In terms of machinery, the most brilliant achievement is of course the Zhang Jian steam engine.

In addition, the Jiangnan Precision Instrument Factory also successfully copied Western clocks and watches.

Bell towers like the one in Xiangshan Academy have been erected, which not only tell time for citizens every day, but also subtly change people's beliefs.

This is why churches and bell towers are always linked together in Europe, but in the Ming Dynasty, people only associate bell towers with science...

Smaller table clocks have also become a luxury item that the rich are eager to buy. Because the number of watchmakers is limited, buyers have to wait in line for a year or two to buy a bulky table clock... In terms of miniaturization, Chinese products are indeed not as good as European watches, but it has only been a few years? We can no longer blame them.

When wealthy dog ​​owners bring a clock home, they naturally put it in the most conspicuous place in the main hall to show off, which will attract the covetousness of more wealthy dog ​​owners. Nowadays, owning a clock has become a symbol of identity and status. Rich dog owners would like to let their servants carry the clock when they go out.

The same is true for bell towers. Although they are cheap to build, every prefecture and county still wants to have their own bell tower, and the more complex the structure and the more expensive the cost, the better. Driven by strong demand, it is estimated that it will not be long before clocks will have the functions of automatically playing music and dancing little people...

Moreover, the popularity of clocks, especially clock towers that everyone can see, has also brought about a change: people's awareness of time has been significantly enhanced, their lives have become more organized, and they can do more things every day.

This is easy to understand. People used to look at the sun, so they could only plan their time in the morning and afternoon. Now they can plan their time accurately to the hour, so they can plan more things. The clocks that can be seen when looking up also force people to be punctual, otherwise they will hear people bragging, such as "I bought a watch last year."

Zhao Hao remembered that someone in the West said that the representative of industrial society was not the steam engine, but the clock.

Because from then on time was no longer exclusive to the emperor and princes and ministers. As long as there was a clock tower, everyone could get such valuable information. As a result, people's lives were no longer as chaotic as before. They could finally plan their own time, their efficiency was greatly improved, and they would naturally achieve higher personal achievements.

The steam engine will never be as popular as the clock. It's just that the changes brought about by the clock are subtle and silent, not as violent and impressive as the steam engine.

Zhao Hao didn't know whether what he said made sense or not, because the famous sayings of philosophers are just like that, most of them lack logic, and are just empty talk without data support... Well, to show respect, let's change it to "golden sentence".

But in any case, it's all right to arrange it. Zhao Hao plans to install a scientific clock tower in all the counties in Jiangnan during the 25th year. In the future, he even plans to "send clocks to the countryside", but he doesn't know if he will be beaten.

In fact, there is another point, that is, the technology required for watchmaking is ahead of the steam engine. The process of assembling and debugging those blunt teeth and flywheels is to accumulate technology for the manufacture of Watt steam engine.

In addition, all companies in the group have completed standardized production specifications. The significance of this is no less than that of steam engines and clocks, because it means the industrialization of production methods. From then on, manual workshops can be called factories!

For example, after the standardization of shipyard production, ships can be built and maintained at different docks and shipyards; after the standardization of arsenals, parts of the same model of guns and artillery can be interchangeable, greatly improving the efficiency of manufacturing and maintenance. Especially on the battlefield, this advantage can be decisive.

Finally, Jiangnan Machinery Factory also improved all the manual or hydraulic lathes, boring machines, grinders, drilling machines and other machines from the East and the West, greatly improving their accuracy and efficiency...

~~

The only regret is the steel aspect.

During the First Five-Year Plan, the improvement of coke ovens was completed, and now coal for smelting has been replaced by coke. However, a big problem arose when it came to mastering steelmaking technology.

Originally, Mr. Zhao thought that the converter steelmaking process was the simplest, cheap and sufficient, so he planned to bypass the reverberatory furnace and do it in one step!

Who would have thought that his assumption would cause great suffering to Wang Yingxuan, the director of Institute 01.

In the sixth year of the Longqing reign, Lao Wang designed the converter with great effort. After adding several hundred kilograms of red-hot molten iron, he began to blow air into it with great anticipation.

At first, there was a violent reaction in the furnace, the temperature rose rapidly, and brown smoke poured out, which made the researchers who had worked hard for several years cheer.

However, it was a false alarm - after the molten steel produced in the reactor solidified, it produced pores and thermal cracks, and shattered into pieces with one blow, becoming useless scrap steel.

Director Wang was at a loss and had to ask Director Zhang for advice. Zhang Jian knew that his master valued steelmaking, otherwise he would not have placed the Iron and Steel Research Institute at the No. 1 research institute, so he reported it to Zhao Hao immediately.

At that time, Zhao Hao ignored his father-in-law's expression and rushed back from Beijing just for this matter.

Finally, after several months of arduous metallographic analysis, the cause was roughly determined to be that the phosphorus and sulfur content of the iron ore was too high, while the manganese content was too low.

Because too high phosphorus content will cause thermal cracking, too high sulfur content will make it brittle. Insufficient manganese content will cause pores...

It’s easy to deal with the insufficient manganese content, just add it.

The gray-black and steel-gray dyes in traditional paintings are pyrolusite powder. It is also a common coloring agent in the pottery industry. When it is heated with charcoal for a period of time, metallic manganese will be reduced.

