Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 318: Implementing the new policy in batches, thermal power station! [Please subscribe]

From the time the train arrived at the station to the time the 500 cavalrymen and horses were arranged on the train to leave, it took more than two hours.

Now a two-story brick and cement building has been built at Chuzhou Railway Station.

On the second floor of the building, Zhao Xian, the head of the Ministry of War who was ordered to supervise the affairs of cavalry transportation by train, withdrew his gaze from the departing train and looked at the remaining 500 Luzhou Guard cavalrymen in the square outside the station.

"Wait for the next train to arrive and transport the remaining 500 cavalrymen, and then our mission will be complete."

Hearing Zhao Xian sigh like this, the stationmaster of Chuzhou Railway Station couldn't help but ask, "While trains are convenient, using them to transport cavalry is ultimately uneconomical. Does Chief Zhao know why the court has resorted to such a scheme?"

"I don't know either." Zhao Xian shook his head, then added, "I only heard a few words from the Ministry of War. It seems that the court wants to test the idea of ​​using trains to transport military horses. Perhaps they want to use the trains to transport military horses quickly from the northern border to the south when rail transportation becomes more convenient in the future."

"I see."

The two chatted for a while before another train arrived at Xuzhou Station.

Zhao Xian then urged the generals to command the remaining 500 cavalrymen and horses to board the train.

Perhaps because of their previous experience, the cavalry from Luzhou were much faster this time. They completed all the boarding procedures in just over an hour and were carried north by train...
···
Many departments of the Ming court participated in this Northern Expedition, including the Tiangong Academy. However, the Tiangong Academy's mission was limited, so it had little impact on Liu Kuan's work.

After opening the office on the eighth day of the first lunar month, he gradually carried out a series of work for this spring according to last year's plan.

The first step was to continue establishing technical schools in other provinces and carry out artisan education.

Although technical schools were introduced from Zhili to other provinces in the second half of last year, in the actual implementation process, not all other provinces started to establish technical schools at once, but rather did so in batches.

The first four provinces to establish technical schools were naturally Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.

Among them, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong were relatively less affected by the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and were ruled by Zhu Yuanzhang earlier. In addition, they are located on the coast and benefited from the opening of the sea by the Ming Dynasty. Now they are considered to be the richer provinces among the many provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

As for Jiangxi, it was not only one of the first provinces to come under the rule of Zhu Yuanzhang, but it was also the place with the largest number of craftsmen and the most developed technology in Jiangnan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Its economic development is also good now, which is why it was listed among the first provinces to implement technical schools.

Liu Kuan planned to complete the implementation of the industrial schools in these four provinces in one to two years, and then expand it to Huguang, Sichuan, Henan, Shandong, Hebei and Shanxi.

Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Liaoning and various provincial governors were at the end of the list.

The second is the reform and re-evaluation of the craftsman hierarchy system.

This work will follow behind the technical schools in various places and will be implemented half a year later.

The last important task of the Tiangong Institute was to prepare the "Ming Dynasty Patent Law".

However, this work cannot be completed by the Tiangong Academy alone. It must be done together with the Dali Temple. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Revenue also need to cooperate to a certain extent.

Considering that the implementation of the Patent Law requires a certain administrative and social foundation, Liu Kuan plans to implement it after the reform of the engineering and craftsman system is basically completed.

Although the Ming Dynasty was not a later era, it is not an exaggeration to say that it took several years to formulate a completely new law.

The "Great Ming Code" originally inherited many laws from the Song and Yuan dynasties, and some laws and regulations were even copied directly, so it was naturally not slow to finalize.

However, no dynasty had ever had a patent law before. The "Ming Dynasty Patent Law" was groundbreaking, so it took more time to formulate.

In addition to these three major institutional and legal issues, Liu Kuan also needs to take into account some scientific and industrial matters.

