As autumn deepened, Lin Fu left Yijiang in mid-September and returned to Jiangning via Quishi, where he stayed for several days. (Please remember me)
Caishiji is originally a cliff protruding from the river at the western foot of Cuiluo Mountain in Linjiang, Dangtu County. It is also called Yanziji and Chenglingji because of the danger of Dangjiang River.
Before the founding of the dynasty, Emperor Gaozu set up a water stronghold in Cuiluo Mountain to train the army. After the founding of the dynasty, the quarrying military stronghold became the most important station of the Jiangning navy on the western front. Therefore, quarrying became famous all over the world, but Cuiluo's name was not prominent.
In early April, Lin Fu changed the name of Dangtu County to Caishi (today's Ma'anshi), appointed Luo Yi as the county magistrate, and merged it into the newly established Yijiang Prefecture.
Cuiluo Mountain stands near the river, surrounded by the Niuzhu River on three sides. It is only more than forty feet high. It stands on the bank of the river and is extremely steep. The area facing the river in the northwest of Shanxi Province has sunk, forming a large depression. The military village is surrounded by lakes and mountains. It is uniquely blessed by nature.
It is an important military base on the western front of Jiangning.
Lin Fu set aside the quarry and incorporated it into Yijiang Prefecture, and entrusted his confidants to rule it. In addition to its outstanding military status, it was also mainly because the Putang Iron Works in the southeast of Caishi City, which was originally under the Jiangning Ministry of Industry, had the largest scale since Yue.
The largest iron smelting site.
The history of quarrying and smelting iron ore has been three to four hundred years since the previous dynasty. By the middle of the Yue Dynasty, it had become the main source of iron for various departments and factories in the Jiangning Ministry of Industry.
When the Zhejiang and Fujian armies invaded Jiangning, Emperor Yongxing and his ministers panicked, causing a devastating blow to the quarrying Putang Iron Works. Houses were burned down, furnaces were destroyed, and mines were flooded with water.
The miners and craftsmen who planned the plan were taken to Jiangzhou.
Although the Putang Iron Works was basically completely destroyed, Lin Fu was interested in the iron ore resources here. In addition, there are coal mountains in Lishui to the south of the quarry and Jiangpu on the north bank. In fact, quarrying is more suitable for development into steel than Chongzhou.
Smelting center.
During the Jiangning War, the government-run workshops under the former Ministry of Industry suffered a devastating blow and had no resources to recover. A large number of craftsmen were either kidnapped or scattered among the people, and their livelihood was difficult. Therefore, Lin Fu later requested that Jiangning be nearby
When all the official workshops were taken over by the Ordnance Supervisor, Metallurgical Supervisor, Shipbuilding Supervisor and Craftsmanship Supervisory Department under the Privy Council, they encountered little resistance.
The quarry was placed in Yijiang, Luo Yicheng was appointed as the county magistrate, and rectifying people's livelihood was the first step.
In early May, Sun Dalu, the chief officer of the Metallurgical Supervision Bureau, who was born as a craftsman, led more than a thousand craftsmen to build the Putang Iron Works, the Mushan Iron Mine, and the Fuoshan Coal Mine. Lin Fu earmarked 300,000 taels before entering summer.
Yin gave Sun a furnace to build an ironworks and the initial expenses for the construction of the mine.
In order to facilitate the transportation of coal and iron from Mushan and Fuhu Mountains to Putang, Lin Fu even planned to ask Luo Yicheng to organize civilians to dig canals after the autumn to connect the mines of Mushan and Fuhu Mountains with the Niuzhu River.
Pingjiang silk, Danyang cotton, Weiyang salt, Putang iron, etc. were sold all over the world, forming the prototype of an early commodity economy, which was directly related to the convenient and low-cost water transportation conditions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In the initial stage, the Putang Iron Works had a production capacity of 10 million kilograms of iron, and as much as 40 to 50 million kilograms of coal and iron were transported every year. The transportation costs were huge and unimaginably high using mules and carriages.
