The Rise of the European Emperor

Marin is now looking forward to Simon's early marriage, because once Simon gets married, he can take the opportunity to launch honeycomb coal. At that time, even if the Lamark family is angry because Uncle Mark was deceived by Marin, they will not be able to repent. After all, divorce is very difficult these days and requires special approval from the Holy See.

And if the briquette was launched too early and the Lamarck family was angered, maybe the other party would regret it. And if the Lamarck family repents, Marin can guarantee that the old Hoffman will definitely beat himself. Therefore, he is now waiting for Simon to get married quickly and cook the raw rice into mature rice, so that he will not be afraid of the Lamarck family's remorse.

What Marin didn't know was that during the two years since he left Daming, honeycomb briquettes had completely become popular throughout the Ming Dynasty. Mainly, the briquette stove is too trouble-free. It's clean and doesn't take up much space. Moreover, the cost is also very low.

Especially for those poor families, not taking up space is a very important advantage. You know, burning earthen stoves requires a firewood room. After all, if ordinary haystacks are used, the firewood will get wet easily in rainy days, making it impossible to light a fire for cooking. In ancient times, firewood houses were standard equipment for ordinary people. People are often "locked into the firewood room" in TV dramas, which shows how important the firewood room is for civilian facilities. Moreover, the area is not small.

However, for the poor, building firewood houses is a bit of a luxury. Some poor families live in rooms that are not as good as the firewood houses of rich families. Many poor people in the city live in the simplest thatched huts, which leak when it rains. How can they afford to build firewood houses?

The emergence of honeycomb coal has given ordinary people a very good choice - saving the next firewood house. Moreover, burning coal is more economical than burning firewood!

Therefore, when Zhengde launched the honeycomb briquette and briquette stove in the name of Xixinsi, one of the four divisions of the inner palace (Xixin Division, Zhonggu Division, Baochao Division and Huntang Division), it quickly became very popular. First of all, honeycomb quickly became popular in the populous capital.

However, the use of honeycomb briquettes is different between the big households in the capital and the poor. At the beginning, those big families also tried to use briquettes for cooking, but they soon found that the firepower of briquettes was insufficient, and the cooking was not as fragrant as earthen stoves. Therefore, although briquettes are convenient and cost-effective, those big households still don't like to use briquettes for cooking. However, one function of the briquette stove deeply attracted them-boiling water...

After plugging the air hole at the bottom of the honeycomb stove, put a tin kettle on the stove, which can heat hot water 24 hours a day. The dignitaries and scholars in Ming Dynasty especially liked to drink tea and had a complete tea ceremony. Honeycomb coal stoves, which can provide hot water 24 hours a day, and boil water without smoke, are very popular among the Ming gentry.

After all, there are no thermos bottles to keep warm these days. If you want to drink tea, you must boil hot water, which is very troublesome and you need to wait. The honeycomb coal stove can provide hot water at any time, which is very convenient for the gentry of Ming Dynasty to make tea and entertain guests.

Therefore, although the gentry class and the civilian class in Ming Dynasty both like briquette stoves, they have different places to place briquette stoves-the common people put the briquette stoves in the kitchen or at the door for cooking; The briquette stove and tin kettle for boiling water are placed in front of the living room. In this way, it is convenient for the maid at home to make tea for the guests.

Even, many ordinary people can drink hot water at any time because of the feature that the briquette stove can continuously heat hot water, which is very convenient. What? You said that the briquette stove will burn dry when no one watches it during the day? It doesn't exist, because, these days, women don't go out, and they usually take care of their children at home, or work as female workers for money, and just watch the stove at home to prevent the water from drying up. As for the big family, it goes without saying that there are special maids watching the stove so that they can provide hot water for the host or guests to make tea at any time...

In short, the briquette stove is so explosive! Even ordinary people's homes can drink hot water 24 hours after they have a briquette stove. Before the appearance of briquette stoves, heating hot water was not only troublesome, but also a waste of firewood. Poor families may not be willing to boil water. Therefore, the briquette stove can not only reduce the cost of boiling water and cooking, but also in the era when there is no vacuum thermos,

It is possible to provide hot water at any time. In this way, it will be very convenient for the government to promote drinking hot water or something.

