Starting from a thatched cottage, the farmer embarked on the road to wealth through imperial examina

"Master Yang!"

Ye Changyan turned around and saw Yang Ruotai not far behind him, coming towards him.

Ye Changyan thought, what a coincidence, I just happened to want to buy oil and I met Yang Ruotai. Doesn’t his family happen to run an oil mill? I should ask him first.

"Brother Ye, what are you busy with? You look so hurried."

"Mr. Yang, I was just about to go to your store to buy some oil."

"Come on, come on, follow me. My oil shop is at the first street corner ahead."

Seeing that the other party was straightforward, Ye Changyan went to Yang's Oil Shop with him.

"Mr. Yang, do you know where I can buy pottery jars in the county?"

"I know. I'll have someone take you there later."

Ye Changyan bought fifty kilograms of rapeseed oil at Yang's Oil Shop. Yang Ruotai gave him a favorable price of twenty cents per kilogram, a total of one thousand cents. If he had to pay in silver, according to the exchange rate, he only charged Ye Changyan nine cents of silver.

Yang Ruotai was a little surprised. Why did Ye Changyan buy so much oil at one time? The Ye family was not far from the county town and Qingshan Town, so it was convenient for them to use oil anytime. However, Yang Ruotai did not ask.

"Brother Ye, I'll have my buddy drive a bullock cart to take it back to you. Do you think we should send it over now or wait for you later?"

"It would be great if you can deliver the goods. I need to buy some other things. Please ask the guy to wait for me and I can take a ride with him when the time comes."

Yang Ruotai was a straightforward person, so Ye Changyan didn't bother to be polite with him.

Afterwards, Yang Ruotai asked his servant to take Ye Changyan to the place where pottery jars were sold.

Ye Changyan bought fifty jars that could hold five kilograms of liquid each from a pottery jar shop. The owner quoted him twenty cents for each jar.

"Boss, I'm buying so much, can you give me some discount?"

"These jars are all made in our own kiln, so they are sold at such a low price. You can go ask other shops for twenty-five cents less and you can buy them. I won't charge you when you come back."

The boss was very confident because most of the jars sold by other businesses in the county were supplied by his company. If he hadn't seen the other party buy fifty jars at once, he would have given them twenty-five cents, not a penny less.

"You have your own brothel, so I may need to order more later. Can you give me a cheap price?"

"Easy to say, easy to say."

When the boss heard this, he thought this might be a potential big customer and agreed immediately.

"Boss, I won't bargain with you today, and I won't ask you to deliver the goods. Just give me some extra money, is that ok?"

"Okay, okay, I'll give you five more."

The boss was quite straightforward. In fact, there would be some damage to the pottery jars when they were delivered. When he heard that the other party did not need the jars delivered, he simply gave them five as compensation for the damage.

"Just hand the can over to Yang's Oil Shop on the corner of South Gate Street."

"Okay, I'll have my buddy wrap an extra layer of straw around you. Please be careful when you carry it."

After leaving the pottery shop, Ye Changyan went to the mountain goods store and bought some ginger, garlic, chives, peppercorns and spices, and then went to the grocery store to buy five kilograms of beeswax.

Then he asked the grocery store owner where the blacksmith shop was, and then he carried the things to the blacksmith shop.

"Excuse me, can we customize ironware here?"

Ye Changyan came to the blacksmith shop and saw that it was filled with all kinds of iron tools, including farm tools such as hoes and sickles, kitchen tools such as kitchen knives, spatulas, cauldrons, and some other iron tools, but he did not see anything like a frying pan.

"can."

A deep male voice was heard from the innermost part of the shop, and a dark-skinned middle-aged man walked out.

Ye Changyan took out a piece of paper, which was the design of a wok that he had drawn in advance.

The blacksmith took the drawing and was a little surprised. What was this thing? He had never seen it before.

"Master, can this be made?"

The blacksmith was looking at the drawing carefully. The dimensions and the weight of iron to be used were clearly marked on the drawing. Although it was the first time he had seen such a drawing, the blacksmith nodded anyway.

"Can do it."

"I need two, how much do they cost?"

"One piece will cost ten pounds of iron, plus labor and charcoal. I'll charge you one ounce of silver for two pieces."

When Ye Changyan heard this, he realized that the price was not cheap. One tael of silver could buy two stone of rice, which was about two hundred and forty kilograms. If the family conditions allowed, and they ate white rice for three meals a day, and one kilogram of rice per person per day, this would be enough for a person's food for most of half a year.

Iron is a controlled material. If war breaks out, the government may forcibly requisition iron from the people to be used for smelting weapons.

Ye Changyan knew that the current smelting technology was relatively backward. Although he thought it was a bit expensive, he did not bargain.

"How long will it take to be ready?"

"You can come and pick it up in three days."

Ye Changyan paid the deposit, took his things, and returned to Yang's Oil Shop.

Under Yang Ruotai's instructions, the servant brought an ox cart and carefully placed the goods on the cart.

After saying goodbye to Yang Ruotai, Ye Changyan also got on the ox cart, and his servant drove the cart towards Qingshan Town.

When I returned to the village, the sun was already setting.

The Ye family members helped to unload the things from the ox cart. After the Ye family thanked the servant and offered him some water, the servant drove away on the ox cart.

"Brother, why did you buy so many pottery jars?"

Wulang carefully moved the pottery jar into the yard.

"Mom, come and give me a hand."

Ye Changyan gave Wulang a mysterious smile, then kept the matter in suspense and spoke to Lian.

"What is this? It's so heavy?"

Lian hurried forward and lifted the oil cylinder with Ye Changyan, and found that it was very heavy.

"Mom, please be careful. This contains rapeseed oil. The oil tank is borrowed from the oil shop. Don't break it."

"Why did you buy such a big tank of oil?!"

The family was shocked when they heard that the big jar was filled with rapeseed oil. They had no idea about using oil in the old house before. But usually, Aunt Chun would take the oil bottle and fetch three or five kilograms of oil from Qingshan Town. Why did they buy such a big jar all of a sudden?

"Mom, don't worry, you will know it later, hehe..."

Ye Changyan continued to keep the secret, and after moving all the things into the yard, Ye Changyan first checked the progress of the work at home.

I saw that all the bamboo plates in the house had been placed in the yard, with mushrooms drying on them. A thin layer of straw was also spread on the sunny side of the yard, and the straw was densely covered with mushrooms. It looked quite spectacular for a moment.

The colander next to the kitchen was also filled with washed mushrooms. It looked very clean and Ye Changyan was very satisfied.

"Dad, Mom, Erniu, Wulang, don't worry. I know you are very curious, but I can't explain it clearly in a few words. Just listen to my arrangements. You will know what is going on soon."

The whole family looked at Ye Changyan with some suspicion as he looked confident. Although they were very confused, they did not ask any more questions but nodded.