My father is Jiajing

Chapter 408 The Importance of Development

With the establishment of the Northern Construction Bank and Zhu Zaigui's relaxation of restrictions on some technical patents, both the wealthy families in the north and the wealthy families in the south have demonstrated their kind and charitable style.

They sold the excess grain in their own granaries to the imperial court at low prices, and then under the supervision of imperial envoys such as Hai Rui, they distributed the life-saving grain to the disaster-stricken people in the north at even lower prices or in other ways.

This allows them to have a chance to catch their breath after the disaster and successfully get through the difficult times.

Of course, Zhu Zaigui’s decision to release these patents was not entirely a compromise.

Take the patent for cement as an example.

Although the cement output of the Xishan Limeyard was acceptable, it was only enough to meet the needs of the projects in the Beijing Special District.

If Zhu Zaigui wanted more cement, he had to let the Xishan limestone mine continue to expand its production scale.

But this thing cannot be expanded blindly, because once it becomes too big, when the demand in the Beijing Special District is so strong, wouldn't it be the Ming Dynasty version of industrial overcapacity?
Although it is possible to transport the excess cement to other places and sell it, given the transportation capacity and cost during the Ming Dynasty, people would always use millet porridge mixed with lime powder to make building materials with the same effect, and would not use cement purchased at such a high price.

Therefore, for the healthy development of the industry and for the growing demand for cement in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zaigui felt that he should take this opportunity to release the patent for cement, allowing these big companies to happily engage in market-oriented production and competition, which might also promote the upgrading of related industries.

Moreover, the reconstruction of the north also requires a lot of building materials. If they can seize the opportunity, start production in the northern region and prepare sufficient cement and lime.

Then the construction in the north will naturally be more effective with less effort.

Moreover, doing so can save a lot of manpower and material resources, as well as damage to the ecological environment of the Ming Dynasty.

You should know that the grain yield in ancient times was very impressive. The yield per mu was generally around 100 kilograms, and only the best fertile land could achieve a high yield of more than 300 kilograms.

Therefore, in order to satisfy their hunger, many ordinary people invented many local snacks that people in later generations found to be extremely novel.

But in fact, the birth of these snacks is a bloody history full of suffering and struggle.

It’s just that later generations don’t know the hardships involved and still think that the ancients were very smart to discover so many strange and exotic foods.

But anyone who has read Dream of the Red Chamber will know that food is also divided by class.

The noble ladies of Rongguo Mansion can leisurely use the snowflakes of a certain year and month to melt into water, and make fragrant tea with flower petals that were picked at a certain time and moment and made through countless complicated processes.

Their days are so leisurely, comfortable, and natural, as if they are living in a carefree paradise.

But what about those who don’t have enough to eat?

The delicacies they could invent were either flour or noodles made from the inedible roots and barks of some plants, which they had to go through layers of hardships to come up with, or they were made from some kind of mud and bird droppings to make food that could satisfy hunger.

Comparing the two, it is clear who is bored and who is trying to survive.

So, under such circumstances, the natural environment in ancient times, except for some sparsely populated deep mountains and old forests, most places where people gathered were bare.

If Zhu Zaigui could help them achieve a certain level of food and clothing, and use materials that are stronger and more durable than trees to help them build houses, then the natural environment in the north should be able to recover to some extent. Perhaps, this could also be the beginning of Zhu Zaigui's thorough control of the Yellow River!

Otherwise, the environment in the north would continue to deteriorate and the siltation of the Yellow River could not be effectively controlled.

Then the people living in the flooded areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River will never have peace and will have to endure the risk of the Yellow River bursting its dikes every once in a while!

Therefore, for Zhu Zaigui, releasing some patents is both a business and a form of governance.

Moreover, the production requirements of cement are also high. As long as these wealthy households who were excited to sell their grain wanted to engage in the production of building materials such as cement and lime, they would have to spend huge amounts of money to buy various steam equipment produced by Xishan Machinery Factory.

The technology of this thing is not afraid of being leaked, let alone being imitated. Zhu Zaigui is worried that they are unwilling to invest their energy in this kind of industrial upgrading.

If any of them could come up with a more productive invention based on the current steam equipment, it would be a win for Zhu Zaigui.

Because given Zhu Zaigui's status, what he wants to earn is not just money, but the future of the entire Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui was also looking forward to these intelligent and talented wealthy people, after experiencing the beauty of mechanical power, being able to exercise some subjective initiative and come up with some new inventions that would surprise Zhu Zaigui.

Perhaps through this effort they could indirectly cultivate a Ming Dynasty version of Watt and push Zhu Zaigui's half-baked steam engine technology one step further.

By then, with new technology, won’t the existing productivity be able to be improved again?

It can be said that this is like a positive development cycle. As long as we point out the direction for them and draw the trend, the rest will be left to time.

So after completing these plans, Zhu Zaigui turned his attention to a direction that he had always been concerned about.

That is - Southeast!
In recent years, the Japanese pirates in the southeast have become more and more serious. The court only knows that these pirates either came from the sea or were some daring sea merchants who became bandits on the sea and caused trouble.

But in fact, the root cause of the Japanese pirate rebellion was that Japan was now experiencing brutal Warring States warfare. The defeated Japanese samurai and ronin could not gain a foothold in Japan, so they could only take small boats to the coastline of the Ming Dynasty to plunder, learning the tactics of the grassland Tatars to rob and run away.

In addition, coupled with the fact that the Ming Dynasty itself did not attach importance to the tradition of the navy and maritime interests, these Japanese pirates traveled on the sea as if they were in an empty land, making the coastal defense problem in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty a very troublesome problem.

In order to eliminate these Japanese pirates, the imperial court sent many capable officials and relaxed some restrictions on the military system, allowing some capable military officers to recruit young and strong soldiers.

However, these are only temporary solutions and there is no way to eliminate the Japanese pirate rebellion from the root.

Therefore, the current Japanese invasion in the southeast, apart from causing people great pain and anger, makes people feel powerless and unable to inflict any substantial blow or trauma on these Japanese pirates.

So at this time, Zhu Zaigui decided to play his role as regent and prepared to recommend some capable people to stabilize the situation first and then plan other governance.

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(End of this chapter)