Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 475 Taizong, Renzong

"Father wants to be both Taizong and Renzong!" Li Heng's complaint was very direct, so blue!
The role model for Taizong is of course Emperor Taizong of Tang, and the role model for Renzong is naturally Emperor Renzong of Song.

It is difficult for Emperor Chenghui to choose between the two princes in front of him.

I won’t talk about Emperor Taizong of Tang, anyone who loves history knows him. When Emperor Renzong of Song died, the people of the whole city wept bitterly, at least the people of Bianliang felt his benevolence!
The Qingli New Deal during the reign of Emperor Renzong actually reveals a lot of things. Emperor Renzong's benevolence was first praised by the scholar-officials, and secondly by the people of Bianliang.

But what about the people outside the city of Bianliang?

Looking at Li Heng's expression, Jia Lian felt that this guy had read history books, but not in depth.

"Okay, you haven't been here very often, so just look around. If you want to check the accounts, feel free to do so!"

Jia Lian was very impatient and chased him away. Li Heng sneered and said, "My brain must be broken. I just thought of checking Brother Buqi's account."

"Don't call Jia a brother. Starting from His Highness's sudden attack today, don't mention this matter anymore."

Li Heng was not angry and left with a smile.

Jia Lian has no time to take care of them. The current R&D department is under tight time constraints and heavy tasks, and many projects need to speed up development.

But industry, even the simplest one, requires time to accumulate, especially the accumulation of talents. Without enough talents, it is all empty talk.

There is another thing. Jia Lian thought that if Emperor Chenghui sent him to a distant place, he would most likely go to Fujian and Zhejiang or Guangdong and Guangxi. He still needed to avoid Jiangnan. The possibility of going to Shandong was also not high.

Taking all the above into consideration, Jia Lian’s current focus is still on the manufacture of naval guns.

Jia Lian had thought about whether or not naval guns should have rifling. After much thought, he believed that using solid bullets with rifling would at least ensure accuracy, but the disadvantage was the rate of fire.

As long as it is not a breech-loading muzzle-loading gun, the rifling will affect the rate of fire.

Therefore, we still need to develop shrapnel shells. Unfortunately, you can't get a big cake with one bite. It is difficult to improve the range and accuracy of the current imitation British cannons.

Jia Lian strolled to the artillery factory, where a British Armstrong 24-pounder was being copied.

This British unit is really fucked up.

Jia Lian changed all the units to jin, even though the current system of one jin and sixteen liang was also quite annoying. At least his own people would not get confused.

After the British artillery shells were weighed, they were equivalent to twenty pounds, so they were named twenty-pound cannons.

The name changed again in the Qing Dynasty, and it became a measure of the weight of the cannon. The 8,000-jin cannon in the movie refers to the weight of the cannon.

A cannon weighs 8,000 kilograms, which is at least four or five tons. In ancient times, this thing could only stay on the artillery platform, and it took a lot of effort to transport it.

It can only be said that with the current technology of the Great Zhou Dynasty, it is no problem to manufacture extremely bulky coastal defense artillery. It is just a process of thickening and lengthening the gun barrel. Once the iron mold technology is mastered, it is not difficult.

At this stage, the smelting technology of the Great Zhou Dynasty is not much worse than that of the United Kingdom, so the problem of materials is not big. The real disadvantage of the Great Zhou Dynasty is the quality of iron ore. The civilization has lasted too long, and the good iron ore is probably mined out.

Before I even arrived at the workshop, I saw steam emanating from the doors and windows. Needless to say, casting was in progress.

The workshop manager was originally a seventh-rank official in the Ministry of Industry. He found a place to use his talents here and was promoted to director. In addition to the salary from the court, he also received various subsidies every month. Just from the subsidies, this sixth-rank director named Du Shang received twice as much as he did in the Ministry of Industry before, which was equivalent to three times the salary in the R&D Department.

Jia Lian didn't even enter the workshop. Just one look outside made him feel the heat burning his skin and his face hurt a little. How could a craftsman working in such an environment not be paid high salaries?

"Pay attention to the health of the craftsmen. Don't let them work for long periods of time. They must work in shifts for a maximum of three hours a day." Jia Lian repeatedly instructed that it was too difficult to work in this kind of workshop.

Du Shang was obviously a dull person. He just hummed and did not further flatter Lord Jia. He did not say any flattering words like "the craftsman's adopted parent".

Jia Lian felt that this was the best way. People like this usually said flattering words out of necessity.

Before Jia Lian left, Li Yuan came over with a small notebook and asked him, "Mr. Jia, I saw in the account that there is a special environment subsidy, the lowest for craftsmen is 20 yuan per month. Is this reasonable? You should know that the monthly salary of a seventh-rank county magistrate is only 24 taels, which is less than 30 yuan when converted into silver dollars."

