Chapter 407: The Three-Horsepower Steam Engine

Zhu Yijun and Xu Wei chatted for a long time, until dusk, before Xu Wei left. Xu Wei had grasped the direction.

Zhang Juzheng had been in power for a long time. Were the Emperor and the Master really as disharmonious as the rumors said? With the Great Ming's national power rising, was His Majesty already complacent, thinking that the Great Ming was invincible and all its ills had been removed? The wind of opening the seas had blown across the Great Ming's long coastline, silver was flowing in in large quantities, and the population was beginning to flow out. Would His Majesty feel that opening the seas affected the stability of the imperial power? Land surveying and returning land were in full swing, with the blade turned inward. Would His Majesty feel it was difficult and make some trade-offs? Would the struggle between the Jin Party and the Zhang Party have the possibility of further spiraling out of control?

Xu Wei had obtained answers to many such questions. Xu Wei needed to get the answers to judge the possible duration of the Nagasaki Governor's Office.

The reason Xu Wei wanted to kill the Japanese King Ashikaga Yoshiaki in the capital was that he was afraid of changes occurring if things were delayed, and he was afraid that the wind direction in the court would change, causing the Nagasaki Governor's Office to lose the Great Ming's assistance. At that time, the Nagasaki Governor's Office would inevitably become a shooting star of the Great Ming's maritime power and overseas colonization, just like the pirate Wang Zhi.

Fortunately, this time entering the capital, Xu Wei had obtained a very affirmative answer.

His Majesty was a scholar of great integrity.

Of course, Xu Wei also knew about His Majesty's disposal of Tachibana Ginchiyo. The current "White Plum of Chikuzen" was using a big stick to wash clothes in the Laundry Bureau. This former head of the Tachibana family could only do this kind of thing now, which made Xu Wei a bit surprised, but it was just a bit of surprise.

He sent a gift, His Majesty accepted it. Where His Majesty put the gift, he didn't care.

Xu Wei was to stay in the capital for half a month. He first visited Zhang Juzheng to thank him for redressing Hu Zongxian's grievance, killing Xu Jie, and supporting the Nagasaki Governor's Office. Zhang Juzheng hosted a banquet for Xu Wei and Sun Kehong. Xu Wei then visited Tan Lun, a comrade from the past, and then went to the All-Jin Hostel, talking with Wang Chonggu for a long time, mainly about the experience of official workshops and group manufacturing. Wang Chonggu did not hide anything and answered Xu Wei's doubts one by one.

Afterwards, Xu Wei went to the Xishan Mausoleum to pay respects to the Great Ming's Marquis of Zhangping, Yu Dayou. Yu Dayou held a pivotal position in the Great Ming's Wanli opening of the seas. Yu Dayou had made great contributions to the Songjiang Maritime Trade Office and the Songjiang Town Navy.

When Yu Dayou went to the Songjiang Town Navy, he only brought 3,000 guest soldiers. He used his reputation for pacifying the Japanese pirates to summon guest soldiers and strong men to join. In just three years, Yu Dayou expanded the 3,000 guest soldiers to 30,000 navy troops, and these 30,000 navy troops were the ballast of the Great Ming's opening of the seas.

It can be said that without Yu Dayou going south to rebuild the navy, there would be no Nagasaki Governor's Office.

In the 9th month of the 8th year of Wanli, Xu Wei left. He took away the gift His Majesty gave him: a lamp that never goes out and 20 catties of lamp oil. This lamp that never goes out would inevitably illuminate the confused path ahead for overseas colonization.

The bustle of the capital was one wave after another. Xu Jie's death had just passed, and the Yang family of Xindu immediately followed in his footsteps. The things the Yang family of Xindu did were all published in the miscellaneous news.

And the Great Ming's pen-pushers always implicitly pointed the reason to the Emperor taking revenge for personal grudges.

