April, the twelfth year of Jianwen.
With the death of Zheng Ci, the old minister of the Ministry of Industry, Zhu Yunwen, feeling sad, finally began to make large-scale adjustments to the officials.
There is not one new Minister of Industry, but two.
Huang Fu, Song Li.
This result is not too unexpected. After all, Song Li dredged the Yellow River in his early years, and later led the river connection project, laying the foundation for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to connect the north and south. In recent years, he has participated in the dredging of the Wusong River, Fen River, Huai River, and Wohe River. Engineering, he travels around all year round, and his efforts are obvious to all.
Before Zheng Ci died, he also recommended Song Li to Zhu Yunwen to take over as Minister of Works.
As for Huang Fu, although he did not work as hard as Song Li outside, since Zheng Ci's poor health, he has been taking care of the affairs of the Ministry of Labor, building Xindu, Longjiang Shipyard, Ma'anshan Shipyard, Qingjiang Shipyard, a large number of large granaries, etc. There is a shadow of the Ministry of Industry, and Huang Fu needs to deal with these.
The existence of two ministers is not unusual. During the Hongwu Dynasty, the number of ministers of the Ministry of Industry was seven.
What Lao Zhu did back then was more because he didn't know who the real talents were. He would grind them on the whetstone and throw them away if they didn't work. There was no clear division of powers during this period.
In order to avoid overlapping of powers, mutual buck-passing, unclear responsibilities and other problems, Zhu Yunwen clearly stipulated that Song Li was in charge of the world's river affairs, and Huang Fu was in charge of the world's construction.
If you have any problems with rivers, lakes, digging wells, diversions, etc., contact Song Li.
Huang Fu is in charge of the construction of palaces and houses, ships, various mines, roads, etc.
The adjustment of the Ministry of Works had just been completed. Jian Yi, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, requested an order to mourn for his mother for three years. Zhu Yunwen agreed and promoted Yang Pu to act as the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Dai Deyi, the censor of the left capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, was less than fifty, and Lian Zining, the censor of the right capital, was only forty-five or sixty-five. They were both honest and capable ministers, and they had led Hongwu's 20-year streamlining of the organization. The personnel were diverted and a total of more than 3,000 officials, officials, and servants were laid off, which saved the court a lot of money. Zhu Yunwen did not make any adjustments, but promoted Song Zhengchen, who had always been upright and dared to fight for honor, to deputy capital censor.
With the addition of Song Zhengchen, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will be more capable and more powerful in managing officialdom and investigating corruption.
In the Ministry of Rites, Dong Lun requested an official appointment.
Zhu Yunwen didn't want to let go of this old man, but Dong Lun really couldn't do it anymore. He was already old, and he had been working hard at the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial College. If it hadn't been for the help of Li Zhigang and others, he would have been exhausted.
After cabinet discussions, it was finally decided to appoint Li Zhigang as the Minister of Rites of the Imperial Academy, Hu Kuan to take over as the Imperial Wine Priest, and Ye Ling'er to be promoted to the Secretary of the Imperial Academy.
The adjustments made by Li Zhigang and Hu Juan did not arouse objections from officials, but Ye Ling'er's promotion to the Imperial Academy made many officials object.
For a woman to be a professor at the Confucian College is already outrageous, but to be promoted to the vice-president of the Confucian College is even more shocking. Now she is being promoted to the position of Secretary. Is this making people cry?
Is it true that in a few years, Ye Ling'er will become the first female priest in the history of the Imperial College?
Faced with these doubts, Zhu Yunwen shouted in the court: "Whoever can surpass Ye Ling'er in talent, learning and ability will be appointed as the secretary. If you are willing to compete openly with him, I am willing to be a just person. If If you don’t have this confidence and ability, why should you be arrogant and criticize and dissatisfied when you are inferior to others?”
"I have mentioned the cat theory since the beginning of my accession to the throne, asking the court to demote talents in any way. My thoughts have been changing for more than ten years. Don't you still know that what Ming Dynasty needs is a cat that catches mice, not a black cat or a white cat that catches mice? , Tabby cat! Don’t say that Ye Ling’er is just a woman. Even though she is a child of more than ten years old, but she has the wisdom to handle matters related to the Imperial College, I will also use her!”
The position of the Minister of the Ministry of Justice was not adjusted, but the Minister of the Ministry of Justice was demoted to another place by Zhu Yunwen due to his fault. Wang Huai, who had been released from the Imperial Academy, was transferred in and became the Minister of the Ministry of Justice.
Xia Yuanji has secured his position as Minister of Household Affairs, and no one can take his place in a short period of time. However, Guo Lian, who studied and graduated from the Imperial College of Mathematics, was transferred back to Zhou Chen, who had been in Western Xinjiang for many years, and served as the Minister of Household Affairs, becoming Xia Yuanji's right-hand man.
Yang Rong took over as Minister of the Ministry of War in the eleventh year of Jianwen. Xuan Qingshu was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War due to his numerous military exploits.
At the same time, Liu Changge requested an order to command the Security Bureau on the grounds that he was old and his protection and perception abilities had declined. Zhu Yunwen repeatedly tried to persuade him to stay, but finally nodded and promoted Pang Huan to be the new commander of the Security Bureau.
This position should have belonged to Tang Buping, but Tang Buping refused.
Tang Buping's specialty is fighting with force, not using his brain. Now that there are fewer foreign enemies in the Ming Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect is also suppressed and dare not raise its head. The next internal governance is the focus, and this requires intelligence analysis, document organization, zooming in on details, and clarifying the context, and this is Pang Huan's specialty.