The Ningxi area is located at the intersection of plains and mountains, with a relatively dense river network. Only ten miles of canals need to be dug to connect the mine to the original river network, and transportation costs can be significantly reduced.
In fact, before this, Lin Fu ordered people to be recruited in Jinshan County between the Huangnishan Coal Field and the Liuyang River of the Longzangpu branch to dig a transportation canal only six miles long, so that Jinshan coal could be transported directly.
In Jiangning City, the price of Jiangning coal suddenly dropped by a quarter.
The level of governance is sometimes separated by just a thin layer of paper.
What makes Song Fu and others doubtful is that the total scale of Huaidong's iron production in Chongzhou and Shanyang exceeds 12 million kilograms. Is it necessary to build another 10 million kilogram iron factory in Putang now?
A pound-level iron yard?
Three hundred thousand taels of silver is the initial investment, and another 600,000 taels of silver will be invested next year to bring Putang's iron production to scale.
I visited the Putang Iron Station and saw the busy construction scene. It was already sunset.
Lin Fu wanted to return directly from Putang to Jiangning tomorrow, so he did not go back to the quarry city to spend the night. He asked the cavalry to set up camp in the unused ore dump of the iron yard and entertain the iron yard officials and craftsmen at a banquet.
The banquet was over and the night was already dark, but Shangrao was about to be mobilized in the autumn. Lin Fu could not sleep peacefully in the tent. He held a lamp and read letters from various places. Gao Zongting and Song Fu were still accompanying him.
Song Fu was still looking at the information about the Putang Iron Works. He remembered something and asked Lin Fu: "Sun Shangwang has sent a letter, intending to expand the scale of the Zhuxi Iron Works so that the output of iron materials will increase to three million kilograms next year.
It will cost 400,000 taels of silver..."
"As long as he can raise money," Lin Fu replied casually. He picked up the document and saw the doubt in Song Fu's eyes. He asked with a smile, "Song Gong thinks the iron material has been produced?"
"In the year of Qingyu, the world was still peaceful. The government-run iron works under the Yanjing and Jiangning ministries and the inner iron government could barely smelt 12 million kilograms of iron per year; now the iron production in Huaidong is
It exceeds this number. I think all the districts in Jiangning were destroyed by the war, but after Huaidong opened the commercial ban on Jiangnan, the iron price in Jiangnan dropped a lot compared to before the war. After Putang, Yizhou Zhuxi and
The iron fields in Sanyang are producing iron one after another, and the price of iron is probably going to fall again!"
Song Fu was worried that supply would exceed demand. With such a huge investment now, he would not be able to make profits from it in the future, but would be stuck in maintenance.
Lin Fu smiled and said: "Even if the price of iron has dropped to 30% of the current level, iron production in Chongzhou is also profitable; Putang can extract ore nearby, and the cost of iron smelting should be even lower than in Chongzhou...
"
Affected by the war, the price of iron in the Jiangnan area has continued to rise over the years. Before the Jiangning War, the price of raw iron materials exceeded the price of copper. After Huaidong took control of Jiangning, Huaidong opened the trade ban on the Jiangnan area, so why not open up the trade ban in the Jiangnan area?
Ban or allow Chongzhou iron materials to be dumped in?
In the early years, the iron materials for the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River were mainly supplied by Putang, Lishui and other places. The reputation of Putang Iron was actually not inferior to that of Pingjiang Silk. In the later period, due to the rapid expansion of military forces in the Jiangnan area, almost in just five or six years,
The strength of the troops increased five to six times, and the iron produced in official workshops such as Putang was mainly used for the manufacture of armor, which suddenly made the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River tense for iron materials.
The Zhejiang and Fujian armies destroyed all the workshops in Jiangning and surrounding prefectures and counties. In fact, they gave up all the markets in Jiangnan to Huaidong. The iron yards in Chongzhou and Shanyang this year moved to Pingjiang, Danyang, Hangzhou, Huzhou, etc.
The total amount of iron material dumped on the ground reached 4 million kilograms, and the floating surplus was as high as 800,000 taels of silver. This figure was unimaginable by others before the war.
