On October 15th, Li Xing rode into Fanjiazhuang with the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch Wang Chengen, and Cao Bianjiao, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, and Yang Guozhu.
Wang Chengen and the others came to Fanjiazhuang to buy cannons.
Although the emperor has been buying cannons from Macau, the Franji people's cannons are expensive and slow to cast. The Macao Bugalao Cannon Foundry uses adobe casting method, and the yield rate of the cannons is very low. It takes a long time to build a cannon.
.Up to now, the Beijing camp has not been equipped with enough cannons.
Over the years, Li Zhi's 18-pound long cannon has been in the limelight during the Northern and Southern Wars, and was regarded as a military weapon by the world. Under Wang Chengen's persuasion, the emperor decided to discuss the purchase with Li Zhi.
Therefore, Wang Chengen and Generals Cao and Yang made this trip.
The purpose of the three people's visit made Li Zhi feel a little sudden. Li Zhi had always regarded the 18-pound long gun as his superior weapon and had never sold this weapon to outsiders before. Li Zhi was a little undecided for a while, so he asked Li Xing to entertain the three first.
People in Fanjiazhuang take a casual look at it, but they carefully consider whether to sell it or not.
Wang Chengen came and went in a hurry the last few times he came to Fanjiazhuang, and did not take a closer look at this world-famous city that was raised from the ground. At this time, he was riding on his horse and listened carefully to Li Xing's explanation to him, which was interesting. Cao Bianjiao and Yang Guozhu were the first
When I came to Fanjiazhuang once, I felt strange everywhere as soon as I entered the gate of Fanjiazhuang.
Seeing the dense flow of people on the main street of Fanjiazhuang, Yang Guozhu raised his hands and asked: "Sir Governor, does Fanjiazhuang have such a large population now?"
Li Xing smiled and replied: "Of course, Fanjiazhuang has been expanded many times and is now eighteen miles in circumference. The entire city has nine gates. There are six streets, three horizontal and three vertical, and six horizontal and six vertical.
There are two small streets. The city is full of factories, workshops and military camps, as well as restaurants and tea shops serving workers, Goulan theaters, various shops, meat and vegetable markets. The city has a total population of 177,000, which is considered a big city."
Hearing the scale of Fanjiazhuang, Yang Guozhu was immediately in awe of Li Zhi. It was unbelievable that Jin Guogong built such a big city in an uninhabited land from scratch in just ten years. It was really amazing.
After entering the city, the clean and spacious roads and the neat villa buildings on both sides of the road made the two generals nod in disbelief. They had been to countless cities in the Ming Dynasty, and they only thought that the city must be full of garbage and sewage, but they took it seriously.
I have never seen such a clean city.
The guards behind the three VIPs entered Fanjiazhuang, their faces full of shock. They looked left and right, as if they didn't believe there could be such a clean city in the world.
Walking to a trash can, Cao Bianjiao suddenly stopped his horse. He stood there, and it seemed that the people coming and going threw all the garbage in their hands into the trash can. Cao Bianjiao found that none of the people in Fanjiazhuang littered.
He was deep in thought and didn't speak for a long time.
After walking a few steps forward, Wang Chengen suddenly let out a sigh, pointed at the bell tower in front of him and asked: "Governor, what is that tall tower in front of me? I didn't pay attention when I was rushing back and forth before."
Li Xing smiled and said: "Father, that's the clock tower. Have you seen the clock dial on the clock tower? The thicker and shorter pillar inside the clock dial is called the hour hand. The scale he pointed at represents the current time."
hour. The slender pillar next to it is called the minute hand, which represents the specific minute of the hour."
Wang Cheng'en, Cao and Yang listened to Li Xing's explanation and finally understood how to tell the time in the clock tower. They were shocked. They had never heard that there was such an accurate timing tool in the world that could accurately calculate the current time.
Minutes. Even in the palace, there is no such exquisite machinery.
The armillary sphere and sundial were used for timekeeping in the palace. The sundial was very rough because the position of the sun was different in different seasons. The sundial sometimes could not draw a long enough shadow on the dial to indicate the time. The armillary sphere, not to mention, was expensive to build and complicated to operate.
If the sky is a little cloudy, this expensive equipment will not be able to tell the time.
The three of them had never seen an instrument like the Fanjiazhuang Clock Tower, which could tell the time regardless of rain or shine, and could also divide one hour into two hours, and two hours into sixty minutes, and accurately display it.
Wang Chengen took a breath and said: "The people of Fanjiazhuang have better grasp of time than the saints in the palace!"
Cao and Yang looked at each other with shock in their eyes. This clock tower alone made Fanjiazhuang look more upscale, and its momentum had already surpassed that of the capital city.
After walking a few steps, Cao Bianjiao narrowed his eyes and asked, "Sir Governor, why are so many people in Fanjiazhuang so obese?"
Li Xing was stunned for a moment, and said with some embarrassment: "This is a chronic disease of my Fan family in recent years, but the commander-in-chief discovered it."
"My people in Fanjiazhuang have become more and more prosperous in recent years, and their food is getting better and better. Not only can the people have enough to eat twelve months a year, but they also have very cheap fish and meat. Some citizens who have strong self-control are okay
, I also know moderation and restraint, so I don’t eat to become fat. But most people can’t control their appetite, and fish is commonplace.”
"In addition, the work in the factory is not as strenuous as farming. It often takes a day to work on the assembly line with a little movement. The same is true for small traders. They can sit in the market and shout a few times, and the amount of activity is not enough. In this way, it leads to
There are a lot of fat people in my Fanjiazhuang."
"In order to change the situation, my brother has recently called on people to run for half an hour every morning. However, this kind of thing is not easy to do, and it cannot immediately reduce the obesity population."
After hearing Li Xing's words, Wang Chengen, Cao and Yang stared at each other for a while, unable to react.
In the 19th year of Chongzhen, when famine spread everywhere, and in Henan and Huguang, where people were starving and dying, the people of Fanjiazhuang could not control their general obesity because the food was too good. What a contrast.
The guards behind the three distinguished guests looked at each other, muttering to themselves that the governor of Tianjin was bragging. As the guards of high-ranking officials, they couldn't afford to eat fish and meat every day, but the people of Fanjiazhuang were so rich?
However, the fat body of the pedestrians on the road cannot be faked. The facts are in front of them, and everyone cannot help but believe it.
Cao Bianjiao shook his head and was speechless.
As a close confidant of the emperor, Wang Chengen was originally considered a dignitary from the capital, and he was well-informed wherever he went. However, in Fanjiazhuang, he always felt like a country bumpkin entering the city.
Wang Chengen became a little unhappy. He raised his whip and pointed at the houses on both sides of the road and asked: "Governor, why are the windows of those houses all hollowed out? Why are there only one frame? If the windows are not papered, aren't we afraid of wind and rain leaks?
?”
Li Xing looked at the windows of the houses on both sides of the road, smiled and said, "Angel, those are not hollow windows, they are all covered with glass windows."
When Wang Chengen heard this, he was stunned for a long time and was speechless. Loading expensive glass on the window? How is this possible? Wang Chengen had a set of glass wine sets, which were dozens of expensive items. He hit the glass on the window,
How much silver does that cost?
Wang Chengen felt like he was being teased, so he lowered his voice and said, "Governor, please don't try to deceive me." chaptererror;
