Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 151 The Rebels Run Rampant and Cannot Be Eradicated (Part Two)

With Wei Zhongxian's return, chaos seemed to have returned to the capital.

The next morning around dawn, several thousand Imperial Guards poured out of Guangqumen on the west side of the southern city and headed straight for Tongzhou City.

Immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of Imperial Guards rushed out, following closely behind the Imperial Guards.

Not long after, the prefect of Tongzhou and the magistrate of Daxing were dragged out of the yamen by the imperial guards and taken to an unknown village.

Wei Zhongxian was used to acquiring land; everyone was familiar with it, even the prefects of Tongzhou and Daxing were used to it. They all knew that as long as they cooperated fully, Wei Zhongxian wouldn't punish them.

This guy is known for being incredibly fast at acquiring land.

If the rice and wheat harvest hadn't just begun, this guy could have harvested all 20,000 to 30,000 mu of land in less than three days.

Zhu Juena was well aware that this guy was very efficient at acquiring land, so he had to quickly organize manpower, gather materials, and prepare to build the factory.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., he had just begun reviewing memorials when he ordered someone to summon his father-in-law, Yuan You, and Song Yingsheng. He had barely finished reviewing the memorials when Yuan You and Song Yingsheng hurried in, cupped their hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servants greet Your Majesty."

The memorials can be reviewed later, but the factory construction needs to be arranged immediately.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, put down the memorial, stood up and came to the unfolded map, beckoning, "Father-in-law, Yuan Jiu, come and take a look."

Upon hearing this, Yuan You and Song Yingsheng quickly gathered around the map.

Zhu Jue pointed to the map and said, "I have already ordered Wei Zhongxian to take over the land within a ten-mile radius west of Tongzhou City. We need to quickly expand the production of steel, glass and mirrors, and also build a porcelain factory."

The deal has been finalized with Spain. We're going to do big business with them. They need huge quantities of steel, glass, mirrors, and porcelain. This first batch alone will require five million catties of steel, ten thousand pieces of glass, ten thousand palm-sized mirrors, and one hundred thousand dan of porcelain.

This is just the beginning. They will definitely buy more later. And this is only half a year's worth. It is estimated that the amount will double next year.

Therefore, we must hurry up and build a steel mill, a glass factory, and a porcelain factory. The steel mill is currently producing 100,000 catties a day, which is not enough for us to manufacture weapons and boilers. The glass and mirrors produced by the glass factory cannot even meet the needs of the Ming Dynasty itself. Porcelain is not only needed by the Spanish, but also by ordinary people.

We must significantly increase production in all of these areas. The steel plant must increase its daily output to 300,000 jin (150 tons), the glass factory must produce at least 5,000 pieces of glass and mirrors daily, and the porcelain factory must produce at least 1,000 dan (500 loads) of porcelain daily.

Ah!
Is this production capacity achievable?
Your Majesty, this isn't just about acquiring land and building a bunch of factories.

Song Yingsheng was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but remind him, "Your Majesty, if we produce 100,000 catties of steel ingots per day, we need 300,000 catties of coal and pig iron. If we produce 300,000 catties per day, we need 900,000 catties of coal and pig iron."

The problem isn't so much that so much coal has been mined and so much pig iron has been produced in Zunhua and Santunying, but that we have to transport it here, which requires too many cargo ships.

And then there's glass, mirrors, and even porcelain—the coal, clay, limestone, quartz, and feldspar required amount to hundreds of thousands of kilograms each. Even if we added another thousand canal boats, it still wouldn't be enough.”

Well, the first problem to solve in developing industry is transportation.

This is similar to the principle of "supplies first, troops second" in warfare. Just as troops eat provisions, industrial production relies on raw materials.

Therefore, when he mentioned expanding production capacity, Song Yingsheng was able to think of the problem of transporting raw materials. This proves that Song Yingsheng, like a general who is well-versed in military strategy, already had a certain understanding of industrial development.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "You're right. We must solve this transportation problem. Steelmaking, glassmaking, and porcelain making all require a lot of coal. Therefore, we should solve the coal problem first."

Father-in-law, you should conscript a thousand able-bodied men to vigorously excavate the coal mines along both banks of the Yongding River. They should be able to extract at least two million catties of coal every day. At that time, I will connect the Yongding River with the moat of the outer city of the capital.

In this way, coal from both banks of the Yongding River can be transported downstream to the capital in less than an hour. A round trip by cargo ship can take less than half a day. We can just dispatch a hundred cargo ships of 800 liang each to haul it.

