Chapter 181: Ming Dynasty steelmaking, traditional blast furnace, public transport vessel Zhu Yuanzhang, the natural four-cylinder scroll king.

Your Highness, Prince Jin, I have accomplished my mission. The typewriter has been successfully assembled, and after debugging, the failure rate has been reduced to an acceptable level. "

Just after returning to the Prince of Jin's Mansion, Gongshu Qi walked towards Zhu Gang and said.

Um.
"You are really efficient. You are worthy of being the descendant of Lu Ban."

"Okay, take me to see it."

Zhu Gang grinned and asked, "Can you please stop curling like that and give me a break?"
"Here!"

Gongshu Qi responded and followed Zhu Gang to the courtyard where printing was studied.

At this time, the size of the printing press has been made very small.

If it weren't for the huge font library that was to follow, it could even be moved by one person.

"Looks good."

Zhu Gang nodded slightly, then sat down in front of the typing press, ready to start trying to operate it.

As my fingers rest on those familiar yet unfamiliar small square buttons, the time when I used to eat instant noodles and travel around the world flashes before my eyes like flowing water.

"Your Highness, Prince Jin, this typewriter is easy to operate, but requires skilled beginners."

clap clap-

Zhu Gang stretched out his hand and knocked. Suddenly, blocks of characters fell one by one. In just half a quarter of an hour, he had finished typeset a page of 300 characters.

“It’s still a little rusty.”

Zhu Gang shook his head gently. After all, this feeling was somewhat different from the familiar feeling in his previous life.

But at least, when he designed it, he imitated the keyboard in his previous life, so it was not too different after all.

"Jin"

"Your Highness Prince Jin, have you practiced this before?"

Gongshu Qi stared with his eyes wide open, his face full of surprise.

Gongshu Qi was the most talented craftsman in using the typesetting press. Despite this, Zhu Gang's typesetting speed was almost twice as fast as his.

"Yeah, I guess I've practiced it."

"Go and deliver this first-generation machine to His Majesty, and then I'll print this one and send it over together."

Zhu Gang first shook his head, then nodded, and then waved to the maid beside him.

What he was arranging was not anything else, but to write a letter to Zhu Yuanzhang asking him to confer an official title on Gongshu Qi.

Although this King of Rolls made him speechless, he had to admit that Gongshu Qi was a talent and it was absolutely impossible for him to be let go.

Some people, knowing that keeping a thing around will cause some of their curly hair to fall out, still want to keep it at all costs.

Pain and happiness.

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Jin!"

Gongshu Qi bowed to Zhu Gang excitedly. He was right next to him when Zhu Gang was typing, and he could see clearly what Zhu Gang had arranged.

"This is what you deserve. Since I promised you, as long as you do it, I will ask you to be promoted to a third-rank official. I will not break my promise."

Zhu Gang stood up and said with a smile.

"Your Highness, I have been so kind to you that I cannot repay you. I will do my best to create satisfactory equipment for you, Prince Jin."

Gongshu Qi spoke passionately to Zhu Gang.

"That's not necessary. There's no need to work so hard all the time. You should pay more attention to your health."

Zhu Gang patted Gongshu Qi on the shoulder and said.

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. Don't worry, I am in good health and can do my best for you."

Gongshu Qi had a resolute look in his eyes.

When Zhu Gang looked at Gongshu Qi, his expression froze.

I am worried about my body!

What are you doing here?

"call--"

"Assemble another one and send it to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

"Then, look at this drawing and try to make the lock, gear train, and force transmission rod into relatively independent components."

"To facilitate the large-scale production and assembly of typesetting and printing presses in the Ming Dynasty."

As Zhu Gang spoke, he took out the design drawings of the typewriter components and handed them to Gong Shuqi.

"It's actually possible to do this!"

"Your Highness is truly a talented craftsman. I admire you very much."

"Don't worry, Your Highness. In two days at most, or at least one day, I will be able to assemble a sample of this component and let Your Highness see the real thing!"

Gong Shuqi assured firmly.

"You can do it! Come on, go do what you need to do. I have things to do."

Zhu Gang raised his head slightly, suppressing the words of some kind of mythical beast that were about to come out of his mouth.

No, we can't say it too bluntly, otherwise it will seem that we are not proactive and we can't dampen the enthusiasm of the group of people below us.

Returning to his study, Zhu Gang sat at his desk. A trace of reminiscence flashed across his eyes, and he began to recall what he had learned.

"Third brother, what are you thinking about? You're busy again right after the court session. Why don't you take a break first? Your health is more important."

Xie Yuer didn't know when she came behind Zhu Gang and pinched his shoulder and said.