For example, the research work of the various bureaus and institutes under the Tiangong Institute, and the trial construction of a thermal power station...
On the east side of Lime Mountain, between Guanyin Gate and Yaofang Gate, near the outer city wall, a construction team has been working since last autumn, and they first built a circle of wall that is about ten feet high.

While the northwest area of ​​the Outer City is largely uninhabited, it houses the main camp of the Emperor's personal army, and the families of the lower-ranking officers and soldiers are often stationed there. Passing by, both the officers and their families can't help but wonder: What's going on inside these walls? Why is it so mysterious?

Although the emperor's personal soldiers guarding outside the wall roughly knew what was happening inside, they did not dare to tell anyone else because they had military orders.

On the 25th day of the first lunar month, Liu Kuan, accompanied by Qiu Qichi and other Tiangongyuan staff and guards, came to the outside of the wall and easily entered.

I saw that the several buildings that had been built inside were all made of bricks, stones and cement. Some of them even had no bricks visible, and were completely built with steel bars and concrete!

After Liu Kuan and others came in, a young official immediately came up with several clerks and saluted Liu Kuan and Qiu Qichi.

"Your humble servant Shen Lin greets Director Liu and Doctor Qiu."

It turned out that this person was Shen Lin, the most outstanding student Liu Kuan initially recruited from the Imperial College.

After the train was built, Shen Lin was promoted directly from clerk due to his merits and talents, and entered the gun factory under the Ministry of Works as deputy supervisor (ninth rank).

In the past three or four years, he has been promoted continuously in the Ministry of Works. Last year, he was transferred to the Tiangong Academy and is now a director of the sixth rank.

Liu Kuan took into consideration that Shen Lin now had a solid foundation of knowledge in science and technology, had accumulated a lot of experience in technology, had a strong learning ability, and was serious and reliable in his work, so he gave him an important task - to supervise the construction of the first thermal power station in the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, Shen Lin's qualifications were not enough to supervise this matter alone, so Liu Kuan asked Qiu Qichi to take care of it as well.

Liu Kuan returned the greeting briefly and said, "I heard the first phase of the thermal power station project is complete, so I came to inspect it. Come on, you lead the way. Let's start with a brief introduction to the situation here."

Shen Lin was Liu Kuan's old subordinate and had long been accustomed to Liu Kuan's efficient style of doing things. He immediately led the way and introduced the way as they walked.

"Director, please take a look. All the buildings in the first phase of the thermal power station are constructed according to the drawings designed by the Tiangong Institute."

"The northernmost area is the coal processing area. When selected coal is brought in from outside, it will go through three steps: unloading, transportation, and storage for safe storage."

"The coal is then processed in the district to make fine coal or even pulverized coal, which is then sent to fuel bunkers for storage."

Liu Kuan and others entered from the south gate, but this place was not very big, so with Shen Lin's introduction, Liu Kuan could also see several cement and brick buildings in the north.

"The large area to the south is divided into three smaller areas. The westernmost area, directly connected to the fuel bunker, is the boiler area. Further east are the steam turbines and other steam-powered buildings."

"The easternmost part is the power generation area where the generators are located. And the westernmost part is the chimney and the ash discharge area."

Liu Kuan nodded and then asked, "Where is the wastewater treatment area?"

"Go back to the main courtyard, it's in the southwest." Shen Lin said, and led Liu Kuan to the sewage treatment and discharge area.

Although it is entirely possible to deal with the pollution first and then control it, and a small experimental thermal power station will not produce much sewage, Liu Kuan did not ignore this link.

Firstly, it is to cultivate pollution management thinking for the development of Ming Dynasty from the very beginning and reduce the damage of industrial development to the environment.

Secondly, this is the capital after all. It’s okay to have a big chimney spewing black smoke every day to pollute the air, but there is no way to change this situation now.

But if the sewage is discharged indiscriminately again, not only will Liu Kuan feel uncomfortable, but it will also be difficult to explain to Lao Zhu.

Therefore, he planned to use the means currently available to the Ming Dynasty to treat the wastewater generated by the thermal power plant and then discharge it.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)