The long flow of history has quietly entered the eighth year of Yanyou, and the founding of Da Chu has also entered the twenty-fifth year.

Ordinary people will not care about the power of the Mongol people and their rampant killings in the Hehuai area, nor will they care about the deeper internal and external troubles. The great Chu that has been blessed for eight years, under the joint governance of Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, seems to be quite powerful.

A scene of peace and prosperity.

Seven years have passed since the rebellion in Jinling. The inner and outer walls of Jinling have also been renovated. Boats and boats are like clouds on the Qiupu River and Jiangdangkou. The goods entering Jinling City from all over the mountains and seas are dazzling and piled up like mountains. Jinling City has also regained its former prosperity.

Externally, the homeland of Huaixi was also recovered. Liang was forced to negotiate peace, and Shu paid tribute and became a vassal, dividing the land of Xia and Liang. Going south, he captured Gui, Liu, Yong, Qin and other states, and almost captured Qingyuan.

The army controlled nearly one-third of the territory of the envoy's mansion, expanding the empire's territory almost thousands of miles southward.

Thinking about it this way, the disastrous defeat of the main force of the navy at Hongzepo in the three or four years of Yanyou's reign becomes insignificant.

Just after the New Year, the weather has not warmed up yet, and there was another heavy snowfall in Huaixi.

When Han Qian woke up early in the morning, he saw that the Lianyuan Garden was also covered in snow. Unfortunately, the snow in the yard in front and behind the study was trampled beyond recognition by Wen Xin and Wen Yuan who got up early.

It was only when Wen Xin was taken away by the guards to study in school that he felt a little quieter.

Han Qian held his daughter Wenyuan on his knees while reviewing official letters.

There were no emergencies during this New Year's Day, and Han Qian also had a rare few days off without directors. Today, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, it was the first time for him to walk into the Moyu Pavilion, his study in Liyang Lianyuan, where he specializes in handling official duties.

He saw that there was a large stack of official documents of all kinds waiting for his review.

Now Zhao Ting'er is focusing more on the construction and improvement of Liyang Academy, and Wang Jun finally confirmed that she was pregnant a year ago. Han Qian didn't think there was anything to make a fuss about, but everyone discouraged Wang Jun from having a baby during the pregnancy.

Exposure to things that consume your mind.

After repeated advice, Wang Jun rarely came to Moyu Pavilion in recent years.

Han Qian can't be lazy about many things.

Regulations have been drawn up for routine matters. Before there are any major changes, the General Affairs Department, the Metropolitan Government Department, the Engineering Department and the Military Intelligence Staff Department all handle matters according to the regulations. They only need to report to Han Qian.

However, the environment inside and outside Tangyi is extremely complex. It can be said that it is changing rapidly, and a large number of non-routine affairs require Han Qian's decision-making.

This workload is huge.

Han Qian went to Moyu Pavilion on the first day after the New Year to do business. He spent a very short time reading the official letters that had been submitted in the early morning. Then he held his daughter Wenyuan and had breakfast in the wing of Moyu Pavilion. The sun climbed behind the treetops.

, Feng Liao, Yuan Guowei, Ji Xiyao, Gao Shao, Zhao Qi, Chen Jitang, Wen Bo, Tan Yuliang, Xi Xunqiao, Zhao Wuji and others came over one after another with a bunch of unconventional matters to be discussed.

Han Qian held Wen Yuan in his arms and discussed matters with everyone.

"After more than a year of construction and trial production at the Datongling Coal Mine, it will be able to dump coal on a larger scale in the Gyeonggi region after this year. As the largest shallow coal mine currently built in Tangyi, the Datongling Coal Mine has invested a lot of money in the early construction.

The cost is huge, but it is currently expected to be able to produce up to one million tons of coal per year. Based on this production capacity, as long as sales can be guaranteed and coal prices are reduced by 30%, the input costs can be amortized within three years."

Ji Xiyao, who also heads the Department of Industry and Construction, is currently in charge of all water conservancy roads and city repairs and construction, coal and iron ore mining, and the Bureau of Industry and Construction of the government.

The Datongling Coal Mine was a key project promoted by the government at the end of last year, and it even used force to seize Shiliang County from Huaidong.

