Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 286 Steam Engine

Zhu Zailei obviously didn't want to know this answer from Zhang Zhong, so he couldn't help but retort: ​​"Zhang Daban, this is probably not what you really think. You think that I am most likely to become the emperor, but you want me to be the emperor because only if I become the emperor can you become the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department."

"I dare not, I dare not have such delusion! I am really just loyal to Your Highness, and I want to see Your Highness ascend the throne and rule the world as soon as possible!"

Zhang Zhong hurriedly denied it. He was really afraid that his purpose would be known by too many people. Even if others knew, he did not want to admit that he had such ambition.

"Okay, you don't have to deny it anymore. Father is right. I need to think carefully about whether I want to be the emperor or what I want to do."

Zhu Zailei stood up and left.

Zhang Zhong stood there in a daze, looking at Zhu Zaile's back. He seemed to want to say something but stopped himself. He really wanted to ask what the emperor had said to the eldest prince, but he always felt that the eldest son did not need him to analyze the emperor's thoughts for him.

Zhu Houzhao did not expect the teenage prince to find the ideal he had been pursuing all of a sudden. After all, even in later generations, most people did not know what they wanted or what their ideals were throughout their entire lives, not to mention in this era when even marriage was decided by parents.

For other older princes, Zhu Houzhao gave them the opportunity to learn about government affairs, just as he did with his eldest son Zhu Zaile. Moreover, Zhu Houzhao also told them that if they did not want to become emperor, they could raise the issue first.

Zhu Houzhao was not a Confucian scholar, and he did not want to abide by the so-called ethical principle of establishing the eldest son as the heir.

Zhu Houzhao admitted that although capitalism had developed in the Ming Dynasty, agricultural civilization was still the main social form in the western and northern parts of the empire. The empire was still a family-ruled empire, and it was impossible for him to transfer the ruling power to non-royal members, as that would only lead to unrest.

After all, the Zhongjun Society is not yet a modern political party. If it directly chooses a non-royal member with outstanding abilities to be the emperor, other people with outstanding abilities and ambitions will directly question the legitimacy of this person's rule, and even many royal nobles cannot tolerate this phenomenon.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao himself was emotionally unwilling to hand over his power and wealth to someone who was not a blood relative.

But this did not prevent Zhu Houzhao from choosing among his princes the one who was most suitable and most willing to be the emperor. Although people are not saints, they are not demons either. The so-called foolish and tyrannical rulers are just those who are not suitable or unwilling to be the emperor.

"Father, I have thought about it carefully and I want to be the emperor!"

On this day, Zhu Zailei told Zhu Houzhao the answer he had given after careful consideration.

Zhu Houzhao was very pleased. At least Zhu Zailei was still willing to speak out his inner thoughts and did not consider the consequences of saying it.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask with a smile: "Tell me, father, why do you want to be emperor?"

"Because being an emperor can make everyone fear me! I can make everyone obey my orders! They can all be as respectful to me as Zhang Daban and Miao Daban," Zhu Zailei answered his understanding of the emperor.

Zhu Houzhao did not criticize, but just smiled and said: "You are right, being an emperor can indeed be like this, but do you know that when you become an emperor you are also responsible for presiding over justice in the world, for everyone's food and clothing, and for serving the interests of this country and nation!"

"Sir, as the teacher said, as long as we are close to virtuous officials and stay away from villains, we can achieve what our father said."

Zhu Zailei's answer forced Zhu Houzhao to admit that some of the officials in the palace school were still educating their princes with the old Confucian ideas. He could not help but continue to ask Zhu Zailei: "If it is really that simple, then why do we need emperors in the future? Can't we let wise people preside over state affairs and choose wise people? Why do we need an emperor to choose?"

Zhu Houzhao brought the topic to the value of the emperor's existence, and this was the first time he started to make people think about the value of the emperor's existence.

Today, a group of Western Renaissance artists and scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci have just arrived in the Ming Dynasty not long ago, and they have not been promoting ancient Greek ideas under the encouragement of Zhu Houzhao for long. Moreover, the natural science of the Ming Dynasty has just started, and the thinking of using reason to scientifically analyze observed things and phenomena has just started, such as the Qixue proposed by Wang Tingxiang and others before. Therefore, in today's Ming Dynasty, many people have not yet begun to learn to use logical thinking and scientific analytical thinking.

Just like now, the entire Ming Dynasty is still full of empiricist ideas. No one considers why there is an emperor and whether the emperor must exist. Of course, based on historical experience, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty would say that the country cannot be without a monarch for a day, but no one has ever considered why the country cannot be without a monarch for a day.

Now that Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zailei this question, he was trying to inspire Zhu Zailei to a new way of thinking, that is, rational thinking, which can also be called scientific analysis.

