Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 538 The Prosperous Hong Kong
Once the new rifle's experimental design was finalized, Lu Jin immediately instructed Tao Guangyi to expedite the construction of the Jinling Arsenal and gradually relocate the workers from the three ironworks there. This would concentrate firearms production in one place, improving efficiency and controlling technology. Tao Guangyi readily agreed.

Then Lu Jin asked, "How many steam engines are there now?"

"There are three now, all in the workshops along the Qinhuai River. They are mainly used to upgrade the power of the workshops. After all, you have to be good yourself to make good products. Without good equipment, it is not easy to mass-produce steam engines."

Lu Jin knew that this matter couldn't be rushed, so he nodded and then said.

"We still need to mass-produce them as soon as possible and then distribute them to various factories. We can also organize production using assembly lines instead of having craftsmen work by hand in a workshop. If we want to replace the power source for so many factories, how long will it take to do it by hand?"
"Go back and study it, break down the production process. The people who roll iron plates should only roll iron plates, the people who rivet boilers should only rivet boilers, the people who bore cylinders should specialize in boring cylinders, and finally set up a final assembly workshop to assemble all the parts together."

"You also need to train a few engineers who will be responsible for guiding the installation at various factories in the future. Otherwise, you won't be able to find manpower when you need it. Get the scaffolding up as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will certainly remember this." Tao Guangyi nodded hurriedly.

Lu Jin thought for a moment and then said, "There are also the three acids and two alkalis of the chemical plant. Once things are on track here, the chemical plant also needs to be set up as soon as possible. At that time, we will need to find sales channels for the chemical plant's products. There is no shortage of sales channels for caustic soda and soda ash, but we need to plan ahead for the use of sulfuric acid."

Upon hearing this, Tao Guangyi immediately asked in confusion, "Caustic soda and soda ash can be used in textiles, papermaking, glassmaking, and soap making. These are all practical products and necessities for people's lives. But who can buy sulfuric acid? People probably don't need it either."

"That's why we say we need to plan the uses in advance. Things that the common people don't need are naturally used by the imperial court. The biggest use of sulfuric acid right now is for mining ore and processing silica sand, providing glass factories with a large amount of pure silica sand raw materials, as well as molding sand for iron foundries. All of these require sulfuric acid treatment."

"By the way, speaking of casting, the current casting technology also needs to be changed as soon as possible to improve the country's metal casting capabilities. Upgrading from the old clay mold casting to sand casting is also a matter of utmost importance, as it relates to the future production of heavy machinery, artillery, and other weapons. The outdated clay mold casting should have been eliminated long ago."

Tao Guangyi was immediately puzzled and asked, "Your Majesty, what's wrong with this clay mold? Hasn't it always been cast this way before?"

"Just because we've always done it this way doesn't mean it's right. If we're talking about the disadvantages of clay molds, the biggest one is that it takes too long. From the time a clay mold is shaped to when it's completely air-dried for casting, it takes at least a few months. How can we afford to wait that long?"
“Sand casting allows for same-day molding and casting, making it easy for large-scale mass production. As long as a mold is made first, mass casting can be done. Which one do you think is better?”

"I see." Tao Guangyi suddenly understood, then asked, "So what is needed for sand casting?"

"Silica sand, clay, coal powder, and molding sand are the three main materials. Oh, right, there's also water glass, also called sodium silicate or sodium silicate. This is used to quickly harden and shape the sand mold. This will also be added to the chemical project. It will be produced together with hydrochloric acid. Write it down and don't forget to remind me later."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will write it down." Tao Guangyi immediately took out his notebook and wrote it down.

Lu Jin continued, "Then there are several other metals to mine: molybdenum in Wenzhou, tungsten in Fuliang County, Raozhou Prefecture, and manganese and antimony in Xiangtan, Hunan. These are metals we will need soon. Even if we don't mine them on a large scale in the short term, we should send people to find the exact location of the veins first."

