Gao Pragmatic simply explained the difference between light and heavy artillery and their different uses to the fifth uncle, Gao Cai, and then sighed: "Now that the third uncle is assisting the government in the capital, there are two important things: one is official governance, and the other is finance. Official governance
Let alone talk about it, with the current finances of our government, it is really difficult to invest in heavy artillery. The most urgent task is to organize and optimize light firearms in order to form an advantage over the northern barbarians in the towns of Jiubian. In this way, the beacon light is extinguished,
Only then will the imperial court be able to free up its hands to eliminate the evils."
Gao Cai seemed to have little interest in the major affairs of these countries. He had no reaction after hearing Gao Pragmatic's words. He just pondered for a while and asked: "You asked Gao Yi and others to go to the capital to do firearms research. This is a good idea. If it weren't for me,
This uncle is really not in good health, and I really want to help you... However, I think it is not enough for you to find people from our Gao family. Although these people in the family are loyal, after all, the range of choices is too small. If you
If you want to really get this thing right, you still have to find ways to recruit talents."
Gao Jingshi nodded with deep sympathy: "What the fifth uncle said makes sense. I also want to recruit talents, but I am too young after all. I have to study with the prince and study by myself on weekdays, so I don't have much time to spare."
limited……"
"Really?" Gao Cai said with a half-smile: "Didn't you create such a profitable industry as Jinghua Soap? Also, these servants under you don't look like they were specially trained to protect you.
Right? Even I have heard of the famous name of Jinghua Caravan."
Gao pragmatic was surprised: "Five uncles have heard about the Jinghua Caravan in Henan?"
"Not only did I hear that, but I also made a small deal with the Jinghua Caravan." Gao Cai laughed: "When we split up, I was allocated a lot of jujube groves. Our Xinzheng jujubes are quite famous.
For sale in other places, this year someone came to our Xinzheng to collect dates, and the quantity was quite large, so he found me. I asked about it and found out that the person was going to transport it to Shanxi and transfer it to the Jinghua Caravan, saying that he wanted to sell it to the Mongols.
"
Gao Pingshi was quite dumbfounded: How come my Jinghua caravan, which has such a diverse business, is still selling dates? Then... is there a red-faced man named Guan Yunchang hiding among them?
Gao Cai saw Gao Pingshi's face was a little embarrassed, and joked: "What's the matter, you, the boss, don't even know what the people below are doing?"
Gao pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "Uncle Wu is joking, I am actually a hands-off shopkeeper. I only set the general direction, I don't ask about the specific tasks."
Now it was Gao Cai's turn to be surprised and said curiously: "Then you are not afraid that the people below will fool you? This is your own property."
Gao pragmatic shrugged: "I asked Brother Sanhuai to go to the capital to supervise the accounts for me." He said, paused, and explained: "In other words, I only determine the general direction, regardless of the specific operations, but
Reliable people have been specially arranged to supervise.”
"Aren't you afraid that the people under you will mess up things?" Gao Cai was still a little curious. After all, in this era, even though many people use their bosses at all levels to handle things, bosses rarely delegate power to this extent.
of.
Gao Pragmatic smiled and said to himself: If a professional manager can't do a good job, just replace him. As a "chairman" who is not also a "CEO", why do I ask so many details? I just need to set the strategy and rewards.
If merit and punishment are better than punishment, just do these two things well.
He briefly explained this theory to Gao Cai, and suddenly remembered the mining in Xinzheng, and quickly changed the subject and asked: "By the way, Uncle Wu, I heard that you were studying firearms in Xinzheng, and the iron you used was from Xu.
The county purchased it? Is there any iron ore in Xu County?"
"Yes, but the scale is very small, not as good as that of Nanyang - Nanyang has had iron officials since the Han Dynasty and has a long history. But Nanyang is a bit far away, and I can't get much iron for my small work here. From Xu County
Just buying it is enough...Why do you ask this? I'm afraid you won't be able to stay in Xinzheng for long. Even if you want to study it, it's easy for me to give you a batch."
"My nephew doesn't want to study it. This matter can be handled in the capital." Gao pragmatically said, and explained his plan to open a coal mine and iron smelting in Xinzheng.
After Gao Cai heard this, he looked surprised: "The coal mine is easy to handle. Xinzheng has already produced it. As for whether the reserves are as sufficient as you said, I don't know very well, but it should be quite a lot. At least as far as I know
, coal has been dug out in many places in Xinzheng.”
He paused, frowned and asked: "But coal is not good for making iron. In the former Song Dynasty, coal was used to make iron in the Central Plains. However, the iron made from coal was so poor that it could not even be used to make farm tools.
Durable, either brittle and easy to break, or soft and easy to bend. Selecting the best of this kind of iron can make a plow or something like that. When you build this iron factory, you are not building it to make farm tools, right? Or are you planning to sell iron pots to
Mongolians, so they cast iron pots in Xinzheng?”
Of course, being pragmatic does not mean cast iron pots. Although there is a huge market for that stuff in Mongolia, why go all the way to Xinzheng to make iron pots? You can do it directly in Shanxi. To sell cast iron pots from Xinzheng to Mongolia, it is better to buy iron directly in Shanxi.
It would be cost-effective to transfer the pot to Mongolia and sell it.
He had no choice but to tell Gao Cai that he had a way to make coke and smelt iron.
Gao Cai was stunned for a long time, and suddenly asked nervously: "Aren't you kidding?"
"Of course not, how dare my nephew deceive the fifth uncle." Gao Pragmatic quickly expressed his stance.
"Pa!" Gao Cai slapped his thigh and said with wide eyes: "I have heard of this coking technology, but the effect is as you said. This is the first time for me to hear it. If you, an iron factory, really want to
If you need any help from Uncle Wu, just ask!"
Coking technology has already appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Gao Pragmatic remembers it a little bit, but it is not exact. However, in my impression, even if the coking technology recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" came out decades later, its technical content is not too high.
High - Generally speaking, this technology is available, but it has not yet reached the point where it can support large-scale steelmaking with this technology.
This is very convenient for promoting coking and iron smelting in a pragmatic way. After all, it is easier for people to accept and understand it than to create a completely new technology.
Although the methods Gao pragmatically mastered were not very advanced, they were just some local methods recorded in the national steelmaking notebook left by his grandfather during the Great Leap Forward era, but they were still much better than the Ming Dynasty's current technology.
You must know that although the Ming Dynasty's firearms development ideas were somewhat superior to those of Western countries at the same period, they were not necessarily the same in terms of iron smelting. Of course, there is an objective factor in this: there are too few rich iron ores in China's territory.
Most iron ores are poor ores with many impurities and are very difficult to smelt. In addition, there are many impurities in coal, so it is certain that the quality of coal used in iron-making during the Song Dynasty was poor.
It was precisely because the use of coal to make iron in the past produced too many waste products that people at that time lost confidence in it. Therefore, famous iron smelting centers such as Foshan, Guangdong, almost all used charcoal to make iron and steel.
Gao Cai so happily expressed his willingness to contribute to this, of course he also knew that if this technology was really developed by Gao pragmatism, it would not only be a huge financial source for the Gao family, it could be called a cornucopia, but it would also have great significance for the entire Ming Dynasty.
