My Daming New Empire

Zhu Di nodded and said: "This matter is very good, and it's time for the grandson to marry a wife. Zhao..."

Hearing this, Li Qian and the accompanying eunuchs immediately bowed down.

Zhu Di thought for a while and said: "Now that the great victory has returned, we will give the people time to celebrate in April. The Inner Palace Supervisor, Yinshou Supervisor, and Duzhi Supervisor, led by Li Qian, formed a guard of honor to select concubines and went to various places to choose concubines for grandsons. Since the Ming Dynasty From the first month of the new year, the whole country stopped marriages, and five thousand concubines were selected for the grandson, and the round-trip fare was allowed to be paid, and his parents escorted him to Beijing."

"Yes!"

Zhu Di turned his head and said to Concubine Zhang: "The harem respects you now, so you have to worry about this matter, keep a close relationship with the crown princess, and choose a good marriage for the grandson."

Concubine Zhang said with a smile: "The Crown Princess has been worrying about this for the past few years, and I will help her make up for it and make up for the vacancies."

"The best way to choose a concubine is to be gentle and honest, but the grandson has clear opinions, so you should ask more about his preferences."

Concubine Zhang Gui couldn't help laughing and said: "Your Majesty has the world in mind, let us women worry about this kind of housework."

Zhu Di patted her hand, then asked Li Qian: "Has there ever been a grandson's itinerary for today?"

Li Qian replied: "Today is resting, but the grandson is not free. He is going to Meishan to investigate the burning of charcoal. We all know that the supervisor has made arrangements with Li Shaojian. However, His Royal Highness Zhao Wang went to see the grandson early this morning. Your Highness..."

He looked back at a young eunuch, who immediately handed over a report, he looked at it, and handed it to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di took it over and took a look. The paper recorded the key points of the conversation between Zhu Gaosui and Zhu Zhanji today, allowing Zhu Di to understand what Zhu Gaosui meant at a glance.

But unlike Zhu Gaosui, he couldn't figure out what Zhu Zhanji was thinking.Just thinking about it, he understood why Zhu Zhanji didn't care about the business routes he controlled, and was willing to transfer part of the business routes to Zhu Gaosui.

Because Zhu Zhanji doesn't care about this industry at all, what he cares about is the whole Ming Dynasty and the whole world.

A broad-minded Zhu Zhanji is extremely in line with Zhu Di's expectations.At the same time, he also looked down on the petty third son even more.

"Don't bother with this matter, let Taisun handle it by himself. When Wang Yan comes back, let him come to see me."

Wang Yan was the Chief Eunuch of the Supervisor of Rituals. Before him, the Supervisor of Rituals was only a slightly more important department in the Twelve Prisons. The department with the greatest real power was the Inner Palace Supervisor.

In addition to being responsible for all wood, stone, tile, soil, pagoda materials, eastbound, westbound, paint, wedding, gunpowder ten works, the inner palace supervisor is also responsible for rice and salt warehouses, construction warehouses, and imperial altar warehouses.In charge of palace rooms, mausoleum construction, copper and tin dowry, utensils and ice cellars, etc.

Another important responsibility is to control all eunuchs and manage all eunuch affairs. The inner palace supervisor is a veritable "first department" status, and in fact also occupies the position of chief executive and command of other eunuch institutions;

However, Zheng He, the chief eunuch of the Inner Palace Supervisor, has been spreading his power all over the world, disdaining to manage these affairs, so the post of chief eunuch fell to the head of the chief eunuch.

It was also after Wang Yan that the supervisor of ceremonies really became the first eunuch.

Li Qian knew that when Zhu Di said this, he must have ordered the supervisor of ceremonies to cooperate with his grandson in maritime trade affairs.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji and his party were welcomed into Meishan by a group of Ministry of Industry officials and craftsmen.

Although today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the coal kiln cannot be turned off casually. Even if it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are still many craftsmen busy here.

"Your Highness, please be careful. If you need anything, just give me an order. Why bother to come to this dirty place?"

Zhu Zhanji covered his nose with a silk handkerchief and said with a smile: "The imperial grandfather entrusted this matter to me. Of course, I have to do my best. Although it is pickled here, so many craftsmen can bear it, and I am fine." Unbearable."

