Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 167: Prosperity and Contempt in the Forbidden City

"Your Majesty, the cement has been made. I have had people mix it with sand and gravel according to your instructions. It is very strong and will solidify very quickly!"

The dusty-faced eunuch Qiu Ju, along with a group of people from the Royal Industrial Company, said to Zhu Houzhao with a smile.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the newly produced cement by the Royal Industrial Company and smiled with satisfaction. After the glass was produced, he asked the Royal Industrial Company to find a way to develop cement. Now, four years have passed, and it has been successfully produced. Although there is still a gap with various new types of cement in later generations, it is undoubtedly the most advanced infrastructure adhesive in the Ming Dynasty.

If the Ming Empire wanted to expand outward, it could not do without developed infrastructure technology, and good infrastructure naturally could not do without cement and its derivative, concrete, which have greater hardness, greater wear resistance and shorter setting time.

"Very good, light the cannon, and let's try and see if we can destroy this concrete wall!"

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he led a group of officials to retreat to the designated position and watched the soldiers light the artillery. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the solid shells hit the concrete wall that had just solidified, but the concrete wall did not move at all and did not collapse, only splashing some stone chips!
"Your Majesty! This cement is truly a magical substance. The shells can't even damage it!"

Ye Heng, who had been promoted to the Minister of Works, accompanied Zhu Houzhao to the Royal Industrial Experimental Base. He was amazed at the cement concrete.

"There are other materials that are as strong as this one, such as mortar. If you add sticky rice and brown sugar and tamp it, it can also be as strong as iron. However, the advantage of cement concrete is that it has a low manufacturing cost. It is mainly made of lime, and does not require grain. It also does not require long-term tamping by humans. The solidification time is very short, and it can be completely solidified in five or six hours. Naturally, road and wall construction can be faster in the future."

Zhu Houzhao then said to Qiu Ju:

"Cement can only be produced by hydraulic machinery at present, and the production speed cannot be increased for the time being. You should send a few more people who are familiar with cement production to search for places with abundant water for cement production. The Royal Industrial Company will invest money to participate in the investment. They can also borrow money from the Royal Bank and build their own cement workshops. Then they will not be afraid of not being able to sell their products. I will let the Ministry of Industry purchase them in a unified manner!

At the same time, I will also issue an order to encourage private businessmen to manufacture cement, and the technology can be sold to them by the Royal Industrial Company. This will not only solve the problem of insufficient production, but also allow the Royal Industrial Company to realize profits through the buying and selling of technology.

However, the Royal Industrial Company's own cement workshop must also expand its scale and recruit refugees from Beijing to produce cement! These cements will play a great role in the expansion of Ming Dynasty in the future."

"I obey your order!" said Qiu Ju.

Zhu Houzhao originally wanted Qiu Ju to personally run another industrial school to train more students to participate in industrial research, but he thought that Qiu Ju was now busy managing the Royal Industrial Company and the production of the cement workshop, and he was afraid that he would not be able to handle it, so he could only put this idea aside for the time being.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao instructed Ye Heng, the Minister of Works:

"Ye Heng, now you have seen the wonders of cement. I will give your Ministry of Works one month to recruit a group of skilled masons and let them master the production and use of cement concrete within this month. Then, one month later, you will build a cement concrete road from the capital to Datong for me!"

"Your Majesty! The roads from the capital to Datong are mostly mountainous. Building this road will probably cost a lot of manpower and a lot of money and grain!"

Ye Heng said hurriedly.

"These are not your concerns. You are only responsible for recruiting workers to repair the city. I will let the Ministry of Revenue allocate the money and grain, but you have to arrange the manpower yourself. I will allocate the engineering troops to you first, and also allow you to recruit refugees from all over the country. However, these people do not know how to make and use cement concrete, so you have to find a way to train them.
That is why I asked you to recruit a group of skilled bricklayers first. You can petition the court to give official titles and other meritorious rewards to craftsmen who are skilled in building bridges and roads!
But I hope to see a cement road from the capital to Datong in the shortest possible time, so that it will be easier for the court to recover and control the Hetao area! Even control the south of the desert! Food and grass shipped from the south can also be directly transported to Datong and the border town! You should be able to understand the benefits of this!"

"I understand!" Ye Heng replied.

"In that case, within three days, submit a memorial to me, telling me how you, as the Minister of Works, plan to build the first cement road in the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly and left the Royal Industrial Experimental Base.

Three days later, after much thought, the Minister of Works Ye Heng finally submitted a memorial to Zhu Houzhao, in which he finalized the basic plan for building a cement road from the capital to Datong. He even specified the width and main route of the planned cement road, the amount of money and grain that might be needed, the number of craftsmen and workers, the preliminary training plan, and the estimated construction time.

However, when Zhu Houzhao asked the cabinet to draft the plan, he asked the Minister of Works Ye Heng to add a clause about the estimated labor remuneration for craftsmen and workers. In that era, many officials and landlords did not have the habit of paying the common people when they employed them, because the common people had the obligation to serve the government for free, and basically work-for-relief only provided meals.

