Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 76
But it was said that Li Weijian escaped across the courtyard from the east, bypassed the private alley and entered the Rongguo Mansion from the side door. After taking two steps forward, he bumped into Qingwen who was looking for her quickly.

"Fourth Master?" Qingwen frowned and took a few hurried steps to greet the general. She glanced up and down and said with concern: "Where did the Fourth Master go just now? Let us find it easily!"

Li Weijian felt refreshed now, with a sense of laziness about him. Hearing this, he just smiled and said, "I went out for a walk."

As the two walked forward, Qingwen followed beside them, and suddenly they smelled the fragrance of their daughter's house on Li Weijian.

"Fourth Master, you-" Qingwen bit her lower lip lightly, frowning and speechless.

"Huh?" Li Weijian paused. He knew that Qingwen must have noticed the flaw since he had never changed his clothes.After thinking about it for a moment, he pulled Qingwen into his small courtyard and whispered: "I almost suffered a plot just now. It's true that there is no good feast."

"what?"

Li Weijian kept the story short and told him about the spiked wine. Qingwen was first surprised and then angry.

"How could the second girl be so... wrong?" Qingwen suddenly thought about it. Yingchun's temperament was soft and soft, and she was not a scheming person.Moreover, Yingchun had been living in Dongkuaoyuan during these days, so he immediately changed his words and said: "...the eldest lady and the eldest master are really evil!"

"It's good to know. There is no clue about this matter, so it's better not to make it public."

"How could there be no clue? If the fourth master had gone to find the old lady and begged for help——"

"Then what?" Li Weijian asked with a smile: "Sign a complaint and then let the whole family see me making a fool of myself? Then I will be really shameless, sir."

Qingwen mumbled in a low voice, "The fourth master... shouldn't go to such a dirty place."

Li Weijian blinked, knowing that Qingwen might have misunderstood.It was not appropriate to expose the matter between him and Siqi for the time being, so he got off the road and said, "You are still young, and I was drugged. Aren't I afraid of hurting you?"

Qingwen Xiafei's cheeks were filled with warmth, and she thought that even though Li Weijian had been drugged, he still remembered her, and muttered: "I...I can't do it, no, don't I still have Xiangling and Hongyu? Besides, I can't do it." Xiu Ying has practiced martial arts and has a strong body..."

Does this count as winning Qingwen's heart?Li Weijian cursed secretly that he was really not a good person for even trying to trick such a little girl.But pride arose in his heart, thinking that a woman like Qingwen must be protected by him to achieve good results.So Xiaoyin raised her hand and caressed Qingwen's cheek, and said, "Aren't you jealous?"

The red clouds on Qingwen's face spread to her neck, she just lowered her head and said, "Look at what Fourth Master said, it's as if I am a jealous person."

She couldn't help but turned her head and said, "They are still searching frantically, I'll go and let them know." Then she twisted her waist and walked out of the small courtyard.

Li Weijian looked at his back hidden behind the red wall, then turned around and entered the main room.Without waiting for the maid to serve him, he changed his clothes and lazily sat down on the chair.The memory of Yicai just now flashed through his mind from time to time, but he was thinking that when he turned around and looked for Si Qi to ask carefully, whose idea it was this time.

How could he, Li Weijian, allow others to plot against him?

............................................................

Cross the courtyard to the east.

Siqi changed his clothes and combed his hair into a bun again, and then quietly entered the side room.Now that the medicine has worn off, how can Yingchun still be able to keep his face?He just lay there under the quilt and cried.

Xiuju and other maids comforted her, but Yingchun just cried and said nothing.Mrs.

Seeing that no one could stop persuading, Mrs. Xing frowned and said, "Second lady, please stop crying. Brother Jian only had a glass of wine and then left without even looking at you. Why are you crying?"

Yingchun stood up briefly and wiped her tears and said: "It's easy for the eldest lady to say. Brother Jian must have known something was wrong after having a drink, so he hurriedly left. How could he not know what was wrong? How can the eldest lady ask me to have the face to see Brother Jian again in the future?" ?”

Mrs.

After hearing this, Yingchun just cried, feeling extremely miserable in her heart.She was just soft-tempered, not stupid, and she could figure it out after just a little thought.The eldest maid next to her, Siqi, would always go to Mrs. Xing when she had something to do or nothing. It was Siqi who encouraged her to entertain Brother Jian, and it was probably Mrs. Xing's idea!

