Chapter 617 Hydraulic Facilities
Chapter 617 Hydraulic Facilities
After Xiao Xia left Jingkou for Jingxiang, Princess Cui Yu temporarily took over her husband's approval of important documents. She was unfamiliar with it at first, but Cui Yu soon got used to it.
That morning, Cui Yu found Yang Lihua. Yang Lihua did not always live in Prince Jin's Mansion. During this period, she lived with her daughter and son-in-law.
Cui Yu was undecided about a document. Yang Lihua looked at the document and said with a smile, "Jian'an County is applying to resettle 100,000 refugees?"
Cui Yu nodded. "This is the first time I've encountered something like this. I don't know how to deal with it. I want to hear my aunt's advice!"
Yang Lihua smiled and said, "One hundred thousand refugees is equivalent to 20,000 to 30,000 households! This is not a small matter. It involves many aspects. First of all, are the refugees willing to go? This is the key. Generally, Jian'an is used to exile guilty people, which is slightly better than Lingnan. If the people are unwilling to go, the government will force them to go, and the people will rebel.
Secondly, they had to come up with a detailed plan. How much food and land had they prepared? How were they going to solve the housing problem? How were they going to solve the transition problem? Jian'an County was a long way away, so how were the people going to get there?
It's not that the local officials just want 100,000 people, and we give them 100,000 people. There are too many aspects involved, even including the balance with other counties. If you give 100,000 to Jian'an County, other counties also want 100,000 refugees, will you give them?"
Cui Yu understood, she nodded, "How should I approve it?"
"You should forward it to the Shangshu Xingtai and ask them to make overall considerations. It's just consideration, not arrangement. If it's arrangement, it means you agree, but consideration means you have no problem, but you haven't refused either. The wording must be accurate so that the officials below can correctly understand your meaning!"
Cui Yu nodded repeatedly, "Thank you for your guidance, aunt. I have learned a lot."
Yang Lihua reminded her again: "If it involves military documents, you should keep it and wait until Prince Jin comes back. The same applies if it involves large amounts of money."
"Thank you for the reminder, aunt. When will you be back?"
Yang Lihua smiled and said, "At the end of the year! I'll come and celebrate the New Year with you."
"I see!"
Cui Yu then returned to the Prince of Jin's Mansion in a carriage. She immediately approved the document in her husband's study and handed it to Xiao Ai, who temporarily served as Cui Yu's secretary. She gave it together with other documents to Lu Miao, who then passed it on to various government offices.
A month later, Xiao Xia returned to Jingkou. It was already late autumn and early winter, and the weather was gradually getting cooler.
But because it is close to the New Year, business is particularly prosperous. Almost every store is crowded with customers, and the shop owners are grinning from ear to ear. This is the best business time of the year.
War also brings dividends to Jiangnan. Some are direct dividends. For example, when soldiers receive rewards and return, all kinds of consumption suddenly increase, business becomes more prosperous, and it becomes easier for lower-class people to make money.
Some of the dividends were indirect. For example, hundreds of thousands of timbers used for shipbuilding were seized during this war. These timbers were eventually sold to various shipbuilding factories at very low prices, resulting in a general reduction in the price of civilian ships a few months later.
To the people of Jiangnan, ships were like cars to people in later generations. They were an essential means of transportation for every household. People took the opportunity to buy civilian ships, and many freight companies also expanded the number of ships, which directly promoted the development of the freight industry in Jiangnan.
After returning for a few days, Xiao Xia basically had nothing to do. In addition to enjoying family life, he would also go to the streets to understand the people's sentiments.
That morning, Xiao Xia took the children to the dock to see the elephants. After the Jiangnan Canal was dredged, the two thousand elephants sent by Jian'an County were not sent back, but were assigned to work at various docks and shipyards.
There are more than 300 elephants at the Jingkou dock, the largest number. Last month, a baby elephant was added, which attracted a large number of children. They named it Keke, which means a small lump in the Jingkou dialect.
