Fortunately, the test launch of the rocket took a long time, and with bathing and changing clothes, it was soon time for dinner. Otherwise, a certain prince would have to give Bo Jue a pot of free science knowledge about aerospace. He would have driven this guy away to save a bicycle earlier. It's the kingly way.
Since we have said that we should not aim too high, we must keep our feet on the ground. If we cannot keep our feet on the ground, we can just pedal. A certain prince has high hopes for bicycles and regards them as another high-tech export product of Zha Ming after sulfa.
One bicycle earns fifty taels of silver, and one thousand bicycles equals fifty thousand taels. If ten thousand bicycles are manufactured every year, and the corresponding costs are taken into account, the Academy of Sciences can earn back half of its expenses. This is just a state of imagination, and the actual sales situation is completely It won't be the same.
But in the eyes of Bo Dacaizi, after these two days of close contact, the prince had an omnipotent knowledge of astronomy and geography, and the machines that could go up to the sky and into the earth were omnipotent. He was the true pride of heaven.
If he hadn't been lucky enough to be summoned by the prince, he would still be arrogant, but now he is deeply aware of the subtlety of the saying that there are people outside the world and there are mountains outside the mountains.
Every time he talked with the prince, Bo Jue felt that his thoughts were diverging and his horizons were broadened. The new knowledge that he had never dabbled in was like a huge wave, which shocked him extremely.
I also gradually understood that the gap between my vision and reality was so big. Compared with many of the prince's designs and plans, it was simply ridiculous. I could only become cautious and be taught with an open mind.
Through contact with the rocket, Bo Jue knew that he and the prince were not at the same level of knowledge. He had never heard of what the prince thought and said, and he was even more at a loss when he heard the content.
If he hadn't discussed the giant manned rocket with the prince in private and discovered many problems, and raised them when Dean Song presided over the meeting, he would probably have made a fool of himself.
To make a rocket that can fly, you need to learn basic chemistry knowledge. The previous knowledge of preparing gunpowder is like pediatrics and not worth mentioning at all. Bo Jue can only learn it from scratch patiently.
Fortunately, my brain is still bright. Not only letters and numbers, but also the periodic table of chemical elements have been completely memorized. The only thing missing is understanding the knowledge of chemical reactions.
To build an airship, he had to save time to save bicycles, which involved a lot of knowledge about aviation, power, machinery, etc., and the daily work schedule was very tight, so Bo Jue resigned and went back to study hard.
The guy from Jiexuan also went to see the rocket test launch, but he seemed to have an epiphany, so he went back to his dormitory, probably to write down his experience while it was hot.
These days, Bo Jue has been busy writing minutes and strategies on cross-sea operations, and is even busier than himself. Apart from three meals a day, Bo Jue has other important things to do, so he has no time to take care of him.
Yaoji breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the "miner" finally resigned. Fortunately, he hadn't been told that nitric acid could be used to make imaging raw materials, otherwise the guy would have disfigured himself.
Moreover, a certain prince believed that as long as Bo Jue understood the principles and techniques of imaging, he would soon become a photography enthusiast, and he would have to burn it to 250 degrees...
Before the court meeting the next day, without the prince's advance notice, the first assistant and the second assistant did not know what important matters needed to be discussed.
Compared with when the emperor was in office, the workload of the cabinet has dropped a lot now, and the difficulty has also been greatly improved.
In addition to the memorials that the prince needs to review, there are three types of people who are beaten back: stay without publishing, stay without comment, and stay without approval.
To leave it unpublished means that the crown prince has completed the approval, but due to some considerations, the cabinet must delay the issuance.
If you leave it without reporting it, the prince will pretend he didn't see it after reading it, and the cabinet will pretend it didn't report it.
If it is retained but not approved, it means that the prince has seen it, but for the time being due to subjective and objective reasons, it cannot be approved by the Holy Judgment.
For example, 300,000 taels of tax money from the Lianghuai Salt Affairs Bureau disappeared. If such a strange matter is approved and issued and the criminal is caught, both the person and the stolen goods must be captured, otherwise it will become an unsolved case that cannot be closed for a long time.
The only way to achieve your goal is to keep him in the job, then dispatch factory guards to conduct secret visits, and use extraordinary means to achieve your goal. Once things get big, you won't be able to catch anyone, let alone money.
Some of the contents of the imperial memorial need to be made out of a molehill, while others need to be made into a trivial matter. Specific situations must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Especially for these borers like Zha Ming, conventional methods cannot be used, otherwise they will have to fetch water from a bamboo basket.
"Today's court meeting, I would like to hear a report on the construction of the new city in the capital. Zhang Guowei, Zhang Aiqing is the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and is mainly responsible for the design of the new city. Let Aiqing introduce it to me."
