At present, the Ming Empire has not yet wiped out the rogue bandits in the Huguang area, the Donglu are causing trouble in Jinzhou, Chai Shihua, who is resisting the imperial decree and running away, has not yet been wiped out, and Donglin in the south of the Yangtze River is thinking about how to counterattack, the national situation is "very good" ".
If you add that the chieftains in the southwest are ready to take action again, and the severe drought in the north has caused thousands of miles of red fields in the Central Plains, causing countless disasters that urgently need to be pacified, then the situation cannot be better...
After a certain prince came to supervise the country's governance, not a single thing in this package of major events was wiped out.
The only difference is that now the court is rich!
As long as you have money, everything will be easy to handle.
Things that money can solve are not problems. Most of the things that the court needs to solve urgently can actually be solved with money.
In the past, when I had no money, I could not take down the Donglu outside the pass, nor could I take down the rogue bandits inside the pass.
It is very different now. Even if there is still no way to deal with Donglu, we will not continue to raise rogue bandits like white-eyed wolves.
Chai Shihua was as stubborn as Wang Pu, trying to occupy a corner of the country and unite with the local indigenous people to fight against the imperial court.
However, the new army organized and trained in the Yulin area is far from reaching the level of combat, so let them roam for a while and settle the accounts later.
Some people in later generations said that the Apocalypse Tank Master left a mess for the dumper. So when Xizong ascended, about half of the above things had not happened. In fact, the dumper killed himself in the end.
Diligent government is actually of no use to an emperor who lacks IQ. The key to governing a country is to look at the essence and focus on the key points to find countermeasures. The scapegoat will feel that he has all the advantages until his death, and the content of the guilty edict is all false.
He had been in power for seventeen years and did not even realize that when the army of courier brother Li was approaching the city, the emperor was still angry with the ministers and wasted the last time of running away.
When he couldn't run anymore, he remembered to discuss the escape with his consort Gong Yonggu. He didn't know how many light-years the length of the reflex arc in the emperor's brain was.
If you can't fight, run away. This is the most basic principle. As long as the mind is normal and the legs and feet are sharp, anyone will react instinctively, but this emperor is not the case.
It was really impossible to leave the city, so he asked his wife to commit suicide and chopped up his concubine and daughter.
This is really an incompetent man beating his wife, an incompetent emperor beheading his wife...
After all, Li Yu, the late leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, still had some literary talent. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty had zero ability to know people well, zero military command ability, zero ability to govern the country and manage finances, and full marks for the ability to chop off his wife!
He has been in power for seventeen years and is already in his thirties. At the critical moment of life and death, he ignores the country and the country and is still angry with the ministers. This can no longer be described as willful. It is clearly mentally retarded!
The thought of having such a father's soul constantly lingering above his head made a certain prince feel depressed and depressed, and I'm afraid the same was true for the entire Ming Empire.
Except for Tian Guifei and a small group of people, few people hope that the emperor will wake up. If he wakes up, someone will suffer, not to mention revenge, or he will be killed alive.
"Your Highness, the imperial court has now paid 500,000 taels of silver to the Northern Shaanxi Oilfield, and will prepare another 500,000 taels of silver in the future. Are these two sums of money too huge?"
Li Shiwen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, had doubts about the future of Yanchang Oilfield. Even though he knew more or less about the benefits of oil, investing one million taels of silver in an oilfield was still too much.
Taicang is quite wealthy now, but at the rate at which the prince is spending money, by this time next year, the 20 million taels of silver will probably be gone.
"Not much, not much~! Li Aiqing, this one million taels of silver can, firstly, pacify the local area and hire a large number of idle young people to prevent them from becoming bandits. Secondly, it can also boost Shaanxi, especially northern Shaanxi. The economy of a poor place. One laborer can support a whole family, which is much better than the government spending huge sums of money on relief."
If 10,000 young men rebelled, even if the court spent one million taels of silver, they might not be able to annihilate them as quickly as possible. As for the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, which was currently entrenched in the mountainous area, the court would be stunned and helpless.
For a poor place like northern Shaanxi, where drought persists and there are no local products, the imperial court can only spend money to buy peace. The laborers have jobs and have no intention of robbing homes and houses, even if they burn high incense.
This was the reason why the inn system was set up in the first place. It has been done by all dynasties in order to calm the troubles and prevent these people from becoming bandits and then being destroyed by the hot-headed dumpers...
Since it was of little use to re-establish the post station, a certain prince could only vigorously develop the Shaanxi oil field, and this was also the only oil field in the Ming Dynasty that could be developed on a large scale.