Since Zhu Zailei wanted to be emperor, Zhu Houzhao now wanted him to think about what the emperor's duties were, why the emperor had these powers, whether the emperor must exist, and what was the value of the emperor's existence.

These questions may be quite difficult for a teenager, but Zhu Houzhao was not in a hurry to ask him to give the answers. He hoped that Zhu Zailei could think about these questions.

In the eyes of Confucian officials, the emperor is a symbol of etiquette and the person with the highest ethical status established by Neo-Confucianism. After all, according to Neo-Confucian thought, etiquette is reason, and the ethical relationship formed by moral etiquette is the foundation for maintaining national rule.

If the family is based on the father, then the entire empire should also be based on the father, and this father naturally becomes the emperor, the sovereign father.

Therefore, many times, Confucian theory only establishes the legitimacy of the emperor's existence morally, and even adds some idealistic ideas, such as someone is the emperor because he is the destiny, the king's power is granted by God, he is the true dragon emperor, and he should be our king and father.

However, Confucianism did not use rigorous scientific theoretical analysis to prove the legitimacy of the emperor's existence, nor did it have a rigorous logical reasoning on who could become the emperor.

But human beings are not animals that can be easily fooled. Deep down, no one believes in the so-called destiny. Even Confucians themselves do not believe in it. Confucius does not talk about strange and supernatural things. It has also become an excuse for some people who surrender and sell out their country.

A new dynasty and a new emperor appeared, and they said that the previous dynasty had run out of luck and that the mandate of heaven had passed to the new emperor.

As a result, they become indifferent to the country's crisis and only believe that the rise and fall of a country is nothing more than the rise and fall of a family.

In history, it was only in the late Ming Dynasty, with the progress of thought, that people like Gu Yanwu began to distinguish between the destruction of a country and the destruction of the world.

just now.

Zhu Zailei began to feel confused after hearing what Zhu Houzhao said: "Your Majesty is right. It seems that according to what you gentlemen said, there is no need for an emperor anymore. But in fact, there is an emperor. You gentlemen said that a country cannot be without a monarch for a day. So it seems that the emperor has other values! Please explain it to me and clear up my doubts!"

"The empire needs decision-makers, just like a family needs someone who can make the decisions. The emperor is the one who can make the decisions in our country. I don't have time to tell you word by word now. You should think carefully and read more. You should listen to everything the teacher says, but don't believe it directly. When you are older and learn new courses, you may understand more!"

Zhu Houzhao patted Zhu Zailei's head and ordered: "Draft an imperial decree to set up an imperial school. Order Wang Shouren's disciple Zheng Shanfu and Da Vinci, a doctor of the Imperial University (official title here), to teach the older princes new courses!"

Since Zhu Zailei wanted to be emperor, he naturally had to let Zhu Zailei get the education he needed as an emperor. At least he had to learn some of the "unity of knowledge and action" thought that was popular in the Ming Dynasty and the ancient Greek thought that laid the foundation for modern civilization. Neo-Confucianism was of little significance to the emperor. If the emperor was made to believe that he was chosen by heaven, he would only become an unscrupulous tyrant!

Gu Dayong was not very knowledgeable, and he did not know what kind of knowledge was, but what he was sure of was that now the Emperor was personally teaching the eldest son, which meant that the eldest son would be as wise as the Emperor in the future. He also boasted: "The Emperor is personally teaching the prince, and the prince will surely be as wise as the Emperor in the future."

"Whether he is wise or not can only be determined by future generations. Besides, it is still uncertain whether the eldest prince can become the emperor. Lei'er, you must understand that whether you can become the emperor is not something you can just do if you want to. You must prove to your father and the people of the world that you are more suitable to be the emperor than any other brother. Otherwise, even if you become the emperor, people will only doubt whether the world you rule is the best! Do you understand?"

Zhu Houzhao's words were tantamount to directly denying the Confucian system of establishing the eldest son as the heir.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao was the emperor, and he had the final say on whether to establish the eldest son or the most capable one as the heir.

"Your son understands!" Although Zhu Zailei said that he wanted to be the emperor, he didn't really care about it yet. Therefore, he didn't realize that his father did not intend to follow the principle of establishing the eldest son as the heir.

Gu Dayong did take Zhu Houzhao's words to heart, but he didn't really care whether Zhu Zailei could become emperor. He cared more about what Emperor Zhu Houzhao thought. As the current seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, he would not devote himself to the side of a particular prince too early. After all, the current Emperor Zhu Houzhao was still in his prime, and he had more time to make profits for his own party.

Now Gu Dayong only regretted that he had sent his man Miao Ning to the eldest prince too early. Zhu Houzhao was not as complicated as Gu Dayong thought. He just wanted to pave a way for the future imperial heirs of the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty would continue to establish an emperor in the form of family hereditary system for a long time, he hoped that the emperor he chose would truly become a relatively qualified emperor of this empire.

