Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The establishment of public fields such as sacrificial fields was warmly supported by scholars.

Officials and students in the capital city gave it rave reviews.

Especially those college students, who previously wanted to participate in politics through parliament and were reluctant to oppose parliament's resolutions, finally expressed their opinions on the property tax after the court set up public land.

Most scholars expressed their support for property tax and public land, and responded to the court's call to go to the Sinong Temple to practice as clerks.

This was a policy that Zhu Youjian asked Guo Yunhou to introduce, using these knowledgeable and cultured students to help the Sinong Temple survey the land.

It was also stipulated that these internships should be recorded as work experience and even counted towards the probation period. These students who were provided with stipends were used as temporary clerks.

Gu Yanwu responded to the call and went to Sinong Temple with his classmate Gui Zhuang to accept the task of measuring the land in Haidian District.

Gui Zhuang was the great-grandson of Gui Youguang and also a descendant of a famous person. While working with Gu Yanwu, he asked him:
"Brother Gu, do you think the land can be surveyed cleanly this time?"

"And what are your plans for the 800 acres of land in your family?"

Gu Yanwu did not answer the first question, but responded to the second question:

"I plan to write to my mother and sell fifty acres of land and send the money over."

"In this way, my family will only have 750 acres of land, and the land tax will only be 20%."

"The silver from the sales can also be loaned out. Many industries in the capital need money."

As the adopted son of his uncle, Gu Yanwu's mother remained unmarried at the age of 16. Although Gu Yanwu relied on his clan to avoid being bullied, he suffered from the coldness of human nature since childhood, which developed his eccentric and strange temper. Together with Gui Zhuang, who had a similar personality, they were called "Gui Qi Gu Guai".

Because he was independent since childhood, Gu Yanwu was very proficient in practical matters. Although he was only sixteen years old this year, he was well versed in farmland, water conservancy, minerals and other matters, and was a man of practical talents.

After he arrived in the capital, he found that the newspaper, coal and other industries in the capital were extremely active. There were also many suppliers who provided products to the imperial palace and they grew stronger with the support of the royal family.

All these industries require funds. He believed that if he could get 500 taels of silver from his family, the annual interest alone would be enough to support his expenses in the capital.

If there is any good opportunity, I can also try to buy shares and own a business in Beijing.

Historically, he relied on this skill to travel between the north and the south, and never lacked money. There are even rumors that the Shanxi Piaohao was the one that he and Fu Qingzhu established, and that the Shanxi merchants followed it and dominated the business world for more than 200 years.

It can be said that this is a talented person who is capable of managing the world and is very useful.

Gui Zhuang also admired him for this. When he heard him say this, he immediately said:

"In that case, I will also write home and persuade them to sell some land."

"From what Brother Gu said, the property tax will definitely be implemented, and the land will be measured?"

Gu Yanwu nodded and said:

"Let's not talk about other places, but the capital city will definitely be surveyed."

"With so many scholars going down and measuring in a cross-section, the measurement must be more accurate than before."

"What's more, after this measurement, each family needs to actively declare their land. If any land is omitted, it means they are deliberately evading taxes."

"If this kind of behavior is discovered in the future, your citizenship will be revoked."

"I think most of the people in the capital don't dare to do that now."

This is his opinion, and also the conclusion he came to after his inspection in Zhuolu District.

After the parliament has shown its effectiveness, the public attaches great importance to it, which is far beyond what most people can imagine.

Most of them value their national identity and the right to vote that comes with this identity.

Those scholars and officials attached great importance to the right to be elected.

Most of these people do not want to be deprived of their political rights because of a little tax.

Even Gu Yanwu himself planned to sell 50 acres of land to pay the land tax because he was worried about being reported and losing his right to vote.

Therefore, he planned to pay the property tax as soon as it was implemented in Nanzhili. He could not lose his political rights because of this little money.

After hearing what he said, Gui Zhuang thought about the current atmosphere in the capital and nodded, agreeing with his judgment.

In the capital, where the political atmosphere is strong, losing political rights is no different from being a pariah. People here should be very careful about tax evasion.

But it is different in Jiangnan. Public opinion there has never been shameful about tax evasion, and even officials who collect taxes are considered to be exploiting the people.

If this trend does not change, the implementation of property tax will only be superficial.

As a man with political ambitions, Gui Zhuang certainly did not want his family to evade taxes and affect his future. However, unlike Gu Yanwu, he was not the head of the family, so he could only write letters to his family to explain the pros and cons and ask them to pay taxes according to regulations.

