Since ancient times, peers have been enemies, especially carpentry, a profession with a "technical threshold".

The proprietor of this shop obviously regarded Liu He as a colleague who came to inquire about the news.

Liu He couldn't help but shake his head in the depths of his heart, this kind of "secret and untransmitted" idea is not a small obstacle to the spread of technology, and it is really necessary to increase the intensity of technology sharing.

Liu He took out a copper seal about two inches in his arms and shook it in front of the proprietor, and said: "I don't hide it, I am under the door of the Prime Minister's Mansion to discuss Cao, and I was ordered by An Lexiang to secretly investigate the affairs of the workshop, and I hope that the proprietor knows everything." ”

Liu He's identity is true, and this official seal is naturally also true: in order to act cheaply, An Lexiang "lent" the official seal worn by this 200-stone official to Liu He.

There are as many officials as two hundred stones, and at least dozens of people can be found in this small Changyi country.

And in that Chang'an City, if you casually throw a brick down, I am afraid that you can hit five or six officials with a rank of 200 stones.

However, an official is an official, and the people are the people.

When Liu He showed the official seal, the proprietor's face changed suddenly, first in horror, and then on his wrinkled face bloomed into a chrysanthemum.

"The villain has eyes and doesn't know Mount Tai, he was offended a lot just now, and I ask you to forgive your sins."

After finishing speaking, the proprietor was about to bow down, Liu He hurriedly supported the other party, and said very generously: "Blame me, I didn't reveal my identity just now, let's just stand and talk." ”

Seeing that Liu He seemed to be more kind, the proprietor rubbed his hands and stood firm with some restraint.

On the contrary, it was the young man who was squatting on the ground, flashing a pair of big eyes, staring at Liu He up and down with curiosity.

"I don't know the proprietor's name?"

"Don't dare, don't dare, the villain's surname is Meng, and his single name is a class word."

Liu He nodded, this is a very simple name.

"Is this your family craft?"

"It's okay to say it, but it's not all counted." Meng Ban said with some embarrassment, as if he didn't know where to accept it.

"Huh? What do you mean by that? ”

"The villain's family has been doing carpentry work for generations since Emperor Xiaowen, and it has been the fifth generation in the hands of the villain, so this carpenter's work is indeed an ancestral inheritance."

"However, the farm tools on display in this workshop now are not ancestral crafts, but have recently been tried to be copied by the villain according to the patterns he received from the engineering officer."

"How did you know about this pattern?"

"At this time last year, the engineer called the proprietors of all the carpentry workshops in the county and asked us to bring this pattern back."

The engineer Meng Ban is talking about here should be the engineer in Changyi County, not the worker in the country.

Liu He nodded with satisfaction, it seems that the efficiency of this engineer is not bad.

"How many woodsmithing workshops like yours are there in this Changyi County?"

"There are five in all, all in this city."

"If people want to buy wooden and farm tools, they can only go to this county town to buy them, and it is not convenient for the remote villages to buy farm tools."

"Exactly, but people usually ask people from the same village who have entered the city to bring things back, so it's not a hassle." Meng Ban replied cautiously.

"I heard from your kid that your two sons are specialized in making this farm tool, according to these two people, like this dump car and columbian car, how many can you make a month?"

"This rollover and cocoon is really not easy to do, except for those small tools, our family can only make four or five planes a month."

Liu He calculated in his heart that a woodcraft workshop could build five frames, so these five woodcraft workshops together could only build fifteen frames at most in a month.

There are 200,000 people in the entire Changyi County, and excluding merchants, officials, and slaves, there are at least 40,000 peasant households on average.

Even if ten households share one cocoon and rollover, then at least a few thousand will be needed, and this mere fifteen machines is simply a drop in the bucket.

Even if the workers can build dozens more in a month, it is still difficult to meet the needs of farmers in the county.

Hearing this, Liu He realized his naivety, the woodworking workshop did build machines, but the number was too small.

Talking about quality without quantity is just the moon in the mirror and the flower in the water.

How to increase the output of wooden machines is the next thing Liu He has to solve.

"How much does this machine sell for?"

"For example, a cocoon is 4,000 yuan, a rollover is 5,000 yuan, and after deducting the cost of wood and rivets, you can earn about 3,000 yuan for a flat one."

The knife sold by Tieguan is about 700 yuan, and an ordinary ploughing ox is about 3,000 yuan, and the price set by Meng Ban is indeed not particularly expensive.

"How many people do you have in your family?"

"The eldest son and the second son have already married, and now they have not given birth, plus the little cub and the little cub, there are a total of seven people in the villain's family."

"How many ladies in the family still have time to weave?"

"The villain still has a few acres of land in the village, and he usually grows hemp, and he can barely add a set of clothes to everyone all year round, and there is no other livelihood, and he has to pay for millet and vegetables."

Meng Ban said that there was a difficult look on his face, and it seemed that life was not so easy.

After deducting costs and taxes, Meng Ban's family can earn about 15,000 yuan a month, which is already comparable to the income of an official with a rank of 1,000 stones.

But the actual account can't be calculated, because this is the total income of the seven members of the Meng family, and it is only more than 2,000 yuan when it is evenly distributed to everyone.

It is slightly stronger than the farmers who cultivate the land, but they have no land and can only buy millet directly from the market.

The price of millet is more volatile than that of wood with a stable price.

Once the price of millet increases, it is equivalent to directly affecting the income of Meng Ban's family in disguise.

If Meng Ban wants to "make a fortune", he can only increase the speed of making wood by himself.

The number of people in the family is fixed, so if you want to increase the number of people, you can only hire people to produce.

Liu He didn't speak, he walked around the narrow shop a few times, looked carefully at each wooden farm tool, and found that every detail was done very carefully.

Even the stubble on all sections is ground very smooth, without any burrs to the touch.

This can be much better than the samples made by the craftsmen in the engineering officer.

"These things of yours are much better than those made by the engineers, they are not as careful as you."

As soon as it came to the craft, this Meng Ban's face immediately showed a smug look, and he said complacently and modestly: "The craftsmen of the Gongguan eat official food, and the things they make are all for the princes and ministers, and this farm tool is not their profession, so naturally it is a little worse." ”

Liu He wrote down this sentence, and it seems that he still has to urge Dai Zong and Xie Lang to build the workshop in the palace, relying on the workers in the country and the county, the strength is far enough.

"Why don't you hire more people, so you can build more machines and make more money?"

Liu He's words didn't surprise Meng Ban, he seemed to have expected Liu He to ask this sentence a long time ago.