Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 508 Industry
postscript
Nine industries

In the ninth year of Wu Zheng's reign, at the turn of spring and summer, Tangshan.

Just less than ten miles from the outskirts of the city, an industrial park that can be called "huge" in this era stands beside a cement road with a width of ten feet. There are huge chimneys with a height of more than twenty feet everywhere. The rising smoke makes this area completely The pungent smell of sulfide cannot be avoided, but everyone around does not think it is a problem, but thinks it is a symbol of prosperity.

This is indeed a symbol of the heavy industry of the Great Zhou Dynasty. All the "first-generation heavy industry categories" such as steel, machinery, military industry, and primary chemical industry are gathered in the area. Zhou Yang mobilized all resources, gave all policies, and worked hard for nearly ten years. It is the foundation of the preliminary formation. Relying on the "radiation" of this industrial base, at present, the northern provinces have successively had preliminary industrial development.

However, his "cultivate the seedlings" style of industrial development is not without its shortcomings, because no one in these days, no matter the common people or the gentry and landlords, believed that industry could develop and make money. Therefore, the industrial zones in all provinces were either controlled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs Investment control, either local government construction.

There are heavy industries and light industries, but not here, but in the Yangtze River Delta region centered on Songjiang, but it is not absolute. For example, the textile center must be Songjiang Prefecture, but the center of silk reeling and silk is in Suzhou and Hangzhou. The center became Jinling City again, and rice processing was scattered in the "Four Rice Markets" of Wuxi, Wuhu, Jiujiang, and Changsha.

At this time, Zhou Yang stood at the door of the heavy industry base, looking helplessly at the gray sky. Although everyone knew that the practice of "pollution first and then treatment" was very harmful, but in the early days of industrial development, this was no matter what. There was no way to jump past the inevitable stage. He couldn't even shout out the slogan of "environmental protection", so he could only "leave it to future generations".

"Father, is this an industrial factory?" A boy who looks about seven or eight years old, but is half a head taller than other children of the same age, has a twitching nose and a frown. He is the boy of Zhou Yang and Yongjing Princess Guo Xuan. The eldest son, Zhou Kang, the crown prince of the Zhou Dynasty, said, "It smells really bad. Why don't you change it?"

"Huh, it's rare and strange." Another ten-year-old girl with curly hair curled her lips in disdain, and even took a deep breath, showing a look of intoxication, "This is the symbol of the national power of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The crops are enough to fill the stomach at most. Even if it is good to eat a piece of meat during the New Year, how can it make the imperial court strong?

Did you know that the powerful army of the Zhou Dynasty swept across the world and reached Nanyang, a sea area full of islands? It relied on the continuous supply of steel and guns. My mother-in-law has long said that without guns and guns, there would be no Zhou Dynasty. status, without the Great Zhou Dynasty, what kind of royal family would there be?Whether at sea or on land, steel and guns are the confidence of the Great Zhou Dynasty! "

"Sister Huang!" The little boy Zhou Kang lowered his head in grievance, "But it smells really bad!"

"Jing'er!" Zhou Yang, who had passed his thirties, pulled the girl to his side angrily. It was Zhou Jing, his and Princess Yongchang's only daughter, and lightly patted her bun as punishment. This girl had been growing up since she was a child. She was raised as a boy, and the nearly twenty children in the entire Zhou family put her first in all studies. "There is nothing wrong with industrial development, but it is also wrong to have such serious pollution. It's just that we don't have the ability to solve it for the time being."

"Yes, Father!" Zhou Jing nodded with a smile and said nothing about what happened just now.

"You!" Zhou Yang gave his daughter a slap on the head dotingly, and he really couldn't bear to blame her.

"Your Majesty, don't we go in?" Just as the three masters were talking, a familiar female voice came from the carriage behind. It was Her Royal Highness Princess Yongchang who had not wanted the title of concubine so far, "I heard that there is a new arrival here. We have developed a fast gun with improved performance and greatly improved reliability, why don’t you go take a look?”

