Jinyi champion

On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Hao and his party arrived at Yongpingfu Iron Mine Factory.

Lu Song personally led people to greet him, and the entire iron ore factory was surrounded by guards. Apparently, the local government's harassment of the iron ore factory made Lu Song very distressed. Seeing Zhu Hao coming with his son Lu Bing, he seemed very excited.

"Sir, you are here."

Behind Lu Song were Gongsun Yi and Guan Jing, but Sun Ru was nowhere to be seen.

After entering the mine, there is a lively scene everywhere.

Lu Song inquired about Zhu Hao's situation along the way.

Lu Bing said: "Father, I rode with Zhu Hao all the way, don't mention how tired we are... Before we came here, we went to Sanwei, Tianjin. There is a large shipyard by the sea, and shipbuilding has already begun. We stayed there for a day , and then came here.”

Lu Song glared at his son, feeling that his son was disrespectful to Zhu Hao.

Moreover, he had to hide Zhu Hao's identity from the outside world. It would be easy for his son to call Zhu Hao by his name like this, but it was not easy for him to teach his son a lesson in front of Zhu Hao. , My son is too disappointing!

"Regarding the situation of the mine, Lu Bing made it very clear after meeting me. Has the local prefect sent someone to harass me recently?" Zhu Hao asked.

Lu Song sighed: "Don't say it's recently, even today... Many villagers say that this is their geomantic treasure, and even the Kodao officials come to trouble us. They wanted to put some money to make peace, but they all No. Instead, they said they would accuse me of bribing officials.”

Zhu Hao said with a smile: "This is the way of the world, as long as it doesn't affect our mining."

"But sir, in order to protect the mine, we have recruited too many guards, and we can't recruit from the local area. The people we recruit will only cause trouble, passively slow down and refuse to work. Now we all rely on recruiting people from outside Beizhili, which is time-consuming. Not to mention the effort, just spending on guarding the mine is a huge waste.”

Lu Song said that the biggest problem in opening a mining factory is the conflict of interests between Qianglong and local snakes.

When the local authorities saw the imperial court opening mines, they mentioned the issue of competing for profits with the people. This was reflected in the large-scale mining and mining tax collection during the Wanli period. Zhu Hao actually just carried out this matter decades in advance.

The situation encountered is basically the same.

Why did Yang Tinghe not agree to open mines and levy mining taxes?

It is because in the philosophy of literati, the imperial court should not interfere with private economic activities, and should only be responsible for what it should manage. To put it bluntly, the character of literati is to seek the welfare of the people.

The original intention was good, but when it came time to implement it, they just picked their noses and eyes, and put many so-called natural disasters and man-made disasters into the example of fighting for profit with the people and being punished by heaven, regardless of how much benefit it can bring to the court...

To put it bluntly, literati governing the country do not know how to manage money, they only uphold the so-called Confucian ethics, and suppress everything that is progressive in the times.

Smallholders are serious.

Zhu Hao said: "Turn back, let Your Majesty exchange the new magistrate here, there won't be so many problems."

"The new magistrate?"

Lu Song was a little surprised.

In the current situation, it seems that the new emperor has no control over the civil service system at all. Who can take the risk of offending the civil service group to be the magistrate?

Could it be that Zhu Hao should do it himself?
In fact, Zhu Hao already had a candidate in mind.

It is Zhang Cong.

Speaking of it, Zhang Cong has been the deputy envoy of Shanxi for more than a year. In fact, Zhang Cong has been very unsatisfactory in Shanxi official circles, because his great etiquette has been criticized by too many people, and he is just a Jinshi. Going to be the deputy envoy of the procuratorate, I don't know much about prisons, and I have a lot to learn, and I am not yet the top leader.

So Zhang Cong has written letters to the capital many times, and finally came to Zhu Hao here, requesting that he could be transferred back to the capital earlier, or take up another post in another place.

Zhang Cong wanted to find an errand that he could handle alone without being restricted by others.

But after all, Zhang Cong has only been an official for more than a year, and he hasn't passed the exam in three years. It is unrealistic to want to be promoted directly. A foreign official who is a fourth-rank foreign official is transferred back to the capital. That has to be controlled by people.

Now Zhu Hao has planned a way for him, that is, as a fourth-rank foreign official, he will be directly transferred to Yongping Mansion as the magistrate.

In this way, Zhang Cong does not have to be controlled by others, but can also help the court appease local opposition forces, and at the same time test Zhang Cong's ability to govern.

Although Zhang Cong has little experience as an official, he is...a very experienced man. Who made him an old Confucian scholar?It's different from others. Others are in their 30s and 50s, but he is nearly [-] years old. Can it be the same?

Zhu Hao can stay at the mine for at most two days.

Now the shipyard is not his "main project". He attaches great importance to the production of the iron ore factory. The output of steel represents the amount of work he can do. After all, all his ideals of industrializing Ming are based on the production of enough steel. basically.

To the mine.

The scene that can be seen is the construction site in full swing.

