In September of the fourteenth year of Hongxi, Jingshi.

Zhu Gaoxu summoned the military department Shangshu and the headquarters and logistics department generals in the Huagai Palace.

The theme of this meeting is rotation, the Ming Dynasty now has nearly two million troops, but there is no need to fight in many places, so Zhu Gaoxu asked for rotation every year.

Recently, the places where the Ming Dynasty used troops mainly included India and the vicinity of the Bengal Dynasty, which belonged to the Central Asian region.

Now that the Bengal dynasty has been destroyed, the direction of the entire army in the future will only be Central and West Asia.

"After the defeat of the Saidyi Dynasty, the other Black Sheep Dynasty, the White Aries Dynasty, the Shahru, and even the Ottomans, will be shaken, and the pace of our expansion, all dynasties will see clearly." At this time, Zhu Gaoxu said slowly: "If nothing else, these dynasties will find a way to unite and fight against us together." ”

"There has been news from Jinyi Wei that Shaharu has sent a messenger to the Black Sheep Dynasty."

"If the major dynasties unite, our 150,000 soldiers and horses near Ahan Province will not be enough."

Zhu Gaoxu decided that from this year to next year, another 150,000 troops and horses from various departments would be sent west to support Ahan Province.

At the same time, the province of New Delhi (India) was established, with a governor, governor, and general army.

The governor of New Delhi Province was Chen Wen, the governor was Gao Xianning, and the general army was Li Xian (Li Bin's son), and the imperial court first gathered 150,000 soldiers and horses to New Delhi to suppress local rebellions, consolidate rule, and at the same time guard against major dynasties.

At present, the Ming Dynasty is not ready to start first, but mainly to eat New Delhi Province first, wait for a year or two to stabilize, and then march to Persia.

After the discussion was over, Zhu Gaoxu did not let them go back first, but took the generals to the outside of the Huagai Palace, and everyone was puzzled.

Soon, the group followed the emperor to a certain place, where there were a lot of masons, building something out of pieces of green bricks, which looked like small sections of wall.

There are people on the side with the mud, yes, in the eyes of the generals, it is a mud.

"It's called cement, well, it's barely called cement." Then the emperor said.

Everyone looked at each other, obviously hearing this new word for the first time, but the emperor often said new words, and everyone was used to it.

In the first year of Hongxi, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to make cement as soon as he ascended the throne, but he was too busy at that time, so he first wanted to stabilize his rule and improve his national strength, so he put this matter aside first.

In the sixth year of Hongxi, Zhu Gaoxu officially began to develop cement.

Ancient buildings in the seventh century with limestone sand paddles, to the Northern and Southern Dynasties after the invention of glutinous rice mixing and lime paddles, this method has been used until the Ming and Qing dynasties, many brick walls or glutinous rice lime paddles built, can go through hundreds of years.

Cement also only needs three kinds of raw materials, limestone, clay and iron-making slag, more particular, you can use plaster to adjust the cement solidification speed, or you can not use gypsum.

But although Zhu Gaoxu knew these three raw materials and gathered a large number of craftsmen to try to make them, it had taken many years.

Limestone is easy to find, these were used in ancient cities, clay is also available, clay was used in ancient times to make ceramic soil, iron slag is more, Daming Iron and Steel is now producing amazingly, it is estimated that it accounts for seven or eight percent of the world, how much iron slag is going to be.

There are countless three kinds of raw materials, but the production process is tortuous and bizarre, and it is difficult to match this level first.

The gunpowder formula is one, two, three, even if you are not a lover of history and literature, you can probably remember it.

The cement ratio can only be relied on multiple tests.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that before the crossing, he read an ancient method of making cement, and the author wrote it very simply, and it seemed to be matched casually, and it was really difficult for him to find it.

After several years of experimentation, it was finally found that about 25% limestone, about 75% clay and slag combined is the best ratio, or the most suitable ratio for this era.

In the past few years, it is also necessary to confirm the question of who matches with whom first.

Because lime and slag can be matched first, clay and slag can also be matched first, and lime and clay can also be matched first.

Zhu Gaoxu doesn't remember who matched with whom first.

After many experiments, it was finally decided to grind lime and clay together to make raw meal.

The finer this kind of abrasive to grind, the better, the craftsmen have thought of various methods, stone grinding, hammers, hydraulic equipment, etc., after many improvements, and finally smelted hundreds of catties of steel, and then poured a huge steel mill.

Then hammer first, then grind, after two processes, finally grind very fine.

You also have to pay attention to safety when you engage in this thing, and for future generations, you must protect your lungs, at least you have to wear a professional mask, otherwise it will be finished sooner or later.

But now there are no masks, Zhu Gaoxu can only let them sprinkle more water on the scene, and make a simple mask with paper and silk on their faces, but this thing is not very breathable, and many workers can't stand it, and they don't understand why the court let them wear it.

At this time, Zhu Gaoxu found that it was not easy to make cement after crossing, and if ordinary people did not think of it, or did not want to do it, they would not know how many people would die in the future, and no worker would be able to work for a few years.

