The daily life of the science master's book-wearing group

Chapter 249 Failed First Generation Rubber Products

On the fourth day of September, the long-awaited rubber tree sap has finally arrived!

Song Qingyue followed King Su out of the mansion again, this time to the backyard of a cloth shop in the downtown area of ​​the capital.

Song Qingyue looked at the half-dried and heavily oxidized rubber tree sap and touched her chin with a look of embarrassment.

One of the persons in charge of this trip followed.

Song Qingyue stared at the bucket of tree sap dumbfounded, and felt that the color was not quite right, even if it was oxidized, the color was not so dark!
"How did you get this batch of sap?" she asked.

The person in charge said: "Just cut down the tree, then split it into strips, and put the wooden strips into the roller to squeeze like sugarcane juice!"

"What a waste!"

Song Qingyue was heartbroken, and she took out the small sketchbook she carried with her, and drew a schematic diagram on the paper with a pencil: "That's it, cut a circle of bark shallowly, hang a small bucket under it, and you can pick up a bucket in half a day. In this way, the glue juice can be continuously obtained. It takes five or six years for the tree to grow, but it can be harvested for more than ten years with the method I said, and it will be gone the next time it is cut!"

"Ah! That's how it is!" The person in charge widened his eyes, suddenly realized, and patted his chest and swore: "Don't worry about the prince and princess, the rubber trees we got are still in good condition, no one dares to cut them down."

Song Qingyue asked again: "You made this a wild rubber tree, right?"

The person in charge replied: "Yes, because we have a large quantity, and we can't wait for them to pick it up drop by drop with a bucket, so we cut down the tree and squeeze it directly."

His answer is also an explanation.

"Don't the locals grow this kind of tree?" Song Qingyue asked again.

The person in charge shook his head: "This tree was found in a rainforest between Siam and Chenla. We saw that many of the locals had no clothes to wear, and even the local nobles, in my opinion, were not as good as our village chief. Regardless of men and women, all of them are naked, walking on the ground with bare feet, they just break off the branches, use the bucket to catch the dripping juice, and take this juice directly on the soles of the feet. I watched them all directly The ones from wild forests are used, but there are no planted ones, and there are many such trees in that place.”

Tsk tsk, it turns out that there are no artificially planted rubber trees in this era.

King Su sat with his legs crossed, drinking tea leisurely, as if he didn't care what Song Qingyue was going to do. Another batch of ships going south bypassed Chenla and Siam, and arrived at a certain city-state in the Shendu area.

The sea ships that came back this time, in addition to bringing back food, spices and gold, also brought back a large number of very fine jadeite!The local people's grinding and cutting techniques are immature, and because of the large output, the rough jadeite cannot be sold locally. They can exchange a large amount of rough jadeite with glass, porcelain, and silk fabrics.

This time, he can make a lot of money, which slightly relieves the current economic pressure of the palace.

Seeing that this kind of gum juice couldn't make a lot of money in a short time, Song Qingyue let it go.

Song Qingyue looked at King Su, and said uncertainly: "Father, why don't you soak the batch of Gebu you bought in the bucket first, then dry it, and sell it for sale?"

King Su hummed, and said indifferently: "You can figure it out."

On the fifth day of the ninth lunar month, the examinations began in Qiuwei.

From the sixth day of the lunar new year, vendors on the street began to sell a white tarpaulin made of Gebu.

"Walk around, take a look, take a look! Tarp, tarp! Don't be afraid of wind and rain! Don't miss it when you pass by, make bags, umbrellas, and roofs! Walk around and see Take a look, take a look, it's waterproof, rainproof, floodproof..."

Finally someone stopped and asked, "Hey, stop, how do you sell this cloth?"

The peddler smiled and said, "See what's in the pole? They're all cut up, and they cost fifty cents a piece."

"Fifty Wen! It's so expensive!" The pedestrian picked up the two-foot-square cloth and looked at it, and couldn't help frowning.

"You don't know about this. This is something that ships brought from overseas. This overseas is full of wind and waves, and there are pirates and pirates. It is not easy to bring it back! Don't underestimate it. It is much more useful than oiled paper and wax paper. By the way, do you have candidates in your family rushing for the exam? Make it into a cloth bag and sell it to them. It’s not a problem to sell it for a hundred yuan, right? You can double the profit if you resell it.”

