Lord of the House

As autumn deepened, Lin Fu left Yijiang in mid-September and returned to Jiangning after quarrying, where he stayed for a few days.

Caishiji was originally a hanging wall in the middle of the river at the west foot of Cuiluo Mountain in Linjiang, Dangtu County.

Before the establishment of the dynasty, Gaozu built a water village in Cuiluo Mountain to train the army. After the establishment of the dynasty, the Quishi army village was the most important station of the Jiangning naval army on the western front. Therefore, the quarrying was famous all over the world, but the name of Cuiluo was not obvious.

In early April, Lin Fu changed the name of Dangtu County to Quishi (now Ma'anshi), used Luoyi to become the magistrate, and merged it into the newly established Yijiang Prefecture.

Cuiluo Mountain stands beside the river and is surrounded by Niuzhu River on three sides. It is only more than 40 feet high and stands out on the bank of the river, making it extraordinarily steep. The area near the river in the northwest of Shanxi sunk into a large depression, and the military village was surrounded by lakes and mountains.

Lin Fu demarcated the quarry and merged it into Yijiang Prefecture, and entrusted it with his own trust. In addition to its prominent military status, it was also mainly because the Putang Iron Works, which was southeast of the quarrying city and formerly affiliated to the Jiangning Ministry of Industry, had a large scale since the beginning of time. The largest ironworks.

The history of quarrying and iron ore mining and smelting has been three or four hundred years since the previous dynasty. In the middle period of the Yue Dynasty, it became the main iron material producing area of ​​Zhufang of the Ministry of Industry of Jiangning.

The Zhejiang-Fujian army invaded Jiangning, and Emperor Yongxing and all the court officials panicked, causing a devastating blow to the quarrying Putang Tiezuo. Burning houses, destroying smelting furnaces, diverting water to flood mines, and thousands of miners and craftsmen were threatened to go to Jiangzhou.

Although the iron works in Putang were basically completely destroyed, Lin Bie was interested in the iron ore resources here. In addition, there are coal mountains in Lishui to the south of the quarry and Jiangpu on the north bank, and the actual quarrying is more suitable for developing into a steel smelting center than Chongzhou.

During the war in Jiangning, the official workshops affiliated to the former Ministry of Industry suffered a devastating blow, and they had no resources to recover. A large number of craftsmen were either kidnapped or scattered among the people, and their livelihood was difficult. When all the official workshops were taken over by the Ordnance Supervisor, Metallurgical Supervisor, Shipbuilding Supervisor, and Craftsman Division, which belonged to the Privy Council, they encountered no resistance.

Putting the quarry in the Yijiang River, taking Luo Yicheng as the magistrate, and rectifying people's livelihood were the first steps.

In the first ten days of May, Sun Daluo, the chief metallurgical supervisor who was a craftsman, led more than a thousand craftsmen to build Putang Iron Field, Mushan Iron Mine and Fuchushan Coal Mine. Before Lin Fu entered the summer, he specially allocated 300,000 taels of silver to Sun to fight the furnace for the preliminary cost of the construction of the iron yard and the mine.

In order to facilitate the transportation of coal and iron from Mushan and Fuchuan into Putang, Lin Fu even planned to ask Luo Yicheng to organize the villagers to dig a canal in the autumn to connect the mines of Mushan and Fuchuan with the Niuzhu River.

Pingjiang silk, Danyang cotton, Weiyang salt, Putang iron, etc. were sold all over the world, forming an early prototype of the commodity economy, which is directly related to the convenient and low-cost water transportation conditions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

In the initial stage of Putang Iron Works, the production capacity of 10 million catties of iron materials will be reached, and the coal and iron to be transported each year will be as many as 40 to 50 million catties.

Ningxi area is located at the intersection of plains and mountains, and the river network is relatively dense. The mine can be connected to the original river network only by digging a ten-mile canal, and the transportation cost can be greatly reduced.

In fact, before this, Lin Fu had ordered the recruitment of civilians in Jinshan County between the Huangnishan Coal Yard and the Liuyang River, a branch of Longzangpu, to dig a transport channel only six miles long, so that Jinshan coal could be directly transported into In Jiangning City, the price of Jiangning coal dropped by a quarter.

The political level is sometimes only separated by a thin layer of paper.

It's just that Song Fu and others have their doubts. Huaidong's iron production scale in Chongzhou and Shanyang has already exceeded 12 million catties. Is it necessary to build another 10 million jin in Putang? Jin-level iron yard?

