Bigger carriage!

How big can a carriage be?

In the Ming Dynasty, China's horse-drawn carriage was not large, the so-called "big cart", but it could only pull two thousand catties of goods, and the two-wheeled cart was not suitable for the army. Therefore, after settling in Jiangbei, Zhu Mingzhong drew on the western caravan invented in the eighteenth century to design a large carriage, this kind of carriage has 5.5 fathoms long (1 fathom about 1 meter), 3.3 fathoms wide, 1.2 fathoms high, it can carry 10,000 pounds of goods, there is a white canvas canopy on the top of the carriage, which can withstand bad weather, although its frame and suspension are made of hardwood, but the iron-clad wooden wheels are more durable.

After the manufacture of this large four-wheeled carriage in the arsenal of Jiangbei, it became popular with the army, and it could be used both to transport supplies and to pull soldiers, and to use these vehicles as a defensive position in case of an attack. It made the old horse-drawn carriages obsolete almost overnight, both in the military and among the people. In the past two years, this kind of large four-horse carriage has spread to all parts of the country with the footsteps of the loyal army.

Despite the high weight of this large four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, it still does not meet the needs of some special cases.

"Lieshan Coal Mine ......"

After entering the carriage factory, Zhu Mingzhong said to Zhang Huangyan as he walked,

"The royal family owns 65% of the shares, but from the Lieshan Coal Mine to the wharf, there are more than 60 li, in the past has been transported by horse-drawn carriages, and each ton of coal is transported by five cents of silver, almost ten miles and one cent, if it is a thousand miles, it is ten taels, and five thousand miles is fifty taels, of course, it should actually be more than doubled, after all, the loss of long-distance transportation vehicles and horses is more, plus the money of people and employees, the freight should be no less than 100 taels, and maybe even a little more, so, according to my estimate, to transport materials to the Western RegionsIf we send 100,000 troops, the materials needed for a year's operation will not be less than 100,000 tons, and the freight alone will need more than 10 million taels, and if it lasts for three or five years, when the time comes, it will be 40 or 50 million taels of silver......

Seeing that Zhang Huangyan wanted to speak, Zhu Mingzhong directly stretched out his hand to stop him, and then said.

"The Western Regions must be defeated, and the silver we captured in Shenyang is the military expenses for the pursuit of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in the past two years, just the interest, there are already tens of millions of taels, silver, it is indeed enough! But the price ......"

Shaking his head, Zhu Mingzhong's tone was a little gloomy.

"Too big!"

"Your Majesty, when the time comes, I'm afraid that there will be no need for 100,000, maybe only 50,000 or 60,000 officers and troops will be enough to pacify the captives."

Zhang Huangyan only thought that His Majesty was feeling that the expenditure was too great, and he knew that it was impossible to stop His Majesty from using troops in the Western Regions, so he tried to reduce the scale of the Western Expedition.

"It's true that you can't use 100,000, 50,000 or 60,000 is enough to ......"

Nodding, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the carriages in the courtyard, and then sighed.

"But the transportation of one ton and one hundred taels, I think it is heartache, and the heartache is not anything else, but because this hundred taels is lost!"

It's a waste!

The reason for this is that there is no real return on these shipping costs.

"Although freight is a must, it is waste to some extent, and how to reduce waste must be considered......

As he spoke, Zhu Mingzhong had already arrived in the backyard of the carriage factory, which was once the government's arsenal specializing in the manufacture of carriages, and was sold at auction last year along with some arsenals, and now this carriage factory, although one of the most important carriage suppliers of the Ming army, has become a private one, and its shareholders are both nobles and ordinary officials and gentry. Of course, the royal family does not own a stake in the carriage...... Zhu Mingzhong still can't look down on it.

"Actually, this goes back to what I said just now, that is, the transportation of coal from Lieshan Coal Mine, whether it is transportation costs or transportation needs, is not something that can be met by a big carriage, so, Concubine Ping...... She is a businessman, and she has been in charge of taking care of the royal property for the past few years,"

Just like the emperor of this era, Zhu Mingzhong also has his three palaces and six courtyards, and said with a smile.

"For this matter, she has been complaining to me about it for a long time, what transportation has limited production, what is the inconvenience of transportation when it rains, what horses are damaged, in short, this is the case, so I came up with an idea...... Look, you see. ”

Entering the parking lot at the back, Zhu Mingzhong pointed to a neatly arranged row of cars and said.

