Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Father, no, father, how are you doing?"

When Hu Jiya returned to the mansion given to him by Zhu Di, Hu Yuancheng and Hu Hancang came to greet him.

Hu Yuancheng's expression was relatively calm, but at this moment Hu Hancang's face was full of panic and uneasiness. A drop of sweat flowed from his forehead. He didn't bother to wipe it off, but only asked his old father Hu Jiya.

There are very few people in this world who are not afraid of death, let alone people like Hu Hancang who have lived in the center of power since childhood. Now they have no sense of security in a foreign country. How can we not be afraid!

And the only person he relied on subconsciously was his father.

After all, he was able to ascend to the throne solely because his mother was a princess of the Chen Dynasty. As the second son, he has half of the royal blood of the Chen Dynasty, while his eldest brother Hu Yuancheng, as the eldest son, does not. It is precisely because of this that Hu Jiya That's why I chose him.

Different from Hu Hancang, Hu Yuancheng, who had just reported to the Military War Bureau of the Ministry of Industry today, seemed much calmer. Ming's magnanimity obviously exceeded his expectations. In fact, if Ming provided for the few of them with no worries about food and clothing, he would be allowed to He was worried, and now, he was less worried about his future and his life.

Well, if Hu Yuancheng knew that in the historical line without Jiang Xinghuo's interference, he could go all the way to become Minister of the Ministry of Industry and achieve the goal of being a highly respected minister in two countries at the same time, Hu Yuancheng must have been full of energy by now.

However, with Hu Yuancheng's intelligence, he also knew that his father's trip would not go smoothly. After all, the water in the Ming Dynasty's temple was very deep, so it must not be so easy to find out the specific depth.

Hu Jishao did not immediately answer the questions of his two sons. He first returned to the house and then found the wooden fish under the Buddhist niche in the house. This was a regular configuration of the mansion, because although Buddhism and Taoism were not popular in the early Ming Dynasty, in the In the upper class of society, especially among aristocratic women, Buddhism is still very popular.

Hu Jiya hit the wooden fish with a wooden fish mallet with his hands full of age spots and blue veins, making some noises. Then he was silent for a long time before whispering: "This time, the harvest has been beyond expectations. , not only met Yao Guangxiao, the Duke of Rongguo, who was known as the prime minister in black in the Ming Dynasty and one of the six dukes, but also "

Having said this, he paused again, with a look of disbelief on his face.

Hu Hancang became even more nervous when he saw this. He knew that his scheming father would rarely show such an expression: "And what?"

"Father has met the Imperial Master?"

Hu Yuancheng's voice was trembling, but he still tried his best to stay calm and asked guessingly.

"Yes, he is the national master who was rumored to be the reincarnation of an immortal in the Ming Dynasty."

Hu Jisha took a breath and told his two sons exactly what happened in the president's reform office.

After listening, Hu Hancang's body shook a few times and almost fell to the ground.

He couldn't believe that this kind of thing was true: "Father, are you mistaken? How could there be such a god-like figure in this world?"

"Father, is this, is this true?" Hu Yuancheng was also in disbelief.

Hu Jiyou sighed heavily and said: "How could I lie to you, my father? If I hadn't really seen the ability of this national master, I would never have said this. I can only say that there are people outside the world, and there is a sky outside the world. I used to be careless. Isn’t it ridiculous that you don’t know what’s wrong with those things you did?”

After saying that, Hu Jiyou looked at his two sons in a daze. Now they are both bereaved dogs. It is absolutely impossible for them to return to the country for restoration. After all, according to the situation of the Chief Envoy of Jiaozhi and the Chen Dynasty after the restoration of the country, those who were before The old forces that secretly resisted them have made a comeback on a large scale.

This kind of thing is like covering a coffin and burying sand shovelful after shovelful. If it is buried firmly, it will be dumped. But if the coffin is lifted up, it will be a complete waste of all previous efforts, and if you try again, It can be said that it is extremely difficult for people to press it back.

Therefore, they can only find another way out in Ming Dynasty.

"It's just that according to what my father said, although this imperial master has amazing abilities, he is not necessarily very sophisticated in political power. What's more, it seems that his own power is not strong, and it comes more from the support of the Ming Emperor. .”

"exactly."

Hu Jiya nodded slightly, and the silver beard on his chin also trembled.

But he changed the subject and immediately said: "But the black-clad Prime Minister Yao Guangxiao is by no means a kind person. His depth of mind really makes me shudder. These two people cooperate with each other, and with the world The most talented person Xie Jin advocated for him with his lips and lips, and he also had Zhuo Jing from the Ministry of Rites and Xia Yuanji from the Ministry of Husband as his left and right wings, which really should not be underestimated."

