Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 340

"There are indeed gold mines, and it seems that there are quite a few of them, even more than others. The map given by His Highness is indeed correct!"

On May [-]th of the eighth year of the Apocalypse, as a voice sounded, Xu Xiake and his party held a piece of natural dog's head gold in their hands in the south of the continent of Levia tens of thousands of miles away, and they were ecstatic.

From the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month in the sixth year of the apocalypse to today in the eighth year of the apocalypse, Xu Xiake took people all the way through Ma Dajiazuo (Somalia)-Miniande-Menbacha-Black Country-Gate Shapik-Buduya and other countries.

The reason for the delay is all because of the second task that Zhu Youjian entrusted to Xu Xiake and others...

Probing for gold!

In Butuya, they roughly searched for the direction according to Zhu Youjian's map, and directly found a gold vein with super large reserves, while in Gumeisha, they found a gold mine with larger reserves than the Buduya gold mine.

Xu Xiake read the "Yanshan Mining Book" based on Zhu Youjian's summary of the miners' experience, and just looked at the weight of the dog's head gold in his hand and the surrounding conditions, and he figured out an approximate mine output.

"There are at least tens of millions of taels of gold here..."

Xu Xiake was not at peace, he didn't dare to tell this matter, for fear that someone in the fleet would become greedy.

However, Xu Xiake ultimately underestimated this ore vein, which was later called the Rand Gold Mine, the largest gold mine in the world.

In this era when no one discovered it, the gold reserves stored in this mining area reached an astonishing 11 billion taels of gold.

It can be said that this is the place where Zhu Youjian wants to take over, and in North Africa, all he wants is the Suez Canal that can be built.

After taking this place, Qi State can say that there is no need to worry about food and clothing.

But this is not the place Zhu Youjian wants most, because this place is too far away from the center of the world.

If there is no steam engine, this place is a good place to go, but if there is a steam engine, then Central America is the place Zhu Youjian wants to go to.

Xu Xiake didn't know Zhu Youjian's thoughts, because besides prospecting for gold, his other task was to look at the soil quality of Levia.

Just seeing now, he was actually disappointed.

"Master, shall we continue westward?"

When the gold mine was discovered, everyone felt that their mission had been completed and they could return to Daming.

After all, from the beginning of the sixth year of Tianqi to the present, I haven't been home for two and a half years, and everyone is thinking about how to go home.

What's more, along the way, they have actually seen that many places on the continent of Levia are not suitable for farming.

Because its operating costs and reclamation costs are too high, Xu Xiake and the others have calculated that if they want to cultivate the land in eastern Levia into arable land, then one mu of land needs six slaves, intensive cultivation and watering It will take five years to improve successfully and reach the quality of cultivated land in Leizhou Peninsula of Daming.

It will take another five years to use six slaves per mu of land, and the final yield per mu is only about four buckets of stone per year.

With such a yield per mu, at least three mu of land is needed to feed one person, and 100 million mu of land is needed to feed one million people.

More than 300 million slaves are needed for 800 million mu of land. Even Xu Xiake was very disappointed when he saw it.

But now they have found a place that is not too bad, and that is this place with gold mines.

This area is as large as several provinces. There are many coastal plains used to grow cash crops, and the northern river valleys and terraces can be used for grazing and farming.

As far as agriculture is concerned, although the arable land here is relatively insufficient, and according to Xu Xiake, the local rainfall is not much and the water source is insufficient, but the huge grazing area can completely offset these factors.

After all the development of this place, it is more than enough to support tens of millions of people, and when there are more people, they can march northward and reclaim the coastal plain little by little.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiake also wiped the sweat from his forehead and said:

"Make a note of this first, and then we will return to the south on the same road, discuss the environment in western Levia with Xiyi in the south, and then set off for home!"

"it is good!"

"Finally he can go home!"

"Great……"

Xu Xiake's words made hundreds of people cheer. They have been away from home for two and a half years, and even if they return now, it will take one and a half years, that is, four years.

Four years, how many four years can life have?Especially for Daming, whose average adult is only in his fifties when there is no war.

Perhaps many of them will stop here in this life, and will not come to explore for the second time.

But no matter what, this experience will be remembered by them.

