Bright Spring

Ma Enhui put the nib of the pen on the ink marks left when she was distracted, and lightly lifted the nib to make a slight modification.She looked at it from a little distance, but she couldn't see any traces, so she continued to write the neat and correct script with satisfaction.

Chapter 797 Breaking the Jar

Recently, Zhu Gaoxu has been running every night, and his weight and energy have been maintained.But he seldom takes care of the specific affairs of the court.

Gao Xianning, Minister of Dali Temple, recommended a sixth-rank official to Zhu Gaoxu. It is said that this person supports the reform and is quite talented.

The man's name was Song Li, and he was born as a supervisor of the Imperial College, with a low reputation, and he was able to become an official because he caught up with a good time.During the Hongwu period, there was a shortage of civil servants in the court, and many people with no serious fame were selected to become officials.

Song Li served as a local official, an official of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and dealt with floods. He was the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry in the Yongle period at the highest position; but he stood in the wrong place during the "Deposed Prince" period. Although Wu Dechu was spared the death penalty, he was relegated to the sixth rank. The head of the official household department.

Zhu Gaoxu is very interested in Song Li. If Song Li is really worthy of a great position and gets promoted, then the officials in the court must be able to feel that the previous court turmoil has passed.

However, Zhu Gaoxu did not reuse this person immediately, he wanted to find an opportunity to see Song Li's talent for himself.Because Wang Anshi's reform in the Song Dynasty had a drawback, he paid too much attention to the camp and the old and new parties | factions, so that some mediocre people stood in the right position and were reused, but they ruined major events.

Song Li is still working as the head of the sixth-rank household department, but got an errand.Zhu Gaoxu ordered him to form the "First Mint" of the "Central Bank".

It turned out that the Ming court had a "Precious Banknote Lifting Department", and there were also branch offices such as the Paper Making Bureau, Banknote Printing Bureau, Baochao Treasury, and Banknote Treasury, which belonged to the Ministry of Households.Once the credit of the banknotes was getting lower and lower, Zhu Gaoxu decided to stop printing more banknotes; instead of rewarding the vassal kings and honorable banknotes, he would print more salt notes.

Precious banknotes and salt quotations are both policies with many disadvantages.Zhu Gaoxu decided to cut off the "Baochao Lifting Secretary" among them, and then he could only pass the disaster on to Yanyin and make it worse.

The bureaucrats and eunuchs of the Baochao Lifting Department have not been abolished, and now they have changed their name to "Central Bank".All government offices, warehouses, and personnel have been preserved, and most officials are currently in a state of having nothing to do and receiving official salaries.So there is little opposition.

The national policy of stopping the printing and distribution of Daming Banknotes has not had any impact for the time being, and there is no mess to clean up.

Because the Daming banknotes are very miraculous, the imperial court and the government have always issued them but not received them; they are spent as money, but they are not collected for tax purposes.Since the country has never made a promise, there is no need to fulfill the aftermath.

So the court only needs to silently not print or issue precious banknotes, and everything will be fine.Anyway, it is not a matter of one or two things for the Ming court to find a way to reap the wealth of the common people, it is nothing more than breaking the cans and smashing them.

Of course, this wonderful situation is also one of the reasons why the banknotes are not highly creditworthy...

On this day, after Zhu Gaoxu performed the daily etiquette at Fengtianmen, he left the palace with his entourage.If the emperor travels officially to sacrifice, etc., the scale of the guard of honor will be much larger.Today's emperor's guard of honor is not large, mainly composed of the cavalry of General Jinyiwei Dahan and Habayashi Zuowei, focusing on defense rather than ostentation.

A group of people went out of Hongwumen, passed by Dajiaochang, and went straight to the "First Mint".The place is on a tributary to the south of the Qinhuai River, not far from the upper gate of Wai Guo.

Gao Xianning, Minister of Dali Temple who was traveling with him, was riding in Zhu Gaoxu's carriage with the emperor.

Gao Xianning's voice suddenly said, "Forgive me, my lord. When Mr. Song was on a business trip, the humble official got involved

And a little personal matter. "

Zhu Gaoxu put down the car curtain, looked away from the window, and turned to look at Gao Xianning.

Gao Xianning clasped his fists and said, "That workshop was originally the newly built place of the Shouyusi Iron Works. There are a lot of houses, appliances, and dams. The chief executive Song ordered the construction of the mint, so he took a fancy to the unused iron works here.

Director Song thought of a way.He found Xia Butang and persuaded the Ministry of Households to use some of the remaining treasures in the warehouse of the "Precious Banknote Lifting Department" to exchange for the newly built iron factory with the South Department of the Defense Department. "

Zhu Gaoxu nodded.Thinking in his heart, he planned not to use the treasure notes, but the treasure notes could still be spent, but the value might be lower.

Gao Xianning went on to say, "In this matter, due to the huge amount of banknotes deposited, the Shou Yu Si Nan Department took advantage of it. The minister put forward a condition to Wang Youshi, and wanted to use the Shou Yu Si's men and craftsmen to do an experiment. Both the capital and the Chengdu prefecture try to measure the shadow of the sun at the same time to verify the theory of a round earth."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he immediately looked at Gao Xianning with a surprised expression, and said after a while, "I see."

Gao Xianning didn't say any more, as if he had figured out what Zhu Gaoxu meant.

The group of people continued to move forward and finally arrived at the mint next to the dam.Song Li, the head of the household department, brought the officials from the treasure banknote lifting department and some craftsmen to the gate, and knelt down on the ground to salute.

