Li Su wanted to get "the most delicate powder of this era", of course he could not count on comparing the skills of grinding limestone with the ancients.

Therefore, he directly used the most well-known experiment in junior high school chemistry textbooks: "Lime water blowing carbon dioxide". Because the fluffy flocs-like precipitated precipitated is definitely finer than any abrasive.

However, it took him half an afternoon to turn theory into practice and rework several times before he could finish it.

The first time he had a small accident in the feeding process - when he poured quicklime, because the dust was rising, he subconsciously narrowed his eyes and retreated, his hands trembled, and too much poured in at once.

Then the water jar was cooked and bubbled like a self-heated hot pot. Although it was not fried, the clay jar was unevenly heated and soon burst into a crack, and alkaline water flowed all over the floor.

Fortunately, he is well prepared and can do it again.

When blowing the carbon dioxide link, because there is no straw, it can only be replaced by reed poles. But the initial effect is still not good. It may be that he breathes too fast and the concentration of carbon dioxide he exhales is too low. He can only hold it in as much as possible after taking a deep breath every time, and then exhale violently when his eyes turn black and his body is deprived of oxygen.

After several twists and turns, I finally got a can of flocculent precipitation. The exercise effect on lung capacity is almost the same as traveling across the Qiantang River.

There were other small episodes during this period, such as "I found that there are impurities in the quicklime itself, and the impurities need to be filtered out to obtain pure floc precipitation", etc. In short, I have overcome all the tricks, so there is no need to elaborate on the details one by one.

In the evening, he finally produced the most delicate abrasive of this era and tried it with the silver mirror he had just bought at the Mi Family Store in the city. It took about an hour to grind a sample at night.

He tasted it for a while and felt that if the old silver mirror used by the Mi family was equivalent to 180P resolution, then the piece he polished out would be at least 720P or even 1080P resolution.

The task was completed and there was another bargaining chip. I'll see Mi Zhu tomorrow.

...

Mi Zhu actually returned to Qu County from the county seat Tan County in the evening that day.

However, because Li Su was a guest on the official side, it was the first time that both sides met, and meeting each other overnight was not in line with the etiquette of the Han Dynasty.

The next morning, Mi Zhu met Li Su and his party after breakfast.

Guan Yu was an official and was received at the same time. Dian Wei did not have the imperial court appointment, so he would not have such treatment.

Mi Zhu is less than thirty years old now, and looks a few years older than Guan Yu. He has a delicate and decent beard and his face is rosy and shiny.

In history, it was not until 190 that when Tao Qian was transferred to the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army by the court, which was spreading in Qingzhou, Tao Qian recruited Mi Zhu to serve as a Xuzhou Noble Master in order to raise money to recruit Danyang soldiers.

So Mi Zhu is still completely white-hearted, even when treating officials of 600 stone, he is very polite.

"I heard that Mr. Mi is anxious about his righteousness and is famous for being a member of Xuzhou. So I came here to pay a visit this time."

"How dare you be a gentleman? I'm just a merchant. I heard that the gentleman came from the capital?"

Li Su did not take advantage of the situation and directly pointed out: "It is not a special trip from thousands of miles - Su Chengjun's life is going to Guangling. This visit is just a few hundred miles away, so Mr. Mi doesn't have to worry about it."

Mi Zhu said some polite words again, and roughly guessed that Li Su was here to fight Qiu Feng, so he took the initiative to make the words clear:

"...Since this is the case, Zhu also believed that he had long admired Liu Youzhou and Xuande Gong's righteousness. He was willing to help 2 million yuan this time and do his best to fight the thieves and the people."

Of course, the difference is huge compared to the 10 million given by the Zhen family. But considering that the Mi family's business is in Xuzhou, it is not clear how Liu Bei and Li Su can repay him now. It is already very good to make friends. He has never even seen Liu Bei's face so far, and he paid for it only because of his reputation in "Xiao Yi Lu".

Comparison, the 2,000 hu of grain donated by Lu Su is only one million at most, which is still calculated based on the current price of the spring famine in April. If calculated after the autumn harvest, it will be only six or seven hundred thousand.

