When Chongzhen was about to leave the Royal Academy of Sciences, it was still early. So before he got into the carriage, he turned his head to the attendant behind him and said, "If you don't go back to the palace first, I want to go to the Wensi Academy..."

When he arrived at the Wensi Academy, Xu Xingsheng happened to be working in the hospital. Hearing the news of Chongzhen's arrival, he hurriedly went out with a few officials to greet him.

After more than a year of inspection, Wensi Institute has long had no secrets about Zhu Youzhen, and even the renovation of several houses is still an idea he helped out.

Therefore, after entering the courtyard and talking to Xu Xingsheng for a few words, Zhu Youzhen took the initiative to walk in the direction of the clock factory, and said to Xu Shengsheng beside him: "What should other people do, Steward Xu can accompany me around." I heard that a new pendulum clock has been developed, so I wanted to come and see if the daily error has been calculated. ”

Xu Xingsheng waved his hand to let several officials behind him do their own business, and at the same time followed closely behind Chongzhen and replied: "Back to Your Majesty, this time the pendulum clock is stronger than the previous one, and the daily error is only 1 second." ”

Zhu You was much more excited when he heard this, and he asked a little anxiously: "Can it be maintained for a long time?" How many such clocks can be made in a day? ”

"This time it should be stronger than the previous clocks, and several craftsmen and academicians who study astronomical timekeeping have developed new parts, but whether they can be maintained for a long time, I think it remains to be verified.

However, in the past half a month, the error increase of this new clock is much smaller than that of several other old clocks. As for the amount of production, this new pendulum clock can only be made by three or four craftsmen for the time being, and it will take about a month and a half to make such a one..."

When Chongzhen stood in front of this pendulum clock, he listened to a craftsman explain to him the structure and principle of this pendulum clock, and there was a semi-finished product for him to compare.

After listening for a quarter of an hour, he realized that the new part invented by these craftsmen was originally the balance spring, and that the previous escapement had been improved and replaced with a retracting escapement. The pendulum, transmission gears, escapement, governor, the structure of the pendulum clock in front of it already has all the structure of a mechanical clock.

As long as research continues, clocks that can be used for sea voyages will appear, and there is hope for pocket watches that are easy to carry. However, the number of parts of the pendulum clock has nearly doubled to more than 100. Because the precision of the parts of the clock is too high, it can only be made by highly skilled craftsmen one by one, so Xu Xingsheng felt that it was not feasible to make this kind of clock on a large scale.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "Academicians of the Academy of Sciences want to study astronomical phenomena, so the smaller the error, the better. But clocks are not only used for the study of astronomy, they can also be used as a daily schedule for people's daily schedules.

If there is no time as a reference, how can the workshops under the name of the inner government determine the commuting time of workers and control the production efficiency?

For the daily life of the people and the time control of the workshop, even if the time error is one minute, it is completely acceptable. Of course, it would be more perfect to continuously improve this error.

If everyone in the Ming Dynasty can grasp the precise time, then they will be able to make reasonable arrangements for their daily lives. However, the sundials, leaky pots and hourglasses used in the past all had their own defects, and they were obviously not as promising as clocks. Therefore, vigorously developing clocks and clocks is bound to be the development direction of my Ming Dynasty's future timekeeping.

Therefore, clocks and watches cannot become the playthings of a small number of people, but must truly become an indispensable necessity for every ordinary person in our Ming Dynasty. To do this, factory production of watches is inevitable.

I felt that the institute should divide the watch workshop into two parts, one part was to study clocks and improve their precision, miniaturization, and resistance to vibrations.

The other part is to set up a factory-style production workshop to classify the parts of clocks and watches and standardize production. I think that as long as I work hard, these parts can eventually be produced by machines, which can not only reduce costs and improve efficiency, but also cultivate a large number of watchmaking workers. ”

Although Xu Xingsheng thought that the emperor's suggestion was very good, he still asked Chongzhen seriously: "Your Majesty's current pendulum clock is very different from the structure of the previous Western chiming clock, and the current pendulum clock alone has a production cost of more than 30 yuan, which is already comparable to the price of the best Western chiming clock."

In each workshop under the name of my inner government, the income of an ordinary worker is between 4 yuan and 5 jiao to 6 yuan per month, which shows that this pendulum clock is not something that ordinary people can buy.

And the north has been suffering disasters year after year in recent years, and even large families have to calculate their lives. Those who can pay or are willing to pay for this kind of pendulum clock are probably the rich families in Jiangnan. But although they are rich, there are not many who like Western chiming bells.

