Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 73 Frequent Victories: Pirates Promoted to Official Positions (Part 2)

Zheng Zhilong actually wiped out the pirate Xu Xinsu's gang!

Xiong Wencan even tricked the wealthy Zhejiang maritime merchants, directly transferring all the ships of the Zhejiang and Fujian navies, leaving Xu Xinsu with nowhere to turn for help.

This has caused a huge loss for the Zhejiang business elites. With Xu Xinsu, their agent, eliminated, how can they continue their overseas trade?
Xiong Wencan looks like a kind and honest guy, but he's actually so cunning.

That was a brilliant move!

However, if the wealthy and powerful businessmen of Zhejiang Province were to find out about this, Xiong Wencan would be in danger.

The wealthy merchant families of Zhejiang were known for their ruthless methods of raising pirates. The rumored massacre of the Xie family of Yuyao during the Jiajing era was related to the struggle for overseas trade interests.

If Xiong Wencan were to find out about how he schemed against someone, they would surely retaliate fiercely.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then asked, "Zhenghua, this memorial doesn't have any draft proposals, so it shouldn't have been sent to the cabinet, right?"

Fang Zhenghua shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, Your Majesty, all the post stations in the capital region have been secretly controlled by people. The memorials sent back by Lord Yang, Lord Xiong, and General Sun will not be sent to the cabinet. They will directly hand over the memorials sent back by their own people to the servants."

Hmm, not bad, you put in a lot of effort.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then solemnly said, "Ruoyu, this memorial is approved. In addition, draft a secret edict to have Zheng Zhilong help buy copper from Western countries. Buy as much as you can, and don't worry about the price. He can send someone to deliver it, and I will pay him. It's cash on delivery."

This also served to lull Zheng Zhilong into a false sense of security. If the emperor was willing to spend real money to buy things from this guy, why would he worry about something happening when he came to the capital?

Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhilong didn't want the money!

After Zhu Jue issued the secret decree, he didn't go or think much about it. This was because Fujian was more than 3,000 li away from the capital, and even with an 800-li express courier, it would take five or six days to arrive. He would be lucky if he received a reply from Zheng Zhilong within ten days.

About ten days later, he received an enormous surprise.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., he had just arrived at the main hall of Yuxi Palace and was about to review the memorials when Song Yingxing suddenly rushed over, his face full of excitement, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Why are your eyes so red?
This expression doesn't look like someone crying.

Zhu Jue asked with some concern, "Chang Geng, what happened to your eyes? Did you get burned by the steam?"

How could I possibly get my eyes burned by steam?
Song Yingxing shook his head repeatedly, unable to contain his excitement, and said, "Your Majesty, my eyes are fine. It's because the lathe has been successfully developed."

The lathe has been developed!
Zhu Jue stood up with a look of relief and said, "Chang Geng, you've worked hard. You must have stayed up all night, right?"

Song Yingxing couldn't contain his excitement and said, "Your Majesty, the thing I've been thinking about day and night is finally about to be developed. I can't sleep! I tinkered with it all night yesterday, and the lathe is finally up and running."

Okay, fine, that's how you tech guys are. It's impossible to stop you from staying up all night.

Leaving those aside, let's first look at what constitutes a proper lathe developed these days.

Zhu Juena said rather eagerly, "Let's go, let's go take a look."

The lathe is a core secret. This thing wasn't even developed in Dongcheng. The lathe was actually developed in a factory south of Wanshou Palace.

The group arrived quickly.

Zhu Jue strode into the factory and saw that the boiler inside was already steaming hot, and an old craftsman was there working on the inner wall of the steam engine.

The inner wall of the steam engine was extremely difficult to machine by hand. Fortunately, the craftsmen were very experienced and knew to make a special large reamer to first ream the inner hole roughly, just like reaming the inner hole of a musket barrel. Only then was the steam engine made by hand.

Unfortunately, hand-cutting is not only laborious, but also difficult to control the center; if it deviates even slightly, it's ruined.

Now, using a lathe is different. As long as the workpiece is firmly fixed on the turntable, it is impossible for it to be off-center. Unlike using a reamer to manually cut the workpiece, you can easily scratch a groove, and even a groove as deep as a hair can cause air leakage.

Another advantage of lathes is their speed; a hole that would take several days to machine by hand can be processed in less than half an hour.

