The cultivation of military horses can be regarded as the largest R&D investment in the animal husbandry industry of the Chu Empire. Not only the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is involved, but the military, especially the Army, is also heavily involved.
They breed various types of war horses for excellent cavalry, such as Hexi horses and Liaohe horses. They also breed draft horses suitable for artillery and baggage troops, as well as pack horses suitable for mountain troops.
Then there are some logistics horses adapted to extreme terrains, such as horses suitable for use in the southern tropical rainforest areas. Currently, the horses used by the Chu army in the southern region, mainly in the Nanyang Peninsula, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other regions, are Southwest horses and Hexi horses. As a result of the breeding, the new Southwest Horse retains the characteristics of being able to withstand dry cold at high altitudes and warm temperatures at low altitudes, has strong endurance, is short and strong, has excellent carrying capacity, and is easy to raise. It also improves the horse's physique to a certain extent. .
The average shoulder height of the stallion can reach one meter, and its carrying capacity is very good. It can not only meet the requirements of the mountainous jungle area of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, but also meet the requirements for use after entering the peninsula. It is a kind of horse in the south. Excellent draft horses are used.
The army troops deployed by the Chu Empire in the southwest region relied on this kind of southwest horse to a certain extent... Without the southwest horse, the military deployment of the Chu Empire in the southwest region, especially in areas such as Myanmar, would be greatly affected.
Therefore, although the Southwest Horse is small, with a shoulder height of only 1.1 meters, which is much shorter than the average shoulder height of the Liaohe Horse of about 1.5 meters, the tactical status of this kind of horse in the army of the Chu Empire is no better than that of the Hexi Horse. Horse, Liaohe horse difference.
The large-scale breeding of military horses has also led to an improvement in the quality of civilian horses. After more than ten years of domestic horse breeding, the horses bred in many domestic horse farms have changed from the Mongolian horses or the old Southwest horses in the past. Horses and other local horse breeds have evolved into a situation where Hexi horses and Yidu horses are mainly cultivated; Liaohe horses and Xinxinan horses are supplemented, and many foreign purebred horse breeds are embellished.
This also allowed the private horse breeding industry in the Great Chu Empire to develop rapidly. A large number of excellent horse breeds appeared in the market one after another and were used in production and transportation, providing sufficient impetus for the transportation and agricultural industry of the Great Chu Empire.
In the animal husbandry industry, the breeding of horses has developed vigorously for military needs and transportation needs, and the breeding of other livestock has also maintained a high level of development.
Such as cow!
Cattle, this kind of livestock has an extremely important strategic position in the land of China. Because of the overall situation of China's land with more people and less land, except for a few northern areas that use horse farming, other places all use cattle farming.
The number and quality of cattle are directly related to the agricultural production and food security of the Chu Empire.
This is also the reason why the Dachu Empire officials continued to invest in the cultivation of cattle and set up relevant breeding bases in places with different climates and terrains to cultivate cattle adapted to different climates.
Therefore, the breeding of farm cattle seems to be quiet, but in fact it is very large-scale, and the resources invested are also very large, no less than the breeding of horses.
In addition to the breeding of two heavyweight livestock, cattle and horses, the research work on animal husbandry in the Dachu Empire also focused on the research and breeding of economic livestock such as sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, and silkworms.
Among them, sheep are more interesting. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Great Chu Empire focuses on sheep, not to increase mutton production or the like, but for wool and to develop the wool spinning industry.
The wool spinning industry in the Chu Empire actually did not develop very fast, and its scale was relatively limited for the time being. Because the Chu Empire lacked sources of wool in the early days, there was never a large-scale traditional handmade wool spinning industry in the Central Plains.
Due to the lack of woolen textile industry, there are naturally not many woolen textile products. This is also the reason why cashmere fabrics are rarely seen in the development of clothing.
After the Chu Empire fully occupied the north, especially the Shaanxi-Gansu region where sheep were relatively large and wool was produced, it also occupied North China and even further controlled Monan Mongolia.