300,000 taels of silver is the initial investment, and another 600,000 taels of silver will be invested next year to make Putang's iron production scale.

After inspecting the Putang Iron Yard and seeing the construction scene in full swing, it was already sunset.

Lin Fu was going to return directly to Jiangning from Putang tomorrow, so he didn't go back to Quarry City for the night. He asked the cavalry camp to set up camp on the vacant ore yard in the iron yard, and entertained the iron yard officials and craftsmen.

After the banquet was over, it was already dark, but after the autumn, Shangrao was about to use troops, and Lin Bie couldn't sleep peacefully in the tent.

Song Fu was still looking at the information on the Putang iron yard, remembered something, and asked Lin Fu: "Sun Shangwang has sent a letter and intends to expand the scale of the Zhuxi iron yard, so that the output of iron materials will increase to 3 million catties next year. It will cost 400,000 taels of silver..."

"As long as he can raise money," Lin Fu replied casually, lifted up from the slip, saw the look of doubt in Song Fu's eyes, and asked with a smile, "Song Gong thinks the iron material has been produced?"

"Celebrating Yu Nian, the world is still peaceful. The government-run iron works of Yanjing and Jiangning Ministries of Industry and the Iron Officials of the Neifu are only barely 12 million catties of iron smelting materials; It's more than that. I think Jiangning Zhudifang was destroyed by the war, but after Huaidong's trade ban on Jiangnan was lifted, the price of iron in Jiangnan dropped a lot compared to before the war. The iron yard in Shanyang has been producing iron one after another, and the iron price will probably fall again!”

Song Fu is worried about the oversupply. Now that the investment is so huge, he will not be able to make profits from it in the future, but will be trapped in maintenance.

Lin Fu smiled and said: "The price of iron has fallen to 30% of the current level, and Chongzhou's iron production is also profitable; if Putang can get ore nearby, the cost of iron smelting should be lower than that of Chongzhou... "

Affected by the war, the price of iron in the Jiangnan region has continued to rise in recent years. Before the war in Jiangning, the price of iron was higher than that of copper. After Huaidong took control of Jiangning, Huaidong opened a commercial ban on the Jiangnan area, so why didn't the Jiangnan area open a commercial ban and dumped Chongzhou iron materials?

In the early years, the iron materials of the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River were mainly supplied by Putang, Lishui and other places. In the later period, due to the excessive expansion of troops and horses in the Jiangnan region, the military strength increased to five or six times in just five or six years. Iron material suddenly tense.

The Zhejiang-Fujian Army destroyed all the workshops in Jiangning and surrounding counties, and in fact gave the market in Jiangnan to Huaidong in vain. The iron yard in Chongzhou and Shanyang dumped a total of 4 million catties of iron materials to Pingjiang, Danyang, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other places this year, and the floating profit was as high as 800,000 taels of silver—a figure that was beyond the reach of others before the war. imagination.

According to traditional thinking, Lin Fu should completely control the production and sales of iron materials. Salt and iron official business is a tradition. As long as the scale of production is controlled and the price of iron is maintained at a certain high level, the money that Huaidong earns from iron affairs will even exceed that of the two Huai salt affairs and the support of soldiers. There is no need to worry.

Song Fu is actually worried that Huaidong's iron production will continue to increase in great strides. Once it exceeds the demand, the iron price will drop sharply and fall below the smelting cost. The iron yard will not only be useless, but will become a burden on Huaidong.

Lin Fie doesn't worry about this, the key lies in how to further reduce the cost of mining and refining.

Even in the Qingyu period of Jingping, the price of iron remained at a high level where one pound of raw iron could be exchanged for twenty or thirty pounds of rice grain, and one pound of refined iron could be exchanged for one stone of grain.

The extremely high price of iron is closely related to the backwardness of iron ore mining and smelting technology; in addition, apart from the official iron yard*, private workshops are restricted by the current World Bank system and cannot be expanded in scale, making the smelting cost difficult lower, also has a lot to do.

When the price of salt is too high, the people can only cope with the rough food; the high price of iron also strictly limits the wide application of iron materials.

When Lin Bie first arrived in Jiangning, Longjiang Shipyard even used a lot of bamboo and wood nails to join shipboards - it's not that he didn't know the benefits of iron nails, and it wasn't that he couldn't produce iron nails. It was just that iron and copper were equivalent, limiting The application of iron materials in shipbuilding.