Based on traditional thinking, Lin Fu should completely control the production and sales of iron materials. The official management of salt and iron is traditional. As long as the scale of output is controlled and the price of iron is maintained at a certain high level, Huaidong will benefit from the iron industry.
The amount of money gained from the project will even exceed that of the Lianghuai Salt Project, so there is no need to worry about raising funds for the army.
Song Fu was actually worried that Huaidong's iron production would continue to increase rapidly. Once it exceeded demand, the price of iron would drop sharply and fall below the smelting cost. The iron farm would not only be useless, but would become a burden to Huaidong.
Lin Fu is not worried about this. The key lies in how to further reduce the cost of mining and refining.
Even during the Qingyu period when the world was at peace, iron prices remained at such a high level that one pound of rough iron could be exchanged for twenty or thirty pounds of rice grain, and one pound of refined iron could be exchanged for one stone of grain.
The extremely high price of iron is largely related to the backward technology of iron ore mining and smelting. In addition, in addition to the widespread corruption in government-run iron yards, private workshops are restricted by the current trade union system and cannot expand in scale, resulting in high smelting costs.
It is difficult to reduce it, which also has a lot to do with it.
When the price of salt is high, people can only cope with it by eating rough food. The high price of iron also strictly limits the widespread use of iron materials.
When Lin Fu first arrived in Jiangning, shipbuilding in Longjiang Shipyard was even using a large number of bamboo nails to join ship boards. It was not that he didn't know the benefits of iron nails, nor that he couldn't produce iron nails. It was just that iron and copper were equivalent.
The application of iron materials in shipbuilding.
In the later period, the ships built by Huaidong were stronger than those built by Mindong and Jiangning. In fact, iron nails and many iron components were widely used. The components made of fine iron were inside the hull.
Instead of hardwood, the structure has higher strength, lighter weight, faster speed, and larger cabin space. When Jiangning was still worrying about the iron for making armor, the amount of iron used in Chongzhou for shipbuilding had already risen to the top.
Even if we don't talk about shipbuilding and other industries, and just people's livelihood, the amount of iron used in the Jianghuai region is huge.
Affected by the war, the amount of ironware owned by the people in the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River also dropped to an extremely low level.
One is daily consumption and insufficient replenishment; the other is severe war and plunder.
When iron supply was at its peak, Dong Yuan and Meng Yishan in Hangzhou, Hu and other places used large-scale expropriation of iron tools from the private sector at prices well below the market price to replenish soldiers' armor. There was a shortage of iron for the production of war weapons. When the She family passed through the border, they even
Loot iron tools as strategic materials.
After the war, people's livelihood recovered, and there was a huge demand for iron materials for farm tools and daily necessities.
Lin Fu's reduction of taxes in Jiangnan can improve the purchasing power of farmers, help promote the promotion of ironware, and promote production; this will further increase the purchasing power of farmers, and further increase the demand for iron materials.
After the four iron yards of Putang, Chongzhou, Shanyang and Yizhou Zhuxi were all built, the iron production capacity was less than 30 million kilograms.
This number, compared to the current generation, seems very impressive, but in Lin Fu's eyes, the scale of iron used by a 10,000-ton ironclad ship in later generations is more than 20 million kilograms, and this production capacity is really nothing.
Today, the area directly controlled by Jiangning has a population of more than 20 million, and this iron production capacity can be fully absorbed.
Considering the current smelting costs in Huaidong, the output is really surplus, and it can be dumped on a large scale to the Haidong region.
The population of the Fuso Islands alone is nearly ten million. At present, Huaidong is only exporting soldiers and armor to the Saga clan, the Kingo clan, Jeju, Dongju, and Haiyang County on the Koryo Peninsula.
Lin Fu started large-scale construction of the Putang Iron Station at this time. Another main reason was to further reduce the pressure faced by Jiangning and surrounding counties.