The two chatted about the policies in the court, and they both agreed with the current emperor.

Unlike most of the court ministers who were unwilling to change and sometimes even thought that the emperor was naive, most of these young people supported the emperor's changes and felt that the current emperor's actions were quite to their liking.

This was not only because of the propaganda in Zhang Pu's Ming Pao, but also because after the emperor ascended the throne, he eliminated the eunuch party, pacified Chahan, released palace ladies, and reduced the number of eunuchs, all of which made them feel that he was a wise ruler.

Especially for the Normal School, the emperor opened Tsinghua Park and even allocated the palace inside to them as classrooms. This made the teachers and students of the Normal School deeply grateful and they supported the emperor very much.

Otherwise, those of them whose families were relatively wealthy would not have responded to the emperor's call to come for internship.

What makes these young people even more excited is that after arriving in the capital, they see a series of new things.

There are not only newspapers that speak freely, but also hot air balloons that can take people into the sky, as well as various boxing and ball games.

After coming to the capital, many students became addicted to these new things and were unwilling to return to their small and secluded hometowns.

The reason why Gu Yanwu wanted his family to send money for investment was that he planned to settle down in the capital and own some industries.

He actually has a goal, which comes from the courtyard where he lives now.

These courtyards were built by the emperor for the royal family who moved to the capital, but because there were not enough dormitories in the Normal School, some were allocated to them.

After Gu Yanwu and others moved in, they felt very novel about this townhouse, especially the running water and heating pipes inside, which made them feel very convenient.

Although these pipes often broke down, and more than one student suffered because of them, Gu Yanwu saw their potential and believed that they would be widely used in the future.

He deliberately established connections with plumbers, planning to lend them money to open repair shops or even start a business together.

He believed that this business would make money and would have great potential in the future.
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Zhu Youjian had the same idea, believing that tap water and radiators were the key to the success of the new type of architecture he promoted.

Only when these two things are perfected can the townhouses show their convenience and replace the current buildings.

This way he can promote housing renovation in the inner city in the future and make more money from the real estate industry.

Therefore, after Song Yingxing returned to Beijing, he asked the author of "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" to help complete the two matters.

Song Yingxing did not disappoint him and improved the pipelines with the materials he knew. He also added various valves according to the emperor's instructions to reduce the losses caused by pipeline damage.

This greatly reduced the failure rate of tap water and heating pipes, and was more acceptable to the students living there. After completing this, Song Yingxing reported to the emperor:
"Steel made from heavy oil is of better quality than steel made from coal."

“It’s just that the refining method is not mature yet, and there is a shortage of heavy oil, so it’s difficult to produce in large quantities.”

This was another purpose of his modification of the water pipes, to experiment with steel refined using heavy oil.

After actual use, he found that some of these steels were of high quality and better than those made from coal.

This made him feel that heavy oil steelmaking had great potential and was worth further development.

But one of the current problems is that the oil production area is in northern Shaanxi, and it is not easy to transport it to Jiaocheng, Shanxi after refining it into heavy oil.

This puts great restrictions on heavy oil steelmaking, making it difficult to expand production on a large scale for a while.

After hearing this question, Zhu Youjian was very happy about the success of heavy oil steelmaking. Regarding the transportation problem, he said:

“The Yancang Highway is under construction.”

"After it is completed in the future, it will be easier to transport heavy oil from northern Shaanxi."

"I will have people look for oil elsewhere and ship it over from overseas."

According to his impression, there are almost no shallow oil fields in the Central Plains, and it is difficult to develop them with current technology.

However, both Sumatra and Kuwu Island have large oil fields that became famous in later generations, and Royal Energy engineers can be sent to these two islands to search for oil.

In the future, it will be more convenient to ship it here by ship than from northern Shaanxi.

Therefore, he arranged for Song Yingxing to go to Zunhua, Qian'an and other places to look for iron ore, and to build an iron factory on the coast to facilitate the refining of iron after the overseas oil was transported.

There had been an ironworks in Zunhua a long time ago, but it was closed due to a shortage of charcoal. Theoretically, it could be reopened as long as there was fuel, but this iron mine was far from the coast.

In comparison, Zhu Youjian's impression of the Qian'an Iron Mine was that it was closer to the coast. In addition, there was a Luan River in Qian'an, which made it very convenient to reach the coast by water transportation. So he asked Song Yingxing to go to Qian'an to find iron ore and plan the route to the coast.

