Yongle Emperor's grandson: Zhu Yuanzhang with cheats, Zhu Di went crazy

Chapter 201 Welcome to the new era!

There were two places in the Ming Dynasty where supervision was the strictest.

One is the imperial prison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, where the most important prisoners of the court are held. Ordinary people cannot get out once they go in.

Even if the six ministers of the current dynasty wanted to enter, the Jinyiwei would not let them in.

The other one is not the Ming Dynasty’s imperial palace, but the ordinary Tiangongfang in front of you, which is full of countless mysteries.

Tiangongfang City has high and thick walls.

It is called the City Outside the City by the people of Jinling.

After several years of construction, the former imperial farmland has disappeared and it has become a small town.

The city wall is three and a half feet high, with a gun emplacement and watchtower on top.

There are 2000 regular garrison soldiers and three entry checkpoints, which are jointly guarded by the Jinyiwei Five Cities Bingmasi and the garrison troops.

There is a moat outside the city, which diverts water from the Yangtze River around the city.

There were also 500 patrol cavalrymen from the three government offices, who patrolled non-stop for 12 hours.

There are cross-patrols at the city gates, above and below the city, and no gaps are allowed.

Anyone who wants to enter the city is not allowed to enter unless they have a warrant from one of the three people: the emperor, the crown prince, and the crown prince. Otherwise, even if you are the minister of one of the six ministries, you are not allowed to enter.

The old man led his men to wait outside Tiangong Workshop. In addition to waiting for Zhu Zhanjun, he also asked the guarding soldiers to register and count the people who would enter in a while.

After the last person to enter was counted, a temporary visitor sign was distributed.

Zhu Zhanjun waved towards the city wall, and the suspension bridge was lowered with a loud noise.

"Come on, everyone. Follow me today to see the most mysterious place in our Ming Dynasty."

The old man greeted him with a smile, but he didn't get into the carriage or ride a horse. Instead, he walked towards the lowered drawbridge.

When the others saw that the emperor did not ride a horse but a sedan chair, they followed behind.

Seeing such tight security, everyone's curiosity grew even stronger.

What’s in here?
The security force is even higher than that of the imperial palace.

Everyone followed the old man through the city gate and saw rows of neatly arranged buildings.

"Hiss, the windows here are actually all glass."

The sun is shining brightly today. It is hanging in the east, emitting a red light and shining on the houses.

As soon as everyone stepped in, they noticed dazzling reflections.

An official squinted his eyes, looked at the reflection, and gasped in surprise.

Glass is a new type of item launched by the Veterans Chamber of Commerce in the past two years. It is transparent and installed on windows to make the house brighter.

But the price is not cheap, and generally wealthy families can only afford to install it in the main rooms to show their wealth.

They didn't expect that every window here was made of glass, and they were huge.

"What's so strange about this? Glass is produced here. It's valuable when sold to us, but it's worthless here."

Xu Jingchang, who had gotten a handful of melon seeds from somewhere, was eating them while looking down on the ignorance of the official next to him.

Since he joined the Shenwei Mansion, he has seen a lot of new things.

In addition, he was clear about his position and knew that he was only representing the new nobles of Fengyang to support Zhu Zhanjun, so he usually never interfered in other people's affairs.

Later, the uncle named Xu Nian Da appeared, which made him understand some things and made him support Zhu Zhanjun even more wholeheartedly.

Precisely because of this, Zhu Zhanjun never spared Xu Jingchang's rewards.

Whenever Xu Jingchang went to buy things, the Veterans Chamber of Commerce would give him the biggest discounts and even allow him to buy on credit.

Xu Jingchang, who always loved to show off, had already replaced all the windows in his house with glass.

"Master Xu, littering is not allowed here."

Just when Xu Jingchang was looking smug, a Jinyiwei with the Tiangongfang badge on his waist came over, saluted and warned Xu Jingchang.

