The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 270: Cleansing the Harem and Imprisoning the Mother
Empress Dowager Li was placed under house arrest.

She could also move freely in the Cining Palace.

If she walked out of the Cining Palace, hundreds of imperial guards would swarm up and surround her.

She couldn't do anything she wanted to do.

These hundreds of imperial guards were like shadows following him.

Wherever she went, hundreds of imperial guards would follow, surrounding her like an iron barrel that couldn't be opened even by kicking.

This really left Empress Dowager Li at a loss.

She doesn't have any confidants around her, and with her weak arms and legs, she has no way to deal with the imperial guards.

At this time, Wanli also began to purge the harem. All those who obeyed the orders of Empress Dowager Li, whether eunuchs or female officials, were arrested and escorted to Nanhaizi or Jiaofangsi.

He promoted Tian Yize, the former eunuch who was in charge of Nanjing, to be the chief secretary of the Imperial Household Department and the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department.

Li Xuancheng had another title, which was the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department.

He also called Chen Ju and Sun Xian over and gave them a good warning.

These two guys were timid and fearful by nature. When Empress Dowager Li was in control of the inner palace, they did not dare to disobey her. Now that he was in control of the inner palace, these two guys naturally did not dare to disobey him.

The problem of the inner palace has been solved, and the next step is to see what the spoils of the confiscation of property will be.

Zhang Hong and Zhang Jing, relying on the support of Empress Dowager Li, made a lot of money. Millions of taels of gold and silver were seized from each of their mansions.

There was also the Honglu Temple official Xing Shangzhi who made a few hundred thousand taels, and the rest made some more or less, which added up to almost three million taels.

At this time, two or three million taels were nothing to Wanli.

The lamp oil business was really huge after it got started. Although it hasn't reached four or five million taels a month yet, it's still two or three million taels a month.

And there is coal. When the weather gets cold, the coal business picks up.

After all, burning charcoal means burning money. The price of charcoal is three times that of coal. Moreover, charcoal burns faster and is not as durable as coal. It is not cost-effective to use it for cooking.

Once the coal business in the south started to flourish, the profits also increased rapidly.

However, the transportation problem arises again.

Because they were prospecting along the Jiubian line in the north.

Although there are many coal mines along this line, they are too far away from the south. Even if there is a large open-pit coal mine in Neitao that can never be fully mined, they can also transport the coal to the south through the main trunk of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, but the waterway alone is three or four thousand miles.

Moreover, along this route, only the main trunk of the Yellow River can be rowed downstream without much effort. When you reach the Grand Canal, you will need to row hard, and when you reach the main trunk of the Yangtze River, you will have to row upstream.

Even if the navy's fast boat is used, it will take at least ten days to row this route. Moreover, the navy's fast boat cannot be fully loaded, as it will take even longer to row when fully loaded. Even if it is empty when returning, it will still take five or six days to row.

A centipede boat can carry up to 20,000 jin, and an octap boat can carry up to 10,000 jin. They wholesale at one tael of silver per thousand jin, so 10,000 jin is only 10 taels of silver, and 20,000 jin is only 20 taels of silver.

By this calculation, they can't even earn enough to pay for the food and wages of the navy officers and soldiers.

Because a centipede ship requires twenty naval officers and soldiers just to operate the ship, and an octagonal ship requires ten naval officers and soldiers just to operate the ship.

The round trip takes more than half a month, and including loading and unloading, they can only make one trip a month.

In other words, they could only earn some money to pay the navy officers and soldiers, and they had to pay for the military rations and food.

This business definitely won't work this way.

In early December, the road to the outer city was finally repaired.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, he summoned Duke Peng Qi Jiguang and Earl Yongnian Wang Wei to the imperial study.

The two of them were still living in Wanshou Palace at the time, so they arrived quite quickly.

However, it was snowing in the capital at the moment, and even after they had been shooting outside for a while, there were still traces of snow on their hair and clothes.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli ordered someone to offer him a seat, then he solemnly asked, "Father-in-law, how is it? Is there any problem repairing the road when it's snowing?"

Yongnianbo Wang Wei shook his head repeatedly and said, "No problem. They have plenty of hoes and shovels anyway, so they can clear the snow quickly."

That's good if there's no problem.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Then leave tens of thousands of young and strong men who are free, and pair them with tens of thousands of soldiers from the Beijing camp, and have them quickly repair the road from Fuchengmen to Wanping Coal Mine.

The river is about to freeze over, and since the water route is blocked, we can only travel by land. The carriage cannot run on the muddy road.

It’s not enough to just finish building that road this year. Next year, we have to build roads in all directions. We’ll build the roads to the Summer Resort and Nanyuan first, and then build the roads to Nanzhili and Waikou Plain.

These two north-south and east-west trunk roads must be completed first, and then we'll see how things go. Anyway, if we have extra money, we'll build roads."