We can't mention going south to suppress the bandits. We have to find an interesting topic for the ministers. Everyone is still waiting to buy property in the new city, so a certain prince also has to comply with the wishes of his subordinates.
As the largest real estate developer in Xincheng, you can buy people's hearts by getting rich with the help of losers. Moreover, the investment cost of this method is not high, but the returns are exciting.
When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked about his duties, Zhang Guowei, as an AAAAA-level engineer of the Ming Dynasty, naturally had no shirk in his duties and said in a few words: "Your Highness, according to my calculations, the construction cost of the new city with only four walls will be two million taels. The buildings in the city, excluding the imperial city, will cost two million taels, and including the imperial city will cost four million taels, with a total cost of six million taels of silver. If the Ministry of Household Affairs allocates one million taels per year, in addition to the imperial city, , the new city can be completed in four years. The Ministry of Industry expects to recruit 50,000 laborers for construction. Surrounding surveys have already begun. Land acquisition will begin this month. Excavation of the city wall foundation is expected to begin in early May, and the city wall will be completed within the year."
Originally, building the city wall did not require so much money, but the prince had to find another way and build it according to the method of a Western-style fortress.
This design is so impregnable that even if Donglu mobilizes hundreds of red cannons, they may not be able to knock on the door of the new city.
But problems ensued, and the first one was the high cost. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, I have never heard of any city requiring two million taels of silver for its walls alone.
The prince insisted on this, so Zhang Guowei had no choice but to accept the order. As long as the money was not provided by the Ministry of Industry, even if the new city was built into a giant fortress, the Ministry of Industry could do it.
This is just Zhang Guowei's optimistic estimate. It would take more than one or two hundred thousand taels of silver to build a palace. I'm afraid the imperial city alone would not be able to build a palace without three to five million taels of silver.
If this content was played at the court meeting, it would inevitably arouse discussions among the courtiers, which would be detrimental to the prince. For the sake of often winning money by playing mahjong, Zhang Guowei chose the strategy of avoiding the truth and attacking the fictitious.
Yao Ji carefully thought about Lao Zhangtou's report, and it seemed that there was not much water in it, and the work was being carried out in an orderly manner, so he agreed to the draft budget: "I have already said that the Imperial City and the Palace City do not need funding from the Ministry of Household Affairs. Today Although Taicang is relatively loose, silver is hard-earned, and the public cannot be abolished for private purposes. This palace will allocate funds from internal funds to build it. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Households do not need to worry about this matter. The Ministry of Works only needs to complete the walls of the new city and the interior of the city. The design and construction of government offices and public facilities will suffice. The Ministry of Revenue will first allocate two million taels of silver this year to ensure the construction of the city wall. Starting next year, it will allocate one million taels per year to ensure the construction of buildings in the city."
Four million taels of silver to build a new city is not a big deal to the current court.
Especially the city defense is the top priority. The stepped city walls, horse-faced bastions, reverse slopes and bunker-style towers will make Braids give up their plans to attack the city when they see the turtle shape of the new city.
Even if Braid really wanted to use cannon fodder to test the defense capabilities of the new city, their trip would be worthwhile. If they didn't kill and injure thousands of people, they would not be able to live up to the city that cost so much money to build.
When the new capital city is completed, it will be the first fortress in the East and even the first city in the world, stronger than Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire.
Without the giant mortar, it would be impossible to achieve the goal of destroying the city with the Hongyi cannon alone, unless the method of digging tunnels was used. However, with many bastions as cover, this method would not be easy to succeed.
The two million taels of city wall funding must be worth it, or even worth it. For the new city, impregnable is not just an adjective.
Hearing that the prince wanted to use internal funds to build the imperial city, Zhang Guowei was greatly moved when he heard this. This made his job much easier: "Your Highness is wise, and I will do my best to build the walls of the new city."
As for whether there is money in the internal funds, that is not something he should worry about. Moreover, I heard that Zijin Bonds were sold for tens of millions of taels, which means that the prince plans to use the money raised to build the imperial city of the new city. That should be Totally enough.
The pressure on Taicang was not too great. Li Shiwen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also came forward to agree: "If the new city only needs four million taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs, and it can be paid in three years, it will not be difficult to do it."
If the Ministry of Revenue is asked to give out four million taels of silver at once, then Li Shiwen will definitely not agree, and there will be a life-or-death battle.
If the construction period is changed to three years and the payment mode is "211", it is indeed not a difficult matter for the household department with an annual income of 25 million taels.
Yang Wenyue led his troops to Datong to attack Wang Pu, while Li Shiwen's thoughts had long been focused on the Shanxi merchants' wealth. Five million taels of silver was a huge sum of money for the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Before it was transported to Taicang, the Minister of Household Affairs was already thinking about how to spend it. Since the prince said that the Shanxi merchants were as rich as the country, he was right.
