Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 413 Industrial Cold Protection
After the emperor returned from his southern tour, the officials in Beijing were the first to sense the situation: the Ming Dynasty was indeed about to begin to change drastically.

It’s not to say that there haven’t been many changes in the past decade, but if we broaden our horizons to the entire Ming Dynasty, there haven’t been many changes in the distribution of local government and power.

At most, some aspects are stricter and some aspects are more relaxed.

However, although the new yamen system in Liaoning Province and Chengde Prefecture has only been tried out for a year, the emperor and the ministers have already made up their minds to implement the new local system next year.

It will take four years, and after four years, the local provinces will no longer have the Three Departments, and the prefectures, states, and counties will no longer be just a prefectural government, state government, and county government.

Almost every place imitates the monarch-minister relationship in the current central government: one person is in charge of major policies and is only responsible for ensuring that the local area follows the central government's will; the other person is in charge of specific government affairs and is responsible for their implementation.

The rest are assistants.

Some people have joked: "The father and mother official, the father and mother official, in the future, there will be a father official and a mother official in the local government. One is in charge of major affairs, and the other is in charge of minor matters."

The most important thing now is the competition between these "father officials" and "mother officials".

In the first informal "Grand Political Conference" held a year ago, the tone was quickly set:

The eleventh year of Taichang, which was the year 1833 in the newly established Chinese era, was the year of preparation for local reform. The central government was about to send a preparatory team to each of the two Zhili provinces outside Liaoning Province.

This preparatory group included local governors-general from the Censorate system, specially appointed censors, as well as people from the Jinxianyuan, the Executive Yuan, the Zhianyuan, and the Privy Council.

Its main task is to carry out preliminary inspections of local officials, surveys of jurisdictions and registrations for the future establishment of new provinces.

It is not about surveying the land and compiling a new yellow book, but just looking at the current files in the local storage library.

This will of course also cause quite a stir, and I wonder if fires will occur more frequently.

But those were issues that the officials in the court needed to worry about later, and Zhu Changluo only needed to grasp the general direction.

The general direction of the Ming Dynasty is to improve productivity and change production relations!
Zhu Changluo set himself the task of productivity, as always.

Especially considering that the Little Ice Age is approaching, only higher levels of productivity can provide stronger resistance.

Take, for example, the problem of heating.

Since the north has always been the core area, the so-called Central Plains, the vegetation level in the north is very worrying after all the dynasties.

Compared with burning firewood or charcoal, coal is certainly a better material after comprehensive consideration.

It is not only needed by industry, but can also reduce the further deforestation of vegetation as much as possible and contribute more to the river management plan.

Poor families chop their own firewood, that's for sure, but if rich families are willing to switch to coal, there is a huge market in itself.

The premise is lower costs, more affordable prices, more stable supply and better user experience.

This is not an easy task, after all, most coal mines are buried underground. In this era of extremely low labor costs, coal mining is much more difficult than cutting firewood and burning charcoal. If the production scale cannot be increased, the average cost will naturally not be reduced.

The habit of using coal is not a problem. In the past, it was called stone coal or iron coal, but now it is mostly called coal. Li Shizhen also called it that in his Compendium of Materia Medica.

Even the Japanese envoys and monks who came here during the Tang Dynasty knew that: "Three or four miles west of Taiyuan City, there is a rocky mountain called Jinshan, where coal is everywhere. People from all over the country come to burn coal and cook their meals. The fire is very fierce."

During the Song Dynasty, the government even implemented a coal sales system. Officials were appointed in coal-producing areas to manage coal mining and sales, and to impose taxes on coal miners and coal sellers. The Ming Dynasty also used coal. Yang Shen, who wrote "The Yangtze River Flows East", also recorded in his collection of essays: pound coal into powder, sieve it with light silk, mix it with pear and jujube juice to make cakes, and burn it all day.

Yang Shen might have used high-quality coal briquettes. Most coal briquettes are of course "coal broken into powder and paste made into briquettes". There is no pear and date juice at all.

This is “luxury coal”, it burns sweetly.

Sitting in the warm room of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changluo looked quietly at the charcoal basin placed not far away.

Among them, charcoal is used.

The charcoal used for the emperor's family was, of course, the best. "All the red charcoal used in the palace was made from hardwood from the mountains in the Yizhou area. It was put in a red clay basket, hence the name red charcoal."

The name "Hongluo charcoal" is actually because it is transported in red baskets. It is used in the imperial palace because it is durable and does not easily emit smoke, and its ash is silvery white, which is of extraordinary quality.

Coal is also used in the palace, but it is mostly used for cooking. It can be seen that in terms of current user experience, it is not suitable for "noble people" to come into contact with it.

After thinking about it, Zhu Changluo picked up the pen again.

Liu Ruoyu was already accustomed to the emperor drawing things with a pen. Now, standing aside, he saw that the emperor first drew a circle.

What Zhu Changluo painted was honeycomb briquettes.

Although there are coal briquettes now, there is not much consideration on improving the combustion efficiency. Coal briquettes, as the name suggests, are just a lump of coal.

After Zhu Changluo finished painting the honeycomb coal, he also painted some coal stove styles that he remembered.

For him, these things were very familiar to him when he was a child.

Liu Ruoyu looked at the emperor's drawing in surprise, and then he heard the emperor's instructions: "Let the people in the Imperial Household Department start to make coal stoves and coal cakes according to this model next year. There is a science to it. How to make coal cakes in batches can be tested by making a set of tools. What should the coal powder be mixed with? After it is formed and dried, it will produce less smoke and lower the price when burned. We should try it."

After handing it to Liu Ruoyu, he said, "Starting next year, the palace will no longer use charcoal, but coal."

Liu Ruoyu was stunned for a moment, but didn't say much, just said yes.

"Go to Xuan Wangxun again." Zhu Changluo's eyes were deep. "First tell him that it's about coal mining in Shanxi, so that he can make some preparations."

Since we have already started to develop steam engines and there is also the idea of ​​developing heavy industry, in addition to the coal resources in the Luanhe River area, we must also make better use of the coal resources in Shanxi.

Shanxi is the base camp of Wang Xun and his team, so naturally they have to contribute to this matter.

Changminghao cannot just be a business engaged in trade and circulation, it must also have its own heavy industry sector.

When the palace began to switch to coal, it naturally led many people to follow suit. Stimulating the market would bring demand, promoting the technological progress of coal mining technology and this industrial chain.

At least at this stage where we are preparing to protect and restore vegetation upstream and manage the river downstream, the North will have to increase the proportion of coal use during the upcoming cold winters.

This would mean a warmer north, and would provide a new essential commodity and hard currency when dealing with the grassland tribes.

In addition to meeting the heating needs in the north, Zhu Changluo also has a plan in mind: to put a honeycomb coal stove in every yurt!
The small honeycomb coal stove drives coal and iron!

(End of this chapter)