"Thank you, Mr. Mi, is a cheerful man, and you are not pretentious and polite." Li Suxian recognized the other party's sincerity, and then changed his subject.

"I have been in Zunfu for the past few days, so I have been patrolling all over the country and outside of Qu County. I have a little bit of a superficial view on Mr. Mi's business. Perhaps, I can have greater cooperation between us."

Mi Zhu subconsciously disbelief, but he was still very polite and humble: "Oh? I hope to hear it carefully."

Li Su cleared his throat: "I have two cooperation suggestions this time. First of all, I wonder if Mr. Mi, Xuzhou, Jiangdong and other places have a difference in horse prices compared with Youzhou? Why is Mr. Mi not expanding his business in horse trading business with such a family business?"

Mi Zhu didn't even think about it: "There is no horse production in the south, and the freight is complicated, and the heavy taxes of prefectures and passes along the way. The price of horses will increase by 20% or 30% every time they pass through a state. The horse price in Xuzhou has doubled compared to Youzhou. When it comes to Jiangdong, it will be at least 30% or 50% more expensive."

According to regulations, the commercial tax in the Han Dynasty collected 6% of the goods value for every pass, which is very heavy.

When Emperor Wu of Han was just setting this tax rate, there were still relatively few passes. However, over the past few hundred years, it has developed to the border between counties, which is 6% every time, and even cross-state boundaries have even received 12%. From north to south, the taxes are not more expensive than the original goods?

Of course, businessmen will try their best to avoid taxes or buy county garrisons. For example, with Mi Zhu's power, the counties in Xuzhou can almost symbolically pay less taxes. However, if they get states controlled by competitors, they will be strictly managed.

The Mi family, Zhen family, and even the bigwigs who divide business districts in Weizi, Yuzhou, and Jingyi Guanzhong all rely on this trick to suppress their opponents - it is very difficult for the opponent to evade taxes when they reach their territory.

Seeing that Mi Zhu had a good understanding of difficulties, Li Su took the initiative to point out: "In my opinion, the main difficulty of your Mi family selling horses is that they are completely unable to pass through the sphere of influence of Jizhou and must pay full taxes. As for Qingzhou, the forces of your Zhen family should be similar. And in Youzhou, the source of goods, you cannot get the source of goods from Liaodong County - but these problems can be solved by Duke Xuande can help you."

Mi Zhu's eyes lit up instantly: "Please say it in detail! If it works, Zhu will definitely give a good reward!"

The businessman just speaks simply, and he doesn't have that much literary style, so he talks about repaying him directly.

Li Su: "I see that most of your Mi family can go out to sea. Why don't you go north to Youzhou by sea? Now there is Zhang Chun in Youzhou, and from my opinion, this chaos will not be pacified soon. Fighting with the Wuhuan people will definitely capture a large number of horses. If you can acquire Xuande Gong's killing of the thief, you don't have to worry about the source of goods, and you won't offend the Zhen family."

If you use the regular source of goods from the Zhen family or other wealthy merchants directly, it will be a big deal and will offend people. Li Su still won’t do such things.

But it is not a taboo to just sell the horses captured by Liu Bei during the battle, and no one can blame him. Kill the enemy for the court, so why not flexibly dispose of the spoils?

On the other hand, Li Su didn't want to make money and subsidize Liu Bei anymore, so he also had to help Liu Bei sell the backlog of goods.

At present, their camp only has 10 million yuan in hand, and Li Su's profit in selling books and paper business accounts for more than half of this 10 million yuan balance. If all the subsequent expenses come from here, wouldn't it be equivalent to private money being used? Li Su would not do such a thing.

Even if he bought the official position himself, he thought it was more reasonable to use Liu Bei's - because the 6 million yuan he bought the official position by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei was also paid by Liu Bei! It was all for the overall interests of the camp, and it was not enough to be loyal to Guan and Zhang Li.

People like Zhen Yan and Mi Zhu are positioned in the hero group in the future as "investment of capital", while Li Su is "investment of technology" and cannot disrupt order.

