The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 151 Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Dynasty Change

Although Wanli seemed to be idle, he was actually promoting the development of the Ming Dynasty while making money.

After more than two hundred years of development, the Ming Dynasty had actually reached the end of its feudal dynasty.

At this time, all the drawbacks of the feudal dynasty have been exposed, and all wealth is rapidly concentrated in the hands of vested interest groups.

If we continue to develop according to the model of the feudal dynasty, the rich will live in luxury while the poor will freeze to death on the streets.

This model is actually a vested interest group trying to gain power, make money after gaining power, and then annex land after making money.

The vested interest groups have more and more land, while ordinary people have less and less land.

When land annexation reaches its limit and common people are starving to death, there will be chaos in the country and the dynasty will change.

This is an infinitely repeating vicious cycle.

Even if he continued to implement reforms according to Zhang Juzheng's ideas, it would only be a temporary solution and could only prolong the life of the Ming Dynasty.

It would be useless for him to forcibly take back all the land that had been surveyed and distribute it to the common people.

Later, corrupt officials, dukes, princes, royal relatives, local tyrants and gentry will still find ways to annex land and become new vested interest groups.

Because in the model that emphasizes agriculture over commerce, the main cake is the land.

The cake is so small, and the vested interest groups are very familiar with the methods of grabbing the cake. Ordinary people simply cannot compete with them. The cake will eventually be quickly concentrated in the hands of the vested interest groups, and ordinary people will eventually rebel due to hunger.

To put it bluntly, Zhang Juzheng's reform was just a reshuffle and redistribution of the benefits of land. The court collected a little more and the people got a little more, but in essence, the benefits were still the same and no new benefits were created.

This is only treating the symptoms and not the root cause. The little profit generated by the fields is not enough to be distributed. Without the emergence of new interest points, the Ming Dynasty will eventually enter a vicious cycle of continuous replacement of feudal dynasties.

Therefore, he had to create a new cake, a cake bigger than the fields, and control this big cake in his own hands, stipulate the distribution method, and let the common people have enough to eat, so as to break the vicious cycle of the continuous replacement of feudal dynasties.

This piece of cake is not actually about doing business, but about vigorously developing productivity, producing more things, and creating more wealth.

To be honest, doing business cannot promote the development of the Ming Dynasty. Trading limited goods back and forth will only increase the cost of living for ordinary people. It will not only fail to improve the current situation, but will make it worse.

This may be the fundamental reason why previous rulers emphasized agriculture over commerce.

Because they cannot develop productivity and create more products, in this case, vendors can only increase the prices of limited goods by selling them back and forth, allowing the vendors to make profits, which is really harmful rather than beneficial.

It's different now.

It was quite terrifying that Wanli used imperial power to develop productivity. Just with the help of water power, he could create a super big cake.

For example, in the past, even if all the blacksmiths worked together day and night to forge iron, it would still be impossible to produce 30 million kilograms of wrought iron in a month.

Now that we have hydraulic forging equipment, 30 million kilograms a month is just the starting point.

He is developing hydraulic forging so crazily that producing 300 million kilograms a month is not a problem at all.

Moreover, water power replaced human labor to complete the most time-consuming and labor-intensive work, so many blacksmiths were able to free up their hands to forge iron tools, including farm tools, daily necessities and weapons and equipment.

Even with the help of water power, the output of these iron tools could double.

In fact, this is just the beginning. Water power can not only be used to develop the steel industry, but also to develop many other industries.

For example, the spinning and weaving industry.

Among the necessities of life, the spinning and weaving industry is actually the largest and the most labor-intensive. The development of this industry is of the greatest significance to improving the lives of ordinary people.

In fact, the water-powered spinning machine has been available for a long time, and Wang Wei, the Earl of Yongnian, knows how to make it.

It turns out that there was no one to promote the development of this industry.

Of course, most people can’t push it.

As for a waterwheel, it would be a great achievement for an ordinary person to hire a craftsman to build one.

If there are more, there will not only be issues of cost investment, but also issues of land occupation, recruiting people to do the work, safety protection, etc.

This kind of industry requires strong power to promote it, otherwise it will not be able to develop.

The imperial power is the greatest power in the feudal dynasty. He can naturally promote the development of any industry he wants to promote.