After obtaining a large amount of wool sources, coupled with the demand for using cashmere in the military of the Chu Empire to make officer uniforms and coats, large quantities of cashmere are ordered every year to make mid-to-high-end military uniforms.
The official capital of the Dachu Empire, in order to meet the military's demand for cashmere fabrics, has also developed a series of machinery and equipment for the wool spinning industry.
With the supply of wool, equipment innovation, and market demand, the wool spinning industry in the Dachu Empire has ushered in a real spring.
The woolen textile industry continues to develop at a rapid pace. Today, in addition to the widespread use of various woolen products in the military, various types of woolen products are also widely used among the civilian population.
Of course, compared with today's wool spinning industry, it is far inferior to the cotton spinning industry.
However, it is worth noting that the woolen textile industry has a very advantage in exports, even more advantageous than the large amount of cheap machine-made cloth in the Da Chu Empire, and the export price is very expensive.
This is because the Da Chu Empire has adopted a series of new technologies, and the quality of its wool products is very high. Its fine cashmere fabrics are even top-notch, and can directly beat traditional handmade cashmere from various countries.
Such good things are naturally favored by the upper class in foreign markets, and the price is naturally expensive.
Not to mention foreign countries, even in the Great Chu Empire, this kind of fine cashmere fabric is very expensive. Many wealthy people will wear cashmere products in autumn and winter. Well, this was actually brought up by Luo Zhixue trend.
Luo Zhixue has been fond of wearing fine cashmere woolen coats in autumn and winter since very early on, mainly because it is too cold to wear silk, and he feels that cotton jackets, down jackets, fur coats, etc. are too bulky... and ugly!
Therefore, unless it is an extremely cold winter season, he will usually choose a woolen jacket as his outerwear in autumn and winter, which has a certain thermal effect and is relatively smooth.
This is purely Luo Zhixue's personal preference. This is just like the warlord-style military uniforms he likes. He likes to wear them like this...and he is the emperor, and no one can control him.
Wearing a double-breasted slim-fitting top, straight-leg trousers, a special military uniform, a long woolen jacket, white or black leather gloves, long leather boots, and a round crown on his bald head. Wearing a hard-brimmed felt hat and carrying a sword at his waist, he sits astride a tall horse and looks proudly ahead!
This is the typical image of Luo Zhixue that is familiar to the outside world, and it has been like this from the Funiu Mountain period to the present.
Especially in military occasions, such as military parades and inspections of troops, he usually wears this as long as the weather is not too hot or too cold, and mostly rides on horseback. He rarely rides in a carriage or sedan, and only rides on horseback for inspections or military parades.
For the specific image, you can directly look at the clothes of later warlords...Luo Zhixue matched the clothes of later warlords.
In non-military situations, he usually wears slim-fitting tops and trousers similar to military uniforms, paired with a woolen jacket and leather shoes.
Whether it is military or non-military occasions, woolen jackets have a very high appearance rate. You rarely see Luo Zhixue wearing a cotton jacket or fur coat.
Of course, this is also the same as Luo Zhixue usually stays in Jinling City. Although Jinling City also snows in winter, geographically speaking, Jinling City still belongs to the south. Although this winter is cold, it is different from the winter in the north. Two different things.
If the Chu Empire had its capital in the north, Luo Zhixue would probably wear a fur coat every day in winter...otherwise he would be cold to death!
Unfortunately, the capital of the Chu Empire is in Jinling City, and Jinling City is in the south... So in the winter when it is not too cold, Luo Zhixue can wear a thinner woolen jacket.
And Luo Zhixue's hobby quickly affected the clothing preferences of the upper echelons of the Chu Empire in just a dozen years...
Many officials also followed suit and wore woolen jackets when they went out... This is just for civil servants.
As for the generals of the military... they had been uniformly dressed in this way long before the Northern Expedition, because in the standard autumn and winter uniforms of officers, the coats issued included woolen coats.
Of course, in the northern troops, officers will also be issued thick cotton-padded jackets or down jackets.
Wearing it daily is different from wearing it in combat.
But generally speaking, in formal occasions, the influence of military generals on the public is their long and wide coats with bald heads and woolen materials and long leather boots.
