Jiujiang is also known as Jiangzhou, Xunyang, and Chaisang.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangdong Road in the Northern Song Dynasty was cancelled, Jiangzhou was merged into Jiangxi Province and renamed Jiujiang Prefecture.
It is not a random change. Its place name originated from Jiujiang County in the Sui Dynasty.
The adjacent Nankang Army was renamed Nankang Prefecture, with its state capital in Xingzi County (Lushan City). It is not under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang Prefecture, but is a Zhili Prefecture under the provincial jurisdiction.
Hongzhou was upgraded to Nanchang Prefecture, and the capital of Jiangxi Province was located in Nanchang.
Jianchang Army and Nan'an Army were all transferred to Minzhou under the provincial jurisdiction, but there are still more troops stationed. The former can send troops to Fujian to quell the rebellion, and the latter can send troops to Hunan and Guangdong to quell the rebellion. If the two advance against each other, they will still
Can flank the Ganzhou rebels.
Well, Qianzhou has been upgraded to Ganzhou Prefecture.
Due to continuous divisions and mergers, the current jurisdiction of Jiangxi Province is basically similar to that of later generations.
Zhu Guoxiang's fleet stopped in Jiujiang Fucheng.
When the Ming Dynasty had just recovered the south and established Jiangxi Province, the population of Jiujiang Prefecture ranked third from the bottom in the province, and was actually only larger than the two poorer places of Jianchang and Nan'an.
Prime Minister Zhong sent troops to attack Jiangzhou for several years, which was just one of the reasons.
Because as early as the early Northern Song Dynasty, Jiangzhou ranked last in population!
All the living people were killed by the Song army, so much so that the imperial court tried to appease the local people and returned the products of Jiangzhou's fields to their original owners, but no one could be found. Cao Han, the Song general who ordered the massacre of the city, mobilized a hundred giant ships.
, transport Jiangzhou’s belongings back to his home.
After more than a hundred years of recovery, people from outside continued to move in, and Jiangzhou's household registration was barely restored to that of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Dong Yanghao, the prefect of Jiujiang, said to the Supreme Emperor: "For twenty years, the people of the state have settled down in the countryside, sorted out their household registrations, and rested with the people. The population of Jiujiang Prefecture has increased from the third from the bottom to the sixth from the bottom and the seventh from the bottom in the province."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded in approval: "You have done a good job. Keep up the good work."
Dong Yanghao continued to claim credit: "Although the population of Jiujiang Prefecture is not large for the time being, Jiujiang City is one of the best in the province. Both inside and outside the city are densely populated, and I am planning to build more city walls and expand the wharf."
Zhu Guoxiang understood immediately that the urbanization rate in Jiujiang Prefecture was a bit high.
That is to say, the rural population is not large, but the population of the prefectural city is so large that additional buildings must be built. This is naturally due to its status as a water transport hub. Jiujiang Prefecture's commerce far exceeds industry and agriculture.
There is also Guangning Prison here, which was one of the four major mints in the Northern Song Dynasty and is now one of the eight major mints in the Ming Dynasty.
The next day, Zhu Guoxiang went to inspect the mint.
Xie Qian, the magistrate, went to greet the Supreme Emperor yesterday, and today he led others to wait outside the mint.
After a visit, Zhu Guoxiang was surrounded by people and went in, asking about the situation of the mint as he walked.
Xie Qian introduced: "Guangning Supervisor mainly casts copper coins and Kongfang copper coins. At the beginning, Kongfang copper coins were still cast using the traditional mold casting method. Fourteen years ago, the Ministry of Industry began to improve technology, and now they are all pressed with steam engines.
.”
"Jiujiang Prefecture has five counties under its jurisdiction, three of which produce copper. It is very convenient to transport it to the prefecture by waterway. The coal comes from the mountainous area in the west of Ruichang. It is carried out of the mountain by people and animals, and then loaded on ships and transported by waterway."
The mint was built at the northern foot of Lushan Mountain, and black smoke can be faintly seen rising from Jiujiang City.
The big chimney is nearly fifty meters high.
Before entering the factory, Zhu Guoxiang heard the roar of machines.
The entire factory area has a zigzag structure.