Upon hearing this, Tao Guangyi frowned and then asked with difficulty, "But Your Majesty, we don't know what these ores look like, so how are we supposed to find them?"

Lu Jin immediately turned to look at him, "That's quite a coincidence. You don't know what those ores look like, and neither do I."

Tao Guangyi was speechless for a moment.

"I majored in mechanical engineering and materials science, and I have no knowledge of geology or mineral exploration. How would I know what those ores look like? At most, I can only tell you the approximate locations recorded in my ancestral home."

"As for finding mineral veins, even a fool has his own methods. A living person won't let themselves be held back by their own bladder, will they? Send a few students who are good at chemistry, with a full set of experimental tools, to the vicinity of the target site to find stones and test the samples one by one. You remember the flame test, right?"

Upon hearing this, Tao Guangyi suddenly realized, "I understand, we use flame tests to identify metals!"

“Good.” Lu Jin nodded. “Take a few students from the science class as soon as possible and have them prepare before we leave.”

Just then, Mao Xin, who had been recording the finalized experiment, immediately bowed and volunteered, saying, "Your Majesty, I am not very talented, but I have only just begun to understand chemistry. I am willing to go and search for mineral veins for the court."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin thought about the person's grades in the class. He was indeed one of the top students, otherwise Tao Guangyi would not have taken him with him. So he nodded and said, "Okay, you can count on. Since you volunteered, you'll have to work harder. You'll be going to Xiangtan in Hunan. You'll be in charge of finding manganese and antimony mines there."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will certainly live up to your expectations," Mao Xin replied immediately, bowing with his hands clasped.

Lu Jin nodded, and then said, "These are pretty much all the things to do in the near future. Remember them, make the necessary arrangements, and get them done as soon as possible."

Tao Guangyi nodded, then added a reminder.

"Your Majesty, there is another matter. Several new machine factories have been opened this year. Your Majesty also plans to mass-produce steam engines. The navy and army will also need to build many new cannons. In the next few years, a lot of machinery will definitely need to be added. These machines are all made of iron. Each machine weighs at least several hundred or even several thousand kilograms, and some can even weigh tens of thousands of kilograms. A machine factory may not be able to be set up without hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron."

"But if all the iron from the government-run ironworks is supplied to the machine factory, it might affect the production of cannons and machines. The output of the original three ironworks might not be enough. Should the government open a few more ironworks?"

Lu Jin frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Did the former Yuan dynasty also have a large ironworks in Zunhua, Hebei?"

“There is indeed an ironworks in Zunhua, and if an ironworks is built here, it can supply Hebei, Liaodong, and southern Inner Mongolia,” Tao Guangyi replied immediately.

Lu Jin thought for a moment and then asked, "What about other provinces? Do you have any iron smelting companies you would recommend?"

Tao Guangyi continued, “Shanxi is rich in coal and iron, and has a relatively dense population. Taiyuan, an ancient prefecture, has been known for its iron smelting since ancient times. There is also Yunzi iron from Zezhou in southern Shanxi, which is very famous and produces the sharpest scissors. We can recruit craftsmen and set up factories in Shanxi, so that the imperial court will no longer have to travel thousands of miles to relocate craftsmen there.”

“In other provinces, Jiangsu already has the Xuzhou Ironworks, so there’s no need to set up another one. Anhui has the Luzhou Ironworks and the Dangtu Ironworks. Zhejiang and Jiangxi are short of coal. Laiwu in Jinan Prefecture, Shandong, has historically been a place for iron smelting and has a relatively large population. We can set up one in Shandong as well, and we can sell our products to the north and south along the Grand Canal.”

"Let's start with these four: Zunhua in Hebei, Taiyuan in Shanxi, Zezhou in Shanxi, and Laiwu in Shandong. Add to the three existing ironworks, making a total of seven. For now, we'll only have these few and won't be opening any new ironworks in the short term."