"Establish a monument here, and write 'Xu Xiake, head of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, ordered this monument to be erected by the king of Qi'!"

Xu Xiake did not forget some things that Zhu Youjian explained in his handwriting, and the masons in the team also searched for a huge stone and began to erect a monument.

It took more than ten craftsmen seven days to finally set up the monument that Xu Xiake mentioned. After the monument was erected, hundreds of them started their return journey.

They first walked south for more than two months, then released the pigeons, and after announcing their return journey, they took some news bought from Europeans, unfurled their sails, and headed home...

"Just find it..."

On the ninth day of October, when Zhu Youjian's voice sounded in a carriage heading for the capital, it also represented the news he had received.

The carrier pigeons released by Xu Xiake and others in July arrived at Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner a month later. Huang Fei ordered people to replace the carrier pigeons, and the news arrived in Jiugang half a month later.

The guard of the old port replaced the pigeons in a relay style, and flew the pigeons to Guangzhou. One month later, Guangzhou was sent to Zhu Youjian who was passing through Handan Mansion seven days later at an accelerated speed of [-] miles.

The news that took so much effort is actually only a few hundred words, and it is still written with mouse whiskers. Even Zhu Youjian needs to use a magnifying glass to read it.

In more than a hundred words, Xu Xiake briefly introduced the situation in Leviathan, and then concluded that the situation in Leviathan as a whole is not suitable for farming. Only the west and south-central regions are suitable for farming. The southern coastal plain is suitable for farming, but the area is not large.

In these places, it took three slaves and three years to reclaim one mu of land.

As for other places, it will take six to ten slaves and it will take five years, and it may cost several taels of silver per mu to increase the fertility.

This sentence basically broke Zhu Youjian's idea of ​​wanting to relocate millions.

The situation in Elivia, except for the two mining areas in South Africa that deserve Zhu Youjian's power to establish a consolation department there, does not seem to be suitable for him to become a vassal.

but……

"Fortunately, this thing has made a breakthrough..." Zhu Youjian looked at a handwritten letter placed beside the carriage table.

The handwriting was written by Song Yingxing, and the content was very simple, that is, they had solved the problems of transmission, sealing, and pressure gauge. At this time, the steam engine was able to produce power, but the power was seriously insufficient.

Zhu Youjian remembers that when the steam engine was first created, the pressure was only 0.11-0.13 MPa, and it reached 19-0.35 MPa in the early 0.7th century, so it was used in industry, and it was not until 1920 that it reached 6-10 MPa. .

The Ming Dynasty did not have MPa as a unit, but Song Yingxing, Bi Maokang, and Sun Yuanhua called the steam engine two versions, and the power was called force.

The power of the first version of the steam engine is one, and now the power of the second version of the steam engine is two.

It seems that the breakthrough is not big, but at this moment it can already pump water with a height difference of more than five feet, which is enough for mines.

However, Zhu Youjian was not satisfied. He wanted more than this level. To achieve a steam engine that can be used to manufacture steam locomotives and be used in industry, the steam engine must have a force of four to ten.

The steam engine researched by Song Yingxing and others still has many subjects that have not been broken through, such as separate condenser, adiabatic layer outside the cylinder, oil lubricated piston, planetary gear, parallel motion connecting rod mechanism, centrifugal governor, throttle valve, etc. etc exist.

When all these things are produced, the steam locomotive will not be far away.

Of course, if Song Yingxing and others were complacent just because of this small breakthrough and came to inform themselves, Zhu Youjian would not be so happy.

What he was really happy about was not the progress of the steam engine, but other technological advances.

Under the leadership of Bi Maokang, the blast furnace team overcame the problem of the blast furnace, allowing Daming's blast furnace to reach a height of two feet and four feet, and can produce 1 to [-] catties of iron in a day and night.

At the same time, the iron output of European blast furnaces was less than three thousand catties, and the iron output of Daming's blast furnaces was four to five times that of theirs.

If this technology solved the iron-making speed, then another gunpowder technology made Zhu Youjian ecstatic.

After all, mercury fulminate was researched through continuous trial and error. This ratio was as high as 420 seven times, and its appearance would represent the appearance of detonators in mining areas and the appearance of flash cap primers.