Xie Qian pointed to the several warehouses in front and said: "Those are warehouses. In addition to copper ingots, there are also lead, tin, Japanese lead (zinc) and other materials... Over there are the batching room and the melting room..."
There is a huge scale in the batching room and several relatively small scales.
Large scales are used to weigh copper, and small scales are used to weigh other materials.
The copper ingots shipped here from the copper yard already contain impurities such as lead and tin. But those impurities are not enough, and some more have to be added before minting coins.
Throughout the dynasties, the proportions of ingredients have been different.
The proportion of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty has also changed. With the advancement of zinc refining technology in recent years, the zinc content in copper coins has also continued to increase.
This is an inevitable development trend.
In another time and space, the zinc content of copper coins during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty was negligible. Just a few decades later, due to the rapid advancement of zinc smelting technology, the zinc content in copper coins increased to 11%-21%.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the situation became even more intense, with the zinc content jumping directly to 41.5%.
The current copper coins of the Ming Dynasty have an ingredient ratio of approximately: 65% copper, 25% zinc, 9% tin, and 1% lead.
In actual operation, the proportions of various raw materials fluctuate slightly.
Of course lead is poisonous, but 1% is not harmful.
Hehe, in the 21st century in the United States, there are still a large number of tap water pipes using lead pipes. And they will continue to be used until the day they wear out, because they cannot be effectively replaced. Even the government and water plants in the United States do not know what the reason is.
How many lead pipes.
However, after the news became a big deal, American medical institutions took the opportunity to make a fortune. Countless Americans went to have their blood lead levels tested, and the cost of testing instantly jumped dozens or hundreds of times.
"That's the crucible over there." Xie Qian led the Supreme Emperor over.
The copper-smelting crucible furnace technology in ancient China matured very early, and it used a blower and charcoal for internal heating.
Now the Ministry of Industry is studying gas crucible furnaces.
Coking coal refining technology already existed in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty naturally continued and improved it. Those coal gas cannot be wasted in vain.
The rough-processed copper sheets are carried to the flake grinding machine by workers, where they are ground flatter and thinner under the power of steam.
Next, there is a finishing mill, which rolls the copper sheets twice and cuts them into long strips.
Then a punch is used to punch out the embryonic cake on the copper bar.
The next step is the polishing machine, which can not only smooth the edges of copper coins, but also make the edges convex to provide anti-counterfeiting functions.
Finally, there is the embossing machine, which presses out the writing and patterns of the copper coins.
The stamping machine Zhu Guoxiang saw was pressing copper coins with square holes, which was more complicated than directly pressing copper coins without holes.
Why insist on making Kong Fang Qian when it is more complicated to make?
Wouldn't it be better to change everything to non-porous copper?
Of course, I think about the people at the bottom.
Small copper coins are easy to lose, while Kongfang coins can be strung together with ropes.
If one or two pennies are lost, the poor will feel very distressed.
Today's Ming Dynasty copper coins have three face values: one wen, two wen, and five wen. They are Kongfang coins.
The 50-wen and 100-wen coins are non-porous copper coins, because these copper coins are particularly large and are not easy to lose.
There used to be ten-wen and twenty-wen coins, but they are no longer minted in recent years because the usage rate is not very high.
This series of coin-minting machinery was developed one after another.
At first there were only stamping machines, then there were flaking machines, then smooth edge machines, finishing mills... Each addition of a piece of machinery made coins more exquisite and greatly improved the efficiency of minting coins.
Xie Qian flattered him with emotion: "In the past, Cai Jing of the Song Dynasty minted ten pieces of money, and the people complained endlessly, and the ministers also angrily criticized him for issuing money indiscriminately. Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty copper yuan has a face value of one hundred yuan, but it can be used by both officials and people.
, and also
There aren't many counterfeit coins. Why? It's all because His Majesty the Emperor is a scholar of heaven and man, and uses the power of coal steam to mint coins. The coin casting technology is amazing! Not only is it exquisite, but it is also difficult to forge. There are unscrupulous people who make counterfeit coins, and they can make them at a glance.
Identify it.”
Zhu Guoxiang listened with a smile, but there was always a hidden worry.
