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

Chapter 352: Regular meeting at court
Nanjing.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the court will attend the regular meeting.

Li Bexun, the Minister of Industry, was reporting to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the steam engines previously produced by the Academy of Sciences have now been fully mass-produced. Now, including the Liguo Mining Area, many waste mines in various provinces and localities have been led by the government. Businessmen from all over the country are raising funds to prepare to reopen the mines and resume production."

In fact, most of the abandoned mines in ancient times were gradually reduced to abandoned mines because the water in the mining areas was difficult to drain.

For example, in the Liguo Mining Area, it was difficult to resume mining operations until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Zhu Yijiong naturally does not intend to give up these mining resources that have been wasted due to technical problems, and this can also promote further innovation and development of steam engines.

Li Berson, the Minister of Industry who single-handedly promoted the steam engine to mine, was already convinced at this moment.

Unexpectedly, the strange-looking and noisy Western artifacts that looked like spectacles that I saw at the Academy of Sciences that day could actually have such an effect.

Spectacle harming the country?

The so-called wonders are not all things that harm the country!
Zhu Yijiong nodded: "Well, Li Qing did a great job in this matter. As long as these abandoned mines can be reopened successfully, more private businessmen can be attracted to raise funds to open mines. Once this mining industry flourishes, people will be able to earn more money. .”

"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" All the civil and military officials shouted in unison.

The imperial court took the lead in encouraging large-scale mining among the private sector.

It not only means an increase in jobs, but also means the prosperity of various associated industrial chains, which can further stimulate the market economy.

After all, it is impossible for so many miners to stay in the mining area all day long.

Especially in the past year, the imperial court has carried out rectifications in major mining areas.Even in the Eight Banners mining area, people cannot be beaten and abused at will. It is still okay to use whips and scolds.

Not only in the Eight Banners mining area, the mining slaves died too quickly, and many mining areas were difficult to maintain.Moreover, they are also afraid that the private mining areas will take advantage of the situation and abuse the miners.

There have been several cases discovered by local officials before, and some even resulted in deaths.

Those who beat and abused workers were imprisoned for a period of time and ordered to pay compensation.

If a person's life is caused, it will be immediately sealed, the person involved will be brought to trial, and the mining area will be resold to another businessman to take over.

However, Zhu Yijiong used imperial decrees and steam engines to encourage private mining, which would inevitably cause great damage to the environment.

But there is no way. To develop the industry in its early stages, the environment must be sacrificed.

Historically, in another 100 years, the entire Europe may not even be able to breathe freely.

Zhu Yijiong asked: "How is the promotion of spinning machines and shuttles going?"

Robertson said: "This spinning machine and flying shuttle can not only greatly improve the weaving efficiency, but the fabric woven by it is also as exquisite as ordinary weaving. The merchants who have used it are very satisfied with it, and the promotion process is very It's going well, most merchants and workshops have placed purchase orders."

"Ah."

Zhu Yijiong nodded, it was common sense that the promotion of Jenny Machine and Shuttle went smoothly.Nowadays, the scale of maritime trade is getting larger and larger, and silk production is obviously gradually in short supply. Innovation in weaving is almost inevitable.

Moreover, at this stage, folk attitudes have not changed. Those who actually work in workshops are women, and most of them are married or older women.

Jenny machines and shuttles can only improve efficiency, but it does not mean that they do not require human operation.Therefore, the current promotion of these two devices does not have much impact on the private sector.

But now, with the deepening of subsequent reforms, the further promotion of mass production of Jenny machines and shuttles will definitely have an impact on the private textile industry.

Moreover, there is also a hydraulic spinning machine that has not yet come out, which is an industrial killer.

But it doesn't matter. If the industry wants to develop, it will conflict with the traditional handicraft industry, which will be faced sooner or later.

Wang Shiming, Secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "Your Majesty, since the establishment of the reserve system, all provinces in the Ming Dynasty have promoted it according to the imperial edict. Now the number of registered reserve soldiers alone has exceeded one million. With such a huge financial expenditure, the national treasury is afraid It’s difficult to sustain it for a long time.”

