Seven years of Xingqian.

Wang Mingen was twenty-four years old at the time, although he was young, but people would call him "uncle" when they saw him, he was the "Wu Ningbo" of Xingqianyuan, in fact, he was not awarded because of his military exploits, but because of his father's military exploits, in the Ming Dynasty, his father was a small person who was not worth mentioning, but this little person was repeatedly mentioned in the "Biography of the New Ming Heroes".

"As soon as Wang Xiuwu saw more than 10,000 iron helmets and iron armor Qing captives attacking in formation, and seeing that the two armies were facing each other and the loyal and righteous army was frustrated, he bit his teeth and jumped into the gunpowder cart ......"

When the city of Nanjing was in the bloody battle at Tongji Gate, if Wang Xiuwu had not rushed to the enemy position with a gunpowder cart and died with the Qing army, it was not known who would win and who would lose. Although after the war, he was rewarded for meritorious deeds and treated Wang Xiuwu's family quite kindly, but in the first year of Xingqian, when His Majesty toured south to Nanjing, when he was paying tribute to the old department in Tongji Gate, he looked at the paved road stones under Tongji Gate, and naturally thought of Wang Xiuwu, who was broken bones, and immediately issued an order to confer his family as an uncle.

And it was from that time that Wang Mingen, who was originally just a cloth cloth, became a noble of the Ming Dynasty and obtained 20,000 acres of Xuntian, and from then on, he could earn a huge amount of rent without doing anything. Of course, he couldn't make much money just by renting, but there happened to be iron ore in his fiefdom, and by mining iron ore, he suddenly became very rich.

Although there are many nobles like him in Nandu, there are few who are as rich as him, after all, the profits of the iron factory are more considerable than farming.

Obviously, even Wang Xiuwu, who reported the idea of "repaying his kindness" and died with the enemy, did not expect that his actions not only laid the foundation for the success of the Northern Expedition, but also fundamentally changed the fate of the Wang family, not only allowing future generations to live a decent life, but also making the Wang family a noble of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, for many ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, and even many soldiers, Wu Ningbo's royal family is their occasional, and they all hope that one day, like Wu Ningbo, they can earn a glory and wealth for their descendants, and of course, fame.

However, for Wang Mingen, while he enjoyed all this, he also took responsibility, after the first year of Xingqian, he entered the army school at the age of seventeen, studied military affairs, and after graduation entered the army to serve, spent three years in the infantry regiment, and at the end of the army received the rank of captain. Two years ago, he gave up his full-time military career, retired as a reserve officer, and became an honorary colonel of Naori Minami. Unfortunately, this honorary colonel is nothing more than an honor for the nobility, and he can never receive a medal.

Since then, Wang Mingen, like many nobles, has focused his mind on running the family business while educating his children, after all, his son needs to become the Wu Ningbo of the Ming Dynasty in the future, and before that, his son also needs to enter the military academy and serve. As for the other sons, they can only leave home when they reach adulthood, and they need more and more good education than the eldest son, after all, at that time, they can only rely on themselves.

For the future of his sons, Wang Mingen had already made arrangements, and the eldest son took over his title and became the noble of the Ming Dynasty. As for the second son, he will one day become a civil servant of the state. As for the third child, in the future, he can become a ...... Perhaps, like everyone else, he can go overseas to Zhuxia and earn a reputation for himself.

Who knows?

No one could have predicted that in the future, just like him, he was studying in social studies at the time, and he never thought that he would suddenly change from a martyr's family to a nobleman.

Looking out of the car window, Wang Mingen's expression was slightly dignified, and outside the car window, you could see those gray-faced miners, after entering the iron mine, everything here was gray.

"We should recruit more miners, the output is too small now......"

Wang Mingen muttered to himself, and at that moment, the continuous sound of explosions interrupted his thoughts, it was the mine that was firing artillery mining. Compared to coal mines, iron ore requires more gunpowder and is more dynamic during mining. Soon after the explosion, the roads in the mining area were covered in smoke clouds from the explosion.

