My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 277 The Current Status of Ming Dynasty Industry

The test run of the locomotive was successful, the railway had begun to be laid, and the locomotive would enter the mass production stage. At the same time, the construction of the new steamship was also about to begin.

This also means that more skilled workers are needed on factory floors.

Zhu Yuanzhang dragged his tired body back to his bedroom, but he was extremely energetic.

I poured myself a glass of Coke, added some ice cubes and drank it all in one gulp. Immediately, all the heat in my body was swept away, and I felt comfortable.

After cooling down a bit, his excited mood gradually calmed down, and he began to think about the future of Ming Dynasty.

Today, the Ming Dynasty's industry has initially formed a system, and has also formed industries with mining, steel smelting and forging, and machinery manufacturing as the pillars.

In addition, there were several large sugar factories, but the textile industry, silk weaving, etc. were still concentrated in the hands of the gentry and had not yet formed large-scale production. This was still a long way from the English-style large-scale textile production cluster that Zhu Yuanzhang longed for.

Except for the new shipyard built in Songjiang Prefecture, other major factories are concentrated in Yingtian Prefecture. However, industrial clusters have not yet been formed in the provincial capitals outside Yingtian Prefecture. Many provincial capitals only have one or two factories that can only engage in simple processing, making some farm tools and cooking utensils.

Even in more remote areas, industry is still at the handicraft workshop stage, as before.

Therefore, if we look at the entire Ming Dynasty, in fact the entire industrial manufacturing is still not strong enough. A typical example is that the demand for industrial products from all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more vigorous, and even overseas countries are coveting Ming Dynasty's products.

This time, the foreign nations came to the Ming Dynasty with a desire for trade.

However, Daming's manufacturing capacity is far from keeping up with the market's demand. For example, the coal furnace factory has orders from all over the country scheduled until next year. Even if the factory continues to expand its recruitment, it is simply unable to cope with the workload.

This is the current industrial status of the Ming Dynasty. The development between regions is extremely unbalanced. Zhu Yuanzhang sighed. He knew that haste is not enough. To solve the current problem of insufficient productivity, the simplest way is to build a factory and continuously expand the scale of production.

But where will the manpower come from?

Building cars requires workers, building ships requires workers, and building guns requires workers. Mines, machine factories, steel mills, sugar factories, etc. are all eagerly waiting for more personnel.

Although nearly 200,000 prisoners were captured during the Northern Expedition and the Southern Expedition, after the contract was signed with Annan, the prisoners captured in the Northern Expedition were sent to Annan to mine, while the prisoners from Annan were used to lay railways.

At the end of last year, Yang Siyi led the Ministry of Households to conduct a national population census. At present, the total population of the Ming Dynasty is more than 61 million. Among them, excluding the elderly and children who are unable to work, even if women of working age are included, there are only about 30 million, and more than 20 million people engaged in agricultural production must be excluded.

So the number of people suitable for industrial production is only about a few million, not to mention the 1.1 million Ming Dynasty official troops. Among the remaining people, less than 30% are literate.

Moreover, these 30% of people are scattered across the country, so it is still a question whether they can be effectively organized for production.

In other words, there are only about one million qualified workers who can actually enter the factory, and this also includes those who are determined to take the imperial examinations and become officials.

Although many simple jobs do not require workers to be literate, as long as they have arms and hands and the strength to tighten screws, it is obvious that what Mr. Zhu needs are educated workers.

If you ask an illiterate person to forge steel, whether he can understand the instructions or the work number is a small matter, but if he accidentally falls into the furnace, that would be a big deal. Not to mention making guns and machines, which require higher technical requirements.

Therefore, the only way to solve the problem from the root is to establish a three-level education system as proposed by Li Min, and teach technology-related knowledge to children from the beginning.

Running a school requires money. For the Ming Dynasty today, money is not a problem; the biggest problem is resistance from the literary world.

I really want to catch all those guys and take them to the factory to let them experience the hard work of production. Otherwise, they will be enjoying the benefits brought by industrial manufacturing while looking down on industrial production.

Zhu Yuanzhang cursed in his heart and walked into the Buddhist hall as usual, then he saw a new letter on the Buddhist table.

What you wish for will come true. Old Li will definitely find a way. Zhu Yuanzhang was delighted. He had already developed blind confidence in Li Han.

There is no problem in this world that Lao Li cannot solve!
He quickly walked to the Buddhist table, opened the envelope impatiently, and read it carefully.

"Old Zhu, first of all, I have to make it clear to you that I am not omnipotent. There are still many things in this world that I don't know how to do, such as giving birth to a child."

As soon as he saw the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but burst into laughter and slapped his thigh heavily. Does Old Li really want to make people laugh to death?
For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth corners hurt from laughing, but he still couldn't help laughing. Old Li, Old Li, you are not the only one who can't have children. All men in the world can't have children!

I don’t know what’s going on in Old Li’s mind. How did he come up with these witty remarks?

But if you want it, Old Li, there will be countless girls in the Ming Dynasty vying to give birth to children for you.

By the way, if that old bastard Xu Tiande keeps bragging in front of me about how omnipotent he is, then I, Old Zhu, will let him have his own children!
"After reading your letter, I deeply understand a truth. In fact, the Ming Dynasty is full of talented people. It's just that the limitations of the times have restricted the development of their thinking. Once they can break the fixed thinking pattern, they will definitely be able to return a miracle to you."

Haha, what Old Li said means that our Ming Dynasty must be full of talented people. Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little proud.

"Li Min's proposal to establish a three-level system of higher education institutions, secondary technical schools, and elementary education for children is a genius idea and a talent-making machine that can continuously provide talents for the Ming Dynasty.

Here, we can further refine this education system in order to provide the Ming Dynasty with talents with both moral integrity and intelligence. Of course, before discussing this education system, we must first solve the problem of the literary world. "

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, revealing a somewhat sinister smile. Hehe, we knew that Lao Li had a way, and his method would definitely be able to control those pedantic literati.

He couldn't wait to see the frustrated but helpless expressions of the literati.

"First of all, Mr. Zhu, you have to make a point clear, that is, Confucianism is the core of traditional Chinese thought. Confucianism and other thoughts such as Taoism, Buddhism and other schools of thought constitute the foundation of our Chinese civilization. It is the source of our Chinese civilization that has been passed down for thousands of years and even forever."

That’s right, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded heavily. This point had been discussed as early as when discussing the characteristics of Chinese civilization.

"Therefore, Confucianism itself is not guilty. The guilty ones are those who control the discourse power under the banner of Confucianism, oppress new things in order to protect their own interests, and hinder the progress and development of the country!"

(End of this chapter)