This is just the most basic lathe. If it were a CNC lathe, it would only take a few minutes to complete the job with a few cuts.

Suddenly, Zhu Jue couldn't help but think of the most advanced CNC centers from his previous life. Unfortunately, even if he had seen them, it was impossible to build them nowadays.

These days, having even this rudimentary lathe is already quite remarkable.

He examined it closely and then asked, "With the lathe, processing steam engines is more than ten times faster than before, right?"

Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, in the past, it took several of us master craftsmen a month or so to produce two steam engines. Now, we can probably make two a day without any problem."

What do you mean, making two machines a day?

You can't think like that.

This mass production cannot be the same as the prototype production.

Zhu Jue glanced at the two sets of steam engine parts on the table next to him and shook his head slightly. He said, "Chang Geng, you can't let them change parts frequently. Because changing parts frequently means constantly adjusting the turntable and the position of the cutting tool. Sometimes you even have to change the cutting tool. All of this wastes a lot of time, you know?"

You should process one type of part at a time, dozens or even hundreds of each type at a time, and then move on to the next type. This will save a lot of time, you know?

Oh, that's definitely much faster.

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

Zhu Jue then pointed to the gears and racks that were in the transmission and said, "Also, you can't just think about using a lathe to process steam engines. The parts of these gears and racks that were originally filed can also be processed with a lathe. This way, the processing speed can be more than ten times faster."

You should first use this lathe to make more lathes, so that each part has a dedicated lathe for processing, and the processing speed of the steam engine will be even faster.

We can also use lathes to machine parts for muskets, cannons, and even other machines. Therefore, the more lathes the better. You should mass-produce as many as you can.

Uh, there isn't that much copper!

Song Yingxing said cautiously, "Your Majesty, lathes use too much copper. Steam engines, steam pipes, gears, racks and other parts all require copper. We don't have enough copper to make many lathes."

Could Zheng Zhilong buy them some copper?
More than ten days have passed, and Zheng Zhilong should be getting back to him soon.

As Zhu Jue was pondering this, Fang Zhenghua hurried over with another memorial in his hand, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty, Lord Xiong has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

What a coincidence! It just came to mind. Could it be that I am truly blessed with good fortune?
He opened the memorial and found another memorial tucked inside. Fortunately, it wasn't a draft from the cabinet, but a memorial from Zheng Zhilong.

Xiong Tingbi's memorial was very simple. He said he wanted to hold a grand celebration banquet in Zheng Zhilong's hometown and promote Zheng Zhilong to a higher official rank. Zheng Zhilong gladly went and even held a grand ancestral worship ceremony to inform his ancestors.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong has already sent out fast ships to search for other pirate fleets, showing great enthusiasm.

Zheng Zhilong's memorial to the throne was rather lengthy.

This guy actually refused his money!

All because Japan produces copper, and the Dutch sell at least a million catties of copper from Japan every year. Now that the weather is getting colder and the northeast monsoon is in full swing, the Dutch will definitely go to Japan to haul away copper. This guy is planning to just rob the Dutch!
This guy even guaranteed he could rob them, all because he had connections in Japan. All he had to do was keep an eye on the ports. As soon as the Dutch cargo ships loaded copper ingots, he would send a fleet to rob them and deliver them directly to the capital!

Zhu Jue was truly surprised to learn that Japan actually produced copper; he estimated that Japan's copper mines had been depleted after only a few hundred years of mining.

He only knew that Japan in later generations relied on importing copper ore for smelting, but he didn't expect that Japan at this time would still produce copper, and that millions of kilograms of copper were enough for their emergency needs.

Zheng Zhilong was indeed a pretty good pirate leader.

Copper is not cheap at this time. In the present Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver cannot buy a pound of copper. The copper coins made by the imperial court even have a large amount of lead and tin added to them. Millions of pounds of copper are worth at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. The key is that the Ming Dynasty cannot buy them.

Perhaps, this opportunity could be used to promote Zheng Zhilong to a higher rank and title.

He needs to quickly promote Zheng Zhilong to the rank of Marquis so he can lure this guy to the capital.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Ruoyu, draft an imperial edict. If Zheng Zhilong can deliver more than a million catties of copper to the capital, that will be a great achievement. I will also promote him to a higher rank and title."

(End of this chapter)