"Government-run grain and rice, monopolizing the ······ of Guanzhong Grain Market"

"Wu Dong dried salt, monopolized the world's salt market······"

"Offshore fishing, whaling ······"

After returning to the dormitory, Liu Yingzong was excited, lying on the couch in the shape of a 'big' character, and leisurely looked forward to the future of the Han family.

In the eyes of outsiders, in the past few years, Liu Ying may not have done anything at all;

is the court of the Han family, and in the past few years, they have been busy with the 'changes' that they have been deeply involved in, and they don't care about doing anything serious at all.

——In the autumn of the tenth year of the Han Dynasty four years ago, Emperor Liu Xuan died in Liyang Palace, and the whole country was mourned; Almost at the same time, the generations were opposed.

Three years ago, in the spring of the 11th year of the Han Dynasty, the price of grain in Guanzhong was boiling, and Liu Ying, who was then the crown prince, was assassinated in Changling; In the same year, Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, and Peng Yue, the king of Liang, successively 'rebelled';

More than two years ago, that is, in the twelfth year of the Han Dynasty, first Huainan Wang Yingbu rebelled; In the winter of the same year, it was Lu Xuan, the king of Yan, again.

When these things are resolved in order, Liu Bang, the son of heaven, has just sworn an oath on the white horse in Changle Palace with his front foot, and his back foot will be dead, and his life will be short;

In the summer of the twelfth year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang died, and the whole country was mourned······

In the past few years of princely career, Liu Ying's well-known 'deeds' are that he repaired the Zheng Guoqu at the beginning of the 11th Han Dynasty and put down the rebellion of Wang Yingbu of Huainan at the beginning of the 12th Han Dynasty.

In the two years after the death of the former emperor Liu Bang, Liu Ying, the son of heaven, seemed to have done nothing, but obediently nested in Weiyang Palace, quietly waiting for himself to be crowned an adult.

But in fact, what Liu Ying has done in the past few years is far more important than repairing the Zheng Guoqu and quelling the Yingbu Rebellion, and it is of great significance to the future Han family.

-- The government-run grain and rice of the Shaofu government made the 'planned economy' appear more than 2,000 years ahead of time, the grain prices in Guanzhong were completely stabilized, and the finances of the court were also greatly improved.

Nowadays, when the price of grain in Guanzhong is stable, so that the people gradually have the ability to 'build and store grain privately', Shaofu quietly opened the salt field in Wudong, which is seamlessly connected with the sunset industry of Shaofu of 'storing grain on behalf of the people', and has successfully taken over the beam of 'helping Shaofu make money'.

At present, Liu Ying is even thinking about developing the offshore fishing industry and whaling industry in Wu State as a supplement to the Shaofu's fiscal revenue······

Relying on these three things alone, even if Liu Ying dies on the spot now, even if he doesn't dare to hope for such good words as 'Wen', 'Wu' and 'Xuan', but such Chinese words as 'mourning', 'Huai' and 'Zhao' are no longer a problem.

Maybe that's not specific enough.

——What has Liu Ying done in the past few years?

Aside from the macro achievements of 'increasing the revenue of the Shaofu' and 'improving the finances of the Han Dynasty', the most intuitive and specific points are the following three points:

First, the government-run grain and rice, so that the vast majority of the people in the world can eat seven or eight percent full;

second, the salt obtained from the sea (soon) so that the vast majority of the people of the Han dynasty would eat relatively cheap salt, albeit coarse salt;

Third, inshore fishing will (soon) improve the conditions of Jingwu's 'wild' land, and (soon) initially increase the meat intake of the people in the world.

These three feats, at first glance, may seem like trivial things; Especially for the emperor, it seems that it is not worth boasting about at all.

But in fact, if half or even thirty percent of the feudal emperors in Chinese history can achieve the above three points, then the three-hundred-year dynastic cycle law may never be in Huaxia Shenzhou.

Everyone can eat eighty percent full, everyone can eat salt, and even everyone can see meat every once in a while?

——In the feudal era, even the legendary peaceful and prosperous era was probably nothing more than that!

But it is worth the Empress Dowager Lu Pheasant, the courtiers of the Han family, and especially the people of the world to be glad for this: after achieving these results, Liu Ying did not stay in place and be complacent, but quickly shifted his attention to his next plan.

