the world is at stake

For example, 'Xinhua' has built irrigation water trucks for hundreds of collective farms, which can greatly reduce the labor intensity of farmers and expand the irrigated land-this water truck is not free, and the price is not cheap, but farmers are willing to pay for it. money.

'Xinhua' sells hoes, shovels, plows, pots, pans, kitchen knives and axes, and also provides medical, communication, logistics and other services.These can be paid on credit first and do not bear interest.

From the perspective of others, these goods and services are cheap and have greatly improved the lives of the people. Zhou Tianwang is a real benevolent person.But for 'Xinhua', all charges are profiteering.The huge profits are so great that the rebels can support [-] full-time soldiers with enough food and clothing, as well as the same number of craftsmen and government officials.

In a few months, the population of Xinhua Town officially exceeded [-], not [-] refugees, but [-] residents who have serious jobs and can create wealth.

Master Qin came here this time to find out the wind, because the officials and gentry of Songjiang Mansion started to make trouble again—those who were 'robbed' of their fields wanted to get them back, but those who were in business only wanted to do business.

The magistrate is a low-level official, and he feels that Songjiang Mansion is like a powder keg, which may explode at any time.He is planning to do a few more big deals with the Xinhua rebels, and if he earns enough, he will sue his illness and quit his job to avoid the limelight.

On the shore, a group of patrolling soldiers passed in front of Mr. Qin.Compared with the refugee army I saw last time, the current Xinhua bandit army is quite different.

Not to mention his strong physique, he is well equipped.

What used to be a simple wooden spear is now an iron spear.The spearhead is made of forged iron, that is, patterned steel made of raw and wrought iron, which glistens in the sun.

The spear has been raised from the original 1.8 meters to two meters, with a slight increase in weight and significantly stronger lethality.

In addition, a small number of soldiers wear armor, not the cheapest leather armor, but half iron armor.

In the era of cold weapons, there is a big difference between having armor and not armor.The imperial courts of all dynasties could not ban swords, but strictly prohibited armor.Zhou Yafu, a famous general in the Han Dynasty, was forced to commit suicide because he bought some armor in private.

Xiao Jinlang wanted to show off his own strength, so he recruited an armored soldier to let Master Qin take a closer look.

Master Qin glanced at the spear, didn't pay much attention, but reached out and knocked on the iron armor, and found that the armor was not thick, but its defense was considerable.

"Your Ministry's armor is..."

"We built it ourselves. With the steam engine driving the blower, the temperature of the blast furnace has been greatly increased, and the smelting efficiency has also been greatly increased."

The Xinhua iron armor is only half in length, a very simple curved armor, and the surface has traces of repeated hammering and extension.

It can only protect the upper torso, but it can't do anything to the lower body and limbs.Its thickness is about [-] millimeters, and the vital parts are thickened. The weight is very light, less than ten kilograms. It has been hardened by quenching and carburizing, and its defense is quite good.

Throughout the dynasties, those who can wear armor are elites.When Nurhachi started his family, there were only thirteen armors, and Master Qin saw more than thirteen armors.

Seeing that Master Qin cared a lot about armor, Xiao Jinlang just laughed.

After the military team tested it, they thought it was wasteful to use a large amount of iron to forge armor, and it was better to use it to produce the next steam engine, and further produce boring machines and drilling machines.

The goal was to mass-produce flintlocks and artillery.

"If Master Qin likes it, I'll give this armor back as a gift." Old Xiao said.

Ah... Master Qin was overjoyed, cupped his hands and said: "It's so...but it's disrespectful." But as soon as the words came out, he was quite annoyed, feeling that he was so rude for a piece of armor that the rebels would look down on him.

The new blast furnace was built outside the town, and a fence was built and guards were arranged to defend it.Master Qin went to take a look, only to feel that the size of the blast furnace was far larger than the furnaces he had seen in the past for making iron.

In addition, it is said that the steam engine is also a big steaming stove.There are more than a dozen people dedicated to serving it, constantly adding water and firewood to it.

This thing is not black, it looks weird.

The crankshaft and flywheel were rumbling, and the blower was even louder.It not only has amazing heat, but also has a strange sound, and the smell is not very good. It does not meet the imagination of strange things in Master Qin's mind at all.

"Is this a steam engine?"

