After indulging in the beauty of the yard for a while, and telling Xiyi to make a few follow-up arrangements, Zhu Yuan still had to start his afternoon work.

When Wu Zhen arrives, the grain transportation plan will be accelerated.

When he arrived at his own office in the outer courtyard, Zhu Yuan was the first to call the former Taicang Municipal Shipping Deputy to report on the situation and inquire about and urge the progress of the drafting of the new Municipal Shipping Act.

These days, Changbao has been drafting a new Ming Dynasty shipping law based on Zhu Yuan's request by collecting the relevant shipping laws of the Tang, Song, Yuan and other dynasties, as well as some suggestions put forward by Zhu Yuan based on his memories of previous lives.

Because of his past life experience, Zhu Yuan knew very well that if he wanted to promote the development of an industry, the most basic prerequisite was to have clear legislation.

Only when rules are set up, have laws to abide by, and cannot be changed overnight, can people invest, develop, and grow with confidence. The government can also collect taxes from a stably developing industry and transfer part of the taxes to continue to support related industries.

Industrial development creates a virtuous cycle.

After a rough discussion, Zhu Yuan asked Chang Bao to complete the first draft of the decree within three days. Just as he sent him away, Yao Feng came to see him again.

There is not enough flax in the shipyard.

Tung oil, lime and hemp are three essential materials for wooden sailboats in this era. They are basically used for caulking and waterproofing.

Zhu Yuan learned about this on the giant boat on the first day he left Jinling.

During the shipbuilding process, the rough gaps in the wood must first be filled with finely kneaded fine linen silk, and then a mixture of lime and tung oil is glued on the outer layer. The corresponding mixture is also used to seal the nail holes of the iron nails to prevent the iron from burning.

Rust. Finally, a layer of waterproof tung oil will be applied.

So, are there any better materials for doing these things?

have!

The problem is that from the perspective of Zhu Yuan, who was once a businessman, it is very simple.

cost!

Just like on the first day after leaving Jinling, I learned from an old boatman on the giant ship that Zhang Shicheng had used asphalt brought all the way by the big food merchants to brush the bottom of the ship for waterproofing.

The old boatman doesn't know the price.

But just think about it, a barrel of asphalt, after being transported thousands of miles, is probably worth the cost of building a small boat.

Therefore, tung oil, lime and hemp are the most economical and readily available shipbuilding solutions that coastal residents have concluded over thousands of years.

This is one of the reasons why Zhu Yuan lamented in his diary that day that he could not comment on the current shipbuilding technology. Under the current conditions, the ancients could think of everything in the field of shipbuilding. From the perspective of future generations, Zhu Yuan felt that what the ancients could not think of, perhaps,

It’s just that it can’t be done within the scope of existing costs.

After Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng discussed it, they drafted two official documents and asked them to be sent out.

The first one is to inform the coastal states and counties that they must continue to send the stock of linen material to Mingzhou without any delay.

In this era, hemp was actually a form of taxation, and various states and counties had reserves.

The second share is for Jinling.

I hope that Lao Zhu will send an order to all the states and counties in the Yangtze River Basin to send the remaining linen stocks down the Yangtze River to Mingzhou. As for other provinces and regions, they are too far away or land transportation is inconvenient, so we can only give up.

Zhu Yuan also discussed with Yao Feng the possibility of publicly purchasing hemp materials.

After all, if you have money in your hands now, there will be a bigger income next.

As a result of the discussion, this idea was temporarily abandoned.

The problem is still cost.

In this era, the logistics system is very backward. Therefore, if you want to purchase hemp materials extensively, you must send enough people across the state and counties to collect and transport them, and finally deliver them to Mingzhou. The price of a pound of hemp may be

That’s a pound of cotton.

Therefore, it is more convenient to collect it through the government.

However, the two have tentatively decided on another idea, intending to promote coastal states and counties to increase the scale of hemp planting, just as they had previously decided to plant tung trees on a large scale along riverbanks and roads in various parts of Minnesota.

These two things are different.

The tung trees will not take up farmland, and Yinghaisi can make the decision itself.

Mahjong.

This requires Jinling's permission.

In fact, Zhu Yuan has been gradually perfecting another idea recently. If it is to be implemented later, the amount of linen required will be very large. Because linen is not only a shipbuilding material, it can also be used to make cables and weave fishing nets.

