There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 332 Promotion of Spinning Machines

The next day.

Nie Yu's father, Nie Jieren, the Supreme King, personally came to the Han King's Mansion to find his son.

Because Nie Yu had already become a king and started a family, his father, Nie Jieren, was honored as the Supreme King and a Supreme King's Mansion was built in the east of Jingzhou Prefecture (the old site of Mancheng) for him to retire in.

Old man Nie Jieren went to his Hanwang Mansion for no other reason than to discuss the important matter of continuing the Nie family genealogy.

Yes, this is big news!
Looking at his father holding his hand, Nie Yu couldn't help but feel speechless.

Then Nie Jieren began to ramble on, saying, “My son! What your ministers say makes sense. Continuing the family genealogy is of paramount importance, especially now that our family is so large and powerful, and you are the Prince of Han, destined to become emperor someday. I have no interest in the throne; I only wish to live out my days as a retired emperor, and also to continue this important matter of continuing the Nie family genealogy…”

This was clearly stated yesterday. Gu Jing and the others went to the Supreme Prince's Mansion to see Nie Jieren and explained their request to continue compiling the Han King's genealogy.

Nie Yu shouldn't be too harsh on this, because it is indeed the duty of a subject. Gu Jing and the others were not acting for personal gain, but were truly fulfilling their duties as officials.

Looking at his father's excited and thrilled expression, Nie Yu couldn't help but twitch his lips again.

Is this for the important matter of revising the Nie family genealogy?
They clearly wanted a separate family tree!
After all, the Nie family was not a large family. By the time of Nie Jieren's generation, there were not many male descendants left. They could only be considered the richest local tycoon in the countryside.

Even if they don't rebel, after this generation, the family will be too small, and decline is only a matter of time.

Nie Yu said helplessly, "My dear father! This revision of the family genealogy is a major matter. May I discuss it with the ministers?"

"What's there to discuss? This is about revising the Nie family genealogy; I even brought the imperial seal with me," Nie Jieren said with a serious expression.

Upon seeing the jade seal box that the other party had brought over, he decided not to keep the jade seal with him. It was only worth two thousand yuan, so he might as well use it to appease his father, since he had already carved a Han Dynasty jade seal for himself.

Nie Yu couldn't refuse, and after careful consideration, he figured that continuing to revise the family genealogy wouldn't do any major harm.

Each generation has its own mission. It is impossible for him to end the dynasty in his own generation, and it is unrealistic to forcibly establish a constitutional monarchy or a republic.

Because imperial power and autocracy do not suddenly disappear, if the emperor voluntarily relinquishes power, the bureaucrats and nobles below will quickly take over and usurp it, then devour the common people until there is nothing left but bones.

Nie Yu shook his head. "Let's continue the family genealogy then!"
One must eat one bite at a time. Continuing the family genealogy can strengthen imperial power, appease officials and the people, and make the rule of the Han Dynasty more stable.

Nie Yu reassured his father and summoned the cabinet ministers that afternoon.

Hearing that the King of Han had come to his senses so quickly, the ministers weren't too surprised. After all, they were the ones who had sought out the Retired King, and the King of Han was filial; with the Retired King's intervention, most minor issues could be resolved.

With the continuation of the Han King's genealogy, the royal laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty were truly established.

Establishing the royal family's genealogical laws was also a way of establishing the succession order and political legitimacy of future Han kings.

This is very important. Even the puppet Qing dynasty couldn't escape this custom and forcibly established a set of rules and laws for the succession to the throne for the Aisin Gioro family.

Although Nie Yu agreed, he still made some demands: "When our Han Dynasty continues to revise the royal genealogy, we should be realistic and not engage in any false worship or arbitrarily claim any relatives. The Li Tang dynasty claimed kinship with Laozi (Li Er), so let's just say they all share the surname Li! The Zhao Song dynasty went too far. They couldn't find a powerful ancestor with the surname Zhao, so they just relied on the emperor's dreams to create a god of war and wealth, Zhao Gongming. They were not as straightforward as Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty. When his ministers wanted to establish Zhu Xi as their ancestor, he refused and still posthumously honored his legitimate ancestors who had been farmers for generations."

