The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 173: Spending Money Recklessly
The summer resort at this moment is actually a large processing plant.

Except for the palace converted from the county government office, most of the other places in the Summer Resort are various workshops, craftsmen, and residences of soldiers from the Beijing garrison.

There are quite a lot of craftsmen here, and many of them are good at carving fine molds.

Wanli just wanted a simple copper mold, and several craftsmen worked together to carve it out in one day.

The next morning at about noon, Zhou Danquan actually ran to the palace to ask for a meeting.

Wanli immediately ordered someone to invite him into the backyard and asked curiously, "Duke Zhou, what's wrong? Is there any problem?"

Zhou Danquan shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, there is no problem. I have already made the sample. Would you like to go and see if there is any problem?"

So fast?
When Wanli heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned.

Then, he could not wait to call Yongnian Earl Wang Wei, Li Xuancheng, Shan Sinan and others, boarded the navy's speedboat, went downstream, and went straight to the glass processing workshop.

Although it is midsummer now, the Summer Resort is not hot at all. There are rows of water wheels on the Chaobai River, and the mist is floating, making it very cool.

However, the glass processing workshop is full of furnaces and is very hot.

As soon as Wanli and Yongnianbo Wang Wei and his party walked into the workshop, they immediately felt heat waves coming from all directions. It was so hot that he wanted to take off his clothes.

He rolled up his sleeves and followed Zhou Danquan to the shelves by the wall to take a look. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

At this time, Daming's processing level was really high. He just gave a rough description of the style of the test tube and it was made in one day.

Moreover, there are not just one or two of the four types of test tubes, but dozens.

He picked up a silver test tube and looked at it carefully, then nodded slightly.

This style is similar to the small test tubes of later generations. Even the seams of the mold are not visible. The whole body is very smooth, and the silver powder dots inside make it look more upscale.

He picked up a glittering blue test tube and looked at it, then asked, "Duke Zhou, what is the value of the gold and silver powder added here?"

Zhou Danquan said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, don't think it seems like a lot was added. In fact, it's just a little bit. The one with silver powder only added a few coins, and the one with gold powder only added twenty or thirty coins."

Well, the cost is not that high.

Wanli picked up the white porcelain tube and took a look at it, but couldn't help but frowned slightly.

This seems too monotonous and doesn't look classy enough.

He thought about it and then asked, "Is it troublesome to engrave words on the mold?"

Zhou Danquan nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, the mold can be engraved. This is easier than machining the mold. The mold needs to be carved out with great effort. For engraving, you can just use a carving knife to gently chisel it in."

You can still draw, right?

Wanli thought for a moment, then pointed to the test tube on the shelf and said, "This golden one is used to hold two kinds of medicine, one is the Golden Elixir, and the other is the Dragon Elixir. We need to make two sets of molds. The Golden Elixir will have the words Golden Elixir engraved on it, along with some auspicious clouds. The Dragon Elixir will have a coiled dragon engraved on it.

This silver wild can is used to hold two kinds of medicine, one is silver pill and the other is tiger pill. Two sets of molds are also made. The silver pill is engraved with the words "silver pill" and some auspicious clouds, while the tiger pill is engraved with a tiger.

The remaining two types of medicines have more varieties. You can ask Dr. Li and his team for samples of their names and pictures."

Zhou Danquan nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli said to Yongnianbo Wang Wei: "Father-in-law, we also need to make a copper mold for pressing pills. The pills are the size of soybeans and pressed into round shapes. The holes in this mold don't need to be too deep, about two soybeans deep will do. Carve more holes on one plate, at least a hundred.

Is this kind of mold difficult to make?"

It is easy to carve a soybean-sized hole in a copper mold. First, drill a smaller hole, and then chisel it with a chisel made of hundred-fold steel.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei pondered, "This mold isn't difficult to make. I estimate two craftsmen can make a set in a few days."

That's good.

Wanli explained in detail, "We need to make millions of medicines. A dose of medicine will probably require more than ten or even dozens of pills. We need to make as many of these molds as possible."

Uh, how much can you do?

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, don't you have an approximate number?"

That depends on how many pills you need to make.

Wanli estimated: “We are not yet able to produce large quantities of medicinal materials. There are not many medicines we can make, and the quantity this year will not be very large.

This year we will calculate that there will be one million doses of 30 commonly used medicines, and each dose will contain 20 pills, which means about 600 million pills.

Let's take four months, and we can produce about 150 million pills a month. About 5 million pills a day should be enough. How many sets of molds do you think we need?" Yongnianbo Wang Wei gestured with his hands for a while, then estimated: "Your Majesty, we can go to the lower reaches of Chaobai River to build a waterwheel and a workshop to make pills.

