The matter of the B-type steam engine did not need to be kept secret, and gradually, the matter of the B-type steam engine spread in the area ruled by the People's Army, and in the limited description of the B-type steam engine, the hearers only felt that the B-type steam engine was very powerful, and they could not understand what it was about, and most of them could not even understand "machinery", let alone "machine tools" and "steam engines".

The businessman group is the most well-informed group of people, they are friendly with officials, and the officials of the People's Army will not do things in violation of the law, but there is no problem at all in telling businessmen friends about some things that can be revealed, and often the well-informed people can make more preparations and make more money.

Now the attention of the great merchants was attracted by the steam engine.

"What is a steam engine? What does it do? ”

The People's Army did not keep the steam engine secret, and the merchants soon learned about the Type A steam engine, a machine that could lift water without manpower or animal power, and the merchants were very surprised by the Type A steam engine, but after the surprise, they did not feel much, and the Type A steam engine could only be used to lift water, and its function was too little, so it had no effect on them.

What really interested the merchants was the type B steam engine, and they learned from their official friends that the type B steam engine was something that most of the governors valued, and thought that the type B steam engine could bring about a great change.

The merchants naturally had to pay attention to the type B steam engine, which was valued by most of the governors, and they also heard that loading the steam engine on the ship could make the ship move without wind, and it could also earn the steam engine on the cart, and the cart would run on its own without being pushed by anyone.

But these magical machines have not really appeared, and there are only a few practical B-type steam engines, not even steam-powered machine tools, and it will take some time before the big change comes.

The B-type steam engine was only known by its name, and the topic quickly faded, and only some businessmen were still paying attention to the B-type steam engine.

In Fang Nan's view, the practical B-type steam engine has been built, and the next step is to rely on the B-type steam engine to open the industrial era belonging to the People's Army.

The initial goal of the People's Army in the study of the steam engine was to replace the hydraulic power of the hydraulic machine tool with the steam power of the steam engine, which could only be fixed on the riverside, and the hydraulic power was unstable, and disasters such as floods and droughts would have a huge impact on the hydraulic machine tool.

Steam-powered machine tools are different, machine tools do not need to be fixed on the riverside, you can choose a place to establish a factory according to the steam-powered machine tool, there is a plant, all kinds of disasters can not have much impact on the operation of the machine tool, can ensure the task of proceeding.

What's more, steam power is more efficient and stable than hydraulics.

With steam-powered machine tools, the People's Army's arsenal can produce more firearms and equip them with limited numbers to enhance the combat effectiveness of the People's Army.

In addition to steam-powered machine tools, the steam-powered machinery that Fang Nan attaches the most importance to is a steamship and a train, both of which are means of transportation, ships can enhance the strength of the People's Navy, and trains connect various cities on land, effectively maintaining the rule of the People's Army, and also facilitating the people's travel and commercial transportation.

The steam engine opened the industrial age, and machine tools, ships, and trains were all important products of the industrial age, but Fang Nan also knew that the industrial revolution that occurred in history was actually based on the textile industry, which eventually detonated the revolutionary innovation of mechanical technology, and various steam-powered machinery were born one after another, and science and technology developed rapidly.

In fact, the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty was very developed.

In the economic history of the Chinese land, there are two plants that completely changed the fate of the country, one is rice in the Song Dynasty, and the other is cotton in the Ming Dynasty.

Cotton is an exotic plant, native to India, the first appearance in Chinese characters is the "Book of Song" of the Southern Dynasty, the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, it has been popularized in a certain area in the southern region.

During the Yuan Zhen period of the Yuan Dynasty (1295-1296), Huang Daopo, a woman from Wunijing, Songjiang Prefecture, learned a new textile technology in Qiongzhou, she returned to her hometown to teach people to make cotton, and reformed and developed a set of tools to rush, play, spin and weave, remove seeds and stir the car, play the cotton vertebral arch, and the three-spindle pedal spinning car, etc., which made a major breakthrough in cotton textile technology.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously promoted cotton planting, and he ordered that the peasants have 5 to 10 acres of land, and they were ordered to plant half an acre of mulberry, hemp, and cotton, and more than 10 acres.

The implementation of these policies has not only made the best use of the wasted land and greatly increased grain production, but also provided more raw materials for the development of the cotton textile industry.

"History of the Ming Dynasty: Food and Goods" records: In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393 AD), the country had a total of 8.5 million hectares of fields, an increase of more than four times compared with the end of the Yuan Dynasty, of which the increase in cotton fields was the most significant.

The innovation of cotton planting and cotton textile technology has completely changed people's tradition of wearing silk and linen, and the output of clothing has increased greatly, and cotton textile has quickly become the largest handicraft manufacturing industry in the country.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the land of China produced about 600 million pieces of cotton cloth every year, with a commodity value of nearly 100 million taels of silver, of which 52.8% was sold in the market as commodities.

Huang Daopo's hometown of Songjiang is the area with the highest concentration of cotton cloth production, and the "Songjiang Prefecture Chronicle" records that "in the autumn when sales are high, the daily sale of Songjiang cloth reaches as many as 150,000 horses", which is a slight exaggeration, and it is estimated that there are about 20 million to 30 million horses throughout the year, which is also a very amazing output.

The textile industry of the Ming Dynasty told the development, which once again stimulated the development of productive forces, and the consequent increase in national income.

"History of the Ming Dynasty: Food and Goods" once described the situation in the Zhu Di period as follows: "When the time is counted, the United States is rich, endowed with Yingxian, rice millet is exported to the Beijing division millions of stones, and the prefecture and county warehouses have accumulated a lot of money, so that the red rot is inedible." ”

With the passage of time, the Ming court also degenerated, and the land in the hands of the common people was taken away by the landlord class, and the common people had no land, and the small peasant life of men and women was gone.

Although the life of the small peasants is gone, the production of cotton cloth has not decreased, and most of the land is in the hands of the landlords, who can continue to order people to grow cotton on this land, and tenants can continue to cultivate men and weave women, but this time their income will be exploited by the landlords.

At present, it seems that the People's Army-ruled areas are reverting to this kind of small-scale peasant life of men and women weaving, and the People's Army divides the land among the common people, and a family of three can own at least 10 acres of land.

Taking Guangdong as an example, during the reign of the Ming court and the rule of the People's Army, the cotton cloth production in Guangdong did not decrease much, and the decline was mainly caused by the war, and after the war, the cotton cloth production recovered rapidly.