Treating cloth as property is not uncommon in remote places even now when treasure money is prevalent.
Although Queen Ma is also old, her hair is not as gray as that of Lao Zhu, and her hair is still covered with black hair. As Yu Chu advanced, it swayed slightly.
He reached out and punched his leg twice. He gave Queen Ma a complaining look and said, "You just feel sorry for An Qing and deliberately gave money to that boy. Even if you want to buy, you should bargain with him carefully." No matter what he sells, that kid always wants to talk big. I bet that even if the price he asks for is cut in half, he will still make something."
Queen Ma looked at Lao Zhu's angry look, as if looking at a vindictive child. His eyes were full of tenderness, and he sighed softly: "Han Du will definitely make money, but Your Majesty, didn't I make any money as a concubine?"
Lao Zhu raised his eyes and cast his gaze on Queen Ma, waiting for her next words.
Empress Ma walked too much in the academy today, and she felt a little tired all over. She straightened her arms as if stretching, and then suddenly let go.
Smiling and sighing, he said: "Your Majesty, please think about it. The weaving workshop in my concubine's hands can now earn 1.3 million yuan a year, right?"
"Yes!" Lao Zhu nodded quickly. There was nothing to say, because Queen Ma had just said it.
Queen Ma continued: "This 1.3 million yuan is pure profit, that is to say, it is money after deducting the expenses of tens of thousands of people. If the weaving workshop is replaced by Handu's machine, it means that it can weave every year The cloth that comes out will be ten times more. This is ten times the money, how much should it be?"
"Thirteen million strings?" Lao Zhu did some calculations in his mind, and then asked in surprise.
"Humph." Empress Ma chuckled, "It's not just that. There are tens of thousands of people in weaving workshops now, and they can only weave a little more than four million pieces of cloth a year. But if this number can be increased tenfold, Your Majesty, do you think? This person is still those people, but the property he sells has increased tenfold, wouldn’t he make more money?”
Lao Zhu understood, and nodded slowly with his mouth open, "But buying Handu's things costs a lot, right? You can't possibly rely on 500 spinning machines to be enough for tens of thousands of people?"
"That's definitely not enough." Empress Ma laughed matter-of-factly, "I just bought 500 units to test the waters first to see the effect and whether Han Du was bragging. If what Han Du said is true, , I will continue to buy it.”
As soon as he heard that Queen Ma was going to continue buying, Lao Zhu felt a little worried about the money, especially because Han Du had taken away the money. "According to what Han Du said, two people can operate a machine. If there are tens of thousands of people in the weaving workshop, wouldn't they have to buy 5,000 machines?"
Empress Ma said directly without any ambiguity: "So what if it's five thousand? As long as it can really weave ten times the amount of cloth, I will buy even fifty thousand. Five thousand is only half a million dollars." .”
"Sister, don't forget, in addition to buying a spinning machine, you also need to buy a steam engine? This one is more expensive, one costs five thousand guan." Seeing that Queen Ma was so wealthy, Lao Zhu quickly reminded her.
"Even if you add a steam engine, it's only a million dollars. But the weaving workshops at that time were completely different from now. This amount of money can be earned back in a month." Empress Ma said in an understatement. Said nonchalantly.
Lao Zhu also disagreed with Queen Ma's words. Shaking his head, he said: "I'm afraid things are not as good as what the girl thought. Didn't Han Du also say that? When there is more cloth, the price will definitely drop by then, and the money you make will definitely not be as much as you think now. Moreover, so Although many steam engines save manpower, they also need to burn coal, which is also a big expense."
Queen Ma rolled her eyes at Lao Zhu speechlessly, "That man has to eat three times a day. What's wrong with burning some charcoal?"
"By the way, speaking of charcoal, there is something I just want to talk to the emperor about."
"What's the matter?" Lao Zhu brought the teacup to his lips and put it down temporarily after hearing this.
"Even at the coal mine, more and more coal is being mined. If it's all made into briquettes, the people in the capital won't be able to use that much. Up to now, the workshops are full of briquettes, and there are even piles in the open air for transportation. of coal. So, the manager from the coal mine came over and asked if he could stop for a while and wait for the coal to be used for a while before continuing to dig."
Queen Ma looked calm, as if she was talking about an unrelated matter.
Lao Zhu sighed when he heard this, and immediately understood what Queen Ma meant. He shook his head and said slowly: "It seems that the steam engine came out at the right time. Tell the manager of the coal mine and ask him to dig as much as he can. The more he gets, the more he can dig." The more the merrier.”
"Okay, I'll send someone to deliver the message when we get back." Empress Ma smiled and nodded. Needless to say, she understood that the emperor agreed to her buying the machine.
...
Lao Zhu bought ten steam engines, and Queen Ma also bought ten, and there were 500 spinning machines.
Han Du, who received such a large deal, was naturally happy. But if you want to create so many things, you obviously can't rely on the academy alone.
The academy is not big to begin with. How many steam engines can be placed in the experimental area? Moreover, Han Du is also a respectable person, so he cannot always take advantage of the academy and let others gossip.
Back home, at the dinner table, while eating the food, Han Du suddenly said: "Dad, is there any free space in our house?"
"Idle land? What do you want to do? Our idle land has been used to grow food. What do you want the land for?" Although Han De didn't understand what his son wanted to do, he explained patiently.