There was a sudden shortage of hemp here in Mingzhou because Zhu Yuan had previously misappropriated part of it to weave large fishing nets and let the thousands-material sea-going ship he brought from Jinling try to go fishing.

On the one hand, this was to provide extra food for the soldiers and civilians who were busy everywhere; on the other hand, it happened to be related to the idea that Zhu Yuan had been brewing.

Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng were talking about the matter, and another official came to report that Tao Qian, the prefect of Mingzhou, personally escorted a batch of iron ore to the shore of the shipyard.

The two of them rushed to the west of the city together.

Iron materials are also necessary for shipbuilding.

Or for cost reasons, it is best to source iron materials nearby.

Through inquiries, Zhu Yuan learned that there was pyrite in the western mountainous area of ​​Mingzhou. The quality was average, but fortunately it was not far from the Yanjiang River. The Yanjiang River was a tributary of the upper reaches of the Yongjiang River. It first merged into the Fenghua River and then merged with the Yuyao River in Fucheng, Mingzhou.

, turns into the Yongjiang River and flows straight into the sea.

Therefore, the relevant iron ore can be transported downstream to Dinghai after being mined.

There is also a small episode in this matter.

According to Zhu Yuan's proposal, the imperial court had just issued a decree prohibiting random mining. Even if the local government wanted it, it must notify the Zhongshu for approval.

Zhu Yuan could do things cheaply, but he still followed the rules and went through a special process for this purpose.

While Tao Qian personally escorted the first batch of pyrite, he also brought some coal and stone samples. After Zhu Yuan saw it, he completely gave up the idea of ​​accelerating the drying of shipbuilding wood by baking, let alone using it to make iron.

The quality of the coal is so poor that it cannot be considered coal at all, but can only be considered as barely burnable stone. Moreover, mining is not as convenient as the pyrite near the Yanjiang River.

It's better to cut down the trees nearby and use them.

After all, it is still cost.

Like baking wood.

Onlookers might think, isn’t it just firewood? It’s all over the hillside, so why not just cut it down and use it?

The problem is, there is a cost to cutting firewood.

Firewood was a very common commodity in this era, and there were woodcutters who specialized in cutting firewood for a living. Even if Zhu Yuan could use civilians, they were not perpetual motion machines and had to eat, which was also a cost.

Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng calculated it carefully.

When building a drying kiln, each cave should not be stacked with too much material, otherwise the heating will be uneven. It is calculated based on ten pieces of wood in one hole. Slowly roasting will consume ten bundles of wood every day, and each bundle of wood will cost 10 cents. The baking time of the wood is also different.

Different, on average two months and 60 days, it is equivalent to an increase of 600 yuan in expenses for each piece of wood.

This does not include the cost of mining and transporting the wood itself.

At the same time, the loss due to improper control of the fire temperature that causes the wood to dry out, crack, and be scrapped is not taken into account.

Therefore, it is better to purchase it directly from the private sector at an average price of 1,000 yuan per material.

All in all, if anything is too laborious and turns a piece of tofu into the price of meat, even if it can be expedient in the short term, it will not last long.

What Zhu Yuan wants is long-term, sustainable and a virtuous cycle.

To a certain extent, this is also standard business thinking.

Any business that always loses money and has no possibility of big returns in the long term should not be done because it will definitely not last long.

Many of the things Zhu Yuan is operating happen to be standard labor-intensive industries. One more person means more costs. If the scale is very large, there may be some cost reduction through efficient management, but it is limited.

Not to mention that the labor costs in this era are basically just for food management. How can we reduce them?

Withholding rations was indeed one of the main ways for ancient engineering officials to make a fortune. However, unless Zhu Yuan was not afraid that the hungry soldiers and civilians would cook him, or Lao Zhu would catch him and cook him after the incident, otherwise,

It can't get any lower.

It was already evening after I finished handling matters at the shipyard.

Zhu Yuan rushed to the east dock of the city to meet Hua Gao and Wu Zhen. When the two generals saw him, they congratulated him on his birthday.

Hearing that such a large battle was returning from Jinling, others may not know the inside story, but Hua Gao will definitely not ignore it.

Hua Gao knew it, and Wu Zhen naturally knew it too.

Zhu Yuan smiled and bowed in return, asking the two of them to keep quiet.

He also promised that if he is too busy this year, if he has time next year, he will organize a banquet for everyone.

When it comes to birthdays, Zhu Yuan has never felt much. Birthdays in the last few years of his previous life were basically business affairs, and he would often get drunk the next day.

