Zhu Youxiao has been having a good time recently, and since Wang Tao came, he found that he has been in a good mood. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info In particular, the bicycle is very interesting, I really didn't expect people to be able to walk on a bicycle without support and not fall.

It's a pity that Wang Tao has not paid much attention to bicycles since he became the head of the Royal Workshop, and he originally expected Wang Tao to continue to improve bicycles. Now Zhu Youxiao is not as energetic as before when he picks up the chisel, he fiddles with it a few times absent-mindedly, and finally loses interest, throws the chisel to the ground, he wants to go to the royal workshop to go around and see what Wang Tao is busy with.

The Imperial Workshop was located within the Imperial City, and the Ming Dynasty Beijing City was divided into the Outer City, the Inner City, the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City. Needless to say, the Forbidden City is where the emperor lives, and the imperial city is the important yamen and the residence of the inner court yamen, such as Jinyiwei and Dongchang are in the imperial city, and the inner official supervisor and the inner court 24 yamen are also in the imperial city.

The area occupied by the internal officials and supervisors is not small, and the responsibilities they bear are also very heavy, ranging from the firewood, rice, oil, and salt used in the palace to the construction of the emperor's mausoleum and the palace, all of which belong to the scope of the responsibilities of the internal officials and supervisors.

In a few minutes, Zhu Youxiao's soft sedan chair came to the royal workshop, and before he entered, he heard the voices of people inside, as if he was celebrating something. Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this, could it be that Master Wang had created something strange again?

The group walked into the courtyard, and the eunuch announced loudly: "The emperor has arrived!" ”

"See the emperor!" Hearing that the emperor had arrived, the people in the courtyard immediately quieted down, and then saw Zhu Youxiao and others, and hurriedly knelt down to kowtow to the emperor.

"It's all exempt, where is Master Wang?" Zhu Youxiao looked around, and asked without finding Wang Tao.

"Your Majesty, Master Wang didn't come to the workshop today."

Zhang Quan, the chief eunuch of the internal officials and eunuchs (apocryphal), asked Master Wang as soon as he saw that the emperor came, and at that moment he secretly said that Master Wang's holy family was long, and hurriedly replied.

"Oh, Master Wang is not here, what were you happy about just now?" Hearing that Wang Tao was not there, Zhu Youxiao was suddenly a little disappointed, and his voice didn't seem to be energetic just now.

"Back to the emperor, we have succeeded in imitating the Western self-striking bell." Zhang Quan said with a look of joy on his face.

It is no wonder that he is happy, knowing that this chiming bell has been successfully imitated, but there are great interests in it. As an internal official and eunuch, Zhang Quan's grade is also a fifth grade, but his power is not small, and all kinds of errands are full of oil. The procurement in the palace is almost what he says alone, and he doesn't know how much money he has in his pocket every year. There were also many merchants outside the palace who relied on him, and he even opened several shops himself.

Originally, Wang Tao had nothing to do with him, as the head of the royal workshop, Wang Tao's grade was not lower than him, and it was not a grade when it came to the emperor's favor. Wang Tao is interested in the relationship between him inside and outside the palace, these are all things that Wang Tiqian inadvertently mentioned when Wang Tao said that he wanted to imitate pocket watches, and it seems that the relationship between the two of them is not so clean.

Under Wang Tiqian's bridging, Wang Tao and Zhang Quan discussed the way of cooperation, and Zhang Quan was also happy to transfer the best master of the internal official supervisor to the royal workshop. After all, the sooner he builds something, the sooner he will see profits.

The ordinary style of this pocket watch costs a few hundred taels of silver, not to mention the chiming clock, not to mention the gold-inlaid diamond as long as it is a self-striking clock, it is definitely priceless. As for the cost, Wang Tao estimated that it was less than a few dozen taels, and it was not too easy to make this money. In addition to making money, Wang Tao also wants craftsmen to accumulate experience in the processing of precision parts.

"Imitation chiming bell?!" Hearing Zhang Quan say this, Zhu Youxiao still couldn't believe his ears.

The chiming bell has always been made by Westerners, and there are only a dozen of them in the entire palace, all of which are treasures paid tribute by Westerners. I was able to give Wang Tao one before, but I also heard Wang Tiqian say that Master Wang was interested in the self-striking bell, so he couldn't bear to cut his love. If you can imitate the chiming bell, how can you not make him feel happy.

"Where is the chiming bell? Move it out and show me. There was a hint of excitement in Zhu Youxiao's words.

The eunuch of the organic spirit hurriedly ran over and moved the chiming bell out, this chiming bell style looked a little ugly, mainly because it had not been dealt with yet. When he saw that the dial was no longer a Western numeral, but a zichou yinmao, Zhu Youxiao finally believed that this was indeed an imitation of the chiming clock. The strange characters that used to be called Roman numerals made people feel uncomfortable to look at.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't see the huge economic benefits brought by the chiming clock, he just felt that he was excited that this thing could be made in his own country, and from then on he could make various styles of clocks according to his mind.

Wei Zhongxian, who was standing next to him, saw the huge profits contained in it at a glance, and asked seemingly casually: "How many can this self-striking bell be built in a day?" ”

"Back to Grandpa Wei, twenty skilled craftsmen can produce one bell in two days." Zhang Quan is also a shrewd person, so he naturally knows what Wei Zhongxian means, but Wei Zhongxian can't help but answer when he asks him, after all, this kind of thing can't stand being inquired about, so he has to tell the truth.

Although Wei Zhongxian didn't know how much the cost of this watch was, it would not be very high, and the profit of this self-striking bell was at least three or four hundred taels or more. If you produce one in two days, according to the profit of more than 100 taels a day, it is 40,000 taels a year. This is only twenty craftsmen, thinking of this, Wei Zhongxian's breath couldn't help but be a little short, a craftsman can produce a profit of two thousand taels a year, ten, a hundred, a thousand.

Zhang Quan looked at Wei Zhongxian's slightly flushed face, of course he knew what he was thinking, it was no different from the expression he had when he heard Wang Tao settle accounts for him that day. You must know that this is hundreds of thousands of taels a year, hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty, and I don't know how many people can take out a few hundred taels to buy a self-striking bell. Not to mention that Master Wang also proposed gold-plating, diamond-inlaid and other means to increase the price, as well as make some simple clocks and watches to sell to the rich people in the countryside, which is at least tens of millions of taels. If you contact maritime merchants and sell to foreign countries, you don't know how much money you can make.

Eunuchs have no queen, and in order to avoid desolation in their old age, they generally love money. With the money, when they return to their hometown, those relatives of the same clan will have a good face for them, at least they will not be guilty when they live, which is also in order to maintain the only remaining dignity. There was once an old eunuch who returned home, but because he had no money on him, he was driven out by the clansmen and froze to death on the side of the road, and in the end he didn't even enter the ancestral grave. This also stimulated a lot of eunuchs, they didn't want to be like the old eunuch, fall into that fate, no descendants are already very desolate, if they die and can't enter the ancestral grave, they have no sustenance at all.

Wei Zhongxian is also the one who controls the power in the end, and he has seen a lot of money, and his expression quickly became normal, and then he smiled slightly, and glanced at Zhang Quan meaningfully.