In the fifth year of Hongwu, the first day of the first month.

The officials and the people in the palace began to toss, and the people of Xiaqiu Village fell asleep in their tents.

The shopkeeper Xu of Fuhua Building warmed the bean buns sent by Xiaqiu Village before, added pickles, and boiled some radish shredded tofu soup to the students in the library.

In many parts of the city of Nanjing, it seems that they have stopped this morning, slept late, and could not get up.

At the second moment, the people in Xiaqiu Village woke up one after another, and the people in the kitchen took a look at the leftover dishes from last night, and chose the ones that were easy to spoil and heat them first.

I won't cook tonight, I can't finish those leftovers, and the people of Xiaqiu Village usually eat too well, but now I can't eat them.

Zhou Zong had already gone back, and before leaving, he made some charcoal to press the fire, heated a hot pot, and five people put the remaining dumplings in it to boil, and then one person gnawed two pig's trotters, and went to work when he was full.

"The Chinese New Year is very tiring! Hanhan, did you sleep well? After the chief cleaned up his things, he saw that Han Han had just finished brushing his teeth.

"I'm not tired during the New Year, I'm tired from staying up late, but fortunately, I don't have to do anything else, rest, rest today."

Zhu Wentian yawned, went over to help put the food, smelled the smell, and felt a little more energetic.

The older children also came to work, and the younger ones were still asleep, and from time to time they could hear the sound of the little baby.

The sun is about to be in the middle, the villagers eat, and the dumplings are not like Zhou Zong, they throw them into the hot pot, but they are fried hot, and they taste good.

……

For several days in a row, the excitement of the New Year slowly dissipated, and on the sixth day of the first lunar month, the box restaurant opened, and the officials began to work.

There was a queue in front of the convenience office, and the whole Nanjing began to publicize it a few years ago, and the people knew about it, but no one came.

After the New Year, it's time to find a job and register with the convenience of the people.

You need to hire someone to enter another door, have a stool to sit on, say your household registration, what you do, what you want, and give a little money.

There were three people registered, and the other merchants sat next to them and ordered tea.

The convenience office began to make money, including merchants who didn't eat breakfast, and they would eat snacks with tea.

The crown prince Zhu Biao and Zhu Fan came here to observe in civilian clothes, and the chief took Han Han to accompany them.

"Zhu Lichang, there are indeed a lot of people, how do they usually find jobs and hired workers?"

Zhu Biao was very satisfied when he saw the people in line, proving that this convenient place was set up correctly.

"Find people you know to introduce each other, or go to the docks or markets to inquire, and the people who do the hard work will gather in a certain place and wait for others to pass."

The lieutenant understands that when he buys vegetables, he can see that there is a temporary team of specially organized people, such as Xiaocao's previous work.

"Is the price fixed?" Zhu Biao asked again.

"For example, if there is a fixed manpower, there is a leader, who can usually ask for more money, and those who are scattered to find work on their own are generally cheaper.

The price of the convenience department is now chaotic, and after a while, the price of each one is basically in that position.

There is an advantage to finding work and hiring workers in convenient places without being oppressed by other organized workers......"

The lieutenant chief talked about the gang for the two highnesses, such as the river transportation before, and they were also divided into gangs.

Such gangs bully other poor people and threaten those who hire them to do their jobs.

For example, if you are doing it, you suddenly raise the price, stop without giving money, and you are not allowed to take over.

It is better to have a tooth person, but the merchant is not willing to find a tooth person, so he has to pay extra money.

Zhu Biao listened and nodded: "Our convenience office plays the role of the tooth shop, and if you don't take a cut from it, the tooth shop can't grab our business." ”

"In fact, I can grab it, and several tooth shops join forces to run this wanton asking price and disrupting the rules."

"How dare they? Lend them a hundred dares, that they may know whether their teeth are hard, or their steel knives are hard.

Speaking of steel knives, craftsmen have now been asked to make a large number of rails and minecarts, and they will be laid according to the route drawn on the map, and all the places for open-pit mining can be laid before the tenth day of the first month.

According to the estimation of the Ministry of Industry, if the smelting place is sufficient, it can produce more than 50,000 catties of iron per day. What does this mean by the length? ”

Zhu Biao said that the topic changed, and he mentioned the output of Nanshan iron ore in Ma'anshan.

"It means that the iron ore of a mineral is more than all the mines in Daming combined, and it also means that the technical level is too low and the output cannot be increased."

The chief knows the data, and Han Han said that there are a total of thirteen institutes in Daming, with an annual output of more than 7 million catties, that is, more than 4,000 tons.

The rest of the places add up, that is, seven or eight thousand tons, more than ten million catties.

A mining area can smelt 50,000 catties of ore in a day, indicating that the smelting technology is not up to standard.

Zhu Biao: "......"

He didn't expect that there were so many things in the master's sect, and he could actually know the iron output of Daming last year.

Zhu Fan spoke up beside him: "Zhu Lichang knows how to turn iron ore into molten iron faster? ”

"Braising coke, blowing pulverized coal, and building a blast furnace, I have a set of drawings here, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can take it and find someone to make it, and use the blast furnace to smelt iron, so that it is convenient to use the converter to make steel.

Steel has its own uses, not all steel is good, pig iron wrought iron is the same, according to the use of processing. ”

As he spoke, he took out a stack of papers, and he had already prepared, once he came into contact with the prince, there was a possibility that something would suddenly appear.

There's something else in his arms! When the prince didn't ask, he didn't say anything about it, this blast furnace blueprint was originally intended to be built outside Nanjing by the village for trial before giving it to the palace.

Since it is said that this matter, let the prince find someone to build it, it is very simple, an earthen blast furnace, made of refractory bricks.

The height of about three zhang, a large piece of construction, when the loading of the shelf moved over, the product of the steelmaking period.

This is the easiest, and it is indeed faster than the current speed of iron smelting, as long as the ore is in supply, wait for the crazy iron to be produced!

When the two brothers looked at the drawings and introduced the text and data, the chief explained: "I thought that I would build one outside the city first, and then ask others to learn it after it is easy to use." ”

"This palace is looking for someone to build, build one, and transport iron ore over, just outside the city."

Zhu Biao said and put away the drawings, turned around and walked back, he was very anxious, Daming lacked iron, no, not only iron, but also felt that he lacked everything.

Zhu Fan watched his brother lead people away quickly, and he looked at the chief: "Zhu Lichang, is there anything else good?" ”

"I don't need it for the time being, so there's no hurry." Li Chang shook his head, things have to come step by step, without a large amount of iron ore, the blast furnace is useless.

"I'll take a look at the store." Zhu Fan saw that there was nothing new, and he didn't want to stay anymore.

The lieutenant turned his head to look at Han Han: "Where are we going?" ”

"Books, voila, um!" Zhu Wentian wanted to go to the library.

"Let's go." The lieutenant walked in front and motioned for Hanhan to follow.

Prince Zhu Biao hurriedly entered the city, directly looking for his father, as soon as he entered, others shouted to greet His Royal Highness the Prince, Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head: "My son came over in a hurry, is it cold?" ”

"The child is not cold, the father looks at this set of drawings, and the iron smelting is used, and it should be built as soon as possible to test the production capacity."

Zhu Biao didn't talk nonsense, and put the drawings directly on the table.

(End of chapter)