Jia Lian was delighted when he heard this. Isn't this a ready-made special environment? He waved and called Du Shang over: "Master Du, take the Second Prince in for half an hour. Remember, you are not allowed to come out before the time is up."

When Li Yuan was a little confused, Du Shang had already made a gesture to invite him in. Li Yuan always felt something was wrong, but he still followed in.

Jia Lian waited outside for half an hour (an hour), and finally the door opened. Li Yuan came out in a daze. Seeing Jia Lian standing under the shed next to him, he immediately came over to greet him with a guilty look on his face: "Li Yuan was rude before. I apologize for my impoliteness, Lord Jia."

Jia Lian smiled and waved his hands: "Second Prince, you are too polite. You are a noble man, and I am not worthy of your courtesy. So, is this environment special enough?"

Li Yuan nodded in agreement: "It is indeed very special. There is steam and molten iron flowing inside. It is hot and stuffy. After I came out of there after half an hour, I felt like I was in another world."

Jia Lian showed no sympathy for him, but continued to poke at his wounds: "This is considered good, there are worse environments. Your Highness, do you want to experience it?"

Li Yuan's face suddenly changed and asked, "How can there be a worse environment?" Jia Lian nodded, "Yes, digging coal in a mine, dozens or even hundreds of meters below, in darkness, working naked. This job does not require high technical skills, but anyone can do it as long as they can endure hardship. The subsidy for special environments is only ten yuan per month. How many people are scrambling to do this job? As long as you can do this job, you can get married in a year. If you are unlucky, your wife will become a widow in a year."

"Ah, this...Mr. Jia, can you tell me in detail?" Li Yuanren was dumbfounded. How could he know all this?

Jia Lian didn't have time to stay and talk slowly, so he could only talk while walking. Li Yuan followed beside him, just like a student, listening and nodding, and he was almost taking notes in a notebook.

What Jia Lian said were all normal situations, such as gas explosions, landslides, and backflows. If such situations occur, with the current rescue capabilities, if several people are trapped below, most of the bodies pulled out are corpses. It's better for bachelors, but for those with wives, there will be many widows, right?

"I thought that after a trip to Shaanxi and Gansu, I had seen all the sufferings of the world, but I never thought that there were so many difficulties in life. I have lived a life of luxury since I was a child, and I have never suffered the slightest hardship. When I went to Shaanxi and Gansu, I saw that Li Zhitai had become darker and thinner. I asked him and found out that during the court's relief period, in order to prevent the people below from doing something, he went down to every relief point in person. Despite such hardships, many people still did not survive. Most of them died of diseases. Thanks to Li Zhitai's advance preparations, the plague did not spread."

After Li Yuan came back from Shaanxi and Gansu, he never asked Jia Lian to hand in his homework, so now he has to make up for it.

"It seems that the Second Prince visited many places during his trip to Shaanxi and Gansu, and saw the unique local landforms." Jia Lian actually didn't want to tell him too much, but because of the needs of his character, he accompanied him.

"Yes, the local people mostly live in cave dwellings, and farm on the high plateau. From the top of one source to the other, there is a deep ditch between us, and we can hear people talking on both sides. If we want to go to the other side, we have to go down first and then walk a long way. Under the special local environment, if there is a drought, there will be no harvest and no grass to eat. I have read the History of Ming Dynasty. I couldn't understand it before, but after seeing it in person, I understood the truth of many historical records."

Jia Lian found it difficult to refuse to communicate with him with this attitude. After thinking for a while, he decided to speak more deeply: "Since Your Highness has read history books, you should know that the few words in history books are stained with endless blood and tears, and there are bones everywhere that no one has picked up."

“When a country prospers, the people suffer; when a country perishes, the people suffer. Since Lord Jia knows that people’s livelihood is difficult, why does he still support the court’s overseas expansion? That costs money.” Li Yuan’s map of the State of Yan is a bit long.

Well, it can be understood that the philosophies of governing the country are different.

No matter which prince Emperor Chenghui chooses to be the emperor in the future, he hopes that they will know how miserable the real suffering of the people can be.

"A country's resources are idle. For China, the most important resource is land. The so-called cycle of order and chaos is the outbreak of the contradiction between land resources and population growth. Idle land cannot support population growth. The general trend of land annexation has not changed. Once natural disasters or man-made disasters occur, this process will be accelerated. The most recent example is the late Ming Dynasty. After the gains and losses of the Donglin Party, it became very difficult to collect taxes in the prosperous Jiangnan. May I ask, Your Highness, where did the huge amount of Liao tribute come from every year? As a result, the contradiction between people and land was accelerated, and finally it broke out, and Chongzhen was hanged on Coal Hill. Do you understand?"