According to rumors, Xu Jie ransacked Yan Song's house and found 10 million silver, but only gave the Daoist Master (Jiajing) 1 million taels; the Yang family of Xindu was an even greater enemy of the Daoist Master. At that time, the Great Ming imperial power was not manifest. Now, the Capital Battalion is at his side, and the Emperor is taking revenge.

This must be true; otherwise, why wouldn't the Great Ming Emperor refute it?!

People always believe in the judgments they derive themselves. Compared to "the Great Way is practiced, and the world is for all," taking personal revenge is more reasonable.

Zhu Yijun did not refute it because what this group of pen-pushers said was true. It wasn't just as simple as personal revenge, but imperial power.

Xu Jie and the Yang Tinghe father and son had seriously provoked the imperial power. Zhu Yijun's cleaning up of Xu Jie and the Yang family, besides the "Great Way," indeed had the purpose of consolidating imperial power. Only when imperial power exists can Zhu Yijun, this Emperor, be like an Emperor.

Zhu Yijun couldn't be like those base scholars, disregarding facts, so he didn't let Wan Shihe wash the ground for this matter.

Facts are facts. There is nothing bad to admit about what was done. He also let the Great Ming high priests go to the suburban sacrifice to inform the Shizong Emperor.

"This is not the Great Ming imperial family; even a donkey on a millstone wouldn't be like this." Zhu Yiliao ended his day, lying on the seat of the Great Imperial Carriage, saying extremely exhaustedly. He rested on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th, plus the day the Emperor rested on the 24th—that is, in a month of 30 days, he had 10 days where he didn't have to risk his life following Zhu Yijun.

Just this, Zhu Yiliao felt he had lost half his life.

Being a wise ruler is like walking on thin ice; I don't know if I can reach the other shore.

Being a muddled ruler, being scolded every day, still having to kindly persuade them to stay, and issuing edicts for self-reflection.

"Looking lazy and scattered." Zhu Yijun shook his head, looking at a miscellaneous news report in his hand. The content was published by Li Yashi in the *People's News*, sharply criticizing the Great Ming's rites and teachings.

Li Yashi said: "The Central Plains is a land of rites and a civilized country. The Chinese have a natural attitude—tolerant, friendly, respectful, and polite—and also hope to use education to make others treat them with rites as well. This is a very dangerous idea. Personally, I have lived in the Great Ming for several years and have only learned the fur of etiquette. The Great Ming's rites and teachings are a consensus formed by thousands of years of accumulation. In the competition of opening the seas, holding this attitude to communicate, 'giving a plum' will not be exchanged for 'giving a peach'."

"Admittedly, this is a beautiful vision, that is: as long as one can use culture to solve problems, no matter what system or means are adopted to achieve this goal, it is the method with the lowest cost for anyone. It is a pity that the problems that culture can solve are all established on the basis of solving political power, military conflicts, and the ownership of land, pastures, and plantations."

"Eh, this Western bumpkin hasn't seen much of the world, actually daring to mock the Great Ming's logic of handling affairs! He's done for. The Great Ming Confucian scholars are believers in 'revering virtue' who think morality can solve all contradictions. Li Yashi will inevitably be scolded until his head bleeds." Zhu Yijun agreed very much with Li Yashi's statement.

But as a Great Ming person, he still had to scold Li Yashi as a bumpkin. Only Great Ming people can scold the Great Ming; why should you, a Red-Haired Barbarian, do it!

Zhu Yiliao finished reading Li Yashi's editorial while lying down, nodding continuously and saying, "This Red-Haired Barbarian, staying in our Great Ming eating and drinking, now actually dares to pick on the Great Ming's faults! But brother, why do I feel what he says makes a lot of sense?"

"So those who open the seas are all merchants and wealthy families. Merchants and wealthy families pursue profit. They are already the moral lowlands of the Great Ming." Zhu Yijun picked up another miscellaneous news report and started reading. This was the *Gridding News* of the Imperial Gridding Academy. "One Hundred Thousand Whys" was still being serialized.