But Zhu Houzhao wanted to change this approach. The labor of migrant workers must be respected, and the premise of respect is to give them due compensation. In order to enhance their enthusiasm, there must be a more flexible compensation incentive mechanism. Only in this way will more people be willing to work for the government and love the Ming Dynasty, because only when the Ming Dynasty treats them as human beings will they regard the Ming Dynasty as their own heaven.

Only in this way can these refugees avoid becoming tenant serfs in the landlords' manors again.

It was the spring famine, and many refugees from the capital came to the capital to beg. The rich and powerful might give them a few bowls of porridge, but they would be driven out of the house or kept as slaves. However, only a few children with certain appearances were kept as slaves, and most refugees could only survive by begging. But it was also because of this that the Minister of Works Ye Heng easily recruited a large number of refugees when he was preparing to build the Jingtong Road.

Moreover, it was not only the Minister of Industry Ye Heng who recruited a large number of refugees. The Ordnance Bureau and the Royal Industrial Company, two institutions that needed a large number of civilian workers, also recruited a large number of refugees, successfully solving the labor shortage caused by the expansion of ordnance production and industrial production.

Even Xu Jing of the Royal Bank bought a group of smart children to meet the increasingly heavy banking business. He petitioned Zhu Houzhao for approval and set up a money law class funded by the Royal Bank, specifically hiring people to teach arithmetic, literacy and money law knowledge.

……

“The food has been distributed!”

Boom!
A gong sounded, and Ning Daniu, the head of a team temporarily named Jingtong Road Production Team 1, banged the gong and shouted to the workers and craftsmen who were still brushing cement and mixing concrete on the gravel and dusty road.

Behind him was an ox cart loaded with grain that had just been allocated by the Ministry of Revenue.

These migrant workers and craftsmen all came over with their own notebooks. Although they were dishevelled, they all had excited smiles on their faces. One of them even said with a smile: "I should have 31 work points this time. I worked overtime twice, so I can get more rice."

"I got less this time because I was sick and worked three days less. I guess I only got 27 work points. It's really not worth it to be sick. I not only have to pay money but also lose work points!" sighed a companion of the migrant worker.

At this time, more and more craftsmen and migrant workers had gathered. The village chief Ning Danian and the ox cart behind him also stopped. Ning Danian took out an account book and shouted:

"First calculate the work points. According to the requirements of the superiors, those who work more will get more points, those who work less will get less points, and those who have punishment records will have their points deducted. Line up and come one by one. First, Wang Changsheng! Are you here?"

Although most of these craftsmen and laborers still cannot read after training, they have learned to use charcoal pencils to draw lines on a notebook to indicate how many days they have worked. One day is counted as one work point, half a day is counted as half a work point, and overtime is also counted as half a work point. According to the rules, the salary money will only be distributed after verification with government management personnel.

This was the method Zhu Houzhao asked the Minister of Works Ye Heng to use in order to prevent the officials under him from arbitrarily oppressing the craftsmen and laborers. He also appointed a supervisory censor to specifically accept reports from the craftsmen and laborers on who had swallowed up the fruits of their labor.

Because of this, officials of the Ministry of Works did not dare to embezzle project funds at will, leaving the craftsmen and laborers to work in vain, thereby reducing the production enthusiasm of the craftsmen and laborers, and also keeping the progress of the entire construction at a relatively fast pace.

However, this also led to many craftsmen and laborers being exhausted to death. But because it was voluntary overtime, there was not much public resentment. At most, some scholars would sigh and criticize the court when they saw it.

A bag of new grain was released. It was all grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River. The grains were full and very tempting. The workers and craftsmen were as excited as seeing silver, and began to line up one by one to calculate their work points and receive them.

The reason why rice was distributed instead of silver was naturally because the court wanted to ensure the financial resources.

Except for the registered craftsmen and apprentices of the Ordnance Bureau and the Royal Industrial Company, other lowest-level craftsmen and laborers who did not have a written contractual relationship were given rice as a salary.

After all, the government knows that there is not much silver now. Most of these low-level craftsmen and migrant workers eat the rice they receive or grow it on their own thin fields instead of spending it. So there is no point in giving them silver.

……

The little prince's envoy Urusborot happened to see this scene. He asked Gao Zehui in confusion: "Mr. Gao, how rich are these Han people to give food to these untouchables?"

"Master Jinong, you don't know that the interior of the country has always been rich. The emperors and officials enjoy delicacies every day, and these untouchables can naturally afford some food, but they would rather give these food to these untouchables to create the illusion of prosperity and no hunger, rather than use it to train the army.
So, they appear to be rich, but they are actually very weak. If there were no fortification wall, the thousands of cavalrymen under Lord Jinong would be able to kill them and make them flee in panic! "

Gao Zehui said.

Seeing this, Urusbolot couldn't help but snort: "No wonder the Khan intends to destroy the Ming Dynasty. If it were me, I would do the same. This colorful world is full of fat sheep. It would be a pity if we don't slaughter them a few times! If we turn them all into our slaves, the food will also belong to us! It's better than giving it to these untouchables!"

(End of this chapter)