On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Hao and his party arrived at the Yongpingfu Iron Ore Plant.
Lu Song personally led people to greet him, and the entire iron ore plant was surrounded by guards. Apparently, the local government's harassment of the iron ore plant made Lu Song very anxious. When he saw Zhu Hao coming with his son Lu Bing, he seemed very excited.
"Sir, you are finally here."
Behind Lu Song were Gongsun Yi and Guan Jing, but Sun Ru was nowhere to be seen.
After entering the mine, there was a lively scene everywhere.
Lu Song asked Zhu Hao about the situation along the way.
Lu Bingdao: "Dad, Zhu Hao and I were riding horses all the way, not to mention how tired we were... Before we came here, we went to Tianjin Sanwei. There is a big shipyard on the seaside, and shipbuilding has already begun. We stayed there for a day.
, just came here."
Lu Song glared at his son, feeling that his son was disrespectful to Zhu Hao.
Moreover, Zhu Hao's identity must be concealed from the outside world. It would be easy for his son to call Zhu Hao by his first name. However, it was hard for him to teach his son a lesson in front of Zhu Hao. In case Zhu Hao didn't feel anything, he seemed to be reminding him.
, my son is so disappointing!
"Regarding the situation in the mining factory, Lu Bing made it very clear after meeting me. Has the local prefect sent anyone to harass me again recently?" Zhu Hao asked.
Lu Song sighed: "Not to mention recently, I have been here today...Many villagers said that this is their geomantic treasure land, and even the officials of the Department of Science and Technology came to trouble us. They originally wanted to put some money in to calm things down, but they all
He refused. Instead, he said he would sue me for bribing officials later."
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "This is the way the world is, as long as it doesn't affect our mining operations, that's all."
"But sir, in order to protect the mine, we have recruited too many guards, and we cannot recruit them from the local area. The people we recruit will only look for trouble, be passive and refuse to work, and now we have to recruit people from outside Beizhili, which is time-consuming
Not to mention the effort, just spending on guarding the mine consumes a lot of money."
Lu Song said that the biggest problem in opening a mining factory is the conflict of interests between powerful dragons and local snakes.
When the local government saw the imperial government's mining, they raised the issue of competing for profits with the people. This was reflected in the large-scale mining and mining tax collection during the Wanli period. Zhu Hao actually just carried out this matter decades in advance.
The situation encountered is basically the same.
Why did Yang Tinghe not agree to open mines and collect mining taxes?
Just because in the philosophy of literati, the court should not interfere with private economic activities and should only be responsible for matters that should be managed. To put it bluntly, the literati's character is to benefit the people.
The intention is good, but when it comes to execution, it is just a matter of picking one's nose and raising one's eyebrows, and puts many so-called natural and man-made disasters into competing with the people for profit and suffering retribution from heaven, completely regardless of how much benefit this can bring to the court...
To put it bluntly, the literati who govern the country do not know how to manage finances. They only advocate the so-called Confucian ethics and suppress everything that is progressive in the times.
The small farmer mentality is serious.
Zhu Hao said: "If you turn around and ask your Majesty to replace the new magistrate, there won't be so many problems."
"New prefect?"
Lu Song was a little surprised.
The current situation seems that the new emperor has no control over the civil service system. Who can take the risk of offending the civil service group and become the prefect?
Should Zhu Hao be responsible for it himself?
Zhu Hao actually has a candidate in mind.
It's Zhang Cong.
Speaking of which, Zhang Cong has been the Deputy Inspector of Shanxi for more than a year. In fact, Zhang Cong has been very unsatisfactory in Shanxi's officialdom. This is because his great ritual discussion has been criticized by too many people, and in addition, he has just been a Jinshi.
When I went to be a deputy inspector, I didn't know much about prison terms. I had a lot to learn, and I wasn't even the top leader yet.
Therefore, Zhang Cong had written to the capital many times, and finally came to Zhu Hao, asking to be transferred back to the capital as soon as possible, or to be assigned to another place.
Zhang Cong wanted to find a job that he could do independently without being restricted by others.
But after all, Zhang Cong has only been an official for more than a year, and has not passed the exam in three years. It is unrealistic to be directly promoted. If he is a fourth-grade foreign official, he is transferred back to the capital and becomes the head of the Sixth Department, or a member of the Sixth Department, but
That has to be controlled by others.
Now Zhu Hao has planned a way for him, that is, as a fourth-grade foreign official, he will be directly transferred to Yongping Mansion to become the prefect.
In this way, Zhang Cong no longer had to be controlled by others, but he could also help the court appease local opposition forces and test Zhang Cong's governance ability.
Although Zhang Cong has little experience as an official, he is very experienced as a person. Who makes him a Jinshi among the old Confucian scholars? He is different from others. Others are Jinshi in their twenties and thirties, but he is nearly fifty years old.
If you become a Jinshi at the age of 10, can it be the same?
Zhu Hao could only stay at the mining factory for two days at most.
Now the shipyard is not his "main project". He attaches great importance to the production of the iron ore plant. Steel output represents the amount of work he can do. After all, all his ideals of industrializing the Ming Dynasty are based on sufficient steel output.
basically.