What to do? Can only be rotated.

Seven groups of workers rotated, working one day every seven days, sprinkling water on the site and forcing them to wear simple masks.

The emperor is so complicated, many people in the Craftsman Bureau of the Science and Technology Department don't understand, but they can only do it.

Fortunately, Daming now has money, not to mention seven batches of rotation, ten batches of rotation are also out, it is just that the imperial court has more money.

After this problem is solved, a new problem arises.

Raw meal needs to be burned into mature material, which requires high temperatures.

In ancient times, without the support of the modern industrial system, the temperature could only be increased by increasing oxygen for combustion and replacing fuels.

Generally speaking, the furnace temperature can reach 1300 degrees Celsius when using charcoal as fuel, while it can reach 1800 degrees Celsius when using coal, so coal is used, and the cost is relatively low.

Of course, this still needs to be achieved by means of a bellows.

Chen Chun's "Boiling Wave Diagram" in the Yuan Dynasty painted a double-valve bellows with a pull rod for cast iron, and the piston bellows were written in the Tiangong Kaiwu of Song Xingying in the late Ming Dynasty.

According to the techniques of their predecessors and Zhu Gaoxu's oral explanation, Zhu Gaoxu's craftsmen finally improved the bellows and created a new piston bellows.

At this time, several years have passed, and then the clinker and slag are ground together, and the finer the grinding, the better.

This cement is almost half the battle.

As a result, Zhu Gaoxu experimented and found that it solidified after a while, and of course it didn't work to solidify too early, so he had no choice but to add cooked gypsum.

How much plaster to add is tested again.

Start with 100 percent, and finally try to about 6 percent.

In the eleventh year of Hongxi, cement was finally successfully developed, and it was tried in a small range, and the effect was good, although it was far from being as good as that of later generations, but it was already good.

At the beginning of the eleventh year of Hongxi, Zhu Gaoxu chose to build a cement factory and recruit workers.

In the thirteenth year of Hongxi, the first cement plant was built, and now it can be officially mass-produced and operated externally.

This year, the cement plant was put into operation, and got rubber seeds, it can be described as a double happiness, Zhu Gaoxu's Ming Empire, at this time, whether economic or technological or military, culture, have been far ahead of the whole world, the so-called developed countries in later generations, some are still occupied by the uncivilized natives, and some have felt the threat of the Ming Dynasty's thriving national strength.

On the same day, Zhu Gaoxu took the ministers to see the craftsmen make a small city wall out of cement and bamboo.

At that time, the ministers also touched it on the spot, and it felt very funny to be soft and wet.

The cement needs to be well maintained to achieve the best standard strength, and the frost resistance is not as good as that of modern cement, but the other differences are not large.

It usually takes two to three months to be the best, but Zhu Gaochu couldn't wait so long, and thirty days later, Zhu Gaochu came to the scene again with his ministers, and everyone was shocked.

Then Zhu Gaoxu brought in heavy artillery.

Boom, a cannon bombardment at close range, the cement was scattered and shattered, and shallow pits appeared, but the ministers knew that if they faced the current city wall at close range, the effect would be many times stronger than the cement.

The point is how quickly they saw a month ago that artisans paved a road and built a wall.

After the cement factory in the Ming Dynasty was completed, the first thing Zhu Gaoxu did was to rebuild the sewers in Beijing.

Even in the afterlife, if there is a sudden heavy rain, if the drainage is not enough, the streets will be flooded.

This is still the advantage of the Yangtze River near Jingshi.

In many cities, there are no short-term flood outlets, and water may start to accumulate as soon as it rains, and heavy rain can even inundate many low-lying areas.

This may be the reason why heavy rains that occur once in a hundred years or once in a thousand years often occur in later generations.

Anyway, Zhu Gaoxu has been in Beijing for more than ten years, and he has already felt it personally.

He had long wanted to build the sewers, but he endured it until the cement plant was built.

After it was completed, he finally ordered the rebuilding of the Jingshi sewer.

He wanted the sewers of Jingshi, like later European and American movies, which could drill people, fight, and pass.

He even thought that if he met the end of the Ming Dynasty again in the future, the last emperor might be able to flee along the sewer and escape outside the city.

This can be regarded as a huge project at this time, Zhu Gaoxu has just come out, not to mention Xia Yuanji, many people in the cabinet do not approve of it.

In this era, there are no activities outside of work, and everyone stays at home on rainy days, who cares about sewers and water accumulation in the city, and everyone recommends using it for water conservancy construction first.

But the emperor insisted on doing so, and everyone could not do it.

The emperor's reason was also very simple, the whole project was estimated to take several years, and in the words of later generations, this could expand employment and increase consumption, which was a good thing for the vicinity of Jingshi.

As for the construction of water conservancy, from the establishment of the Hongxi Dynasty to the present, it has not stopped, and the imperial court allocates funds every year, which will not be affected.

