The empress's establishment of a weaving factory quickly caused a sensation in a small area.
Under the promotion of Queen Ma, a trend of "knitting sweaters" emerged among the female relatives of the Ming Dynasty. In the past, most of these noble women were simple ordinary people. Now, although they are poor and rich, they all have people around them to take care of them.
But they are all busy people all their lives, and now that they have become the Marquis's wife and the Duke's wife, they can't take any time off.
Most of their men also have a good face, unlike Lao Zhu who never forgets his roots. I feel that a mother-in-law setting up a field at home to weave cloth or something is detrimental to the image of a noble person. Usually, these ladies are usually kept at home without leaving the door, but this time the big-footed women are very bored.
Now, the Queen has mastered the art of knitting sweaters. Two bamboo needles can be used to weave clothes of various colors, which is not tiring and can relieve boredom. A group of old sisters got together to knit sweaters and chat. The day just passed, not to mention how comfortable it was.
Even women from poor families have begun to take up the "new activity" of knitting sweaters. After all, wearing this sweater doesn't affect your work and keeps you warm, just like wearing a little sun. The most important thing is that a ball of wool only costs a penny, which is cheaper than the leaky linen clothes, but it takes some time to weave them into clothes.
Just by spending some time, I can knit fitting and warm clothes for my husband and children at home at such a low price. When has such a good thing ever happened in the world?
This is obviously because the Queen cares about us poor people and uses this method to help us buy new clothes!
Because of this matter, Queen Ma's reputation among the people became unprecedented. Lao Zhu's reputation has also improved a lot. In the official circles, everyone lamented because of the empty seal case, but among the people, everyone praised the emperor and the queen, and there was a tendency for thousands of families to become Buddhas.
This also made many scholars who only knew how to study suddenly wake up. It turns out that the common people do not need scholars to "spoke for" their public opinion. The high officials in the court are not speaking for the people as they usually show.
The family members of the criminal officials rescued by Zhu Su from the imperial edict were packed up and sent to Liaodong by Lao Zhu. Liaodong was chosen because its terrain is more important than that of Yunnan. It is adjacent to Goryeo and Beiyuan, sparsely populated, and separated from the Central Plains for hundreds of years. Many Han people in Liao even talked about it.
Using these convicts to serve as soldiers can make up for the shortage of manpower and talents in the Liao region, and can also be considered as sending some useful manpower to Xu Da, who is actively operating in the north.
However, Fang Xiaoru and Zheng Shili were saved by Zhu Su. Although the two of them were also the family members of criminal officials, they were specially allowed to enter the Imperial Academy for surveillance purposes due to the preparations of the newspaper office. The first newspaper of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Times, was published half a month later. This emerging method of information dissemination soon made waves in Yingtian. The newspapers analyzed current affairs and explained the news, especially the serialization of various storybooks written by the great author Luo Guanzhong, which made the people immediately flock to the newspapers.
The content in the newspaper soon dominated the conversation among people in various teahouses and taverns in Yingtian.
The affairs of Xinxue and Imperial College were left to Song Lian and Liu Bowen. Song Lian deserves to be a great scholar. Starting from the "true meaning of Master" clarified by Zhu Su, he wrote many articles eloquently and eloquently. He denounced Cheng and Zhu Zhiru as "pseudo-Confucianism" and "a partial Confucianism" and believed that the realization of China's The great revival is the "ultimate true meaning" of the ancient saint's words.
For this reason, the old man actively compiled Imperial College teaching materials and developed new learning with great enthusiasm. At the same time, Fang Xiaoru, as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, also took the lead in publishing many debate articles in the newspaper. He was outstanding in talent and learning, and he could always refute the old Confucian views one by one. Then he presented the gap between the old and new theories in the form of articles in newspapers to the readers of Quan Yingtian.
It caused an uproar among the young scholars.
With the help of newspapers as a carrier, disciples of the New School kept springing up in Yingtian. These people called themselves "True Confucians" and imitated Zhu Su's dress at the "Qixia Literary Meeting", wearing plain shirts and swords across their waists. In terms of clothing, they are clearly different from the "Confucians of Cheng and Zhu". They pay attention to the practical application of the world and oppose the trend of rhetoric and extravagance. On weekdays, they also compete with the old Confucians who like to talk.
Most of the "True Confucians" are young scholars, and they mostly admire the "Six Arts of the Gentleman" including "riding, shooting, and riding." There may be conflicts on weekdays. The old Confucian students see that all the "True Confucians" are full of martial virtues. It looks like he is often frightened before he even opens his mouth.
In the eyes of others, this means that the "old Confucianism" has no integrity and bullies the weak and is afraid of the strong, while the "true Confucianism" is vigorous and upward, with the style of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
Isn't it true? The former Song Dynasty admired the knowledge of these "Pianan Confucianism". Doesn't the style of the former Song Dynasty have the same origin as these "old Confucianism" who bullied the weak and feared the strong?
We Chinese Confucian scholars, whether we should reappear the weak Song Dynasty, or pursue the Han and Tang Dynasties and fulfill the unfulfilled ambitions of our ancestors, all those who have a heart full of hardships should make a decision.
The group of "true Confucianism" is getting stronger and stronger, while the "old Confucianism" is getting weaker and weaker. If the two meet on a narrow road, those old Confucians who are luxuriously dressed but have no power to tie a chicken will often be as panicked as a bereaved dog, with no character at all. The people saw this and gradually began to despise these Cheng Zhuzhiru who only knew how to talk.
At the same time, the number of people in the Imperial College began to increase. Liu Bowen and Song Lian were very pleased with this.
When these Confucian scholars with the style of the Han and Tang Dynasties mature and fill the court, they will definitely bring a new vitality to the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Su, on the other hand, devoted himself to breaking through technological barriers together with Zhu Fan, Mu Ying, and Xu Yungong. With the money from Lao Zhu Nei's treasury and the support of Empress Ma, Zhu Fan built more than ten blast furnaces in one go, recruited many craftsmen, and began to produce steel on a large scale.
Mu Ying also began to study ways to use these new steel materials to cast cannons. He had a deep research on firecrackers and artillery, and he also took a temporary job in the Governor's Office, and simply took the title of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau. Traditional cannons are mostly made of copper with good ductility, but in the Ming Dynasty, copper coins were widely used among the people, and copper can be directly equated with coins.
If the cannon were made of copper, it would be extremely expensive, and it would not be possible to equip it on a large scale. If the three of them could break through the technical barrier of using new steel materials to cast guns, Ming's military strength would be able to jump to several levels in one fell swoop.
However, this barrier is not so easy to overcome. Even though the existence of Zhu Su can prevent the development of science and technology from taking detours, the gap between the times and the industrial base cannot be made up so easily.
After studying for several years, I finally achieved some success. The first batch of new firearms in the Ming Dynasty that were enough to constitute a generation difference finally came out.
(End of chapter)
