I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1006 The furnace fire illuminates the night, forging the land; the torch is passed down for a hundred years.

Gao Qiyu conveyed Shen Shixing's concerns to His Majesty the Emperor. The entire Ming Dynasty, both inside and outside the court, showed serious discomfort regarding this behemoth, as the Ming Dynasty had no experience in dealing with such matters.

Zhu Yijun pulled out several memorials and handed them to Gao Qiyu, saying, "The censors who impeached Wang Qian for his school rules and regulations have all expressed their deep approval of Wang Qian's policies after arriving in Songjiang Prefecture, and even believe that Wang Qian has not done enough."

“All the students should be sent to the navy for thorough training regularly. Even these censors believe that loyalty should be used to combat this kind of materialistic corruption.”

"That's a bit too extreme."

Wang Qian established school rules and mottoes for Songjiang University and Songjiang Three-Level School, and made unified purchases of all materials to prevent the trend of extravagance and comparison from spreading into the campus. Zhu Yijun initially felt that Wang Qian was going a bit too far, but after seeing the eunuch's attire, he immediately agreed.

These censors opposed Wang Qian's discipline of the students and Zhang Juzheng's narrative of gratitude, but after arriving in Songjiang Prefecture, they showed extreme fear. They even believed that the court should be wary of this kind of erosion and immediately transformed from extreme conservatives to extreme radicals. They even wanted to use the narrative of gratitude to combat the erosion of people's hearts, ethics, morality, and public order by materialism.

Shen Shixing and Gao Qiyu's vigilance, and the censor's reaction, are all concrete manifestations of serious discomfort.

The Ming Dynasty had no experience in dealing with this situation. The changes in order brought about by the transformation of the commodity economy left everyone in the Ming Dynasty, from the imperial court to the common people, completely at a loss.

In the process of the transformation of the commodity economy, money has shown almost omnipotent power. As long as you have gold, silver, gold notes and other currencies, you can buy all the goods in the world. If you can't buy them, it means you don't have enough money.

The magic of money has led people to put prices on everything. This has resulted in the objectification, commodification, and monetization of everything, even morality, which is unacceptable to people, who then cry out that it is evil.

The Ming Dynasty was a country with an inherently imperfect fiscal and taxation system. Even today, it still struggles to understand land tax. This kind of system is destined to be inherently incompatible with this kind of change.

After reading these memorials, Gao Qiyu was not in a good mood. These memorials proved that Shen Shixing was not exaggerating, but rather had a deep understanding of the potential crisis.

"There's no need to worry too much. It's still within the scope of land annexation. I won't allow this behemoth to surface," Zhu Yijun said with a smile, giving Gao Qiyu a reassuring promise.

"Your Majesty is wise." Gao Qiyu breathed a sigh of relief. He said these things in the hope of alerting His Majesty, so that if necessary, His Majesty would sacrifice his reputation and strike hard against this behemoth.

Gao Qiyu was even more relieved. He feared that His Majesty, who held the highest position, would not understand the gravity of the situation, but His Majesty had even prepared to overturn the table, which clearly showed that he knew the gravity of the situation and was highly vigilant.

The monopoly capital economy of the Ming Dynasty is still in its infancy.

Even monopoly capital, which has achieved market concentration, production concentration, and capital concentration, is still within the comprehensible range of the Ming Dynasty, because monopoly capital is still in the primary stage of capital.

Free competition, price wars caused by distorted competition, profits approaching costs, meager profits and high costs squeezing out the market, bankruptcy of small and medium-sized workshop owners, market consolidation, market and channels being controlled by a few, mergers and acquisitions, the victory of a few capitals, the beginning of production concentration, and mergers leading to a high concentration of capital.

Ultimately, this leads to a concentration of market channels, production, and capital, resulting in a monopolistic form of capital.

The high concentration of land ownership and the process of forming monopoly capital show a striking similarity.

Monopoly capital is still in its early stages because this behemoth is still afraid of being strangled by the imperial court or the ruling class, as well as market changes brought about by technological advancements.

Shen Shixing's summary of four characteristics is correct.