So Hongxi began in the fourteenth year, and it took the craftsmen half a year to make the construction drawings of the entire Jingshi underground sewer, and the construction of the entire Jingshi underground sewer was officially started in the fifteenth year of Hongxi, and more than a dozen private contractors each did a section, and finally the imperial court accepted and rated.

——

In February of the fifteenth year of Hongxi, just after the beginning of spring, Qin Han (Zhu Zhanqi) came to Suzhou from Beijing.

Qin Han, who is twenty-three years old, looks very much like Zhu Gaoxu back then, tall and fierce, many people thought he was a military general when they saw him for the first time, but they didn't expect him to be a civil official.

Qin Han had been transferred from Tongzhi in Yunnan to the prefect of Suzhou.

Before coming to Suzhou, he first went to Beijing, met his parents, and then reported to the ministry, and then took the whole family to Suzhou with new official seals, documents and other things.

His wife's name is Yan Xiaoshao, who was his classmate in Hangzhou back then.

Yan Xiaoshao's family conditions are also good, and she is a relative of the rebellious general Yan Qiang.

After Yan Qiang's successful rebellion, he first served as the commander of the Beijing battalion in the Beijing Division, and later went overseas for a period of time, and then transferred to Jeju as the chief military officer of Jeju.

Yan Xiaoshao became a teacher in school after graduating from university, and there were only five female teachers in the university at that time, and the social repercussions were quite large.

But the emperor has boys and girls going to school together since elementary school, and it has been several years since Yan Xiaoshao graduated from university.

Up to now, in the fifteenth year of Hongxi, most of the officials at the grassroots level began to enter primary school and then slowly went to college in the era of Yan Xiaoshao, so the people's ability to accept it is quite high now.

When Yan Xiaoshao came out of college last year, there were already more than 30 female staff members (including teachers) in the school.

She followed Qin Han and gave birth to two sons and a daughter for Qin Han, the eldest is only five years old, and her three children are all by her side.

The family of five, escorted by a group of sergeants, arrived in Suzhou at the end of February.

Accompanying them was Song Ke, the political envoy of Jiangnan.

Song Ke was a jinshi in Yongle, and later served as the magistrate of Fujian County, and surrendered to Zhu Gaoxu with the officials of the county at the first time during the war.

Over the years, he has hugged Zhu Gaoxu's thighs tightly, and whatever policy Zhu Gaoxu proposes, he will firmly support it as soon as possible and strictly complete it, so he has risen step by step, and he is now participating in politics from Sanpin.

Song Ke didn't know that Qin Han was the emperor's eldest son.

According to the current Ming rules, each new prefect will be personally sent to the local area by the local political envoy (where there is a governor, by the governor), and then all the officials will be called to a meeting to recognize the person.

In the past, the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty was that when the prefects arrived on their own, they would first go to the yamen, and then they might go to the counties one by one, or the county commanders might take the initiative to greet them on the road and get to know the lower officials.

There is also history of county orders who were killed on the road and then impersonated.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty is now at the prefect level, and they are all escorted by the imperial court to the appointment, and accompanied by the officials, and then all the officials of the government are summoned, and the officials above the nine grades in the counties are summoned to Suzhou to recognize people.

On 6 February, Song Ke and his entourage arrived in Suzhou, where local and county officials had been waiting at the yamen for a long time.

Everyone came to meet Song Ke, the left political officer, and the new Qin prefect.

After meeting for a while, Song Ke looked at the audience and said slowly: "The imperial court wants to restructure the prefecture and county, and Suzhou is one of the richest local governments in the Ming Dynasty, and it is set as a demonstration point." ”

"I hope that all officials, big and small, will fully cooperate with the Qin Governor's Mansion."

As soon as these words came out, the scene was in an uproar.

When the emperor first ascended the throne, he often changed the system, and the Ming system was changed in a mess, and the clan was not cut down.

It's only been a few years since it stopped, and it began to restructure the prefecture and county?

Many people vaguely feel that something is not good, and some people think that it may be a good thing.

An official at the scene immediately asked Song Ke how to restructure, Song Ke glanced at Qin Han and said, "The official is not clear, everyone can just listen to the arrangements of the Qin prefect." ”

He said a few more words, and then left in a hurry, not even daring to eat locally.

Daming's current rules, Shangguan don't go down if he has nothing to do, and he can't eat official meals locally if he goes down, he can only eat on the street at his own expense, and he wants to eat what others invite, so even the person who invited him is a sin.

Zhu Gaoxu is very strict with this trick, anyway, if the official goes down, you don't have to make any excuses, even if your own son is in the county below you, he can't invite you to dinner, you have to eat on the street yourself.

If you have any other relatives, friends, or classmates, you will be invited to dinner, of course, even worse.

When can I eat? During the New Year's holidays and rest days, you can eat with other people in the prefecture and county where you work, but no matter who you are with, what you eat, why you eat, how much money you spent, and who paid for it, you must report it.

At the beginning of Zhu Gaoxu's move, there was a lot of shouting and opposition from below, but then he gradually lost his voice.

(Later changed to a daily chapter)

Here is the update book, you can continue to read.

(End of chapter)