The content researched by the Imperial Gridding Academy was strange and bizarre, unconstrained, and had everything. These outrageous projects actually received the Emperor's personal approval and funding. It had to be said that the Emperor's preference for "not attending to proper business" was very obvious.

"Liao'er, you asked me a question some time ago. My answer was not as good as the content of this miscellaneous news. Take a look." Zhu Yijun handed the *Gridding News* to Zhu Yiliao. Zhu Yiliao had no interest in proper business, but he liked this kind of rebellious place like the Imperial Gridding Academy very much.

Zhu Yiliao took the *Gridding News*, looked at it twice, and sat up abruptly. After reading it carefully, he felt he had gained a lot.

Zhu Yiliao had asked the Emperor a question some time ago: why didn't the Great Ming's displaced people flow to the prosperous south, but instead flowed outside the passes? For example, Liaodong, Daning Wei, and other places had displaced people constantly defecting to reclaim wasteland. The reason Zhu Yiliao asked this was because of the achievements of Great Ming's Zhou Liangyin, Hou Yuzhao, and others reporting on the reclamation of Daning Wei and Liaodong.

It wasn't that little was reclaimed; it was that there were many, many people reclaiming wasteland.

Liaodong's reclamation, under Li Chengliang's repeated fighting, constantly expanded. A large number of displaced people poured into Liaodong. In the year Hou Yuzhao arrived in Liaodong, he organized the Liaodong people who arrived to reclaim wasteland into households, totaling 54,000 households, totaling over 200,000 people.

The Great Ming Imperial Gridding Academy had a Gridding Doctor named Song Dawei who was also very interested in this question and even specially went to Liaodong. This was Song Dawei's research topic, a topic with proper research funding, regarding the settlement of displaced people in Liaodong reclamation and the foundation of county-level administration.

Song Dawei's article said:

【Those who go to Liaodong are all farmers. In their eyes, the Jiangnan is completely different from the Jiangnan in the eyes of the court scholar-officials. The pavilions and towers of the Jiangnan water towns have nothing to do with the displaced farmers. The "kingly air" of Jin Ling will not share even a fraction with the displaced farmers. No matter how prosperous and beautiful Lin'an is, the crops grown in the soil also belong to the landlord, not the farmer.

Farmers all know very well that even if they arrive in the land of fish and rice, they will not get a single piece of land that produces fish and rice that belongs to themselves.

Without a place to settle down and establish a life, prosperity is just prosperity that does not belong to them.

After passing Shanhai Pass and traveling another hundred *li*, the earth and the sky meet in the far distance. Under that horizon where the earth and sky blend far away, is land that you cannot imagine what unit to use to measure. Life since ancient times has been born here, died here, rotted in the soil, turned into nutrients for the soil, and finally gifted to the hardworking you.

This is the reason for leaving the passes.

You arrive in Liaoyang, follow the official, and the official points to you, who are carrying a child, and says, "This piece is all yours, you just plant it. What you plant will be yours for three years."

The first winter is so cold. You move into an earthen cellar. Don't dislike the earthen cellar, because after Song Huizong and Song Qinzong were captured north, they also lived in this kind of earthen cellar. You learn to use an earthen *kang* (heated bed), and you also receive half a cart of coal. This is the coal of the garrison fort. Next year, you have to repay this debt with grain. Don't worry, the garrison fort's coal is six *wen* a catty.

You survive the winter, and in early spring, you start reclaiming wasteland. You grab a handful of soil; the black soil sticks to your hand. As a farmer, you know this is fertile soil. Even if it can only be harvested once a year, it is enough for you and your children to survive.

You get five *shang* (a unit of land) of land. The child is fostered by you in the village. The village woman only needs a few *dou* of grain to look after these children for a year.

Spring is a black full of hope, summer is a pleasing green, and winter is so white that it makes you unable to distinguish east, west, south, north, or even up and down.

