Turning the tide in the Red Chamber

Chapter 54 [054] Protect Daiyu, resist foreign enemies
Watching Lin Daiyu's slender back gradually go away, Jia Chen's heart seemed to be kissed by Daiyu, an indescribable warm feeling came to his heart, and a tender desire to care rose.

Jia Chen secretly made up his mind:
I want to take care of Lin Daiyu, and take care of her for the rest of my life. If there is an afterlife, I will find her even if I search all over the world, and I will stay with her forever and never be separated.

It wasn't until Lin Daiyu's petite figure disappeared into the sea of ​​hibiscus that Jia Chen looked away and walked into Rongxi Hall.

Jia Zheng was sitting at the main seat, holding a cup of tea, chatting with the guests.

After getting along with each other these days, Jia Chen has a little understanding of Jia Zheng, a pedantic bookworm.

He is willing to let so many Qing guests come to Rongguo Mansion to eat and drink, in fact, because he is not popular in business affairs and is not good at communication. Usually, not many high-ranking officials are willing to associate with him.

In order to relieve his loneliness, he had to pay to support a group of cleaners and chat with him to relieve boredom.

When he saw Jia Chen Shi Shi ran in, Jia Zheng immediately smiled.

Jia Chen has both literary and military skills, outstanding poetic talent, and can write books and talk about it. His future is boundless, which makes Jia Zheng feel very honored, and he has a lot of face in front of the crowd.

"Chen'er is here, sit down and have a cup of tea." Jia Zheng greeted enthusiastically.

If another nephew came to visit, he would definitely put on airs and wait for the other party to salute him before responding.

Only Jia Chen is an exception, who made Jia Chen so outstanding?

Jia Zheng liked him so much that he really wanted to adopt him as his godson, but because of etiquette, it was a bit unseemly to do so, so he had to give up.

Seeing Jia Zheng's exaggerated smile, Jia Chen thought he had some habit of cutting off his sleeves. After all, Jia Baoyu was a double plug, and it was hard for his father to say whether he had these weird hobbies. Just keep your distance from this politician.

"Little nephew pays respects to the second uncle!" Withdrawing his thoughts, Jia Chen bowed to Jia Zheng in a neither humble nor overbearing manner.

Jia Zheng laughed and said:

"You have always been busy with your studies, why are you here today?"

Jia Chen looked at the crowd sitting on both sides of the row, and replied with a smile:

"But there is something important to discuss, but I don't know if it will delay the time of the Qing Ke Xianggong."

The Qing guests are all good at observing words and demeanor, and they immediately got up and said goodbye.

Jia Zheng didn't show any signs of surprise, the combined weight of these cleanups couldn't be worth Jia Chen's one finger, and they could tell each other to leave, so they had a wink.

When the crowd dispersed, Jia Chen said with a smile:

"I came to visit Second Uncle today because I have a chance to make a fortune and I want to share it with Rongguo Mansion."

Jia Zheng's eyes lit up. Jia Chen wrote a copy of "Disciple Regulations" and sold it in cooperation with Rongning and Ningfu. A few hundred taels of income.

But this is a long-term income that can flow for a long time. Moreover, the sales volume has increased month by month, and the second month has nearly doubled from the first month. It is hard to imagine how amazing the future income will rise to.

Unexpectedly, Jia Chen had other ways to make money, and he wanted to cooperate with the Rongguo Mansion.

This kid is simply the God of Wealth!
My family knew their own family affairs. Although Jia Zheng didn't care about world affairs, as the head of the Rong Mansion appointed by Jia's mother, he naturally knew that the Rong Mansion was almost exhausted.

Although the several hundred taels of income from the "Disciple Regulations" for the past two months is no different than a drop in the bucket for the huge Rongguo Mansion, it is no less than a timely rain.

If Jia Chen helps the Rong Mansion open up a new source of income, it might be able to balance the income and expenditure of the Rong Mansion, or even turn losses into profits.