In order to survive, monopoly capital, this behemoth, will do everything in its power to prevent new technologies from entering the market, or the new technology must be beneficial to it, or it will acquire the technology at great expense and then hoard it, or it will simply use its scale, cost advantage, and media advantage to hunt down the new technology.

In order to survive, this behemoth will expand itself without limit, merging with all newly emerging workshops and continuously expanding its production scale until overproduction occurs.

Whether it's acquiring technology or acquiring workshops, it requires massive financial support.

At this point, monopoly capital and money shops and money holders will be both contradictory and mutually beneficial. In the long-term game, finance and monopoly will merge, cross-control each other, and form financial capital.

Financial capital is the intermediate form of capital.

At this stage, financial capital is no longer afraid of the disruption that new technologies will cause to the market. Because no matter how new the technology is, it needs financial support to reach a certain scale. As financial capital, they are no longer afraid of new technologies, but rather invest in them and assimilate them into their own system.

But financial capital still fears the strangulation from those in power.

Financial capital goes a step further, becoming both contradictory and mutually beneficial to power. In the long-term game, it completes the convergence of monopoly, finance, and power, with each element intertwined with the other, transforming into bureaucratic oligarchic capital.

I am power, and power is me; from now on, I need not fear the strangulation that comes from power.

Bureaucratic oligarchic capitalism is a higher form of capital, but it is still not the final form of capital.

The 'final producer' who completely controls the fate of everyone is the highest form of capital that people fantasize about.

(Approximate schematic diagram)

At present, Songjiang Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty is still on the verge of bankruptcy for small and medium-sized workshops. Even for someone as outstanding as Shen Shixing, all he can see is the shadow of monopoly capital. It's not that Shen Shixing is incompetent, but that he has never seen such things before.

Zhu Yijun had witnessed it firsthand, so he was aware of these matters.

"Either establish clear rules to restrain their actions, or open up new trade routes to divide their power. We must also spread our spies widely and deeply plant our claws and teeth in the commercial ports of various provinces. What you said is all very good. Your methods, Junior Minister, are all very good. There is no rush. We can plan it slowly." Zhu Yijun gave Gao Qiyu a task, and this matter was to be done step by step.

Maintaining the activity of small and medium-sized economies is conducive to the efficient operation of the market.

While the unseen hand is indeed formidable, the visible hand of the Ming Dynasty—the Ming army—is formidable on a physical level.

Generally speaking, imperial power is only threatened when bureaucratic oligarchic capitalism is established.

However, Zhu Yijun was a man of great bloodlust, greed, and a love for money. He was also prone to lenient assessments of his enemies. If a monopoly emerged, Zhu Yijun would definitely take action, using his "Imperial Grace Shattering Fist" to smash it and forcibly order its dismantling, preventing it from forming a de facto monopoly.

Once a de facto monopoly is established, they will begin to demand political power and start to take advantage of the imperial authority. How could Zhu Yijun tolerate someone taking advantage of him? This would mean that all his hard work over the past twenty years of diligent governance, martial arts training, and frugality would have been for nothing.

Moreover, once a de facto monopoly is formed, the artisans in the workshops will no longer be able to live like human beings. They will find it difficult to even live like cattle or horses. After all, if cattle or horses get sick, the owners will have to find a veterinarian to treat them, while the cattle or horses will have to go to the Huimin Pharmacy on their own.

The harm of de facto monopoly is that the relations of production reverse history, regressing from free employment to strong personal dependence, making people worse than cattle and horses, and their lives as worthless as grass.

This has nothing to do with morality, nor is it alarmist. Zhu Yijun was justifying his "Imperial Grace Smashing the Ground" technique by pointing to the relationship between local gentry and tenant farmers in the Ming Dynasty as irrefutable evidence.

In a highly closed and inefficient small-scale peasant economy, how did the local gentry and elites treat their tenants after they completely monopolized the land? They made people wear mourning clothes for their dogs, make people cry at their dogs' graves, and make people observe mourning for their dogs.

This is largely due to the limitations of a highly centralized, county-based imperial system. Emperor Zhu Yijun disliked monopolistic capital and therefore did not allow this behemoth to emerge.