"It's this kind of car, and soon the Lieshan Coal Mine will use this kind of car to replace the big horse cart and use it to transport coal."

"What?"

Looking at a row of cars that were no more than three feet wide, six feet long, and about five feet high, Zhang Huang asked in confusion.

"It? Can it carry more goods than a wagon? ”

This carriage is too small, not to mention Zhang Huangyan, even Qian Lei, who has never doubted His Majesty, is also a little skeptical, he doubts whether this carriage can transport so many goods.

"Your Majesty, why are its wheels so small?"

Gu Yanwu pointed to the wheels of the car and said, Qian Lei also looked at the wheels, and after a closer look, he found that the vehicle seemed to be made of iron, not wooden wheels, and ...... Suddenly, Qian Lei seemed to have noticed something different, he first took a closer look, and when he looked up, he saw Gu Yanwu's face was also a little surprised.

"Your Majesty, why did it stop at the Iron ......?"

"Iron ...... On the railroad tracks? ”

Hesitating, Gu Yanwu and Qian Lei asked this question almost at the same time, but when Gu Yanwu hesitated, Qian Lei first said the word "rails".

"Because it's on a railway, it's natural to stop on the tracks!"

"What? Railway? ”

Zhang Huangyan, Gu Yanwu and Qian Lei's eyes opened at the same time, and they immediately asked in a lost voice.

"Railroad? Is it to build roads with iron? ”

"It should be said that it is a road built with railroad tracks, and it is naturally a railway!"

Railway!

In another time and space, who invented the railroad?

This matter is no longer verifiable, but the track road used to transport goods has undergone many changes, from the wooden rail road that was still widely used in North American forest farms in the mid-to-late 19th century, to the slab rail road that was widely used in British coal mines in the 18th century, and then to the railway track, Zhu Mingzhong does not know how long it took to evolve, but when his concubine complained to him about the problem of transporting coal, he immediately thought of the railway, of course, this railway is not different from the railway of later generations.

"The coal lane used in the Lieshan Coal Mine is not pulled by horses, but pushed by manpower, and the reason why manpower is used is because when it is stormy, people can wear oilcloth raincoats, but horses cannot, compared to people, horses are more arrogant and tender, so the 2-foot-wide coal lane will be pushed by manpower."

In the 19th century, it was very common in coal mines to push coal lanes by manpower, both in the mine tunnel and in the mining area, and many small local coal mines in China still used manual push to push mine carts even into the 21st century, but it was limited to the mine.

"But this kind of manual pushing of mine carts is not suitable for real railway ......"

Everyone is very curious, not only Zhang Huangyan, Gu Yanwu, Qian Lei, Zhu Daxian, Wu Youcai and other officials of the court, will always look at the shed with flowers, even the teachers and students of Qinghe Academy are also curious, today not only the officials of the court came, together with Zhu Zhiyu, the head of the academy, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi and others also came here.

Different from the old days of advocating science, the new dynasty advocates "practical learning", and Zhu Zhiyu is not only the head of Qinghe Academy, he is also the emperor's teacher - he is His Majesty's teacher, which is also one of the reasons why His Majesty respects internships, of course, more importantly, the popularity of "practical learning" is not a matter of day and night, Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui, Jiao Hong, Xu Guangqi and others are all representatives of the real school, they are among them the "Wang Ba and Gang faction", which can also be called the "righteousness and benefit" faction. This school revived the doctrine of the sons of the pre-Qin dynasty, and praised Guanzi, Hanzi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mozi, etc., especially absorbing the "utilitarian" doctrine of Guanzi and Shang, and did not shy away from saying "prosperity and strength", with "enriching the country and strengthening the army" as the ultimate goal.

What Shixue should abandon is precisely the two styles of learning of science, that is, the "Eight Strands of Learning" and the "Eight-Strand Practice". This is also the common goal of the Ming Dynasty's practical learning, often called "vulgar learning", in order to distinguish it from the "practical learning" they advocated, they pay attention to "practicality", advocate "practical learning", "implementation", "practical government", and advocate "solid" work. They abandoned the bad habit of Taoists to talk about the rootlessness, and paid more attention to those things related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as farmland, water conservancy, river water, salt law, astronomy, geography, and so on.

