Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 195 Setting up a school and building a factory
However, even though Qian Longxi lacked awareness of the "employment problem", it did not prevent him from praising the emperor's clever method of "saving the country through curves" to solve the problem of declining salt and iron income.

Since the salt and mining policies of the imperial court are so rotten that there is no way to save them, then the previous system should be completely overturned and revenue should be obtained through taxation. And according to the emperor's analysis, the income after the reform may be higher than before. It would be much higher when monopolizing salt and iron!

Qian Longxi looked at Zhu Tianqi with a little more admiration.

Seeing that none of them had any objections, Zhu Tianqi immediately stopped talking nonsense and handed the detailed plan he had made to Xu Guangqi and said, "Since everyone has no objections, let's go with the plan I have drawn up. From now on, Although this matter is a matter of the Ministry of Revenue, there is too much work to be done and too many officials are involved, so you still need to discuss it together."

Liu Hongxun is now the Minister of Household Affairs. He handed the plan to Xu Guangqi through the emperor instead of giving it to him. He knew that [-]% of the time he still couldn't make the decision in this matter and had to follow Xu Guangqi's arrangements.

Although Liu Hongxun felt a little uncomfortable, there was nothing he could do about it. Who said Xu Guangqi was the chief minister of the cabinet?

The intervention and management of various profiteering industries can be left to the cabinet, and with their own ready-made plans, they are also suitable for doing these things.

But I'm afraid I have to do it myself when it comes to building state-owned factories.

Since state-owned factories are to be built and compete with the private sector, they must crush the private sector in terms of productivity and product quality in order to ensure the imperial court's purpose of monopolizing major industries through state-owned factories.

At the same time, the imperial court built state-owned factories not only to make profits, but also to undertake the development of various industries and the production and supply of basic materials needed for people's lives. The burden on their shoulders was still very heavy.

Therefore, Zhu Tianqi planned to directly study modern industry and machinery as a pioneer in the development of Ming Dynasty industry.

When it comes to developing industry, the steam engine cannot be avoided. However, although the steam engine was invented in 1698, it would not really mature until the 60s.

And not only that, the sealing and piston materials of steam engines were not completely replaced with rubber until after World War II. Before, other alternative materials were used to make do, and the safety and mechanical properties were completely substandard.

Therefore, it is right to develop and utilize steam engines in order to develop industry, but at the same time, more attention should be paid to the development of more complex machinery, such as the Jenny machine.

Of course, Zhu Tianqi does not need to research and develop the machinery step by step from simple to complex. He has ready-made data in his hand. He only needs to find the machinery that can be manufactured by Daming's current production technology and materials, and then proceed. Just make it.

At the same time, Zhu Tianqi will not deliberately restrict the subjective initiative of independent inventions and creations of Ming people. As long as the relevant knowledge of mechanical engineering is spread, I believe that a group of mechanical talents will emerge in Ming Dynasty.

All in all, Ming Dynasty's state-owned factories must use modern advanced equipment and fully use modern production technology for production, comprehensively abolish previous local methods and empiricism, and adopt standardized processes.

For example, although Zhu Tianqi doesn't understand salt production, he has ready-made production materials in his hands. Currently, the Daming Salt Factory is mainly divided into two types, one is well salt and the other is sea salt.

Sea salt is relatively simple and is mainly made by drying;

Well salt is relatively developed. It requires digging wells to collect brine and then boiling it to make salt.

For sea salt, although it seems simple, the production capacity and purity of sea salt in the Ming Dynasty are really unsatisfactory. Although the salt production technology in the Ming Dynasty has made great progress, from the stove cooking method to the beach drying method, However, compared with modern salt plants, production capacity and quality are still far behind.

The beach drying method of the Ming Dynasty is, as the name suggests, mainly five steps: beach repair, tide reception, brine production, crystallization, and collection. But to put it bluntly, it is hard drying. The yield and quality depend entirely on the salt content of the seawater, and human intervention is more important. few.

Modern salt farms are different. Modern salt farms need to carry out no less than eight processes such as water storage and precipitation, circular evaporation, crystallization, drying, and collection to ensure the salt production, salt purity and quality.

Therefore, the same is true for the state-owned sea salt factory to be built in the Ming Dynasty. It needs to build a series of sedimentation tanks, evaporation tanks and other facilities on the basis of the existing salt fields, and produce salt according to the standardized process of a modern salt factory.