Zhu Yijun and Gao Qiyu had in-depth discussions about the Dinghai school system. At present, the implementation of the Dinghai school system mainly focuses on the establishment of normal schools. To realize the three-tiered school system, it is necessary to invest heavily in normal schools to train teachers.

According to the Dinghai Education System formulated by Gao Qiyu, the Ming Dynasty was to establish a normal school in every county town, with each normal school capable of training 500 teachers per year. However, the construction of a normal school in every prefecture of the Ming Dynasty was already beyond the current financial capacity of the Ming Dynasty.

This resulted in the Ming Dynasty being completely unable to establish enough primary schools at the township, town, and village levels.

Zhu Yijun rubbed his forehead with a slight headache and shook his head, saying, "As for the money, I'll think of a solution. The construction of schools cannot stop, the subsidies for school stipends cannot stop, and the interest-free loans to universities cannot stop."

Gao Qiyu's idea was to reduce the number of schools built, reduce the stipends for students, and reduce interest-free loans to universities in order to increase the number of normal schools and train more teachers.

This is a compromise; reducing any one of them raises the bar for knowledge, making it inaccessible to many ordinary people.

If this interest-free loan is reduced, students who are clearly talented but cannot afford to attend university will immediately be eliminated.

“Your Majesty, I am guilty,” Gao Qiyu said with a worried expression. “When I was formulating the Dinghai Education System, I was too presumptuous. I knew that education was expensive, but I did not expect it to be this expensive.”

Gao Qiyu knew it was expensive, but the price was far beyond his expectations.

Last year, the total investment in education in the Ming Dynasty officially exceeded the investment in military affairs. The education expenditure was 1577 million taels of silver, while the total military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty, including the extra rewards given by His Majesty to the Beijing Garrison and the Navy, was 1432 million taels of silver.

This investment was so enormous that opposition to the Dinghai education system had already begun to emerge in the imperial court.

The Ming Dynasty itself had an education system, including private schools and family academies. Even though the Wanli Reforms greatly increased the demand for talent in various fields, the investment in the Dinghai Education System was simply too enormous, and the output of the Dinghai Education System could only be considered to be reaped twenty or thirty years later.

Some say that Gao Qiyu was using the court's money to ruin his own reputation, and that the excessive expense was a reality. This accusation was extremely malicious, but Gao Qiyu could not refute it.

It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to cultivate a person. The extremely long-term and large-scale investment made even Gao Qiyu himself have some doubts about the Dinghai school system.

Is this the right path? Pedestrians walking in the fog, facing a fork in the road with no way forward, will always feel confused and doubtful.

Even someone like Gao Qiyu, who had experienced the trials of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, would ask himself if it wasn't that he wasn't resolute enough, but that the heavy price he had paid made him somewhat afraid of the unknown.

Fear stems from the unknown.

Zhu Yijun was different. There was no fog before his eyes. His vision pierced through the river of six hundred years. He knew that what he was doing was definitely the right thing to do. He was never confused about the road ahead. He knew what the return on the heavy investment would be, a huge benefit that far exceeded the investment and would benefit the entire Ming Dynasty.

"I will think of a solution; Junior Minister of State need not be overly anxious." Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of the behemoth that Shen Shixing had mentioned.

Even though monopolistic capital had already formed, in Zhu Yijun's eyes, it looked like a very fat pig waiting to be slaughtered. Driven mad by poverty, he was sure to bring down the butcher's knife. He realized that under the feudal imperial system, it was indeed difficult to form a super-large-scale monopolistic capital. There were simply too many people eyeing this pig. If he, the emperor, was hungry, weren't the officials and powerful clans hungry too?

Moreover, in most cases, meat-eaters will eat even when they are not hungry.

Animals only eat when they're hungry; the meat-eaters of the Ming Dynasty never felt they ate too much.

“Your Majesty, if we do not reduce the amount of tuition fees, interest-free loans, and construction costs, every additional school we build will require an additional expenditure. The amount of money needed is simply too much.” Gao Qiyu said with a very troubled expression, “Your Majesty, this is not a temporary shortage, but a persistent shortage. The more we build, the more we need; the more the Dinghai school system is implemented, the more we need.”