Moreover, manganese can also react with sulfur in molten iron, thus killing two birds with one stone.

But Zhao Hao was not capable of removing phosphorus. He knew that later generations would use pure oxygen to create miracles. Unfortunately, with his current pedal-powered oxygen production method, the oxygen produced by electrolysis was only enough for breathing and doing a chemical experiment. It was undoubtedly a drop in the bucket and far from enough to blow into the converter.

So there are two options before Lao Wang and his researchers: one is to find low-phosphorus iron ore as raw material, and the other is to continue to improve the process and find a way to remove phosphorus.

After testing, it was found that the ore from Fanchang Iron Mine, which Jiangnan Steel acquired during the 15th Five-Year Plan, contained too much phosphorus. They also tried ores from Jinxian, Xingguo, Handan, and more than a dozen other places, but none of them met the standards.

As for the Ma'anshan iron mine that Mr. Zhao had high hopes for, he directly found a phosphate mine while prospecting...

Although the institute has not given up on looking for new sources of ore, it has turned its attention to improving production processes. It hopes that there will be a breakthrough during the 25th period.

Fortunately, the industrial age has not yet arrived. The pig iron and wrought iron produced by traditional blast furnaces, and the steel produced by hydraulic forging machines and carburizing methods are sufficient for the group's current use, and there is still time to solve these problems.

~~

Of the other major achievements, the medical field has already been mentioned and there is no need to elaborate on it. As for guns, gunpowder, and the maritime police force, there is no need to mention them at all.

In fact, the First Five-Year Plan brought about all-round progress. For example, the production efficiency of the cotton textile industry doubled, and the silk industry's output also increased significantly because silkworm diseases were controlled.

For example, in the past people only used water to grind flour. With the introduction of speed gears, water wheels can now output more stably. So they can be used to tan leather and forge iron...

These seemingly insignificant changes are indeed not as fascinating as the stories of emperors and generals, but they gradually change people's lives over time...

"Compared to five years ago, the per capita labor income in Jiangnan is now twice as much as it was back then." After giving a full four-hour report, Mr. Zhao's voice was tired and hoarse, but he was in surprisingly good spirits. He proudly announced to the representatives:

"And the labor income of our group employees is twice theirs!"

The thunderous applause rang out for the dozens of times, and the delegates' hands were swollen from clapping.

"This is a tremendous change in the two hundred years since the founding of the country! As social ills have become more serious and mergers have become more serious, the lives of ordinary people have been going downhill, and the Jiangnan region is of course no exception!" Zhao Hao continued in a deep voice:

"However, in the past five years, the situation has reversed for the first time! Five years ago, the people in Jiangnan could barely make ends meet, but now, they are already pursuing a better life!"

The employee representatives in the audience couldn't help but wipe away their tears upon hearing this.

The only couple representing them - Liang Sanmei, the workshop director of the sixth workshop of the Jiangnan First Silk Weaving Factory, and her husband Li Hua, the captain of the fourth construction team of the Kunkaisi Construction Department, could not help but secretly hold hands.

I can still vividly remember the poverty my family faced when they fled to the county town during the flood in Kunshan. It has only been six years, and our lives have been completely turned upside down. It really feels like a lifetime ago...

Oh, yes, at that time, Liang Sanmei didn’t have a name, just Liang. It was after she entered the factory that women also had to have names, so she just casually gave herself such a name. She regretted it so much... She didn’t expect that she would be a leader or a representative one day, she was so careless!

"Food is the primary need of the people. The improvement of people's living standards is first reflected in food. According to the survey of the Group's Research Department, the consumption of meat, eggs, fish and poultry by the people in Jiangnan has become as common as rice and vegetables. The oil, salt, sugar, tea and wine consumed by each family are on average twice as much as in the first year of Longqing."

"In addition, we have also monitored that the sales of various furniture, porcelain, tableware, luxury goods and cloth in Jiangnan have doubled compared to five years ago. The sales of books, pens, inkstones, paper and inkstones have increased nearly tenfold! This proves that the lives of the people in Jiangnan have gone beyond the stage of filling their stomachs and have begun to pursue higher goals!"

Zhao Hao finally said emotionally: "This is our greatest achievement, because it proves that we are not on the wrong path - we have indeed led everyone to live a better life! This is why the people of Jiangnan love us!"

The thunderous applause lasted for a long time, and a strong sense of pride reverberated in everyone's heart. Before the First Five-Year Plan, when Zhao Hao proposed to "be the vanguard leading the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty", everyone was still not very clear, and even felt that it was too wishful thinking.

But after the First Five-Year Plan, everyone realized how great their cause was. They really changed the Ming Dynasty! They led the people of Jiangnan out of hardship and towards a new life...

While changing the world, they are also transforming themselves!

But all this is just the beginning, because the people in the south of the Yangtze River have never been truly wealthy, and the great progress is due to the poor foundation.

Outside of Jiangnan, there are ten or even dozens of times more people struggling to survive...

The glory is in the past, and there is still a long way to go!

P.S. Don't be afraid, the 2nd Five-Year Plan will not waste space. I'm leaving for Shanghai tomorrow, and I'm going to take four days off. It's a good time to think about how to lay out the following plot...