"Salt Iron, Salt Iron ······"

"Salt is ······"

"It's this iron ············"

With a soft mutter, Liu Ying couldn't help but put her hands under her head, although the corners of her mouth were still smiling, but between her eyebrows, there was a trace of doubt.

The crown ceremony has been completed, and he has been in power as he wishes, and he has received the almost unconditional support of his mother Lu Pheasant, which finally made Liu Ying completely throw off his arms, and no longer need to worry about whether what he has done will have any political impact.

But it is different from the government-run grain and rice and Wu Dong's salt: iron is definitely not something that can be solved by Liu Ying's upper and lower lips and then sending Yangcheng Yanzhi and others to work for a while.

-- The official grain and rice of the Shaofu government are nothing but an official document of the Prime Minister's government to 'prohibit merchants from selling grain', as well as the heads of dozens of grain merchants and hundreds of thousands of 'wild' granaries;

If you go to the sky, you will add the grain markets that are evenly distributed throughout Guanzhong, as well as the officials in charge of the grain markets and granaries.

As for Wu Dong's salt, it is even simpler.

Say hello to the helpless side branch clansman, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, and then send people to the coastal area of eastern Wu, dig out a salt pan, and introduce seawater into the field to expose to the sun;

Wait for the salt pan to dry, take the coarse salt from the bottom of the field, simply clean and filter it, even if it is satisfied, use the coarse salt in the field, and store it in Shaofu, or sell it to all parts of the world.

Even the 'Wudong offshore fishing industry', which has just been decided and has not yet been implemented, is not complicated to operate.

- The Shaofu is responsible for making boats and nets, and then directly put them into use, or use them for fishing, or rent or sell.

To put it bluntly: whether it is government-run grain and rice, or Shaofu special salt, or offshore fishing, it is only a specific matter at a single level.

However, iron is a complex project involving countless industries and countless levels, and it is by no means a task or mission that can be successfully completed by an edict, a third or second official, or a so-called 'salt and iron captain'.

In the later historical research circles, there is such a sentence, which is widely recognized by the majority of historical researchers:

- The main reference to judging the stage of civilization of a civilization is: the social system, and the raw materials for the means of production.

And in most cases, the 'social system' and the 'raw materials for the production of production tools' are invisibly bound together.

For example, in antiquity, it was a 'primitive tribal society' or 'slave civilization', bound to the 'Stone Age';

Another example is the weekend of 100 years ago, or the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which was the 'early feudal civilization', which was bound to the 'Bronze Age'.

Today's Han dynasty should be regarded as having passed the 'early feudal civilization' of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and officially entered the mature period of feudal civilization.

According to the course of history, the future development of the Han dynasty will be the transition from 'early feudal civilization' to 'mature feudal society', as well as the development from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

From this point alone, it is not difficult for us to see what kind of great impact and significance the development of production tools will have on a civilization.

On the other hand, since the tools of production can directly represent the stage of development of a civilization, it must also mean how long the development process of the means of production needs to be, and how appalling the difficulty of development is.

Take the distance from the Han room today.

——Thanks to the hundreds of years of development in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, today's Han dynasty can be regarded as taking over the peak technology of the Bronze Age that rose to the peak of the Ying Qin Dynasty; The Chinese civilization has reached the peak of the Bronze Age.

But even so, if there is no external force to forcibly drag, if the Han family wants to develop from the 'peak of bronze' to the 'early Iron Age', it will definitely not be something that can be accomplished in twenty or thirty years, or even two or three generations.

It is true that today's Han dynasty has initially possessed the refining technology of iron ore, as well as the technology of making and using iron tools.

But the crux of the matter is that compared with the Bronze Age, the real superiority of the Iron Age lies not in 'iron', but in 'steel'!

If pig iron alone, or even wrought iron with better ductility and plasticity, is compared with the bronze smelting technology that has reached the peak of the Han dynasty today, then it must be the bronze that is more skilled in smelting and forging technology, rather than the iron that is still in the exploration stage!

Of course, this is not to say that the bronzes created by the Han dynasty today are really better than iron in all aspects;

However, under the premise of the same performance, the same forging cost, and the difficulty of smelting, the iron ware with backward technology and high cost is not as good as the bronze ware with ultra-high cost performance due to technical proficiency.

To put it more bluntly, the iron and bronze tools of the Han Dynasty today are like the difference between bronze armor and nitrate wallets.

