Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The determination of the longitude and latitude coordinate system is of great significance.

It will enable the people of the Ming Dynasty to have a deeper understanding of time and draw maps more accurately.

Specifically for ocean voyages, the routes will be more accurate.

Zhu Youjian believed that this was a very profitable venture, so he asked Xu Guangqi and the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to prepare a construction plan for the Bell and Drum Tower Observatory and apply for funding from the court.

In order to allow the whole city to see the four-faced clock on the tower and to adjust the time more conveniently, Zhu Youjian required that the height of the new bell tower be about 100 meters, twice that of the old bell tower.

Its design draft is naturally the tower type that Ming Dynasty craftsmen are good at, so it is also called the bell tower.

The height will be higher than the glazed tower of Nanjing Da Baoen Temple, which is more than 240 feet high. Even if it does not require such luxury, the estimated cost will be more than one million taels.

Zhu Youjian certainly didn't want to pay for so much money himself. He asked the outer court to pay for it together on the grounds that the bell tower was needed by the court.

Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Finance, complained about this and said to the emperor at a regular meeting on financial affairs:

"Last year, due to the war, the Ministry of Revenue has been unable to make ends meet."

"If the salt administration hadn't sent us a sum of money, we wouldn't even be able to give rewards to the soldiers."

"I really can't afford to build a clock tower, so let's put this matter on hold!"

It was suggested that the construction of the bell tower be postponed until the court's finances improved.

Zhu Youjian believed what he said because it was he who urged the reward of meritorious soldiers last year.

But he also felt that he had to push them harder, otherwise these officials would become lax.

He said to the cabinet chief Han Yu:
"Prime Minister Han is in charge of the Finance and Economics Committee. All matters concerning the court's finances are in your charge."

"I wonder how much silver you can come up with?"

Han Yu had access to many more financial institutions than Bi Ziyan. He knew he had to come up with a solution, otherwise the emperor would be unhappy.

After thinking about it, he said:
"All the revenues of the imperial court have a destination. Only increased taxes can be flexibly allocated."

"The income from printing money is newly added. In addition to increasing the salaries of officials in Beijing, I think we can squeeze out a part of it."

Zhu Youjian did not agree to this because the reason why he gained the support of officials for minting silver coins and issuing subsidiary currency notes was that the income would increase the salaries of Beijing officials.

He said to Han Yu:

“Printing money may seem to make money, but minting coins is a loss.”

“After the craftsmen change to working all the time, they should be paid.”

"Someone brought silver to mint coins, and the mint also minted them for free."

"Plus, printing libi can only break even, so the income from printing money is actually not as much as one might imagine."

The denomination of Libi was too small, so during the Yuan Dynasty, the printing of Libi was stopped due to the high cost.

Although Ming Dynasty's printing technology made great progress under his guidance, the requirements for printing subsidiary currency notes were also much higher.

The printing factory estimated that it would be good enough to break even on the cents in the early stage, and made money mainly from printing fen and jiao.

This part of the income also needs to be used to supplement the mint. Because Zhu Youjian really lost money on minting in order to issue silver coins to eliminate fire consumption.

He also stipulated that artificial silver coins would be provided free of charge to those who provided silver.

All costs involved will be borne by the mint.

Han Yu had a lot of opinions on this matter. He suggested:

"Silver coins are more accepted by the people, and it is much more convenient to trade with them than with loose silver."

"I think we can raise the exchange rate and recover the cost of coinage."

Zhu Youjian waved his hand and said:
"Now is the time to promote silver coins. We must not change our mind overnight."

"The mint and the printing factory will never lose money together, and the priority is to produce currency to meet the circulation needs."

Zhu Youjian had a much deeper understanding of currency than these court officials. He hoped to unify the currency and make the money market active.

In that way, he could make money more easily by investing funds in metal exchanges and stock exchanges.

However, after the silver dollar notes were restricted to subsidiary currency notes, the income from printing money also dropped significantly. The money could not be easily used to bribe officials.

After the emperor rejected his suggestion, Han Yu did not dare to raise it again for fear of offending officials in the capital.

He thought about what had happened in the past few days and said:
"The Navy's shipping group has earned a new income of 500,000 taels of silver. Since the construction of the clock tower is related to shipping, I think we should let them contribute some money."

"As for railway operation, it also requires precise timing. We can ask the railway company in Taipusi to pay for it."

Both institutions made money on the stock exchange, and countless government offices in the imperial court envied them.

Han Yu took the opportunity to ask them to pay.