The water flow over there is slow, and if you set up a rack like the one used to forge gun barrels, you can probably only get about fifty or sixty hammers falling in a quarter of an hour.

The time interval in between is already very long, enough for the craftsman to turn over the mold at the bottom, knock out the pressed pills, turn the mold over again, and scrape the processed medicine powder or mud into the pit.

We calculate it as 50 times in 15 minutes. One mold makes 100 pills, 5,000 pills in 15 minutes, 40,000 pills in 1 hour. If we work in two shifts, 480,000 pills in 12 hours.

If we work overtime, eleven sets of molds are enough. Even if we work ten hours a day, that's still 400,000 pieces. Thirteen sets of molds are enough at most."

Yes, many workshops can be built in the lower reaches of Chaobai River.

The Chaobai River enclosed by the Summer Resort is only more than 20 miles long, and the lower reaches are more than 100 miles long. If it is fully built into a waterwheel workshop, it will be enough to make medicine, glass, muskets and cannons, and even armor.

Wanli pondered, "The mold is so small, will there be any problem in pressing the pattern onto the pill?"

This one is simple.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem. A hole the size of a soybean can be chiseled out with a chisel. We just need to engrave a pattern on the chisel, and the pattern will appear on the pill."

Is it that simple?

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Then first gather twelve craftsmen to make twelve sets of molds: two sets with dragon patterns, two sets with tiger patterns, two sets with phoenix patterns, three sets with cloud patterns, and three sets with tortoise shell patterns."

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

He only worked on it for a few days and it was ready.

Early that morning around noon, he ran to the backyard of the palace and said excitedly, "Your Majesty, the molds are ready. The pills that are punched out are so beautiful. Do you want to come and see them?"

Wow, it’s only been a few days.

Wanli couldn't help but said excitedly: "Where is it? Let's call Dr. Li and the others to go and take a look."

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "Not far, not far. It's in the original workshop where they stamped cartridge cases. The new medicine-making workshop hasn't been built yet, so I've borrowed a workshop where they stamped cartridge cases."

It’s really not far, it won’t take more than a quarter of an hour to ride there.

Not long after, Wanli brought Li Shizhen and his son and the Wan brothers to a workshop that used to stamp bullet casings.

The workshop has been slightly renovated at this time. The furnaces have been moved out, and each stamping rack has been replaced with wooden shelves and clean and tidy wooden tables.

Because the stamping speed here is too fast, two craftsmen have to cooperate with each other. One craftsman sits there and stamps. After stamping, he quickly takes out the mold and lets the craftsman behind him knock out the pills, scrape the medicinal mud or powder, and then put it back in for stamping.

We are just making samples now, not mass production, so there won't be any big problems.

Wanli picked up a golden glass tube filled with golden elixirs from the shelf and looked at it. He couldn't help but ask, "Father-in-law, how many pills are stuffed in here?"

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei explained in detail, "I originally thought I could stuff fifty pills in, but it turned out to be a bit too tight, so I ended up stuffing forty-eight pills into each bottle."

This isn't about stuffing as much as possible.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then opened the cork, poured out the golden elixir inside and took a look.

This golden elixir is really beautiful. Not only is it shining with golden light, but there are also dragon patterns on it. It looks high-end and classy at first glance.

However, this is not enough.

Wanli pondered, "Father-in-law, this bottle should hold thirty pills. The cork should also be engraved with exquisite patterns. Also, these glass bottles should be packed in a sandalwood box, with six bottles in each box."

what?
Do you want to put it in a sandalwood box?

Yongnianbo Wang Wei reminded him, "Your Majesty, sandalwood is not cheap."

What's this little money?
Wanli shook his head slightly, then explained in detail, "The outside of the sandalwood box should also be carved with exquisite patterns. Inside, two semi-circular slots should be carved from fragrant sandalwood to hold the glass bottle. The slots should also be padded with gold and silver foil."

what?
Isn’t this a waste of money?
Just the bottle, box, gold foil and silver foil would cost at least several taels of silver.

The medicines here are not worth so much money.

Upon hearing this, Li Shizhen and his son and the Wan brothers were all stunned.

They used several kinds of precious medicinal materials in these medicines, but they didn't add much. The cost of the medicinal materials was only a few cents per pill, and a hundred pills were only a few hundred cents. Six bottles of one hundred and eighty pills only cost a little over one or two taels!

Your packaging is much more expensive than the medicine, why?
(End of this chapter)