At the foot of Guanyin Mountain, in a blunderbuss workshop of the Ming Dynasty Arsenal, an old blacksmith who was already old but still in good health used iron tongs to take out a red-hot iron plate from the charcoal furnace and placed it on a semicircular
On the grooved iron base, he picked up the hammer held in his right hand and smashed it down hard.
The hammer head of the right-hand hammer is also curved.
As soon as the hammer hit it, the iron plate immediately dented from the middle.
Although the old blacksmith was old, his eyesight was very good, so he hit the iron plate right in the middle.
With just a few hammerings, a shallow dent was made from the center of the iron plate that was a foot long.
At this time, the old blacksmith placed the hammer in his right hand on the dent in the middle of the iron plate and nodded to the young blacksmith opposite. The young blacksmith immediately picked up the large hammer weighing more than ten kilograms.
"Bang!" The big hammer hit the small round hammer hard.
The dent under the small round hammer immediately became deeper.
Then the hammering is repeated until the iron plate cools down.
At this time, the one-foot-long straight iron plate had turned into a long U-shaped groove.
The old blacksmith put the iron plate back into the charcoal furnace, and the young blacksmith also put down his sledgehammer and began to blow. The orange flame immediately rose from the charcoal furnace, licking the half-rolled iron plate.
The old blacksmith sprinkled some more powder on the iron plate, and the iron plate soon began to turn red.
At this time, the temperature in the workshop had become extremely high, and the chests and backs of the two blacksmiths were soaked with sweat. Chongzhen, Zhu Cijiong and his son who were standing next to them were not much better.
Chongzhen attached great importance to the first flintlock gun, starting from the first process.
What we are building today is the third blunderbuss tube. Due to manufacturing process limitations, the Ming Dynasty could not form a blunderbuss tube with a length of three feet at one time, so it had to be spliced together with three blunderbuss tubes.
After the third gun tube is finished, it can be welded.
After a while, the U-shaped groove plate in the charcoal stove was burning red.
The old blacksmith used iron pliers to clamp the groove plate from the inside of the furnace and put it into the groove of the iron drill again. However, this time, the old blacksmith did not immediately hammer it with a small hammer.
Instead, I first took an iron rod about 3 inches in diameter.
[1 minute = 1/10 inch = 1/100 foot = 3.2mm]
First place the iron rod in the middle groove of the U-shaped groove plate, and then start hammering inward.
Soon, both sides of the U-shaped groove plate were rolled toward the middle and turned into a cylinder.
While Chongzhen and his son were watching two blacksmiths hammering, Ma Mingluan walked in wearing casual clothes.
Ma Mingluan didn't know if it was because he had worn a Fei robe before, so he was reluctant to wear a green robe again. Since he took charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he rarely wore the sixth-grade green robe official uniform.
As soon as he entered the door, Ma Mingluan felt a wave of heat coming over him, making his whole body feel hot.
When he looked carefully again, he saw the Holy Father and Prince Ding, father and son, shirtless, standing by the stove blowing wind.
Seeing this scene, Ma Mingluan couldn't help but burst out laughing, thinking that the current emperor really didn't care about the dignity of the emperor at all, and actually walked around shirtless among the blacksmiths.
But for some unknown reason, Ma Mingluan felt very excited.
An emperor like the current emperor is a good emperor, because like Emperor Taizu Gao, he knows the sufferings of the people and the difficulties of craftsmen. Only in this way can he govern the country well. …
"Your Majesty." Ma Mingluan stepped forward to pay homage to Chongzhen.
"Ma Qing, are you here?" Chongzhen quickly led Ma Mingluan to the door of the workshop. The place was ventilated and finally not so hot. It was really hard to breathe inside.
Gao Qiqian, who was guarding the door of the workshop, quickly handed over the towel, and Chongzhen didn't show any pretense.
After taking the towel and wiping his sweat, Chongzhen asked Ma Mingluan: "Ma Qing, look at your bitter face, the issuance of the third bond is not going well?"
"It's not going well." Ma Mingluan said, "Only half of it was sold."
"As expected." Chongzhen said, "Who asked you to lower the interest rate so low?"
Ma Mingluan is also very stingy. He actually lowered the interest rate on one-year bonds to one percent. Isn’t this ridiculous?
The annual interest rate of your second tranche of bonds was 10%, but the third tranche dropped directly to 1%. This is really treating the gentry and merchants of Jiangnan as pigs.
As a result, the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan voted with their feet and went to the Hubu Stock Exchange to buy bonds.
The second tranche of bonds issued by the Hubu Stock Exchange was worth 10 million taels and was sold out within a few days.
However, the third tranche of bonds on the Royal Exchange was 60 million taels, and it took almost half a month to sell less than 3 million taels.
Ma Mingluan said: "But later I raised the interest rate again, but no one came to buy it, and even the creditors who had bought the third tranche of bonds started to make trouble."
"Ma Qing, you made two mistakes in a row."
Chongzhen raised his forehead and said: "The first mistake was to bully customers in the store and exploit them too harshly by taking advantage of the previous hot market. The second mistake was to rush to change course after the sales went cold. This time, not only did the old customers who had bought bonds before
You have offended everyone and whetted the appetite of potential customers. They are trying to tease you and are waiting for you to continue to increase interest rates."
