Chapter 1224 Postscript Eighty Lots of Small Money
Chapter 1224 Postscript 80·A lot of small money
The hunt lasted for three days, and Xie Yan had a great time.
On the afternoon of the second day, he shot a sika deer with a musket. Although he only hit the butt, with the help of hounds, he was able to capture it very easily.
Unfortunately, there are not many game animals here.
After the Queen Mother and the Emperor left with their troops, the managers of the hunting grounds immediately brought in live animals and released them into the forest.
If we don’t artificially raise them, we won’t be able to play with them next year!
So much so that there were gentry landowners in Dagonguan who raised deer and pigs around the mountains. Every year when the royal family finished hunting in autumn, they would catch them, sell them to the royal hunting grounds and release them for release, so that the dignitaries of Luoyang could hunt them sustainably.
"Hey, why does that carriage keep following you?" Xie Yan asked curiously.
Zhu Tangxi said: "I asked the Queen Mother for something, and the carriage helped transport it back."
Xie Yan asked no more questions.
It wasn't until he arrived outside his home that Xie Yan finally knew what it was.
A big bundle of deer antlers!
Xie Yan asked doubtfully: "What does sister want deer antler for?"
Zhu Tangxi replied shyly: "I'm just replenishing Liulang's health."
Replenish the body?
Xie Yan thought of a certain function of deer antler, and suddenly said hard: "I am still young and strong, so I don't need deer antler to supplement it!"
Zhu Tangxi turned his back, avoiding his own servants and the officials carrying the deer antler, and stuck out his tongue playfully at his lover.
"Forget it, keep it and use it again in thirty years." Xie Yan felt that he could remain strong until he was forty-seven or eighteen years old.
However, Zhu Tangxi did not give face: "I asked the imperial doctor and he said that it is best to take deer antler within two or three years."
Xie Yan felt sorry for the bundle of deer antlers: "What wonderful medicinal materials, they are useless even if they are kept in my house."
"Pfft!" Qingluan covered her mouth and laughed.
Returning to the study, Xie Yan immediately looked for his business card.
During the last Royal Society meeting, Xie Yan met several famous doctors, and all of them left their business cards.
He found all the business cards and wrote letters to famous doctors one by one.
The general content is: I recently went hunting with the Queen Mother and the Emperor, and hunted a few fat deer with great power. I took the antlers home as a souvenir. I heard that this stuff can nourish the body. How can I best take it? Of course I myself No need to make up, I sent it back to Huangzhou to honor my father.
Yes, I just honor my father.
After waiting for the famous doctors to reply, I sent some instructions for taking it together with the deer antler to my father to share.
I am such a talented and filial son!
After copying seven or eight letters in one go, Xie Yan called Wang Xing and asked him to send the letters to famous doctors quickly.
Then he lay on the bamboo couch outside the study, feeling so comfortable that it was better to be at home. I just wanted to lie down like this for the rest of my life.
…
Cizhou Machinery Factory.
A small ball mill with an extremely rough appearance was finally welded and assembled.
Several trucks of hematite mined locally in Cizhou have already been transported. The ores are of different sizes and are sent to the ball mill after watering, waiting to be fired in the boiler to start testing.
After two or three minutes passed, the machine was temporarily shut down to check and record the ore crushing situation.
"Useful, useful, a lot of iron ore has been broken!"
"Roughly estimate the proportions of ores of various sizes."
"..."
The machine quickly turned back on and then turned off again after two or three minutes.
Then replace the steel balls of different sizes and continue the experimental recording according to the previous method.
After grinding the iron ore, replace it with limestone ore.
After that, you need to replace the gear set and adjust the speed of the ball mill to see at what speed the various ores have the highest grinding efficiency.
A few days later, the Ministry of Industry received a telegram.
The telegram soon reached the hands of Bao Cweng, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry. He hurried to find Chen Wenzhao, the minister, and said happily: "Ms. Chen, the ball mill is really useful."
Chen Wenzhao asked: "How much can efficiency be improved?"
Bao Tsien-weng said: "Cizhou is still continuing their experiments, but according to what they claimed in the telegram, the ball mill is more than ten times faster than the previous steam hammer. Moreover, the ore ground out is more uniform. They plan to use the ball mill to
Make it bigger.”
"Improved more than ten times..."
Chen Wenzhao muttered: "If we talk to Bachelor Xie about a patent buyout now, we will have to spend a lot of money."
Bao Cweng said: "Ball mills are widely used and no matter how expensive they are, we will not lose money."