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "But if we reduce these, what's the difference between public schools and private schools? Aren't they all just children of the lords who can read and write? The people of our Great Ming are also human beings. Of course, I understand your thoughts. I'll think about it some more and get through the current difficulties first."

Gao Qiyu was worried that the silver shortage would snowball as the Dinghai education system expanded. While cutting these funds would indeed have the drawbacks His Majesty mentioned, the shortfall could be compensated for by increasing taxes later, through additional funding from elementary schools to middle schools.

"Your subject takes his leave." Gao Qiyu bowed again and left the Imperial Study in Tonghe Palace.

He met with the Emperor about four matters: the provincial examination, Sun Kehong, monopoly capital, and the Dinghai education system. The Emperor made specific decisions on the first three matters, but was still hesitant about the last one.

Originally, Gao Qiyu planned that the profits from overseas expansion would be enough to cover the education deficit, but now it seems he underestimated the cost of education.

Based on the current investment, all the increased tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty cannot cover the hole caused by the Dinghai education system, and this hole will only get bigger and bigger.

He even doubted at one point whether he was the sycophantic official the censors described as seeking fame and fortune.

Gao Qiyu's suggestion was correct, based on the current state of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue. He did not forget the treacherous ministers who served the people; rather, the Ming Dynasty's meager productivity at the time could not support the implementation of this imperial ambition.

After careful consideration, Zhu Yijun finally decided to reduce the number of students, and to the extent suggested by Gao Qiyu, by half. The court needed to expand the scale of the Dinghai education system to provide enough talent for the Ming Dynasty.

"Human strength is finite, and things are beyond our control; it is all in vain to persist." After making his imperial comments, Zhu Yijun put down his brush and handed the memorial to Feng Bao, instructing him to submit it to the Ministry of Rites for further processing.

In fact, the cabinet ministers, the ministers of the Wenhua Hall, and the ministers of the Ministry of Rites had already reached a consensus on the reduction, but no one dared to mention it to His Majesty.

Your Majesty's private treasury is never inexhaustible. The current educational system of the Dinghai era includes eighteen universities and one hundred and seventy-six normal schools, more than half of which are under construction. This scale is already the result of Your Majesty's best efforts.

Nobody dares to mention it, but the reality of the predicament is there.

"I am not reconciled to the injustice of Heaven and Earth, but these are merely eighty-one tribulations." Zhu Yijun rallied his spirits.

He certainly knew he would encounter difficulties and resistance; he certainly knew this road was never smooth. The most important thing was to have the courage to keep going. Any policy will be constantly revised in practice; nothing lasts forever, and nothing is immutable.

Zhu Yijun roused himself and reviewed all the memorials. He picked up the official gazette, which was the second article in the previous "On Civilization" series. The previous "On Civilization" series explained why the Ming Dynasty was the Celestial Empire, while this article discussed iron.

In addition to discussing iron smelting technology and steel quality, the discussion also focused on steel production.

The iron materials produced in the Ming Dynasty were smelted by private iron workshops and official factories, with an annual output of 600 million catties (300,000 tons). However, the output of steel in the Ming Dynasty was relatively low, less than 20 million catties. This was mainly because the Ming Dynasty had a strict definition of steel. Only steel that met the requirements in terms of fracture surface, hardness, and toughness could be considered steel, not iron.

Steel is mainly used for military purposes such as artillery, muskets, armor, and weapons of all lengths, hence the strict definition required.

If we take the steel used for plate armor imported from the West as the standard, the steel production of the Ming Dynasty could increase more than sixfold.

And how much steel does the West produce right now? The entire West combined doesn't even amount to a fraction of what the Ming Dynasty produced.

In fact, Spain was the most powerful country in the West that the Ming Dynasty observed at the time. It was known as the "empire on which the sun never sets," but its steel production, even if all its colonies were added together, amounted to only 2000 million catties.

This was the result of Legazpi's best efforts to beautify His Highness Felipe. The Ming Dynasty simply and crudely estimated Spain's total steel production by multiplying its quantifiable steel production by five. This estimate of 2000 million catties was seriously distorted.

