When Zhu Yunwen, the emperor, made up his mind to start a war, the only thing the Ming Dynasty could do was to cooperate.

The advantages of the separation of military and government are reflected here, before the war machine of the Ming Dynasty is launched, Zhu Yunwen does not need to discuss with the cabinet of ministers whether this battle can be fought and how to fight nonsense.

The only thing Zhu Yunwen approached the cabinet to discuss was how the local provincial governments involved in the march route should cooperate with the war.

Although the military and the government are separated, the civil and military can cooperate, and this kind of integrated and concentric environment is probably the court situation that every emperor dreams of building.

Of course, this large-scale deployment of troops is said to be 'grassland hunting'.

After all, nominally speaking, the prairie is now the territory of the Ming Dynasty, how can there be a reason to fight yourself.

You have to save some face for Zhu Yunwen, the emperor.

The front foot just received two years of tribute, tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses, turned his head and sent a large army to sneak attack people's nests, it is not easy to say and even worse, in order to pull a fig leaf for Zhu Yunwen in the green history, I had to find an excuse to hunt and patrol, saying that the army went to the prairie to practice equestrianism.

The commander-in-chief of this battle is naturally Zhu Di, no one is more familiar with the military affairs of the north than him, so naturally he, the chief of the general staff, will take the lead and go to Beiping first, but the conquest of the prairie, which has been a special honor that every emperor wants to experience for thousands of years, is naturally indispensable to Zhu Yunwen, the emperor.

The old rules, uncle and nephew, Zhu Di first went to stabilize the situation and ensure absolute safety, Zhu Yunwen went over to rub some credit, and it is possible that he will not even be able to take any credit.

Because the banner itself is not conquest, but hunting, even if Zhu Yunwen passes, he is nominally just running a northern tour of the grassland.

In fact, Zhu Di meant to let Zhu Yunwen go with him this time, and the line could completely fall in Beiping, with Song Sheng's Mo Nanding in front, Beiping was not at the forefront at all.

And the current Beiping is not the thirty-first year of Hongwu, he Zhu Di was the Beiping when the King of Yan was transferred to the north, and the current Beiping garrison is the Beijing camp when Jianwen changed the defense in the third year, and the army inside and outside his Zhu Di's base camp is all hardcore imperial party, even his staff and retainers back then, and how many are loyal to Zhu Di?

Now whoever asks Zhu Di to rebel is unlikely to be willing.

The reason for Zhu Yunwen's refusal was very simple, because the craftsman who invented cement in Jiangxi entered Nanjing.

The affairs of the grassland are settled enough by Zhu Di, and he is only going to add chaos now, so there is no need to worry, but cement involves the flood control work of Jiangxi and even the entire Ming Dynasty in the future, which is the foundation of the country, and he cannot delay.

"The fourth uncle will go first, and then I will go north."

Hongwu Gate sent Zhu Di a ride, and Zhu Yunwen couldn't wait to turn around to the Ministry of Industry and watched the development of cement on the spot.

"The cooling rate is average, the hardness is excellent, the process is simple and clear, and it is not cumbersome, and it has the basis for large-scale production."

In front of a newly weathered cement slab, Wei Jun, the new secretary of the Ministry of Industry and also from Jiangxi, explained the content of the cement slab to Zhu Yunwen, who also took the trouble to pick up a small hammer and hit it twice, shaking a lot of mud spots, but there were no obvious cracks.

Zhu Yunwen frowned slightly, and then soothed.

There is still an obvious gap in hardness compared with the cement of later generations, but compared with the current dam of the earth-rock foundation structure of the Ming Dynasty, the quality is obviously several grades better.

"Organize an experiment right away."

Zhu Yunwen put down the hammer and looked at Wei Jun: "Use this cement to make a small river embankment, simulate a flood discharge, and try to withstand it." ”

"Obey Your Majesty's Sacred Commandment."

Wei Jun was busy writing down in the small notebook, and then bowed down to receive the order.

"Is this thing expensive?"

In terms of quality, it is still passable, and the next thorny problem to face is the cost.

Building embankments and dams is not a money-making job, the flood control work in this era is undertaken by the imperial court, the cost of these raw materials is naturally at the imperial court's own expense, not only that, the wages of the craftsmen who repair the embankment also have to come out of the imperial court, it is a project that only has no return on investment, once the cost is too high, although the imperial court has to grit its teeth to support it, but the speed and efficiency of construction will inevitably be much slower.

"Because the raw materials used are everywhere and everywhere, the price is not high."

