Wei Qing led Gong Ziguang and his party to the north five or six hours before Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui to catch the journey. Gong Ziguang and the other Dacheng nobles entered the territory of Tang, boarded a ship from a small village in the middle of nowhere by the sea, and waited on the big ship for only more than three hours before Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui arrived with the other forty or so people of the mission.
There is no freshwater river leading inland to the small seaport, and the commercial cargo ships do not dock here, but go to the estuary of a dozen miles north of the small seaport, from which the cargo ships can drive directly to the Tang capital.
It turns out that in order to secretly buy labor, Zheng Yuming let Ma Ren spend 10,000 gold every year with the fiefdom nobles to buy the right to use the small seaport and the village, the fiefdom nobles who own the small seaport get 10,000 gold, almost did not die of joy, he simply can not figure out a nothing of the seaside village, there will be people willing to pay a huge sum of money to rent.
The village near the small seaport was a small village of only 300 to 400 people, and the villagers used to make a living by fishing for food. After the harbor was leased, the village tax was exempted, a few fishermen who rowed well were employed with high salaries, the village laborers could help the big ships to get paid for loading and unloading goods, the sea fish caught by the fishermen could be sold to the big ships coming from the south port to load the laborers, the income of the villagers in the village was increased, and the standard of living was significantly improved at once, so the villagers of the small village were very welcoming to the ships coming from the south port.
"Zheng Qing, where is this big ship made." Gong Ziguang was not seasick at this time, his spirit was still very high, as soon as he saw Zheng Yuming on board, he pulled and asked questions.
There were 1,500 materials of large ships in the natural harbor near the village, and Gong Zi Guang and the nobles of Dacheng were stunned one by one when they saw the ship, which could carry hundreds of people like a colossus, quietly moored on the seashore.
Multiple masts on the wooden boat are staggered in configuration, which can restrain traveling against the wind and also increase the speed, and the large sails are made of hard sail structure, which can withstand stronger winds. The two sides of the boat and the tail has a very deep into the water sculls, equivalent to modern ships on the propeller, with manpower to pedal, the driving force at that time can be said to be the strongest, even if there is no wind can also maintain the speed. Such a large ship could be called a giant-class warship with fully automatic control.
"It's made in Nambu." Zheng Yuming knew that the nobles of Dacheng were going to be surprised to see a large ship.
After Chu Chao Hui received the news that he was going to make a pilgrimage to the royal capital on September 9, he ordered the Nambu shipyard to start the construction of 1500-material ships with full strength, and made sure that the big ships were built before the envoys entered the royal capital. At that time, Chu Chao Hui was already arranging other ways to go on the return trip, 1000 material ships can also travel in the sea, but the sea is windy in the fall, in the sea navigation, the bigger the ship, the higher the safety coefficient.
When the delegation of Dacheng City set out from Dacheng City towards the royal capital, this newly built big ship also set out from the pier of Nambu, entered the sea from the Yangtze River, and kept traveling to the side of this remote seaport village of the Tang Kingdom to moor and standby. Ma Ren is the second son of the first batch of slaves bought by Chu Chao Hui, he was originally from the Tang Dynasty, and he knows more about the Tang Dynasty, and this time the big ship receiving mission is commanded by Ma Ren.
"Zheng Qing, what other surprises are you and Chu Qing hiding?" Gong Ziguang was sighing, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui were a bit like magicians in his eyes. He walked around the ship and was very curious about the ship's facilities.
"My lord, the Bermuda country has high shipbuilding skills." This 1,500 material large ship where considered large, Zheng He's treasure ship that went to the West Ocean was said to have 6,000 material.
"Is the big ship that your brothers took out to sea this big?" Wei Shen asked suddenly from the side.
"No, the sea ship that our brother took is three times bigger than this one, this ship can travel by land, it is not safe to go to the sea." Chu Chao Hui heard, Wei Shen can not get up to go to Bermuda country by boat, he does not want to do Columbus to sail, Columbus discovered the New World of sailing ship tonnage in 100 to 120 tons, similar to the 2000 material of the big ship.
"A ship that big will be fine when it encounters a storm, can this ship that is a few times smaller make it to Nanbu?" Wei Shen was worried.
