Zhu Youzhen, who had just finished grooming, threw the strip of coarse cloth on his hand on the copper basin, which was always a little uncomfortable to use for this kind of towel made of directly cut coarse cloth.

"It seems that the Textile Research Institute should study how to use the fleece process to make real towels." When Zhu Youzhen waved his hand to let the little eunuch waiting beside him go down, he thought so in his heart.

Zhu Youzhen said to Wang Chengen, who was standing aside: "Let Zhang Xingsheng come over, and then tell me today's itinerary." ”

Wang Chengen, who bowed down slightly, followed Zhu Youzhen, who was walking towards the door of the dormitory, and whispered: "Your Majesty, is it better to suspend going out today?" ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't stop, just asked casually, "What's wrong?" Any questions? ”

Wang Chengen hurriedly said: "After His Majesty ordered the isolation of the almshouse where smallpox was found yesterday, the news of the occurrence of smallpox in the capital has spread. Mao Yujian, Lu Chengyuan, and Qian Yuanyu wrote a letter, asking His Majesty to avoid the epidemic in the palace. ”

Zhu Youzhen finally stopped, he looked back at Wang Chengen and asked, "How many people are there?" ”

Wang Chengen lowered his head and said: "There are 14 people in total, but the minister thinks that if Your Majesty continues to leave the palace today, I am afraid there will be more than this number." ”

Zhu Youzhen hesitated for a moment and said, "How are the few people who were vaccinated with cowpox yesterday now?" ”

"There's no news yet, Your Majesty."

"No news is good news." Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while and said. However, for the poor health and epidemic prevention conditions in this era, he finally became a little jealous after making up for it in the Tai Hospital yesterday.

Thinking that smallpox could be transmitted through the air, Zhu Youzhen finally gave in, and he said to Wang Chengen: "Okay, then I will follow their advice for the time being." Tell the hospital that if Deng Yuhan, Wu Youxing and others are still safe after three days, I will be vaccinated with cowpox. ”

Wang Chengen was shocked: "Your Majesty, is this too anxious?" After three days, I still don't know if this cowpox can fight smallpox? There is also no guarantee that vaccinia vaccination is safe. Is it to wait any longer, the minister thinks it is safer to test a few more batches of people. ”

Zhu Youzhen said firmly: "Don't bother, I have already decided, you just need to arrange it." Let Mr. Sun take the members of the General Staff he selected to the Wuying Palace, and I want to meet them. In the afternoon, let the bell and drum division try out the program at the New Year's Day dinner, and I will review it. ”

Wang Chengen could not disobey Chongzhen's order, and went down to carry it out according to the emperor's order. In the upper study, Zhu Youzhen saw Zhang Xingsheng, who was summoned.

Zhu Youzhen put down the piece in his hand and said to him: "I have two things to say about you, one is that I was originally going to visit the Wensi Academy today, but it will be postponed for a few days, and you explain the reason to the craftsmen for me.

For ginning machines and spinning machines that have already been tried, you can start production without having to wait for us to inspect them.

The second is for the craftsmen of the Bunsi Institute to try to produce, towels, masks, cotton and bandages for medical use..."

After listening to Chongzhen's request, Zhang Xingsheng said with some caution: "Your Majesty, if all of them are made of iron in accordance with Your Majesty's requirements, one is inconvenient to make, and the other is that the production cost will be greatly increased.

Therefore, the minister thought that it was not only made of iron for some of the main parts, and the other parts were still made of wood that was easy to process. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and asked, "How much time and how much material does it take to make these machines out of wood?" How much time and how much material does it take to make these machines out of iron? ”

Zhang Xingsheng lowered his head, and said after silently calculating for a while: "The ginning machine is the most economical, but 200 catties, using good pine wood costs 2 taels of silver and 4 yuan, and it costs 15 labor, and the carpenter eats 007 taels of silver per day, and it costs 105 taels of labor."

The cost price of each ginning machine is about 345 taels, if the standardized production mentioned by His Majesty is adopted, the ginning machine is divided into parts of various specifications, and then assembled in a unified manner, then it is about every 3 people, every 3 days can make a ginning machine, and the cost can be pressed to 303 taels each.

However, if the wood is replaced with iron, the weight of the ginning machine of the same size is 2,600 catties, and the material price alone has reached 156 taels, and the pig iron processing is difficult, and the labor has increased by at least 3 times, and the price gap is 6 or 7 times, reaching 19 taels each.

As for the newly developed hand-spinning machine, the material used has increased by about 50%, and the cost has also increased by 50%. If you could replace half of the iron parts, the cost would drop by one..."

"Wouldn't it be any good to make all the machines out of iron?" Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but interrupt Zhang Xingsheng's words and asked.

