Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1224 Epilogue : A Lot of Small Changes

The hunt lasted for three days and Xie Yan had a great time.

On the afternoon of the second day, he shot a sika deer with his musket. Although he only hit its buttocks, he was able to capture it easily with the help of the hunting dogs.

Unfortunately, there is not much prey here.

As soon as the Queen Mother, the Emperor and the army left, the managers of the hunting grounds immediately brought in living animals and released them into the forest.

If we don’t release them artificially, we won’t be able to play with them next year!

As a result, there were gentry and landlords in Dagu Pass who specialized in raising deer and pigs in the mountains. Every year, after the imperial family's autumn hunt, they would catch deer and sell them to the royal hunting grounds to release them, so that the powerful people in Luoyang could continue to hunt.

"Hey, why is that carriage behind us following us?" Xie Yan asked curiously.

Zhu Tangxi said: "I asked the Queen Mother for some things, and the carriage helped to transport them back."

Xie Yan didn't ask any more questions.

It was not until he arrived outside his house that Xie Yan finally knew what it was.

A big bundle of deer antlers!

Xie Yan asked in confusion: "Sister, what do you want deer antlers for?"

Zhu Tangxi replied shyly: "Of course it is to nourish Liu Lang's body."

To nourish the body?
Xie Yan thought of some functions of deer antlers, and immediately said firmly: "I am still very young and strong, I don't need deer antlers to supplement my health!"

Zhu Tangxi turned her back, avoiding her own servants and the officials who were moving the deer antlers, and playfully stuck out her tongue at her lover.

"Forget it, let's keep it and use it thirty years later." Xie Yan felt that he could be strong until he was forty-seven or forty-eight years old.

Zhu Tangxi refused to give him face: "I asked the imperial physician, and he said that deer antler is best taken within two to three years."

Xie Yan felt sorry for the bundle of deer antlers: "Such a good medicinal material, but it is useless in my home."

"Puchi!" Qingluan covered her mouth and laughed.

Returning to the study, Xie Yan immediately looked for the business card.

At the last meeting of the Royal Society, Xie Yan met several famous doctors and asked them to leave their business cards.

He found all the business cards and wrote letters to the famous doctors one by one.

The general content is: I recently went hunting with the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and I hunted a few fat deer with great power and brought some velvet antlers home as souvenirs. I heard that this thing can nourish the body. How should I take it best? Of course I don’t need to nourish myself, I sent it back to Huangzhou to honor my father.

Yes, I just respect my father.

After waiting for the famous doctors to reply, I sent some instructions for taking the medicine and deer antlers to my father to share.

I am such a talented and filial son!
After copying seven or eight letters in one breath, Xie Yan called Wang Xing and asked him to send the letters to the famous doctors as soon as possible.

Then he lay down on the bamboo couch outside the study, feeling so comfortable that home was still the best place. He wanted to lie down like this for the rest of his life.

……

Cizhou Machinery Factory.

A small ball mill with a very rough appearance was finally welded and assembled.

Several truckloads of hematite ore mined locally in Cizhou had already been transported here. The ores were of different sizes, and after being watered, they were sent to the ball mill, waiting to be fired into the boiler for testing.

After two or three minutes, the machine was temporarily shut down to check and record the ore crushing situation.

"It works, it works, a lot of iron ore has been crushed!"

"Give us a rough estimate of the proportions of various sizes of ores."

"..."

The machine quickly turned itself back on, and then turned itself off again two or three minutes later.

Then we replaced the steel balls with different sizes and continued the experimental recording according to the previous method.

After grinding the iron ore, they switched to limestone ore.

After that, the gear set needs to be replaced and the speed of the ball mill needs to be adjusted to see at which speed the grinding efficiency of various ores is the highest.

A few days later, the Ministry of Industry received a telegram.

The telegram soon reached Bao Ciweng, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry. He hurried to find the minister Chen Wenzhao and said happily, "Mr. Chen, the ball mill is really useful."

Chen Wenzhao asked: "How much can the efficiency be improved?"

Bao Ciweng said: "The experiment is still going on in Cizhou, but according to their telegram, the ball mill is more than ten times faster than the previous steam mortar. Moreover, the ore is ground more evenly, and they plan to build a larger ball mill."

"It has increased by more than ten times..."

Chen Wenzhao muttered, “It will cost a lot to negotiate a patent buyout with Mr. Xie now.”

