My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 333 Systemic Issues!

April 22nd.

Since Shen Yiguan went to Korea with Wang Shizhen, the newspaper office has become much quieter.

Even Luo Wanhua couldn't get used to this desolation.

Fortunately, Luo Wanhua still had newspaper business to attend to, so his days were relatively fulfilling.

In contrast, Su Ze has become increasingly lazy since the beginning of spring. Apart from going to the Eastern Palace, he spends his time lounging around in the newspaper office, slacking off.

It wasn't that Su Ze wanted to slack off, but rather that the court was operating smoothly and there was really nothing that required his intervention.

After Gao Gong was promoted to Grand Secretary, the cabinet struggle that the officials had worried about did not occur.

First, Gao Gong displayed the demeanor of a chief minister, toned down his personality, and did not wantonly encroach on the authority of other cabinet ministers.

Zhang Juzheng also changed his previous assertive approach, maintaining a low profile in the cabinet and deliberately avoiding conflicts with Gao Gong, focusing on managing the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhao Zhenji also had things to do. The budget for the new army in the capital had been secured, and Zhao Zhenji could finally establish the new army!
During the Jiajing reign, Zhao Zhenji wanted to reform the Beijing Garrison, but the time was not right and neither the emperor nor the ministers supported it.

Now that the opportunity has finally arrived, Zhao Zhenji is putting all his energy into it.

The only problem was that Zhao Zhenji and Cao Bangfu, the Minister of War, clashed over the reform of the Beijing Garrison.

Cao Bangfu opposed overly radical reforms, but Zhao Zhenji held a higher rank and frequently went to the Ministry of War to personally oversee the reforms, so Cao Bangfu could only tolerate it.

The Ministry of Works also received a sum of start-up funds, and the two major projects began preliminary work.

To dredge the Yellow River waterway, Pan Jixun, the Vice Minister of Works, proposed a plan to confine the water and attack the sand.

The method is actually quite simple: increase the water flow speed at key locations to flush out the yellow sand from the riverbed.

Another official, Wang Zhihuan, was in charge of the excavation of the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu, which opened up another outlet for the Yellow River to the sea.

These two projects were to be started during the dry winter season, and the Ministry of Works poured almost its entire budget into them. Grand Secretary Lei Li was responsible for coordinating with other government departments and local officials, and he also had endless official business to handle every day.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Minister of Education, Yin Shidan, is also very busy.

The task of establishing primary schools in two provinces and one prefecture, as well as military training preparatory courses and naval academies, all fell to him as the Minister of Education.

As the decrees were issued one by one, Yin Shidan realized just how vast Su Ze's three-tiered school system was.

This provides a complete training system from initiation to maturity, requiring the formulation of assessment rules for each stage, the review and approval of textbooks for primary school and preparatory courses, and the training of teachers.

Yin Shidan became the busiest Grand Secretary in the cabinet, spending his days either on his way to the Ministry of Rites or the Imperial Academy.

These important matters were naturally handled by the Grand Secretaries. With these Grand Secretaries in office, the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers dared not slack off, and all the major government offices in the capital started operating at full speed.

The crown prince became interested in Japan and ordered his brother-in-law, Li Wenquan, to gather information about Japan in Penghu.

The information from these businessmen is a mess, with many contradictory reports.

However, the Crown Prince was still enjoying the comparison. He had a map of Japan hanging in the Minglun Hall, and he would analyze the war situation in Japan based on this information.

Su Ze was helpless in this regard. His memories of the so-called Warring States period in Japan were limited, and even with the [Memory Sachet], he could not recall much useful information.

Su Ze knew that Oda Nobunaga would defeat all the feudal lords and become the overlord of Wa.

However, Oda Nobunaga will die at Honnoji Temple, and in the end, the Oda clan will fall into the hands of his retainers.

Su Ze reminded the Crown Prince to pay more attention to news about Oda Nobunaga, and then let the little fat Jun do whatever he wanted.

Children of this age become very focused once they become engrossed in something, so Su Ze really had nothing to do.

Seeing Su Ze's lazy demeanor, Luo Wanhua couldn't help but say:

"Brother Zilin, are you busy? I have a case on my hands, would you like to take a look?"

In Luo Wanhua's previous investigative article, the Fangshan County magistrate, who disregarded human life, was dismissed and punished, and the unscrupulous mine owner was beheaded.

This victory fueled Luo Wanhua's enthusiasm for running the newspaper, and he rallied the editorial team to find the next breaking news story.

However, Luo Wanhua was extremely cautious this time.

Having learned his lesson from his previous mistake, Luo Wanhua understood a principle: if you're going to run a newspaper that exposes the truth, you have to be more powerful than your enemy, crush them in one fell swoop, and not give them a chance to recover.

