Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 325 Loom
The Tatars and the Oirat jointly invaded Daqian, but they were defeated by Daqian as soon as they reached the border, before they even started the attack.

Although only the vanguard of the Tatars and the Oirat were lost, after seeing the terrifying power of Daqian's artillery, the last bit of thought of the Tatars and the Oirat disappeared.

The Waqi retreated the fastest. Anyway, there was the Tatar tribe between the Waqi and Daqian. With the Tatar tribe as a buffer, no matter how powerful Daqian was, it was the Tatar tribe that bore the brunt of it.

Li Qiang came quietly and returned to Beijing quietly. During the whole process, no one knew that he was watching beside the battlefield.

A few days later, the 800-li express train reporting the great victory at Xuanfu Town reached the capital, causing the city to celebrate.

Everyone was proud of Daqian's strength. This time, when the Tatars and the Oirat attacked, they were easily defeated by Daqian, which made everyone realize the strength of Daqian's army.

At the same time, the reputation of Li Qiang, the ruling prince, soared, and people believed that this great victory was all thanks to Prince Li Qiang.

Li Qiang missed the morning court again, and Lin Ruhai still presided over it on his behalf.

This time he was in the side hall of the East Palace. There were more important things going on here, at least that's what he thought.

In the side hall stands a huge machine that is three meters high. This is the newly built steam textile machine.

Three fifth-rank master craftsmen stood beside Li Qiang, looking proudly at the giant in front of them.

The Ministry of Industry has mobilized a huge amount of resources for this steam textile machine, which is an important task that Crown Prince Li Qiang is concerned about.

The steam looms made a deafening noise, but no one here cared.

Li Qiang was amazed at the ability of the Daqian craftsmen. The steam loom before her had surpassed the level of the first generation of steam looms in her previous life.

In the past, the first generation of steam looms only eliminated the tedious process of picking up the thread and threading it up and down, but still required manual shuttle insertion, which meant that one worker could only operate two steam looms at most.

But the steam loom in front of us can be fully automated except for the manual placement of the thread reels.

Li Qiang could also understand that the steam loom in front of him had already mobilized the best skilled craftsmen in the entire Daqian and integrated the top talents from multiple industries in Daqian to participate in its manufacturing.

This steam loom, manufactured with the efforts of a whole country, is naturally more sophisticated than any steam loom manufactured by a single enterprise.

"Can the output of steam looms be calculated?" Li Qiang asked the master craftsman beside him.

"When we were testing, we found that a steam loom like this could produce about 30 pieces of cloth a day if it ran non-stop for twelve hours!" Master Wu bowed and replied.

According to Daqian's calculation method, one horse is equal to ten zhang, which is equal to one hundred chi, which is about 33 meters in the previous life.

In other words, the daily output of a steam textile machine is about one thousand meters, which has exceeded Li Qiang's expectations.

"Is it possible for a steam loom to work stably?" Li Qiang asked again.

This is the most important thing. If the steam loom cannot work stably, it cannot be put into operation and it will take a long time to improve it.

"This steam loom has been working continuously for twenty days before I dared to report it to Your Highness!" replied Master Wu.

Li Qiang finally understood why the research on the steam textile machine took so long, including the testing time.

"Very good, I need one thousand steam looms!" Li Qiang nodded with satisfaction.

The three master craftsmen were shocked by this number. You know, the steam loom was an extremely large machine in their eyes, and they thought that making ten of them would be a lot of work.

Who knew that Crown Prince Li Qiang would ask for one thousand units right away, which left them at a loss for words for a moment.

"I don't ask you to build a thousand steam textile machines at once. You can deliver them one by one. We can take this opportunity to build a workshop specializing in manufacturing steam textile machines in the suburbs of Beijing and recruit a large number of people for training. There will be more machines to be manufactured in the future, so this is a good time to train talents!" Li Qiang said with a smile when she saw that they were scared.

The three master craftsmen imagined the scene and how many people would be needed to produce a workshop capable of producing a thousand steam looms. How spectacular that would be.

When they thought about it carefully, they realized that Li Qiang's task of installing a thousand steam textile machines was not too difficult.

With the measuring tools designed by Li Qiang, all that is needed is for someone to manufacture each part according to the size, and those that qualify can be assembled. The core part is made by experienced craftsmen, and the rest is made by apprentices.

