The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Auspicious snow indicates a good harvest. After the early snow in early November, the capital city had several more snowfalls, which was a great omen for the harvest.

Despite the heavy snow, the Yangxin Palace was still as warm as spring, except that it had a new owner.

A large piece of drawing paper was spread out on the imperial desk. Li Hu held a magnifying glass in his right hand and looked at the pattern on it carefully.

The vice president of the Royal Academy and several old men in charge of the new ironclad ships came and sat there silently looking at Li Hu.

"Good! Good!" Li Hu put down the magnifying glass and said to the fat boy standing next to him with a happy face: "This is exactly the ironclad ship in my mind!"

The little fat man knelt down immediately and said, "I congratulate the emperor and the Tang Dynasty!"

"Get up."

Li Hu waved his hand, looked at the drawing again, and then said to the vice president and several old men: "Tell me more about it."

The old man opposite the Vice President of the Royal Academy spoke: "In reply to the emperor, the displacement of this ironclad ship is estimated to be around 7,000 tons. It is a hybrid power of steam and sail, with a horizontal reciprocating steam engine, ten coal-fired boilers, a single shaft and a single propeller, a designed speed of 13 knots, and an iron hull. It is expected to be launched for sea trials within three years." After saying that, he looked at the old man opposite.

The old man said: "This ironclad ship uses many advanced technologies, including steam engines, iron hulls and propeller propulsion. If the emperor hadn't sent some drawings, we wouldn't have been able to come up with a solution in such a short time. The ends of the iron plates can be connected by rivets. We have tested it. This riveting technology can not only improve the strength of the hull, but also ensure the watertightness of the hull.

The rivets are heated by a portable furnace with bellows, and then passed from the rivet heater to the riveter to insert the hot rivets into the drilled holes. The rivet heads on both sides are flattened while hot and stuck on both sides of the iron plate. After cooling, the rivets will shrink, thus ensuring that the connection is tight and watertight.

Another old man continued, "We also discovered a problem. The strength of the joints on the ribs is far less than that of the iron plates without holes. To bend the ribs, we first draw the outline of the overall shape of the hull on the floor, determine the shape of each rib, and then press the red-hot ribs and use levers to bend them into the desired shape."

Vice-President of the Royal Academy: "Whether it is the machines for shearing angle irons, drilling holes, countersinking holes, or rolling iron sheets into cylinders and hydraulic hammers, they are all powered by new steam units and driven by belts."

Li Hu nodded with satisfaction, the money was not wasted!

At this time, several old men turned their eyes to the vice president.

Li Hu saw this and looked at the vice president: "What's wrong?"

The vice president coughed and said, "In order to prevent the hull from being penetrated by shells, we added a layer of teak inside to absorb the impact of the shells. The armor of the deck is also made of wrought iron and teak, so the cost is a bit high."

Li Hu: "How much?"

Vice President: "It will cost about 700,000 to 800,000 taels of silver."

"How much?" Li Hu's voice changed.

The vice president swallowed his saliva and said, "About 800,000 or 800,000. But please rest assured, Your Majesty, this is only the cost of the first ironclad ship. It will be cheaper in the future." At this point, he was also lacking in confidence. He paused for a moment and pulled out a paper from his sleeve. "This is the bill compiled by us."

The little fat man hurried over, took the brief from the vice-president's hand, walked back to the imperial desk and presented it.

Li Hu took it and took a look at it, then looked at the tail of the ship, which was covered with seals. The heads of various departments of the Royal Academy and the craftsmen who participated in the design of the ironclad ship all put their seals on it.

A new sailing warship costs 150,000 yuan, and a simple ironclad ship costs 230,000 yuan, which is several times more expensive. The cost is too high. Not to mention the Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue, even the Ministry of War did not dare to approve it.

Being an emperor really cannot do whatever you want. With so much silver, it has to be discussed in the imperial meeting. It's not easy!

Knowing that Li Hu was in trouble, the vice president looked at the elders and said, "We have discussed it and can squeeze out 200,000 yuan from the R&D funds and subsidies."

Li Hu interrupted him directly: "Don't worry about this matter, I will find a way. Today is the Little New Year, I ordered the imperial kitchen to prepare the imperial meal, you can eat before leaving the palace."

The little fat man walked over and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please come in." Then he stretched out his hand as a gesture of giving way.

"Thank you, Your Majesty for your grace."

The vice president and several elders bowed to Li Hu, then followed the fat man out.

Li Hu read the brief carefully. The new ironclad ships were equipped with the most advanced weapons, especially the new breech-loading guns. Based on the design drawings he provided, the Royal Academy manufactured a partition bolt breech block, which solved the problems of locking and gunpowder gas leakage. The Ordnance Bureau had already begun producing breech-loading guns.

Things that transcend time are expensive for a reason and are worth the money.

Thinking of this, Li Hu sighed. Jia She was still complaining to him yesterday, saying that this year's deficit had reached 8.43 million taels, and nearly half of the overspending was due to the Royal Academy and the Military Equipment Bureau. Now there is another 800,000. The cabinet will definitely be in an uproar!
This cannot be blamed on the Royal Academy and the Armament Bureau. Once the blueprints were drawn, they had to be built. Only after they were built could their performance in all aspects be tested and improved. The new steam engine alone cost nearly one million taels of silver, all of which were spent with real money.

