At the beginning of the civil castle, the Ming God of War was a little panicked

Chapter 396
As the sun sets, the vast Forbidden City is gradually shrouded in darkness.

The lights in the imperial study room were on, because Zhu Qizhen was concentrating on reading the drawings, no matter how he tried to control the use of fire, he couldn't control the emperor's head, right?
"Wynn!"

Wynn hurried to the front, bowed and said, "What is the emperor's order?"

Zhu Qizhen stared at the blueprint, frowned slightly, and said, "Go and call Bei Lin, I have something to ask him."

"Principal Bei...has already stepped down. Do you think...tomorrow..."

"So early?"

Zhu Qizhen raised his head suspiciously, and asked, "What time is it?"

Wynn hurriedly replied, "it's about three o'clock in the unitary hour."

Zhu Qizhen thought that Belin had left beforehand, so he said, "Go to the steam engine research team and find their leader."

"Your Majesty, they're all...behavioured..."

"As soon as it gets dark, it's time to go down?"

Zhu Qizhen was very puzzled. He didn't want to be skinny for the week, but on weekdays, the overtime phenomenon in the Academy of Sciences was very frenzied. What happened today?
Speaking of which, the salary of the Academy of Sciences is linked to grades, and the rewards for research results are often higher than the monthly salary. In addition, people who come here are interested in scientific research, and their work enthusiasm is very high on weekdays.

They would even spend the night here if the gates of the palace were not closed at night.

Wynn didn't know how to explain, so he had to say vaguely: "Back to the emperor, not only the Academy of Sciences, but also the Imperial Academy, the Six Departments and the Nine Ministers have all left the palace."

Zhu Qizhen stood up, walked out of the imperial study, and walked around outside.

The Forbidden City is divided into inner and outer cities, and the inner city is the residence of the emperor and his concubines, such as Qianqing Palace, Kunning Palace and other palaces.

The outer city is the office of the imperial court, including Fengtian Hall, Wenyuan Pavilion, Liubu Yamen, Imperial Academy, and Academy of Sciences.

Looking up, except for the imperial study room, the entire outer imperial city was pitch black.
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Early the next morning, Belin hurried into the palace to meet her.

"I heard that the emperor issued a call last night. Seeing that the driver came late, I hope to forgive my sin!"

Zhu Qizhen did not dwell on this issue, but took out a blueprint and asked, "Why is the research on steam engines focused on small equipment?"

"Return to the emperor, as long as it is to cooperate with other groups' projects."

Belin replied truthfully: "The research directions of many groups need the power of steam engines, especially in daily civilian facilities, such as household textile machines. If they want to be popularized, they must be equipped with steam equipment as small and simple as possible. .The research and development and application of large steam engines are still in progress, and there is no conflict between the two.”

"Household looms..."

Zhu Qizhen thought about it for a while, but he really didn't think about this proposal, because since it is for household use, women, children and the elderly often work in their spare time, weaving one and a half bolts of cotton cloth every day, and exchanging money to subsidize the family, how can they still use it? Steam engine?
Seeing the emperor's doubts, Bellin continued to explain: "In fact, it is not difficult to make a steam engine home. It only needs a stove, an iron pot, and a pipe, and the cost is very low. In this way, Many people can install it in their homes, and it is a very good choice for some laborers who cannot go out to work."

Since ancient times, Confucianism has summed up the word "women's way" in two sentences. One is that the door does not go out of the door and the other is virtue. In short, in Confucianism, women should do housework at home and take care of children. , born to be a housewife.

After the New Deal, the shackles that had fettered women for thousands of years were finally broken, and more and more women walked out of their homes and entered workshops.

In order to avoid suspicion, some workshops simply recruit women, such as cloth workshops and dye workshops.

However, there are still many people who are unable to go out. Apart from the so-called women’s morals, there are more practical difficulties. For example, there are old people and children who need to be looked after, and the men in the family go out to work, so they can only leave the women at home.

Since they cannot go out to work, weaving at home has become the only way for these people to increase their income.

It's just that the efficiency of weaving by hand is still too low.

After doing a lot of market research, the Academy of Sciences had a whim, if the steam engine and the loom were combined and simplified as much as possible, it could be installed in the homes of ordinary people, wouldn't it be more effective with half the effort?
In this way, even if you stay at home, while taking care of your family, you can also make a small profit from the income from weaving to subsidize your family.

Zhu Qizhen nodded, and said: "This idea is good. If it can be successfully promoted, the common people will have more employment choices, but I don't know if it can make breakthroughs in technology?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry, there is absolutely no problem technically!"

When the topic turned to professional technology, Belin was naturally full of confidence.

"Industrialized steam engines are difficult, but civilian ones are much simpler. The current research focus of the Academy of Sciences is how to greatly simplify it, but the loom needs to be improved."

"Is the cost of new models high?"

"It's not very high, it's not much different from the old-fashioned ones."

"Can't old-fashioned ones be modified?"

Zhu Qizhen seems to be very concerned about these minutiae. Although the loom is small, it is related to people's livelihood. One common people is a trivial matter, but the people of the whole world are national affairs.

Beilene naturally knew this, so she said: "How to transform the old-fashioned loom is also an ongoing subject of the Academy of Sciences, and I think there will be results soon."

Zhu Qizhen nodded and said: "People's lives are not easy. The purpose of your research is to help the people improve their living conditions. The cost issue must be taken into consideration. You can't just study the theory blindly, otherwise you will be divorced from the people and become a slave. Put the cart before the horse!"

"What the emperor taught me is that I will keep it in mind."

"Okay, let's go!"

Beilin saluted and resigned. Suddenly, Zhu Qizhen seemed to think of something, and asked, "I heard that everyone is very punctual recently."

"This one……"

Belin was a little hesitant. She glanced at Wynn beside her, and had no choice but to tell the truth: "The chief of ceremonies strictly controls the number of candles. At night, even the lights are not allowed to light, and the ministers are helpless..."

"Wait, what did you say?"

Zhu Qizhen just said it casually just now, but he didn't expect that there would be a new discovery.

The two of them were talking about technical issues just now, but Wynn couldn't get in the way. Unexpectedly, the topic shifted to himself in a daze.

"Report to the emperor, the matter is like this..."

Wynn hurriedly explained: "Recently, there were two floods in the palace, and the slaves felt that they were negligent, so they summoned the twelve supervisors of the inner palace to strengthen the prevention, and the supervisors sent more people to do a good job of patrolling the palace, focusing on guarding against flammable objects , the Jingongjian strengthened the control of candles and lamp oil, and the Licensor conducted an all-round investigation, and found that the Academy of Sciences used too many lamps and candles on weekdays..."
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PS: I wanted to make up what I owed yesterday, but since morning till now, I have been feeling dizzy all day. I don’t know if I’ve been tricked, so I’ll make it up later...

(End of this chapter)