In the later period, the ships built by Huaidong were stronger than those built by Fujian and Jiangning. In fact, iron nails and many iron components were widely used. Components made of refined iron, instead of hardwood inside the hull, have higher structural strength, lighter weight, faster speed and more cabin space. When Jiangning was still worried about the iron used for the construction of the armor, the amount of iron materials used for shipbuilding in Chongzhou had risen to the top.

Even if we do not talk about shipbuilding and other industries, only for people's livelihood, the amount of iron used in the Jianghuai region is huge.

Affected by the war, the amount of ironware owned by the people of the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River has also been reduced to a very low level.

One is the daily consumption and insufficient replenishment; the other is the fierce plundering of war.

When the use of iron was at its most tense, Dong Yuan and Meng Yishan in Hanghu and other places had a large-scale conscription of iron weapons from the people far below the market price to make up for the shortage of iron used in the production of armour and war weapons. When the luxury family crossed the border, they even plundered iron tools as strategic materials.

With the recovery of people's livelihood after the war, there was a great demand for iron materials for agricultural tools and daily necessities.

Lin Bing's reduction of taxes in the south of the Yangtze River can improve the purchasing power of farmers, help the promotion of iron tools, and promote production; it will further improve the purchasing power of farmers and further increase the demand for iron materials.

After the completion of the four iron yards in Putang, Chongzhou, Shanyang and Yizhou Zhuxi, the production capacity of iron materials will be less than 30 million catties.

This figure, compared to the current world, looks very impressive, but in Lin Fu's eyes, the scale of iron used by a 10,000-ton-class ironclad ship in the future is more than 20 million kilograms. This production capacity is really nothing.

Today, the area directly controlled by Jiangning has a population of more than 20 million, which can be completely absorbed by the iron production capacity.

As far as the current smelting cost in Huaidong is concerned, the output is really surplus, and it can also be dumped on a large scale in the Haidong area.

The Fusang Islands alone have a population of nearly 10 million. Currently, Huaidong is only exporting armour to the Saga clan, Jinxiang clan, Jeju, Dongju, and Haeyang County on the Goryeo Peninsula.

Lin Fu started the large-scale construction of the Putang Iron Yard at this time. Another main reason was to further reduce the pressure on Jiangning and surrounding counties.

Due to the gathering of a large number of officials and gentry in Jiangning City, the commodity economy in Jiangning was relatively developed, and there was a prototype of the city of later generations.

The war not only severely damaged Jiangning, but also severely hit Jiangning officials. Since Emperor Yongxing returned to the East, since the Queen Mother and below, the rich and noble in Jiangning were forced to live frugally, and the urban economy of Jiangning City suffered a severe setback.

Although Zhang Yubo implemented many relief measures, after the war, the 150,000-60,000 urban households were already a heavy burden for Jiang Ning.

On the one hand, Lin Fu recruited farmers from the counties around Jiangning to move to Mindong for resettlement. On the other hand, he restored the industrial and mining industries near Jiangning to absorb more remaining population.

The construction of the Putang iron yard and various mines and the excavation of the canals directly recruited as many as 5,000 workers from Jiangning City, which really gave Zhang Yubo a sigh of relief.

In today's world, the central finance mainly depends on agriculture, and high taxes are levied on industries such as salt, iron, tea, etc., which is actually an additional deprivation of farmers. Lin Fu wanted to open up a new path, and put the vision of increasing central financial revenue above industrial tax and commerce. The potential in this is far higher than relying on the sky.

The dense river network in the Yangtze River Basin provides convenient conditions for large-scale and developed shipping, and low transportation costs provide necessary conditions for the development of commerce and trade, as well as the concentration and expansion of the production scale of industries such as mining and workshops.

The produced materials can even be imported into Haidong and Nanyang regions by sea at low transportation costs.

In the past few years, the materials imported from Chongzhou to the Haidong area, from the early silk tea to the recent porcelain iron and other materials, can already be regarded as primary industrial products.

It is through the dumping of these products to the Haidong area that Huaidong can simultaneously supply a large amount of leather materials, rice grains, copper and silver, tung oil, mules and horses and other war preparation materials from the Haidong area every year.

The development of Chongzhou shipping has even developed to this day, and there are even sea ships that go to the island to dig bird droppings.

Farming and manure accumulation is a consensus in the world, but the means of manure accumulation are quite limited.

The pig-rearing composting method popularized by Lin Fu in the early days and the flooding and silting method popularized by Zhu Ai in Huaidong’s farmland were both innovative to increase the income of the fields.

In Chongzhou, which is relatively densely populated, there are as many as six or seven mu of arable land per capita, and natural fertilizers such as excrement alone are still seriously insufficient. With the development of shipping, the surrounding islands are bred with a large number of seabirds, and the bird droppings and a large amount of mulch accumulated over the years are rare fertilizers.

