Ye Hua noticed Li Xian's sweat on his head, and when he heard his words, he suddenly had an urge to laugh, it is not easy to save money, but it is not difficult to spend money!

"Senior brother, did you buy Your Majesty to win?"

Li Shi hesitated, and quickly shook his head, he Xu also felt that he was not authentic, "How can I be so unrighteous!" Actually, I have two private money, one of which I bought Brother Xing, and I can't get it back. I will stake the rest on His Majesty's side...... Didn't you say that you can't put all your eggs in the same basket! ”

Okay, what a powerful reason, Ye Hua is convinced!

"Senior brother, congratulations, economics has made you lose the opportunity to have three private money!"

After Ye Hua finished speaking, he didn't care about Li Shi, who was like a wooden chicken, he patted his buttocks, got up and got on the war horse, circled around Jin Mingchi, and galloped to the end of the race.

Chai Rong was faster than him, His Majesty the Emperor looked at his side, dozens of strong men, tired like dead dogs, lying on the ground and panting, seeing the emperor coming, he tried to arch his back, trembling and pleading.

Chai Rong just snorted and turned his head to look at the steamboat.

Winning or losing is not something Chai Rong cares about, he is more concerned about the steam ship, the same size of the ship, replaced by steam power, as long as there are three people, not only the speed is faster, but the capacity is also larger, this is ten times the efficiency of a hundred times!

As an emperor who pondered expanding his territory every day, the steamship brought Chai Rong too much imagination, he turned around the ship, returned to the deck, and pulled Guo Xingge over.

"You tell me, how much stronger can this steamship be than a normal ship?"

"This ......" Brother Guo Xingge scratched his head, "Your Majesty, it is difficult to explain this matter clearly at once." ”

"What do you mean?"

Guo Xingge said: "The steamship definitely doesn't need so many sailors, and the labor is saved, but the amount of coal goes up." Moreover, the power of the steam engine was too great, and ordinary wooden ships could not exert the effect of the steam engine, so ...... You need an iron ship! ”

"What? Iron? Chai Rong seemed to have heard a joke, "Put the iron in the water, won't it sink?" Aren't you talking nonsense? ”

Brother Guo Xing doesn't like to listen to it, "Whether it sinks or not, depends on buoyancy, not materials, if Your Majesty doesn't believe it, we can, we can continue to bet!" ”

"Bet on what?"

"Bet on whether I can build an iron ship!" Brother Guo Xing's eyes flashed with determination, the young man would never admit defeat!

Chai Rong paused and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll continue to bet with you!" I'd like to see what great things our merchant king can produce! ”

……

didn't have time to enjoy the joy of victory, so Guo Xingge continued to get busy.

Obviously, steam power is tens of thousands of times, hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than manpower! It's a power that only the gods can have!

It is enough to bulldoze mountains, fill in lakes, and move thousands of people thousands of miles away overnight......

However, to achieve these goals, there are many practical dilemmas that need to be solved.

First of all, of course, it is necessary to reduce the steam engine and increase the power in the pot to bring more power.

And if you want to sail on the sea, ten days, twenty days, even months, a year or two, the steam engine must be continuous and reliable, and it cannot suddenly break down halfway.

Imagine how terrible it would be to be in the middle of the sea, where the ship could not sail on its own, but could only go with the flow.

After discussing with the craftsmen, Guo Xingge came up with two methods, one is to strengthen the boiler and improve the steam engine, and the other is to add a set of power systems, there are two boilers, even if one is broken, it can rely on the other half of the power to return safely.

They even felt that when reliability was not completely guaranteed, they should keep the sails as a backup.

The problems of the ships themselves can be solved, and there are two problems that they cannot solve

Because to use steam power, you have to consume a staggering amount of coal, and to build a steam engine and a steam ship, you need steel, or high-quality steel that can resist corrosion...... Coal and steel, the grain and backbone of industry...... With the advent of the steam engine, it is on the agenda!

Guo Xingge and the craftsmen trembled and put forward a request, hoping that the imperial court could cooperate...... Ye Hua agreed without hesitation, he had been waiting for this day for a long time.

Ye Hua once thought that he would make a steam engine with his own hands and bring Da Zhou into the steam age, but later he denied his idea and turned to train Guo Xingge and other craftsmen, so that they could come naturally.

Ye Hua knows very well that no invention can appear out of thin air, and there must be realistic needs.

At present, the problem of the Great Zhou is the same as that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, with a huge territory, and backward technical means and management methods, which make the cost of foreign military use high, and the gains outweigh the losses.

All industries are running in debt, the pressure is very high, and new technologies are urgently needed to improve efficiency, save costs, and break the deadlock!

At this time, the steam engine appeared, and it definitely came into being.

Not to mention others, Chai Shouli decisively invested nearly 600,000 taels of gold!

He has a huge fleet, because of the problem of ocean currents, he can only go back and forth between the Great Zhou and the Wa Kingdom twice a year, but if he is replaced by a steam ship, it can be increased to six times!

In other words, you can do three years of work in one year.

And steamships could be built larger and transport more goods, gold and silver...... Of course, you can also transport more soldiers, and even complete them with artillery to crush those dwarf slaves!