The mining of coal mines, especially the mining of shallow-seam coal, is not difficult. The key is the laying of tracks from the Datongling coal mine to the Shiliang River terminal, the construction of the Puyang River coal terminal, and the Yongyang connection between the Puyang River and the Shiliang River.

A series of supporting projects such as canal excavation were completed one after another years ago, making it possible for Datongling's coal mines to be exported on a large scale.

With the completion of Datongling Coal Mine, the annual coal mining volume in Huaixi suddenly surged from 600,000 tons to 1.6 million tons. At this time, the entire Gyeonggi region and the coal market that Han Qian first cultivated must be captured.

, it is possible to eat such a large-scale output.

Feng Liao, Ji Xiyao, who is in charge of the Engineering and Construction Department, and other relevant officials have been discussing for a long time, but they are still undecided on whether the price of coal supplied to Gyeonggi Province should be reduced by 30%, or directly reduced by 50%, which will directly crush the coal fields near Gyeonggi Province.

idea.

In addition, the Engineering and Construction Department discovered a large reserve of high-quality iron ore in Dayao Peak, fifteen or six miles south of Datongling. There was great controversy within the Engineering and Construction Department over the development and utilization of this iron ore.

On the one hand, after all the iron-making furnaces built in the past two years reach capacity, Tangyi's annual iron-making scale will reach 160,000 tons, which is almost the same as the total annual output of Guanye in the middle of the previous dynasty.

Many people are worried that the demand for iron materials in the Jianghuai region is not as huge as imagined. They advocate that Yongyang County or Chuzhou Prefecture should be responsible for building an iron smelting plant with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons in Dayao Peak according to the old practice.

Some people think that it is extremely rare to find high-quality coal and iron storage in such a close area at the same time, and it would be a pity not to build a large-scale iron smelting plant.

The Mopan Valley on the south side of Dayao Peak has relatively flat and open land, which can be used to build a large-scale iron smelting yard. However, Datongling only needs to build a nine-mile-long track based on the current track.

In order to transport coal and stone to the iron smelting yard planned to be built in Mopan Valley, it is advocated that the government directly build a large iron smelting yard with an annual output of 50,000 tons or more.

This matter was reported to Han Qian at the end of last year.

Han Qian asked Feng Liao and others to further study whether it was possible to combine the construction of the new city in Yongyang County with the investment in a large iron smelting plant.

Of course, most officials in the General Affairs Department are still worried that an iron smelting plant will have an additional production capacity of 50,000 or even 100,000 dans, while the other seven iron smelting plants that have been built will expand their production capacity in the future.

Can one hundred thousand dans of iron be dumped?

After all, the current largest iron smelting yard in Longyashan only produces 40,000 tons of pig iron and refined iron annually.

High-quality coal and iron storage are close together, and there are extremely convenient water and land transportation conditions. The larger the scale of the ironmaking site, the lower the cost can be spread, not to mention that the new ironmaking technology is still very broad in this world.

Space can be mined.

In fact, as long as the cost is low enough, the performance of fine iron castings is much superior to traditional wood, and the future application scenarios will be extremely wide. Han Qian will not worry that demand will be a problem.

In fact, the amount of iron used in an ordinary iron girder bridge is unimaginably high. Even if three or four hundred thousand tons of iron are smelted every year, it may only be enough to build thirty or forty medium-sized iron bridges in the Jianghuai area.

this

This kind of demand for iron materials was beyond the imagination of officials at that time who mainly focused on limited scenarios where iron products were limited to knives, farm tools, and armor.

Han Qian is currently more concerned about the new iron smelting plant. How low can the average cost be spread when the production capacity is set at 50,000 tons or 100,000 tons? He is also concerned about the current technical level of the Institute of Engineering and whether it has the ability to build larger

Large-scale iron-making blast furnace.

This is also the key reason why Han Qian sent back the letter from the Engineering Department for further discussion and research.

In particular, whether blast furnace technology can successfully achieve a breakthrough is the key to a further significant reduction in ironmaking costs.

In addition, the Institute of Engineering has long since confirmed that the furnace is filled with high-quality lumpy smoldering coal, and that there is a direct relationship between the furnace temperature and structural data such as the length of the furnace.