In the early years, Lin Fu specially organized warships to go to the island to dig for bird droppings. It seems that the manure is worthless, but the ship is huge, and the loading capacity is extremely high, which can reduce the transportation cost to a very low level, and the profit is quite considerable.

Of course, with the increasing maturity of shipbuilding technology, the high-quality sea-going ships built by Huaidong are even cheaper than those built at the Jiangning Longjiang Shipyard in the early years. The reduction in marine accidents and the reduction in the cost of sea-going ships are the main reasons for the decline in transportation costs.

Over the years, in addition to implementing the new policy of suppressing gentry and land mergers in Huaidong, Lin Fu’s more important political means was to initially form a prototype of a system integrating workshops, industry, mining and commerce in Chongzhou.

It is precisely the prototype of this system that is the core pillar of Huaidong's financial power.

Song Fu just passed through Chongzhou and didn't stay for a few days. Even if he had complete information for him to refer to, he felt shallow on paper, and he still lacked a deep enough understanding of Lin Fu's political philosophy.

Lin Fu has enough patience. He knows that some of his concepts are too detached from the world. Even those with outstanding intelligence are difficult to accept at once. In short, more patience is needed to communicate. Sometimes it is necessary to bite the bullet and enforce it. As long as the effect is manifested over time, it will be easy for those who did not understand it before.

****************

Lin Bie stayed overnight at the Putang Iron Field, and returned by Ma Dong the next morning.

Farming in the counties of Jiangning was almost restored by the end of September. Looking at the past, all the paddy fields gradually turned golden after the fall.

Although when the Zhejiang-Fujian army came in, the people around Jiangning made a lot of noise, and the casualties were not small, but the battle in Jiangning was over in a very short time.

If there is no large-scale famine, the government will organize production to resume production after returning home, and the actual impact will be limited.

In Jiangning, Yijiang, Huizhou, Chizhou, Luzhou and other places, Lin Fu did not expect to pay taxes in these places in two or three years, but as long as production can be resumed, the situation can be stabilized and his original intention has been achieved.

There is no direct tax revenue, but materials such as salt, iron, tea and horses are sold in these areas, which is actually a disguised taxation.

Walking on a horse, looking at the golden rice fields on both sides of the post road, Lin Fu, Gao Zongting and Song Fu said: "In about half a month, when the rice in the fields is harvested this season, the food shortage in Jiangnan will barely be overcome. It's gone!"

"Except for Luzhou, there are no major disasters in other areas this year, and it can be regarded as God's help." Gao Zongting said with a smile.

Quzhou, on the other hand, had a large scale of drought and was a newly acquired land. Taxes and taxes were reduced according to the rules. After the fall of Dongyang County, the Zhejiang and Fujian troops completely withdrew from the middle of Zhejiang, and they were no longer able to plunder the countryside on a large scale. After the tax reduction and tax reduction in Quzhou, the area affected by this year is very large, but compared with the extortion of extravagant families before, the people still breathe a sigh of relief.

In the middle of the year, the labor camp began to recruit reserve soldiers from Quzhou, and the responders gathered; in the end, 4,000 people were even transferred to the Yijiang side of the army.

After passing Jilong Mountain, the city head of Jiangning was faintly in sight. Lin Xuwen, Huang Jinnian, Lin Mengde, Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang, Lin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan and others had arrived early to welcome them from the city. Full.

"Everyone said don't be so troublesome..." Lin Bie blamed Lin Xuwen with a smile and they went out of the city to welcome them.

"Old Seventeen went to inspect the defense. It took more than four months to go, and then he had to rush to Wuyuan to supervise the war. He won't be able to stay in Jiangning for a few days," Lin Xuwen said with a smile, "Jiangning is also a mess, so don't hurry up. report to you?"

Lin Fu got off his horse and greeted everyone one by one. After a little delay at the long pavilion, he was ready to go into the city by carriage and horse.

Came from Putang on horseback, and after walking for a day, he was a little tired, so Lin Fu took a car and asked Lin Xuwen and Lin Menggoo to come to his car to talk. After walking for a while, he felt that something was wrong and told the driver to stop the car.

"What's the matter?" Lin Mengde asked.

When Lin Bie got out of the car suddenly, Qin Chengzu, Cao Zi'ang and others also felt strange.

Lin Fu went around to the side of the car and bent over to look at the axle. Seeing that everyone on the left and right had doubts on their faces, he asked Sun Jingxuan who was standing behind him: "Is this roller made after all?"