Two years later, you build a small courtyard, with a courtyard wall and a chicken coop. You return to your hometown during the slack farming season. You thought your wife and parents had already died. Very luckily, they are still alive. You tell the fellow villagers about life in Liaodong, and then you pick up your wife and parents, who were almost starving to death, and bring them to Liaodong.

You seem to notice that your wife paid a heavy price to get some grain. Without even a dowry, you know in your heart what she could sell, but you don't care much, because she is alive, and your parents are also alive. Being alive itself is a huge stroke of luck. The only hope she had for living was that you could really find a way to live in Liaodong.

Humans take food as Heaven, and also take hope as food.

You really found it.

Three years later, you have two more children. One of these two children doesn't look much like you, but you don't care, because when he grows up, he will also be a strong laborer. He calls you "Dad," and he won't call anyone else "Dad." This year, the Liaodong Great General Li Chengliang is going to fight again and conscripted you. You thought you were going to die, so you said goodbye to your parents, wife, and children in a hurry and even cried a lot.

As a result, when you arrived at the place, you realized it was just transporting grain. When you returned, you even got a reward of one tael of silver.

You returned home. Your elderly mother died of worry and illness and was buried on the hill outside the village. Your father also gradually couldn't recognize people, but you know that you have taken root in this land.

Emperor Yang of Sui naturally has the qualification to say Jiangnan is good, even if he finally died in the pile of rouge of the warblers and swallows, he never regretted it. But the farmer does not have the qualification.

I dream that Jiangnan is good, going to Liaodong is also accidental.】

Zhu Yiliu finished reading this essay, which was so scattered that it was impossible to even summarize a central idea. It was more like the fragmented dream-talk of Song Dawei during his travels, but it allowed him to fully understand the question he had originally had: why did the displaced people not go to Jiangnan, but instead to Liaodong?

He is already a displaced person; what is he going to Jiangnan for?

"This Song Dawei didn't waste the inner treasury." Zhu Yiliao felt that this article was worth the inner treasury the Emperor approved; it wasn't wasted.

"Brother, why did this farmer still bring this wife who lost her chastity to Liaodong, and that child who shouldn't have existed is actually still alive?" After reading it repeatedly, Zhu Yiliao raised his own question.

Zhu Yijun looked at Zhu Yiliao, his brows wrinkled slightly, and then he was relieved. Zhu Yiliao is a natural noble. He thinks about problems from his own standpoint, not from the farmer's standpoint.

Zhu Yijun thought seriously and said, "You say this—this farmer carrying a child into Liaodong must have taken all the grain in the family, and didn't even intend to pick up his parents and wife. This farmer and the child on his back were the last hope in a desperate situation."

"These parents, in fact, after the farmer entered Liaodong, were already waiting to die."

"The wife losing her chastity was to let herself and the parents survive. She didn't abandon the mother-in-law and father-in-law who couldn't work anymore and remarry someone else; she has already lived up to her husband."

"In the theory of contradictions, survival is the first need, and it is also the first major contradiction between humans and the Great Ming, that is, the people take food as Heaven."

Zhu Yiliao is a natural noble. He thinks about problems subconsciously from the values of a noble, not this farmer. This ability to put oneself in another's shoes is something Zhu Yiliao does not possess and is very difficult to learn. And Zhu Yijun is a latecomer. He was only slightly well-off in the later generations. Zhu Yijun personally appreciates Antonio very much, because in the Western world, which is a moral wasteland, Antonio actually has commoners in his eyes.

"Still brother thinks clearly! I, I am only suitable for enjoyment!" Zhu Yiliao immediately felt the difference in the world. His body slumped, and he lay down again.

He stopped pretending, showed his cards—he is just not the material for that wise ruler. No matter how much he learns, it is just empty appearance.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and smiled without reprimanding. He was very satisfied with Zhu Yiliao's growth. Empty appearance is also appearance. After being enfeoffed overseas, he won't toss himself away.