Even if the Westerners brought the chiming clocks from Europe, there are only one or two thousand sets a year, and with the imitations of local craftsmen in the south of the Yangtze River, we have such a large-scale production of pendulum clocks, I am afraid that there will be a large number of pendulum clocks that cannot be sold and smashed in their own hands. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it and said: "What you said is quite reasonable, but ordinary people can't afford to buy a pendulum clock now, it doesn't mean that they can't afford it in the future." As long as you keep researching, the cost of the pendulum clock will always come down, and the wages of the workers will eventually go up.

But now, the watch industry does need to be supported. In this way, you design a pendulum clock with a simple appearance, and the price of each is set at 45 yuan. I will ask the railway preparation companies, banks, customs, and the government at all levels in the north and south to buy this pendulum clock from you, so that you can let go of production for a while.

Well, I will first give you *500 units in my name to all schools and almshouses in Shunyi Prefecture as New Year's gifts..."

After the market problem that Xu Xingsheng was most worried about was solved by Chongzhen, there was naturally no objection. The reason why he dared to oppose the emperor's proposition in person was actually to understand that Chongzhen used him to be in charge of the Wensi Academy, not because he was submissive to the emperor, but because he could do things for the emperor.

In the year since Chongzhen ascended the throne, most of the eunuchs who could emerge in the palace understood the young emperor's method of doing things.

Obedience is essential, but the ability to do things is what the emperor values most. Although it seems that Chongzhen is not as humane as his brother and ancestor, this refers to his treatment of the personal attendants around him. But this emperor's treatment of the servants and servants in the palace is indeed benevolent.

At least when the young emperor encounters something unhappy in the outer court, he will not be angry with the inner servants after returning to the palace. Although the manpower in the palace has been greatly reduced, the treatment of the remaining palace people in life has been greatly improved.

What these palace people are most happy about is that Chongzhen abolished all cruel corporal punishment in the palace, and asked the governor to reformulate a palace code, so that these palace people no longer have to be punished for mistakes they don't know.

In terms of appointing eunuchs in charge of various places, Chongzhen is no longer like the previous emperor, and let the eunuchs who serve around him control all the power in the palace. Instead, he gave up some irrelevant departments and handed them over to the stewards and eunuchs left behind in the Apocalypse Era, and in addition, many internal servants were promoted from the bottom and enriched to all parts of the palace.

Lu Qi, Xu Xingsheng and others were candidates who thought it would be impossible for the palace to take the throne in the past, because they had never been by Chongzhen's side, and even some people had never met Chongzhen in the palace for more than ten years. But through the examination and selection and training, now they are all wearing clothes that make ordinary ministers out of reach.

Before being envied by others, Xu Xingsheng and others still knew very well how their current status and scenery came about. On the one hand, they are loyal to Chongzhen, and on the other hand, they are desperately trying to understand Chongzhen's preferences and maintain their hard-won status.

To be able to enter Chongzhen's field of vision from the tens of thousands of servants in the palace must have good talents. And these servants quickly understood what kind of talent Chongzhen needed.

Xu Xingsheng is the best of these inner servants, once he sees through Chongzhen's intentions, he devotes himself to the management of the capital governor and the Wensi Academy, instead of wanting to appear in front of Chongzhen all day long, like some people, so as to win Chongzhen's favor.

Xu Xingsheng, who is more and more admired, proves that his efforts in the past year have not been in vain. Although he rarely appears in front of Chongzhen, every time the Wensi Academy develops a new thing, Chongzhen will remember him a point. even often took the initiative to visit him in Wensi Academy, this special courtesy did make many people feel hot.

Xu Xingsheng, who has been floating in the palace for half his life, did not become arrogant because of this, but became more and more modest and cautious, and his approach was also greatly appreciated by Chongzhen.

After inspecting the production of clocks and watches, Zhu Youzhen casually asked Xu Xingsheng to take him to visit other research institutes. The most fundamental research of the Bunsi Academy is the production of machines.

The ordnance superintendent used the drilling machine for processing * pipes, various machines in textile mills, machines used in iron and steel factories to draw iron wires and rolling plates, and various processing machine tools, etc.

After three renovations and expansions in the past year, the garden on the south side is being renovated into a new factory building.

These new factories will no longer use wooden structures, nor will there be any elaborate hilltops and large wooden columns.

The new building will be built with a single or double span interior and will be equipped with a reinforced concrete frame as a stress structure. The new building is 45 meters high, 18 meters wide and 36 meters long.

The space that can be accommodated inside this new factory is much larger than that of the courtyard. Not only can it accommodate a large number of workers to carry out operations, but it can also reduce the risk of fire.

During the rounds, he looked at the bulky and ugly metal machines placed in the rooms of the time. Zhu Youzhen felt in his heart that these artificially made iron pieces were really beautiful.