Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 168 The Rise of the Fushe Society, Successors of the Donglin Party (Part 2)

With the sudden emergence of the Fushe Society, Zhu Jue had no choice but to take it seriously.

This is all because these guys were so famous among the scholars at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, he knew of a man named Wu Meicun, whose line "The six armies wept in mourning, all dressed in white; in a fit of rage for a beauty, he lost his crown" has been passed down through the ages, and there are very few people in later generations who haven't heard of him.

There is an even more important point, namely the gentry in Jiangnan.

Later generations mostly believed that the Donglin Party represented the interests of the Jiangnan gentry group.

actually not.

Or rather, this is a bit of a generalization.

During the Wanli, Taichang, and even the early Tianqi reigns, the Donglin Party did indeed represent the interests of the Jiangnan gentry group.

However, in the later years of the Tianqi reign, Wei Zhongxian's purges and killings resulted in the deaths or dismissals of those in the Donglin faction who represented the interests of the Jiangnan gentry.

Who were the remaining members of the Donglin Party during the Chongzhen reign?

Han Kuang, Feng Quan, Sun Chengzong, Cheng Jiming, Kong Zhenyun, and others—these figures who held power openly or covertly in the Donglin Party were not from Jiangnan, and the interests of the Jiangnan gentry group had nothing to do with them.

As for Qian Qianyi, he was actually a minor figure. Historically, he couldn't even defeat Ruan Dacheng, a traitor of the Donglin Party, in Jiangnan. In the Qing court, he wasn't even worthy of carrying Feng Quan's shoes. He couldn't possibly represent the interests of the Jiangnan gentry group.

During this period, the Donglin Party no longer represented the interests of the Jiangnan gentry group, but rather the interests of the northern gentry group.

The Fushe Society truly represented the interests of the Jiangnan gentry during the Chongzhen reign, and their so-called successors to the Donglin Party also implied this.

He still doesn't know what these guys are up to, so naturally he has to send someone to investigate.

However, it will take time to investigate.

He can't just sit and wait.

It just so happens that the shipyard's new dock waterway has been completed these past few days, so he should start thinking about what kind of ships to build next.

Around 9 a.m. that day, after he finished dealing with the memorials, he led Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen and others straight to the shipyard closest to the old shipyard's waterway.

At this moment, Wang Zheng was already waiting inside.

This is incredible! There are hundreds of docks and waterways; a batch of these facilities could build over two hundred giant ships.

He couldn't help but ask with a hint of smugness, "Your Majesty, do you think it would be better for me to first test-build a gunboat with a capacity of 1,600 tons, or to continue testing-build a giant ship with a capacity of 3,200 tons?"

You want to test-build a new ship right now?
I wish I could too.

The problem is that we don't have enough ships right now. We need to start building ships on these more than 100 docks and waterways as soon as possible. We can't wait until the new ships are prototyped before starting construction. Otherwise, we'll lose more than 200 large ships.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully and then decisively said, "Let's build a batch of cargo ships with a capacity of 1,600 liang first. Right now we only have twenty cargo ships with a capacity of 1,600 liang, which is far too few and not enough to transport raw materials."

If we want to develop rapidly, we must first solve the problem of transporting raw materials. At present, the production of cloth, silk, porcelain, and even glass, mirrors and steel ingots is far from enough, and these all need to be transported by boat.

As for the giant gunboats that require 3,600 tons of material, you can develop them in the existing waterways first. Develop a prototype to test it out, and once it's working properly, we can mass-produce them. This way, it won't waste any time.

Uh, all the cargo ships built were used to haul raw materials for the production of cloth, silk, porcelain, and even glass, mirrors and steel ingots?

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng cautiously said, "Your Majesty, the shipyard doesn't have much timber longer than fifteen zhang these days. We need a lot to build our 3,200-ton warship. Could some of these cargo ships be used to haul timber longer than fifteen zhang?" Hmm, not bad.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly and said, "Development must take into account the issue of raw materials. Building a giant ship with 3,200 tons of raw materials also requires consideration of the issue of raw materials."

Have you ever thought that we simply don't have ships long enough to haul timber over 15 zhang long? The reason why the Jinling Shipyard can build giant ships of over 2,000 liang is entirely because the timber from Sichuan and Hubei can be nailed together into rafts and floated downstream to the Jinling Shipyard.

