Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2270 Economy and Party Struggle () Animal Powered Railway

Gao Pragmatic wanted to give this arsenal a royal name, but he actually had a certain intention. This is not necessarily about learning Western naming habits, but an attempt at transparency, which will be conducive to public opinion supervision over time.

Of course, it is not just about transparency. Just like he also named the military academy the Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy, this is to subtly establish a kind of thinking: military power belongs to the royal family.

This is not to flatter the emperor deliberately, but Gao pragmatically believes that the army must have a clear loyal target, otherwise it will easily become a warlord. Now it is impossible to expect the "feudal army" of the Ming Dynasty to be loyal to the people, so just make it clear that they are loyal to the emperor. You can always take this as a matter of course, right?

Although theoretically speaking, he is now probably the most warlord-like leader due to his high pragmatism, but he also has his own self-defense: My private soldiers are in southern Xinjiang and do not occupy "territory" in the Ming Dynasty. Although there are many armed servants in the local area, they rely on Jinghua's commercial income rather than separatist "territory".

In line with the principle of transparency, Gao Pragmatic also plans to have some of the royal family's industries undergo corporate reforms in accordance with Jinghua's model in the future, and then each of them will be named "Royal" and accept the supervision of public opinion in Shilin - of course, this will cause civil servants to The court can also better monitor them.

At the same time, the Tianjia also needs to establish some charitable organizations, such as the "Royal Charity Federation of the Ming Dynasty". The royal family will take the lead in doing some high-sounding charitable deeds. This will also help the Tianjia maintain a good reputation among the people, thus Strengthen the cohesion within the Ming Dynasty and strengthen the simple idea that "the emperor is always a good emperor, even if something bad happens, it must be because there are treacherous ministers around the emperor."

This matter itself was not difficult, because the internal funds were already relatively wealthy, and Zhu Yijun became more and more concerned about reputation because of the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. If he could spend a little money to buy reputation, the emperor would not refuse.

Nowadays, high pragmatism makes people hesitate about who is in charge of this charity federation. According to past rules, this work must be left to the inner court, such as the Chief Ceremony Supervisor. But when Gao pragmatically mentioned the matter to Liu Xin, Liu Xin suggested that the job should be left to the queen - even in name.

Her reasons are pragmatic and everyone knows that she must think that this will help improve the status of women to a certain extent. At least the queen, as the mother of a country, cannot just manage a harem. However, she is very pragmatic and agrees with this point of view.

Even if we do not view this issue from the perspective of later generations, we can look at it from the traditional perspective: the head wives of ordinary families should also aim to be good wives, and as the emperor's head wife, it is not unreasonable for the queen to help her husband build a good reputation. Something happened?

As for the traditional rule in China's feudal era that "harems are not allowed to interfere in politics", there is no conflict - how can you interfere in politics just by doing some charity? The money she spent was from internal funds, not from the treasury.

There is no problem with this, and Gao Pragmatic can accept it. But the problem is that once the Queen comes to run the Charity Federation, then the headquarters of the Federation will definitely be managed by eunuchs. After all, everyone in the Ming Dynasty will definitely not accept the Queen and ordinary men working in the same place, and the Charity Federation There must be contact with the outside world, so it is not appropriate to let the maids do it.

In this regard, Liu Xin put forward an idea, saying that the Charity Federation could also establish an "internal and external court" system, that is, an internal association should be established in the palace and an external association should be established outside the palace. The queen herself only appeared in the inner chamber, and the eunuchs were responsible for external liaison. There were no restrictions on the outer chamber and could fully play its role.

Liu Xin even proposed an idea, that is, various married women in the capital could join the internal committee of the Charity Federation and share part of the work - but she also made it clear that sharing work was a small matter, but gaining fame for the family was a big deal. There is no doubt that the Charity Federation can bring good reputation. Whether the married women are named in the Charity Federation or work in the Charity Federation, they can bring prestige to the family.

Gao Pragmatic fully agreed with this idea, and he knew that Liu Xin might have missed an important factor here: as the saying goes, people who are closer to the center of power have more power, so many officials will actively let their wives enter Charity Federation - The relationship between a married woman and the emperor is essentially the same.

The establishment of the royal arsenal was a major event. Seeing that the emperor wanted to discuss it in detail, Gao Pragmatic briefly explained it to Meng Guzhezhe and his entourage. Finally, Gao Mo arranged it, and the emperor and his ministers went to the rest room on the edge of the racecourse, ready to have a good talk. .

Although Gao Jingshi deliberately changed the topic just now, the emperor immediately confirmed that Gao Jingshi would return to the cabinet to take care of the matter, and once again emphasized that the court could not do without him now, even for a day.

