King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Chapter 170 Shocking! telescope!

Yanzhou.

Prince Lu's Mansion.

Jingwen Hall.

Zhu Tan and Wu Dinghou Guo Ying gathered together.

Zhu Tan raised the imperial edict in his hand to Guo Ying.

"The old man is so shameless. He takes advantage of you if you can, and you take advantage of him if you can!"

Guo Ying couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth.

You bastard, you lied to me again!
Afraid that Zhu Tan would talk nonsense again, Guo Ying hurriedly asked: "What is written in this edict? Aren't we going north to Peiping to prepare for the Northern Expedition? I know about this."

Zhu Tan shook his head and said: "The old man has a new will."

With that said, he casually threw the imperial edict in his hand to Guo Ying. Guo Ying was startled and hurriedly caught it.

Bully! Another lie!
How could anyone be so against the imperial edict!

Guo Ying couldn't help but shook his head secretly.

After looking at the imperial edict, Guo Ying couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Let us bring 50 shi of grain? Even if it takes a month for an army of 5000 people to reach Peiping, 5000 shi is enough! How can Your Majesty allow so much grain to be transported?"

Under normal circumstances, a normal soldier's daily food intake is only three kilograms of grain. Because he is marching, his consumption may be larger, even four to five kilograms.

Regardless of rice, millet or beans, the consumption is almost the same.

One stone of rice is about 150 kilograms. If a soldier eats it for a month, he will consume at most one stone of grain.

Bringing 5000 shi is enough to walk to Peiping anyway.

But now Lao Zhu directly amplified this number 100 times.

Zhu Tan is asked to go to Peiping with 50 shi of food!
The most important thing is that apart from assigning tasks to Zhu Tan, the imperial edict did not mention money at all.

In other words, Zhu Tanbai was asked to give the 50 grains to the court!
Zhu Tan snorted.

"Isn't the old man just trying to take advantage of the big family? He takes advantage of me at every turn! Let me go to war. Not only do my soldiers have to bring their own food and grass, but they also have to bring food and grass to the old man's soldiers!"

Guo Ying said worriedly: "50 shi of grain is nothing to you, right? It's just a matter of 25 taels of silver. But the consumption on this journey is a bit too great, whether it is transported by manpower or animals. In the past, this cost was only 10 taels of silver! Not to mention transporting so much food to Peking! During this period, an army of 5000 people was escorted along the way, which would seriously slow down the march and make the army even more exhausted. , it will not be conducive to the Northern Expedition at that time!”

Zhu Tan was stunned when he heard this.

"Hey! Uncle, 25 taels of silver are just nothing in your mouth? Why don't you help my nephew solve the problem?"

When Guo Ying heard Zhu Tan's words, he coughed dryly and said: "What to solve! Your family has a big business, and it is not short of these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver! In this world, except for the emperor, I am afraid that no one is as rich as you. !”

talking.

Guo Ying couldn't help but said: "You have the nerve to ask me for money! I have heard that Zhao Quan, the commander of King Lu's guard, still has 500 taels of silver a year! My uncle is now King of Lu The commander of the guard didn't give me a penny! According to my worth, it must be worth two thousand taels of silver, right?"

Zhu Tan did not refute when he heard this.

He just smiled and said: "Zhao Quan does not receive a salary from the court now. I pay him his salary! If my uncle does not receive a salary from the court, my nephew will give you three thousand taels a year!"

Guo Ying laughed dryly when he heard this and shook his head.

When you become a soldier, you get paid. Whoever you serve as a soldier will get paid!

Although the rank of an official like Zhao Quan is not low, he is a third-rank official, but it doesn't matter if he leaves the court and only receives Zhu Tan's money.

The court regarded this person as Zhu Tan.

But Guo Ying can’t!
He was one of the 28 founding princes. Over the years, he had fought in the north and south, and he was also a pivotal figure in the Ming military.

If you don't receive Lao Zhu's salary and instead receive your nephew's salary, this will be serious!
"I won't accept your money anymore. Although it will be more difficult to live like this, who can let my uncle live in poverty and live happily."

Zhu Tan sneered when he heard Guo Ying's words.

Why do honest people become dishonest when they encounter money? Although Guo Ying's annual salary is only 1500 shi, these old people have given him lots of land!

In fact, Lao Zhu treats everyone in the Guo family well. After all, the Guo family was the first to invest in Lao Zhu.

Guo Ying lived comfortably every year with these rewards and salary, and he was considered rich among the nobles of the Ming Dynasty.