"I will ask Datong Bank to build a workshop and recruit people for this matter. You just need to cooperate with Datong Bank!" Li Qiang decided when he thought that the people in front of him were just craftsmen.

"We will follow your orders, Your Highness!" The three master craftsmen breathed a sigh of relief and bowed.

Li Qiang turned her attention back to the steam loom. This was the world's first steam loom and would remain in the palace as a souvenir.

Although it is a bit wasteful, considering his wealth, this amount of waste is nothing.

"Leave the manufacturing of the steam loom to your disciples. I believe they can do it well with the blueprints!" Li Qiang continued.

"There are a total of twelve of us disciples participating in the research of steam textile machines. There will be no problem in manufacturing them!" Master Jiang affirmed at this time.

"That's good. I still have a task to assign to you, and your task is more important!" Li Qiang nodded.

The eyes of the three master craftsmen were shining. Ever since they participated in the research and manufacturing of steam engines and steam textile machines, they knew that the machines they made were absolutely unique in the world and far exceeded the level of Daqian.

This has unimaginable appeal to them who have been studying this knowledge.

"Look at this thing, I call it a steam car!" Li Qiang took out a design drawing and said.

The design drawings he provided this time only included some important parts, such as bearings, universal joints, brakes, clutch, steering wheels and other relatively mature technologies.

Especially for bearings, if this is not researched, many machines will have difficulty running smoothly in the future.

In fact, what Li Qiang is doing now is to force Daqian craftsmen to master the technology of machine manufacturing through this research and development work.

If the steam car is truly manufactured, it will be much easier for Daqian craftsmen to manufacture other machines, and Li Qiang's involvement will be reduced.

The three master craftsmen took over the design of the steam car, which was more complex than the steam textile machine.

The textile machine part of the steam loom had ready-made textile machines to refer to, and there were also craftsmen involved in making the textile machines.

The steam car had to start from scratch, with no experience to refer to.

However, the three master craftsmen still left excitedly with the design drawings, as if they had found the direction of their lives.

The steam loom in the side hall of the East Palace also stopped working, and the more than ten meters of cloth that had been woven was left on the steam loom. "Master, the two middle hall masters are here!" Jin Dong entered the side hall and reported quietly.

"Let them come here!" Li Qiang knew the reason why the two cabinet ministers came, and he ordered with a smile.

Soon, Grand Secretary Tian and Lin Ruhai entered the side hall. Before they even saluted, they were stunned by the huge machine in front of them.

"Greetings to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!" The two men came to their senses and saluted to Li Qiang.

"Is it because I don't have any business to attend court? I have more important things to do than attending court!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

"Your Highness, this court meeting is an important meeting for officials to report government affairs to you and govern Daqian. If you do not attend the court meeting, it will disappoint the ministers! Is there anything more important than the court meeting in the world?" Grand Secretary Tian bowed and persuaded.

"Tanakatang, look at this machine, do you know how powerful it is?" Li Qiang asked, tapping the steam loom with her hand.

"I don't know!" Grand Secretary Tian roughly judged from the remaining cloth on the steam loom that it was a loom, but he really didn't know what was so great about it.

"It can weave thirty pieces of cloth a day, and one person can operate at least four or five machines!" Li Qiang said proudly.

Scholar Tian took a deep breath and looked at the big guy in front of him with horror.

"Can this thing really produce thirty pieces of cloth a day?" he asked in disbelief.

Lin Ruhai had heard about it from Li Qiang before, but this was the first time he saw it in person, and the output was much greater than what Li Qiang had said at the beginning.

"I plan to manufacture one thousand machines and set up a weaving workshop in Yangzhou!" Li Qiang told Scholar Tian about her idea only after she had developed the steam loom.

In fact, Lin Ruhai in Yangzhou was already making preparations and was just waiting for the steam loom.

"With the output of one thousand steam looms, the weavers in Jiangnan will no longer have a livelihood!" said Scholar Tian, ​​thinking about the problems that would arise after one thousand steam looms were put into production.

"We can let these people work in workshops. The workshop in Yangzhou is just the first batch. I also plan to build weaving workshops of similar size in all cotton-producing areas!" Li Qiang continued.