"As for the iron shortage, we can temporarily halt armor production. Once we've massively replaced our firearms, armor production will no longer be necessary. Production of other cold weapons like swords and spears will also be temporarily suspended after completing the latest assembly order. Give the workers a break, and then you can begin the relocation. "Of the original three ironworks, only iron smelting, casting, and rolling will remain. All other trades will be moved to the capital and assigned to machine factories and arsenals. Then, select a few skilled veteran craftsmen and send them to the four newly opened ironworks. By cutting other operations, we should have enough iron for the time being. We can discuss the future reconstruction and expansion of the ironworks after we've mastered the new technology of steel blowing."

When Tao Guangyi heard Lu Jin mention the blown steel method and the need to renovate the ironworks in the future, he immediately asked again, "When will we be able to master the blown steel technology? If we can break through the technology in a short time, wouldn't it be a waste to build a new ironworks now? Why not wait until the new technology is implemented and then use it to open a new factory?"

Lu Jin immediately said, "At least we have to wait for Wang Dayuan to bring the rubber back from Lizhou. The rubber is like a shackle that is choking us. Without the rubber, many things cannot be done."

"Even if he comes back, this steel blowing method won't be popularized too quickly. First, we need to make a sample, put it in the Dangtu Ironworks for trial operation, summarize the experience, and then improve it. Once the new technology is mature, it can be promoted to other factories. It will take at least a few years. Those new factories aren't afraid of wasting resources, so let them keep refining like this for now."

"Yes, Your Majesty understands. I will arrange this matter as soon as possible."

After Tao Guangyi finished speaking, he turned to look in the east. He wondered if the crew of the Yuanwang who had sailed across the ocean were still alive or dead. His Majesty the Emperor was eagerly awaiting their return. He hoped that nothing bad would happen to Wang Dayuan and his men.

"Ahh~"

Wang Dayuan sneezed, put down his chopsticks, rubbed his nose, and Chen Youliang, who was sitting opposite him, immediately looked up and asked, "Sir, what's wrong? Could you have caught malaria? Should we have the doctor prepare some quinine for you?"

Wang Dayuan quickly waved his hand, "It's nothing, I just sneezed. Maybe someone's been talking about us. We set off last May, and it's July now. We agreed to leave and return that year if everything went smoothly, but it's been delayed until now. Maybe His Majesty is thinking of us."

Seeing that he was alright, Chen Youliang leisurely took out his pipe, stuffed it with tobacco, lit it with a candle, and started puffing away. This guy had been in America for almost a year and had actually become addicted to tobacco, even learning how to cultivate and process it from the local Aztecs.
He took a deep breath and then said, "There's no use worrying about it. Isn't it said that the Pacific Ocean is in its typhoon season before October? If we go back now and encounter a storm, we'll be doomed. Let's just wait patiently until after October before setting off. My two acres of tobacco will be ripe soon, so I'll harvest them before going back."

“You…” Wang Dayuan shook his head speechlessly, then said seriously, “It’s getting late. I’m going to pack up and head back in September.”

Chen Youliang immediately stood up. "So fast?"

"Yes." Wang Dayuan nodded and immediately explained.

“I have carefully studied the return route. If we set off directly from Xiangxun Port and head west, we can take advantage of the warm current of the Pacific Ocean to return, but there will be almost no places to resupply along the way. If we want to go to Tanzhou (Hawaii) for resupply, our route is too far south, and we may not be able to find Tanzhou accurately.”

"Therefore, I decided to set off in September, first going north to Jinchuan (San Francisco) to trade with the natives there and collect the gold. Then I would head west from Jinchuan, first to Tanzhou, then from Tanzhou to the Marshall Islands, and finally to the vicinity of Luzon Island, before returning home from Southeast Asia. This way, we could resupply twice along the way, which would be safer."

"Since we're going to Jinchuan first, we should naturally set off earlier."