There were no outsiders at the moment, so Gao Pragmatic had less worries and said bluntly: "It will take a few more days to return to the cabinet to review the matter. However, if there is something difficult to decide in the court, the emperor can ask the Supervisor of Ceremonies to send someone to inquire about the minister. I must know everything and tell you everything.”

Zhu Yijun frowned and said: "Why go to all this trouble? Can't you just go back to the pavilion to take care of the matter? In the past two days, the attacks on you have basically stopped, but the number of memorials to intercede for you is increasing day by day. As long as I take advantage of the situation and deal with the group of people who impeached you before, the whole crisis will be over. "

The truth is of course this, and the normal process is almost like this, but Gao Wuchen doesn't want to do this now. He said sincerely to the emperor: "The emperor loves and protects me, and I am naturally grateful. However, the bullets that impeached me last time are not unreasonable. At least the matter of Jinghua Infrastructure's promotion of sewer construction, in my opinion, it is not unreasonable." The means are open to question.”

"Oh?" Zhu Yijun was a little surprised: "How do you say that?"

"Things are good, and the goods are good, but as accused in the bullet, if Jinghua Infrastructure takes on these jobs, many local officials will indeed be worried that if they refuse, they will offend Weichen, the chief minister of the government." Gao pragmatically said: "This is indeed suspected of using power for personal gain."

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said: "But you don't know it, so I can't blame you. Besides, since this thing is a good thing in itself and it didn't cause any trouble, why bother to delve into it?"

"The rules must not be broken, otherwise future generations will follow suit." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said, "I have a plan for this matter. I can fine Jinghua Infrastructure a heavy penalty, such as tens of thousands of taels of silver."

Zhu Yijun was surprised: "This is your own property, and there hasn't been any serious trouble. Is it appropriate to fine you tens of thousands of taels all at once?"

"It's appropriate, it's so appropriate." Gao pragmatically said: "There is no rule without rules. It is precisely because it is the property of the minister, so once the rules are violated, it must be severely punished. Otherwise, how can we serve as a warning to others?"

Zhu Yijun looked at Gao Pragmatic's subtle expression carefully, and seeing that he was not polite, he hesitated and said: "Do you really think it is necessary? Well, you are the chief minister, and you can handle these matters in the court... But this money penalty How to deal with it?"

Gao pragmatically said: "Return it to the local government offices and divide it according to their actual project expenditures."

Zhu Yijun thought for a while and felt that there was no problem, so he could only sigh: "Since you insist so much, I will let you go. However, since the punishment has been paid, you should return to the cabinet to take care of the matter, right?"

Gao pragmatically said: "There is one more thing that needs the emperor's permission."

"Tell me." Zhu Yijun said, "If there are any other conditions, please put them forward."

Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "This is not a condition... I hope that the emperor will not pursue the officials who impeached me this time."

"No investigation?" Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "That won't work. If the minister impeaches the minister without investigation, it will definitely mess up the rules and destroy the dignity of superiors and subordinates."

Gao Pangshi muttered: "The emperor can pursue the case first, and the ministers will beg for mercy..." "I know this, don't worry." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said: "I will first decree that they will be flown for three thousand miles, and then wait. If you ask me again, I will resign and return home; if you ask me a second time, I will change my position to a lower level; if you ask me again and again, I won’t change my position again - this is okay, right?”

That's definitely fine. You've already done a complete set of scenes. What else is there to say?

Gao Jingshi quickly thanked him, and Zhu Yijun said: "Okay, okay, this matter is settled... It will take at least three days to complete this process. During these three days, I asked the Director of Ceremonies to come directly with Shuwen Here, after you have decided on a few important matters, let’s talk about the arsenal.”

Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "What do you want to ask your Majesty?"

Zhu Yijun asked: "I remember you once said that building a factory is a science, and it requires the support of certain important resources, as well as convenient water and land transportation, etc., right?"

Gao pragmatically said: "Of course."

"The most suitable place near the capital must be your Kaiping Industrial Zone, right?" Zhu Yijun asked.

"Uh...I think it should be so." Gao pragmatically replied.

Zhu Yijun said: "You have bought all the good places in Kaiping a long time ago. Now they are well built and the production scale is good. I don't think there is any need for the Royal Arsenal to join in the fun."

Gao Pragmatic didn't know what the emperor wanted to express, and felt that the emperor hadn't finished speaking yet, so he couldn't answer. He just looked at Zhu Yijun with inquiring eyes.

