Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 048: A Slap on the Face Must Hurt (Part 9)
"I, Cao Sanxi, kowtow to His Majesty. Long live the Emperor!"
"Stand up, Cao Sanxi, what surprise can you give me?"
"Reply...Report to the Emperor. I am currently working in Honghe Manor as... uh... according to the words of the Crown Prince, I am the General Manager of Honghe Manor Industrial Company. I have brought a few things to the Emperor and the others today. Please ask the Emperor to ask the military officers outside the Imperial City to bring the things in."
"allow!"
Seeing Cao Sanxi stuttering but not panicking, but more excited, Zhu Youdong sighed inwardly: This guy is really a genius!
Although Cao Sanxi's performance was obviously inferior to Wu Youxing's just now, Zhu Youdong knew that it was less than ten days from the time he accepted this person to the time he entered the palace today. How could a commoner go from the bottom of society to the highest level of this country? To be able to achieve this level, what else could he be but a genius?
"Your Majesty, please look, this is the candle that my Honghe Manor is about to launch. It is much cheaper than spermaceti, tallow wax, and even beeswax. In Shuntian Prefecture, I am prepared to sell it at two cents per candle and three cents per two. Your Majesty, although this is not much cheaper than lamp oil, it is easy to burn and produces less black smoke, which is very good for the eyes of civilian students."
"Great! Once this thing is out, my students won't have their eyes damaged by smoke when they study hard at night. Moreover, at such a cheap price, more children can have the opportunity to learn the way of the saints! This thing is great!"
"I dare to report to the emperor that the research and development of this product has been made possible by the continuous investment of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for more than half a year. Just for the research and development of such a product, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has invested a total of no less than 10,000 taels of silver."
"Okay, my dear grandson, give me a list of how much money you spent later. I will have the inner treasury replenish you."
"Grandpa Emperor, there is no need to talk about this. Your grandson also got some profit from the soap industry in Honghe Manor . This is taking from the people and giving back to the people."
"Hahahaha~~Okay! Um, Cao Sanxi, what is this?"
"This substance is sweetener (glycerol). Your Majesty, wine is a good thing, but on the one hand, using too much grain to make wine is too harmful to the country. On the other hand, good wine is expensive and the people cannot afford it. I used to be poor, and if I wanted to drink wine, I could only pick wild fruits in the wild and brew it myself. But although wild fruit wine has a taste of wine, it is bitter and difficult to swallow! But after having this substance, adding it to fruit wine, the fruit wine becomes sweet and delicious. So I plan to use it to produce a large amount of fruit wine. As for wild fruits, of course, we will purchase them from the public. In this way, the people can taste delicious wine, and there is another way to make money. The country can also reduce a lot of grain used for brewing wine every year!"
"This is also great! In this way, the price of food can be slightly reduced, which is also very helpful to people's livelihood. Hmm, is this also developed by my grandson?"
"That's right, Your Majesty."
Looking at the smiling Wanli, Zhu Youdong still felt a little regretful.
He was almost 30 years old before he traveled through time. In his twenties, he had experienced an era of wild growth of online literature. In that era, authors of various science and engineering disciplines described in great detail in their travel-through literature how to produce various types of explosives using the most rudimentary equipment in ancient society.
This kind of writing is fun, but it also poses a certain risk to social security. So later on, this kind of overly detailed work on dangerous goods was gradually disallowed. However, because of his age, Zhu Youdong still read a lot and remembered some of them.
In short, now that glycerin has come out, how far can nitroglycerin or nitroglycerin be?
Although the extraction of glycerol is relatively safe, it is too dangerous to make nitroglycerin in this era: without the cooperation of various glass instruments and thermometers, even the synthesis of nitroglycerin in the laboratory is very dangerous. Therefore, Zhu Youdong, who kept in mind the iron rule of "taking big steps will lead to failure", did not rush for quick success in this matter.
However, in addition to being used as explosives, nitroglycerin is also a life-saving medicine for patients with coronary heart disease!
It has been almost five years since he traveled through time, and Zhu Youdong has become very aware that Emperor Wanli has serious health problems.
In 1958, the Dingling Mausoleum was excavated. Historians and archaeologists were surprised to find that the remains of Emperor Wanli clearly showed that the emperor was a severe ricket patient and the length of his legs was seriously inconsistent.