Blast furnaces, detonators and steam pumps can improve Daming's iron smelting technology and production, and the appearance of mercury fulminate will lead to the appearance of percussion guns and a great increase in the range of artillery.

However, the above-mentioned technologies need to be lit up one by one, and how much time it takes, even the people in the Armament Academy cannot know all of them.

Moreover, if the steam engine cannot quickly enter the third edition, even if the percussion gun is invented, the speed of equipment will be affected due to the inability to standardize production.

In terms of time, Jianlu may not be able to wait for the percussion gun to appear, but the improved gunpowder can increase the range of the artillery currently used by the Ming army, but the stability of the priming charge needs to be ensured after the Armament Academy experiment.

The increased range of the artillery can play a decisive role in attacking Jianlu's stone fortress.

"What happened to the fertilizer farm?"

Zhu Youjian asked without looking up, and outside the window of the carriage, Lu Wenzhao, who was riding with the carriage, also responded:

"Sun Shilang has been supervising the process. Songjiang Mansion produces 20 catties of chemical fertilizer every day. The main material is dried guano that is transported by sea from Huangdian. Nine thousand merchant ships can transport back more than [-] catties at a time."

"After the Naval Governor's Mansion opened up routes to several guano islands, Huangdian has a dedicated route for [-] guano ships."

"As for Shuntian Prefecture in the north, it mainly relies on collecting gold juice from the people in the capital to make fertilizer."

"The nine fertilizer farms in Shuntian produce more than 300 catties of fertilizer every day. According to Sun Shilang's words, there is no problem satisfying [-] million mu of land."

"Currently, the Department of Agriculture is also taking over the golden juice in the counties of Northern Zhili, hiring Ye Xiangfu, and setting up a fertilizer plant, but the speed cannot be raised."

"According to the household registration of each county, even if we monopolize more than 3000 counties in Daming, plus the output of Guano Island, at most, we can only benefit less than [-] million mu of land."

Daming has more than 3000 million mu of land, but currently chemical fertilizers can only bless 3000 million mu of land, increasing the grain production of these lands by [-] to [-] percent.

Zhu Youjian is not very satisfied with such a scale, and if he wants to further develop chemical fertilizers such as urea, phosphate fertilizer, potassium fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, etc., then it needs continuous research by the Military Armament Academy.

Zhu Youjian only knows that phosphate fertilizer is related to phosphate rock. As for phosphate rock, although he doesn't remember much, he still remembers the Jinping phosphate rock in Lianyungang, which is now Haizhou.

However, the Military Academy's research on phosphate rock is not very clear, mainly because no one has done these things.

Right now, Daming is crossing the river by feeling the stones, which is naturally very difficult.

This kind of difficulty makes Zhu Youjian sometimes wish that the Europeans would figure out these things first, and crossing the river by groping the Europeans is better than letting the Europeans cross the river by groping Daming.

"Let Sun Yuanhua mainly focus on phosphate mineralization and phosphate fertilizer, and leave the affairs of the Agriculture Department to the people under him."

Zhu Youjian doesn't have too many scientific research talents in his hands, but there is one person he cares about very much.

This person was recommended by Sun Yuanhua, Wang Hui, who promoted officials for Guangping Mansion.

I have a little impression of this person, Zhu Youjian, but I can't remember much about the specific impact, but he should be able to be recommended by Sun Yuanhua, and he should have his excellence, so Zhu Youjian didn't go too deep into it.

After conferring Dr. Hanlin and the false title, he asked Jin Yiwei to find this person and take him to the Armament Academy.

"Your Highness, you will be entering Baoding Mansion soon. Are you resting in Baoding tonight?"

While Zhu Youjian was meditating, Cao Bianjiao rode his horse back from the former army and asked Zhu Youjian in the carriage, and Zhu Youxiao also nodded slightly: "Just rest in Baoding, and check the situation in the capital by the way."

Zhu Youjian did not rush to the capital, because he knew that if he wanted to abolish the "running pen silver", adjust the [-]% withholding to [-]%, and collect the salaries of officials, it would inevitably cause an uproar in the capital.

He needs to observe carefully before deciding to go to Beijing.

"Yes!" Cao Bianjiao saluted, and then rode his horse back to the front army, while Zhu Youjian continued to bow his head and deal with the piles of memorials.