"Yes, Your Highness Princess!" Zhou Yang agreed angrily, and called a pair of children to get on the carriage. Then he got on the horse and waved his hand, and the three carriages quickly entered the factory area. "Also, not only did things happen here, There are new fast guns, and even better cannons have different models, and I came here this time just to take a good look.”

"Father, didn't you also mention that Uncle Jinghai from the East China Sea sent a car that can run along the steel-paved road without a horse?" Zhou Jing, who was not honest after getting in the car, hurriedly asked. Out of the head asked, "Is there really a car that doesn't require a horse? Isn't it like the ships entering the port on the canal that need trackers to pull them?"

"Go in!" Zhou Yang pushed his daughter into the carriage angrily, "Those things are called trains and railways. I told Uncle Wang Jinghai to do it at the beginning. It has taken more than five years and cost tens of millions of taels of silver. It will take at least five to ten years before we have the initial results. If we really want to use it, it will take at least five to ten years, and the money we need to spend will be like water. Wait slowly, don't be in a hurry."

"Those poor people have not given up until now, otherwise they would not have thrown such important things on those isolated islands." Princess Yongchang in the carriage behind said disdainfully, "From the beginning of the year to now, they What are you talking about? 'The towering chimneys lead to smoky air' and 'the access of the road destroys the ancestral feng shui'. It is really the right way to die."

"So, I sent their whole family to Annan and asked them to civilize the local indigenous people." Zhou Yang snorted disdainfully, "This group of ancient things have been completely transformed into firearms in the army for nearly ten years. The original flint hair All the guns were replaced with cardboard primed guns more than three years ago, but they still closed their eyes and pretended not to see, insisting that the industry was harming the country.”

"Poor!" Zhou Jing laughed and mocked from the carriage.

"Okay, as long as you know this, you are not allowed to have any conflicts with the Chinese teacher in class." Zhou Yang said with a smile, "If they say it, let them say it. Anyway, the whole world now knows that private schools plus so-called 'Confucian classics' can only be used for the first five years of enlightenment. After the age of 12, if you don't understand mathematics or engineering, you will have to hang on to your reputation as a scholar for the rest of your life, and no one will want to do anything except being a private school teacher."

"Why don't you take Wu Gou and collect the fifty states in Guanshan?" Zhou Jing said with a smile, "Is this what your father means?"

"No matter how much you say, you can't get me to agree to send you to the Royal Army Command College." Zhou Yang's words made Zhou Jing pout, "Don't even think about the Naval Academy. Only women will be allowed on any ship. , it is absolutely impossible for you to be in the navy, let alone the captain of a battleship, I have no chance to come forward."

"Humph!" Zhou Jing finally stopped talking.

"You girl, Dongfang has taken you to practice martial arts and swordsmanship since you were a child, and even provided you with horseback shooting and firearms. Why are you still not satisfied?" Even Princess Yongchang objected this time, "The army is full of rough guys, and you are a daughter of a family. How to lead the army? As long as you accept what I have in hand, you will help your brother take good care of the court in the future. Isn't it the same as being famous in history? "

Zhou Jing simply pursed her lips and remained silent, scaring Zhou Kang who was next to him for fear of being beaten even more afraid to speak.

"I will see you, Your Majesty!" Fortunately, we have passed through the entire industrial zone and entered a thousand-household camp at the back - no way, this industrial zone is too important, and a full four thousand-household camp has been deployed around it. Defense——Privy Council military aircraft foreman Zhao Tong, who brought people in in advance, was already waiting in front of the office building to greet them.

Three years ago, Niu Jizong officially entered the official service with the title of "Prince, Taifu, General" due to his age and health. In fact, it was not just Niu Jizong, but also the civil and military officials in the court had successively changed people in the past ten years. , of course, this is not only due to health and age issues, Zhou Yang basically follows modern standards, with a term of five years, and usually only serves two terms. If the emperor does have the favor, he can serve another term.