It is indeed a sure profit. All factories and mines that need to grind materials are potential customers of various types of ball mills.
Chen Wenzhao said: "I have some connections with the Xie family. It is not convenient for me to negotiate the price with him. You can take charge of this matter personally."
If it weren't for Xie Yan's status as a consort, the Ministry of Industry would not need Zuo Shilang to come forward at all. At most, he could be dismissed by sending a director of the Ministry of Industry. Moreover, the price would be suppressed very hard!
Bao Cweng took the order and left.
Soon, Zhang Mengxiong, the right minister in charge of the railway, came again: "Ms. Chen, this is the latest plan for the Zhentai Railway. The Hutuo River is too wide, and it is impossible to build the railway to outside Zhending City. It can only be built to Zhending City.
On the other side of the river, if you want to transport goods to Zhending City, you must unload them and ship them instead."
"The problem is not big," Chen Wenzhao said. "The Zhentai-Taiwan Railway was built mainly to transport coal from Shanxi to the Central Plains, Nanjing, Huainan, and Zhejiang."
Although the problem is not serious, it must be reported to the cabinet.
The Hutuo River is not particularly wide in Shanxi. When it passes through the Taihang Mountains and reaches North China, the water suddenly slows down and the river surface suddenly becomes wider.
How wide?
More than ten miles!
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the river was still 12 miles wide. Due to the difficulty of construction and the high cost of building a bridge, the late Qing government had no choice but to give up building the bridge.
As a result, the Zhengtai Railway, which was supposed to be built to the outside of Zhengding City, changed its terminal to Shijiazhuang.
In this time and space, we can only cultivate as far as Shijiazhuang.
Because the current Hutuo River is wider than that in the late Qing Dynasty, it flows all the way to Gaocheng before it is divided into two. Its northern channel flows from the north of Gaocheng, and its southern channel even flows through Ningjin County.
Of course, there was no village called Shijiazhuang at this time, but there was a town called Shiyi nearby.
The history of Shiyi City is much longer than that of Zhending City. It existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, and was reduced to a small town in the early Northern Song Dynasty.
The next day.
Chen Wenzhao brought the railway plan to the cabinet to explain it.
"The railway is built from Taiyuan to the other side of Zhending City, which happens to be connected to the water transport of Hutuo River."
"The goods are shipped to Zhending City and can be transported to Beijing by rail."
"Goods are shipped along the Hutuo River North Road and can be transported by water all the way to Baoding."
"Goods are shipped along the Hutuo River South Road, and can be transported by water all the way to Guantao, where they are connected to the Yongji Canal."
Deng Gongwu carefully looked at the land and water transportation map, nodded and said, "It's feasible."
The Shijiazhuang area will definitely become prosperous in the future.
When the population gathers to a certain extent, it will be time to restore Shiyi County as it was in the early Song Dynasty. However, the county seat will be moved twenty miles north to face Zhending City across the Hutuo River.
…
After Bao Cweng got off work from the Ministry of Industry, he went straight to the princess palace of Qin.
He had already handed in his greeting card yesterday.
The carriage passed by the gate, and Bao Cweng glanced at the plaque.
The "Huama Di" sign hanging below has become a scene in Luoyang. Many people from out of town who come to Beijing will even come here to have a look.
He was just the left minister of the Ministry of Industry. Bao Cweng was not qualified to enter through the main entrance.
He took a car and went around to the side entrance of the princess residence, and was quickly taken to the living room to drink tea by a servant.
After a while, the princess came.
Check out the correct version one by one!
Bao Cweng stood up and bowed: "Greetings to Her Royal Highness the eldest princess!"
Zhu Tangxi returned the Wanfu gift and said, "My husband hasn't gone home yet. Taixue is quite far away. He is probably on the way. Minister Bao can talk to me directly."
Bao Cweng said: "The ball mill was provided by Prince Consort Xie with basic drawings, and was trial-produced and repeatedly improved by Cizhou Machinery Factory. Each party enjoys half of the patent rights. The Ministry of Industry plans to buy the half from Prince Consort Xie."
"Five hundred thousand guan." Zhu Tangxi's lion opened his mouth.
Bao Cweng was shocked: "It's too expensive."
Zhu Tangxi said: "The permanent use rights of the government-owned cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway were sold together. They were all included in the 500,000 yuan."
"It's still too expensive," Bao Cweng shook his head repeatedly, "It's impossible for the Ministry of Industry to agree to it, and I can't go back to deal with Chen Shangshu."
