Based on the total amount of gold and silver circulating in the Central Plains, most of the gold and silver that returned to Xianguo were short of two catties, and it was by no means a matter of the last one or two years, but at least three or four years or more to complete the process of capital return.

"These hateful profiteers, the widows want to arrest them all, Yongxing Hou!"

"The minister is here."

"Aiqing has a good plan to punish these profiteers."

"King Qiyu, the minister has ordered Yongxing City to rush to make precision balances overnight, which can be put into various yamen, bazaars, and markets first, but the balance manufacturing is extremely precise, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the output is limited, and it is still unable to meet the needs of the people in the short term, so it can only be supplied to the government for the time being, so it is an expedient measure."

The measurement of precious metals is much more precise than that of ordinary commodities, and the error of conventional rod scales is large, and at the same time depends on the level of judgment of the naked eye, which is difficult to be used as a precision weighing tool, and is not suitable for precious metal weighing.

Of course, there are some precision in the rod scale, such as the small scale that is most common in the Chinese medicine shop, the precision is very high, and the delivery of small amounts of gold and silver is very high, using the soft hardness of gold and silver, using scissors to cut gold and silver, so as to weigh the weight with the stick, and then deliver.

This is also why the precious metals of the Central Plains are not cast into horseshoe gold, unicorn toes, or gold ingots, but are cast into long bars of gold and silver, just to facilitate the use of scissors and small guillotines to cut transactions.

However, the principle and structure of the pole scale have not changed substantially, and no matter how high the accuracy is, it cannot overcome the disadvantages of limited weight capacity each time. Therefore, for large deliveries, balance scales are used.

At present, the measurement standards mainly use two sets of measurement standards of Liang and Sun, and after Sun Guo existed in name only, Wei Guo replaced him and forcibly promoted its measurement standards in the Central Plains.

The measurement standard of Liang was the official standard in the early years, and the measurement standard of Sun was forced to the vassal states because of Sun's hegemony.

After Zhiguo became the hegemon, the standard of Liang Guo was still continued, the reason is actually very simple, the replacement of measuring tools and the reunification of measuring tool standards, the resulting social and economic costs are too high, and the social and economic impact is too great.

At the same time, the princes of various countries may not buy it, and it is not conducive to the economic market and political stability in the short term, even in modern society, the government can cause inconvenience to residents if it changes its seal casually, and it will only be more serious at the moment.

The measurement standard seems to be inconspicuous, but it is actually related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and even economic operation.

Wei Guo's strong push of the measurement standard of the West Sea is the result of completely ignorance of the importance and evil, most of which is because after entering the Central Plains, his ambition is inflated and his confidence is bursting, and he only thinks that without him in the world, other vassal states will not be able to live the same.

Because the precision measuring instrument involves the national economic security, so at present, only the imperial court has the ability to manufacture measuring instruments with slightly better accuracy, and at the same time, due to the technical constraints of various countries, the production capacity of the precision measuring instrument is limited.

After Yongxing opened the measuring tool factory, based on the standard of the Ligong school, it has successively remanufactured a full range of standards with higher standards, and now it can not only manufacture vernier calipers, micrometers, thermometers, pressure instruments, but also weigh and scale precision measuring instruments.

Despite this, production is still very limited and it is not realistic to meet the needs of the entire domestic society in the short term.

Moreover, the fact that the currency is short and short of two catties is itself a sin done by the country, and there may be a share of Liang Guo.

At this time, Gao Xun on the side said:

"Great King, should we note the envoy of the Liang State on this matter?"

"What's the use of that?" King Xian disagreed, and then said: "There is a shortage of two catties everywhere, what can Liang Tianzi do." Besides, these short catties of gold and silver came from the Central Plains, and the Liang State should have discovered it earlier than the Xian State. Now that Liang Guo has not been seen for a long time, the widow can still expect Liang Tianzi to do anything. ”

King Xian became increasingly dissatisfied with what Liang had done. Since the Black Turban Rebellion, Liang has betrayed the Xian State several times, and the despicable acts of the Xian Kingdom have made the Xian people deeply hate.

