RPAGF Chapter 011 I can't afford to lose face like this.
Chapter 011 I can't afford to lose face like this.
Chapter 011
"You're incredibly audacious! If you delay the prefect's important business, you'll lose your head!"
Upon hearing this, Song Yanniang also looked worried.
Chen Ying laughed and said, "Bo'an, you know nothing about my abilities!"
"you……"
Chen Ying also understood that Song Xianze was, after all, a person from the Ming Dynasty, and he had never seen the terrifying production capacity of the real industrial age.
Although the Ming Dynasty was the peak of feudalism, its steel production capacity was 1.8 times that of the Qing Dynasty and twice that of the Song Dynasty, reaching 90 million catties, accounting for about one-third of the world's total industrial output at that time.
In the early stages of the Self-Strengthening Movement, the steel production capacity of the Qing Dynasty was only one-quarter that of the Ming Dynasty. Even though the Qing Dynasty cultivated potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn on a large scale, its industrial and agricultural output was only one-tenth that of the Ming Dynasty.
This is mainly due to the Qing Dynasty's system. In the era of Manchu supremacy, it was a lucrative business for anyone, regardless of their profession, but this was not the case in the Ming Dynasty.
Unless the Ming Dynasty's system collapsed in the later years of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, powerful relatives like the Earl of Pengcheng could only behave honestly and engage in fair trade.
Because the Ming Dynasty had a very large group, namely the gentry class, who kept their eyes on the nobles, princes, and military officers of the garrisons. If these people broke the law, they would be immediately exposed as examples.
Of course, military officers and nobles also kept an eye on the gentry, and they could also impeach them. This system of checks and balances maintained a basic equilibrium. By the Qing Dynasty, corruption was openly accepted, and the survival of the fittest became the norm.
Chen Ying's confidence stemmed from the fact that he had solved the technology of refining steel and adopted the process of cold casting of molten steel. He was currently only producing iron plowshares; if he were to produce cannons, the efficiency would be even higher.
Cold casting, also known as continuous casting, is a production technology that was still used in later generations. As long as there is enough raw material, the production speed can be doubled.
In fact, the company where Chen Ying originally worked only maintained about 18% of its production capacity, less than one-fifth, because there was no market. If there was market demand, they could instantly increase their production capacity by more than five times.
If we want to continuously increase production capacity, we need to carry out infrastructure construction. Chen Ying had actually foreseen this long ago. The iron plow can improve the efficiency of farming, which is like a timely rain for Guide Prefecture, which has suffered from floods.
While ordinary people couldn't afford such a finely crafted iron-shafted plow, the problem was that the gentry were wealthy, could afford it, and needed it even more.
He initially prepared five smelting furnaces. After establishing the Manufacturing Bureau, he made twenty-five more smelting furnaces. Now, the Manufacturing Bureau is producing molds and smelting furnaces at the same time.
Chen Ying has been building up production capacity. As long as there is a need, by increasing manpower and raw materials, production capacity can be continuously increased. Of course, this is not without limit.
The current production capacity of the Manufacturing Bureau is theoretically capped at 1,800 units per day. However, the actual production efficiency reaches 83%, with a daily production capacity of 1,494 units.
If we want to further increase production capacity, we need to expand the production workshop and add more smelting furnaces.
"Yan Niang, take these two ingots of silver. Go to a goldsmith and have some jewelry made!"
Chen Ying laughed and said, "After we're done with this busy period, let's get married!"
"what……"
Looking at the one hundred taels of silver in her hand, Song Yanniang was somewhat at a loss: "This..."
"This hundred taels of silver is rightfully mine!"
Chen Ying divided the 1,600 taels of silver into four portions, the largest being 800 taels, followed by 600 taels, then 50 taels and 50 taels.
"This is the money our brothers earned by risking their lives; it's what they deserve. It's what Lord Sun deserves; it's what Secretary Li and his men deserve; it's what Du Changshun and his men deserve!"
Song Xianze then realized that Chen Ying was much smarter than he had imagined.
"That centurion's office?"
"Ignore them!"
Chen Ying smiled faintly and said, "I am not a regular garrison officer, so they wouldn't dare to push me too far. Besides, the Construction Bureau has now come under Lord Zheng's scrutiny, so they wouldn't dare to interfere!"
How will the artisans' earnings be divided?
"There's no need to distribute silver to them. Use this silver to buy meat and wine, and also to purchase a batch of cloth. Distribute it to everyone according to their rank!"
Chen Ying looked at Chen Daniu and asked, "Does Daniu know how to slaughter pigs?"