Chu Chao Hui heard that Wei Shen was only worried about the safety of the big ship's navigation, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, "Only by lifting the waves as high as Ulsan will this ship of ours be in danger, there will be no big storms in the East China Sea this month, and a little bit of small storms and waves will be fine for the big ship at all."
As they spoke, the sailors had already untied the ship's cables, raised the anchor, hoisted the sails, and turned the rudder; the great ship gradually left the shore, and sailed out of the harbor, the land being thrown farther and farther away by the great ship.
The 1500 material big boat can carry more than one hundred people, this kind of equipment ratio is according to the navigation to calculate. Because if you are sailing, you have to carry one person, you also have to load one person's living materials, so the 1500 material big boat is not only can carry more than one hundred people, one hundred material is equivalent to 4.6 tons, the wooden boat can be calculated to carry 70 tons of things.
In order to reduce the rocking of the wooden ship when sailing, the various compartments of the wooden ship were loaded with ten tons of coke in addition to fresh water and food. These coke had just been discovered, the coke mine was in the territory of the Tang Kingdom on the border of Tang and Wu, the site of the coke mine did not belong to any noble, it was directly owned by the King of Tang. The local village people shouted coke as black stone.
Village people found coke because of lightning strikes, a heavy rain and thunder, the hillside in the trees on fire, the trees burned out, the hillside still has been burning for three days, until again until the heavy rain, only to put out the open fire. The village people feel strange, to the hillside to peel back the scorched earth to see, and found that the scorched earth under the black stone, stone to take home to put the stove can be used as firewood to burn the fire.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui had been trying to find coal to smelt metal and asked many merchants to help them inquire about this black burnable stone. When the Tang merchants heard about the black stone, they rushed to take a few pieces and sent them to Nambu. When Chu Chao Hui saw the sample, he laughed on the spot, this black stone was exactly what they were looking for, but this kind of thing was not coal, it was natural good coke, which was exactly the necessity for practicing steel.
Because the coke belongs to the king of Tang, Zheng Chu two people can not go to the king of Tang direct transactions, only with the local village people to reach an agreement, secretly with the grain for coke, coke by the merchants with the ship to the small harbor here to unload on the ship back to the south port.
Village people originally hunger and food are a problem, now as long as the basket of black stone blocks every day to go to Barra can be exchanged for a day's rations, of course, is very happy, one by one, the black stone blocks Barra quite joyful, in order to deal with the long term, the villagers keep their mouths shut to the outside world.
Calm winds and waves in the bay, the big ship and ballast cargo, the big ship traveling without much shaking, Gong Ziguang and the nobles of the city of Dacheng only slightly uncomfortable, and so the big ship sails out of the bay, the sea waves in the sea will be the big ship bumps to a large shake, never sat on a sea boat Gong Ziguang lying on the side of the ship to the stomach of the things spit out, was Zheng Yuming helped dizziness back to the cabin, and no longer able to get out of the cabin a step.
The other nobles in Dacheng City didn't get seasick as badly as Gong Ziguang, but most of them were lying down on their couches, and even Wei Shen, who had superb willpower, lay down. Only Chen Meng and Guo Huben, the ship's swaying had no effect on them at all, and they were more alive than on the shore.
Chu Chao Hui is very favorable to Chen Meng, to Chen Meng from time to time questions always give a satisfactory answer, only Guo Huben, Chu Chao Hui has a feeling of crying and laughing at him.
Guo Huben has always regarded Zheng Yuming as the god of his dreams, and he usually can't take his eyes off of him whenever he sees him. On this trip to the royal capital, even Gong Ziguang noticed Guo Huben's infatuation with Zheng Yuming. When Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui showed off their skills in the royal capital, Guo Huben's obsession with Zheng Yuming intensified.
This Guo Huben, because not seasick, every day when he wakes up to Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui is the cabin side of the sneak, hoping to see the heart of God earlier. Chu Chao Hui is deeply annoyed by this, the trip to the royal capital, he and Zheng Yuming more and more tacit understanding, the two unknowingly deepen the feelings of many, Zheng Yuming on Chu Chao Hui's intimate behavior began to have a response. To the boat above, Chu Chao Hui would have liked to take advantage of most people seasickness breathless, no one to disturb, and Zheng Yuming nest in the cabin to deepen the communication, and strive to do the deepest level of physical and mental integration.
