Chapter 61 The Ming Dynasty’s Characteristic Social System
The idea of transforming the water system of the palace had already occurred to Zhu Zaijing when he took a bath in the bathroom of the palace for the first time.
It's a pity that the palace's finances were tight at that time, and Zhu Zaijing was unfamiliar with the place. Although he temporarily stabilized the basic market with his impressive performance at the beginning, he was still feeling weak in his heart.
Having been King Yu for several months now, Zhu Zaijing is also used to the feeling of being superior and the feeling of bossing and ordering people.
So taking advantage of the current financial conditions of the palace, Zhu Zaijing decided to transform the water supply system of the palace.
The current royal bathroom system should be designed according to some standards of modern life in later generations.
The first thing Zhu Zaijing wanted to transform was the interior design of the palace bathroom.
The original bathroom in the palace looked very large and luxurious, but in Zhu Zaijing's opinion, the various facilities and conditions were too backward.
So in Zhu Zaijing’s vision, the new bathroom in the palace must at least have a decent dry and wet separation design.
Also, the bathroom must at least have a decent toilet and sink.
These may be unprecedented for the Ming Dynasty, but for Zhu Zaijing, these are the most basic standard features.
Therefore, Zhu Zaijing’s bathroom renovation plan this time is not a small project that can be completed in three to five days.
The related supporting drainage and water supply systems must also have a certain sense of design.
Although it may not be as enjoyable as being able to supply hot water 24 hours a day.
But at least when you need hot water for a bath, you can complete the preparation within a quarter of an hour.
After all, given the strength of the palace, it still has this condition.
"My lord, do you think this design is okay?"
The designer Zhang Tianci from the Ministry of Industry drew the bathroom drawings described by Zhu Zaijing.
Zhu Zaijing took a look, then pointed to a certain position on the drawing and said: "Add a vent here. In the future, I will install an exhaust fan here."
Zhang Tianci glanced at Zhu Zaijing in confusion, what is an exhaust fan?
In the past two days, Zhang Tianci had heard many strange and new terms while drawing in Prince Yu's Mansion.
For example, nouns and gadgets that he had never had an impression of before, such as showers, toilets, etc., Zhu Zaicheng just opened his mouth.
And what I said is still vague.
Fortunately, other craftsmen are doing these things, and Zhang Tianci is only responsible for drawing, otherwise Zhang Tianci would not know what to do.
After the final renderings came out, Zhang Tianci looked at the design of the new bathroom in the palace he had drawn in great surprise. He never expected that a small bathroom could have so many functions. tricks.
Not only was there a rain shower area that he couldn't understand, but there was also a bathtub area that he could understand.
Of course, these are not the things that make Zhang Tianci confused the most.
What confused Zhang Tianci the most was the cold pool and sauna.
This cold pool is easy to understand. It is nothing more than a bathtub with cold water.
But what the hell is a sauna?
And that's nothing. In this bathroom, Prince Yu actually installed a "floor heating system", which is the floor heating system that will be familiar to later generations.
However, the floor heating of this era was different from that of later generations. The energy required for heating by the "earth dragon" of this era was supplied by the heat obtained by burning the kang. This consumption may be relatively luxurious for ordinary people, but for the rich and powerful palace, it is just an ordinary standard enjoyment.
However, this kind of enjoyment is generally concentrated in the back house of the prince's palace and the bedroom where the prince lives, and is rarely provided in other places.
But this time Zhu Zaijing also installed the earth dragon in the bathroom, which made Zhang Tianci think in his heart that Prince Yu might be a mediocre and inactive person who only enjoys himself.
But Zhang Tianci is not an official with a formal imperial examination background in the Ministry of Industry. He is just a technical officer with a sesame and mung bean status in the Ministry of Industry. Therefore, even if he thinks in his heart that Zhu Zaijing is a prince who is addicted to enjoyment, he only Just thinking about it.
And the bathrooms Zhu Zaijing wants to design are novel at best. Compared with other designs he had done for noble officials before, Zhu Zaijing’s designs are very simple and cost-effective. The entire project can be completed in less than ten taels.
It’s not like some high-ranking officials who want to use the best in everything, so that the materials alone may cost thousands of taels, let alone some arty calligraphy and painting stones in the room. of luxury.
So it is untenable to say how luxurious Prince Yu’s new bathroom is.
Prince Yu’s new bathroom is at best novel in style, avant-garde in design, and focused on enjoyment.
Finally, with Zhu Zaijing's approval, Zhang Tianci finally finalized the draft.
Zhu Zaijing looked at the finalized drawings of Zhang Tianci and praised: "Master Zhang is really a genius. Do you want to follow me in the future? My Shunyi Industrial Park will continue to expand. If you are willing , I hire you as the chief designer of the industrial park, how about ten taels of silver a month?”
Zhu Zaijing became interested in Zhang Tianci, a little-known little shrimp from the Ministry of Industry, and Zhu Zaijing became interested. The reason why I dare to poach him is that he is just a hereditary technical officer, not a serious official who came out of the imperial examination.
There will be no problem with this kind of official digging, and no one will say nonsense about King Yu's personal relations with foreign ministers.
After all, this kind of official itself has no political value and no political influence.
Among officials with serious imperial examination backgrounds, they are actually no different from humble craftsmen.
If we really want to talk about the difference between them, we can only say that their ancestors were lucky enough to have a hereditary iron rice bowl.
And this messy hereditary official system can be regarded as a major feature of the Ming Dynasty.
All kinds of jobs and occupations have hereditary official positions or private households.
Although every dynasty has this kind of artificial way of limiting some people to occupations, it is the first time that it has been broken down into such a fine level like the Ming Dynasty.
Although this method also provided a great help for the court to mobilize technical talents, not all of these hereditary technical talents are reliable.
Just like doctors, except that some doctors are really passed down from generation to generation and have some skills.
Most doctors with official certification do not have any medical skills.
And once a major war or disaster occurred, the imperial court would directly recruit such medical households to serve as military doctors or temporary corvees to treat victims.
Expecting these people to cure diseases and save people is just burning incense if they don’t put people to death directly.
Therefore, when Zhu Zaijing is looking for talents for his Shunyi Industrial Park, he also needs to put them to the test. It is impossible for everyone to want them.
Otherwise, what Zhu Zaijing was running would not be an industrial park, but a charity hall.
When Zhang Tianci heard that Zhu Zaijing wanted to poach him, he suddenly became excited. Twelve taels a month! Not one hundred and twenty taels a year?
Different from traditional civil servants, Zhang Tianci did not make a fussy gesture of resigning first and accepting later. He bowed excitedly: "I thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"
Zhu Zai Jing chuckled and said, "Okay, it's settled then. You and Meng Chong will explain it later. After the renovation of my bathroom is completed, you can go to Shunyi Industrial Park to supervise the work first. I will give you extra money every month." I’ll give you two taels of silver.”
(End of this chapter)