Another example in the 18th century is the invention of the Lubulan alkali production method, known as the "ancestor of modern chemical industry".
The earliest alkali was the so-called plant alkali, which was made from plant ash. The output was small and the price was high. Due to the Seven Years' War between Britain and France from 1756 to 1763, the source of plant alkali that was dependent on Spain was cut off. France was very short of soda ash, so in the 18th century
The world's highest scientific research institution, the French Royal Academy of Sciences, began research on a new alkali production method. They adopted the most advanced research method at the time: offering a reward.
In 1775, the French Royal Academy of Sciences began to offer a reward for a method of making alkali. They scooped out a "huge gold" reward of 1,200 francs to ask for a practical method of making alkali. Lübrand, the personal surgeon of the Duke of Orleans, invented the method of using salt and sulfuric acid.
A method of making alkali using raw materials, and was patented in 1791. Because he was the doctor of the Duke of Orleans, the Duke allocated 200,000 livres to build a factory in Saint-Denis near Paris. In 1793, the Duke was guillotined by the French Revolutionaries, and the factory
It was confiscated and the method of making alkali was made public. However, the French revolutionary government was in urgent need of alkali and still assigned the factory to Lvbrand. Due to lack of funds and other difficulties, the factory did not continue production. He was so poor in his later years that he ended up in an almshouse.
Finally, he committed suicide in the almshouse on January 16, 1806.
In other words, in the 19th century, or even before the 20th century, "invention" was a private act. Even the European governments with the most advanced scientific concepts at that time, and even scientific organizations such as the French Royal Academy of Sciences, they had the best methods for technological research and development.
It's a reward. Each scientist relies on his own savings to work hard on research.
By the mid-to-late 19th century, successful inventors began to appear. With the financial resources accumulated from several inventions, they established their own R&D teams and carried out subsequent R&D. Nobel, Edison, etc. were all such people. But this
In the final analysis, it is still a "private invention". They must rely on their own financial resources and must make a profit before they can carry out new research and inventions. It was not until the 20th century that government organizations adopted another method: establishing a project to integrate several
Gather together one or more than a dozen relevant scientists or craftsmen, give them a certain amount of funds, designate research goals, and ask them to deliver results. This method is obviously more efficient.
So. Before the middle of the 20th century, there were great inventors in all countries in the world. After the middle of the 20th century, there were no more. There were only major laboratories and R&D teams. Invention research became a kind of team work, and new technology was invented.
The speed is increased by hundreds or thousands of times.
Use this method. Organize a group of a few to more than a dozen people, allocate funds to personnel, and designate a project for research. Whether it is textile machines, steam engines, muskets, cannons, etc., you can use this method to speed up, and it is guaranteed to work.
In a short period of time, basically within two or three years, the results will be scooped out.
The reason is very simple. Textile machines, steam engines, muskets and even cannons are all very simple things. The so-called "technical bottleneck" does not exist at all.
This method was completely adopted by Ding Yunyi, and he firmly believed that soon inventions that could change the destiny of mankind would be born in his own Fujian...
The "Fujian Academy of Sciences" is a place dedicated to scientific research, and the establishment of the "Fujian Need Industry Company" made Ding Yunyi set his sights on the development of Fujian Youzang.
Ding Yunyi placed high hopes on the Xianye Company established in Mingxi.
There are a lot of rich reserves in Mingxi, including coal, iron, aluminum, tin, limestone, marble, sapphire, etc. And more importantly, the main rivers in the territory, Shaxi, Jinxi, and Youxi, are all part of the Minjiang River system.
The runoff volume is extremely large, which provides excellent help in using water resources to support the development of Tibetan areas.
Ding Yunyi knows very well what the need to hide means. Of course, relying solely on Fujian's need to hide is not enough. At this time, Ding Yunyi began to focus on the ideas he had had in Taiwan before:
Enter Hainan!
But this idea was suppressed by Ding Yunyi for the time being... It's not the right time yet, and we need to wait patiently for a while before we can actually implement this plan...
If the birth of new things such as factories, academies of science, industrial companies, etc. is an important step for Ding Yunyi in his dream of building a new Fujian, then the completion of the "Ming Dynasty Military Academy" is an important step for Ding Yunyi to build a new army.