Don't want him to sharpen his sword here, there Guo Huben's footsteps are heavy, in addition to eating and sleeping, Guo Huben is a constant ghost, and this Guo Huben claimed to protect the safety of the big ship, always keep vigilant, and shorten the sleeping time by half. That is to say, Zheng Chu two people undisturbed time is only four, five hours.
Guo Huben is obsessed with Zheng Yuming, but to the enemy of Chu Chao Hui is worship, to see the gloomy face of the worship idol as usual eyes shine. Chu Chao Hui on this always disturb him to talk about love, eyes with stars admirer did not polite, on the pretext of teaching Guo Huben martial arts, Guo Huben tossed only a breath hanging there.
When Chu Chao Hui tortured Guo Huben to the point where he had no strength to stand guard in front of his and Zheng Yuming's cabin, the big ship had also sailed into the Yangtze River from the sea, the Nambu pier was already in sight, and Chu Chao Hui had lost the opportunity for deep integration.
There are two waterways from Nambu to Tang, one is from the inner river, go to the inner river can not be too big boat, because the inner river curves, the riverbed is not deep, drought shallow water, five hundred materials of the ship can not pass, sailing to turn around, it is very time-consuming, usually seven or eight days to reach the border near the Tang, the goods to enter the Tang, but also have to go to a section of the land road.
And from the Yangtze River into the sea by sea, sailing ships can reach it in just four or five days, like this big ship of 1,500 hundred materials, because it has eleven masts and uses the tail yawl, it only took two days to return to Nambu.
Gong Ziguang in Zheng Yuming's support, from the boat stepped ashore, he was more dizzy, on land, he changed dizzy land. Big boat to Nangbu is already evening, Gong Ziguang no longer have the strength to ride back to Dacheng, that night, Gong Ziguang lodging in the Nangbu governor's mansion, the other nobles were arranged by Zheng Yuming in the Nangbu inn.
After Wei Shen went ashore and rested a little, his body recovered, and he asked Chen Meng to lead him around Nambu.
After the houses in the center of Nambu Village were burned, two rows of new two-story buildings were rebuilt, all of which were green brick and green tile, and all of which had been rented out, except for the inn and the tavern. Now although it was already evening and the sky would be dark, the store owners still had not closed, lighting up a kind of lamp that used vegetable oil as lighting inside the store to increase the bright light for customers to see the goods.
Every evening in Nambu is the time when many workers get off work, and most of the women workers in the textile factories take advantage of the time off work to shop for the necessities of their homes, and the merchants are the busiest during this time. The women workers had high wages and were generous with their purchases.
Looking at the large bags of female workers coming out of the store, Wei Shen's eyes were a bit straight, knowing that in other places, people worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. Like Nambu, when it was almost dark, there was still a large number of people lingering in the stores, it was a rare phenomenon. Moreover, the villagers of Nambu were all dressed well, with healthy complexions and smiles on their faces. When they saw Wei Shen and Chen Meng dressed as aristocrats, they didn't look frightened, but just slightly owed to show courtesy when they met face to face.
"Is this Nambu?" Wei Shen's feet paused on the concrete pavement. The entire street was as if it was paved with a single block of stone.
Nambu street avenue is Zheng Yuming spent a lot of effort to pave the cement is crushed limestone and raw coal, iron powder, coal gangue and other materials according to a certain ratio of water mill grinding into powder, and then after high temperature calcination processed into cement semi-finished products - clinker. Clinker and slag (steel mill slag), slag, gypsum, and then a certain proportion of people into the water mill into powder, before making cement. After the street in Nambu was paved, Zheng Yuming stopped making cement because he thought it was too laborious.
"Uh, it's Nambu." Chen Meng's eyes were also scanning around, after half a month of not coming, Nambu gave him a sense of strangeness again.
"What kind of country is that Bermuda country in the end?" Wei Shen lamented, the current appearance of Nanbu, give him ten years can not be built so well, and Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui only used less than two years, Wei Shen believed that Zheng Chu two people are according to their own homes to transform Nanbu.
