[Comprehensive History] Clothes are all over the world

As the saying goes, good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles.

Just three hours after the group of courtiers with red eyes left Chunhe Palace, rumors about that day spread in the circle of Beijing officials. Unless it is authorized by His Majesty, everyone, no matter how old or small, is allowed to leave the palace on foot, and those who are not in heavy rain are not allowed to use umbrellas, and of course, it is impossible to cover their faces.

So when these civil servants walked out of the palace with red eye circles one by one, the people along the way saw their embarrassment.

However, these courtiers who went to persuade His Highness the Crown Prince were very hard-spoken. No matter how concerned the bystanders were or how much they inquired, they were unwilling to tell the reason.

#shock!This happened after they met the prince#

#What did the prince say, which made the old ministers of the two dynasties tearful#

At this moment, it was clearly the beginning of spring, and those courtiers who did not participate in the admonition activities all became slaves in the field, looking at the immature melons with salivation.

Among them, one was particularly conspicuous because of its special status, so it attracted Mu Bai's attention.

That is Mu Bai's old father, the current helm of Daming, Zhu Biao.

When he was suddenly summoned by his old father, Mu Bai, who had been housed for a long time, thought something serious had happened, and hurried away. When he arrived at the Hall of Martial Arts, the father and son said something, and His Royal Highness immediately showed a black question mark face.

You called me over for this?That's it?He worked hard to cross the central axis, and he had prepared all kinds of drafts in his mind, whether it was Beiyuan calling, Yunnan and Tubo rebelling, Japan's troubles again, or the trading partners of Xinxin diplomatic relations in Shanghai being pried into corners, The supply of cotton trade may be cut off, and everyone even wants a one-two-three solution.

In the end, the old father came to ask him why those courtiers had red eyes? ? ?

Dad, if you see other people's red eyes, have you seen your son's dark circles?Such big and eye-catching dark circles are on the face!Mu Bai's eyes gradually became sad, and Zhu Biao couldn't hold back his son's small eyes, and when he wanted to say a few words to comfort him, he suddenly found that his son's small eyes suddenly became sharp.

Zhu Biao followed his son's gaze to look over, and suddenly screamed inwardly.

What Mu Bai looked at was the place where the memorials were stored. There were two stacks neatly, one stack had been reviewed and the other stack hadn't been read yet.

There are various colored papers inserted in the unread part, which is a signal to mark the priority of the accident, but the problem is that those small colored papers are marked by him, and more importantly, they are also agency memorials. Father's side is more than three times!

What does this mean?

It means that he was squeezed and labored by his father!move!force!up!

Mu Bai suddenly became angry.

Zhu Biao coughed dryly, his eyes drifted slightly, feeling a little guilty.

The government of the Ming Dynasty is now divided into two, just like when Emperor Hongwu was still in power, the emperor is in charge of big things, and the prince is in charge of small things.

After His Royal Highness and the crown prince, Zhu Biao completely let go. Except for the general direction of the country and the unavoidable ceremonial actions such as sacrifices and court meetings, he left most of the work to his son. father".

But the conscience of heaven and earth, when Zhu Biao was 20 years old, his old father was at his peak energy, and the domestic affairs at that time were not as chaotic as they are now.

But isn't that... blue out of blue and better than blue?

After thinking about it, Zhu Biao became confident. He stretched out his hand to rub his son's hairy head, but unfortunately found that there was no place for him to attack on the head wearing the hair crown. , Zhu Biao said very calmly: "Son, those who can do a lot of work."

The corners of Mu Bai's mouth twitched and twitched, and finally he couldn't help but rolled his eyes, feeling a little weak all over his body.

Before becoming the crown prince, Mu Bai thought that this job would involve constant assassinations and power struggles, but after becoming the crown prince...laughing, no one wants this position as a social animal.

The narrow-minded Mu Xiaobai also secretly suspected the real purpose of the emperor's grandfather gathering the cubs in the palace. He used to think it was to connect the cubs, but now he suspected that it was to plant the crown prince in the young hearts of the children. scary shadows.

How scary is this shadow?

Let's put it this way, the threshold of the Wenhua Hall, the Prince's office, is several inches shorter than that of the Emperor's Hall of Martial Arts, especially the upper threshold, which has been kicked out of small dents by the courtiers rushing back and forth.

From this point of view, Mu Bai also really admires the big heart of Lao Zhu's family.He also read a lot of history books. In most other dynasties, the growth of the prince was extremely complicated for the emperor.

On the one hand, they are delighted with the growth of their blood and flesh and blood. On the other hand, as their children gradually seize power, as more and more courtiers focus on their children, they inevitably feel a sense of crisis of being eliminated. fear.