Otherwise, who could have built water wheels and blacksmith workshops on both sides of the Chaobai River, the Luan River, and even the Sha River?

To put it bluntly, even if someone has the financial resources to produce it, they won't be able to protect it. It would be strange if corrupt officials didn't use the power in their hands to frantically grab it.

If you don’t give it to me, we will dismantle your waterwheel and your workshop!
It’s different when it’s made by the emperor’s order. Who dares to touch it?
Anyone who dares to move will be considered a rebel and his entire clan will be exterminated!
When an emperor promotes the development of an industry, issues such as land occupation, recruiting people to work, cost investment, safety protection, etc. are no longer problems.

For him, the biggest problem was how to use the waterwheel to maximize productivity.

This requires a water-powered spinning machine, which is also one of the main purposes of his visit to the Summer Palace.

After he came back from the northwest, he asked Yongnianbo Wang Wei to make a sample of a water-powered spinning machine. Unexpectedly, it took Yongnianbo Wang Wei more than a month to make this thing.

So, what exactly is this water-powered spinning machine?

He drove back all the princes, nobles, and royal relatives who had followed them, and only left behind Linhuai Hou Li Yangong, who followed them to the newly built spinning workshop upstream of Chaohe River.

At this moment, there were already several craftsmen busy working on a strange machine.

Wanli was stunned when he saw this.

This water-powered spinning machine was completely different from the hand-powered spinning machines he had seen before. This one was actually a huge one, nearly ten feet high and nearly three feet long!
Moreover, the wheels inside this water-powered spinning machine are much larger than those used for manual spinning. Some are about ten feet in size, and some are two or three feet long. There are more than one such large wheels, but four in total, and they are actually driven by belts in the middle.

This belt is a real belt, probably made of cowhide.

Several craftsmen were trying out wool there.

However, the effect did not seem to be very good. It kept breaking and no spindle could be spun.

When the craftsmen saw the Emperor coming, they were so frightened that their faces changed and they immediately fell to the ground in panic, too scared to speak.

Seeing this, Wanli raised his hand and said, "No need to be polite. Everyone, stand up. What's going on? Tell me. If there is a problem, we will solve it. Don't be afraid."

Upon hearing this, several craftsmen hurriedly got up from the ground. The oldest craftsman among them said with some fear, "Your Majesty, this machine was made during the Song Dynasty.

However, this thing is used to spin linen and silk, and it doesn’t seem to be suitable for spinning wool.”

No?

Wanli frowned slightly, then asked gently, "What's your name, old man?"

The older craftsman said carefully, "I am Zhao Chuwu. They all call me Old Zhaotou."

Oh, and he’s also a foreman of a craftsman household.

This kind of craftsman is actually quite skilled, but no one knew about his skills before.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "This loom can spin linen and silk, so why can't it be used to spin wool?"

This one.

Old Zhao explained carefully, "Your Majesty, both hemp and silk are very long. Hemp is at least several feet long, and silk is usually hundreds of feet long. If you gather a handful of hemp or silk into a strand and pick it up, it's basically impossible to break.

This wool is different, it’s only about a finger long, and it breaks easily when you pull it out.”

When you unravel the silk from the cocoon, you'll find that the length of the silk is truly astonishing.

It turned out that the wool was not long enough.

Wanli pondered for a while, then asked, "How do you ensure continuous spinning of wool yarn when you hand-spin it?"

Old Zhao explained carefully, "Your Majesty, hand spinning is slow. They can slowly pinch the wool into thin strands with one hand, twist it, or even rub it with their hands, and then turn the spindle to spin the yarn. That way, they don't have to constantly draw the yarn, so it won't break."

Is it so troublesome?

How did later generations solve this problem?

Wanli grabbed a ball of processed wool from the feed frame, frowned and pondered for a long time, and finally had a little idea. It seemed that it was solved by using several large round rollers with surfaces like hedgehogs.

He thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you have a hand-spinning machine?"

Of course there are such simple things.

Old Zhao immediately ordered someone to bring one over.

Wanli took a closer look and then said decisively, "Nail all the crossbeams of this wheel with rows of nails. The spacing between the nails should depend on the size of the wool strands needed for spinning."

what?
Why are there so many nails on this spinning wheel?
When Old Zhao heard this, he was stunned.

(End of this chapter)