Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

Looking at the sugar in front of him, Zhu Youjian couldn't close his mouth.

Don’t look at it as candy, it’s all money!

Is this white candy?

Do not!

This is all white money!

A pound of sugar on the market is worth two coins!

Even if the wholesale price is lower, it can still be sold for at least one silver penny per catty.

Even if one acre of corn stalks can only produce thirty kilograms of sugar, that's an income of thirty taels of silver!

If you turn these silver coins into silver coins, you will have more than five coins!

After deducting the silver reward equivalent to buying the common people's corn stalks, as well as the craftsmen's rewards and monthly silver, Zhu Youjian can earn at least two silver dollars per acre of corn land!

In other words, as long as every acre of corn can produce thirty kilograms of sugar, Zhu Youjian can make a lot of money.

But the actual situation is extremely shocking.

The yield of corn stalks in later generations was about [-] kilograms per acre, and about four thousand kilograms of juice could be squeezed out.

The sugar content of corn juice reaches more than 20%.

In other words, one acre of corn stalks can produce eight hundred kilograms of sugar!

Even if Zhu Youjian didn't have fertilizer, it would still be easy to get one acre of land to produce one hundred kilograms of sugar.

That's ten taels of silver, a silver dollar was melted and [-]% of impurities were added...

That’s eighteen silver dollars!

This is a gross profit margin of seventeen times!

Is there anything more profitable than this?

If you include the terrible exchange ratio between silver dollars and silver, it is equivalent to more than 30 times the gross profit!

I am Nima!

Li Zicheng couldn't steal money so quickly!

As for whether the surge in sugar production will lead to a reduction in selling prices...

No problem, in this time and space, the whole world is short of sugar.

Xiyi has robbed so much gold, silver and jewelry from all over the world, help them share the pressure...

That's okay, right?

It’s completely legitimate and reasonable mutual benefit!

As a human being, as a member of the civilized world, as a "white race" in the mouth of Europeans, we solve their inventory pressure. This is an act of doing good deeds without leaving a name!

(Before Macartney visited China during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Westerners divided China into white people, and after a crow, they became yellow people.)

There's nothing wrong with it, old man!

What's more, if this thing is added to gunpowder, it will be a big killer!

If nothing else, it’s not a problem to double the power of a grenade with added sugar!

This power is terrifying enough!

If added to the lack of conscience...

Does that mean we need to change our name to black-hearted, rotten-hearted and heartless...

White sugar - is this worth eating?

This is a strategic resource!

……

"Your Majesty, the capital has sent an urgent report that Wang Zheng has arrived."

Qin Zhien rode a fast horse and rushed to Jun County overnight to deliver the news.

"Wang Zheng is here?"

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed.

In the late Ming Dynasty, there were many big names in science and technology, including Song Yingxing, Sun Yuanhua, Zhao Shizhen, Bi Maokang... I won’t mention these.

They don't rank at the top.

There are two recognized top scientific and technological masters in the late Ming Dynasty - the King of South Xu and North.

That is, Xu Guangqi and Wang Zheng.

Xu Guangqi...

Because there are many literati in the south, everyone knows how awesome Xu Guangqi is.

In books, the geometry that I started learning in junior high school is definitely attributed to Xu Guangqi.

The concepts and definitions of elementary geometry and physics in the textbook were all translated and summarized by him.

If Xu Guangqi focuses on liberal arts, Wang Zheng is a weirdo.

Since the Song Dynasty, Confucianism has formed the habit of being inferior in everything but reading.

In the late Ming Dynasty, which believed that a gentleman should use his hands but not his words, Wang Zheng was a hands-on technology expert.

Wind power and water power grind by themselves, windmills travel far, wind wheels turn heavy, bicycles, wheel pots, contract farming, the rotation of the celestial sphere, self-harvesting of ground chasms, self-priming of water wheels, and self-raising of water leaks...

This is nothing!

For the steam engine, China, which is accustomed to finding a specific person for the development of science and technology, later placed it on Watt's head.

Not really!

Only a very small part of the machines in this world are the product of someone's sudden inspiration.

Most machines are improved by later generations on the basis of their predecessors. Based on the experience of their predecessors, they make them more reasonable and effective.

The steam engine appeared long before Watt improved it.

Later, the West recognized that the world's first steam engine was the steam-rotating ball invented by the ancient Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century AD.

In 1679 French physicist Denis Papin built the first working model of a steam engine after observing steam escaping his pressure cooker.

Samuel Moran, a contemporary, also proposed the idea of ​​a steam engine.

And - long before these two people, Wang Zheng had already built a steam engine.

There are even model machines using steam engines.

The book compiled by Wang Zheng in the early years described these technologies:

The fire ship goes away, the fire and thunder explodes by itself, the ladder goes straight up, the ladder flies at an angle, the energy is enough to fire arrows, the rotation is constant, the self-propelled vehicle, the living platform cannon, the living tongs to capture the bell, the divine power frightens the enemy...

These machines use steam power.

He invented these steam machines and compiled them into books no later than 1616.

Wang Zheng was born in 1571. He came from a scholarly family. His father Wang Yingxuan was a private school teacher. His uncle Zhang Jian was not only a great scholar, but also a former magistrate of Taiyuan Prefecture. He was also a master of mechanics.

The Wang family can be said to be a wealthy family.

At the age of 24 (in the 22nd year of Wanli 1594), Wang Zheng passed the imperial examination.

It can be said that Wang Zheng was at the height of his success in life at that time.

At this time, it was at the peak of the Ming Dynasty, and the internal and external environment was OK.

At a young age, Wang Zheng was awarded the title of Juren again.

Wang Zheng, who had no worries about food and drink and money, began to study machinery with great concentration.

Before he decided to pass the Jinshi examination and become an official, Wang Zheng compiled "Illustrated Notes on Newly Made Various Instruments", which included the manufacturing methods of the above machines.

In the 42nd year of Wanli (1614), before Wang Zheng went to Beijing to take the exam, he met the Westerner Pang Diwo for the first time and saw a brochure promoting Catholicism.

This was the first time that Western affairs came into Wang Zheng's eyes.

While Wang Zheng was living in Beijing to take the exam, he met Western missionaries Jin Nige, Tang Ruowang, Long Huani, and Deng Yuhan.

Because of the influence of previous Catholic pamphlets, Wang Zheng became a Catholic.

and learned Latin and Western science from the missionaries.

Textbook definition: In 1627, Wang Zheng wrote "Illustrated Description of Strange Weapons of the Far West", a compilation of the oral knowledge given by Western missionaries.

Many people say that Wang Zheng's steam engine was researched under the guidance of Westerners.

In fact, if you study the timeline a little bit, you will know that this is not the case.

Wang Zheng became acquainted with Westerners after the 44th year of Wanli (1616). During this period, Wang Zheng was determined to pass the Jinshi examination, and he lived in the capital for 20 years.

He published "Illustrations of Newly Made Various Utensils" after he passed the examination and before he decided to rush for the examination in the 44th year of Wanli, that is, before 1616.

Let me ask, it was not until 1679 that the West had the model and concept of the steam engine.

How could he teach Wang Zheng the knowledge he would later learn nearly 70 years in advance?