Things about Type B steam engines do not need to be kept confidential. Gradually, things about Type B steam engines spread in the People's Army ruling areas. In the limited description of Type B steam engines, the listener only felt that this Type B steam engine was very powerful. The specific strength was so that they could not understand them. Most of them could not even understand "mechanical", let alone "machine tools" and "steam engines".

The business group is one of the most well-informed people. They make good friends with officials. People's military government officials will not do things in violation of regulations, but there is no problem telling business friends about some things that can be revealed. Often, well-informed people can make more preparations and make more money.

Now the big merchants' attention is attracted by the steam engine.

"What is a steam engine? What does it do?"

The People's Army did not keep the steam engine confidential. The merchants quickly learned that the A steam engine was a machine that could lift water without manpower and animal power. The merchants were very surprised by the A steam engine, but after being surprised, they didn't feel much. This A steam engine could only be used to lift water, and it had too few functions and had no effect on them.

What really interested merchants was the Type B steam engine. They learned from officials and friends that Type B steam engines are something that the Grand Governor attaches importance to, and believed that Type B steam engines could bring about a major change.

Merchants naturally have to pay attention to the Type B steam engine that the Grand Governor attaches great importance to. They also heard that loading the steam engine onto the ship can make the ship move without wind or make the steam engine on the car. Without people pushing the horse, the car will run by itself.

But these magical machines have not really appeared yet. Currently, there are only a few practical B-type steam engines, and even steam-powered machine tools have not appeared. It will take some time before the arrival of a major change.

The type B steam engine was only heard but not seen. The topic quickly faded, and only some merchants were still paying attention to the type B steam engine.

In Fang Nan's view, the practical type B steam engine has been built, and the next step is to rely on the type B steam engine to start the industrial era of the People's Army.

The People's Army's initial goal of studying steam engines was to replace the hydraulic power of hydraulic machine tools with the steam power of steam engines. Hydraulic machine tools can only be fixed by the river, and the hydraulic power is unstable, floods, droughts and other disasters will have a huge impact on the hydraulic machine tools.

Steam-powered machine tools are different. The machine tools do not need to be fixed by the river or by the river. You can choose a place to establish a factory according to the steam-powered machine tools. With a factory, various disasters cannot have much impact on the operation of the machine tool, which can ensure the progress of the task.

More importantly, steam power is more efficient and stable than hydraulic power.

With steam-powered machine tools, the People's Army's arsenal can produce more firearms with limited numbers of people, equip them to the People's Army, and enhance the combat effectiveness of the People's Army. Military power is the foundation for defending the country.

In addition to steam-powered machine tools, Fangnan attaches most importance to steam-powered machinery, one is a ship and the other is a train. Both are means of transportation. Ships can enhance the strength of the People's Navy, and trains connect various cities on the land, effectively maintain the rule of the People's Army, and also facilitate people's long-distance travel, commercial transportation, etc.

Steam engines opened the industrial age, and machine tools, ships and trains were all important products of the industrial age, but Fang Nan also knew that the industrial revolution that took place in history was actually based on the textile industry as the starting point, and eventually triggered revolutionary innovation in mechanical technology. Various steam-powered machinery were born one after another, and technology was developing rapidly.

In fact, the textile industry was very developed in the Ming Dynasty.

In the economic history of China, there are two types of plants that completely changed the fate of the country, one is rice in the Song Dynasty and the other is cotton in the Ming Dynasty.

Cotton is an exotic plant native to India. It first appeared in Chinese characters in the Southern Dynasty's "Song Book" and in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, it had already gained a certain area of ​​popularity in the southern region.

During the Yuanzhen period of the Yuan Dynasty (1295-1296), Huang Daopa, a woman from Wunijing, Songjiang Prefecture, learned a new textile technology in Qiongzhou. She returned to her hometown to teach people how to make cotton, and reformed and developed a set of tools to drive, sprinkle, spinning, and weaving, seed-removing carts, sprinkling arches, three-spillar spinning trucks, etc., which made a major breakthrough in cotton textile technology.

After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he vigorously promoted cotton planting. He ordered farmers to have 5 to 10 mu of land, and all of them were ordered to plant half a mu of mulberry, hemp and cotton, and more than twice as many as 10 mu. Local officials would punish them if they did not supervise them.

The implementation of these policies not only enables wasteland to be used as much as possible, and increases grain output greatly, but also provides more raw materials for the development of the cotton textile industry.

"History of Ming Dynasty: Food and Memorial Records" records that in the 26th year of Hongwu (1393 AD), there were 8.5 million hectares of land in the country, which was more than four times higher than the end of the Yuan Dynasty, among which the increase in cotton fields was the most significant.

The innovation of cotton planting and cotton textile technology has completely changed people's wear traditions mainly in silk and linen, and the output of clothing has greatly increased. Cotton textiles have quickly become the largest hand-made manufacturing industry in the country.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Huaxia produced about 600 million pieces of cotton cloth every year, with a commodity value of nearly 100 million taels of silver, of which 52.8% were sold on the market.

Huang Daopo’s hometown Songjiang is the area with the most concentrated cotton production. The Songjiang Prefecture Chronicle records that “in the autumn when sales are booming, there are as many as 150,000 large Songjiang Budas sold every day.” This data is a little exaggerated. It is estimated that there are about 20 million to 30 million horses throughout the year, which is also a very amazing output.

The textile industry in the Ming Dynasty told the development of development once again stimulated the development of productivity, and the subsequent increase in national income.

"Ming History: Food and Memorials" describes the situation during the Zhu Di period in this way: "At this time, the whole world was rich, the tax was filled with qi, and the rice and millet were transferred to millions of stones in the capital, and the granaries of prefectures and counties were very abundant, so red and rotten were not eaten."

As time passed, the Ming court also fell into depravity, and the land in the hands of the people was taken away by the landlords. The people had no land, and the small peasant life that men farmed and women weaved was gone.

Although the small peasant life is gone, the cotton production has not decreased. Most of the land is in the hands of the landlords. The landlords can continue to order people to plant cotton on this land, and the tenant families can continue to farm and weave men, but this time their income will be exploited by the landlords in various ways.

At present, the People's Army ruling areas seem to be restoring the small peasant life of men and women. The People's Army divides land for the people, and a family of three can own at least ten acres of land. This is a farmer. The only way for farmers to make money is probably the only two ways to cultivate fields and weave cloth.

Taking Guangdong as an example, when the Ming court ruled and the People's Army ruled, the cotton production in Guangdong did not decrease much. The reduction was mainly caused by war. After the war, the cotton production recovered quickly.
Chapter completed!