Glancing at the old man walking in front and looking back at him, Xu Jingchang smiled awkwardly, squatted down and picked up the melon seed shells he had thrown.

"Pfft! I told you long ago that the rules here are very strict, and you still insisted on bringing melon seeds."

Li Jinglong, who was chewing a pear nearby, laughed when he saw this scene.

The Royal Guards looked at him again.

Li Jinglong raised the pear in his hand and said, "I will throw it into the bucket after I finish eating it."

The Jinyiwei nodded, walked to the sentry post on the side, and looked at everyone vigilantly.

"Little guy, you take the lead. It's up to you to decide where we can go and where we can't go."

After passing the last checkpoint, the old man smiled and asked Zhu Zhanjun to lead the way.

Zhu Zhanjun nodded and led everyone to the westernmost building with chimneys.

As he walked, Zhu Zhanjun said to the officials and old man behind him: "As the strength of our Ming Dynasty increases, the consumption of steel and other materials will also increase day by day."

"However, the annual output of our Ming Dynasty is simply not enough to meet the needs of the court and the army. We can't even meet the needs of the army, let alone civil defense construction."

"So two years ago, I ordered the establishment of a department dedicated to studying steel, and asked them how to increase steel production and improve steel quality."

Hearing this, many officials nodded slightly.

Although they were not satisfied with Zhu Zhanjun, they still saw everything Zhu Zhanjun had done and the changes that had been brought to the Ming Dynasty in recent years.

In the past two years, the high-yield grains that have been planted in Jiangnan and the Central Plains, as well as the maritime trade opened up in Jiangnan, have brought profits to the major merchant families in Jiangnan and the related people.

There was also a series of initiatives taken by the Crown Prince, who sent people to the Hetao area to establish a horse breeding base, and so on.

To be honest, it is rare in a thousand years for a crown prince to lead the court to such a level.

In other words, Zhu Zhanjun was the second son. If he was the eldest grandson of the emperor, countless officials would have sung praises for him.

When they arrived at the gate of the steel plant, Zhu Zhanjun signed a warrant at the guard booth and asked the guard to confirm the number of people, and everyone walked in together.

As soon as they entered, several tall steel furnaces came into view.

Just at this time, a furnace of iron was about to be taken out of the furnace.

Zhu Zhanjun led the crowd and watched from a distance.

As the master swung the hammer and smashed the iron outlet, bright red molten iron flowed out. "Hiss, the iron turned into water. How high must the temperature be in here?"

Song Li, the knowledgeable Minister of Works, exclaimed when he saw this scene and subconsciously led several officials around him to go over.

"Minister Song, according to the regulations, you can only watch but not get close."

The guard who was following him reached out to stop Song Li.

"His Majesty."

Song Li looked at the old man, hoping that he could say something.

His Industry Department had been eyeing Tiangongfang for a long time and had always wanted to find an opportunity to incorporate this department into the Industry Department.

Now that he had the opportunity to observe Tiangongfang's strength up close, he naturally wouldn't let it go.

"We are just here to take a look today. We can talk later if there is anything else."

How could the old man not understand what this guy was thinking, but he knew that this was his grandson's treasure and he would never hand it over to the Ministry of Industry.

The old man also didn't want this Ming Dynasty development department to become a bureaucratic place.

The old man knows better than anyone what the current Ministry of Industry is like.

The idea was not realized, and Song Li felt helpless and could only stare at the blast furnace where red molten iron was flowing.

Zhu Zhanjun pointed to several blast furnaces in the distance and explained to the old man and others: "According to statistics from the year before last, the annual iron production of our Ming Dynasty is about 1900 million catties, but only 1300 million of them can be put into use."

"Although there are a lot of them, it is still obviously not enough for our army in the entire vast Ming Dynasty."

"After research, the craftsmen at Tiangongfang changed the iron-making method and adopted this new blast furnace to make iron."

"According to our estimates, this new type of iron-making furnace can produce 20 to 30 tons of molten iron per furnace. Tons are our new way of calculating, and each ton is 2000 kilograms."

