Chapter 104: Tong Nian is here
After teaching these servants how to sow winter wheat, Li Min and Jin Daqian went to Nanhe Workshop. After more than a month of construction, the brewery, paper workshop, and printing workshop have been completed. After installing the equipment purchased by Yin, many of these slaves have worked in Chang'an's workshops, so they are very skilled in their work, so Li Yin doesn't need to worry about it.
With the construction of these workshops, Li Yin plans to put the brewery on hold for a period of time. After the first season of rice next year, the brewing and distillation will be carried out together to produce regular liquor instead of simple processing. Only in this way can we truly brew real liquor. good wine.
Everything is in full swing and proceeding in an orderly manner. Li Yin is in a good mood and is about to leave Nanhe, but when he raises his eyes, he sees a sailboat coming along the Nanhe to the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce.
Seeing the sailboat, Jin Daqian smiled and said, "Your Highness, maybe Tong Nian has arrived!"
The corners of Li Yin's mouth turned upwards, and counting the days, it should be Tong Nian. Last time, when Li Yin asked Tong Nian to transport coal to Yizhou, Jin Daqian kept in touch with him by letter, in order to transport as much coal as possible at one time. , Tong Nian adopted water transport. According to his calculations, the volume of goods transported by water is much larger than that of land transport, but the cost is relatively low. However, horse-drawn carts can only carry limited coal, and horses have to consume a lot of fodder, while sailing ships are different. , the body is large, and it can hold a lot of coal. The only disadvantage is that it takes a little longer to go upstream.
Whether it was Tong Nian, we will know later, Li Min simply stood on the pier with Jin Daqian and waited, only to see the sailboat in the distance getting bigger and bigger in the field of vision of the two, and the busy boatman in clothes was also faintly visible. After a while, the boat arrived at the pier. At this time, the whole picture of the boat appeared in Li Yin's eyes, which made him gasp. The size of this boat is really not small, but the length is only 50 meters. About ten meters, it can be regarded as a giant.
Although he knew that the shipbuilding industry was quite developed during the Tang Dynasty, he never expected that such a large sailing ship could be built.
The sailboat docked properly at the pier, a wooden plank was lowered along the hull, and then a chubby man in a blue robe walked down, it wasn't Tong Nian or anyone else.
After receiving Li Yin’s letter, he organized people to mine coal mines. When he was in Chang’an, Jin Daqian bought a large number of coal mines according to Li Yin’s instructions. When Tong Nian mined, he dug one by one, and most of them were open-pit coal mines. It doesn’t take much effort, not to mention that the quality of coal is also first-class. While mining coal mines, he started to organize water transportation. The task Li Yin gave him as the shopkeeper of the chamber of commerce was to sell the goods to any place in the world. Naturally, the transportation team was indispensable. In addition to the land transportation of horse-drawn carriages, he also formed a water transportation fleet, and spent a lot of money to buy dozens of sailboats, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Your Highness!" Seeing Li Yin, Tong Nian ran down in a hurry, and almost fell in his haste, which made Jin Daqian burst out laughing.
When an acquaintance met, Li Yin was also happy, he supported him and said, "Thanks for your hard work, I let you personally **** me here after such a long distance."
"For Your Highness, this bit of suffering is nothing to this old slave. The main reason is that it is the first time to transport goods to Yizhou. I also want to guide them to find out the way, so as not to make mistakes. The future transportation will have to rely on They're on their own." When Tong Nian was speaking, a young man in his twenties wearing a red round collar robe got off the boat, hurried up to Li Yin, bowed and said, "See Your Highness!"
"This is?" Li Yin sized up the young man. This young man had delicate features, but he looked a bit like Tong Nian in his features. His gown reached the ground, and he was tall and elegant.
Tong Nian glanced at the young man, with a bit of hatred for iron and steel, sighed, and said, "Your Highness, this is Tong Yu, the dog. This old slave has two daughters and one son. He is the youngest one. His two older sisters have already married. , I left him at home. The old slave's original intention was to let him study and get a good name, but he actually studied some strange skills and tricks, and made the house very messy. I brought him this time because I beg His Highness accepted him, and wanted him to practice in Yizhou and hone his temperament.
Unusual skill? The word Tong Nian made Li Yin a little interested in this young man. In ancient times, this word was purely derogatory, referring to strange and useless memories and products, but in modern times, it is actually an inventor.
"Yizhou is short of useful talents, so let him stay!"
Li Yin agreed, not only Tong Nian was overjoyed, but Tong Yu also showed excitement. Although his son was not good enough, as a father, Tong Nian still hoped that his son would have a good future, and following Li Yin's side would undoubtedly be a blessing to Tong Yu. Said it was a good opportunity, and Tong Yu was excited because he always thought that Li Yin and him were like-minded people, because those weird things Li Yin sold were just right for his taste.
Passing aside the matter of Tong Yu, Li Yin simply chatted with Tong Nian about Chang'an on the pier, and Chang'an's boatmen also began to unload baskets of coal at this time.
"Shampoo?" Before saying a few words, Tong Nian mentioned a problem that Chang'an is currently facing. Li Min left Chang'an, and the supply of shampoo was naturally cut off. After half a month of support, it will be broken in the future.
This is a problem. When Li Yin left Chang'an, he really didn't think about it. He said: "It's simple. In the future, you will let the cargo ship come to Yizhou once every three months to bring a batch of shampoo back. This time you will be in Yizhou." Stay for a while longer, I'll find a way to bring you some back!", this thing can't be broken, if it's broken, I don't know how many people will kill him in Yizhou to make trouble for him.
After solving the shampoo problem, Li Yin asked, "How is Chang'an's business? No one is looking for trouble, right?"
"When His Highness just left, some officials did come to threaten us. Later, I went to His Highness King Wu. He reprimanded those officials severely and impeached those officials in the court. No one has come to trouble the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce anymore!" Tong Nian replied.
Li Yin nodded. It seems that the protection money given to Li Ke was not in vain. When he was in Chang'an, the Dou family was once extorted by an official for 500,000 yuan in the name of disaster relief. A backer.
After finishing speaking, Tong Nian gave instructions to the servant beside him, and the servant returned to the ship and took an account book and handed it to Tong Nian. Tong Nian said: "Your Highness, this is the profit of Shengtang Chamber of Commerce in the past few months after you left. According to His Highness's instructions, I organized a caravan to transport the goods to the south, especially around Yangzhou. That place is quite rich, and the goods can be said to be in short supply. In the past two or three months, we have earned two million guan in Yangzhou alone. Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce also sells goods specifically for those business travellers, and we earn more money from them."
Li Yin checked the account book and handed it over to Tong Nian. When he was in Chang'an, Tong Nian was willing to enter the government as a slave.