My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 254 Steam Engine

The Ming Dynasty clearly established its sovereignty over Penghu very early on, and even established a prefecture in Penghu at one point in an attempt to develop the area.

Following the ban on maritime trade, and given the exorbitant costs of developing Penghu, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the Penghu Patrol Office.

In the 42nd year of the Jiajing reign, considering factors such as coastal security, the Penghu Patrol Inspectorate was re-established. However, it was attached to the Quanzhou Prefecture Government in Fujian Province, and its office was also located in Quanzhou.

Therefore, Su Ze's memorial requested that the Penghu Patrol Inspectorate be moved to the Tainan area developed by Li Wenquan, and that an official office be set up on Dayuan Island.

Su Ze wrote at the beginning of his memorial:
"Your Majesty, I humbly believe that since Your Majesty has ascended the throne and unified the world, Penghu, though separated by the vast ocean, is also a coastal region of our Holy Dynasty."

“In the past, a prefecture was established and a government was set up. However, due to the turbulent sea and the difficulty of land reclamation, the patrol and inspection office was temporarily placed under the jurisdiction of the Quanzhou government. This was a temporary expedient measure by our ancestors.”

Then came a barrage of compliments:

"Now, thanks to Your Majesty's far-reaching virtue and power, the whole country is at peace. The situation has been quite different in recent years."

"Today, merchants and people flock to the island of Tai Yuen, and the reclamation and development are flourishing day by day. People from Fujian and Guangdong, nobles from the capital, and overseas Chinese merchants from Southeast Asia are coming one after another with grain to open up fields, plant sugarcane and rice, establish farms, and engage in trade."

“The area of ​​Tainan (developed by Li Wenquan and others) and the port of Mengjia (where Fujianese merchants gathered) have become areas with considerable settlements and numerous boats.”

"Although the place is full of vitality, there are no government offices here, making it a veritable land of desolation."

"When the people have nowhere to turn, wickedness and evil will easily arise; when merchants are not governed, disputes will arise one after another; when there are no officials in the land, the king's rule will be difficult to implement."

"What is particularly worrying is that the islands are strategically located between the East and the South Seas. If they are left to lie fallow for a long time without officials in charge, laws and regulations, taxes, or able-bodied men, it may give rise to the covetousness of foreign barbarians, which would be contrary to the court's profound intention to control the sea frontier."

"In my humble opinion, as Penghu Island becomes increasingly prosperous and its maritime strategic importance grows, it is imperative to move our headquarters from Quanzhou and establish it on the main island in a strategically advantageous location. Tainan, being a newly developed area with convenient land and sea transportation and growing popularity, is a suitable place to establish our headquarters."

After finishing his memorial, Su Ze, just in case, still slipped it into the "Portable Ming Dynasty Imperial Court" device.

——[Simulation Start]——

Your memorial, "Request to Relocate the Penghu Patrol Inspectorate," was sent to the Cabinet, and the Grand Secretaries all voted to approve it.

The emperor has approved your memorial.

——[Simulation End]——

[Remaining Prestige: 970.]

[This simulation does not consume any simulation attempts for this month; 2/2 remaining]

Su Ze breathed a sigh of relief. This time, nothing went wrong. Sure enough, the request to establish the Penghu Patrol Office in Tainan at this time was something that the court agreed to.
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Throughout the first ten days of June, the court remained peaceful.

Although it is still raining in the south, disaster prevention measures were timely this year, and no major emergencies have occurred so far.

However, this is only the surface; undercurrents are surging beneath the surface of the court.

Since the Shanxi merchants' representatives petitioned for the introduction of a commercial tax in Shanxi, all provinces have been keeping a close eye on the situation regarding Shanxi's commercial tax.

The reason is simple: the emperor and the Grand Secretaries wanted to see the results of levying commercial taxes in Shanxi. If enough commercial taxes could be collected safely, it would strengthen the high-level determination to continue promoting the collection of commercial taxes.

If the collection of commercial taxes in Shanxi is not smooth, or if a great deal of effort is spent but the full amount of commercial taxes cannot be collected, then the plan to expand the scope of commercial taxes will have to be slowed down.

Secondly, the compilation of the "Longqing Accounting Records" will be completed in July.

The first volume was completed in February, but the second volume, which contains the account books of the various government departments in the capital, is still in the works.

Su Ze knew how difficult it was to compile this ledger.

To thoroughly understand and calculate the expenditures of all government offices in the capital would inevitably be a complex process.

In this process, many unreasonable expenditures will inevitably be discovered. After the compilation of the "Longqing Accounting Records", it will inevitably mean a reshuffling of the financial budgets of various government offices in the capital.

Therefore, all the major government offices in the capital are now calculating their budgets, and each office is preparing documents to explain the necessity of their budgets.

These two matters, one concerning increasing commercial tax revenue and the other concerning reducing expenditure, both relate to the most important financial power of each government department.

Various forces are secretly vying for power, fighting openly and covertly for their own interests.

However, none of this has anything to do with Su Ze.

