Chapter 135: The Iron Capital of the North

has not yet come to Zunhua, Zhu Qizhen only feels uncomfortable with his mouth and nose. Even the crops on the side of the road have a faint layer of dust. made Zhu Qizhen a little uncomfortable.

In fact, Beijing's air quality is not very good.

If you look at the historical records, there are never a few storms and haze in Beijing.

In modern parlance, a sand storm is a sand and dust storm.

The desert is never far from Beijing, and north of Kaipingwei is the Great Gobi. It's only a matter of a few hundred miles.

Even south of Kaipingwei, there is a trend of desertification in many places. The degradation of grassland is also related to the silage method, which allows the Monan grassland to feed more people.

It also puts the ecology on the grassland under greater pressure.

Desertification is also conceivable.

Zhu Qizhen has not thought of a way, migrating the Mongols to the Western Regions and reducing the number of people in southern Mongolia is one of the ways, but the Mongols are gone, and a large number of Han people have gone out of the customs and reclamation.

For this matter, Zhu Qizhen has nothing to do.

Of course, he could have ordered that the people should be forbidden to go out of the customs and farm. But in the interests of the imperial court, it is impossible. First of all, the people who have left their hometowns are generally the people who can't survive in their hometowns.

Zhu Qizhen's three-foot order, although it is light, can kill people.

Second, the garrison of the Ming Dynasty on the grassland needs a certain number of Ming people. It can not only ensure the supply of food and reduce the difficulty of rear transportation, but also the most firm support of the Ming garrison on the grassland at a critical time.

Although Zhu Qizhen affirmed the order, such as protecting the environment, prohibiting the felling of trees, cutting down trees on the grassland, and planting one tree at a time, and so on.

There is also an order that Yanshan, Yinshan, and various mountain ranges north of Beijing continue to plant trees, and there are even rewards.

The order to plant trees in Yanshan was not started by Zhu Qizhen, but was in place during the Taizong period, that is, to prevent the Mongols from crossing the mountains, but there were no dense forests on the mountains, so it was very effective to block the Mongols from going south, forcing them to break in only through a few passes.

Zhu Qizhen just continued to reiterate this order, and sent a few imperial historians from time to time to see the situation of planting trees.

Although it is not expected to be on the scale of the Three-North Shelterbelt, it is good to reduce some of Beijing's sandstorms.

But the situation near the Zunhua Iron Works is a different story.

The black ash near Zunhua is not a sandstorm in the north, but a carbon ash from the Zunhua Iron Works. The iron produced by the Zunhua Iron Works supplies almost the entire north, as well as large-scale national projects.

Whether it is the iron gate of the river, the nails of Tianjin shipbuilding, the iron for weapons, and even the agricultural tools of the people, the iron pieces on the galloping road, and so on.

Such a large output is hundreds of large iron furnaces, no

The result of the burning day and night.

Every day, I don't know how much coal enters the Zunhua Iron Works and turns into truckloads of cinders.

There are so many of these cinders that the official road is not paved with loess, but black cinders.

Such a heavy pollution would have been seized by future generations. But at the moment, it is the largest steel-producing subway capital in the north.

Even Liu Dingzhi, who has always focused on agriculture, did not mention the matter of the Zunhua Iron Works reducing the production of the fields near Zunhua, but said several times that the Zunhua Iron Works should not be under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu, because it was the same as the salt administration, and was handed over to the Ministry of Households.

After all, although the income of the iron mill is not comparable to the salt tax, it is still a considerable amount, which can be taxed by the province.

Zhu Qizhen could only make a haha, as if he hadn't heard it.

After arriving at the Zunhua Iron Factory, the surroundings were even more dusty. It seems to have laid the background color of all the houses and buildings near Zunhua.

Led by Shi Jing, he came over early with dozens of people.

Zhu Qizhen directly found Bei Lin and said, "Mr. Bei, where is this steam engine?" ”

Belin listened and glanced at Shi Jing.

Zhu Qizhen instantly understood that Shi Jing was the commander of the Shaofu. must have arranged in advance how to greet Zhu Qizhen, but Zhu Qizhen is a person who can break the rules.