"I can't help it. The Ming Dynasty is so big that they have to take care of everything. The eldest brother and my father can't answer the questions I raised, so I have to do it myself."

Zhu Gang spoke helplessly.

"Then this is you."

Xie Yuer looked at Zhu Gang with some curiosity.

In theory, the harem is not allowed to interfere in political affairs.

However, the Zhu family never followed this rule, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to consult Empress Ma about everything.

What's more, Zhu Gang was neither an emperor nor a crown prince. At best, he was a regent, so it didn't matter.

"I was thinking about iron smelting. You know, if you want to mass-produce typewriters, you'll need a lot of gear sets."

"But copper is basically money. It is too extravagant to use it for work, so I plan to increase the steel production of our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Gang explained to Xie Yuer.

"Then recruit a large number of blacksmiths to supply the steel needed for the typewriting press?"

Xie Yuer paused slightly and said to Zhu Gang.

"We definitely need to recruit some blacksmiths, but it's not okay to just let them hammer iron."

"After all, if we want to mass produce, we need to have at least two machines in each county so that important departments can quickly print decrees and notices."

"So how many years will it take to hammer enough?"

Zhu Gang shook his head and said.

"How can you make iron without a hammer?"

Xie Yuer looked at Zhu Gang in confusion.

Although Xie Yuer had read some books along the way, she was still far inferior to the Crown Prince Zhu Biao. She was stunned when she heard this.

"I plan to build a batch of earthen blast furnaces, put coke, iron ore and other raw materials into them, and when the temperature rises, the iron ore will melt and reduce, and then solidify to become iron."

"Then let the craftsmen process it, and it will basically reach the level of Ming Dynasty's hundred-refined steel."

Zhu Gang slowly began to write and spoke to Xie Yuer.

"what?"

"Is this okay?"

Xie Yuer stared at Zhu Gang in a daze.

Why does it sound so unreal? Is there some kind of magic involved?

People say that steel is made through repeated tempering. How can you come out directly like this?

"Yu'er, go get someone to help me find the boss."

"I want to build an ironworks here, and I need him to give me some land."

Zhu Gang spoke to Xie Yuer.

"Okay, third brother, I'll go right away!" Xie Yuer responded and ordered someone to find Zhu Biao.

"Old Third, are you going to smelt iron?"

"Can this thing really burn steel directly?"

After a long time, when Zhu Biao arrived, Zhu Gang had already drawn the blueprint of the earthen blast furnace. Zhu Biao took Zhu Gang's blueprint, looked at it carefully, and spoke.

When he came, the guards had already told Zhu Biao what Zhu Gang was going to do, but when looking at Zhu Gang's blast furnace drawings, Zhu Biao was still full of disbelief.

"Sure. I won't explain the specific principles. After all, you won't understand me if I talk about atoms and molecules."

"You just need to know that the iron is mixed with impurities in the ore, and this method can directly take away most of the impurities."

Zhu Gang spoke to Zhu Biao.

"What child? Whose child?"

"Where did you learn all this?"

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Gang with a confused look on his face.

"I learned it from some books, if you are interested."

"Although I can't find those books anymore, I can write them down for you when I have time."

"Anyway, with a typewriter and printing press, writing books can be done much faster."

Zhu Gang laughed.

"Okay, let's learn it too."

"Otherwise, I don't understand what you are saying. Doesn't that mean that I, the crown prince, will be looked down upon by you, the King of Jin?"

Zhu Biao said with a hearty smile.

"How could I? We are all brothers. It's just your imagination."

Zhu Gang curled his lips.

"Okay, let's stop talking nonsense and get down to business."

"Where do you plan to build this ironworks?"

"It will be convenient for me to mark out the land for you when I return."

Zhu Biao asked Zhu Gang.

"It's near the Yangtze River. There's still a lot of waste from iron smelting."

"And I can't deal with these things for now. If they are piled on the ground, it will destroy the fertility of the soil. I can only let the Yangtze River help transport them to the sea."

Zhu Gang made a request to Zhu Biao.

"Okay! There's no time to lose. My school affairs haven't been completely resolved yet, so I'll go back now."

"By the way, I heard that Dad has received your typewriter and is having a lot of fun with it. I saw you are still assembling it. Is this for me?"

Zhu Biao stood up and asked Zhu Gang a question.

"Well, this is for you. This is one of the only two limited edition hand-typed printing presses with non-standard components."

"The typewriter I'm working on here won't be like this anymore."

Zhu Gang chuckled.

"Oh? Then I have to keep it well. Even if it breaks in the future, I can still keep it as a collection."