It's just that when he was dealing with memorials, compared to him, the household department in the capital seemed particularly lively.

Those who graduated early this year, as well as Yanshan students in the past three years, are actually the most elite group of people who have entered the household department.

At present, there are [-] Beijing officials and [-] Beijing officials, while the household department monopolizes [-] Beijing officials and [-] Beijing officials.

The Hubu yamen, which has so many officials, has also expanded and expanded a lot. The size of the Luanjiaku after the sixth department is comparable to half that of the Liubu. As a result, the Luanjiaku is now relocated, and the original address is vacated for the Hubu.

Such an expansion of the household department yamen actually proved that Daming was paying close attention to taxation.

The original household department only had responsibilities such as land, household registration, taxation, and salary, and was divided into two capitals and thirteen provinces.

However, after several expansions by Zhu Youjian, the household department is currently divided into the Land Department, Household Registration Department, Land Tax Department, Commercial Tax Department, Miscellaneous Department, Market Ship Department, Salt Department, Tea Department, Wine Department, and Salary Department. Eleven divisions including the Division and the Disaster Relief Division.

Under the Shangshu, there are no longer just left and right ministers, but divided into left and right ministers and eleven ministers, a total of thirteen ministers.

With such a huge scale, the tasks of each department are very heavy, and the busiest one recently is the Department of Salaries and Payments.

Ever since Bi Ziyan returned to the capital, the Salary Department has become lively. The scribes coming and going, the pond riders coming and going, and the daily abacus sounds all represent the busyness here.

Everyone is paying attention to the Department of Salaries and Payments because of the recent lively issue of officials' salaries.

In the Salary Department, almost no one could intervene, except Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youxiao, and Bi Ziyan.

The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was a messy account from the Yongle period, and this confusion was further intensified in the Xuande period.

Later, Hongzhi and Wanli continued to add accounts on the basis of this muddled account, making the already confused account even more confused.

"Officials set salary", this is what the outside world is currently calling the work of the Salary Department. Everyone knows that once officials set salary, the days of lavish officials will be gone forever.

But even if they knew, no one came to stop and delay.

Without him, because the entire Salary Department was guarded by the soldiers and horses of Daxing Camp, and the 26 officials of the Salary Department and the families of the seven scribes in 520 were even monitored by Jin Yiwei.

The sound of the abacus beating was so loud that even the other government offices of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the other five departments of the Sixth Department could be heard.

"This calculation is not on Bi Ziyan's heart, but on my heart!"

In the Ministry of Officials, some officials kept complaining, and Cui Chengxiu, who was doing business, was also numb from the faintly audible sound of abacus.

He got up and walked, but he couldn't think of a way, so he could only sit down again.

Like him, there are officials from other ministries, and when these officials were restless, Bi Ziyan got the results of the first "Officials' Determination of Salary" in his hand.

"Shangshu, this is the Dinglu document book of Beijing City, this is the old book..."

In the Salary Department, as the two booklets from the salaryman were handed in, the two booklets that the old god Bi Ziyan also took over began to be compared.

The salaries of Ming officials are not low, Bi Ziyan already knows this, but he is still curious about how much the salaries of Ming officials are after all the salaries and benefits are clarified.

Out of his curiosity, the old book was opened first, and the amount revealed on it was shocking.

[Regular first-class official salary 520 taels of silver, 15 taels of grain exempt, [-] taels of color discount, [-] taels of free men, [-] taels of silver for service, income from bad rules...]

The long list of various benefits makes people dazzled, and when it comes to the income of various illegal rules, the amount of money set is even more jaw-dropping.

When Bi Ziyan saw the end, the total income of Zhengyipin actually reached 230 taels of silver!
"With so much salary for just a false title, there are probably more people below..."

Looking at the salary of Zhengyipin, Bi Ziyan couldn't help but feel his heart pounding. After all, Zhengyipin has no specific official positions, most of them are false titles, and a false title can get so much money, aren't those real power officials... …

Bi Ziyan continued to read, but the more he watched, the more frightened he became, especially the illegal income between legal and illegal, which made him dumbfounded.

The income from bad rules is the largest proportion of the income of officials in the past dynasties.