There are also oil fields in the Bashu area. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo introduced them in "Mengxi Bi Tan". However, the price of oil was high when oil was shipped from there. A certain prince would rather pay for oil from northern Shaanxi.
Shaanxi Governor Zuo Maodi was very efficient after taking office. He immediately sent people to control the Yanchang Oilfield and transported the first batch of oil to the capital.
These guys are also smart and know how to transport in sections. The local driver in Shaanxi is only responsible for transporting oil from the oil field to the Yellow River, the boundary river between Shaanxi and Shanxi.
After the oil is transported across the river by ferry, the road from Shanqian to Beizhili will be the work of the old Westerners, but this can also find work for many Shanqian people.
The Imperial Oil Company has ordered 200,000 barrels of oil from the Chief Secretary of Shaanxi Province. The price of each barrel is five taels of silver, all paid in cash, so Zuo Maodi and his subordinates and officials are very enthusiastic about oil production.
According to Zuo Maodi's report, since he did not know how big the oil field was, for the sake of safety, Zuo Maodi simply extended the area from the Yellow River in the east to Yanchuan in the north, Dan'an in the west and Fenchuan River in the south. Circled.
In the past, this place was one of the poorest places in northern Shaanxi. However, as the imperial court vigorously develops the Yanchang Oilfield, the wealth here will soon catch up with Xinan.
Since large-scale mining has just begun, and there is only half a year left to organize manpower, it is estimated that only 100,000 barrels of oil can be produced at most.
But just these 50,000 barrels of oil are enough to make a group of "predators" jealous. The northwest itself is the poorest place in the Ming Dynasty. Who wouldn't be tempted by a cake worth 500,000 taels of silver?
The CIF price specified by Zuo Maodi is three taels of silver per barrel. In other words, Shanqian's driver can earn two taels of silver for transporting a barrel of oil. If all costs are factored out, he can earn at least one tael for a barrel of oil.
The situation in the Shaanxi Oilfield is similar. On average, young people working in the oilfield may not be able to produce much oil if they work hard for a day. After filtering, one barrel of oil can be produced in five days, which is good.
But after a month of working, at least five or six barrels are produced, which is equivalent to five or six taels of silver. This is the best job in northern Shaanxi. A group of laborers rushed to extract oil, not afraid of being dirty and tired.
Some literate guys also read the newspapers and knew that there was an inexhaustible supply of kerosene buried under their feet. Therefore, after word of mouth spread, everyone felt relieved to work in the oil fields, and they had a secure life.
In the oil fields, workers call kerosene "black silver." As long as it is dug out of the ground, it is regarded as money, which means that their work is not in vain.
In this way, those who dig their own oil in some places in the oil fields are called "casual workers". They can hand over the oil they dig out to officials for weighing every day, and receive copper coins according to the weight of the extraction.
The employees employed by the government, that is, the Yanchang Oilfield Company, are called "regular workers", that is, regular workers. "regular workers" all work at the largest, best, and easiest to produce oil wellheads occupied by the government.
A "regular worker" is guaranteed to die on three taels of silver per month, but he only takes care of food and has a place to live. He is more stable than a "casual worker", but he does not make as much as a "casual worker". If you are too short of money, you can become a "casual worker", and vice versa. Do "real work".
The division into two types of workers was also out of helplessness. Zuo Maodi knew that if the monthly salary of formal workers in the oil field was set very high from the beginning, the monthly salary would only get higher and higher in the future, and the oil field would not make much money.
Oil fields, coal mines, and gold mines will be Shaanxi's three major inputs in the future. Gold mines cannot be expected in the near future. Coal mines can only be sold locally, and there are coal mines in other places.
In Shaanxi, the only thing that could be quickly recovered and sold on a large scale was oil. Zuo Maodi was particularly concerned about the development of the oil fields.
The oil well built based on the drawings provided by a certain prince has been erected. However, due to the insufficient hardness of the steel pipe used for drilling, even if a diamond drill is installed on the head, it is difficult to drill into the ground to a depth of a hundred meters under the pull of livestock.
In many places, the method of manually digging deep pits is used to extract oil. It is stupid and inefficient. Since we have to start from scratch, we can only start in this way.
If the output of the oil field can reach 200,000 barrels a year, worth 600,000 taels of silver, it can indeed solve the problem of supporting their families for many local people.
Apart from anything else, at least Zuo Maodi no longer has to worry about the food problems of the people in Dan'an Mansion and Yulinwei, which is equivalent to eliminating one-third of the governor's worries.
Zuo Maodi is nothing more than three major areas, namely Dan'an Prefecture in eastern Shaanxi, Qingyang Prefecture and Pingliang Prefecture in northern Shaanxi, and Gongchang Prefecture and Lintao Prefecture in the west.
