Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 357
"Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, the imperial edict said: Cui Chengxiu, the former Minister of the Ministry of Officials, took advantage of quarrels, harmed the loyal and good, abused the common people, indulged the officials, corrupted the law..."

"Today, the four divisions are reviewing the truth. I am in pain, and I can't get over my anger. I want to give Lianzuo's family and family officials..."

"However, I am relieved, and thinking of his service to the country, he is exiled from death, and sent to Nanzhou..."

On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, under the joint inspection of Jinyiwei, Dali Temple, the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, more than [-] officials, large and small, involved in inciting Yanshan officials were arrested and tried.

The final result was not execution, but the choice of distributing these two thousand and seven hundred people to the land of Nanzhou together with their relatives of the three clans.

It has to be said that this kind of trial is already considered light. According to the punishment given to them by the Fourth Division, at least three clans will be implicated.

In this kind of trial, everyone knows that the emperor is giving Wei Zhongxian face, and the emperor's face, naturally, cannot be bypassed by King Qi, so it can be said that the emperor and King Qi jointly looked at the face of Wei Zhongxian, a slave, and spared Cui Chengxiu and others life.

However, it is not surprising that the emperor gave Wei Zhongxian face, but it is a bit strange that King Qi would give Wei Zhongxian face.

Feng Shuan, Yao Zongwen and others were very curious about why Zhu Youjian would let Cui Chengxiu and others go, but when they were guessing, Zhu Youjian held a ledger and smiled from ear to ear.

[The eunuchs and Zhejiang parties involved 750 officials, 320 relatives of the three clans, and more than 32 hidden households were clarified]

[The fourth division inspected and confiscated more than 530 mu of land, more than 21 mansions, more than 930 courtyards, more than [-] taels of gold, [-] taels of silver, and tens of millions of copper coins, Rare treasures...]

"It's not in vain to raise them for so many years, and they can greed so much in four years!"

In the early morning of the twelfth lunar month, the cold wind blows with heavy snow, and the coolness still permeates people.

Just looking at the document in his hand, Zhu Youjian couldn't stop laughing on the country road.

Behind him are the cavalry guarding nearly a thousand days, and two conspicuous carriages.

There were two carriages, one big and one small, and two small heads stuck out from the windows of the smaller carriage, looking at the surroundings and the ground with interest.

Some people may see the actions of the two of them and wonder what is so good about the ground, but if people of this era see the ground, they will probably widen their eyes and go forward to explore it curiously.

What appeared at the foot of the team was a modern cement road that could only be seen in the middle and late nineteenth century.

Zhu Youjian closed the memorial, turned around and looked at the convoy and concrete road in front of him, sighing sincerely in his heart.

This may be the first thing he has done in the eight years since he traveled to bring the people's livelihood of Ming Dynasty into modern times.

"Beijing-Tianjin Fu Road" is the first road in Ming Dynasty, two feet wide and 250 miles long, and it is paved with cement, sandstone and pig iron as a whole.

The mixing ratio of water, cement, sand and gravel is 36:20:30:[-]. Some road sections use pig iron to set connecting rods in the horizontal direction. The overall strength barely reaches the strength of about C[-] in later generations, which is enough for [-] years.

Of course, the 30 years here is the standard corresponding to future generations, but in this era of only horse-drawn carriages and animal power, maybe this road can be used for hundreds of years.

As for why Zhu Youjian remembers it so clearly, it depends on his experience in building the first cement road in the village when he helped the poor in his previous life.

The village doesn't have enough money to hire people, so only the villagers are there to help, and people like Zhu Youjian can't see how busy the 70- and [-]-year-old grandpa and aunt are, so they will naturally help.

In addition, when talking about the project, he deliberately learned about the grade of concrete pavement, so he remembered it so clearly.

"Chengen! How much is the difference between the cost of this road and the cost given by the Ministry of Households?"

Looking at this road, Zhu Youjian felt very proud at the same time, he couldn't help asking Wang Chengen, and before Wang Chengen could answer, a voice from one person rang out:
"The total length is 250 li, and the width is 400 zhang. The cost given by the household department is 360 taels per mile. After my improvement, it only needs [-] taels."

"Therefore, the construction of this road cost the court a total of 440 taels of silver."

A proud voice sounded, and Zhu Youjian turned around to look, and it was Zhu Youxiao who "raised his head and chest high".

Seeing the other party, Zhu Youjian smiled and said, "I forgot that my brother is the chief designer of this road."

"Chief designer?" Zhu Youxiao raised his eyebrows: "That's a good title."