Zhu Youjian nodded and felt that the two government offices should indeed pay.

Accurate time and coordinate systems are very important for transportation. The Navy Department and the Imperial Household Department are responsible for paying for the construction of the clock tower:
"Let the shipping group contribute 100,000 yuan and work with the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to draw sea charts and star charts."

"The railway company has little money, so let them pay 10,000."

This solved the problem of 110,000 yuan, but it was still a drop in the bucket for a clock tower that might cost as much as a million yuan.

At this time, Shang Zhouzuo, the Minister of Industry, said:

"I think since the construction of the bell tower is related to navigation, we can let them donate money."

"These people are rich in maritime trade, but they lack reputation. If Your Majesty gives them some reputation, I believe they will be happy to donate money."

The madness of the overseas merchants in the stock exchange really shocked many people in Beijing.

Shang Zhouzuo used to be the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and he had a deeper understanding of the wealth of maritime merchants.

It is suggested that a special monument be erected when the bell tower is built, and the names of those who donated money be engraved on it.

Those sea merchants would probably donate actively in order to gain fame.

After all, even when temples are building pagodas, many people donate money regardless of the benefits.

Zhu Youjian nodded and ordered:

"A merit stele can be erected at the bottom of the tower to record the meritorious craftsmen and officials who donated more than 1,000 taels."

"The watch workshop will also make a scaled-down model or a small clock tower based on the appearance of the clock tower and sell it to these people as a souvenir."

This is a souvenir he launched for the clock tower, and he plans to sell it to people when they visit the clock tower.

If the watch workshop can make the four-faced clock on the clock tower model work, it will have practical functions and will be purchased by more people.

According to Zhu Youjian, many wealthy people in the Ming Dynasty were willing to build a clock tower at home, just like he planned to build a small clock tower in the imperial palace.

In the future, once the longitude and latitude of each city in the Ming Dynasty is determined, clock towers will also be built to tell time to the entire city.

Ports, customs, and even various government offices all need to have four-sided clocks.

Therefore, the watch workshop will never stop making tower clocks.

In the future, many craftsmen and capital will flock into this industry.

The watch industry will develop as a new industry in the Ming Dynasty. Historically, after watches became popular among the upper class during the Qianlong period, the Thirteen Hongs spent hundreds of thousands of yuan each year to purchase watches.

It is one of the few major commodities imported by the West into China. Even Voltaire got involved in this industry and designed a huge plan to trade watches with China.

The clocks and watches imitated by the clock-making department of the Qing Palace were also extremely exquisite. However, Emperor Qianlong regarded clocks and watches more as rare instruments and did not make full use of their timekeeping function.

This led to Emperor Jiaqing, after the death of Emperor Qianlong, in order to show his dedication to governing the country, saying "I have never valued rare things, nor liked to play with fine things. It is my nature, not pretense", and regarded singing birds and other things as dirt.

The clock-making department in the Qing Palace declined as a result, just like how the Ming Dynasty's timekeeping instruments did not develop much after Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang smashed the crystal clepsydra.

Today, Zhu Youjian encourages the watch industry, but he certainly does not regard watches as fancy machines. He focuses on the timing function, especially the marine clock that requires accurate timing.

He needed to develop the watch industry in the Ming Dynasty and complete import substitution first.

This Western advantage over the Ming Dynasty was gradually replaced by Ming Dynasty’s own clocks and watches.

This is an industry worth at least hundreds of thousands of yuan every year, and the imperial court will be able to collect a lot of taxes in the future.

The second is to develop precision timing instruments to promote the upgrading of Ming Dynasty's industry.

Among the various mechanical products currently available, clocks and watches can be said to be one of the most sophisticated instruments. They can drive the development of industries such as gears, coil springs, and glass, making Ming Dynasty's industrial products more sophisticated. Standardization and assembly processes will also develop in this process.

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It can be said that the watch industry is a very important industry in Zhu Youjian’s plan to promote industrialization.

The huge amount of money spent on building the clock tower today is to promote the development of the watch industry through this investment.

The Ming Dynasty’s pursuit in timekeeping instruments was to lead the world.
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Although the ministers did not know about the emperor's plans, they strongly agreed with his idea of ​​selling souvenirs.

No one was so tactless as to say that the clock tower was useless and dissuade the emperor from building it.

Cheng Jiming, the Minister of Rites who rarely spoke on financial affairs, even suggested:
"I think that those who donate more than 1,000 taels of silver can also be granted the status of public officials."

"They donated money to build the tower, which was also a donation."

This made Zhu Youjian nod slightly, approving the proposal.

