Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 888 Selling Newspapers
Xinmacheng finally arrived, and Wen Zhenmeng and others were also on the way to edit the content of the first issue.

Looking at the familiar military port, Taichang said excitedly, "Wen Qi, why don't we go to the paper mill and printing factory now."

You are the emperor, you have the final say.

Wen Zhenmeng nodded without hesitation, "Okay, Your Majesty."

Taichang then asked again: "Where are the paper mills and printing factories roughly built? Is it convenient to ride a horse from here?"

Wen Zhenmeng carefully explained: "Your Majesty, the paper mill and printing factory are built in Xiliufang. It is not very convenient to ride horses here, because there are too many people in the city, and the horses can't run at all. They can only walk slowly." past.

If we go there on horseback, I'm afraid it will take half a day.

It's more convenient for us to go there by boat, there is a pier for two thousand large ships, and it doesn't take half an hour to go there by flying dragon battleship. "

Xiliufang?
Taichang couldn't help but asked curiously: "Is this Xinma city still divided? Where is the location of West Sixth Lane?"

Wen Zhenmeng nodded again and again: "Yes, Your Majesty, for the convenience of management, we have divided Xinma City into more than 20 neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods are based on the tributaries of the Amazon River. Starting from the pharmaceutical factory, the west side of the first tributary is called Xiyifang, the pharmaceutical factory is located in Xiyifang, and the shipyard is called Dongyifang.

There is also the charcoal factory, with the canal as the boundary, divided into Hedongfang and Hexifang. "

Hmm, not bad.

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help but slightly nodded.

He also roughly knew the location of Xiliufang, probably not fifty or sixty miles away.

Which one to choose for this half day and half an hour?
No need to ask, naturally choose half an hour.

After the Emperor was docked at the pier, Taichang immediately ordered people to call down A Suzu and others from other ships, and then he took everyone on a flying dragon battleship and headed straight for Xiliufang.

At this moment, the walls of the shipyard have been built, and there are not only rows of artillery on it, but also heavily armed soldiers of the Amazon Tribal Alliance.

Although the city walls are not very high, they seem to be indestructible.

Taichang turned the binoculars, looked at the oarboats passing by on the river, and couldn't help asking: "Have these river mouths been installed with iron chains?"

Iron chain across the river, this was their original plan.

No way, the intersection of these tributaries and the main stream of the Amazon River is at least one or two miles wide. Moreover, boats have to cross from time to time. It is too difficult to build bridges. We can only block the river with iron cables to prevent enemy ships from entering.

Upon hearing this, Ni Yuanlu nodded quickly and said, "It's all installed, Your Majesty, the ten iron cables at each estuary are driven by steam wheels.

When there is no enemy invasion, the iron chain will sink at the bottom of the river. Once the enemy invades, it will not take a cup of tea to pull up the iron chain and block the river. "

Ten iron cables per estuary?

This is a bit exaggerated, right?

Taichang couldn't help being curious again: "What are you doing with so many iron cables?"

Ni Yuanlu quickly explained: "Your Majesty, this is for the convenience of support.

After all, we don't know which section of the city wall the enemy will attack, and the soldiers stationed are scattered on each section of the city wall.

If there was a real fight, it would be impossible for boats to cross the river outside. Moreover, the internal transfer of soldiers through the tributaries could only be transferred on both sides of a tributary. It would still be very troublesome to cross the tributaries from the city.

In this way, each section of the city wall is equivalent to being divided.

Therefore, Weichen ordered people to install ten iron cables at each estuary. In this way, as long as the planks are laid, it will become an iron cable bridge, which is very convenient for back and forth support. "

It turned out to be like this, not bad not bad.

Everyone chatted for a while, and the Dragon battleship had already turned into a tributary and began to slow down slowly.

Needless to say, this is the sixth tributary.

A row of docks was built on both sides of the river. On the left are rows of tall and neat factory buildings, and on the right are densely packed residential buildings, which cannot be seen with a large telescope.

