Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 478 Visiting the Textile Factory

Huh... the sound of the steam whistle sounded, seven times in a row.The ear-piercing sound pierced the air, causing many people in the harbor to look at the steam iron-clad ship Yongchang.

"Is this iron-clad ship screaming? It's a strange sound. It doesn't sound like gongs, bowls, and drums, nor does it sound like the cow horns that herdsmen often use, nor does it sound like the conch shells used by fishermen."

"It's a bit harsh, but it's louder than other sounds."

The officials on the deck who visited southern Liaoning began to discuss curiously.When they came to this land where industrial facilities were first established, they were bound to be amazed.

"Not good, turn to the shore and slow down!" The captain of the ship heard the message behind the whistle and asked the sailors to change direction.

"What happened?" The officials, including Shen Youlong and Xiong Wencan, were at a loss.

The ship got out of the way of the best lane coming out of Dalian Port, and almost stopped, as if waiting for something to happen.

"This is the whistle of a warship in Dalian Port. There is also a warning from the Yongchang, indicating that the Beiyang Fleet stationed in Dalian Port is about to come out." The captain looked at Beiyang moored in the harbor in awe. fleet.

Xiong Wencan also looked at the huge sailing battleship.

Sure enough, more than a dozen warships of the Beiyang Fleet set sail and anchored, and left Dalian Port in an orderly manner.Behind the sailing battleships and warships, there are troop carriers and grain carriers. There are more than 30 ships together.The steam ironclad ship Yongchang was requisitioned again and became the main ship of the logistics ship.Among other things, based on the thickness of the armor of Yongchang's hull, Dongying Kingdom estimates that no ship can sink Yongchang.

More than 30 ships are majestic, which is a very rare event in this sea area of ​​​​East Asia, especially these are almost all large ships, and there are no fishing boats or small boats that make up the number.

The Beiyang Fleet passed not far from the ship where Xiong Wencan and the others were, and Xiong Wencan and the others had the opportunity to see the style of the Beiyang Fleet.On the side of the warship are a pair of thick smoothbore cannons, the heaviest can weigh 48 pounds, and the smallest can weigh about [-] pounds.There were busy sailors on the deck, and rows of naval soldiers with rifles on their backs glanced at Xiong Wencan and the others.Xiong Wencan and the others were also in awe of the aura exuded by the elite soldiers.

After the Beiyang Fleet left Dalian Harbor, the ship Xiong Wencan and the others were on docked at the Dalian Harbor Wharf.It should have been courteous to the Beiyang Fleet just now.

Even after the Beiyang Fleet passed by for a while, Xiong Wencan and the others were still in shock, "Where is our Beiyang Fleet going? Such a huge fleet, the other party will be in trouble."

When talking about "our Beiyang Fleet", they actually have some sense of pride.That's right, they are officials of the Kyushu Army, so the fleet of the Kyushu Army is also their own fleet!

"I don't know what the Beiyang Fleet does when it leaves port. Although our Nanyang Fleet and the Beiyang Fleet are under the management of the Ministry of the Navy, in fact, the two sides do not have much intersection. Every military operation is an extremely confidential matter, and it should not be taken lightly. Leak," said the captain.

After docking at the wharf, dozens of senior officials stepped off the ship, attracting many workers and common people on the wharf to watch.These dozens of high-ranking officials looked at this city that rose from the ground with the same curiosity.

"The Ministry of the Navy has moved to Tianjin Wei, and the former site of the Ministry of the Navy has become the headquarters of the Beiyang Fleet. We don't need to visit them specially, just send someone to inform them. Let's visit the nearby factories first. Inside Dalian Port There are many textile mills and lumber mills, almost all of which use steam power. Some of our government-run factories are still trying to use electricity to drive. It may sound strange to you at first, but after you see it with your own eyes, you probably will. I have an intuitive impression." The captain was the guide to guide the senior officials this time.

Some local officials in Ming Dynasty are still very influential and capable of governing. If they can understand new technology and commodity economy, it will be faster than cultivating a new official from scratch.After all, it takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to grow people.It is not easy to retrain officials who can handle political affairs from scratch.And Chu Yun thought that the future Zhang Zhidong, Lin Zexu and others also adapted to the changes of that era?As long as there is pressure, capable Ming officials are not inflexible.

"Although the Academy of Sciences has partially moved to the capital, there are still a group of people in Liaodong and Liaonan. They will teach you and let you briefly understand the principles of new technologies." The captain said as he walked.

The first factories they went to were large textile mills powered by steam engines.

"We also have quite a few handicraft workshops like this in Suzhou City. Is there anything unusual here?" An official from Suzhou Prefecture said nonchalantly.

In his mind, wouldn't a textile workshop just employ a large number of workers and women, and then equip it with some textile machines?
"As early as more than 300 years ago, Huang Daopo of Songjiang Prefecture rebuilt three spinning wheels for cotton. Later, Songjiang cloth was known as 'clothes and quilts all over the world'. I don't know what is different about the textile workshops in southern Liaoning?" asked the district official.

"In our opinion, what you are talking about is just a handicraft workshop, not a factory. Originally, Suzhou embroidery was sold well all over the world, but you should be able to find that our cloth in southern Liaoning has appeared in large quantities in various markets in the past two years, and it is often able to produce It is sold at a lower price than Suzhou embroidery. This is where we intend to control the export of cloth, otherwise there may be a large number of unemployed workers in the Jiangnan area." Said the captain.

The government-run textile factories in Dalian stretched across a stretch of land, and a large factory occupied a huge area and had hundreds of people.Moreover, steel bars were not used on a large scale at the beginning of the construction of the factory.Therefore, in order to improve lighting, these houses are not closed, but open up different houses to form compartments, but also form a whole factory.

In the factory, there are machines connected to form a system. The iron wheels taller than a person are rotating, driving each spindle at high speed, and the slender yarn is flying in the process!This astonishing speed, the large number of spindles and the officials from the Jiangnan area were stunned.

"The steam engine is used as the power, and one spinning machine drives more than three spindles of cotton yarn. How about it, can you say that our textile mills in southern Liaoning have nothing special?" asked the captain.

"This spinning machine drives more than fifty spindles, right?" The officials in Jiangnan knew what this meant, and it was unbelievable.

Under the premise of similar quality, the efficiency of the textile machine here is more than ten times that of the three-spindle textile machine!
(End of this chapter)