The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 169: Monarchs of the Industrial Age

On the first day of November in the 39th year of Xianning, inside an experimental workshop of the Beihe Iron and Steel Plant of the Wu State.

Zhu Jianxuan, King of Wu of the Ming Dynasty, accompanied by his secretary Song Wendao, who was in charge of industry and technology, and officials from the Military Affairs Department, the Industry and Commerce Department, and the Science Department, inspected the Wu State seamless steel pipe experimental production line.

Zhu Jianxuan provided the correct idea for seamless steel pipe production two years ago, and the craftsmen worked on it for almost a year and a half after returning to Australia.

The technical principle verification was completed at the beginning of this year, and a production method with practical value was developed.

Now we have finally made a set of production equipment for testing.

In the production process of seamless steel pipes, in addition to the basic steelmaking process, the two most important links are perforation and sizing.

The most important equipment is naturally the piercing machine and the sizing machine.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's initial guidance and reminders, the craftsmen later summarized the principle that the cylindrical steel billet is continuously squeezed towards the middle from multiple directions while rotating, and a hole will be crushed and torn in the middle of the steel billet.

Therefore, the core part of the seamless steel pipe piercing machine is the rolling roller composed of three staggered inclined steel columns, and the steel column rolling roller is driven by a steam engine to rotate continuously and stably.

The cylindrical steel billet cast by the steel mill is directly fed into the middle of three steel columns for continuous rotation and extrusion, and the basic shape of the steel pipe is produced in conjunction with a core rod that determines the hole position.

However, the function of the punching machine is only to make the steel column into a steel pipe. The inner diameter and wall thickness data of the steel pipe are only the most convenient standards for realizing the punching function.

If you want to get steel pipes with specific parameters in the end, you have to use a sizing machine to process them.

The principle of the punching machine makes people doubt whether it conforms to the laws of physics, but the principle of the sizing machine is easy to understand.

It is to put a core rod of a determined target diameter into the perforated steel pipe, and then use an extrusion machine to circulate and rotate it from the outside to the inside forging.

Forging reduces the diameter of the steel pipe itself and the thickness of the pipe wall, thereby making a seamless steel pipe with parameters that meet the final requirements.

On this basis, after completing the dephosphorization, quenching, cooling and straightening processes, it can be sent to the arsenal to make guns and cannons.

Zhu Jianxuan watched the most critical processes in the factory. He felt that the machines and craftsmen were not yet very skilled, but they were finally able to successfully produce the finished product.

They have surpassed the original history by a full hundred years and mastered the industrial production process of seamless steel pipes ahead of time.

After reading it, Zhu Jianxuan was very excited and encouraged everyone loudly:

"Great! With this machine, we won't have to rely on manual hammering for our gun barrels and cannon barrels!"

Song Wendao was also very excited and echoed the report:
“Your Majesty, although it is only in the experimental stage now, we have confirmed that the technical direction is completely feasible.

“According to our previous estimates, once this production process is fully mature, it will be able to produce hundreds of gun barrels a day.

"That is to say, one day of operation of such a machine can achieve the output of hundreds of craftsmen in a month.

"And the performance of the gun barrels made in this way is better than those forged by hand by craftsmen in the past.

“This new steel pipe production technology is as amazing as the king’s original converter steelmaking technology.

"These are technologies that completely change an industry..."

The rifle barrels of this era could only be hammered by hand by craftsmen.

It takes a skilled worker at least a month to make a rifle.

A lot of time was wasted on rolling the barrel.

With the seamless steel pipe technology, the production time of gun barrels can be greatly shortened, from days to minutes.

Zhu Jianxuan was also quite emotional after hearing this:
“Yes, this is the power of technology, this is the power of the machine, and this is the power of all of you here.

"So the craftsmen who participated in the research and experiments will have their grades and benefits increased by one level."

Song asked, and everyone bowed immediately:
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Jianxuan waved his hand to indicate that they did not need to be polite, and then continued to assign new tasks to them:

“Within the next year, before the end of the 40th year of Xianning, we are required to have three sets of equipment capable of continuous production.

"They are used to produce 80mm rifled cannons, 12mm large-caliber rifle barrels, and 8mm conventional rifle barrels."

This task is not difficult. It just involves building three production lines according to current standards.

Song Wendao and the steel factory craftsmen took orders and ensured that the task was completed.

After watching the trial production of seamless steel pipes, Zhu Jianxuan went to other workshops in the steel plant and finally visited the mine.

Now all large factories and mines in the Wu State are owned by the king.

The factories were all subordinate institutions of the Wu court.

Now, all orders, instructions and management are directly given by the king and the royal court, and there is basically no logic of commercial operation.

In nature, it is different from the state capitalism of Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life. Instead, it is somewhat similar to a state of public ownership, so that the value of the currency is not very obvious.

The State of Wu had now begun to implement reforms in its prefectures and counties, and had allowed ordinary merchants to do business and set up businesses in the State of Wu.

But Zhu Jianxuan is not prepared to change the existing industrial structure and system.

In the future, the important pillar industries of the Wu State must still belong to the king.

Industries including grain, minerals, steel, military industry, chemicals, machinery, and shipbuilding will not be open to the private sector.