The Great Ming Emperor continued to read the miscellaneous news. Most of these miscellaneous news were published once a month. Zhu Yijun liked to read them very much because they were written in vernacular, with punctuation marks, which were much more interesting than memorials. This was also one of the few adjustments in his boring and uninteresting life.

Zhu Yijun returned to the Imperial Study of the detached palace. Zhu Yiliao wanted to run but was grabbed by the throat by fate.

The Great Ming Emperor grabbed his younger brother's collar and pulled him to the East Flower Hall of the Imperial Study of the detached palace. Unlike the function of the West Flower Hall, the East Flower Hall was where Zhu Yijun met princes and military nobles.

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty. Long live, Your Majesty." The Great Ming Prince De, the Heir of Prince Zheng, the President of the Great Ming Imperial Gridding Academy, the Great Ming musician, mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, and Imperial Uncle Zhu Zaiyu, brought two Gridding Doctors to the Imperial Study of the detached palace.

"Imperial Uncle, no need for ceremony. No need for ceremony." Zhu Yijun waved his hand, signaling them to sit down and talk.

Gridding Doctor Huang Zifu was that mechanical handicraft expert who had some relationship with Tan Lun and invented the "Tea-Serving Boy." The Tea-Serving Boy he invented spread to Japan and even became one of Japan's characteristic cultures.

Gridding Doctor Song Dawei was the author of that article, taking the Emperor's inner treasury, eating and drinking, and writing a prose-like article.

"Imperial Uncle, brother is bullying me!" As soon as Zhu Yiliao saw Zhu Zaiyu, he started complaining and reporting. Empress Dowager Li and Empress Dowager Chen were now revolving around the eldest imperial son Zhu Changzhi, and their love for Zhu Yiliao had disappeared. Zhu Yiliao could only choose to report to Zhu Zaiyu.

Zhu Zaiyu said earnestly, "His Majesty is all for the Prince's good. At the Prince's age, it is the age to grow character, so naturally, it must be strictly restrained."

"What was Imperial Uncle doing at this age?" Zhu Yiliao asked curiously.

"Built an earthen room in front of the Prince Zheng's palace gate, eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew for nineteen years." Zhu Zaiyu hesitated for a long time before speaking.

Zhu Zaiyu's father was locked in the high walls of Fengyang by the Daoist Master. The reason was: "Houwan did not listen to my advice, was arrogant and rude in the Zheng state, and is rebellious."

Zhu Zaiyu felt his father was wronged.

If it weren't for his greed for the precision-manufactured sextant, he wouldn't have entered the capital.

Zhu Yiliao stopped his words directly. The Imperial Uncle had always been kind. If he didn't mention this, he would have forgotten this old matter.

Zhu Zaiyu had a very, very deep resentment about this matter, so deep that he refused the throne of Prince Zheng. But he was also very persistent about his own Dao. Even though he had deep resentment toward the court, after he finished the book of music, he submitted a memorial to the court, hoping to arouse the court's attention to science.

Zhu Zaiyu speaking of old matters in front of the Emperor was not to cry for his father's grievance. In the first year of Longqing, the Longqing Emperor released his father to continue being Prince Zheng. Zhu Zaiyu was a mad scholar, always very persistent, and Zhu Zaiyu was also a very reasonable person. The Daoist Master's fault was the Daoist Master's, not His Majesty's.

Zhu Yiliao felt uncomfortable in his heart. Brother treated the Imperial Uncle so well, yet the Imperial Uncle still couldn't forget the old matter and even said it to his face, making brother so embarrassed.

This Imperial Uncle, Zhu Yiliao immediately didn't like him a bit.

"Is there someone whispering something in Imperial Uncle's ear?" Zhu Yijun's brows wrinkled. He was not Zhu Yiliao. Zhu Yiliao was a child; Zhu Yijun was the Emperor.

Zhu Yijun saw Zhu Zaiyu's hesitation. After thinking for a while, Zhu Yijun perceived Zhu Zaiyu's motivation. It might just be to anger himself.

