Lin Yuan asked the two old men curiously, "What are these?" ”

An old man pointed to the two boxes in front of him and said, "This box is sugar, and that box is bristles." ”

When Lin Yuan heard the name "bristles", he felt a burst of ecstasy in his heart, and thought: "What do you really want!" The bristles are the hairs on the back of the pig's neck, which are not usually inconspicuous, but they play a very large role in the war. ”

It turns out that whether it is an aircraft, a warship or a vehicle on the ground, for the sake of camouflage and cover, identification of friend and foe, prevention of steel rust, etc., will be painted on the shell, and the tool used to paint these paints - the brush, is made of bristles, if there is no bristles, then the speed of painting will be greatly reduced, so a small bristles can also determine the victory or defeat of the war.

China has always been the world's largest exporter of bristles, exports of bristles accounted for 75 percent of the world's total, in World War II, the United States listed bristles as A-class strategic materials, but their country lacked bristles, so they bought from China, in the hump route opened up by Chinese and American pilots risking death, a considerable part of the goods transported were bristles.

Lin Yuan is about to start the construction of the navy, an important part of the construction of the navy is the construction of warships, the construction of warships can be divided into two parts, one is the construction of the hull, the other is outfitting and painting, simply put, outfitting is to install equipment on the hull, painting is to paint the hull, and the painting operation will require a large number of bristles.

The old man saw that Lin Yuan was fascinated, so he called softly: "Lin Shuai." ”

Lin Yuan let out an "oh", then came back to his senses and asked the old man, "If you have something, please continue." ”

The old man said: "The old man was originally a craftsman in the city, named Xu Linxiang, who has been selling bristle brushes for many years, but more than ten years ago, suddenly a British foreign company was opened in the city, called Swire Foreign Company, they came to buy pig bristles from us, and the price was right, and we didn't make brushes, but sold the bristles to them, but who knew that Lu Dao had a new comprador in the foreign bank this year, and something happened." ”

The "compradors" are all Chinese, they are proficient in foreign languages, and they act as trade intermediaries between Chinese and foreigners, Lin Yuan asked: "What happened to changing a comprador?" What happened? ”

The old man said, "That's why we've come to you today, this comprador is going to make us have no way to live." Saying that, the old man picked up the bristles and said: "Look at this bristles, how good the color is, the length is also appropriate, foreigners like this, they signed a large contract with us at the beginning of the year, and now they are going to deliver the goods, and the problem is in the delivery of the goods." ”

"These bristles are worth three thousand taels of silver, and when the contract is signed, one tael of silver can be exchanged for one thousand two hundred copper plates, so this batch of bristles is worth three thousand six hundred copper plates, but at the beginning of the month, the price of silver skyrocketed, and one tael of silver can be exchanged for one thousand eight hundred copper plates, so the comprador said that the value of this batch of goods is still three thousand six hundred copper plates, so he has to pay two thousand taels of silver."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said, "What's wrong?" Even though they paid less silver, you exchanged the silver for copper plates, and the amount was still the same, huh? ”

The old man said: "If this is the case, there will be no problem, but there is a clause in the contract that the buyer shall pay the amount according to the ratio of silver and copper at the time of the signing of the contract, and the form of monetary payment shall be determined by the buyer, so the comprador decides to use copper plates to pay for our goods with two thousand taels of silver, and according to the price comparison at the time of the signing of the contract, we only need to pay two thousand four hundred thousand copper plates." ”

"There are 1,200,000 copper plates in the middle, and our bristles are all collected from ordinary people's homes, and we really can't live with so much money."

Lin Yuan said: "Did you bring your contract?" Show me. ”

The old man took out the contract, Lin Yuan looked at it twice, and found that what the fellow said was not false at all, Lin Yuan understood at this time, it was the comprador who took advantage of the fellow countrymen's poor arithmetic and did not understand the ratio calculation, so he used such a despicable trick, Lin Yuan smiled at the fellow and said: "It just so happens that we also need bristles, so let's sell the bristles to me, and I will pay you four thousand taels of silver directly, what do you think?" ”

The old man got up and wanted to kneel when he heard Lin Yuan's words, Lin Yuan hurriedly held him down, and said with a smile: "Old man, you don't have to be polite, so let's take the bristles, you can keep the bristles, and then you will help me make a brush with the bristles, and then we will calculate the money, what do you think?" ”

The old man thanked him again and again, Lin Yuan turned his head to another old man, and the old man said: "The little old man's surname is Zeng, his name is Zeng Ajiu, Lin Shuai, his business is nothing, my business is difficult." ”

Lin Yuan asked, "Mr. Zeng, what's the matter with you?" ”

The old man pointed to his box and said: "I am making sugar in Fengtian, and the sugar in this Fengtian area is supplied by our family. ”

Zeng Ajiu said, then pointed to the box in front of him and said: "Look, in this box, on the left is our sugar, and on the right is the foreigner's sugar, you can see, is our sugar almost the same?" ”

Lin Yuan looked at the color, it was indeed not much different, so he nodded, Zeng Ajiu said again: "Not only the color, but even the taste is not much different, do you want to taste it?" ”

Without waiting for Lin Yuan to speak, a guard on the side said, "Lin Shuai, you better not taste it yourself, in case it is poisonous, you will be in danger." The guard said, stretched out his hand and put some sugar in his mouth, and said to Lin Yuan: "Lin Shuai, the taste is indeed similar. ”

Zeng Ajiu said: "You see, our taste is similar, but their prices are much lower than ours, and we are squeezed to the point where we have no way to live, so please save us." ”

Xu Linxiang said: "Lao Zeng, I told you outside, it's useless for you to find Lin Shuai in this matter, Lin Shuai can't issue an order to let everyone buy your sugar, right?" ”

Lin Yuan asked, "Mr. Zeng, how did you make your sugar?" ”

Zeng Ajiu replied: "We plant a vegetable on the ground, and when this vegetable grows mature, we dig out the roots of this vegetable, squeeze it into juice, and then steam the juice, and slowly this juice becomes sugar, but the sugar at this time is still red, if we want to make pure white sugar like snow, we must add our ancestral 'yellow mud water shower' process, after this process, the red sugar can become white sugar." ”

The yellow mud water showering process originated in the Ming Dynasty and is a treasure of China's sugar making process, Lin Yuan asked: "When you are making sugar, you are all operating by hand, right?" ”

Zeng Ajiu replied: "If you don't use handicraft, can you use other things?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Of course, Westerners are all made with big machines, and the things made by one machine are enough for a hundred of you." ”

Zeng Ajiu asked, "Then what does this big machine you are talking about look like?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "Don't worry, we will equip you with these machines." ”

Zeng Ajiu asked again: "Then how long will it take for this machine to match us?" ”