Steel is productivity, and steel bars and iron bodies are the foundation of a nation's strength.

The shortage of steel means insufficient productivity. Steel is needed for farming, cooking, and weaponry. In the Ming Dynasty, each person could get 4 to 5 catties of iron, while in the West, each person could get less than 2 catties.

The Hanlin scholar who edited the paper learned from people close to the Academy of Sciences that the Xishan Coal and Steel Joint-Stock Factory had invented a burning steelmaking method that replaced the old frying method. This method could significantly increase the output of crude steel and greatly reduce the process of producing high-grade steel.

The large quantity of crude steel billets laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of Daming Machinery.

"Is this steel-burning method the technology that will compete with mosquito repellent for the Ancient Heritage Progress Award next year?" Zhu Yijun asked Feng Bao curiously as he flipped through the newspaper articles on civilization.

Feng Bao hurriedly said, "I have asked the Ministry of Works, and they said that this matter is still in its early stages. We will report to Your Majesty once things have stabilized."

For all the memorials submitted to the Emperor for review, Feng Bao instructed the Directorate of Ceremonial to inquire about the progress of each government office, so that His Majesty could be informed of the specific situation and make decisions at any time.

"Tomorrow, call Zeng Tongheng and Xin Zixiu to go to the Xishan Coal Bureau together." Zhu Yijun knew that the doctor from the Gewu Institute was cooperating with the Xishan Coal Bureau to try to increase crude steel production, but the project had not yet entered the acceptance stage, so it was not appropriate to offer auspicious omens.

Zeng Tongheng was the Minister of Works, and Xin Zixiu was a senior official in the Ministry of Works. Xin Zixiu was in charge of all matters related to the government factories. He was previously the Governor of Baoding. When Lin Fucheng went to Baoding, Xin Zixiu used this envoy to solve many problems in Baoding.

"This... Your Majesty obeys." Feng Bao said in a low voice, "The ministers leaked information to the Hanlin Academy scholars to shut them up, but obviously there are still problems that have not been completely resolved. Your Majesty's visit will probably bring some pressure."

Feng Bao did not believe that now was the right time for His Majesty to inspect the area. He argued that the Ministry of Works and the Xishan Coal Bureau would present auspicious omens once they felt things were stable.

"Having nothing to do, I went to the official factory to take a look and ask about the steelmaking law, which was just a side matter." Zhu Yijun's visit to the official factory was not just about the steelmaking law, but more about seeing the changes that the shareholding system reform of the Ming Dynasty had brought to the official factory.

"Your Majesty is wise." Feng Bao stopped trying to dissuade him. The whole world belongs to Your Majesty; Your Majesty can go wherever you want!
The following morning, after a court meeting, the emperor summoned Zeng Tongheng, Xin Zixiu, and Shen Shixing, and together they went to the Xishan Coal Bureau.

Zhu Yijun stayed at the Xishan Coal Bureau for a full two hours, even having lunch there. He learned about the various changes after the bureau's restructuring, inquired about the distribution of start-up funds, met with more than a dozen master craftsmen, artisans, and apprentices from the official factory, and learned about their treatment, children's schooling, and so on.

After Wang Chonggu's death, the Ming emperor visited the official factory more frequently.

In the second hour, Zhu Yijun listened to the resident doctors and master craftsmen's improvement methods for the Ming Dynasty's steelmaking process, highly praised the Ming Dynasty craftsmen for their active participation in improving production tools and enhancing production skills, and affirmed the doctors' and craftsmen's spirit of striving for excellence.

The steelmaking method had in fact passed the joint acceptance of Zhu Zaiyu, the director of the Imperial Academy of Natural Sciences, and many other doctors. The official factory built four experimental furnaces to verify all the conjectures. The reason why no auspicious omens were presented was to conduct practical production to ensure the effectiveness of the method and prevent the crime of deceiving the emperor.

The burning steelmaking method originated from the frying steelmaking method. In the frying steelmaking method, molten iron is poured from the ironmaking furnace into a square pond covered with damp mud and ash. Craftsmen stand on the edge of the pond and use willow wood or iron rods to stir the molten iron continuously, like stir-frying vegetables, to further reduce the impurities and carbon content in the iron.