As for the fact that some people have lost their livelihoods, from his perspective, this will not change their plans.

"With the output of this machine, if Your Highness really wants to realize his idea, I'm afraid Daqian will not be able to consume so much cloth!" said Grand Secretary Tian, ​​shaking his head.

You should know that the current output of hand-woven textiles is enough to meet Daqian's demand for cloth.

If all the machines were replaced with such efficient ones, the cloth would pile up in the warehouse in large quantities.

"No, I will sell these cloths outside Daqian and earn money from foreign countries!" Li Qiang stated her ultimate goal.

"Your Highness, I cannot quite follow your thoughts!" Tian Daxueshi replied with a wry smile.

"This is cloth. In the future, there will be other items that can be mass-produced through machines. The prices of items produced by machines are extremely low, which can completely make similar items from foreign countries unable to compete!" Li Qiang said again.

"I'm afraid foreign nations will not agree and will most likely impose tariffs!" Academician Tian was very clear about this and pointed out what might happen in the future.

Li Qiang showed a strange smile. He thought of a country in the future that sold its own products to other countries. If any country dared to impose tariffs, the country would be threatened by sending troops.

"That's the business of the Daqian army!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

Academician Tian was speechless. Even though he had been dealing with government affairs for many years, he had never thought of handling it in this way.

He thought of the good news from a few days ago, when the joint army of Tatar and Oirat was directly crippled by an artillery bombardment from the Beijing camp.

He couldn't help but wonder whether Crown Prince Li Qiang had planned it all out, first developing the army and making it a powerful force.

After the army had acquired powerful military force, it promoted the products produced by Crown Prince Li Qiang. Any country that dared to prevent the sale of the products would have to consider the threat of the Daqian army.

This created a strong ideological conflict with the Confucianism that Academician Tian had learned. He really wanted to say to Crown Prince Li Qiang, isn't this hooliganism?

"Does this item belong to Daqian or to Your Highness?" Grand Secretary Tian thought of a key question and asked.

"Of course it belongs to me!" Li Qiang replied indifferently.

"How can such wealth be tied to one person? We should set up a special government office to manage it!" said Grand Secretary Tian, ​​shaking his head.

At this moment, he thought of the huge wealth brought by the steam loom, which was a super business that monopolized the cloth industry in Daqian and even the cloth industry in the neighboring countries of Daqian.

The wealth that Crown Prince Li Qiang originally possessed was already extremely astonishing. With this kind of wealth, and if more machines of this kind continue to appear, the wealth of Crown Prince Li Qiang alone may exceed the income of Daqian.

This amount of wealth is so staggering that Grand Secretary Tian would rather keep it in the hands of the cabinet. There are too many places in the world where silver is needed. With this additional and continuous wealth, the people of Daqian will live a better life.

"These businesses will be managed by Datong Money House, and all income will be taxed in full according to Daqian's rules. It's not possible that other merchants can make profits from cloth, but I have to hand over my own wealth!" Li Qiang said dissatisfiedly.

He felt very uncomfortable. Before he had earned any money, Grand Secretary Tian was already thinking about the income and wanted to bring the business under the court.

"I want to add a sentence to the Daqian laws that private property is sacred and inviolable!" Li Qiang said after thinking for a while.

"I cannot agree to this now. I need to discuss it with the cabinet!" Grand Secretary Tian felt a little dizzy and bowed as he spoke.

Li Qiang shook his head. He also knew the difficulty of making changes in Daqian.

He was not in a hurry, as he had the means to change things slowly.

The cabinet only has the power to handle government affairs, and it needs to be stamped with the seal of the Emperor Daqian to take effect.

He was just giving face to the cabinet. If he really used his power by force and issued laws by force, the cabinet would not be able to stop him.

The cabinet is an institution that can help him do things and allow him to have some free time, so we cannot really let the cabinet become alienated.

So Li Qiang did not force him and let Academician Tian use delaying tactics.

Lin Ruhai did not express his own opinion. His position was very delicate. He was the father-in-law of Crown Prince Li Qiang and a cabinet minister, which meant he was standing between the cabinet and the Eastern Palace. He was very clear about his position as the fusion agent between the cabinet and the Eastern Palace.

(End of this chapter)