Chapter 2810 2812 [Tiangong Kaiwu]
Xiang Nan couldn't help being very depressed when he heard Li Xi say that what he made was a supernatural skill.
He makes cosmetics, music boxes, perfumes...the technical content is very high.
In medieval Europe, Britain and France relied on the perfume business to earn 40,000 taels of gold a year, which is about 800,000 taels of silver.
It is equivalent to 3% of the annual tax of the rich dynasty, which is definitely not a small amount. If you add the cosmetics business, especially the soap, the income may double.
Besides, he built a workshop to make not just cosmetics and perfumes, but steel, glass and explosives.
Ancient steel production was extremely low. The iron output of the rich dynasty was only two million catties, or one thousand tons. Now, any small steel mill can produce 100,000 tons of steel a year.
Besides, steel and iron are still different. Compared with iron, steel has higher strength, better toughness, more durability and less corrosion, and is more suitable for making weapons.
However, it was very difficult to make steel in ancient times. It required repeated forging after heating to turn iron into steel, hence the idiom "smelting into steel".
However, steelmaking in this way requires enormous manpower and material resources, so the output of ancient steel was very low. Therefore, rare things are valuable, and weapons made of hundreds of steel refiners are often regarded as treasures.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao ordered people to forge five hundred swords, which took three years to refine. For this reason, he made a special Fu to celebrate. It can be seen that ancient steel is rare.
But for Xiang Nan, making steel is not that difficult.
He is going to launch a blast furnace steelmaking project. By then, at least two tons of steel will be produced a day. In less than five years, he could raise the armament of the rich dynasty army to a new level.
At that time, the rich army wearing heavy armor and holding steel knives will be able to defeat the enemy countries in the west, southwest, and northeast.
After the production of high-strength steel, firearms such as artillery and firecrackers can be mounted on horses.
At that time, from the era of cold weapons, we will directly enter the era of hot weapons. By that time, the surrounding countries will be completely finished. No matter how strong the cavalry is, it can't compete with firearms.
As for glass, it is mainly used for civil purposes.
Make glass windows, make glass mirrors, make tableware, make glasses... improve people's living and living conditions.
…
Therefore, Xiang Nan has put a lot of enthusiasm into this workshop. He personally participated in the design of all projects, personally supervised the construction, and personally selected the workers...
Seeing him like this, Li Xi was both fortunate and puzzled.
Fortunately, Xiang Nan focused his energy on this workshop, which eliminated the possibility of him seeking to usurp the throne.
In fact, even though he chose Xiang Nan as the prince, he is willing to support him to succeed in the future. But for an emperor like him, as long as he doesn't die, he doesn't want to give up power for a day.
Therefore, in his heart, he was very afraid of the prince seizing power.
That's why Li Chengji would say, "The East Palace is more dangerous than the imperial palace, and the crown prince is more difficult than the emperor", and Li Chengye would also say, "The existence of the prince itself is rebellion."
Now Xiang Nan is not in a hurry to seize power, but instead ran to set up some kind of workshop. It seems that he is not doing his job properly, but in fact he is fulfilling Li Xi's heart.
It's just that Li Xi couldn't figure out what's so interesting about a workshop.
…
A month passed quickly, and Gao Ruyi's confinement was over.
But Xiang Nan didn't stay with her right away, he was going to hang her out for a while, so that she could reflect on it.
After all, he wants to be a wise emperor in the future, and he doesn't think it's enough to devote all his energy to government affairs, and he doesn't have so much energy to adjust the harem.
Therefore, he hopes that the harem can be peaceful, and he doesn't want anyone to be clever. Therefore, Gao Ruyi, who was the first to make trouble, was killed by him first.
…
"Grandma, this is icing sugar produced in my grandson's workshop. How would you like it?" Xiang Nan smiled and put the sugar in front of the Empress Dowager.
Toyocho also produces sugar, but it is basically massecuite and brown sugar. As for rock sugar and white sugar, it was not until the Song Dynasty. Because of this, white granulated sugar as white as snow and as fine as sand is still a rarity at this moment.
"Hey, is this sugar or salt, why is it so beautiful?" The Empress Dowager exclaimed when she saw it.
In the past, if the candy was not dark, or red, this is the first time I have seen this white as snow candy, and it really deserves the name of "icing sugar".
"Grandma, if you like to eat, I will often give it to you in the future." Xiang Nan laughed.
"Good boy, you have a heart." The Empress Dowager laughed.
Sugar is a common thing for her queen mother. The key is Xiang Nan's filial piety, thinking about her first when he has something good, how can she be dissatisfied.
Xiang Nan then presented the white granulated sugar to the emperor, empress, harem concubines, princes and ministers, and so on. Within ten days, this icing white as snow and fine as sand became the most sought after sugar in the capital. nice one.
A catty of white sugar is worth a tael of silver, even so, there is a price but no market. In comparison, ordinary sucrose costs only 60 Wen per catty.
While using ordinary sucrose to produce white sugar, there is almost not much loss. Even after excluding labor, material and other costs, there are more than ten times the profit, which can be called an absolute huge profit.
Xiang Nan also earned a lot of money by relying on daily necessities such as white sugar and soap, so he had the money to maintain the operation of the workshop and continue to launch new projects.
…
"His Royal Highness is very busy recently." Today, Xiang Nan is inspecting the workshop to ensure that various projects are carried out as planned.
At this moment, a person came up and whispered.
Xiang Nan was taken aback, and caught sight of Chai Mu, "Mr. Chai, why are you here, please come in and sit down."
Xiang Nan quickly let him into the manager's room.
"His Royal Highness is only busy with the workshop, has he forgotten the great cause of revenge?" Chai Mu asked.
After Xiang Nan became the prince, he was not in a hurry to overthrow the treacherous officials, but he was busy every day in the workshop, which was a bit of a waste of time.
Xiang Nan smiled slightly when he heard this.
He knew that the reason why Chai Mu supported him was to make him a revenge machine, to bring down Gao Ming and avenge the Gu and Chen families.
"Mr. Chai, don't get angry. I have never forgotten the matter of revenge." Xiang Nan said, "Does Mr. Chai know about Gao Xian's sudden death just two months ago?"
"Of course I know, but what does that have to do with you?" Chai Mu asked puzzled.
Xiang Nan smiled, took the teacup, and patted it lightly.
Chai Mu looked puzzled, but didn't see anything wrong.
Xiang Nan blew on the teacup with a puff.
Suddenly, the teacup, which was originally intact, shattered into **** in an instant.
Chai Mu was stunned in surprise.
"Six months ago, when Gao Xian sent Batur's materials to Beijing, I personally went to pick them up. At that time, I quietly patted him.
So after he went back, he slowly started to get sick, and he knew that he died strangely and suddenly two months ago. Xiang Nan explained, "That's why the Gao family has now lost an arm and has become a turtle in a urn." Clean up how you want, clean it up. "
Chai Mu nodded.
(end of this chapter)