And if there is no magic weapon like a briquette stove for continuously heating water, even if you promote drinking hot water, the poor may not be willing to waste firewood to heat hot water in order to save firewood. When you're thirsty, just grab some well water and you'll be fine...

Of course, large families in ancient times also had stoves for boiling water. It was a small copper stove that burned lumps of charcoal. But charcoal blocks are more expensive, at least much more expensive than firewood. Moreover, those who have eaten barbecue in later generations know that the charcoal-burning grill is also smoky, which greatly affects the atmosphere of the literati... and the briquettes made of anthracite will not be smoky, and can also The literati like it very much by providing plenty of tea.

Therefore, in the past two years, honeycomb stoves have spread rapidly in the Ming Dynasty at the speed of virus spread. In the beginning, Zhengde ordered people to set up a briquette stove outside the door of the cabinet's chamber to heat hot water and make tea for the cabinet's bigwigs.

As a result, this move quickly attracted the attention of the big bosses in the DPRK and China...

The cabinet is the gathering place of the most senior group of bigwigs in the Ming Dynasty, and all of them are the top group of bigwigs. In the past, there were small copper stoves in the cabinet for boiling water in the palace. However, that kind of small copper furnace boils water in a small amount and is expensive.

The honeycomb coal stove and the large tin pot similar to the kettles of later generations provided by Marin to Zhengde can boil 5 liters of water at a time, which can supply the needs of several big bosses in the cabinet at the same time. In this way, the cabinet bosses only need to share a briquette stove, and the water boiler boy only needs to be equipped with one. Unlike in the past, every boss had to bring a boy who boiled water, and he had to ask the company for so many charcoal blocks.

Li Dongyang was born in a wealthy family in the capital, and he has always lived a refined life, so he didn't care much about it. But Yang Tinghe was born in the countryside of Sichuan and Sichuan, and he has always cared about people's livelihood. After seeing the advantages of this new type of briquette stove in terms of cost and use, as a secondary assistant, he strongly recommended this magical tea-making device to all officials in the capital. Then, briquette stoves first became popular in the capital, and then became popular in the homes of wealthy households and local officials in central Beijing. Then, rows of honeycomb coal stoves for boiling water and making tea appeared in various literary meetings...

In this way, Zhengde didn't pay any advertising fee, and officials helped to promote it for free. However, when the officials of the DPRK and China noticed the huge potential of the honeycomb coal industry, they were shocked to find that—in Shanxi Province, which produced the most coal in Ming Dynasty, the coal mines were basically controlled by the palace's salary-hungry department...

The benefits went into the hands of those eunuchs, who would dare to snatch them? Although Liu Jin has fallen, Zhang Yong and others are not likely to succeed, but Liu Jin's lingering prestige is still there, and the ministers dare not compete with the palace for the coal resources of Shanxi Province. Then, everyone began to compete for coal mines elsewhere.

In this way, the Mentougou coal mine near the capital was discovered and was occupied and developed by several bigwigs from the court. Although the Mentougou Coal Mine is not as large as the large coal mines in western Shanxi, it can't stand that it is right next to the capital. The transportation cost is very low, and the price has an advantage. However, the Datong Coal Mine in western Shanxi is several hundred kilometers away from the capital, so there is no cost advantage.

Later, the Kailuan Coal Mine near Shanhaiguan, which is the first modern coal mine in modern China, was also found by the local garrison generals, and became the interests of the military leaders...

In this way, a mere briquette industry drove the great development of the Ming Empire's coal mining industry. Although Daming did not have a steam engine industry, the demand for briquettes cannot be sustained! With a population of one million in the capital alone, the consumption of coal is an astonishing figure, not to mention that there were so many cities in the Ming Dynasty. Of course, due to transportation constraints, honeycomb coal can only be promoted smoothly in cities near the coal mines. And those places far away from coal production areas and with inconvenient transportation cannot promote honeycomb briquettes for the time being. Because the cost of land transportation in this era is too bad...