Of course, even if Liu Wei is close to Gao Pragmatic, it is not really a sign of refuge at the moment. Gao Pragmatic will not need Liu Wei in the short term. It can only be said that he has formed a good relationship in advance. Only when you reach a certain position can you say these things.
What Gao Pragmatic really cares about now and is already doing to cultivate his influence is actually an inconspicuous "business". His business plan is very large, and the soap business he is currently engaged in is just a small gadget worth mentioning. It was only used as a means to earn the first pot of gold at that time. But now that Gao Pragmatic has unexpectedly harvested Bailixia, a hen that can lay golden eggs, some of his plans have been slightly advanced.
Of course, returning early does not mean that we have to go to the shipyard to build sea-going ships now. You have to eat food one bite at a time, and things like shipbuilding are still far away. A hundred years from now, the cost of building a main warship for the British will be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Even if the Ming Dynasty shipbuilding is cheaper than the British, it is obviously not as high as it is now. It's bearable.
Gao pragmatically plans to start a coal business now. This business was not impressive at all in the Ming Dynasty. Because of the inconvenience of transportation in these years, the profit of coal trading was very meager, and the sales were average-it was just used by poor families who could not afford charcoal to make fires in winter, not even for cooking. suitable.
Why is this happening? Just think about some relatively backward rural areas in the past life, and you will know that those rural people would rather go out to chop firewood for cooking than use coal. There are two reasons: First, there is basically no one to cut firewood these days, as long as they go to the "wild mountains" farther away "Just cut it, the cost is basically zero, and you can save money; secondly, the coal fuel these days is very primitive, the combustion efficiency is very low, and the waste is huge. Although the price is not expensive, because there is no sharp tool like briquette, it is difficult to use it. Still not a great deal.
In today's capital, the poorest people cut their own wood and dry it for burning; those with better conditions buy coal to save trouble; the better-off people buy firewood from woodcutter; and the upper class only burn charcoal.
This makes it very clear that there are actually not many people serious about burning coal. Without a market, naturally not many people would be willing to do this business, and profits would naturally be difficult to come by, so it would be inconspicuous.
Therefore, Gao Qingshi felt that he could start this business with the surplus money that Bailixia could currently provide.
However, Gao Pragmatism will naturally not devote all his energy to coal just for this reason. Coal has many functions in later generations, but the current level of development is too low so it cannot be used in many aspects. However, one very key point is the root of his insistence on opening coal mines: coking and smelting iron.
The Mentougou coal mine does not quite meet the demand for high pragmatism, but it can be used to train a group of mining workers in advance, which is very important. Gao pragmatism is not some time-travel god. He thinks that he does not have the ability to recruit a group of people to do all the things that he can provide in his mind.
His work experience in his previous life told him that no matter how inconspicuous the job is, it will still have "professionalism". If you ask a few Jinshi masters to sweep the streets, they may not be able to win over the sixty-year-old Wang next door. uncle. Of course, this is especially true for mining and coal mining. In later generations, this work was a very professional type of work, and it was also very dangerous. Not just any cat or dog could do it.
In addition, Gao Pragmatic also has an ulterior purpose: whenever miners revolted in history, they were in great trouble, because these people lived in harsh conditions and all had to do hard labor, and coal mining made them miserable. Don't pay attention to cooperation-this is simply the best soldier seedling!
There are many miners from Yiwu in the Qi family army, right? Were there many miners in the "Guangxi Old Brothers" army that started the Taiping Rebellion? Even Japan's Kumamoto division, which was always pulled out to play the vanguard in a certain era, was based on miners.
Why are miners so powerful as an army?
First, those who are physically fit and unfit cannot work as miners; second, those who are used to organization and discipline and do not follow the rules when going down the mine will die early; third, in ancient times, going down the mine once was equivalent to facing life and death once, and even going down the mine without fear of fighting was even more trivial; Fourth, the miners trust each other's lives, which is equivalent to the way soldiers in later generations know, "Don't worry about your back, trust your comrades."
Although Gao Pragmatic does not intend to seek government and usurp the throne, given that the great cause he wants to do is too dangerous, he must have an extremely reliable force at his disposal. This force must be inconspicuous at ordinary times, because it may cause bad things, but at critical moments it must be able to be summoned and ready to fight.
Miners are great! Especially miners who have participated in training are even better!
name? We were afraid that no thieves would target us, so we usually trained as militiamen.
organize? Oh, yes, we are called the Workers’ Mine Protection Team, which means if anyone dares to rob us and take away our jobs, we will do it!
Very good, according to the Ming Dynasty's thinking, there is no problem at all.
Which aristocratic family cannot recruit a team of servants who can fight? Which century-old clan doesn’t have its own Wubao Village? Similarly, if you open such a large private mine, there will be no regular army from the imperial court to help you guard it. Who will you cry to if it is robbed? Of course I want to guard my own land. I am happy to let my miners take on an extra job, and I pay the salary. What is it that is hindering your court? Are they robbing families and dominating the market? If not, why are you talking so much nonsense!
After training enough professional miners, Gao Pragmatic will start to prepare to win the coal mine that he really likes.
Kailuan Coal Mine!
There is no need to introduce this in detail. I will just talk about one key point: Kailuan Coal Mine is rich in bituminous coal, a considerable part of which can be used for coking coal.
In view of the huge reserves of Kailuan Coal Mine, this "quite a part", even if Gao pragmatically developed coking, blast furnace and other technologies, and all iron and steel smelting in the world switched to using coke, it would be more than enough to supply the entire Ming Dynasty.
Although the horoscope has not yet been written, I feel happy just thinking about this prospect.
How many of the things that Mr. Gao will do in the future are related to iron and steel smelting? Not to mention the huge waste if charcoal was always used to make steel, the pitiful output alone made Gao Pragmatic roll his eyes. As for saying that a highly pragmatic liberal arts student could not build a truly high-tech blast furnace, that was true. However, when he was a child, he had always heard his elders talk about the people who used to make steel using local methods. The local steelmaking methods with lower production efficiency can still do their best.
Therefore, when Gao pragmatic returned to the capital this time, in addition to busy preparing for the "performance" to be held in the palace in two days, he also sent people to Qi Jiguang and Wu Dui.
Why Qi Jiguang and Wu Dui? Because Qi Jiguang was the commander-in-chief of Ji Town, Kailuan was within his guarding range. At the same time, Gao Pragmatic also planned to use a small incident to test Qi Jiguang's attitude towards Gao Gong; as for Wu Dui, he was "organizing the Yongping Road, Tuntian, Water Conservancy and Sea Defense Arms" "Deputy Envoy", Kailuan is his direct jurisdiction!