Saying that, Zhu Youxiao glanced at his "masterpiece", nodded proudly with his hands behind his back and said:
"This kind of road is good. It doesn't bump up and down in a carriage. It can run sixty miles in an hour. If I, Da Ming, use this kind of road, it will be much easier to mobilize soldiers and horses."

"Hehe..." Zhu Youjian smiled wryly when he heard the words, and then said:

"Although I said that, brother, don't forget that just this road has used up the cement reserves in Beizhili for nearly a year."

Speaking of cement reserves, Zhu Youjian also felt a little headache.

He didn't want the people of Ming Dynasty to work in the cement field, because working in a dusty environment would shorten their lifespan and cause them to suffer from pneumoconiosis.

Therefore, cement plants generally use prisoners and criminals for production.

This is not bad in the south. After all, there are millions of "criminals" in the old port and Jiaozhi areas, and a quarter of them are involved in the labor reform in the cement field. It is easy to produce more than [-] million stone cement per year. Enough to pave nearly [-] miles of roads.

But the cement field is not working well in the north, because Daming still needs to develop, so apart from the prisoners who were captured earlier and the prisoners who violated the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" and must die, there are not many people in the north that can be used by Daming as laborers. .

From the sixth year of the Apocalypse to the present, only 370 cement factories have been established in the north, with an average of 260 prisoners in each factory, and an annual output of more than [-] million stone.

Nearly one-half of the production is in Beizhili, and the 130 million stone cement accumulated in Beizhili for a year has all been smashed on this cement road.

In other words, Daming's annual cement output reached 130 million tons, which was almost one-fourteenth of the output of the United States in 26.

However, this conversion method does not actually mean anything.

Because Daming was able to maintain such an output, it was based on the situation that a large number of prisoners were involved in labor, and it was based on the situation that more than 120 million people worked together.

Once these 120 million people die one after another, Daming's cement production will still plummet.

Therefore, if Daming's cement production is to increase steadily, it must be semi-industrialized.

The steam engine must be applied, and this step is not so simple.

But if there is no way for Daming to do this before the labor reform of more than 120 million prisoners is over, or before they die, then they can only promote the cement field and strictly require workers everywhere to wear masks.

But by that time, the cost of building cement roads will be five or six times higher, because there is no labor cost for cement now.

What Daming needs to pay is to feed them, but what they get is more than 130 million tons of cement every year.

According to the standard of "Beijing-Tianjin Mansion Road", Daming's annual cement output can build about [-] miles of mansion roads.

The sand, stone, iron and cement for the construction of government roads are almost free, and only the negligible daily wages are paid for by work.

But even so, building a cement road still takes a lot of time and experience.

Take the current "Beijing-Tianjin Prefecture Road" as an example. From the start of construction to the present, it took a total of three months, 250 four points were started at the same time, and 3000 people were employed.

This is still based on the previous official road. If a road is dug again, the time may be extended to six to eight months.

In short, it can be seen that it is not manpower but material resources that restrict Daming right now.

"Your Highness, the summary is out. This year, the two capitals and [-] provinces have built a total of [-] miles of government roads, county roads, and township roads."

"Among them, [-] miles were built in the old port, [-] miles in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Jiaozhi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Ryukyu, and more than [-] miles in total in the north."

"The Ministry of Industry spent a total of 230 taels of silver, and more than [-] million people started construction..."

While Zhu Youjian was still in deep thought, Wang Chengen, who was in the carriage summarizing the construction of cement roads in various provinces of Ming Dynasty, said, and walked down with a thick document.

Obviously he didn't hear Zhu Youjian calling him just now, but Zhu Youjian nodded slightly when he heard the words.

He did not underestimate the infrastructure construction capabilities of the people of Ming Dynasty. To put it bluntly, it is not surprising that a nation that can even build the Great Wall can build nearly [-] miles of cement roads as long as they are given money, food and materials.

What's more, there are still millions of people who are enduring drought and can only rely on food stamps from the imperial court to make ends meet.

But having said that, such a large infrastructure capability made Zhu Youjian ponder.

"It seems that we can reduce the distribution of food stamps and use work as relief as possible. After the severe drought is over, we may be able to obtain a new Ming Dynasty."

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian asked Wang Chengen:

"How many people will the Ministry of Industry provide relief to the common people this year?"