Zhu Yijun didn't play casually and asked directly: "I think it will take some time to build the Royal Arsenal, and it will also take time to get the manpower and materials in place. It will definitely not be able to catch up with the first batch of production. In addition, there is the Kaiping Industrial Zone in Jiubian. It is enough... …Then, it is better to locate the Royal Arsenal in the south, and its future products will mainly be supplied to other than the Nine Borders and Ten Armies. What do you think?”

The term "nine sides and ten armies" is a bit interesting. "Nine sides" refers to the old system, and "ten armies" is obviously based on Gao Pragmatic's previous military reform ideas, which refers to the ten A-type armies.

Gao pragmatic thought for a moment, shook his head and said: "It can be done this way in the early stage, but when everything is ready in the Royal Arsenal, Beijing and China will not be able to supply a certain army on a fixed basis. They must bid on a yearly basis or a certain type of equipment."

Zhu Yijun was stunned and asked: "Why is this?"

"Because this is the reason why I insist on cultivating a competitor for Jinghua Arsenal." Gao pragmatically said: "If the two factories divide their own supply armies, how can there be any competition?

Suppose that the quality of the weapons produced by Jinghua deteriorates in the future, and the border troops complain. However, since the emperor stipulates that the border troops use Jinghua weapons, Jinghua does not care about the feedback from the border troops and still supplies some scrap copper and iron. Then the imperial armaments will be immediately abolished. ?

Similarly, if the Royal Arsenal cannot provide high-quality weapons, the various B armies will feel that they can only use these inferior goods, so they will have no intention to train their troops. Over time, how can they not be corrupted?

Therefore, Chen needs two arsenals to compete with each other and rely on product quality to complete the Ministry of War's public bidding. In Chen's vision, in the future, the Ministry of War's bidding will allow two arsenals to each produce their own products and compete in public, and the winner will get the order. "

Zhu Yijun suddenly realized, but after thinking about it, he discovered another problem: "But according to your words, if one of them fails to get orders several times in a row, wouldn't it mean that there is no income and it will end up going bankrupt?"

Hey, the emperor has really made great progress, and he actually has some business thinking.

Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "This matter is difficult to say and easy to say. As long as the imperial court authorizes the arsenal that is in a worrying situation to produce a part of the order - this ratio cannot be high, basically it only needs to ensure that the arsenal can survive. Then we can squeeze out a little profit to invest in research and development.”

This is a good idea, and Zhu Yijun is very satisfied. In fact, the reason why he just wanted to divide the "spheres of influence" of the two arsenals according to the military was mainly because he had no confidence in this yet-to-be-established royal arsenal.

This is not surprising. These companies run by Gao Pragmatic are too strong. Zhu Yijun feels that although the business of his group of nobles seems to be okay, they will definitely not be able to do Gao Pragmatic. If there is free competition, it is estimated that they will be destroyed in a few years. If you can lose everything, that would be a bad thing.

Now the term "high pragmatism" is very good. Even if you can't beat Jinghua, you can at least maintain it, and at least you won't lose everything. As for whether they can be "Jinghua's competitors" in the future, that depends on their own performance... Of course, if there is excess internal funds, they can also provide more or less support.

After talking about these things, the two spent some time. Zhu Yijun saw that it was getting late and planned to return to the palace. Unexpectedly, Gao Pragmatic stopped him and said: "Your Majesty, there is something else..."

Zhu Yijun had no choice but to sit down again and asked, "What's the matter?"

Gao pragmatically said: "I have a brand new road project called the railway..."

Yes, although the steam engine has not yet disappeared, Gao Pragmatic has already planned to propose an "animal-drawn railway" plan.

In fact, the "railway" proposed by Gao Pangshi is essentially just a "rail transportation", which is equivalent to the "horse-drawn carriageway" in history. Historically, horse-drawn tracks referred to the horses, equipment and tracks used to pull freight cars before steam-powered railroads.

As early as the 16th century, horses were commonly used to pull cargo in tunnels and coal mines, and almost all mines built in the 16th and 17th centuries used horse-drawn track coal cars as the only mode of transportation. In the Holy Roman Empire, which later became the German region, wooden tracks for mines appeared around 1550.

Horse-drawn tracks used wooden tracks before the Industrial Revolution. It was not until 1760 that tracks reinforced with iron bars appeared, and in 1767 iron tracks appeared. As for why this is done, of course it is because horse-drawn track wagons can transport more cargo with the same power.

"Railway?" Zhu Yijun obviously heard such a strange word for the first time, and couldn't help but wonder: "What does this mean? You want to pave a road with iron? What's the use of that?"
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