The bad rules were actually acquiesced by the dynasties of the past dynasties. The income is between "illegal" and "legal", and it is a "political deformity".

For this kind of income, Bi Ziyan is actually not surprised, but he did not expect that this kind of income can reach such a high proportion among certain groups of people.

The data used by the Department of Salaries and Payments to calculate the income of illegal practices and the fixed salary of officials are all calculated from the accounts of Beijing officials and foreign officials who have just been ransacked. There may be errors in this calculation, but the gap is not too great.

In various accounts, there are many names of bad regulations of officials in Beijing and China. There are more than 300 types of bad regulations for the prefectures and counties of Beizhili alone.

Among these many bad rules, "consumption envy" is the biggest item.

The so-called "consumption" refers to the loss in the process of collecting money and grain. The loss of grain includes warehouse consumption, mouse consumption, sparrow consumption, wet consumption, lifting consumption, and transportation consumption.

The so-called "envy" is the surplus collected from these losses.

According to the regulations of the court, the increase in taxation and consumption can reach one-tenth to three-tenths, and from the accounts provided by Jin Yiwei, Bi Ziyan can clearly find out that some corrupt officials once charged more than double the amount to the common people.

What is this concept?
The common people in Ming Dynasty are given [-] Fu and [-]. In principle, only about five catties of grain should be handed over to a field that produces grain for one stone per mu. Reaching ten catties of rice and wheat, that is, the field tax has changed from thirty one to fifteen one in disguise.

Not only that, but part of this consumption is actually used to collect public expenses from the Yamen.

Because the public funds allocated by the imperial court to the various yamen are not enough, they can only be solved in the consumption income, but most of the consumption is still divided up by the officials.

Taking Bi Ziyan’s account book from the magistrate of Wuqing County, Shuntian Prefecture, Beizhili Province, Wuqing Yamen collected all kinds of money and food from Wuqing people, and for every 100 taels, 30 taels were given to Wuqing Yamen and 70 taels to the capital. Two denarii, this is the ratio.

In the actual collection, there are more than [-] households in Wuqing County, with a population of [-], more than [-] males and [-] females.

During the collection process, you will receive two taels or four taels of silver per penny, plus one tael or six taels for consumption, and you will be charged four taels. Do you think this is over?not at all.

The Ding tax is the Ding tax, and there is also a land tax. In this land tax, the land is paid 25 renminbi per mu, and the Wuqing government government collects 15 renminbi for additional consumption and envy. The total is [-] renminbi, and the farmland in Wuqing County is [-] mu. , There are also mountains, ponds, forests and other places to collect taxes and increase consumption.

For these few extra items alone, the little Wuqing County will have to collect 430 taels of silver, almost one tael per capita. Calculated according to Wuqing County’s recruitment of workers at [-] taels a day, the people have to pay the government every year. Work for free for two months, one month of which is extra consumption.

However, in addition to taxes, the more than 3 taels of silver gained from the additional consumption will be divided into three parts, 1 taels of silver will be sent to the government, 1 taels of silver will go to the county magistrate, and the remaining 1 taels of silver will be distributed to the county government. Zuo Er, teaching miscellaneous and subordinate staff.

The final result is that the Wuqing magistrate expropriated 6 taels of silver and handed over 3 taels to the court. The second assistant, the teaching miscellaneous and the subordinate staff embezzled 1 taels of silver.

"6 taels were collected from the common people, the imperial court took [-], and they took [-] by means of bad rules! They are so courageous! They are so courageous..."

Bi Ziyan trembled with anger, especially when he saw the salary situation of Zhou Shan, the county magistrate of Wuqing.

[Wuqing county magistrate Zhou Shan, with a regular salary of 45 liang, a servant of [-] liang of silver, a grain exemption of [-] liang, and an exemption of three liang of ding, more than [-] liang of bad rules...]

"boom--"

"Investigate! Continue to investigate for me! The old man wants to see how many bad practices they have committed!"

Bi Ziyan threw the document on the table, slapped the table and yelled at the officials of the salary department in the yamen. The voice made everyone swallow their saliva and feel fear.

For example, Bi Ziyan, Minister of the Household Department, is so angry. It is hard to believe how these two supreme beings will feel when these documents are placed in front of King Qi and the emperor...

(End of this chapter)