I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 274 Danmin
"Da da da da!"

"Drive! Drive! Drive...oh!"

Zhu Yijiong was dressed in regular clothes, riding a tall war horse, and was running back and forth in the racecourse.

The war horse was quite well-behaved and ran around for several times before slowing down and turning around to return to the stable.

When the two horse breeders saw this, they quickly ran forward in fear and quickly helped hold the reins and control the horses.

The imperial guard also trotted over with a knife, one hand always pressed on the handle of the knife, and his expression was alert.

Zhu Yijiong dismounted amid the crowd of guards and praised without hesitation: "It's really a good horse!"

The Ming Dynasty departed from Macau and went to Goa, India to purchase war horses, galenic shipbuilders, and steam engines. The fleet finally returned.

According to the mileage, we should have returned several months ago, but after all, the Portuguese have declined, and the Goa colony is now just struggling to survive.

Therefore, a lot of time was wasted in transporting war horses from India, and 34 horses even died on the way, resulting in a loss of several thousand taels of silver.

This is normal. In ancient times, even the crew mortality rate was high when sailing on the sea, especially in the tropics.

In comparison, it was much easier to recruit shipbuilding craftsmen.

Europe is now in the period of great navigation (crazy colonization). Those European shipbuilders can't be said to be numerous, but they are also deeply involved.

Many outstanding shipbuilders cannot even make it in their own country and have to go abroad to find another way to make a living.

There is a big Eastern country in the Far East that is actually willing to pay high wages to hire them as shipbuilders.

There is nothing to hesitate about. Naturally, everyone is rushing to come.

As for the last steam engine, it can only be said that Zhu Yijiong's luck was good. A batch of the latest model Newcomen steam engines just arrived in the Portuguese colony of Goa.

The Newcomen steam engine is the prototype of the Watt steam engine. It can be regarded as the first true steam engine in the world. Its essence can already provide mechanical power for industrial production.

The Watt steam engine that was often mentioned in later generations only further solved the problem of air tightness and added a piston structure.The efficiency of the steam engine is improved, allowing it to be truly used in industrial development.

Apart from buying horses, the fleet sent to Goa spent a considerable part of their time negotiating with the Portuguese Governor of Goa over the price of steam engines.

Although there is no shortage of steam engines in Goa, when it comes to business, it is definitely asking for high prices and paying back the money.

Although both sides are Portuguese, the Portuguese in Macau and the Portuguese in Goa are actually very far apart.Moreover, even if they are brothers, they still have to settle accounts.

However, fortunately, it was finally settled, and it just took a little more time.But it is definitely much less troublesome than sailing to Europe.

"Da da da da da da da da..."

Looking at the Marwar horses running happily in the racecourse, these horses have already recovered their spirits under the careful care of professional horse breeders.

Although the Marwar horse is produced in India, it is not a war horse native to India. Instead, it is selected from the crossbreeding of war horses from various places, including Mongolian war horses.

Not only is its shoulder height generally higher than that of ordinary war horses, but it also has a strong body shape and strong adaptability and endurance. It is a natural war horse.

It's a pity that because this kind of war horse is so good, modern colonists went crazy for fishing, and the Marwar horse became an endangered species.

Of course, the most impressive thing about this kind of horse is its inward-facing ears.

Zhu Yijiong just touched it and told the official in charge of the racecourse: "Now that the war horse has arrived, we can start trying to breed it to see if we can breed it here."

"I obey the order!" the racecourse chief responded quickly with his hands raised.

This first batch of war horses was sparse in number, and Zhu Yijiong did not intend to use them to train cavalry.

To practice cavalry, you can first use the Mongolian horses used by the Manchu and Qing cavalry captured in the Huai River War.

Moreover, now that the Ming Dynasty-Goa trade route has been established, the second batch of horse-buying fleets has set off.

This time it is no longer all Portuguese, but the Portuguese are cooperating with the Ming Dynasty official fleet.

……

Daming Academy of Sciences.

This department was newly established by Emperor Zhu, and its internal members are basically old craftsmen transferred from the former Ordnance Bureau.

Today's Ordnance Bureau is no longer the time when it was first established. The internal assembly line military workshop has basically taken shape.

Those apprentices have also started to work. Strictly speaking, the Ordnance Bureau no longer needs too many old craftsmen in it.

Moreover, while the Ordnance Bureau is expanding and developing, it is also constantly improving its internal structure.

Up to now, the internal bureaucracy of the Ordnance Bureau has basically taken shape.The entire Ordnance Bureau is gradually transforming from a pure logistics arsenal to a military industry department of the imperial court.

Old Man Li is still the director of the Arms Bureau, but he no longer has to do everything himself.

In short, it has become more reasonable and more like an official department of the imperial court.

As for Zhu Yijiong, the newly established Academy of Sciences, as its name suggests, it is a place that specializes in scientific research.The only task at present is to think about the Newcomen steam engine just bought from Goa.

Not only did this steam engine come with drawings, but the Portuguese in Macau even secured some skilled workers.Therefore, even though the Academy of Sciences has just been established, the craftsmen there are already referring to the drawings. If they don’t understand the drawings, they will ask the skilled workers.

