In one of the courtyards of the Wensi Academy, Zhang Xingsheng, the steward eunuch in charge of the Wensi Academy and various workshops, was sitting in the main hall and handling daily affairs.

In the courtyard outside the door of the main house, more than a dozen stewards of various workshops were standing solemnly, waiting for the little eunuch who passed the word in the room to call his name, so that he could enter the door and report once a month.

Zhang Xingsheng was wearing a brand-new python robe, and although his face looked thinner than before, his eyes looked more energetic.

This year's experience of being a one-sided steward has made him, who was still a little restrained, now slowly become full of momentum, and he feels like a big man.

Now those subordinates under him have long forgotten that a year ago, this eunuch who was the deputy steward of the capital governor was just the lowest-level eunuch in the palace.

When Zhang Xingsheng looked through the account book in his hand, the steward of the cotton textile workshop where he started only dared to sit next to his seat with half an ass, and sat there tremblingly, waiting for Zhang Shengsheng's question.

After closing the account book, Zhang Xingsheng looked up at the steward and asked unhurriedly: "At the beginning of the year, the first load of raw cotton was less than one tael, but now it has risen to one tael, five or six yuan." Even if there is a drought near Gyeonggi this year, Baoding, Daimyo, and Shandong have not been affected, is the price of cotton normal? ”

The steward below hurriedly got up and replied cautiously: "Back to my father-in-law, although Baoding, Daming, and Shandong have not been affected, the southern Hangjiahu area has suffered a sea overflow this year.

Most of the cotton in the north is produced at the junction of Shandong, Hebei and Henan, but the main production area of cotton in the south is still in the Hangjiahu Plain.

The Hangjiahu Plain was so flooded by the sea that the cotton output in the south this year suddenly decreased by 3 or 4 percent.

In addition, the ginning machine developed by Wensi Institute at the beginning of the year, not to mention the low cost, its efficiency can be worth dozens of people.

And according to the small I heard, someone in Zhejiang changed the ginning machine of Wensi Institute to a hydraulic drive, and the efficiency of this improved machine is several times higher than that of our original.

In the past, from raw cotton to weaving into cloth, the most labor-intensive link was to peel cottonseeds and spin yarn, and now these two steps have been increased by dozens of times and more than ten times, which saves labor costs, which can naturally fill the price of raw cotton.

The price of raw cotton is now rising all the way, but the villain has also calculated, and now the lint has also risen to 3 taels and 9 yuan per quintal. When you think about it, we actually make a little more. However, in the next year and the year after tomorrow, the newly invested cotton yarn workshop was established, and I am afraid that the cotton in the north will not be able to meet the needs of the cotton yarn workshop in the capital.

Now the biggest problem is that the cotton yarn produced by the cotton textile industry in Beijing can be consumed by the weaving workshop in Beijing at most two-tenths or three-tenths, and the rest must be transported to Suzhou and Songjiang for sale.

However, weavers in these areas dislike that the quality of our cotton yarn is not as good as their hand-spun, and always want to lower the price of cotton yarn. The villain thought that if we did not speed up the improvement of weaving technology, I am afraid that we would be subject to the cloth merchants in the Suzhou and Song regions. ”

After listening to this, Zhang Xingsheng was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly to the Wu steward and said, "You have worked hard, you sit aside and wait." ”

He quickly turned his head to the little eunuch who was waiting at the door and said, "Let the steward of the railway locomotive making workshop and the steward of the cement making workshop come in first, and the miscellaneous family wants to listen to their report first." ”

Two low-ranking officials in green robes walked into the hall one after the other amid the shouts of the little eunuch. After they sat down, they began to pour bitter water on Zhang Xingsheng, and the troubles of the two were quite inconsistent.

The money manager who managed the railway locomotive manufacturing workshop was angry, and the horse-drawn railway was originally developed by the Wensi Institute, but it was soon intercepted by the ordnance superintendent.

