Chapter 69 Taiping Steel Report
King Yan was not the first to arrive in Nanjing, but he was not the latest either.
As soon as he arrived in Nanjing, he was picked up by the prince.
The crown prince and his concubine, Mrs. Lu, exchanged pleasantries with the king of Chu, the king of Qi and the king of Lu who arrived first.
King Yan asked: "Father, are you free now?"
The prince said, "Unfortunately, the fourth brother will go to see his mother first. I have already sent someone to ask Xu Zheng, the chief eunuch of Qianqing Palace. He told me that the prince consort of Anqing has also returned from Taiping today. He has important matters to report to my father." My father ordered that no one be seen today. You go to see your mother first, maybe you can see your father during the dinner. If not, it will be tomorrow."
King Yan said: "Then I will go to see my mother first."
King Yan secretly muttered: "Xu Zheng, I remember that the eunuch next to my father is not him? What is He Xi this time? It seems that my father values He Xi more than my son. Hey, the capital is the one. Among the people in the world, after being away for several years, the people in Nanjing have changed so much that I almost don’t recognize them anymore.”
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In the Palace of Qianqing.
Zhu Yuanzhang was carefully reading what He Xi said.
About Taiping Iron Works. Or rather a steel mill.
Zhu Yuanzhang has always had an informant around He Xi. Among He Xi's disciples, there were manpower arranged by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang already knew that He Xi's handiwork was quite large. But I really saw He Xi’s plan. Already extremely surprised.
Because it is still unknown how much iron the iron plant planned by He Xi will produce. Because He Xi had integrated Daming iron smelting technology. Plus new ideas and new methods are added. Let Daming iron smelting technology continue to advance.
True. This rate of progress is far from revolutionary. It was just a matter of tinkering and patching under the technical framework established by He Xi.
This also forced He Xi to admit it. Although there are some top craftsmen in Ming Dynasty. But these top craftsmen are craftsmen after all, not scientists. They can only supplement the existing framework and cannot develop new technologies.
But even so.
The steel furnace originally designed by He Xi was also a bit larger. It became a real blast furnace. The efficiency and quality of steel production have also stabilized. But in terms of long-term operation, how long can a steel furnace run stably? Or, how much can the annual output be. This is not certain yet.
But this does not prevent He Xi from planning.
He Xi stipulated that the ironworks should be in the shape of a long strip stretching for dozens of miles. In the middle is the waterway where the Ma'anshan Iron Mine comes out of the mountain. With this waterway as the center, there are iron furnaces all around. Transporting iron ore from the mountains and purchasing coal from the Yangtze River are connected through this dedicated waterway. There are at least one to two hundred iron and steel furnaces of various kinds. How much output will be produced in the future is uncertain. After all, stable output requires a stable supply of raw materials.
He Xi has not yet settled the big project of coal.
But it is necessary to produce tens of millions of kilograms of pig iron a year.
He Xi is already thinking about being a young man, it is basic. Even in He Xi's view, if everything went smoothly and it could produce 100,000 tons a year, it would not be a big iron factory in future generations.
But in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, it was extraordinary. Because this iron factory requires at least tens of thousands of people. After all, there were not many machines in ancient times. Many things require manpower. It is no lie that there is strength in numbers. This is why He Xi built the ironworks along the river. This small river, which is dozens of miles long, even needs to be repaired first. Because water transportation is the most convenient and saves most manpower and material resources.
An iron factory with tens of thousands of people was a big deal on Zhu Yuanzhang's side.
First of all, the number of people. You must know that in this era, there were only more than 60 million people in the Ming Dynasty. Many people probably don't have this concept. You must know that there are hundreds of mansions in the Ming Dynasty. More than a thousand counties. On average, there are no more than 100,000 people in a county.
And this number is relatively realistic.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the investigation. Even if there is a difference in the number of people, it is probably due to the fact that some members of ethnic minorities are not included. Not much different. It can be said that the number of people needed by an iron factory is already the owner of a county.
There is also space needed for the ironworks.