"I want to build a machinery workshop." Han Du then answered his father's doubts, and then asked: "Is there no land left at all? Are they all growing food? Didn't you also like growing food before? , why have you become so positive now?”
While eating, he looked at his father in confusion.
"Isn't it because you brought back some strange grains? If one acre of land can really yield twenty or thirty stones, then it's really not as good as growing grains." Liu said.
In the past, Mr. Liu didn't attach much importance to the harvest from the land. That was because the land's output was limited, and the government did not expect to dig food from the soil. But it's different with Qi Liang. First of all, this is a good thing that the emperor has made great efforts to call on people all over the world to grow. Secondly, since the harvest of this strange grain is so high, it is natural that the land cannot be left uncultivated. The same goes for land and people. If it is not taken care of for a few years, it will be useless.
An Qing's beautiful eyes flashed for a moment, and she slowly swallowed the food in her mouth. She smiled and said, "If you hadn't grown grass on your horse farm, you wouldn't have been able to escape the fate of growing food."
"Is food grown on the racecourse?" Han Du said in surprise while eating the food.
Hande shook his head, "No. There are so many horses in your horse farm. If there is no fodder, what will they eat?"
It’s okay, dad hasn’t foolishly used the land on the horse farm to grow food. You must know that even the income from potatoes and sweet potatoes is nothing compared to the horse farm, and it is not worth mentioning at all.
"Du'er." Ms. Liu stopped her bowl and chopsticks and looked at Han Du.
"Um?"
"If you need land, just buy it. But because of the grain you brought back, the price of land has risen so much that it is not as cost-effective as before." Mrs. Liu couldn't help but look at Han Du twice, looking gloating at his misfortune.
I dare you to trick yourself... Han Du nodded in agreement and echoed his mother-in-law. It’s not a bad purchase, at least you can choose the location. Although it may be a little more expensive and cost a little more, the money spent is nothing compared to the huge profits from the steam engine.
"But even if you want to buy it, I'm afraid you won't be able to buy it now. Every household is growing food, and they won't sell it to you at this time. It's better to wait until the autumn harvest and use your own land." Anqing
"Have the grains been confiscated yet?" Han Du was a little confused. According to the sweet potato harvest season, they should have been harvested by now.
"Not yet... I just went to see the fields a few days ago, and the grain is still growing well," Ms. Liu said.
Han Du nodded and said nothing more. He had already made a decision in his heart and was ready to go to the fields tomorrow.
Early the next morning, Han Du took An Qing and several servants to the field. I don't spend much time with Anqing on weekdays, so this can be considered an outing.
"Master Marquis, this is the food our family grows. It was still green and lush a few days ago. I don't know what happened in the past two days, but some leaves began to dry up. I saw it with my eyes and was anxious in my heart. But after asking many people, there was no solution, and I just wanted to report it to the Marquis." The steward here complained bitterly to Han Du as soon as he came up. He is now afraid that there will be something wrong with the food, and the fault will fall on him.
The fault is small, he is also a member of the Han family, and the Han family will not do anything to him if he makes any mistakes. But if something goes wrong with the food, then just blaming himself would be enough for him.
Han Du raised his hand to comfort the clan uncle, "Fifth uncle, don't worry, let me see what's going on first."
"Hey, okay..." Uncle Han nodded and took two steps back.
Potatoes were planted in the land here. Han Du walked into the ground and squatted down, reaching out and touching the potato seedlings. Some leaves are indeed dry, and the line between dry and green is very clear. It is obviously a leaf, but it looks half green and half dry.
Pulling aside the leaves, you can see that the soil at the roots of the potato seedlings has expanded cracks. Han Du dug into the soil twice and quickly dug out a potato the size of a goose egg.
When Uncle Han saw it, he was immediately surprised and happy. He pointed and said, "Master Marquis, can this thing be collected?"
Han Du smiled and nodded, "That's right. Its leaves are dry. It's not because there's something wrong with it, but it's completely mature."
After hearing this, Uncle Han didn't say much, and quickly threw himself into the ground, using his hands together, he dug hard at the place where Han Du had buckled. The soil was dug up quickly, and seven or eight potatoes of about the same size were dug out.
He picked it up excitedly and showed it to Han Du, "Master Hou, look, there are so many knots in one tree. This is really the treasure of dreams."
Han Du laughed twice. Although he was smiling, he was not too excited. After all, I am not surprised by this kind of thing. Not to mention the few in front of me, even Han Du, who is piled up like a mountain, has seen many of them.
Clapping his hands, Han Du cleaned up the dust stuck on his hands. He ordered: "Fifth Uncle, please find someone to dig out all these grains. I will go and report to the Emperor. It's time to collect the grains."
Looking up at the scattered potatoes planted on the surrounding land, there were not many, but not many, but none of the land had been dug.
Obviously, these people don't know that the potatoes are ripe and ready to be dug.
"Master Hou, what about these vine seedlings?" Uncle Wu was a little undecided and asked quickly.
Han Du shook his head and said, "Tengmiao people can't eat it, but it's fine if it's used to feed pigs, cattle and sheep. If you want to keep it, keep it. If you don't want to keep it, give it away."
"I understand, Lord Marquis."
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