Sell ​​it all the way south along the canal?

Shi Yiwen's words surprised Zhu Yijun.

"Selling all the way south? How to transport it over? Don't sell woodcutters a hundred miles away, and don't sell woodcuts a thousand miles away. Have you forgotten this truth?"

Guyen also looked at Shi Yiwen from the side, wondering why what he said today was so unreliable.

"I don't sell woodcutters for a hundred miles, but aren't the charcoal from Taihang Mountain sold to the capital? Isn't the grain from Jiangnan also supplied to the capital?"

With a slight smile, Shi Yiwen explained.

"The grain in Jiangnan always comes full of ships and returns empty ships, but what if the ships that go back are loaded with coal?"

The ship that went back was loaded with coal!

A seemingly simple suggestion made Zhu Yijun's eyes lit up suddenly.

"Hey, Zhiyuan, tell me, how did your brain think of this kind of thing!"

No woodcutters are sold for a hundred miles, and no woodcutters are sold for a thousand miles.

This sentence means that the freight is too high, and it is not a loss to trafficking, but the canal ships are different, and they have always been empty ships to return.

Almost a little thought, Zhu Yijun could see the profits.

"Haha, the prosperous era is growing. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the world has been peaceful for two hundred years. The population is prosperous. People have made fires and cooked. Naturally, many trees have to be cut down. The trees around the capital are almost gone, and the trees in Shandong and other places are becoming increasingly rare. Honeycomb coal is convenient and the prices are cheap. Not to mention the rural areas along the canal, but in cities like Linqing, they are naturally willing to use coal. The grain of grain is 4 million stones a year. If they use empty ships to transport 4 million stones of coal to the south, the income will probably not be lower than that of the capital. Moreover, the grain of the canal can also use this to supplement their lives."

Shi Yiwen had already thought about everything about the transportation and sales of coal, from introducing modern coal mining technology to building new roads, to using honeycomb coal to expand the market, as for the "return utilization" of the canal ships, it is a simplest way. The empty ships are also empty. If they are used well, they can not only expand the coal market in Mentougou to the south, but also bring a series of benefits.

"Zhiyuan, that is, you can come up with so many ideas. I think this matter is done, but using a canal ship to transport it is easy to say but not easy to do. It will definitely not be possible at the moment. The court will definitely not agree."

Although he saw the benefits, Zhu Yijun also saw the resistance.

"This matter does not need to be passed through the imperial court. When the Cao army returns, they are allowed to carry goods to supplement their lives. However, there are few goods in the north, and they are often carried from the south. When they return, they are mostly empty ships. As long as the market of honeycomb coal is opened along the canal, they will come to transport coal by themselves. As for the imperial court..."

Shi Yiwen smiled and did not continue to say that the Cao army was living in a difficult situation, so they were allowed to carry goods. How could those people miss the benefits of transporting coal? There was no need to call the government at all, it was just "private goods".

"You said so much, but you still haven't reached the point."

Looking at Shi Yiwen with a smile, Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

"Surely there is something else to worry about."

"Hey, I can't hide anything from you. It's easy to handle and it's hard to handle..."

Shi Yiwen sighed helplessly.

“The most difficult thing is the road.”

"road?"

"Yes, it's the road. Mentougou Coal Mine is located in the mountains. It used to rely on mules to carry coal out of the mountain, but the cost will naturally be much higher. If you want to reduce the cost, you must build a road. Moreover, it is not enough to build an ordinary road, so I want to build a railway."

Looking directly at Zhu Yijun, Shi Yiwen expressed his thoughts.

railway!

This is the best way to reduce transportation costs.

"railway?"

Zhu Yijun looked at Shi Yiwen in confusion.

“What is a railway?”

"It is to lay two rails on the road, and then the carriage drives on the rails."

"What, the railway tracks? Paved on the road, but there are forty or fifty miles? They are all covered with railway tracks?"

Before the emperor could speak, the guest said in surprise.

"How much money will it cost?"

"That's only 50,000 or 60,000 taels of silver."

When he heard that he wanted so much money, Zhu Yijun couldn't help but suck and even subconsciously thought that he had to pay half of the money.

"What are you doing with railroads?"

“Carry coal!”

Shi Yiwen said directly.

"Let me put it this way, using a six-pin cart to transport coal on the stone slab, at most, more than 10,000 kilograms of cargo. But if it is on the railway, the eight-pin horse pulls a small-wheel flatbed truck, at least 200,000 kilograms of cargo can transport at least 200,000 kilograms of cargo. The transportation cost has dropped dozens of times. Previously, 100 kilograms of coal at the pit entrance were sold for 50 cents. When we transported it to the station outside the Beijing gate, we could sell at least 85 cents, and the freight cost at most only 5 cents."

Build a railway!

This is the solution that Shi Yiwen thought of for the difficulty of coal transportation. In fact, the crushed coal at the pit entrance is only sold for 30 yuan, while the price of 100 yuan in the city is the most expensive. Can the coal transported by people pulling horses and carrying it is not expensive?

However, this railway is definitely not a steam locomotive. It can only be simply used to pull horses and pull horses. It seems that at the beginning of the railway, it was also used to pull horses.

"But if the railway is not built, the freight may be as high as 30 cents. One-third of it is in transportation. According to my estimate, it seems that it will take 50,000 or 60,000 taels to build a railway, but it can recover the investment in a year and a half. Moreover, this railway can not only transport coal, but also transport goods and recruit people. Considering that it is necessary to buy coal to sell coal to the south, this railway will inevitably be built to Zhangjiawan. There are many merchants from Zhangjiawan to Beijing every year, and there are more than one million goods, and they can be transported to the capital by railway. If I guess it is good, the profit of this section of the railway from Zhangjiawan to Beijing is almost enough to maintain the daily operating expenses of the railway."

Zhu Yijun was so shocked by Shi Yiwen's whimsical thoughts that he didn't know what to say, and he asked after a while.

"Well, if there is so much railway that has built such a long time?"

"Hehe, you forgot that we opened an iron plant in Zunhua? The output of the iron plant was a bit high. It was just a matter of just using the iron plant to build a railway. It was a killing two birds with one stone."

Shi Yiwen's answer made Zhu Yijun think for a long time, and then he said to him after a long time.

"Zhiyuan, when it comes to business, I guess there are not many people in the world who can compare to you. Since you want to do this, I will definitely support you. Tell me, what do you want me to do? As long as I can help, I will definitely do my best."

Zhu Yijun's answer made Shi Yiwen breathe a sigh of relief. This was exactly what he needed, although he knew that under the suppression of Shoufu Zhang, Zhu Yijun, who had not taken power, could not do much at all.
Chapter completed!