In short, we will try to research and imitate it first, because Zhu Yijiong said that this steam engine is still too primitive and has insufficient efficiency, and must be improved before it can be used in industry.

These craftsmen don’t know what industry is. They only know that the emperor values ​​it, so let’s do it!

Zhu Yijiong personally visited the Academy of Sciences for inspection. Although he could not improve steam engines, he had studied physics and history in high school.

He didn't know the structure of the Watt steam engine, but he knew the piston at its core, and he could almost explain the principle of piston motion.

Seeing the craftsmen messing around, Zhu Yijiong immediately explained the so-called piston mechanical movement to these craftsmen in his own language.

"Piston motion? Why does it sound like something is added to this steam engine?"

Some of the craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences looked at a loss, while others were thoughtful and began to put into practice the newly drawn copies of the drawings.

This has a ready-made theoretical basis, but technological development does not happen overnight, and this matter cannot be rushed. Anyway, Ming Dynasty has not yet captured Guangdong.

Zhu Yijiong looked around and left immediately without disturbing him.

……

After inspecting the Academy of Sciences, Zhu Yijiong also met with the European shipbuilders who had been deceived by the Portuguese... and recruited. It was just a simple interview.

They are all a group of foreigners, many of whom cannot even speak Chinese.I can only understand some bytes briefly, but if I speak fast, I can't understand it.

And you must not understand the dialect.

With the translator from Honglu Temple by his side, Zhu Yijiong spent a lot of effort to fool these shipbuilders.

It’s not considered cheating!

After all, Zhu Yijiong is indeed willing to hire these people with high salaries, but only for those who are capable, and wait until these people's skills are learned by the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilders.

If you haven’t ordered anything by then, or haven’t learned to speak Chinese, then just get out!

Zhu Yijiong waved his hand and said: "Take them to Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and let them build Galen ships for our Ming Dynasty there. By the way, let the shipbuilders in Fuzhou Shipping Bureau also learn from it and see if they can innovate and improve it."

Galen ships are indeed powerful, but they must be appropriately improved according to local conditions and different people.

Generally speaking, it is definitely still inseparable from the general framework of Galen ships. In the next few hundred years, the destination of warships will still be the world of Galen ships.

This traditional Chinese fortune ship will be eliminated by history sooner or later.

But soon, the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau sent a memorial requesting the imperial court to recruit the Dan people along the coast.

Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau is essentially a prime minister's office, not just a shipyard.It is an exclusive yamen that manages shipbuilding, naval training, fleet management and other functions. It can be regarded as the Privy Council of the Navy.

Seeing this memorial, Zhu Yijiong frowned slightly and quickly called the cabinet to ask: "What's going on with these coastal people?"

Wang Li hurriedly said: "Reporting to your Majesty, the so-called Dan people actually existed as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties. They are generally descendants of the Fujian and Yue people. There are also Yuan people who fled overseas after my Ming Taizu swept away the Yuan Dynasty in the past. They are descendants of people. However, since Taizu unified the world in the past and settled the hundreds of years of chaos, although these Dan people have not completely surrendered, they have gradually been Sinicized by our Ming Dynasty. Most of them speak Fujian and have lived on the sea for many years, interacting with the local area. The water from the government's well does not interfere with the water from the river."

To say that water in a well does not harm the water in the river is actually pure nonsense.

Dan people are human beings too, and many of them were Han people from Fujian. They don't like living on boats.

It all lies in the unequal treatment of these people by the local government. To the local government, these people are not much more noble than those of the minority, and are even more humble.

After Yongzheng ascended the throne, he tried to make some concessions and attracted some Dan people to come ashore. However, it was not until the 50s after the founding of the Red Republic that these Dan people began to come ashore under the call of the government.

They were even considered to be ethnic minorities for a time, but it was not until they were screened that they were all Han Chinese.

The intention of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau is obvious, that is, they want to see if they can integrate the coastal people.

These people have lived on ships for a long time and are natural-born sailors.

As long as they can be successfully recruited, not only the coastal problems can be solved, but also an elite navy can be recruited for the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a moment and asked, "What can Wang Qing do?"

Wang Li said: "Let him go ashore and settle down, and he will be registered as a household and the people will be included."

Zhu Yijiong was stunned: "Is it that simple?"

Wang Li said: "Your Majesty, this is not simple. To put it bluntly, in the eyes of local officials, these coastal residents are just money and they are not common people at all. If we want to successfully register these coastal residents into households, Qi Min..."

Zhu Yijiong's face turned cold. He finally understood. This was almost the same as the problem of those mountain people and young people.

Zhu Yijiong said: "According to my decree, from now on, those Dan people who come ashore can be registered as households and all the government taxes and corvees owed in the past will be exempted."

Then he added: "Let the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau supervise the implementation. If anyone is caught obstructing or plundering people's property or extorting bribes, the culprits will be skinned and stripped of their skins, and the entire clan will be wiped out!"

(End of this chapter)