Technology is the driving force, and industry is the foundation.

The institute was set up for the development of science and technology, and ultimately reflected in industry.

Today, the main industrial base of Daming is still in Ningbo. After all, Ningbo was the place where Zhu Yicheng started, and the Ningbo business community was also the first to cooperate with Zhu Yicheng. After years of development, Ningbo is not only a famous maritime trade port, but also an emerging industrial city in the Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention those workshops, merchants who tasted the sweetness of the Ming Dynasty cooperation also opened many factories in Ningbo, making Ningbo’s status in the Ming Dynasty increasingly heavier. But in Zhu Yicheng’s view, the industrial concentration of a city has both advantages and disadvantages. Although this unbalanced development can have effect in a short period of time, it will also cause the development of various places to deform. Especially in this era, the people’s attitude towards the four people has not been completely reversed, so it is the most important to promote industrialization and carry out induced development in various regions of the Ming Dynasty.

To this end, Zhu Yicheng has asked the Military Affairs Office to promote industrialization in various regions with six ministries. Suzhou and Hangzhou have inherent advantages in traditional textile industry, especially silk, etc. In addition, there are handicrafts, primary processing, etc., guided according to different conditions in various places, and the court will support local chambers of commerce.

In addition to these, the imperial court is still increasing the steel industry in Taiping Prefecture, which is the later Ma'anshan. According to the plan, the steel mill located in Ningbo will gradually move to Taiping Prefecture, and institutions such as ordnance manufacturing will also be reset around Taiping Prefecture. This is a requirement for raw material processing and transportation.

The establishment ceremony of the institute was completed, and everyone accompanied him to inspect the institute. Zhu Yicheng praised the inside of the institute for a few more words.

It was getting late, and it took a lot of time to return to the palace. With Zhu Yicheng's consent, everyone spent lunch in the institute and then took a short rest before returning to the palace.

After lunch, he waved his hand and asked someone to clean up the tableware. Zhu Yicheng drank tea and talked to Jiang Jin, who was accompanying him, and then asked about the situation in Ma'anshan.

"Please rest assured that the Ministry of Works has built all the factory buildings, and some personnel in Ningbo have been in place. The equipment is now being installed and debugged, but..."

"But what?" Zhu Yicheng frowned when he heard this turning sentence. The steel mill in Ma'anshan is the top priority of the court and the focus of this year's plan. Jiang Jin would not be unaware of its importance. Could something go wrong?

Seeing Zhu Yicheng's expression was unhappy, Liao Huanzhi smiled and explained: "Mr. Jiang's Ministry of Works is doing well. There is no problem with the steel mill, but there is a little supply in the iron ore."

"iron ore?"

"That's right!" Liao Huanzhi explained: "The Ministry of Works reported to the Military Affairs Office the day before yesterday. Due to the steelmaking technology in Ningbo, the production has increased significantly. Now the steel mills in Ma'anshan no longer use old equipment, so they use new technology. This has led to insufficient supply of iron ore raw materials. Lord Jiang has begun to expand the production for this reason, but the ore needs manual mining, so it is not easy to completely solve it in the first place."

Hearing this explanation, Zhu Yicheng looked a little slow, nodded slightly, and then asked: "What are the specific regulations on the Ministry of Works?"

"When I returned to the emperor, the Ministry of Works has sent additional personnel to increase the mining volume, but now there is really insufficient manpower, so it is not easy to solve it in a short period of time. Moreover, the mining work is heavy, the manpower shortage is quite large, and ore transportation is not easy, so..."

"Okay, I understand what you mean." Hearing this, Zhu Yicheng waved his hand and thought for a while, "Let's do this, you can communicate directly with Huangluzhuang later, tell him the needs of mining, and let the research project be used to develop equipment, so as to improve mining efficiency as soon as possible. Call you together today, not only is it just as simple as participating in the establishment of the research institute, but Jiang Jin, you are the Minister of the Ministry of Works. There will be many similar situations in the Ministry of Works in the future. You can ask the Ministry of Works to sort out this information, and then hand it over to the Military Affairs Office to transfer it to the Research Institute, and then the research institute will solve it in a targeted manner after the project is established."

Speaking of this, Zhu Yicheng looked at Liao Huanzhi again and reminded him: "The same is true for the Military Affairs Office. The Military Affairs Office assisted me in handling military affairs, and also considered other aspects. Not only the Ministry of Works, but also other departments, such as the Ministry of War's ordnances, the agriculture and sericulture of various prefectures, etc. As long as the problems that can be promoted and solved with technology will be handled by the Institute in the future. The Military Affairs Office is responsible for regularly following up and sorting them out to me."

"I received the order!" Liao Huanzhi and Jiang Jin responded quickly. Only then did they understand why Zhu Yicheng specifically asked them to accompany him today. It turned out that this was the real purpose of the establishment of the Royal Institute of Science.

"By the way, you just said that the mine was not in sufficient staff, but I remember that the Ministry of War had allocated many people to the Ministry of Works. What are these people now?" Zhu Yicheng seemed to remember something and asked Jiang Jin.

Jiang Jin quickly replied: "Return to the emperor, there are actually quite a lot of people in the mine, but you also know the origin of these people. The efficiency is not too high, and a lot of people need to be sent to strictly control it. In addition, the ones that have been eliminated due to weakness in recent years, so it is not a long-term solution!"

Jiang Jin said it very tactfully, but Zhu Yicheng and Liao Huanzhi could understand it. These people were basically the Eight Banners prisoners in Jiangnan and the Eight Banners tribesmen in Nanjing. There were indeed a large number of these people, and except for some women and children, they were basically taken to Taiping Prefecture to start mining. In recent years, there have been many casualties. For the Ming Dynasty, these Eight Banners prisoners were free laborers, so of course there were no psychological barriers to use.

However, the management of these people has been implemented until now, so the management personnel invested by the Ministry of Works are extremely large. From this point of view, the returns on input and output are actually not optimistic, and Jiang Jin is also helpless about this.

"Mr. Liao communicates with the Ministry of Works and try to solve this problem properly." Zhu Yicheng said so, and Liao Huanzhi responded quickly, indicating that he understood.

Since he mentioned the captives, Zhu Yicheng immediately remembered the group of Qing officials who were still working to reform. Zhu Yicheng had almost forgotten the existence of these people. If he hadn't talked about Ma'anshan today, he might not have remembered it.

Since he thought of it, Zhu Yicheng immediately asked about the transformation of these people, but Liao Huanzhi was not very clear about this and could not answer for a while. Zhu Yicheng immediately asked him to collect and organize the information after returning to Beijing, and then reported it to see it. It has been several years since Nanjing was taken down. What is the current situation of these Qing officials? As the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yicheng, also seems to have to care about it.
Chapter completed!