Liang Guo as the production mother of the standard instrument for several years, the clue inside, the Xianwang has a number of clues, and it is clear that the Xianguo has a huge circulation of gold and silver, even if it is one percent, the annual profit can be tens of thousands, not to mention seven or eight percent.

Seeing that King Xian was displeased, Bailiyan said:

"At the beginning of the new year, I am afraid that there will be huge losses at the end of the year, and I think that what Lord Changshi said is still reasonable, although this matter cannot be prevented, it is still necessary to inform the Central Plains countries. In addition, the widespread use of precision measuring instruments in China in the future will inevitably cause disputes, and it is also necessary to inform other countries in advance. ”

"Since Yongxing Hou thinks it is necessary, the widow has no objection, and this matter will be handled by Gao Aiqing quickly."

"Obey orders!"

When the three of them were talking in the inner hall, the footsteps outside the hall were in a hurry, and Jiao Muhua came to report:

"King Qiqi, General Chen Dian has returned from the sea and is waiting outside the palace of Lord Lu."

"Oh, come and see the widow!"

"No!"

Chen Qu and Chen Dian defended Ganfu and Dekang until the end of 642, after which Yongxing successively built ten thousand stone ships, Bailiyan then ordered his father and son to select the elite to form the Beihai Navy, while training the navy in the Beihai Sea, fighting pirates and escorting trade routes, and exploring the open sea on the other hand, looking for islands, reefs and land.

Thanks to the maturity of map technology and the determination of the prime meridian, Yongxing City successively produced theodolite and mechanical gyroscope, making it possible to accurately go to the ocean.

Benefiting from the development of technology, the Chen family father and son have achieved remarkable results at sea in recent years.

First, with the help of Huang Che, he recovered some pirates and scattered rebels entrenched in the open sea. With the help of pirates, they successively expanded their maritime boundaries and occupied more than 430 reefs, reefs, and islands, including 59 freshwater islands, the largest natural island covering an area of nearly 400 square kilometers, and the farthest island sailed north for more than 40 days.

However, wherever there is a place to stand, whether it is an island, reef sand table or a natural island, a sovereignty monument will be erected together, and two dark monuments will be buried conditionally in case of emergency.

In order to facilitate ocean voyages, Baili Yan distributes tea leaves, oranges, seasonal melons and fruits with a long storage period to ocean-going ships, and pays special attention to the protection and collection of tropical fruit resources on large islands, so as to facilitate the supply of additional fruits during the voyage.

In addition, Mizuda also produces canned fruits, which are exclusively used by the navy.

Due to technical constraints, tinplate cans are still tackling key problems and are still immature, so they can only add sucrose to the high-temperature sterilized and boiled fruits into glass bottles [Note 1], sterilize them with high-temperature steam, then seal them with wooden stoppers, pour a layer of wax, wrap them in thick straw and put them in a wooden box with sawdust to avoid collision, and store them for a year and a half.

With fruits and canned fruits, the vitamin C required by the human body has been reliably guaranteed, which greatly enhances the self-sustaining ability of ocean voyages and avoids the appearance of vitamin deficiency and scurvy.

In most cases, there is no economic benefit from ocean-going navigation without plundering and colonization, but it often depends on character.

In order to train a new generation of naval attachés, Bai Liyan selected personnel from the junior battalion of the military battalion to go on board for apprenticeship, and at the same time selected individuals interested in cartography and natural science from Yongxing City and the Ligong faction, set off with the navy, and institutionalized them.

At the same time of surveying and mapping nautical charts, the exploration of island resources has been strengthened, and some valuable new cash crops have been discovered one after another, and a more sought-after resource "guano phosphate" has been discovered.

Guano phosphate is a natural mineral formed by the combination of bird droppings and nitrogen in the air, which is formed by a slow natural reaction, which is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other necessary trace elements required by plants, and is an extremely high-quality natural fertilizer.

