He walked out with Empress Zhang's hand, and Zhu Youxiao's eyes swept over the minister kneeling on the ground.

He walked to Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang, stretched out his hand and gently helped Xu Guangqi, who was kneeling on the ground, and smiled gently, "You are all dear, please don't give me any gifts."

When everyone stood up, Zhu Youxiao quietly held Queen Zhang's little hand and said to Xu Guangqi with a smile: "My dear, do you have time to come today?"

"Go back to Your Majesty, today, I have nothing to do at home, so I come to the Baigong Academy to take a look. It's also done well here, Bi Maokang is doing well, everything is in order. I believe it will be a result soon." Xu Guangqi said with a smile, his face full of satisfaction and appreciation.

Zhu Youxiao knew clearly that Xu Guangqi always ran to the Baigong Academy, which was something he was happy to see.

But there is one thing that you need to care about, that is Xu Guangqi's body.

You know, Xu Guangqi is no longer young. He is busy with the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue and the cabinet all day long. He has to run to the Baigong Academy if he takes time. Zhu Youxiao is really worried that Xu Guangqi will be unable to bear it.

So Zhu Youxiao said with concern and a little worried tone: "Your dear, please pay attention to your health. The court affairs are complicated, and I cannot do without you. You must take care of yourself."

Zhu Youchao's reward for Shen Tingyun had spread throughout the court and the country, so Xu Guangqi naturally knew it.

Now that he heard Zhu Youxiao’s concern, Xu Guangqi was slightly moved, and then smiled and said, “Thank you Your Majesty to care, the old minister knows.”

Zhu Youxiao nodded, then turned to look at Bi Maokang who was standing on the other side.

In front of Xu Guangqi, Bi Maokang had relatively low qualifications, a low status, and could not be promoted to the official position, so he kept standing obediently from behind and watching Xu Guangqi and Zhu Youxiao talking.

Of course, Bi Maokang also had an idea in his mind, that one day, he would also talk to His Majesty like this to Xu Guangqi.

Bi Maokang would not have had such an idea in the past because he knew that his abilities and qualifications were not good.

For such a long time in the Baike Academy, although Bi Maokang's qualifications are still not good, his ability has been greatly developed.

At the same time, Bi Maokang also realized one thing, that is, his ability can push himself forward and move forward a little further.

So Bi Maokang naturally had this idea.

"Take me over and take a look!" Zhu Youxiao nodded to Bi Maokang with a gentle smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Bi Maokang was happy, agreed, and quickly turned around and led the way.

Zhu Youxiao held Queen Zhang's hand and walked through a yard full of various large tools. A very empty square suddenly jumped into everyone's eyes.

Bi Maokang pointed to some old traces on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, this place was an iron smelting plant before."

Zhu Youxiao nodded.

Zhu Youxiao knew about this place because it was the earliest production base established by the Baigong Academy.

As a person who came from later generations, Zhu Youxiao knew very well that industry, especially heavy industry, is that everything is based on steel.

If steel is not well-trained, then there is no need to talk about anything else. To enlarge it, it is the materials industry that supports other industries.

No matter how exquisite your design is, you can't make it without enough material support.

In the Ming Dynasty, steel was a very, very important industry.

In fact, in this era, the steel industry in the Ming Dynasty was already very developed, and it was in the world's leading position in terms of output and quality, especially in terms of output.

Maybe the refining of a few fine steels is not good, but in terms of the overall quality of steel, the Ming Dynasty is definitely the best in the world.

For example, Damascus steel is definitely better than the steel in the Ming Dynasty, but forging is difficult, with extremely high requirements for iron ore, and very low output, so it has no value for large-scale use.

Damascus steel is not of much significance to a country.

Of course, there will be specific effects at specific times, and things like Damascus steel need to develop, but not now.

After looking around, Zhu Youxiao smiled and said, "It seems that it has been almost finished."

"Your Majesty, it's really almost done. All the things that should be moved have been moved away. I have asked someone to choose a site to build a new steel plant, all of which are newly developed. "Bi Maokang's eyes were filled with hope, and he was eager to try it out.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, turned to look at Xu Guangqi on the side and asked, "Does the Ministry of Revenue have so much money?"

You must know that building a brand new steel plant requires a lot of money, and Zhu Youxiao is very clear about this.

From site selection to construction and then to production, everything costs money, and it is absolutely impossible to invest a lot of money.

This time, the method of making steel produced by Baigong Academy is actually the blast furnace of later generations. Of course, it is not as high-end and sophisticated as later generations, but just a local blast furnace.

However, they will greatly improve the output and the quality of steel. Zhu Youxiao did not look at the specific technology, but it is definitely the crystallization of the entire Ming Dynasty. It concentrates all the high-end and sophisticated technologies in the steel industry, and also has exclusive technologies developed by the Baigong Academy itself.

