Zhang Cheng, who was sitting on the recliner, asked calmly: "What happened?"

"Around New Year, the arsenal of the Army Ministry talked to me about acquiring our artillery factory. However, we never came to an agreement."

There were many reasons for not reaching an agreement. When Zhang Cheng went on vacation, he gave various plans to Manager Hacker. For example, the artillery factory should be sold for one million gold coins.

This asking price is really not that much. The artillery factory currently generates a monthly pre-tax profit of 100,000 gold coins, and an after-tax profit of only about 60,000 to 70,000 gold coins. However, it can be earned back in more than a year.

The Ministry of War has also conducted an investigation. You only bought this artillery factory for 4,000 gold coins. Although you have added some equipment and personnel later, you have already made it all back. If you don't sell it after offering 20,000 gold coins, you are going crazy.

In the end, the War Department offered 100,000 gold coins, but they refused to pay a penny more.

Manager Huck is not crazy. Who would use more than a month's net profit to sell the entire factory.

Manager Huck explained the cause of the accident: "In the end, the Army Department contacted the workers at the artillery factory, spent money to buy out the contract, and finally took away eight people."

"They are still willing to spend money. Has the arsenal of the Ministry of War now produced qualified artillery?" Zhang Cheng remembered that when the salary was raised, he signed a new formal contract with the workers, and he had to pay five yuan to leave.

Liquidated damages of one thousand gold coins, of course. According to the contract, even if these workers lose their ability to work in the future, Zhang Cheng will support them for the rest of their lives according to their current salary until they die. Poaching eight people does not count as their treatment, it is only a breach of contract.

Jin is going to spend 40,000 gold coins.

Manager Hacker: "I'm not sure, but during this period, the purchase of our artillery has been reduced. Now there are 270 field artillery pieces in the warehouse, with nearly 30,000 rounds of artillery shells."

Zhang Cheng waved his hand: "The Army has almost bought this field artillery. It is time for new shipments. Tomorrow I will guide the production. We are going to develop an 18-pound siege cannon."

The next day, Zhang Cheng went to the factory early in the morning and took the lead in public relations. Starting from opening the mold, he redesigned the new artillery. The difficulty was not that great. It was just about enlarging the caliber, lengthening the caliber, or front-loading the artillery. How difficult could it be?

However, compared to field artillery weighing several dozen kilograms, the newly developed eighteen-kilogram siege gun weighs more than five hundred kilograms. With the newly designed iron gun mount weighing more than three hundred kilograms, it is more than ten kilograms heavier than before.

times.

But is this a siege cannon? It makes sense to be heavier.

Because the diameter is larger, the initial velocity of the shells is higher, and the heavy shells have the ability to break the city wall. Of course, one or two shells are definitely not enough, but they cannot withstand dozens or hundreds of shells.

, what city wall means sooner or later is also an inverted word.

In fact, the Army is still purchasing the field artillery in the past, but it has reduced the number of purchases. It seems that the arsenal of the Ministry of the Army has not completed the mass production of field artillery, otherwise it would be better to purchase directly from its own arsenal.

Manager Hacker has already found out that the Army Arsenal's quotation for field artillery to the War Department is only five hundred gold coins.

This price is still profitable for the bronze casting industry, but there is no profit for arms dealers. Is it just to earn this hard-earned money by putting all your efforts into selling arms? It's nonsense.

Therefore, after the eighteen-pound new siege cannon was put into production, Zhang Cheng's price was 10,000 gold coins. One shell cost three gold coins.

Considering today's field operations, more field artillery is just the icing on the cake for the Chicken Country Army, and siege artillery is what the Chicken Country Army lacks most. Once this is taken out, are you afraid that there will be no market?

With Zhang Cheng's return, Manager Huck returned to his old business of selling jewelry. The commission in this business is no less than the commission in arms sales, and Manager Huck is familiar with the business.

As batches of leftover jewelry picked up by nobles appeared, the store at the door finally opened. Manager Huck brought an apprentice - his nephew. In the morning, Manager Huck sold jewelry here, and in the afternoon he went to various stores.

Home aristocratic home promotion.

After returning, after finishing his work on the new siege cannon at the artillery factory, Zhang Cheng called the three knights at home after breakfast: "Now that we are back, what are your wishes?"

Miranda spoke first: "Both my parents want to change their jobs, but they don't know what to change?"