"Haha, can you tell the difference by listening to the sound?" Sun Jingxuan asked with a smile.

"It's a big difference, there's no squeaking. I remembered it last night in Putang, how could I not hear it?" Lin Fu laughed, "Can the supervisors below make batches?"

"A batch was trial-produced, and one cost twelve thousand dollars," Sun Jingxuan said. "At the moment, it can only be said that it is barely usable."

Listening to Lin Fu and Sun Jingxuan answering each other, other people noticed that the axles of Lin Fu's car were indeed different.

The existing bearing structure in the world is only a sliding bearing with a large ring and a small ring. Even if it is coated with grease, the friction force is still very large, which needs to be compared with the common rolling bearings in later generations.

In the most common rolling bearing, only adding **** in the middle of the sliding bearing can greatly reduce the friction. However, even small steel **** are difficult for all craftsmen in the world. With Chongzhou's manufacturing standards, it is far from the conditions for mass-produced steel **** with uniform specifications.

Before Lin Fu left Jiangning, a craftsman in the Ordnance Supervisor suggested changing the **** to a small roller design that could be easily mass-produced based on the ball structure proposed by Lin Fu. Not sure, did not expect to come back this time, Sun Jingxuan has already used the rollers on the four-wheeled carriage.

A cost of 12,000 yuan is still too expensive, but as long as it can be manufactured in batches, it is a good start. With the maturity of the technology, the cost can be greatly reduced.

Earlier, Lin Fu had manually built a few rollers for trial use for the newly built four-wheeled carriage in Huaidong. Since the rollers greatly reduce the friction, the life of the components is increased, and the load capacity of the same mule and carriage can be doubled at least.

Although the structure of the small rollers is much rougher, it can be used in transport vehicles, bed crossbows, and scorpion crossbows.

In addition, when Lin Fu passed by the quarry, he went to see the Mushan mine.

When the miners go into the hole to mine, the mined ore must be carried out in a basket; because the mine itself is low, the miners must use both hands and feet to climb out.

Lin Bing is not pessimistic, but the method of putting people in a camel basket, which is extremely inefficient, cannot achieve the purpose of greatly reducing the cost of ore mining, and severely limits the output of the mine.

Narrow-gauge minecarts that can mass-produce rollers and are pulled by human or animal power can be easily built.

At present, the Suishan Mine has eight mines. To ensure the production of the ore required by the Putang Iron Field, two or three thousand miners must be invested in mining. If there is a landslide ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ the loss will be no less than a rout. If you really want to use narrow-gauge minecarts, the miners can be reduced by more than half, and the output can be greatly increased.

The concept of a minecart was proposed by Lin Bing a long time ago, but the friction of the old sliding bearings in the world was too great, and the minecart itself had to be low-profile, and almost could only use bearings as wheels. Without rollers, it could not meet the requirements. mine cart.

Lin Bie stared at the axle and looked at it for a while. After all, it was wrapped in the wheel and couldn't see it very clearly. He said to Sun Jingxuan, "There are sample axles that have been trial-produced. Send me two and ask me to take a closer look..."

Sun Jingxuan agreed, Lin Xuwen and the others all laughed and told Lin Fumo to hold the energy for these small details, Lin Fu laughed: "This is not a small detail. The roller can be made, but the war after the autumn will not be used. If you send someone to tell Master Fu that the materials shipped from Huizhou to the south can be increased by 20%, what do you think he will be happy about?"

Now Fu Qinghe has personally rushed to Wuyuan to prepare for the war. The materials needed for the war are mainly transported in from two routes.

The materials going south from Huizhou are mainly purchased from the prefectures and counties around Jiangning to go south to the territory of Ningguo, and then turn overland to cross Yuling Pass and enter western Zhejiang. There are more than 300 miles of land to go before and after, and the dependence on carriages and horses is extremely large, and the transportation capacity is limited.

The reason why there is a way of supplies, instead of detouring from the seas of Chongzhou and Mingzhou, but to go south from Yuling Pass, is to consider Yijiang as the main transit point on this route.

A large number of materials and troops are stationed in Yijiang, which means that the Zhejiang-Fujian Army has always been on guard against the possibility of Huaidong troops and horses from the Yijiang and Chizhou troops advancing westward and directly attacking Jiangzhou, so as to achieve the purpose of dispersing and containing the Zhejiang-Fujian Army.

Lin Xuwen and the others just smiled and surrounded Lin Fu into the car into the city. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter