As soon as Hao Tong disappeared, he was more than a dozen, so Su Hao was a little doubtful that he had gone back to Yunnan. Deng Kui did what he said. Among these, he was really following Su Hao, and he was always there. It seemed that he regarded Su Hao as a key target for protection.

Su Hao was too lazy to guess what these two soldiers were thinking. He still had his own business to do. Deng Kui was willing to follow him. Su Hao was also very happy. At least he could treat Deng Kui as an orderly soldier from time to time, helping with errands, moving things, etc.

Daiqi returned from the provincial capital and brought back the kiln photo issued by the General Administration Office, which contained the signing of the household house and the workshop. Daiqi told Su Hao that the General Administration Office was very supportive of opening the coal mine, and also issued a document to Fengcheng County, asking the county government to provide necessary convenience. As for the mining tax of the coal mine, the household house made a rough estimate and determined that the annual tax amount was 500 taels. In addition, the clerk of the household house also specifically told Daiqi that if the coal mine production was less than 5 million jin by then, he could apply for tax exemption.

In the Ming Dynasty, the yamen were set up, and there were corresponding departments from zhong yāng to local areas. The six departments of zhong yāng corresponded to six houses in the local area, and also called six Caos. The household houses and workshops mentioned by Dai Qi were all provincial institutions. Although the names of institutions were the same as those in the county, the levels were completely different.

"Will the race go so smoothly?" Su Hao asked in surprise. In his impression, the officialdom in the late Ming Dynasty should be extremely dark and decadent. According to his guess, how could it take several months to get these certificates?

Dai Qi smiled and said, "Master Su, you don't know anything. Our coal mine is also an act to improve people's livelihood. The General Secretary has always strongly advocated such things."

"So that's it." Su Hao said.

"Of course, I also made some reservations on the household housing side. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so easy to talk about in terms of tax assessment." Dai Qi said.

"..." Su Hao was speechless. He just wanted to praise the provincial officials for being honest.

Dai Qi said again: "We don't want to be filial to the workshop. However, Nanchang Mansion is extremely short of coal in winter, so the Ries official in the workshop specifically reminds me that this winter is dead, and he will leave hundreds of thousands of kilograms of good coal for him, and he will give it to all the officials in the province."

"These hundreds of thousands of kilograms of good coal are for free, right?" Su Hao asked worriedly.

Dai Qi said: "Of course not. They will buy it at the market price. It is not easy to buy good coal now, and no one can take out hundreds of thousands of kilograms of coal at once to be a filial piety."

"Haha, that means we have also mastered some scarce supplies and can wait for the price." Su Hao smiled.

With the kiln photos, the coal mining business of Su's Commercial Bank is completely legal. In Xuanfeng Township, Yu Fuyang has recruited nearly 200 Yifu, who are mining coal, concentrated in the mountain farm of Zhao Luo's family, and can start working at any time.

According to Su Hao's instructions, Chen Guanyu and Xu Zong organized Yifu to build a temporary shed as their residence. Although it was just a temporary residence, Su Hao still asked them to ensure that the environment was tidy, and that garbage should not be piled up in front of and behind the house. It was strictly forbidden to drink alcohol or fight in the residence. Su Hao also specifically instructed Chen Guanyu to invite more than a dozen women from the surrounding villages to be responsible for cooking, washing, and cleaning for Yifu, which is known as the logistics department.

Various coal mining tools are also actively preparing. Su Hao and Yu Fuyang jointly designed a huge bellows, which can use four or five inlets to drive air down the well at a depth of 100 meters to discharge gas from the underground. A simple mine cart has also been designed, which can be filled with nearly a thousand kilograms of coal, and can be easily pushed out of the tunnel with one inlet.

The improvements of these tools were all designed by Su Hao and then found carpenters and blacksmiths to realize them. In this process, Su Hao was once again impressed by the superb skills and rich imagination of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen.

After another survey, Su Hao finally selected five wells in the mountainous ground in Xuanfeng Township, and asked Yu Fuyang to lead Yifu and his friends to dig up a vertical shaft to find the coal seam. Learning from Yu Fuyang's original coal mine, Su Hao told Yu Fuyang that if he encountered a coal seam with a thickness of less than three feet, do not stay, but continue to dig downwards, and there will naturally be thicker coal seams below.

"Master Su, what do you mean is that if I dig the coal tunnel down further, there will be thick coal seams under it?" Yu Fuyang asked Su Hao.

Su Hao smiled slightly and said, "If Yu Dongtou is interested, you might as well let Yifu dig and try it. Don't have to dig too deep. Dig another 20 feet, and it should have a result."

When Yu Fuyang heard this, he really found a few people to dig deeper on the basis of his original coal mine. After digging 20 feet, he found another coal seam that was as thick as six or seven feet. Yu Fuyang then realized how big a mistake he had made before. Now it was too late to realize, because all his coal mines had been sold to Su Hao.

