Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chongzhen didn't know at all that firing real cement required a high temperature of over 1400 degrees. Not to mention whether such a high kiln temperature could be achieved, even if it could be achieved, this was only one of the conditions for calcining cement. In addition to temperature, there are other more stringent conditions.

So it is absolutely impossible to forge real cement.

In the end, what Chongzhen could forge and burn could only be the castrated version of cement.

That is, the pozzolanic cement invented by the legendary ancient Roman Empire.

The strength of this kind of cement is far less than that of modern Portland cement, and it is not much stronger than triple clay.

After all, the straight road rammed by Daqin’s compound soil was still clear and indisputable until two thousand years later, but what are the surviving buildings built by the ancient Roman Empire with volcanic ash cement?
It's just that Chongzhen didn't know this, so he was very excited. He led a group of craftsmen and a group of diligent princes to work in full swing at the northern foot of Qingliang Mountain.

Zhu Cihong also followed Chongzhen.

But Zhu Cijiong was nowhere to be seen.

Chongzhen could guess with his toes that Zhu Cijiong must have gone hunting in Zijin Mountain.

Ever since he got the rifled rifle, Zhu Cijiong has been completely obsessed with it, and he has to hold the rifled rifle every night to fall asleep.

At this time, Chongzhen father and son are leading craftsmen to grind limestone.

Due to the lack of machinery, we can only use the primitive method, which is to use a hammer to smash the big rocks into small pieces, and then smash the small stones into fine powder.

Only the finest powders can be mixed and fired with clay.

In order to ensure uniform mixing, the limestone and clay are weighed and melted with water before being poured into the kiln, and then the bellows are used to blow air for a long time of calcination.

Chongzhen was smashing limestone with a hammer when Wang Cheng walked in.

"Long live, a secret letter from Beijing." Wang Chengen whispered.

Chongzhen quickly stood up, went to the side and wiped his hands first, then took the wax pill from Wang Chengen's hand.

Crush the wax pill, take out the secret letter and unfold it. Chongzhen's face collapsed at the first glance, and Dorgon was working again. This dog thing really can't be underestimated.

Zhu Cihong also followed and asked, "Father, what happened?"

"Look for yourself." Chongzhen didn't say much, just handed over the secret letter in his hand.

After reading the secret letter, Zhu Cihong also said in astonishment: "How could this be? Is Dorgon crazy? He is not afraid of Hong Chengchou and other Han officials acting as monsters, is he not afraid of Wu Sangui, Jiang Yu and others descending to raise troops to make trouble?"

"Hong Chengchou and the others will never be demons. As for Jiang Yu and Wu Sangui, they might have made trouble in the past, but now they have no courage at all." Chongzhen sighed, "Dorgon is really not simple. Well, with this edict, Jiannu will have an extra 50 obedient citizens overnight."

"But those 50 households are Han people after all, and they may not become slaves from now on."

From an emotional point of view, Zhu Cihong still had some difficulty accepting that the common people in the northern provinces would really submit to the rule of Jiannu.

Chongzhen had a very clear understanding of this: "Lang'er, only scholars who have received Confucian education can have family and country feelings. , the Ming Dynasty was the imperial court, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was also the imperial court, there is no difference in essence.”

Historically, the Khitans and Jurchens also ruled the area north of the Yellow River, and a large number of Han people living in the area north of the Yellow River quickly became accustomed to alien rule.

During the Song Dynasty, the Han people living in the Hehuang area were even assimilated by the barbarians.

In the final analysis, it is purely wishful thinking that the low-level people who cannot afford enough food and clothing have the same family and country feelings as the out-of-production gentry class. As the saying goes, people know etiquette when they have enough food and clothing. Spiritual life, otherwise it will be too late to move bricks, talk to me about poetry and the distance?

"However, how can this be the same? Jianu is a barbarian, a foreign race."

"But he has entered China now. According to the Confucian legal system, he is already in China."

The Chinese civilization only valued the legal system, not the blood lineage. Whether it was Han or barbarian, as long as they entered the Central Plains and were willing to recognize the status of the Confucian legal system, they were the co-lords of China, and the gentry of the Han nationality also recognized this.

However, such a situation rarely happened in history, that is, strictly speaking, it only happened twice.

The only two times were the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. In these two stages, the Confucian legal system was inherited by the barbarians, but the Han gentry also recognized the orthodox status of Mongolia and the Qing Dynasty.

Zhu Cilang was speechless when he heard the rate.

After a long while, Zhu Cihong asked Chongzhen sullenly again: "Father, in this way, the military strength of Jiannu will be unprecedentedly strengthened. Isn't the chance of winning the Northern Expedition slim?"

Zhu Cihong is obviously still limited by this era, and has a fear of Jiannu. He feels that with the same strength and equipment, the Ming army must not be able to defeat Jiannu. Now, Jiannu has been wiped out one after another, whether it is firearms or the number of troops. Evening the gap with Daming, so I feel that the chances of winning the Northern Expedition are slim.

