However, in the later investigation, Cheng Nuo found that he is worthy of being a businessman, especially in domestic trading, which can be described in two words, that is, "involution".

Some "shrewd" Chinese businessmen colluded with foreign businessmen to sell matches to China under the banner of foreign businessmen.

From 1898 to 1915, some students who had graduated from high school were recruited from the mainland of their island countries and sent to Shanghai, Yingkou, Tianjin and other places for a five-year comprehensive training.

At the same time, every year, we recruit 10 older employees of the company with some experience in business and production, called "Shina trainees", and send them to China as trade instructors. This unique business practice of directly trading with China without the use of "compradors" was far superior to that of other foreign firms in China in terms of market conditions at the time. Therefore, before the end of World War I, the vast majority of the domestic match market was directly or indirectly controlled by the Japanese.

If that's all there is to it, that's fine, but when the investigation deepens, the situation becomes less and less optimistic.

ran around the various match factories in Tianjin, although I ate a lot of soup behind closed doors, but after the relationship became closer, there will always be some small factory owners, who can't help but pour bitter water.

"Sir, at a glance, you know that you are the kind of master who knows how to do things, unlike some newspaper reporters who come to us and want to find out how to make money for the two of us to drink tea, do you think it is easy for us?" The factory owner opened a pack of matches, took out a few boxes from it and threw them over, shook his head and sighed: "Don't look at such a small match, there is a lot of knowledge in it, I have been thinking about it for most of my life, and I spend more time with it than with my wife, so I haven't figured it out yet."

Li Laosan was a little puzzled, took out a match from it, looked left and right, and even put it on his nose to smell it, so he almost tasted it himself, and he didn't think there was anything great about this thing, so he was a little confused and said, "Big brother, isn't this just a small stick on it, and I put a medicine hat on it, nothing unusual, right?"

Cheng Nuo half-smiled and half-explained on the side: "Lao Li, you have a bit of a layman's meaning of guiding an insider, just like people say that anyone can pull a rickshaw, anyway, just throw off your arms and run forward, but how to run without the car bumping, and how to save effort, you have to practice."

The factory owner nodded, and said with admiration: "The level of people who have drunk ink is high, and everyone understands the truth, so it may be another matter to say it. Brother Li, I think we have a fate, and I will tell you about it today, in fact, it is really simple to disassemble, there are two types of wood and medicinal materials. Wood is mainly used to make box pieces and matchsticks, and medicine is mainly used to make match heads and the sides of matchboxes."

"I really don't understand the matter of medicinal herbs, but in terms of wood, we have so many forests, and we can only use a box of matches, so I don't have to worry about this." Li Laosan continued to ask like a curious baby. ….

"Well, it's strange here, the main wood used is aspen, wood, alderwood, hibiscus, etc., all of which are native tree species, so logically speaking, you don't have to worry about it, but when it comes to us, the origin is not Japan, but you have to buy it from the Oriental devils." Speaking of this, the factory owner is also full of incredulity, not to mention anything else, there are so many forests in the Northeast, how can you not buy foreign goods.

"Owner, you may have forgotten that the Sanlin Company and the sawmill in charge of logging in the three eastern provinces are all owned by Japan, and if you sell them like this, the local specialties will become Japanese products, and the price will have to be doubled." Cheng Nuo stood up and explained the doubts that had plagued the factory owner for many years.

In the early years, in order to develop and grow, these warlords would always rely on a certain power behind their backs to sell their national interests in exchange for military spending, not to mention selling a piece of forest and selling a few large mines are very common, and they are all thinking about how to recruit soldiers and buy guns to fight the war, who will take such a long-term view.

When the factory owner heard this, he wanted to refute that he had to ask for permission from others to cut down trees on his ground, and he had to pay a sum of money not to mention that he had to act according to his face, how could there be such a loser in the world.

But when the words came to my mouth, I thought about it carefully, isn't this just the urine sex of the public, what can be sold quickly, for fear that it will be too late to be preempted by competitors, and in the end I won't be able to get anything.

In desperation, the factory owner sighed: "In this way, the amount of money flowing out of Japan every year is undeplorable."

Li Laosan asked, "It's just that these woods, it shouldn't be a big problem, it's a big deal, let's use them later."

The factory owner shook his head and said, "How can it be so easy, Brother Li, there are many kinds of medicines used in the production of matches, and fewer are produced in their own country, mainly from foreign countries, and more from Japan and Germany. Most of the raw materials for our match manufacturing industry depend on foreign countries, and in the event of an accident, the foreign raw materials will be cut off, which is very dangerous."

In terms of the process at that time, potassium chlorate, red phosphorus, sulfur, manganese dioxide, potassium dilutate, lead flower, iron oxide and other chemicals may be used on the medicinal materials, for the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, this industrial base is not enough at all, and what can be done in China is to import all the raw materials into the local assembly. Even some manufacturers feel that this is still difficult, so they simply open a factory in Japan, and paste a national standard after the local production is completed, so that you make a profit, and I earn a skin.