Of course, Yu Fuyang did not resent Su Hao in this matter. He did not learn skills and went to Baoshan without leaving any hand. He couldn't blame him for not being able to return. He is now holding a high salary in Su Hao's mine. Judging from the output of the coal mine, he probably wouldn't have less dividends in the future. Overall, his income was a few percent more than when he was a Dongtou, so he was satisfied.

After knowing the gap between him and Su Hao, Yu Fuyang became even more devoted and firmly believed that as long as he followed Su Hao, he would naturally have the opportunity to become a success after he followed him.

While starting to mine coal vigorously, Su Hao arranged to build several lime kilns in the mountain ground and began to burn lime. Limestone is something everywhere, so it is not difficult to take. The process of burning lime is also very simple. Just stack the limestone and coal cakes alternately in the kiln layer by layer, and then burn them in the fire, and you can get quicklime. Xu Zong has some experience in this area, so the management of the lime kiln was completely left to Xu Zong.

There is no need to worry about the sales of quicklime. Zhu Xi has greeted the farmers in several surrounding villages and recruited tenants to transform the red soil wastelands in Zhao Luo’s farm. Su Hao promised to provide him with 500,000 kilograms of quicklime and 250,000 kilograms of phosphate powder, enough to transform 50 hectares of wasteland. Zhu Xi has calculated repeatedly with the abacus. If the rent of 1 stone of rice per mu of land is collected, then after deducting the cost of these fertilizers, the Zhao family will be able to earn at least 1,000 taels of income.

The most important thing is that the land rent can be received every year. After applying lime and phosphorus fertilizer for several consecutive years, the soil quality will be fully improved. In the future, only fertilizer will be applied once every few years. This way, the cost can be greatly reduced and the Zhao family's income will be improved.

Cheng Yi was formally recruited to the Su Trading Company. After Su Hao's short-term training, he was sent to the coal mine to serve as chief accountant. The name of this position was invented by Su Hao, but everyone can understand it. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, China called the official responsible for accounting for official financial and income and expenditure as the Sihui, and at the same time, he called the regular flow accounts and the summary of accounts as the meeting. The full name of the two is that it is said to be "monthly calculation and year-round meeting".

In the tenth year of Wanli, a classic compiled by the Ministry of Revenue that described the national financial situation was called "Wanli Accounting Record". From this, it can be seen that the word accounting has existed for a long time, but ordinary commercial banks call this position an accountant.

Su Hao offered Cheng Yi a high salary of 5 taels of silver per month, and asked her to be responsible for all the cashiers in the coal mine. Even Xu Zong and Yu Fuyang were controlled by her. Cheng Yi was originally from an official family, but because of the difficulties, she had been living a life of low elegance over the years. Now that she is in power, the girl has suddenly regained her youth, full of energy and domineeringness, and has the enthusiasm of some women in later generations to enter.

While the coal mine was settled, Su Hao took him to the mountainous area south of Fengcheng for a walk, and bought several inconspicuous hills from the local landlords at the price of buying wasteland. In the eyes of those landlords, these hills had no other use except for planting some oil tea trees. Some fools from the county town were willing to spend money to buy them, so why don’t they do it?

Su Hao recruited a group of stonemasons in the county and formed them into several groups. Each group was sent to several hills to mine stones from an old stonemason and a yamen runner from the workshop as the heads of the team. The stones picked by the stonemasons were pulled back to the vicinity of the county town by ox carts and piled them in a yard bought by Chen Guanyu, waiting for further processing.

In Su Hao's eyes, these stones that are not worth a penny are all treasures. Some of them are phosphate ores, which can be thrown into the field as phosphate fertilizer as long as they are smashed. They can be sold for 3 cents of silver for every 100 kilograms; some are quartz stones, and the father and son of the Hao family have successfully melted high-quality glass with them; there is also a kind of gray-brown stone with a little metallic luster. Su Hao did not say what they are for, but just told them to pay attention to rain protection and not to wet these stones.

Thanks to the 500 taels of silver notes left by Hao Tong, Su Hao started so many projects at the same time. Although the cost of each project was carefully calculated, the money was still used up like flowing water. Fortunately, the coal mines have begun to produce, and the glass workshops of the Hao family and his son can also provide Su Hao with some profits, so that Su Hao will not fall into a financial crisis.

When all the undertakings began to get on track and Su Hao finally breathed a sigh of relief, Hao Tong also reappeared. A military officer wearing a mandarin duck battle robe appeared with Hao Tong, who looked majestic, like an official. Su Hao had no research on the clothing of the Ming Dynasty officials, and could not tell what level the other party was.

"Old Hao, what are you bringing?" Su Hao asked Hao Tong strangely.

"Master Su, this is Fang Shu, the commander of Nanchang Guard, and Fang Dajie." Hao Tong introduced to Su Hao in a low voice.
Chapter completed!