It has been a tradition since ancient times for father and son to kill each other and blood to kill each other.

But when the ruts of time came to Daming, the situation changed.

In an era without electronic products, it is simply not humanly capable to engage in such things as centralization, centralization, centralization, and power.

The ghost knows how much work this means. There are more than 30 commanders, ministers, and procurators across the country. There are always hundreds of people who have the right to write letters to the emperor. It takes a long time to read hundreds of letters, not to mention writing down comments and reference opinions one by one.

The above is still in the normal operation state of the country, but as we all know, the land of China is never short of major disasters and various accidents. Once these small accidents happen, it means a violent overtime.

In fact, these tasks were originally the affairs of the prime minister, but Emperor Hongwu abolished the post of prime minister and stated that he would not allow future generations to resume it, which is even more demanding.

Emperor Hongwu was a multi-talented person, and he ranked among the top three in terms of the diligence of emperors all over the world. In this way, he also tried various methods of dividing labor in the later stage, but those basically failed, so Hongwu Emperor Wu came up with a unique trick - without a prime minister, he used his son as a prime minister.

The previous victim was Zhu Biao, and now it is Mu Bai.

Maybe it was because his son was too easy to use, or maybe it was the excitement brought about by the almost death of his wife. Emperor Hongwu, the liver emperor, decided to retire when he was at the peak of his spring and autumn, and lived a happy retirement life.

And his father, who was so conscientious and dedicated back then, actually started to think about being lazy after becoming the emperor. Mu Bai had to wonder if there was something wrong with Fengshui in Fengtian Temple, or he was stuck with the "whoever sits who changes" lazy" curse.

Seeing his son's eyes getting more and more subtle, Zhu Biao coughed lightly, and after re-attracting his son's attention, he asked someone to take out a red box. He pushed the small wooden box out and signaled his son to open it.

Mu Bai, who was so angry that his hair exploded, looked at his father gloomily, took the box that his father stuffed in his hand, and opened it without hesitation, his movements were even a little rough, obviously not angry remove.

But at the moment after opening the small cover, most of the anger lingering around him was extinguished. The young man blinked his eyes in surprise, and picked up a silver needle fixed inside the brocade.

"This is...?" As if realizing the meaning behind it, Mu Bai's eyes lit up immediately: "Is this a new needle forged by the workshop?"

Previously, a folk craftsman presented a sewing tool, which can provide power for the sewing needle to fall through the action of stepping on the leg.

This machine can save nearly [-]% of the labor and labor time for the user in sewing, and as long as the working rhythm is mastered, the stitches produced are as precise as a skilled embroiderer.

what does that mean?It means that as long as the cloth and thread are sufficient, the output of cloth and leather products on the market can be increased by eight times.At the same time, the abundance of products will inevitably lead to a drop in the price of finished clothing. As long as this output can be maintained, it won't be long before the clothing on the Ming market will no longer be a luxury that can only be bought once a year.

Of course, the premise is that this effect can really be achieved.

But in fact, Daming's current supply capacity cannot achieve this effect.

If we don't talk about cloth and thread, we can't do it if we talk about the most important needle of the sewing machine.

Don't underestimate this small embroidery needle, just like the saying "As long as you work hard and grind an iron pestle into a needle", most of the needles on the market today are made of iron, and the manufacturing method is simply beating .

The embroidery needles forged by this method are essentially pig iron with a slightly lower carbon content, which is fine for girls to use at home on weekdays, but today's machine-driven, large-scale, long-term, high-frequency needles It simply cannot meet the needs of puncture.

The bluntness of the needle is still a trivial matter, and it has happened to be broken directly, and stopping to change the needle has become the most time-consuming link in the whole process.

Although the replaced needles will be sent back for reuse, which is not a waste, but Mu Bai ordered the Ministry of Industry to find a way to improve the needle-making method when the thing was used for the first time.

——Now that Daming can complete the achievement of drawing rifling in the barrel of a gun, he still can't figure out whether a needle is a joke?But this needle really stumped most of the workshops.

Nowadays, the needles and threads used in the Ming Dynasty are basically produced in private workshops. Each family has different methods, but basically they draw out iron bars from small holes, first make iron wires, and then process them to complete thick needlework. processing.

In order to increase the sharpness and toughness, the iron needle will be put into the pot after it has a basic prototype, and then pour in different catalysts, and then put various materials on the fire and stir-fry repeatedly, and then quench when it is almost ready. In this way, the finished product can be obtained.

Isn’t this method of making a lot like stir-frying?Yes, in fact, it is the method of frying steel invented in the Han Dynasty.But the method of frying steel is said to be frying steel, but the finished product is actually iron, and iron can no longer meet the needs of sewing machines, so only steel can be used.