He didn't care at all, and went straight forward, holding Belin's hand, in a posture of wanting to swim with his arms.

Belin was moved in his heart, and he didn't think about what Shi Jing thought, he immediately said, "Your Majesty, please come with me." ”

The group did not enter the ironworks, but in a clearing outside the ironworks, they saw a steam engine.

No, in Zhu Qizhen's view, it can't be regarded as a steam engine at all. It was not the same as the steam engine he imagined, but a building made of red brick and iron.

Zhu Qizhen wanted to step forward to take a closer look, but was stopped by the guards around him. Liu Dingzhi said: "Your Majesty, with the weight of the world, you should not approach such a dangerous place." ”

Liu Dingzhi as the first assistant, what he wants to know, there are few things that can be hidden from him, in the research of steam engines, there have been many lives, for Liu Dingzhi, it is just a number.

But if something goes wrong with the emperor, Liu Dingzhi's nine clans will not be enough to compensate.

Zhu Qizhen looked at Bei Lin, although he didn't say anything, but the meaning was obvious, Zhu Qizhen wanted Bei Lin to make an endorsement for the safety of this steam engine.

But Belin didn't dare to respond to Zhu Qizhen's eyes, lowered her head, and said stubbornly: "Your Majesty, the minister is here to explain to Your Majesty." ”

How dare Belin take such a risk.

If one is not careful, it is not the life of Belin alone, and the Nanjing Pei family should not have a living mouth.

Although he knew that Zhu Qizhen was unhappy, he didn't dare to say the word "safety", to be honest

Anyway, Belin also knows that there will be no problems with this. But what if?

In the future, there will be boiler explosions, and how can Belin be sure that there will be no explosions here.

Immediately, the two guards on Belin tore open a drawing and explained it to Zhu Qizhen in detail.

After Belleen's explanation, Zhu Qizhen felt that this was not the steam engine he wanted at all, but a boiler.

At the top of the scale, there is a lever that looks like a scale, on the one hand, the combustion chamber, which heats the water in the closed combustion chamber into water vapor, and the water vapor pushes the lever above, one end is raised, and the other end hangs down. There was a large bucket hanging under this end, and it sank deep into the well.

Then the combustion chamber is cooled, and then the steam condenses into water, and the force supporting the lever comes down, so the bucket of water is pulled up.

And the water was pulled from the ground to the ground.

The more Zhu Qizhen looked at it, the more he frowned, and said, "What is the cost, can the people afford it?" ”

Belin looked bitter and said, "Your Majesty, this cost, the minister is still trying to find a way to reduce it." ”

Zhu Qizhen surrounded the so-called steam engine, and after turning around a few times, he sighed slightly in his heart, but he also knew that he seemed to have a high cost, but it was effective in fighting drought.

Unlike the Hereafter.

I don't know how much the groundwater in the north sank in later generations, but although there are often droughts in Hebei, the groundwater is very shallow, and most places dig a few meters down, which is a well.

The reason why the drought is so severe that it is irremediable is that the efficiency of carrying water is too low.

In the river, it is possible to carry water with a water wheel, but in the well, it is not possible. There can only be buckets of wheels, which is a drop in the bucket for the drought.

But the steam engine can work around the clock. In the position of drought, many people may be saved.

This is different regions, there are different ideas, Zhu Qizhen's idea is very simple, he is not to pursue industrialization for the sake of industrialization, but to use the method of industrialization to help agricultural development.

Because only in this way can the Ming dynasty be stable.

Therefore, when this primitive steam engine appeared in Britain, the first demand was to pump water from coal mines, but Zhu Qizhen was quite watering.

Zhu Qizhen said to Liu Dingzhi: "How about the first assistant to be this thing? ”

What Zhu Qizhen could think of, Liu Dingzhi could also think of, he twisted his beard slightly, and said, "The real artifact is also." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "In this case, how about the cabinet buy a few units and put them in the arid land of the northwest?" ”

Liu Dingzhi said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that he should use one first, always see how the situation is, and then make a few steps. ”

Liu Dingzhi is full of distrust of the current situation, and seems to think that this is a scam to invite credit.