He is currently only nominally in the Ministry of Revenue, and he is not the head of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Moreover, Zhang Juzheng would never cut the budget of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

Furthermore, Su Ze's newspaper was placed under the cabinet, with Li Chunfang as its chief executive officer—a frighteningly high rank. Moreover, the newspaper was one of the few departments among the major government offices in the capital that could be self-sufficient, receiving only meager funding from the imperial court.

Shen Yiguan rushed into the newspaper office.

"What the hell? All the rain has gone south this year? How come it's so hot in June?"

However, when Shen Yiguan rushed into the newspaper office, he felt a chill and instinctively looked at Su Ze.

Luo Wanhua said:
"This is Brother Zilin's method."

Shen Yiguan exclaimed in surprise:

"Brother Zilin, you're not pretending anymore? You really know magic?"

Luo Wanhua said irritably, "Brother Jianwu, this is real learning!"

Shen Yiguan laughed. Of course, he was just joking, but he was also very curious about how Su Ze had managed to cool the room down.

Luo Wanhua led him to the south wall of the newspaper office, where Shen Yiguan discovered that the south wall was covered with a large number of bamboo tubes. These bamboo tubes circulated down from above, wetting the straw mats covering the wall.

The water in these bamboo pipes is drawn from the well in the neighboring yard.

"what is this?"

Luo Wanhua has already studied the principles, he said:
"Water vapor evaporates and carries away the heat, which is why it's cool after the rain."

“Brother Zilin can draw water from the well and then use straw mats to evaporate the water vapor, which will carry away the heat from the wall and achieve a cooling effect.”

Shen Yiguan exclaimed in surprise, "It's that simple? Can my department make it?"

Su Ze said, "We can build it, but can your main and guest companies accommodate this machine?"

After saying that, Su Ze led Shen Yiguan to the neighboring courtyard.

Su Ze led Shen Yiguan to the neighboring courtyard, where they saw only a strange machine.

The machine was placed on a stovetop with a hemispherical iron lid upside down on top, and then connected to a cylinder.

Above this cylinder is a strange mechanical linkage.

Meanwhile, a craftsman is feeding firewood into the stove beneath the machine.

Shen Yiguan didn't understand what the machine was for, and he looked at Su Ze with a puzzled expression.

Su Ze didn't explain, so Shen Yiguan could only continue looking at the machine. He soon heard the sound of water boiling.

Accompanied by the sound of steam, Shen Yiguan saw the mechanical linkage on the cylinder reciprocating, and then he saw the water in the well being pumped up and flowing through the iron pipe into the neighboring yard.

"Brother Zilin, you're going to use this machine to fetch water? That's such a waste!"

In Shen Yiguan's view, the machine was extremely bulky and used a lot of metal, so its cost must have been considerable.

"Wouldn't it be a waste to use it for fetching water?" Shen Yiguan said. "Just find a few government slaves from the government slave quarters to fetch water."

Su Ze was speechless, but Shen Yiguan's thinking seemed reasonable, since labor costs were much lower in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, this was not the result Su Ze wanted; human power could never compare to a steam engine.

Su Ze said, "Human manpower is still unstable, but water turbines can only be installed near rivers. Now, the Denglai Mint has used up all the places that can be used to install water turbines."

Shen Yiguan thought for a moment and nodded.

Using a waterwheel to pump water and manpower is fine, but if it's like the Dengzhou-Laiwu Mint, which uses water-powered hammers to mint coins, expecting to fill the water-powered hammers by manpower would take forever.

Su Ze said again:
"It's not just the mint. Brother Wan also mentioned last time that the ironworks' blowers are too inefficient to be driven by manpower."

Shen Yiguan asked:
"Is this Brother Zilin's method? But it's not fast at drawing water."

In Shen Yiguan's opinion, Su Ze's machine was indeed amazing, but using such an amazing machine to fetch water? That was really a waste.

Su Ze shook his head. This steam engine prototype was the most basic steam engine that Su Ze reconstructed using his memory palace, the one from the history textbook.

Su Ze also knew that this machine was inefficient and using it to fetch water was a complete loss-making business.

This steam engine was still a long way from being a practical steam engine.

First, there's the issue of airtightness. Without rubber, it's difficult to ensure the airtightness of the cast cylinder, so steam would leak out randomly when the steam engine was running, resulting in very low efficiency.

Then, this machine can only move up and down using a linkage, so it can only be used to pump water and cannot be used as a power source.

In addition, the machine's movement speed is very unstable, making it difficult to use in applications requiring constant speed power, such as rotary printing presses and silk reeling machines.

In short, Su Ze's steam engine prototype was still a large toy, only good for fetching water.

Unfortunately, the development of the steam engine faced numerous technical challenges, and "boiling water" was just one of the simplest.

Su Ze has already shown the machine to Wan Jing of the Ministry of Works, and Wan Jing is very interested in it, but it seems that it will take many more iterations to produce a suitable steam engine.

However, Su Ze is already very satisfied that he has been able to build this prototype.