Thinking of this, Jia Zheng asked impatiently, "Nephew, please tell me quickly."

Jia Chen smiled lightly and said:

"Second Uncle, can you tell me, what do women in Da Zhou usually use to make up?"

Jia Zheng was slightly taken aback, and immediately guessed that Jia Chen's way of making money must be related to this, so he said with a smile:
"Although I am not a woman, I have a wife and two concubines. I see that they usually use rouge and gouache for makeup."

Jia Chen laughed and said:

"I'm going to use a brand new cosmetic called cream to completely replace all of Da Zhou's rouge powder."

Jia Zheng gasped, my good fellow, why are you so breathless?
"Chen'er, although you are very talented, you can't talk wildly or brag about yourself." Jia Zheng tried to persuade him.

Jia Chen smiled and said:

"Second Uncle, I am not lying. This replacement process will not be accomplished overnight, but after many years, it will definitely be realized."

Jia Zheng asked doubtfully:
"Then what raw material is this cream you are talking about made of? How is it better than the previous rouge powder?"

Jia Chen laughed and said:

"It's actually very simple, only four ingredients are needed: beeswax, flower juice, milk and glycerin."

Jia Zheng frowned and asked:

"I've heard of the first three things you mentioned, but what is this glycerin?"

Jia Chen said:
"Glycerin is a colorless, sweet-tasting viscous oil."

In fact, Jia Chen's desire to produce creams to make money was just one of his goals, and there was another hidden purpose that he didn't mention, that is, glycerin is one of the ingredients of yellow powder.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, black gunpowder had already been widely used in the military. The Ministry of Industry set up two bureaus of military battles and military weapons to manufacture firearms and ordnance. However, although there were many types of cannons, the craftsmanship was very backward. It was called Mantianxing Cannon.

There are three types of shells used in the Starry Cannon: shotgun shells, solid shells, and blooming shells, but they are not very powerful.

Dazhou also introduced the Western Flang machine gun and Hongyi cannon. These two types of artillery are more powerful, but because the shells are also made of black powder, their lethality is still limited.

This year is the seventh year of Chongrui in the Great Zhou Dynasty, which is equivalent to the first year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty in the previous life.

At this time, the Houjin established by the Northeast Jurchen Nurhachi continued to grow and repeatedly violated the frontiers. Dazhou did not have any effective weapons to restrain the Houjin Eight Banners cavalry.

However, because the power of the Starry Cannon is only equivalent to that of large-scale fireworks and firecrackers, the range of the Flang Cannon is short and its power is insufficient, and the range of the Hongyi Cannon is longer, but the rate of fire is too slow, and the three types of artillery can not continue to shoot, resulting in When the army of the Great Zhou fought against the Iron Cavalry of the Eight Banners, they lost more than they won, and the territory of the Great Zhou was constantly being eroded by Hou Jin.

Jia Chen knew that if things went on like this, Da Zhou would inevitably be swept away by Jurchen's Eight Banners force and swallowed up the world just like Daming in his previous life.

Instead of sitting still and waiting to die, it is better to fight!
Jia Chen decided to use the pretext of manufacturing and selling cream to mass-produce glycerin and secretly synthesize yellow gunpowder.

Relying on the huge sums of money earned from writing books and selling creams, he recruited soldiers and hoarded weapons and food.

To blatantly train the private army under Jin Yiwei's nose is tantamount to seeking death, but Jia Chen has his own clever plan.

While training the private army that only obeys their own orders, they also have to take the imperial examinations, and in the future they have to enlist in the army and take charge of military power.

At this moment, Jia Zheng pondered for a while, and said with a smile:
"Chen'er is really a unicorn genius of my Jia family. I have lived for so many years, and I have never heard of such a rare thing as glycerin. Since Chen'er is full of confidence, I also have great confidence in you, but I don't know how to make such a thing. How much money does it cost to grow cream? How much is Chen'er willing to pay?"

(End of this chapter)