Dahan first prince

Chapter 350 Prerequisites for the Iron Age

"Official grain and rice monopolize Guanzhong grain market..."

"Wu Dong sells salt and monopolizes the world's salt market..."

"Offshore fishing, whaling..."

After returning to the dormitory, Liu Yingzong suppressed her excitement and lay down on the couch in a "big" shape, leisurely looking forward to the future of the Han Dynasty.

In the eyes of outsiders, in the past few years, Liu Ying may have done nothing at all;
Even the court of the Han family has been busy with the "troubleshooting" in the past few years, and has not cared about any serious business at all.

——Four years ago, in the autumn of the tenth year of the Han Dynasty, the Supreme Emperor Liu Yu died in the Liyang Palace, and the whole country mourned; almost at the same time, the prime minister, Chen Xi, rebelled.

Three years ago, in the spring of the 11th year of the Han Dynasty, grain prices in Guanzhong were booming, and Liu Ying, who was fashionable as a prince, was assassinated in Changling.
More than two years ago, that is, in the 12th year of the Han Dynasty, Huainan Wang Yingbu rebelled first; in the winter of the same year, Yan Wang Lu Wan rebelled again.

After all these matters were settled in order, the emperor Liu Bang had just sworn an alliance with the white horse in Changle Palace on the front foot, and died on the back foot, and his life was not long;

In the summer of the 12th year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang died, and the whole country mourned...
During his career as a prince in the past few years, Liu Ying's well-known "actions" were the construction of the Zhengguo Canal in the early 11th of the Han Dynasty, and the suppression of the Huainan Wang Yingbu's rebellion in the early 12th of the Han Dynasty.

And during the two years after the death of the former emperor Liu Bang, the emperor Liu Ying seemed to have done nothing, but obediently nestled in Weiyang Palace, quietly waiting for her crowning adult.

But in fact, what Liu Ying has done in the past few years is far more important than repairing the Zheng Guoqu and quelling the Yingbo Rebellion, and it is of great significance to the future Han Dynasty.

——Shaofu’s government-run grain and rice made the “planned economy” appear more than 2000 years earlier, the grain price in Guanzhong was completely stabilized, and the court’s finances were also greatly improved, so there is no need to repeat it;
Now that the price of grain in Guanzhong is stable, so that the common people are gradually equipped with the ability to "build grain storage privately", Shaofu quietly opened the sun-dried salt field in Wudong, and it is seamlessly connected with the sunset industry of "Grain Storage on behalf of the people", and it is smoothly connected. Passed the girder of 'helping the Shaofu make money'.

Right now, Liu Ying is planning to develop offshore fishing and whaling industries in Wu State as a supplement to the government's fiscal revenue...

Based on these three things alone, even if Liu Ying dies in place now, even if she dare not hope for a beautiful posthumous title like 'Wen', 'Wu' and 'Xuan', but a middle posthumous posthumous title like 'Mourning', 'Huai' and 'Zhao' , but it is no longer a problem.

Maybe that's not specific enough.

——What did Liu Ying do in the past few years?
Leaving aside the macro results of "increasing the income of the Shaofu" and "improving the finances of the Han Dynasty", the most intuitive and specific points are the following three points:

First, the government-run grain rice allows the vast majority of the people in the world to eat [-]% to [-]% full;

Second, drying the sea to get salt will (soon to) make the vast majority of the people in the Han Dynasty eat relatively cheap salt—even if it is coarse salt;

The third: Offshore fishing, (soon to) improve the situation in the "wild" land of Jingwu, and (soon to) initially increase the meat intake of the people all over the world.

These three achievements may seem trivial at first glance; especially for the emperor, it seems that they are not worth bragging about at all.

But in fact, if half or even 300% of the feudal emperors in the history of China can achieve the above three points, then the law of the [-]-year dynasty cycle may never be in China.

Everyone can eat [-]% full, everyone can eat salt, and even everyone can see meat from time to time?

——In the feudal era, even the legendary peaceful and prosperous age was probably nothing more than that!

But what is worthy of the empress dowager Lu Zhi, the courtiers of the Han family, and especially the people all over the world, is that after achieving these achievements, Liu Ying did not stay complacent, but quickly turned her attention, Transferred to his next step plan.

"Salt iron, salt iron..."

"There is salt..."

"This is the iron..."

