Daming Military Empire

Chapter 251 Ambition and grand plans

The first snow in the ninth year of Chongzheng was earlier than in the past few years. The sky may be celebrating the arrival of the Ming Dynasty, or it may be sighing for the death of the heroes. Not long after Li Zicheng and others were executed, the capital fell. The goose feather snow fell, and the whole world was melted into the pure white snowflakes for a while.

At this time, Zhu Cijiong was not immersed in the gentle village. As an emperor, he had many things to do, and the most important of them was to plan the future development of Ming Dynasty. Therefore, after dealing with the affairs of the leader of the rebel army, he began to plan for the future. It's time for development.

The emergence of cement is a timely rain for him. With cement, the speed of railway construction will be doubled. Building the Yellow River Yangtze River Bridge and building the Qinling Taihang Tunnel, these problems that he could not even think about before, seem to be just now. time issue.

"A bridge flies across the north and south, and the natural moat becomes a thoroughfare." Thinking of the railway construction, a sense of pride and ambition can't help but fill his mind. As long as the railway runs through the entire Ming Dynasty, prosperity and strength will no longer be a dream, and neither will a rich country and a strong army. Dream, Daming will surely stand on top of the world.

Of course, the use of cement is not only in the aspect of repairing railways, building walls, repairing roads, building forts, building buildings, etc., with cement, it will be more convenient and faster, and even the laying of telegraph networks is due to the appearance of cement. And become extremely simple.

In the past, Zhu Cijiong’s idea was to erect wooden pillars and erect telegraph lines in the air. At least tens of thousands or even 10,000+ miles of telegraph lines should be laid throughout the Ming Dynasty. How many wooden pillars would be erected, and the workload of climbing up and down is simply terrifying .

It’s different now. He’s going to dig a standard trench for cables directly on the ground, dig a few feet deep, put a standard wooden cube in it, pour it with cement, and take out the wooden cube after the cement dries. , and then the cover is put on, and the trench is formed. No matter how many telegraph lines there are, just put them in.

Of course, there is still a problem of underwater laying of telegraph lines. He has also thought about this point. He is going to ask the Ministry of Industry to produce multi-layer armored cables, that is, first coat the copper wires with a layer of rubber, and then coat them with rubber. A thin iron sheet is wrapped outside the layer, and then a layer of rubber is covered, so that the strength and protective performance of the cable will be greatly improved, and it will be fine to lay it directly through the water.

This kind of cable is more troublesome to process, but the width of rivers and waterways is nothing compared to the tens of thousands of miles long telegraph network. , In the future, the telegraph network will be connected to the vassal states or allies of Ming Dynasty through the seabed, and it will be tens of thousands of miles long at every turn. Now making this kind of underwater cable can be regarded as an accumulation of experience, and there will be no need to cram for the time being.

This is just the railway and telegraph network. Of course, the development of a country is not just about improving transportation and communication. Industry, agriculture, economy, military, culture and other aspects must be fully developed. Zhu Cijiong does not think that he is proficient in everything. He is an all-rounder, so he summoned experts in various fields to discuss with him the development plan of Daming.

This time he wanted to make an overall development plan, so not many people were called, just a few of his most valued cronies.

The emperor convened a meeting, so no one dared to delay, and soon Zhu Cijiong and a group of cronies were sitting in his private study room, blowing on the newly designed heater, drinking the ginseng tea prepared by the imperial doctor, and facing the huge conference table. The map of Daming is ready for discussion.

Sitting on his left is his mentor, Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, and Sun Yuanhua, Minister of the Ministry of War, and then, gone!

Sitting on his right is Bi Maokang, Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Yang Sichang, Secretary of the Ministry of Officials, and Chen Zilong, the newly promoted left servant of the Ministry of Officials, accompanied the last seat. That is to say, he only summoned five people in total.

Now everyone is going to be surprised, the Minister of the Ministry of Households and the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment are not recruited, but a newly promoted Zuo Shilang from the Ministry of Officials is recruited to discuss national affairs, isn't it a bit too cronyistic?
In fact, it is not the case. One is in charge of money and the other is in charge of prisoners. It has nothing to do with the development plan. Chen Zilong is different. He is Zhu Cijiong's official successor to the cabinet chief assistant. According to Zhu Cijiong's details According to the survey, he is an all-rounder who is proficient in industry, agriculture, economy, military, culture, etc. Let him participate in the discussion of development plans, which is a bit of training for him. More importantly, Zhu Cijiong really wants to hear his opinion.

No gossip, let’s get back to business. At the beginning of the meeting, Zhu Cijiong first gave a general introduction to his plan for the railway and telegraph network. According to his intention, a transportation center should be established near Kaifeng Prefecture, where all the railways of Ming Dynasty will gather. First build the railway from the capital to Kaifeng, then from Kaifeng to Jinling, from Kaifeng to Xi’an, from Kaifeng to Jinan, etc.; To the state capitals, state capitals to the county towns.

Hearing that the emperor had such a huge plan, everyone was stunned. Bi Maokang first said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for talking too much. How to cross the big rivers, how to leap the mountains and mountains, many of the routes you mentioned require wading through mountains and rivers. ah!"

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong said proudly: "You don't need to worry about this. I thought of something like lime. It can be mixed into mud after adding water, but it is as firm as a rock after the water dries. If steel bars and pebbles are added in the middle, the toughness can be compared to lime." Steel. This thing is called cement. With this cement, it is not a problem to build bridges and dig holes."

Everyone was shocked when they heard the words, Xu Guangqi couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, please forgive my ignorance, there are such strange things in the world, why have I never heard of them?"

Zhu Cijiong smiled and explained: "This thing is not natural. Limestone, clay and iron ore powder need to be ground and mixed in proportion, calcined and then mixed with a certain amount of gypsum to grind it into powder. It's normal that my teacher has never heard of it. .”

Xu Guangqi has also done some research on the properties of various minerals. After hearing the words and thinking about it, it is really possible to make the cement that the emperor said by combining the properties of these minerals. He couldn't help admiring: "The emperor is really a god, even Such complicated things can be figured out."

Zhu Cijiong touched his head in embarrassment, and said in embarrassment: "Hehe, let's not talk about this. Anyway, I have already considered it. The railway and telegraph network are not the problem. The biggest problem now is the Northwest, which occupies a part of the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Xiao Ban, if it continues to be abandoned like this, it may be difficult for Daming to develop greatly in a short period of time."

Xu Guangqi nodded when he heard this, and said, "Well, I have been thinking about this issue for a long time. After I have learned about it in recent years, the drought in the northwest seems to be gradually improving. It is estimated that it will be back to normal in about ten years."

ten years!The mentor is the real god. This can be estimated. It seems that we can only wait ten years. However, it is a pity that such a large area is abandoned. If it can be used, the development of Daming can be at least doubled!
(End of this chapter)