The guano island phosphate on the island has accumulated layer by layer for 10,000 years or even hundreds of thousands of years, and the reserves are extremely considerable, and it is more convenient and economical to mine this kind of phosphate naturally formed by guano than to find underground phosphate mines.

In view of the fact that the thickness of phosphate on the island is five to six zhang, since 644, Bailiyan has regularly sent people to secretly mine phosphate and transport it to Lincheng for further processing.

Phosphate melt water is poor, in most cases a trace of soluble in water, because of its rich minerals, with plants necessary nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, so phosphate ore is not only a pure natural rich mineral fertilizer, at the same time its insoluble in water characteristics, each mu of land only needs a small amount of fertilization phosphate per year, can obtain stable fertility, is to improve the barren land of high-quality natural non-toxic fertilizer.

In addition to being used in agriculture, phosphate ore is also an important additive for the manufacture of special glass and smelting, and is extremely versatile.

In addition, while the Chen family and his son were active in Beihai, they were also engaged in smuggling work.

In view of the fact that there are many volcanoes in Changsunguo, especially in the northeastern coastal zone, Bailiyan asked Yuke to steal volcanic mud and volcanic rocks under the volcano in Changsunguo.

Volcanic mud is a better natural fertilizer than phosphate and helps treat a wide range of skin and rheumatic diseases.

Due to its delicate and hard texture, volcanic stone is an important raw material for processing high-grade optical glass and grinding flat surfaces.

Grinding tools made of volcanic stone have higher hardness and fineness than alumina, and the grinding effect is comparable to that of diamond powder, and the rarity of diamond powder also restricts the production of high-grade abrasives, so volcanic stone is more popular and economical.

Due to the lack of scientific understanding of volcanic activity and the fear of volcanic eruptions, the world has fears and superstitions about volcanoes.

Yuke secretly carried out activities in the Changsun country to steal volcanic mud, which has not attracted the attention of the eldest grandson, and the royal guest exchanged volcanic mud and volcanic stone for steel, pig iron, copper, ordnance, munitions, daily necessities and other sought-after commodities from Xianguo, which is a good deal.

Su Fangyi asked Bailiyan several times what he wanted the volcanic mud for, but Bailiyan was secretive and only said that he could make money.

This is not true, the Xianguo obtained volcanic mud and phosphate, mixed with straw ash, manure and humus, used to improve the barren land and increase land yield.

At the same time as grain production increases, more livestock breeding, cash crops, and non-staple foods can be developed, enriching the people's livelihood and the money they have on hand, and at the same time, the economy will enter a virtuous circle.

Therefore, ocean voyages are not only not cost-effective, but also have great benefits for the entire economic activity, and it is not false to say that they make money.

When he was young, Chen Dian and Lu Gao entered the palace to salute:

"The last general, Chen Dian, see the king."

"Hehaha...... General Chen is exempt. ”

"King Xie."

King Xian changed his displeasure just now and was very happy.

"General Chen, the sudden return to the dynasty must be a new discovery!"

King Xian asked, his words full of anticipation, and Chen Dian's happy face also proved this:

"King Qiqi, the last general and his father discovered a huge island eight hundred miles northeast of Guangping Island about three months ago, and the island is unprecedented."

Bai Liyan heard the news and hurriedly asked:

"It's so far away, there's a map!"

"The island is too big to be mapped."

Chen Diandao, Bai Liyan was worried about whether he had discovered the mainland instead of the island in the open sea, and he hurriedly said:

"Lord Lu, you can bring nautical charts."

"Brought it."

Lu Gao took out the Beihai chart from his arms, spread it on the table, everyone came closer to look, and Chen Dian's finger was in the direction and said:

"This is it."

Baili Yan looked closely and found that the east longitude had already left the land boundary between Jiangdong County of Xianguo and the Jin Kingdom, and entered the outer sea north of the Jin Kingdom, which was a straight line distance from the coastline, at least a month and a half of sea and land.

I want to chat about "Empire Travel" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~