Chapter 646

So, although the Qing state was more proactive in seeking peace this time than in history, to the Great Ming it was a matter of indifference — something that could be taken or left.

What particularly infuriated Bao Chengxian and his party was that, buoyed by the psychological advantage of the great victory at Jinzhou, many high officials and generals of the Great Ming had undergone a subtle shift in attitude toward the Qing state, and when dealing with the envoys, they had already begun to display an air of swaggering arrogance.

Although certain individuals they had secretly contacted might have leverage held over them by the Qing state, or were covetous of silver, they seemed to lack the former fear and awe of the Great Qing.

After rushing about for many days, the peace mission of Bao Chengxian and his party had never been able to enter a substantive stage — how could this not leave them dejected and furious?

"Ambassador Bao, does this peace negotiation still need to proceed?"

One attendant said angrily, "It is perfectly obvious these southern barbarians have no sincerity whatsoever. Even securing a meeting with that Ming Minister of War grows more difficult by the day."

Bao Chengxian's expression was dark. His fingers tapped lightly on the table. "The peace negotiations can be put aside for a while. Our coming to the Southern Dynasty's capital has not been without its gains! From what we observe now, although the Ming state has no sincerity in peace talks with our Great Qing, a careful analysis shows they also lack the strength to attack our Great Qing. Whether an agreement is reached is of no great consequence."

He continued, "Therefore, the most important task of this journey remains to continue sowing discord between the Ming ruler and his ministers, to lobby their officials and generals, and to once again divert enormous provisions and military funds into the Liaodong region — above all, they must not be allowed to abandon Yizhou... Also, we must pay close attention to the matter of the roving bandits within their realm..."

"At present, the Ming ruler and his ministers are already quite suspicious of Wang Dou, but this is not yet enough. We must add fuel to the fire..."

Whispered discussions arose within the room: "...Among the cabinet ministers, although Wei Zaode belongs to the eunuch faction, he is a slippery character. Chen Yan is a Sichuan man. Zhou Yanru, Zheng Sanjun, and Ni Yuanlu are all of the Donglin faction, men of Jiangnan. Trying to lobby them to fall out with Wang Dou — difficult indeed..."

In the power divisions of the Great Ming, the Donglin faction represented the interests of Jiangnan landlords, bureaucrats, and merchants, while the eunuch faction represented the interests of bureaucrats, landlords, and merchants in Shandong, Huguang, Shanxi, Beizhili, and elsewhere. Up to the present, the interests Wang Dou had harmed were still mostly those of the eunuch faction — after all, Xuan-Da was in Shanxi.

As for Wang Dou, although various members of the Donglin faction had their misgivings, they were, after all, far away. They could make a clamor with their mouths, but for any substantive conflict to arise was impossible. This was reflected in the cabinet, where the Donglin men Zheng Sanjun and Ni Yuanlu mostly maintained a posture of silence regarding Wang Dou's actions.

The Senior Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru likewise refused to show a posture of enmity.

"...Although Chen Xinjia is a Sichuan man, the fact that he belongs to Wang Dou's faction is something we can greatly exploit..."

"We can continue to pursue the stratagem of peace negotiations, and by every means possible have Chen Xinjia inquire about Wang Dou's intentions. At that time, we shall publicize this matter, and the Southern Dynasty will surely be thrown into an uproar from top to bottom. Chen Xinjia can be removed, and as for Wang Dou's act and intent of colluding with an enemy state..."

"Vicious infighting in the Southern Dynasty is of benefit and no harm to our Great Qing. I have heard that Wei Zaode and Chen Yan hate Zhou Yanru to the bone?"

In the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign, the third month, several days later, at Xuanfu Garrison, Jiajiaying Fort.

This fort lay about twenty-plus li from the garrison city. Multiple rivers flowed westward or southward, hemming Jiajiaying Fort in the middle. And several li north of the fort, near the mountain ridge, beside the river, an enormous ironworks was rising from the ground.

Here, security was extremely tight. From a distance, within the bounds of the ironworks, palisades and guard posts stood in dense profusion. Idle persons and the like were forbidden entry.

