see, coal mining alone is at least 5,000 taels a year. ”

Yang Gendi said: "Hao'er, I have also heard about this coal mining. In the mountains south of Zhegui Township, there are people who dig holes to mine coal, and our family has also gone to buy their coal in the past, but I have never heard that they can make so much money. When I went to buy coal, I once asked them, and they said that a coal well produces tens of thousands of catties of coal a year. You said you want to pick 10 million catties, how can you do it? ”

Su Hao said: "Mom, you don't have to worry about this matter, since my son dares to say this, he is naturally sure that he can do it." You think, I'll survey the well, and I can see where there is water in the ground and where there is no water. Coal is the same, others can't find coal, I can find it, what is 10 million catties? ”

10 million catties, which is equivalent to 5,000 tons, which coal mine in later generations is not hundreds of thousands, millions of tons of reserves? If you go to Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, with less than one or two hundred million tons of reserves, you are embarrassed to say that it is a coal mine.

Fengcheng is an important coal-producing county in the south of the Yangtze River, and the proven geological reserves of coal in later generations have reached as much as 600 million tons. At this time, due to the limitation of exploration methods, it is difficult for people to find large coal mines, and the output will naturally be limited by digging coal with experience. Although Su Hao did not have the survey equipment of later generations, with his rich geological experience, it should be no problem to find a few large coal mines.

Hearing that coal mining alone has an income of at least 5,000 taels of silver, Lu Xiuer was tempted. She goes out early and returns late to sell tea eggs, and she only earns 100 yuan a day, which is less than 1 yuan of silver. If she can really earn 5,000 taels a year, no, even if it's just 500 taels or 50 taels, it's worth her effort.

"But, brother, if I go to be the shopkeeper, will others laugh at me?" Lu Xiuer began to assess the feasibility of being a shopkeeper.

Yang Gendi hesitated and said: "Hao'er, if the business you are talking about is really so big, it can't be handed over to outsiders, it must be managed by our own family." It's just that Xiu'er goes to be the shopkeeper, a girl's house, will people bully her? ”

Su Hao said: "I also thought of this question, but besides her, who else can be this shopkeeper?" We don't have many relatives in our family, and I can't think of anyone to help with. ”

"I've got a solution!" Lu Xiu'er suddenly jumped up, clapped her hands and said to Yang Gendi and Su Hao.

"What's the solution?" Su Hao asked.

Lu Xiu'er said: "Brother, shall we call Xiaohu to the city to help?" I will be the big shopkeeper, he will be the second shopkeeper, and let that Chen Laodao be the bookkeeper. If there is anything outside, let Xiaohu do it, and I will take care of the money behind my back. ”