Clearly, someone was babbling in Zhu Zaiyu's ear. Zhu Zaiyu mentioning this was a stance, an attitude of not participating in state affairs that was very firm, even at the cost of bringing up old matters to anger the Emperor.

Zhu Zaiyu had no idea how to deal with this kind of thing. He didn't know how to reply to the inquiry of this nephew who was already out of the five degrees of mourning. The Emperor treated him extremely well, much, much better than his own nephew, yet he was babbling and hurting people's hearts.

Huang Zifu said, "It's all because of that reciprocating steam engine. These days, the President has received a pile of invitations and visiting cards, and he is annoyed to death. The gatekeeper won't let them in, so they take the path of the Gridding Doctors to pass them to the President. The President ignores them, and they just make all kinds of noise."

Zhu Zaiyu's idea was very simple: I am in charge of the Gridding Academy, so you are annoyed with me. If I am not in charge, won't it not delay my research? Undoubtedly, angering the Emperor was a good way. Prince Zheng being locked in the high walls was the Daoist Master's fault. His Majesty was determined to get the steam engine, and His Majesty wouldn't completely kick him out of the Gridding Academy because of this.

This was very Zhu Zaiyu. He was not unintelligent, but he was too lazy to use his brain on these things.

World affairs are nothing more than four words: profit comes and profit goes. This steam engine had great profit, but the Great Ming's steel manufacturing and cylinder grinding all needed time to accumulate experience and craftsmen, and the output was extremely limited, and only the Imperial Gridding Academy could manufacture it.

The two words "socializing" brought a lot of trouble to Zhu Zaiyu.

"Leave this matter to me to solve. You just do your own things with peace of mind." Zhu Yijun waved his hand. For Zhu Zaiyu, it was an extremely difficult thing to solve, but for Zhu Yijun, it was just a matter of an imperial edict.

As for Zhu Zaiyu's collision, Zhu Yijun didn't even mention it.

Whoever could produce a steam engine, benefiting the country and the people, let alone improper speech—even if he scolded him to his face, he wouldn't really do anything to the other party.

The steam engine was not sold to the public now; it was a rationing system, and it was a long-term rationing. It would be very difficult to sell it to the public on a large scale in the short term.

The existence of demand needed to be solved; otherwise, Zhu Zaiyu's trouble would continue. Zhu Yijun intended to make the technology public directly. In the Great Ming Imperial Manor, one could get guidance from a Gridding Doctor of the Gridding Academy for 2,000 taels. He told Zhu Zaiyu his plan.

"One person's wisdom is short, the crowd's wisdom is long. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your great grace." Zhu Zaiyu bowed again. He felt that His Majesty was truly very magnanimous. He was so old and had collided so much, yet this nephew didn't unleash the wrath of thunder.

And this idea was really good. There were only so many Gridding Doctors in the Gridding Academy. The research and improvement of the steam engine needed more people to participate. Zhu Zaiyu was not short of money, and even less short of social status, so there was no need to hide his secrets.

Zhu Zaiyu spoke of the proper business this time. He bowed and said, "This time I came because Doctor Huang Zifu Huang made a machine."

He was here to offer an auspicious sign. The Gridding Academy took so much silver from the Emperor, so they couldn't just talk big and produce no goods. Wouldn't that make them base scholars?

Four Embroidered Uniform Guards brought three machines into the East Flower Hall. Zhu Zaiyu stood in front of the first one, pulled open the red silk covering it. This was an auspicious sign: a finished reciprocating steam engine. This steam engine was about the height of a person, consisting of a furnace, chimney, cylinder, valve, centrifugal governor, piston, and crankshaft.

"When the crankshaft rotates too fast, these two copper balls will rotate rapidly, driving the spring inside to press down, controlling the speed of the steam. And when the crankshaft rotates too slowly, the rotation speed of the copper balls drops, the spring moves up, and the steam increases and accelerates, and the rotation speed increases. You can change the weight of the copper balls to change the range of the steam speed." Zhu Zaiyu introduced his invention. The centrifugal governor was the most important component for controlling the rotation speed of the steam engine. Stable and controllable operation was the first requirement of machinery.

