Meilin was worried that he would not be able to make it in time to go to Nanjing. He was so anxious every day that he had blisters on his lips. He was so frightened that Zhou Dongtian did not dare to mention the words "going to Nanjing" anymore, so he had to hang out in Zhao's house every day. Fortunately, this time
Qiwei gradually transported the printing equipment and equipment brought by the inspection team, and Zhou Dongtian began to install and debug the equipment.
The printing office is located in a small yard in the abandoned garden of Zhao's house. At present, the ink and paper used in the printing press are still shipped from Lingao, and Zhao Yingong plans to solve them locally in the future. The chemicals required for lithographic printing are difficult to solve locally, or
Purchase from Lingao.
Hangzhou can easily purchase various kinds of earthen paper - although its smoothness and whiteness are not as good as Lingao's writing and printing paper. As for ink, the only local solution is water-based ink such as Songyan ink, and Zhao Yingong had to find a way to solve it himself.
Oil-based ink. His solution is to plant flax in Phoenix Villa. The flax can be harvested for weaving, and flaxseed oil is a suitable oil base.
When Zhou Dongtian was assembling and debugging the equipment, he specially selected two local young people who had recently been admitted to the government, were mature, reliable and literate to serve as apprentices - the literacy rate in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was quite high in the late Ming Dynasty. In order to try as much as possible
To reduce literacy work, Zhao Yingong also paid attention to the basic educational level of the applicants when recruiting slaves.
Although some people think that printers should be recruited from Lingao, Zhou Dongtian disagrees with this: First of all, using a manual printing press is not an advanced technology, and it is easy to maintain. He only needs to teach by words and deeds for a month or two; secondly, he relies too much on Lingao.
The selection of personnel can easily lead to centrifugal tendencies among local personnel.
Zhou Dongtian taught them how to operate the machine step by step, including simple maintenance work. Because the type is too heavy and difficult to transport, the Hangzhou Printing Office is not equipped with type at present and only uses the shipped book lead patterns for printing. When it is necessary to make and print independently.
Just use lithograph printing.
The two young men were originally in awe of these iron objects full of strange objects: at first, they were afraid that these things would "bite" people. Later, when Zhou Dongtian started the machine, he showed them the power of the machine.
When asked about his printing ability, it turned into sincere admiration.
Young people accept new things easily, and after accepting it, they often try their best to defend the new things they identify with. Therefore, Zhou Dongtian does not want to recruit people from the many unemployed old engraving masters outside to start the machine - they are facing new things.
New things still need new people to use them.
"Both of these are printing presses from Guangli - it is said that they are from overseas." Zhou Dongtian was vague, "Except Guangzhou, I can't find any other ones in the entire Ming Dynasty."
The two young people were very excited. After learning a Ming Dynasty, few people understand what technology means. Everyone understands what it means. What's even more valuable is that Mr. Zhou has no secrets and teaches with everything he has. There is nothing he doesn't understand.
He also tried his best to explain everything. Compared with this time and space where the skills were strictly kept secret and the apprentices almost had to work as slaves for the master's family for several years before they could learn some superficial skills, they were like saints. This kind of casual practice in the old time and space would not be tolerated in any place under the control of the Senate.
Enterprises have made Aboriginal workers burst into tears of gratitude.
Zhou Dongtian is not worried that they will escape privately to set up their own business or spread technology. The technology of industrial society must have a sufficient material foundation. Without equipment and raw materials, they cannot copy the production capacity of Hangzhou Printing House. It is not that there has been no such thing as workers in Lingao
Attempts to secretly learn a certain technology or product - especially those naturalized migrant workers who were small handicraftsmen before coming to Lingao. However, their attempts failed without exception. Lingao's production model is small
It cannot be copied by producers. Even if it could be copied, the cost would be unimaginably high.
When Zhou Dongtian was training printing workers, Mei Lin basically instilled his architectural intentions and construction methods into the carpenter of the wooden cabinet, and he could safely leave the next project to the wooden cabinet.
In the city of Nanjing, hundreds of miles away from Hangzhou, a sedan carried by two people was passing by the avenue next to Zhengyang Gate. The sedan stopped at a place not far from Chengtian Gate, but not considered a restricted area.
The sedan curtain was slightly opened. Two men were looking at the majestic Forbidden City in Nanjing from the sedan window.
Sitting in the sedan were none other than Zhou Dongtian and Mei Lin. They had been escorted by Sun Wangcai to Nanjing the day before. They rested temporarily on the outer counter opened by Qiwei outside Nanjing. Today they came to the city specifically to inspect the local business.
When entering the city, Merlin specifically asked to take a look around the Forbidden City - as a builder, he had a strong interest in the Ming Forbidden City, which had only a few ruins left in the old time, and wanted to see it with his own eyes.
The Forbidden City in Nanjing is a complex of buildings with yellow glazed tile roofs surrounded by high walls that are five miles long from north to south and four miles wide from east to west. The vermilion walls of Chengtian Gate have peeled off a lot and appear mottled. On the roof of the city tower
There were small trees and weeds, which had obviously not been cleared for a long time. As usual, there were a few eunuchs and guards at the entrance of the palace, but they were all listless.