After hearing this suggestion, Mi Zhu quickly calculated: Even if the horses are not of good quality, according to the horse prices this year, the average purchase of a horse in Youzhou is at least 50,000 yuan. Originally, the tax was doubled by shipping to Xuzhou, and then the freight, loss and profits were calculated. The price in Xuzhou was at least 120,000 yuan, and Jiangdong could sell 150,000 yuan. Now you can save the tax on passing the customs, and the profits were suddenly several times higher.

If Liu Bei had a thousand horses to sell, the gross profit alone would be as much as 40 to 50 million.

Li Su was very moved when she saw Mi Zhu, so she quickly added fire: "Mr. Mi can give you two conveniences as long as he is willing to work hard: First, then Mr. Mi's fleet can directly enter the Qianshui River and deliver the goods to Liangxiang County Wharf, which is the territory under Xuande Gong's full control.

Moreover, there are three tributaries of the Huo Water, which pass through Changping and Yuyang. No matter how it is mobilized in the future, Xuande Gong ensures that you have a place to receive the goods.

In addition, in order to show our sincerity, I will give a guide to Mi Gong a sub-plot that can slightly improve the stable navigation of sand ships on the sea."

The route suggested by Li Su is basically equivalent to driving directly into the Haihe River from the later Tianjin Guards and Dagukou, and reaching directly under the city of Yanjing.

In addition, the ancient sea ships sailing in the Yellow Sea were shallow and surging, so they used flat-bottomed sand ships, which were roughly the same as the inland river ships. This kind of ship can reach the estuary of the Yangtze River or even the Qiantang River estuary. The seas further south are too unpaid. They have to use the pointed-bottomed ships that appeared in later generations, which are "Fu Ship".

This is why until the end of the Ming Dynasty, the merchant forces near the sea of ​​China were still divided into the Sand Ship Gang in the north and the Fu Ship Gang in the south, with Zheng Chenggong in the south and Shen Tingyang in the north. The ship structures of the two sides were different, and they could not get the other's territory and cut them.

So during the Three Kingdoms, it is still possible to do some sailing in the north. Just use ready-made goods to change them slightly, and it is not technically difficult. But don’t think about the sea south of Fujian, you have to climb the technology tree again, which is too troublesome.

Mi Zhu was slightly surprised: "This route is pretty good, but our ship never goes out of the far sea. It is far away from the shore to the shore and bypasses Qingzhou. The gentleman actually understands the art of ship building? Can the sea ships not have to sail closely to the coast?"

The coast of Shandong Peninsula is tortuous. For sea ships of this era, sailing around the shore is very time-consuming and laborious.

Li Su decided to give another move: "I have read a lot, and I have only one thing. Now the sand ships in Zun Mansion are all based on inland river navigation, so they have not done special repairs for going to sea, right? So I am afraid of swelling and dare not stay away from the coast."

Mi Zhu: "That's true - but in Xuzhou, Jiangdong, every sand boat enters the sea, is like this."

Li Su: "You can nail two narrow wooden boards that extend from the left and right to the bottom of the boat at the bottom of the boat, which is like the side fins of a swimming fish. In this way, the sand boat's resistance to bumps in the swelling waves can also improve like a swimming fish."

What Li Su proposed was the most basic tip for building sea ships in later generations, adding a horizontal stabilization fin to the ship. This kind of knocking was summarized by craftsmen around the Tang and Song dynasties, and it was not technically difficult.

Li Su felt that his camp would not find a base in the coastal area in the future. Since the only friendly people I know, Mi Zhu's family has a sea boat business, so throw bricks and jade to show sincerity and exchange for some bargaining chips.

After hearing this, Mi Zhu decided to go back and give it a try right away.

However, if he had to say beautiful words, even if he had not yet verified, he had to increase his bid first: "Zhu already felt the kindness of Mr. and Duke Xuande. Let's do this, I will raise the military assistance to 10 million. In addition, for the future purchase price of horses selling, I am willing to purchase Youzhou's horses at the price of horses in Jizhou."

The meaning of Mi Zhu's words is that he is willing to increase the purchase price by 20% to 30% compared to the normal market conditions when buying Liu Bei's spoils. The extra part is equivalent to paying dividends to Liu Bei's camp for horse sales.

Li Su was very satisfied, and this was just right to propose cooperation in the Yinjing business.
Chapter completed!