Chapter 425: New City Planning Map

If the hand-cranked Gatling gun could be developed, even though it was hand-cranked, its rate of fire could reach two hundred rounds per minute, which was already quite remarkable for this era.

The greatest weakness of the hand-cranked Gatling was that on the battlefield, as the enemy charged and the distance between them kept closing, the gunner would grow agitated, his bloodlust taking over and making him unable to control himself—he would crank the handle faster and faster like a madman, causing the machine gun to overheat and jam or even burst its barrel.

Moreover, black powder left heavy residue. Although the chambers and barrels could be cleaned after battle, the overall service life was not very long. Only metal cartridges could solve this problem.

But metal cartridges were not yet on the agenda for now. Being able to use a rotary machine gun with paper-cased cartridges was already enough to satisfy Zhu Youxiao.

Although the hand-cranked Gatling only fired two hundred rounds per minute, more of them could be deployed on the battlefield, overwhelming the enemy through sheer quantity.

There was one thing that needed to be known: in the British and French armies, this type of rotary firearm was deployed at fifty per company—that is, one company had fifty hand-cranked Gatling machine guns.

And Zhu Youxiao planned to equip ten per Centurion unit.

In fact, within the new army, the concept of reinforcement had already emerged.

For example, reinforced Centurion units and reinforced Chiliarch units. Each reinforced Centurion unit actually had around two hundred personnel, including thirty machine gunners and fifty riflemen, equipped with ten hand-cranked Gatlings and fifty flintlock muskets.

In addition, there were fifty sword-and-shield soldiers, fifty spearmen, ten cavalrymen, and twenty archers.

And each reinforced Chiliarch unit was additionally assigned an artillery Centurion unit and a rocket artillery Centurion unit. Each of these two Centurion units was equipped with one hundred cannons and one hundred rocket carts respectively. This brought the strength of each reinforced Chiliarch unit to nearly four thousand men.

By Ming army organizational standards, this could be considered a reinforced Guard, also called an Imperial Guard, because only the new Emperor's personal guard would have such an establishment.

The Left and Right Imperial Guard Command Offices—each commanded twelve Imperial Guards. Among them, besides ten Imperial Guards, there were also two reinforced cavalry Guards.

This was the combat unit Zhu Youxiao had envisioned, and the current Imperial Guards were not even half-finished products. Many people thought they were ready to fight in Liaodong, but Zhu Youxiao thought otherwise—the main reason being insufficient firepower.

Zhu Youxiao needed to establish at least four Imperial Guard Command Offices, or even five, like the Five Chief Military Commissions, before he could wage war on multiple fronts.

This was also why Zhu Youxiao was so desperately in need of money. His current funds were probably only enough to equip one Imperial Guard; doing another would leave him broke. Moreover, he had already established two Imperial Guards, and both needed this equipment.

But Zhu Youxiao would not discuss these matters with anyone else—he would just have to work through them on his own.

The rest of the tour held no great surprises, since the best things had already been seen. What remained was mostly Zhu Youxiao reassuring the personnel, handing out rewards, and boosting morale—all routine procedures.

Zhu Youxiao stayed at the Hundred Crafts Institute and had dinner together with the meritorious officials, fully demonstrating his love for the people and his approachability.

This was also an honor for the officials of the Hundred Crafts Institute—being able to dine with His Majesty counted as an extremely, extremely great privilege.

After the meal, Zhu Youxiao took his leave of the Hundred Crafts Institute staff and returned to the imperial palace.

Though the day had been tiring, Zhu Youxiao still felt very pleased.

The new research direction had been confirmed, and the new achievements obtained also satisfied Zhu Youxiao greatly.

While Zhu Youxiao was visiting the Hundred Crafts Institute, the entire capital remained stable, since there was nothing major on the horizon at the moment.

What the court officials were most concerned about was the reform of the Imperial Academy, but after all this time they had grown used to it. Though it would stir up a bit of commotion from time to time, nothing too major happened.

The autumn harvest had been completed, grain had been stored in the granaries, and now they were just waiting for winter to pass.

Regarding the matter of building houses for officials, although there had been news all along, nothing was ever made definite. Many people were hoping for it, but few could obtain concrete information.

Soon, the year drew to its end, and the weather gradually turned colder.

When the first snow fell, Zhu Youxiao finally received the proposal from the Ministry of Works.

This was the construction plan for the new city, and most importantly, they had already finished drawing the blueprints.

The current Minister of Works was Yao Siren, quite advanced in years—nearly ninety. Although his body was still fairly sturdy, his energy was failing him, and he would soon have to retire.

The reason Yao Siren was still kept on was that his successor was not yet ready. Once the successor was prepared, Yao Siren could step down.

This new city project should be Yao Siren's last participation in court engineering works.

This time, Zhu Youxiao simply did not call on Yao Siren—after all, he was already very old. Having him handle these matters was truly beyond his capacity, and his energy could no longer keep up.