The passer-by hissed, seeing that his heart was already moved, and said, "If you make so much money, why don't you just sell the cloth bags yourself?"

The vendor laughed: "This cloth has just been made, so you are in a rush to sell it, and you don't have time to make it into cloth bags? The mother-in-law is working at home, and I will sell it to a shop selling the four treasures of the study tomorrow. It's raining."

"Wait, take a piece and try it with water first!" The pedestrian still didn't believe it.

At this time, a lot of people had already gathered around the small stall, and the vendor had a water hyacinth hanging on his waist, ready to demonstrate in public.

I saw him pouring water on the Gebu cloth treated with rubber tree sap. Sure enough, instead of being soaked, the cloth condensed into water beads and rolled down from the cloth.

The crowd exclaimed.

The vendor proudly said: "This product is not easy to grab! This basket will be gone after it's sold out, folks, brothers and sisters, please pass by, don't miss it!"

At this time, a scholar-like person squeezed out from the crowd and said, "How much is this? I want a piece."

Vendor: "Fifty yuan a piece, take a closer look. This is authentic Nanyang goods. It was brought back from overseas by a big ship. It will be gone after it is sold out. No bargaining!"

Judging from the scholar's attire, his family background should be good, and he did not negotiate the price, so he just took one piece of money.

Afterwards, among the onlookers, one after another began to pay for it.

Interested people even started the idea of ​​buying and selling. After all, they still wanted to take advantage of the scientific research to make money from the scholars.

But I can't find a way to buy it anywhere.

Interested people went door to door to inquire about tarps from various cloth houses, and finally found out about Longxing cloth house after wandering around.

That cloth store usually sells expensive and high-end goods, such as silk and satin, Kesi, Shu brocade, and all kinds of decorative satin.It is probably because tarps, which are household items of ordinary people, are not easy to sell in stores, so they thought of finding vendors to resell them for them.

In other words, those street vendors can sell it, and so can you!

The man immediately went home to discuss the matter with his wife, collected two taels of silver from every corner of the house, and went to Longxing cloth shop to buy goods.

But when the man went to Longxing cloth shop, the shopkeeper said: "I'm sorry, big brother, this batch of tarpaulins has been sold out, if you still want it, you have to wait for the next sea boat."

"Next batch? When will that be?"

The visitor asked urgently: "Seeing that Qiu Wei is about to end!"

The shopkeeper said calmly: "The autumn is over, so they don't need the tarp anymore? Don't they need it when they go back to their hometown? There will be spring next year, don't they need it? Why worry!"

"Shopkeeper, you don't know something! Your tarpaulin, two inches square, costs [-] yuan, which is as expensive as old silk with holes in it! Who would buy it if it wasn't the schoolboys? Just use oiled paper. Got it!"

Those who can be scholars these days, even if their families are fairly well-to-do, and those who are really poor, it is too difficult to provide for a scholar.

The shopkeeper also understood this man's impatience, but he spread his hands and said helplessly: "Then I can't help it, the goods are only so small, I really don't have them here."

"Look at what you said, can you really do it?" The man smiled and flattered him: "In this case, I will buy it at half the price of other houses, will it work?"

"Tsk, why don't you believe it? The Nanyang goods imported from overseas are said to be available? You go to other houses and ask, you go out and ask, isn't it just that we sell as much as the sea merchants bring back? Can I transform it for you?"

The man lingered for a while, seeing that the shopkeeper would not let go, he had to leave dejectedly.

~
Three days later, suddenly someone ran up to the vendor who had switched to selling bamboo baskets, grabbing his collar and trying to beat him up.

"Hey! Big Brother has something to say!" The vendor hurriedly begged for mercy.

"Speak carefully? What kind of rags are you selling? Such a small piece costs fifty cents. It won't work after two or three days of use! It's sticky, it becomes brittle after being wet, and it's all broken! It's not as good as oiled paper and waxed paper! You let me speak well, who will talk to you well! Hurry up and pay back the money, pay back the money!"

