In the early morning, the slums became lively.

Amid the children's chirping, the women asked the coal stove to raise a fire there.

Broken firewood, broken charcoal, rotten leaves...

There were all kinds of things that raised the fire. For a while, the yard was filled with smoke and fire, and there were also the coughs of women from time to time. Despite this, they still fanned the stove with small fans while raising the fire.

In this choking coal mist, Chunhua went straight into the small kitchen made of thorns in the corner of the yard. After a moment, she came out with a kettle and shouted into the room.

"His father, the hot water is ready, come out and wash your face."

When Chunhua poured hot water into the basin from the kettle, she looked at the sister-in-law in the yard and heard the Wang family's sister-in-law coughing.

"Sister-in-law, look at you choking. All these tears come out. You are busy first. I'll go cook..."

After saying that, he shouted again.

"His father, why don't you hurry up, the water won't be cold soon."

When the women who were on fire in the yard heard this, their faces became complicated.

OK, they have not even raised the fire yet, and the water has been burned there.

"Dexing, it's already April, I'm still boiling water to wash my face. Look, I'll give her a smug..."

"Sister-in-law, look at what you said. The coal ball stoves used by others are different from ours. They are stuffy and the fire is on. The stove door is opened when three pieces of coal are cooked. Three pieces of coal can make a day's meal. The kettle can be placed on it and it can be heated into warm water..."

"No, like us, we have to raise fires every day. Not to mention anything else, using a honeycomb coal ball stove, even if we save money on matches, we have to spend three or four cents a year, and we have to spend one or two taels a year."

Listening to others' words, the ashes-covered sister-in-law Wang looked at the kitchen where the smell of food was already coming out, and said again.

"We can buy a coal stove even if they have a coal stove. Today, I will buy one. It looks like someone can't afford it. Isn't it just a few dozen cents to change the stove? More than ten days of firewood is enough..."

"That's right, Sister Wang can figure it out. I've changed it too, and I've saved enough money for firewood..."

The lively kung fu in the slum also revealed the changes in the capital city this time. The firewood, rice, oil and salt were originally something that had not changed, but the Beijing coal shops played tricks. A honeycomb coal and coal ball stove that looked inconspicuous changed the lives of the people in the capital to some extent. Not to mention that it saves money, at least those women save the pain of raising fires and cooking every meal.

Honeycomb coal and new coal ball stoves do not save much money, which means saving money for firewood, but it is convenient for the public. It only takes half a month to use honeycomb coal in and outside the capital.

The unexpected occurrence of various coal shops, the convenience of honeycomb coal, further popularized the use of coal, resulting in an increase in the amount of coal used inside and outside the city. Compared with usual, they sold 10% of the coal, and there was naturally a lot of laughter about this. However, while laughing, they couldn't help but worry that the coal factory could not supply coal. As for the coal factory, they were thinking about how to transport the coal from the coal mine.

The changes in the market naturally spread to the Duke's Mansion and into Zhang Rong's ears. At this time, Shi Yiwen invited him to the Duke's Mansion as a distinguished guest. Of course, he invited him as a distinguished guest because he cured Zhang Weiliang's illness.

"Oh, I originally thought that Zhiyuan, you are good at doing business, but I never thought that you can still have the ability to rejuvenate. Liang'er's tuberculosis was originally said to be an incurable disease. It is all Zhiyuan's contribution to this kind of kindness, I have promised..."

From ancient times to the present, there have been great gratitudes that never express gratitude. This kind of gratitude cannot be paid off by just taking money. You can only remember it in your heart and repay it another day.

Although he was a Duke of the State, Zhang Rong was more like an ordinary official. In fact, if it weren't for his identity, Shi Yiwen would have thought so.

"You are kind to you, but it's just a coincidence."

Shi Yiwen did not take credit, and he didn't even think that it was a big deal to save his life. After all, the Song family had already disappointed him.

People's hearts are separated from their belly, and life-saving grace... They may not necessarily repay each other and save Zhang Weiliang, but it is just to bring the relationship between the two parties closer, that's all.

Repaying kindness with gratitude is human nature. But selfishness and ungratefulness are also human nature.

"I will never thank you for your kindness."

Zhang Rong didn't say much. If he kept saying the great kindness, it would seem false. If he wanted to repay it, he would definitely have a chance in the future. He didn't ask another partner, and he chatted for a while before he said.

"Zhiyuan, a few days ago, the housekeeper of the mansion replaced the stove in the mansion with the coal ball stove that specializes in burning honeycomb coal. After using coal stoves in the mansion, he had to burn hundreds of kilograms of coal a day. However, even so, it was more saving than using firewood. There was no way. There were more people in the mansion, so he had to make careful calculations every day. However, I heard that the coal in the coal shop was almost impossible to supply..."

Looking at Shi Yiwen with a smile, Zhang Rong said curiously.

"You said you wanted to build roads and transport coal, why did you have insufficient coal even now?"

"It's not a big deal. In the past, ordinary people often used coal in the capital. Because coal needed to use furnaces to raise fires, the yard was filled with firewood and smoke. The smoke naturally caused many inconveniences. Therefore, in the deep courtyard, firewood and charcoal were often used. It was a bit expensive, but the smoke left with the chimney."

In fact, at the beginning, Shi Yiwen didn't know that the wealthy families mainly burned firewood and coal. Later, when the iron factory was promoting honeycomb coal pellet machines, he knew about this. He never thought that because the wealthy families used honeycomb coal, the originally sufficient coal suddenly became nervous.

"After you use honeycomb coal, you don't need to raise fire all day long. Everyone turns to burn coal, so naturally the coal will not be supplied. In fact, the coal in Mentougou is not that it cannot be supplied, but that it cannot be transported out. Because it is inconvenient to transport the coal over mountains and ridges, if you want to transport the coal, you must build roads. And ordinary roads are not good. Once summer comes, the rain will be more, and transportation will still be affected. So, I want to build a railway."

As soon as Shi Yiwen finished speaking, Zhang Yuangong said in surprise.

"Railway? What kind of railway? Could it be that iron paving a road?"

Compared to Zhang Yuangong's surprise, Zhang Rong seemed quite calm, but he just responded lightly and said.

"The railway is certainly a bit new. In the past, I have only heard of paving roads with stones and bricks. What kind of road is this railway? Please come to me if you want to tell me."

Shi Yiwen has long been accustomed to people's surprises about railways in this era. After all, for people in this era, railways are really a day-to-day talk. If they don't explain it carefully, they don't know what convenient railways are.

How to explain it?

As he thought, the chopsticks in front of him lit up, and he picked up the chopsticks and placed them on the table and explained.
Chapter completed!