The arsenal sent technicians to help them improve the construction equipment one by one, so that they could basically meet the casting process of the new cannon, and then sent them the high-quality steel smelted by the arsenal from Swedish iron ore, and handed over to them the smoothbore cannon casting process invented by the Americans. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

After a few years of fighting, the technical capabilities of the 57 iron factories have not only been greatly improved, but also the scale has been far greater than before, and the profit of the factory that undertook the most orders was even as high as 100,000 taels.

These 57 ironworks were generally equipped with steam engines because of the need to bore the breech, and at first the technicians of the arsenal helped to operate, and later their own apprentices also mastered the use of boring machines, and the technology continued to spread.

Of course, this kind of diffusion is what Zhu Jinglun wants to see, but at his level, he actually doesn't care much about this kind of technical things, and these natural affairs will appear sooner or later. He is more concerned about the credibility of the government, and he is still sparing no effort to build a flag, and he wants the people to know that the government is trustworthy.

Credibility is such a thing, if you say it 10,000 times, it is not a fart, but it may be "the more you spread the coercion, the more you will be resisted." The more propaganda is increased, the more rumors are ushered in, and the vicious circle of "the worse and worse", the governments of the Republic in later generations will fall into this dead circle and cannot extricate themselves, which will make governments at all levels very embarrassed.

Of course, Zhu Jinglun wants to avoid this state, so he never shouts slogans, and does things in a down-to-earth manner, what is more exciting and profound than letting people see the intuitive result of believing that the government can make a fortune.

When the owners of 57 workshops that cooperated with the government made a fortune, I don't know how many workshops regretted it and wanted a piece of the pie, but at this time, even if they spent money and gifts, it was useless, which made them know that suspicion sometimes has to pay a cost.

As the technology of the ironworks advanced by leaps and bounds, they also used more and more modern technologies, such as the steam engine, the iconic power equipment of the industrial age.

Scholars like to use the number of steam engines as a measure of the Industrial Revolution, for example, they will say that the use of steam engines in France "increased from 625 in 1830 to 5,212 in 1848", and this explosive growth of steam power is indeed one of the most prominent signs of the Industrial Revolution.

However, the Ming Dynasty is far from being called the arrival of the industrial revolution at this time, this is only the initial industrialization, it is really to the "revolution" stage, that is not only complete in terms of technical preparation, but also needs to be completely prepared in people's minds, the reason why the industrial revolution is a revolution, the biggest reason is that with the development of technology, the industrial mode of production directly destroys the old social system and culture of the whole society.

At least at present, the Ming Dynasty is far from doing a good job, the whole society is still full of old-fashioned ideas, as for technology, it is not a problem, the introduction can be, but if there is no ideological change, the technological change is only a trivial matter, why the Westernization Movement is not the Industrial Revolution, not because of his small scale, but his impact on the social system is not enough.

The development of Foshan Iron Factory, so Zhu Jinglun is somewhat satisfied, he sees a kind of development direction of China's industrial revolution, that is, the development of industrial culture from the craftsmen who do not reject technology, but Zhu Jinglun wants to see more is the most traditional changes in the countryside, and this change has also come quietly.

The emergence of the tea factory made Zhu Jinglun even more happy, and he believed that this could be the real industrial revolution.

The earliest tea factories can be traced back to the era of the Thirteen Lines, when Wu Bingjian, Pan Chengxun, these merchants, established a large number of workshops in the area of the Thirteen Lines, used to sort and package tea, and supply qualified products to foreigners, but all of them were manual, and the production methods were mainly sorting, and the processing was very little.

Truly modern tea factories, factories that use machines to produce tea, have emerged in recent years.

A seed planted by Zhu Jinglun four years ago has grown into a towering tree now, but the growth of this tree is something Zhu Jinglun did not expect.

In the Wukeng area, the American Robert Gray's Thomas Gray Tea Plantation has successfully cultivated 100,000 acres of tea plantations, in fact, he completed the reclamation in the first year, that is, in 1861, at that time spent 300,000 taels of silver.

If it weren't for the help of Ho Shiwen, a Dutch Jew, Robert Gray, who was born as a farmer in Ireland, planned to spend 1 million taels of silver to cultivate the land.

With the help of He Shiwen, he did not wait for the tea trees in the tea garden to grow before setting up a factory, but built a tea factory in Xinhui at the same time as the tea garden was developed.

The reason why he chose Xinhui was because Robert entered the hometown of the Luo family in Xinhui, he was Luo Tianchi's godson, and soon Zhu Jinglun coup d'état, killed Nie Erkang in Xinhui County, and directly appointed Luo Tianchi as the county order.