"Brother, brother, you can't rely on me for this matter. If you want to find it, go to Longxing Cloth Shop! The small one is bought there! It's the first time I've seen this thing, and it's not the shopkeeper. How can I say it? Say? Big brother, don’t be angry, let’s go to Longxing cloth village to reason together!”

~
On the other side, Song Qingyue racked her brains in the palace to fiddle with the remaining barrel of gum.

She remembered that the standard process of natural rubber is to add formic acid first, solidify, then adjust the pH value, dry, vulcanize, and dry...

But what about formic acid?
Yesterday she tried it with white rice vinegar and it didn't work well.

So she thought it might be that the concentration of the acid was not enough, so she tried to obtain acetic acid crystals from rice vinegar, prepared a higher acidity acetic acid solution, and tried again, but the effect was still unsatisfactory. The key point is that the brewing cost of rice vinegar has to be considered go in.

So I had to find a way to get the formic acid out.

Carbon monoxide and sodium hydroxide solution react at 160-200°C and 2MPa pressure to generate sodium formate, and then undergo acidolysis and distillation with sulfuric acid to obtain formic acid.

Carbon monoxide is easy to handle, and sodium hydroxide is readily available, but how to control the temperature and pressure, and the concentration of the finished product must be tested...

She covered her head and wrote various chemical equations on the paper, which was really troublesome!All kinds of raw materials that are available at your fingertips in modern times have to be made from scratch and hand-made, which is really fatal.

I also need to order a batch of experimental utensils, um, even the experimental utensils have to be drawn and designed by myself, which is equivalent to wanting to fry dishes, not only to start with growing vegetables, but also to make a pot first.

Engaging in chemistry in ancient times can't afford to be hurt!

If you want a pressure cooker, but if you want a pressure cooker, you need a rubber ring to seal it... It's over, and it's back!
Just as she was burning her brain cells at a high speed, Mo Zhu suddenly ran in and said, "It's not good, Shi Zifei, there is something wrong with the batch of waterproof cloths before! Threatening to sue the government!"

"what?"

Song Qingyue raised her head in a daze. Because she had been using her eyes for a long time, her originally clear vision suddenly became somewhat blurred. She squinted her eyes and tried her best to see Mo Zhu clearly.

"Concubine Wang, Eunuch Wang has come in person and said that there is a censor in the court impeaching our palace for this matter. The prince asked you to bring out a charter!"

At this time, Nanny Bai brought Wang Luen in politely, Eunuch Wang saluted Song Qingyue respectfully, and said something similar to what Mo Zhu had just said.

"Um--"

Song Qingyue rubbed her chin and pondered. She hardly slept well these days. Her dreams were full of rubber. Sometimes she would get up and write down something when she thought of it in the middle of the night. The serious lack of sleep caused her to react slowly now.

"Shi Zifei? Shi Zifei?" Seeing that her eyes were a little out of focus, Eunuch Wang waved his hand in front of her.

Song Qingyue covered her dizzy head, and said in a daze, "Why don't you pay the money first, Eunuch Wang, to suppress the matter."

She glanced at Nanny Bai, and said, "Mommy, take some silver for Eunuch Wang, I can't do it anymore, I want to take a break."

Nanny Bai glanced at Eunuch Wang in embarrassment, but Eunuch Wang didn't care much, took the silver and left in satisfaction.

Song Qingyue couldn't bear it anymore, so she went to rest, leaving Mozhu and Momei and the little girls aside angrily. It was obvious that their concubine, the concubine, had spent so much effort and stayed up for several nights. Lost a sum of money to go in.

Eunuch Wang went back and reported Song Qingyue's bad condition to King Su. King Su raised his eyebrows, shook his head and said, "I'm still in a hurry. You can ask someone to send a message, and just say that the gum is not in a hurry. But the coal-fired steam engine , let her quickly get it out first."

"Yes."

Eunuch Wang was about to turn around, but King Su said again: "By the way, the Double Ninth Festival is coming soon, let her not forget. Although the official business is important, it is a holiday, so remember to go out for a few days."

~
crackling crackling...

crackling crackling...

In the hall of the second entrance of Wufangzhai, there was the sound of abacus.

Song Qingyue, who was full of sleep, woke up and the first thing she did was to settle the score.

