My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 173 His Majesty will not allow the Crown Prince to rebel

The appearance of the second-hand dealer was indeed something Li Chengqian had not expected.

After all, before this, more concerns were about the promotion of honeycomb briquettes.

This phenomenon is also good for the sales of honeycomb coal.

After all, it can spontaneously bring about hunger marketing and increase the popularity of coal.

As for the temporary shortage of supply, then let it be the shortage of supply.

Li Shimin has also been paying attention to this matter.

He has already returned the money that the prince had borrowed from him to Changsun Wuji.

Although Changsun Wuji kept saying no.

But there is no room for ambiguity on this point.

The explosive sales of coal in Chang'an allowed Li Shimin to see the hope that the prince had described for him.

The prince was summoned into the palace immediately.

"Three hundred thousand kilograms a day is still too little. It's only been a few days and it's already not enough."

"Don't worry about money. The key now is to open more mines as soon as possible."

The more than two million kilograms of coal stored in Chang'an were basically sold out in just a few days.

Excluding the costs, the prince is about to make 10 million yuan.

Such a situation naturally deserves Li Shimin's strong support.

Besides, isn’t the money in the Eastern Palace the money of the national treasury?

"I have sent a message to Jinzhou, asking the King of Han, Zhao Jie, and Luo Hui to recruit personnel as soon as possible and open ten coal factories."

After receiving the news on the first day, Li Chengqian realized how big the market for honeycomb coal was.

These are just the shops in Chang'an, there are also shops in Luoyang.

The Grand Canal mainly connects the north and the south, and the south has more water systems and is more suitable for the transportation of large quantities of goods.

For example, Jiangning, which is Nanjing in later generations, as well as Yangzhou, Taiyuan, Chengdu, and a large number of water cities that can be directly connected to the Grand Canal, can all sell honeycomb coal.

Under the current circumstances, there is no need to use the Prince's decree to exert pressure, as honeycomb coal has already been recognized and welcomed by the market.

There are ten mines with a total amount of 300 million jin, which can only supply Chang'an and part of Luoyang at most.

Theoretically speaking, the current demand of the Tang Dynasty is at least 10 million jin, which is the output of 30 standard mines in Jinzhou.

With only 300 million jin, the annual income can reach more than or million guan.

"Ten mines are a bit too few."

"I think we need at least fifty seats."

Li Shimin was even more greedy than Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian said helplessly: "There are only ten open-pit coal mines discovered so far, but I heard that there is a very large open-pit coal mine in Shuozhou. Maybe we can open a larger mine."

Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "Then open it."

Li Chengqian said: "This will require a large number of canal ships for transportation. With such a large output, I am afraid that even if all the canal ships are used to transport the coal, it will not be enough. We need to build more canal ships."

Li Shimin waved his hand again: "Let's build it."

Li Chengqian said: "This requires the recruitment of a large number of craftsmen."

Li Shimin: "Then confess."

Li Chengqian: "The number of craftsmen is somewhat insufficient. It would be best to open some craftsman schools to train apprentices."

Li Shimin: "Open!"

After a pause, Li Shimin said: "These matters will not be handled by the imperial court, but directly by your East Palace."

"However much money is needed, just spend it directly from the treasury."

This is the relationship between the court system. If you follow the emperor's edict, you have to go through the court process. Because it involves a large amount of treasury expenditure, it is very likely to be rejected.

Then the meeting begins, with officials speaking and even making suggestions.

But in fact, whether it is mines, shipbuilding, or opening craftsman schools, these matters can be done even without official approval.

The prince's edict is not so troublesome.

Legally speaking, the Tang Dynasty Crown Prince's edicts were equivalent to the emperor's imperial edicts and had the same power, but were subject to restrictions by the emperor, not by the officials.

As long as the emperor did not interfere, the prince's decree could bypass the court procedures and directly exercise the emperor's power.

For example, some time ago, he directly mobilized the Left and Right Jinwu Guards, Wannian County, and Chang'an County to suppress the people of Chang'an.

Of course, in reality, after the prince issued the order, Zhang Ananda, the emperor's eunuch, would quickly inform Erfeng.

"Yes, Father."
-
April, the seventeenth year of the Zhenguan reign of the Tang Dynasty.

This was probably the busiest month for Li Chengqian and even for Chang'an City.

The first thing was to impose corvée on the entire city, and the open canal was converted into a hidden canal.

The person in charge of this matter is also Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

First of all, in terms of planning, this is relatively easy. Chang'an itself had an open channel for drainage, but it was changed into a covered channel after construction.

Because they were built at the same time, the number of laborers mobilized for corvée labor in the entire city reached 400,000.

Fortunately, most of the renovation work is carried out within the town.

All officials from the Ministry of Works were mobilized, and then the work was extended to the neighborhood chief, village head, and security chief.

At the grassroots level, the head of the village may have a dozen or more people, so it is not that complicated to manage.