Due to the large number of officials and gentry gathered in Jiangning City, Jiangning's commodity economy was relatively developed and the prototype of later cities had already taken shape. A large number of people either directly worked as servants or indirectly served these officials and gentry to make a living.
The war not only severely devastated Jiangning, but also severely damaged the officials and gentry of Jiangning. Since the return of Emperor Yongxing, the wealthy officials and gentry of Jiangning from the Queen Mother on down were forced to live frugally, and the urban economy of Jiangning City suffered a heavy setback.
Although Zhang Yubo implemented many relief measures, after the war, the 150,000 to 60,000 urban households were already an extremely heavy burden for Jiangning.
On the one hand, Lin Fu recruited farmers from the counties surrounding Jiangning to relocate to eastern Fujian, and on the other hand, he restored industry, mining and other industries near Jiangning to absorb more of the remaining population.
For the construction of the Putang Iron Works and various mines and the excavation of canals, as many as 5,000 households were directly recruited from Jiangning City, which really gave Zhang Yubo a sigh of relief.
At that time, the central finance mainly relied on farming, and levied high taxes on salt, iron, tea and other industries, which was actually an additional deprivation of farmers. Lin Fu wanted to open up a new path, and focused on industrial taxes to increase central finance revenue.
In addition to business and trade, the potential here is far higher than relying on the sky to make a living.
The dense river network in the Yangtze River Basin provides convenient conditions for large-scale developed shipping, and the low transportation costs provide necessary conditions for the development of commerce and trade, as well as the concentration and expansion of the production scale of industry, mining, workshops and other industries.
The materials produced can even be imported into Haidong and Nanyang regions by sea at low transportation costs.
In the past few years, the materials imported to the Haidong region through Chongzhou, including early silk tea, and more recently porcelain and iron, can be regarded as primary industrial products.
It is through the dumping of these products to the Haidong region that Huaidong can simultaneously replenish a large amount of leather, rice grain, copper, silver, tung oil, mules and horses and other war preparation materials from the Haidong region every year.
Chongzhou's shipping has developed to this day, and there are even ships that go to the islands to collect guano.
Farming to accumulate fertilizer has become a consensus in the world, but the means of accumulating fertilizer are quite limited.
The pig retting method promoted by Lin Fu in the early days and the flooding and siltation method promoted by Zhu Ai in farming in Huaidong were both innovations that helped increase farm income. However, the main method of fertilizer accumulation today is to collect natural fertilizers such as human and animal excrement.
In Chongzhou, which is relatively densely populated, there are only six or seven acres of cultivated land per person. Natural fertilizers such as excrement alone are still seriously insufficient. With the development of maritime transportation, and the surrounding islands breed and breed a large number of seabirds, the birds accumulated over the years have
Manure and a large amount of mulch are rare fertilizers.
In his early years, Lin Fu organized warships to go to the islands to mine guano. Later, he became a maritime merchant specializing in this industry. It seems that manure is not valuable, but the ships are huge and can carry a very high load at one time, which can reduce transportation costs.
To extremely low, the profit is quite considerable.
Of course, with the increasing maturity of shipbuilding technology, the high-quality sea-going ships built by Huaidong are even much cheaper than the sea-going ships built by Longjiang Shipyard in Jiangning in the early years. The reduction of maritime accidents and the decline in the cost of sea-going ships are all factors
The main reason for the decrease in transportation costs.
Over the years, in addition to implementing the new policy of suppressing gentry and land annexation in Huaidong, Lin Fu's most important political method was to form the prototype of a system integrating workshops, industry, mining, and commerce in Chongzhou.
It is precisely this prototype of the system that is the core pillar of Huaidong's financial strength.
Song Fu only passed through Chongzhou and did not stay for a few days. Even though he had complete information for reference, he still felt that what he read on paper was shallow and he still lacked a deep enough understanding of Lin Fu's political philosophy.
Lin Fu has enough patience. He knows that some of his ideas are too far out of the world. Even a person with outstanding intelligence cannot accept them all at once. In short, he needs more patience to communicate. Sometimes he has to bite the bullet and force himself.
