Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 329 A Display of Military Might Stirs Up Europe (Part 2)
In the golden autumn of September, the harvest season has arrived once again. From south to north, the rice and wheat in the Ming Dynasty are turning golden in succession, and the entire Jiangnan region is filled with scenes of abundant harvest.

At this time, the rice and wheat in the capital region were not yet ready for harvest, and news of the great victory in the South Seas had not yet arrived.

Zhu Jue seemed to have nothing better to do, so he went to inspect the coal mines near Wanping County in western Beijing.

However, he didn't come to see the coal mine; he came to see the brick kiln.

By this time, the weather had already turned a bit chilly, and the warm sunshine felt just right on my skin—neither too hot nor too cold.

Across the moat west of the capital, countless artisans were busy at work on the hillsides below.

These craftsmen were busy digging brick kilns, building sheds, and constructing houses.

Brick kilns are not uncommon; their history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

For more than two thousand years, countless brick kilns have been built there throughout the dynasties.

However, it seems quite rare to see rows and rows of brick kilns being built like this. On the hillsides across the moat in western Beijing, which stretch for more than 30 miles, brick kilns are almost everywhere.

By this time, the cities and fortresses in Liaodong had been completed one after another, and Yuan You had returned with more than 100,000 artisans and able-bodied men.

They had dug quite a few brick kilns in Liaodong, so they were incredibly efficient at it. In just over half a month, they had dug almost all of the hundreds of brick kilns along a stretch of more than 30 miles, and some of them had even started producing bricks.

Zhu Jue stood under a large canopy, holding up binoculars and scanning the surroundings, nodding slightly in approval.

The work efficiency of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen was truly extraordinary at this moment. With so many brick kilns, along with the drying sheds for making bricks and the winter shelters, he thought it would take at least a month or two to complete. But it had only been a little over half a month, and it seemed that only some of the shelters were left to be finished.

He examined it carefully before asking, "Father-in-law, if this brick kiln were fully operational, how many bricks could it produce in a day?"

How do you say this?

Yuan You thought for a moment before carefully saying, "Your Majesty, the bricks produced in this brick kiln are not counted by the day, but by the kiln every two days."

We built two hundred large brick kilns that could fire 50,000 bricks at a time. If we calculate that one kiln of bricks is produced every two days, then that's five million bricks a day.

However, there isn't enough clay here. Even if we dug down more than ten feet deep, it still wouldn't be enough for a month's supply.

I had already thought of this clay problem.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "You don't need to worry about the clay. The reason I built the brick kiln here is not because there is a lot of clay here, but because it is close to the coal mine and next to the moat."

The clay used for firing these bricks doesn't need to be of very high quality; any kind of clay will do. Ordinary clay is readily available everywhere. We can first purchase clay from farmers along the banks of the North Canal, the Haihe River, and even the Grain Transport Canal, and have them dig it up, load it onto boats, and bring it over.

At the same time, tracks need to be laid here, connecting Gubeikou in the north and Baoding in the south. This way, even if the river is frozen, we can have farmers on both sides of the tracks buy clay and transport it over by horse-drawn carts.

"You can decide on the price of the clay: 100 jin or 1000 jin, to motivate the farmers to dig. In short, don't worry about the clay; we'll just buy it and bring it over."

That's good.

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "Jian Dou, how many bricks do you think are needed to build the defense system of the Northern Pacification Command?"

How do you say this?

Lu Xiang-sheng estimated, "Your Majesty, a two-mile-long city wall in a typical garrison city requires five million bricks, and the four sides would require twenty million bricks. In addition, there are barracks in the city. A barracks for ten people would require about fifty thousand bricks. If there are more than five thousand soldiers stationed there, then it would require more than twenty million bricks."

In other words, building a standard garrison city would require approximately 50 million bricks. To establish the defensive system of the Northern Pacification Command, we would need to build at least twenty garrison cities, as well as several large cities to store provisions, supplies, and ammunition.