After all, he is from the Ming Dynasty. He has never played in finance and does not understand the speculative psychology of chasing the rise and killing the fall.
"That's why I came to see Your Majesty." Ma Mingluan said with some shame, "Sir, please give me some advice."
"I don't have any good ideas for this matter." Chongzhen said, "But the most important thing is to provide the interest difference to the customers who have bought the third bond. We can't treat them differently, and then just wait. Anyway, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is now
There is no shortage of money either. Those gentry and merchants are not in a hurry to buy, so we are not in a hurry to sell."
Ma Mingluan sighed and said, "It seems like this is the only way it can be."
Chongzhen asked again: "Oh, by the way, what about the share capital of the stock exchange? Those shareholders are still unwilling to pay?"
Ma Mingluo said: "Your Majesty, this is also the second thing I have asked you about. After the previous bond crash, many gentry and merchants in Jiangnan became frightened. Therefore, after the market reopened, the market was no longer as hot as before.
, the daily increase is only a little bit, and the trading volume is not large.”
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Chongzhen said: "You mean there is less water?"
"Much less." Ma Mingluan nodded, "Not even 10% of what it was at its peak."
After a pause, Ma Mingluan continued: "According to the current market situation, one year's Lilan will only last for two million taels, so those shareholders are somewhat unwilling to subscribe for capital."
"This won't work." Chongzhen said coldly, "The equity capital must be paid before the end of the year. This has been delayed for a year and cannot be delayed any longer. If anyone fails to pay, the shares will be taken back." ...
The white wolf with empty gloves played on Chongzhen's head. What was he thinking?
The 44 million share capital of the exchange must be subscribed.
"I accept the decree." Ma Mingluan nodded and said, "One more thing. Now the students from various states and counties in the south have arrived in Nanjing one after another. Your Majesty, you said before that you would provide unified accommodation and meals?"
"Yes, there is such a thing." Chongzhen said, "After all, this is the first time for the Imperial College to recruit students after the reform, so I have to give special treatment to the students who apply."
Ma Mingluan said: "But there are quite a lot of students who came to apply for the exam."
"How is that possible?" Chongzhen said, "The number of eligible students in each county cannot exceed a hundred at most."
Ma Mingluan said: "But there are still more than 600 counties in the Ming Dynasty. Calculated based on 100 people in each county, that is 50,000 to 60,000 students. How much will it cost to guarantee the board and lodging of 50,000 to 60,000 students for three months?
silver?"
"It's worth all the money spent." Chongzhen said, "I don't feel bad about this."
Chongzhen was very stingy, but the money he needed to spend was often millions of taels, but he didn't feel bad at all.
After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "Besides, you have taken over ten houses, especially the Duke of Wei's palace has thousands of houses. Ten people can live in one house, which is enough to house tens of thousands of people."
Ma Mingluo said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, except for part of the Duke's Palace of Wei, which is used as the direct residence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the rest of the ten houses and the other nine houses are all ready to be sold."
"Don't rush to sell it now. You won't get a good price if you sell it now."
Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "Oh, by the way, I couldn't remember it even if you didn't tell me, but now that you have said it, I have remembered it. Not only can the Ministry of Internal Affairs not sell houses, it also has to buy as many houses and land as possible.
Take all the capital of more than 40 million shares from the stock exchange to buy houses and land, use them all."
"What? Buy more houses and acquire more land?" Ma Mingluan asked blankly, "What are you doing with the land?"
"Anyway, just listen to me. You must listen to me on this matter." Chongzhen couldn't talk to Ma Mingluo about real estate, because he would probably not understand it.
Chongzhen needs to make early plans for future urban development.
In short, with the prosperity of industry and commerce, Nanjing's population will expand rapidly.
The current population of Nanjing recorded in the fish scale register is less than 300,000, but this is only the number of strong men who paid dingyin, and the actual total population is about 700,000.
However, with the vigorous development of industry and commerce, Nanjing's population will expand like a balloon.
Moreover, with the rapid development of industry and commerce, there will inevitably be a considerable number of well-off families. Then there will be a huge demand for housing, and then we can vigorously develop the real estate industry.
Therefore, we have to take advantage of the fact that we are still in a low value position to acquire a large amount of land.
At this time, there were still large open spaces in the inner city of Nanjing, and there was even more blank space between the inner city and the outer city.
If the exchange capital of 44 million shares is spent, it is estimated that all the vacant land in the inner and outer cities of Nanjing can be purchased.
Of course, Chongzhen did not let the Ministry of Internal Affairs cultivate land just to harvest leeks. Making money by developing real estate is definitely necessary, but it will never push up the land price without limit. Instead, it will control it within a reasonable price range, at least to ensure that the inflow of land is guaranteed.
Industrial workers entering Nanjing can have a comfortable home.
On the contrary, if the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not go to the countryside and waits until Nanjing's population expands rapidly, allowing the gentry and merchants in Nanjing to react and engage in real estate, then the industrial workers who have poured into Nanjing will probably be sucked dry of their life's blood and sweat by these vampires and become
It would be pitiful to spend your whole life working on a house.
Anyway, Chongzhen did not want to see such a scene.
It is really pitiful to be a house slave for the rest of your life.
