Chapter 493: Li Huan Goes to the South of the Yangtze River Again
Li Huan, who stayed behind at the government office in Nanjing, looked at Xu Pu, Feng Tai and other officials. He rejected everyone's proposal to hold a banquet to wash away the dust, and said directly: "Everyone, the purpose of my visit this time is to receive the information sent by the imperial court.
The official document has made it very clear that His Majesty wishes to develop maritime trade and has specially built treasure ships and other necessary ships for the fleet that can traverse the sea."
Xu stroked his beard and nodded slightly when he heard the words: "Don't worry, Duke Qin. We have ordered people to personally supervise this matter since we received His Majesty's order. I will definitely live up to His Majesty's favor and His Majesty's expectations."
While speaking, Xu Pu's eyes fell on one of the officials and said: "Su Wang, you are a doctor in the Ministry of Industry who is responsible for the shipbuilding affairs of the Longjiang Shipyard. It is up to you to introduce the Duke of Qin."
The official named by Xu stood up immediately. He first saluted Li Huan and other officials and then slowly said: "Qin Guogong and all your lords, the lower official Su Wang is in charge of all matters at the Longjiang Shipyard."
The chubby, rosy-faced official greeted Li Huan respectfully. Before he could finish his words, Li Huan interrupted him and said, "So Master Laisu should be very familiar with all the matters at Longjiang Shipyard?"
Su Wang's face tightened, and he quickly said: "I will tell you everything I know!"
Li Huan glanced at Su Wang, stood up slowly, and then said to Xu, Feng Tai and others: "I wonder if you would like to accompany Li to the Longjiang Shipyard to see the situation of the shipyard with your own eyes!"
Obviously they did not expect that Li Huan would go to the shipyard as soon as he arrived in Nanjing. Everyone was stunned, but soon Xu, Feng Tai and others realized it, stood up and said with a smile: "Since the Duke of Qin is so interested,
Then we’ll just follow the Duke of Qin.”
Longjiang Shipyard
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing, with rivers surrounding Beijing and developed water transportation. Therefore, since the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has established the largest scale, complete division of labor, neat lines, and personnel on the basis of the Longwandu Shipyard in the Song Dynasty.
The Longjiang Shipyard is complete and scientifically managed. The imperial court gathered the world's most skilled craftsmen in the shipyard and built the astonishing Ming Dynasty treasure ship. With the Longjiang Shipyard and other shipyards around the world, the Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty was able to build the galloping ship.
At sea, Zheng He's fleet crossed thousands of miles of blue waves.
However, this is the glorious past of Longjiang Shipyard. The Ming Dynasty has not focused on maritime affairs for many years. No one knows what the current situation of Longjiang Shipyard is today.
Although the Longjiang Shipyard was fully equipped with fortifications in the past, both the craftsmen and various materials required for shipbuilding were fully prepared, but what is the situation now? If Li Huan didn't go there and see it with his own eyes.
, to be honest, he was really worried.
At least as far as he knew, in recent years, due to the lax management of the imperial court, a large number of skilled craftsmen had been lost, and even the materials needed for shipbuilding had been appropriated for private use.
In particular, many powerful families who are privately engaged in maritime trade along the southeastern coast have not let go of such a shipyard. Li Huan does not know how much of the Longjiang Shipyard, which is now known as the world's largest shipyard, can be left.
background.
When Li Huan and his party arrived at the Longjiang Shipyard, Li Huan saw a huge building complex stretching for several miles in sight.
Docks one after another, ships still under construction in the docks, and many craftsmen coming and going, all show a busy scene.
Seemingly seeing Li Huan looking at the shipyard, Xu stepped forward and smiled at Li Huan and said: "Since receiving the imperial decree, we gathered craftsmen and started building ships on the dock, and some rushed to transport grain.
Boats and other small and medium-sized vessels have almost reached the final stage, and it won't be long before they can be launched into the water for trial trials."
Regardless of what's going on inside, at least for now, Longjiang Shipyard is a busy scene with people coming and going.
Li Huan and his party walked into the shipyard. Before reaching a dock, they saw that most of a medium-sized ship had been built, and dozens of craftsmen were concentrating on laying the deck.
However, just by looking at the size of the boat, one could tell that it was an ordinary small boat. Li Huan just glanced at this small boat casually and walked towards a dock in the distance.
