The construction of Lu Zhou's infrastructure was still going on, so there were not many people harvesting cotton. Moreover, the cotton was not something that could be harvested in a day. The common people did not have much time to do their own things, so they were constantly following the notice.
Lu Zhou's small merchants' business was affected. When the common people were busy, they did not even have time to go home. Naturally, the merchants could not have so many customers. Fortunately, these merchants had joined their respective chambers of commerce. At this time, the chambers of commerce's main customers were from the surrounding provinces. These customers even included smugglers who secretly came from Qin Province.
Zhang Xiaobao was still thinking about the diving. He knew that it was impossible to have oxygen tanks in terms of equipment, but he wanted to think about other aspects, especially the nail incense. In fact, it was a kind of shellfish. If it was when he and Wang Juan came here, they could already be artificially raised. Coupled with the conditions of mining, it was not that valuable.
However, it was different now. They could only rely on people to swim underwater and get the nail incense from the cracks of the reefs. It was too dangerous. Therefore, the value of nail incense had increased infinitely.
Li Xun was also thinking about a solution. He did not know if this was something that Zhang Xiaobao should consider himself or the expert behind the Zhang family should consider. In any case, he wanted to help them. If they came up with a solution, they might be able to gain the expert's favor. He regarded this as a test for Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan by the expert behind the Zhang family.
"Can we train a group of people to go underwater more often? That way, we can get more nail incense?" Li Xun thought for a full hour before he proposed his idea.
Wang Juan glanced at him and said nothing. Zhang Xiaobao said, "People who can catch fish with their bare hands in the Yellow River are trained from a young age. However, there are still people who will die, and many of them will die. The sea is not calm. You don't know when the undercurrent will come. Without any protection, the undercurrent can kill people."
Li Xun really did not know about this. He only learned about it a few days ago. The surface of the sea looked very calm, but it was not necessarily so under the water. The temperature under the water was different. If one could hold his breath on the shore, he could hold it for 50 breaths. If one put his head in the basin, he could hold it for 40 breaths at most.
However, the deeper he went under the water, the shorter the time would be. Under normal circumstances, one could go down to a depth of 100 feet. However, if there was an undercurrent at that time, it was not just a matter of whether one could hold it or not. It was very likely that one would die in the water.
At this moment, seeing that Zhang Xiaobao was drawing something on the blackboard with chalk, he complained, "Then the nail incense that the people here hand in is exchanged with their lives? It can be used as incense and medicinal materials. It's okay to use it as medicinal materials. After all, it is used to save people. However, there is no need to use nail incense for incense, right?
When those rich and powerful people are enjoying life, don't they know that these things are exchanged with their lives? No, I have to write a letter to my father and tell him not to use nail incense in the future. There are also some other people. "
Li Xun, who wanted to be a commoner, finally could not bear the enjoyment of exchanging lives. He went to the table and prepared to write a letter.
Zhang Xiaobao had just finished drawing a rough picture. When he heard Li Xun's words, he stopped and said, "It has nothing to do with whether other people use nail incense or not. When collecting rent, nail incense can replace a lot of rent. The people are willing to go down to collect shells, not forced by others.
For the sake of wealth, for the sake of a better life, and for the sake of future generations, they wanted to accumulate some money. A single Jia Xiang could cover a lot of rent. They were also doing it for themselves. Otherwise, they could just call it rent. They had that kind of craftsmanship. If others didn't use it, would they continue to pay rent?
If you want to help them, it is not to let others not use nail incense, but to raise the price of nail incense. There is land to rent, and there is fishing. If a small amount of nail incense can replace a year's rent, then their risk is worth it. "
"Yes, you can't let others lose the opportunity to be rich just because their lives are in danger. Some people buy nail incense, not because they are sinners, but because they need it."
Wang Juan spoke at this time. She also agreed to let others continue to collect nail incense. This could be said to be a speculative business. As long as one wanted to be rich, they had to be prepared to bear the danger.
One of the poems she hated most was Min Nongyi. She did not care about other times, but she had learned this poem when she was young. At that time, she did not understand. What did it have to do with farmers when she spent money to buy things? It was a kind of income from her own family's labor.
If one really thought about the difficulties of food, one should not think about the dripping of sweat, but the hard work of one's own family. Unless the food was planted by the farmer and given to them for free, then they should cherish the farmer's hard work. The food that was thrown away was not cherishing the fruits of one's own or family's labor. It had nothing to do with the farmer at all.
If the farmer surnamed Zhang did not farm, then Li would. If they did not farm, then there would be a shortage of food, and the price would go up. Naturally, there would be people who would farm.