Only consumers are kept in the dark, stupidly shouting in support of domestic products, and all they buy are foreign products.

Knowing all this, it is relatively simple to start tackling technical problems step by step.

The first is about the types of matches, which can generally be divided into two categories, namely friction matches and safety matches.

In fact, the history of this thing in the match family is the earliest, at that time, white phosphorus was used to make friction matches, but limited to the historical background at that time, the manufacturing methods and raw materials are very dangerous, often causing the poisoning of the match makers, and a little carelessness will directly cause a fire to the ignition point.

Later, although the white phosphorus was replaced with a paste made of tetraphosphorus trisulfide, potassium chlorate, potassium nitrate, carbon powder and gelatin, it may burn without attention after drying, and the risk factor is too high, so it is decisively eliminated. ….

As for the safety match, it is more reassuring, the match head is made of diantimony trisulfide, potassium chlorate and gelatin, which is not added with phosphorus, and will not burn if rubbed casually, while the two sides of the matchbox can be coated with red phosphorus, antimony trisulfide and glass powder and other compounds made of friction layer, the two can only catch fire after rubbing, and the production process is safer.

However, in this period, everyone's technology is generally relatively backward, the vast majority of match factories are based on phosphorus sulfide matches, few factories are willing to produce safety matches, the cost is much higher, the process of manual production is also longer, and the time-consuming and laborious production is not as good as foreign goods.

Fortunately, these things do not involve a high level of deep chemistry, so for Cheng Nuo's level, it is completely controllable.

Since you choose to do it, you have to do it better, simply more than two versions of the products of this era.

After thinking about it, Cheng Nuo chose to make a match that is both water-resistant and moisture-resistant, and the price is close to the people, after all, for many years after the official launch of the lighter, this thing is still a necessity of life.

Just do it, just take the recipe of a popular science book in a certain issue of the previous life, and start adding it one by one according to the proportion:

"50 grams of potassium chlorate, 12 grams of glass powder...... 35 grams of varnish."

Everything else is easy to say, when it comes to steaming and varnishing, it is really difficult, I copied the name, I just don't know what this word is, and then I thought about it carefully before I turned out this thing from a corner of my memory, which turned out to be a compound of nitrocellulose and castor oil.

I really felt relaxed before I did anything, and when I really started to operate, it was another matter, and I failed a few times in the middle, and only in the end did I release a hundred and ten new matches.

When he polished it, looking at the faint light, he felt that he was slowly proud, and inexplicably felt like a little boy selling matches, it was not easy, how could chemistry be fun with mathematics, and now his face was blackened by smoke and red, and he became camouflage, and immediately made up his mind, he really couldn't eat this kind of work, and it would be better to hand it over to professionals in the future.

After all this,

It's already mid-June, Cheng Nuo hasn't come out of the laboratory room for many days, it's been Li Laosan who has brought the food in and taken it out, and all the people who came to visit were isolated from the door, it is this state of extreme selflessness that makes the new matches taken out so quickly, and it can be mass-produced according to the above steps, and even in order to prevent the raw materials from being stuck by foreigners, Cheng Nuo also additionally backed up the preparation methods of the key compounds.

Although the cost of R&D will be much higher than that of a single assembled match, as long as the raw material compounds can be mass-produced and distributed to other manufacturers, the whole showdown will be very low.

When the bamboo curtain was lifted and the sunlight was shining, Cheng Nuo felt a little dazzling, and subconsciously blocked it with his hand.

"Lao Li, the weather is good today."

"Yo, sir, why did you come out, are you thirsty or hungry, I'll cook with you." Li Laosan, who was carrying water to water the vegetables in the vegetable garden, saw that Cheng Nuo had come out, and immediately threw the scoop into the bucket, wiped his hands on the scarf, and immediately trotted over: "If you think what I did is not appropriate, I will call the dog and his mother." ….

"Hey, it's just a belly pad, so I don't need to toss so much, but what time is it today?" Cheng Nuo waved his hand, just now he was just saying hello, and he wasn't hungry at all before he got to eat.

"I have to think about it, the day before yesterday, the fifteenth set of the City God's Temple, then yesterday was sixteenth, sir, today is the seventeenth lunar calendar." Li Laosan couldn't remember the date, so he broke his fingers and counted for a while before giving the specific date.

"Okay, if you're not busy, take me to Changxin Store, I have something to find Mr. Li." Cheng Nuo pondered for a moment, and then ordered, "I see that you were still watering the vegetables just now, if you can't be busy, I can pedal three wheels by myself."