You can tell that the dock is huge at first glance, especially when the dock is already showing a bit of a huge scale.
The rebuilt treasure ship looks like a ship, and when you look at it, you will feel an overwhelming momentum.
As they approached, Li Huan looked at the huge ship in front of him and said, "Is this the Ming Dynasty treasure ship that the Sanbao eunuchs used to sail to the West in the past?"
Su Wang, who was following at the side, quickly said: "To be honest, this is the Zheng He treasure ship that Longjiang Shipyard started building immediately after receiving the imperial order. This ship is 38 feet long and 15 feet wide.
"It is four stories high and can carry 13,000 materials once completed."
Hearing this, Li Huan showed a look of satisfaction on his face. Military weapons such as giant ships and cannons are the most popular among men. It can be said that as long as a normal person sees this giant ship with a height of more than ten meters, his blood will boil and his heart will boil.
Give birth to infinite pride.
After looking carefully, Li Huan looked at the shipyards everywhere. Wherever he looked, there were ships being built at at least a dozen shipyards.
But soon Li Huan couldn't help but frown, his eyes fell on Su Wang and said: "How many treasure ships like this have been built by Longjiang Shipyard now?"
Su Wang was startled for a moment, and then he quickly said after he realized what he was doing: "My lord, now only this treasure ship is under construction in the shipyard!"
Li Huan narrowed his eyes and said, "Don't you know how many treasure ships the imperial court is planning to build this time? Why has only one treasure ship started to be built after two months? What is going on?"
A force of power naturally came towards Su Wang and other shipyard officials, and there was a thud. Su Wang and others knelt down and kowtowed to Li Huan: "My lord, please forgive me! My lord, please forgive me!"
"
Looking down at Su Wang and others, Li Huan said coldly: "I would like to ask you, now Longjiang Shipyard can start building a few treasure ships at most at a time, why do you only start building one?"
Su Wang opened his mouth, gritted his teeth and said with a trembling voice: "Back to my father-in-law, the Longjiang Shipyard has more than forty docks. Among them, there are six docks suitable for building treasure ships, and six treasure ships can be built at the same time."
Li Huan sneered and said, "If that's the case, why did you only build one ship? Could it be that you didn't take the imperial court's decree to heart?"
Su Wang and others were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground. Faced with Li Huan's questioning, they subconsciously looked at Xu, Feng Tai and other officials standing aside.
At this moment, Xu Pu and Feng Tai looked at each other, and Xu sighed and stepped forward to explain to Li Huan: "The Duke of the State doesn't know anything. It's not that the Longjiang Shipyard does not respect the imperial will. It's actually Longjiang."
The shipyard can only raise the master craftsmen and huge aniseed needed to build a treasure ship now."
As he spoke, Xu pointed to the giant aniseed that was several feet long not far away and said: "My lord, only this kind of sun-dried aniseed can be used to build treasure ships. Now the shipyard only has enough aniseed to build a ship."
In addition, there is a serious loss of craftsmen who are capable of building treasure ships. Longjiang Shipyard has tried its best to gather a group of craftsmen." Li Huan looked at Xu Manchuan and said: "As far as Li knows,
Longjiang Shipyard is the number one shipyard in the Ming Dynasty. Over the years, we have accumulated countless materials needed for shipbuilding. Why can we only make up the materials needed for one treasure ship now? Who can tell me what these materials are?
Where did all the materials go?”
When he said this, Li Huan's eyes looked like lightning at the officials present, as if he wanted to see through these people.
Su Wang and others, who were already paralyzed on the ground, were shocked and frightened when Li Huan glared at them.
All fools know where the aniseed materials that were dried in the Longjiang Shipyard went. You must know that the aniseed materials that can be used to build ships are all truly top-quality materials. They are even used by many officials to lay in coffins.
I can't find such good stuff.
Every piece of wood that can be selected as a shipbuilding material can be said to be carefully selected. It comes from the mountains and swamps and it takes an unknown amount of effort to transport it to Nanjing.
Originally, these aniseed materials were used for shipbuilding, but the imperial court did not care about the Longjiang Shipyard at all, so that many of the aniseed materials used for shipbuilding were resold by shipyard officials under various names, or
It was sold to powerful local officials and used by these people as materials for their future coffins, or it was directly resold to maritime merchants in the southeast and used by those people for shipbuilding.