"What does father mean?" Hu Yuancheng had some understanding.

But Hu Jisao just shook his head slightly, then tapped the wooden fish in his hand several times and finished his sentence.

"Look next."

——————

Tangshan.

The former luxurious villa area has been demolished to pieces. This is the property of Cao Guogong's mansion. Naturally, Li Zengzhi can do whatever he wants.

"What do you think our second master is trying to do? We don't want such a nice villa, so we'll bulldoze it to open up a coal mine."

"Who knows how much money this coal mine can make, now every household uses charcoal."

"Oh, what do you know? Our second master is not willing to tear it down, but there is nothing we can do."

"Really or not, our second master is famous for his arrogance, and there is something he can't do about? Who got out of the way of this coal mine?"

"Of course it's true. I went to change shifts with the supervisor just now. Guess who I saw?"

…

Inside the house of the only remaining villa.

Li Zengzhi was sitting on the Grand Master's chair drinking tea, while his generals stood in two rows and waited respectfully for orders.

Recently, Li Zengzhi has been making a lot of money from the grain transported by water. The rotten pockets in Huai'an Prefecture have been turned upside down, and all kinds of old sesame seeds and rotten millet have been shaken out. But after all, this pocket cannot always be empty. Li Zengzhi borrowed Song Li also took the opportunity to get involved.

Salt, as the most exclusive specialty product of the Ming Dynasty, even if it was fished out and dripped through the fingers of the imperial court, it would make the stomachs of ordinary wealthy merchants almost burst.

The Shenfa Temple has re-revised the content of the salt law in the "Ming Dynasty Law", and the production and marketing areas have been unified. The Ming Dynasty's two capitals and the fifteenth chief envoys of the Ming Dynasty have to set up separate salt envoy departments for the capital, and they are no longer responsible for the salt envoys within their jurisdiction. The management responsibility of the salt farm was to become an administrative and accounting unit, responsible for calculating the annual salt demand of the entire Chief Minister's Department and the transportation and sales of salt.

As for the salt field, it was brought back to the central government for unified management. Logically speaking, it should be returned to the name of the Ministry of Revenue. After all, when the Salt Envoy system was first established in the Hongwu period, the entire system was under the Ministry of Revenue. But Zhu Di had had enough. Worried by lack of money, at this time, all specialized products, including salt, glass, fertilizers, etc., were packaged under the name of the royal family.

Of course, the actual situation is not that "the emperor confiscated everything with just one word", but that the salt farm was put under the management of the inner court, but the salt farm is not responsible for sales (that is, it does not directly connect Kaizhongfa and daily sales). Responsible for hundreds of thousands of kitchen households, the responsibilities and powers are basically equal, and profits depend on the purchases of the transfer envoys under each chief envoy.

As for the glass and fertilizer workshops, the royal family and the Ministry of Household Affairs were originally responsible for paying for them. According to the joint-stock company system, the royal family redeemed the shares of the Ministry of Household Affairs and it became the property of the royal family. Others such as Jiang Xinghuo, Yuan Gong, Zhang Yuchu, etc. Technology providers and experimenters all have corresponding shares.

But unlike outside speculation, this was not a sign of discord, but was proposed by Jiang Xinghuo to promote the promulgation of the Patent Law.

The most important thing about the first industrial revolution was the inventions and creations of ordinary workers. At this time, the role of science in promoting the explosion of science and technology was not so obvious. In fact, with the unsystematic science of the Ming Dynasty, it is indeed difficult to The role is implemented at the practical level.

And how can we create a culture of courage and willingness to invent and create? Naturally, it protects the rights and interests of inventors, that is, the Patent Law.

Jiang Xinghuo doesn't care about the money, he cares more about using himself as an example to promote the healthy progress of the entire society.

"What do you think the Imperial Master means when he doesn't let us follow him to the coal mine?"

Li Zengzhi drank tea for a long time, but still couldn't figure out the problem.

The surrounding families will look at each other, how will they know what it means?

Cao Aba said boldly: "Perhaps we are afraid that since we are all martial arts practitioners, we will be too energetic and bump into the mountain god? After all, digging coal mines is not digging out the roots of the mountain god?"

"Fuck you!"

Li Zengzhi was annoyed and threw the tea cup towards Cao Aba.

Cao Aba cleverly dodged it and shouted: "Second Master, my mother has been looking forward to having you at home for a long time."