Arrive at the mining factory.
All you can see is the construction site in full swing.
The large number of machinery was unheard of by people of this era. From a distance, many laborers could be seen ramming earth with large ramming equipment.
In front of a shelf with four corners, a huge wooden pile was driven by a pulley set at each corner. Five people on each side pulled the huge wooden pile into the air, and then let go together. The wooden pile fell heavily to the ground, and the cycle continued.
In the mining pit, a large number of people are preparing for level mining.
If there is an explosion, a call will be made in advance to let everyone in the camp find a bunker. After the explosion is completed, whistles everywhere will sound, and everyone can come out of the bunker and continue to complete their work.
Behind the mountain is the smelting plant.
A large amount of coal was transported to Yongping Prefecture from Xishan and other places, and there was even coal bought from nearby coal mines. In the huge warehouse-like houses, steel-making furnaces were built one after another, and a large number of workers were making crude steel.
Crude iron is poured into the steel-making furnace for smelting...
This is much better than the smelting technology of this era. In this era, molten steel can also be fired, but the steel filling method is generally used, which uses molds to shape it.
However, because steelmaking technology requires extremely high technology, it is difficult to know the impurities in crude iron in this era, so the iron products made actually only have a shape, and it is difficult to meet high requirements in terms of accuracy and stiffness.
Zhu Hao walked around and was impressed by the strength of workers.
I thought that it might take five or ten years to accomplish these things, but with the help of the molding blacksmiths and mining craftsmen, the iron ore factory was established in less than a year, and it became a mining and smelting complex.
It is a large-scale workshop that can continue to explore new mines and expand production scale.
Zhu Hao, as a "consultant" that night, called the craftsmen in the workshop in batches and taught them some knowledge they did not possess.
But Zhu Hao is not completely good at smelting steel. There are many things that these craftsmen need to explore slowly.
Zhu Hao is not in a hurry to achieve big results within three or two years. This time can be pushed to a five to ten-year plan. After all, as long as he takes the lead in steelmaking, the future will not be ten or twenty years.
Things will continue for hundreds or thousands of years.
He is only responsible for making the beginning. The so-called master leads the person to practice.
And these craftsmen he taught will become the experts and originators of Ming Dynasty's new steel smelting technology, and their glory will be passed on to future generations.
The next day, Zhu Hao was still doing some things in the smelting camp to check for leaks and fill in the gaps.
This is what he came for.
Unexpectedly, Luo An hurried to the mining factory that day and brought the news from Zhu Si from the capital.
"...Your Majesty has learned that your husband has arrived in Beizhili, and urges you to return to the capital as soon as possible. There are many things waiting for you in the capital."
Luo An arrived and urged Zhu Hao to return to Beijing on behalf of the emperor.
Zhu Hao said: "Aren't all the matters in the northwest settled for now?"
Luo An said: "I haven't returned to the capital yet, but as the messenger of Jin Yiwei, I
Your Majesty has recently had many disputes with his courtiers over the employment of personnel in the DPRK. Recently, many appointments and dismissals of personnel within the six ministries have been suspended. In fact, I will wait until my husband returns to Beijing before helping Your Majesty to review the details."
Every year, or even every month, many positions in the imperial court become vacant.
It had been three months since Zhu Hao left the capital. Although there were no major changes in the officialdom of the capital, there were a lot of small changes.
In fact, Zhu Si was also a "stingy man". After finding out that someone was retiring, he wanted to assign his people to the vacant positions, or people who might be used by him, but the official department would not tolerate it either.
How to deal with the emperor's bad habits?
This caused serious conflicts between the monarch and his ministers.
In addition, Zhu Si wanted to radically promote personnel appointments and dismissals without Zhu Hao's advice, and he would naturally encounter backlash. In anger, Zhu Si said harsh words to the ministers in the court.
Now Zhu Si wanted Zhu Hao to go back quickly and see how he could gradually take control of the court.
Zhu Hao wanted to say that the emperor was still too impatient.
Can't you wait until Yang Tinghe retreats before using people? You are so anxious to advance, but it makes Yang Tinghe feel a crisis. Originally, he might have thought that he would retreat if he retreated, so that he would not linger around, but now he sees you acting like this
If you mess around, can Yang Tinghe leave "with confidence"?
This is a matter of indistinguishability.
But Zhu Hao can also understand.
In fact, his purpose was to deal with Yang Tinghe first for long-term considerations, while Zhu Si's intention was to use personnel appointments to contain Yang Tinghe and drive Yang Tinghe away as soon as possible.
Zhu Hao said: "I may not be able to leave back to the capital until tomorrow, but after departure, I will speed up my journey. I estimate that I can reach the capital in two days under starry nights."
Luo An hesitated and said: "It's nearly four hundred miles from Yongping Mansion to the capital. In two days... will it be a bit late?"
"It's okay, I'm used to rushing along the way."
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Recently I will study the terrain and see how to build a road paved with steel that can transport coal from Xishan or Shanxi directly to the capital or even Yongping Prefecture!"