Wang Mingen's carriage was running in the smoke and dust, and soon, the carriage left the mining area, although this is the Wang family's iron mine, but Wang Mingen rarely comes here, even if it is less than a hundred miles away from Nanjing, but most of the time, he will not stay in the fiefdom, after all, compared to the fiefdom, Nanjing is more prosperous, and most of the business is finalized in Nanjing, as for here, but only a place for production.

The reason why he came here this time was because he had something to discuss with the general office of the iron factory, so he stayed in the iron factory for a few days, and now it is time to go back to Nanjing.

That night, Wang Mingen returned to the Wuningbo Mansion in the outer city of Nanjing, and when the carriage stopped, he saw the servants who greeted his return, and also saw Sophia among the servants, and caught a glimpse of Sophia's face through the glass window. He was taken back four years earlier to serve in Canton, where he had seen for the first time this impossibly beautiful face, surrounded by curly blond hair, and her face looked completely untamable with pride. Even now, her face was angry, but he felt a strange temptation.

This is the woman he wants the most!

Of course, he could have wanted her, and even she bore him a daughter, but all he could do was to turn her from a domestic slave into a servant, as for taking a concubine...... It is impossible, commoners or take foreign women as concubines, and the nobles of the Ming Dynasty cannot. Therefore, she is still a "servant", and even his daughter has to be raised by a concubine.

Aside from not being able to give her status, he can give her whatever she needs.

"Master, you're finally back."

Almost at the same time as Wang Mingen got out of the car, after the salute, Sophia said.

"If something happens, the government may have to purchase iron materials in a unified manner, and all iron materials must be sold to the government."

"What?"

Wang Mingen's pick, he hadn't heard the news when he was in the factory,

"Is this news accurate?"

"It was just delivered, and I got the news less than two hours ago, and I guess it will be reported tomorrow."

The reason why Sophia is favored by Wang Mingen is not only because she is beautiful, she may have been plundered as a slave by North African pirates from a merchant family, but she is well-educated and can help Wang Mingen a lot of times in many times.

"I'll go and ask the governor to see what the hell is going on, and see if there's any room for manoeuvre."

Wang Mingen felt a little nervous about this sudden change, after all, the iron factory was the foundation of the Wang family. The two said as they walked.

"I guess it's unlikely, I heard that it's the will of the imperial court."

"Imperial Court ...... What is this trying to do? ”

When he came to the back house, Wang Mingen took out his cigarette case and lit a paper cigarette.

"Don't smoke here."

Sophia didn't like the smell of tobacco, and Wang Mingen didn't object to this, he walked to the door, and then said while smoking.

"The imperial court wants to buy iron materials in a unified manner, which has never happened before, why was there no rumor at all before?"

Wang Mingen's tone was full of doubts, in his opinion, this was almost unimaginable, and there was no rumor, and suddenly there was a will.

"Will the imperial court take away the ironworks?"

Sophia's question made Wang Mingen stunned for a moment, and then he shook his head and said.

"This is impossible, the court will not do this."

For the imperial court, Wang Mingen was convinced, and when he was about to go out, he paused again, looked at Sophia and said.

"By the way, you can't talk nonsense next time, you know? I mean what you just said. ”

"I see."

After living in Daming for a few years, Sophia already knows that there are some things that cannot be said in Daming.

"Well, it's nothing, but there's always something to be aware of."

Then, Wang Mingen walked out, and he still had to go to his wife.

He walked down the corridor, and he was a little distraught at this time, not because he went to see his wife, although the lady from a large family also helped him a lot, at least she was in charge of most of the affairs of the house.

The reason why he felt upset was because from that sudden news, he seemed to feel a little ominous, why was this happening?

Why did the imperial court do this?

For a while, he couldn't tell clearly, but he always felt a little uneasy.