All the generals burst into laughter. These were all sons of Duke Cao's family. Either their fathers followed the old King Qiyang to the battlefield and were born and died, or their mothers were servants serving the Li family. Cao Aba's mother was Li Zengzhi's nanny. .

In addition to the inseparable personal attachment relationship, these people also have some emotions. They basically grew up together and have a higher status than others in the family. Therefore, these people usually dare to joke with the master's family. Most people don't take it seriously, but when it comes time for them to sacrifice their lives, they will sacrifice their lives without hesitation.

After returning to the trouble, Li Zengzhi thought for a moment and made a decision: "You guys, go and have a look outside the coal mine. Don't let the Imperial Guard have anything happen to us on our territory."

On the other side, the newly mined Tangshan coal mine.

Different from the Tangshan coal mine that Jiang Xinghuo saw in later generations, the coal mine he saw at that time was already in a state of exhaustion. In order to protect the environment, it was converted into a mine theme park. From a distance, it looked like it was being dug. Three tablespoons of halved watermelon.

At this time, Tangshan was still intact, and the miners recruited from the surrounding villages were busy working.

Unlike underground mines, the coal in Tangshan is mainly stored in the mountains, so more work involves digging into the mountains. There is not as much digging and mining as in other coal mines.

It is precisely because of this relatively specific mineral vein storage that there is some natural sulfur around Tangshan, so Tangshan Hot Spring is created.

"boom!"

With a not too violent noise, another big hole exploded on Tangshan Mountain.

As a key project that the national division pays attention to, there are also some special resources tilted here. The participation of gunpowder and professional blasting personnel in mining is one of them.

"Zhixing, do you think this coal mine is easy to mine?"

Ye Zongxing still looked as dark as before. After returning from Annan, he became even darker.

He was taken to the Annan front line by Huang Fu, Minister of Industry, where he helped blow up the Jiling Pass and made great contributions. At this time, he had been promoted to chief. At his age and as a scholar, even though he was a professional and technical bureaucrat, The speed of promotion is really not slow.

"No effort." Ye Zongxing thought for a while and replied.

"However, I'm afraid this thing won't be easy to sell."

What he said was true.

It has been less than two years since the Jingnan Rebellion was successful. However, in the past two years, the industries around Nanjing have been basically penetrated by all the forces that suddenly emerged due to the Jingnan Rebellion. The charcoal industry is no exception. Therefore, As for the coal mine opening in Tangshan, several marquises personally asked about it, but they were all prevaricated by Li Zengzhi. The Duke of Cao's government had a great reputation, and no one dared to do anything to Li Zengzhi.

What's more, Li Jinglong, who had just accomplished the task of destroying the country, followed Zhu Di's wishes and stayed in Annan with tens of thousands of garrison troops to supervise and protect the reconstruction of Annan's order. And many of the descendants of the noble family were... Under Li Jinglong.

But it is normal to have dissatisfaction from all sides, because the obvious fact is that as long as Nanjing's millions of people use coal, it will be difficult to sell charcoal.

Charcoal is not easy to sell, so the nobles and officials who bought large forest farms to make charcoal lost all their money and lost a stable income.

As soon as I entered and exited, it could be said that I was at a disadvantage to my grandma's house.

After all, for so many years, charcoal has been burned during the winter, and those involved in this business basically believe that it is a profitable business that can be passed down to future generations.

Li Zengzhi contributed a lot to the opening of Tangshan Coal Mine. The main reason why Tangshan was able to attract so many miners to seek refuge was because Jiang Xinghuo had made arrangements before, not only with the one who adopted Jingqing's two daughters. That village has reached an agreement and has made guarantees with other villages.

In addition, workers here are given cotton-padded jackets, the food is good, and they can eat meat every few days, so there are many villagers working here.

Some people are jealous here, but it can be said that unless Jiang Xinghuo is willing to give up the Tangshan mining area, anyone who wants to snatch this piece of fat will be in trouble with him.

This creates a balance between all parties. All parties hope that the mining area will be developed and have their own share, but they are worried that if the mining area is developed too quickly and thoroughly, they will not even be able to drink the soup.

These days, some people came to talk to Li Zengzhi, but they were all pushed away by Li Zengzhi under pressure.

In fact, Li Zengzhi did not want to hold this shiny red hot potato in his hands. He wanted to follow the example of the glass workshop and fertilizer workshop that had just been acquired under the joint-stock system and sell them directly to the royal family at a price.

After all, if it is sold to the royal family, no one will dare to compete with the royal family for this property.

