The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 264 The Imperial Concubine is Pregnant Again
Wanli actually wanted to give oil lamps to all civil servants.

Moreover, what he wanted to give was not an ordinary oil lamp, but a palace lantern and an exquisite oil lamp.

Is he trying to win over the civil servants?
Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

Many civil servants are worthless.

If His Majesty favors the civil servants or even wants to treat everyone equally, that would be a disaster.

Many civil servants are full of evil intentions.

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but said angrily: "What are you looking at? I gave them oil lamps just to sell oil, didn't I?

Think about it, ordinary people definitely cannot afford this kind of lamp oil which costs one tael of silver and ten kilograms. But there are many civil servants who can afford it. Not only they can afford it, but their families and even relatives and friends may also be able to afford it.

Once these oil lamps are given away, not only will our lamp oil business skyrocket, but our oil lamp business will also skyrocket."

Oh, so it was to sell lamp oil.

Civil servants do have money, and there are very few civil servants who have no money.

Many civil servants are not only rich themselves, but their relatives and friends are also rich.

As for why, everyone understands.

The gift of this oil lamp was truly a significant gift, as one oil lamp was simply not enough for a wealthy civil servant's residence.

Many civil servants would probably make their homes look like the lobby of the county government office, with a lamp installed on each pillar, and at different heights, so that the light at night could be as bright as day.

How many lights are that?

How much lamp oil would that require?

It’s not like I don’t know, it’s just a shock.

The residences of wealthy civil servants would probably be equipped with dozens or even dozens of such oil lamps. It was possible to burn ten kilograms of lamp oil a day. Ten kilograms of lamp oil was only one or two taels of silver. If one could not even spend one or two taels of silver in a day, he would not be called a wealthy civil servant.

Moreover, those wealthy civil servants have many relatives and friends, and it is possible for one of them to attract more than ten or even dozens of companies to buy.

There are at least tens of thousands of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty now. If you include those who have retired, the number is probably more than 20,000.

Each of them drives more than ten or even dozens of companies, which means tens of millions of companies. Burning 400,000 kilograms of lamp oil a day is nothing to them.

Upon hearing this, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen nodded excitedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. This lantern is a great gift."

That's not the case.

Wanli pointed at the oil lamp on the table and said, "When you go back, you must tell Engineer Zhou to start making oil lamps at full capacity. We need to make at least a hundred of these palace lanterns a day, a thousand of these exquisite lanterns, and tens of thousands of these ordinary lanterns."

This oil lamp really needs to be made quickly, because only with an oil lamp can lamp oil be consumed.

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen nodded and asked, "Your Majesty, how much do these oil lamps cost?"

I have thought about this a long time ago.

Wanli raised his hand and pointed at the oil lamp on the table and said, "If you buy a complete set of these palace lanterns, it will cost you 20 taels of silver per set. We don't sell individual lamps. These exquisite oil lamps are 1 tael of silver per set, and these ordinary oil lamps are only 10 wen per set."

These palace lanterns cost twenty taels of silver per set, so a hundred sets would cost two thousand taels. These exquisite lanterns cost one tael of silver per set, so a thousand sets a day would cost one thousand taels. You wouldn't make any money from these ordinary oil lamps, so it's like giving them away for free.

However, those who use ordinary oil lamps must not have much money. Since they don’t have much money, they can only afford kerosene. The purpose of giving away oil lamps is to sell oil.

Three thousand taels a day is not a small amount, which means nearly ten thousand taels a month. The lamp is mainly made of glass, and Zhou Danquan can get a 10% dividend for everything he is responsible for making, which means nearly one thousand taels a month.

Upon hearing this, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen nodded excitedly, then asked, "Your Majesty, how many bottles of oil do you make every day, and how much do you sell each one for?"

This is not a bottle of oil, it is a thermometer tube.

I use this to hold the oil so that you can see clearly what the oil looks like.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "We don't use this kind of tube to store oil. Lamp oil and kerosene will emit fumes, so they must be stored in sealed tubes.

Go back and tell Mr. Zhou to make more molds for stamping ceramic tubes, the kind that can hold one pound each, and they need to be equipped with wooden stoppers. We need to stamp out 100,000 of these tubes a day to be enough.

As for the money, forget it. We can give some to people when we sell oil. The more they buy, the more we give. Anyway, we need to encourage people to buy our oil."

Well, it's a bit too much to charge for the things that hold the oil when selling it. Ceramic pipes are not worth much anyway, so it's okay to give some away.

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen nodded slightly, thought about it carefully, and then asked, "Your Majesty, how do we transport this oil?"

Of course, it was transported by navy clippers.

Wanli asked directly, "Yunqing, have you brought over a new batch of navy warships?"

You finally asked me.

Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "I have brought it, Your Majesty. The new dock waterway over there has also started to ship out ships. This batch has a total of 250 centipede ships and 600 octopus ships.

Your Majesty, I dare to say that it is a good thing that the ships can be dispatched quickly, but these warships need naval officers and soldiers to operate them. The 250 centipede ships and 600 octopus ships require more than 10,000 soldiers to operate them.

If the New Longjiang Treasure Shipyard continues to build ships at this rate, I won't have enough soldiers under my command by the end of the year. Furthermore, even 100,000 soldiers might not be enough next year."

It's a good thing that the ship is out soon, but the sailors who operate it also need to be equipped quickly. Oh, this is money again. I don't know how long the money earned from selling oil can last.