Bao Ciweng said: "Ball mills are widely used and we will not lose money even if they are expensive."

It is indeed a sure win, and all factories and mines that need to grind materials are potential customers of various types of ball mills.

Chen Wenzhao said: "I have some connections with the Xie family, so it is not convenient for me to discuss the price with him. You should take charge of this matter yourself."

If Xie Yan had not been a son-in-law of a royal consort, the Ministry of Works would not have needed the Left Assistant Minister to come forward, and at most they could have sent a director of the Ministry of Works to deal with him. Moreover, the price would have been extremely low!
Bao Ciweng took the order and left.

Soon, Zhang Mengxiong, the right assistant minister in charge of the railway, came again: "Mr. Chen, this is the latest plan for the Zhentai Railway. The Hutuo River is too wide, and it is impossible to build the railway outside Zhending City. It can only be built to the other side of Zhending City. If you want to transport the goods to Zhending City, you must unload them and then switch to shipping."

"It's not a big problem," Chen Wenzhao said. "The main purpose of building the Zhentai Railway is to transport Shanxi coal to Central Plains, Nanjing, Huainan and Zhejiang."

Although the problem is not serious, it must be reported to the cabinet.

The Hutuo River is not particularly wide in Shanxi Province. When it passes through the Taihang Mountains and reaches North China, the water flow suddenly slows down and the river becomes drastically wider.

How wide?
More than ten miles!
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the river was still 12 miles wide. Due to the difficulty of construction and the high cost of bridge construction, the late Qing government had to give up building a bridge.

As a result, the Zhengtai Railway, which was originally supposed to be built outside Zhengding City, became its terminus in Shijiazhuang.

In this time and space, one can only repair to Shijiazhuang.

Because the current Hutuo River is wider than it was in the late Qing Dynasty, it flows all the way to Gaocheng before splitting into two. Its northern route flows through the north of Gaocheng, and its southern route even flows through Ningjin County.

Of course, there was no village called Shijiazhuang at that time, but there was a Shiyi town nearby.

The history of Shiyi City is much longer than that of Zhending City. It existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. It became a small town in the early Northern Song Dynasty.

The next day.

Chen Wenzhao brought the railway plan to the cabinet to explain it.

"The railway runs from Taiyuan all the way to the other side of Zhending City, just in time to connect with the Hutuo River water transport."

“The goods can be shipped to Zhending City and then taken to Beijing by rail.”

"The goods can be loaded onto ships and transported to Baoding via the northern route of the Hutuo River."

"The goods can be loaded onto ships and transported by water to Guantao, where they will be connected to the Yongji Canal."

Deng Gongwu carefully examined the water and land transportation map, nodded and said, "It's feasible." The Shijiazhuang area will definitely prosper in the future.

When the population reaches a certain level, it will be time to restore the Shiyi County of the early Song Dynasty. However, the location of the county seat will be moved 20 miles north, across the Hutuo River from Zhending City.

……

After Bao Ciweng got off work from the Ministry of Works, he went straight to the Qin Princess's residence.

He had handed in his visiting card yesterday.

The carriage passed through the gate and Bao Ciweng glanced at the plaque.

The signboard with the words "Prince Consort's House" hanging below has become a sight in Luoyang. Many people who come to Beijing from other places will even come to take a look.

Bao Ciweng was just the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, and he had no right to enter through the main gate.

He drove around to the side door of the Princess's House and was soon taken by a servant to the living room for tea.

Soon, the princess arrived.

Bao Ciweng stood up and bowed: "Greetings to Her Royal Highness the Grand Princess!"

Zhu Tangxi bowed in return and said, "My husband hasn't come home yet. The Imperial College is quite far away, so he's probably on the way. Minister Bao can talk to me directly."

Bao Ciweng said: "The ball mill was provided with the basic drawings by Prince Consort Xie, and the Cizhou Machinery Factory trial-produced and repeatedly improved it. Both parties own half of the patent rights. The Ministry of Industry intends to buy the half held by Prince Consort Xie."

"Five hundred thousand strings of cash." Zhu Tangxi opened his mouth loudly.

Bao Ciweng was shocked: "It's too expensive."

Zhu Tangxi said: "The patents and permanent use rights of the government-run cement factories along the Zhentai Railway were also sold. They are all included in the 500,000 guan."

"It's still too expensive," Bao Ciweng shook his head repeatedly, "The Ministry of Industry will never agree to it, and I can't go back and report to Minister Chen."

