Chapter Twenty: The Manual Coal Briquette Machine

He Ziqi thought to himself, "Much of this ten-thousand-tael revenue comes from deposits. The coal briquettes needed for the coming winter are already sold out. The next inflow of cash won't arrive until spring, and it won't be nearly this much."

"This entire enterprise requires capital at every turn. What will we do when the time comes?"

The words reached the tip of his tongue, but He Ziqi stopped.

Previously, he had felt that compared to He Zhongan, he was older and more experienced, and naturally more knowledgeable. But now, he felt he knew very little about business. To speak too much was to risk error, and he feared exposing his own ignorance or making a fool of himself. It was better to remain silent.

Though he was worried, the various feats He Zhongan had already accomplished—things he could never have imagined—had instilled in him an unconscious conviction: He Zhongan would be able to solve these problems. He sighed, deciding against further persuasion. That sigh seemed to lament the fact that he truly could not fathom the situation at hand.

He Ziqi’s unspoken concern did not escape He Zhongan, who smiled and said, "Uncle Seven, you don't think I've only done this much, do you?"

"Dali, tell Uncle Seven."

"Yes," Xiong Dali replied. "Third Young Master long ago arranged for the people from the manor to pull carts filled with coal briquettes and stoves, peddling them through the streets and alleys. Buy ten thousand briquettes, and get a stove for free. We let them pay only after they’ve sold the goods."

He Zhongan had to admit that although the He family didn't have much liquid cash, their foundation was deep. If one were to offer such credit to others, many might simply run off with the money. But those who had started as He family servants would never do such a thing. That was why He Zhongan could push this initiative forward with such bold strokes.

"Third Master, you shouldn't use the family servants so casually," He Ziqi cautioned.

"I know. Dali has told me. The servants are the most important foundation of the He family; naturally, they shouldn't be used lightly. They are kept for the battlefield. However—" He Zhongan smiled, "I didn't employ them for nothing. I gave them a profit margin; for every cart of briquettes they sell, they earn a tenth of a tael of silver. Consider it a subsidy for their families."

He Zhongan knew that different markets required different methods. In bustling commercial areas like Qianmen, one could offer door-to-door promotion and free trials to entice larger deposits. But the average household could not afford such things. Everyone knew that the colder it got, the more expensive coal became, just as everyone knew that grain prices would rise during the lean season.

Yet, most commoners could not afford to stockpile coal for the entire winter, just as they could not save enough grain to last through the lean months. Was it that they didn't want to? No, it was that they couldn't. In a metropolis like Beijing with over a million people, most lived struggling below the subsistence line. They simply didn't have the money to buy several months' worth of coal at once.

He Zhongan knew he couldn't get large deposits from the common people all at once. But this was a long-term endeavor. With a million people near the capital all using coal stoves, the daily consumption was an astronomical figure. This was the true core of the coal briquette business.

Expanding this market would be slow. Now, with individuals pushing carts piled high with briquettes through the streets and alleys, it was gradually spreading. He Zhongan believed that for a long time to come, this would become a daily routine in Beijing.

"Don't worry, Uncle Seven. I have a plan. As long as the capital chain doesn't break, owing money is no big deal. I am actually more worried about production; the demand will outstrip supply."

Things turned out exactly as He Zhongan had anticipated. The demand for coal briquettes and stoves surged overwhelmingly. The debt He Zhongan owed for coal jumped from a few thousand taels to over ten thousand, forcing the coal yard manager to seek supplies from competitors.

Meanwhile, the horse farm kept hiring, and there was no longer a need to recruit exclusively from the He family’s manor. Seeing the success of the business, nearby villagers came seeking work—He Zhongan never delayed their monthly wages. Others wanted to act as resellers, though they didn't enjoy the same treatment as the manor staff and had to pay upfront. In short, as business boomed, the pressure shifted to the production side.

He Zhongan decided to abandon the coal stove business. Compared to the briquettes, the stove business was a minor affair. Every household needed coal daily and had to buy it every few days, whereas a stove was used for years or even decades. While it would be a steady, long-term trade, it could not compare to the turnover of coal. Moreover, the number of stoves needed to be increased rapidly to facilitate the sale of more coal.

He Zhongan simply sought out Lei Qianjun and asked him to find people to manufacture the stoves; he would buy as many as they could produce. If the craftsmen wanted to build and sell them themselves, that was fine, too—but Lei Qianjun had to find skilled artisans to do him a favor.

Lei Qianjun agreed immediately. There was no other reason than that the craftsmen of Beijing were not wealthy. Working for the Emperor often meant earning nothing, or even losing money. It had long been a common practice for artisans to take on private work on the side; otherwise, they could not support their families. But in this era, where were there so many private jobs to be found?

The reputation of the Marquis of Wuning’s estate might not mean much to the powerful, but to these craftsmen, it was an irresistible force. Even if they knew how to do the work, without He Zhongan’s word, they wouldn't dare do it openly. Now, with his approval, a path to wealth had been opened for them—how could they not be grateful?

As for working for He Zhongan, that was no burden. Many aristocrats used imperial craftsmen without paying them a cent, but He Zhongan always paid in full. Lei Qianjun felt he owed He Zhongan a great debt and naturally wanted to serve him with all his heart. He asked, "Master He, what would you like us to build?"

"Right here." He Zhongan handed a diagram to Lei Qianjun and said, "This is much simpler than a music box or a pocket watch. However, it must be durable."

Lei Qianjun examined the diagram closely. It was simple, yet he was deeply shaken. The mechanical structures were familiar, but under He Zhongan’s design, they seemed to possess a different kind of power. It was a solution he had never conceived of. At that moment, Lei Qianjun finally understood what it meant to turn the mundane into the miraculous.

"This is..."

He Zhongan hadn't thought of a name. After a moment of silence, he said, "Let's call it a manual coal briquette press."

The pocket watches and music boxes had provided He Zhongan with great inspiration. In his view, both the music boxes and the watches shared similarities with many machines from his past life. They could be divided into two parts: a power mechanism and a functional mechanism. The power mechanism was the mainspring, converting elastic potential energy into kinetic energy, while the functional mechanism used gears and other structures to perform specific tasks—music for the box, timekeeping for the watch.

He Zhongan had wondered then if he could design machines using this same logic. He just hadn't had a concrete goal at the time. Now that he did, this was the first project independently designed by him in this era: the manual coal briquette press.