He worked hard to create the class of public officials. In order to maintain this status, people with the status of public officials would be more or less loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, punishments such as revocation of identity for crimes such as tax evasion can also influence their behavior to a certain extent.

Therefore, he did not care about Cheng Jiming's plan to interfere in the donation affairs and agreed to this proposal.

After Man Gui sold the Dongping Earl's bonds for 150,000 yuan with the donation of hereditary knighthood as collateral, the income obtained by the inner court through donations began to attract the attention of the court officials.

Some officials criticized this behavior, believing it to be a buying and selling of titles.

There are also some outer court officials who want to take charge of this area.

However, because most of the income obtained by the inner court through donations was used for disaster relief and immigration, this incident did not cause any trouble in the end and was easily settled by Zhu Youjian.

Now that Cheng Jiming's proposal has been approved, Zhu Youjian is also showing some goodwill.

After all these measures are implemented, the estimated revenue could reach 500,000.

If it is not enough, the outer court will have to find a way to raise funds.

The remaining 500,000 yuan would need to be paid by the inner court.

After all, the Imperial Observatory belongs to the inner court, and a large part of the cost of building the clock tower will be invested in the clock workshop.

Today, the number of watches sold by the watch workshop is not large, far from reaching hundreds of thousands.

This made Zhu Youjian's eyes turn to the deposed former King of Chu, Zhu Huakui.
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Jinyiwei, imperial prison.

After the former King of Chu Zhu Huakui was deposed, he is now imprisoned here.

He was also one of the few prisoners in the imperial prison.

After Zhu Youjian's vigorous rectification, the environment in the imperial prison improved a lot. There were even special medical officers responsible for their health management.

But no matter what, it is not the same as when Zhu Huakui was the King of Chu. Not to mention that he is now a prisoner and cannot get out of prison.

The current emperor's trusted eunuch, Wang Wenzhen, who was in charge of the imperial eunuch affairs, came to the imperial prison again that day.

When Zhu Huakui saw him coming, he did not move at all. He did not shout out his injustice, nor did he make any other expression.

She just glanced at him, as if he didn't exist.

This made Wang Wenzheng very angry, and he scolded Zhu Huakui:
"Zhu Huakui, what are you still thinking about? Are you willing to cooperate?"

"What will it take for Chu Fan to hand over the account books of the money and grain he accumulated?"

This was the task assigned to him by the emperor, asking Zhu Huakui to actively cooperate and completely dig out the wealth accumulated by the Chu clan.

Zhu Huakui was not a very courageous person, but he was extremely greedy when it came to money.

Knowing Wang Wenzheng's purpose, he sat on the ground and sneered:
"Isn't it all for Chu Fan's money?"

"Don't expect me to cooperate unless you restore my throne."

This has always been his appeal, to use money to buy the title.

Back then, he used 20,000 taels of silver to win the favor of Emperor Wanli.

The current emperor obviously has a bigger appetite and he is prepared to spend more money.

But first we have to release him from the imperial prison.

Wang Wenzheng was a little vague about this before, but this time he sneered and said:
"Still daydreaming about your things!"

"Let me tell you, the position of King of Chu has nothing to do with you anymore."

"The Emperor has already issued an edict on the tenth day, asking the Chu clan to compete for the title."

"The princes and clan members of the Chu vassal state are all preparing for this."

Zhu Huakui obviously didn't know this news.

The management of the imperial prison is now much stricter than before. Zhu Huakui could not get any useful information in the prison.

Everyone in the capital who should know about the emperor's order to compete for titles at the tenth day of the lunar month knew about it, but Zhu Huakui, the criminal, was obviously not among them.

This made his face change suddenly, knowing that the title of King of Chu might no longer be his destiny.

He was so panicked that he shouted:
"why?"

"How can the emperor issue such an order?"

"I am the heir of the late king. Why should I be deposed?"

This is a point he has always insisted on, insisting that he is the descendant of the previous King of Chu. In the absence of more evidence, the court has no way to deny this, and at most they can say that his identity is questionable.

The reason why he was imprisoned was because he was charged with treason. He once donated 1,000 taels of gold to the Huguang Shrine.

This crime can only lead to imprisonment, not execution. That is why Zhu Huakui thought he could still turn the tables.

But this hope was obviously going to be shattered after the emperor issued the order to fight for the title.

Knowing that the emperor's words were law, he knew that even if he was willing to give away all his money, he could not let the emperor take back his order.

The position of King of Chu was far away from him. (End of this chapter)