Although Zhu Youzhen's interruption came in, Zhang Xingsheng only paused for a moment, and then said quickly: "Although the pig iron parts are difficult to process, the speed of vertical mold pouring far exceeds the speed of wood dissolution, and pig iron transportation is more labor-saving than transporting whole wood.

On top of that, iron machines are much more stable than wood machines, and an iron gin machine produces about 6% more lint in a day than a wooden ginner.

Although the iron spinning machine has not yet been completed, he thinks that the output will be higher than that of the wooden machine. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "There is one more thing you didn't mention, which is the loss rate of the machine." Wooden machines need to be repaired every 1 month of use, otherwise the gaps between the parts of the machine will be too large to be used, while iron machines can be lubricated on time.

In this way, although it takes a little longer to recover the cost, at least there is no need to worry about not recovering the cost of the iron machine? ”

Zhang Xingsheng immediately nodded in agreement, but he still advised again: "But Your Majesty, the cost of maintenance is not much. Comparatively, it is more cost-effective to make these machines out of wood. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Zhang Xingsheng with some surprise, smiled and said: "I can't see it, you are very good at cost control now." You're right, as a businessman, reducing costs and making maximum profits is the number one goal. But for me, making money isn't the primary goal. ”

Zhang Xingsheng was a little puzzled, in his opinion, everything Chongzhen did was to make more money, how could he say today that making money was not his first goal.

Seeing that Zhang Xingsheng was a little confused, Zhu Youzhen decided to talk to the eunuch, the leader he was optimistic about, about his thoughts on industrial manufacturing.

"I have read a lot of idle books these days, and there is one called "Five Miscellaneous Works", which says: There are only four kinds of people in Yanyun: there are more people than gentlemen, more women than men, more prostitutes than good families, and more beggars than merchants...... In the past, people said, "It's not enough to be Kyoto," and that's true.

From the description of this book, it can be seen that although Jingshi has a population of 8 to 900,000, most of them are people who are not engaged in production.

The palace people, bureaucrats, nobles, gentry, servants and soldiers who served them, plus some merchants, formed the main body of the city. This is a pure consumption city that consumes the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, and this wealth still comes from the far south.

In a word, if the Cao Yun is cut off, the city will not be able to support it for more than half a year. Therefore, those gentry in the south of the Yangtze River can disobey the decrees of the imperial court. Because they knew that the court was afraid of chaos in the southeast.

What we need to do now is to change that. We want to make this city a self-sufficient industrial manufacturing city, so that the majority of the people in the city can support themselves through labor and production, instead of surviving by flattering the powerful and selling their wives and daughters.

If you want to change the situation that there are more prostitutes than good families in the capital, you must develop the textile industry and use the textile industry to absorb the women in the capital.

The use of iron to make textile machines can promote the development of the iron smelting industry, and the development of the iron smelting industry can expand the development of the mining industry and the coal mining and coking industry. So even if we don't get much in the textile industry, we feed tens of thousands more people in other industries.

So you don't have to worry about reducing profits in the textile industry, but look farther and look broader. I believe that your future will not be limited to where you are now. ”

In a short speech, Zhu Youzhen seemed to be teaching and seemed to be promising something to Zhang Xingsheng. Zhang Xingsheng quickly understood the meaning of Chongzhen's words, and his heart was certainly excited, knowing that from this moment on, he finally gained Chongzhen's trust and became one of the few cronies around the emperor.

However, the experience of sitting on the cold bench for a long time made Zhang Xingsheng firmly suppress his excitement, and still completed this meeting with a calm attitude, which made Zhu Youzhen look up to him a few points higher.

But after Zhang Xingsheng retired, Zhu Youzhen got up and prepared to go to Wuying Palace, but Wang Chengen stopped him: "Your Majesty, Lian Shanxiang has something to report to you." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the clock in the room, and said, "Let him report on the road, I just listen while walking." ”

When Zhu Youzhen came out of the Qianqing Gate, Lian Shanxiang, who was waiting at the door, immediately followed Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu You didn't look back and said, "What's the situation?" ”

Lian Shanxiang controlled his pace and said: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Industry refuses to accept the people who have been arrested by the Strike Hard, and the Xishan Coal Mine can't accept so many people. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly stopped, "What's the matter?" ”

Lian Shanxiang stopped abruptly and said: "The officials in charge of cleaning up the river at the Ministry of Industry said that the weather has cooled down too quickly these days, there is no way to drain the cofferdam, and the frozen soil on the bottom of the river is even harder to clean, so they decided to wait for the rest of the project to be carried out after the beginning of spring." In this case, it will be impossible to accept detainees in re-education through labor. ”

Zhu Youzhen asked with a headache: "How many people have been arrested now?" ”

"There are about 4,000 people, and about 700 people have been sent to Xishan Coal Mine. If it continues, it will probably take 7 to 8,000 people. Lian Shanxiang replied with some uneasiness.