Shopkeeper He saluted and got up from the ground, looked up and recognized Su Chengyu, and asked suspiciously: "Is the military master here to buy a knife?" ”

"I heard that your iron yard is going to be sold." Su Chengyu glanced around and asked.

"Alas," Shopkeeper He sighed, "I won't hide it from Master Jun." The ironware business in Longnan has always been our He family, the Kong family, and the Bai family since the Wanli period. A few years ago, the Zhen family in Ganzhou came, relying on their strong financial resources, and successively crushed the Kong and Bai families. My business here is also getting worse day by day, and I have long wanted to sell it. If you can do the business of the military master yesterday, maybe you can hold on for a while. Who knows......"

These things can be inquired about casually in Long Nan, and he simply said it himself, which seemed sincere.

Su Chengyu looked around, and the things were indeed still usable, but they were far from his requirements. The craftsmen were hammering their hands one after another, and the people sitting on the blast furnace were chatting, and it was obvious that the business was very deserted.

In fact, Su Chengyu didn't care about these equipment and the existing business, he was more interested in the hundreds of craftsmen in the iron yard, as well as the existing ore and coal purchase channels.

"Look at this iron furnace, it can produce nearly 2,000 catties of iron every day. This water drain ......," shopkeeper He introduced attentively on the side.

After checking the overall situation of the iron field, Su Chengyu said straightforwardly: "I intend to sell this iron field, you can make a price." ”

Seeing that he didn't look like a joke, Shopkeeper He weighed it in his heart, and finally quoted a price of seven thousand taels.

The two bargained again, and finally settled on 6,500 taels of the ironway, and the silver was to be paid in two installments within two months.

Shopkeeper He didn't expect to be able to sell the iron yard so neatly, and he was very happy in his heart, in fact, the bad business was only one of the reasons why he sold the iron yard. The war in Ganzhou is becoming more and more intense, and I don't know when it will affect Longnan......

When it was time to sign the deed and hand it over, Su Chengyu was stunned again, he couldn't understand any house deeds, land deeds, and employment contracts in this era. And Qiao Qian didn't know anything about counting equipment and settling accounts.

In desperation, Su Chengyu could only return to the barracks, trying to find someone who knew how to come.

Unexpectedly, he asked around, and none of the literate people under him knew how to do business and settle accounts.

Just as Su Chengyu was thinking about whether to hire a bookkeeper, Qiao Qian hesitated in his ear: "Master, the little one knows that there is a person who is good at this, but he is just ......."

"Who? Say it. ”

"Chanyi." Qiao Qian saw that Su Chengyu didn't look different, so she continued, "Her family used to be from Nanyang Xingchangzhai, and she is familiar with the business circle. It is said that the princess's private accounts are all entrusted to her. ”

Su Chengyu, a person in the 21st century, naturally does not have the feudal concept that women must stay at home, and it is best to have Chanyi, a trustworthy person, to help take inventory.

He immediately went to the post house prepared for him by Wang Zhixian, because women were not allowed to enter and leave the military camp, so Chanyi has been living here.

Since arriving in Longnan, Chanyi has been bored in the post house, bored to death, heard that she was going to help with the accounting shop, immediately changed into men's clothes, smiled like a flower, and jumped into the carriage like the wind.

On the way, Su Chengyu knew that this little girl was really a good hand before, and she had been in business with her parents since she was a child, and she knew a lot about business. Later, her family settled in Nanyang to open a store, but she encountered Li Zicheng's rebellion, and all her family members were killed, otherwise she should have been the eldest lady of Xingchangzhai now.

When she returned to the iron field, it only took her one afternoon to check the accounts with the assistance of Qiao Qian and several guards, and then complete the inventory of all the objects in the iron field.

At this point, Su Chengyu officially became the new owner of this iron field, and the iron field was renamed "Su Ji Iron Field".

There were 110 craftsmen in the iron yard, and since there were no superficial officials in the private industry, there were no idle meals, and the craftsmanship was not bad.

Su Chengyu gathered all the employees, first announced that production and management were business as usual, and raised the wages of several core personnel. Then he set a system of working five hours a day, working overtime and paying extra wages to take care of one meal.

Where had the craftsmen heard of such a good thing, and the new owner immediately became closer to them than relatives.

Soon, someone took the bill of materials to the new owner to take a look, Chan Yi saw Su Chengyu's brows frowning slightly, so she took it from the side and carefully checked it and handed it back to him, and said in a low voice: "Master, this is no problem." ”

Su Chengyu saw that there were craftsmen waiting for him to give instructions, so he simply pointed at Chanyi, "In the future, the affairs of the iron yard will be decided by this Mr. Shen." "Shen is Chanyi's family's real surname.

Chanyi was stunned for a moment, but His Highness said so, she obeyed her fate, and it was better to be able to help His Highness do something in this iron yard than to be bored in the post house all day.

That night, two truckloads of goods were parked outside the gate of the barracks, which were the refractory materials that Su Chengyu wanted to buy.

Another sergeant came to report that the new department of Huichang Yuxin was summoned and would arrive in Longnan in the near future.

"It's finally coming!" Su Chengyu nodded, looking forward to it in his heart, "With these soldiers, I have the power to change this world!" ”

The next day he had the refractory bricks shipped to the iron yard, while graphite and kaolin were transported to the nearest kiln.

He had the fine clay fetched, melted with water and filtered repeatedly, leaving only the fine mud.

Then he grinds the fine sand into powder, adds it to the mud, then pours the same amount of graphite as the mud, adds a small amount of kaolin and stirs it well, which is the raw material for making crucibles.

It was this simple recipe that made Britain the world's best steel producer in the 18th century, and remained so for about a century.

After that, the work was handed over to the porcelain craftsman. The object more than two feet high was not a difficult task for them, and in less than half an hour, the shape of the crucible that Su Chengyu wanted was "turned" out in the hands of the porcelain craftsman.

The crucible and lid are dried and then placed in a porcelain kiln for grilling. As for the firing time, Su Chengyu didn't know, so he simply made another crucible embryo, and if the firing failed, he would use this to reburn.

This thing will not be able to burn in a while and a half, Su Chengyu explained the precautions and drove to the iron yard.

Chanyi has long been in the iron yard, still dressed in men's clothes, and is commanding the craftsmen with two foremen in high spirits.

Su Chengyu saw her cheerful figure from a distance, and secretly said in his heart: It is a sin to let a little girl like her nest in the inner house all day long, serving tea and pouring water.

Chan Yi saw Su Chengyu coming, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and then selected a few flexible craftsmen to bring over according to his requirements. In less than a day, she had a general understanding of these craftsmen.

Su Chengyu repeatedly told the craftsmen about the structure of the hearth, and made a model out of clay. When the craftsmen understood his intentions, they began to excavate the hearth in the location he had designated.

The pit of the hearth was dug and tamped, and the craftsmen measured the correct size, and began to apply refractory bricks to the pit wall.

Su Chengyu looked at the gradually forming hearth, as if he had seen the red-hot molten steel in the crucible on it.