Even Lin Ruhai, the first assistant who has just turned 20 this year and has been taking excellent care of himself over the years, is the same. Although he is still working as the first assistant, it has only been a year or two before the next generation of successors has begun to train, but the whole world No one dares to look down upon him, because all the more than [-] children of the royal family refer to Lin Daiyu for their seniority and call him "grandfather"!
"Thank you for your hard work, Guangsheng." Zhou Yang smiled and nodded, dismounting, and asked Princess Yongchang, Zhou Kang, and Zhou Jing to get off the horse, "Are you all ready?" However, he saw that the training ground in the military camp was all empty at this time. , was changed to a live-fire shooting range, with riflemen with three small flags lined up on standby. In the preset position not far away, two other artillery pieces have also been deployed, and they can enter the test firing just waiting for an order. In terms of the arsenal So confident in this, the memorial didn't even say a word of "premise foreshadowing".

"Your Majesty, everything is ready." Zhao Tong didn't waste any words. After answering Zhou Yang's question, he immediately saluted the other three people, "I have met His Highness Yongchang, His Highness the Crown Prince, and His Highness Princess Zhuang Yi."

Well, Zhou Jing's name is divided into two parts. The names of girls in the third generation of the royal family all start with the word "Zhuang". For example, the only daughter of Emperor Yonghe and Princess Zhuang Min who is now married to Li Wan's adoptive brother, Guo Yi, " "Yi" is the official title. If a girl chooses the word "Yi" as her title, you can imagine her character.

"Let's get started!" Zhou Yang waved his hand and sat down on the prepared rostrum. The hundred households of the Royal Forest Army who came with him immediately lined up in front of the rostrum, with a general flag on the left and right, leaving the middle position to prevent blocking the view. At this time, seeing that his protective work had been completed, Zhao Tong waved his hand and ordered all units to start shooting.

"This new rifle relies on this little thing to ensure the rate of fire?" As the sound of "bang bang bang" sounded on the shooting range, Princess Yongchang picked up a metal part placed in a box on the small table in front of her. , “It looks quite exquisite.”

"This thing is called a 'metal fixed primer', and it has the same function as the original flintlock mechanism and the current paper shell fixed primer." Zhou Yang explained to his wife and children with a smile, "With this, the rifleman will be more The safety and rate of fire have also been slightly increased, but the most important thing is that as long as this thing is not soaked in water, it will not affect its use in light to moderate rain, and it will be no problem in the jungle of Nanyang."

"Not bad!" Princess Yongchang played with it for a moment and said, "Judging from the gunshots, the rate of fire of the new rifle has not improved much, but the advantages you mentioned are enough to make it enter the equipment sequence. Now we are in Nanyang and Westerners The battle is becoming more and more fierce, even a little bit of progress is enough to win a big advantage in the battle."

"And there was no stopping of firing during the whole process. There is indeed no problem with reliability." Zhou Yang nodded and called Zhao Tong, who was standing next to him, "Make a small batch and send it to the Royal Forest Army for trial first. After confirming that there is no problem, we can mass-produce it on a large scale. Production—what about the new artillery?"

"It's the 'mortar' that His Majesty mentioned." Zhao Tong immediately replied, "Because the cannonball is very large and has a caliber of three inches, the arsenal has integrated this metal primer into the cannonball. You only need to put the cannonball into it. The cannon barrel can be activated by the impact of sliding down, and at least ten shells can be fired in sixty breaths.

The most important thing is that this kind of artillery is very light. It weighs less than [-] kilograms and can be broken into three parts, but it can be fired two miles away. It can be used easily in the jungle of Nanyang. After using the explosive ammunition, the power is very good. It has been It was sent directly to the front line for trial use, but no news has been sent back yet, so we can only wait and see. "

"Not bad!" Zhou Yang looked at the artillery squad that fired five rapid fire rounds in twenty seconds and nodded. Then he frowned and looked at the cylindrical shells, "With this shape, I'm afraid it's not accurate, right?"