Accompanying them into the city was a group recruited by Qiwei from the local area, a real old resident of the Forbidden City. Seeing how interested they were in the Forbidden City, he told them about the situation inside.
Within the palace city, Chengtian Gate is the boundary, and to the north of the gate is the Forbidden City. After passing through the Duanmen and Meridian Gate, you will see three main halls: "Fengtian", "Jinshen" and "Huagai". There are also separate halls on the east and west sides.
There are "Wenhua Hall" and "Wuying Hall", as well as "Wen Tower" and "Wu Tower". This is the place where the emperor received pilgrims from hundreds of officials and held grand ceremonies.
To the north of the "Three Main Halls", all the way to the Houzai Gate, it belongs to the "Houting" area. There are many palaces with different names and an imperial garden where the emperor's daily life is lived.
In addition to this part of the Forbidden City, in the south of the palace city, a wide imperial road stretches straight from the Wulong Bridge outside Chengtian Gate to the main entrance of the palace city, Hongwu Gate.
On the east side of the Royal Road, except for the Ministry of Justice, are the five ministries of official, household, ritual, military, and industrial affairs, as well as the Zongren Mansion, Honglu Temple, Qintian Prison, Imperial Hospital, etc.; to the west of the Royal Road is the highest
Military institutions - the headquarters of the Fifth Army Governor, as well as the location of Jinyiwei, General Affairs Office, Taichang Temple and other yamen.
"You know a lot. Have you ever been in there?" Zhou Dongtian suddenly became suspicious.
"How can a villain get in? But there are a lot of husbands in Nanjing city. I heard them talk about a lot of things in the Nanjing Palace at the teahouse. So I know a little bit about it." Everyone nodded and bowed.
This large and magnificent palace city has been idle for more than 200 years since Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing. Now it has become depressed and dilapidated, and is completely different from its former glory. Emperor Ming rarely left Beijing to go to this southern capital.
As a result of the inspection, most of the palaces in the Forbidden City were in disrepair. Even those yamen where officials were always stationed had only a few entrance halls where people came to inspect matters. The so-called inspections were nothing more than doing routine duties.
Although it was still neat and tidy, most of the walls had been left to collapse without anyone taking care of them. It looked like it was in a state of dilapidation. Merlin felt a little regretful and said, "Let's go."
The sedan traveled along the main road, and after passing Conggongyuan, the market became lively and prosperous.
The weather is sunny. The warm spring sunshine slants down from the clear blue sky, casting the shadows of the row of houses on the left onto the spacious road paved with bluestones and onto the pedestrians. This road in Nanjing City
The main road was originally very wide, "although nine tracks can accommodate it." Since the Wanli Year, the population has grown rapidly, business has flourished, and it has been connected to residential buildings on both sides. Shops have encroached on the official road, and gradually the road has become less wide.
. Coupled with the large number of pedestrians on the streets, the roads have become increasingly crowded.
The shops connected to both sides are densely packed one next to another. Most of the shops have low eaves and wide facades; the black paint signboard at the front of the store reads "Old silk and velvet shop", "Net towels for customers", "Hangzhou fans name"
Words such as "Xiangguan Soap", "Sichuan-Guang Groceries", "Leather Goods for Sale in Northwest Liangkou", "Goods from East and West", "Inner Corridor Lexian Hall Famous Books", "Shunchang Tongshang Bank Shop", etc.
Some are even inlaid with gold powder. On the streets, people riding sedan chairs, riding donkeys, and people on foot were busy coming and going.
Merchants from all over the world gathered in the official corridor and in front of the ruined house, selling and displaying goods and bargaining with customers. The wealthy gentry and Confucian scholars from all over the world hung lanterns in front of the door and raised various fresh flowers.
There was a lot of talk in the teahouse. The teahouse was packed and business was booming; the restaurant was bustling with people, singing and singing, and the wind was filled with smiles and the alluring aroma of wine and food...
The accents on the streets and in the shops are no longer entirely the Nanjing Mandarin spoken in the north and south, but are filled with accents from the south and the north. In addition to ordinary people from Huizhou, Jiangbei, Shandong and other places who come to this prosperous place to make a living, there are also people who speak accents from all over the world.
There were many well-dressed wealthy Jin gentry households. The social turmoil and war in the late Ming Dynasty, the defeat in Liaodong, the chaos in She'an in Guizhou, and the endless "civil uprisings" in various places caused the local Jin gentry to come to places where social order was stable.
Jiangnan came to escape the hustle and bustle in the gold-selling caves of this gentle countryside. Most of them brought a large family of servants and many gold and silver treasures, bought houses and land outside Nanjing, and lived a life of luxury and luxury.
The two elders sitting in the sedan were in different moods at the moment. Zhou Dongtian was quite surprised by the prosperity of Nanjing - in his opinion, it was not inferior to Hangzhou. It seems that the "capital effect" is here The Ming Dynasty's capital is still quite remarkable. Such a prosperous market obviously does not rely solely on Nanjing's local consumption power.