Because of the trivial matter of whether to kneel or not during worship, five skilled workers were dissatisfied and packed up and left collectively. This was a catastrophic loss for the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty's iron smelting plant had just been put into production, and the craftsmen The skills are still very rudimentary, and due to the departure of skilled workers, several furnaces of scrap iron have been smelted in succession in the past few days.
Smelting scrap iron not only wasted energy, but also wasted a lot of raw materials. The officials of the Ministry of Industry were not only reprimanded by Emperor Jianwen, but were also collectively fined for half a year as punishment. Although this was not the case for the officials of the Ministry of Industry. It's your fault, but Emperor Jianwen didn't care about it and still punished you without discussion.
Although the punishing officials were able to find a punching bag, the problem could not be solved. Scrap iron was produced for several days in a row, and the cannon that Emperor Jianwen dreamed of could not be cast. Among the twelve cannons cast on the first day, three more exploded during the test. After two shots were fired, the remaining ones cracked to varying degrees, which made Emperor Jianwen even more irritated.
Because in Shandong, the rebellion between the imperialists and thieves has not yet been settled. More than 100,000 imperial robbers retreated into a large castle near the sea. They attacked, defended, and attacked, leaving hundreds of thousands of Ming troops unable to break through its defenses. When the frontline generals heard that the imperial court had cast siege artillery, they insisted on sending a dozen of them to them for use in siege.
However, the newly cast artillery had quality problems and could not be used at all. This means that the iron smelting plant that spent more than 100,000 taels of gold and silver could not even cast a decent cannon. In order not to be like this Most of the money was wasted. After two days of discussion, the imperial court once again sent an ambassador to Beiping City to discuss the introduction of skilled workers.
This time, the envoy was no longer led by the Ministry of Rites, but by the Ministry of Industry. Emperor Jianwen also gave a fatal order to Du Ze, Minister of the Ministry of Industry. If he did not invite skilled workers and clean up the mess of the ironworks, he would be destroyed. There is no need to go back to court, go home and take care of your grandson.
The emperor was very angry, and the consequences were serious. Du Ze led more than a dozen officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to the city of Beiping, sleeping and sleeping all the way, but found that Wan Lei was not there. He said that he was going to Liaodong for inspection. They were not allowed to go to Liaodong to look around. So we can only stay in Beiping City and wait.
Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the regulations on visiting envoys in the Northern Parallel Province are still very loose. Except for important areas and scientific research areas, all areas have always been open to the envoys. As long as the envoys do not engage in illegal and criminal activities, they will not be free. Due to restrictions, unlike the Ming Dynasty, it was too petty to lock skilled workers in factories and not allow them to go out. No wonder those skilled workers were unhappy.
Since the New Year is approaching, the city of Beiping has become more prosperous, and the numerous shops are filled with a dazzling array of New Year's goods. The prices are very cheap. A piece of fine woolen cloth is priced at only 600 yuan, while a sewn cotton jacket is priced at only 600 yuan. Two hundred dollars, so that most of the people in the city were wearing new clothes, and everyone's face was beaming with joy.
Clothing is so cheap, and food is so cheap. The price of rice and noodles in the market is similar to that in the Ming Dynasty. The key is that meat such as cattle, sheep, chicken, duck, fish, and pigs are cheap, and vegetables, fruits and vegetables are not expensive. Two silver dollars is enough. It’s enough food for a family of six for a month, and they can still eat meat every day. There are also many pastry and dessert shops on the street, and ordinary people can eat various specialties at any time.
In terms of housing, many wealthy families have renovated their courtyard houses. Rich families have built several-story attics, and ordinary families have also lived in brick houses. The walls have been painted white, and bright glass windows have been installed. Add some solid wood furniture shipped from Liaodong, and you will feel comfortable living here.
In addition, all the major streets in Beiping City have been renovated. They are either paved with asphalt or supplemented with floor tiles, making them look clean and tidy. The open drainage ditches have also been renovated, covered with cement boards, and turned into culverts, so they are no longer smelly. It's a miserable situation. Moreover, tap water is installed at every alley entrance, making it very convenient to get water.
When Du Ze and other envoys saw these scenes, they finally understood why the five skilled workers sneered at the court's solicitation. This was because Beiping City was indeed much better than Jinling City in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation. Anyone who was not a fool would choose to live in Beiping. Instead of going to Jinling, even some junior officials in the Ministry of Industry were a little shaken.
Du Ze and others wandered around Beiping City for four or five days, and finally got Wan Lei back. In fact, Wan Lei went to Liaodong for inspection. He first took a train to Jinzhou, and then took a carriage to Liaoyang. It was either windy or snowy along the way. I still have to travel to several important cities such as Liaoyang, Shenyang, Fushun and Kaiyuan, so I haven't been able to come back for a long time.
Due to the bitter cold in winter in Liaodong, it has always been a wilderness area with a vast territory and sparsely populated areas. Although hundreds of thousands of immigrants have moved in, there is still a shortage of manpower. In addition, most of the immigrants have just arrived in Liaodong and are experiencing this severe cold for the first time. Wan Lei personally came to inspect the test, and his intention was also to understand the sentiments of the people.