Therefore, Luo Wanhua demanded that the reporting be in-depth and rigorous.

Moreover, after gaining fame last time, the editorial department received a large number of letters providing news leads.

"This matter is also related to Brother Zilin; it concerns the new-style earthen buildings."

Are the modern Tulou buildings a problem with construction quality?

Luo Wanhua shook his head and said, "The quality of the Tulou is very good, and the officials in the capital like it very much, but this has also led to corruption."

"A scandal?"

This shocked Su Ze.

During the last holiday, Su Ze and Wan Jing, the head of the Ministry of Works, reported that with the increase in cement supply, ten Tulou buildings had already been delivered.

Su Ze was initially very happy, but he never expected that a scandal would occur with only ten earthen buildings.
Luo Wanhua said, "Brother Zilin built the Tulou so that poor officials in the capital could rent suitable houses at low prices and avoid the trouble of traveling."

"But these new-style earthen buildings are built too high. Some officials from well-off families also applied for new-style earthen buildings. There was even an official from the Ministry of Works who had already bought a house in the capital and occupied a room in an earthen building. He didn't stay there often, only using it for short rests."

Su Ze was speechless, but this seemed to be a common occurrence throughout history and across the world.

There are always people who think, "It's a fool not to use his power," and do everything they can to take more than their share.

Su Ze, feeling bored and restless these days, decided to get some exercise and said:

"Then Brother Yifu, please give me this news. I'll go take a look at the new-style earthen buildings."

"Then thank you very much, Brother Zilin."

When Su Ze arrived at the Ministry of Works, he went directly to the Construction and Maintenance Department, which was responsible for building the new-style earthen buildings.

The head of the Construction Department was Fu Shun, a good friend of Su Ze.

Su Ze originally thought that Fu Shun was not in the Ministry of Works, because he heard Wan Jing say that Fu Shun was busy with the railway work from Fangshan to the capital.

Unexpectedly, Fu Shun met Su Ze at the ministry and immediately began to complain.

The construction of the Beijing-Tianjin railway was quite challenging, with the biggest difficulty being the issue of land ownership along the route.

There's no way around it; those who own land in the capital region are naturally either rich or powerful.

To build a railway, land must be acquired, and land acquisition is the most troublesome thing about building a railway.

Although the railway is not long, if the compensation is based entirely on the landlords' demands, the railway budget would probably be several times higher and still not be enough.

More importantly, this railway is a model project. If high land acquisition prices become the norm, the cost of building railways in the future will be terrifying.

After listening to Fu Shun's complaints, Su Ze said, "Brother Yinghe, the Ministry of Works shouldn't have gotten involved in this matter in the first place." Fu Shun said, "The Ministry of Works shouldn't get involved? Brother Zilin, you don't think those guys in Shuntian Prefecture can get anything done, do you? These county magistrates in the capital region can't even clear the land in their own counties, do you expect them to requisition land?"

Su Ze shook his head and said, "Brother Yinghe, think about it, who is this railway being built for?"

"Naturally, it was built for the imperial court."

"Yes and no."

Su Ze didn't keep them in suspense and said directly, "The railway was naturally built for the imperial court, but the railway shares are held by the railway board of directors. Aren't they also the owners of the railway?"

Su Ze continued, "With the Ministry of Works involved, the owners of these lands will naturally be willing to pay whatever price they want. Since the court is paying for it, their asking price will naturally be high."

“The purpose of building railways is to reduce the cost of transporting raw materials to factories in the suburbs of Beijing. If the cost of building railways is too high, it is better not to build them at all.”

"The railway is losing money, and the railway company's shareholders are also suffering losses, so they should be the ones to handle this matter and negotiate with these landowners."

"If there are any cases of demanding exorbitant prices, the board of directors should decide whether to agree to compensation or to build the project on a different route."

Fu Shun was dumbfounded. He asked, "Is it really possible for those people to handle something so professional?"

The railway board of directors was established after the railway stock was sold. Fu Shun also attended a meeting of the board of directors when it was first established.

Fu Shun discovered that some of the shareholders attending the board meeting were powerful figures in the capital who were optimistic about the future of the railway. Of course, many of them did not appear in person, but were represented by stewards from the government office.

Another group of shareholders consists of newly wealthy individuals who have emerged as the capital region's industries have developed.

These people attended the railway board of directors in order to curry favor with the powerful and influential, so Fu Shun found the banquet disgusting and felt a deep aversion to the railway board members.

In his view, these railway directors were a bunch of sycophants who were incapable of accomplishing anything.

However, Su Ze said, "They are the railway's shareholders, the board of directors was established for the railway, and the profit sharing after the railway is completed is also related to them. They are the group of people who least want the railway to lose money."