"Why is the locker room outside? And is it in this odd shape?" Wei Shen pointed at the two green brick tiled rooms with a surprised look on his face. The tiled rooms had two doors, one with male dressing room written on it, and one with female dressing room written on it, and an elderly woman was cleaning in front of the door.
"This is a public locker room for the convenience of pedestrians coming and going." Chen Meng had also been curious about this locker room and had personally gone in to use it once.
"How come all the old people are allowed to work in Nambu?" Wei Shen saw another old man on the street pushing a kind of cart with wheels, which was loaded with garbage, and on top of the garbage were brooms, shovels, and dustpans.
"All the strong men of Nambu have gone into the workshop, the old men with strength do the easy work, and the old men are paid for their work." Chen Meng had been to Nambu too many times and was one of the nobles who knew Nambu best.
"How much pay is being handed out?"
"It says one gold per month." One gold converted to twenty-first century currency is five hundred yuan, a conversion that references pre-2010 prices in the Celestial Kingdom.
"Oh!" Wei Shen nodded, one gold pay wasn't a small amount, but it wasn't outrageous either.
"All village people in Nambu who are over fifty years old or who are not able to work are given a monthly allowance of one gold, which is said to be a pension."
"This is old age." Wei Shen's expression shook.
"Villagers who go to see a healer when they are sick are not charged; they pay for their own medicine for minor illnesses and apply for subsidies at the governor's office for major illnesses. Children in the village must enter the ancestral hall to become literate by the age of six, and children are supplied with free lunch every day." Chen Meng said while watching Wei Shen's face change.
Sure enough, Wei Shen stopped in his tracks, his mouth hanging open.
"Is this what it means to provide for the elderly, to educate the young, to provide for the poor, to provide for the needy, to provide for the widowed, the orphaned, the orphaned, the disabled, and the sick?"
Wei Shen looked around and felt like he was in a different world.
"Where did they get so much coin to maintain it?"
"Governor Zheng and Governor Chu section pick up, Nambu textile sold all the money and silk used in the village people." Chen Meng originally had the same doubts as Wei Shen, but after observing for some time, Chen Meng consciously found the truth.
Wei Shen was silent after hearing this, and after he finished strolling through Nambu Street, he took Chen Meng and his men back to the governor's mansion.
The governor's residence had already set up a dinner party, which consisted of some light and delicious food. Although light and delicious, but a lot of food for Wei Shen, have not seen. For example, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, and a kind of soup dumplings made of water-ground glutinous rice flour, which were filled with sugar with osmanthus flowers, and this kind of sugar was said to be called maple sugar.
Gong Ziguang did not go to the hall to dine, and ate a few soup dumplings in Zheng Yuming's bedroom before lying down to rest. The other nobles of Dacheng, whose bodies were not as delicate as Gong Ziguang's, were roughly recovered after an hour on shore, and they ate well from the light dinner of the governor's residence.
Except for Gong Ziguang and Wei Shen who were arranged in the governor's mansion, the other nobles stayed in the inn, the Nambu Inn was clean, simply furnished, with gorgeous utensils, except for the smaller rooms, the nobles were all satisfied.
After night darkness, from time to time there are security teams holding torches patrolling the streets of Nambu village, today the security measures in Nambu are at the highest level. In addition to all of the Nambu security team being on duty, Chu Chao Hui also sent Wei Qing back to the valley and deployed a hundred soldiers to patrol outside of Nambu village, and there were also more than two dozen people guarding the barrier at Hou Po village.
Wei Shen returned to his room after the evening meal without resting, but sent messengers to bring Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui.
"The two governors please sit down." Wei Shen saw Zheng Chu two people, his demeanor is amiable, he just now has been measuring this bedroom, this was originally Chu Chao Hui's apartment, as simple as Zheng Yuming's room, except for the bedroom furniture on the bed with Nambu brocade and silk, other than that, they are all the trees that can be cut down in the Weishan Mountain to build the original wooden furniture. Like jade glaze and other precious ornaments, a piece is not, Zheng Chu two people on the jade ornaments are the original Gongzi light given.