They will only be allowed to run some trading companies, individual shops and repair factories.

Zhu Jianxuan is ready to be the monarch of the industrial age.

The reason why monarchs in the feudal era were monarchs was not just because they controlled the army, nor just because they were the nominal masters of the country.

The most fundamental reason is that the monarch controlled the most means of production at that time - land.

The size of the land that the monarch can directly control and its proportion in the national land directly determine the actual power of the monarch. If the monarch does not actually control the land, it will be difficult for him to maintain his position and the army even if he controls the army.

If a traditional monarch only controlled the army, he could only be considered a conqueror of the landlord class.

The rule forcibly maintained by the military could collapse at any time.

Only when the monarch controls enough land can he become the direct leader of the landlord class and truly and permanently hold the actual supreme power.

If he has neither land nor army, he can only be a spokesperson, that is, a complete puppet monarch.

With such experience, in the industrial age and the capitalist era, it became obvious what the monarch should do if he wanted to continue to maintain sufficient power and status.

That is to control as much industrial property and capital as possible.

If a traditional monarch simply encourages and supports industry and commerce, but does not participate in the operation and construction of industry and commerce himself at all.

The process of this country's industrialization is the process of the monarch losing absolute power.

Because after industrialization is completed, the country's ruling class will change from feudal landlords to the bourgeoisie.

If the monarch does not participate in industrial and commercial operations, he will still be the representative of the landlord class, and the only means of production he controls is land.

Then he is not even a member of the new ruling class.

Even if a monarch of this nature continues to support industry and commerce, his class identity is merely that of a spokesperson for the new ruling class.

Their actual status has fallen below that of the real ruling class.

He must commit to safeguarding the interests of the real ruling class, the bourgeoisie, and must constantly meet the various demands of the bourgeoisie.

He must act according to the demands of the bourgeoisie and accept the constitution and rules that safeguard the interests of the bourgeoisie.

If you fail to do these things, you may be abandoned by the bourgeoisie at any time.

After all, he is just a spokesperson, not a class leader.

The best outcome would be to become a figurehead with no real power.

Peaceful industrial and commercial reform and industrialization is the process of the bourgeoisie "taking over" the landlord class.

Therefore, the traditional feudal landlord class usually resists with all their might.

Developed industrialized countries often encourage traditional countries to develop industry and commerce and advocate civilized reforms.

Because the industrial and business groups in industrial countries can control the country's major industrial industries and capital in the process of the other country's industrial and commercial reforms and industrialization.

It then skipped over the country's original ruling class and became the country's de facto new ruling group.

Ultimately achieving the goal of "taking over" a country.

The country relies on foreign capital to complete industrialization, and the monarch will become the spokesperson for foreign capital.

Therefore, when our countrymen advocate full opening up and liberalization, it is equivalent to advocating allowing foreign ruling classes to take over their own country.

Therefore, Zhu Jianxuan was very happy to see Japan achieve industrial and commercial reforms with the help of the Ming Dynasty.

According to this logic in reverse, the identity of the emperor of the Shenzhou Empire in the capitalist era is actually the legendary "end producer".

An absolute monopoly capitalist who controls most of the country's industry and assets.

There are no other independent capitalists of sufficient scale within the country he rules, and the vast majority of capital must obey the emperor.

The emperor of capital is the leader and ruler of capital, not a replaceable spokesperson.

This kind of true capital emperor may have a stronger ability to rule the bourgeoisie in capitalist countries than the emperors of China in the feudal era.

Naturally, there will be no constitutional monarchy or parliamentary system in such a country.

After inspecting the main industries in the Beihe Industrial Zone, Zhu Jianxuan took the train on the Beihe Railway in the royal capital back to the palace.

After Zhu Jianxuan returned to his office, he looked through the documents that the Secretariat had submitted to him while he was away.

When the secretary Yao Nai who stayed behind learned that Zhu Jianxuan had returned, he immediately came in to report and ask for instructions:
"Your Majesty, this year there is widespread drought in Jiangnan, Zhejiang, and Shandong in the Qing Dynasty. The court has begun to send a new round of disaster victims to Australia.

"A total of about 300,000 disaster victims will arrive in Australia in the next ten days, including a group of disaster victims from Shandong Province in the Qing Dynasty.

"The Secretary's Office has requested the King's permission to relocate them to the recently developed East Australia region to cultivate more arable land.

"We should continue to relocate them to the vicinity of the capital as workers for the continued expansion of the factory."

Zhu Jianxuan made the decision without much hesitation:

“The recently constructed residential area in the Royal Capital Valley should be able to accommodate them, so we should move them back to the Royal Capital if possible.

"Industrial production must be concentrated. Concentration is efficient. Putting it in other places is a waste.

"The capital city must have at least one million people, and in the future there may be two million people."

Yao Nai immediately bowed and agreed:

"My minister obeys."

Zhu Jianxuan continued to instruct him:

"After this group of immigrants arrives, we will recruit one soldier per household, and continue to form five regular divisions and train them according to the regular army."

Yao Nai agreed seriously again.

The formal document was drafted according to Zhu Jianxuan's order, and then handed over to Zhu Jianxuan for seal before being issued to various departments for execution.

(End of this chapter)