Today's steam engines are mainly used in mining, smelting, coinage, steam trains, and making armor.
All are government actions.
If the use of steam engines is limited to these aspects, will future emperors restrict the civilian use of steam engines for the sake of national security?
This thing has to be gradually opened to the public.
After walking around the mint for a long time, Zhu Guoxiang praised the officials and workers here.
The next day we took a boat to go south, first to Bailudong Academy, and then to visit Mount Lu.
After leaving Lushan, he went to Nanchang to visit Prince Teng's Pavilion, where he met local gentry and celebrities. Queen Zhang Jinping's tribe also came after receiving the news.
The Tengwang Pavilion at this time was rebuilt more than 40 years ago.
It's quite new, not shabby.
After staying in Nanchang for more than ten days, Zhu Guoxiang headed north again to the Yangtze River, stopping and stopping all the way to Hanyang (Wuhan).
To be precise, Hanyang City was in the Hanyang District of Wuhan in later generations, and governed the Jianghan District next door.
The Wuchang District on the other side of the Yangtze River is called Ezhou or Jiangxia.
Zhu Guoxiang looked at the busy Hanyang Terminal and mourned two minutes of silence in his heart. Once the railway from Nanyang to Pingdingshan is completed, Hanyang's cargo throughput will not only be cut in half, but also cut from the neck.
Next, go to Yuezhou, climb the Yueyang Tower, go boating on Dongting Lake, and then go to Changsha to visit Yuelu Academy.
Thanks to the Ming Dynasty's policy of encouraging immigration and land reclamation, the population density of the Dongting Lake Plain has doubled compared to the heyday of the Northern Song Dynasty. The impact of Zhong Xiang's Rebellion seems to have completely disappeared.
Take Changsha as an example. During the entire Northern Song Dynasty, Changsha didn’t even have a city wall.
It wasn't until Prime Minister Zhong raised his troops that several castles were built in Changsha in order to prevent the red bandits from going south.
If Sun Jian knew anything about it, he would probably burst into tears, wondering why I kept wandering back to Changsha.
The next stop is Jiangling (Jingzhou).
This place is extremely rich and prosperous, beating Yueyang, Hanyang and Jiujiang!
Zhu Guoxiang originally planned to go up the Yangtze River to Sichuan, but his entourage came to dissuade him.
Not only because of the danger of the Three Gorges, but also because of the difficult road to Shu in northern Sichuan. The Emperor is already very old, and he may suffer from fatigue when going to Hanzhong from Sichuan.
Even if the Supreme Emperor is strong and strong, the Supreme Empress and the others cannot withstand the torture.
When I visited Huangshan, Lushan and other places before, most of the way could be taken by boat, which meant that climbing the mountain required a lot of hard work on foot. No matter how difficult it is to climb Huangshan, how can it be compared with climbing the Sichuan Road in northern Sichuan?
Faced with repeated remonstrances, Zhu Guoxiang looked at his old wife again and finally gave up going to Sichuan.
He took a boat north along the Jingxiang Canal, visited Xiangyang for a few days, and then took a boat along the Han River and headed straight for Hanzhong.
The autumn air is crisp and the scenery is pleasant.
The fleet passed the boundary of Shiquan County and continued on to Daming Town.
The former Daming Village, Daming Township, Shangbai Village and Xiabai Village are now under the jurisdiction of Daming Town, where a deputy county-level official governs the people.
Being able to receive this kind of treatment is purely because of the Land of Longxing.
Zhu Guoxiang came out of the cabin and stood on the deck, and suddenly saw a small river flowing into the Han River.
Memories from years ago suddenly became clear.
He and his son walked along the small river, dressed in ragged clothes, to the edge of the Han River, and saw boats and living people on the river.
As the ship moves forward, the scenery on both sides of the bank recedes, as if time is also going back.
At that time, there were actually scattered people living further downstream from Daming Village, and the barren slopes along the riverside, covered with thorns, turned into patches of tea gardens and tung oil forests.
Zhu Guoxiang picked up his telescope and looked carefully. Next to a thatched house, he also saw wooden piles used to cultivate mushrooms.
He suddenly smiled happily. This was a technique he taught, and the people here have been using it.