How could he have the nerve to say that he was poor and happy?
Too lazy to pay attention to Guo Ying anymore.

Zhu Tan frowned and said: "I have thought of a way to solve the problem of transporting food, but I feel a little unhappy! The old man likes to take advantage too much. He has to find a way to make up for it every time. It is really a headache!"

Guo Ying looked at Zhu Tan speechlessly.

Is this why you are unhappy?

In this world, there are many people who are taken advantage of by the emperor!
Everyone should either be grateful or swallow their anger. In this world, the only one who dares to think about making amends is you, His Highness Prince Lu, right?
I finished complaining about Zhu Tan from the bottom of my heart.

Guo Ying couldn't help but be stunned.

"Can you solve the problem of transporting food? Can you spend less money?"

Zhu Tan nodded and said, "It should be possible to spend a lot less."

Guo Ying asked: "How to transport it?"

Zhu Tan smiled and said: "Of course it's sea transportation! Shipping it by ship saves money and effort! It's just a little slower."

Guo Ying frowned and said: "Sea transportation was very popular in the previous dynasty. At that time, Peiping was the capital of Yuanting, and a lot of food needed to be transported every year. I heard that most of the food at that time relied on sea transportation.

It's just that the risk of shipping is not small. If the storm is strong or the Japanese pirates attack, the loss of food and grass will be small, but it will delay His Majesty's important event, but it will not be good! "

Zhu Tan sneered.

"Why is there such a big risk in sea transportation? Isn't this the news spread by those who transport water and the merchants who transport grain by land?

I have also read a lot of Yuanting shipping records. On average, I transported 330 million shi of grain a year, with a loss of only 15 shi! This kind of loss is much lower than the cost of road and water transportation.

As for the issue of Japanese pirate attacks."

Zhu Tan said with a smile: "The King of Lu would welcome the opportunity to wipe out the Japanese pirates, right? I am just worried that the Japanese pirates along the Shandong coast were beaten too hard last year, and they may no longer be active here."

At least so far, there has not been a single Japanese pirate attack in Shandong.

On the contrary, there are many more Japanese pirates in Zhejiang, Fujian and even Guangdong. Guo Ying nodded and said, "Then let's go by sea?" "

Zhu Tan looked at Guo Ying strangely and said: "It's not us, it's uncle you and King Lu's guards escorting the grain and grass to be transported by sea. I still have to take the carriage!"

Our father has long taught us that a rich son cannot sit down in public, and shipping is still more or less risky. What if the ship capsizes? It’s safer to go to Peiping on foot! "

Guo Ying:.
Zhu Tan smiled, turned around, took out something from the table, and handed it to Guo Ying.

"This thing can't be mass-produced yet. I have one in my hand, and the other one is this one in my uncle's hand."

Guo Ying looked at the things in his hands.

It's black, long and cylindrical, and it used to be two pieces of glass that were not very flat.

He asked curiously: "What is this?"

Zhu Tan laughed and said, "I named him Telescope!"

Guo Ying was shocked when he heard this!
"Telescope? You mean, this thing can see far away?"

Zhu Tan nodded and said: "That's what it means, that's why it's called a telescope!"

Guo Ying picked up the telescope.

The things in his hands seemed to require no teaching, and Guo Ying learned them in no time.

He looked at Zhu Tan through the telescope and found that Zhu Tan's face was indeed much larger, but the field of view of the telescope was also much smaller.

After discovering that the effect was so good, Guo Ying suddenly became excited and quickly walked out of the hall with a telescope!
Guo Ying walked out of the palace, raised the telescope in his hand, and pointed it at a courtyard in the distance of Prince Lu's Mansion.

Through a telescope, details that would otherwise be difficult to distinguish with the naked eye become clearly visible. He saw a eunuch walking slowly across the courtyard, holding a seemingly precious scroll in his hand. Even at a great distance, Guo Ying could clearly see the fine gold texture on the cover of the book, and even discern a hint of hesitation and curiosity that flashed across the eunuch's face.

Turning the angle of the telescope, Guo Ying's eyes fell on a group of palace maids. They were sitting around under a large locust tree, each holding an embroidery needle in their hands, and they were meticulously embroidering various patterns. Through the telescope, Guo Ying was surprised to find that she could clearly see the color of the silk thread passing through the embroidery needle, as well as the tiny embroidery movements on the fingers of the palace maids. Even the moment when the tiny silk thread passed through the cloth was clearly visible.