Min Nongyi was not bad. It showed that the farmers had to pay too much tax on the food they grew, and the price of the food was cheap. This system was not right. It was too exploitative.
Therefore, Wang Juan did not think that there was anything wrong with others risking their lives to collect nail incense. You could choose not to do it. Wasn't it all for the sake of profit? It was just that the value of the profit was small. As Xiao Bao said, the price of nail incense should be raised.
Li Xun was momentarily at a loss for words. The shock he received was a little too great. He clearly knew that Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, as well as the two families, took great care of the commoners and were willing to give them a good life. But how could they watch people die for the sake of obtaining Jia Xiang without doing anything?
Li Xun was lost in thought. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan did not care about him. This kind of thing could not be explained clearly in a sentence. If they really wanted Li Xun to understand, they had to explain it from the perspective of demand and purchasing power. They even had to analyze the form of society, the relationship between productivity and production, and human nature. It was too complicated.
If Li Xun were to explain to him that this world was a world of benefits, then he would definitely ask why so many people were willing to help others. This would involve the benefits on a spiritual level. Helping others was not selfless, it was also a type of selfishness, in order to obtain spiritual benefits.
Of course, this kind of selfishness to oneself was selflessness to others. But there were too many things that needed to be explained. It was already a profound philosophy. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan did not have so much energy to explain to Li Xun.
The two of them finally found a new way. To be precise, it was an idea.
The picture that Zhang Xiaobao drew on the blackboard with chalk was actually a round sphere made of iron. There was glass in one place, which was transparent glass. This thing was called that here. It was not a real glass. After all, the formula was different.
According to the water pressure, as long as they did not dive too deep, there would be no problem at all. It was very easy to dive down to 100 meters. It was impossible to crush it. The inside of the sphere could be illuminated with mirrors and candles. There was no need to illuminate too far. There were too many nail incense underwater here.
Without high-tech mining technology, they could find a lot of nail incense diving more than 10 meters in the water, let alone 100 meters deep. The only thing to solve was the problem of sealing.
As for the oxygen, there was no need to worry. With candles, including the breathing needs of people, a sphere with a diameter of two meters was absolutely no problem for a few hours. Besides, it did not need to take so long. Once an hour would be enough.
Zhang Xiaobao was going to use bearings to seal it. In other words, the people inside could complete the collection of nail incense by manually controlling the mechanical arm. Wang Juan opposed. She thought that the technology was not up to this level. How could a sealed bearing be so easy to make?
Even the propellers used for ships were filled with water. How could it be sealed? Would it be damaged so much? Not to mention, it was 100 meters deep. Wang Juan wanted to use some fish glue and fish skin to seal it. It was to make a big glove, the kind that could even put one's arm into it.
When the time came, they could go down to the water and grab one. They could also connect a rope to the outside. In case the glove was scratched, they could pull the rope and the people above would know. They could also use their hands to touch the nail incense. After all, the distance through the glass in the water was too short.
If the distance was too far, they could only increase the number of candles and thin the thickness of the glass, which was more dangerous.
The two of them did not have any data to calculate. Of course, Zhang Xiaobao did not know how to calculate this kind of thing, and Wang Juan did not have instruments. The two of them could only use their own imagination and then experiment. It was very simple. They first made the object and then put it into the water again and again.
They did not put people in it first. They only burned candles to see how long the oxygen inside could last. Another problem was the pressure. They put the metal sphere at different depths.
The two of them muttered there. Li Xun was almost done thinking at this time. He listened to Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan talk about density, water pressure, air pressure, oxygen, and so on. He was very confused. He often heard the two of them talk about some strange words, which were also in the book of nature. However, it seemed that the things involved today were different.
"You are right. I also understand. We can't let everyone not use the armor incense just because others are in danger. It's not bad to raise the price of the armor incense. But how do we raise the price?"
Li Xun came in front of the blackboard and asked. At the same time, he looked at the picture and felt that it was a little awkward. It was very different from normal pictures. He did not know that this was a three-dimensional picture. There were dotted lines and realized lines.
"If you want to raise the price, it's easy. Sister Xin Er can tell you. Ask Sister Xin Er." Wang Juan was there perfecting the picture. She did not have time to talk about such simple things.
Li Xun saw that she was busy and did not disturb her. After looking at it for a while, he really did not understand. He had to look for Xin Er. To him, she was not Xin Er's sister, but his younger sister.
Xin Er was still designing the doll. When she heard Li Xun ask, she blinked and said, "We can make a lot of money again. If we do this well, we can make a lot of money."
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