Chapter 14 Coal Ball Furnace

"Your Highness, this is not right."

Qian Dafu knew that Xiao Ming would not be able to sit still when the four came. After all, Xiao Ming was playful and could not stand the four of them in the past.

"Butler Qian, don't worry, this time we have brought a lot of servants and servants. With our respect for His Highness, wouldn't we still harm him?" Qin Mu reassured Qian Dafu.

Xiao Ming stood up at this time and walked out, "Let's go, I'll let Captain Lu follow."

He doesn't have any friends here, and only these wine and meat friends can talk and talk about some interesting things, otherwise it will be really suffocating.

"There is no problem with Colonel Lu following him." Qian Dafu felt relieved now.

Surrounded by the four of Wang Shijie, Xiao Ming rode out of the south of the city in the carriage of Wang Shijie's family and went straight to the Mi River pier.

On the pier, a painting boat is moored, and the green Mi River rolls away from west to east, with the momentum of a big river flowing eastward.

Xiao Ming was slightly surprised. He understood that in ancient times, because the natural environment was not destroyed, the water flow of the river was very large, but this Mi River is comparable to the contemporary Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

"Your Highness." Qin Mu made an inviting gesture.

Among the four noble families in Qingzhou, the Wang family mainly deals in coal and iron, the Wei family mainly deals in cloth, silk and satin, the Sun family is mainly engaged in ceramic smelting, and the Qin family is in control of water transportation.

The painting boat in front of him is not very gorgeous. In Xiao Ming's opinion, compared to modern times, he has not seen anything gorgeous so far, but simplicity is everywhere.

At this time, there was a small table in the painting boat, with a few dishes of side dishes on it, and a jar of wine on it.

A charcoal basin is burning under the table, and the season is about to enter into winter, which means it is slightly cold, but although the painting boat is warm, there is a faint smell of coal.

"His Royal Highness, in order to shock you, I specially prepared green ant wine this time, as well as this mutton, tempeh, chrysanthemum, sweet and sour crucian carp..." Qin Mu was familiar.

Xiao Ming glanced at what could be described as the standard of a luxurious meal, and sighed in his heart that he was such a failure as a prince, Qin Mu's life was more comfortable than his.

However, there is no way to do it. The Qin family's water transportation business travels to and from all parts of the Great Yu Country, and naturally they can buy all kinds of things that Qingzhou does not have to enjoy.

Wang Shijie clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Following Brother Qin, you can't do without good food and wine. It's not like me waiting, you can only eat some rough food."

"Brother Wang broke me. The cane sugar for this sweet and sour crucian carp was specially purchased by my father when the boatman was in Chang'an. The same is true for this vegetable oil. It cost dozens of silver cars, otherwise there would be no sweet and sour crucian carp today."

Sun Dong has always been the most gluttonous. He said, "Brother Qin, can you come back a little bit more next time? The steamed buns, radishes and leeks are too monotonous all day long, which is really greedy."

Xiao Ming couldn't help drooling in his mouth. He couldn't help it. Compared with the abundance of modern food, this place was really horrible.

In his memory, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and peanuts have not yet been introduced to Dayu.

The variety of vegetables is very monotonous, basically celery, radish, leeks, spinach, lettuce, eggplant and these things.

And these things are rarely planted, because the common people can't eat food, and who will grow vegetables, these things are basically eaten by rich businessmen and powerful people.

The five people sat around the small table, the boatman shook the oars, and the boat slowly went into the river.

I have to say that the environment here is still very beautiful. The two sides of the Mi River are covered with green fields, which are like an oil painting.

There are dense water plants on both sides of the river, reeds form forests, wild ducks and egrets can be seen everywhere.

While enjoying the scenery, Qin Mu poured Xiao Ming a glass of green ant wine.

Immediately, a sour taste of rice wine rushed into the nose. In Xiao Ming's opinion, this green ant wine was really of low quality.

Because this green ant wine is freshly brewed, the lees have not been filtered clean, and the lees are green, so it is called green ant wine.

Xiao Ming could still drink this kind of wine in the past, but it is really hard for Xiao Ming to swallow now.

However, there is always no strong, he still took a few sips and ate his first stir-fry here, sweet and sour crucian carp.

The painting boat went down the Mi River. While enjoying the scenery, Xiao Ming was also observing the situation on both sides of the Mi River.

In the Great Yu Kingdom, fertile fields are basically the fields on both sides of the river, because it is easy to irrigate.

He took a look and saw that there were few irrigation tools such as waterwheels on both sides of the Mi River.

Seeing Xiao Ming looking at both sides of the Mi River from time to time, Wang Shijie asked, "Your Highness seems to have something on his mind during this trip. I wonder if I can tell my idiot brother."

Xiao Ming was thinking about how to improve the hydraulic irrigation facilities in the fief, and he was naturally unwilling to tell Wang Shijie about this.

This is when he saw the charcoal pot burning under the table, remembered something, and said, "I don't have any worries, but the craftsmen of the equipment department are making a fun thing, which is a hundred times stronger than this charcoal pot. I don't know if you are interested."

"Oh?" Wang Shijie looked surprised, "His Royal Highness was busy in the equipment department that day, is it because of this thing?"

The three of Qin Mu also showed interest. Qin Mu said, "Since that's the case, we've also swam the Mi River. Why don't we go and see what His Highness said about the novelty."

Wei Qing and Sun Dong applauded in unison.

Yesterday, when Xiao Ming taught the craftsmen the knowledge of lathes, the craftsmen made him a very practical tool today.

This is the modern coal ball stove. After living in the palace for a few days, he felt awkward looking at the firewood that the servants were burning every day.

Therefore, nothing else was manufactured, but the coal ball furnace was explained in advance.

Seeing that these sons and daughters of the wealthy family were more happy than his own prince, Xiao Ming felt unhappy, which fully shows that the economy of Qingzhou is now in their hands.

On the other hand, Qingzhou's taxation is getting worse year by year. As for why, it is naturally their tax evasion.

This Qin Mu said a few dozen taels of silver in a relaxed manner, and his palace did not dare to say such a big thing.

Now that he has the technology library, he doesn't need to squeeze their money out with some novel things, how can he have the money to build his own government-run economy.

During this trip to the Mi River, Xiao Ming had a basic understanding of the irrigation conditions on both sides of the Mi River. He said, "If that's the case, let's go to the equipment department to have a look."

Qin Mu immediately turned the boat around, and the five returned to the dock.

When he got ashore, Xiao Ming tightened his clothes. Winter was coming soon, and the weather was getting colder. The coal briquettes could come in handy at this time, and he was not afraid that they would not buy them.

Especially the Wang family, the coal briquettes and iron ore are so expensive to sell to him, can he get around them?

At this time, in the equipment department, a coal ball furnace with iron sheets was produced.

This is a simple briquettes stove. Inside the iron sheet is a baked clay inner ring, and the chassis is a mesh iron sheet.

The styling doesn't look as modern and fancy, but it's basically functional.

The craft of the coal ball stove is very simple, and this is the first practice object that Xiao Ming gave to the craftsmen.

When the five people arrived at the equipment department, they saw exactly such a coal pellet stove.

"Your Highness, what is this?" Wang Shijie asked in confusion.

Xiao Ming smiled slightly and asked Chen Wenlong, "Has the briquettes been made?"

"Go back to His Highness, it's made, and it's drying outside now." Chen Wenlong replied.