"In that case, why not let them give it a try?"

Fu Shun also began to think.

He had also heard that many of the railway shareholders were powerful figures in the capital, and that some of the land being expropriated might belong to them.

These shareholders have diverse backgrounds, but doesn't that mean they have more methods than the government?
Since the Ministry of Works has encountered difficulties in acquiring land, why not let them try? This would also prevent every railway board meeting from turning into a social banquet.

Fu Shun nodded and said, "Then let's listen to Brother Zilin and try to get the railway board of directors to resolve the land acquisition issue."

Then Fu Shun rubbed his hands together excitedly and said, "The rail factory in Fangshan is already completed and can produce qualified rails. As long as the land acquisition issue is resolved, construction will begin soon!"

Su Ze nodded. The technical difficulty of using a horse-drawn railcar was not high; the biggest problem was actually the cost.

Wan Jing recently improved the steelmaking method again.

The original steelmaking furnace used carbon monoxide to heat the furnace, which could achieve a higher furnace temperature than burning charcoal directly.

Wan Jing further improved the technology. He discovered a method for producing carbon poison, and then heated the carbon poison before introducing it directly onto the molten steel for heating.

This method can raise the furnace temperature to new highs.

At the same time, this type of steelmaking furnace also requires a more stable blower in order to send carbon monoxide and air into the furnace.

Human and animal power are not very stable, and water-powered blowers have too high environmental requirements, so steel plants must be built near water sources.

Wan Jing thought of Su Ze's water-cooled air conditioner.

The water-cooled air conditioner that Su Ze used at the newspaper office last summer used a steam engine to draw well water for cooling.

Few families in the capital could afford water-cooled air conditioners, but the technology was quickly adopted by Shanxi businessmen in their mines.

Water ingress into coal mines is a major problem; in the past, when a mine shaft was flooded, the only option was to abandon the roadway.

However, with the advent of steam pumps, even water-filled mine shafts could be excavated, which greatly reduced mining costs.

This technology also spread rapidly in the mining industry, and Wan Jing soon discovered that steam engines were very suitable for driving blowers!
The power generated by a steam engine is generally stable, while a steelmaking furnace requires a stable air intake.

Steam engines can operate in high-temperature environments, and blowers can be placed next to steelmaking furnaces, unlike human and animal power, which requires working far away from the furnace and would waste a lot of power.

This technology, which uses preheated gas and steam engines to drive blowers, further increased the steel plant's production capacity.

Su Ze knew this was inevitable. The increase in demand for steel would naturally lead to the discovery of steelmaking technology. The increase in steel production would lead to a decrease in steel prices, and the people would naturally use steel in more places.

After discussing the railway, Su Ze finally got to the important matter that brought him here.

After listening, Fu Shun frowned and said:

“Brother Zilin, the construction of the new-style earthen buildings is under the jurisdiction of our Construction Department, but the allocation of resources is not handled by our Construction Department.”

"Who is in charge of that?"

Fu Shun said:

"It was originally in charge of Vice Minister Pan, but he's been busy with river works lately, so I guess he's handed it over to someone else."

Then Fu Shun also began to pour out his grievances, saying:

"This matter cannot actually be blamed on our Ministry of Works. The Ministry of Works only accepts applications from officials who need housing. At that time, we don't know whether these officials actually have houses in the capital."

"Whether they are poor or rich, the Ministry of Works can only act according to the report. I believe that Vice Minister Pan would never act for personal gain in this matter."

Su Ze nodded. He also believed in Pan Jixun's character. In other words, a high-ranking official like Pan Jixun would never seek personal gain in such a trivial matter. It could only mean that there was a problem with the Ministry of Works' system.

Now that the problem was clear, Su Ze returned to the newspaper office from the Ministry of Works.

After hearing Su Ze's news, Luo Wanhua frowned and asked:

"Brother Zilin, what are you going to do?"

Su Ze said:

"The Ministry of Works may have had a problem with lax review, but the root cause is not the Ministry of Works."

Luo Wanhua asked:
"So, Brother Zilin, you mean to just release this report?"

In fact, Luo Wanhua didn't think this was a good report. The new-style earthen buildings were for officials to be allocated housing, so ordinary people wouldn't care. Such a report wouldn't cause much of a public reaction; it would only cause a stir among officials.

Su Ze shook his head and said:

"This report is indeed not suitable for publication, but I am going to write a letter about this matter."

"Didn't Brother Zilin say that this isn't a problem with the Ministry of Works?"

Su Ze nodded and said:

"Yes, it's not a problem with the Ministry of Works, it's a problem with the system!"

(End of this chapter)