The ministers exchanged glances upon hearing Nie Yu's request.

Gu Jing said, "Your Majesty is right. Our Han Dynasty has the mandate of heaven to expel the Tartars and restore China. Why should we fabricate divine ancestors? Seeking the truth is the right way and can also be used to resist the slander of the pseudo-Qing Tartars!"

Liu Jun cupped his hands in greeting: "Your Majesty is wise!"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Everyone shouted and bowed in unison.

Lu Zhihong suddenly said, “Your Majesty, since it has been decided to continue the royal genealogy, the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs should be re-established to manage this matter.”

Nie Yu shook his head: "This matter is not urgent. I am not the emperor now, why should I be in such a hurry? This matter of revising the family genealogy should be kept simple. As for posthumously honoring our ancestors, there is no need to posthumously honor three generations, just one generation will suffice!"

Everything was kept extremely simple, so simple that even the posthumous conferment of titles on three generations of ancestors was omitted.

However, the ministers did not have much of an opinion on this. The King of Han was not yet the emperor, and there were many things that could be done or not done for the time being.

Having finished discussing the important matter of continuing the family genealogy, the Supreme King had already returned home.

Yao Hongyi then produced two memorials: "Your Majesty, this is the detailed plan for the separation of industry and commerce and the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, as agreed upon by the Cabinet. There is also another document, a draft concerning the promotion of the first-year model steam spinning machine."

Nie Yu took the memorial from the secretary and carefully read the one about separating industry and commerce: "Hmm, there are no problems. Let's do it this way! Although the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce is unprecedented, since our Great Han is here to expel the Tartars and restore China, it should have the concept of reform and modernization. Next month, the Ministry of Commerce will officially take over the salt business between our Great Han and the Huizhou merchants. The Ministry of Works should provide as much assistance as possible and make sure there are no mishaps."

"Your subject obeys the decree!" Yao Hongyi bowed and accepted the order.

In the early stages of the separation of industry and commerce, the Ministry of Commerce was newly established and certainly could not do without the Ministry of Industry, so it still needed the Ministry of Industry's assistance.

Of course, if the Minister of Commerce is not strong enough, he may be sidelined by the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Commerce's power will continue to be controlled.

Nie Yu would naturally not allow such a thing, but he would not directly intervene. At most, he would take action to reprimand those who went too far and replace the Minister of Commerce.

As ministers, both wielding commercial and financial power, even if they couldn't defeat the veteran minister of the Ministry of Works, they should at least be evenly matched, not one-sidedly crushing each other. A one-sided crushing victory could only indicate incompetence, and failing to replace them would only make things worse.

The Ministry of Commerce needs a minister with business acumen and the skills of a businessman, not a mediocre and incompetent good-for-nothing!

Nie Yu then looked at another memorial, which contained a lot of information. It was a thick stack of documents, almost entirely about the improvement steps of the original model steam spinning machine.

Initially, although the Great Han Dynasty produced spinning machines, and even developed an improved version called the Great Han Spinning Jenny, when the Great Han craftsmen wanted to combine this spinning machine with a steam engine, they discovered that while steam power for spinning sounded simple and promising, it was by no means easy in practice.

Because spinning yarn on a spinning machine requires manual twisting of the cotton, this step would definitely have to be replaced by mechanical power once the steam engine was connected.

However, compared to later generations, the steam engine had very little power and its output was shockingly low. Yet, in this era, it could drive large wooden warships, and the power it produced was almost unimaginable to ordinary people.

Using such a large amount of kinetic energy to solve the problem of manually twisting cotton would only result in fragile cotton fibers that could not withstand even a second of the power of a steam engine.

All the cotton yarn was torn apart, except for the manually twisted yarn, which didn't seem to have much of a problem, and there weren't many broken pieces.

The craftsmen thought it was a problem with the steam engine, so they tried traditional water-powered spinning, and repeated the experiment many times, but the results were not satisfactory.