"Your Majesty, the error is within twenty steps, which is enough!" Zhao Tong said with certainty.

"Improve it again and see if we can use cannon shells with fins to improve the accuracy." Zhou Yang secretly shook his head, which translates into a caliber of 30 mm and a range of [-] meters. It can have an error of more than [-] meters. Improvement There is still a lot of room. "Send a few more batches to the Nanyang front line and improve them while using them. Do we need to continue to increase the number of troops?"

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, the Westerners are thousands of miles away, and the number of soldiers and horses that can be put into the battlefield has never exceeded ten thousand. Our troops are already three times theirs, and our battleships are twice theirs. The reason for delaying the progress is to make more Many local natives chose sides, and then took the opportunity to eliminate the dishonest ones, otherwise the enemies would have been driven to the Tianzhu sea area." Zhao Tong said confidently.

"Yes, we need to contact the Chinese survivors who went to sea in the previous dynasty to choose suitable ones and use them. With their help, we can save a lot of trouble; but we don't need to pay too much attention to those who are not short-sighted, dishonest, and commit crimes. , Scum who harm our compatriots will be dealt with with due respect." Zhou Ang nodded with satisfaction, but couldn't say any more, because on the railway track not far away, a very rough-looking locomotive was slowly driving out of the industrial area.

The chimney spewed out black smoke mixed with carbon ash, and water vapor filled the area around the front of the car. The speed was even slower than ordinary people running, but the eight six-carriage-sized enclosed wagons being dragged out from behind the front of the car showed how huge this thing was. The transportation potential - unfortunately, before it could drive too far, it collapsed with a muffled sound.

"Your Majesty," a gray-haired master jumped out from the front of the car, ran to Zhou Yang and knelt down in front of Zhou Yang with an embarrassed look on his face, "there is something wrong——"

"Did the cylinder explode or the seal leaked?" Zhou Yang asked with a smile.

"Your Majesty!" The old master looked surprised. He didn't expect the emperor to understand. "This time, the air path seal failed, causing the power to be unable to be transmitted. To be honest with you, your majesty, I have been using it for more than ten years, but I still can't completely solve this problem. ."

"There is something called 'rubber' in Nanyang. You can vulcanize it after you get it, and then use it to make sealing rings." Zhou Yang gave some advice to the old master's disbelieving expression, "Okay, don't worry, wait a minute." Slow down - go get busy, I will have people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs deliver the reward to your home soon!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The master almost cried out excitedly.

"Father, this thing must be done." Zhou Jing said excitedly before the old master could walk away, "Look at the carriages towed behind. If it is really done, the speed will only be twice as fast as the carriage. We will start from there again." If the capital builds a... well, railway to Jinling, the problems caused by the north-south transportation during the Zhou Dynasty can be simply ignored!"

"Good vision!" Zhou Yang nodded with satisfaction, looked at Zhou Kang who was still thinking, smiled and touched his head and said, "I may not be able to completely do it, but as long as I keep pushing forward, sooner or later I will be able to do it. Let the railway completely cover the entire Zhou Dynasty, even the Nanyang Peninsula, Korea in the north, and the Western Regions in the west, and even go further, continue to expand externally, and form a dense railway network internally. Then we will be China's unbreakable hegemony!"

"So, you have been thinking about these issues since you first returned to Zhou Dynasty?" Princess Yongchang said in surprise, "No wonder you never look down on those poor people. If you really do what you said, 'changing dynasties' will completely It can only exist in history books, and the world of Great Zhou will never be easy!"

"That's all you're after." Zhou Yang smiled and waved his hand, signaling for Zhao Tong to lead the way, "I remember you said in your brochure that all the introduction materials are in the office building in the industrial zone?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry, Wei Chen has people ready!" Zhao Tong said simply.

"Let's go and have a look!" Zhou Yang nodded with satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)