Aisha: "My father's work is enough to support the family, but I think it will be difficult for my younger brothers and sisters in the future. If possible, I would like to find a way out for them."

Ariel: "I have the same idea, sir."

"It is human nature to improve the life of the family. It is impossible to work part-time, and I have never heard of anyone being successful in doing it. Business is nothing more than food, clothing, housing and transportation. My family started by selling jewelry, which is part of the clothing. As the saying goes

, People depend on food, and I see that there are still very few restaurants on the street. So, I will write a recipe, and the three of you will take it home and start a snack business with a part of the start-up capital. "

After arriving in Xiniu Hezhou, Zhang Cheng had long discovered that the food here was monotonous, with only three staple foods: wheat, oats, and potatoes.

In fact, even if you only have wheat, you can play countless tricks. Unfortunately, you can't see anything from dragon noodles to spring rolls here. Except for bread, it's just fried bread slices. In a word, it's monotonous.

The method given by Zhang Cheng is an economical snack and pie that can be eaten immediately, with both meat and vegetables. Because I live on Dixi Street now, this pie is called Dixi pie for short.

It is said that the method of making pie is not difficult, it is nothing more than flour, meat and vegetables, a frying pan, um, some salt and seasonings, and olive oil.

But I can’t stand it. People here in Hezhou, Xiniu, have a history of eating flour for thousands of years, but their minds just can’t turn around.

In addition to the recipe for Dixie pie, there are also one hundred gold coins per person, three days of vacation, and three days of use of a carriage for each person, which is regarded as a reward for the three knights to fight off the pirates.

Compared to Elsa, Miranda and Ariel, whose family is still in relatively difficult circumstances, value this opportunity more.

One hundred gold coins will eventually be spent, but if you really have a skill, you can really eat and drink endlessly.

Ariel took the carriage home as soon as she had a vacation. After being away for more than half a year, her home was still the same. There was no excitement in the early morning because the family could not afford to raise chickens and dogs.

Because her master blessed her with the spell of understanding words, Ariel, who was originally illiterate, was able to understand the recipe written by her master.

Ariel returned home: "Where is father?"

Mother: "Go to work, they have to go there earlier now."

"Forget it, stop all the work at home and go shopping with me in the market."

Mother: "What to buy?"

"Four, meat, vegetables, olive oil, salt, seasonings."

She took her mother on the carriage and went all the way to the morning market, where she bought refined flour, meat, vegetables, salt and oil, etc. at wholesale prices. When she returned home, Ariel let her mother and younger siblings watch and cut the meat into cubes herself.

Then chop the vegetables, add salt and seasonings, mix evenly, add water and knead the dough, take out a ball of dough as big as your fist, press it into a dough with a wooden stick, wrap the stuffing in it, and press it lightly.

The fire has already been lit, put on the frying pan, a little olive oil, and fry the pie. After both sides are cooked, use wooden tongs to remove it. One piece of Disi pie is completed.

Ariel didn't control the size of the pie when she made it for the first time. The resulting pie weighed two kilograms. Ariel cut it in half and gave it to her younger siblings to try.

Although she didn't eat it, just by smelling the aroma, Ariel knew that this was much more fragrant than the bread and vegetable soup combination at home. For the poor, at least they had meat to eat. Although the meat and vegetable noodles were almost the same.

It’s only one-third, but if it’s all meat, no one can stand it.

After making a few more Dishi pies and satisfying the family for breakfast, Ariel asked: "What do you think will happen if this is sold?"

The mother thought for a while: "If money is not so tight and a pie sells for three or four coppers, I will occasionally buy some for my children to eat."

The price of black bread in the market is about one and a half copper coins per pound. Citizens' families basically buy black bread from the market, because baking bread also requires skills, and baking bread once will bake too much bread and cannot eat it at home, and bake too little bread.

That's a waste of firewood - the firewood for heating in citizens' homes also costs money.

Moreover, the bakery's firewood and flour are purchased at wholesale prices, and the price of retail bread is not much different from the price of bread baked by citizens themselves.

After all, the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of baking bread is not as good as buying bread.

Ariel thought for a moment: "I'll calculate the cost."

Taking a pen and paper, Ariel began to calculate the accounts.

The mother and younger brothers and sisters were all shocked. Ariel was just as illiterate as them six months ago.

Based on how many materials were used and how much the unit price was, Ariel finally concluded that if each pie weighed one pound, it would cost about 1.75 copper plates. This did not include the rent and labor costs.