As the saying goes, "knowing things from a small perspective", from this sentence, it can be seen that Zhu Cihong is at best a conservative master.

Jiannu is only 50 violent soldiers, and it is not a real violent soldier, but can only be said to have a reserve source of 50 soldiers, but Zhu Cihong's heart has already started to retreat.

Therefore, it is impossible to expect Zhu Cihong to expand the territory.

In this regard, Zhu Cijiong is more aggressive, but Zhu Cihong's lack of aggressiveness is not a shortcoming.

If he lived long enough and established a large enough territory when he was alive, then it would be a good thing that the next emperor who succeeds him would be a successful ruler.

These thoughts flashed through Chongzhen's mind.

"No." Chongzhen continued with a faint smile, "The Northern Expedition was a battle of national power between the two countries. The number of troops on both sides is not the decisive factor. Even if Jiannu can form a huge army of millions of people , but without matching weapons and logistics, it is just a paper tiger.”

"A struggle for national power?" Zhu Cihong's face changed a lot when he heard this.

"Yes, the struggle for national power." Chongzhen said, "Ming has an advantage in this regard."

In terms of comprehensive national strength, Daming has a crushing advantage over Jiannu.

First of all, at the population level, the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty and the thirteen provinces, according to the data of the Yulin Book in the sixth year of Wanli, the total population of the whole country is more than [-] million.

So the total population of Ming Dynasty at that time should be between 8000 million and [-] million.

After decades of continuous war, the population must have dropped sharply compared to the sixth year of Wanli. In addition, Beizhi, Shanxi, and Shaanxi were all occupied, and the populations of Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan also suffered huge losses. At that time, there were at least 9000 million people left in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Among them, there are more than [-] million people in eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River.

In contrast, the total population of all the provinces under the Jiannu rule would not exceed 500 million.

There are even fewer pseudo-shuns. Because of various famines in the late Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi Province was almost always a hard-hit area, and with the addition of military disasters, the total population of Shaanxi now may be 300 million people.

In the sixth year of Wanli, there were at least 1500 million people in Shaanxi!

Therefore, in terms of population resources, Daming has a crushing advantage.

In addition to industrial strength, Daming also has a crushing advantage.

Because a larger population means more craftsmen.

Even if the steam engine has not been manufactured yet, Daming's industrial strength is far superior to that of Jiannu. When the steam engine is built and transferred to industrial applications, the gap in industrial strength between the two sides will be even greater.

At that time, even if Daming grinds him bit by bit, he can still grind Jiannu to death.

But in fact, the advantage of Ming Dynasty over Jiannu is not only at the industrial level, but also at the technological and tactical level, such as rifled rifles, and infantry hollow phalanxes.

The only thing restricting Daming now is the serious backwardness of productivity.

As long as the productivity keeps up, Daming will definitely be able to crush Jiannu, there is no suspense.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen picked up the big hammer again and began to hammer the limestone hard.

Seeing this, Zhu Cihong picked up the small hammer and smashed the small stones that Chongzhen had thrown from the big rocks into gravel. When the four cabinet ministers, including Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and Huang Daozhou, walked in, Just in time to see the scene where Chongzhen father and son were sweating profusely and beating limestone.

Zodiac week was pushed into the cabinet by the court two months ago.

Because of Qian Qianyi's resignation, another elder was elected to the cabinet.

By the way, Qian Qianyi was "resigned", not because he wanted to be an official.

Huang Daozhou and Liu Zongzhou are also known as the two great masters of Neo-Confucianism in the late Ming Dynasty. Academically, they advocate restoration and hold a critical and negative attitude towards Yangming Xinxue. It can also be seen from Huang Daozhou's entry into the cabinet that at least so far the Ming Dynasty Hall is still a Neo Confucianism occupies an absolute dominant position, and it is still too early for Xinxue to seize power.

But in the field of public opinion, the situation is another matter.

The folk public opinion field is completely dominated by Yangming's philosophy of mind. The Hanlin Daily, edited by Li Huie, has lost its former glory after being encircled by the Daming Merchant Daily, the Daming Novels, and the Daming Opera News. The debate on the article completely fell into a disadvantage, and the advertising fee for the fourth edition also dropped sharply.

This makes the Hanlin Daily into a vicious circle.

Because I can't get the advertising fee, I can't offer a high amount of retouching fee.

You can't buy high-quality articles without a hefty embellishment fee.

Without high-quality articles, it will become more passive in the debate with Huangming Times, and then there will be fewer merchants who come to Hanlin Daily to place advertisements, and they will be more picky.

The Hanlin Daily has been squeezed to the point of being unable to hold on.

Now it is completely relying on the loan from the bank account of the household department to maintain it.