Steel Dynasty - Chapter 14

[Chapter 14 Briquette Stove]

“Your Highness, this is inappropriate.”

Qian Dafu knew that Xiao Ming would not be able to sit still when these four people came. After all, Xiao Ming was playful by nature and had never been able to withstand the instigation of the four people in the past.

“Steward Qian, don’t worry. We have brought many servants with us this time. With our respect for His Highness, can we still harm him?” Qin Mu reassured Qian Dafu.

Xiao Ming stood up at this time and walked out, “Let’s go, I’ll ask Lieutenant Lu to follow.”

He doesn’t have many friends here, and only these few fair-weather friends can talk and chat about some interesting things, otherwise It’s really boring.

“Of course there will be no problem if Lieutenant Lu follows him.” Qian Dafu felt relieved now.

Surrounded by Wang Shijie and four others, Xiao Ming took Wang Shijie’s carriage out of the south of the city and went straight to Mihe Pier.

On the pier, a painting boat is moored, and the green Mi River water rolls away from west to east, giving the impression of a great river flowing eastward.

Xiao Ming was slightly surprised. He understood that in ancient times, because the natural environment was not destroyed, the water flow of the river was very large, but this Mihe River was comparable to the contemporary Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

“Your Highness.” Qin Mu made an inviting gesture.

Among the four major wealthy families in Qingzhou, the Wang family mainly deals in coal and iron, the Wei family mainly deals in cloth and silk, the Sun family mainly deals in ceramic smelting, and the Qin family controls water transportation.

The boat in front of him is not considered gorgeous. In Xiao Ming’s opinion, compared to modern times, he has not seen anything gorgeous so far. It is simple and simple everywhere.

A small table was set up in the boat, with several dishes of side dishes on it and a jar of wine on it.

A charcoal basin was burning under the table. Winter was about to begin, and it was a bit cold. However, although it was warm in the boat, there was a faint smell of coal.

“Your Highness, in order to calm your nerves, I specially prepared green ant wine this time, as well as this mutton, black bean sauce, chrysanthemum, sweet and sour crucian carp…” Qin Mu counted all the treasures from his family.

Xiao Ming glanced at the standard of a luxurious meal and sighed in his heart that he, the prince, was such a failure. Even Qin Mu’s life was more comfortable than his.

But there is nothing we can do. The Qin family’s water transport business travels to all parts of the Chongqing Kingdom. Naturally, they can buy all kinds of things that Qingzhou doesn’t have and enjoy them.

Wang Shijie clapped his hands and said with a smile: “Following Brother Qin is indispensable for good food and wine, unlike me, who can only eat some simple meals.”

“Brother Wang disgraced me, the sugar for sweet and sour crucian carp is what my father ordered the boatmen to do in Chang’an. I bought it specially, and the same goes for this vegetable oil. I spent dozens of grains of silver, otherwise I wouldn’t have had this sweet and sour crucian carp today.”

Sun Dong was always the most greedy, and said, “Brother Qin, can you bring back some for me next time?” Japanese steamed buns, radishes and leeks are too monotonous, it really makes people hungry.”

Xiao Ming couldn’t help but salivating in his mouth. There was nothing he could do. Compared with the richness of modern food, this place was too miserable.

In his memory, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and peanuts have not yet been introduced to Dayu.

The variety of vegetables is very monotonous, basically celery, radish, leek, spinach, lettuce, eggplant and the like.

And very few of these things are grown, because the common people can’t afford to eat, so who will grow vegetables? These things are basically eaten by wealthy businessmen and powerful people.

The five people sat down around the small table, the boatman rowed the oars, and the boat slowly headed towards the river.

I have to say that the environment here is still very beautiful. Both sides of the Mi River are covered with green cultivated fields, stretching as far as the eye can see, like an oil painting.

There are dense aquatic plants on both sides of the river, and there are forests of reeds. Wild ducks and egrets can be seen everywhere. In the river, the water is turbulent, and sometimes one or two fish jump out.