If we can further build a large blast furnace that is stable and reliable enough, we may be able to reach the furnace temperature required to melt river sand, which will be the key to successful glass firing.

At present, in the iron-making furnaces in Longya Mountain, crystals similar to colored glaze, but cleaner, are found in the slag.

It can be seen that the iron-making furnace in Longya Mountain can barely reach the furnace temperature for melting river sand and sintering glass. However, in order to sinter glass stably, the structure of the furnace needs to be further optimized.

Han Qian looked through the conclusions of the discussions between the General Affairs Department and the Engineering Department during this period. The Institute of Technology is still in the research stage for the new blast furnace, and no ironmaking plant has yet begun to build the first test furnace for verification.

Han Qian discussed with everyone for a long time, and then decided to build a test blast furnace in Dayao Mountain first, and wait to see the operation of the test blast furnace before deciding on the construction of Yongyang New City and the final construction scale of the Dayao Mountain Iron Smelting Field.

There is one more thing that needs to be decided immediately.

In the past two years, Huaixi has successively recovered Haoshou, Guanghuo and other prefectures. The number of counties under the jurisdiction of the Zhizhe Prefecture has increased from the original fourteen counties (including Xu Prefecture) to forty-two counties, and the number of townships has increased from ninety-six to six.

To two hundred and seventy-four.

After more than a year and a half of sorting out, digesting, newly recovered and newly established counties and townships, the situation in all aspects has been generally stabilized, and further in-depth construction and management will be needed in the future.

It was decided years ago that primary schools should be opened in these newly-established townships, while intermediate schools should be opened at the county level.

The two-year academic system of the junior school can only meet the basic needs for literacy for ordinary people. The standards for graduation only require reading a thousand Chinese characters, being able to read through simple articles and mastering basic calculations, and also

Teach some basic farming techniques.

The content taught in the intermediate school should be deeper and broader, including law, arithmetic, geography, surveying, object research, and military basics. It will also ensure the continuing education of local officials, engineers, and divisions; the literacy education and training of garrison military attachés will also be provided by

Intermediate schools in each county are responsible for this.

Only by combining it with comprehensive schools can the government-run education system be initially completed.

The problem is that nearly 200 junior schools and intermediate schools have been added at once. Currently, the Liyang Academy, which was officially established three years ago, can only provide less than 100 teachers this year, who are drawn from schools in other places.

There were less than two hundred people in total.

It's impossible to support a school by sending only one teacher, right?

At present, the schools established by counties and townships are allocated two to five teachers according to the size of the students.

Even so, the existing school teachers are still in extremely short supply; the junior schools run by township bureaus can only ensure that about 20% of local teenagers receive the most basic literacy education.

For a long period of time in the future, the Government's government-run education goal in Huaixi is only to ensure the literacy rate of 20% of the new population. It is difficult to expect a higher rate in the short term.

Even so, if the population size of Huaixi remains unchanged, the annual enrollment in junior schools will be as high as 50,000 to 60,000, and only 20 to 30% of them will be able to receive secondary and higher comprehensive education.

School education.

And by being able to do this, Tangyi can completely solve the shortcomings of aristocratic clan clans and generals monopolizing education and then monopolizing local officials and military affairs. It can also help the state, county and township bureaus control local jurisdictions and the current industry and mining industry.

, provide necessary human resources for the development of manufacturing industry.

It's just that more than 200 new junior and intermediate schools will be added at once, and four to 600 teachers need to be recruited from various places.

Where will these manpower come from?

Don't underestimate the fact that Tangyi has cultivated a lot of available manpower over the years, but the stalls are even bigger.

In the past, Xuzhou had only two levels: junior school and professional school. In order to ensure the quality of training for engineer and physician apprentices, Han Qian subsequently extended the educational system of Chenzhong and Liyang schools to three to four years, among which doctors

The academic length of the college has been extended to a maximum of five years.

This means that the three schools can steadily provide only about a thousand qualified students every year, but there is competition for these thousand students everywhere.

Feng Liao thought about recruiting another 600 graduates this year regardless of category to open a school for new township officials. Many people wanted to spit on his face. In desperation, he had no choice but to leave it to Han Qian.

Decide.
To be continued...