Seeing that the railway in Shanxi was about to be laid for thousands of miles, and the big project worth millions of taels fell into the hands of the ordnance superintendent, he was really a little unwilling.

However, even if he is unwilling, he is still in the middle. Although the Wensi Institute also had the technology to build railways, the bearings and cast iron wheels of the carriages running on the railways were still only made by the Ordnance Superintendent.

And the large amount of steel raw materials needed to make the railroad is now also in the hands of the ordnance superintendent. As a result, the railway construction institute under the name of the Ordnance Supervision completely dominated the entire railway construction market.

As for the Railway Technology Research Institute under the name of the Wensi Academy, it can only provide some sporadic products for the Ordnance Superintendent. Watching others eat meat and only drink soup by themselves makes the people in the institute very dissatisfied.

In any case, the Ordnance Superintendent also established a railway construction institute on the basis of their research. Now relying on their control over the iron material, they have eaten alone, which is truly intolerable.

Therefore, the steward complained and asked Zhang Xingsheng that Wensi Institute should develop a coal and iron ore base by itself. As long as there is a supply of iron, the Wensi Academy will be able to undertake the construction of the railway on its own, without having to look at the eyes of the ordnance superintendent.

After listening to this, Zhang Xingsheng asked him quietly: "So what do you think is the coal and iron mine suitable for us to invest and build?" ”

The steward immediately said confidently: "Father-in-law, Xiaguan is a native of Boshan, Shandong, and as far as Xiaguan knows, there has been a trend of mining and iron smelting in the area of Jinling Town in Zibo since ancient times, and the underground mineral deposits are innumerable.

Moreover, there is a coal mine in adjacent Boshan, and according to the new iron-smelting method, iron can be smelted with coal and iron ore. If an iron-smelting plant can be set up in Zibo, then the iron of the Wensi Institute will no longer have to ask for help. ”

The steward's proposal made Zhang Xingsheng a little moved, most of the iron materials used by the Wensi Institute came from Tongzhou Cang, which was an iron class from all over the world.

The biggest problem with these iron materials is that the impurity content is different, but if they are to be used, they need to be refined. However, Wensi Academy did not have a refining furnace, so it could only ask the Ordnance Superintendent to help refining.

In normal times, there would be no problem, but as the tasks of the ordnance superintendent became more and more onerous, they were not very willing to do this kind of hard work for the Wensi Academy.

Even, Sun Yuanhua excused the quality of the iron materials in the Tongzhou Cang Iron Depot to be impure, and asked Chongzhen to directly allocate these iron materials to the Ordnance Supervision as raw materials for secondary refining.

Sun Yuanhua's practice made Wensi Institute even cut off the source of pig iron, and if he wanted to use iron, he had to buy it from the Ordnance Supervisor, or buy it at a high price in the market.

Although the workshops under the Wensi Academy made good profits, and the Ordnance Supervisor also needed cement from the cement workshops under the Wensi Academy, so he did not dare to cut off the iron supply of the Wensi Academy, but delays for a few days still happened from time to time.

Seeing that Zhang Xingsheng frowned and was silent, Steward Qian hurriedly glanced at Steward Zhao, who managed the cement workshop, and Steward Zhao immediately cried out to Zhang Xingsheng.

“… The Xishan Cement Plant produces 15 tons of ordinary cement per day, and the Jingcheng Cement Branch produces more than 5 tons of pozzolana cement per day.

However, relying on the convenience of building the Beijing-West Railway, the Ordnance Supervisor forcibly took away half of the output, plus the share supplied to the Ministry of Industry, and our Wensi Institute itself has nothing left.

The new workshop and Tanggu wharf built by our Wensi Institute in Tianjin are also in urgent need of cement..."

Zhang Xingsheng suddenly raised his eyebrows, interrupted him with a smile and asked, "Do you want to build a cement factory in Zibo?" ”

Steward Zhao's voice suddenly fell, and he looked at Zhang Xingsheng cautiously and said: "Father-in-law, this Jingxi Railway is not in our hands after all, even after the railway is opened, our Wensi Academy's workshop in Xishan will be subject to others."