Tools like shovels and hoes are available in almost every household in Chang'an, so there is no need for the government to specially configure them.

Building the entire Chang'an sounds like a huge project, but in reality, each person is only responsible for an area of ​​about six or seven meters.

After all, it is a canal built at their doorsteps, and most people are not too lazy to do so.

If it is not repaired by then, you will be the one who will be smelly. Everyone should understand this clearly.

The men worked outside their homes, and the women and children could also help out a little. In fact, most of the people in Chang'an were involved in this construction.

A slightly more troublesome thing is the construction of streets outside the city, such as Zhuque Street.

Here we select some people from each block to build channels outside the block.

The streets near the Fang are where the laborers come from.

The construction of the entire city will naturally cause some impacts on business and inconvenience in life, but these impacts are worth it for the time being.

In addition to comprehensively coordinating the construction of canals throughout Chang'an City, Li Chengqian also had to plan the construction of factories outside the city.

It's about cement factory.

This requires a large number of workers.

Limestone and clay are free, but digging and transporting them requires a lot of labor.

How much cement is needed to pave the entire Chang'an City with a 10-centimeter-thick layer of cement?
Chang'an City covers an area of ​​more than 80 square kilometers. If a layer of cement is laid all over it, more than 20 million tons of cement will be needed.

Obviously, it is difficult to achieve in a short period of time.

The main thing is that the cement factory does not make money, but loses money. If it is subjected to corvée labor, it will not be able to operate normally.

This is a losing business, but in Li Chengqian's opinion, it must be done.

So to a large extent, the money earned from the coal mine is used to finance the cement factory.

Fortunately, with the continuous opening of coal mines, there is no big problem in supplying cement factories.

Workers in a cement factory cannot get paid more for more work like coal miners. If Li Chengqian does this, he will lose a lot of money.

Therefore, the only way to settle the bill is on a monthly basis, as a long-term worker.

Free food and accommodation, five hundred coins per month.

It seems a bit low, but it’s actually quite good.

At present, the people of the Tang Dynasty only earn about 5,000 coins a year from farming. If the harvest is good, they can earn about 6,000 coins.

Food and accommodation are provided here, so there is plenty of food left over, and you can often see meat.

It is a bit tiring, but being able to save 6,000 coins every year is already a considerable amount for ordinary people.

These workers were not recruited from Chang'an City.

Firstly, the entire city of Chang'an was undergoing corvée labor, and secondly, considering the income level of the people in Chang'an, such conditions for recruiting workers were still relatively low.

Therefore, recruitment was mainly carried out from the surrounding cities. With the endorsement of the prince's decree, the county magistrates of various places directly issued notices.

Including the travel expenses to Chang'an, which were also covered by the government, and the journey was directly carried out through the post station.

The cement factory is hiring 10,000 workers.

The monthly salary for each person is 500 yuan, and the food expenses are converted to 10 yuan per person per day, 300 yuan per month, a total of 800 yuan.
For 800 workers, the monthly expenditure is million yuan.

In fact, including the horse-drawn carriages used for transportation, the actual support exceeded 900 million coins per month.

As for the early stage of factory construction, the construction of workers' houses, the tools needed to make cement, etc., these were also built by the workers themselves.

Li Chengqian's plan was to first convert all of Zhuque Street into cement roads.

At the same time, black powder was also being developed.

Skip the powdered gunpowder and get to the point of making pelletized gunpowder.

Several master-level craftsmen have been hired to make flintlock rifles by hand.

The use of flint can be traced back to before the dynasty era, and there are records of it in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

In the Tang Dynasty, ordinary people were already using flint.

Although high-quality flint is rare, it is not difficult to find.

If it is military equipment, naturally the matchlock gun is more useful, but it is not a big problem to make a few flintlock guns for your own fun.

Don't underestimate the level of the Tang Dynasty craftsmen. It is not difficult to make a flintlock rifle by hand, but it will take a longer time to make.

Hand-rubbing the barrel or even making a simple spring are not big problems, it’s just that mass production is not possible for the time being.

The only problem is the sealing. After using it for a dozen times, it will easily explode.

This requires going to Southeast Asia to get natural rubber.

Obviously, the current industrial level is still difficult to achieve in large-scale production of matchlock guns.

In comparison, building a large number of cement roads in the Tang Dynasty is more practical.

There is a saying in later generations: If you want to be rich, build roads first.

In the backyard of the Eastern Palace, Li Chunfeng was already arranging officials to keep breeding records for rice cultivation.

At the Prince's Household Temple, there is now a set of completed size standards.

From meters, to centimeters, and then to millimeters.

The vernier caliper had already been invented by Wang Mang, so there was no need for Li Chengqian to invent it.

The blacksmiths of the Eastern Palace have begun using honeycomb coal as fuel and blast furnaces to smelt steel. They are creating armor parts made of pure steel in a modular manner and in standard sizes.

Li Chengqian had almost no room for rest this month. He was busier than Emperor Erfeng and didn't even have time to attend the morning court.