The idea of the army has been truly implemented.
It is undeniable that the Huben Guards have extremely strong combat effectiveness, and there is nothing wrong with calling them the most elite of the Ming Dynasty, but there is still a certain gap between them and the army in Ding Yunyi's conception.
In Ding Yunyi's conception, what he needs is a truly modern army.
The core of a truly modern army lies in popular education and a team of non-commissioned officers. The core of a modern army is not any ideology, but a large number of educated soldiers and non-commissioned officers. Only in this way can it have sufficient organizational strength.
This organization represents the resilience of the troops.
For the current armies of the Ming Dynasty or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they will collapse if their leader dies, and they will collapse if their casualties reach a very small proportion. However, the religious armies in the Western countries are also fanatical, and they can achieve the goal of collapse even if their leader dies, even if there are huge casualties.
After that, he still insisted on continuing the attack.
But really?p>
In modern armies, even if the general dies or suffers certain casualties, they can still attack effectively and timidly, instead of insisting on attacking. There is a huge difference between the two?p>
In the Ming Dynasty's army, the only real soldiers were professional soldiers. In Europe, they were knights and nobles. In China, they were hereditary generals. In Japan, they were samurai warriors.
The main body of the army was serfs, tenant farmers, farmers, etc.
This kind of complete reliance on the general, or at most on officers at all levels. If the general or middle and low-level officers are injured or killed, the army will easily collapse. It is said that a small proportion of casualties means collapse. In fact, what is really true is that when the casualties of officers reach a certain proportion, they will lose their organization, and then
collapse.
However, the modern army is composed of soldiers brought in through popular education and even subsequent non-commissioned officer education.
That’s just education for sergeants. In fact, compulsory education itself is universal. It can also be regarded as a kind of preparatory education for non-commissioned officers. Basic organizational concepts such as discipline and queue are not developed in military schools or non-commissioned officer schools.
In school, students who have received these educations will be standard workers when they enter factories, and they will be reserve sergeants when they enter the army. When they enter the non-commissioned officer school, they only need to receive relevant education. The concept of organizational discipline has long been deeply rooted in their hearts.
If such a unit suffers casualties such as sergeants and sergeants during a war, they can immediately be replaced by deputies in sequence according to the plan. At the same time, the quality of the replacements will not differ too much, so it will not affect the unit's operations too much.
As a whole, it is the resilience of the troops. As for fear and morale, they are the common characteristics of human beings, and it has nothing to do with education. But those who are educated usually mean they have been brainwashed.
Soldiers who have been brainwashed are more likely to be fearless of death. It is not only school education that can brainwash people. Illiterate and peasants can also be fearless of death because of religious brainwashing.
In Ding Yunyi's memory, the Boxer Rebellion of another era is the best example.
However, the Boxers' method was wrong. They mainly relied on lies that could be easily exposed. The so-called "invulnerability" lie could easily be exposed. Once exposed, the troops would often lose confidence and morale.
What is really correct should not be "invulnerable", but should be "go to heaven after death", "reincarnation in the next life", "righteous men will have seventy-two virgins in heaven" and the like.
Because these will not and cannot be exposed!
But what Ding Yunyi needs is not such a team. The team he needs is loyalty and infinite faith in himself, rather than believing in things like reincarnation in heaven.
Then, there is the issue of education for officers at all levels.
They must be knowledgeable, that is to say. The future Tiger Guards officer group will be the core part of the army, and the soldiers are the solid cornerstone.
It was with this idea that the "Ming Military Academy" appeared...
Most of the officers here are young officers selected from the Huben Guards, and they have an almost fanatical admiration for Ding Yunyi.
Ding Yunyi's every performance on the battlefield created the basis for this fanaticism...
They entered the officer academy and studied in the Army, Navy and Special Service Departments respectively. The Special Service Department includes artillery, special assault troops, logistics and other branches.
In this military officer academy, what they learn is not the "Dragon Flying Formation, Tiger Wing Formation", but the use of muskets, the formation configuration of the musketeer corps in war, etc. What they learn is to gradually break away from the cold.