The glass workshop is okay, anyway, the quantity is not large, and the value is quite high. But this cement is completely based on quantity, if someone gets stuck in transportation, won't we end up working in vain?

In that place, there are not only coal mines and iron mines, but also rich reserves of limestone for making cement. Moreover, Xia Guan heard that there is no shortage of raw materials for making glass, and if we can operate in Zibo, then our Wensi Institute will finally have a foundation in the future. ”

Zhang Xingsheng thought for a long time, then turned his head to the little eunuch beside him and said, "Go and get the map of the Ming Dynasty." ”

The map of the Ming Dynasty taken by the little eunuch was spread out on the square table on his left, and after Zhang Xingsheng looked at it for a long time, he beckoned a few stewards to come forward to look at the map.

"Although the northwest of Zibo is the coast, but the sea here has never heard of any good harbor, if you go west through Jinan to Linqing into the Grand Canal is a road.

But now the capacity of the Grand Canal is already tight, and we are competing with Caoyun for the capacity of the canal, I'm afraid that the foreign dynasties will be dissatisfied at that time, right? Zhang Xingsheng asked hesitantly to the three subordinates.

Zhao and Qian, the two stewards, looked at each other, and couldn't help but point to the map and said, "Father-in-law, why don't you build a Tianjin-Jinan-Zibo railway." In this way, it will not only not squeeze the capacity of the canal, but also allow the Bunsiyuan to control a railway by itself. It can also share the pressure of shipping from Texas to Tianjin Canal. ”

Zhang Xingsheng immediately shook his head and denied: "This is a railway of nearly 1,000 miles, according to the current iron price, the cost of each mile of railway is at least 600 taels, and the entire railway costs more than 600,000 taels, plus the investment in mining workshops, the total number will not be less than 1.5 million taels."

The profit of each workshop under the name of Wensi Institute this year is only 350,000 taels, deducting the reinvestment part, and now it is only 150,000 taels of surplus money, that is, one-tenth of the total investment, where do we raise the rest of the money? ”

Seeing that the two stewards of Zhao and Qian were suddenly speechless, Steward Wu, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: "Father-in-law, if this railway does not go north from Zibo through Jinan, but directly passes through Qingzhou, Weixian, Gaomi to Jiaozhou, the journey can not only be shortened by half, but also can go to sea from Jiaozhou."

From here, you can take a boat south to Songjiang, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Taiwan, and go north to Tianjin, Korea, and Japan.

And the cotton production area is in the west and north of Zibo, but the people of Weixian County are here: 200 red furnaces, 3,000 copper blacksmiths, 9,000 embroidery machines, and 100,000 looms. If the railway can be connected here, we can vigorously promote cotton planting, and then put it in Weixian for final processing.

As for the issue of investment, why didn't my father-in-law suggest to His Majesty that the cement formula be put out. Now the market is as high as 60 yuan per ton of ordinary cement, but there is still no price in the market, because we simply can't produce so much.

Since June, I don't know how many businessmen have come to the door, hoping to buy cement formulas from Wensiyuan, why don't we sell the formulas of ordinary cement?

Coal is necessary to burn cement, although we cannot control the Kailuan coal mine. However, if the Boshan Coal Mine is controlled in hand, after the railway is repaired, Jiaozhou Bay will go to the sea to the south, which will be much closer than Tianjin going to the sea to the south.

We can use the Boshan Coal Mine as collateral to borrow another amount from the bank, and we should not lack the cost of building a railway, opening a mine or a workshop. ”

Zhang Xingsheng looked up at Steward Wu violently, and suddenly laughed and said, "Okay, that's right, Wu Nanfang, you go back and prepare a piece of Chen." The miscellaneous family went to make a statement to His Majesty, if this matter can be accomplished, the miscellaneous family will definitely recommend you to preside over this matter as a whole..."