With a distracted gaze, Liu Ying let out a soft murmur, and Liu Ying couldn't help but put her hands under her head. Although the corners of her mouth were still smiling, there was a hint of doubt in her brows.

The crowning ceremony has been completed, and she has fulfilled her wish to be in charge of the government, and she has received almost unconditional support from her mother Lu Zhi, which finally makes Liu Ying completely let go of her arms, and no longer needs to worry about whether her actions will cause any political impact.

But it is different from the government-run grain rice and Wu Dong's sun-dried salt: iron is definitely not something that Liu Ying can talk about and send Yangcheng Yanzhi to work for a while, and then it can be resolved.

——The government-operated grain and rice of the Shaofu is nothing more than an official document of the Prime Minister's Mansion that "forbids merchants to sell grain", and the heads of dozens of grain merchants, and hundreds of thousands of "wild" granaries;
Going up to the top is to add grain markets evenly distributed throughout Guanzhong, as well as officials in charge of grain markets and granaries.

As for Wu Dong's drying salt, that's even simpler.

Say hello to the helpless relatives of the side branch—Wu Wang Liu Bi, and then send people to the coastal area of ​​Wudong to dig out a salt field and introduce seawater into the field to expose it to the sun;
After the salt fields are dried in the sun, the coarse salt at the bottom of the field is taken out from the field, washed and filtered briefly, and the coarse salt from the field is satisfied, and it is stored in Shaofu or sold to all parts of the world.

Even if the strategy of "Wudong Offshore Fishing Industry" has just been decided and has not yet been implemented, the specific operation is not complicated.

——Shaofu is responsible for making boats and nets, and then put them into use directly, or use them for fishing, or rent or sell them.

To put it bluntly: Whether it is government-run grain and rice, Shaofu special salt, or offshore fishing, it is only a single level of specific affairs.

But iron is a complex project involving countless industries and levels. It is definitely not a task that can be successfully completed by a piece of edict, three or two officials, or a so-called "Salt and Iron Captain". Say mission.

In the historical research circle of later generations, there is such a saying, which is widely recognized by the majority of historical researchers:

——To judge the civilization stage of a civilization, the main references are: social system, and raw materials for production tools.

And in most cases, 'social system' and 'raw materials for production tools' are bound together invisibly.

For example, in ancient times, it was the 'primitive tribal society' or 'slavery civilization', which was bound to the 'Stone Age';
Another example is the weekend a hundred years ago, or the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which was the 'early feudal civilization', which was bound together with the 'Bronze Age'.

Today's Han Dynasty should be regarded as having passed the "early feudal civilization" of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, and officially entered the mature period of feudal civilization; corresponding to it, it is the pinnacle of the bronze civilization.

According to the course of history, the future development of the Han Dynasty will be the transition from "early feudal civilization" to "mature feudal society", and the development from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

From this point alone, it is not difficult for us to see how the development of production tools will have a major impact on a civilization, and what great significance it has.

Conversely: since the production tool can directly represent the development stage of a civilization, it must also mean how long the development process of the production tool is, and how frighteningly difficult it is to develop.

Take the distance of the Han Dynasty today.

——Thanks to the hundreds of years of development in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, today's Han Dynasty can be considered to have taken over the peak technology of the Bronze Age when Ying Qin reached its pinnacle; Chinese civilization has reached the pinnacle of the Bronze Age.

But even so, if there is no external force to forcibly drag it, if the Han Dynasty wants to develop from the "Peak of Bronze Ware" to the "Early Iron Age", it will definitely not be something that can be accomplished in two or three decades, or even two or three generations.

It is true that today's Han Dynasty has initially possessed the technology of refining iron ore, as well as the technology of making and using iron tools.

But the crux of the problem is: Compared with the Bronze Age, the real superiority of the Iron Age does not lie in 'iron', but in 'steel'!
If one compares pig iron alone, or even wrought iron with better ductility and plasticity, with the bronze smelting technology that has reached its peak in the Han Dynasty today, then the bronze ware with more proficient smelting and forging techniques must occupy the dominant position , rather than ironware where everything is still in the groping stage!

Of course, this does not mean that the bronze wares made by the Han Dynasty are actually better than iron wares in all aspects;

Rather, under the premise of the same performance, same forging cost, and smelting difficulty, the iron ware with backward technology and high cost is simply not as good as the bronze ware with super high cost performance due to its proficiency in technology.