Whether they are civil servants or military generals, the dressing styles of these core personnel in the upper class of the Chu Empire were greatly influenced by Luo Zhixue.
For example, in the summer, Luo Zhixue liked to wear ordinary Confucian clothes... and then Confucian clothes quickly became the standard attire of officials in the Great Chu Empire...
For example, in autumn and winter, Luo Zhixue likes to wear woolen jackets, and then a large number of people also like to wear woolen jackets.
These have directly promoted the rapid development of the wool textile industry, especially greatly stimulating the demand for high-end woolen materials.
This is also a very interesting situation. The rapid development of the woolen textile industry is mainly driven by the demand for high-end fabrics, rather than the market for a large number of mid- to low-end fabrics, like cloth.
The huge demand for high-end woolen materials has also greatly increased the demand for high-quality wool in the wool spinning industry!
Good wool is not so easy to come up with. It has certain requirements for length, thickness, strength, etc., and these requirements are eventually transferred to the sheep that produce wool!
The main purpose of research on sheep at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's research institutions is to develop a sheep that can produce better and more high-quality wool.
The research direction of common livestock such as sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks is mainly based on pure economics. This is why in addition to the official direct dismissal, there is also a large amount of private capital invested in research.
For example, the Shaanxi-Gansu branch of Suqin Textile Company mainly focuses on the wool textile industry. In order to compete for the market and produce better cashmere fabrics, they set up a wool research institute to cultivate new breeds of sheep to produce high-quality cashmere fabrics. wool.
The development of the wool spinning industry in the Da Chu Empire has become the main growth point in the light industry after the cotton spinning industry. In comparison, the silk spinning industry is much worse.
Although silk has always been a traditional advantageous commodity in China, it is even more popular when exported, and the unit price is also very high.
But it should be noted that the production of silk is very limited. The limited production destined silk to be just a luxury jewelry.
As for the luxury jewelry industry, its role in stimulating the development of the entire industrial system is actually very limited. It is far inferior to industries such as cotton and wool spinning that can cater to the consumer market of ordinary people.
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In the winter of the seventeenth year of Chengshun, in Jinling City, Luo Zhixue rarely went out for inspections in the winter. This time, the place he went to inspect was not the Royal Institute of Technology or the Dangtu Industrial Zone that he often went to. A trip to Zhenjiang.
Zhenjiang was not actually an important industrial city in the entire industrial system of the Chu Empire. They did not even have a national-level industrial zone.
But there are several very important companies in Zhenjiang in the domestic industry!
These include Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company, Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company, Zhenjiang Precision Machinery Company, etc.
During this inspection, Luo Zhixue's main inspection targets were these factories that played an important role in the domestic industry.
By the way, attend the ceremony where a large steam engine was first used in the heavy machinery industry!
After a long period of R&D and production, Tianjin Machinery Company has finally completed the research and development of large steam engines. The first large steam engine has been disassembled and shipped to Zhenjiang by ship, and has been installed and debugged at Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company.
Luo Zhixue saw this huge steam engine in the factory of the Heavy Machinery Company.
This thing is different from the steam engine in Luo Zhixue's traditional movie impression. This thing is too big and too complicated. In order to serve this big thing, Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company even prepared a semi-open-air factory for it!
This is a big guy with six cylinders, six large boilers and a complete set of complex power transmission structures!
This thing is actually a power unit made up of three double-cylinder thirty-two horse steam engines. The combined power can increase the power to ninety horses.
It seems that the power is not small, but this power is a bit like a big car against a small cannon due to its huge size and complex structure.
Luo Zhixue stared at this thing, and then thought of the high-pressure steam engine being developed by the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology and the Guangzhou Machinery Company.
If a high-pressure steam engine can be built, the size of this 90-horsepower unit can probably be reduced by ten or twenty times. By then, there will be no need to build such a large factory to install and service it, and it can be directly made into a locomotive. .
Although he had many thoughts in his mind, Luo Zhixue still expressed his appreciation and instructions to the accompanying technicians.
The enthusiasm for research cannot be undermined. Under today's technical conditions, it is extremely rare to be able to build such a large steam engine.
