When Ambassador Hou came to his senses, everyone left the dock.

Zhao Hao looked around, only to see that he was already in the deep mountains, surrounded by high mountains and narrow valleys, ravines and ravines, a walled city hanging high on the top of the mountain, there is a big husband as a pass, ten thousand people do not open.

Ambassador Hou's face was pale, and he did not forget the important task of the tour guide: "This place is connected to the capital in the east and the desert in the west, which is the last line of defense in the west of the capital, but there is a city along the river not far ahead. ”

Zhao Hao nodded, he had already seen the houses at the foot of the cottage like scales.

Because of the coal, it is a lively market town.

When everyone came to the town, they saw that there were no coal stacks as expected, but there were more kilns than expected, and the sanitary conditions were very poor...... Uh, on the street.

"This is where the coal kiln owners and the bookkeepers live, and this is also the place where they want to negotiate business." Ambassador Hou covered his nose and said: "The coal digging workers all live in the mine, and they can't go down the mountain all year round. ”

Zhao Hao nodded, you can get a lot of useful information in this kind of place.

Heng Zhu was waiting for the people on horseback to come and meet, so he pulled Ambassador Hou around the street.

Zhao Hao advanced to the coal tooth shop and asked about the price of coal.

From the broker's mouth, he knew that 100 catties of coal were only sold for 80 wen, and the price of anthracite was nearly twice as expensive, about 150 wen per 100 catties. Of course, this is the price of coal in Zhaitang, and it will cost another twenty or thirty wen to transport it to Beijing.

"How much does firewood and charcoal cost?" Zhao Hao began to calculate the interest rate difference here, you must know that in addition to Jingshi and Shanxi, most of the country still burns firewood, especially in the Jiangnan area, many people don't know such a thing as coal.

"I don't know here, the firewood in the capital is about 150 wen per 100 catties, and the charcoal is 450 wen per 100 catties." Ambassador Hou is worthy of professionalism, as many Jiazhen replied.

"It's not too much off......" Zhao Hao muttered, saying that the production and sales volume could not go up, and there was nothing to be gained.

It's too easy for him to make money, it's inflated.

In addition to labor and freight, the coal business has almost no cost, and the sales volume is stable and has a long history.

Who can open a small coal kiln, earn two or three thousand taels a year, and have to be a big landlord.

"Beijing has a population of more than one million, and the nearby hills have long been cut bare, so we have to switch to coal." Ambassador Hou hurriedly answered: "Rich people still burn charcoal, after all, no matter how good anthracite is, it can't compare to charcoal." ”

"yes. If the ducks in the bargain shop were roasted with coal, it was estimated that not a single one of them would be sold. Zhao Shizhen saw that his uncle's expression was a little serious, so he made a joke, which really made everyone laugh.

Coal is now positioned as a substitute for firewood charcoal.

Except for Zhao Hao, no one knows that this extremely cheap fossil energy contains the power to change the world!

~~

In addition to the kiln, the most in the town is the manpower tooth shop.

Coal mining is a labor-intensive industry, especially in this day and age. Wu Kangyuan told Zhao Hao that Zhao Hao felt a little exaggerated at the time to say that 20,000 or 30,000 displaced people were digging and transporting coal, but when he saw the situation on the street with his own eyes, he completely believed this.

The streets are full of ragged, yellow-skinned homeless people who have come to find work.

There was also a man who was shouting and drinking, and blasted the homeless people into the store like a herding animal.

Zhao Hao also mixed in the crowd, entered a tooth shop, and asked where those homeless people came from, and it turned out that Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Liaodong were all there.

It is not all because of the Tartars that so many displaced people fled to Beijing.

In fact, since the middle of Jiajing, the Eurasian continent has been entering a long Xiaoice period. Abnormal climates such as severe cold and flooding, extreme cold and extreme heat have appeared one after another, and crops have failed or even failed in various places, so that farmers have to abandon the land and flee in large numbers.

Speaking of which, the reason why the Tartars invade so frequently also has a lot to do with the large number of livestock deaths in extreme weather......

And all this is just the prelude to this Xiaoice River that has lasted for more than a hundred years, and it is not even an appetizer......

Of course, the cooling of the climate is not completely useless, because there will be two beneficial advances in mankind at such a time: one is the great burst of ideas; The second is the improvement of technology......

And from the perspective of cold pure capital, the large number of displaced people generated by the cooling climate is exactly what is needed for industrial production, and a large number of labor who have left the land.

~~

While thinking wildly, Zhao Hao heard someone's bell and struck the gong.

It turned out that the store was full of people, and a broker struck a gong to silence everyone, and then shouted loudly:

"The three kilns of the Hu family recruited 30 underground workers, 30 pickers, and managed to eat and live, and the wages were good."

"Dare to ask, how much is a day?"

"The money in the kiln is not calculated by day, but by the burden, and a load of ten wen is sent down, and twenty wen is transported down the mountain from the kiln." The broker replied in a loud voice.

"The old Hu family is so generous? Last year, I was at another house, and I only gave half of the money. Then a tall and thin man sighed.

"yes, it's rare to see a proprietor like that. I heard that in the pot of the old Hu family, they are full of food, and they still have meat to eat every three or five days. Another horse's face chimed in.

When the rest of the homeless people heard this, their eyes lit up.

"These people are old kilns when they hear it, and they know how to do it." The agent smiled and nodded.

"How long will it last?" The tall and thin man asked.

"I will work until May next year, and those who are willing to do it should hurry up and press their handprints, and there will be no such shop in this village." After speaking, the broker waved his hand, let his subordinates teeth, and took out a stack of written contracts.

"It's good now, don't worry about it for half a year, I, Liu Laoliu, have to sign it quickly." The tall and thin man immediately rushed to the front, reported his name, and then put his handprint on a contract.

"Count me in!" The horse-faced man also pressed his handprint.

As soon as the rest of the people saw that someone was taking the lead, they no longer hesitated, and rushed to sign up and press their handprints.

Zhao Hao came up and saw that the contract was full of harsh conditions, and there was even a bastard clause of 'work-related injury and illness, all of whom will take care of themselves'...... But he reckoned that no one would be able to read the room.

He couldn't stand it anymore and withdrew from the dental shop.

I heard Ambassador Hou whisper to him: "That tall man and that horse face are themselves hired nurseries by Yaxing." ”

Zhao Hao nodded, and listened to him continue: "The promised salary, it would be good if these people could get half of it." ”

When the broker put away the stack of contracts, he had a foreman sent by the Hu family kiln to lead them to the mine.

Zhao Hao looked at those workers, who were driven on the mountain road by the foreman like a cattle, and felt a little uncomfortable, these homeless people who had never seen the world were really easy to deceive.

This is completely different from the slippery villagers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

When he turned around, he saw the tall man with a horse's face again, and flashed into another tooth shop......

ps. The second more guaranteed is delivered, and I ask for a monthly ticket recommendation~~~