To put it more bluntly, the iron and bronze wares of the Han Dynasty today are like the difference between bronze armor and tanned leather wallets.

——Everyone knows that even if three wallets are stacked together, they are not as durable and resistant to beatings as a bronze armor;
But the problem is: the manufacturing cost of a bronze armor is enough to make dozens or hundreds of wallets.

The same is true for bronze and iron ware.

Therefore, in order to enter the Iron Age directly from the Bronze Age in a short period of time in the Han Dynasty without excessive costs, the following problems must be solved.

One: quickly find iron ore that can match the copper reserves of the Han Dynasty, and solve the source of iron raw materials;

For the Chinese civilization with a "vast land and abundant resources", the difficulty of this problem does not lie in the search for iron ore, but in the specific mining.

In other words: In order to make great strides into the Iron Age, the Han Dynasty first needed to have enough labor force as a consumable for mining iron ore.

That's right.

consumables.

In this generation, the mining of most minerals, even large-scale projects such as water conservancy and mausoleums, need to be filled with human lives...
Second: After obtaining sufficient iron ore, build a smelting base comparable to the iron and steel factories of later generations, and concentrate on smelting.

The difficulty of this problem also does not lie in 'finding a place', but in solving public opinion and political influence.

——The steel industry, even in the new era of later generations, is a vital member of air pollution;

In today's Han Dynasty, a feudal era with poor industrial technology, there is almost no balance between the development of steel and environmental pollution.

If you want to develop steel, you have to accept the smog around the smelting base, the river is turbid, and rotten fish and shrimp are everywhere;

If we want to protect the environment, we can only do it across the board and not develop the steel industry directly.

Therefore, in order to develop steel without being influenced by public opinion and political pressure, Liu Ying must find a good place for this steel smelting base.

A place where the transportation is convenient, the ore can be delivered continuously, and it is inaccessible and will not affect the survival of the people.

However, in the history of human civilization, 'convenient transportation' and 'inaccessible' seem to be eternal antonyms...
Third: In addition to solving the acquisition of raw materials and the selection of production sites, Liu Ying also needs to solve specific technical problems.

As the most indispensable metal in human civilization, the transformation of iron from pig iron to wrought iron to crude steel and fine steel is inseparable from a technology with a significance that spans the ages.

- forging.

Separately, it is forging and stamping.

Especially stamping technology is the most indispensable process in the process of transforming wrought iron from a single metal 'iron' to an alloy 'steel'.

And this problem, for today's Han Dynasty, is almost hellish.

If Liu Ying just wanted to obtain a piece of 'steel' that was the size of a palm and weighed more than ten kilograms, then naturally there would be no difficulty.

Just relying on the manual forging, crushing with heavy objects, and even the backward steel frying technology used in the Han Dynasty today, Liu Ying can get such a piece of crude steel or even fine steel as he wishes in a short period of time.

But what Liu Ying wants is not a piece of symbolic steel, but a huge output that can propel the entire Chinese civilization from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

And 'mass production' means manpower forging, crushing with heavy objects, and ineffective steel frying techniques that require extremely high proficiency for craftsmen, all of which cannot bear this heavy burden.

——In order for the Han Dynasty to smoothly enter the Iron Age, and even the post-Iron Age when steel tools were widely used, the first thing Liu Ying needs to eliminate is the option of 'manpower', or 'living creatures'.

In other words: To develop the steel industry, what Liu Ying needs to do first seems to be to promote an industrial revolution...

"Um·······"

"Knowledge counts as an era of literate people, forget about the industrial revolution..."

"Without the Industrial Revolution, there would be no mechanical power..."

"Mechanical Power..."

"power··········"

"Ok················"

After pondering for a long time with a sluggish expression, Liu Ying finally sat up with a tired face.

Then she lowered her head and pondered for a moment before Liu Ying raised her head.

"Come on!"

With a light Zha, without blinking an eye, Chuntuo, who was waiting outside the gate of the palace, hurried into the palace.

"Changing clothes for me!"

"Call the servant into the palace again, and go to the Weiyang stable to prepare the chariot."

With a solemn expression, Liu Ying finally stood up from the couch, looked in the direction of the palace gate, and let out a long sigh leisurely.

"Steel base, forging technology, let's put it aside first."

"The 'consumables' required for mining can be planned early..."

"Um······"

"Yes, there are also scholars."

"I'm a big man, I need a scholar..."

"Countless readers..."

(End of this chapter)