Now Dan'an Prefecture has the Yanchang Oilfield, and there is a gold mine in the west. As long as we stabilize both ends first, the rest will be much easier to handle.
Zuo Maodi, who was full of thoughts, wrote dozens of sheets of paper eloquently. He wrote down all the important events he had seen and heard after taking office clearly and clearly, which made a certain prince feel sleepy.
"Your Highness, what should be done with the 200,000 barrels of oil that has arrived in the capital? If it is not properly protected, it will become a huge hidden danger!"
Yin Houdong of Shuntian Prefecture was once more worried about oil than Li Shiwen, Minister of Household Affairs. Li Shiwen was worried about money, while Yin Houdong was worried about the safety of the people in the capital and even the emperor.
If two hundred thousand barrels of oil exploded, it would probably not be much less powerful than the Wang Gong Factory explosion, and it might even be bigger. Once it happened, it would be possible to blow up even half of the capital.
"Zhang Guowei, Zhang Aiqing, how is the progress of the new city project?"
The total construction cost of the new city was as high as six million taels of silver. Since it had to be built in the style of a fortress, the city wall alone cost as much as two million taels of silver. Therefore, a certain prince paid attention to the progress of the project every day.
"Your Highness, everything has been going well so far. According to my estimation, the main body of the city wall will be completed before autumn!"
As Minister of Industry, Zhang Guowei's most important job now is to go to construction sites outside the city every day to supervise work and solve problems as soon as they are discovered.
"Before autumn, the north and south open spaces between the old and new cities should be covered with a city wall to completely seal the interior. This will make it easier for the garrison around Jifu to shrink into the city for defense after Donglu knocks on the pass."
A certain prince didn't want all the men and horses he had finally accumulated to be chopped up by others, especially the East Palace Guards, who had been trained for a long time and had not yet reached combat standards.
Once they encounter the main force of Braid in the wild, and there is not enough tank protection, if the heavy cavalry on the opposite side rushes, the entire army will be annihilated, and there will be no luck.
"The open space between the new city and the old city can be used to store oil. It would be better if Donglu can invade the open space and let them eat enough oil!"
The pigtails wearing cotton armor have two shortcomings. One is that they are afraid of heat, and the other is that they are afraid of fire. If they are set on fire, it will be both hot and hot. However, Huangtaiji is not crazy enough to let the army of pigtails come to attack the city.
Even if Emperor Chongzhen was unconscious, Pigtail would not dare to covet the capital. After all, the main force of the Ming army had not been wiped out, and they could still hold the capital and repel the invading enemies with the firepower of the city.
A certain prince thought that it would be good if Zuo Maodi could deliver a total of 50,000 barrels before autumn this year. He would directly transfer the first 20,000 barrels to Lao Wang who was stationed at Shanhaiguan, and the remaining 30,000 barrels would be used for smelting, most of which would be used for mining.
After Imperial Oil Company refines the oil, asphalt can be used to pave roads, paraffin can be used to make candles, and various distilled oils can be used as fuel.
There is nothing wasteful about petroleum. All by-products from processing have corresponding uses. This is its biggest advantage.
"If the Donglu dare not come to attack the city, then use a substance extracted from petroleum called 'asphalt' to pave the road. First lay one as an experiment, and then start laying on a large scale after accumulating relevant experience."
There are either stone roads or sandy roads in the capital, but no matter which kind of road, it is not as smooth and clean as asphalt road. In the future, both new and old cities must be paved with asphalt road.
"Your Highness, I really don't know how to pave this 'asphalt', and I hope your Highness can give me some advice!"
Zhang Guowei had seen oil, but he had not seen the so-called "asphalt" extracted. He could only agree to the prince's request first.
But since the prince proposed to do this, he must know how to refine and use this kind of object, and the road paved with asphalt should be better than the ordinary road.
"It's easy. I will explain the process in detail. Aiqing will understand it after reading it!"
In terms of difficulty, it is also the process of refining oil. As for paving the way, it is very easy. Zhang Guowei can sit back and enjoy the results without encountering any difficulties.
It's just that a certain prince has not yet determined how much asphalt can be refined from 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil, and how long the road can be paved with this asphalt needs to be actually measured.
It should roughly be enough to lay one main road, and the remaining auxiliary roads will wait until next year. The main thing is to turn all the main roads in the new city into asphalt roads.
It must be built cleaner and tidier than Western European cities of the same period, otherwise so much money will be wasted, and you will not be able to satisfy yourself.
Since you have invested a huge amount of money, you must do everything you can within your capabilities...
