open sea

Chapter 1253 Relief
Wanli is indeed a chicken thief. He has completed the major event of coal mine franchise without making a sound.

Also accidentally, established the world's largest printing factory.

The textbooks of Nanbei Lecture Hall, Songjiang Lecture Institute, Beiyang and other places are all printed and published by Wanli Bookstore; now he has formulated the rules for adding the "Pandemic Code" to the imperial examinations, and then completed the printing of this set of books with full authority .

"Compete with the people? Which people have I competed with? I have paid the miners' salaries and the drivers' feet. The price of coal in various places varies depending on the route, but it is generally [-]% cheaper than before I transferred to San Francisco. Go home and take a good look at my report, and it will be printed when you leave the palace."

"What, Wanli Bookstore? Wanli Bookstore, you guys can't even say it. The five volumes of "Pandemic Code" are printed and published at a total price of five coins, which is the same price in the whole world. The farther you send it, the more money you will lose. No one thinks it's expensive, so I don't expect the bookstore to make money."

Wanli is considered to be in the court. For this data emperor, no one can beat his data in bickering. When others say that he is competing with the people for profit, he puts out the coal prices of the previous year, last year, and this year. Send out a wave of dimensionality reduction strikes at a glance.

In the past, the court debate was to seize the moral high ground and grasp one standard, but now Wanli has elevated himself to the level of shitting on the moral high ground, and is invincible in the world.

After all, to be honest, there is no merchant who does business as sincerely as he does not make money.

Who does business without making money?

Only him, as long as he doesn't lose too much money.

The different starting points of people confused the emperor. After the plague passed, he jumped out of the Forbidden City, which made him bored, and went to Tsinghua Garden to play. There, he met Xu Guangqi, who was in charge of the iron factory.

Xu Guangqi just came back from Wu'an County in Zhangde Prefecture, where he opened fourteen iron factories for Wanli. However, there are a lot of iron ore in that place, and he also encountered the same problem that Chen Mu encountered in Asia—iron factory. Furnaces and craftsmen are unwilling to work with maximum production efficiency. Everyone believes that it is against the weather and is not conducive to sustainable development.

Fortunately, the little emperor is behind here, and he speaks better than Chen Mu in Asia.

"Is the matter resolved?"

"It's settled. After all, we don't use corvees. They are all paid. If we should worship the kiln god, we should worship the kiln god. When His Majesty's edict is issued, the craftsmen will understand." Xu Guangqi took a deep breath. With a strong sense of responsibility, he said: "Now we are on the right track. Nine of the fourteen iron factories are not suitable for casting because of the location of the mine. The ore needs to be transported out of the mountain. I will select the remaining five iron factories. We found the most favorable location for the construction of the Cast Iron Bureau, and [-]% of the iron materials are used for casting rails every year, and the rest are processed iron ingots and sent to Beiyang—all of which are in the report of the minister.”

"Besides, prospecting craftsmen are still prospecting in Zhenbao Town, Shuntianfu, and Wanquandusi. The area around Beizhili is really a blessed place."

Wanli shook his head with his hands behind his back: "How to say, you give me a detailed report."

"There are many iron, gold, fluorite, limestone, and quartz in the Wanquan area inside and outside the Saibei Great Wall; in Shuntian and Zhenbao towns, there are soil powder, talc, mica, quartz, limestone, and iron ore; as for the Shunde Prefecture and Guangping Prefecture in the south. , there are many iron mines; Guangping Mansion and Zhangde Mansion in the west, iron ore and coal mines, have everything you expect."

"These ores from the south to the north can be processed in Beiyang, but the transportation capacity cannot keep up. The terrain in the north is flat and the water network is criss-crossed. Bridges and railways must be built."

Xu Guangqi was very serious when he said this. He took out a map from his pocket and handed it to the emperor. He drew a well on it with his hands and said, "I suggest that your majesty build four such railways around Beijing. .”

Looking at the map, Wanli raised his hand and gestured to the east of Beijing and said, "This road already exists, which means I have to build three more roads? With so many mines built, can Beiyang bear it?"

"can."

"Beiyang has the world's leading military bureau. The best craftsmen go there, guarding the mouth of the river as well as the sea. Nanyang is also purchasing from Beiyang for the deck of the steam ship. At least the iron ore can be eaten."

The deck Xu Guangqi mentioned was not a ship deck, but a steel deck riveted and overlaid on the wooden hull of a steamship.

The short-distance steamship is faster than the ordinary sailboat but limited, and the characteristic of eating coal makes the speed advantage of this speed less obvious, but its impact on the environment is low, no matter where the wind blows, the steamship can run It is worth mentioning that this gives it a great advantage on long-distance voyages.

But it is more fragile and requires a thicker hull.

Generally speaking, it is not a big problem for a sailboat to be pierced through the thick hull on the waterline by artillery, but this is fatal to a steamship. It's a big deal if you can't treat people well.

Better protection requires a thicker hull, and a steamship contains two or even four of the largest Huode Xingjun, and its load capacity is much smaller than that of a sailboat. To seek better protection, you must use steel plates— —Of course iron is much heavier, but a certain thickness of wooden shell combined with a certain thickness of iron shell is better than thicker wooden shells in terms of shell protection.

In particular, the iron casing has excellent protection against rockets and explosive bombs, that is, the explosive bombs that are cut out in advance with different lead lengths, ignited, stuffed into the muzzle, blasted out and blasted again.

The researchers of the South Lecture Martial Arts Hall were idle and bored, and tried to use large-scale magical machine arrows on wooden ships. As long as they were lucky, the rockets with pointed iron heads could be stuck on the sailing ship, and they had a certain lethality on the ship's materials; Embedded in the hull, the destructive power can only be described as horror.

Therefore, newly built steamships often choose this protection method.

"I know, I will go back to discuss with the cabinet ministers and Minister of the Ministry of Industry. The plague has just passed, and my money is a little tight."

What Wanli said was profound, but it was actually a plague that made him spend all his pocket money.

He learned from Chen Mu very well. Like when Chen Mu was in Nanyang, the income from the initial establishment of the Nanyang Military Mansion was divided into several shares. Some encouraged education, some encouraged the development of science and technology, some were saved for the emperor, and some were handed over to the court. , There are still those for disaster relief.

The same is true of Wanli's money. He has quietly reserved a place for the money, and he has reserved several copies for one expenditure. For example, he kept five copies for disaster relief, three of which were kept last year, and the other two were 5 each. Two, it is used to relieve victims outside the imperial court.

This year's plague is not counted as disaster relief. Wanli has no experience of encountering such a thing before, so he used his own pocket money to reward doctors and provide relief to the people.

He has been thinking about a question during this period, whether to take a little bit from the other money left to help himself.

After all, this year has just begun, and he has already spent all his pocket money.

"Hey, I'm having a hard time in the 11th year of Wanli, why can I get some more money?"

(End of this chapter)