Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

In a blink of an eye, the time came to mid-September.

At the foot of Guanyin Mountain, in a blunderbuss workshop of the Daming Armory, an old blacksmith who is already old but still in good health uses iron tongs to clamp a red-hot iron plate out of the charcoal stove and place it on a semicircular On the grooved iron base, at the same time, he swung the hammer in his right hand and smashed it down heavily.

The hammer head of the right-hand hammer is also curved.

When the hammer fell, the iron plate was immediately dented from the middle.

Although the old blacksmith was old, he had excellent eyesight, and this time he hit the iron plate right in the middle.

With just a few bangs and bangs, a shallow dent was made in the middle of the one-foot-long iron plate.

At this time, the old blacksmith fixed the hammer in his right hand on the dent in the middle of the iron plate, nodded to the young blacksmith opposite, and the young blacksmith immediately picked up a big hammer weighing more than ten catties.

"Boom!" The big hammer hit the small round hammer heavily.

The dent under the small round hammer immediately became deeper.

This is followed by repeated hammering until the iron plate cools.

At this time, the one-foot-long flat iron plate has become a long U-shaped groove.

The old blacksmith put the iron plate back into the charcoal stove, and the young blacksmith also put down the sledgehammer and started to blow the wind. The orange flame immediately rose from the charcoal stove, licking the half-rolled iron plate.

The old blacksmith sprinkled some powder on the iron plate, and the iron plate soon began to turn red.

At this time, the temperature in the workshop had become extremely high, and the chests and backs of the two blacksmiths were already soaked with sweat. The father and son Chongzhen and Zhu Cijiong who were guarding the side were not much better.

Chongzhen attached great importance to the first flintlock gun, and followed it from the first process.

What is being made today is already the third gun barrel. Due to the limitation of the manufacturing process, the Ming Dynasty could not form a gun barrel with a length of three feet at one time, so three gun barrels had to be spliced ​​together.

When the third gun barrel is finished, it can be welded.

After a while, the U-shaped groove plate in the charcoal stove was burning red.

The old blacksmith used iron tongs to clamp the slot plate from the inside of the furnace again, and put it into the groove of the iron drill again, but this time, the old blacksmith did not immediately hammer it with a small hammer.

Instead, he first took an iron rod with a diameter of about 3 minutes.

【1分=1/10寸=1/100尺=3.2mm】

First place the iron rod in the groove in the middle of the U-shaped groove plate, and then start hammering in.

Soon, the two sides of the U-shaped grooved plate are rolled towards the middle and become a cylinder.

While Chongzhen and his son were watching the two blacksmiths hammering, Ma Mingpao walked in in a casual suit.

Ma Mingpao didn't know if it was because he had worn a Fei robe before, so he felt conflicted about wearing a green robe again. Since he took charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he seldom wore a sixth-rank green robe official uniform.

As soon as he entered the door, Ma Mingpao felt a wave of heat coming, and his whole body was dry and hot.

When I looked closely again, I saw the Holy One and Prince Ding, father and son, shirtless, standing by the stove blowing wind.

Seeing this scene, Ma Mingpao couldn't help but burst out laughing, thinking that the current emperor really didn't care about the majesty of the emperor at all, and actually walked around among the blacksmiths shirtless.

But for some unknown reason, Ma Mingpao felt first-class excitement instead.

An emperor like the current emperor is a good emperor, because he knows the sufferings of the people and the hardships of craftsmen just like Emperor Taizu Gao, and only in this way can he govern the country well. …

"Your Majesty." Ma Mingpao stepped forward to pay homage to Chongzhen.

"Ma Qing, are you here?" Chongzhen hurriedly brought Ma Mingpao to the door of the workshop, the place was ventilated, and finally it wasn't so hot, it was hard to breathe inside.

Gao Qiqian, who was guarding the workshop door, hurriedly handed over the towel, and Chongzhen was not pretentious.

Taking the towel and wiping off his sweat, Chongzhen asked Ma Mingpao: "Ma Qing, look at your bitter face, the issuance of the third bond is not going well?"

"It's not going well." Ma Mingpao said, "It's only half sold."

"As expected." Chongzhen said, "Who told you to lower the interest rate so low?"

Ma Mingpao is also quite picky, and actually lowered the interest rate on one-year bonds to [-]%, isn't that ridiculous?
The one-year interest rate of your second bond was [-]%, but the third bond was directly reduced to [-]%. This is really treating the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan as pigs to kill.

As a result, the gentry and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River voted with their feet, and all went to the Hubu City Exchange to buy bonds.

The second tranche of bonds issued by Hubu City Exchange was [-] million taels, and it was sold out within a few days.

But the third bond of the Royal Exchange was [-] million taels, and it took almost half a month before it was sold for less than [-] million.

Ma Minglu said: "But later, the minister raised the interest back again, but in the end, no one came to buy it, and even the creditors who bought the third bond started to make trouble."

"Ma Qing, you made two mistakes in a row."

Chongzhen Fue said: "The first mistake was that the store bullied the customers and exploited too much because of the hot market before, and the second mistake was eager to change course after the sales were cold. This not only made old customers who bought bonds All offended, and the appetite of potential customers is whetted, they are stretching you, waiting for you to continue to increase interest."

