my steam dam

Chapter 19 The Gold Swallowing Beast-like Research Institute

"Hey hey hey"

Until he left the Mu Mansion, the smile on Pen Ke's face could not dissipate.

Sitting in the car, he would touch the banknotes in his chest from time to time, laughing twice, which made Ah Hu who had been following him a little bit unbearable.

"My lord, what are you laughing at?" Ah Hu couldn't help asking.

"No laughing, happy, happy, can't you?" Peng Ke glanced at Ahu and said cheerfully.

To be honest, Peng Ke has always felt that he should be the most hip traveler, and he has been troubled by lack of money all year round.

When others travel to ancient times, they are all engaged in various technology trees, and the hands of glass, lime, and gunpowder are numb.

But after he came to this world and became the son of Marquis Huaining, he really could only look at Baoshan and sigh.

In this world, things like glass, cement, and gunpowder have long existed.

Fast-moving consumer goods such as soap and perfume have also appeared in the upper class.

Let’s just say, it’s not that there’s no profit. After all, the market hasn’t opened yet. With Peng Ke’s experience in various product marketing routines in his previous life, there is hope that he can make a lot of money in this Ming Dynasty where business is still very backward. .

But, he is noble!

It was still the honor of Emperor Hongwu when he was in power in the early Ming Dynasty!

With this status, he was doomed not to engage in commercial activities!

Even since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the nobles have controlled businessmen to make money for them, but now they can't do it!

Under the eyes of Emperor Hongwu, and under the watchful eyes of the wolf-like Jin Yiwei, as long as they are officials of the third rank or above, and nobles above the earl, they don't even think about using their brains in business.

The aristocrats have high status and high power, but they really don't have much money, at least in the early Ming Dynasty, everyone controlled the real estate.

For example, the Marquis of Huaining has tenants of several hectares of fertile land, and there are some land industries in the south of the Yangtze River, but they are limited to land.

Business activities such as shops and factories cannot be done.

Even if you secretly control some businessman to do it for you, as long as Jin Yiwei finds out, it is illegal and you will be beheaded.

This regulation prohibiting officials from engaging in business did not become effective until the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

So in the early Ming Dynasty, especially when Emperor Hongwu was in power, it was not a very comfortable thing to be a noble.

The perennial working capital of Huaininghou's mansion is only a few thousand taels of silver, and it can't compare to the private money of Mu Xiyun, a rich lady!

Of course, if it is really urgent, it is still possible to sell the land bestowed by the emperor and raise a few 10 taels of silver.

But this kind of ancestral business will definitely not be done unless it is absolutely necessary.

So from childhood to adulthood, although Peng Ke's status is very noble and powerful, after taking over the Jinyiwei, he also killed the world with fear, which can be called the glory of the world.

But he really didn't have much money in his hands.

When I was young, I only had a few taels to a dozen taels of pocket money on hand.

When I got older, after I started to get in touch with politics, the disposable money on hand was only a few hundred taels all the year round.

Although a few hundred taels was already a huge sum of money for most ordinary people in Ming Dynasty, it was really not enough for Peng Ke.

It took him nearly ten years to develop a usable thermal generator, and he invested 2000 taels of silver every year to progress from the most basic hand-operated generator to the original thermal generator.

This is because the steam engine technology in this world is really too developed, so Penke can only invest a small 1 taels to create a thermal generator.

After all, the energy conversion process of thermal power generation is fuel chemical energy→steam thermal energy→mechanical energy→electrical energy.

Simply put, it uses fuel to generate heat, heats water, and forms high-temperature and high-pressure superheated steam, and then the steam enters the steam turbine along the pipeline to continuously expand and do work, impacting the turbine rotor to rotate at high speed, driving the generator rotor to rotate, and finally generating electricity.

Basically, the first half of the process can be done by relying on the existing steam technology.

Penke mainly spends money on the last step, how to generate electricity.

And this last step alone took him ten years and nearly ten thousand taels of silver, and the reason for the restriction was mainly because of lack of money. If he had money, it might be done in three to five years, and it was far from necessary to spend ten year time.

Penke is really short of money!

That's why when he heard that the Mu family was so rich, he couldn't wait to agree to his father's blind date, and wanted to hug the rich woman's thigh when he came up.

Because Emperor Hongwu is really weird.

Although he restricted officials and nobles from doing business, he didn't mind marriages between nobles and merchants. He even married the daughters of wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River as concubines, and took the lead in encouraging nobles to marry more merchants.

He does not allow officials to do business with nobles, but he allows them to marry women from merchant families.

Maybe he was afraid that the nobles under his command would marry each other frequently, or marry with civil servants, and form a large civil and military group, which would affect the rule of the imperial power.

After all, non-military achievements of the Ming Dynasty are not allowed to be knighted, let alone hereditary, so all the princes and princes of the Ming Dynasty are all warriors and have great influence in the army.

So in addition to marrying the daughters of the nobles to the princes of the old Zhu family, Emperor Hongwu encouraged them to marry more daughters from small families or merchants' daughters.

I really don't want to see the marriage between Xungui's family, or the marriage between Xungui and the court officials.

Although Xungui colluded with businessmen, it was not a good thing.

But the lesser of two evils, at least the interest group of Xungui X businessman is obviously easier to deal with than that of Xungui X civil servant.

The former harms the common people the most, but the latter is able to evade the imperial power!
The essence of political struggle is dirty!
Penke has no ability to change this status quo now, so he can only blend in.

Since Emperor Hongwu didn't want to see Xungui colluding with courtiers in marriage, his best remaining choice was to find a wealthy merchant family to marry.

In this way, the embarrassing situation of Penke's lack of money can be solved.

Now it seems that the Mu family is indeed a good choice.

This was the first time I met Mu Xiyun, and Peng Ke got a "tip" of 1 taels.

Filled with emotion, Peng Ke reached out his hand to touch the bank note in his bosom again.

It feels so good to be taken care of by a rich woman!

"Ah Hu, give 5000 taels to the research institute so that Mobai and Moyun can restart the "wired telephone" project that was temporarily put on hold. Now that they have funds, they can do some research that they couldn't do before."

"The phone is a good thing."

"The efficiency of the telegraph is still too low, and it is necessary to train special translators, and the phone is more convenient."

Peng Ke reached out and took out half of the banknotes that had just warmed up in his arms, and handed them to Ah Hu.

"Here!" After Ahu took the silver ticket, he signaled the driver in front to stop, bowed to Peng Ke, jumped out of the car, and went to the research institute to deliver the money.

Seeing Ahu's figure going away, Peng Ke sighed slightly.

Thinking of his research institute, which was like a gold-swallowing beast and a bottomless pit, Peng Ke's joy of just getting 1 taels of silver was diluted a lot.

No matter what era you are in, it is very expensive to do scientific research!

　It has already been pointed out at the beginning of the chapter, this is a parallel time and space, and it is a specious steamy Ming Dynasty, so the social situation may not be 100% according to history.

　　What is the background of the times, the current political situation, and the worldview in my book, that is what it is, and no refutation is accepted.

　　I am "overhead history"! ! !
　　
　
(End of this chapter)