So his tea farm started selling Thomas brand tea not this year, but four years ago. Through his relationship with Jardine Matheson, Ho introduced a set of British tea factories from India.

The production of tea, starting from tea picking, is withering, rolling, fermentation, initial roasting, piling, sorting, re-roasting and finally the finished product, which has to go through this series of complex processes, and the British do not have enough skilled tea workers available, so they choose to produce in an industrial way.

In addition to the need for manual picking, others can rely on the machine, starting from withering, the traditional process is placed in the sun to dry, but the weather is not controlled by people, the quality of the withering results depends on the proficiency of God and the workers, the enthusiasm of the flip, the use of industry is not, directly with the method of heating, can keep the temperature constant to the extent required, so the results of this process can be fully guaranteed.

The next kneading, in the past, was rubbed by manual hands, and many tea workers in the tea area were troublesome and simply stepped on with their feet, in addition to the finished product was not uniform enough, it also caused a lot of waste, if it was crushed by a machine, the quality and quantity would be guaranteed. All subsequent processes can be basically guaranteed by mechanization.

The British have been exploring the tea factory in India for twenty or thirty years, and have a complete set of machinery and equipment and management system, the reason why the tea industry in India cannot develop is mainly in the process of tea production, but China is not a problem at all in this link, so when He Shiwen copied the Indian tea factory to Xinhui, it ushered in a huge success.

In the first year, it made a profit of 50,000 taels of silver, and in the second year, it expanded the factory and made a profit of 200,000 taels, which solved the shortage of funds in the tea garden. But they can only set up a tea factory in Xinhui, where they have the protection of Luo Tianchi, and in other places their tea factories will be directly smashed by local tea workers.

But tea is a very delicate product, their tea needs to be in the sky is not bright, let the tea workers with dew to pick down and send to the tea factory, and then enter the processing link, once late, it is difficult to ensure the quality of the tea, so they can only collect tea in a day away from the place, greatly limiting their source of tea.

But for many local Chinese merchants, this is not a problem at all, and when the tea merchants in Xinhui discover that the tea factories run by foreigners are very profitable, and the products are sold directly to foreign merchants at the best price, which is twice as high as the price they would sell on the exchange as loose tea, no one can stop their enthusiasm for setting up tea factories.

But He Shiwen tried his best to keep the technical secrets of the tea factory, but he couldn't resist Luo Tianchi's pressure, Luo Tianchi found his godson, said that it was a good thing to run a tea factory, and asked him to help, Robert didn't dare to offend his godfather, so he could only let the local tea merchants visit, and after a few times, someone copied their tea factory.

He Shiwen was very angry when he saw that he couldn't control it, but the Jews had a good brain, so he chose to take the initiative to find a partner, he contributed technology, the other party contributed money and connections, and the two sides cooperated to open tea factories in other places, so the tea factories sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and soon spread in Xinhui, Heshan, Gaoming and other counties.

In the past few years, the tea factory has become the most modern factory, using steam engines far more than other industries, although the name is different, but the finished tea produced by the tea factory with Thomas Tea Garden is a shareholder, all sent to the main factory in Xinhui for packaging, and then sold directly to giants such as Jardine Matheson and Qichang as high-end tea.

Thomas Tea has become the largest tea brand in the United States, and has entered the British market, which can basically replace the world market in this era and is the world's largest tea market.

They have established themselves in the UK and have proven their quality.

Due to the high quality of tea factory profits, they compete with a large number of tea workshops, increase the purchase price of tea, but let many tea workshops suffer serious losses, the destruction of tea factories has happened more than once, fortunately, He Shiwen's collaborators are local heroes, can control the scene, has not involved foreigners.

So he continued to enjoy his profits, and this year's profits were as high as 1 million taels, and the profits and taxes paid exceeded 300,000 yuan, and in the end they were all refunded through tax refunds, because all their tea was exported and rarely sold locally.

When he heard about this, he immediately discussed with Pan Shicheng and suggested that Pan Shicheng also go to the tea factory, and suggested that the Wu family also go to the tea factory to take back the benefits that were taken away by the foreigners.

As for what the competition will look like in the end, let it be fate.

The iron factories with greatly improved technology and the lucrative tea factories could not afford the responsibility of the industrial revolution, because even the tea factories that used the most steam engines only installed more than 200 steam engines in total, and what really made Zhu Jinglun feel that the industrial revolution had come was the development of the silk reeling industry. (To be continued.) )