It can be said that he, like later generations, chose Yongping Prefecture, which was Tangshan in later generations, as the location of the steel industry.

Together with the newly incorporated Zhangde Prefecture into Northern Zhili, these were the two steel industrial bases that Zhu Youjian planned to build in Northern Zhili.

Song Yingxing took on this task and asked hesitantly:

"I gave some of the steel I brought from Jiaocheng to the Equipment Research Institute to make muskets."

"I don't know how effective it is. Can I use it?"

Zhu Youjian was also quite curious about this, so he called Lu Xiang and others to inquire about the progress of firearms in recent days.

After Lu Xiang entered the palace, he responded:

"The quality of steel made from heavy oil is similar to that made from charcoal, but the quality is not stable."

"I think that the iron used for firearms and cannons should be imported from the south. The steel smelted from coal in the north is not suitable, and the steel refined from heavy oil is not mature either."

This is the court's experience in using steel to manufacture muskets and cannons. Because the south has abundant wood and mature steelmaking methods, the quality of the steel produced is better.

In the north, because charcoal is scarce and expensive, coal is mostly used to smelt iron, and the quality is much worse.

Therefore, the imperial court used steel shipped from the south to manufacture muskets and cannons, especially Jiantie produced in Fujian, which was most suitable for making muskets.

Although Lu Xiang was a carpenter by birth, after developing firearms for such a long time, he had already figured this out and made suggestions to the emperor.

Zhu Youjian respected the advice of such professionals, so he did not force the implementation of steel refined with heavy oil. He nodded and said:
"Since steel made from heavy oil is unstable, let's use it in other areas first."

"Once it is stable, it can be used to make firearms."

Then he said to Song Yingxing:

"The heavy oil steelmaking method needs to be improved to see where the problem lies."

"There is also a need to improve the steel testing method, so that good quality steel can be separated for separate use."

Song Yingxing had no choice but to agree.

He actually wanted the Equipment Research Institute to use the steel he refined using heavy oil, so that his contribution would be greater.

However, the quality of steel refined from heavy oil was unstable, and he could not ask the emperor to implement it against his conscience. He could only make up his mind to improve the process as soon as possible to make the quality of steel refined from heavy oil better.

Another thing is, as the emperor said, we need to improve the steel testing method to pick out the good steel and iron.

This way the equipment research institute can use it in the future to replace the steel shipped from the south.

Zhu Youjian showed some concern for this matter, and after Song Yingxing left, he asked Lu Xiang about the progress on firearms.

Lu Xiang's Treasure Tunnel:

"Your Majesty asked us to make a lightning gun, which has been modified from a light fire gun."

"In the past, Zhao Shizhen used the Lumi gun to make the lightning gun. The light fire gun originated from the Lumi gun, and it is very easy to modify it."

Someone was asked to bring back a lightning-powered gun, a sample of which had already been made.

Zhu Youjian looked at the electric gun and found that it was indeed equipped with a sub-gun that could be loaded from the tail of the musket and ignited and fired with a fuse.

This made him very satisfied, and he asked:
"What are the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of musket?"

“Can we equip it in large quantities?”

Lu Xiangdao:
"The advantage of this musket is its fast firing rate."

"The disadvantage is that it is more troublesome to manufacture, and its power is slightly smaller than that of ordinary muskets."

This made Zhu Youjian frown and asked:
"So what if it's less powerful?"

"Does its sub-gun contain less gunpowder?"

Lu Xiang shook his head to deny it and said:
"It's not that there's less gunpowder, it's that the sub-gun has to be loaded from the back, so it leaks when fired."

"The reason why breech-loading artillery such as Portuguese guns have a shorter range than muzzle-loading artillery is also because of this."

This made Zhu You understand and know the reason.

At this time, the breech-loading gun was not as good as the muzzle-loading gun. In fact, it was mainly because the breech-loading gun was not tightly sealed and would leak air during firing.

In this way, some of the energy of the gunpowder will be wasted, and the energy exerted will naturally be less than that of a muzzle-loading gun.

The principle of a breech-loading musket like the electric gun is similar to that of the Portuguese cannon, so the Portuguese cannon's shortcoming of air leakage was naturally inherited.

Therefore, compared with the normal front-loading Lumitar, its range and power are inferior. This is also the reason why it has a fast loading speed but is not equipped on a large scale. (End of this chapter)