Daming's current smelting method can already produce relatively low-quality steel, but the problem is that this kind of steel is difficult to process. Its hardness is at this level, and it is almost impossible to grind this raw material into needles.

"So?" Mu Bai took out this official needle, poked it and folded it again. This time, in order to avoid the tragedy of Bitumen last time, Mu Bai's movements were very careful, and this needle was also very competitive. Under the ravages, he was able to hold on, and the cold light was still shining on his fingertips. His tone was still a bit fierce: "How do you do this?"

"It's not made, it's cast, and it's cast with good iron." Zhu Biao said with a smile.

"Oh...it's casting..." Mu Bai paused, his expression was blank for a moment, he couldn't help but looked up in surprise, and saw Zhu Biao nodded with a smile: "The prince heard it right, they did it, and they bought it from the north. The quality of the coal and iron is excellent, and the newly built furnace in the craftsman workshop is quite effective, and they finally smelted the iron into molten iron, so it is more convenient to add auxiliary materials for refining, and the quality of the molten steel is excellent, and it can also be cast."

Mu Bai was at a loss for words for a moment, but after a long while, he finally smiled and said softly, "That's really great."

Yes, that's great.

The land of China is not short of resources, but the quality of the local iron ore is not good, and there are many impurities. In addition, the melting point of iron is more than 500 degrees. This temperature has reached the limit of flame control. Even if the fuel is used from Firewood and charcoal have been converted into coal, and the temperature cannot rise to this level with today's technology.

Therefore, all the previous iron-making techniques used various additives to reduce the solubility of iron to about [-] degrees, or simply slurry and cast a piece of pure iron like a copper ware. It is absolutely impossible.

But it is not an exaggeration to say that this method of adding additives is drinking poison to quench thirst, because it is contrary to the road of steelmaking.The purpose of steelmaking is essentially to remove various elements in iron and control its carbon content. Now adding additives in order to lower the melting point, and then find a way to remove these things. Isn’t this a waste of effort?

The craftsmen are of course aware of the disadvantages. The steelmaking technology in the early Ming Dynasty has not been improved for 200 years since the Song Dynasty, and they are also very anxious.But there was really no way before. They tried all the methods and attempts they could make, but the technology really couldn't reach it.

But now, because a large amount of foreign raw materials have entered Daming, the craftsmen have the space and enthusiasm to experiment again. In addition, many foreign craftsmen have come here one after another over the years. After the collision of Eastern and Western technologies, they gave Mubai A big surprise.

If the method of casting can be used, it means that this kind of needle with higher hardness can be mass-produced. Of course, this is secondary now.

If it can be cast with molten iron, it means that Daming's firearms can be mass-produced, and the rifling can also be pre-engraved on the mold, so how much the production speed must be increased.

At this speed, it might not be impossible for Daming to complete the armament armaments. Imagine that scene, and it's really a little exciting.

But before Mu Bai could think about it for long, Zhu Biao pulled him back with a sentence: "Son, we don't have that much money to equip the whole army with firearms."

...well, this is indeed a problem.

These high-quality coal and iron ore were all bought from the Jurchens in the north, and the price and output were very unstable. If more sources of goods could not be opened, then Daming would have given up half of the initiative and bargaining power go out.

But to find a source of goods, you have to explore business opportunities, and to explore business opportunities, you have to go to sea, and to go to sea, you have to spend money to build ships.Mu Bai couldn't help but keep his eyes empty, and drew this equation bit by bit, and the final result was still money.

Find a way to make more money.

If you want to make more money, you have to mobilize the enthusiasm of the people, and if the people want to be motivated, you must first mobilize the officials.

His Highness the Crown Prince's eyes slowly fell on the memorial that the old father was about to read, and then he touched his chin thoughtfully: "Forge while the iron is hot..."

Zhu Biao: "?"

At the next day's court meeting, Mu Bai, dressed in the prince's uniform, brought a box of official files and appeared on the stage with a friendly smile.

The author has something to say: Xiaobai: You can’t use a trick twice, it’s just a matter of time, before the cool-down period comes over, let’s try another trick next time.

Ministers: Don't come here! !

From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, a large number of foreign goods entered China. The domestic products had no power to resist the intensively produced foreign goods after the industrial revolution. Foreign goods were cheap and easy to use. Possessions are enormous, and national capital is at an all-time low.

Among them, the market share of foreign goods has basically reached [-]% for the most inconspicuous embroidery needles, and most of them are imported except for those in remote areas.

It is because the domestic needles are treated with the method mentioned in the article, and their hardness and toughness are not as good as the alloy version of the imported embroidery needles, and relying on domestic production technology, there is no way to produce foreign embroidery needles.