"I am asking Your Majesty, should any adjustments be made?"

Chen Ji, the Minister of Household Affairs, also came out and said: "I second the proposal!"

This was a slight overspending on reserve military expenditures. Although it was not enough to reach the level of fiscal deficit, it still alarmed the two administrative departments that were mainly responsible, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a while, shook his head and said: "The reserve force is a national plan and cannot be neglected. The financial expenditure is too large, so we must find ways to increase revenue." "Wang Qing!"

Wang Lizhijie stepped forward: "I'm here!"

Zhu Yijiong said: "This matter will be handed over to the cabinet and a charter will be drawn up as soon as possible!"

Wang Li cupped his hands and said, "I obey your order!"

Wang Shiming and Chen Ji immediately withdrew.

Wang Shiming just had a traditional view. He simply felt that the reserve force had too many troops and was a bit too militaristic.

But in the face of such a strong founding emperor, His Majesty said he couldn’t change it, so he wouldn’t change it!

Chen Ji's face was full of sorrow. Wang Shiming could only see that there were too many troops and felt that it was a waste of force, but he could clearly see how much food was spent.

Although it was nothing compared to Daming's annual fiscal revenue now, it still made him tremble with fear.

What Chen Ji wants to do is not to abolish the reserve force, but to downsize and reduce expenditures.But now it seems that His Majesty has no intention of cutting back on spending.

Zhu Yijiong looked at Wang Shiming, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, who had retired, and couldn't help but think of the merger of the Ministry of War and the Privy Council.

At this stage in the Ming Dynasty, the Privy Council is the administrative department in charge of foreign military wars. The Ministry of War has always been responsible for coordinating the Privy Council and managing domestic security.

It can be said that in the Ming Dynasty, from the beginning of its establishment, the Ministry of War was gradually reduced to a dispensable administrative agency, and even the Ministry of Industry was stronger than it.

In the past two years, the reserve system has emerged, and the reserves are under the responsibility of the Ministry of War, which has allowed the status of the Ministry of War to rise again.

However, one of the two departments, the Privy Council and the Ministry of War, cannot be established permanently.

Because there are too many overlaps in the division of responsibilities between the two, one having real power means that the other is infinitely ignored.

Moreover, judging from the current model of the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of War has de facto become a subsidiary agency of the Privy Council.

Although the reserve force was assigned to the director of the Ministry of War by Zhu Yijiong, its ultimate service targets were still the Privy Council and the army.

Well, once the Manchu and Qing dynasties are destroyed, we can almost try to merge the two.

Will it be renamed the Ministry of Defense?
Forget it, this is too modern.

Even if the ancients understood the meaning, they probably thought the emperor was illiterate.

Whether the specific name is the Ministry of War or the Privy Council... we'll tell you later!

While Zhu Yijiong was deep in thought, ministers from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Punishment, the Propaganda Department, the Privy Council, and the Ordnance Bureau came out to report one after another.

Although the various tribes in the Ming Dynasty have developed to this day, they have gradually formed factional rankings.

This is human nature, and people will stick together. It can be a regional team or a political team.

Zhu Yijiong also acquiesced to these factions. As long as the emperor controls the factional disputes in the early stages, healthy competition can be formed and work efficiency improved.

What is really harmful is party strife!

Frequently demoting officials and killing people, demoting a large number of people at one time, and causing a major reshuffle in the court. This is the harm of party struggle.

Because a large number of officials step down, which will cause political turmoil. Similarly, when new people come to power, they will often overturn the policies of their predecessors, causing policy orders to be changed day by day, and the people to be miserable.

Of course, there are also dangers to a dominant family. For example, does the Donglin Party of Chongzhen in the former Ming Dynasty count?
The Donglin Party was just one of the many factions at that time, and none of these factions were good, but who allowed the Donglin Party to win the party dispute.

Lu Xiangsheng is also a member of the Donglin Party.

Sun Chuanting's early political philosophy was also the same as that of the Donglin Party.

The bad thing is just one family being the only one.

(End of this chapter)