The method of burning steel is based on this principle. A blower is used to blow air into the furnace. The carbon and oxygen react to further increase the temperature of the furnace and release wrought iron that is close to steel. This wrought iron is then further processed into various types of steel needed by the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yijun witnessed a steelmaking process using the combustion method. After the slag was removed, the molten iron turned a bright red color. When the blower started blowing air, the bright red color of the molten iron turned white, and a layer of brown smoke rose from the molten iron. This change indicated that the temperature of the molten iron was rising further.

Wei Youshan, a master craftsman from Xishan Coal Bureau, said to His Majesty with regret, "Your Majesty, the master craftsmen originally intended to directly smelt wrought iron or steel in the blast furnace to produce crude steel billets, but the master craftsmen and the resident doctors failed."

The steelmaking process was a compromise made by the craftsmen, who originally wanted to achieve the desired result in one step, but reality told them that it was impossible.

"Why did it fail?" Zhu Yijun asked.

"The furnace temperature is not high enough; it may need to be increased significantly to succeed." Wei Youshan pondered for a moment and informed His Majesty of the reason for the uncertainty.

The craftsmen also speculated that the resident doctor and master craftsmen were present at almost every furnace to observe the color of the molten iron. No matter how hard they tried, they could not raise the temperature of the molten iron. This bright white color could only be achieved in the first ladle.

If industrial pure oxygen could be produced, the craftsmen's goal would be achieved. Zhu Yijun knew the crux of the problem: it wasn't that the craftsmen weren't working hard, but that even the most skilled craftsmen couldn't cook without rice. Blowing air and blowing oxygen had completely different combustion effects.

"Next year, two awards for advancing ancient civilizations." Zhu Yijun was certain of the significance of this thing to the Ming Dynasty. It was entirely worthy of an award for advancing ancient civilizations, as an outstanding achievement in the technological progress of the Ming Dynasty, to be recorded in history. All those who participated in it would be remembered in history.

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty."

Wang Ji, the general manager of Xishan Coal Bureau, led all the factory workers in expressing their gratitude.

Wei Youshan was not the inventor of the steelmaking process. This steelmaking process did not have a specific inventor. It was the result of the tireless research of the master craftsmen, resident doctors, and artisans of the entire factory. It was the crystallization of collective wisdom, and this honor belongs to all the people of the factory.

The effect of the shareholding system on promoting technological improvement is obvious. However, according to Shen Shixing's observation, it was not necessary to go to the point of the shareholding system. The craftsmen were already very satisfied with the treatment they received from the government factories.

Before leaving the official factory, Zhu Yijun stood for a long time under the statues of the water and fire gods in front of the factory gate. Wang Chonggu risked his life for his posthumous reputation. Before his death, Wang Chonggu invested all his wealth in the Ming Dynasty's opening of the sea, using the annual dividends as bonuses and additional rewards for the craftsmen who made progress.

Wang Qian did not inherit any family property. Of course, he was richer than Wang Chonggu. The Suiyuan Imperial Road tickets he held were a very small and precious asset. The imperial court only issued Imperial Road tickets for the Suiyuan Imperial Road because it was poor.

The Ming emperor stood in the spring breeze, speaking for a long time in his heart to the deceased Wang Chonggu, before finally leaving the official factory in his grand carriage.

The advent of the combustion steelmaking method will inevitably lead to a surge in the production of steel in the Ming Dynasty, which will support the Ming emperor's ambition to expand his territory.

The opening of the seas for trade and the development of colonial plantations contributed to the Ming Dynasty and ensured the stable and orderly implementation of the various policies and decrees of the Wanli Reforms.

"Sir, you're too strict. Even Shen Shixing and Wang Xiyuan are on your inspection list?" Zhu Yijun felt a headache coming on as he looked at Zhang Juzheng's inspection list.

Xu Chengchu thoroughly investigated Shen Shixing and Wang Xiyuan, ensuring that everyone passed the internal purge.

(End of this chapter)