This is also the reason why Zhu Mingzhong chose "practical learning", in history, the Ming Dynasty since the Jiajing period began the trend of practical learning, to a certain extent, equivalent to China's "Renaissance". This trend of practical thought, which is mainly characterized by "applying it to the world" and advocating "practical learning", attacked the Zen of science and mind, and put an end to the long-term rule of Song and Ming Dynasty science as the mainstream.

It's just that this Renaissance was completely destroyed by the invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and those practical thinkers were either rebelled against the Qing Dynasty by the uprising, died by sword soldiers, or died martyrdom, or went into exile, or lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests. And the science that has been declining, but because of the invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it has been extended, and finally this is called "the mistaken talent, the one who defeats the world, and the Song people's learning." On the contrary, it has become the so-called "Confucian authenticity", and history has always grasped the world like this.

But now, Qinghe Academy has become the base camp of practical learning, with the support of Zhu Mingzhong himself, the students who graduated from Qinghe Academy have entered all aspects of the Ming Dynasty, in the academy of the Ming Dynasty, practical learning has become the absolute mainstream, as for the science ...... "mistaken talents, defeated the world, the Song people's learning." ”。 Nature is completely denied.

Today, the reason why so many people gather here is because it is a big day for the Ming Dynasty, at least for the emperor himself, and of course, for Qinghe Academy, the same is true.

"Brother Shunshui, look, the nephew is also here!"

Huang Zongxi nodded slightly at Zhu Daxian who was not far away,

"He is a cabinet assistant, His Majesty and hundreds of officials are here, I can't help but come."

Zhu Zhiyu smiled slightly, maybe he had never been out of office in his life, but his son was able to live in the cabinet, which already made him quite gratified.

However, when he saw the other son in the crowd, Zhu Dayong, his expression was still a little unnatural, since many years had passed, he couldn't change it.

Sensing the change in Zhu Zhiyu's face, following his gaze, when he saw Zhu Dayong who was talking freely with the officials, Huang Zongxi naturally understood why this benevolent brother's face looked uncomfortable, after all, Zhu Dayong had gone to the Manchu imperial examination, and for Zhu Zhiyu, this was a stain that he could never wash away.

"Brother Shunshui, today is a big day for my Qinghe Academy."

Huang Zongxi did not meddle in the affairs between Zhu Zhiyu and his son, but shifted the topic to the matter in front of him, he looked at the object behind the flower shed that was covered by red silk, and when he saw Zhang Ying on the side, he said deliberately.

"Zhang Dunfu, he is from the engineering department, and now he is in the Ministry of Engineering, which can be regarded as applying what he has learned, I heard that he is responsible for this errand?"

Although the new dynasty has not opened the imperial examination for two years, the new dynasty has still supplemented thousands of officials, of course, these officials are not specially recruited from the former dynasty, most of them are students who graduated from Qinghe Academy, and it is precisely because of this that Qinghe Academy will be sought after by students, and this year it was admitted to 3,000 new students. What they learned in the college was not limited to the articles of the sages, after all, "practical learning and practical learning" was the creed of the college, and the college successively set up departments such as law, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and ship science to carry out scientific education. This is also the characteristic of Qinghe Academy, of course, other academies in China, influenced by Qinghe Academy, have also opened these disciplines one after another.

It's just that the graduation of Qinghe Academy still monopolizes the officialdom, and sixty percent of the young officials in the officialdom graduated from Qinghe Academy, and the other forty percent are from various specialized schools.

"He did it with his junior disciples, and this matter is the emperor's mission."

Zhu Zhiyu did not hide it in the slightest, and bluntly said the difference in this matter.

"If this matter is successful, my Qinghe Academy will definitely be famous for eternity!"

Everyone has a good reputation!

Zhu Zhiyu is no exception, the reason why he put all his mind on the academy is that he wants to take advantage of the opportunity of His Majesty's admiration of practical learning, and half of the officials in the DPRK and China advocate practical learning, to promote practical learning at least throughout the country. is also for his personal reputation, and he has long been associated with the academy, which is why he seems to care so much.

"After all, this matter is a good thing for a thousand years!"

After saying this, Zhu Zhiyu looked at the track extending from the flower shed, and his expression was a little excited.

"When this thing is popular in the world, it will be the day of great changes in the world!"