As for the oversized "Kongming Lantern", the intellectuals of the Ming Dynasty could find an ancestor for it by looking for chapters and sentences from the classics.This sneering thing in front of me has never been seen in history.

Borrowing the mouth of the merchants who went to and from Xinhua Town, Mr. Qin heard the legend of "steam engine" all over his ears.But ordinary businessmen are not qualified to see it with their own eyes, they can only listen to the movement from a distance, knowing that the smelting ability of the rebels has increased by more than ten times.

It is rumored that the 'steam engine' has earth-shattering power, why is it such a strange ramming product in front of me?If you really want to use any words to describe it, it can only be said to be 'a miracle with great effort'.

For the current intellectuals, hydraulic machinery is the water wheel that drives the waterwheel, which drives the gears to do work. This is intuitively understandable.

But Master Qin went around the steam engine and the blast furnace three times, not only did he not understand, but he became even more confused.

Isn't this a big stove for boiling water? How can it move by itself?As for increasing the ventilation to increase the temperature of the iron-making furnace, this is also beyond the category of "Zhihu Zheye".

Until he left Xinhua Town, Master Qin didn't understand what a steam engine was.When he returned to Fucheng by boat and thought about how to report to the magistrate, he suddenly realized.

The businessmen who boasted so much about 'steam engines' didn't get it either.

Everyone pretends to understand, and one deceives the other.

Back in Fucheng, the magistrate didn't ask about the 'steam engine' in detail, and he still said 'hmm' to Master Qin's trip, indicating that he knew.

Lord Wan Gong of Wujiang is "well versed in thieves" and was invited to study the rebel armor.The instructor of the Nursing Academy in the mansion personally tested his defense.

First of all, shoot with a bow and arrow. A stone-strong bow can pierce through the armor within five steps, but it can only penetrate half a finger thick, and then it gets stuck.

Secondly, chopping with a waist knife, even with enough strength, you can only cut a dent, which cannot be cut through.If you want to penetrate completely, you must use a red-tasseled spear made of high-quality stainless steel to pierce the armor fiercely.

"This armor is top-grade, and it can save a few lives on the battlefield." The head of the guard looked at the arc-shaped iron armor that he had destroyed, and was quite sorry. It must be a thousand households."

The implication is that it is too extravagant for the rebels to wear such good armor for ordinary soldiers.One level deeper, such a good armor is tied with two hemp ropes, and it falls on the shoulders and waist, which is even more wasteful.

As for what armor the soldiers of the Ming army wore?

Does a fat jacket count?

In the end, Master Wan sacrificed a magic weapon, and asked a skilled craftsman to shoot the bird gun. It would definitely not be able to penetrate the iron sand, but if it was replaced with a single-headed lead bullet, it could be shot through fifty paces away.

"If you want to fight against the Xinhua rebels, you still have to rely on firearms." Before telling the magistrate, Master Wan made such a suggestion.But Master Qin knew one thing in his heart - Daming's firearms are rotten.

It is more difficult to counterfeit knives and guns, but it is easier to counterfeit firearms.The Firearms Bureau under the Nanjing Ministry of Industry has to build a lot of large firearms every year, costing a lot of money, and none of them can be used.

The money was stolen by the officials, so the artisans could only roll the barrel of the bird gun as thin as paper, and the thing would explode at the touch of a button.The soldiers of the Ming army would rather be empty-handed than use that deceptive weapon.

Master Wan strongly recommends the exquisite bird guns made by his own craftsmen, "It can penetrate the enemy's armor at a distance of fifty steps. Every family in the house should have more spares and recruit soldiers to practice more frequently."

Master Qin did not deny the power of the exquisite bird gun, but asked, "The wall of this bird gun is thick, and it is supposed to be usable. How many can be made in one month? What is the cost?"

Master Wan hesitated immediately, "I hired more than [-] craftsmen, and according to the tricks written by Qi Shaobao, seven were built in ten months, three were blown up, and four remained. Calculated, each one costs more than a hundred taels of silver. .”

Hearing that only four of them were built in a month, and each one was worth a hundred taels, Master Qin's face collapsed——Wan, you are kidding me.Not to mention the fact that it is so expensive, who can afford it?

Master Wan was stubborn, "The officials and gentry can still afford to prepare their own. After all, this thing can really kill the enemy and save their lives. Do you care about the price? Why don't Master Qin buy some?"