"About 400 million..." Wang Chengen thought about the amount of memorials submitted by the Ministry of Tiangong a few days ago, and Zhu Youjian also turned to talk to Zhu Youxiao after hearing the words:

"Brother, you have seen how the concrete road is. I was wondering if we could use the method of 'food relief' for [-]% and work relief [-]% to help the common people, and at the same time let the whole Ming Dynasty use this cement road."

"What does my brother think?" Zhu Youxiao was very curious, because he remembered that his brother said that the cement manufacturing process was too dusty and he didn't want the common people to participate.

But in this regard, Zhu Youjian said:

"Cement mainly uses limestone and clay as raw materials. After mixing in a certain proportion, the clinker is calcined in a vertical kiln similar to burnt lime, and then ground to make cement."

"In this step, the dusty work can be done by the prisoners, while the common people can participate in mining limestone and digging clay, and leave the preparation, firing and grinding to the prisoners."

Zhu Youjian's words made Zhu Youxiao nod, and after thinking about it, he responded:
"That's okay, but the cost will increase a bit, and even so, it shouldn't increase the output much, right?"

Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen when he heard the words, and Wang Chengen replied after thinking about it:
"How much it can be improved, we need the people below to try, but judging from the speed when the raw materials in the field were sufficient, it should be able to increase the output by at least two times."

Twice the output, this is quite remarkable, although this can only increase the output of Daming's cement plants in the north and south, but not the output of Jiugang, but what Zhu Youjian wants right now is the output of the north and the south.

First connect the original two capitals and thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty, and then go to other places.

Besides, Daming is not completely without a large number of prisoners in the north...

"Tell Yan Siqi to send the prisoners from Nandao Prefecture, Kyushu Prefecture, and Siguo Prefecture to Jingcheng, and then send someone to tell You Shigong to take over and let them supervise the prisoners to make cement. The cement will be transported by water to the Kuandian area to build the Liaodong government road. , county roads and township roads.”

As soon as Zhu Youjian opened his mouth, he asked Yan Siqi to mobilize a million prisoners, but it was impossible for these million prisoners to fly to Jingcheng all at once, after all, Yan Siqi's transportation capacity was limited.

Based on their transportation capacity, at most they can transport 10,000+ people to Jingcheng every year.

But even so, adding 10,000+ people to the labor force every year means increasing the production of cement by millions of stones for Daming.

"That's right!" Zhu Youjian thought of something, and suddenly sighed:
"They came from afar, so we can't treat them badly. Each person is paid five Wen a day. After 20 years of labor reform, let them go home."

"Your Highness is merciful..." Wang Chengen bowed slowly, while Zhu Youxiao was absent-minded. He only said after Wang Chengen stepped back:
"Brother is too tired recently, let me do the job of arranging the world's roads."

"Huh?" Zhu Youjian turned his head and looked suspiciously after hearing the words.

In his opinion, his elder brother didn't want to share his worries, but wanted to play...

But it's nice to be able to get things done while having fun anyway...

Zhu Youjian thought for a while, then looked at Zhu Youxiao with a weird smile:
"Brother, I'll send you some books on railway construction some other day. By the way, I'll ask my brother to read some books on steam locomotives and steam ships."

"Huh?" Zhu Youxiao became vigilant, and when Zhu Youjian saw him like this, he said immediately:
"However, I don't need to read the information on the steam engine. I guess I can't improve it. It's more difficult to improve it now."

"Almost... I should... probably can't improve..." Zhu Youxiao said this sentence almost against his will.

Although he really wanted to say "who said it", he still held back.

If the fourth version of the steam engine is produced, he can guarantee that his younger brother will start to work on the feudal affairs.

Anyway, the fourth version of the steam engine will not come out, even if there are steam locomotives and steam boats...

That's not right, steam boats can't be made, but steam locomotives can...

Thinking clearly, Zhu Youxiao coughed: "Ahem, I will study the railway and Guochao's provincial roads, government roads, county roads, township roads, and steam locomotives."

"As for the steam engine and the steam engine ship, alas...how can I make something so ingenious because I'm so stupid?"

This was the first time Zhu Youxiao admitted that he was "stupid in talent". The guards and soldiers around him all looked sideways, and Li Dingguo and Zhu Ciran in the carriage behind also wrinkled their facial features with unnatural expressions.

"Then I'll trouble you brother..." Zhu Youjian saw everything through, and returned to the carriage with a smile.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao also returned to the carriage. After they all returned to the carriage, the convoy continued to start.

Although it was snowing in the twelfth lunar month, it was really difficult for a carriage with a speed of no more than [-] kilometers per hour to slip.

