The particularity of the Tang Dynasty caused Li Xuan to pay attention to whatever things he paid attention to, and the ministers below also paid attention to them.
The steam engine is just one of them. There are many more things. They are all because of Li Xuan's attention, so the ministers also pay attention to them. As for whether the thing itself is worthy of attention, it is no longer important.
In the eyes of many people, the steam engine is useless, but it is not yet highly valued.
Unlike many people who are still skeptical and don't understand steam engines, the Navy is very positive!
Because the Navy has already seen battleships equipped with steam engines, which can get rid of the influence of sails, and the improvement in combat effectiveness will be huge.
But it is a pity that if the navy wants to use the steam engine, it will not be possible in a year or two, or even within ten or twenty years, because what the navy needs is a high-pressure steam engine. In this case
Only then can the size and weight be reduced.
At present, the Royal Institute of Technology has not even developed a low-pressure steam engine, and is still far away from a high-pressure steam engine.
After inspecting the Dangtu Industrial Zone, Li Xuan continued to set off with the Guards and a group of civil and military ministers. At this time, they were not far from Jinling City.
The Holy Emperor is about to return to the court, and a lot of activities have been launched in Jinling City to rectify the appearance of the city!
Chengtianfu Patrol Bureau held a swearing-in meeting a few days ago, preparing to deploy a large number of patrol officers to rectify the city's appearance and completely eliminate dirty, disorderly and other behaviors.
A few days ago, a large-scale rectification campaign was launched in Jinling City. The streets were completely clean, and some uncivilized phenomena such as littering and queue jumping were also dealt with intensively. Normally, they would be fined one tael of silver, but now they are directly fined five taels.
, twelve.
And all new beggars, homeless people, etc. who appear on the street will be forcibly taken into custody!
Since the Tang Dynasty moved its capital to Jinling City, in addition to the normal rectification of the city's appearance, the Tang Dynasty also carried out large-scale municipal engineering renovations in Jinling City. Part of the funding came from the central finance, and part of it came from Chengtian Mansion itself.
Over the past few years, local finance has invested a total of more than one hundred thousand taels of silver.
Mainly for renovation and expansion of sewer lines.
At the same time, land-based reconstruction of roads in the city will be carried out to increase land-based drainage performance and avoid water accumulation on the roads!
In addition, stone slabs were laid on the important main roads in the city, especially those near the Royal Courtyard, the Royal Palace, and the main offices in the center of the city. At the same time, cinder was tried to be laid on some other secondary main roads.
Although there are not many steam engines in the Tang Dynasty today, one thing that is worth noting is that in the Tang Dynasty in recent years, due to the increase in mechanical equipment, the cost of coal mining has gradually decreased. Now coal has become a
Commonly used as fuel for household use.
The resulting amount of cinders is also quite large, and Jinling City in Chengtian Prefecture is the first to use cinder waste to pave roads, and the effect is quite good.
The most important thing is: cheap!
Jinling City has paved many stone and cinder roads. I dare not say that there are no dirt roads in the whole city. However, the main roads have basically been turned into stone and cinder, which has greatly improved the appearance of the city.
On weekdays, the city appearance of Jinling City is quite good. Now, with strict rectification, Jinling City will look even cleaner and tidier.
And when they did this, they were still affected by Li Xuan's personal preferences!
Just like a steam engine.
Li Xuan liked steam engines, and his ministers took him very seriously.
Li Xuan likes to be clean and tidy, and hates and rejects dirty cities, so his subordinates also attach great importance to it. Basically, every city's patrol station has a city management office that is responsible for the city's appearance.
Of course, there are also many local yamen here that collect fines to improve poor local finances.
But no matter what, when Li Xuan returned to Jinling City during the grand welcome ceremony, what he saw was a clean and tidy city!
Like many feudal dynasties, there was no such thing as paving loess or sprinkling water, because the main road in the city that Li Xuan's chariot passed was a black cinder road, and the carriage walked on the road very smoothly.
After almost entering the city center and arriving at the Royal Courtyard and the area where many government offices are located, we walked onto the road paved with bluestone slabs.
Not a trace of dust was raised along the way!
This makes Li Xuan quite satisfied!
The use of cinders to pave roads was something Li Xuan warned his ministers below. Otherwise, with their shallow knowledge, they would not know that coal has such great uses!
When we asked them to renovate the roads in Jinling City two years ago, they were crying about poverty every day, saying that paving stone roads was too expensive, the tax department had no money, and Chengtian Mansion had no money. At that time, Li Xuan became popular and asked you to
It's just road repairs, and you don't have to lay stone slabs. Stone slabs are expensive, so you won't think of a way.
Large slates are definitely expensive, but don't you know how to lay slates in small areas? The price of these scraps must be cheaper.
Besides slate, don’t you use other materials, such as asphalt, cinders, etc.?