But to his surprise, when faced with the offer of fat meat, Zhu Di, who had just increased his internal funds a lot, actively refused, saying that the land in Tangshan was passed down from the old King Qiyang. Since It is the property of Cao Guogong's government. He will never win anyone's love with his ninety-five dignity.

Although Li Zengzhi knew that the emperor was farting, he couldn't say anything and could only continue to work as a mine manager with no future.

However, mining is still relatively cautious, and many are deployed in the mining area.

Li Zengzhi didn't want to cause too big an accident here. It had nothing to do with money. He could afford to pay for it no matter how many people died. He was afraid of the impact on a wider range and that it would rise to the level of a temple.

But new energy, well, coal is not a new energy. It is just a renovation of old energy according to the current situation. But no matter what, the dispute between new energy and old energy is always unavoidable.

At this time, a cry of surprise came from the mine.

"What's wrong?"

Hearing this voice, Ye Zongxing's expression suddenly changed and he quickly ran towards the mountain.

"Boom..."

As soon as I ran to the center of the mining area, I saw a large piece of rockfall on the mountain suddenly began to shake and roll down, directly breaking through the rockfall prevention net and hitting the ground. A huge plume of smoke and dust rose into the sky, and the entire mining area trembled slightly.

Obviously, this is a delayed reaction caused by the special structure of the mountain after the explosion.

Fortunately, there were no casualties. However, several miners were buried under the mine tunnel, and falling rocks temporarily blocked the entrance to the mine tunnel.

But the mine tunnel does not have only one entrance, so before long, several miners climbed out of the shaft on the other side in disgrace.

However, several generals sent by Li Zengzhi to check had just arrived at the edge of the mining area. When they saw the falling rocks, their faces suddenly turned pale, and they ran over frantically without caring much.

When they saw Jiang Xinghuo, they breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

After confirming that there was no rockfall on the mountain, Jiang Xinghuo took them to the miners who had just escaped.

"Ahem..." A miner coughed twice, his face turned pale, and he opened his eyes with difficulty.

His head was smashed and bleeding, and there was a wound on the top of his head that was bleeding.

"Huikong, give him two stitches."

Huikong, who was following behind to protect Jiang Xinghuo as a personal monk, didn't say anything. He skillfully shaved part of the miner's hair with a knife, took out a small bottle of alcohol, dipped it in a compressed cotton ball to disinfect the wounds around the scalp, and then Then he handed a piece of cloth containing anesthetic to the miner, bit it tightly, and neatly stitched the wound shut.

"How about it?"

The fellow miners looked at him nervously.

"Can't die."

The miner forced a smile.

This time, he almost fell into the mine. Fortunately, he had prepared several mine tunnels early, thus avoiding the danger of being buried alive, but he was still injured.

"Why did you shout loudly before the rockfall appeared? Logically speaking, you should know that shouting loudly in the mine can easily cause accidents." Ye Zongxing asked at this time.

He just realized this and ran over.

"We followed the hole created by the gunpowder and found this inside."

With trembling hands, the miner took out a wrapped cloth ball from the collar of his cotton-padded jacket.

They found this in the deepest part of the mine and immediately shouted.

Who knew that when they were about to come out, there would be a rockfall outside.

Fortunately, they all retracted into the mine tunnel in time and escaped.

Ye Zongxing took the cloth and spread it out to examine it carefully. It was a very rough stone, full of cracks and black marks, and it seemed to have been buried for a long time.

But as he looked at the dense cracks on the surface of the stone, an idea suddenly came to his mind.

Ye Zongxing wiped it hard, and sure enough.

"Scale graphite!"

"Ah, really?!"

"Oh my god, is it such high-quality graphite?"

After hearing this, the miners nearby became excited and walked towards here one after another, wanting to take a closer look.

According to literature records, Ying Shao's "Han Guan Yi" records that in the Han Dynasty, "Shang Shulang drafted, and the moon gave him a large ink and a small ink to him." "The price of stone is eight hundred" refers to the high-quality ink that was highly praised in the Han Dynasty.

When using graphite, you need to use a grinding stone to grind it into powder in an inkstone, and then dilute it with water to make ink. This thing looks like the original appearance of graphite ore.

In fact, graphite is indeed a very precious resource and is beyond the reach of ordinary people, because in ancient China, the ink-making industry was almost as important as the paper-making industry. Due to the great development of woodblock printing technology and the continuous expansion of the scale of imperial examinations Thousands of scholars read and wrote articles in order to take exams and become officials. They needed a large amount of ink pens and stationery. Many areas in Jiangnan had ink-making handicraft industries, but the output of graphite in Jiangnan was not abundant. If it was away from Nanjing, What was discovered so close was not a coal mine, but a graphite mine. The value was quite considerable, after all, it was the size of a mountain!