He quickly turned to business and had a preliminary understanding of the general situation of the 20,000 navy troops brought by Wu Zhen.

Twenty thousand people, divided into two parts.

The first part is about the officers and soldiers of Tianxing Guard from Jiangyin.

About eight thousand people.

Initially there were nearly 10,000 men, but they marched southward and lost 2,000 men in battle.

As for Tianxingwei, it was originally Tianxingyi.

After crossing the river that year, Lao Zhu changed the name of each army to "Yi", established the Wing Marshal's Mansion, and the commander under his command was named the Wing Marshal.

Hua Gao once served as the left wing marshal of the central, front, rear, left and right five-wing armies of Lao Zhu Zhangqian.

Why direct lineage?

Because Hua Gao brought his troops to seek refuge with Lao Zhu at the beginning, just like a rich lady who brought a large dowry to marry, and he stood in the right position during the turbulent period before and after crossing the river, and has always been loyal to Lao Zhu.

Also because of this, Hua Gao himself admits that his military ability is not as good as that of the Wu brothers, but his current status is still higher than that of the Wu brothers who prospered together with Lao Zhu. Even after his past life, his ranking in the Temple of Meritorious Officers is higher than that of the Wu brothers.

.

Talking about Tianxing Guard, it was the Tianxing Wing originally set up by Lao Zhu to guard Jiangyin. It faced the Yongxing Wing commanded by Geng Bingwen across Taihu Lake in the north and south, forming an eastern barrier against Zhang Shicheng.

After Yi changed to Wei, Tianxing Yi and Yongxing Yi became Tianxing Wei and Yongxing Wei.

After Zhang Shicheng was pacified, the two of them didn't tell Zhu Yuan clearly for a while, so Zhu Yuan could guess it.

Wu Liang, who was as considerate as a saint in everything, was most likely stripped bare and made the commander of the Suzhou Guard. Tens of thousands of Tianxing Guard elites who had experienced battles were sent by Lao Zhu to Wu Liang's younger brother Wu Zhen, together with Tang He.

Southern Expedition.

After all, the Wu brothers are still in charge, and it won't appear that Lao Zhu is trying to burn bridges.

This time, Wu Zhen brought Tianxingwei to Mingzhou again.

It is expected that it will also become a direct line of the Navy in the future.

The other part of the 20,000 people is about 12,000, including 6,000 national treasures and 6,000 civilians from eastern Zhejiang who were brought to the south.

This part of the soldiers and civilians did not have a clear guard organization and belonged to the rank of rural soldiers.

Zhu Yuan remembered that he had learned before that the Southern Expeditionary Army took away a total of 23,000 Fang Guozhen's water and infantry troops, including civilians, more than 30,000. This time only 12,000 were returned, even though some of them were lost to Tang He

Some of them were brought to the north, or some stayed on the southern front, but you can imagine how much they suffered during the war.

This is also customary.

If the surrendered troops are not severely depleted, they will have no way out, and relapses will inevitably occur.

Then there are the ships that Zhu Yuan is most concerned about.

Not counting the fast paddle boats attached to large ships for engaging enemies at sea or landing operations, there are a total of 379 large-scale ships, including 29 large ships with more than 2,000 materials, 77 large ships with a thousand materials, and the remaining 273 ships are all thousand materials

Inland sea vessels.

Zhu Yuan plans to eliminate all sea-going ships with a load of less than 500 tons. After all, ships are too small and unsafe for ocean voyages. According to preliminary estimates, the remaining ships have a theoretical total capacity of 260,000 shi.

How many of them can actually go to sea with simple maintenance in the near future will still need to be inspected and evaluated in detail.

Zhu Yuan discussed these matters with the two generals from the east dock of the city to the Huagao Mansion in the city. They briefly used them during dinner during the discussion.

It was not until the end of Xu Shi that He Xuan came to remind his young master that it was time to rest. Wu Zhen was shocked to see the eunuch next to Zhu Yuan for the first time, so Zhu Yuan got up and returned to his mansion next door.

When I arrived in front of the main room of the inner house, I got off the carriage, but this time the ladies did not come out to greet me.

The light is on in the bedroom.

Entering the door, she was greeted by Nuan Niang, who had appointed Qing Niang as a maid before leaving in the afternoon. She took off her coat and came to the bedroom. Under the red candle, Qing Niang had prepared a bright red dress for herself at some point, and sat by the bed with restraint and expectation.
Chapter completed!