In terms of the population and area of ​​Guanglun, Xinma City is the largest city in the world, even Wubei City can't keep up.

There is no such a big city here in later generations, and no one cares about the Indians here. After the colonization here, most of the Indians of the primitive tribes disappeared!

It's different now. With the full support of the Ming Empire, the primitive tribes here have undergone earth-shaking changes.

Not only have they not disappeared, but the population is still growing rapidly. In the future, it is estimated that this place will be more developed than the European continent!
The world is already very different. It is no longer possible for the European colonial bandits to become a so-called developed country by plundering. Ming and even Ming's vassal states will replace them and become truly developed countries!

Taichang secretly sighed, the Flying Dragon battleship had already docked at the pier.

He immediately led a group of people and followed Wen Zhenmeng to the nearby paper mill workshop.

Wen Zhenmeng introduced as he walked: "Your Majesty, because this paper mill needs to transport a large amount of raw materials, the shipment volume is also relatively large, so it was built in the south of Xiliufang, and the printing factory was built in the north of Xiliufang.

There is also a port over there, but only small boats with less than a thousand materials can dock. We usually use Spike warships to pull out the printed things over there. "

Taichang nodded slightly, and then looked at the workshops on both sides of the road with great interest.

Seeing this, he was immediately stunned.

The workshop of the paper mill is actually full of troughs, and there are many people working in it.

He froze for a moment, and then asked: "Wen Qi, isn't it very humid and hot down here? In summer, can they bear it?"

Wen Zhenmeng quickly explained: "Your Majesty, we had no choice at the beginning, because it was too troublesome to send the pulp to the top.

We can only build all the paper workshops on this ground floor, and the upper part is dedicated to drying paper.

Fortunately, we found out later that the cement structure of the factory building has a relatively good heat insulation effect, and the heat wave on the top can hardly be transmitted. As long as the four sides are ventilated, the bottom is even cooler than the top during the day.

As for moisture, there is nothing to be done about it. There is already a lot of humidity in the paper workshop, and the same is true for the building above. "

Well, the pulp in this tank is like rice soup, most of it is water, and it is still evaporating, so the humidity is naturally high.

Anyway, there is a lot of humidity no matter what, so there is really not much difference between building above and below.

Taichang nodded slightly, and asked again: "What is the scale of the paper mill at the moment? How much paper can it produce every day if it is fully produced?"

Wen Zhenmeng said without hesitation: "Now the paper mill has 100 large-scale pulping workshops and 2000 large-scale papermaking workshops, each workshop has about [-] people, and produces about [-] million sheets of paper a day.

If we recruit all the people, there should be 300 people in each workshop, and it should not be a problem to produce 6000 million sheets of paper a day.

If the output of [-] million sheets of paper is to be achieved every day, it is estimated that the number of workshops will have to be doubled, and the number of personnel will also have to be doubled. "

Is that so?
Taichang thought for a while, then asked: "Can paper be made at night?
After all, the cooler the night, the easier it is for them to work. "

Uh, making paper at night?

Wen Zhenmeng pondered: "It's not impossible to make paper at night, but we have to buy a lot of candles.

This paper workshop cannot use kerosene lamps, because the oil fumes from kerosene lamps are too large, and the paper will be covered with black spots. "

Candle?

Isn't it simple?

In the past, candles were relatively scarce, but now there are not too many candles.

At this moment, the technology of refining paraffin wax from petroleum is quite mature, and candles have long been a cheap commodity. The cost of lighting candles at night is not high, and it doesn’t cost much to light up the workshop for twelve hours a day. .

Taichang said without hesitation: "Then let the western merchants order a large number of candles, and the workshop here will be divided into three shifts, each shift lasts four hours, and the papermaking will take turns non-stop.

In the future, each workshop will arrange 200 people per shift. 300 people per shift seems a bit crowded, but it will affect efficiency.

