Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

In that era, almost no one used coal for cooking or heating. Zhang Mo already knew this before she planned to dig coal.

The raw coal blocks cannot burn completely, have low heat, and produce a lot of smoke and a pungent smell. If you are not careful, you may even get poisoned. Therefore, almost no one in the private sector uses them. Most of the coal is mined by the government to smelt pig iron.

She threw the peanuts back onto the plate, clapped her hands, and pulled Wang Ding up. "Come on, I'll show you the honeycomb charcoal I made."

"What is honeycomb coal?"

"I can't explain it to you. You'll know once you see it. It's absolutely one of a kind in the world."

"It's so nagging..."

Wang Ding sat up and tied his robe, then followed her to the next yard. As soon as he stepped through the gate, he saw a cylindrical iron barrel under the corridor, with an iron kettle on top bubbling with steam.

Zhang Mo picked up the kettle and pointed at the iron bucket, introducing it. "This is called a coal stove. Look inside, there are four honeycomb coal balls stacked on top of each other. It's smokeless and dust-free, easy to carry, and much more convenient than burning wood on a stove."

She pointed to a small round cover on the base. "This is the vent. Open it when you need it so the fire burns brighter. Close it when you don't need it. Put a kettle on top so you always have hot water. A family of five cooking two meals a day only needs about three or four coal briquettes."

Looking at the red-hot coal balls inside, Wang Ding looked puzzled and asked, "Why is there no smoke?"

"Because I made it into a honeycomb shape, as long as I let it burn completely, the smoke will be much smaller."

"You came up with all this?" Wang Ding looked at her in disbelief. "How did you come up with the idea of ​​turning it into a honeycomb?"

Zhang Mo thought for a moment and explained, "When we usually burn firewood, if we pile it tightly together, the fire won't start and a lot of smoke will come out. But once we spread it out to allow air to circulate, the fire will burn more vigorously and the smoke will disappear. I thought the same thing would work with coal, so I tried shaping it like this, and sure enough, there was no smoke."

“Incredible, incredible…”

Wang Ding looked at her with admiration. "Once coal stoves are released with honeycomb coal, they will quickly replace firewood. Digging it out only requires a little manpower. This is truly a profitable business."

He immediately made the decision, "Tell me, when do we start digging?"

Zhang Mo walked over to the table and sat down. "I've already found that piece of land, and the land exchange plan is also clearly laid out. However, this land must be linked to the Wang family, otherwise I'm afraid there will be endless trouble in the future. Also, before digging, we need to build a factory building next to it and level the road."

She pulled out a blueprint and said, "I'll handle the land exchange. I'll have to trouble you, Third Brother, with the factory and other infrastructure and subsequent sales. Also, how can we manage this land so we can use the Wang family's name to avoid or reduce taxes while keeping our adoptive father in the dark? You need your brother to figure it out."

Wang Ding took the blueprint and frowned. "It's impossible to hide such a big thing from my father. He'll find out sooner or later. By then, I'm afraid the business will be closed before I even make back my investment."

Zhang Mo said, "Try to keep it a secret for now. Once the refugees are recruited, I'll try to convince my adoptive father. If that doesn't work, I can sell the entire mining area to someone else. I won't lose money there."

"How are you going to convince him? From what I know about my father, if he knew we were doing business, I'm afraid he would break several sticks."

"We can deal with this after he finds out. Now let's finish these things quickly."

This sister has always been cunning, and Wang Ding couldn't help but believe that she might really be able to convince her father.

Wang Ding lowered his head to study the blueprint. He saw that the factory buildings, warehouses, coal drying yards, and other facilities were all very well drawn. He understood the functions of all of them, but there were only two that he didn't understand. "What are these coal washing pools and kilns used for? Can coal be washed?"

"These two are not needed for the time being, so you can wait a while. I just want to plan the location first." Zhang Mo said.

Traditional coal washing and traditional coking methods. When she was a child, she saw many coking furnaces in Taiyuan. If coke could be produced and the calcination temperature could be increased, the difficulty of steelmaking would be greatly reduced.

She doesn't understand modern steelmaking methods, but she knows the steelmaking methods of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, such as pouring steel. Although she only knows the general principles, with a professional blacksmith like Master Guo working together in research and practice, it should not be too difficult to improve steel output, quality and production efficiency.

Zhang Mo knew very well that it was almost impossible for her to defeat Dong Zhuo relying solely on the combat effectiveness of her soldiers, and she could only work harder on weapons and equipment.