There aren't any giant trees over 150 feet tall in the upper reaches of the Tonghui River, and even giant rafts are difficult to pull once they're full of water. We don't know how many days it would take us to pull them from the mouth of the Yangtze River by ship.

These logs, about ten feet long, were relatively easy to pull, because the cabins of the 800-ton cargo ships and centipede ships were open at both ends. Moreover, after the giant logs about ten feet long were dried, they were easier to push onto the ship by placing round logs underneath them. However, giant logs over fifteen feet long were not easy to push onto the ship, even after they were dried.

Have you ever thought about using timber of about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) in total to splice together? Since we have rubber seals now, you could totally consider using the method of splicing timber to build a giant ship of 3,200 liang (approximately 1,500 tons)?

For example, it can be made into three sections. The middle section uses a plank over ten zhang long, without bending it into an arc, just a straight plank. The two sides use timbers over two zhang long, directly processed into an arc, also without bending. This saves time in shaping.

Is it possible to piece it together like this?

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng pondered with great interest for a while, and then couldn't help but nod excitedly, saying, "Your Majesty is wise. We can try piecing it together. Assembling it will definitely not be a problem, and it is unlikely to leak water. It's just that the strength might be a little lacking."

This kind of spliced ​​giant ship might not be suitable as a gunboat, because the recoil of the cannons is too great and the splicing is not very reliable. It may loosen and leak after a long period of use. However, it would definitely not be a problem for us to use it to build a batch of cargo ships to haul giant logs that are fifteen zhang long.

Regarding your point about the difficulty of pushing the 15-zhang-long giant log onto the boat, this is actually quite easy to solve. We can make a low cart with a groove in the middle, pry the log onto the cart piece by piece, and then have dozens of strong men use carrying poles and ropes to lift it slightly in the middle so it can be pushed.”

Okay, as long as you think it can be pieced together.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue nodded without hesitation and said, "Then you should try developing a ship that can be assembled. You can also try one made of 1,600 pieces of wood, because this will save you the time of shaping. As long as the wooden planks and curved wooden blocks are processed, they can be assembled directly."

Furthermore, curved timber is easy to process. We just need to make special curved cutting tools, and then use a large lathe to turn it or even a boring machine to push it. It's very fast, and we can make a large batch at once.

"If we can develop a colossal, assembled warship, our shipbuilding speed will be much faster. We can build a bunch of timber processing plants north of the shipyard, process the timber, and assemble them directly. I estimate it wouldn't take more than two months to build a batch."

As they were discussing, Wang Yingchao suddenly rushed over with another memorial in his hand.

Has the matter of Fuxing Society been investigated and resolved so quickly?
Zhu Jue thought Wang Yingchao had brought a memorial from a secret agent of the Eastern Depot.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yingchao directly held the memorial and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Lord Xu has something to report."

It turned out to be a memorial to the throne submitted by Xu Guangqi.

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it, and couldn't help but show a hint of joy.

Xu Guangqi reported that potatoes from Dongfan have been cultivated four times, and sweet potatoes from Dongfan and Suzhou Prefecture have been cultivated three times. If this round of planting continues, it will yield seedlings for four to five million mu.

They could each contribute about four million mu of seedlings for widespread planting, and continue cultivating the remaining hundreds of thousands of mu of seedlings. In the next round, each of them could produce tens of millions of mu of seedlings.

Xu Guangqi felt that the black soil in Liaodong was very good and suitable for planting potatoes and sweet potatoes. He suggested trying it on one million mu of each. He estimated that with proper fertilization, the yield per mu could reach four to five thousand jin. The remaining three million mu of seedlings could be promoted for mountain reclamation in Zhejiang, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

After this round of promotion, they can even purchase a batch of seeds at a low price to make seedlings, so that the next round of promotion in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty will not be a problem.

Furthermore, Dongfan now has nearly 150,000 households, with a total of over 7 million mu of land planted. Moreover, it is a double-cropping rice crop, which can produce at least 15 million shi of grain in July and August. In the second half of the year, it is entirely possible to attract another 100,000 households to the area and fully develop Dongfan.

The climate in Dongfan is suitable, with abundant rainfall, making it easy to grow potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains, sugarcane, and even mulberry leaves and tea trees. Once fully developed, it's impossible to imagine how much profit it could generate.

(End of this chapter)