jdhmnovel Chapter 867 Anyone dares to build a country on the iron mines of the Ming Dynasty?
Chapter 867 Anyone dares to build a country on the iron mines of the Ming Dynasty?
Without the feeling of wanting to lose his hair, Li Shanchang once again regained his gentle and refined image as the chief minister.
Especially after leaving the medical school and coming to the physics department, and seeing those novel gadgets like drilling machines and planers with his own eyes, Li Shanchang's eyes lit up with excitement.
"These are all good stuff."
Li Shanchang reached out and touched the drilling machine, then the planer, suppressing the urge to drool, and looked at Yang Shaofeng, asking, "After the steam engine is invented, will these things be able to completely break free from the constraints of water power and animal power?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded.
Li Shanchang became even more excited.
Being freed from the constraints of water power means no longer having to worry about rivers drying up due to drought, and workshops no longer have to be built by the water, but can be built anywhere.
Being freed from the constraints of animal power means that a large number of cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, and other large livestock can be used for farming and transportation.
If the steam engine could be further developed, it could directly replace large livestock such as oxen, horses, mules, and donkeys for plowing, and these large livestock could even be used for food.
A Ming Dynasty that allowed its people to eat beef—who wouldn't give me, Li Shanchang, a thumbs up and call me a "famous prime minister for all time"?
Losing two pounds of hair is fine, anyway, having more hair doesn't really help.
Being a country bumpkin is not an unacceptable term.
Well, from now on I will call myself "The Recluse of the Countryside," and it would be best if history could record me as "The Chief Minister of the Countryside."
The main theme is that an old man is connected with the people heart to heart.
It's better than Lao Liu being on good terms with his fellow villagers, only to have them outsmart him.
Thinking of this, Li Shanchang's gaze towards the drilling machines and planers in front of him became even more ardent.
"Steam engines, it seems, require a lot of coal, right?"
Li Shanchang looked at Yang Shaofeng and asked, "In your opinion, Your Highness, is our Great Ming Dynasty's coal supply sufficient?"
"If it's not enough, where can we find enough coal to supply?"
"If even the coal from outside isn't enough, are there any alternatives?"
After considering it for a moment, Yang Shaofeng replied, "It's definitely enough for now."
"But whether it will be enough in ten or eight years, or even three or five years, is hard to say."
"After all, there are only so many places where coal can be used now."
"The honeycomb briquettes mainly use coal dust, not high-quality refined coal."
"The steel and iron smelting processes mainly use refined coal; they don't use ordinary coal."
"It just so happens that steam engines aren't particularly picky about coal."
Li Shanchang frowned slightly and asked, "Not particularly picky, so you'll still be picky?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded and replied, "The better the coal, the more heat it releases, and the better it boils water."
"But even slightly lower quality ones can be used. At worst, we'll just burn more and set up more supply stations along the way."
"Of course, poor quality charcoal is no good. You can't have all the old charcoal burned before the new charcoal has even started to ignite."
"Or perhaps a cartload of coal isn't enough to heat two furnaces of water."
"If that were the case, let alone steam engines pulling goods, they probably wouldn't even be able to move them in the air."
Li Shanchang gave an "oh" and turned his gaze directly to the group of officials behind him, saying in a deep voice, "Did you all hear that? Go back and find a good coal mine, one that's easy to mine and has good coal quality."
As soon as Li Shanchang finished speaking, the officials immediately agreed, but Zhu Biao's eyes lit up and he whispered, "Brother-in-law said there is good charcoal on that big island in Rinan County!"
"And there are also large open-pit iron ore deposits that are easy to mine!"
"I wonder what that big island looks like now."
"I wonder if there are any barbarians up there, or if anyone has occupied that place."
Li Shanchang's eyes lit up as well.
Nichinan County?
Oshima?
What a coincidence!
If it were in the past, I really wouldn't have dared to even think about Oshima in Jinan County.
Even if you know there are large coal and iron mines above, it's still not allowed.
Because the Ming Dynasty was extremely poor, it didn't have the strength to launch a long-distance expedition across the sea for the time being.
By the time we've accumulated enough manpower and resources for a long-distance expedition across the sea, I might already be buried in the ground.
But things are different now.
If you need money, you can have the national treasury print more banknotes, or have the Iwami Silver Mine dig out more shovels of silver ore.
Even if all else fails, we can wait until next summer, when the second payment and interest for those short and ugly people should be delivered around that time.
We need manpower. There is a complete fleet here in Dengzhou, and a second fleet of the same size is under construction. In another two years, it will be fully operational.
Therefore, these problems that were originally incredibly troublesome are not really considered major problems nowadays.
As for whether there are any barbarians on that large island in Rinan County, or whether it might be occupied by others.
Li Shanchang thought Zhu Biao must be joking.
Or maybe he didn't sleep well and is talking nonsense.
Because Zhu Biao actually believed that there were barbarians on the large island of Rinan County!
My goodness! His Highness the Crown Prince actually mistook the laborers on a certain island prefecture of the Rinan Provincial Administration for barbarians!
He even suspected that someone would dare to build a country on the coal and iron mines of the Ming Dynasty!
This is absolutely terrifying!
What terrible reason could have prevented His Highness the Crown Prince from fully recognizing the strength of the Ming army?
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Since there are coal and iron mines in Rinan County, the rest will be easy."
"Anyway, the Dengzhou fleet is just sitting idle now, and spending every day in the port is a huge expense."
"In my opinion, it would be better to first set aside a small fleet and sail south along the coast, first to the Ryukyu Islands, then to Siam, Annam and Burma, and finally to Srivijaya and Malacca. This would both spread our might to the four seas and serve as a preliminary exploration."
"What do Your Highness and the Prince Consort think?"
Zhu Biao immediately nodded in agreement.
After this incident of going to Japan to film without permission, I probably won't have the chance to board a ship and go to sea again in my life.
Unless one day I become the retired emperor.
The key point is that it will be decades later before I become the retired emperor.
So what does it have to do with me whether or not the Dengzhou Fleet is dismantled, or whether a small fleet is set aside to sail to the Western Ocean?
Yang Shaofeng was even more bewildered.
As someone once said, history always repeats itself.
In order to find his beloved nephew, Zhu Laosi specially dispatched a fleet of several hundred ships to sail to the Western Ocean seven times.
Although he ultimately failed to find his beloved nephew, he did a lot of business along the way, conquered many small countries, recruited many henchmen, and made a lot of money.
Now, it seems that this old scoundrel Li Shanchang has just found a coal mine and an iron mine as a pretext to set up another fleet to sail to the Western Ocean.