In order to encourage immigrants to settle down in Liaodong, Wan Lei and his party also brought a large number of cotton-padded clothes, quilts, leather boots, gloves and other clothing, which were distributed free of charge to the newly arrived immigrants to keep them warm during the winter. The immigrants lived together in several big cities, including The tall city walls and solid brick buildings block the north wind and heavy snow, and there is also a warm kang. It should not be a problem to survive the harsh winter, but normal production and study have stopped.
This trip to Liaodong was really hard in the wind and snow. Despite his strong will and good health, Wan Lei still couldn't bear it. After returning, he rested at home for two days before meeting the guests.
"According to the technology transfer treaty, you have to send skilled workers to guide us in iron-making production until we can produce normally. However, your technicians left without authorization, which caused serious losses to us. This loss should be borne by You are responsible." Perhaps it was because he had been kept aside for too long. As soon as they met, Du Ze directly protested.
"Stop, stop." Wan Lei waved his hand, opened a document at the same time, glanced at it, and said: "I just came back from an inspection in Liaodong. I don't know much about these things, but from this document, it seems that you abused me Our technicians couldn't stand it anymore, so they voluntarily returned to Beijing."
"Abuse? We didn't abuse the workers." Du Ze said anxiously. He had long heard that Wan Lei was a protector, very tough, and even a bit arrogant. Now that he saw it, his reputation was well-deserved.
"No?" Wan Lei shook his head and said: "The technicians are locked in the factory and are not allowed to go out. The food provided is very poor, and the accommodation conditions are also poor. In the winter, they don't even provide quilts, and there is no bathing service. Listen, He said he has been coerced several times. What do you think of our technicians? Are they pigs raised in captivity or hostages?"
Wan Lei threw the document in front of Du Ze and said angrily: "Every one of our technicians is a treasure. I only assigned a few of them because of your repeated requests. But you mistreat them like this? You How should I explain it to them? I haven't settled the debt with you yet, but you have come to my door. Well, let's settle this bad debt now."
"This, this..." Du Ze suddenly felt aggrieved and hurriedly said: "These are just unintentional mistakes, unintentional mistakes, not our original intention."
"Is it an unintentional mistake to lock people in a factory and not allow them to go out? We have never restricted you like this, right?"
"Yes, you have indeed not restricted us. It's just that Jinling is different from Beiping City. Many people have enemies with outsiders. We don't let the technicians go out because of their safety. There is no other intention." Du Ze hurriedly defended, but Even he found his rhetoric unconvincing.
"Just to be on the safe side! You can shirk it." Wan Lei's face turned cold and he added: "Whether you did it intentionally or not, this has already caused a lot of damage to our technicians' minds and bodies. You need to formally apologize and make compensation, otherwise I can only expel you and suspend technical assistance to you."
When he heard that technical assistance was going to be suspended, Du Ze panicked and said hurriedly: "We have neglected our duties and we shall bear the responsibility. I don't know how to apologize, and I don't know how to compensate?"
"Apologise publicly, send an apology statement. As for compensation, it's not much, just a symbolic payment of one hundred taels of silver." Wan Lei was not as open as a lion, because he had not thought about getting involved with the Ming Dynasty yet. Rigid.
"This is reasonable. We are willing to apologize and pay compensation, but you must send a technician as soon as possible." Du Ze did not bargain because he had no room for bargaining.
"We won't send more technicians. I don't want to see this kind of incident happen again." Wan Lei shook his head, "From the report of our technicians, your iron smelting plant already has the production capacity, but it only uses coal. There is a problem. They have warned you many times not to use coal with high sulfur content, but you just don’t listen. No wonder they.”
"Not sending technicians? That's not possible. We don't know how to tell whether the coal can be used for ironmaking," Du Ze said.
"You can't even select coal, and the craftsmen you sent to study are too unimproved." Wan Lei rolled his eyes at Du Ze, "Well, let's teach you a method of selecting coal using reagents. This reagent It is easy to use and can be learned in half a day. However, it is difficult to prepare the reagent. We will only provide a few copies. If you want more, you have to pay."
"Um, is this reagent expensive?" Du Ze asked. He knew that Wan Lei was famous for being ruthless, and most likely he was taking the opportunity to ask for more money.
"It's not expensive to say it's expensive, and it's not cheap to say it's cheap, because these reagents are extracted from the waste liquid of coke ovens. Only one part of the reagent can be extracted from a barrel of waste liquid. We also need to use these reagents. If you give We don’t have any of you. If you can send us the waste liquid, we can provide you with reagents for only the labor fee."
"Only the labor fee? How much is that?"
"The labor cost for a reagent is not high, only about one tael of silver. The key is to have waste liquid as raw material." Wan Lei said this, but he sneered secretly in his heart, because he wanted coke oven waste liquid, not In order to extract any reagents, we should extract ammonia and benzene, which are important raw materials for making yellow gunpowder.
However, Du Ze didn't know this. He heard that as long as he gave the waste liquid, a reagent would only cost one or two silver, so he hurriedly agreed. Wan Lei even warned him that he could not add other things to the waste, otherwise The cost of extraction would increase, so he quickly guaranteed that there would be absolutely no adulteration.
However, he didn't know that he was making a wedding dress for the Peking Army, and that the things extracted from the waste liquid were used to make gunpowder, and were probably used against the Ming Dynasty.