Lin Ze said confidently that he had a way to sell the coal.
His words piqued the interest of the two officials.
"We'd be glad to hear the details. Zi Yi, please tell us."
Li He spoke.
"Coal itself isn't poisonous, but burning it consumes the air. If people stay in such an environment for a long time, there won't be enough air for them to breathe, and they'll be poisoned without realizing it."
"So, when burning coal indoors, you only need to make sure the room is ventilated to prevent this from happening. Using coal won't harm your health."
Lin Ze gave a simple explanation.
He didn't mention difficult terms like oxygen levels dropping too low or carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels rising too high when coal burned. Instead, he explained the cause of coal poisoning in a way people of Great Zhou could understand.
After a brief pause, Lin Ze continued, "If we establish a coal mine, we can widely publicize how coal poisoning happens and how to prevent it, so the common people won't have to worry about using coal. Then, if we sell it at the low price of five catties for one coin, we can move coal on a large scale."
"Compared with firewood at one coin per catty, five catties of coal for one coin is obviously much more appealing."
The main reason people wouldn't accept coal was that they were afraid of being poisoned.
Li He was half-convinced by Lin Ze's words.
But if the problem of coal poisoning could truly be solved, and coal was cheaper than firewood, then it would only be natural for the common people to accept it.
"Actually, it's very easy to verify this. We can light some coal and put it in two separate rooms, one ventilated and the other not."
"Then we can put an animal in each room. If the animal in the unventilated room dies, that will prove I'm telling the truth."
Lin Ze then proposed a detailed way to test his claim.
Hearing this, the two officials present were already more than half convinced. Such a detailed method of verification said a great deal.
Seeing the two officials across from him sink into thought, Lin Ze knew he had persuaded them to a considerable extent.
Next, he had to bring them in as allies and make sure they would shield the mine so it could operate smoothly.
At this point, Lin Ze turned to Gao Fei, the county clerk, and asked, "Lord Gao, how many households are there in Fengping County?"
Gao Fei answered without hesitation, "Eighty-three thousand four hundred and twenty-three households, with a total population of over six hundred and twenty thousand."
A household could have as little as one person, while larger households might have ten or twenty.
So an average of six hundred and twenty thousand people wasn't surprising.
"An average household usually cooks two meals a day, one cold and one hot, and uses fifteen catties of firewood. More than eighty thousand households would consume at least 1.25 million catties of firewood a day, costing 1,250 taels of silver."
"But wealthy families and merchants in town use even more firewood. Using dozens or even a hundred catties a day is easy for them. Even if we exclude country households that gather their own firewood, these wealthy families in town alone can consume at least 500,000 catties of firewood a day, worth five hundred taels of silver."
"Once our coal mine is up and running, we can sell coal cheaply at first. Later, after everyone gets used to using it, we can raise the price. There'll be no problem taking over this share of the fuel market, will there?"
"Even if we set aside transportation and labor costs, earning a hundred taels of silver a day shouldn't be a problem, right? And if we sell our coal beyond Fengping County, throughout Qingyu County, how much profit would we make then?"
"I'm willing to work with the two of you to get this coal mine running."
"When the time comes, not only will you receive a share of the profits, but opening the mine and paying substantial taxes will also count toward your political achievements. Perhaps you'll even enjoy smooth careers and rapid promotions in the future."
Lin Ze smiled as he spoke those tempting words.
Li He and Gao Fei found themselves unconsciously following his reasoning and doing the sums.
Even if they calculated net profits at just one hundred taels of silver a day, that would be three thousand taels a month and thirty-six thousand a year.
Even if everyone got only a portion, each of them would still earn several thousand or even ten thousand taels of silver.
And this wasn't dirty money that would make people spit curses behind their backs. It was a stable family business they could pass down to their descendants!
If you could earn money standing upright, who would choose to earn it on their knees?
Being an official was already lucrative, but nobody ever complained about having too little money.
Besides the profits, the political achievements and promotion Lin Ze had mentioned also tempted the two officials.
With all those benefits combined, their breathing grew quick.
"Zi Yi, you truly are young and promising."
Li He looked at Lin Ze with great warmth and praised him.
"If there were an outstanding young woman in my family, I'd wish I could arrange a marriage with a talent like Zi Yi."
Beside him, Gao Fei also sighed in admiration.
"Speaking of marriage, my younger daughter is sixteen and both beautiful and accomplished. If you have some free time, Zi Yi, you should visit my home sometime."
At this point, Li He smiled as he spoke.
He wasn't lying. Passing the Presented Scholar examination was already proof of good looks, and after becoming an official, he'd married a woman who was also attractive. It was only natural that his daughters would be both beautiful and accomplished.
As for Gao Fei, a local strongman who had risen from the ranks of minor officials, he didn't quite measure up.
A young talent like Lin Ze, both learned and skilled in martial arts, who aspired to study and pass the examinations, would be an exceptionally good son-in-law for him.
Their attitude made it clear that they had already agreed to Lin Ze's proposal.
In theory, after obtaining the coal-mining project from Lin Ze, they could have cut him out and run it themselves.
But first, a top-tier expert was not someone they could afford to offend lightly; second, they didn't understand the ways of business. So they chose to work with Lin Ze in peace.
"We can talk about marriage another time. What do you two think of the coal mine?"
Lin Ze set aside the marriage talk and returned to business.
"If we want to get this coal mine going, we can't overlook Commandant Liu, Liu Pei, who also serves as the deputy county magistrate in the outskirts. We'll have to win him over."
"These people may not be capable of getting things done, but they're more than capable of ruining them."
Li He treated the coal mine as part of his own enterprise and spoke bluntly.
"Zi Yi, have you considered what will happen once the coal mine is up and running and everyone in the county buys coal instead of firewood? How will the Zhang family, who run the local firewood business, respond? They have a family member serving as a county magistrate elsewhere."
At this point, Gao Fei spoke up as well, reminding Lin Ze.
"That's easy to handle. If they can sell firewood, they can sell coal too. I'll sell it to them at the mine gate for five catties per coin. They can buy it from me and sell three or even two catties for a coin—or even charge the same price as firewood. I won't mind, as long as they can sell it."
"The woodcutters can switch trades and work at the coal mine too."
Before you continue