"No, then I'll give you a chance to practice!"
The ten pigs that the Zhang family sent were actually very thin; the heaviest weighed no more than 160 or 170 jin (approximately 80-95 kg), and the smallest weighed only about 150 jin (approximately 75 kg).
Chen Daniu picked up a pig and headed towards the courtyard where the kitchen was located. The pig's screams woke up the craftsmen from the supervisory bureau who were taking a break.
"Where did that pig noise come from?"
"I don't know..."
More and more craftsmen and laborers were awakened. They looked towards the kitchen and saw Chen Ying, Chen Daniu, and others chasing a black pig.
The black pig seemed to sense the danger, leaping and bounding as it ran at top speed.
"You big, dumb ox, you can't even hold down a pig!"
Chen Ying pointed at Song Xianze at the door and said, "Bo'an, stop him!"
"Hmph..."
The black pig charged towards Song Xianze, who sighed helplessly and kicked the pig with a flying kick.
"Bang……"
The black pig seemed to have been hit by a wall, and it lay on its back with its four legs in the air, grunting and groaning for a long time before finally getting up.
Actually, Chen Ying was also craving it. Since he transmigrated, he had only eaten cured meat once at Song Xianze's house. For the past half month, he had been eating either pickled vegetable pancakes or millet porridge. Although millet porridge was good for the stomach, he felt tired of it after drinking too much of it.
Chen Ying raised the knife in his hand and shouted at Chen Daniu, "Hold him down..."
Chen Ying swung his knife, plunging it into the black pig's neck. The black pig shook off Chen Daniu and ran off again.
"What...useless trash!"
Song Xianze looked at Chen Ying's large frame with some disdain: "All looks and no substance!"
"Pfft..."
Song Xianze killed the pig with one stroke. Chen Daniu didn't mind the mess and hurriedly grabbed a wooden basin to collect the pig's blood. Wang Tiezhu sprinkled a handful of salt into the blood.
Two pigs, after being slaughtered, yielded only two hundred catties of meat. More than seven hundred craftsmen could each get a little over four ounces of meat. Of course, this is just theory, and each person gets a different amount.
The bowl placed in front of Chen Ying could hardly be called a bowl; it was more like a small soup basin, filled with at least five pounds of meat. Song Xianze and Song Yanniang also received more than a pound of meat.
Secondly, people like Li Xiaojie and Du Changqing also received three or four catties of meat. The accountant and the team leaders also had plenty of meat in their bowls. Only the craftsmen, if they were lucky, could get a piece of meat, but if they were unlucky, they would only get a bit of grease.
Although the supervisory bureau did not provide a salary, they were allocated two or three liters of grain. In Yongcheng, this was considered a lucrative position, and many people were eager to work there.
After the Zhang family sent silver and iron materials to the supervising bureau, wealthy families from Yongcheng and Guide Prefecture flocked to the bureau. Chen Ying became a hot commodity, receiving more or less silver every day.
Song Yanniang was incredibly proud; the man she had chosen was indeed extraordinary.
……
June 7th, the third year of the Tianqi reign
Wei Zhongxian, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Director of the Eastern Depot, lay comfortably on a recliner, while two junior eunuchs humbly massaged his shoulders and bones.
Two eunuchs massaged his feet, while another eunuch gently placed a peeled longan into Wei Zhongxian's mouth.
A handsome young eunuch was reading aloud from a memorial: "Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, Governor of Fujian, Nan Juyi, respectfully reports that since April, the Dutch have been invading Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, and have recruited aid from Japan, Pattani (southern Thailand), Jakarta (present-day Indonesia), and the pirate Li Dan..."
Wei Zhongxian waved his hand dismissively, "Damn red-haired barbarians, get past..."
The young eunuch picked up another memorial: "Vice Minister of War, Governor-General of the military affairs of Sichuan and the five prefectures of Jing, Yue, Yun, Xiang, and Hanzhong in Shaanxi, and Governor of Sichuan, Your Majesty, Zhu Xieyuan, respectfully reports that the two traitors, She (Chongming) and An (Bangyan), have rebelled, causing unrest in the southwest. Your Majesty has ordered an inspection tour of Sichuan, and you have successively recovered Jianwu, Changning, and Luzhou, among other places..."
"Finally, some good news!"
Wei Zhongxian jumped up abruptly, snatched the memorial from his hand, and said, "To please His Majesty... please continue reading!"