"How much does the Ministry of Industry plan to offer?" Zhu Tangxi asked.

Bao Ciweng said, "Fifty thousand strings of cash."

Zhu Tangxi sneered.

Even though it's only 50,000 strings of cash, I'm still giving it to you for the princess's sake.

If it were someone without any background, the Ministry of Works would only need 30,000 strings of cash at most, and that would also include kickbacks from negotiators and contractors.

The maximum amount of money an inventor can actually get is 20,000 strings of cash.

Twenty thousand strings of cash is also a huge sum of money!

Bao Ciweng certainly didn't dare to take kickbacks from the princess, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Eighty thousand strings of cash."

Zhu Tangxi picked up the teacup and said, "See you off."

"Your Highness, wait a minute, we can talk further." Bao Ciweng shouted hurriedly.

This job is too difficult, with a favored princess and a well-known prince consort.

No wonder Minister Chen asked him, the Left Vice Minister, to come in person to talk.

If it were a small official in the Ministry of Works, he probably wouldn't dare to bargain in front of the princess.

There's no point in dragging it out, this tactic won't work on Zhu Tangxi.

If the Ministry of Industry really dared not buy out the patent rights and started mass-producing ball mills for sale, Zhu Tangxi would definitely go to Empress Dowager Ye to complain.

Bao Ciweng said, "One hundred thousand."

Zhu Tangxi drank tea without saying a word.

This attitude silenced Bao Ciweng.

He was the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, but he actually bargained like a merchant, and the other party was too lazy to pay attention to him halfway through the negotiation.

Negotiations need to be done slowly, and it is normal for them to take three to five months.

The problem is that the positions of both parties in this negotiation are not normal!
There is no way to slowly grind out the skills.

Damn it, it’s the Ministry of Industry’s money, it’s none of my business how much they spend.

Bao Ciweng said: "One hundred and twenty thousand strings of cash, to buy out the patent for the ball mill and the patent rights for the government-run cement plants along the Zhentai Railway."

Zhu Tangxi shook his head: "Not enough."

"This is the Ministry of Works' reserve price. If it exceeds 120,000 strings of cash, it must be approved by Minister Chen himself." Bao Ciweng told the truth.

Zhu Tangxi carefully observed the other person's expression and she also felt that it was about enough: "150,000 strings of cash. The Ministry of Industry will also build two more ball mills and give them to our cement plant."

Bao Ciweng had no choice but to go back for instructions and come back for negotiations the next day.

The negotiation results of the two parties are:

The Ministry of Industry offered 50 strings of cash to buy % of the ball mill patent from Xie Yan, and also bought out the patent usage rights of the state-owned cement plants along the Zhentai Railway.

The first installment of 50,000 guan was paid at the time of signing the contract, and the remaining 100,000 guan was paid in two installments, every six months.

The Ministry of Industry donated a ball mill for grinding limestone, which was to be delivered to Xie Yan's cement plant within two months.

On the day of signing the contract, Xie Yan received a down payment of 50,000 strings of treasure notes.

That’s a lot of money!

He tried to convert it into RMB, and after much thought decided to use the price of rice.

But the price of rice in the Ming Dynasty varied greatly in different regions.

In rural areas of major grain-producing provinces, a pound of rice costs only five or six cents during the rice harvest season. In lean months, a pound of rice costs only seven or eight cents.

But it is different in mega-cities in the Central Plains like Luoyang. Even in the rice harvest season, a pound of rice costs more than ten cents.

It is cheaper in big cities in the south because they are close to rice producing areas.

Let's assume that one jin of rice costs 10 wen, and assuming that one jin of rice costs 3 yuan, one guan of money is 300 yuan. Wouldn't 1500 guan be million yuan?

Of course, this conversion is definitely not accurate.

"My sister is so amazing. She actually got the Ministry of Industry to give in." Xie Yan said happily.

Zhu Tangxi smiled and said, "I borrowed the power of the Queen Mother. Even if it was another princess, the Ministry of Works would not be so easy to talk to."

Xie Yan whispered, "Two famous doctors living in Luoyang have already replied to my letter. Let's try the efficacy of deer antler today."

Zhu Tangxi looked around in embarrassment and reminded him, "We haven't even left the Ministry of Industry yet, don't talk nonsense."

"Then I won't accept Deer Antler." Xie Yan teased.

Zhu Tangxi was so angry that he punched him and said impatiently, "Go home quickly."

(End of this chapter)