Therefore, although the Qing State was more active than in history in this peace negotiation, it was dispensable for the Ming Dynasty. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

What particularly annoyed Bao Chengxian and others was that with the psychological advantage of Jinzhou's great victory, many ministers and generals of the Ming Dynasty had a subtle change in their attitude towards the Qing State, and they had already reflected a kind of arrogant momentum when dealing with the envoys.

Although some of the people who secretly contacted may have a handle in the hands of the Qing State, or covet silver, they seem to lack the fear of the Qing Dynasty in the past.

After running around for many days, Bao Chengxian and the others' peace tasks have never entered the substantive stage, how can they not be decadent and angry?

"Ambassador Bao, do you still need to proceed with the peace talks?"

An entourage said angrily: "Obviously, these southern barbarians have no sincerity, and it is becoming more and more difficult to see the face of the Ming State Military Department. ”

Bao Chengxian's expression was gloomy, and he tapped his fingers on the table: "The matter of peace can be slowed down, I will wait for the arrival of the Southern Dynasty Jingshi, and it will not be without gain!" Looking at it at the moment, although it shows that the country has no sincerity to negotiate peace with our Qing Dynasty, but after careful analysis, they are also unable to attack our Qing Dynasty, and whether or not they have reached terms is insignificant. ”

He said: "Therefore, the most important thing in this trip is to continue to divide the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Kingdom, lobby their ministers and generals, and once again put huge food and salary into the land of Liaodong, especially not to give up Yizhou...... Also, pay attention to the thieves in their country......"

"Now, the ministers of the Ming Kingdom are quite suspicious of Wang Dou, this is not enough, and they need to be ...... more."

A whisper came from inside the house: "...... Among the cabinet ministers, although Wei Zaode is a eunuch, he is a sleek person, Chen Yan is a native of Sichuan, Zhou Yanru, Zheng Sanjun, and Ni Yuanlu are all from the Donglin Party, a Jiangnan clan, and want to lobby them to fight with Wang Dou. It's hard to ......"

In the division of forces in the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party represented the interests of the landlords, bureaucrats, and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Eunuch Party represented the interests of the bureaucrats, landlords, and businessmen in Shandong, Huguang, Shanxi, and Beizhili. So far, most of what Wang Dou has harmed is the interests of the eunuch party, after all, Xuanda is in Shanxi.

For Wang Dou. Although everyone in the Donglin Party is worried, after all, they are far away, and it is okay to mumble on their mouths. If there is a substantive conflict, it is impossible, which is reflected in the cabinet, Zheng Sanjun and Ni Yuanlu, members of the Donglin Party, who are mostly silent about what Wang Dou has done.

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant to the cabinet, also refused to reflect a hostile state.

“…… Although Chen Xinjia is from Sichuan. However, for Wang Dou's family, there is a lot to do......"

"You can continue to discuss peace strategies, and find ways to let Chen Xinjia ask Wang Dou about his intentions, and he will be in time. If this matter is publicized, the Southern Dynasty will definitely be in an uproar, Chen Xinjia can go, and Wang Dou's intention to collude with the enemy country ......"

"The vicious fight of the Southern Dynasty is beneficial and harmless to my Qing Dynasty, I have heard of Wei Zaode, Chen Yan, and Zhou Yanru hate it to the bone?"

……

In March of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, a few days later, Xuanfu Town, Jiajiaying Fort.

This fort is about 20 miles away from the town town, and many rivers go west or south, sandwiching Jiajiaying Fort in the middle, and a few miles north of the castle, near the mountain, by the river, a huge iron factory is rising from the ground.

Here, the security is heavily guarded, far away, the area of the iron factory, fences, sentry posts, etc., are not allowed to enter.

Jiajiaying Iron Works, is one of the new series of iron factories built after Wang Dou arrived in the town, and not far upstream of Jiajiayingbao, there is a Pangjiabao iron mine, as far as Wang Dou knows, the reserves are quite large, the total reserves, reaching more than 100 million tons.

As early as the East Road, although many industries have been slowly opened to the private sector, military factories, iron factories, etc., are still government-run, and the government still has the right of priority to purchase ore and coal from many merchants' factories and mines.

The same is true for Pangjiabao Iron Mine, the mine, controlled by the relatives of Zhang Guowei, the deputy chief soldier, and some wealthy families in the town, attracted by Wang Dou's preferential prices and huge orders, these mine owners, with the fastest speed, and Wang Dou showed an attitude of cooperation.

And because the demand for iron ore is too large and the money situation is good, the Zhang family and others have tried their best to increase investment, and have also borrowed a lot of money from the silver money department, and more and more miners have been recruited.

This also formed a lot of surrounding industries, the more merchants came to trade, plus the workers and their families, Jiajiaying Fort, Pangjiabao and beyond, quickly became two new towns, the military households in the fort, but also suddenly found that there were more people who came to rent, resulting in a lot of housing prices.

"As the general said, after using water power, the power of the wind can be greatly improved, and this iron-making furnace can also be as high as three zhang."

Zhang Gui, ambassador of the Department of Civil Affairs, and Qi Tianliang, ambassador of the Logistics Department, accompanied Wang Dou, in addition to some officials of the Second Division, Zhong Tiaoyangren, a general of the guard battalion, and so on.

In front of Wang Dou, some of the most important equipment in the iron factory are some blast furnaces that are more than ten meters high, these iron furnaces, there are stone iron production places in front of them, and the large wooden bellows that used to be pulled by several people have been replaced by water power, and iron smelting is also used coke.