Now there are no major threats outside and no major worries inside. I have just turned thirty, and most of the princes are still relatively young. This is the best time for me to establish a system for the education of princes.

The Ming Dynasty was relatively poor in the training of princes. Even the later emperors in history, such as Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen, did not receive systematic imperial education. It was even very sudden that they became emperors, let alone whether there was any political conspiracy. However, without a systematic system for training princes, it would lead to disaster for the entire empire and the entire Chinese nation.

The Ming Dynasty emphasized on-the-job training, that is, the imperial lectures, but Zhu Houzhao really didn't want to complain about these lectures. To a large extent, these lectures were not for training the emperor, but a formality to increase his qualifications for promotion.

Ever since Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to no longer hold the imperial lectures in the Wenhua Hall and only ordered the lecturers to update 10,000 words every day and present them to him like the authors of the Qidian Chinese website in later generations, and to learn on their own, no official asked the emperor to hold imperial lectures anymore. The few lecturers who remained in the court could not even update 5,000 words a day, let alone 10,000 words a day, so Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to dismiss them and send them back to their hometowns.

There was only one lecturer named Tang Gao who worked tirelessly and wrote 20,000-word lecture notes for Zhu Houzhao every day to encourage him to study. Zhu Houzhao admired his perseverance and writing speed, so he specially added a cabinet scholar and let him serve as a cabinet scholar, with an official rank of second grade.

Zhu Houzhao's purpose in doing this was naturally very simple, which was to let Tang Gao write a summary report to him on behalf of the cabinet at the beginning of each year, a small summary once a year and a large summary every five years. This kind of summary involving various government affairs of the empire naturally had a lot of words, and only someone like Tang Gao could be competent for it.

Coming back to the topic, Zhu Houzhao now only knows that he is now a peaceful emperor, and the empire's national strength is still growing. Whether it is the outer court or the inner court, everyone now obeys his orders, which makes him feel that the empire has become very peaceful now, and everything is proceeding in peace and order.

The Ming Academy of Engineering was still developing steam engines, while the Ordnance Bureau was also developing rifled guns and the use of nitrate explosives, and the Ming Academy of Sciences was also conducting research in astronomy, agriculture, physics, chemistry, etc.

Gold and silver from South America continued to flow into the Ming Dynasty, and all kinds of products from the Ming Dynasty also continued to flow to America. The indigenous people in the Philippines, Sumatra and other regions had given up the development of handicraft industries such as the textile industry and began to only grow grain and develop farming.

Under the instructions of Zhu Houzhao, Yang Yiqing began to use the experience he had accumulated in the border towns and began to work with Lin Tingxuan to establish the Ming Army Command College and the Ming Navy Command College.

Zhu Houzhao was unaware of the undercurrents lurking beneath the calm, nor was he aware of how strong the reaction from the outside world was to the Ming Dynasty, an empire with highly developed productivity.

Now he is more like an ordinary person living under the sky of the Ming Dynasty. He takes the initiative to teach his prince how to ride a bicycle, and also feels the changes brought about by the development of the empire's science and technology like people of this era.

Zhu Zaile stopped his Daming-style bicycle and looked at the cement road that stretched to the end of his sight. He just wanted to pedal all the way to the end of the road.

As a Ming Dynasty person who grew up during the Zhengde period, he was not surprised by the cement roads.

But the cabinet chief Wang Qiong standing behind him was in a completely different mood. As a veteran of four dynasties who had served in the Chenghua Dynasty, he had never thought that there would be such a road called cement road in the Ming Dynasty before the Zhengde Dynasty. The feeling of stepping on such hard ground made him, a native of Taiyuan, Shanxi, feel particularly at ease.

He vaguely still remembers the official road he took when he went to Beijing for the imperial examination. It was still dusty at that time and became muddy when it rained. He had to change his cloth shoes almost every day.

And now, even though it is still a rainy day, Wang Qiong can still walk leisurely. He has to admit that there have been earth-shaking changes in the Ming Dynasty since the reign of Emperor Zhengde.

It's not just the hard texture of the cement road, but also the rubber shoes worn by the soldiers. The sound they make when they step on them is indeed crisper and louder than cloth shoes, and is also more suitable for marching and fighting.

Even ordinary people like these rubber shoes, which are much more convenient than wearing cloth shoes on rainy days.

The Minister of Works Ye Heng felt extremely proud at this time. He had spent many years of hard work to build this cement road from the capital to Datong. Over the years, he had learned various technologies such as blasting, civil engineering, bridge construction, tunnels, and geomancy. He even studied arithmetic and physics. He had also read through various construction books left by the ancients. He even learned how to manage hundreds of thousands of workers and how to train craftsmen.