Stepping on the thick soot, Li Liang followed carefully, helping Zhu Zhanji lift the hem of his coat, for fear of staining Zhu Zhanji's new clothes.

Today's coal mountain is still a real coal mountain, except for the sludge from Sanhai that has been cleaned up, it is full of coal pulled from the west mountain.

These coals were used to burn the bricks for the construction of King Yan's Mansion, and the waste was piled up on Meishan as the foundation.

And on the north side of Meishan, there are eight brick kilns in a row, six of which are for firing bricks and two for firing charcoal.

In this era, there is no idea of ​​environmental protection at all. People are struggling to fill their stomachs, and no one has the leisure to care about environmental issues.

Therefore, the environment here is indeed a bit harsh. Those coal workers and brick and tile workers are so dirty that they can't see their original appearance.

Even if Zhu Zhanji had the idea of ​​sharing the joy with the people, he couldn't bear the soot all over the sky, so he could only block his nose with a handkerchief, at least to filter it.

Zhu Zhanji's purpose is to check how the technology of burning charcoal in Daming is developing, and whether the technology can be graded.

If it can be graded, keep the best technology and only send the next-level technology to the Uliangha people.

But everything in front of him disappointed Zhu Zhanji, even the best charcoal-burning master, he only baked coke based on experience.

This is also a common problem of most technical workers in Ming Dynasty, knowing what is happening and not knowing why.

In such a big environment, Zhu Zhanji has no choice.

During the Han Dynasty, Confucianism dominated the discourse power, and the four levels of scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen had been completely solidified.

Artisans are worse than farmers, they can only be regarded as inferior people, and they are not as rich as merchants, so they look down on themselves.

The whole society looks down on these technology-engaging people, and they regard it as a helpless fate.There is no upward channel, and they have never thought about improving their social status through technological innovation.

Unless you're a true idealist.

These masters of baking coke, they know how to bake coal into coke at high temperature, but if you ask them to tell why, they don't know.

Everything was passed down from the ancestors, and they only followed the guidance of experience, never considering why coal is more resistant to burning after being baked at high temperature, and the burning temperature is also higher.

In later generations, high-temperature coking was only a basic industry, and coke was divided into three categories: metallurgical coke, foundry coke and chemical coke.

But in this era, it is impossible to have such an industrial foundation.The only thing they have mastered is simple removal of coal impurities and simple coal coking.

Zhu Zhanji had never been in contact with these basic industrial models in his previous life. He had even seen the open hearth furnace and blast furnace for steelmaking, but he had never been in contact with coking.

Therefore, he can't give any hints or suggestions at all, and can only use the current technology.

After an hour of delay here, those craftsmen trembled in front of Zhu Zhanji, wishing to take out their hearts.

But none of them can solve the classification problem raised by Zhu Zhanji.

In this way, in terms of coking, the Wuliangha people will not be able to get stuck.

However, being unable to control it technically does not mean that it cannot be controlled economically.

As long as Daming has the pricing power and leaves only a small profit for the Wuliangha people, they will only be able to work for Daming forever.

Zhu Zhanji left Meishan with some disappointment. Before leaving, he looked back at Meishan, which is now inconspicuous.

Without the construction of the Forbidden City, the scale of this place will not expand, and the mud in several lakes has not been cleaned up. I don’t know if there will be Jingshan in the future.

However, if the Ming Dynasty solved the grassland issue, there would be no need to build Beiping at all, and this place would become a hinterland, and its military status would be greatly reduced.

As soon as he left Meishan, he met Li Qian who was coming.Li Qian was all smiles, and when he was still more than ten meters away, he cupped his fists and congratulated, "I congratulate Your Highness, Your Majesty has issued an order to choose a concubine for His Highness."

Zhu Zhanji was already 16 years old. If it weren't for this Northern Expedition, the selection of concubines would have been on the agenda as soon as his birthday passed, so he wasn't surprised at all. "Presumably Eunuch Li is in charge of the etiquette for choosing a concubine this time, and I hope Eunuch Li will choose a few more beauties for me."

Li Qian chuckled and said, "The old slave came to His Highness to ask His Highness what he likes, so that we can pay more attention when we are selecting people."

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Law, the selection of concubines by the emperor's son and grandson basically came one by one.