As long as the effect of implementation becomes apparent over time, people who could not understand it before will be able to accept it easily.
Lin Fu spent the night at the Putang iron yard and returned eastward on horseback early the next morning.
Farming in Jiangning counties will almost resume in late September. Looking around, you can see the rice fields that gradually become golden after autumn.
Although when the Zhejiang and Fujian troops invaded, the people around Jiangning were in uproar and suffered a lot of casualties, but the war in Jiangning was over in a short time.
There was no large-scale famine, and the government organized the restoration of production after the refugees returned home, so the actual impact was limited.
Lin Fu did not expect taxes to be paid in Jiangning, Yijiang, Huizhou, Chizhou, Luzhou and other places for two or three years, but as long as production could be resumed, the situation would be stable and his original intention would be achieved.
There is no direct tax revenue, but materials such as salt, iron, tea and horse are sold in these areas, which is actually a disguised form of taxation.
Riding on horseback, looking at the golden rice fields on both sides of the post road, Lin Fu and Gao Zongting, Song Fu said: "In more than half a month, when this season's rice is harvested in the fields, the food shortage in Jiangnan will be barely over.
Got it!"
"Except for Luzhou, there are no major disasters in other areas this year. It can be regarded as God's help." Gao Zongting said with a smile.
However, Quzhou suffered from a severe drought. It was a newly acquired land and was exempted from taxes as a rule. However, after the Zhejiang and Fujian troops completely withdrew from central Zhejiang after the fall of Dongyang County, they no longer had the ability to plunder the countryside on a large scale. Quzhou was exempting and exempting taxes.
After the tax was imposed, a large area was affected this year, but compared to the previous extortionate taxes imposed on the She family, the people still breathed a sigh of relief.
In the middle of the year, the work camp began to recruit reserve soldiers from Quzhou, and there were a large number of applicants; in the end, four thousand people were even transferred to the supply team on the Yijiang side.
After passing Jilong Mountain, the head of Jiangning City was looming in sight. Lin Xuwen, Huang Jinnian, Lin Mengde, Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang, Lin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan and others had already received the news and came out of the city to greet them. The carriages and horses almost crowded the official road outside the West City.
Full.
"They all said not to go to such trouble..." Lin Fu scolded Lin Xuwen and the others with a smile on his face for coming out of the city to meet him.
"Old Seventeen went to inspect the defense, and he was gone for more than four months. Then he had to rush to Wuyuan to supervise the war. He couldn't stay in Jiangning for a few days," Lin Xuwen said with a smile, "Jianning is also in a mess, so we have to hurry up.
Report to you?"
Lin Fu dismounted and greeted everyone one by one. After a short delay at the pavilion, he prepared to ride into the city by carriage and horse.
After riding a horse from Putang for a day, he felt a little tired. Lin Fu rode in a carriage and called Lin Xuwen. Lin Meng got to talk to him in the carriage. After walking for a while, he felt something was wrong and asked the coachman to stop.
"What's going on?" Lin Mengde asked.
Lin Fu suddenly got out of the car, and Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang and others also felt strange.
Lin Fu walked around to the side of the car and bent down to look at the axle. Seeing that everyone on the left and right had doubts on their faces, he asked Sun Jingxuan who was standing behind him, "Has this roller been built after all?"
"Haha, can you tell the difference just by listening to the sound?" Sun Jingxuan asked with a smile.
"What a big difference. There is no squeaking sound. I still thought of this when I was staying in Putang yesterday. How could I not hear it?" Lin Fu said with a smile, "Can the supervisor below make batches?"
"We have made a batch on a trial basis. Each one costs twelve thousand yuan," Sun Jingxuan said. "At the moment, we can only say that it is barely usable."
Listening to Lin Fu and Sun Jingxuan's exchange, others noticed the subtle differences in the axles of Lin Fu's car.
The existing bearing structure in the world is just a sliding bearing with a large ring and a small ring. Even if it is coated with grease, the friction force is still extremely large, which needs to be compared with the rolling bearings common in later generations.