Today Xiao Xia had some free time, so she brought her children to the pier to see the baby elephants.
"Dad, we have seen Coco twice!" The eldest daughter Yang Junjun said with a smile, hugging her father's arm.
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "You've all seen it! Why do you want to see it again today?"
"We just want Daddy to accompany us to see it." So that's it. At this time, Xiao Xia suddenly saw a large number of people gathered in the distance, all visiting a dozen wooden houses. Xiao Xia asked the guards, "What are they doing over there?"
A personal soldier who knew about this said quickly, "There is a merchant named Cao who uses water power to do various things, such as grinding flour and pressing oil, without the need for manpower. Everyone is amazed."
Xiao Xia immediately became interested and said to Zhang Qiao and Cui Mei, "Take the little guy to see the baby elephant first. I'll go check out the hydraulic facilities over there and come back to you soon."
Yang Junjun pouted and said, "Daddy has abandoned us again!"
Xiao Xia hugged his two daughters and said with a smile: "Daddy promises to come find you right away!"
Dozens of female guards protected the carriage as it went to the dock, while Xiao Xia brought several personal soldiers to the new hydraulic factory.
A new hydraulic factory was opened on the bank of the Yangtze River in Jingkou. It caused a sensation in the city as soon as it was launched, and common people and businessmen flocked to see the excitement.
The owner was a businessman named Cao. He built more than a dozen wooden houses by the river and used water power to grind flour, rice, press oil and roll cotton.
In fact, they just built several large wooden wheels, and the rotation of the wooden wheels drove the small wooden wheels to rotate, and finally the power of the river water was used to drive various machines to rotate.
The businessman was named Cao Yousi, from Piling County. He was about forty years old, had a plump figure, and looked very smart and capable.
Cao Yousi felt deeply honored that His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin came to inspect in person, and he accompanied Xiao Xia all the way to visit the hydraulic factory.
"Influenced by my grandfather, I have been interested in studying this kind of non-human and animal-powered machine since I was a child. Last year, I saw workers in Jian'an County using human power to pulverize cotton and peel the cotton seeds from the cotton balls. I thought of using water power to pulverize cotton. After returning, I studied it in my hometown of Jinling County and made a water-powered copper cotton pulverizer. The effect was good, but unfortunately there was not enough water power in my hometown. I thought of the Yangtze River, so I bought a piece of land on the river and started to build a cotton pulverizer. Later, I added water-powered flour milling, water-powered rice milling and water-powered oil pressing. I am also planning to make a water mixer for papermaking."
Xiao Xia nodded happily. The cotton gin was invented under his guidance. Unexpectedly, it was developed into a hydraulic cotton gin.
"How's the effect?"
"Of course the effect is good. For example, a flour mill can grind several thousand kilograms of wheat a day, which is ten times that of livestock and a hundred times that of human labor."
Xiao Xia nodded and said, "Have you ever thought about expanding the hydraulic workshop and adding some other projects?"
"Of course I have been thinking about it, but there are some difficult problems that I haven't solved yet."
"Tell me, what's the problem?"
Cao Yousi sighed and said, "So far, it can only move left and right. If it can move up and down, or forward and backward, I can do more things, such as water-powered spinning, water-powered irrigation, water-powered blowing, etc."
“It can be solved!”
Xiao Xia smiled slightly and said, "Using tilted wooden wheels, we can change the left-right movement into up-and-down movement. In addition, the Han Dynasty used connecting rods to change the left-right movement into forward-and-backward movement. You can try it."
Xiao Xia roughly drew a few sketches, and Cao Yousi understood them at a glance. He was immediately overjoyed and bowed, "Thank you, Your Highness, for your guidance!"
Xiao Xia encouraged him, "Think about it carefully, and make a water-powered loom in the future. I will invite you to become a doctor of the Imperial College."
"I will definitely not let your highness down.
(End of this chapter)