Something more advanced in the age of weapons.
In the Military Academy, there are some very special, but very strict rules:
Do not touch the ground with bare feet, do not drink raw water, wash hands before and after eating, do not urinate in the open, wash hands after urinating, sleep under a mosquito net, drain stagnant water, etc.
This is to minimize the occurrence of disease.
In the army, Ding Yunyi plans to train 100,000 elite firearms soldiers in advance and gradually reduce the existence of cold weapons. With the production capacity of the Firearms Bureau and the advent of new firearms, it has become possible to gradually replace cold weapons with firearms.
In order to achieve this goal, Ding Yunyi plans to spend three years to initially complete it and make the full firearms force take shape.
From then on, it will take ten to fifteen years to completely complete this goal.
At the same time, the emphasis on the navy has reached an unprecedented level. At the beginning of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Ding Yunyi's military expenditure for the Huben Guard navy for this year reached an astonishing nine million taels.
This is an astronomical figure, one that the Ming court would find difficult to believe even if it knew it.
Ding Yunyi is the richest man in the world. Although his New Deal has not been fully implemented in Fujian, the income from plantations, agricultural product processing operations, agricultural taxes, commercial taxes, etc. in Taiwan alone is already a huge amount of income.
Once Ding Yunyi's new policy is fully implemented in Fujian, this number will surely reach a new height again.
And all of this does not include Ding Yunyi's trade income that no power in the entire Ming Dynasty can match:
Maritime merchants!
After Zheng Zhilong's forces were annihilated, the sea had only one master - Ding Yunyi! He took over all Zheng Zhilong's forces, including the exclusive trade rights to Japan and other places, including the protection fees collected from those European and American ships.
Of course, there is also the increasingly large maritime trade fleet of Ding Yunyi Group.
Huge maritime trade supported an astonishing money empire.
Ding Yunyi’s annual income is a mystery to everyone. Some people say that Ding Yunyi’s annual income is tens of millions, while others say that he earns hundreds of millions.
But Ding Yunyi has never officially announced this figure... He only knows that even the combined three-year income of several Ming dynasties is not as much as what he earns in one year...
Whoever owns the sea will have endless wealth...
And soon, Ding Yunyi turned his attention to Hainan, which he had been longing for...
Although he owned the entire Fujian, Ding Yunyi still regarded Taiwan as his main base, and now this base should also be named Hainan.
In this way, there is no problem in taking advantage of the distance to capture the entire Nanyang.
Moreover, in Ding Yunyi's memory, Hainan Island's Shilu, Tiandu and other large iron needs are famous. As long as one percent is developed, it will be enough for his own iron needs. As for coal demand, both Hainan and Taiwan have
There is demand for coal. However, the coal demand in Hainan is small and of poor quality.
On the other hand, Taiwan's Keelung coal needs large quantity and good quality. Therefore, Hainan and Taiwan are actually complementary and indispensable.
But how to acquire Hainan without arousing the wrath of the imperial court?
This is an issue that requires Ding Yunyi to think carefully. However, until he finally makes a decision, this matter will always be the biggest secret in his heart.
When he thinks the conditions are truly mature, he will put all his thoughts out and then implement them without hesitation.
Ding Yunyi never expected that such a situation would exist today.
From Penghu to Taiwan, and from Taiwan to Fujian, he fulfilled his dreams one after another.
The new Taiwan, the new Fujian, and all new things will be born one by one before your eyes. And all you have to do is watch its growth.
What other force can block your progress?
At this time, Li Guo came to his side: "Headquarters, our pirate alliance Hai Nixiong captured a merchant ship sailing from Ganlasi to Luzon."
Ding Yunyi said "Oh", there didn't seem to be anything worthy of special attention. Almost every day, people from the Pirate Alliance were looking for targets on the sea, and then sent the looted materials to the base camp of Taiwan in proportion.
But Li Guo’s subsequent words immediately caught Ding Yunyi’s attention:
"The ship is called the Angel, and we also found a letter on the ship from King Ganrasi to the Governor of Ganrasi in Luzon, as well as a very, very special little girl!"