Zhu Yijun studied the two copper balls in his hand. Because of the working environment, copper balls were more durable. Iron balls of the same weight could also be used, and this thing was extremely convenient to replace.

Huang Zifu bowed and said, "This reciprocating steam engine, the height of a person, can provide up to three horsepower."

Zhu Yijun and Zhu Yiliao received a model over a foot large. These two models could drive a fan. As long as the steam engine was installed outdoors and the fan was indoors, they could obtain wind under the scorching sun, and air-drying was also a link needed by many workshops.

From the hand-pulled single-stroke bellows to the reciprocating bellows, then to the reciprocating water pump, then to the reciprocating steam engine that could rotate, and then from only being able to rotate to one horsepower, finally reaching three horsepower—this path had been walked for the eighth year since Zhu Zaiyu entered the capital in the first year of Wanli.

This horsepower could already be used in mines for pumping water, pulling coal, pulling people, ventilation, and in shipyards for steam drying, wood planing and processing, and the forging of some cannon barrels and gun barrels, etc.

The demand was truly too great, and the output was truly too low. This was the trouble brought to him by the steam engine Zhu Zaiyu had tinkered with.

Zhu Yijun was extremely satisfied with this steam engine. He chatted with Zhu Zaiyu and Huang Zifu for a long time. According to Zhu Yijun's idea, he wanted to build a steam engine factory specifically outside the North Camp, specifically responsible for producing steam engines. Unfortunately, the raw materials were simply not enough. To build this thing, Zhu Zaiyu used Benxi's ginseng iron, but if he was willing to increase the weight, he could actually use worse iron materials.

Zhu Yijun was quite regretful, but Zhu Zaiyu believed that in about three years, it could be manufactured in large quantities.

"What is this second one?" Zhu Yijun asked what the auspicious sign under the second red silk cloth was.

"This is a sewing machine." Zhu Zaiyu introduced the second auspicious sign: a single-thread chain-stitch hand-cranked sewing machine that first punched holes and then threaded and sewed leather. Although the structure was simple, one person shaking it and another person sewing the leather greatly increased productivity.

Zhu Yijun looked at the sewing machine and clicked his tongue in wonder. This thing was quite crude, and the finished product needed to be knotted by hand; otherwise, it was easy for the edge lock to come loose, and it required two people to operate. But it was indeed a usable sewing machine, and the structure was not complicated.

"If the tailors see this thing, they are afraid they will rush the Imperial Gridding Academy." Zhu Yijun tried this thing and said to Zhu Zaiyu with a smile.

Zhu Zaiyu was stunned for a moment and said blankly, "How could that be? This thing is just for a tailor to use. This is a tool designed for them."

The inventor who invented the first hand-cranked double-spindle spinning wheel was beaten to death. The reason was that the significant increase in work efficiency led to a large number of textile workers becoming unemployed, and finally, these angry textile workers beat the inventor to death.

Zhu Zaiyu didn't need to worry. His Imperial Gridding Academy was adjacent to the Imperial Palace. Attacking the Gridding Academy would be regarded as rebellion.

"Can it be changed to a foot-pedal type? The hand-cranked type is still not very convenient. It requires two people to operate and is not suitable for use." Zhu Yijun proposed a new research and development direction for this thing.

"Yes!" Huang Zifu's eyes lit up, looking at His Majesty's suggestion with eager eyes. Just add a crankshaft, and it could be reduced from two people to one person.

Zhu Zaiyu understood what His Majesty said. Indeed, technological innovation in production tools would indeed cause short-term unemployment. This was an unavoidable thing.

He didn't need to worry about this. This was a matter for His Majesty to worry about. He only needed to tinker it out.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 408 =====