Zhu Gaoxu got out of the carriage, and waved his hands, "Everyone, you're welcome, you're welcome."

Everyone thanked them, Song Li bowed and asked Zhu Gaoxu and others to inspect the interior.

Song Li is a civil servant in his 40s. He wears the blue round collar of a low-level civil servant. His cheeks are so thin that the wrinkles are more obvious, and he looks a little old.His face was very rosy, and he seemed a little excited and nervous.

This is also an old fritter in the officialdom, who has experienced the officials of the Hongwu, Jianwen, Yongle, Hongxi, and Wude Five Dynasties.The emperor must have attached great importance to the fact that the emperor came to inspect his errands in person. Song Li should have realized that the time for him to return to the center of the court was just around the corner.

Song Li's hat and robe were covered with plaster, but no one said he was disrespectful.Because as soon as everyone entered the workshop, they were also covered with some dust in the smoky environment.

The things inside are fairly organized, but there are a lot of tools used by various craftsmen, as well as stoves, sand, copper, etc., and the open hall is filled with dust and smoke.The craftsmen have stopped working, but the stove is still burning, and the blower powered by the water drainage has not completely stopped.

The billowing smoke, clanging, clanging, clanging, clanging, and clanging sounds of equipment running, gears, and various equipment filled the hall, making Zhu Gaoxu feel like a factory.There was joy in his heart, so he didn't dislike this slightly harsh environment at all.

Song Li said in front of Zhu Gaoxu, "I have made a batch of new copper coins, and I just want to wait a few days for inspection before presenting them to the imperial court."

After he finished speaking, he picked up a few copper coins from the serving plate and presented them with both hands.

"Huh!" Zhu Gaoxu took the copper coin in his hand, and immediately blurted out a voice of surprise.This copper coin is a bit different, it is very bright, clean and delicate, it looks very good, and its size, lines and characters are almost the same.

Zhu Gaoxu watched for a while, then glanced at Song Li, who was vaguely proud, and said, "Isn't this made by casting?"

Song Li immediately said

Said, "The Holy One is wise! The ministers first cast it with a clay mold, but there is no wording, and then use a steel mold and hydraulic forging to form it."

Song Li walked briskly for a while, pointing to a structure with a huge forging hammer beside the wall, "Your Majesty, the ministers use this forging. The fake house of the Southern Office of the Guarding Department collects the skills of ancient and modern craftsmen by category. Based on the compiled books, in the name of the Ministry of Households, the minister recruited skilled craftsmen from all over the country to Beijing to make equipment. This tool was improved by the South Administration using water drains, water cones, and row cones. It was specially built according to the wishes of the minister."

Pointing to various iron and wood structures, he introduced with great interest, "The hydraulic water wheel is very large, connected by gears and sliding chains, it can easily pull up a forging hammer weighing several thousand kilograms. Tooth and load-bearing are not enough, we combined wood and iron, and riveted forged iron parts to make gears...

Water wheel forging hammers are also used to forge iron pieces, which were used to pound grain in the past; after the Nanshu Iron Works was renovated, they were also used to forge armor pieces.We used a larger forging hammer to forge gear irons. "

Zhu Gaoxu listened very carefully, he was very interested in these things.Some techniques even exceeded the knowledge in his memory.

"Steel fan?" Zhu Gaoxu asked a question from time to time, "How to make steel?"

Song Lidao said, "Shanxi Chief Envoy has a method of making steel, and the Hongwu Cannon used to be steel; the South Department of the Defense Department has obtained the skills from Shanxi and compiled it into the library of the fake museum. The minister is responsible for finding people, and only knows a few Probably, steelmaking first requires charcoal and coking). The charcoal-making technology has been around since the Tang Dynasty, and it is now very complete."

He said, "Shang Mingjian, the most difficult part of the steel mold is not the steel making, but the engraving of words and patterns on the steel. The mint used the water wheel drilling machine of the South Department to complete it. Otherwise, it would be difficult to engrave it manually." It can be done. And the exquisite scale of the iron factory also makes the size of the steel molds the same, so it is possible to make such copper coins of the same size."

Zhu Gaoxu was very interested in observing the steel molds under the forging hammer. Many steel molds were placed in a small hole in a disc, divided into upper and lower molds.

After watching for a while, Zhu Gaoxu understood. First put the cast copper coins in the lower steel mold, and then cover them with the upper steel mold. When the forging hammer falls, patterns can be formed on both sides of the copper coins.

On the chopping board not far away, there are still some hourglasses.Seeing Zhu Gaoxu watching the hourglass, Song Li immediately said, "The copper water in the clay mold needs to be cooled for a period of time before being forged; Hours. But the weather is cold and warm, copper water is cold and warm, and the cold time is different, so the craftsmen need to adjust the length of time appropriately.”

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu said, "You can improve the process and use assembly line operations. Each group of craftsmen only does one step, just like the craftsmen who observe the copper water and take the mud form. If they only do one thing repeatedly, he will grasp it in the future. very accurately."

Song Li made a bow and said, "The minister leads the decree."

Zhu Gaoxu said again, "When casting silver coins, there should be no square holes in the middle; for forged steel molds, shallow lines should be engraved on the side edges."

Song Li was puzzled.

Zhu Gaoxu said, "After all, silver is a precious material, to prevent someone from scraping the silver material from the side, causing the silver coins to shrink continuously."

Song Li immediately understood. First he showed surprise, and then he sincerely worshiped, "Your Majesty is wise!"

end of this chapter)

Chapter 798 Heavenly Creation