This question was carefully replied by Shen Liang, a craftsman in Jiangxi and the inventor of cement: "A piece that is one zhang long, one foot wide, and five feet high costs about 100 yuan." ”

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the measurement was about 3.1 meters, and the volume of such a cement slab was about 1.5 cubic meters.

One hundred yuan, at first glance, it sounds really inexpensive, and after careful calculation, Zhu Yunwen still couldn't help but gasp.

Jiangxi alone, not counting the behemoth of the Yangtze River, just runs through the Ganjiang River in the north and south of the river for 1,500 miles, and nearly 500,000 cement slabs of this specification are needed!

Fifty million wen, fifty thousand taels of silver.

However, where is it enough for the embankment of the Ganjiang River to be five feet high and one foot thick, and the cost of multiplying one layer is four times higher.

200,000 taels to build a dam, the diversion of the Ganjiang River, and other water systems in Jiangxi, such as Poyang Lake and Xinjiang, will be repaired, so that when you calculate it, the sum of these alone will probably reach 500,000 taels.

How much does the Yangtze River cost?

Is there only one Jiangxi section in the entire Ming Dynasty?

From the upstream end of Sichuan to start repairing, all the way to the south of Zhili, the mighty tens of thousands of miles!

The Yangtze River has been repaired, and there are still the Yellow River and the Grand Canal!

Moreover, the wages of the craftsmen who repair the embankment also need to be paid, so it is a lot of expenses.

If calculated according to the amount allocated by the imperial court to the Ministry of Industry in previous years, it will be between two hundred and three million taels per year, then if you want to repair the entire Ming Dynasty, it will take more than 30 years!

The volume of the Ming Dynasty is placed here, and no matter how small the problem is multiplied by the foundation disk of the Ming Dynasty, it will become a rather terrifying number.

If you want to complete it within ten years and lay a solid foundation for the whole country in an all-round way, the imperial court needs to allocate more than 10 million taels of funds to the Ministry of Industry every year, and this figure is not available to Daming at the moment!

Shen Liang is just a craftsman, his cognition can't support him to consider the whole country, all he can see is such a small cement slab in front of him, so he feels that the cost is not big, but how many years has Wei Jun, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, cultivated the Ministry of Industry, naturally he saw through it at a glance, and he was also terrified at the moment.

"Your Majesty, you can consider using this cement to combine it with the original soil and stone, and the cost can be reduced by at least half."

"Fart!"

Zhu Yunwen didn't even think about this proposal, and subconsciously opened his mouth to reprimand, his anger frightened Wei Jun and Shen Liang to kneel on the ground and tremble.

"It is not allowed to be mixed, it is all built with this cement."

Mixed construction, isn't that the imperial court coming forward to cover the tofu slag project?

So what's the point of building it, when the flood hits, it will naturally hit the fragile place first.

"Alright, get up."

Waving his hand, motioning for the two of them to get up from the ground, Zhu Yunwen looked at Wei Jun again: "However, before the construction, I plan to re-implement a set of measurement units to facilitate cognition." ”

Daming lacks a systematic unit of measurement, and the measurement in many places is not the same at all, and the measurement system of the Ministry of Industry can be called a mess.

For example, the official measurement is three meters one, while the local measurement is three meters three, three meters five, and two meters eight, and one zhang is not the same length at all.

There are also measures according to steps, and the step is about 80 centimeters to one meter, and the moisture gap is not a spectrum, after all, there is no uniformity in the pace.

It is imperative to implement a new measurement system.

Fortunately, the current Ming Dynasty, the measuring stick used for measurement has been very mature, inheriting the Song and Yuan systems, plus the mathematical system left by Huihui, the standard measuring stick of the Ming Dynasty is one foot long, with very fine scales, that is, inches, minutes, centimeters, millimeters, and wires, and the decimal system between them is the decimal system.

The first step of the unified measurement system is to unify the use of measuring scales and abolish the measurement and step measurement throughout the country.

"The Ministry of Industry will pay close attention to the learning of this technology, and strive to open cement plants and put them into production in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places within two months, and you don't have to worry about other issues, I will discuss with the cabinet."

Zhu Yunwen turned around and was about to leave, but after walking two steps, he suddenly remembered something, turned his head and said: "That Shen Liang, you have made meritorious contributions to the research and development of cement, I will reward you with 10,000 taels of silver, and when the cement is put into production, in view of the importance of this invention to the work of our Ming people, I will award you a medal on the National Day next year." ”

In terms of meritorious deeds, I almost forgot about this stubble.