As for the clay issue, I've already discussed it with Cheng'en. We'll mine it in the area of ​​the original Xing Kiln, Ding Kiln, and Cizhou Kiln. That way, the clay can still flow downstream, and we can haul it away every day without any problem.

Our daily production of 1,000 dan of porcelain only requires a maximum of 200,000 jin of clay. In other words, in the beginning, it would be enough for us to mobilize two wheeled boats to transport clay.

As for limestone, feldspar, and quartz, the demand is not as high as that for coal. We've mobilized ten wheeled boats to haul them, which should be enough. Liaodong is also about to have a bumper harvest, so they won't need to transport grain there anymore. Therefore, most of Lü Zhi's wheeled boats can be mobilized, which is why he dared to expand production capacity so dramatically.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingsheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. It seems that there should be no problem with the raw materials."

Once the raw materials are ready, the next issue to consider is labor.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Father-in-law, how many skilled craftsmen do you have at your disposal? How long do you estimate it will take to build these steel furnaces, smelters, and factories?"

Yuan You thought about it carefully before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, we have built no less than ten factories in the past year, and each factory requires thousands of artisans. At present, I can only mobilize about 50,000 to 60,000 able-bodied artisans."

"I will strive to complete these steelmaking furnaces, smelting furnaces, and factory buildings within a month. However, there are few craftsmen available to build the arrow shoals, city gate towers, and the like, as these large factories will require a large workforce, and I certainly won't have many craftsmen left to draw upon."

I have already considered the issue of the artisans for you.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Then we will conscript artisans from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan. These three provinces have large populations, with at least 40,000 to 50,000 artisan households in each province. If we conscript them all, we will have more than 100,000 households."

Moreover, all three provinces have suffered severe disasters, and the artisans who stay in the local areas will not be able to find much work. If the artisans are starving and have no other choice but to join the rebels in rebellion, that would be disastrous.

Many of the artisans are very strong and powerful. They can also forge weapons, build fortresses and castles, construct carriages, and make military uniforms. We can't let these artisans join the rebels."

It was indeed remarkable that this craftsman joined the rebels. Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng, was originally a blacksmith.

Therefore, he wanted to conscript all the artisans in these three provinces, cutting off the possibility of these rebels growing stronger at the source.

They were discussing the conscription of artisans from the three northwestern provinces when Fang Zhenghua suddenly rushed in with a memorial in his hand, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty, His Highness Prince Chong has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Chongwang?

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it, and couldn't help but frown slightly.

Prince Chong, Zhu Yougui, reported that tens of thousands of rebels had suddenly marched south from Kaifeng Prefecture, and that Shangcai and Xincai had both fallen, putting the Chong Prince's domain in grave danger.

At this time, the tens of thousands of rebels who could be captured from Kaifeng Prefecture must have been Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong. What were these two doing in Runing Prefecture?

It seems that Prince Chong was not the first vassal king to be destroyed by rebels.

Forget it, let those two do whatever they want. They'll never be able to mobilize my troops.

He thought for a moment, then handed the memorial to Liu Ruoyu and said calmly, "Approval: Order Hong Chengchou to quickly send troops to rescue Chongfan."

Uh, where does Hong Chengchou have any men left?

Upon hearing this, Liu Ruoyu was taken aback.

Why doesn't Your Majesty care about the rebels?

Yuan You and Song Yingsheng couldn't help but exchange a strange look.

They all knew that His Majesty seemed to be turning a blind eye to the rebels. The rebels had already captured Fengyang Prefecture, but His Majesty seemed to have no reaction at all!
What is going on here?
Seeing the strange looks on everyone's faces, Zhu Jue said bluntly, "You're all wondering why I'm not interfering with the rebels, right?"
It's not that I don't care, it's just that the time isn't right. Right now, the Northwest is plagued by natural disasters, and the court doesn't have enough money and grain to provide disaster relief. The rebels can't be eradicated. If we were to launch a siege now, it would be a waste of money and grain.

There wasn't enough money and food for disaster relief to begin with, and now they're wasting money and food on suppressing rebels. Isn't that just shooting themselves in the foot?

Therefore, we must quickly earn money and increase grain production. Once we have enough money and grain to feed the disaster victims and stabilize their lives, then we can launch a campaign to suppress the rebels.

Emperor Chongzhen in history did not understand this principle. He wasted money and resources and launched a chaotic campaign to suppress the rebels. The more he suppressed the rebels, the more rebels there were. In the end, he did not eliminate the rebels, but he destroyed the Ming Dynasty himself!
(End of this chapter)