Master Qin shook his head, "The Firearms Bureau of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry can also make them. They are good, plentiful and cheap."

"The firearms of the Ministry of Industry are extremely inferior, who would dare to use them?"

"That's without extra money!"

Chapter 26 The Textile Industry Collapses

Mr. Wan was unhappy because he failed to sell his carefully crafted blunderbuss.

The last research on gunpowder cost Zheng Dashan's life.This time, I paid a few hundred taels of silver for researching firecrackers.

By the way, when it comes to Zheng Dashan, he is also pitiful.

His family property was taken away by the rebels, and the medicine was smashed too fast, and it exploded in surprise.The whole person was blown away, and his ass was hung on the tree, which was horrible.

Master Wan left the government office with his head drooping, and returned to his home.Facing the craftsmen hired with high salaries in the twenties, he let out a long sigh, which made his heart ache even more.

"Master." The housekeeper leaned over and whispered, "The Xinhua rebels have come up with new tricks."

"Isn't it just a 'steam engine'? I've heard of it." Master Wan waved his hand angrily, "It's a thing that can boil water and blow wind. Its origin."

What Master Wan meant was to find an ancestor for the steam engine, so as to rebuild his self-confidence psychologically, and it also proved that the rebels were only mediocre.

But the housekeeper shook his head, "It's not about the 'steam engine'. The rebels spread the news yesterday that they ordered cotton from various places in Songjiang. They also specified that they want seed cotton without de-seeding. The purchase price is [-]% higher than in previous years."

[-]% high school?

That's pretty cool!

The six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River all produce cotton cloth, and Songjiang cotton cloth is the most famous in Ming Dynasty.Songjiang is known as "clothes and quilts all over the world", and its cotton production is extremely high.This year not only has a bumper harvest of grain, but also a bumper harvest of cotton.

But for cotton farmers, a bumper crop doesn't necessarily mean making money.The market supply is large, but the price will go down.The cotton merchants and cloth merchants in Songjiang are the real moneymakers.

The Xinhua rebels raised the price by [-]%, and with their propaganda ability, all the cotton in Songjiang would flock to it.Even the cotton farmers in the surrounding five prefectures will covet the high price and transport cotton to sell.

Master Wan jumped in shock when he heard the news, "The price is [-]% higher? What else do we earn?"

Since the Xinhua rebels raided Songjiang, Master Wan's usury business has shrunk sharply.Collective farms engage in internal cooperation, and landless tenants can obtain production materials and tools at a very low cost, so naturally they will no longer need loan sharks.

In the past, officials and gentry brought a few scumbags to the countryside to collect rent and money, and that was all bragging rights.Going now, the unscrupulous people openly resisted, and even dared to fight back.

Zhou Tianwang said that local tyrants and evil gentry should be punished by everyone.

Master Wan lost his livelihood and had to change careers. While he was engaged in technological 'innovation' to build firecrackers, he thought about going to the countryside to take firecrackers to collect bills in the future.On the other hand, it also intends to transform into the textile industry.

This transformation has just begun, and the Xinhua rebels came to get in the way again, and actually raised the price to buy seed cotton.

"Several master cloth merchants in the city are already in a hurry. They are discussing in partnership whether to send someone to talk to the Xinhua rebels, or to raise the price of cotton. If there is no cotton harvest, the business for the whole year will be ruined."

The butler said worriedly.Master Wan was suddenly overjoyed, and said in a low voice, "Go immediately and ask the cotton and cloth merchants in the city if they want to buy refined firecrackers? Fifty paces... a hundred paces can penetrate a thief's armor."

The housekeeper immediately went to ask, but after asking for two days, he still didn't get a letter.

On the contrary, the cloth merchants decided to collectively increase the purchase price, which also increased by [-]%.But this price has not stabilized for a day, and the Xinhua rebels raised the price again, directly doubling it.

Double it!

Are these rebels crazy?

Cotton is not food, and it cannot be eaten if it is stored up.It can only be sold after being spun into cloth through many processes. What is the use of buying a lot of cotton?

Don't talk about Songjiang cloth merchants jumping in anger, cloth merchants in the six south of the Yangtze River are scolding.Master Wan ran around the capital city for several days, connecting with dozens of wealthy and powerful merchants in private, discussing behind his back how to deal with it.

