Shopkeeper Gao saw Han Du pretending to be nonchalant in the face of the old man's rude request. He didn't know that the old man's status might be even more shocking than he imagined.
Where do you dare to walk in front of the old man?
Lao Zhu walked in front with his head held high, suddenly paused, turned around and told shopkeeper Gao, "Take, um, take me to the place where briquettes are made."
Shopkeeper Gao immediately bowed and said with a smile: "Yes, you can see whatever you want."
A group of people came to the place where briquettes are made. Piles of finely mixed pebbles were piled in the middle. Shopkeeper Gao's apprentice was leading several apprentices to make briquettes.
Lao Zhu saw a few people holding a strange-looking object and inserting it into the pile of coal. When they took it out and put it down, it turned out to be a briquette. He asked in surprise: "Is it that easy to make this thing?"
How complicated can it be? Honeycomb briquettes, I saw a lot of adults making them when I was a kid, Han Du thought to himself as he touched his nose.
Seeing Lao Zhu staring at him, Han Du immediately stepped forward and said with an apologetic smile: "Your Majesty..."
"Huh?" Lao Zhu suddenly dragged out his voice.
Han Du was frightened by the delay and immediately shut up to avoid spilling the beans.
After thinking about it, Han Du asked hesitantly: "Master Huang...?"
"Yeah!" Lao Zhu nodded after hearing this.
Han Du immediately felt relieved and said, "Mr. Huang, this thing is so simple, not complicated at all."
"Well," Lao Zhu pointed to the people who were making briquettes and asked, "Can the briquettes be used for burning just like this?"
"That's not true," Shopkeeper Gao immediately answered and said, "Sir, this briquette is still wet just after it is made. It cannot be burned. It must be dried in the sun."
"How long does it take to dry?"
Shopkeeper Gao bowed and explained: "If the weather is like these two days, it can be burned in almost two days. Of course, if it is rainy, the drying time will be longer."
Naturally, rainy days do not work as fast as sunny days. This is common sense. Lao Zhu nodded frequently when he heard this.
Suddenly asked: "I see that they are doing it very quickly. How much briquettes can they make in a day?"
At this moment, shopkeeper Gao's face stiffened when he heard Lao Zhu's words.
The things Lao Zhu asked already involved the core secrets of a workshop. As a former workshop owner, shopkeeper Gao was naturally disgusted with such questions and did not answer them for a while.
Seeing that shopkeeper Gao was silent, Han Du took over the conversation and said, "Hey, Mr. Huang, this briquette is simple and easy to make. A person like them can probably make more than a thousand a day. I haven't calculated it carefully. , but there’s no problem doing at least a thousand.”
"One person can make a thousand a day?" Lao Zhu was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said: "Not bad. Originally, I was worried about whether you could replace charcoal and sustain it. Now it seems that it should be possible."
Han Du understood what Lao Zhu meant. Briquettes are cheap and will be used by many times more people than charcoal. If the production of briquettes is troublesome and the process is complicated, it may not be able to support the expenses of the people in the capital.
The group continued walking and soon came to another place.
Arriving here, shopkeeper Gao immediately introduced to Lao Zhu: "Sir, this is where the briquettes are being dried."
I saw only one layer of wooden boards and one layer of briquettes, stacked up neatly in rows, giving people a regular feeling.
Lao Zhu walked through the briquettes, feeling as if he had walked into a neatly arranged military formation.
After walking through the long drying area, Lao Zhu came to another place filled with briquettes, but here they were all briquettes, without wooden boards.
"Sir, here are all dried briquettes that can be used for burning immediately." Shopkeeper Gao introduced to Lao Zhu at the right time.
Lao Zhu picked up a briquette and looked at it carefully.
After Shopkeeper Gao finished speaking, he saw that Lao Zhu did not respond, but was looking at the briquettes alone, so he looked towards Han Du.
When Han Du saw shopkeeper Gao looking at him, he gave him a look to signal him to be calm.
Lao Zhu weighed the briquettes with his hands a few times, raised his head and asked, "How much does this piece weigh?"
Han Du smiled, unable to answer, and turned to look at Shopkeeper Gao.
Shopkeeper Gao immediately understood what Han Du meant, stretched out two fingers towards Lao Zhu, and said with a smile: "To tell you what, one piece weighs two kilograms."
"It weighs two kilograms~" Lao Zhu looked at the briquettes in his hand and pondered for a moment, then continued to ask: "How much do you want to sell a piece like this?"
"The price depends on how much you buy, sir." Shopkeeper Gao said, "If you, sir, only buy one piece, then we won't sell it."
"Oh?" Lao Zhu raised his head in confusion and glanced at Han Du, with a cold light in his eyes. Seeing that Han Du lowered his head and said nothing, he looked at shopkeeper Gao with a smile and asked, "How much do I need to buy before you are willing to sell it?"
"Don't be upset, sir," shopkeeper Gao first apologized and then explained: "It's really because this thing is cheap, and if a household uses briquettes, there will be a lot of demand, so we all start with a hundred. For sale. Of course, if the customer only buys a hundred pieces, the price will naturally be the most expensive, which is about three cents each. If the customer buys more at one time, it will be cheaper."
As for briquettes, if a household relies entirely on briquettes as fuel a day, it will consume four or five. And the words that Han Du asked his staff to shout, "Three briquettes are enough for a family to use for a whole day", well, it's an advertisement, everyone knows what's going on. Of course, it cannot be said that Handu is just making false propaganda and deceiving the people. Three briquettes are indeed enough for a family to cook for a whole day, but such a household must be very small.
One hundred briquettes is enough for a household for about twenty days. Nowadays, people who come to the workshop to buy briquettes never buy them one by one, but basically buy them in hundreds or hundreds.
Lao Zhu had no expression on his face and continued to ask: "What is the cheapest price? How much do you need to buy at this price?"
Shopkeeper Gao quickly explained: "The cheapest one is two and a half cents, but you need to buy tens of thousands of them at a time."
After hearing this, Lao Zhu calculated in his mind, looked up at Han Du with admiration, and said, "The price is quite fair. I didn't expect you to be knowledgeable one day."
"Master Huang, you are so complimentary. You are an expert at first glance. You should know that this thing is made of coal. At the current price of coal, you can't make much money from this thing." Han Du quickly added. .