After a series of personnel adjustments lasting two months, a group of relatively young officials appeared in the Ming Dynasty, both in the court and in the local areas. The scene of mostly white-headed officials in the Hongwu period no longer exists. Most officials are under the age of thirty-five. to the age of fifty-five.
Late May.
Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, combined with the Zijiang College to submit a letter requesting the construction of the Beijing-Tongzhou section of the railway.
Zhu Yunwen summoned officials to discuss.
After careful analysis, cabinet ministers Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi, and Tie Xuan expressed their support.
Zhu Yunwen examined the railway map. Compared with the directions from Beijing to Xuanfu, Datong, and Shenyang, the road survey from Beijing to Tongzhou is easier to complete, and the distance is not too far, with a total mileage of fifty-five miles.
The Ministry of Industry gave full consideration to the priority construction of the Beijing-Tongzhou railway. Tongzhou is the link of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the end point of grain transportation from the south.
But Tongzhou is not Beijing after all. If you want to transport Tongzhou's grain to Beijing, you must rely on a large number of people to transport it. The main transportation methods are horse-drawn carriages and carts.
Less than sixty miles away, it is still a concrete road. Manual transportation takes one day and another day to return. This means that one wave of people transports food every two days.
In order to increase the speed of transporting food and goods, and taking into account the convenience of going south from Beijing, the schedule was increased to build a railway between Beijing and Tongzhou.
Huang Fu said solemnly: "Once the Beijing-Tongzhou railway is opened, the one-way transportation of food and other materials will be shortened to half an hour, and no more than an hour at most. It will not only save a lot of people's labor, but also ensure the supply of food and other materials to the greatest extent." ..."
Xia Yuanji knew that this road must be repaired, firstly to further test the performance of railways and trains, secondly to train a new batch of railway construction talents, and thirdly to improve the construction of railway-related industries in Beijing.
After all, this railway, like the Jinling railway, serves follow-up planning.
Xia Yuanji asked a key question: "How much money is needed?"
Huang Fu said seriously: "According to the construction cost of Jinling Railway, one mile of railway requires 30,000 guan, and fifty-five miles, totaling 1.65 million guan."
Xia Yuanji felt a little distressed when he heard this.
Is it worth spending so much money just for this little road...
Xia Yuanji thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "Railway construction is a major national project, and the Ministry of Household Affairs should fully support it. However, the cost of railways is too great, and various means should be introduced to save money. The Beijing-Tongren Railway is feasible, but the Ministry of Household Affairs can only Give me a million dollars."
Huang Fu was a little anxious and quickly said: "Xia Shangshu, the railway costs so much. Not only does it need to requisition land, pay compensation to the people, and resettle the people, but it also needs to purchase a large amount of iron and stone, and recruit a large number of people to work in separate shifts... Despite all the savings, It is impossible to save 100,000 guan at most, but it is impossible to save 650,000 guan."
Xia Yuanji shook his head: "There will be a lot of railways to be built in the future. If the cost is not reduced, each mile of railway opening will cost 30,000 guan. If the court wants to build a thousand-mile railway, wouldn't it require 30,000 guan? With such a huge amount of finance, It will be difficult for the court to take it out."
Huang Fu looked at Zhou Chang.
Zhou Chang, the dean of the Craftsman College, thought for a moment and said seriously to Xia Yuanji: "Let's do this. The Imperial College will reorganize the construction process to save costs as much as possible. If it still cannot be controlled within one million guan, the Ministry of Household Affairs should provide further support. .”
Xia Yuanji did not give him a way out, and flatly refused: "The Household Department of Jingtong Railway only allocated one million guan, and there is not enough left for you to figure out your own solution."
Zhou Chang and Huang Fu had no choice but to look at Zhu Yunwen.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Xia Yuanji, understood his concerns, and expressed to Huang Fu, Zhou Chang and others
: "Railway is the most important thing in future infrastructure, but the cost is really staggering. You need to find ways to reduce costs while ensuring construction quality."
Huang Fu and Zhou Chang had no choice but to agree.
In fact, both of them also knew that once the railway construction started, the court would definitely not allow it to be unfinished, and the subsequent shortfall would naturally be replenished. However, the problem of high railway construction costs is a reality. Judging from the current financial resources of the imperial court, the money paid to the railway a year is not enough to pave 200 miles of road. If you want to build a railway that extends in all directions and connects major towns, you need The money will be astronomical.
Just like reducing costs while ensuring quality, this has become a problem that the Imperial College and the Ministry of Industry must solve. After discussion, the Ministry of Industry was responsible for reducing costs in the construction phase, foundation consolidation, material transportation, etc., while the Imperial College was responsible for solving cost issues in mining, iron smelting, casting, train manufacturing, etc.
To this end, the Ministry of Industry and the Imperial College assigned a group of people to be responsible for project cost management, called the Cost Department.
The emergence of the cost department marks that Daming Engineering Construction has entered a new period. Extensive management has begun to exit, and refined management has entered the engineering field.
In the near future, the cost reduction effect achieved by the Cost Department will shock the imperial court, and will be introduced into shipyards, mines, grassland city wall construction and other fields.
The steam engine puffed out black smoke, and the continent in the distance became increasingly clear.
Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Zhanji and others stood on the deck, staring at the mainland in the distance, their eyes full of surprise.
After going through turbulent waves and surviving disasters, I finally arrived here without any danger!
This will be the Ming Dynasty Yan Kingdom!
Zhu Neng issued an order to slow down, and the fleet would head north along the coastline to find a natural port in the east of Dongping City suitable for landing and anchoring.
Zhu Di gave it a name: Riyue Port.
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