There were also weapons of very good quality in this era, but they had to be forged through thousands of hammerings. A blacksmith might only be able to forge one good knife in a year. She didn't have that much time, so she had to improve the efficiency of forging.

The brother and sister discussed other details and split into two groups. Zhang Mo went to Juyangli to exchange for land, while Wang Ding went to recruit craftsmen. As soon as the land was obtained, they could start infrastructure construction.

…………

In Juyangli, representatives from more than a hundred families gathered in front of the old locust tree. The old village chief with a white beard stood at the front with a cane, looking at Zhang Mo leisurely. He wanted to hear what this young master meant by a win-win solution.

Zhang Mo stood on a large rock, looking at the sea of ​​heads below. She lowered her voice and said, "It's a lean period right now, and I'm sure most of you have run out of food. I'm here today to help you through this difficult time, and secondly, I hope you can help me solve my problem. We can both benefit and win together."

She pointed to the wasteland around Juyangli and said, "I have already bought all of this land. I want to exchange the wasteland for good farmland."

"Young Master, you are dreaming!"

"I wouldn't trade it for any amount of wasteland."

"The young master looks kind, but his heart is very dark."

The crowd exploded, talking and clamoring at once.

"Quiet, quiet, don't make any noise, listen to me first, don't make any noise..."

Zhang Mo shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to turn the volume up as high as possible, but her voice was like a basin of water poured into the sea, quickly drowned by the surging waves.

Seeing that she was shouting until her face was red and her neck was thick but it was of no use, Lu Bu came over and took the cloth from her hand, "I will help you speak."

He glanced at the crowd and shouted, "Shut up!"

The sound was like thunder out of nowhere. The chattering crowd was stunned for a moment and then quieted down instantly.

"Listen to what I have to say."

Lu Bu picked up the cloth and looked at it for a few seconds, then said in a deep voice, "If anyone is willing to exchange land, one acre of good farmland will be exchanged for three acres of barren land."

When everyone heard this, they were about to start making a fuss, but they saw Lu Bu looking at them coldly with sharp eyes, and there seemed to be a murderous aura around him. They swallowed the words that were about to come out of their mouths, and no one dared to say a word.

Lu Bu continued, "When exchanging land, we'll provide a subsidy of half a dan of grain per mu. For those exchanging less than ten mu, we'll give each household an iron hoe and a sickle; for those exchanging between ten and twenty mu, we'll give each household two hoes and two sickles. And so on. For those exchanging more land, if they don't want the farm tools, they can exchange them for money or grain of the same value. Also, I'll provide you with thirty oxen, free of charge, to help you reclaim the wasteland. Next year, at this time, we'll provide you with another lump sum subsidy of two dan of grain per mu."

At market prices, selling one acre of good farmland could exchange for more than ten acres of wasteland. Even with the grain subsidies, it was still lower than the market price. Zhang Mo was broke right now, but if she could open a coal mine, she would be able to easily buy over two thousand dan of grain by this time next year.

Including the promised two stone grain subsidy, the price Zhang Mo offered was higher than the market price, but lower than the original double price. The cost was actually lower than the budget.

By giving away agricultural tools and lending oxen, farmers' enthusiasm for reclaiming wasteland will be greatly increased, and the possibility of exchanging land will also be greater. The key is that giving away, lending and subsidizing will make everyone feel that they are getting a great deal.

"Young Master, are you trying to deceive us?" an old man asked first.

Zhang Mo said, "How can I deceive you? If you want to exchange, I can bring the grain and farm tools here in the next few days. We can sign the contract and receive the goods. You can also bring the oxen here. I will keep them in the village until the promised grain arrives next year. Are you still worried about them running away?"

A thin man was already calculating. "My family has eight mu of land, which means twenty-four mu of wasteland. Since there's no work to do after the autumn harvest, and I have oxen and farm tools, I can clear the wasteland in a month. By next spring, when I plant, I can plant twenty-four mu. Even if one mu only produces half a stone of grain, twelve stones, minus taxes, is enough to feed my family of three for a year, and I'll even get a set of farm tools."

Another person nearby continued, "They also subsidize half a dan of grain per mu, which is perfect. My family has been out of food for a few days. We can get five dan of grain from our ten mu of land, and then another twenty dan by next autumn harvest. And we don't have to pay taxes on these twenty dan."

"That wasteland isn't that far away, it's just a little more walking. It's a good deal."

After everyone had whispered and counted the money, they only regretted that their family had too little land, so no one was unwilling to exchange it.