Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 83 The Shrewd Fan Zheng

"The local method of making ammonia seems to be made by adding plant ash to urine, then evaporating the gas, and then dissolving the generated gas in water. But it seems that nitrate mines can also be used.

Heating nitrate ore can also generate ammonia gas.At that time, ammonia gas can be passed through the water, and ammonia water can also be produced. Zhao Wen scratched his head and walked slowly on the main road of Longmen Fort.

"Silver nitrate can also be made from nitrate ore, but in a short while, where can I find nitrate? This thing is a controlled material by the imperial court."

Zhao Wen looked at the soldiers passing by from time to time in Longmen Fort, and suddenly found himself in trouble.

"Is it possible that I really need to use urine to make nitrate and ammonia?
It is made with urine, and the output is unstable. There are only so many people in the entire Longmen Fort, how many catties of nitrate can be produced in a day?This is not realistic.

Could it be that Fan Zheng had to be relied on?
Alas, forget it, let's find him, otherwise, I really don't know when this glass mirror will be made. "

Zhao Wenwen didn't want to rely on Fan Zheng for the glass mirror. After all, the cement factory had already lost a lot of money.

These Shanxi merchants all look like honest farmers on the outside, but they are all shrewd in their hearts.

Fan Zheng calculated that Zhao Wen had no cement market, so he asked Zhao Wen to sell all the cement he produced to himself.

The sales are not so good. The Fan family has been in business for hundreds of years, so there are so many sales.

If Zhao Wen is asked to go to the market, firstly, there is no time, and secondly, it will not be possible.

After all, cement can make money.But it doesn't have any technical content, so it's not guaranteed that it will be cracked by others at any time.

At that time, the price of cement will be lower.

In Zhao Wen's view, only the glass mirror is the most important thing.Although this thing has no technical content in later generations, it can be called a high-tech thing in this era.

Even if someone wants to decipher it, it is estimated that it will not be able to decipher it without decades of effort.

Compared with glass mirrors, the value of cement is a bit low.

Of course, selling all the cement to him is not without conditions.

Although when the cement factory was being built, Fan Zheng also gave Zhao Wenwan two taels of silver back and forth.

These money, including the money that was previously funded to Zhao Wen, does not need to be returned by Zhao Wen.

And when the cement factory is built and cement is officially produced, the cement factory can only be managed by Zhao Wen.Fan Zheng couldn't intervene.

Similarly, the cement produced can only be sold exclusively by Fan Zheng, and cannot be sold by himself or by others.

Originally, Zhao Wen was thinking about how much cement sales should be shared with Fan Zheng, but Fan Zheng waved his hand and said, "What's the share? You can sell the cement you produce directly to me, and then I will sell it to you." Get out. No one can lose money to you, brother Zhao, let’s talk about it. This way, we won’t get confused sometimes.”

At the beginning, Zhao Wen was happy for a long time.

But when Zhao Wen figured it out, he instantly realized that he had been bullied by Fan Zheng.

According to what Fan Zheng said, he would lose his pricing power.

In other words, if Fan Zheng bought cement from himself for 100 taels, he could set the price of the 100 taels of cement at 200 taels or more.

In the future, no matter how much Fan Zheng's cement sells for, it has nothing to do with him.

Not only that, what's even more exasperating is that he can only sell it to Fan Zheng, that is to say, if Fan Zheng's price for him is unreasonable, then he can only accept it and cannot refute it.

If he refuted it, if Fan Zheng didn't buy it, it would be a sad reminder.

Of course, it was impossible for Fan Zheng to do that.If Zhao Wen is pushed into a hurry, it will be of no benefit to anyone.

It's not that Zhao Wen never thought of leaving Fan Zheng behind and doing it alone.

But Zhao Wen thought about it for a long time, but still gave up the idea.

The most important thing for businessmen in this era is reputation. If your reputation is ruined because of this, how should you do business in the future?
If it really ruins your reputation because of doing so, it is really not worth it.

Once one's reputation is ruined, it will be difficult to move an inch.

Sometimes, guns and knives don't necessarily solve things.

A great man of later generations said that war is the last and worst means of solving problems.

Therefore, in the part of doing business, if you can use less swords and guns, you should use less swords and guns.

Zhao Wen returned to the Garrison Mansion, and after lunch, he said to Li Xiaosan who was standing next to him, "Go and tell Liu Wu to accompany me to Zhangjiakou tomorrow."

"Yes!"

Li Xiaosan cupped his hands and walked out of the defense mansion.

……

Early the next morning, Zhao Wen was wearing casual clothes, with two big black stars pinned to his waist, and a Type 56 light machine gun hanging on his horse, and Liu Wu, who was fully armed, walked out of the gate of Longmen Castle.

Zhao Wen didn't bring too many soldiers this time, after all, these soldiers now have to guard the Tartar captives.

In addition, there is no danger on the road from Longmenbao to Zhangjiakou, so Zhao Wen only took Liu Wuyi with him.