I hope Liu Xianglian and Feng Tang can send back more spoils from Japan to fill this hole.

He was too embarrassed to continue to exploit the cabinet. He had heard from Wang Wenzhao that the group of upright officials had a lot of opinions about the cabinet. They said that the three of them only knew how to agree with and flatter the emperor, and did not dare to give advice or to fight for the state affairs of the Tang Dynasty or for the people of the world!
Besides, it’s the end of the year and there really isn’t much money left in the treasury!

Li Hu shook his head slightly, rolled up the blueprint, picked up the brief, and went to find the God of Wealth.
Kunning Palace

Before entering the bedroom, Li Hu heard Li Ye's crying.

Li Hu hurried in and asked loudly, "Why are you crying again?"

Nanny Wang and several old maids were so frightened that they all knelt down.

Lin Daiyu walked over holding the still crying Li Ye and said with a wry smile: "You are the only one who can coax this child." Then she handed Li Ye to Li Hu.

Zijuan took the things from Li Hu's hand with great tact. Li Hu then took Li Ye over and asked, "Why are you crying again?"

Lin Daiyu said to Nanny Wang and the others, "You all go down." Then she took the blueprint from Zijuan and began to look at it, saying, "Is this the blueprint for the new ironclad warship?"

Li Hu: "Yes." He answered and began to coax Li Ye.

Li Ye soon stopped crying and started to chuckle at Li Hu's smiling face. Zijuan smiled, "It's true that father and son are connected by heart. When the emperor smiled, the prince stopped crying and smiled happily."

Lin Daiyu snorted and picked up the brief summary again to read it.

Li Hu looked at Zijuan, meaning: What happened again?
Zijuan smiled with her hand covering her mouth, looked at Lin Daiyu, and dared not speak.

Li Hu: "What's wrong?"

Lin Daiyu: "Didn't you send me a candy man? He stared at it with all his eyes."

Li Hu seemed to understand something: "And then?"

Lin Daiyu: "I ate it."

Li Hu: "And then he started crying?"

Lin Daiyu didn't say anything.

Li Hu smiled bitterly: "Can't you just let him go?"

Lin Daiyu: "Why should I give in to him?"

Li Hu said unhappily: "You are his mother."

Lin Daiyu curled her lips, closed the document, and looked at Li Hu: "You want money?"

Li Hu's old face turned red, and then he said "hmm".

Lin Daiyu: "How many ships are you going to build?"

How many? You are so arrogant!
Li Hu blinked and asked softly, "How many ships do you think would be appropriate?"

Lin Daiyu thought for a moment and said, "It will take two or three years to launch an ironclad ship. The construction period is too long. The Royal Academy has been researching new weapons. The ironclad ship may be outdated before it is launched. Five ships."

Five! Li Hu took a breath. Money means confidence!
Li Hu was suddenly startled. No, this money was all his. Why was he acting like a gigolo? !

Just as she was thinking, Lin Daiyu straightened her clothes, knelt down in front of Li Hu and said, "Congratulations to the Emperor."

Li Hu was puzzled: "Congratulations, what are you congratulating?"

Lin Daiyu: "You are going to be a father again, the father of three children!"

Li Hu was stunned.

Lin Daiyu turned around and walked to the imperial desk, took out three medical records, and said, "Concubine Xian, Concubine Zhuang, and Concubine Hui have all taken pulses of pregnancy. Congratulations to the emperor." After saying that, she smiled. The Jia family must be worried!

In the bedroom, Ping'er was teaching Wang Xifeng's daughter Qiaojie how to embroider.

Wang Xifeng sat by the bed and watched with a loving smile on her face.

"The Second Master is back!" A maid's voice came from outside.

The door curtain was lifted and Jia Lian strode in.

"Dad." Qiaojie stood up.

"Hey!"

Jia Lian looked at his daughter with a smile and said to Ping'er, "Take Qiaojie out for a while."

Upon hearing this, Ping'er took Qiaojie out.

Wang Xifeng also stood up and asked, "What's the matter?"

Jia Lian sighed, leaned forward and sat on the chair, saying, "You will accompany your wife to the palace tomorrow."

Wang Xifeng: "Enter the palace."

Jia Lian was silent for a moment, then told her the news he had heard from the Imperial Hospital.

Wang Xifeng asked anxiously, "What should we do then?"

Jia Lian: "First, ask Li Yuanzheng and others to check the Madam's pulse and see what's going on. If there is still no movement after a while, we can only agree with the old lady's method."

Wang Xifeng: "Will the Queen agree? Besides, the Second Wife hasn't been married for three years yet."

"As for the Empress, the old lady has already said it. As for the Second Madam's mourning period, it will only last a few days."

Jia Lian sighed: "There are only five people in the harem now. If we don't think of a solution, it will be even harder to get pregnant when there are more people in the harem in the future."

Wang Xifeng nodded. (End of this chapter)