While enjoying the scenery, Qin Mu poured Xiao Ming a glass of green ant wine.

Suddenly, a sour smell of rice wine hit his nose. In Xiao Ming’s opinion, this green ant wine was really of low quality.

Because this green ant wine is a newly brewed rice wine, the lees have not been filtered out, and the lees turn green, so it is called green ant wine.

Xiao Ming could drink this kind of wine before, but it was really hard for Xiao Ming to swallow now.

However, it was not strong after all, so he picked it up and took a few sips, and ate his first stir-fry here, sweet and sour crucian carp.

The painting boat went down the Mi River. While Xiao Ming was enjoying the scenery, he was also observing the situation on both sides of the Mi River.

In Dayu, fertile farmland is basically the fields on both sides of the river because it is easy to irrigate.

He took a look and saw that there were few irrigation tools like waterwheels on both sides of the Mi River. Even if there were, they belonged to wealthy families, and ordinary people had no money to build them.

Seeing Xiao Ming looking at both sides of the Mi River in deep thought from time to time, Wang Shijie asked: “His Highness seems to have something on his mind during this trip. I wonder if he can tell it to my foolish brother.”

Xiao Ming was thinking about how to improve the hydraulic irrigation facilities in the fiefdom, and naturally he didn’t care about this matter. Happy to talk to Wang Shijie.

This is when he saw the charcoal basin burning under the table, remembered something, and said: “I don’t have anything to worry about, but the craftsmen in the Equipment Department are making a fun thing, which is a hundred times more powerful than this charcoal basin. I don’t know if you are interested.”

” Oh?” Wang Shijie looked surprised, “Is that why your highness was busy in the Equipment Department that day?”

Qin Mu and the other three also looked interested, and Qin Mu said, “In this case, we are here in Mihe. I’ve also swam, why not go see the novelty His Highness mentioned?”

Wei Qing and Sun Dong cheered in unison.

Yesterday, when Xiao Ming taught the craftsmen the knowledge of lathes, he asked the craftsmen to make him a very practical tool today.

This is the modern briquette stove. After living in the palace for a few days, he felt awkward every day looking at the firewood that the servants burned for all matters.

So nothing else was made, but the briquette stove was handed over in advance.

Xiao Ming felt unhappy when he saw that these children of wealthy families were living more happily than him, the prince. This fully demonstrated that Qingzhou’s economy was now in their hands.

Correspondingly, Qingzhou’s taxes are getting worse year by year. As for the reason, it is naturally due to tax evasion.

Qin Mu could easily say dozens of taels of silver, but even his palace did not dare to say such a big thing.

Now that he controls the technology library and doesn’t need to use some novel gadgets to drain their money, how can he have the money to build his own government-run economy.

During this trip to the Mi River, Xiao Ming had a basic understanding of the irrigation situation on both sides of the Mi River. He said, “In that case, let’s go to the Equipment Department to have a look.”

Qin Mu immediately asked Huafang to turn the bow, and the five of them returned to the dock. .

After landing on the shore, Xiao Ming tightened his clothes. Winter was about to come and the weather was getting colder. This briquette stove could come in handy at this time, and he was not afraid that they would not buy it.

Especially the Wang family. The coal cakes and iron ore sold to him were so expensive. How could he get around them?

At this time, in the Equipment Department, a briquette stove covered with iron sheets had been produced.

This is a simple briquette stove. Inside the iron sheet is an inner ring of baked earth, and the chassis is a mesh iron sheet.

The style doesn’t look as modern and exquisite, but the functions are basically complete.

The craftsmanship of the briquette stove is very simple, and this is the first object that Xiao Ming gave to the craftsmen for practice.

When the five people arrived at the Equipment Department, they saw exactly such a briquette stove.

“Your Highness, what is this?” Wang Shijie asked puzzledly.

Xiao Ming smiled slightly and asked Chen Wenlong: “Have the briquettes been made?”

“Your Highness, they have been made and are now drying outside.” Chen Wenlong answered.

(End of chapter)