Anyway, a shift of 200 people in each workshop can produce almost 4000 million sheets of paper, and three shifts can produce 2000 million sheets, which is enough. "

Well, this saves a lot of trouble.

Wen Zhenmeng hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "I understand."

Next is the printing house.

The neighborhoods here are not so big. A neighborhood is at least thirty or forty miles long. If they walked across it, they would have to walk for half a day.

There was no way, Taichang could only take everyone back to the pier, summoned ten Spike warships, and then went straight to the printing factory.

There are also people working on the upper and lower floors of the printing factory. The lower floor is a workshop for preparing pigments, and the upper floor is a workshop for printing, as well as workshops for engraving, type making, and typesetting.

These workshops are now idle, because the "Le Monde" has not yet started publishing, and they just print some elementary school textbooks, and there are only a few dozen people in each workshop.

However, the workshop of the printing factory is large enough. As long as sufficient manpower is recruited, it should be no problem to print more than [-] million copies of newspapers a day.

Taichang led everyone around, nodded slightly and said: "Okay, the paper mill and printing factory are basically all right.

From the beginning of the text, quickly gather people to translate the first issue of "Le Monde" into Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Persian, and then organize the typesetting and start printing. "

Is this the beginning?

Wen Zhenmeng asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, how many copies of this first issue will we print, and will we really publish a new issue every day?"

Taichang reckoned: "The first issue has been carefully crafted and arranged as beautifully as possible.

First, 1000 million copies will be printed in Ming Dynasty, 300 million copies each in Spanish and Persian, and 200 million copies each in Portuguese, English and French.

After the first issue is released, we will naturally publish a new issue every day. In the early stage, you can designate officials to write some related articles, which are also paid for the authors.

When everyone knows that writing articles for the World News can make money, it is estimated that more people will write in the future.

You can set up a collection point in each province and each vassal state of Ming Dynasty, accept the articles, and send them over for careful screening.

We can't do real-time reporting right now, so it's okay to report a month or two later.

Because there are no newspapers that circulate in the world at the moment, we are the only one.

However, there is no rush for publication.

We can prepare well for a month or two, and wait for everything to be arranged before it is officially released. "

Well, one or two months of preparation time is enough.

The question is, after printing so many newspapers, how can they be distributed to the people who read them?
Wen Zhenmeng thought for a while, then asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, how do we distribute the newspaper?
The provinces and all the vassal states of Ming Dynasty are easy to talk about, we can just recruit some manpower.

We are not familiar with Ou Lu at all, and people will know that we are talking bad about them when they read the content of this newspaper. If it reaches the ears of those nobles, why don't they just order people to burn all the newspapers we sent there? "

Well, this is indeed a problem.

Taichang frowned and pondered for a while, then suddenly he had an idea: "How about this, order all branches of the Daming Western Company to hang a notice of selling newspapers.

Recruit people and sell newspapers directly at the location of each semicolon.

A newspaper sells for about one penny. We don't want this money, but give it all to them.

That is to say, we give them newspapers for free and ask them to sell them for money.

Each person is limited to one hundred copies at a time, and can continue to receive them when they are sold out, and they are limited to three times a day.

In this way, newspaper sellers can earn at least three taels of silver a month, and it is no problem to support themselves

If you work hard, you can earn about nine taels of silver a month, and you can support your family without any problem. "

Uh, this, didn’t you say that you don’t sell newspapers?

Why did you start selling again?
A penny a newspaper is not expensive.

The question is, will people honestly sell it?
Wen Zhenmeng reminded: "Your Majesty, what should I do if I take the newspaper away and throw it away or burn it?
After all, we can't send people to watch them all the time. "

Taichang smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, people are selfish, and it's hard to find such easy money-making jobs.

Think about it, would you throw away or burn the family's food?

I'm afraid, even if someone forces you to throw it away or burn it, you won't want it. "

Newspapers are good things that can make money and support the family. Who would throw them away or burn them?
Most people are like this, and when it comes to their own food, it's useless if the king of heaven comes!
(End of this chapter)