Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 41 Public outrage is hard to refute, and the world is in uproar.

When the powerful eunuch Wei personally took charge of acquiring the land, the results were exceptionally good.

Upon receiving the news, ordinary people and even soldiers in the garrison quickly sought help from relatives and friends to harvest rice and wheat, move their belongings, and prepare to leave.

The notorious eunuch Wei, who is known for his cunning and ruthlessness, wouldn't dare disobey even if he told them to get lost without paying them.

Now that this guy is even giving money and building new houses for us, naturally no one dares to refuse.

However, this only applies to ordinary people and garrison soldiers; some officials in the court, or those who have already retired, are unwilling to participate.

Those who were able to acquire land in the capital region were not ordinary people; some were even dukes, marquises, or nobles.

If it were during the Tianqi reign, they would never have dared to utter a word if Wei Zhongxian had done this.

But it is no longer the Tianqi Dynasty.

Although the current young emperor has not yet made it clear that he intends to deal with Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian dares not act recklessly. Even those officials who submitted memorials to impeach Wei Zhongxian have been dealt with without consequence. What do they have to fear?

They assumed that Wei Zhongxian was afraid of provoking the young emperor to punish him, so he dared not deal with the officials who submitted impeachments.

Who would have thought that Wei Zhongxian refrained from taking action in order to cooperate with Zhu Jue in luring the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party to their deaths!

Many of these officials who annexed land were members of the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party. Once they spread the news, their superiors naturally gave them full support in their fight against Wei Zhongxian.

As a result, the number of memorials sent to the Imperial Study early the next morning was noticeably thicker than usual, by nearly half again.

Zhu Jue opened the memorials and couldn't help but sneer repeatedly.

What do you mean Wei Zhongxian was lawless and seized land everywhere?
What? The Embroidered Uniform Guard was originally the emperor's personal guard, but Wei Zhongxian abused his power to oppress the people.

What Wei Zhongxian's outrageous behavior has caused uproar in the capital?
You probably don't know this, but it was I who ordered Wei Zhongxian to take over this land.

Wei Zhongxian really did a good job of taking the blame; he kept quiet and never mentioned the emperor at all.

Do you think I should listen to your advice to punish him?
You must be dreaming!
There are even nobles and high-ranking officials among them!
Zhu Jue frowned slightly upon seeing the memorial from Duke Zhang Weixian of England.

He could ignore the officials of the outer court, but he had to take care of the dukes, marquises, and nobles, especially the Duke of Ying, Zhang Weixian.

Not only did Zhang Weixian, the Duke of Ying, serve the Ming dynasty, but his lineage was also very loyal to the Ming imperial family.

He knew that of all the dukes who died when the Ming Dynasty fell, only Duke Mu Tianbo of Qian and Duke Zhang Shize of Yingguo truly died fighting for the Ming.

Leaving aside the other dukes, marquises, and nobles, he still had to give Zhang Weixian, the Duke of Ying, some pointers.

He thought for a moment, then announced loudly, "Summon Duke Zhang Weixian of Yingguo to come and pay his respects."

This Duke of England, Zhang Weixian, did not live in the palace, and he was also quite old and his legs were not very strong.

He had almost finished processing the memorials when Duke Zhang Weixian of Yingguo finally came over with faltering steps, respectfully cupping his hands and bowing, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

You are truly remarkable; you have rendered meritorious service to the emperor, yet you have never been arrogant about your achievements.

But you did something dishonest.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then picked up the memorial and handed it over, saying expressionlessly, "What's going on with this?"

Was this done wrong?

Even without opening the memorial, Duke Zhang Weixian of England knew what was written inside; it was written by him.

He pretended to open the memorial and read it carefully. After thinking for a moment, he cautiously said, "Your Majesty, I dare to say that Wei Zhongxian's actions have exceeded the bounds of a subject. Moreover, he acts recklessly and lawlessly, offending too many people. Your Majesty, we cannot defy the wrath of the masses."

Is it impossible to defy public anger?
Zhu Jue didn't beat around the bush and asked directly, "Are you referring to the Donglin Party, the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party, or both?"

Does this mean I shouldn't associate with them?

Duke Zhang Weixian of England hesitated for a moment, but still said frankly, "Your Majesty, some people from the Donglin Party have repeatedly sent petitions insisting on seeing me. I had no choice but to meet them."

You.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and said, "Don't be fooled by their talk of benevolence and morality. They are actually very ruthless. The things they do behind the scenes are even worse than those of Wei Zhongxian, you know that?"

what?
I've been scammed!

Duke Zhang Weixian of England said with trepidation, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I truly did not know they were such people."

These guys are really cunning.

Historically, if Emperor Shunzhi hadn't hosted a banquet for the eight imperial merchants in the palace after entering the pass and had all eight of them incorporated into the Plain Yellow Banner and given important responsibilities, no one would have known that these guys had secretly betrayed the Ming Dynasty!
If you had known, you wouldn't have fallen for it.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then said sternly, "If Wei Zhongxian wants to buy land, then sell it to him. It's not like he's not going to pay for it. Also, don't meddle in matters of the court, understand?"

I really shouldn't have gotten involved.

I've forgotten all about Zhang's training!

Duke Zhang Weixian of England nodded hurriedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

I'm glad you understand.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand.

Duke Zhang Weixian of England quickly bowed and took his leave.

Zhu Jue watched his figure disappear through the gate before getting up and walking south towards the Wanshou Palace. Wei Zhongxian had made such a grand show of things, causing a great uproar; it seemed that finishing the land acquisition in three days wouldn't be a problem at all.