A large number of machines are unheard of by people of this era, and many people can be seen from a distance who are using large ramming equipment to ram the earth.

In front of a four-corner frame, a huge wooden stake is driven by a pulley block at each of the four corners. Five people on each side pull the huge wooden stake into the air, and then let it go together. The wooden stake falls heavily on the ground, and the cycle repeats.

In the mining pit, a large number of people are preparing for leveling mining.

If there is an explosion, they will shout in advance to let everyone in the camp find a place with a bunker. After the blast is completed, whistles will sound everywhere, and everyone can come out of the bunker and continue to complete their work.

And behind the mountain, there is a smelter.

A large amount of coal was transported to Yongping Mansion from Xishan and other places, and there was even coal bought from nearby coal mines. In the huge warehouse-like houses, steel-making furnaces were erected one by one, and a large number of workers put the crude Crude iron is poured into the steelmaking furnace for smelting...

This is much better than the smelting technology of this era. Molten steel can also be fired in this era, but the steel pouring method is commonly used, which is to shape it with molds.

However, because steelmaking technology requires extremely high technology, it is difficult to know the impurities in crude iron in this era, so that the manufactured iron products are actually just a shape, and it is difficult to meet the high requirements for precision and rigidity.

Zhu Hao walked around, feeling overwhelmed by the strength of the laborers.

I thought it would take five or ten years to get these things done, but with the help of blacksmiths and mining craftsmen, the iron ore factory was established in less than a year, and it became a mining and smelting factory. It is a large-scale workshop in one, and it can continue to explore new mines and expand the scale of production.

As a "consultant" that night, Zhu Hao called the craftsmen in the workshop in batches and taught them some knowledge they didn't have.

But Zhu Hao didn't mean he was perfect at smelting steel. There were many things that these craftsmen needed to explore slowly.

Zhu Hao is not in a hurry to achieve great results in three to two years. This time can be pushed to a five-to-ten-year plan. After all, as long as he starts the steelmaking business, the future will not be a matter of ten or twenty years. , It will not stop for hundreds of years or thousands of years.

He is only responsible for opening the door. The so-called master leads the door to practice on the individual.

And the craftsmen he taught will become the originators of Daming's new iron and steel smelting technology, and their brilliance will be passed on to future generations.

On the next day, Zhu Hao was still doing some work in the smelting camp to check for omissions and make up for vacancies.

That's what he came for.

Unexpectedly, Luo An hurried to the mine that day, bringing with him the news from Zhu Si from the capital.

"...Your Majesty has heard the news that Mr. has arrived in Beizhili, and urged you to return to the capital as soon as possible. Now there are many things waiting for you in the capital."

Luo An arrived and urged Zhu Hao to return to Beijing on behalf of the emperor.

Zhu Hao said, "Isn't everything in the northwest settled for the time being?"

Luo An wondered: "The humble official hasn't returned to Beijing yet, but it's just the meaning of the person who sent the message of Jin Yiwei,
Recently, His Majesty has had many disputes with the courtiers about the appointment of personnel in the court. Recently, the appointment and removal of personnel in the six ministries has been suspended. "

Every year, or even every month, there are many positions vacant in the imperial court.

It has been three months since Zhu Hao left the capital. Although there have been no major changes in the officialdom in the capital, there have been many minor changes.

In fact, Zhu Si is also a "stingy man". After finding out that someone has retired, he wants to assign these vacant positions to his people, or those who may be used by him, but the official department will not be used to it. The emperor's bad habits, how to arrange how to arrange.

This caused serious conflicts between the monarch and his ministers.

In addition, without Zhu Hao's advice and advice, Zhu Si wanted to aggressively advance the appointment and dismissal of personnel, so he would naturally encounter backlash. In a fit of anger, Zhu Si spoke harshly to the minister again in the court.

Now Zhu Si wants Zhu Hao to go back quickly to see how to gradually control the court.

Zhu Hao wanted to say that the emperor was still too impatient.

You employ people, can't you wait until Yang Tinghe retires?You pushed forward in such a hurry, but Yang Tinghe felt a kind of crisis. He might have thought that he would retreat if he retreated, so that he would not linger, but now that he sees you acting so recklessly, can Yang Tinghe leave with "relaxation"?
This is indistinguishable.

But Zhu Hao can also understand.

In fact, his purpose was to deal with Yang Tinghe first for the sake of long-term consideration, while Zhu Si's intention was to use personnel appointments to contain Yang Tinghe and drive Yang Tinghe away early.

Zhu Hao said: "I may not be able to leave for the capital until tomorrow, but after I leave, I will hurry up, and it is estimated that I will be able to reach Beijing in two days and nights."

Luo An hesitated and said, "From Yongping Mansion to the capital, it's nearly [-] li. It takes two days...would it be a little late?"

"It's okay, I'm used to rushing along the way."

Zhu Hao said with a smile, "Recently, I have to study the terrain to see how to build a road paved with steel, which can transport the coal from Xishan or Shanxi directly to the capital and even Yongping Prefecture!"