Apart from being furious, the big businessman was even more eager to move, thinking of using force to eradicate the Xinhua rebels - last time the Jiang family only gathered a few hundred thieves, and dozens of wealthy businessmen could gather five or six thousand family members.

Master Wan was overjoyed, he would attend every gathering, and kept advocating his own firecrackers.Just asking about the price, even a wealthy businessman shook his head—a firecracker, even if it was folded in half and then folded in half, would cost more than twenty taels.

It's also too expensive.

Might as well get on the spear.

A tael of silver can make a good point steel spear.As for who is spearheading high quality, low price, sufficient production capacity and on-time delivery...it seems to be the Xinhua anti-thief.

Hearing a group of wealthy merchants discussing that the result was to spend money to buy spears from the rebels to equip himself, Master Wan was so angry that he almost fell to the ground and lost his mind.Who are these people?How did you come up with such a bad idea?

The spear business has not yet been decided. From the end of July, cotton from the entire Songjiang Prefecture flooded into Xinhua Town like a tide.

In order to crack down on middlemen and protect the interests of small and medium-sized cotton farmers, the Xinhua rebels sent many armed procurement teams to the countryside to promote and purchase directly.

All over the country are delighted to hear the price. The densely covered river network is full of boats carrying goods, and the large and small bags are all unthreshed seed cotton.

Cloth merchants from all over the world still wonder if the Xinhua Rebels have enough financial resources?Can you leave some cotton for them to buy at a low price?But the direction of Xinhua Town is like a bottomless pit. Two cotton unloading docks have been specially opened to swallow thousands of cotton.

This is seed cotton!

Undeseeded cotton.

What do the rebels want so much seed cotton for?Does it have that many hands to deseed?

You must know that manual deseeding is very slow and very tiring. One person can handle at most one catty a day, and he has to be highly stressed and work non-stop. This is the limit.

But there is no hoarding of seed cotton in the direction of Xinhua Town.

After a few days, news spread in the town that the craftsmen of the rebels had built a hand-operated cotton gin, which could remove seeds so quickly that a day's work was equivalent to three months for ordinary people.

What?

Technological progress has begun to work miracles again.

Whitney cotton gin, a simple tool invented at the end of the eighteenth century.

The 'Holy Light' mechanical group has no time to make this kind of thing.They arranged for a dozen craftsmen to give blueprints, explain the principles, and provide materials, and they 'invented' it in a few days.

The structure of this machine is really extremely simple.

Its main body is a cylinder, and a large number of steel teeth are installed on the wall of the cylinder; when the cylinder rotates, the steel teeth forcibly tear off the lint from the cotton seeds, and use centrifugal force to filter out the cotton seeds and throw out the cotton fibers.

When the cotton gin was first put into operation, the artisans responsible for the manufacture were astonished.It's so easy to use, it's unbelievably easy to use.Just turn the cylinder up and all that is left is to place the seed cotton onto the cylinder.

Not only does it process faster, but it also removes cottonseed more cleanly.

If it can be equipped with a flywheel or hydraulic power, it will be more efficient.

But it doesn't matter if you don't have it, it's easy to crank.Because the cotton gin is really a very simple piece of machinery, mostly wooden and cheap to build.

Xinhua Town built ten water-powered cotton gins. When the power was cheap and sufficient, the cylinders were ten times larger than the hand-operated version.Its processing capacity is equivalent to [-] deseeders working day and night without food or drink.

The power of industrial equipment is fully reflected in the small cotton gin.No matter how ingenious human beings are, they are definitely not as fast.

No matter how much seed cotton is shipped from the wharf, it is swallowed by ten hydraulic cotton gins and spit out as cotton fibers.Anyone who has seen it at work will understand that the era of manual de-seeding is completely over.

When the Songjiang Mansion thought that the Xinhua rebels just wanted to make money from the seed removal process, they realized that they were very wrong.

With cotton fiber, we must spin it—the famous "spinning jenny" will not be absent. This is also an invention that can achieve great progress by reversing thinking.

Even if the manual spinning machine is exhausted, it cannot spin a catty of yarn in a day.Many farmers do farm work during the day and spin yarn by the light of bean-sized oil lamps at night.

According to historical experience, it was also the "Holy Light" machinery that came up with ideas and drawings, organized a dozen carpenters to "invent and create" themselves, and turned the horizontally placed spindle into an upright state.