The young eunuch, holding the memorial, reported: "Your Majesty, Zheng Sanjun, Prefect of Guide Prefecture, Henan, respectfully reports that in May of this year, the Yellow River breached its banks at Suizhou, turning the entire area under Guide Prefecture into a vast expanse of water. Fields and houses were submerged, and the people suffered from severe food shortages… Since the start of the furnace operation, the bureau has produced three thousand new-style iron plows. I have instructed the various prefectures and counties to distribute them to the villages according to the severity of the disaster…"
Wei Zhongxian's expression suddenly changed drastically. He snatched the memorial, quickly closed it, stuffed it into his bosom, and ran outside.
The young eunuch, carrying shoes, said, "Godfather, shoes...shoes."
Wei Zhongxian ran out barefoot.
……
The Western Garden of the Forbidden City, located on the west side of the Forbidden City, was originally built during the Yongle period in imitation of Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing. After two hundred years of development, pavilions and towers are nestled among the green waves and weeping willows of Taiye Pond.
Today, however, a flower garden of about ten acres at the southernmost tip was uprooted overnight because of a single word from the emperor. The soil was turned over and leveled to simulate the compacted state of dry fields in the north.
Zhu Youxiao and the young Prince Xin, Zhu Youjian, who was only thirteen years old this year, personally tested the plow.
Zhu Youxiao insisted on personally guiding the plow and refused to let the eunuchs do it for him. After several trips, the young emperor's face and body were splattered with mud, and his sweat mixed with the dirt, making his face look like a smear.
Zhu Youjian, who was in charge of pulling the plow, was in an even more disheveled state. He lay on his back on the ground, not wanting to move at all.
"Are you tired?"
"Not tired."
"lie."
Zhu Youxiao laughed: "Even I'm tired, how can you not be?"
Zhu Youjian forced a smile, but said nothing.
Wei Zhongxian ran over barefoot, his feet covered in abrasions and bleeding profusely.
"Wei Banban, what's wrong? Why are you so panicked?"
Zhu Youxiao's heart sank. Could it be that the Jurchens had breached the pass?
"Great joy, great joy... Your Majesty, three thousand of these plows have been made..."
Although Wei Zhongxian was illiterate, he had an amazing memory. He could remember a memorial read aloud by a minor official without any mistakes. Of course, he didn't have time to hear the rest of the content.
Zhu Youxiao took the memorial and read it in three lines at a glance: "...Now, at the end of the summer planting season, with this useful tool, we have already sown over 20,000 mu of fast-ripening crops such as buckwheat and millet. If the autumn rains are timely, each mu can yield more than one shi (a unit of dry measure), thus alleviating the famine this winter and securing the refugees. This is all thanks to Your Majesty's virtuous rule and the divine intervention of skilled craftsmen to benefit agriculture..."
Zhu Youxiao looked at Wei Zhongxian: "Wei, what do you think of this plow?"
Wei Zhongxian, panting heavily, bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise... This plow, this plow is indeed a divine instrument. Its efficiency in plowing with oxen is twice that of a regular plow; it can also be done by manpower. If, if it were promoted throughout the world, it would truly be a blessing for all people."
Zhu Youxiao nodded and then looked at Wang Tiqian.
Wang Tiqian was even more direct: "Your Majesty, this plow deserves a reward, and the person who made it should be richly rewarded!"
"He deserves a reward."
Zhu Youxiao's finger moved inch by inch along the plowshare, finally stopping near the plowshare head, where a line of small characters was engraved: "Made by the Yongcheng Agricultural Implements Manufacturing Bureau in May of the third year of the Tianqi reign."
The characters were engraved in intaglio and filled with vermilion lacquer, making them particularly eye-catching against the dark blue background.
"Wei Banban, according to regulations, how should we reward those who present such beneficial new tools to the people?"
Wei Zhongxian pondered for a moment: "Your Majesty, according to the 'Collected Statutes of the Great Ming Dynasty,' whenever scholars and commoners present new tools or methods that benefit the people's livelihood, after verification by the relevant officials, they shall be rewarded with fifty taels of silver and ten bolts of silk. If the effect is outstanding, they may be granted official rank and leisure to show their honor and favor."
"Wearing a crown and living in seclusion..."
Zhu Youxiao muttered to himself, "A mere honorary title, is that all they're good for?"
Wei Zhongxian dared not respond.
Zhu Youxiao's face held a depth beyond his years: "This plow can save the people's labor by 50% and double the land's yield. If it were implemented throughout the country, hundreds of millions of farmers would benefit. How much more grain could be harvested each year? How many fewer people would starve to death? I can't calculate it all, but I know... this is a meritorious deed. A reward of fifty taels of silver? I can't afford to lose face like that!"