Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 112 Pirates and Treacherous Officials Collude (Part 1)

Zheng Zhilong's investiture ceremony was truly a grand and magnificent affair.

That fellow was surrounded by dozens of dukes, marquises, nobles, and officials of the second rank and above. The current emperor even personally bestowed upon him an imperial seal, sash, robes, and other gifts, and ordered his achievements to be read aloud.

Zheng Zhilong happily stayed in the capital and began a life of great prestige and nobility, completely forgetting that he was a pirate captain.

The next morning around 7 a.m., Xu Guangqi and Xiong Wencan, along with Zheng Zhilong's brothers, Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards), musketeers from the Beijing Garrison, newly appointed court officials, farmers familiar with potato and sweet potato cultivation, and others, boarded a fast boat and headed straight for Southern Zhili.

Zhu Jue even came all the way to the Tongzhou canal wharf to see him off.

After seeing the fleet off, he didn't rush back to review the memorials; he still had something to tell Song Yingxing.

Song Yingxing is incredibly busy right now. He has so many machine tools waiting for him to develop: drilling machines, milling machines, boring machines, planers, grinding machines, and so on. They are all high-quality products. When he gets into the swing of things, he even forgets to eat and sleep.

He won't eat unless he's starving, and he won't sleep unless he's so tired he can't keep his eyes open.

He spent all his time in the factory building, working day and night on research and development. He even set up his dining table and bed there, not wanting to leave for a moment. He didn't know anything about the send-off ceremony, and even if he had, he wouldn't have gone.

When Zhu Jue walked into the factory and saw what was there, he was speechless.

This guy, sporting panda eyes, is leading a bunch of disciples around a machine tool, tinkering with it.

He sat down at the table without hesitation, and ordered Wang Chengen to fetch some porridge, steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and so on. Then he beckoned and said, "Chang Geng, don't bother, come and eat something first."

Song Yingxing turned his head and saw this. He immediately dropped what he was doing, walked over quickly, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Upon hearing this, his disciples turned around in shock and quickly bowed, saying, "Your humble servants pay their respects to Your Majesty."

The craftsmen who were operating their machines were all taken aback, unsure whether they should stop and pay their respects.

Seeing this, Zhu Jue waved his hand repeatedly and said, "Alright, I'm not wearing a dragon robe. You all go about your business. Chang Geng, sit down."

Uh, I forgot that His Majesty was wearing the uniform of an Imperial Guard officer.

Song Yingxing scratched his head awkwardly before carefully sitting down.

You're almost completely exhausted.

Seeing this, Zhu Jue picked up his bowl of porridge and gestured, "Eat quickly."

Song Yingxing quickly picked up a steamed bun and wolfed it down, then picked up the porridge and slurped it down.

Seeing that he had almost finished his porridge, Zhu Jue said solemnly, "Chang Geng, you must take care of your health. You can't keep working like this, or you'll wear yourself out very quickly."

Song Yingxing even shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured, I am in good health. I feel full of energy right now."

You're doomed when you start to feel weak all over.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly, then asked, "Have you ever seen a spinning machine or a loom?"

That's what I said.

I've seen far more than just that.

After thinking for a moment, Song Yingxing simply said, "Your Majesty, I have made both spinning machines and looms."

well.

Zhu Jue then asked, "Have you ever thought about using a steam engine to power spinning machines and looms?"

I've certainly thought about that.

The problem is, I haven't even finished developing this machine tool yet.

Song Yingxing pondered and said, "Your Majesty, this spinning machine is actually easy to solve. During the Song Dynasty, there were already large spinning machines driven by waterwheels. Spinning silk and hemp thread was no problem, but it was not suitable for spinning wool and cotton."

We just need to replace the waterwheel with a steam engine and make some minor improvements, and that should be about right. The loom is a bit more complicated; there are too many movements, one steam engine definitely won't be enough. One loom would need several steam engines.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue exclaimed with delight, "The spinning machine was invented in the Song Dynasty?"

Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, there is a large spinning machine in the book 'Tiangong Kaiwu' that I compiled. That thing can indeed spin silk and hemp thread very quickly. The problem is that it cannot spin wool and cotton, because wool and cotton are too short. The large spinning machine can only spin threads longer than one foot."

Is it in "Tiangong Kaiwu"?
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue asked rather impatiently, "Do you have a printed copy of 'Tiangong Kaiwu'?"

This naturally exists.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing got up and took out a copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu" from the large table next to him where he was drawing blueprints. He flipped through it casually, then placed it on the dining table and pointed to the diagrams on it, saying, "Your Majesty, look, this is a large spinning machine."

This spinning machine is truly enormous; the people depicted on it are not even half the height of the spinning machine.

Zhu Jue examined it carefully and then asked, "Can this large spinning machine be built now?"

This thing is much simpler than a machine tool.

Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "This large spinning machine is simple to build because most of its parts are made of wood, which is very easy to process with machine tools."

Wooden ones may not be durable, but as I said before, the first thing is to have them; the durability issue can be improved gradually.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "How many days do you think it would take to build a large spinning machine?"

Who would waste time building this thing?

Song Yingxing asked, somewhat puzzled, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask, why are we making this?"
This large spinning machine can only spin silk and hemp thread. Silk is very hard to come by these days; even several loads wouldn't be enough for the large spinning machine to spin for a day. Making a large spinning machine to spin is a complete waste of time. Hemp thread isn't very useful either; these days, hardly anyone wears hemp clothes.

Others have a hard time getting silk, but I'm different.

Zhu Jue explained in detail: "Chang Geng, I have already ordered people to collect raw silk. From now on, we will use large spinning machines to spin all the raw silk into threads, and then use them to weave brocade and satin. This will not only save a lot of time, but also make the threads more uniform in thickness, and the brocade and satin produced will be of better quality."

Do you want to collect all the raw silk to spin into thread?

Raw silk is exceptionally difficult to process.

However, the emperor's demands should be met.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing pondered and said, "It's really easy to process this large spinning machine with machine tools. I estimate that we can produce a prototype in a day or two. As for mass production, producing a hundred or so units a month shouldn't be a problem."

Then let's get started.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "How many large spinning machines do you think would be needed to spin ten million bolts of silk and satin?"

Ten million horses!
Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing paused for a moment before estimating: "A large spinning machine can spin nine threads at the same time, and its speed is more than ten times faster than manual spinning. If we calculate it this way, one large spinning machine is roughly equivalent to one hundred skilled workers spinning at the same time."

Let's say the time for spinning and weaving is halved. It takes about eight to ten days for a skilled worker to spin a single bolt of cloth. Let's say ten days. That means a skilled worker would need five days to spin the yarn for that bolt of cloth.

In other words, a large spinning machine can spin 20 bolts of yarn per day, which is 600 bolts per month. Ten machines can spin 6,000 bolts per month, 100 machines can spin 60,000 bolts per month, and 1,000 machines can spin 600,000 bolts per month.

If we calculate based on ten million bolts of yarn per year, then we would need to build approximately 1,500 spinning machines.

Uh, 1,500 units?

The timber isn't the problem; the key issue is the steam engines. How much copper would it take to build 1,500 steam engines?
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue pondered and said, "Then you should arrange it according to the production of one hundred units per month. You should first lead your disciples to make the samples, and then you don't need to worry about it. When mass production begins, you can just send a few disciples to keep an eye on it."

That will only take a day or two.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Zhu Jue was still thinking that even if he couldn't get ten million bolts of raw silk a year, getting several million bolts of raw silk shouldn't be a problem.

The question is, is raw silk really that easy to collect?

(End of this chapter)