How could Li Laosan be willing, he shook his head again and again: "You didn't slap me in the face, Mr.'s business is heaven for me, what is my little thing, it's the same in the morning and in the evening."

The green vegetable field is planted with beans, eggplants, tomatoes and other common vegetables in northern summer, and from time to time there is a pair of vegetable butterflies shuttling among them, so that this small courtyard also has a trace of life.

Taking advantage of Li Laosan's efforts to check the tricycle, Cheng Nuo got under the cucumber shelf, picked a long cucumber casually, washed it slightly, and directly brushed off the thorns with his hands, bit off the cucumber tips in a small bite, and chewed it in a big bite.

"Lao Li is okay, your cucumber is really good." Cheng Nuo sincerely admired: "This is much better than what is sold on the market."

Li Laosan touched his head and said a little embarrassed: "Mr. is okay to eat, then I can rest assured, I was also thinking about planting something extra after cutting the wheat, if Mr. is tired and thirsty, he can reach out and get it, it is fresher than the one he bought, and he can rest assured when he eats."

That is, from the time you take it off to the time you put it in your mouth, it doesn't take more than ten seconds, which is not fresh and nothing new. Even in order to keep the fruits in this vegetable field, Li Laosan specially warned the dog and Dan'er that they wanted to eat it and told him that they could buy vegetable farmers directly, and Cheng Nuo would only let Cheng Nuo eat this vegetable field alone.

Originally, this group of children still had some opinions, and discussed that they would steal a few when he left, but as soon as they heard that it was for Mr., their attitude immediately changed, and they even came several times a day to see which leaf had insects and quickly caught them, which seedlings dried up and watered, etc., more attentive than adults.

Cheng Nuo was quite emotional when he learned about it, so he found two bamboo baskets in the kitchen, picked all the ripe vegetables, and divided them into two parts, one for these people to eat, and one for Changxin Store to be distributed to Mr. Li.

However, thinking that Mr. Li still had two children at home, he saw that there were dumplings for sale on the way, so he got out of the car and bought two boxes of dim sum, so he rushed to his destination.

When the two arrived, it was already ten o'clock at noon, and Cheng Nuo was still a little hesitant at the door.

But before the tricycle could turn around, the courtyard door opened, and it was Mr. Li who opened the door.

"Hey, Zhiyuan, I'm here, why don't you come in, but I was told to learn from the Eastern Jin Dynasty King Huizhi, who came here and returned with all his excitement."

Cheng Nuo was a little embarrassed, got out of the car and said, "It's not just in time for the meal, I came to visit you at this time, not to add hemp to my sister-in-law

It's annoying." ….

Mr. Li stepped forward and grabbed Cheng Nuo, and said with a smile: "It's just a matter of adding two pairs of chopsticks, what's not troublesome, you just came over, and I won't see you outside, just eat what we eat together."

It was only when I actually ate that I knew how simple Mr. Li's house was, that is, it was a simple Zangzi noodles, which was a dish of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and I felt that the taste was light, and I put some garlic cloves, ten coriander and salt in a garlic mortar, pounded into garlic juice, and poured these things on the alkaline water surface with cold water, which made it refreshing and refreshing to eat, and left a fragrant mouth.

"How is it, Zhiyuan, this is the garlic noodle I learned from the Henan workers, are you still satisfied with it?" Mr. Li didn't ask for it, he directly scraped the cucumber shreds brought by Cheng Nuo, poured garlic juice on them and ate them: "This noodle is suitable for eating in summer, especially when it is finished with them, not to mention how satisfying it is to eat such a bowl of noodles."

Cheng Nuo didn't say anything, he ate it all in one go, and finally wiped his mouth and stretched out a thumbs up: "It's enjoyable...... Hiccup."

"I'm in a hurry to eat, I'm choking." Mr. Li laughed when he saw this, and shouted to his wife behind him, "Sister, bring Zhiyuan a bowl of noodle soup, and the original soup will be turned into the original food."

Mrs. Li looked kind: "Why are you in such a hurry, there are still more in the pot, I'm afraid that you won't have enough to eat, so I have specially ordered a few more handfuls of noodles."

Cheng Nuo hurriedly stopped, handed over the snacks he brought with him, and asked her to share them with the two children, and when he was a guest, he was afraid that he would be too enthusiastic to add food, and at that time he would not eat, nor would he eat it, so he quickly pulled Mr. Li aside to talk about business.

"Mr. Shouchang, I want to set up a new match factory here, and I need some skilled workers, and I know that you are relatively close to the master worker on weekdays, so let's see if there is a suitable candidate on your side."

Seeing this, Mr. Li put down the dishes and chopsticks, and said with concern: "Zhiyuan, you don't teach mathematics to run a magazine, how can you turn around and set your sights on industry, as a brother, I have to remind you, this pool of water is not as simple as it seems."

Stinging thunder