Now the Longjiang Shipyard can still be left
With so much aniseed, it’s quite difficult to be honest.
Li Huan was somewhat aware of these situations before he came. Although he looked angry, Li Huan was not as angry as he showed in his heart.
Things like this have already happened, and no matter how angry you are, you can't change the situation.
But other people don’t know what Li Huan is thinking. They only know that Li Huan kills people like crazy. Once Li Huan gets caught, it will be commonplace for Li Huan’s temperament to confiscate his family and exterminate his clan. When everyone is
Thinking that Li Huan was definitely going to take this opportunity to clean up and cause a bloody storm in Jiangnan again, he heard Li Huan sneer and say: "Where did those shipbuilding materials go?"
, I also know something in my heart. Before going to the south of the Yangtze River, I was planning to clean up a group of moths. However, Your Majesty has a good life and advised me not to cause more killings. Since I agreed to your Majesty, then for the sake of your Majesty's face.
Today, I would like to give you a face. As long as you can make up for me the missing shipbuilding materials over the years, then I can forgive you. Otherwise, don't blame me for turning against you.
"
Many people couldn't help but be stunned after hearing Li Huan's words. It seemed that they didn't expect that Li Huan could be so easy to talk to, and they didn't react for a moment.
However, after some officials reacted, they hurriedly said to Li Huan: "Don't worry, sir, I will definitely make up for the missing ingredients."
Some people subconsciously wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads, but at this moment, a white-haired official looked at Li Huan and said, "Sir, I don't know whether to say something or not."
Li Huan glanced around and saw that this man was dressed well. If nothing else happened, he should be a master craftsman from Longjiang Shipyard.
Li Huan nodded slightly and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it."
The old man slowly said: "The shortage of materials in the factory is not impossible to make up with some effort, but many craftsmen in Longjiang Shipyard have either aged or left the shipyard, and some of them still master the technology of manufacturing treasure ships.
There are already very few master craftsmen. Without enough craftsmen, no matter how abundant the materials are, it is impossible to build too many treasure ships."
Li Huan raised his brows. The old man obviously got to the root of the matter. Without enough craftsmen, it was obviously unrealistic to build a ship.
However, since Li Huan went south, he naturally considered these issues, and after hearing this, he said: "This time I went south and brought hundreds of master craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and I will also send orders to the southeast coast.
I have to look for outstanding craftsmen from the shipyards in the land, and with the help of my Ming Dynasty, I don’t believe that we can’t build a big ship.”
Hearing this, the old man couldn't help but show joy on his face, and he bowed to Li Huan and said, "My lord, you are wise."
At this time, many officials were obviously much more relaxed. After all, compared to the previous fear, now that Li Huan had explained everything, everyone felt much more at ease.
Next, Li Huan inspected many storage warehouses and craftsmen's residences in the Longjiang Shipyard. It took him only half a day to take a quick look at the huge Longjiang Shipyard.
After leaving the Longjiang Shipyard, Li Huan ordered to repair the living environment of the shipyard craftsmen, increase the craftsmen's food wages, and at the same time issued an order to search for skilled craftsmen among the people.
Li Huan personally summoned the officials of the shipyards in Nanjing's left-behind mansion. According to Li Huan's request, with the Longjiang Shipyard as the leader and supplemented by more than a dozen other large and small shipyards in the Ming Dynasty, one hundred treasure ships must be built within three years, and the remaining auxiliary ships must be built.
More than a thousand ships.
I have to say that Li Huan's request is really not that difficult. Although Li Huan gave three years, you must know that shipbuilding cannot be built in a month or two, especially the level of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Ship.
It can be said that the construction time of a treasure ship, even if there are enough craftsmen and abundant raw materials, will take at least about half a year.
Based on the capabilities of Longjiang Shipyard, if the scale of the shipyard is not expanded, at most, more than ten treasure ships can be built in one year.
Even a few local shipyards can build treasure ships with the support of Longjiang Shipyard, but it is certain that even with the local shipyards, twenty treasure ships a year can be built, which is what the Ming Dynasty is today.
's limit.
However, Li Huan requested that hundreds of treasure ships be built in three years. Therefore, both the Longjiang Shipyard and the large and small shipyards controlled by the Ming Dynasty officials must expand immediately, otherwise they will never be able to fulfill Li Huan's request. [Please vote]