In the past twenty years, the Donglu plundered tens of millions of taels of silver from Liaodong and various parts of the pass, nearly half of which was used to purchase the necessary grain and ironware.
The Shanxi merchants were their biggest sellers, and the resulting profits were naturally astonishing, so Li Shiwen believed in the prince's estimate of the Shanxi merchants' wealth, and it was only too high, not too low.
Li Shiwen had no sympathy for such traitorous merchants who betrayed their country and sought glory. It was best to capture them all and transfer all their wealth to Taicang.
The prince said that he would not use the Ministry of Finance to allocate funds for the imperial city in the new city. Li Shiwen was very happy, which meant that he could save at least two million taels of silver.
If it were the emperor, he would definitely have no shortage of money. With the little money left from the previous episode, not to mention building a new city, even the monthly salary of a hundred officials would be difficult to cover.
The prince supervises the country, which has both advantages and disadvantages. The dominance of power makes the government and the opposition helpless, and the voting system makes everyone stunned. However, the advantages brought by this are also obvious, that is, they don't have to worry about money.
As long as the courtiers obey the holy decree, the prince will use free money to satisfy the courtiers. No matter whether it is the monthly salary of each person or the expenses of each yamen, there will be no restrictions.
The prince once said when a few dignitaries were playing mahjong that money is not everything, but you can never live without it. Although these words are vulgar and vulgar, the truth behind them is unconvincing.
Especially for the Ministry of Revenue, if there is no money in Taicang, then the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Revenue will be a government office in name only.
After so many days of games, everyone has understood a simple and easy-to-understand truth. The prince is responsible for making money, and the ministers are responsible for spending money. As long as they don't line their own pockets, everything is easy to negotiate.
If anyone is dissatisfied, he can exchange places with the prince and let you make money while the prince and ministers spend money. That person will definitely not agree.
In the past, if four million taels of silver were used to build a new city, the ministers would definitely think that the Holy Emperor was crazy, because the Ministry of Revenue could not even come up with half of the silver.
Now the Ministry of Household Affairs can easily support the construction of new cities without breaking any bones. For example, military pay in western Liaoning and various relief-for-work programs can be launched at the same time.
It was unimaginable a month ago. His Highness the Crown Prince also said that he would hire Japanese troops to land in Liaodong to harass the Donglu territory. This move was tantamount to wishful thinking.
"How hard are the city bricks used in the new city?"
Now that we have the money, we only need the supervision and labor, and we are just short of building the Great Wall. However, the quality of the bricks must be guaranteed, otherwise it will be a typical scumbag project.
"Please wait a moment, Your Highness, and I will send someone to deliver the city bricks!"
Zhang Guowei had already expected that the prince would ask about any important matters, so Chengzhuan would not let him go, so he made preparations, which came in handy today.
Less than five minutes later, an official from the Ministry of Industry came over holding a huge sample. It looked like he was struggling. This thing is not light.
Zhang Guowei took it over and introduced it loudly: "Your Highness, this brick weighs eight kilograms. I have personally tested it. It can withstand knives, axes and blunderbuss. It is really good for building cities."
Many people in the hall, including the beautiful mother, saw a single complete city brick for the first time. What everyone saw was either the city wall, or the bricks and rubble that were damaged by the bombardment.
Yaoji calculated in his mind that Ba Mingjin is nearly ten pounds, which is not light. Calculated by weight, it should be quite solid. However, it is deceptive and needs to be tested on site to make sure it is correct.
"My dear friends, retreat and send a Han general to come forward and give it a try!"
Of course, a certain prince would not let the henchman perform the trick of breaking city bricks on his chest, but at least he had to chop it with a waist knife a few times in front of everyone, otherwise everyone would have doubts about the hardness of the sample.
Everyone dispersed, and two chamberlains brought a table and placed the city bricks on the table. The Han general who had the honor to appear was quite muscular.
First, he bowed deeply to the queen and the prince, then strode forward, drew out the sharp blade hanging from his waist, lowered it gently as a step to aim, then raised the waist knife and slashed downwards quickly.
"Dang~!"
Yaoji felt that just by listening to the sound, he would think that this thing had hit a stone, which meant that the hardness of the city bricks was indeed good, otherwise it would have been like cutting butter with a hot knife.
The Han general tried twice more in succession, slashing three times before stopping and retreating to his original position. The sample was first sent to the queen for viewing, and then to a certain prince.
Afterwards, it was circulated to the courtiers, and everyone kept nodding, which was regarded as recognizing the quality of the city bricks, because in the face of such a powerful and heavy chopping, only three small gaps were left on them.
Using such city bricks to build a city will indeed reassure the court after completion, and the Donglu will not dare to covet the new city of the capital.
If the old and new cities can form a horn, the Donglu will be afraid, and the court can rest easy.
