Forbidden City, Fengtian Temple, East Warm Pavilion.

Zhu Cihong was holding the last imperial meeting of the two governments in the second year of Hongxing.

The hall of the East Warm Pavilion has just been renovated, and it is no longer the "Juyi Hall" style of the hall, but a Western-style conference hall with a long table in the middle and a circle of chairs around it.

Emperor Zhu sat on a high-backed chair on his head, and in front of him placed three models of wooden sailboats, which were the so-called models of the Great Bird Ship of Ten Thousand Stones.

This "Ten Thousand Stone Big Bird Ship Design Order" issued by the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of War is also a milestone in the shipbuilding history and industrial history of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Because this is a "design order", although the handicraft and shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty is not bad, there is no concept of industrial design. In recent years, as more and more handicraft workshops have been opened by Dutch and Portuguese merchants in Daming, the Gezhijing School has also cultivated some craftsmen with rough geometric drawing (it was Zhu Cihong who ordered the Royal Chamber of Commerce, the Zheng family and the Shen family to send young and intelligent craftsmen with rough writing to the Beijing School for further study), and now I can finally draw a design drawing that Zhu Cihong can understand.

Of course, the design of the Wanshi Big Bird Boat can not only look at the drawings, but also have models of various sizes - with the model, it can be put in the Xuanwu Lake for the test of anti-sinking, wind resistance and load resistance.

The three models of sailing ships now placed in front of Zhu Cihong are the three models of the Wanshi Big Bird Boat that have passed the Xuanwu Lake test, which are provided by Nanjing Shipyard (owned by the Royal Chamber of Commerce), Shanghai Shenjia Shipyard, and Anping Zhengshi Shipyard.

The Shipbuilding Department of the Ming Military Department will later place another order for a 10,000-stone ship to the three shipyards - the three shipyards will build three 10,000-stone ship for sea trials, and after the one-year trial period, the pros and cons will be evaluated to select the final winner.

After that, the three shipyards will standardize production according to the winning design scheme – which is also Zhu's attempt to introduce the concept of standardization into handicraft production.

According to Emperor Zhu's vision, the cost, seaworthiness, maneuverability, safety and other indicators of standardized production of Wanshi Big Bird Ship should be relatively ideal, and it is convenient for mass production.

With the Wanshi Big Bird Ship that could produce in large quantities, the Ming Dynasty was able to send enough immigrants overseas and bring back grain at the same time.

"Quan Guogong, if you use this kind of Ten Thousand Stone Big Bird ship to transport grain, can your family's ship line be profitable?" Zhu Cihong looked at the three bird ship models in front of him, and at the same time asked Zheng Zhilong about the profit of overseas grain transportation.

If Zhu Cihong wanted to use overseas colonial development to solve the problem of more people and less food at home, he had to make careful calculations and take into account costs and profits. It's not that you can't lose, the colonial cause is also a venture capital (at least Zhu Cihong treats it as a venture capital), and it is impossible to make every profit. Moreover, big transactions generally have a process of losing money first and then earning, and it is normal to burn some money at the beginning of the project.

But this does not mean that you can let go of casual losses - Zhu Cihong's colonial trade is not to go out to dig for gold, but to go out to farm, and there is no huge profit from farming, so you must be careful in your calculations.

The big profiteer Zheng Zhilong has already calculated, so now he has a painful face, shakes his head and says, "It's not easy to do, it's not easy to do...... It is one thing to piggyback on grain and rice, but it is another thing to specialize in shipbuilding and transporting rice. Just don't pay for the grain and rice, anyway, the merchant ships imported are all lightly loaded, and there is no additional cost for loading them at all.

But it's different to build a 10,000-stone boat for transporting rice! If this kind of boat is really to be built, it is necessary to use Siamese rouge (teak), and the cost of a large bird boat will not be less than 15,000 taels. How much do you get for a year to take out 15,000 taels and lend them? Two thousand taels isn't too much, right?

And to control this big bird boat well, at least forty or fifty sailors must be employed. How can you get four or five thousand taels a year for personnel expenses, right?

There is also the Nanyang tax (the fee charged by the Zheng family's sailors) and the tax for inbound ships to be paid, and the sum of the two is two or three thousand taels.