Like Chai Shouli, Liu Chuang coveted the steamship, he was in Luzon, hanging overseas, and he needed to communicate with the Great Zhou the most, and the effect that the steamship could bring was self-evident......

Ye Hua could clearly see that around the steam engine and the steam ship, a stream of gold appeared...... Chai Shouli and Liu Chuang and others invested in the steam engine factory...... Guo Xingge used these investments to buy steel, build machine tools, process parts, and buy coal...... With the orders going out, the coal mines in Hedong and the steel mills in Youzhou all took action.

There is no need for a court decree, they are all working at full speed and frantically expanding production capacity.

Almost all of the workshops and mines require more workers.

At this juncture, another contradiction suddenly appeared.

The cooperatives led by the crown prince Guo Zongxun have developed rapidly, and the people of the Central Plains of Hebei Province have actively joined, covering a population of more than 5 million, and it is still increasing rapidly.

The industrial development led by Guo Xingge urgently needs a large number of labor.

It is irresponsible to the imperial court that the rural workers must go to the cities, that they must be allowed to sell their labor freely, and that they rely on the cooperatives to lock up the peasants.

What we need is a steam engine, we need a steamboat, we need steel and coal!

However, some people insist that it is the greatest evil to let the peasants abandon their land and go to the cities to work as workers, working day and night, only with a meager income, doing the hardest things, and neglecting the people's livelihood!

Agriculture or industry, factories or cooperatives?

The two voices were so loud that almost the entire Great Zhou was split into two parts. The newspapers in the capital were full of discussions.

Unnamed officials, social elites, and even gentlemen from the academy expressed their opinions.

The debate came from the bottom up, abruptly and very quickly.

Soon, even the important ministers of the court and the cabinet were affected.

The white-haired Han Xizai found Ye Hua, as one of the few old ministers who were still in the court, Han Xizai was very familiar with the situation in front of him.

"This was the case in the Southern Tang Dynasty back then, with factories and workshops on one side and rural people's livelihood on the other...... At that time, the old man wanted to learn from Hou Ye's practice, strictly implement Juntian, and resolve the contradiction, but the old man couldn't imagine that Da Zhou implemented Juntian, or there would be this trouble, the old man just didn't know, Hou Ye still had a solution? ”

Han Xizai looked very helpless, the change of Da Zhou is indeed too fast, he has been dizzy by the new affairs, and he has the heart to keep up with the progress, but he can't do it.

Ye Hua said with a smile: "Han Xianggong is high-minded...... The current situation is indeed the case, the competition for resources and labor between industry and agriculture will definitely exist for a long time, but it may not be just a competition, if Han Xianggong is willing, he might as well come and listen to their opinions. ”

Ye Hua invited Han Xizai to the Shang Palace, which was the original Chai Rong's hidden residence.

In the palace hall, there is a huge table with an extra-large copper hot pot on it.

The crown prince Guo Zongxun, the Shang king Guo Xingge, including Wang Pu, Li Shi, Qi Tongwen, Liang Zhouhan, and several people are all there.

They surround the steaming hot pot and keep shabu shabu and stuff it into their mouths.

Guo Zongxun ate the most fiercely, almost seven points full, and he snorted angrily: "When I walked down below, I know best how black those workshops and mines will be!" The common people now have land, and as long as the court does not bully them, they can be self-sufficient and fill their stomachs. You have to force the people to go to the city and become workers, because you have something wrong with your brains, and the people will not want to! ”

Brother Guo Xing said with a dark face: "I don't want to bully the common people, but the mine needs people, the shipyard needs people, and the ironworks need people!" The common people are sheltering the cooperatives, and they can't squeeze out manpower and have no labor, so how can our industry develop? ”

"The development of industry cannot be at the expense of agriculture!"

"If agriculture is not sacrificed, how can there be industry?"

……

From the initial dispute between the crown prince and the king of Shang, gradually, including Wang Pu, Li Shi, Qi Tongwen, and Liang Zhouhan, all joined them.

Han Xizai was dumbfounded, it turned out that these people thought deeper than themselves, and they spoke very thoroughly, and they were ruthless at all. He wanted to interject several times, but there was no way but to stare dryly.

But Han Xizai also gradually heard that Wang Pu and Li Shi, as official representatives, are strongly supportive of industrial development, very simply, with steam engines and steel, they can have strong national strength and foreign wars.

However, Qi Tongwen and Liang Zhouhan, who were in the conscience of scholars and supported the protection of the interests of the peasants, insisted that the more industry developed, the more necessary the cooperatives became, otherwise, the tide of capital would push the peasants, who accounted for eighty-fifty of the total population, into a miserable hell.

The Southern Tang Dynasty Yinjian is not far away, and the mistakes of the past cannot be repeated!

Quarreling and arguing, the big guys were tired, so they could only look at Ye Hua, "Master Hou, say a few words!" ”

Ye Hua spread his hands, "I can't say who is right and who is wrong, I just want to ask you, who needs to undertake the goods produced by industry?" To whom will the food raw materials produced by agriculture be sold? ”