It is an industrial steam engine anyway, so it does not matter if it is larger in size and weight. Even if the energy consumption is higher, it is not unacceptable to be used in high value-added industries.
After a brief viewing, Luo Zhixue also watched them start the steam engine and drive the huge forging equipment for processing.
When Luo Zhixue looked at the thick and heavy steam engine, driving the equally huge forging machine to start work, repeatedly forging and pressing a piece of wrought iron weighing two tons, and finally beating it into a beam more than five meters long. At this time, I couldn't help but smile.
Regardless of whether it looks good or not, but it is the last word to be able to process such large forged parts!
With this large-scale processing capability, the research and development and production of various large-scale mechanical equipment in the Dachu Empire, including iron-ribbed wooden hull ships, can proceed smoothly.
"Very good. I'm very happy to see that your hard work has not been wasted and has successfully bore the fruit of success!"
"In the future, we must not give up, continue to maintain this positive spirit, and work hard on research and development, and further contribute to the development of our country's basic industry!"
Then he turned to the people from Tianjin Machinery Company and said: "As for the large steam engines, it seems that you are already on the right track, but I hope that the ninety-horsepower steam engine is just the beginning. In the future, I hope to see two hundred or even five hundred horses." Steam engines with even greater horsepower appear!”
After Luo Zhixue saw the practical application of large-scale steam engines, he began to repeat his old tune again, talking to a group of people about the importance of technology research and development and industrial development.
Although a lot of things sound like mere talk without any actual nutrition, you can basically find similar content if you pull out any report on steam engines.
But the problem is that when the report contains these contents, it is exactly the result Luo Zhixue hopes to see.
What he has to do is to continue to express his optimism about the prospects of steam engines to his ministers and the industry, and his encouraging and supportive attitude towards the steam engine industry.
Expressing his position on different occasions is Luo Zhixue's main way of supporting steam engines, instead of personally leading a few engineers to develop steam engines...
As long as Luo Zhixue takes a stand, countless people across the empire will work hard for steam engines.
Just like the previous development of low-pressure usable steam engines, Luo Zhixue actually did not personally participate too much. Apart from the early theoretical basis, Luo Zhixue basically used his attitude to influence his officials. Increase investment and attention to steam engines.
Many other research projects are mostly similar.
After leaving Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company, Luo Zhixue went to Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company on the other side of Zhenjiang.
This Zhenjiang optical instrument company is also the only two companies in the Dachu Empire that specialize in the research and production of optical instruments.
Another one is Hantian Optical Company.
Hantian Optical Company mainly produces optical products for military needs. Simply put, they are various telescopes...such as various small telescopes used by army generals, and long-tube monocular telescopes used by the navy. They are based on military needs. The owner is also a serious defense supplier.
Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company is an optical instrument manufacturing company for the scientific research field. They mainly produce various microscopes and astronomical telescopes. In addition to optical products, they also use their research in the field of glass to produce a wide range of glass products. Mainly various types of glassware products used in scientific research and teaching.
As for ordinary glass products...this stuff has been invented a long time ago and then became popular quickly. Today's ordinary civilian glass is too competitive and the profits are not high.
The Royal Institute of Technology had already comprehensively conquered glass manufacturing technology when it was eight years old in Chengshun.
Because the factories in the early Chu Empire were basically affiliated with the Ministry of Industry, there was no such thing as a patent, and glass was quite profitable in the early days, so many factories affiliated with the Ministry of Industry were involved in the glass manufacturing industry.
As more companies participate in the market, competition will naturally increase and profits will decrease.
But Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company is different. Although they also produce glass products... they are not targeted at the general civilian market, but are aimed at the field of scientific research and teaching. Their glass products are high-precision products and are expensive.
Among them, the flagship product is the microscope... Their microscopes basically monopolize the domestic market in the field of microscopic research. Institutions or students who study the microscopic field will not even conduct research if they do not have a microscope from Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company. Not going down.
Similarly, the microscope products of Zhenjiang Optical Instrument Company directly promoted the rapid development of the Dachu Empire in the microscopic field!