Asphalt, okay, I've overdone it, but cinder is not difficult to make, and it can be recycled. What a good paving material!
After Li Xuan's guidance, the officials here in Jinling City tried to pave roads on a large scale with gravel slabs and cinders. Otherwise, Li Xuan would probably have to do things like paving loess and sprinkling water when he went out!
If they really do this, Li Xuan feels that his face will be lost by them!
As a great, glorious, and invincible time traveler, it is already embarrassing enough that he hasn't even built a concrete highway yet. It is estimated that the entire starting point is laughing at him.
But if you can't even build a cinder road and have to use a loess road, then it will not be embarrassing at the starting point, but embarrassing for the entire Yuewen.
Li Xuan is a shameless person, so he thinks that we won't do advanced things like cement and asphalt for now, but we still need to build stone roads and cinder roads.
As the carriage walked on the cinder road, Li Xuan could hardly feel any bumps!
Of course, this is not all due to the cinder road, but mainly because of the springs on the carriage!
This huge carriage is Li Xuan's special vehicle for traveling. In order to ensure comfort, it is equipped with the empire's most advanced technological product: springs!
And you have to know that in order to keep the springs secret, the Tang Dynasty also strictly controlled the springs in order to prevent other countries or forces from obtaining springs on a large scale to make flintlock guns.
Currently, there is only one company that produces springs in Datang, and that is Jinling Special Steel Company, which is directly under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. This company has no other business and specializes in manufacturing various types of springs.
The springs it produces are mainly supplied to internal enterprises of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and are not supplied to private enterprises!
At the same time, spring applications at the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises are currently mainly focused on industrial applications and ordnance production!
For example, where springs are used in armaments, not only flintlock muskets, but also military carriages are now widely used by the Army of the Tang Dynasty. Four-wheeled transport carriages have been equipped with at least one thousand taels, which is a large-scale adoption.
Spring is installed to ensure the load-bearing stability of the vehicle.
As for industrial applications, apart from a small number of special parts that serve as various types of equipment, one of the major applications is in horse-drawn carriages!
However, the main customers of these civilian carriages were also the official yamen of the Tang Dynasty and were not sold to ordinary people.
In order to ensure that springs are not smuggled abroad on a large scale and used to make flintlock muskets, the Tang Dynasty currently does not in principle sell carriages with a large number of springs to the private sector.
Of course, the reason why we talk about principles is that there are exceptions. Carriages equipped with springs are naturally sold to the private sector, but only in small quantities. They are generally targeted at civilian enterprises and wealthy businessmen, and are expensive.
At present, the carriages produced by the Jinling Carriage Company under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, and the mass-produced carriages with springs are basically sold to enterprises, not to private individuals, and are mainly used for industrial production such as pulling goods.
But if you are personally rich, you can buy their high-end carriage series. These high-end products are spring-loaded, comfortable and luxurious, and the price is nothing to say, in one word: expensive!
The cheapest one is a single-horse-drawn carriage. Even the driver has no place to sit on it. It can only be a small two-wheeled carriage controlled by himself. The price reaches 150 taels of silver!
As for a medium-sized four-wheeled carriage, the price starts at three hundred taels of silver!
On top of this, there are also various more ornately decorated versions, with no upper price limit, because many wealthy people come to order carriages, and they all customize them, so different requirements naturally have different prices.
The Tang Dynasty had very strict control over springs. It didn't matter what the rich bought, there wasn't much anyway. If you dismantle the luxury carriage you bought for a few hundred taels, then take out the springs inside and transform them into flintlock guns.
spring, then they will obey you.
You have money and you are willful!
But those ordinary carriages with springs are purchased by enterprises, and enterprises purchase them in large quantities and have records. Someone will check them regularly. There is only one principle. They don't care what happens to those carriages, but even if they are carriages,
Even if it's destroyed, your spring must still be there!
No more, so sorry, various investigations are coming.
As for export, it is not allowed!
Before foreign enemies developed springs and equipped them with flintlock muskets on a large scale, the Tang Dynasty would strictly control springs. Apart from control, springs were also appropriately used in industrial production to serve industrial development.
However, despite various restrictions, the superior shock absorption performance brought by springs still made spring carriages a favorite. Many gentry, landlords and wealthy businessmen competed to buy them. For them, buying a carriage for a few hundred taels is nothing.
, many wealthy businessmen still engage in customization, and it is possible to spend thousands of taels, or even tens of thousands of taels of silver.
Well, Chen Lifu's car is a custom-made four-wheeled carriage. It cost him more than 8,000 taels of silver. It uses the most expensive wood, is plated with gold, and uses pearls as curtains. When walking on the road, to others, this carriage looks like a pile of
Money is running all over the streets!
Of all the officials in Jinling City, regardless of whether they were high-ranking officials or military aristocrats, his carriage was the most expensive!