parentshiftbook Chapter 729: No Agricultural Machinery? Just Add Gunpowder! [Please Subscribe, Please Order In Full]
Chapter 729: No Agricultural Machinery? Just Add Gunpowder! [Please Subscribe, Please Order In Full]
On the side, Zhu Yuanzhang and all the civil and military officials fell into deep thought when they heard the three issues of "frozen soil", "climate" and "swamp" mentioned by Saint Banheng.
Among these three problems, the only one they think is easier to solve is the climate problem, or the problem of keeping out the cold in winter.
After all, besides Liaodong, there were other bitter and cold places in the Ming Dynasty.
People in other places that are as cold as Liaodong, or even colder than Liaodong can now survive the cold winter safely, so they can also survive the cold winter in Liaodong.
They also know very well how people in other bitterly cold places spend the winter.
In the past two years, they have also made great efforts to allow the people to survive the winter safely.
The first is cotton, which has been introduced to the Central Plains since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and was planted on a large scale in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.
Therefore, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, monarchs and ministers have been promoting large-scale cotton planting.
Nowadays, many people at the bottom of the class wear warm clothes made of cotton to spend the winter.
This is one, and the other is coal.
After solving the problem of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by burning coal indoors, briquettes, due to their cheapness and superiority, have become the first choice for people in the Ming Dynasty to boil water, cook dishes, and make fires for heating in winter.
It can be said that last winter was the year in which the fewest people froze to death in the more than ten years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
There were more than 60 million people in more than 1,000 counties across the country in the Ming Dynasty. The total number of people who were finally reported to have froze to death was only a few hundred.
Of course, there must be some moisture in this number, or there is something hidden.
But even if something is concealed, this number will not be too different.
It is estimated that the error is between three or five hundred to one thousand people.
But you must know that the year before last, that is, before the promotion of briquettes, there were more than 60 million people in more than 1,000 counties across the country in the Ming Dynasty. Every winter, at least a thousand people would freeze to death.
And this is just what was reported. If you include the concealed part, the number of people who actually froze to death would be thousands.
After all, in this era, there are three, five, seven, or eight people in a county, or one or two households, and three or five households are so poor that they cannot even buy firewood for heating, or they cannot cut down firewood. Yes, that's normal.
If there is a particularly harsh and cold winter, or if the government's corvee and taxes are too heavy, causing the people to become even poorer, then this number will go up several times!
However, after the promotion of briquettes, the number of people in Tuji who froze to death dropped to several hundred. 050 And this is the result of the fact that the promotion of briquettes last year was not enough, and the output was not too high, and it could not fully meet the daily needs of the people.
This year, the imperial court plans to double the annual production of briquettes, striving to achieve an annual output of 40 billion pieces of briquettes, and try to meet the daily consumption and use needs of 60 million people in the Ming Dynasty.
The goal of Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials is to reduce the number of people who freeze to death in various parts of the Ming Dynasty this winter to less than one hundred!
Such a goal is very possible to achieve, at least Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials are very confident in this.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials also had a vague idea about how to solve the climate problem in Liaodong, or the problem of keeping out the cold in winter:
The first step is to exchange cotton for food!
If the Liaodong region is not suitable for growing cotton, then don’t grow cotton!
A large amount of cotton is grown in other areas suitable for growing cotton, and then made into warm clothing, which is then transported to the Liaodong area and sold to the people of Liaodong at a low price.
After the people of Liaodong purchased cotton clothes that were cold-proof and warm, they went to further develop the Liaodong area, grow food on the black soil, and strive to achieve a yield of ten shi per mu.
The people who planted a large amount of cotton but did not grow food made money by selling cotton and then used the money to buy the food that the people of Liaodong had harvested at a low price.
Eventually a balance between cotton and grain, supply and demand will be achieved.
This is also the knowledge that Zhu Yuanzhang and hundreds of civil and military officials learned last year from the "complete economic and industrial chain from state-owned supply to state-owned sales" established by Shang Sheng Fan Bai and Shang Sheng Fan Bai:
The national court uses administrative means to macro-control and intervene in the flow of excess materials in various regions to achieve a dynamic balance of material needs in various regions.
To put it simply, it means that we have finally learned to initially allocate the country's overall resources from a country's macro perspective.