The big ship to disembark from the south port, it is inevitable to let Gong Ziguang and his party to see the development of the south port. But now Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui have been tied together with the Ulsanjunfu, we all share the same interests and have the same goal to strive for, Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui are not afraid to show their strength in front of the aristocrats of Dacheng, the stronger the strength, the greater the right to speak in the group.
"Is Nambu Spinning Fabric very profitable?" Wei Shen opened his mouth with such a sentence.
Chen Meng and Wei Shen came back from wandering around the streets of Nambu, and immediately looked for an opportunity to tell Zheng Yuming about Wei Shen's questioning and feelings while wandering around.
Now Wei Shen so asked, Zheng Yuming will know what Wei Shen is asking, Wei Shen in amazement of a textile workshop profits can be transformed into a village like a paradise on earth, Wei Shen interest in the profits of the textile factory occurred.
"Yes, the Nambu textile workshop is very profitable. It can be over two hundred thousand gold a year." Zheng Yuming hesitated for a moment and only cut the profits of the textile workshop in half.
"Two hundred thousand or so gold?" Wei Shen's mouth opened wide, the annual income of the Ulsan Monarch's Mansion didn't even exceed three hundred thousand gold.
"It's still a stretch to spend all of the two hundred thousand or so gold earned in Southport."
"How can that be!" Wei Shen couldn't believe that two hundred thousand or so gold would not be enough in Nambu.
"More than two hundred thousand gold will have to be taken out of one-fifth to train slave guards, for Nambu has no walls and needs guards to protect it, and these guards will have to be raised entirely in coin. In addition Nambu had to provide the exiles with tools, houses, and seeds to cultivate the land, which required large expenditures. In order to prevent disaster years, Nambu had to buy food from abroad every year as a reserve. When you come down to it like this, two hundred thousand or so gold is really not much." Zheng Yuming finessed the account with Wei Shen.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui both have a tacit understanding, civil aspects are Zheng Yuming out to cope with, so when Zheng Yuming and Wei Shen answered each other, Chu Chao Hui just sat quietly and did not interrupt.
"In this case, it seems that Dacheng is not expected to be the same as Nambu." Wei Shen looked at the brand new Nambu village, he wanted to build Dacheng to be as prosperous as Nambu, after knowing that Nambu's prosperity was piled up by the huge profits from the textile mills, Wei Shen was disappointed, Dacheng firstly didn't have chickens that laid golden eggs like the textile mills, and secondly, the population base was much bigger than that of Nambu, and a lot of gold coins would be needed to maintain it to allow the civilians to enjoy the welfare.
"How is it impossible?" Zheng Yuming was surprised. "Doesn't Dacheng produce paper anymore? That's money! It's a more profitable product than textile mills."
Ulsan has the raw materials for paper making, which are much cheaper than textile materials.
"But not many people buy paper." Wei Shen was distressed that not many people in Dacheng were literate.
"The cloth from the Nambu textile mill is basically all sold out of the country, and the paper should be sold out of the country as well."
"Pinned to the field?" Wei Shen's eyes lit up.
"You should advertise before selling goods." Zheng Yuming laughed bitterly, Wei Shen was truly a business illiterate, not even as good as Chen Meng.
"What is advertising?"
"Advertising is to let people all know the paper, all know the benefits and uses of paper. Wenzai can use paper as a gift, and first give it to the lords of the countries and the celebrities of the vassal states to use, the lords of the countries and the celebrities recognize it, and the paper is naturally recognized by the people who know the paper, and after using it and getting used to it, they are the permanent customers of our Dacheng paper."
"That's good, the entire Great Qin needs to use paper that has to be purchased from Dacheng." Wei Shen stroked his beautiful beard and laughed.
"Wenzai, with the coins, you can expand the army!" Chu Chao Hui hurriedly reminded Wei Shen of the main thing.
Wei Shen's two eyes radiated with light, his body filled with a kind of fighting spirit. "For the duke to have the help of the two of you, it is truly heaven's protection."
Wei Shen sincerely bowed towards Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui, from this point onwards, Wei Shen only took Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui as comrades in arms rather than as henchmen.