But after all, you have to rent a house anyway, so you can just make the pies at home. As for the labor cost, the parents and younger siblings make the pie together, and the rest is earned.

Mr. Pan Yao also said that compared to serious restaurants, this kind of snack can only be regarded as fast food. You can make it at home and sell it by opening the door and window. It can even be delivered to your door if the other party wants a lot.

Then Ariel asked her mother and younger siblings to help make more pies for today's lunch and dinner. It was said that the pies would not go bad if kept for a day, and they could be eaten the next day if they were warmed up.

When Ariel's father came back from carrying work at the dock at noon, he ate three pies in one go.

After making a cup of bad tea for her father to eat, Ariel asked: "How much can my father earn in a day at the dock?"

Father: "I did a lot of work in the morning. I earned fifteen coppers this morning. It depends on the situation in the afternoon. If I'm lucky, I can earn about ten coppers."

Ariel: "So, the situation is good, it's two silver coins a day. It's almost thirty-six gold coins a year."

The father shook his head: "The best time is only thirty gold coins. We can't work on rainy days. Even if we want to work, the cargo owner is afraid that the rain will wet the goods. And on Sunday, even if the weather is good, we will only be able to work.

It’s a half-day job and I have to go to church in the afternoon.”

Ariel: "Working on the pier is not a long-term solution. Why not try selling Dixie pies tomorrow and the day after tomorrow? There are many poor people here, but if we lower the price, there will still be customers."

Mother: "How much do you plan to sell this pie for?"

Ariel: "Three coppers each, and four silver coins each. In this way, we can make a slight profit, and we can almost support the whole family by relying on the neighbors' business. In the future, when the younger brothers and sisters grow up and start a family, we can also live in the new house.

The family makes a living selling Dixie pies.”

According to Ariel's own speed experiment, if one person makes a pie, it can feed more than a dozen people at dinner time. If two people make a pie, the speed will not increase exponentially, but will increase as one plus one is greater than two.

The most troublesome part of making a pie is making the meat filling, but this can be done at less busy times, such as after dinner or lunch.

The family was ready to give it a try, so they made it as promised, and started preparing pies for the evening. Because they made a lot of pies, they also sent two or three Dixie pies to all the neighbors they knew well. Ariel’s father could also make them.

I eat three Dixie Pies in one meal, but for manual workers and ordinary clerical workers, one piece is about the same.

The two or three Dixie pies sent to the neighbors, even if they were shared, would only be enough for everyone in the family to taste them.

The advantage of Dixi pie is that it is integrated, combining meat, vegetables and noodles, with oil and salt. What else do you want from a bicycle?

For nobles who pay attention to respectability, and for big businessmen who constantly move closer to the nobles in life, this kind of eating method is not decent enough.

However, for ordinary workers, this is already a good meal, especially heavy manual workers. They must eat some meat every day. If there is no meat, there must be enough oil and water in the vegetable soup, otherwise they will not have the energy to do heavy physical work.

.

Ariel's family is a dockworker family, and the neighbors nearby are similar. Three copper coins per pound of Dixie pie is twice as expensive as black bread, but black bread has no meat, and even no oil or water. Brown bread is

It is said that it needs to be soaked in vegetable soup for a few minutes before it can be chewed.

The next day, the family got up early and got busy before dawn. First, they cut vegetables, meat and noodles, then lit a fire and started making Dixi pies.

By the time people were walking on the street, the family had already prepared a dozen Disi pies, a pile of meat fillings and large pieces of dough.

Ariel's three-and-a-half-year-old brother, sitting at the door, shouted in a clear voice: "Dixie pie, meat pie, delicious Dixie pie, three copper plates each, four silver coins each."

There were not many transactions at the beginning, and the people who came to buy were all the neighbors who had given Dixi pies yesterday. First, they bought a few pies as a return gift, and second, after all, they tasted the pies yesterday and the pies tasted pretty good.

Most of the pies left in the morning were eaten by the family as breakfast after 9:30, and there were still ten pies left. However, only more than 20 pies were sold, and the income was only more than 80

copper plate.

It just opened. I asked for leftover pies at noon. My father put thirty pieces of pies in a rattan basket and took them to the dock to sell them to the dock workers here for lunch. As a result, they were all sold at noon, and most of the pies were bought by

For bachelors who form temporary gangs with others, dock workers need to have a full meal and meat, so it is normal for them to spend seven or eight copper coins.
Chapter completed!