Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 101: Old Zhu's suspicion is gone, assembly line operation [Third update, please subscribe]

After hearing what Lao Zhu said, Liu Kuan felt that it was most likely not caused by the steam engine.

Sure enough, Zhu Biao, standing by, smiled and said, "The Medical School's 'Vaccination to Prevent Smallpox' trial officially concluded yesterday. All the doctors who participated in the trial have approved the use of vaccination to prevent smallpox."

So that’s what happened.

Liu Kuan suddenly realized.

Counting the time, it has been more than a month since he explained the method of "using cowpox to prevent smallpox" in medical school.

This matter concerns tens of millions of people, so the medical school must have started experimental preparations as soon as possible.

He remembered that after being vaccinated with cowpox, it only took a few days from the onset of the reaction to the recovery of the vaccine recipient.

Even if the doctors at the medical school were to be cautious and follow his advice, selecting different groups of people for comparison and conducting multiple experiments, the entire experiment should be completed by now.

From then on, as long as the method of cowpox vaccination was promoted, the people of the Ming Dynasty would have one less epidemic disease to fear, which could indeed be considered a great achievement for the Ming Dynasty.

Coming back to his senses, Liu Kuan bowed and said, "I have only shared the method of preventing smallpox in later generations. I did not participate in the experiment, so I dare not take credit for it."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "You are being modest, boy. If you hadn't told them this method, how could they have conducted this experiment?"

"It's not our style to not reward meritorious service. Tell me, what reward do you want this time? Is it still fertile land, shops, and gold and silver?"

Speaking of which, although Zhu Yuanzhang was a bit cruel in killing people, he was also generous in rewarding his meritorious officials.

Every time a military hero won a battle, he would reward him with a large amount of wealth. Dukes and marquises were rewarded with farmland ranging from a few thousand acres to tens of thousands of acres.

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more generous towards his sons - regardless of whether they were favored or not, they would all be granted the title of prince.

The prince’s annual salary was 50,000 dan, and he also received 20,000 to 30,000 strings of treasure notes as a reward every year.

After becoming a fief, he was provided with thousands of hectares of farmland and was even granted the right to collect local fishing taxes, mining taxes and other seemingly minor taxes.

It can be said that the later Ming emperors’ generous rewards to their sons and even brothers who were granted fiefdoms were a bad precedent set by Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's reward of land may seem similar to the behavior of later Ming emperors, but in fact it is very different.

Because at this time in the Ming Dynasty, there were still many barren fields, and the fields in many places were far less valuable than they were in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

For example, when Zhu Su was enfeoffed in Kaifeng, he allocated thousands of hectares (100,000 mu) of land in Kaifeng as his farmland, which should have been wasteland and government land.

Because it is impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to seize people's land for rewards.

When Prince Fu ascended the throne, Emperor Wanli granted him thousands of hectares of farmland. But where was there any wasteland in Henan at the time? Even the official farmland was scarce. So, if Henan wasn't enough, Huguang would make up for it, and if the official farmland wasn't enough, the common people's farmland would make up for it.

Liu Kuan had originally wanted to receive more rewards from Old Zhu to use as funds for his future work. When he learned about Old Zhu's generosity towards his sons, he was even less prepared to be polite.

He hesitated for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, I ask you to grant me a thousand acres of fertile land, ten thousand taels of silver, and a shop in the capital."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "How can this be enough? This time I will grant you 3,000 acres of fertile land, 30,000 strings of banknotes, and three shops!"

'Is this the case that everything is three?'

"But why did you change the silver into treasure notes?"

Liu Kuan muttered a few words in his heart, thinking that the Ming Dynasty treasure notes now had a deposit system, and even if they depreciated, it would not be as fast as in history, so he did not refuse.

He responded respectfully, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the generous reward."

"Hahaha," Zhu Yuanzhang laughed happily again, then asked, "I heard that the steam engine has been built?"

Liu Kuan knew that it would never be too late for Zhu Yuanzhang to know about this kind of thing.

He said, "We have only built the first generation of steam engines. If we want to use them in building trains, we still need to make some improvements."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, stood up and walked down from the throne.

"The Southwest War is about to begin. According to the military intelligence recently sent back by Fu Youde and his men, the dozen or so telescopes in their army have provided considerable assistance in detecting the enemy's situation. They are truly powerful military weapons."

"Those Tiger Crouching Cannons and their personal artillerymen will surely soon reach Fu Youde's army. With the power of these cannons, they will surely scare the likes of Bazala Walmi away."

Zhu Yuanzhang paused, looked at Liu Kuan, and said, "Recently, when I think about these later artillery pieces, I wonder if future generations, since they can create such powerful artillery pieces, will also improve on fire muskets?"

"I remember that the firearms in the movie 'Jin Yiwei' seemed very different from the military equipment at the moment. Not only were they more powerful, they also seemed more convenient to use."

"Also, in The Wandering Earth, there's a fire gun that can fire bullets continuously. It's very ferocious and very impressive."

"Do you know how to make these two types of muskets?"

Liu Kuan didn't expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would turn the topic to muskets. He guessed that he had wanted to ask about this for a long time.

He said, "The fire gun in "The Imperial Guards" was later called a matchlock gun, and the Ming Dynasty called it a bird gun. It was also first manufactured by the Western barbarians, and later imitated by Japan. The Ming Dynasty saw it during the war with the Japanese pirates and then imitated it."

"The method for making a matchlock gun is simple. I know it. I originally planned to present the method to Your Majesty after the steel was refined in Liuhe, but I forgot about it in a moment of busyness."