Zhu Houzhao actually didn't expect that more than ten years later, the cement road from the capital to Datong could actually be built. In fact, he asked Ye Heng to be responsible for the construction of this project just to allow Daming to accumulate some experience in engineering construction. It didn't matter whether it could be completed or not, at least it could improve Daming's various engineering technologies.

Obviously, as a superpower, it is possible for Ming Dynasty to realize such a century-long project, but it may cost a lot. However, what Ming Dynasty is least afraid of now is the high cost, because all the wealth and human resources in the world are concentrated in Ming Dynasty anyway.

Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zaile to come and see the completed Beijing-Tongli cement road, with the purpose of letting the future emperor's successor come into contact with the most cutting-edge things of the era.

Zhu Houcong, who entered the Imperial Academy at the same time as Zhu Zailei, was also amazed at the cement road that was so hard that even a horse-drawn carriage could not leave ruts on it. Of course, he also hoped to ride a bicycle on this cement road like Zhu Zailei.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the officials and royal nobles' curiosity about new things such as cement roads, bicycles and rubber shoes and just smiled faintly. He believed that some of the future products brought about by his appearance would definitely change the horizons of these people in the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty! The Ming Dynasty Engineering Institute has realized the function of steam engines to drive spinning machines, and I have come here to report this matter to you!"

At this time, Ma Yongcheng suddenly ran to Zhu Houzhao and reported.

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao directly ordered: "Go to the Daming Engineering Institute immediately!"

The civil servants who were preparing to compose an impromptu poem facing the cement road stretching to the end of the sky and boasting about Zhu Houzhao's civil and military achievements, were stunned when they saw the emperor turn around and go to the Daming Engineering Academy. They wondered what a steam engine was and why His Majesty was so impatient?

Zhu Houzhao really couldn't wait to see the steam engine developed by the Ming Dynasty. After all, as a time traveler from the future, he knew better than anyone in this era that the industrial revolution brought about by the steam engine would completely subvert the entire human civilization! And now, its appearance in the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly the result he most wanted to see!
The Ming version of the steam engine that Zhu Houzhao saw was still a relatively large steam engine, in which the boiler occupied a large volume, indicating that the thermal energy utilization efficiency was still relatively low, otherwise such a large boiler would not be burned to supply thermal energy.

But at this time, driven by the steam engine connecting rod, the spinning machine could start spinning automatically, which meant that Ming Dynasty officially had its first fully mechanical power equipment!

"How is this possible? Here we only see coal burning, but over there we can make the spinning machine spin by itself. It's incredible!"

Cabinet Chief Minister Wang Qiong muttered to himself in astonishment.

Ye Heng who followed was staring at the connecting rod, wondering if this connecting rod was connected to the water pump, then water could be pumped continuously. Not only pumping water, but perhaps it could also be used for other purposes. Could this kind of machine replace all the vehicles and boats that previously relied on human or animal power to pull and push?

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty. Although I don't know the principle behind this, I believe this thing will change our Ming Dynasty! It will even change the way of life that has existed for thousands of years! With the appearance of this thing, our Ming Dynasty will surely become more prosperous!"

At this time, Yan Song had already agreed.

The eldest prince Zhu Zailei has forgotten to speak. Now all his attention is focused on this machine that can automatically spin yarn without human operation. This mechanized product that replaces manual labor also has a great impact on him.

This was especially true for Zhu Houcong, who really wanted to understand why a coal-fired boiler could make the spinning machine move on its own. Now he could only use the knowledge he had learned in class to guess the answer.

"Register the patent technology for this type of equipment and report it to me. I will reward your team handsomely and grant them honors and medals! In addition, hold a court meeting immediately to discuss how to use this batch of new equipment to create more wealth for the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, you must continue your research and find a way to shrink this steam engine and use it on other machines!"

Zhu Houzhao immediately gave instructions.

Now he knows that this steam machinery, which marks the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, will completely change history and bring new changes to the Ming Dynasty. Now he has to think about how to deal with this change.

The appearance of the steam engine quickly became household news, but the company that manufactured and sold this steam-powered spinning machine was still the Ming Dynasty's official company, and it only sold it to the official weaving bureau for foreign trade. The purpose was to protect the traditional textile workshops that still needed a large number of workers to carry out spinning operations in the early stage, so as to avoid causing a large number of workers to lose their jobs in a short period of time.

The author was stuck in a writer's block today. He ran out of ideas and had only managed to squeeze out 6,000 words so far. He barely managed to publish it. Up to now, the scope of writing has become larger and larger, and the difficulty of writing has also increased. These problems will definitely be encountered when writing a long novel. The author is not a great writer, so it is difficult for him to make every word a gem and every article wonderful, but he can guarantee to write with his greatest effort and strive to write a complete story.



(End of this chapter)