Jia Lian was surprisingly patient! Li Yuan listened very carefully and nodded seriously.

"So, the purpose of external expansion is for land?" Li Yuan gave an incomplete answer.

Jia Lian smiled and said, "So far, this is the main purpose, but it may not be the case in the future. Your Highness must understand one thing. Since ancient times, China has been an agricultural country. From history books, we can only see the endless cycle of order and chaos, and the change of dynasties. It is the responsibility of our generation to expand, seize more land, and strive for more living space for future generations."

"Mr. Jia, could you please elaborate on what you have not said?" Li Yuan was really smart and understood what Jia Lian had not finished saying.

"It's hard to explain it to Your Highness now, so it's better not to say it. Future generations will understand." This is the only way Jia Lian can explain it. You can't tell him the importance of the market.

Fortunately, Li Yuan did not ask any further questions and followed him to another factory, which was producing percussion caps. In the laboratory next to it, they were developing breech-loading percussion cap guns.

"No, the idea provided by Lord Jia requires a better firing pin, otherwise the firing pin will break after dozens of shots, or it will not fire. My idea of ​​using a hammer can avoid the problem of firing pin quality." Several craftsmen surrounded an official and were discussing a rifle in front of them. To be honest, Jia Lian was dumbfounded, the shape of this thing was too special.

How to say it, at the tail of the gun, there is a movable device connected to a part of the barrel. After it is opened, the tail section of the barrel can be turned upwards, and after loading, the hammer is used to fire the primer.

"No, Lord Jia's idea is right. You should not try to take shortcuts. I will go to the Zunhua Iron Works in person and ask them to come up with a way to make better steel and manufacture qualified firing pins."

Li Yuan looked at Jia Lian in surprise. What did he mean by "Master Jia's idea was not missed". It was said that it was Jia Lian who seized the foundation of the Ministry of Industry, which made the Research and Development Department a golden goose. Now it seems that the rumors he heard are not right. He is suspected of being misled.

Jia Lian stood aside and watched for a while. When the group of people noticed him, they stopped arguing and came to reason with Jia Lian with their strangely shaped rifles.

Seeing this, Jia Lian smiled and said, "No need to explain, I've seen it all. The decisive factor in the development direction of rifles is ammunition, and metal cartridge cases are the inevitable direction of the future. I won't elaborate on the benefits. I can only say that this is a crooked way of thinking. Master, you don't have to be unconvinced. You should think like this. Now the gun can only hold one round of ammunition at a time, but the development direction is to put more ammunition in it. The disadvantages of your design have already reached a dead end in the direction of multiple rounds of loading."

After hearing what Jia Lian said, the craftsman stopped arguing and was convinced. Although he was a little unwilling, he still acquiesced that Jia Lian was right.

"Don't think too much now. Let's first come up with a breech-loading rifle that can be loaded one round at a time. The significance of this is beyond your imagination. Imagine that a breech-loading rifle not only increases the firing rate, but also reduces casualties on the battlefield. When two armies are facing each other, breech-loading rifles can find cover without affecting the loading speed. Even if they lie on the ground, the loading speed will not be affected, which greatly reduces casualties."

The official took out another rifle. This rifle looked a bit better, with a magazine, a locking mechanism, and a firing pin. With the development of various machine tools and the improvement of processing accuracy, under the guidance of Jia Lian's thinking, the birth of this rifle was just a matter of time. The disadvantage was still the steel, so we could hear the debate before.

Jia Lian picked up the rifle, took a look at it, and after pulling the bolt, he was very satisfied. Although the ammunition was black powder paper shell bullets, the prototype was already there, and all that was left was to continue accumulating.

"We will continue to develop in this direction and produce a rifle that can fire 500 rounds at a time. Even if it barely passes the test, we can mass-produce it."

When Jia Lian saw this rifle, he felt that his efforts were not in vain. In the future, when the court expands overseas, having this rifle to fight against muzzle-loading rifles will be a real dimensionality reduction attack.

Li Yuan was not interested in these things. He took the initiative to say goodbye and repeatedly expressed that he had gained a lot.

Jia Lian didn't see him off either. The emperor said he would stay for a month and there was plenty of time.

Jia Lian didn't have much time to stay in the Research and Development Hall, because when the French envoy was still on his way north, another piece of news was delivered by express delivery over six hundred miles that the British envoy had also arrived.

Emperor Chenghui said that it doesn't matter whether you are driving one sheep or two sheep, you should just receive them both.

(End of this chapter)