"How much does the Ministry of Industry plan to offer?" Zhu Tangxi asked.
Bao Cziweng said: "Fifty thousand guan."
Zhu Tangxi sneered.
Just for the sake of the princess's sake.
If it were someone with no background, the Ministry of Industry would be able to get it done with at most 30,000 yuan, and that would include kickbacks from the negotiator and the contractor.
The real amount of money an inventor can get is as much as 20,000 yuan.
Twenty thousand guan is also a huge amount of money!
Of course Bao Cweng didn't dare to take kickbacks from the princess. He bit the bullet and said: "Eighty thousand yuan."
Zhu Tangxi picked up the teacup: "Send off guests."
"Your Highness, wait a minute, we can talk more." Bao Cweng shouted quickly.
This job is too difficult to handle, a favored princess and a well-known prince-in-law.
No wonder Chen Shangshu asked him, Zuo Shilang, to come and talk in person.
If he were the director of a small Ministry of Industry, he might not even dare to bargain in front of the princess.
There is no point in putting off talking about it. This kind of trick is ineffective against Zhu Tangxi.
If the Ministry of Industry really dared to produce and sell ball mills without buying out the patent rights, Zhu Tangxi would definitely go to Queen Mother Ye to complain.
Bao Tse-weng said: "One hundred thousand."
Zhu Tangxi drank tea without talking.
This attitude silenced Bao Cweng.
He was the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, and he actually bargained like a merchant, and the other party didn't bother to pay attention to him even halfway through the conversation.
Negotiations need to be carried out slowly, and it is normal to negotiate for three to five months.
The problem is that the status of both parties in this negotiation is not normal!
There is no way to work slowly.
Straight bitch, it's the Ministry of Industry's money anyway, no matter how much you spend, it's none of my business.
Bao Cweng said: "Twenty thousand yuan, buy out the patent of the ball mill and the patent use rights of the government-owned cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway."
Zhu Tangxi shook his head: "Not enough."
"The minimum price set by the Ministry of Industry is only this much. If it exceeds 120,000 yuan, it must be approved by Chen Shangshu personally." Bao Cweng told the truth.
Zhu Tangxi carefully observed the other party's expression, and she felt that it was about the same: "150,000 yuan. The Ministry of Industry will also build two more ball mills and give them to our cement factory."
Bao Tsien-weng had no choice but to go back to ask for instructions and come back for negotiations the next day.
The negotiation results between the two parties are:
The Ministry of Industry offered 150,000 yuan to buy 50% of Xie Yan's ball mill patents and buy out the patent rights to the government-run cement plants along the Zhentai-Taiwan Railway.
The working part is paid in three installments, with the first 50,000 gu paid at the signing of the contract. The remaining 100,000 gu will be paid in two installments, paid every six months.
The Ministry of Industry donated a ball mill for grinding limestone, which was to be delivered to Xie Yan's cement factory within two months.
On the day of signing the contract, Xie Yan received a down payment of 50,000 yuan.
That’s a lot of money!
He tried to convert it into RMB, and after much thought he decided to use rice price to convert it.
However, the price of rice in the Ming Dynasty varied greatly in different regions.
In rural areas of major grain-producing provinces, a pound of rice only costs five or six cents during the rice harvest season. During lean months, a pound of rice only costs seven or eight cents.
But Luoyang, a huge city in the Central Plains, is different. Even during the rice harvest season, a pound of rice costs more than ten cents.
Big cities in the south are cheaper because they are close to rice-producing areas.
Let’s calculate it as 10 yuan per kilogram of rice. Assuming that a kilogram of rice is 3 yuan, the usual currency is 300 yuan. Isn’t 50,000 yuan equal to 15 million yuan?
Of course, this conversion is definitely not accurate.
"Sister, you are so awesome. You actually let the Ministry of Industry relax." Xie Yan said happily.
Zhu Tangxi smiled and said: "I took advantage of the Queen Mother's influence. Even if it were another princess, the Ministry of Industry would not be so easy to talk to."
Xie Yan whispered: "Two famous doctors living in Luoyang have already replied to my letter. I will try the efficacy of deer antler today."
Zhu Tangxi looked around in shame and reminded: "We haven't left the gate of the Ministry of Industry yet, so don't talk nonsense."
"Then I don't accept deer antler anymore." Xie Yan teased.
Zhu Tangxi was so angry that he punched him and said impatiently: "Go home quickly."