11th year of Zhengde, April.

More than 30 official ships sailed through the Huihe River to Tongzhou.

This is thanks to Wang Yuan's improved dredging boats, dozens of dredging boats, working day and night for a year and a half, and finally completely dredging the Tonghui River in February this year – only to clean up the blocked section of the river, not to dig up the entire river silt.

From now on, the grain will finally be able to reach Beijing directly, and there is no need to transfer it by land after arriving in Tongzhou.

As a result, the household department saved a lot of money, and at the same time, many people lost their jobs, and the officials in charge of the transfer even greeted Wang Yuan's ancestors for eighteen generations.

The official ships that Wang Yuan is taking at the moment are all boats returning to the south.

The 1,000 Divine Machine Battalions were all on board, and the weapons were all front-loading flintlock muskets. They followed Wang Yuan to the Western Regions, and they haven't rested for two months, and now they are going to Zhejiang again. No one complained, and they were all very happy, because it was good to follow Wang Erlang. The officers who went out to the Western Regions were promoted by one level as a whole, and the rewards of ordinary soldiers were also in place, and the emperor personally sent people to distribute them.

In addition to the Divine Machine Camp Randomness, there are also many disciples of the Physics School.

Wang Wensu, who was already fifty-one years old, resigned directly from the household department and followed Wang Yuan south to Zhejiang. Bao Chaozhen and Bao Chaoxiang brothers, with more than 20 disciples, have been following Wang Yuan in the past few years.

When passing through Tianjin, Wang Yuan stopped for a short time and ran to his factory to have a look.

What was once a saline-alkali land is now extremely prosperous, with several inns and restaurants opened, and even a green building.

The simple wharves were built more formally, and the river was full of merchant ships.

"Sir!"

Chang Xing, the head of the factory, greeted him at the dock with his subordinates.

Wang Yuan approvingly: "You did a good job. ”

Chang Xing said with a smile: "When you eat the master's meal, you naturally have to do things for the master." ”

In ancient times, professional managers were still trustworthy, especially the shopkeepers who worked for officials and businessmen. There may be small actions, but you will never dare to come to the big ones, once you are caught, there will be no way to live.

Wang Yuan's students would regularly go to the factory to check their accounts, and if they could find out the problem, they would get one-sixth of the money embezzled.

At the beginning of the factory, there were five managers, and now only four remain.

The one who is missing is currently in the army in Gansu, and his house has been raided, and the whole family has been put into the lowly register. This is very simple for Wang Yuan, just fabricate charges casually, and all evil bureaucrats are so unreasonable.

Chang Xing pointed to a house on the east side: "Those are spinning workshops, opened by other families, and they specialize in supplying us with cotton yarn." ”

Wang Yuan is very happy that there are supporting enterprises.

Chang Xing said: "Their spinning machines are all stolen and imitated, and they can't be prevented no matter how strict they are." ”

Wang Yuan asked, "The latest spinning machine has also been leaked?" ”

"Isn't it?" Chang Xing sighed, "The leak is a factory clerk, and his family works as a female worker in the factory. The two of them pondered blindly according to the spinning machine, and drew the drawings of the machine in a daze, and sold them to the merchants from the south for 1,000 taels of silver. After the two sold the drawings, they ran away under the guise of going home to visit relatives. It is estimated that he accidentally exposed his wealth and was robbed in Jinghai County. The woman died, the man was seriously injured, and he died within a few days. ”

Wang Yuan asked: "In other words, our spinning machines are the same as those of other spinning machines?" ”

Chang Xing nodded and said: "It's the same as a spinning machine, but our new loom is not easy to imitate." There are too many parts, as long as they are not disassembled, the workers simply cannot understand them. ”

"That's fine." Wang Yuan nodded and said.

Wang Yuan's factory in Tianjin, there are more than 5,000 female textile workers. In addition, thousands of male workers are doing hard work such as transportation, and a factory protection team of 500 people has been built.

The factory protection team is a must, because there are pirates nearby.

The Japanese often go to the Changlu salt field to rob, and when the factory develops, there may also be a small group of Japanese robbers flowing here, anyway, you must prepare in advance, and by the way, you can guard against local thieves and thieves.

Wang Yuan pointed to the building next to the inn and said, "The business of this shop is not good, there are few people in the daytime." ”

Chang Xing explained with a smile: "This is a brothel, opened by a commander in Tianjin, and it can be very lively at night." ”

Wang Yuan asked, "There is no shortage of food, right?" ”

Chang Xing said: "There is no shortage of grain, but the price of vegetables is very expensive, and a lot of land here cannot grow vegetables, so it can only be transported from Tianjin. But the salt is cheaper...... Well, you know. ”

The price of salt is cheap because the salt on the side of the salt factory must pass through the factory gate when transporting.

Just unload a boat and sell it, enough for the factory to eat for a long time, but this thing has not been reported to the Salt Division, and it is essentially smuggled salt sold by the official salt factory.

This kind of dirty work does not need to be handled by the factory, and naturally there are people with great powers to set up a store selling salt at the wharf.

Wang Yuan came to the factory, the scene was in full swing, and the sound of the machine made by the textile was extremely pleasant.

The large-scale loom developed by Wang Xu and others is so powerful that the cotton yarn produced by himself is simply not enough, and must be purchased from a nearby veil workshop. In this way, the supply is still in short supply, and even cotton yarn has to be purchased from the people's homes, and now every household in Tianjin is spinning.

In other words, the factory opened by Wang Yuan did not destroy the traditional cottage handicraft industry, but instead led to the family handicraft (Tianjin only).

The cotton cloth produced is mainly sold to Beizhili and Shandong, and occasionally indirectly takes some household orders.

The household department should regularly purchase cotton clothes and transport them to the northern border towns. Self-owned cotton clothing merchants buy cotton cloth in bulk from Wang Yuan's factory, make cotton clothes and send them to the household department to make huge profits.

After inspecting the factory, Wang Yuan asked, "How much silver can you take out without affecting the operation of the factory?" ”

Chang Xing thought for a while and said: "According to the old man's meaning, the factory has been expanding. At the end of last year, the factory was repaired, and 300 large looms were ordered, and now only 5,000 taels of silver can be taken out. ”

"Five thousand taels, a little little," Wang Yuan said, "Let's move them all on the boat, I have an urgent need." ”

Wang Yuan naturally wants to do maritime trade, whether it is shipbuilding, buying ships, or purchasing goods, he needs a start-up capital.

Since the factory can only take out five thousand taels, let's go to Zhejiang Empty Glove White Wolf.

The imperial court doesn't have a ship, and it doesn't have a ship at home, but the people have a ship, and it's a sea ship that can be used for ocean transportation!

Not only ships, but also cannons!

According to the record of "Fujian Tongzhi", in the fifth year of Zhengde, the pirate Yang Kunlun attacked Xianyou County, and the maritime merchant Wei Sheng assisted the county magistrate to defend the city, and actually took out more than 100 Franc machine guns!

It's really fucking bold, it's a violation of the law to be a maritime merchant, and he can hide more than 100 artillery pieces privately, and the local magistrate didn't dare to report it to the court afterwards.

The more such maritime merchants, the better.

Wang Yuan was reluctant to accept gifts from maritime merchants on behalf of the imperial court.