- Everyone knows that even if three wallets are stacked together, they are not as durable and resistant to beating as a bronze armor;

But here's the problem: the cost of manufacturing a bronze armor is enough to make dozens or hundreds of wallets.

The same is true for bronze and iron.

Therefore, in order to enter the Iron Age directly from the Bronze Age in a short period of time without excessive progress in the Han Dynasty, and without bearing excessive costs, the following problems must be solved.

First, quickly find an iron ore that is comparable to the copper reserves of the Han Dynasty and solve the source of raw materials for iron;

For the Chinese civilization, which is 'rich in land and resources', the difficulty of this problem does not lie in the search for iron ore, but in the specific mining.

In other words: in order to make strides into the Iron Age, the Han dynasty first needed to have enough labor as consumables for iron ore mining.

That's right.

Consumables.

In this era, the vast majority of mineral mining, even large-scale projects such as water conservancy and mausoleums, need to be filled with human lives······

Second: after obtaining sufficient iron ore, build a smelting base comparable to the iron and steel mills of later generations, and concentrate on smelting.

Again, the difficulty of this problem lies not in 'finding a place', but in resolving public opinion and political influence.

- The steel industry, even in the new era to come, is a vital player in air pollution;

In today's Han Dynasty, a feudal era with poor industrial technology, there is hardly any balance between the development of steel and environmental pollution.

If you want to develop steel, you have to accept the black smoke and miasma around the smelting base, the rivers are turbid, and the rotten fish and shrimp are everywhere;

If you want to protect the environment, you can only do it across the board, and you will not develop the steel industry directly.

Therefore, if you want to develop steel without being affected by public opinion and political pressure, Liu Ying must find a good place for this steel smelting base.

A place with convenient transportation that allows a steady stream of ore to be delivered and is inaccessible and does not affect the survival of the people.

In the history of human civilization, 'convenient transportation' and 'inaccessible' seem to be the opposite of eternal and unchanging······

Third: in addition to solving the problem of obtaining raw materials and selecting the place of production, Liu Ying also needs to solve specific technical problems.

As the most indispensable metal in human civilization, the transformation of iron from pig iron, to wrought iron, to crude steel and stainless steel is inseparable from a technology with cross-era significance.

- Forging.

Separately, it is forging, and stamping.

In particular, stamping technology is the most indispensable process in the process of transforming wrought iron from a single metal 'iron' to an alloy 'steel'.

And this problem, for today's Han family, is almost a hell of difficulty.

If Liu Ying just wanted to get a piece of 'steel' the size of a palm and weighing more than a dozen catties, it would naturally be no difficulty.

Relying solely on the manpower forging, heavy smashing and pressing, and even the backward steel frying technology used in the Han Dynasty today, Liu Ying can get such a piece of crude steel, or even stainless steel, in a short period of time.

But what Liu Ying wanted was not a piece of symbolic steel, but a huge output that would propel the entire Chinese civilization from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

And 'mass production', which means that manual forging, heavy smashing, and low efficiency, and extremely skilled steel frying technology for craftsmen cannot bear this burden.

——In order for the Han dynasty to smoothly enter the Iron Age, and even the post-Iron Age, where steel tools were commonly used, Liu Ying first needed to eliminate the option of 'manpower', or 'living creatures'.

In other words: the first thing Liu Ying needs to do to develop the steel industry seems to be to promote an industrial revolution······

"Uh-huh·······"

"In the era of literate people, the industrial revolution is not to be thought of·······"

"Without the Industrial Revolution, mechanical power would not have been possible······"

"Mechanical Power ······"

"Power ··········"

"Uh-huh················"

After a long time of groaning with a sluggish expression, he finally saw Liu Ying sit up with a tired face.

After bowing her head and pondering for a moment, Liu Ying raised her head.

"Someone!"

With a light click, without blinking, Chun Tuo, who was waiting outside the palace gate, hurriedly walked into the hall.

"Change clothes for me!"

"Summoning the servants into the palace again, and going to the Weiyang stable to prepare."

With a solemn face, Liu Ying finally got up from the couch, looked in the direction of the palace gate, and let out a long sigh leisurely.

"Steel base, forging technology, and put it aside."

"The 'consumables' needed for mining can be planned in advance······

"Hmmm······"

"Yes, and readers."

"I'm a big man, I need a reader·········"

"Countless Readers··············"

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