Not far from the town around, quite some high-quality coal mines, coke, as early as the Ming Dynasty, many places have been used, in the West, about the early eighteenth century, some provinces iron yards, even used rail locomotives, such as Qu Dajun's "Guangdong Xinyu" has a record, Guangzhou iron yard filled with ore, the rate of locomotives from the mountains to throw into the furnace.

In Daming, the center of gravity of iron production, mainly in Daye, Hubei, Huguang Railway, accounting for more than one-third of the country, as well as Foshan, Guangdong, as early as the middle of the Ming Dynasty, is also an important iron-smelting center, Daming iron output, more than 10 million kilograms a year, most of them in the south or Lingnan, and even in the southwest.

There is also copper, which is also produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, tin, which is produced in Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan and other places, mercury is mostly produced in Yunnan, and silver produced in Yunnan is also produced throughout the country.

The center of gravity of the mining and metallurgical industry has shifted southward, why not?

It is in these places that charcoal is mostly used, and the iron and other materials smelted are of higher quality, while in the north, because of the lack of wood, most of the coal is used, and the obtained pig iron has high sulfur content and inferior quality.

In the north of the Ming Dynasty, although a lot of coke has been used for ironmaking, but the wind cannot keep up, the furnace height is difficult to exceed ten meters, and the iron produced is still not good, so Wang Dou has been thinking about how to improve the output and quality of iron.

It's just that he came from a liberal arts background, and he has never been good at this aspect, and he only vaguely remembers that the reason why the quality of ironmaking in later generations kept up was that one was to solve the problem of wind power, and the other was to solve the problem of raw materials.

Or a craftsman in the military factory, inspired by the water power to make birds, made a suggestion, said that to make iron, the same can be used as a power force, after the report, let Wang Doumao stop, after arriving in the town, the new iron factory, the use of water power.

After overcoming a series of problems, iron furnaces made of salt and mud with a height of more than 10 meters were built, and afterwards, the craftsman, for his great contribution, was credited with a meritorious service, and was also awarded the rank of sergeant, which made many craftsmen more motivated.

A piece of fiery red, the molten iron is baked, the dazzling iron flowers splash everywhere, along the stone trough, into the pond below, many craftsmen, brave the heat, and the danger of life, holding the willow stick, swing the stick to stir, immediately fry the mature iron, after a little cold, or cut into a square in the pond, or wave the vertebrae into a circle.

Wang Dou looked, this is the iron-making method at this time, out of the oven is not fried for pig iron, both fried and cooked, raw and cooked phase smelting steel, the iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace are used in series, reducing energy consumption, in the process is quite advanced, after modern times, it is still used in many places, and it is also the origin of plastering steel and Suzhou steel.

"Another batch of first-class iron."

Zhang Gui smiled so much that he couldn't see his teeth, and the people next to him were also very excited, according to the division of the shogunate, iron materials were divided into A, B, C, etc., and the first-class iron materials were used for military industry, and B, C, etc., which could be sold to the people.

"It's a pity."

Zhang Gui said: "Although the water power is good, sometimes the river is dry, and the strength is inevitably insufficient, so we have to use manpower to blow the wind again. ”

Wang Dou nodded, the blast furnace in front of him uses the water drop between the upper and lower pools to form a power to blow the wind, but in the drought season, the upper pool is not enough to store water, how to transport the needed water to the upper pool?

In his eyes, the figure of the steam engine flashed, but unfortunately, this is a temporary shadow, so he has to come step by step, the hydroelectric blast furnace, compared with the previous manpower blast, the production and quality of iron, has moved forward, a big step, and the heart is anxious to eat hot tofu, and the steam engine will be talked about later.

After leaving the iron factory, the people went west, and on that side, a few miles away, beside a river, a new military factory was built, which was specially used to make bird guns, or flint bird guns.

Zhang Guowei, the deputy chief soldier, was also waiting outside, but he was not qualified to enter the iron factory, nor was he qualified to enter the military factory, but when Wang Dou inspected the Pangjiabao iron mine, he was with him, and after Wang Dou and others came out, he hurriedly followed.

Everyone went all the way, Wang Dou looked to the south, the plain valley between the two mountains, there was already a dense flow of people, many houses and camps, along the river, also built one by one, and the convoy of merchants came and went.

Qi Tianliang sighed: "I really didn't expect that in a short period of time, Jiajiabao, Pangjiabao, Zhaochuanbao and other places will immediately prosper. ”

Wang Dou smiled and said: "Yes, Lao Qi, seeing the situation in front of you, you should understand why you will disdain the circulation merchants in Japan, but support the production businessmen, right?" ”

Qi Tianliang thought about it, and still said: "The subordinates are ignorant, they understand a little, if you want to think about it, you are still ignorant, please ask the general to solve your doubts." ”

Zhang Gui said with a smile: "The general is a star in the sky, and his knowledge is far beyond ordinary people, if Lao Qi can understand, I will not be a subordinate." ”

Wang Dou also laughed, Qi Tianliang and Zhang Gui were the first people he was close to, chatting with them, there was always a warm feeling in his heart.

He said: "To put it bluntly, it is that productive businessmen can increase employment, create value, and most importantly, in the future, they can form more classes and feed more people, which is a matter of great merit." ”

Zhang Guowei listened silently, he actually didn't understand why Wang Dou looked at the iron ore of other people differently and raised it to the level of immeasurable merit.

After taking refuge in Wang Dou, he was quite cautious, but at this time, in his heart, he couldn't wait to listen to Wang Dou's explanation. (To be continued.) )