Chapter 277: One book caused a stir.
The first batch of students from Tiangong Academy totaled two hundred people.
One hundred and fifty people were all the children of small and medium-sized workshop owners. They were persuaded by Peng An to learn new spinning and weaving techniques.
The remaining fifty people were selected by Xiong Wu. These were weavers from several large workshops in Suzhou.
These weavers are all young and influential people who can take the lead among weavers.
In addition, it is best to be literate or know some basic arithmetic.
According to the standard, Xiong Wu finally managed to gather the people Su Ze needed.
Xiong Wu didn't understand why Su Ze paid for the weaver to study at Nanjing Academy.
Yes, Su Ze not only provided travel expenses, but also promised that these weavers could receive two taels of silver every month while studying in Nanjing, which was already as high as the salary of dock workers.
In addition, the accommodation of these weaver students is also arranged in Tiangong Academy. Their study time is longer than that of the workshop owner's children. The first period is half a year.
With such favorable conditions, even Xiong Wu himself wanted to go.
But when he thought of studying in a closed academy, Xiong Wu gave up the idea.
The opening ceremony of Tiangong Academy was very simple. Su Ze didn't even bother to hold a cultural gathering. He directly held an unveiling ceremony on April 21st. After hanging the plaque of Tiangong Academy, he announced that the academy Start teaching.
This strange academy also attracted the attention of everyone in Nanjing.
But the entire circle of scholars in Jiangnan looked at Su Ze's academy with cold eyes.
Some scholars even protested, thinking that a place where craftsmen's skills are taught can't be called an academy. Doesn't this insult the elegance of scholars?
Su Ze is a dignified Jie Yuan. Isn't it insulting to do this?
But due to Su Ze's reputation, no one was willing to stand up and protest. Everyone was watching with cold eyes, waiting for the day when Su Ze Academy could no longer run.
In addition to Xu Shixing, Xu Guo and Wang Xijue also wrote letters to Su Ze expressing their dissatisfaction, believing that Su Ze was a waste of time and a waste of his own bright future by running this academy.
But Su Ze naturally didn't care about their opinions, and soon these scholars were attracted by other things.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" is sold.
Mr. Lu, who sells pork on Hubu Street, did not open the door today.
After returning to Suzhou last time, Su Ze returned to Nanjing and frequently traveled between his home and Tiangong Academy.
Lu Er simply lay down and didn't even bother to follow Su Ze. He directly wrote down his itinerary in his daily report, and then sold meat at home.
Lu Er even thought that if he stopped being a royal guard, selling meat would be a good business?
These days, neighbors come to him every day to sell meat, so Lu Er doesn't even dare to open the door casually.
"Second Master, I bought the book."
Lu Er is also literate, otherwise he would not have been entrusted with such a task.
A creation from heaven? A few days ago, the bookstore in Nanjing City was promoting the release of Su Ze's new work. Lu Er kept people watching and asked his subordinates to queue up overnight to buy a book.
Not a drama? Not a novel either?
What exactly is Tiangongkaiwu?
Lu Er opened the book in confusion, what is this? A new version of "What a Mean Thing"?
Wait, it seems different?
Lu Er opened "Tiangong Kaiwu", and the first article was "Gan Making".
Gansu, what is this?
Lu Er looked at it and realized that this was actually a secret recipe for making sugar.
The more Lu Er looked at it, the more surprised he became.
Su Ze started with sugarcane cultivation and described the process of sugar production in detail.
It is full of pictures and texts, starting with the types of sugar cane and also drawing the sugar cane varieties most suitable for making cane sugar.
How to plant, how to take care of sugarcane fields, how to protect and treat common pests, and when to harvest. Su Ze wrote in very detail, with pictures in key places, and all in vernacular. Lu Er did not. Even Jin Yiwei, who has farmed the ground, can understand it.
Immediately afterwards, Su Ze drew a sucrose pressing machine and wrote in detail the method of making the press.
Next, is how to refine sucrose.
Su Ze gave a simple concentrated black cane sugar and a detailed method of using egg whites to make sugar crystals. It was so simple that even Lu Er felt that he could make sugar crystals in his own kitchen.
Lu Er was completely dumbfounded. Is this fair to say? Can this be written directly on the book?
Isn't the making of sugar crystals something that has been secretly passed down from generation to generation and passed down from male to female?
How could it be written so openly?
Lu Er knew the price of white sugar in Fuqing in the capital. According to the detailed instructions in the book, Su Ze even thoughtfully wrote out the theoretical amount of sugar produced from one acre of sugar cane land. What Lu Er saw was a lot of money. ah!
