Daming: If I find a great-grandson, I will teach an emperor through the ages

Chapter 17

Any country will have to build large-scale fortifications during this period, ranging from decades to hundreds of years.

The same is true for Ming Dynasty.

At the time of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established Yingtian as his capital, and wanted to expand and build Yingtian City.

But at that time, Daming had just experienced a long period of war, and everything was left to be done. The only money and food were looted from the palaces of the Yuan Dynasty.

In order to build Yingtian City, civilian laborers must be conscripted. Zhu Yuanzhang was originally from a poor background, and he did not want the common people to do coolies for nothing.

And it was difficult for the Ming court to distribute money and food for the people to work.

But at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the world had just stabilized, and even if money was not given to the people to build the palace and city, enough labor and food must be managed!
Otherwise, how would the people recognize him as the new leader?What is the significance of the demise of the Yuan Dynasty?
But at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang, the landlord, had no food left in his family, so he could only worry about this matter all day long. How could the capital of a country be full of devastation and dilapidation?

It just so happened that there was a businessman named Shen Wansan at that time. This man had a lot of money in his family, and he could be called a rich country!
However, due to the great chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Shen Wansan's main place of business was in Suzhou, and he had funded Zhang Shicheng's Dazhou regime in Suzhou, so he fell into disrepute.

When Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Zhang Shicheng and conquered Suzhou, he gave money to Zhang Shicheng in the city, allowing him to stay in Suzhou for eight months.

After Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the world and added a yellow robe, Shen Wansan saw that the situation was serious, so he took the initiative to find him, and was willing to spend money to help the court build Yingtian City, which relieved Zhu Yuanzhang's urgent need.

According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", the construction of Yingtian Palace City was finally completed, and more than one-third of the cost was spent on the family property of the unlucky Shen Wansan.

Whether it was Shen Wansan who took the initiative to ask for money and help, or whether Zhu Yuanzhang frightened Shen Wansan with a big sword, no one can tell clearly.

But one thing is obvious.

Once the imperial court wants to build some fortifications, the cost is really not ordinary, and sometimes it becomes helpless to waste money and people!
Because the industry is backward, building fortifications requires a lot of labor, and all of these labors need to eat.

If the court were more ruthless and did not care about the life and death of the people, this problem would disappear, but the reigning emperor would definitely be called a tyrant and a coward.

Zhu Yuanzhang must not want to be criticized by future generations. He wants to be a wise king!
Then this problem has to be solved.

Now that Yingtian City has been built, it is inevitable that other fortifications will be built in the future, and large-scale construction will be carried out. Will the Ming court have enough money and food?
Judging from the state of the treasury at this time, it is really not necessarily true.

There are too many places for a country to spend!
Salaries of officials, salaries of clan and vassal kings, disaster relief in various places, troops marching and fighting...

Now Daming has only reached the standard of being able to operate smoothly, and there is still a long way to go from the prosperous age. It is impossible to build various fortifications without pressure.

At this time, Cao Wei's gear set and pulley set made Zhu Yuanzhang feel excited!
As Cao Ying said, this gear set and pulley set can greatly save manpower!

Saving manpower means saving unnecessary expenses of the imperial court!
This is an artifact that benefits the country and the people!

"Boom!"

After the boulder was lowered, Zhu Yuanzhang withdrew his attention and watched Cao Wei remove the gear and pulley blocks above, but after seeing it, he frowned.

Zhu Yuanzhang was curious: "Didn't this lift the boulder up? Why are you still frowning?"

Cao Wei put the gear set and pulley set in front of his eyes, sighed softly and said: "Look, Lao Zhu, the gears and pulleys have been deformed, and they will be useless after a few more uses."

Jiang Yu was so frightened by Cao Wei's "Old Zhu" that he almost jumped up. After all, seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't respond, he continued to stand obediently.

Whenever Zhu Yuanzhang gave him a look, he would rush straight up to fight Cao Wei!

Here Zhu Yuanzhang frowned after hearing Cao Wei's words.

Will it wear out after a few more uses?
How can this work? !
How can such a magical weapon that benefits the country and the people be scrapped?
He took two steps forward, snatched the gear set and pulley set from Cao Wei's hand, examined them carefully, and found that they were indeed slightly deformed.

If you continue to use it, it will only deform more severely.

"This...is there a way to solve it?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Cao Wei.

Cao Wei could see from his eyes that he was paying attention to the gear set and the pulley set. He was a little puzzled, but he still nodded.

"The reason why it deforms is that the hardness and strength of the iron is not enough. The blacksmith's iron smelting process is too poor, and there are too many impurities in it. If it is made of iron or steel with fewer impurities, it can be solved."

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows stretched.

That being the case, it's not a big deal.

For Cao Wei, he didn't have much money to use iron and steel with better materials, but Zhu Yuanzhang did.

The iron smelting technology in ancient times was backward, but it was not unbearable.

There are clear historical records that, at the latest at the end of the Warring States period, craftsmen had already mastered a certain degree of steelmaking technology.

In the Western Han Dynasty, someone invented the method of frying steel, and in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the method of pouring steel was invented. At this time, the Ming Dynasty naturally had a method of steelmaking.

It's just that the production process is cumbersome and complicated, which is several times or even dozens of times more complicated than the modern steelmaking method.

Therefore, generally if there is no special demand, people will not waste time and effort in pursuing making harder steel.

"If you can use steel to make gear sets and pulley sets, not to mention two or three hundred catties, it will be a few thousand catties, or even tens of thousands of catties."

Cao Wei stood aside and said this sentence again.

Zhu Yuanzhang suspected that he had heard wrong.

"What did you say?"

"I said as long as the quality of the materials is good and enough gear sets and pulleys are used, it won't be difficult even if it weighs a lot!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded silently, but his heart was already excited!
This time it really comes!
He has to take this gear set and pulley set back and let the people from the Ministry of Industry study it carefully!

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled calmly at Cao Wei. When the latter was confused, Zhu Yuanzhang said:
"This thing is quite interesting. Can you lend it to me, an old man, for a few days?"

Cao Wei was immediately unhappy.

You old man, you are so welcome. I spent my own money to build this. I just showed it to you to pretend to be cool. If you talk about it, you will take it away?

Cao Ying, who had been silent all this time, probably understood Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions, and spoke for him.

"Father, you have already taught the child the knowledge in it, and it is useless to keep it. Why don't you give it to Grandpa Zhu."

When Cao Wei heard this, he was even more unhappy.

He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang suspiciously.

In just half a day, Cao Ying started to help this weird old man speak, he suspected that Zhu Shiliu had given Cao Ying some enchanting soup.

People say that only daughters turn their elbows outward when they grow up. Why does my son also have this problem?
His interest soon disappeared, and he became dissatisfied with Zhu Shiliu in front of him.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw the little Jiujiu in Cao Wei's heart, and almost couldn't resist stepping forward to slap him.

My eldest grandson called you one after another, and you still give me a face?Tired of living?

But Cao Wei was already dying, and with Cao Ying protecting him, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to sigh in his heart.

next moment,
Zhu Shiliu took out a silver ingot from his sleeve, which seemed to be in the ten tael system, and handed it to Cao Wei.

"We don't take yours for nothing, how about it?"

Cao Wei put the silver ingot into his bosom, and immediately nodded his head, never seeing any reluctance.

It cost him less than a hundred coppers to build this set of gears and pulleys, and now it can be exchanged for ten taels of silver, which is a bargain!

Whoever repents is a puppy!
(End of this chapter)