Zhu Youxiao doesn't know much about this, but he has read the data after it is put into production.

According to Bi Maokang's design, this will be a steel plant with an annual output of 50,000 tons.

Zhu Youxiao calculated that the annual steel output in the Ming Dynasty is about 18 million jin. The jin here refers to the jin of the Ming Dynasty, which is 16 jin. When converted to the unit of measurement in later generations, it is about 14,400 tons.

The annual output of the steel plant that Bi Maokang is about to build is 50,000 tons.

what does that mean?

This means that once this steel factory is built, the amount of steel produced will be more than three times the national output of the Ming Dynasty in the year.

When Zhu Youxiao saw this plan, he almost shocked his chin.

Of course, this is impossible to compare with later generations, because the annual output in later generations is often one million tons, but when is this?

This is definitely an amazing existence in the same era!

In order to solve the transportation problem, Bi Maokang directly proposed to build in places with iron ore and coal mines.

At the same time, Bi Maokang also developed the desulfurization technology of coal. Although it is not very mature, it can be used barely.

In addition, when making steel, use charcoal.

In short, what Bi Maokang provided to Zhu Youxiao was a perfect and feasible plan, and one million silver was required to invest in the first phase.

Once this steel plant is built, it will be a rebuilding of a city, bringing together a large number of people, whether they are working here or doing business here.

This is simply the steel city of later generations.

The technology in this era is not well developed, and many things need to be done manually, so this large steel mill will inevitably use a lot of people.

When he saw this plan, Zhu Youxiao said nothing for a long time and then sent Bi Maokang to Xu Guangqi.

As you can imagine, the old man Xu Guangqi agreed with and supported this plan very much.

In Xu Guangqi's words, once the court can refine so much steel, it can be used to create more weapons and armor, and at the same time it can also create more agricultural tools.

This was a good thing for the Ming Dynasty and could also promote the development of the mining industry.

If you sell this steel to make money, you can also increase your income for the court. This is a matter of killing two birds with one stone.

At the same time, under the guidance of Zhu Youxiao, Baigong Academy also created a hydraulic press, which used a hydraulic press to forge armor, and the effect was very good.

The current steel is unqualified, and more steel produced by steel plants are needed to complete a stamping.

It’s not that the forged steel is not good now, but that it is not flexible enough and is not suitable for stamping. If you want to stamp, you need to readjust it, which is more troublesome than building a new steel plant.

It was at that time that Zhu Youxiao first saw the plate armor made by the Ming Dynasty, which was made of hydraulic stamping.

Finally, Zhu Youxiao heard a saying that putting aside weight and talking about defense is just a hooligan.

However, the plate armor does have better defense under the same weight. The key is that it can be mass-produced on a large scale and fast basis through hydraulic presses, which is incomparable to ordinary armor manufacturing.

The same is true for swords, spears, swords and halberds. All of them can be stamped and formed in one go, and the manufacturing speed is very fast.

After getting such a result, Zhu Youxiao was a little unable to stop it, and this policy was supported by Xu Guangqi.

By the time Zhu Youxiao finished everything, Xu Guangqi had already submitted this policy to the cabinet and then received the support of Sun Chengzong.

So in this case, this policy was passed on the cabinet.

Now that this place has been demolished, a new steel plant has been selected outside and the specific site has not been decided yet.

However, Zhu Youxiao estimated that there were only a few places. There were not many places with iron and coal near Beijing, but in fact there were quite a few.

You can look at Hebei Province, in later Hebei Province, Zhu Youxiao thinks Xu Guangqi and the others will definitely choose a good place.

Zhu Youxiao naturally supported this matter, and what he had always worried about was the issue of money.

You should know that the expenses of the imperial court are quite large. Although I was able to confiscate my house some time ago, the more I went on, the greater the expenses.

Whether in Liaodong or northwest, it will become a very huge money-burning area.

"Back to Your Majesty, the money from the Ministry of Revenue is only enough for the time being." Xu Guangqi said.

However, Xu Guangqi was a little hesitant, and he was afraid of irritating Zhu Youxiao. He did not continue to say it, looking like he wanted to speak but stopped.

Looking at Xu Guangqi's appearance, Zhu Youxiao smiled first, looked at Xu Guangqi and said, "Your dear, you can say anything. Although I dare not claim to be a wise ruler, I can still do this humbly accepting advice."

"Yes, Your Majesty." After hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Xu Guangqi said with a serious face as if he had made up some determination: "Your Majesty, the country is insufficient, and the court is short of money in every place. The capital is organizing new troops, and Liaodong is also spending money. Natural disasters are frequent everywhere, and the court is using money. Do you think the construction in the palace will be stopped?"

After saying this, Xu Guangqi stopped speaking, bowed his body and lowered his head and stood there motionlessly.
Chapter completed!