As for the mining of well salt, the focus is on well-drilling and brine extraction. Well-drilling can be improved according to modern well-drilling technology, while brine extraction requires the manufacture of steam brine extraction machines to increase the amount of brine extraction, thereby increasing production.

The same applies to other industries. They must refer to the production methods of modern factories and use advanced production technology and equipment to complete the transformation from handicraft industry to mechanical production.

After Zhu Tianqi listed it out, he found that there were still a lot of types and quantities of machinery needed. In order to quickly establish major state-owned factories, Zhu Tianqi could naturally purchase a batch of equipment directly from the Krypton Life Store. Anyway, they were all relatively simple. Primitive and backward machinery will not last long.

However, for a long-term plan, Zhu Tianqi still planned to take advantage of this opportunity to establish a state-owned machinery factory, which would be mainly responsible for the research, development and manufacturing of various types of machinery needed by the Ming Dynasty.

There is also the construction of the first university in the Ming Dynasty, which needs to be accelerated. The place was naturally chosen to be the Imperial College. As the largest institution of higher learning in the world, it is also the highest institution of higher learning in the minds of Ming Dynasty scholars. Its lofty status is still difficult to Shaking, so building a university based on the Imperial College is more likely to be accepted.

Now there is a place, and the required subject materials and equipment Zhu Tianqi can also be purchased at the Krypton Life Store. The only thing missing is teachers. In these days, even teachers in primary schools, junior high schools and high schools have to be temporarily trained. University There is no place to look for teachers.

Therefore, Zhu Tianqi ordered the construction of several teaching buildings in the Guozijian. The exterior is naturally a traditional Chinese ancient building, but the interior rooms are divided into classrooms, and the walls inside the buildings are also thickened to ensure sound insulation. The effect is to prevent classrooms from interfering with each other.

The next step is to install audio-visual equipment in each classroom, or a set of projection and video lessons. In fact, for the study of university courses, generally speaking, the school provides courses and materials, and students mainly study by themselves. For teaching Zhu Tianqi is not very worried about the effect.

At the same time, in order to ensure the normal operation of audio-visual equipment, a power generation room was built next to each teaching building. In this small house, there is a ready-made steam heat generator that Zhu Tianqi bought in the Krypton Store. It can generate electricity by burning coal, although The power generation capacity of such a small generator is limited, but if it is only used to supply some electric teaching equipment and low-energy electrical appliances such as lighting, it is still enough.In addition to building the teaching building, Zhu Tianqi also expanded the Yilun Hall. As a library, Zhu Tianqi bought a large number of books from the Krypton Store and sent people to put them in the Yilun Hall for students to borrow and study.

The university that Zhu Tianqi wants to build is naturally comprehensive and multi-disciplinary because it is the first modern institution of higher learning built in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the main purpose of building this university is to cultivate practical talents for the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the main subjects involved are mainly science and engineering, such as mathematics and its extended applied mathematics and economics and management subjects, physics and its extension Applied physics and mechanical engineering disciplines, chemistry and its extended applied chemistry and chemical engineering disciplines, biology and its extended agriculture, forestry and medicine disciplines.

The number of subjects offered and involved is far less extensive than that of modern comprehensive universities, but they are all subject categories that are urgently needed for the development of science and technology in the Ming Dynasty and the cultivation of talents who are practical and practical for the Ming Dynasty.

Immediately afterwards, the Ming Dynasty's state machinery began to operate at high speed. The opening of the private sector of salt and iron had comprehensively reformed the major profit-making industries. Indeed, as Zhu Tianqi expected, it greatly stimulated the influx of private capital and effectively curbed the influx of private capital. Illegal activities such as selling salt and mining without permission.

After all, now that the imperial court has opened these industries to the private sector and allowed people to run private businesses, who would risk their heads and insist on operating illegally?Some people who used to do these transactions secretly also took this opportunity to start applying for legal business procedures, and took the initiative to register with the government.

Of course, there are still people who are lucky. On the one hand, these people do not want to register with the government in order to avoid the supervision and taxation of the imperial court. At the same time, they also believe that since the imperial court has opened up the private sector of salt and iron, it must also control the private sector. It will also relax.