Many counties in ancient times were three-li territory or five-li city. In other words, a small town with a circumference of more than ten miles may not be as big as some communities in later generations. What I’m talking about here is not a very large community like Tiantongyuan. An ordinary community is better than an ancient county town.
This factory area that stretches for dozens of miles is only about one or two miles wide because it is close to the river. But in total, it is larger than the area of many prefectural cities.
Needless to say, the financial and material resources consumed are hard to say about the land alone. After all, land close to rivers and easy to irrigate is always the best. With a wave of his hand, He Xi drew the best land. The value of these lands is hundreds of thousands taels, or even more, which is reasonable.
In He Xi's view, the Taiping Iron Works project was just a passable project. But Zhu Yuanzhang's place was the gold-selling cave that ate up half of his expenses for the Northern Expedition.
He Xi actually didn't understand. The gap between ancient China and modern China.
I don’t understand the difference between an era of scarcity and an era of excess.
In his opinion, the project he proposed would only involve some expenditure on land. Among all these, most counties, nay, even some towns in later generations had no problem in coming to vote. But he didn't know that here in the Ming Dynasty, it was very likely that apart from war and salary, it was even more than the construction of the Xiaoling Mausoleum, the first project of the Ming Dynasty.
It’s not that it can’t be taken out. But at any time, financial expenses have been arranged carefully. It is impossible to suddenly come up with such a large sum of money.
The emperor also had no food left in his hands.
After He Xi finished talking about his Taiping Iron Works project, he also found that Zhu Yuanzhang's face was not very good. Then he said sarcastically: "Your Majesty, there is actually no need to be in such a hurry. Anyway, the coal has not been finished yet. I will check again during this period to see where there are coal mines along the Yangtze River? If there are no coal mines along the Yangtze River, you can look at the tributaries of the Yangtze River. 's coast."
"No need." Zhu Yuanzhang said: "There is a coal mine in Tongling. I have made arrangements. It will be mined soon. Just mobilize a group of manpower from your College of Engineering and Science to go there."
When He Xi heard this, he said: "This will be much easier to handle. In this way, the Yangtze River will connect the two places, and the Taiping Iron Works will be operational this year."
Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth twitched slightly, not knowing how to tell He Xi that he had no money.
Yes. Although during the nearly ten years from the fifth year of Hongwu to the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang was recuperating and did not go to war, but he saved a lot of money and food. But the problem is that last year, Yunnan had 300,000 square meters, and this year there will be a huge expansion. Now we are still preparing to build a city on the grassland, which is not a big expense.
If Ming Dynasty's finance is now on the verge of bankruptcy, then of course it is not. Zhu Yuanzhang's family background is not so thin. But if we say that Ming Dynasty's finances are tight. If it comes again, this expenditure seems to be at least one million taels. The imperial court had no savings at all.
Zhu Yuanzhang is essentially a person who doesn't like taking risks. Whether it is a military adventure or a financial adventure.
He didn't want Ming Dynasty's finances to fall into such a predicament.
Zhu Yuanzhang coughed twice and said, "Let's discuss this matter in the long run. This matter is not urgent."
He Xi said: "Your Majesty, we have to be in a hurry. Large-scale industrial construction cannot be completed in one year. I have estimated that even if the Taiping Iron Works is built right now, it will take a year or even more to complete it. And after the Taiping Iron Works is built, it will probably take two or three years to truly operate at full capacity."
"Any industrial project must consider hardware and software, and software is even more important than hardware. At least ten thousand skilled workers must be trained, which is more difficult than building the Taiping Iron Works."
"And the significance of the Taiping Iron Works does not lie in the Taiping Iron Works itself."
"Yes. I admit that the Taiping Iron Works cannot even be regarded as an industrial project, it can only be regarded as a transitional project. However, once the construction of such a large-scale iron plant is successful, it can be copied across the country, and the iron will be sold at a bargain price, which will truly allow Ming Dynasty to enter the steel industry. era."
"This is a very important experimental project. The sooner the better."