Every day when I woke up, there were already a large number of East Palace officials waiting for me.

This requires a meeting to discuss the current canal construction in Chang'an City.

Then there is the news report from the mine, which requires the prince's instructions.

After noon, Li Chengqian went to the backyard of the East Palace to watch the blast furnace steelmaking and the breeding experimental field, and discussed and analyzed with Li Chunfeng and the craftsmen the possible errors and situations.

This includes holding meetings to study and deal with some unforeseen issues.

Every two days, I have to go to the cement factory outside the city. After all, it costs nearly 10 million yuan every month to provide guidance and observation on the preliminary work.

In the afternoon, news from shipyards in various places will be reported uniformly, waiting for the prince's instructions and approval.

There is also the Sanitation Department, recruiting workers, purchasing carriages, and rules and regulations.

I was busy until after dinner.

In the evening, Li Chengqian would start writing the charter.

Based on the experience of previous lives, we can make more reasonable plans for the current plans.

This situation continued until the end of April.

After forty days of nationwide renovation project, Chang'an City has basically come to an end.

The weather is gradually getting hotter.

At this time, all the people suddenly felt that this summer was completely different.

Thanks to the construction of the culvert, the stinky smell in the summer is gone.

The streets have also become clean and tidy, with a trash can every few hundred meters.

Even the garbage thrown on the ground will be cleaned up by people from the Environmental Sanitation Department.

The people were a little uncomfortable at first because they no longer had infiltration wells, but after just a month or so, they got used to throwing their garbage into the trash cans and waiting for the people from the Environmental Sanitation Department to collect it.

Swill, feces, etc.

Every night after curfew, people from the Environmental Sanitation Department would come to collect the waste in a horse-drawn carriage carrying two large wooden barrels.

This meant that after the curfew, in addition to the patrolling Jinwu Guards, there were also horse-drawn carriages from the Sanitation Department on the streets.

People living in Chang'an suddenly felt that the city seemed to have been completely renewed overnight.

At this time, everyone began to praise the prince.

"The prince is indeed wise."

"I said that the prince's original decree was definitely for the benefit of us common people, but you still don't understand."

"Humph, I don't know who was the most excited at the beginning, but now they are talking about this."

"After all, the people are thinking about us. I feel that the well water we draw now has become much sweeter."

"I heard from some scholars that the city of Chang'an during the Han Dynasty was built because the water in the wells was undrinkable, so the previous dynasty built Chang'an City."

"By the way, is your family using the honeycomb coal made by the prince now?"

"No, they are not available in the market. I heard they are only given to shops. Do you have any at home?"

"Someone gave me a few pieces a few days ago. They are really useful. There is not much smoke when burning. Two pieces can burn for an hour. They are small and do not take up much space. They are better than the best coal and much more useful than firewood."

"I don't know when I can buy it in the East and West Market. By then, my family will be using honeycomb briquettes exclusively."

Prince Wei's Mansion.

April is the most boring month for King Li Tai of Wei.

Apart from watching the military training outside the city, he just indulged in revelry every night in the mansion, which was so boring.

The most important thing is that the plan against the prince seemed to have come to a halt all of a sudden.

"Yi Ai, I asked you to ask Mr. Fang yesterday. What did Mr. Fang say?"

Li Tai inquired.

Originally, he wanted to come up with some ideas to deal with the prince, but he couldn't think of any good solution.

We can only place our hopes on Fang Xuanling.

Fang Yiai was holding a piece of crispy pastry in his hand and eating it happily.

The weather is getting hotter, and Sushan Bingsi in Dongxi City is becoming popular again.

After hearing the question from the King of Wei, Fang Yiai thought for a moment and said, "Father said that we cannot deal with the crown prince for the time being."

Li Tai asked subconsciously: "Why?"

Fang Yiai said, "I asked the same question. My father told me that even if we get evidence of the crown prince's rebellion now and give it to His Majesty, His Majesty will suppress it."

Li Tai gritted his teeth and said, "Why?"

Fang Yiai said: "I also asked my father why, and he said it was because the crown prince is very important now, and very important to the Tang Dynasty."

"So, your majesty will not allow the prince to rebel."

Fang Xuanling often discussed matters with Your Majesty and his ministers, so he was of course very clear about what the Crown Prince was doing.

The coal mine issue is of too huge a scale to be ignored, and it can be said to have the most direct impact on the Tang Dynasty's national destiny.

Moreover, the coal mines are not stealing meat from the plates of the aristocratic families. They are increasing revenue rather than reducing expenditure. They are a new source of financial revenue for the Tang Dynasty court, and in the future they will even become a major source comparable to grain taxes.

Under such circumstances, the prince is very powerful and must temporarily avoid the spotlight.

In fact, at this time, Fang Xuanling already had some evidence of the prince's rebellion.

It’s not Helan Chushi, but Li Anyan’s side.

(End of this chapter)