She also said that her stepmother and biological father had changed their tempers, thinking that she was getting older, so they took over her and taught her a good life, but they did not want to just use her as bait to catch a rich husband.

The Spring Festival Envoy in the East Crossing Yard did not want to stay any longer, but even though he was impatient this time, he only talked about moving back in his mouth, but never said it out loud.

Mrs.As a result, he looked up and caught a glimpse of Si Qi who had come in at some unknown time.

Mrs.

"Yes." Si Qi responded in a low voice, following Mrs. Xing into the main room.

Mrs. Xing sat down, dismissed the irrelevant maids, and patted the table: "How do you do things?"

Si Qi said aggrievedly: "Madam, you can't blame me for this. Fourth Master Jian only had a glass of wine before he noticed something was wrong. I chased him for a long time but never caught up."

Mrs.

Si Qi lowered his head and said nothing.

Mrs.

Si Qi had already prepared the draft and said, "Fourth Master Jian was walking in a hurry. I chased him for a while and accidentally twisted my foot. It took me a long time to move back."

"Useless trash!" After another curse, Mrs. Xing said luckily: "Then Brother Jian went back to the hospital by himself?"

This is not easy to lie, so Siqi said: "I only saw him go out of the gate, but I didn't see where he went afterward."

Mrs. Xing wanted to ask again, and the maid outside reported: "Madam, the eldest master is back."

Mrs. Xing stood up quickly, glanced at Si Qi, waved her hand to let him go as if to shoo away a fly, straightened her makeup a little, and then Mrs. Xing went out surrounded by maids and wives.

When he arrived at the gate of Erzhongyi, he saw the eldest master Jia She coming over with one step and three steps.

When they got closer to see the ceremony, Mrs.

"Yes." Jia She walked with his hands behind his back and responded without saying much.

"It's great, Master, these times have turned out well."

Jia She smiled.Today, I was treated to a banquet by the head of the Qiao family in Shanxi. The guests accompanying the wine were all popular fans. The Qiao family is used to flattering people, but they really responded to the beautiful wine, beautiful people, and beautiful hearts. More beautiful.

So when the eldest master Jia She was happy, he agreed to transfer the three thousand shares to the Qiao family. He only had to go to the inner palace to transfer the ownership tomorrow morning. The eldest master Jia She immediately received 1000 taels!How much money did you pay when you bought that stock? 3000 taels, and I made 8000 taels when I changed hands!It's true that people are sitting at home and their wealth comes from heaven.

There is no such good business in the world!
As for that stock rising again in the future...heh, isn't there Li Weijian?With Yingchun's relationship with the man named Li, it's not too much for him, Jia She, to buy some cheap stocks, right?

All the way into the main room, Mrs. How's it going?"

"This--"

Mrs. Xing had always known Jia She's temper. She was thinking deeply but did not dare to lie to him, so she told him about the past afternoon.

After hearing this, Jia She was furious.

Snapped--

The tea cup fell heavily on the table, making Mrs. Xing tremble.

"Absurd! Wouldn't it offend Brother Jian by doing such a stupid thing?"

Jia She's heart was bleeding.He had made a good plan earlier. He bought the shares from Li Weijian at the original price and could make a profit of more than [-]% by reselling them. The money was no worse than the money brought by the strong wind!
As a result, this thought had been planned for a while, but it was shattered just after arriving home.It was right to drug Li Weijian, but it was wrong to let him run away!

Jia She's breathing became heavy and he cursed: "Stupid woman! No matter what you do, you will always make Brother Jian angry. Go, go and apologize to Brother Jian now! If Brother Jian doesn't calm down, you can This stupid woman doesn’t want to come back!”

"what?"

Mrs. Xing did not dare to argue, but said: "Master, it's getting dark now, how about I go there early tomorrow morning?"

Jia She just snorted and said nothing.The good mood during the day had completely dissipated. Jia She was no longer impatient to stay here, so he got up and went to find his concubine.

................................................

Another day later, Mrs.

Mrs. Xing felt uneasy and only hoped that Li Weijian would return soon so that he could come to express his regrets.

Where did Li Weijian go?First he went to the inner palace, and then he joined King Zhongyong and rode towards the west of Beijing.