Song Li's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "According to the highest calculation, one furnace would produce 36 catties. If it is fully opened, it would produce catties."

Zhu Zhanjun nodded: "You can calculate it this way, but there will be some differences. However, about 30 kilograms should be no problem."

Many people present were shocked by this data. Jin Zhong couldn't help but ask, "May I ask Your Highness, how long does it take to make a furnace here?"

Zhu Zhanjun waved to the side, and a worker wearing a safety helmet ran over and handed over the notebook in his hand.

Zhu Zhanjun took a look and replied, "It takes a lot of steps and requirements to shape the molten iron. The temperature outside will also have a certain impact, so on average, one furnace can be produced within 3 to 5 days."

Hearing this data, a smile appeared on the old man's face.

And these are just six blast furnaces.

According to the memorial submitted to him by Tiangongfang a few days ago, Tiangongfang plans to build dozens of iron smelters in the northern region in the future.

Each factory building is equipped with 20 to 30 of these new iron-making furnaces.

By this calculation, the materials from these iron smelters alone could support the entire Ming Dynasty.

"good very good."

The old man nodded repeatedly with satisfaction, and told Zhu Pangpang beside him: "You should pay more attention to this aspect, and try to meet their needs."

Zhu Pangpang quickly agreed.

The group visited the ironworks for a while, and under the leadership of Zhu Zhanjun, they walked through the ironworks and headed to the experimental site in the west.

He wanted very much to see the steam ships and steam engines now, and to visit other places, and would decide after that.

Soon, the group arrived at a new workshop, and before they entered, they heard a clanging sound.

In some areas of these workshops, thick black smoke was still coming out of the chimneys.

"Your Highness, is this also an iron smelting workshop?"

Song Li looked at the big chimneys and thought they were still used for iron smelting. His eyes suddenly lit up.

Zhu Zhanjun shook his head without explaining. After reaching the door, he turned around and looked at everyone.

"Everyone, what you are about to see is the most advanced technology in the world, and it is also the cornerstone for changing the future of Ming Dynasty."

He clapped his hands, and the guard behind him pulled the door open with force.

Everyone's curiosity was aroused and they all looked behind the door.

And this sight made my eyes widen.

In the huge workshop, huge wheels and belts were connected together.

They rotate rapidly, driving each machine.

A female worker shuttled among the machines, placing bundles of wires on the machines and connecting them together.

In front of their eyes, steel spinning machines were running rapidly, and cloth was taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the short time they were watching, the rows of machines in front of them had woven quite a lot of cloth.

"This, this, this..."

Such a fast weaving speed made them open their eyes wide.

It was not until this moment that they finally understood why the silk cloth from Tiangongfang was so cheap.

Why is cloth expensive?
Everyone knows that the weaving speed is too slow, which wastes labor costs and causes supply to fall short of demand, which drives up prices.

The speed was so fast that one person could keep an eye on two machines, which completely shattered their concept of weaving.

Zhu Zhanjun led everyone inside and explained to them, "This is a steam spinning machine. It uses a new power source and is no longer based on human power."

"The production speed of cloth is dozens or even hundreds of times faster than manual labor."

"What kind of chicken should I steam?"

Maybe it was because it was too noisy, Zhu Pangpang couldn’t hear clearly for a moment.

Zhu Zhanjun waved his hand and led everyone to the place where the noise was the loudest.

Everyone followed Zhu Zhanjun and walked to the place where the noise was loudest.

As the isolation door was opened by the guards, a huge running machine appeared before their eyes.

Accompanied by a hissing sound of steam, the swing arms rotate rapidly, driving the gears and belts to transmit power to the spinning machines outside.

Zhu Zhanjun walked to the steam engine, turned to the shocked civil and military officials, slightly stretched out his hands and said loudly: "Welcome everyone to the new era, the era of steam power!"

(End of this chapter)