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

Wanli sighed again and said, "Wenbi has sent a letter saying that the coal business in the south has been opened up, but the journey is too long and the freight is not cost-effective, so there is no profit at all.

Furthermore, the main stem of the Yellow River freezes in winter, making coal transportation impossible for months. This way of doing business is definitely not feasible. We must explore for minerals in the south and mine them nearby. This year's New Year's holiday will likely be another hard time for the soldiers of the Shenji Camp and the prospecting craftsmen."

This is a good thing.

Qi Jiguang quickly said, "Your Majesty, it's not hard. The soldiers of the Shenjiying Camp made a lot of money just from prospecting last year. They don't know how excited they are."

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei also nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, the prospectors are even more excited. They used to work themselves to death but still might not find a mine. Now they just go along and take a look, without having to do anything. What's more, they find a lot of mines. This is such a good opportunity, they all want to go."

They discovered a lot of mines last year because I vaguely remember that there are many coal mines in the Nine Borders.

I have no idea where there are coal mines in the south.

How do we explore this mine?

If people are asked to prospect for minerals in places where there are no mines at all, then their work will be in vain, and they won't even have time to celebrate the New Year.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said decisively: "How about this, this time we will not explore in different areas.

We sent 20,000 soldiers from the Shenji Camp and 2,000 prospecting craftsmen to explore southward from both sides of the Grand Canal.

The Grand Canal from Tongzhou to Yangzhou is about 2,000 miles long, and they have to explore an area of ​​about 100 miles a day.

This time they couldn't explore too far, just within 200 miles on both sides of the canal, because the cost of land transportation would increase if they went any further.

I was thinking of arranging the grain carts on both sides into a square formation of about 200 miles from east to west and 100 miles from north to south. In this way, there would be a grain cart every three or four miles.

Every day, they drill around the grain carts, east, west, north, south, and center, every two miles or so. After drilling, they get on the grain carts and advance about a hundred miles to drill again. What do you think?"

Uh, how is this similar to casting a net to catch fish?

But the holes in the mesh are a bit big, with one hole every one or two miles.

However, mineral veins are generally more than one or two miles in radius. If there is no coal mine within a radius of one or two miles, then there is not much point in discovering it.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei slowly nodded and said, "Your Majesty is wise. I believe that as long as there are large coal mines within 200 miles on both sides of the canal, they will definitely be able to find them."

I’m just afraid that there isn’t one.

So, are there any large coal mines on both sides of the Grand Canal?
The soldiers of the Shenji Camp and the prospecting craftsmen all believed that there was mine, so they all happily boarded the navy warships and set off.

They had already explored Shuntian Prefecture last year, so there was no need to explore again.

They started their exploration directly from Hejian Prefecture.

As a result, after searching for a few days, there was no result!
Immediately afterwards, Shandong Province’s Dongchang Prefecture.

As a result, after searching for a few days, there was still no result.

When Wanli received the news, he became a little nervous.

This situation seems to be similar to the mineral exploration in Gyeonggi last year. There was nothing for more than ten days at the beginning, but finally a big one was discovered in Wanping.

The problem is that he remembered that there were coal mines near Gyeonggi Province.

He didn't know if there were any coal mines within a radius of 200 miles on both sides of the Grand Canal.

The twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month is the Little New Year.

Around noon, as usual, he ordered people to prepare a large table of delicacies from land and sea for a reunion dinner with his concubines, princes and princesses.

He was eating idly when Qi Jiguang came to ask for a meeting again.

Is this such a coincidence?

He quickly recruited Qi Jiguang.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Qi Jiguang excitedly said, "Your Majesty, they have discovered a mineral vein in Yanzhou Prefecture. It's on both sides of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It's a huge mineral vein."

Now the journey has been shortened by more than a thousand miles, and Yanzhou Prefecture is only more than a thousand miles away from Jinling.

Just after the New Year, there was good news again.

They had discovered another large mineral vein, and not just one, but several.

They can be found on the north bank of the Huai River, the south bank of the Huai River, in Xuzhou and other places. They are densely packed, just like those in Datong Town.

Now the transportation problem was completely solved, because Xuzhou was less than 500 miles away from the main trunk of the Yangtze River.

He had it all figured out: after the navy's express ship came out of the Yangzhou section of the Grand Canal, it would not go upstream, but would row directly to the other side, build a dock on the other side, and repair an asphalt road directly to Nanjing, so that a carriage could reach there in one day.

It takes only two days for a navy warship to row from Xuzhou to the main trunk of the Yangtze River. Including the transportation by horse-drawn carriage, it only takes three days in total, which means ten trips can be made in a month!

Moreover, Yangzhou Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture to its south are all prosperous areas in the south of the Yangtze River. Once the coal business is developed, no one knows how much money can be made.

(End of this chapter)