From a scientific point of view, graphite is the metamorphism of carbonaceous materials of organic origin. It is most commonly found in marble, schist or gneiss. Coal seams can indeed partially form graphite through thermal metamorphism. In addition, there is another Graphite is a native mineral of igneous rocks. Tangshan didn't know if there were igneous rocks, but this possibility did exist.

Flake graphite, logically speaking, looks similar to this, because flake graphite is a crystal in the shape of scales, which is metamorphosed under high temperature and pressure. There are large scales and fine scales. This type of graphite ore is generally not of high grade. , but it is one of the most floatable ores in nature. After multiple grinding and multiple selections, high-grade graphite concentrate can be obtained. The floatability, lubricity, and plasticity of this type of graphite are superior to other types of graphite, so its value maximum.

But when Jiang Xinghuo looked at the ore, he always felt something was wrong.

"Could it be..."

Jiang Xinghuo took the ore from Ye Zongxing's hand, clasped it with his hands, then observed it carefully for a moment and said, "It's not graphite."

"Not graphite?"

Ye Zongxing was a little stunned, and the miners next to him couldn't believe it either.

After all, this thing looks like graphite.

But since the Imperial Master said no, no matter whether it was a deer or a horse or something else, they didn't dare to say "no", right?

But Jiang Xinghuo quickly expressed his judgment. He raised his head and said to everyone: "This kind of ore is not graphite, but called molybdenum. It is a kind of mineral deposit that can be encountered but cannot be found. It is very valuable."

In fact, the associated ores of coal mines usually contain elements such as nickel, chromium, molybdenum, copper, cobalt, etc., and the distribution of associated metal elements is either a massive distribution, that is, the associated metal elements are concentrated in certain coal seams and coal blocks; or Then it is a vertical distribution, that is, the associated metal elements are distributed within the thickness range of the formation, and the probability of uniform distribution is not high.

The associated metal elements migrate. The whole process is a complex physical and chemical reaction process, and the migration law is also very complicated. However, it should be continuous and regular anyway, that is, its migration efficiency is affected by the associated metal elements and The complex structure and internal void structure of coal materials are affected.

It is extremely abnormal for graphite mines to appear for no reason.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo determined based on observation that this was not graphite ore, but molybdenite.

In nature, the element molybdenum mainly exists in the form of molybdenite. Natural molybdenite is also a black soft mineral. Molybdenite is very similar to lead, galena, and graphite in appearance. It is difficult to distinguish.

Therefore, it is not surprising that people mistake molybdenite for graphite ore.

But the value of the two, or the current value to the current Ming Dynasty, is completely different.

In fact, only Jiang Xinghuo in this world knows exactly how valuable molybdenum ore is.

Why are the quality of Japanese samurai swords so good? In addition to craftsmanship and forging technology, molybdenite is a very important factor. Japan not only has gold and silver mines, but also molybdenite. This element can significantly increase the performance of the tool in all aspects.

In game terms, that's a necessary enchanted item.

Coincidentally, molybdenum was first discovered in Japanese samurai swords during the Yongle era. This was the first time molybdenum was discovered to be used for military purposes.

Although molybdenum was discovered only a short time ago, its role is not small at all.

In Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, the French Snyder Company in the late 19th century took the lead in producing molybdenum-containing armor plates using molybdenum as the alloy element. They discovered that the density of molybdenum was only half that of tungsten, so molybdenum effectively replaced tungsten in many steel alloy applications. , and the outbreak of World War I led to a sharp increase in demand for tungsten, and the supply of ferrotungsten was extremely tight, so molybdenum replaced tungsten in many high-hardness and impact-resistant steels.

Due to its importance, molybdenum is regarded as a strategic metal by various governments. In the early 20th century, it was mainly used to manufacture high-temperature rocket launchers and rocket launchers, advanced materials in industry, and high-quality components for warships, rockets, and advanced equipment.

In addition to enchanting the quality of weapons and greatly improving the performance of steel, molybdenum also has another important use, which is to assist in glass production.

The presence of molybdenum aids in the manufacture of glass and glassware for everyday use, and its high strength at high glass melting temperatures and resistance to corrosion of molten glass make it an ideal material for the glass melting process.

In other words, if there are not only coal mines in Tangshan, but also associated molybdenum mines, it can simultaneously solve the high-quality steel required for flintlocks and cannons, as well as the problem of continuous quality improvement that has plagued glass workshops for a long time.