Moving the telescope again, he cast his sights on the team of guards who were practicing. The complex patterns and emblems on the guards' armor were displayed in extremely fine detail under the telescope. Even the tiny scratches on the armor and the traces of battles were clearly visible. This made Guo Ying feel an unprecedented sense of intimacy and reality. feel!

"If this is used on the battlefield, it is truly a divine weapon!"

Guo Ying couldn't help but said excitedly!

"If this telescope can be used on the battlefield, it will be of great significance! Especially on the vast grassland, its value is immeasurable. On the grassland, the terrain is open and endless, and the movements of the Yuan army are often elusive, and with A telescope is like having eyes that can see thousands of miles away!

In this way, any slight movement of the enemy on the grassland will be invisible!

By then, whether it is avoiding enemy ambush or chasing them, it will be much easier! "

Zhu Tan smiled.

This is the true power of the glass industry!

Not limited to various glassware or even windows.

There are so many uses for glass!

For example, medicine bottles in the future medical field and telescopes on the battlefield will surely replace the copper mirror and the glass mirror.
The value of the entire industry chain is astonishing. Earning tens of millions of taels of silver a year is a small amount.

After all, if the glass is exported overseas, the profits will be even more terrifying.

In fact, Fujian businessmen have already come to discuss cooperation with Zhu Tan.

Whether it was glass or soap, Fujian merchants with a keen sense of smell discovered the value of these things right away!
In fact, as the most developed manufacturing country in the world at that time, the Ming Dynasty did not have the influence of red sandalwood, and the products of the Ming Dynasty were also the most popular products in various countries.

From salt to silk to tea to porcelain, ironware, gunpowder and so on.
Almost everything from Ming Dynasty is very popular overseas.

The rare objects such as glass and soap made by Zhu Tan's people are expected to fetch sky-high prices overseas. At least those nobles will be willing to collect these rare objects with high use value.

And before these things became popular, it was also the most profitable time.

When several representatives of Fujian merchants saw Zhu Tan, their eyes were red!

He is even willing to split the score 91% with Zhu Tan!

Zhu Tanjiu, one of them!

Being able to sell these things is not just as simple as making money, it also represents their strength and status. In the future overseas trade, mastering these rare things will also be very beneficial to them in other businesses.

Compared with this important meaning, making money is secondary.

In the first half of this year, Fujian merchants have gone to sea three times and sold huge amounts of refined salt. They also brought back a large amount of precious stones, gold and silver, as well as valuable pepper, cardamom and other spices.
Zhu Tan did a rough calculation and found that his overseas trade income in the first half of the year alone was as high as 500 million silver!
But now, Zhu Tan still has some trump cards that he has not yet used.

For example, the steel plant that Zhu Tan is guiding the construction of will soon be put into production.
no way.

Shandong is really rich in products.

Even in modern times, Shandong is known as China's only "war-ready province" and has the world's only province with 41 major industrial categories in all categories.

Behind the perfect industry are extremely rich products.

Speaking of steel, Shandong iron mines are also blooming everywhere.

What makes Zhu Tan even more delighted is that Laizhou, which was recently assigned to Zhu Tan's management, has Laiwu County.
Laiwu, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, was already the most important iron smelting base in the country.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Laiwu had dedicated officials responsible for managing iron smelting matters in Laiwu, with thousands of people mining and smelting each year.

In the Yuan Dynasty, there were more than 5,000 smelting households alone. The imperial court specially set up a Laiwu Iron Smelting Department, a fourth-rank official, to manage Laiwu Iron Smelting.

In the Ming Dynasty, Laiwu was also one of the thirteen iron smelting centers in the country. It not only produced iron, but also copper, tin, etc.
For the iron smelting industry that Zhu Tan was vigorously developing in King Lu Fan, it was even more powerful!

After all, the industrialization Zhu Tan is now promoting in King Lu's territory cannot be separated from steel.

For example, the new fire gun that is about to be mass-produced, Zhu Tan renamed it a rifle, requires a large number of high-quality steel pipes as support.

Ordinary steel pipes cannot withstand high-quality gunpowder, nor can they withstand prolonged combat.
There are also new types of artillery, which also require high-quality steel.

In addition, Zhu Tan also wanted Lu Wangwei to eat more luxuriously.

Therefore, Zhu Tan also prepared a lot of cans for this expedition.

The tinplate used to make cans is also inseparable from the support of steel mills.
Fortunately, all these problems have been almost solved at present.

Zhu Tan arranged for the workshop to produce a lot of canned fruits, canned meat, and canned vegetables.

The only thing that worries Zhu Tan is whether the firearms from Wanhu can still be released?

How long has it been!
(End of this chapter)