The Jiajiaying ironworks was one of a series of new ironworks built after Wang Dou arrived at the garrison city. Moreover, not far upstream from Jiajiaying Fort lay a Pangjiabao iron mine, which, to Wang Dou's knowledge, held quite substantial reserves — total reserves reaching over one hundred million tons.

As early as his time on the Eastern Route, although many industries had gradually been opened to private operation, military factories, ironworks, and the like remained government-run. For the ores, coal, and such of many merchant-owned plants and mines, the authorities still held the right of first purchase.

The same was true for the Pangjiabao iron mine. This mine was controlled by the kinsmen of Vice Regional Commander Zhang Guowei and certain powerful families of the garrison city. Attracted by Wang Dou's favorable prices and enormous orders, these mine owners had, with the greatest speed, demonstrated an attitude of cooperation toward Wang Dou.

And because the demand and orders for iron ore were so immense and the prospects for profit so good, the Zhang family and others had already done their utmost to increase investment, had also borrowed considerable sums from the Silver and Currency Office, and were recruiting more and more miners.

This also gave rise to a good many peripheral industries. With more and more merchants coming to trade, along with the workers and their dependents, the areas inside and outside Jiajiaying Fort and Pangjiabao rapidly became two burgeoning market towns. The military households within the forts also suddenly discovered that more people were coming to rent houses, causing housing prices to climb considerably.

"As the Grand General has said, once water power is employed, the force of the blast can be greatly enhanced, and these iron-smelting furnaces can then reach a height of over three zhang."

Zhang Gui, the Commissioner of the Civil Affairs Office, and Qi Tianliang, the Commissioner of the Logistics Office, flanked Wang Dou. Also present were some officials from the two offices, as well as Zhong Diaoyang, the personal guard commander of the Guard Battalion, and others.

Before Wang Dou's eyes, the most important equipment of the ironworks were these several tall furnaces, each over ten meters high. In front of these iron furnaces were stone-built tapping areas. The large wooden bellows, which in the past required several men to pull, had already been replaced by water power. And for iron smelting, coke was also used.

Not far around the garrison city, there were quite a few high-quality coal mines. Coke had already been used in many places as early as the Great Ming. In the West, around the early eighteenth century, some provincial ironworks even used rail cars. For instance, Qu Dajun's "New Accounts of Guangdong" records that in the Guangzhou ironworks, the charging of ore materials was mostly done by rail cars flying down from the mountain and hurling the charge into the furnace.

In the Great Ming, the center of iron production was mainly in Daye, Hubei. The iron tax from Huguang accounted for over a third of the national total. There was also Foshan in Guangdong, which had been an important iron-smelting center since the mid-Ming period. The Great Ming's annual iron output exceeded ten million jin, the greater part of it in the south, or Lingnan, and even the southwestern regions.

Copper, too, was mostly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. Tin came from Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan, and other places. Mercury was mostly produced in Yunnan. And the silver produced in Yunnan likewise circulated throughout the realm.

Why had the center of gravity of the mining and smelting industry shifted south?

It was because these places mostly used charcoal. The iron materials and other goods smelted there were of relatively high quality. In the north, however, due to a scarcity of timber, coal was mostly used, and the resulting pig iron had a high sulfur content and was of inferior quality.

And in the northern lands of the Great Ming, although coke was already widely used for iron smelting, the blast power could not keep up, and furnace heights rarely exceeded ten meters. The iron produced was still unsatisfactory. Therefore, Wang Dou had constantly been pondering how to improve both the output and the quality of iron.

However, being of a humanities background, he had never been adept in this area. He only vaguely recalled that the reason iron smelting quality caught up in later ages was, first, the solving of the blast power problem, and second, the solving of the raw material problem. Coupled with his busy affairs, he had tossed this matter to the back of his mind.

It was a craftsman from the military factory, drawing inspiration from using water power to forge bird guns, who put forward a suggestion, stating that iron smelting could likewise use water power as its motive force. After this was reported upward, it was a sudden revelation for Wang Dou. Upon arriving at the garrison city, the newly built ironworks adopted water power.

After overcoming a series of problems, iron furnaces built of salt and clay, with heights exceeding ten meters, were completed one after another. Afterward, that craftsman, for his enormous contribution, was recorded with a merit, and also awarded the rank of Upper Soldier, which further enhanced the enthusiasm of many craftsmen.