The inner government had previously sold stocks and got more than 400 million in silver. The saint took some of it, and a small part of the remaining 200 million was used to dig wells and create things, but the big money was spent on the coal mines in Wannian County, Xishan.

First, they bought abandoned mines at a low price, and then purchased some coal kilns that were available at a premium. Calculated, the government now has more than [-] coal kilns in Xishan, accounting for more than [-]% of the total number of coal kilns in Xishan.

It is difficult to live in the capital, and the trees around the capital have long been cut down. Now the silver frost charcoal used in the capital's palace and the nobles' homes was harvested and stewed in other places before being sent to the capital.

A thousand catties of silver frost charcoal costs 15 taels and a half of silver, and a thousand jins of black charcoal costs three taels and three cents. Only rich people can afford this price.Ordinary small households use more coal.

Xishan is only forty miles away from the capital. It produces black coal and white coal, and logging began before the Ming Dynasty.It's just that due to the theory of Feng Shui, the mining intensity was not large.

Dashun, because of Taizong Li Guo, attached great importance to practical learning and did not pay much attention to the theory of Feng Shui, because the Xishan coal mine was gradually developed.

At this time, the price of coal mines was determined by lumps. When he was resting, the doctor next to King Zhongyong said that more than ten years ago, a piece of coal cost three cents, which was about two pounds and 12 taels. Now that the capital has a population of more than one million, although the price of coal is still It cost three pennies, but it only weighed about a pound.

After hearing this, Li Weijian secretly calculated, one pound is three cents, and one thousand pounds is only two or two five cents of silver, which is still cheaper than the black charcoal.

After a short rest, everyone continued to move forward, arriving at Xishan before noon. Not long after, Li Weijian followed King Zhongyong to a mine.

At this moment, it was very hot outside the mine. A Newcomen steam engine was emitting black smoke and driving the volute centrifugal pump through the crankshaft and connecting rod. The centrifugal pump hummed and rotated, and water gurgled out from the pipe.

King Zhongyong walked leisurely with a horsewhip in hand, and when he got to the centrifugal pump, he smiled and said: "It's a good thing that the pit owners didn't know this thing, otherwise this abandoned mine would have cost a lot of money."

The reason why these more than [-] mines were abandoned was because too much water seeped into them and the water could not be drained out.The water pump built by Li Weijian has far greater suction and lift than before. This problem that could not be solved in the past can now be solved naturally.

Li Weijian did not look at the centrifugal pump, but looked up at the Newcomen steam engine.I thought to myself that it was a good thing that this steam engine was used in a coal mine, otherwise no rich man would be willing to burn coal like this.

After hearing King Zhongyong's words, Li Weijian said: "Your Majesty, can you estimate the output now?"

"This -" King Zhongyong looked at the doctor on the side.

The doctor said: "It's hard to say. We are still recruiting workers now. There was also a severe drought last year. There have been a lot of refugees flowing into the capital recently, so we have recruited a lot of people. But the reactivation of this abandoned mine did not happen overnight. It’s a matter of course. However, the official has estimated that if they are all used, the annual output will be [-] million jins.”

Two hundred million kilograms sounds like a lot. The kilogram at this time should be heavier than the kilogram in later generations. Ignore this point for the time being. Two hundred million kilograms is only 20 tons... The small coal kilns in later generations will have higher output than this.

King Zhongyong glanced at Li Weijian and said: "Fusheng, 30 million jins is not a small amount. The palace does not use 6000 jins of coal every year, and the capital's annual coal consumption is only about [-] million jins. This The extra coal..."

Li Weijian didn't answer and asked instead: "Have you ever calculated the cost? How many coins does it cost to transport this pound of coal to the capital before it is considered a loss?"

The doctor then said: "It's only two cents now. After a while, when all the mines are opened, it will probably be reduced to one or eight cents."

Li Weijian thought for a moment and then asked: "How much does it cost for those mines that have not been taken into the inner government?"

"This..." The doctor couldn't answer.

King Zhongyong curled his lips: "Look what I am doing? Why don't you go and find out more?"

The doctor quickly called two clerks and ordered them to inquire.After a long while, the clerk reported back, and then the doctor said: "After asking about it, I think it's probably about two cents."

Li Weijian smiled and said: "In this case, we can still make a profit even if we sell it for two pennies."

King Zhongyong said happily: "Resurrection is not authentic, and it is used to hurt people with its own nature, hahaha."

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(End of this chapter)