The convoy continued to move forward, changing horses at each post station. After galloping for more than four hours, from dawn to dusk, the convoy was about to arrive in Tianjin County.

Near here, groups of farmers began to appear in the fields around the cement road to inspect the ridges.

Despite the apocalyptic drought, the population of Beizhili in this era was less than one-tenth of that of later generations, and after several migrations by Zhu Youjian, the population of Beizhili dropped to more than 850 million, less than that of later generations.

Zhu Youjian vaguely remembered that the last time he came to Tianjin was the second year of Tianqi.

At that time, Tianjin was just Wei, and the county seat was called Beitang, with a population of less than [-], most of whom were engaged in the work of helping to pull boats, with a daily wage of [-] Wen.

Beitang is surrounded by silt swamps for hundreds of miles, and there are very few fields. Zhu Youjian also dealt with Tianjin Weishe County and reclaimed the surrounding fields.

But I don’t want to think that six years later, there were only 10,000+ people at the beginning, and Tianjin, which only made a living by fishing and helping pull boats, has now grown to a population of 10,000+, and the scale of hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land has been added nearby.

Let sit in the car and look at Tianjin through the window made by Liulichang. At this moment, it has built a city wall with a grand scale, which is not inferior to Jinan, Handan, Taiyuan and other northern cities.

Looking at its appearance and the increase in the once scarce cultivated land, Zhu Youjian showed a hint of relief on his face.

"What do people in Tianjin do for a living now?"

Zhu Youxiao also came to Tianjin secretly, and naturally noticed the changes in Tianjin. It is no exaggeration to say that Tianjin now is a different city from before, so he asked Wang Chengen.

The carriage is wide, he and Zhu Youjian are sitting in the main seat, and Wang Chengen is sitting in the first place on the left, naturally bowing and answering:
"Most of the people in Tianjin work in the salt field, shipyard, and fertilizer field. There are more than 18 helpers in the three fields, of which 14 are in the shipyard."

"The nine major shipyards of Guochao absorb more than one million boatmen every year..."

"So many people? Why do you say back and forth?" Zhu Youxiao frowned when he heard the words, and Zhu Youjian explained when he saw this:
"After all, shipbuilding depends on the raw materials. I look at the raw materials of ships. For example, the three major shipyards in Tianjin, Lushun, and Denglai in the north are all wood from Nuergan and Liaodong regions, and they are matched with teak from Siam and Kambozhi for shipbuilding. .”

"Longjiang, Fuzhou, Nangang, and Beigang shipyards in the south all rely on trees from Ryukyu Prefecture and teak from Siam and Ganbozhi."

"As for the two major shipyards in Guangzhou and Jiaozhi, they rely on local materials from Jiaozhi, Yungui, and Guangxi."

"When the shipyard is busy, the peak reaches more than 1207 boatmen and [-] million civilian husbands."

"In leisure time, [-] boatmen and more than [-] civilian husbands will do."

After Zhu Youjian's layout of Daming's shipbuilding capacity, it can be said that the business is booming.

Even if there is no order from the imperial court, just relying on the order from the sea merchants, although it does not mean maintaining the peak, it is no problem to ensure that the craftsmen in their spare time have food to eat.

After all, Ming Dynasty is a trade exporting country, and some money is earned by European merchants, it is better to give to domestic merchants.

For example, now, the Ming merchants who only dared to go back and forth between the two capitals and thirteen provinces and Nanyang, after the imperial court established the Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner, have boldly started traveling between the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.

They didn't go to Levia, which was farther away, mainly because they didn't think it was worth it.

"By the way, brother!" Thinking of Levia, Zhu Youjian remembered the matter of gold, so he said to Cheng En: "Bring the map of Levia that I drew earlier."

Wang Chengen searched after hearing it, and finally turned out the map of Levia.

After Zhu Youjian took the map, he opened it, pointed to the red places he circled with a red pen and said:

"Xu Xiake went to Levia to explore. Although he only reached the Cape of Good Hope, which is called by the Europa people, he discovered a huge gold vein..."

"Gold?!" Hearing gold, Zhu Youxiao's eyes lit up, and Zhu Youjian also smiled and said:

"Yes, it's gold, and it's gold with reserves of hundreds of millions of taels." Zhu Youjian didn't say the specific real reserves, he was afraid that Zhu Youxiao wouldn't believe it if he said too much.

However, even though he was very conservative, Zhu Youxiao still frowned when he heard about the hundreds of millions of taels of gold:

"Brother, are you sure? Don't be fooled by some people below."