"Okay, wait a minute. I'll ask Li Heng to deliver the deed to you in a bit. Then you can just ask Li Heng to bring the typewriter back to me."

"I also want to see if your typesetting machine can really do typesetting much faster than writing."

"This way, we won't have to write replies to memorials every day. We can just use movable type as our seal. Hahahaha!"

Zhu Biao laughed loudly and walked out of Prince Jin's Mansion.

"His Royal Highness King Jin!"

"His Royal Highness King Jin!"

Zhu Gangfang had just sent Zhu Biao to the gate of the courtyard when he heard Gongshu Qi's shouting from behind him.

"Okay, done?!"

Suddenly, Zhu Gang turned around stiffly. Did Gongshu Qi take his design for an hour? Was it necessary to do it so quickly?
"No, not yet, Your Highness, Prince Jin, I discovered that the typewriter has function buttons in addition to the basic input buttons."

"These function buttons are relatively complex. Even if you force them to be your standard components, they still require temporary assembly."

"It's no different from not making it into a standard component, so I came here specifically to ask you, can this still be made into a standard component?"

Gongshu Qi asked Zhu Gang breathlessly.

"No need for this. Isn't there just one function key, 'Return'? Isn't there one for 'Selection Reset' and one for 'Selection Confirmation'?"

"Think of these two as separate accessories and just add them on."

Zhu Gang waved his hand.

"Oh, in that case, I will do my best to fulfill your mission!"

Gongshu Qi bowed deeply to Zhu Gang.

Zhu Gang:.
Zhu Gang suddenly felt a little regretful. Is it too late for me to go to Zhu Yuanzhang and tear up the letter of recommendation?
"Okay, good, haha, very well done, very good."

"Then go teach other craftsmen how to produce standard components, and then assemble it according to the drawings of the typewriter using the standard components, and see if it works."

"Oh yes, and this is the design drawing of the blast furnace in Guxinnong."

"Study with other craftsmen how to make it. Remember, do it as quickly as possible!"

Zhu Gang gave a somewhat stiff smile, patted Gongshu Qi's shoulder, and spoke almost through gritting his teeth.

To be honest, he hates working overtime the most, but some people really seek overtime.

You want to force Zhu Gang to work overtime with you? Well, we'll give you enough overtime all at once!

You like rolls, right?
Then Zhu Gang will satisfy Gongshu Qi's wish, because our Prince Jin is kind.

"Yes! I will complete the order of His Royal Highness Prince Jin as quickly as possible!"

Gongshu Qi stood up straight, saluted Zhu Gang, and then went back to work with full energy.

Looking at Gongshu Qi's back, Zhu Gang's eyes were somewhat complicated.

This guy and his father Zhu Yuanzhang are really a perfect match.

They are definitely the two four-cylinder kings.

This must be kept well. Although it is uncomfortable for me to keep him by my side, Gongshu Qi is still of great use to Zhu Gang at the moment, and I cannot let Old Zhu take him away.

"Your Highness, Prince Jin! The Crown Prince's eunuch Li Heng is outside asking to see you."

After returning to the study, Zhu Gang was leaning back in his chair, eating the fruit Xie Yuer fed him, and preparing to relax, when he heard the report from the maid outside.

"call--"

"Let him in!"

Zhu Gang took a deep breath, rubbed his brows, and spoke unhappily.

He secretly made up his mind that after this wave of work was over, he would take a good rest. He didn't want to keep hanging out with these guys.

What good person can stand such a roll?

Moreover, Zhu Gang has terrifying power and more money than he can spend. If he still works 996 every day, then wouldn't it be a waste of my money and power?
"Li Heng, the Crown Prince's eunuch, pays respect to His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin."

Li Heng entered and bowed respectfully to Zhu Gang.

"Have you brought anything?"

Zhu Gang stretched out his hand and said to Li Heng.

"In reply to Your Highness Prince Jin, these are the pieces of land that Your Highness the Crown Prince carefully selected for you. Please take a look."

Li Heng respectfully presented a land deed.

Zhu Gang took the large roll of land deeds and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

This is not a bamboo slip, but a large roll of actual paper deeds. It was obvious that Zhu Biao had started picking them right away after returning, and then quickly asked Li Heng to deliver them over.

Zhu Gang finally understood why Zhu Biao died early in the original trajectory. He did not have the physical strength of Zhu Yuanzhang's four cylinders, but he forced himself to use the same strength as Zhu Yuanzhang's four cylinders.

This will only make you die of exhaustion.

"Thank you for your hard work, brother. When you return, please remind His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to get more rest."

Zhu Gang shook his head and looked at Li Heng and gave him instructions.

(End of this chapter)