Even if there is any danger, Zhao Wen can easily solve it with fierce weapons.

Because both of them were riding war horses, their speed was much faster than the previous few times.

At noon the next day, Zhao Wen arrived at Zhangjiakou Fort.

The current Zhao Wen is no different from what he was at the beginning, even a small soldier dares to embarrass him.

Now that Zhao Wen is in the territory of Xuanfu, it can be said that no one knows, no one knows.

Don't you know the fierce men who beheaded hundreds of Tartars?

After Zhao Wen revealed his waist badge, the defenders immediately put on extremely flattering expressions and sent Zhao Wen in.

The city guard looked at Zhao Wen who was leaving, and heaved a sigh of relief, "My God, it can be said that this killing god has been sent away."

"Who says it's not? This God of Killing kills without batting an eyelid. Tsk tsk tsk. It's nothing to say that he beheaded hundreds of tartars."

The soldiers guarding the city looked at Zhao Wen's leaving back and talked a lot.

Zhao Wen rode on the back of a war horse and walked slowly on the bluestone road in Zhangjiakou Fort.

The war horse under his crotch made a few snorting noises from time to time.

Liu Wu looked arrogantly, looking down at the people passing by him.

"Hey, isn't this Mr. Zhao, Mr. Zhao? Mr. Zhao, please hurry up, and leave the horses to the younger ones."

As soon as Zhao Wen walked to the door of Yuan Fuxiang's store in Zhangjiakou, he saw a young boy greet him with a flattering face.

Zhao Wen jumped off the horse, threw the reins to the boy, and then handed the weapon to Liu Wu, and walked into Yuan Fuxiang under the leadership of another boy.

Liu Wu also handed over the reins of the war horse to the boy, and wrapped the weapons Zhao Wen gave him and the weapons he carried with cloth and carried them on his back.

"Uncle Zhao, the shopkeeper Fan is greeting guests in the living room in the back hall? Would you like to wait a moment or..." A chubby servant said flatteringly as he walked.

The boy who led Zhao Wen hurriedly ran towards the back hall after leading Zhao Wen to the main hall.

Not long after, Fan Zheng's hearty laughter was heard from behind.

"Hahaha, I just said why there were magpies calling outside the door this morning. It turned out that Brother Zhao came." Fan Zheng cupped his hands at Zhao Wengong with a smile on his face.

Zhao Wen also cupped his hands, and said with a smile: "I don't want to go to the Three Treasures Palace for nothing. I have something to do with Brother Fan today."

"Is there something I was talking about beforehand, and I happen to have something to ask you for." Fan Zheng hastily welcomed Zhao Wen into the living room.

As soon as Zhao Wen stepped into the living room, he saw seven or eight middle-aged men in official uniforms sitting there, looking at him curiously.

"Come, come, let me introduce you, this is Mr. Zhao Wen who killed hundreds of Tartars." Fan Zheng took Zhao Wen's hand and pulled Zhao Wen to the center of the living room.

"At the same time, the cement you want to buy is produced by Mr. Zhao."

"He is the young man you mentioned who invented cement? But, didn't you tell us his name? Why did you tell us now?" Cao Fugui looked at Fan Zheng, who was holding Zhao Wen's hand, and sneered.

After all, they are businessmen, and their focus is different from that of ordinary people.

The seven or eight people in the living room are from other families of Shanxi Merchants, and the person speaking is called Cao Fugui, who is the big shopkeeper of the Cao family of Shanxi Merchants.

Earlier, Fan Zheng had disclosed the matter of cement to other families.

Today is the time to discuss specific matters.

From Fan Zheng's point of view, although this cement can make a lot of money, he can't keep it to himself.

Fan Zheng could still see how big the cement stall was.

If only relying on Fan's family, such a big stall really couldn't handle it.

Besides, for such a huge profit, if Guang Fan's family makes money, others will inevitably be jealous.

Although the financial resources and strength of the Fan family can be regarded as a top-notch existence among Shanxi merchants, the strength of the other several companies should not be underestimated.

If the rest of the family join forces to play tricks on the Fan family, it's really hard to say whether they can make money by relying on cement.

So, after Fan Zheng thought hard, he chose to pull other families to make money together.

Of course, Fan Zheng wasn't that stupid, he let others make money and watched by himself.

According to Fan Zheng's intention, the Fan family is the master shopkeeper of the cement, that is, the general agent.

Let other families be sub-treasurers, that is, sub-agents.

According to the agreement with Zhao Wen, the cement produced by the cement factory can only be sold to himself.

That means that I only need to buy the cement from Zhao Wen and sell it to other families, and I can make a lot of money without doing anything else.

After buying the cement from Zhao Wen, he can set the price however he wants.

In Fan Zheng's view, this is letting others work for him.

Although he had invested tens of thousands of taels of silver in Zhao Wen's back and forth, Fan Zheng was able to earn back those silvers just for cement alone.

It has to be said that Shanxi merchants in this era are still very shrewd in business.

(End of this chapter)