When he came to the study, a servant was cleaning the window, unlike the slaves of the noble families in the past, the Xingqian Dynasty forbade slavery, and all the Han family slaves were returned to freedom at once. Therefore, each family can only hire servants, of course, in recent years, the sale of overseas slaves and maids is also extremely popular, but compared to those so-called Guangnan slaves, color maids, often people are more willing to use their own servants, Wu Ningbo Mansion is also like this, although there are hundreds of Guangnan slaves, color maids, and even Kunlun slave maids who work hard, but the servants at home are often Han people, even if it costs a little more money. Wang Mingen knew this servant, although this servant rarely came to the back house, he had seen him participate in football matches in the town—a sport that had been passed down from the army, and was now very popular in Yu Daming, and he played quite well.

"Li Kang,"

Remembering his name, Wang Mingen instructed him.

"You go and ask the housekeeper to come to the study, and also, find all the newspapers of the last few days, and find as many as you can, as much as you can."

Newspaper! Maybe you can find some information from the clues revealed in the newspaper news! Wang Mingen thought about it like this, because he had served in the army, so he always felt that this matter was a little strange, but for a while, he couldn't say what was going on......

When he flipped through the newspaper there and found some information from the newspaper, he didn't know that in fact, the unified purchase of iron was also a forced choice for the imperial court.

"There's not enough iron."

As the emperor, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the newspaper in his hand. I couldn't help but sigh.

"We will build a few hundred more kilometers of railways this year. The railway will be repaired to Shaanxi, and the railway will only be repaired more and more. But we now have very limited iron production. ”

Almost after the steam locomotive showed his extraordinary potential. The construction of railways became a consensus in the imperial court.

Those who opposed the construction of the railroad were also impressed by the incredible capacity of the railway. In fact, the speed of a thousand miles a day. It also allows everyone to see the power of the railway.

Now there are voices in the imperial court that the railway will be built to the northeast and to Mongolia. Throughout the ages, the frontier theory has been unstable. The fundamental reason was transportation, which restricted the Central Plains Dynasty's control over the frontier.

That's why when railways and trains come together, they show their power. These officials, who had been enslaved by foreign races for more than ten years after the Jiashen Heavenly Revolution, suddenly thought of asking the China Railway to consolidate the rule of the frontier.

In their opinion, as long as the railroad can be built to the frontier, then. can stop the rise of any alien race.

This idea is very realistic, and with the railway, the army can be at ease day and night, ready to throw itself into the distant frontier whenever and wherever it wants. Supplies can also be sent to the front in a steady stream.

However, backward industrial production constrained the speed of railway construction. Although now in the planning of those people, thousands of kilometers of railways may have been planned.

But the Ming Dynasty was not able to provide enough iron to pave the railway. Even the imminent construction of railways had to concentrate as much iron as possible on the whole country.

At the very least, it is necessary to unify the dispatch of the iron capital of the whole country. And in this way, it can be guaranteed in the next few years. There is enough iron to build a railway in Shaanxi.

"Since this is the case, Your Majesty, then build a new iron factory."

Looking at His Majesty with a sad face. Zheng Ling said with a smile.

"Daming is so big, there are so many iron mines in various places, as long as there is a need for people in the world, they will definitely set up more iron factories. If there are more factories, there will naturally be no shortage of iron. ”

Listen to this sentence of the queen. Zhu Mingzhong just smiled, and then said.

"It's not as simple as you say! It's not just that there aren't enough factories to produce at the moment, it's that our ironmaking furnace technology is backward. And there is a reason that our iron ore production limits the output of iron plants, and if we want to solve the problem, we must solve it fundamentally, not just build a few more factories. ”

To solve the problem fundamentally, it is necessary to set up new and more efficient iron-making blast furnaces, and to further increase the production of iron ore. Of course, there is also a need to increase the output of coal mines. In contrast, designing an ironmaking blast furnace is probably the easiest thing to do.

Even if it's simple, it's too late now, after all, there's another thing that has to be solved later.

Thinking of this, Zhu Mingzhong's expression became a little solemn. He glanced at the queen and said to her.

"Ling'er, if everything goes well, we will be able to drive Jiannu out completely this year."

.。 m.