Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 170: Those who try to pacify internal strife and maintain external stability are either foolish or malicious (Part 2)

Hong Chengchou's original intention in submitting the memorial was to have Zhu Jue send the Beijing garrison troops stationed along the line of Daming Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, and Zhengding Prefecture to pursue and suppress the rebel Gao Yingxiang's troops.

Zhu Jue, however, did the opposite and ordered Lu Xiang-sheng to lead the Beijing garrison back to the capital!
He wasn't deliberately targeting Hong Chengchou this time.

The key point in Hong Chengchou's memorial was that Gao Yingxiang had given up on invading the capital region, and that this guy was even preparing to lead the capital garrison to Luzhou Prefecture, Zezhou, and even Pingyang Prefecture.

This means that even without Lu Xiang-sheng leading the capital garrison to hold the line in Daming Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, and Zhengding Prefecture, Gao Yingxiang would not turn back.

Naturally, he quickly ordered Lu Xiang-sheng to lead the capital garrison back.

There are still many things to be built in the capital, and the craftsmen recruited from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan have gone to the western city to build textile factories and manufacture looms. He still needs Lu Xiang-sheng to lead the capital garrison back to do the work.

Hong Chengchou essentially helped him ascertain the movements of the rebel Gao Yingxiang. That guy had already led his army to the vicinity of Pingyang Prefecture, posing no threat to southern Beizhili.

He naturally did not hesitate to send Lu Xiang-sheng back with his troops.

If Hong Chengchou knew that he had actually helped Zhu Jue in this way, one wonders what he would think.

Let's leave aside what this guy is thinking for now.

After receiving the imperial edict, Lu Xiang-sheng immediately led his troops back.

At this time, there were countless grain transport boats, naval fast ships, and even steamships on the Grand Canal transporting grain and raw materials to the capital. Moreover, the Grand Canal passed right next to Daming Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, and Zhengding Prefecture, making it extremely convenient for Lu Xiang-sheng to lead his army back to the capital.

Anyway, these grain transport boats, naval fast ships, and steamships are generally not fully loaded, so it's no problem to cramm some Beijing garrison soldiers onto them.

With this series of shortcuts, the Beijing garrison infantrymen gradually returned to the capital. In less than four days, before Huang Degong's 10,000 Beijing garrison cavalrymen had even returned to the capital, he led the last batch of infantrymen back.

Around 9 a.m. that day, Zhu Jue happened to be at the shipyard looking at the newly modified lathe.

Wang Zheng was quite interested in shipbuilding by piecing together parts, so in just three or four days, he modified a set of machine tools specifically for processing bow and stern components.

That guy, he's huge.

When Zhu Jue entered the dock, he was immediately filled with shock.

Wang Zheng actually managed to produce two machines that were three or four zhang long!

That's three or four zhang long, which is more than ten meters long. If it were erected, it would be equivalent to three or four stories high. Even if it were laid horizontally, it would be taller than an average person.

At this moment, Wang Zheng was gesturing wildly in front of an iron frame taller than a person, directing the craftsmen to load timber into it.

Inside the iron frame, there appeared to be eight iron plates arranged diagonally like flower petals. Each plate was about three inches thick, a foot wide, and two or three feet long.

Zhu Jue went over and took a look. The wooden beams used by the craftsmen to install the doors seemed to be two or three zhang long and two or three chi wide, and it seemed that a 45-degree slope had been cut out at both ends.

Their installation method seemed quite unique; each wooden beam was fixed to the slanted iron plate with a row of cylindrical pins, and the gaps between the wooden beams were filled with triangular wooden wedges.

The wooden wedge was also two or three zhang long, and it was clamped tightly with a clamp.

This feels like assembling a huge wooden barrel.
He examined it closely, then couldn't help but ask, "Liangfu, what is this machine for?"

How do you say this?

Wang Zheng was taken aback for a moment before pointing to the giant cone opposite him, which was longer than a person, and said, "Your Majesty, that is a horizontal drilling machine. I ordered a special large drill bit to be made specifically for drilling these bow and stern parts of the ship."

Good heavens, that's a huge drill bit!

Zhu Jue walked over and took a look. He found that the drill bit was actually made of wood in the middle, but the outside was fixed with a ring of long blades like planes with rivets. These long blades were also specially curved.

He seemed to understand; Wang Zheng was thinking of processing eight wooden beams for the bow and stern of the boat in one go.

Before long, Wang Zheng directed more than a dozen craftsmen to fix the eight wooden beams in place.

Immediately afterwards, he actually ordered more than a dozen craftsmen to push the large iron frame this way along the chute, and the drill bit, which looked like a giant spearhead, started to spin rapidly.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Jue quickly stepped aside.

What followed was a flurry of sawdust, just like a heavy snowfall.

At least this is drilling wood; if it were drilling such a large pile of iron blocks, even the largest steam engine probably couldn't make it.