Also, How many round trips can a large bird boat run in total? What is the probability of being sunk by wind and waves? What are the chances of encountering pirates? A big bird boat is 12,000 taels a year, and the cost is not much at all! How much rice do you have to transport to earn the cost?

So it's not easy to do business! Unless the imperial court can subsidize the cost of shipbuilding. It may be easier to make up six thousand taels for a boat. ”

Of course Zheng Zhilong is a traitor! It was not right at all that he calculated the account for Emperor Zhu!

First of all, the cost that Zheng Zhilong said was the price of the artillery. The Zheng family has naval warships, and there is no need to add cannons to the merchant ships that transport rice - merchant ships are merchant ships after all! No matter how strong it is, it can't be compared with a warship.

And there are only forty or fifty crew members in total, and they have to operate ships and guns, how much combat effectiveness can they have? So the artillery of armed merchant ships is basically something to scare people.

The Zheng family's own big bird boat does not need to be loaded with guns, so the load is more and the cost is lower, 12,000 taels is enough to build a 10,000-stone big bird boat.

Secondly, the Nanyang tax was collected by the Zheng family themselves. The Zheng family's ship is handed over to himself, which is no different from not handing it over. However, the entry (port) tax of the ship, even if it is paid according to the standard, is still deducted from the tax with grain, and the actual payment is not so much.

Moreover, these large bird boats carrying grain will not be empty when they go abroad. The same can transport people and goods, even if there is no profit from the import of grain, it can still be profitable to transport people and things abroad.

In the end, with the long and large orders of shipping grain back from Jin'ou and Jinghai, it was necessary for the Zheng family to rebuild their own fleet and replace all the merchant ships with this mass-produced large bird boat - when all the ships were of the same type, and they were all large ships, the operating costs could be greatly reduced.

If the imperial court can provide a subsidy of 6,000 taels of silver for each big bird boat, then Zheng Zhilong can earn even more profits......

You old profiteer!

Zhu Cihong also knew that Zheng Zhilong was pit his own silver!

But he still smiled and agreed: "Okay, let's make up 6,000 taels...... However, the import duties and other taxes payable cannot be discounted.

In addition, can I make up for the surplus in the household department? If not...... Why don't you just supply the land of the Golden Ou Army! How about a boat to make up 3,000 acres? ”

"Make up 3,000 acres? Okay! Zheng Zhilong nodded without thinking about it.

This old fox is good!

He knew that Zhu Cihong refused to ask for silver! But the land of the Jin Ou Army is there, and if you don't have it, you can still grab it.

So what he wants is land!

Although these lands are wasteland, as long as they are willing to invest in reclamation, the income is still guaranteed - the Jin Ou army has land, although it is not very fertile, but the climate is suitable, and the two crops a year are stable. One acre of paddy field is planted so-so, and it is not too difficult to harvest two or three stones of white rice a year, and at least 6,000 stones can be harvested in 3,000 acres of land.

As long as there is capacity, someone (the imperial court) is willing to buy it at the price of one stone, one tael, two or three coins (the price of white rice), and this transaction can definitely be profitable!

Of course, this is a trade that only a merchant can do! Businessmen have capital, can operate, do not lack technology, and can bear certain risks. Relying on samurai or poor middle peasants, that will not work......

......

"Your Excellency, how is it? His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire is not easy to deal with, right? ”

After a long walk around Nanjing, Justice Manila has returned to the Wujia Garden in Shanghai to meet again with the Dutch ambassador, Fan. The Dutch embassy is not in Nanjing, but in Shanghai.

"This is an ambitious, at the same time quite broad-minded, not arrogant Eastern Emperor!"

Caballero gave a pertinent assessment.

He paused, and said with certainty: "I think we should limit their ability to fight in the ocean as much as possible...... It is unthinkable to send a landing force of tens of thousands of people to the shores of China, but we also have to prevent them from having the ability to project large numbers of land forces on the shores of Batavia and Manila. ”

In fact, all he really wanted to defend was America!

Fan. Dimon laughed: "What if...... I mean, wouldn't it be better if we could draw the energy of the Ming Emperor back to the vast East Asian continent? ”

"Attract back to the mainland?" Caballero was stunned, "Ambassador, what can you do?" ”

"Yes, there is a way to ......" Fan. Dimon nodded repeatedly, "I know a few merchants of the British East India Company, and they have close contacts with the Qing court in the north of the mainland!" ”