This means it takes ten days to produce enough bricks to build one acropolis.

It's September now, and the snow and ice will melt in about 180 days by March next year, which is about the equivalent of the snow and ice in 18 acropolises.

That's far from enough; we need to expand the brick kilns by at least double.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue raised his binoculars again and scanned the hillsides on both sides before asking, "Father-in-law, I see that the brick kilns on this hillside are not very dense. There shouldn't be a problem digging out two hundred more, right?"

"That's no problem at all." Upon hearing this, Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem, no problem. I only ordered people to dig two hundred brick kilns because I saw that there wasn't much clay here. Now that there's enough clay, digging another two hundred is no problem at all."

That's good.

Zhu Jue then asked, "How many people are needed to make and fire bricks for those four hundred brick kilns?"

This is easy to calculate.

Yuan You estimated, "If skilled bricklayers are hired to make bricks, each person can definitely make 500 brick blanks a day. To make 10 million bricks a day, 20,000 bricklayers would be needed."

As for moving, drying, and firing bricks, there's no need for specialized bricklayers; any able-bodied young man will suffice, and not too many. For a daily production of ten million bricks, ten thousand people will be enough to move, dry, and fire them.

So that means a total of 30,000 able-bodied men are needed, right?
Even if we calculate based on four or five taels of silver per month for a young adult, that would amount to more than 100,000 taels a month. This amount of wages is nothing at all.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "When will all the able-bodied artisans from Liaodong be able to return?"

This should be soon.

Yuan You estimated, "The city and garrison over there are almost finished. This month, all the artisans and able-bodied men should be able to return one after another."

Those are three or four hundred thousand artisans and able-bodied men; we can't let them be idle. They also want to earn money to support their families.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "After they withdraw, you should let them build docks, stations, and lay tracks."

The moat is too narrow. You'd better dig about ten auxiliary channels near the brick kiln to build a dock. That way, the boats hauling clay won't get stuck in the moat and block the channel.

That's easy. Since we're digging clay anyway, it doesn't matter which part we dig first. If we happen to dig out a dozen or so side channels along the way, that's a piece of cake.

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then instructed, "You also need to work harder on the station and tracks. Make sure they are completed before the ice freezes over, so that the bricks produced here can be transported to Huairou, Miyun, and Miyun Houwei."

The horse-drawn railcart hauled the bricks to one side and then hauled the clay over the other, ensuring neither side was wasted time.

This isn't difficult. Three to four hundred thousand artisans and able-bodied men from Liaodong will gradually return, so this little task is a piece of cake.

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

As they were discussing, Fang Zhenghua suddenly rushed over with a memorial in his hand, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, an urgent report from Nanyang."

The report from Southeast Asia has finally arrived.

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it, and a hint of joy appeared on his face.

Zheng Zhilong did indeed capture Batavia, and their losses were not significant. Only about a hundred ships were damaged, none were sunk, and the casualties were also minimal, with only a few dozen soldiers killed and a hundred wounded.

This guy also looted a lot of goods and even real gold and silver. The goods he hoarded in Batavia alone were worth millions of taels, and the real gold and silver were worth tens of millions of taels.

The key point is that they have already seized more than 30 armed merchant ships and six warships, and Zheng Zhilong has already set up the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation in the waters north of Batavia. The ships of the Dutch East India Company that run back to Batavia to load and unload cargo will definitely be captured by them.

This guy is really good.

He had already promised to promote him to the rank of Duke, so this achievement was more than enough.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Ruoyu, draft an imperial edict to promote Zheng Zhilong to the rank of Duke of Anguo and bestow upon him a hereditary title."

This guy is really lucky; a pirate actually got promoted to a duke.

Upon hearing this, Liu Ruoyu couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then instructed, "Zhenghua, order someone to convey my oral decree, instructing Valdes to come to the Yuxi Palace for an audience around 11 PM."

(End of this chapter)