What else is Jin Yiwei doing? Just go to the south and buy a few acres of fields to grow sugar cane and make sugar. Wouldn't this make more money than Jin Yiwei?
calm!
The production method is written in the book. Doesn’t everyone know how to make sugar? By the time they buy land and grow sugar cane to produce white sugar, they will no longer be able to make money!
Lu Er forced himself to calm down and turned it over again. What is the title of the next article? Curved tiller?
Although Lu Er has read the book, he still doesn't recognize the second word. However, the book has pictures anyway, which does not prevent him from continuing to read.
After reading it, Lu Er quickly understood that this article was about wine making.
Su Ze described various wine-making methods in detail, and there were even more than a dozen types.
This includes the fermentation and production methods of various liquors made from whole grains, as well as the production methods of wine, fruit wine and other alcoholic beverages.
From household low-alcohol rice sweet wine to more complex distilled high-alcohol wine, Su Ze illustrated and explained everything in detail.
Lu Er's eyes lit up. One of his major hobbies in life was drinking.
When he was a royal guard in the capital, Lu Er drank all kinds of fine wines in the capital and called himself the Wine Fairy in front of his subordinates.
But when he saw the wine list listed by Su Ze, Lu Er had not even drank half of it.
Just looking at Su Ze's pictures and descriptions of various alcoholic beverages, the alcohol bug in Lu Er's belly started to stir.
Especially those simple household wines, Lu Er immediately said: "These utensils can be bought in Nanjing, right? Go buy some rice back?" His subordinates immediately understood
Lu Er's thoughts, but this The subordinate asked again in embarrassment: "This wine song?"
Although Ming Dynasty did not question wine, wine was not something ordinary people could handle.
The Ming Dynasty also collected taxes on wine and vinegar, but unlike the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not collect taxes on the circulation, but on the production of distilled yeast.
If people want to make wine, they need to buy distiller's yeast from the government. By controlling the distiller's yeast, they can collect taxes from all those who make wine.
Of course, it is also possible for ordinary people to keep the wine koji privately, but if they are found out, they will be severely fined.
As a staunch supporter of small-scale peasant economy, Zhu Yuanzhang was very opposed to using grain to make wine. Therefore, from the early Ming Dynasty, the price of koji in the government was very high.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, as corruption intensified at all levels of government, the price of distiller's yeast became even more ridiculously high.
If Lu Er wants to experiment with brewing wine at home, he needs to buy distiller's yeast. When Lu Er saw his subordinate stretching out his hand, he immediately said, "You want money? Take my belt and ask for it!" The
subordinate was as if enlightened. Yes, he is a Jinyiwei, so why should he pay for some wine!
Seeing his subordinates going out, Lu Er touched his head and lamented that the Jinyiwei were really inferior to each other.
If he continued to read, Lu Er was completely numb.
This book "Tiangong Kaiwu" covers all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
The things written include:
methods of sewing and cutting various clothing fabrics, as well as methods of weaving cotton and linen.
The food that people use every day includes the preparation methods of oil, sauce, vinegar, sugar and wine.
Manufacturing methods and plans for houses, carriages, and boats.
It can be said that it covers everything for common people’s daily needs.
In addition, there are metallurgy, agricultural irrigation, ceramics, pens, inks, paper and inkstones, kitchen utensils, and agricultural tools, which can be said to be all-inclusive.
horrible!
Lu Er thought about the city of Nanjing and said before that Su Ze has economic talents and his business is like the God of Wealth descending to earth.
Now it seems that Su Ze is really the God of Wealth! His book is like writing all these ways of making money in the book. Lu Er has already thought about how many workshop masters will curse Su Ze, and how many people will enshrine Su Ze on the altar.
When his subordinate got the wine, Lu Er quickly asked him to go to the bookstore and buy a copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu". This book must be reported to the court!
Lu Er didn't know that among all the people who cursed Su Ze, the one who cursed the loudest was Xu Kun, the second son of Brother Xu's hometown.
"Is the spinning machine in this book really feasible?"
Xu Kun spread "Tiangong Kaiwu" on the desk. He looked at the old housekeeper opposite with red eyes, showing a ferocious expression of choosing others to devour.
The old housekeeper was trembling all over. He knew that his second son had a bad temper, but he never expected that a book written by Su Ze could make his son so angry.
Xu Kun just had no talent in the imperial examination, but he was not a fool.
He tried his best to calm down and asked:
"The looms at home have been built and will be sent to the island soon." "
It's not that the young master said that these looms must be completed as soon as possible. We cannot delay the important matter of winter clothes for the Liaodong frontier army." ."