After all, he is from the Ming Dynasty, has never played finance, and does not understand the speculative psychology of chasing ups and downs.

"That's why I came to look for the Holy One." Ma Mingpao said with some shame, "Your Highness, please give me a trick."

"I have nothing good to do about this matter." Chongzhen said, "But the most important thing is to make up for the interest difference of the customers who have already bought the third bond. They can't be treated differently, and then just wait. Anyway, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is now There is no shortage of silver, and those gentry and merchants are not in a hurry to buy, and we are not in a hurry to sell."

Ma Mingpao sighed, and said: "It seems that this is the only way to go."

Chongzhen asked again: "Oh, by the way, what about the share capital of the Exchange? Those shareholders are still unwilling to pay?"

Ma Minglu said: "My lord, this is also the second thing I have asked you for. After the bond crash, many gentry and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have become frightened, so after the stock exchange reopened, the market is no longer as hot as it was before. , the daily increase is only a little bit, and the trading volume is not large.”

Chongzhen said: "Does that mean there is less running water?"

"It's a lot less." Ma Mingpao nodded and said, "It's not even one of what it was in its heyday."

After a short pause, Ma Mingpao said again: "According to the current market situation, Lilan's one-year support is only two million taels, so those shareholders are not willing to subscribe for the capital."

"This won't work." Chongzhen said coldly, "The share capital must be paid up before the end of the year. This has been delayed for a year, and it can't be delayed any longer. Anyone who refuses to pay will have their shares back." …

The empty glove white wolf played on Chongzhen's head, what was he thinking?

The capital of the [-] million shares of the stock exchange must be subscribed.

"The minister leads the decree." Ma Mingpao nodded and said again, "One more thing, the students from Nanzhilu's prefectures and counties have come to Nanjing one after another. Your Majesty, you said before that you want to provide a unified board and lodging?"

"Yes, there is such a thing." Chongzhen said, "After all, this is the first time to recruit students after the reform of the Guozijian, so I want to give special preferential treatment to the students who apply for the exam."

Ma Mingtao said: "However, there are quite a lot of students applying for the exam."

"How come?" Chongzhen said, "The number of qualified students in each county will not exceed a hundred at most."

Ma Minglu said: "However, there are still more than [-] counties in Ming Dynasty. Calculated with [-] people in each county, that is [-] to [-] students. How much is the board and lodging for [-] to [-] students for three months?" silver?"

"It's worth the money." Chongzhen said, "I don't feel sorry for this."

Chongzhen is very picky, but the money that should be spent is often several million taels, but he doesn't feel bad at all.

After a short pause, Chongzhen said again: "What's more, you didn't take over ten houses, especially Wei Guogong's mansion has thousands of houses, and one house can accommodate ten thousand people."

Ma Minglu said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, apart from a part of Wei Guogong's mansion as the direct house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the rest of the ten houses and the other nine houses are all ready to be sold."

"Don't be in a hurry to sell it, and you won't be able to get a good price if you sell it now."

Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "Oh, yes, I still can't remember if you don't say it, but I do remember what you said. Not only can the Ministry of Internal Affairs not sell houses, but it has to buy as many houses as possible and occupy more land. Take part of the more than [-] million shares in the stock exchange to buy houses and land, and use them all."

"What? Buy more houses and more land?" Ma Mingpao said blankly, "What are you doing with the land?"

"Anyway, you just listen to me, and you have to listen to me about this matter." Chongzhen couldn't tell Ma Mingpao about real estate, because he probably wouldn't understand it.

Chongzhen had to plan early for future urban development.

In short, with the prosperity of industry and commerce, the population of Nanjing will expand rapidly.

The current population of Nanjing recorded in the Fish Scale Book is less than [-], but this is only the number of strong men who paid the silver. The actual total population is about [-].

But with the vigorous development of industry and commerce, the total population of Nanjing will inflate like a balloon.

Moreover, with the great development of industry and commerce, there will inevitably be a considerable number of wealthy families, and there will be a huge demand for housing at that time, and then the real estate industry can be vigorously developed.

Therefore, it is necessary to accumulate a large amount of land while it is still in a low value area.

At this time, there is still a large area of ​​open space in the inner city of Nanjing, and there is even a blank space between the inner city and the outer city.

If the 4400 million share capital of the stock exchange is spent, it is estimated that all the vacant land in the inner and outer cities of Nanjing can be bought.

Of course, Chongzhen did not allow the Ministry of Internal Affairs to garrison land for the purpose of harvesting leeks. It is certain to make money by developing real estate to make money, but it will never push up the price of land without limit, but will control it within a reasonable price range, at least to ensure that the land price is high. Industrial workers entering Nanjing can have a comfortable nest.

On the contrary, if the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not go to settle the land, and wait until the population of Nanjing grows rapidly, the gentry and merchants in Nanjing will react and engage in real estate, then the industrial workers who have poured into Nanjing will probably be drained by these vampires for a lifetime and become It would be pitiful to spend a lifetime working for a house.

Anyway, Chongzhen was unwilling to see such scenes.

It is really pitiful to be a house slave all my life.