The fact that the imperial court was going to build an official road was a very good thing for the common people living around the capital.
Because the official notice clearly stated the salary: 150 coins per person per day, plus two meals a day.
Although the staple food was just steamed buns made from sweet potato flour, it was much better than just sitting around at home and living off their savings.
No matter how close they were to the capital, they were still ordinary people who had to work hard to make a living, and they depended on the harvest from the fields all year round to survive.
Now, two months of road construction can produce a year's harvest from the fields. How could such a good thing happen in previous years?
So soon after the notice was posted, people flocked to it.
After Yinreng handed over the tasks to his younger brothers, he began to think about oil.
However, he did not study science and engineering in his later life. He only knew of one oil field in China, Daqing, and he was completely clueless about the specific situation of the Daqing oil field.
There is no machinery now. If the oil field is too deep, it cannot be mined under the current conditions, and it will be a waste of time.
Yinreng asked officials from the Zhanshi Mansion to look through county chronicles from various places, with their main target being the Northeast region.
Unfortunately, there is no record of "black oil" in either maps or county annals.
Moreover, Daqing is not called Daqing now, and he doesn’t know its specific name. He is completely in the dark.
After being frustrated for a few days at a construction site outside Beijing, Yinreng decided to go to the Northeast in person.
Yinreng returned to the palace to ask to see Kangxi and directly stated his purpose.
Kangxi rejected his proposal outright.
Yinreng argued with reason and finally succeeded in sending the eighth brother out of the capital.
On the day when the Eighth Prince left the capital, the sky was clear and the breeze was gentle. Yinreng went to see him off in person, his eyes red with envy.
Yinsi felt uneasy when he was stared at.
"Second brother, how about we go and ask the Emperor for help again?"
"What are you begging for? The old man clearly doesn't want me to leave Beijing. No matter how much I beg, he won't agree."
Yinreng saw what Kangxi meant and knew that unless Kangxi took him out of the capital himself, he would not let him leave the capital alone.
Yinsi: “…”
Then stop staring at me like that, it's creepy.
"When you go to Heishui, try to search in areas with lots of water and lakes. Oil is buried deep underground, so if you dig a little deeper you'll eventually find it. If you do find oil, send it back to me in a copper jar."
Finally, he added,
“It would be best if we could find it this year!”
"……good."
After Yinsi left Beijing, Yinreng lived on a construction site outside Beijing to express his dissatisfaction to Kangxi.
This kind of days continued until September.
Although Yinreng failed to go looking for oil, this six months was an extremely rare opportunity for him to have free time away from Kangxi's sight.
With money paving the way, one-third of the official road from Beijing to Tianjin was built in these five months, and the progress in the areas responsible for the third and fifth brothers was also not slow.
Twelve was personally trained by Yinreng and made great progress in the past six months.
We are now able to coordinate the arrangements for migrant workers to advance the construction schedule.
After Yinreng had almost finished teaching Twelve, he plunged into the glass factory.
He wanted to develop a set of equipment for distillation experiments before Lao Ba found oil.
However, glassware can only be used for observation and teaching. If you really want to completely separate the crude oil, you still need to use furnaces and distillation towers made of steel.
The evaporation temperatures of various components in crude oil still need further exploration.
Two days before the Double Ninth Festival, the capital received an urgent report that pirates were intercepting passing merchant ships at the estuary outside Tianjin Port.
When Yinreng heard this, he felt that it was just another easy life.
Emperor Kangxi ordered the Fujian Navy to send troops to eliminate the pirates.
However, after the imperial edict was issued, Yinzhi led the warships to patrol outside for more than two months, but failed to find any trace of pirates.
However, it was not completely ineffective. The merchant ship that Yinzhen sent out for the first time returned to the Qing Dynasty.
To Yinreng's disappointment, the merchant ship did bring back a lot of goods, but there was no trace of rubber trees.
But what made Yinreng happy was that the merchant ship brought back two long-wool sheep.
If it weren't for the wrong season, he would have liked to strip the clothes of the two sheep and take them to the embroiderer to ask if they could be spun into thread.
In addition to these two sheep, the ship also brought back several thousand taels of gold, more than 20,000 taels of silver, a large amount of various minerals, and a small amount of furs.
Unfortunately, the tanning method of the fur was extremely rough, and Yinreng didn't even look down on it.
After a year of preparation by Yinzhen, Zheng He's treasure ship was also in the final stage and could set off as soon as the weather got a little warmer next year.
At the end of the year, Yinsi rushed back to Kyoto exhausted.
He left Beijing in early June, arrived in Heishui at the end of June, and returned to Beijing in early December. He spent more than four months surveying everywhere, but found no trace of crude oil mines.
So after he returned to Beijing, he didn't dare to see Yinreng.
Yinreng spent most of the year in disappointment, so when he learned that Yinsi had not been found, he did not show any particular concern, which made Yinsi feel relieved.
On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yinzhen brought gold to the palace to give dividends to Kangxi and Yinreng.
Last year, only 40% of the deposits were collected for the sales of the first phase of Fushouyuan, and most of the houses were delivered this year. According to Yinreng's experience, the profits of the commercial street and Fushouyuan this year should be much higher than last year. However, the number in the account book is more than 30,000 taels less than last year.
After flipping through the account book, Yinreng squinted his eyes and looked at Yinzhen.
But in the end, nothing was said.
In the past few years, there have been more and more foreign merchants and foreigners doing business in the capital. With Yin'er's ability to save money, the annual profit should only increase. But now, not only is it not more, it's actually less.
He would never believe that there was no trick here.
However, the account book was beautifully made. With his keen eyesight, he couldn't find any problems after carefully reading two pages.
But just because he didn't say anything didn't mean Kangxi wouldn't ask.
"This year, the number of foreigners entering the country has increased by 10% compared to last year. How come the profits are so much lower?"
You should know that the dowry of the Ninth Princess was only 12,000 taels of silver.
The more than 30,000 taels were enough for him to marry off his three daughters.
"It costs money to set up a caravan, my son!"
Yinzhen cried out for injustice,
"The treasure ship must be built, and the sailors must be trained. Besides, the glass business in the capital is almost saturated, and it will take time to expand to other places."
"As you know, transporting glass is extremely difficult. If you want to do this business long-term, you have to leave Beijing to find a place to build a factory. But you won't let your son leave Beijing..."
Yinreng raised his eyebrows as he listened.
Yinreng only believed half of what Yinzhen said.
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