"goodbye?"

Er Yu stared at the monkey in amazement, coming in and out, not knowing what he was up to.

"What do you mean?" Yu Shensi asked with a frown.

"Goodbye means we will never see each other again." Jin Xuezeng said while shaking his head as he walked towards the street.

"Don't you want to become my disciple?" Yu Shenxing chased out and asked.

"Who said I want to become your disciple?" Jin Xuezeng said with a smug smile, "I just came here to have some fun because you guys are so arrogant."

As he said this, he untied a gray donkey from the hitching post, jumped on it backwards, and then slapped the donkey on its butt.

The little donkey went away with a clatter.

"Uh..." Both Yu were honest men. They couldn't keep up with the golden monkey's tactics for a while, and only reacted now.

It turns out that he has fooled both me and science.

The two men couldn't help but get furious and started chasing after him with their long legs.

"Stop right there!"

"How dare you run away after playing tricks on me? You must apologize to my master!"

Seeing the two long-legged men catch up to half the distance in the blink of an eye, Jin Xuezeng was also startled. He quickly slapped the donkey's butt hard and shouted:

"Oh no! Someone is robbing!"

The donkey felt pain and tried hard to move forward. Jin Xuezeng was light and ran quite fast.

But the Yu brothers raised donkeys at home, so it was easy for them to deal with such animals. Yu Shensi pouted his lips and called out "whoosh...whoosh...whoosh..." a few times.

The donkey actually slowed down gradually, and Yu Shenxing grabbed the saddle. Then he tried to catch the golden monkey.

Unexpectedly, the guy was very agile. He leaned forward to avoid Yu Shenxing's grab, then slid off the donkey's back and escaped into a small alley.

The Yu brothers chased for a while, but Beijing’s alleys are so numerous and interconnected that they soon lost him.

The two men had no choice but to return to Chunsong Hutong in dejection. Fortunately, the donkey was still waiting there obediently.

~~

In the main courtyard, Zhao Hao had just finished practicing the tendon-breaking exercise and was relaxing when he saw the Yu brothers coming in, leading a donkey and looking dusty.

"Hey, where did the donkey come from?" he asked curiously.

"Hey, Master, we have embarrassed you..." Yu Shenxing reported what had just happened with a face full of shame.

Zhao Hao was furious at first. How dare a mere Zhejiang scholar come to play tricks in his house? But when he heard that the man was called Jin Xuezeng, he smiled generously and said:

"Whatever. Anyway, we didn't suffer any loss."

Then he looked at the little donkey, sneered and said, "Bring me a pen."

Zhang Jian hurried into the room and brought Zhao Hao some pen and ink.

Zhao Hao picked up the brush, dipped it in thick ink, and then wrote three crooked characters "Jin Xuezeng" on one side of the donkey, and "Zhilu" on the other side.

"Take it out and tie it outside the door. Remember, the side with more words on it should face outwards."

After saying that, he turned and went into the house.

Er Yu looked at the poor little donkey and couldn't figure out whether his master was angry or not.

"Fourth senior brother, are we just going to let this matter go?" Yu Shensi asked his brother in a low voice.

"That shouldn't be the case." Yu Shenxing whispered, "This time, the guy surnamed Jin went much further than we did last time..."

What he meant was, how did the master frame us? How could he possibly let the man named Jin go?

"I guess he'll have something to worry about sooner or later."

~~

Sure enough, after eating donkey meat hotpot in the evening, Zhao Hao threw a letter to Yu Shensi and said, "Send it to the Hangzhou Guild Hall later... Uh, send it after the festival. Let his donkey stay outside for a few days first."

"Yes, Master." Yu Shensi took it with both hands and saw Jin Xuezeng's name written on it. He couldn't help but think that with Master's vengeful nature, this Jin guy would probably suffer.

You deserve it!

After Yu Shensi left, he turned to Sun Dawu who was standing by the kang and said, "Go on."

"Yes, young master." Sun Dawu cleared his throat and said, "In the past few days, the number of workers in the field has increased to nearly 10,000, and we can make 1.45 million coal lotus root cakes a day. However, the production of ice cream will not start until the day after tomorrow, so the sales volume is still the same for the time being."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded and said with a smile, "It's not easy for Guo Daneng to get them to start work five or six days in advance."

"Also," Fatty Sun said with a wry smile, "According to the workers, after they went home at night, some coal merchants came to recruit them and wanted them to work there."

"Oh, you can't sit still so soon?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but smile in surprise: "It's only been on sale for less than seven days."

"Seven days is not a short time." Fatty Sun said, "I heard from Guo Da that many coal merchants bought coal lotus roots and went back to think about imitating them. I estimate that in a few days, they will be able to make a mold."

"Of course, it's such a simple thing." Zhao Hao said unconcernedly: "Let them fight, the more the better."

Zhao Hao had already priced the coal lotus roots low, so those coal merchants had no choice but to hire refugees if they wanted to make a profit... If they hired citizens from the city, they probably wouldn't be able to hire anyone for this dirty and tiring job even with two taels of silver a month.

In this way, there will naturally be more and more job opportunities for refugees, and they will not be limited to Zhao Hao's family.

"But we don't have to worry for now." Sun Dawu smiled cunningly and said, "They can't figure out the secret recipe of the master for a while, and the coal lotus root they make is still choking. They want to steal our business, but it's impossible."

"Don't be jealous of others." Zhao Hao smiled and shook his head, saying, "Even if the coal lotus root is not added with slaked lime, it is much easier to sell than loose coal... Let's expand the market together and increase the coal consumption from the current 3 to 4 million catties per day to 10 million catties. Then everyone will get rich."

"Ah, you are still very broad-minded, I will remember it." Sun Dawu nodded hurriedly and reported: "Also, we have purchased a batch of water pumping equipment. I wonder when you will use it?"

"Not slow." Zhao Hao said with a satisfied smile, "You can temporarily hand over the work at hand to the people below, and then go to Xishan to purchase a batch of waste coal mines with water permeability."

"Oh, sir, you want to pump water and mine coal, and recycle waste?" Sun Dawu understood immediately.

"Yes, I went to see it last time. Those coal bosses are too wasteful. They throw away the coal as soon as the coal mine is leaking water. It's such a pity." Zhao Hao nodded.

"They think they have to hire people to pump out the water." Sun Dawu, who was also familiar with the situation in the mine, said, "And the deeper we dig, the more severe the water seepage will be..."

"It's mainly because it's unprofitable." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "But for us, it doesn't cost much to buy it, saving a lot of initial investment. We can dig it as soon as we pump out the water, so it's still worth it."

"Yes, we produce it for our own use. As long as we control the cost and dig a few feet deeper, it should be worthwhile." Sun Dawu nodded and suddenly smiled, "Besides, the price of coal is expected to rise soon."

"Smart." Zhao Hao laughed and patted his round belly and said, "That's why I told you to hurry up."

"I understand, sir. I will do it tomorrow." Sun Dawu nodded heavily.

"In addition, I have calculated that the maximum number of people in the field is 8,000." Zhao Hao ordered again: "All the extra people will be sent to open mines."

He had used the imperial shops and farms to exchange for a large number of coal mines from the eldest princess, but they were all good coal mines in operation, not abandoned mines that were leaking water.

"You are right, the place is already overcrowded." Fatty Sun heaved a sigh of relief. He had wanted to bring this up earlier, but he held back when he thought of Zhao Hao's opening purpose of the event, which was disaster relief. Now that he heard what the young master said, he agreed and said, "In my opinion, it is actually less efficient than when there are fewer people."

ps. Third update, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~