"Don't worry, brother, I won't be cheated." Zhu Youjian smiled and shook his head, but Zhu Youxiao still worried:
"But if there is really so much gold, why doesn't Xiyi mine it himself?"

"Because they can't detect it..." Zhu Youjian couldn't laugh or cry, let alone Europeans, even Xu Xiake and others, if they didn't have the information provided by Zhu Youjian, they probably wouldn't be interested in South Africa, which is full of Gobi Desert.

The current Europeans are like this. They are not interested in the Gobi Desert, so they have not explored it.

In history, the British had to leave in large numbers because of internal competition and contradictions. After finally seizing the Cape of Good Hope, they discovered these large gold mines by accident.

It's a pity that this place is about to be occupied by Daming...recovered.

"Although there is gold, the distance is tens of thousands of miles. Moreover, with such a large amount of gold, how can we ensure that the people sent to mine will not be greedy?"

Zhu Youxiao looked at the gold marked points on the map, and kept trying to figure out the map. He was obviously very interested, or he wished he could fly over to find out what happened right now.

"The problem of distance is very big, but if the steam locomotive is researched, then the problem of distance will not be so big."

Zhu Youjian said this because he knew that if the fourth version of the steam engine was successfully improved, the speed of the steam engine ship would be twice that of the current sailboat.

Starting from the Cape of Good Hope, it only takes two months to reach Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner, two and a half months to the Old Port, and three and a half months to Guangzhou.

It takes only about a month to travel from Guangzhou to the Bay of Bengal in India, and it only takes two months to go to Central America from Nurgan or Mowen Riverwei (Vladivostok).

This is why Zhu Youjian said that if there is a steam engine, his first migration target is Central America.

Moreover, the steam engine does not only have the power of the fourth version, but also the fifth version.

The power of the fourth edition is probably the high-pressure steam engine completely perfected by Watt and improved by Trevithick, which can be used with ships, trains, and carriages.

If it reaches the fifth edition, it will reach the level of the end of the nineteenth century. Even if it takes only five or six months to travel from Songjiang Mansion in Daming to London, England, it only takes [-] months to cross the Pacific Ocean from Songjiang Mansion to Central America. Tomorrow.

No matter how you calculate it, as long as the steam engine can reach the fourth edition, America will be the best place for Zhu Youjian to conquer.

Both North America and South America are his vassal lands. The Qi State can be used as a factory of the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty in peacetime, and can be used as a bridgehead to attack Europe in wartime. After all, after the fifth version of the steam engine, it only takes seven or eight years to get from the east of North America to Europe. time of day.

Therefore, the steam engine is something that must be produced, whether it is for reclamation or transportation, or to maintain the Ming Dynasty suzerainty system.

Of course, research and development and technological innovation are inseparable from money, but where does the money come from?Naturally, it has to rely on currency reform, the establishment of banks, and the establishment of gold and silver standards.

Gold and silver will be the imperial court's goals, and Zhu Youjian doesn't have to worry about gold and silver causing inflation in the short term, because the current Ming Dynasty is short of silver.

In the history of Ming Dynasty, the catastrophic consequences of economic collapse occurred because of the inability to control the silver-copper bistandard currency system in which silver participated, and the inability to ensure sufficient silver in circulation.

This consequence was also caused by the fact that the 30-year war in Europe affected trade, the amount of outflowing silver decreased, and the outflow of silver could not meet the internal needs of the Ming Dynasty.

Coincidentally, the Great Ming Dynasty perished in 1644, and although the Little Ice River continued, the severe drought stopped in 1643, and the 30-year war in Europe was also signed in 1648 with the signing of the "Westphalia Peace Treaty". And end.

For the current Ming Dynasty, the population has not suffered much, so the demand for silver has become more vigorous with the population growth.

Zhu Youjian found out that the influx of 2000 million taels of silver was nothing more than a thirst quencher for Daming.

If you want Daming to be truly full, it must at least be greater than the total inflow of silver in the 17 years from Longqing switch to Chongzhen.

What is the scale?Not much...

That's... probably... the size of a "Xin Chou Treaty"...

　I admit, I was the one who raised the issue last night...

　　39.1°, sore throat, body pain, migraine, stomach growling all night (not hungry)...

　　Who said this thing is a big cold...

　　Let's see when my fever subsides in today's update, it may be late, but it will never be absent.

　　I wanted to take a rest, but I don’t think you will be hungry. Even if I wake up at one o’clock in the morning, I will try to code Chapter 2.

　　My slogan is, even if it is positive, other authors of historical classification must be killed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)