This can be said to be a very big progress for the great Wise Monarch.
The second step is to make large amounts of briquettes and mine oil!
Is winter cold in Liaodong?!!
It doesn't matter, just burn a few more briquettes in the room to keep it warm.
If ten pieces of briquettes are not enough, then a hundred pieces!
If a hundred pieces of briquettes are not enough, then a thousand pieces!
In short, the imperial court produced a large amount of briquettes, and people in the Liaodong area burned a large amount of briquettes for indoor heating in winter.
I can’t believe that I can’t survive the winter in Liaodong this way!!!
If briquettes weren't powerful enough, there's also the oil they just learned about.
According to Saint Ban Heng, there are a large number of oil deposits in the Liaodong area, and oil can also be burned for heating, and is even superior to briquettes.
At that time, School Disciple will directly mine the briquettes, and then sell them on the spot to the people in the eastern region to burn oil for heating in the winter.
This should be able to allow the people in Liaodong area to spend the cold winter safely, right?!!
And is this idea okay?!!
From the core idea, it is feasible!!!
The specific thing is how to further improve around these two points.
After the preparations are complete, we can initially solve the problem of keeping out the cold weather for the people in the eastern region.
But on the two issues of frozen soil and swamps, Zhu Yuanzhang and all the civil and military officials were a little confused.
They have more or less tested how strong the concrete cement floor is.
And if the frozen soil in Liaodong is as solid as concrete floors, then it would be very, very laborious for ordinary people to plow loose and dig through that layer of frozen soil.
Even if you can plow loose and dig open that layer of frozen soil, the efficiency will be very, very low.
Maybe one family will not come out of Shifu's black land for ten years.
Although they don't know how vast the black soil is in the Liaodong region, they conservatively estimate that there should be hundreds of thousands or millions of acres.
And if they want to reclaim hundreds of thousands or millions of acres of black land in Liaodong, how much manpower, material resources and time will it take?!!
The same goes for that swamp. If you want to drain the water in the swamp in Liaodong area, how much manpower, material resources and time will it take?!!
Of course, no matter how much manpower, material resources and time it takes.
Even if it takes ten, twenty, or even thirty or fifty years, it is worth it considering the value of the black land in the east region that is enough to produce northern cloth.
It’s just that they can’t wait. After all, who doesn’t want to see the black land that yields ten stones per acre in their lifetime?!!
If the black land with the same yield of ten stones per acre is cultivated in their hands, it will be well-known in history!!!
Who wouldn’t want such a feat?!!
It's just that they want it, but with their brains alone, they really can't think of any good solution for a while.
After trying to think hard for a while, but still unable to think of any ideas to solve the two problems of permafrost and swamps, Zhu Yuanzhang simply gave up and looked up directly at Yan Changqing and asked:
"I wonder if Saint has a solution to the problems of frozen soil and swamps?!!"
Yan Changqing raised his eyebrows, looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and smiled:
"Oh, it seems that Your Majesty is already well-informed on how to solve the problem of winter cold protection in Liaodong."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and then stated the general solutions he had just thought of, such as cotton, grain, briquettes, and oil.
After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts, Lin Changqing also nodded slightly.
For now, the methods proposed by Zhu Yuanzhang are initially sufficient for preventing and keeping out the cold in the Liaodong region, and the rest is to be further improved (bhbh).
It just so happens that he also has some perfect ideas for this, such as a fire kang!!!
How could the Northeast be without the Northeast Fire Kang?!!
There is no soul in the Northeast without a big fire kang!!!
"As for the issue of winter protection in Liaodong, what His Majesty said is generally feasible, so I will make a few suggestions.
"That is, when people in Liaodong area are building their own houses in the future, court officials can suggest that people build some fire pits in their houses, so that they can live warmer."
"The so-called fire kang is made of adobe made of cement and soil, or it can be made of bricks, or even concrete and cement, with a stove."
"We usually add coal to the stove, boil water for cooking, and heat the kang at the same time, so that people lying or sitting on the kang will be extremely warm."
"If there are officials who come from the cold and cold places in the north, they may have had the experience of sleeping on a fire bed.
Yan Changqing said while making simple gestures with his hands.
Although the Northeast is the most famous for its large fire pits, it is not only the Northeast that has large fire pits.