However, once the navy develops, they will be able to engage in overseas trade, and the profits will be even more terrifying than selling oil.

Upon hearing this, Wanli gritted his teeth and nodded, saying, "If 100,000 isn't enough, recruit 150,000. Tell Danyang and the others that they'll be able to build more fast ships next year, and the year after that, they'll focus on building giant ships of 1,000 and 2,000 tons. Tell them to prepare well."

Wouldn’t that mean hundreds of giant ships could be produced that year?
Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli silently estimated the situation and then said, "Chengxun, I'll leave the job of transporting the oil to you. You can just dispatch 500 octopus boats to transport the oil.

A fully loaded 400-ton octopus boat is 400 dan, equivalent to over 60,000 jin (approximately 100,000 jin) of oil. We don't need to fully load it. Our daily oil output is less than 1 million jin (approximately 20,000 jin) anyway, and a boat can carry 10,000 or 20,000 jin (approximately 100,000 jin) quickly. 500 octopus boats should be more than enough for delivery."

This seems to be a bit problematic.

Xinjian Earl Wang Chengxun said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I'm going to ask you if you've ever been to Hukou. It's still a land-based boat trip there.

"This time when we came here, we exhausted the navy officers and men. Hundreds of boats took half a day to pull the ship. If we were to pull one million kilograms of lamp oil every day, each trip would take half a day at Hukou. Five hundred octopus boats probably wouldn't be enough."

Hukou!

He had been there before.

He also saw the so-called land boat.

That is to dig two canals about a mile long on the river banks at both ends of Hukou, and then dig two grooves similar to the bottom of a boat to connect the canals, and lay log rollers in the grooves at intervals of about half a zhang.

If a boat wants to pass through Hukou, it will enter the canals at both ends, unload the cargo first, have people carry it over, and then use a cable to pull the boat ashore, pull it into the groove, and pull it all the way to the opposite canal and then launch it into the water.

That time he was in a hurry to deal with the three major powerful families in Puzhou, and he brought a lot of troops with him. Moreover, it was downhill from north to south through Hukou, and pulling the boat was not difficult at all, so he didn't care much.

It's no longer possible now. The oil and even coal refined here need to be transported south. There are at least hundreds or even thousands of naval speedboats traveling back and forth every day. It would be exhausting to transport them all.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said decisively: "Father-in-law, it seems that someone has mentioned before that we can dig two ten-level river channels at Hukou, install ten gates on each, and gradually rise and fall. That way, there will be no need for people to pull the boats, and the speed of passing the boats will be much faster.

That section is only about ten miles long. It just so happens that tens of thousands of craftsmen are almost done paving the asphalt road to the river mouth. You can have them go over there quickly and dig two ten-level river channels, roughly ten feet wide, and finish them within a month. Is that a problem?

Of course, I didn't ask about this, but the labor and materials consumed were too much, and I'm afraid even 100,000 taels would not be enough.

Perhaps this is also the reason why the imperial court did not dig a ten-level river channel there in the past. There were originally no oil mines or coal mines here.

Even after crossing the Guanzhong Plain, the arable land and population are pitifully small, and there is no need to transport much grain. Who would go to the trouble and spend so much money to dig a river channel? Just pull the land boats and be done with it. Anyway, not many boats can pass through in a day.

It’s different now. There are too many ships passing through Hukou every day.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

The next step is to deliver oil lamps, sell oil, and make money.

The civil servants in the court had never expected that Wanli would order people to send them oil lamps. Moreover, the lamps sent were all made of glass and extremely exquisite, and came with a pound of lamp oil. Those above the fifth rank were even given a whole set of palace lanterns!

This oil lamp is indeed useful. Not only is it brighter than the original oil lamp, but it also has no odor when burning. If you use a palace lantern, there won't even be any smoke.

The civil servants instantly fell in love with this kind of oil lamp, and they ordered people to throw away the old oil lamps.

As for the lamp oil worth one tael of silver and ten kilograms, it was really nothing for many civil servants. The key point was that the lamps were hard to buy. The palace lanterns and exquisite oil lamps in the glass shops were sold out as soon as they were put on display.

They also wanted to equip the entire mansion with these oil lamps and lamp oil, as well as their relatives and friends.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp and the border troops were used to Wanli giving them oil lamps. They all knew that the Emperor gave them oil lamps because he wanted them to buy kerosene.

There is no problem with this. The new oil lamps are indeed much better than the old ones, so they will naturally use them.

This time, Wanli even started sending oil lamps to the garrisons in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and gave them to all the garrisons that grew medicinal herbs.

As a result, the sales of lamp oil and kerosene are indeed rising rapidly, and there is no problem in selling one million kilograms a day.

Wanli was wondering when he would return to Beijing.

Around noon that day, he was having dinner with Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan in the backyard of the county government office. While Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan was eating, she suddenly covered her mouth and frowned.

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but asked nervously: "What's wrong?"

Uh, this.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan said shyly, "Your Majesty, I seem to be pregnant again."

Is she pregnant again?

When Wanli heard this, he was stunned.

There was no other way. When he went to war, only Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan was with him to make babies.

He had been having sex with Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan for most of the year, so it was normal for him to have another child.

He was stunned for a moment, then he danced excitedly and said, "Quick, call in the Godly Doctor."

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan sighed and said, "I hope it's a little princess this time."

(End of this chapter)