It has been almost five years since he came here, and Zhu Youdong knows very well that his grandfather cannot walk properly. The problem caused by this is excessive obesity. In the 33rd year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun was only 42 years old, and he was so obese that he needed eunuchs to help hold up his belly when he walked.
Such a physical condition certainly meant that he had serious cardiovascular disease. Nitroglycerin was a real life-saving drug for the emperor.
Well, I will try. Not to mention that we have developed feelings for each other after five years of getting along, just look at today's grand court meeting, you and I sang such a tacit understanding, I wish you could live a few more years.
As for his father in this life, Zhu Changluo. Well, this prince is a kind person, but he is too lustful! Anyway, before Zhu Youdong moved out of Ciqing Palace, in his impression, this prince did not sleep alone every night. Sometimes the applause movement was even completed beside him!
Therefore, it is extremely difficult to rescue the prince.
While Zhu Youdong was distracted, Cao Sanxi, who was completely into the state, was introducing new things.
"Your Majesty, all the gentlemen, the soup you drank before the grand court meeting just now contained potatoes and corn. These two things are new Western crops that Honghe Manor has just harvested."
"Well, I just drank a bowl of it, and it tasted pretty good. Why? Do those French people in Taixi drink this on a daily basis?"
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. What I know is that the staple food of the French in the west is the same as that of the people in the north of our Ming Dynasty, which is flour. The origin of these potatoes and corn is not in the west, but, but..."
"Hehe, Grandpa Emperor, everyone, let me tell you about this." After all, it was because he had been in contact with the theory for too short a time. Cao Sanxi had not even systematically studied the theory of the earth's roundness, so how could he tell the difference between America and Europe?
"Going east from the Ming Dynasty, you will reach Korea and Japan. After passing Japan, continue eastward for another 30,000 miles and you will reach America. This place is vast and rich in resources. The local residents are called Indians. Their skin color and appearance are very different from those of the French. In fact, they are more similar to the appearance of the Han people... After the French conquered these American natives, they spread the local crops all over the world. Nowadays, people in some places in the Ming Dynasty are spontaneously planting American crops such as potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes.
Grandpa Emperor, after hearing what Mr. Ricci said, I sent my great companion Cao Huachun to the south to collect a batch of seeds and seedlings of these crops , and then put them in Honghe Manor, and arranged for Wei Zhongxian, the head of Honghe Manor, to organize the people in the manor to plant them. After April, the corn and the land were harvested. The yield of corn per mu was nearly ten dan, and the yield of potatoes per mu... was close to twenty dan!"
"Wow~~~!" Although the officials of the Ming Dynasty had various shortcomings, since most of them were from a family tradition of farming and reading, they were still clear about the per-acre yield of the two staple foods, rice and wheat.
In the Ming Dynasty, one dan was about 60 kilograms. The maximum yield of rice per mu in this era was 200 kilograms, and the average yield was about 150 to 160 kilograms. So it is about 3 or 4 dan.
As for wheat, in the North China region of the Ming Dynasty, under conditions of good weather and fertile land, the maximum yield per mu could be 200 kilograms, which is only about three or four shi.
So how could the ministers in the hall, and even the emperor himself, not be surprised?
But Zhu Youdong's surprises for them were not over yet.
"Grandpa Emperor, I would like to point out that these two crops, as well as the sweet potatoes that have not yet been harvested, have another advantage besides their high yield per mu. They are not picky about the land! They can be grown on plains and in mountains! I even planted some in the cracks of the rocks on the hill in Honghe Village. They are also not picky about the land and have high yields!
Today, you have all tasted these two things. As long as they are cooked properly, they are completely edible and filling. If we can use the power of the court to promote them throughout the country, then the livelihood of the billions of people in the entire Ming Dynasty will surely be greatly improved! "
"Your Majesty, I am so ! If this magical object is really as magical as the Crown Prince said, then there is no doubt that the Ministry of Revenue will quickly formulate a plan to promote it nationwide!"
"Your Majesty, we congratulate you. If this thing is really so magical, then the Ming Dynasty will surely be forever secure!"
"Your Highness, we congratulate you on having such a virtuous grandson."
"The Crown Prince is so wise, the Ming Dynasty will have no worries forever!"
The eunuchs were actually constantly reporting the scene inside the hall to the outside world. So, soon after the ministers inside the hall congratulated Zhu Yijun and his three grandchildren, a uniform voice came from outside the hall: "God bless the Ming Dynasty, long live the emperor!"