A blaze of fiery red — the molten iron came out of the furnace. Dazzling sparks of iron flew in all directions. Following the stone channels, it flowed into a square pond below. Numerous craftsmen, braving the searing heat and risking their lives, held willow-wood poles in hand, thrusting and stirring rapidly, instantly refining the iron into wrought iron. Once it had cooled slightly, they either cut and sliced it into square blocks within the pond, or swung hammers to beat it into round shapes.

Wang Dou watched. This was the iron-smelting method of the present time. What came out of the furnace and was not yet stirred was pig iron; once stirred, it became wrought. When raw and wrought were smelted together, it became steel. Linking the iron-smelting furnace and the iron-stirring furnace in series reduced energy consumption and was quite advanced in terms of craftsmanship. In modern times, it was still in use in many places, and was the origin of wrought steel and Su steel.

"Another batch of Grade-A iron."

Zhang Gui grinned so broadly his teeth were all visible. The others around him were also extremely excited. According to the Shogunate's classification, iron materials were divided into Grades A, B, and C. Grade-A iron was used for military industry; Grades B and C could be sold to the civilian market. From the present outlook, merely selling iron in the future would yield an enormous annual income.

"It's only a pity."

Zhang Gui said, "Though water power is excellent, sometimes the river channels dry up, and the power is inevitably insufficient, so we have to resort to using human labor for the blast again."

Wang Dou nodded. The tall furnaces before him used the drop in water level between an upper and a lower pond to generate power for the blast. But in times of drought, if the upper pond had insufficient water storage, how could the needed water be transported up to it?

In his eyes flashed the image of a steam engine. A pity, though — that was a matter with no shadow of possibility for now. They could only proceed step by step. Compared to the human-powered blast of the past, the production and quality of iron materials from the water-powered tall furnaces had already taken an enormous stride forward. Haste makes waste; the steam engine could wait for another day.

Exiting the ironworks, the party headed westward. There, beside a river several li away, a new military factory had been built, specifically for the manufacture of bird guns — flintlock bird guns, at that.

Vice Regional Commander Zhang Guowei was also waiting outside. He did not, however, have the credentials to enter the ironworks, nor the credentials to enter the military factory. But when Wang Dou inspected the Pangjiabao iron mine, he had accompanied him. After Wang Dou and the others came out, he hurriedly fell in.

As the party proceeded along, Wang Dou gazed southward. In the plain and river valley hemmed between two mountains, a dense flow of people had already gathered. Many houses and encampments were also being built one after another along the riverbank. The wagon trains of merchants came and went in an endless stream.

Qi Tianliang sighed, "I truly never imagined that in such a short time, places like Jiabao, Pangjiabao, and Zhaochuanbao would instantly become so prosperous. This is what the Grand General calls the function of the productive merchant, is it not?"

Wang Dou smiled faintly. "Quite right. Old Qi, seeing the scene before you, you should understand why, in the past, this general always disdained the circulation-type merchant, yet greatly supported the productive-type merchant?"

Qi Tianliang thought for a moment, then still said, "Your subordinate is dull-witted. I understand a little, but when I try to think it through in detail, I'm still muddled. I beg the Grand General to enlighten me."

Zhang Gui laughed, "The Grand General is a star deity descended from the heavens, his insight far surpassing ordinary men. If you, Old Qi, could understand it, then we wouldn't be the subordinates."

Wang Dou also laughed heartily. Qi Tianliang and Zhang Gui counted among the earliest group of people close to him. Chatting with them always brought a feeling of warmth to his heart.

He said, "To put it plainly, it's simple. It is that productive merchants can increase employment and create value. Most importantly, in the future, they can also form more social strata and sustain more people. This is a matter of boundless merit."

Zhang Guowei listened in silence. He actually did not quite understand why Wang Dou regarded his clan's iron mine with such special favor, even elevating it to the level of boundless merit.

After pledging allegiance to Wang Dou, he had been quite cautious. But at this moment, in his heart, he could not wait to hear Wang Dou's explanation. (To be continued.)