The main person handling the new city construction was Bi Maokang. Of course, the one succeeding the Minister of Works would definitely not be Bi Maokang.

Bi Maokang was certainly going to be promoted—that was Zhu Youxiao's reward to him—but he absolutely could not be promoted to the position of Minister of Works.

Bi Maokang needed to take charge of the Hundred Crafts Institute. In the future, the institute's scale would only grow larger and its affairs more numerous; Bi Maokang could not be stretched too thin.

The person Zhu Youxiao intended to place in the position of Minister of Works was actually Li Zhizao. But Li Zhizao was currently at the Staff Office; after a while, he would be promoted to the Ministry of Works as Minister.

Through this action, Zhu Youxiao wanted to demonstrate a principle: that officials of the Staff Office and civil officials could be exchanged with one another, blurring the line between military and civil—this was very important.

Before professional military talent was trained, the military and civil spheres could not be divided too sharply. If such a division was desired, it would have to wait until later—and at the same time, this served to blur the concept of military versus civil.

But these were matters for later. Right now, the most important thing was still building houses and making money.

The one sent by the Ministry of Works this time was Vice Minister Zhao Wenji.

Zhao Wenji was in his forties, and having reached this position, he could be said to have put in real effort.

But his abilities were mediocre, and it was unlikely he would rise to the position of Minister of Works. His next step should be seeking an external posting. If he could not become a Governor, then at least he should become a Provincial Administration Commissioner of a province. After a few years of training on the outside, if he rendered meritorious service, he would be transferred back.

"Your subject Zhao Wenji pays respects to Your Majesty." Upon seeing Zhu Youxiao, Zhao Wenji hastily spoke.

As a subject who was not very close to the Son of Heaven, Zhao Wenji secretly hoped that through this matter, he could make the Son of Heaven look upon him with new regard.

Not to mention succeeding to the position of Minister of Works—at the very least, if he could be sent out to a Governor's post, he would be content.

Zhao Wenji cherished this opportunity greatly this time, believing he had handled matters perfectly and had worked very hard.

"Rise." Zhu Youxiao nodded and said.

"How is the matter progressing?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhao Wenji and asked directly: "Your Ministry of Works said preparations were nearly complete—so tell me about it."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Zhao Wenji hastily acknowledged, at the same time setting down the long box in his hands.

Then he opened the box and took out a giant map from within.

With the help of Chen Hong and others, he hung the map up.

This was a map of the new city. Judging from the map, it would be a very large city.

At the center of the city was a Confucian temple, with the Duke Yansheng's mansion beside it. Beyond that were the schools, and at the center of the great academy was a commercial street.

The outer ring was the residential area. These could be sold to students, or to merchants.

Besides the above-ground structures, what was drawn in even greater detail was the drainage system, city layout, and so on.

For the Ministry of Works of the Great Ming, these things were already second nature. The Great Ming's drainage system was very advanced—even a city with a population of over two million maintained orderly drainage.

Later generations had once calculated that large cities in China rarely suffered large-scale plagues like those in Europe, and a major reason was the advanced urban drainage systems.

In addition, there were measures for transporting excrement out of the city by cart, which reduced the breeding of mosquitoes and flies. Combined with the emphasis on epidemic prevention and treatment, plagues on the scale of Europe's never occurred.

On top of this new city, thanks to cement, the Ministry of Works had even managed to build cement sewers. Zhu Youxiao was quite satisfied with this.

The city's layout had no major problems — clearly the Ministry of Works had grasped Zhu Youxiao's vision.

Looking at the commercial streets sandwiched between the schools, one could imagine just how expensive the land there would be. Think of the shops next to schools in later generations — none of them were cheap.

Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction and asked, "Has your Ministry of Works calculated the costs?"

"Your Majesty, we have already calculated them. This is the approximate cost expenditure." As he spoke, Zhao Wenji took out a routine memorial and raised it respectfully with both hands.

Chen Hong hurried over, reached out to take the memorial, and then presented it respectfully to Zhu Youxiao.

This budget was very detailed — not something one could go through right away. And it wasn't meant to be read now; it was for checking accounts after construction began. Where costs were exceeded, where savings were made — those were what mattered.

"As for the areas being demolished for the Academy, you should have already made plans for those too, right?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhao Wenji and asked again.

Once those plots of land were vacated, they were to be used for official residences. Apart from that, a portion was to be set aside for commercial streets and property for wealthy households.

Zhu Youxiao naturally paid close attention to such places, because they would provide substantial funds for him to launch the new city.

In any case, for this entire grand plan, Zhu Youxiao had no intention of spending a single coin. All the money would be churned through these two plots of land.

First, subscriptions would begin with the land inside the city. Zhu Youxiao believed that this place would certainly raise a considerable sum through subscriptions.

By that time, the startup funds for the new city would be in hand.