Upon hearing this, Chen Youliang immediately nodded and said, "That's why I told you to take care of yourself, sir. You are the backbone of our ship. In this vast ocean of tens of thousands of miles, without your guidance, we might not even be able to get home."

"Don't worry, I'm not that easy to kill."

Chen Youliang thought for a moment and then said, "It's already late July. We're leaving in September, so we only have a month left in August to pack and prepare. It seems we have something to do soon."

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. We need to prepare for our return flight in advance."

"Let's talk about that after we finish this meal. Of all things, eating is the most important. But His Majesty is right, there are indeed some delicacies in Lizhou. If I don't bring these back with me, I'm afraid I won't be able to eat anything in the future, hahaha."

On the table in front of the two were boiled peanuts and edamame, shredded potatoes with green peppers, braised alpaca meat, potato stew with capybara (no, I mean potato stew with capybara), and a roasted duck. The main dishes were potato rice and corn, which was quite a feast.

Lizhou is indeed rich in resources, but there are too few edible livestock. Apart from turkeys and Muscovy ducks, the only other proper livestock are alpacas. There aren't even any pigs. So the locals often eat capybaras as a main dish, a practice that has now been adopted by the Ming Dynasty immigrants from Xiangxiang Port.
Today, after nearly a year of development, Xiangxun Port has taken shape and developed into a small town with a population of over 5,000, of which more than 1,000 are in the core area, and the rest are slaves bought from the local area.

The core population consists of the three hundred immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, along with their native wives. Each of them was assigned one or two wives and concubines, as well as children. Well, many of these three hundred immigrants have now given birth to mixed-race children, and some who gave birth quickly even had two children, one from each of their wives and concubines.

The initial group of just over three hundred immigrants surprisingly created a baby boom on the other side of the ocean. Including the immigrants, their spouses, and their descendants, the population has now exceeded one thousand.

Yang Hui and Nahachu also built a brick walled building in the port area of ​​Dagang, which looked like a square Hakka walled building. It looked like a bunker or watchtower. However, it must be said that bunkers are indeed a powerful tool for establishing colonial outposts.

This walled village was proposed by Yang Hui, who had served as an official in Fujian and southern Zhejiang and had seen the Hakka people there who built similar walled villages, some round and some square, where the whole clan lived together. The walled villages were very sturdy and could withstand attacks from bandits.

So he built a walled village in Hong Kong, big enough to house all three hundred core immigrants and their families. In case of danger, at least these few hundred core people could hold out for a while.

However, people don't usually live in the walled building. It's only for officials like Nahachu and Yang Hui, as well as the militia on rotation and the sailors from the Yuanwang who don't plan to stay there. The walled building also has facilities such as a well, granary, and woodshed. It's usually used as an office. People only go to the walled building when something really happens. They usually live in houses scattered throughout the port area.

In addition to the residential areas within the port, blacksmith shops, oil presses, and woodworking workshops also sprang up. Several miles outside the port, waterwheels were erected in the farmland, and rice paddies surrounded the crisscrossing irrigation canals. They had actually brought rice cultivation to the Americas.

Of course, many native crops are also grown here. Outside the mountains of Xiangxun Port, there are large cotton fields. These were seeds that Wang Dayuan and his group either found themselves or bought from local Aztec merchants. It seems that they have already collected everything that Lu Jin wanted.

They even built their own looms here and are now self-sufficient in clothing using local American cotton.

The cats that were brought on the ship had kittens here, and the dozens of huskies and Alaskan Malamutes that were bought from the Inuit people also bred and multiplied here, producing many offspring.

Moreover, Xiangxun Port has now made a name for itself, and many Aztec native merchants drive alpaca caravans here to trade, bringing bags of rubber in exchange for bundles of cotton cloth and ironware.

Looking at the orderly and prosperous scene before him, Wang Dayuan knew he should go back, otherwise His Majesty would probably get impatient.

(End of this chapter)