The most common rolling bearing can significantly reduce friction by simply adding balls in the middle of the sliding bearing. However, even small steel balls are difficult for all craftsmen in the world. With Chongzhou's manufacturing level, it is still far from mass production.
Conditions for steel balls with uniform specifications.
Before Lin Fu left Jiangning, a craftsman from the Ordnance Supervision, based on the ball structure proposed by Lin Fu, suggested changing the ball to a small roller design that is easy to prepare in batches - but whether it can be done, Lin Fu still had to decide before leaving Jiangning.
I wasn't sure, I didn't expect that when I came back this time, Sun Jingxuan had already used the roller on the four-wheeled carriage.
The cost of one piece is twelve thousand yuan, which is still too expensive, but as long as it can be mass-produced, it is a good start. As the technology matures, the cost can be significantly reduced.
Lin Fu had previously hand-made several rollers for trial use on the newly built four-wheeled carriages in Huaidong. Because the rollers greatly reduced friction and increased the life of the components, the load capacity of the same mule carriage could be increased by at least one
times.
Although the structure of the small roller is much rougher, it can be used on baggage carts and war machines such as bed crossbows and scorpion crossbows. As long as the performance is improved by one to two percent, it will be a gap that is difficult for the enemy to overcome.
In addition, when Lin Fu was passing through quarrying, he visited the Mushan Mine.
When miners dig into a cave, they have to carry baskets of excavated ore out; because the mine itself is low, miners have to use their hands and feet to climb out.
Lin Fu is not a pessimist, but his approach is extremely inefficient and cannot significantly reduce the cost of ore mining. It also severely limits the output of the mine.
Narrow-gauge mine cars that can be mass-produced with rollers and pulled by human or animal power can be easily manufactured.
There are currently eight mines in the Suishan Mine. To ensure the ore needed for the production of the Putang Iron Works, two to three thousand miners must be invested in mining. If there is a landslide, the losses will be as heavy as a rout. If we really can
Using narrow-gauge mine cars can reduce the number of miners by more than half and increase production a lot.
Lin Fu proposed the concept of a mine cart very early, but the friction of the old sliding bearings at that time was too high, and the mine cart itself was required to be low, so the bearings could almost only be used as wheels. Without rollers, it could not be built to meet the requirements.
The minecart is coming.
Lin Fu stared at the axle for a while. After all, it was set in the wheel, so it couldn't be seen clearly. He said to Sun Jingxuan: "There are prototype axles that have been trial-produced. Send two of them over and let me take a closer look..."
Sun Jingxuan responded, and Lin Xuwen and others laughed and asked Lin Fu not to focus on these details. Lin Fu laughed and said: "This is not a detail. The roller can be made, but it will not be used in the war after the autumn."
If someone is sent to tell Mr. Fu that the supplies transported from Huizhou to the south can be increased by 20%, do you think he will be very happy?"
Now Fu Qinghe has personally rushed to Wuyuan to prepare for the war. The materials needed for the war are mainly transported from two routes, one is from eastern Zhejiang to the west along the Qianjiang River, and the other is from Huizhou to the south via Yuling Pass.
The supplies going south from Huizhou mainly went south from the procurement of prefectures and counties around Jiangning to the territory of Ningguo, and then took the overland road over Yuling Pass and entered western Zhejiang. There were about three hundred miles of land route before and after, and they relied heavily on carriages and horses.
, the transportation capacity is limited.
The reason why there is a route of supplies that does not go around the sea outside Chongzhou and Mingzhou, but goes south from Yuling Pass, is to consider Yijiang as the main transfer station on this route.
A large amount of materials and troops were stationed in Yijiang, which meant that the Zhejiang and Fujian troops were always on guard against the possibility of the Huaidong soldiers and horses joining the Chizhou army from Yijiang to march westward to directly attack Jiangzhou, in order to achieve the purpose of dispersing and containing the Zhejiang and Fujian troops.
Lin Xuwen and others just smiled and surrounded Lin Fu as they got into the car and drove into the city.