Chapter 64 Yulin Iron Works

Ordos was swept away, so there was no need to garrison troops on the front line of the Great Wall in Yansui Town, not only the iron ore area located in the area of Laogaochuan, Daliuta, and Miaogoumen has been safe, but even the second guard of the Eighth Route Army under the command of Li Laoguan can also be withdrawn. The construction of Zhao Kang's steel plant will also be officially launched.

At that time, in the Ming Dynasty, salt and iron were absolutely controlled materials, and production and marketing were strictly controlled by the state, but on Zhao Kang's territory, these prohibitions were a piece of waste paper. Zhao Kang was the largest smuggled salt dealer in the entire Ming Dynasty, and the Yansui Governor Yamen was the largest smuggled salt trading center in the entire northwest. On the Loess Plateau, even if you eat the bear's heart and leopard gall, you don't dare to come to check the governor's yamen.

Tens of thousands of tons of cheap and high-quality salt brought from modern times spread from Yulin to all parts of the country and even the Mongolian tribes at a very low price, and all the gold and silver exchanged for white flowers were piled up in Zhao Kang's warehouse, and even affected the interests of the salt merchants in Jiangnan in a short period of time. The main agent for the sale of salt brought by Zhao Kang, except for Shaanxi, which is controlled by the You family, the sales in other places are all controlled by the eight traitors in Shanxi, who are called the "Eight Great Masters of Imperial Merchants" by later generations.

Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, Huang Yunfa, these names Zhao Kang even has a feeling of thunder, in addition to doing normal business, these people also secretly transported military supplies for the Manchurians, sold looted finances for Huang Taiji, provided all kinds of information in the Guan, and engaged in political trading.

From the perspective of national feelings, it is psychologically uncomfortable to let these traitors use the salt they brought to make a windfall, but Zhao Kang can't find any other way in a short time, at least for now, these traitors can bring him huge benefits. Zhao Kang thought to himself: Eat, eat! Fatten you up first, and when labor and management have a chance in the future, they will always let you all spit it out!

Although all the equipment and other equipment of the ironmaking plant have been installed, due to the backwardness of infrastructure construction, it took half a month to start igniting ironmaking. Zhao Kang was very concerned about the ironworks, which gathered almost all the experienced craftsmen under his rule.

But everything did not disappoint Zhao Kang, when the molten iron in the first furnace slowly cooled in the mold and became darker and darker, even Zhao Kang couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart, and hurriedly asked Liu Jin, who was appointed as the director of the steel plant a month ago: "You go and see how the quality of this iron is?" Qualified? ”

This Liu Jin is not simple, not only is he from a good background, but he also served as the deputy envoy of the Ordnance Bureau in the Ministry of Industry, but because he is too honest and is not tolerated by the officials, although he has excellent skills, he was dismissed because of a trivial matter. After the dismissal, he was idle at home, and later saw that the governor Yamen was recruiting iron-making talents with high salaries, so he came to apply, and because of his status as a person, plus enough experience, he was appointed as the director of Yulin Ironworks by Zhao Kang.

Liu Jin stepped forward and picked up a piece of pig iron with pliers, looked at it carefully, and then picked up a sledgehammer to smash the cooled pig iron open and carefully observe the gap. Then he came back and reported to Zhao Kang: "Lord Governor, the pig iron smelted by this method can be used to make agricultural tools and daily tools used by the people. And this method of iron-making furnace is afraid of hundreds of thousands of catties, a day out of more than a dozen furnaces is not a problem, the output is huge, the cost is very low, Yulin has this iron-making plant, it is the blessing of the people of Shaanxi, the blessing of the people of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Hearing Liu Jin, a "professional", praise him so much, Zhao Kang was relieved. You know, the price of iron in the Ming Dynasty is so expensive, a pound of pig iron can be sold for more than a dozen Wen, according to this price to calculate, if the Yulin Iron Works can produce 1,000 tons of pig iron a day, the iron produced in that day can be sold for more than 20,000 taels of silver, a year is 7.3 million taels. This is definitely a very scary statistic.

Of course, now that the ironworks have been built, the price of iron cannot be as exaggerated as it is now. However, even if the price is reduced tenfold, you can still get an income of seven or eight hundred thousand taels.

The matter of the steel plant is solved, but the sales are worrying Zhao Kang. Now the rich people of the Ming Dynasty will definitely not stay in Shaanxi, and there is basically no money in Shaanxi. And Zhao Kang didn't plan to sell the steel to the eight traitors in Shanxi, so that they could use it to finance the enemy. And if it is directly shipped to the south to be sold, it is easy to be noticed by the court. Cause a fuss for yourself.

After careful consideration, Zhao Kang decided to meet the needs of the peasants and workers in his own territory first, and to make all the production capacity of the iron and steel plant into plowshares, hoes, shovels, trolleys, chicken carts, and other means of production and transportation within this year, and distribute them to the peasants and workers for free use. The surplus will be collected and transported to the south for sale next year.

As for why wait until next year, do you need to ask? Starting from next year, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng will be two thieves across the Central Plains, from Sichuan to Huguang, from Henan to Shanxi, and the entire hinterland of the Ming Dynasty will be restless. And these are still small things. What makes the Ming court even more desperate is that next year, the Ming gold medal fighter Hong Da traitor will bring all the elite soldiers of the entire Ming Dynasty to be besieged by Huang Taiji in Songshan, and the attention of the court is all attracted by these big demon kings, who will pay attention to the little governor of his poor area?

Having made a decision, Zhao Kang once again used the Time Travel Ring to return to the modern era.

These days have been busy with all kinds of things, Zhao Kang feels that people are a lot older, and their way of thinking is much worse than that of their peers. Zhao Kang decided to come back this time to relax himself.

handed over all the affairs of the company to Luo Wenjuan to deal with, and decided to experience the bright lights of modern society.

In Xichang and Royal No. 1 Leisure Club, Zhao Kang looked at the sign at the door that said "Minors are strictly prohibited from entering", and hesitated, but he still walked in, without any obstruction, but the two greeters greeted him with a smile: "Boss, have you booked a box?" ”

Zhao Kang had never been to this kind of place, and he was a little embarrassed, but he didn't show it when he was in a high position at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but said: "I didn't book, can I still open a box now?" ”

The welcome replied: "Also, boss, do you need to book a small, medium or large box?" ”

Zhao Kang thought for a while and said, "Book me a big box!" I don't like spaces that are too cramped. ”

After paying the deposit in advance, Zhao Kang applied for a Royal No. 1 membership card and walked into the 308 box under the leadership of the DJ Xiaomei in the private room. When she entered the door, the DJ asked herself, "Boss, do you want to drink something first?" Why didn't your friend come with you? ”