I feel that after marrying into the palace, the servants gave rewards, and I went to the Northwest, and there were various banquets and exchanges of favors. The expenses have increased several times, but the income has not increased much. The father-in-law is always changing tricks to cry with her. .

Originally, the wool business in the northwest was profitable, but because of Su Wang’s private adjustments, her main income—the cement factory—had decreased a lot, so she worked hard for a long time, and her total income not only did not increase, but even decreased.

Counting the mortgage loan of more than 120 million taels to Li Zhao, now that he has made such calculations, he suddenly realizes that he only has less than 15 taels left on hand.

Mo Zhu and Mo Mei finished their calculations and showed it to Song Qingyue.

Adding Song Qingyue herself, the three people got the same result.

"Hey!" Song Qingyue sighed for a long time, laying limply on the table, and said weakly: "It's really not even 15 taels."

and many more!

Isn't this the prelude to the legend of spending money for love, but being abandoned in the end?

Immediately, goosebumps appeared all over his body.

She stood up, looked around at the maids in the room, and waved for them to leave. When she was left alone in the room, she found a small wooden box from the bottom of the cage, and pulled out the lock on the wooden box. drawer, and took out a small hidden compartment from it.

Here is the mortgage deed written to her by Li Zhao on the bed in the middle of the night.

But looking at it again now, how do you feel that the contract is written a little more casually, this...does it have legal effect?

And if Li Zhao becomes the prince in the future, no matter how bad he is, he will still be a prince. Wouldn't it be easy to renege on his debt?
If I had known earlier, I should have asked him to transfer this factory or that factory directly to his own name, which was equivalent to her buying his assets with 1205 million taels of cash.

Not to cheat Li Zhao, she just wants the shipyard and one of the three ash worm breeding gardens in Guangxi.

Song Qingyue sighed, thinking to mention this matter to Li Zhao when he came back from this business trip.

But how should I speak about this matter?
With her husband still calculating the accounts so clearly, will Li Zhao feel that she is too philistine?

Gee!
"It doesn't matter, a philistine is a philistine. I am a person above selfishness. If you don't do it for yourself, you will be destroyed by heaven and earth. Humph! Am I a good person? I am not a good person!"

While talking to herself, she put away the mortgage receipt again, secretly packed a bag that could escape at any time, put the little yellow door coat and hat on the side of the bag, and put it on the big sheet in her room. In the dark compartment under the dressing table of Babu bed.

Thinking so wildly, and thinking about rubber, I can't help feeling anxious. It will take at least five or six years to grow a large-scale rubber forest. Maybe five or six years is an optimistic estimate. She knows nothing about rubber tree planting techniques. It has to rely on the wisdom of the working people to find out by themselves. It has not been a decade, and it is simply a dream to produce rubber on a large scale.

These years, I can only go to Southeast Asia to import those wild rubber juices. I don’t know if I can go to the local area to buy a piece of land dedicated to growing rubber.

But Song Qingyue does not agree with unlimited expansion in her heart.

Isn't the essential difference between Chinese civilization and marine civilization lies in the inclusiveness of Chinese farming civilization and its incomparably powerful assimilation ability?

In addition to colonization, there are always many ways to communicate with foreign countries, right?

But these are nothing for the time being, and she can't think of going that far.

So what else is there to do to make more money?

When thinking about how to open source, it is natural to think of throttling.

She regretted the drastic improvement of employee benefits when she first entered the mansion.

It is really easy to increase benefits, but it is extremely difficult to reduce them. The appetites of the employees of the entire East Road have been raised by her. Loyalty is loyalty. Are they still willing?

"I'm really not suitable for the management post!"

Song Qingyue muttered to herself angrily, and Li Zhao suddenly appeared in her mind.

A person like Li Zhao who has been in high position since he was a child is proficient in the way of controlling people. He should consult an expert like him before making a decision on such matters.

When will that guy come back?
That person is annoying, but as long as he is at home, Song Qingyue feels that she has a backer, and no matter what she does, someone will give her the bottom line.

When that person was not around, although her childhood was more relaxed and comfortable, she always lacked a sense of steadfastness, and she felt a little lack of confidence in everything she did?

(End of this chapter)