Next, he needs to consider the issue of building a factory.

They have a lot of factories to build right now: shipyards, glass factories, tank factories, musket factories, steel mills, and so on. They have to build them all as soon as possible.

Nowadays, the most important thing is still the steel mill, because without this most important raw material, many things cannot be made.

As he pondered, he arrived inside the glass factory, but instead of entering the scorching hot factory buildings, he went directly to Song Yingsheng's temporary study.

Right now, Song Yingsheng was frowning and deep in thought, holding a blueprint, and didn't even notice him come in.

He didn't pay much attention to the fact that everyone who is obsessed with technology is like that.

He tiptoed over and coughed softly.

Song Yingsheng looked up and realized what was happening. He quickly stood up and bowed.

Zhu Jue waved his hand slightly, then asked, "How's it going with figuring out the blast furnace for steelmaking?"

That's way too high.

Song Yingsheng said cautiously, "Your Majesty, these days, it's considered good if an iron smelting furnace can be made to be one zhang tall. It's simply impossible to make a furnace that's more than ten zhang tall."

This blast furnace doesn't necessarily have to be more than ten feet long.

The reason he drew a blast furnace that was more than ten feet tall was because all the blast furnaces he had seen in his previous life were more than ten feet tall. He had even seen blast furnaces that were more than a hundred meters tall, which was more than thirty feet tall!

In his past life, countless people sought his investment, but he couldn't just invest on a whim. Therefore, he had investigated many industries and had people explain things to him in detail.

This was also the foundation upon which he built the Ming Dynasty's industrial empire.

In his previous life, he had investigated too many industries. Although he didn't understand every industry thoroughly, he still knew the general principles of how it worked.

He doesn't need to be an expert in every industry. As the saying goes, the most important ability of a leader is to recognize and utilize talent. He only needs to find people who can help the industry develop.

Song Yingsheng had a certain understanding of smelting technology, and steel was one of the most important raw materials. That's why he drew a blast furnace blueprint for someone and recounted to Song Yingsheng what the person in his previous life had explained to him in detail.

His goal was to cultivate Song Yingsheng to develop the smelting industry, especially steel smelting.

This blast furnace is the key to steel smelting; he needs to guide people to thoroughly understand it.

He thought about it carefully, then asked, "What's the tallest blast furnace you think can be built right now?"

How do you say this?

Song Yingsheng thought about it carefully, and then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, if we make the base bigger and the clay layer thicker, just like we did when we repaired the city wall, it should be no problem to build a blast furnace that is three zhang high."

However, the blast furnace built that way would be enormous, probably even larger than the Qianqing Palace.

Why are you still avoiding these things?

The steel produced by this simple blast furnace, which is three zhang high, is definitely better than the steel produced by traditional steelmaking methods. Although the quality cannot yet compare with the standard steel of later generations, it is absolutely fine to use now.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue replied without hesitation, "Build it as big as you want. Three zhang high is barely enough. If you scale down the structure here proportionally, it should be no problem to forge steel from it."

You must remember, no matter what it is, we must first have it, and then we can gradually figure out how to improve it based on what we have. If you keep studying the blueprints without actually building the physical object to try it out, it will be very difficult to make progress.

Oh, anyway, let's build a prototype first and then figure out how to improve it, right?

Upon hearing this, Song Yingsheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Once you understand, get ready immediately.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Then you should draw up the sketch today, prepare the materials tomorrow, and gather the craftsmen the day after tomorrow to find a suitable place near the confluence of the Chaobai River and the Tonghui River to start construction."

Whether we are manufacturing firearms, cannons, armored vehicles, various processing machinery, or even building cities, producing cold weapons and armor, we need steel. Once production increases, even 10,000 catties of steel per day will not be enough.

You'd better be able to increase steel production to over 100,000 jin per day within a month; otherwise, many places will be stuck due to a lack of steel.

what?
Daily output of over 10,000 jin!
Song Yingsheng murmured his estimation: "Your Majesty, nowadays, it's considered good if ten catties of iron ore can be refined into three catties of pig iron. If it's refined into steel, it's considered good if ten catties can yield one catty. Also, coal generally requires as many catties of coal as there are catties of ore to refine."

So, if you calculate it this way, 100,000 jin of steel would require 1 million jin of iron ore to produce, and if you add coal, that would be 2 million jin.

If a 400-ton warship and a grain transport ship were to run fast, it could only carry a maximum of 20,000 to 30,000 catties of cargo. Moreover, even if the ships could run, it would take us three days to transport coal and iron ore from Zunhua, and about two more days to return empty.

In other words, if we use 400-ton warships and grain transport ships to haul coal and iron ore, each wave would require over a hundred ships. If we were to haul continuously, we would need to arrange five waves, totaling five hundred ships.

Where is he going to find five hundred warships and grain transport ships right now?
There weren't enough warships and grain transport ships in Liaodong, so he allocated over a hundred grain transport ships. The key is that these ships need to quickly transfer grain from the south over the next two months; otherwise, once the river freezes over, the grain won't be able to get through.

In other words, he couldn't even allocate too many grain transport boats in the next two months.

Zhu Jue frowned and pondered for a while, then decisively said, "You can have people build a simple iron smelting furnace near the iron mine over there. Anyway, it still needs to be refined here. You just need to have them dig up some clay to make clay molds and cast the iron ore into iron ingots. Iron ingots are easy to transport."

In this way, we only need to transport 30% of the iron ingots and 30% of the coal. One shipment would require 30 cargo ships, and five shipments would require 150 ships.

Oh, that certainly saves a lot of boats.

Song Yingsheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

(End of this chapter)