Not only were the craftsmen about to give up, but Nie Yu was also starting to think that it wouldn't be possible to produce one in a short time. He was planning to transfer some of the craftsmen to Jiangxi and Anhui to establish branches of the steam engine company.

At this critical juncture, a young craftsman had a sudden inspiration and created a special mechanical structure.

What exactly is the function of the mechanical structure of the spindle, which looks like a clothes hanger?
Even with detailed explanations and descriptions, Nie Yu couldn't make sense of the design sketches drawn by the craftsmen. However, the craftsmen in the memorial did say that this item could solve the problem of cotton yarn being torn by steam engines.

Once this problem is solved, cotton spinning machines can work perfectly with steam engines, greatly improving cotton spinning efficiency.

Of course, this memorial was not only a showcase of the achievements of the steam spinning machine, but also a preliminary draft for its promotion.

After deliberation, the cabinet concluded that steam spinning machines should not be immediately deployed to the private sector, as this would inevitably lead to a surge in cotton yarn production and disrupt the normal cotton fabric market.

The cabinet's proposed solution was to first use the official gazette to publicize the spinning machine.

Next, the spinning machines without steam engines were first promoted on a small scale, and could be rented out to some merchants.

Just then, the debate in the official gazette, although it did not yield any clear results, still forcefully promoted "The New Admonitions for Women," and some bold women dared to show their faces and go out to earn a living.

After all, this is an adult working person, and no one would be willing to let him waste his time at home. Only those pedantic scholars would constantly complain about it being uncivilized and about the importance of maintaining proper distance between people.

Once merchants and the public have realized the efficiency of the new spinning machines, the government will then sell them in limited quantities, giving the people enough time to adapt and also giving private businesses time to establish factories and workshops and grow.

Steam-powered cotton spinning machines could not be invented until the entire Jiangnan region was conquered.

After the entire Jiangnan region is captured, steam-powered cotton spinning machines can be gradually promoted.

The steam spinning machine is too efficient, how to solve the problem of producing too much cotton cloth? That's simple. According to information obtained from Hui merchants, cotton cloth seems to sell very well overseas. The Han Dynasty can sell cotton cloth overseas and earn money from overseas vassal states.

The Han Dynasty was not a pseudo-Qing Dynasty. It did not have the policy of closing itself off from the world, nor did it have the corrupt Confucian idea that it was a superior country and should not compete with vassal states for profit.

It should be said that this kind of thinking often comes from the middle and late stages of a dynasty. In the early stages of a dynasty, the emperor and his ministers are all ruthless.

You know about Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean, right?

They called it business, but in reality, they were just using their fleet to show off. Those who wanted to be vassals could become vassals, and those who didn't could be bombarded and landed by their fleet to forcibly turn them into vassals.

Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean resulted in the destruction of 1.5 countries and the defeat of Chen Zuyi, the pirate king of Southeast Asia.

The reason it is said to have been destroyed 1.5 times is because one of the destructions occurred in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

King Arakanar of Ceylon was "disrespectful and rebellious, plotting to harm the fleet twice." Zheng He could no longer tolerate this and had no choice but to send troops to fight against him.

Then, with 2000 men against 50000, Zheng He won a great victory.

After the fall of Ceylon, King Arakanar was captured and sent to Beijing to be executed.

The other half of the journey involved helping others restore their kingdoms. On Zheng He's fourth voyage to the Western Ocean, a civil war broke out in Sumatra on the return journey, and the king's son, Suganla, murdered his father and usurped the throne.

Suganla's uncle was very dissatisfied with this, so he declared himself king. When Zheng He passed by, he rewarded Suganla's uncle with some wealth as was customary.

This hothead thought Zheng He supported his uncle, and out of fear, he sent troops to attack Zheng He's fleet.

Zheng He was furious and launched a military campaign to destroy Su Ganla, and sent his prisoners to Beijing to be beheaded as an apology.

By the way, the "Qilin" mentioned in the Ming and Qing dynasties was actually the giraffe that Zheng He brought back from Africa as tribute during his voyages to the West.

I must say, this thing really does look like a Qilin.

(End of this chapter)