Drilling wood was as easy as cutting tofu; the huge drill bit quickly penetrated the iron frame.

Wang Zheng glanced at the horizontal bar under the clamp, then immediately waved his hand and said loudly, "Alright, step back, quickly loosen the clamp, knock off the pin, and take out the wooden block."

The group of craftsmen busied themselves again, and the eight wooden planks with curved inner sides, resembling shaped ship planks, were finally unloaded.

That wasn't all. Next, Wang Zheng directed the group of craftsmen to carry the timber to another huge machine tool, fix the timber to a large, pointed conical wooden mold with cylindrical pins, and then hammer a triangular wooden wedge into the middle.

This should be for machining the outer arc.

Sure enough, once Wang Zheng saw that all the timber was in place, he immediately waved his hand and ordered someone to turn on the steam engine next to him.

Good heavens, this lump of wood, almost as tall as a person, started spinning rapidly.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Zheng ordered someone to push over a huge iron frame, on which was clamped a huge, round scraper.

This time, sawdust flew everywhere, like a heavy snowfall.

A short while later, Wang Zheng waved his hand and ordered his men to push away the large scraper along with its iron frame, and also ordered the steam engine to be stopped.

He then ordered someone to remove the pins, and the eight finished wooden pieces were removed from the huge mold.

Zhu Jue walked over and took a look, then nodded with a look of admiration, saying, "Liangfu, you really dare to do that."

Fortunately, the density of wood is only about one-tenth that of steel. In other words, a two- or three-zhang long piece of wood is only as heavy as a two- or three-chi long lump of iron. If such a large lump of iron were to spin rapidly, even an arm-thick axle probably couldn't support it.

Looking at the perfectly smooth bow and stern parts, Wang Zheng couldn't contain his excitement and said, "Your Majesty, this is great! With just these two machines, we can process the bow and stern parts of several giant ships a day."

This means that if we get ten sets of these large machine tools, we can process the bow and stern parts of dozens of giant ships in a single day.

However, it seems that not many of these machine tools are needed, because assembling these spliced ​​ships is the most time-consuming process. Even the most skilled craftsmen would need at least half a month to assemble the hull of a giant ship using the splicing method.

If you add the assembly of the boilers, steam engines, water turbines, decks, cabins, etc. on the hull, a month and a half would probably not be enough.

At this point, they can only build more than 200 giant ships of 1,600 liters each at the same time. In other words, it would be enough if they could process five or six sets of these bow and stern components a day.

These two machine tools work day and night, and can produce five or six sets a day.

It seems that there are not enough docks and waterways now. If there were enough docks and waterways, it wouldn't be a problem for them to build thousands of giant ships for transportation every year.

As Zhu Jue was pondering this, Lu Xiangshan strode in, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

You are finally back.

Zhu Jue asked rather impatiently, "Jian Dou, have you brought back all 100,000 infantrymen?"

Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I brought back the last batch. All 100,000 infantrymen have returned to the capital."

That would be great.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then decisively said, "Jian Dou, you have to work hard and lead the soldiers to dig the waterway side by side along the north bank of the Tonghui River, all the way to the Datong Bridge canal wharf. At the same time, help the craftsmen build the dock. This year, we will try to extend the shipyard all the way to the Datong Bridge wharf."

Ah!
How many docks and waterways are there?

Lu Xiang-sheng was taken aback upon hearing this.

As luck would have it, at that moment, Wang Yingchao strode in again, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "This servant greets Your Majesty."

Your return was quite a coincidence.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "So, what did Xiong Wencan say?"

Without hesitation, Wang Yingchao replied, "Your Majesty, Lord Xiong said there is no problem. He has already sent people to issue orders to more than 200 counties in more than 20 prefectures in Zhejiang, Zhili and Fujian provinces, where there are many mountains, to quickly organize the common people to dig terraced fields in the mountains. Each county must dig at least 100,000 mu of mountain land. He has also sent Wang Chaofu, Li Chaoqin and Li Yongzhen to inspect the area. I believe no one will dare to disobey."

That's good.

Xu Guangqi was also there, so he no longer needed to concern himself with the promotion of sweet potato and potato cultivation in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "What about the Fushe Society? How are the Eastern Depot's spies doing with their investigation?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Yingchao quickly pulled out a handful of letters from his bosom, presented them with both hands, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, this is what the secret agents of the Eastern Depot have discovered these past few days."

Zhu Jue took it, and after reading the first one, he couldn't help but snort coldly.

This picture shows what the Fushe Society was discussing among the scholars.

These guys were actually using the slogan of saving the Ming Dynasty to talk big, saying that they should eliminate the eunuch faction, punish corrupt officials, and that they should first suppress the rebels rampaging in the northwest before they could concentrate their forces to deal with the Jurchens.

That's just a load of rubbish!
What kind of talk is this about pacifying the internal and external troubles? Anyone who says such things at this time is either stupid or malicious.

(End of this chapter)