However, the fact is exactly the opposite. The imperial court not only did not relax the management of private enterprises, but also increased supervision unprecedentedly. In the past, the imperial court was corrupt and had a lot of laxity in the management of illegal salt sales and illegal mining. Now it suddenly started to In compliance with Thunder Law Enforcement, all persons involved will be strictly investigated and dealt with.

As the court's supervision became unprecedentedly strict again, private smuggling was gradually effectively curbed, and the situation began to gradually improve.

The construction of state-owned factories is also in full swing, because the places are all ready-made, such as salt fields and mines, and the court has many places under its control. Zhu Tianqi naturally chooses one with larger scale and potential among the existing salt fields and mines. Large ones, undergo renovations and expansions.

The same goes for ceramics factories and silk factories. You can directly choose one of the government-owned factories, or merge multiple factories and convert them into one large factory.

For those industries such as wineries and sugar mills where the imperial court did not have ready-made industries and factories, it would conduct mergers and acquisitions of private industries through industry inspections, and then build factories on this basis.

As for the advanced production equipment and machines needed, they can be purchased directly from the Krypton Store, and then sent to transport them there for installation.

At the same time, production materials are also readily available. Zhu Tianqi has reviewed and summarized the production technology and standardized processes that are most suitable for the productivity levels of this era for all walks of life. As long as production is carried out strictly in accordance with standards and processes, it is bound to be able to increase production capacity. and quality, reaching the highest level in the world.

As for workers in state-owned factories, priority is naturally given to recruiting existing practitioners. In the past, practitioners in these industries, especially those monopolized by the imperial court, were hereditary and had relatively low status.

For example, salt-making workers used to be called Zaohu, because in the past, salt-making mainly relied on burning and boiling brine, and then drying salt became popular and they were also called salt cubes.

However, no matter what they are called, these people are the lowest-status hard laborers, and they have been doing this for generations and will never be able to stand up again.

However, after the construction of the state-owned factory is completed, the fate of these people will also change. They will become the first batch of state-owned factory workers to enter the factory. Both in terms of status and treatment, they will usher in earth-shaking changes.

The same goes for practitioners from other walks of life. These working people at the bottom will also receive better treatment and more income by becoming state-owned factory workers, and their status will naturally be improved.

While the Ming Dynasty was carrying out a series of industrial reforms and building large-scale state-owned factories, Zhang Guoji and Zhang Shili also completed their first trade attempt. They sailed ten large ships with [-] materials and sailed from Songjiang Prefecture, laden with porcelain and tea. , silk and Songjiang cloth went to Nagasaki in the Japanese country.

Today's Japanese country is a large silver-producing place. After the large ships were transported to Nagasaki, they were easily exchanged for silver. Then Zhang Guoji and Zhang Shili returned home with a full load. This was their first trade trial, and the two easily made money. I came back with 10,000+ taels of silver.

Zhu Tianqi was very satisfied with this. If the Ming Dynasty had more ships and could travel further in the future, wouldn't it be easy to earn more money?

However, although this trade trip was easy, it was not without any trouble. Nagasaki in the Japanese country was the Zheng family's sphere of influence. Zhang Guoji and Zhang Shili were both new faces who came here to do business for the first time. , and there was no Zheng flag on the ship. Such a big deal was made all of a sudden, so it was inevitable that he would be watched.

Therefore, before they could leave Nagasaki, someone came to their door. However, the person who came was very polite and played the trick of being polite first and then attacking, trying to get Zhang Guoji and Zhang Shili's identities first.

Naturally, Zhang Guoji could see the purpose of the visitor, and the visitor was a well-known person, so he naturally revealed his identity directly to avoid those troubles and dare to come to the door again.

Hearing that it was Taikang Bo of the Ming Dynasty, the visitor naturally did not dare to make any mistakes. After presenting the gift, he said goodbye and left.

Then, Zhang Guoji and Zhang Shili were able to return to Songjiang Mansion smoothly.

According to Zhang Shili's analysis, this Mingren who came to visit him in Nagasaki was probably one of Zheng Zhilong's men. Because their business was large, and whether they had Zheng flags planted, they probably wanted to attack them. Fortunately, Zhang Guoji After revealing their identity in time, the Zheng family was afraid of the imperial court, so they did not dare to attack them.

After Zhu Tianqi learned about this, he couldn't help but feel a little worried. This time they did turn a bad situation into a blessing and returned to Songjiang Mansion safely, but it was not certain whether they would be so lucky again in the future.

(End of this chapter)