The history of the existence of the fire bed can be traced back to the early and middle Western Han Dynasty, and then continued from the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties to the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
For example, in some bitter and cold places in the north of the Ming Dynasty, there are actually fire pits, but they are relatively rare.
Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials on the side looked at Saint Ban Heng's left palm spread flat to represent the fire kang; his right hand was clenched to represent the stove; his right fist was placed under the left palm to demonstrate the general appearance of the fire kang. Understand what the so-called fire kang is.
At the same time, after thinking about it for a while, I already understood the wonderful function of the fire kang and the advantages of the fire kang for indoor heating.
If nothing else, sleeping on a heated kang is definitely warmer than sleeping in a place without a heated kang.
"As for the frozen soil problem in Liaodong, if we rely solely on manpower or animal power to plow loose soil and dig out the frozen soil, it will indeed be time-consuming and laborious."
"So my suggestion is to adjust the power of the gunpowder and directly use the gunpowder to blast and explode the layer of frozen soil covering the black soil!"
"After the gunpowder blasted and exploded the layer of frozen soil, all the people needed to do was to sort out the broken frozen soil, and then plant on the exposed black soil."
Yan Changqing directly gave a solution to the "frozen soil" problem.
In his previous life, the country learned to manufacture a series of agricultural machinery such as tractors and rotary tillers from Mr. Su.
Only then did we have the conditions to use the power of energy to replace human and animal power, and finally dug up and plowed the frozen soil in the Northeast region, revealing the fertile black soil underneath.
So "Beidahuang" was transformed into today's "Beidacang".
But Yan Changqing does not have such great ability. Now he cannot do a series of agricultural machinery such as hand tractors and rotary tillers.
And even if he can make it by hand, the number of agricultural machinery that he can make alone is far from enough to meet the massive needs of developing the Liaodong region.
So another solution he thought of was to use gunpowder to explode!!!
In the Ming Dynasty, the use of gunpowder was relatively common and extensive. In terms of power, it was either great or small.
But if it is only used to smash the layer of frozen soil covering the surface of Liaodong area, there is still no problem.
After being smashed, the people pulled and put the broken frozen soil aside, and then they could plant on the exposed fertile black soil.
Of course, this approach may also cause environmental pollution problems caused by gunpowder.
However, this problem is not big, or it can be accepted and solved.
First of all, the gunpowder of this era was still in its preliminary form, that is, sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, which were not the modern chemical gunpowder of later generations.
To be honest, this kind of gunpowder does not pollute the environment very much, and it is even said to have certain functions of killing viruses, disinfecting, repelling insects and repelling insects.
And even if there is environmental gunpowder pollution, as long as it is not long-term and sustained gunpowder pollution, nature will be able to adjust and recover on its own.
Secondly, the reason why it may cause environmental pollution problems caused by gunpowder is that the power of gunpowder may be too great, which leads to the explosion of gunpowder.
The power poured out to places beyond the frozen soil.
In this regard, as long as the gunpowder craftsmen roughly explore the thickness of the frozen soil layer, and then appropriately adjust the power of the gunpowder, then the environmental pollution problems caused by the final gunpowder explosion will
The problem will naturally be further narrowed.
Therefore, blasting with gunpowder can solve the layer of frozen soil covering the black soil in Liaodong area.
Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials on the side heard Saint Ban Heng saying that they could use gunpowder to blast open the layer of frozen soil on the black earth. They all felt as if they were on fire.
It was like the medicine exploded, and everything suddenly clicked, and everyone looked excited.
[Yes, why didn’t I think of using gunpowder to explode?!!]
[Hmph, no matter how powerful the permafrost is, can it still be as powerful as gunpowder?!!]
[Gunpowder can blast away even city walls, so what does the mere permafrost mean? 】
[We will then ask the Ministry of Industry to mass-produce gunpowder, and then directly blow up all the permafrost in the Liaodong region. Then we will see if the permafrost can still produce ten shi per mu.
Keep covering up the black soil!】
[There is a solution to the climate problem, and now there is a solution to the permafrost problem. Next, as long as we solve the swamp problem, we can further develop the Liaodong region.
The black land in the district yields ten stones per acre. "It’s really exciting to think about it!"
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