The steam engine is definitely not as simple as "boiling water"; it is the culmination of the achievements of multiple disciplines such as physics, metallurgy, metal processing, materials science, and mechanical design.

If any aspect lags behind, it will be impossible to build a qualified steam engine.

However, now that the prototype is in place, as long as the steam engine can solve the problems in production and improve production efficiency, people will naturally invest in its research.

Su Ze said, "This is just a prototype, and there is still room for improvement. Brother Wan from the Ministry of Works said that he will bring a few craftsmen to study it recently and see if it can be improved and used in the blowers of the ironworks."

Su Ze knew that Shen Yiguan was a "liberal arts student," and that this bulky steam engine showed no potential to change the future.

Su Ze ended the conversation and returned to the cool public housing. Only then did Shen Yiguan remember the purpose of his visit.

"By the way, Brother Zilin, did you know? Someone has proven your 'micro-insect theory'!"

Su Ze then remembered that the Crown Prince had once offered a reward in the newspaper: whoever could figure out the principle of malaria transmission would receive a thousand silver dollars.

Shen Yiguan quickly said:
"However, it's not malaria, so I won't receive the Crown Prince's reward yet."

Shen Yiguan didn't keep anyone in suspense and said, "It was when Li Shizhen was fighting the waterborne epidemic in Southern Zhili that he discovered the pathogenic micro-worms using a microscope!"

Su Ze was stunned for a moment. Li Shizhen discovered schistosomiasis?!
I can't believe I never thought of that!
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium, a very tiny pathogen that lives inside red blood cells.

Before Su Ze crossed over, identifying malaria parasites required complex biochemical equipment and special staining agents to observe them under a microscope.

Therefore, the reward offered by the Crown Prince has made no progress for a long time.

But schistosomiasis is different.

Schistosomiasis is a parasite that can be observed using a microscope with current technology.

Shen Yiguan said:
“Dr. Li saw ‘micro-worms’ inside the patient’s body under a microscope, and then he also found the same ‘micro-worms’ in the sludge in the ward.”

"Therefore, water poisoning can be spread through dirty water, which is why water poisoning always breaks out after a flood."

"Based on this, the Maritime Governor also formulated new policies, prohibiting people in the epidemic area from going into the paddy fields, distributing charcoal to the people, and providing them with clean hot water, which effectively prevented the spread of waterborne diseases!"

"This confirms Brother Zilin's theory about micro-insects!"

Luo Wanhua was even more excited than Su Ze, and he asked:
"Where did Brother Jianwu get this information from?"

Shen Yiguan said:
"The Office of General Affairs and Postal Service: Governor Hai and Physician Li jointly submitted a letter recounting their experience in fighting the epidemic in Yingtian."

"I heard that the Grand Secretaries are very pleased."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Guo Zhun, a secretary in the Imperial Secretariat, arrived at the newspaper office.

"The Grand Secretaries want to see me?"

Guo Zhun immediately recounted the contents of Hai Rui's memorial, and then said:

"Grand Secretary Gao was very pleased, believing it to be the result of practical learning."

"Governor Hai has done an outstanding job in fighting the epidemic in Yingtian Prefecture. The Grand Secretaries would like to invite Hanlin Su over to discuss how to reward the two of them."

Luo Wanhua and Shen Yiguan exchanged a glance, as if to say, "Still saying you're not the Junior Grand Secretary?"

The fact that the cabinet has summoned Su Ze for discussions is enough to demonstrate Su Ze's influence in the court.

Su Ze said, "Then I'll trouble you, Guo Sheren, to lead the way."
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cabinet.

Gao Gong was very happy.

Since the beginning of this year, Gao Gong has been promoting practical learning.

After Su Ze's reminder, Gao Gong abandoned theoretical debates and began to explore practical cases of learning, then used the Ministry of Personnel to promote these cases.

For example, with Zhang Bi's printing press, major government offices in the capital had already begun using roller printing for official documents.

Document archiving and record keeping make the transmission of official documents more standardized, rather than relying on oral or written communication as in the past.

However, these reforms lacked any significant impact.

Unfortunately, many institutional and technological reforms initially have little to do with ordinary people, making it difficult to resonate with officials and the public.

However, this time, Hai Rui and Li Shizhen submitted a memorial verifying Su Ze's theory of "micro-insects causing disease," which has a different significance!

Disaster relief and epidemic control are important tasks that affect people's livelihoods.

Unless it was the final stage of a dynasty that was rotten to the core, disaster relief was an important performance evaluation for local officials, and officials who failed to provide adequate disaster relief were severely punished.

Water poisoning disease was widespread in the south. Because its transmission mechanism was unknown, officials and the people were terrified every time a disaster occurred. In many places, local officials even took the lead in holding religious ceremonies to expel the disease, but the results were minimal.

Practical research has uncovered the principles by which microorganisms cause disease and the methods by which waterborne diseases are transmitted, providing a solution for the fight against the epidemic.

Isn't this the best example of validating practical learning?
(End of this chapter)