Xu Kun continued to hold back his anger and said: "Su Ze's book said that the spinning speed of his new spinning machine is dozens of times that of the old spinning wheel. You know that if what he said is true, it means What?"
The old butler shook his head blankly. He was loyal to the Xu family, but as the Xu family's property expanded, he became increasingly unable to do what he wanted.
But for a big family like the Xu family, loyalty is always more important than ability.
Seeing the old butler's confused look, Xu Kun said angrily:
"If what Su Ze said in this book is true! It means that only one weaver can do what dozens of people could do before! The
old housekeeper took a breath and said, "Isn't this impossible!?"
Xu Kun suppressed his anger and said, "Hurry up and find the best loom craftsman in the city and make cotton ginning according to Su Ze's drawings." Here come the spinning machines and spinning machines!"
"Old servant, go and do it now!"
The Xu family just spent a lot of money to build so many spinning machines. If Su Ze's spinning machines can really hold up to dozens of spinning machines, then This means that these looms of the Xu family are all in vain.
Xu Kun didn't want to believe it, but Su Ze gave detailed drawings in the book, and Xu Kun didn't know anything about spinning wheels. After reading Su Ze's drawings, he felt that Su Ze's mule machine was really feasible!
Xu Kun was angry not because Su Ze's spinning machine was more advanced than his.
Instead, Su Ze printed such an advanced thing in a book and published it directly!
Isn't it because such an important machine is kept strictly confidential?
Take another look at this book "Tiangong Kaiwu", priced at three taels of silver.
Selling such an important technology for just three taels of silver?
Is there something wrong with your mind, Su Ze?
If Su Ze's spinning machine is really as capable as he said, it can run on dozens of old spinning wheels, then the Xu family is willing to spend thousands of taels of silver to buy the blueprints!
But now Su Ze has clearly and without reservation printed such an important technology in a book and sold it to everyone in the world for three taels of silver!
madman! Fool!
Cursing Su Ze again, Xu Kun felt a crisis.
It is said that Su Ze's Tiangong Academy will teach a more efficient spinning machine and loom.
If it were really promoted, the advantages of the Xu family's cotton textile workshop would be gone.
A medium-sized workshop with 100 people can use new machinery to equal the output of a large workshop with 3,000 people.
Xu Kun shuddered even more when he thought of this!
He carefully opened "Tiangong Kaiwu" on his desk. In the whole book, the part about cotton textiles only takes up a small part of the whole book.
Xu Kun couldn't even imagine what kind of impact the entire book would have on the entire Jiangnan area.
He once again called the servant waiting outside the study and said:
"Quick! Go to the bookstore and buy another copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu" and bring it back and send it to the capital by speedboat! Send it to my father!" Waiting for
Xu Mansion's arrival The servant went to three bookstores and bought the last copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu". The first batch of 500 copies of "Tiangong Kaiwu" were sold out. Many people bought a few copies of "Tiangong Kaiwu" like Lu Er and the Xu family. Ben, rushed to the north and south of the country.
Su Ze ignored the storm he had caused in Jiangnan. He stood in the lecture hall, looked at the two hundred students below, coughed and said, "
Today we are not going to talk about the way of saints, we will talk about this loom."
Su Zela Opening the blackboard, an enlarged drawing of a hydraulic spinning machine written on the blackboard appeared in front of all the students. Su Ze pointed at the complex hydraulic spinning machine and said: "This is three times more efficient than the
mule machine in Tiangong Kaiwu. Hydraulic spinning machine, now let me talk about the principle of this machine."
As Su Ze talked, the two hundred students present listened attentively.
When he first lectured, Su Ze only talked about the concept of "force", which both the children in the workshop and the weavers could understand.
But with Su Ze's in-depth explanation of "power", everyone's face showed an expression of listening to the heavenly book?
Is this force? Why is force so complicated?
Why is strength still related to arithmetic?
But even if they don't understand, everyone is forcing themselves to memorize it, because the smart students among them have discovered that Su Ze's complex machine was built step by step through these "principles" and "formulas".
[Lecture in public, Lecture Skill +18, Lv7, 187/3000]
Sure enough, the lecture was too in-depth. Only 18 of 200 people could follow Su Ze's ideas.
But it doesn't matter. Su Ze put down the chalk and said:
"In the following time, we will talk about the principles of hydraulic spinning machine in the morning, daily life of the people in the afternoon, and learn literacy and arithmetic in the evening." "It doesn't matter if you don't understand today, I will repeat
it Explain that when you leave Tiangong Academy, you will be able to make your own hydraulic spinning machine."
(End of Chapter)