"As for the gun in 'The Wandering Earth,' called a machine gun, I only know the general principle, not the specific method of construction."

"With the military industrial base of the Ming Dynasty at that time, it would probably take decades to successfully develop even the initial version of the machine gun." Zhu Yuanzhang was watching Liu Kuan as he said this.

In fact, he was somewhat suspicious that Liu Kuan deliberately did not hand over the method of making the matchlock gun, but after listening to what Liu Kuan said and observing his expression, he knew that he was probably too suspicious.

After all, if Liu Kuan had selfish motives in this regard, he could have simply not mentioned the Shenwei Cannon, the Tiger Crouching Cannon, etc. - after all, no one else in the Ming Dynasty knew about these things except him.

Zhu Yuanzhang returned to his throne and asked, "If this matchlock rifle could be deployed in the army, its usefulness would be no less than that of the Shenwei cannon or the Hudun cannon, right?"

Liu Kuan nodded, "Indeed—once the army is equipped with arquebuses and several types of cannons, and the firearms equipment rate reaches 70% to 80%, then we will truly enter the firearms era."

"Of course, to fully unleash the power of artillery and muskets, generals need to research new tactics."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "There is no shortage of talented people in the Ming army who are dedicated to studying warfare. When you return, please get a copy of the matchlock rifle manufacturing method and hand it over to us. We will have the Arsenal develop it as soon as possible."

"The Southwest War is expected to last a year or two. Even with powerful weapons like telescopes and tiger squat cannons, it will take a year and a half to end."

"If we could have manufactured a batch of matchlock rifles earlier and sent them over, perhaps they could have been used in this battle, allowing the soldiers to gain some practical experience."

"I obey your command," Liu Kuanxian bowed in response, then offered a suggestion, "Your Majesty, if you want to manufacture more muskets, cannons, and other firearms faster, it would be best to establish a dedicated gun factory."

"The factory will manufacture more hydraulic machine tools, and even convert them into steam machine tools in the future. We will also refine the production process and adopt assembly line operations."

"Also, if possible, it would be best to reform the craftsman system and improve the treatment of craftsmen, just like the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant and the Qinglongshan Coal Plant did."

When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao heard Liu Kuan utter a lot of new terms, their eyes lit up.

The father and son have now summed up a pattern - whenever Liu Kuan uses new terms in his speech, it is likely that he will be talking about good things for future generations.

Hydraulic machine tools, the two of them probably understood.

Firstly, there were already some simple machine tools at that time, and secondly, Liu Kuan built a hydraulic forging hammer for casting cannons at the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant, which was a kind of machine tool.

Assembly line operation sounds new to me.

Old Zhu made a gesture, and Zhu Biao asked, "What is assembly line operation?"

Liu Kuan mentally organized his words before saying, "Assembly line operation, as the name suggests, is the process of breaking down the production process of a product into multiple steps, with each step being carried out on a production line similar to an assembly line."

"Let a group of workers only be responsible for one production link - because a single production link is definitely simpler than the entire production process, it is easier to master and become proficient."

"This makes it easy to train a large number of workers who are skilled in individual production links. If all links are skilled, each production link will become faster, and the product can be manufactured at a faster speed."

"Assembly line production is not only faster, but also helps standardize product components, and standardization helps reduce the waste caused by damaged components."

"For example, a musket is made up of multiple parts, including the barrel, stock, and bolt. If the bolt breaks on the battlefield, soldiers who know how to disassemble and reassemble it can remove the bolt from another musket with a broken barrel and reassemble it."

"In short, assembly line production combined with hydraulic and steam machinery is far more efficient than individual handcrafting and has many advantages."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and asked, "If something goes wrong, how do we find the culprit?"

Liu Kuan said without hesitation, "We can appoint supervisors and quality inspectors. If there are any problems with the products, we can hold them accountable. They will definitely supervise and monitor carefully."

"It seems this assembly line production is indeed a good idea." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with a smile. "As far as I know, the train construction has already begun. You have a lot of free time in the Science and Technology Department. Why don't you supervise the gun factory?"

Hearing that Lao Zhu was just asking and not giving a direct order, Liu Kuan quickly refused.

"Your Majesty, I am very busy. Although the construction of the train has begun, I have to inspect it frequently and have an overall view of the situation."

"Also, I haven't finished writing the several memorials Your Majesty asked me to write earlier."

Liu Kuan was afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would impose more burdens on him, so he paused and said, "Besides, I am planning to establish a publication to promote natural science and lay the foundation for the development of science and technology in the Ming Dynasty."

"With so many things to do, I just feel like I don't have enough time. So, can I take on other tasks?"

Seeing Liu Kuan so afraid of taking on another job, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but laugh, "You kid, you're obviously free, but you insist on saying a lot of things."

"Well, we won't let you run the gun factory, but you have to write a relevant memorial and submit it to the person in charge so that he knows how to run the gun factory."

Liu Kuan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

In his opinion, supervising a gun factory was a dangerous and tiring job, and he really didn't want to do it.

In comparison, writing a petition to set up a factory is much easier.

He immediately bowed and said, "Your humble servant obeys your command!"

Zhu Yuanzhang took a sip of tea and asked, "You said you wanted to establish a publication to promote science? What is a publication?"

　Third update.

　　I started writing as soon as I got back. I haven’t had dinner yet. I don’t know if there will be a fourth update.

　　Don't wait any longer.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)