The Wei River, that is, the Haihe River in later generations, the reeds by the river stretch for dozens of miles. Although it was a sunny day, the cold wind blew, and a burst of snow swirled in the reeds.

"Oh, Zhiyuan, I said it's such a cold day, why did you drag me here?"

Shrinking his shoulders, Zhu Yingzhen couldn't help but complain. Even though he was wearing a bearskin coat, he still felt bitterly cold.

"Guogong, the Western Company will be open to sea and trade in the future, and the most important thing is the wharf and merchant ships, and now there are no two, how can I not be nervous?"

Hearing Shi Yiwen say this, Zhu Yingzhen said directly and directly.

"Zhiyuan, although, although I am now the chairman, but, but you are not the president, this, this president is "summarizing and adjudicating its affairs", the company's affairs, or you do it well, I don't understand business, I don't understand the ...... of selling seas"

For Zhu Yingzhen, who is overindulgent, it is an extremely painful thing to blow the wind on this river dam on such a cold day, not to mention, he doesn't understand these things at all.

"Look at what Guogong said, the president is the one who works, and in the final analysis, the company still needs to be managed by the chairman."

Shi Yiwen had a smile on his face, he never thought of competing with Zhu Yingzhen for the position of chairman, after all, the Western company was the thunder he planted, and let the ministers and civil officials fight to the death of the thunder, once this thunder is buried, he will withdraw from it.

"Besides, the lower officials are still in charge of the banknotes, and they are really lacking in skills, and when the company is on the right track, it will still depend on the Guogong in the end."

"Either way, or not...... Hey, who let your kid lead the royal messenger over there? Tell me, what are you going to do with these things? ”

Endured the biting cold wind, Zhu Yingzhen looked at the reeds in front of him and asked.

"Is this the purpose of building the dock here?"

"Yes, Guogong, you see that the river in this area is wide, more than 100 zhang, and the shore is higher, so I think we can build the wharf here, I sent someone to inquire, the water here is three zhang deep, even if the shore is three zhang shallow water, there are about two zhang, only need a little rectification, you can use it as a wharf. However, the pier alone is not enough......"

Pointing to the reeds, Shi Yiwen continued.

"There is a need to build a warehouse on the wharf to store goods, and it is also necessary to build a shipyard, after all, we do not have a suitable sea ship now, everything has to be done from scratch, if you want to send the ship out next year, then you have to recruit a shipwright now, I have calculated, from the construction of the wharf to the shipbuilding, these need almost 50,000 taels of silver, and now the company's share capital has a total of 247863 taels, and the remaining silver is used as the share capital for stocking, I also want to run a seafarers' school."

"Seamen's school? What do you mean? ”

Zhu Yingzhen wondered.

"It's a place for training crews, after all, we can't always rely on others, especially the Jiangnan side, Guogong, you know, now the maritime merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have a monopoly on the maritime merchants, if we rely on them, in case they draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, dig up our captains and crews, and when the time comes, we will have empty ships and can't go to sea, so we have to use our own people, I think in addition to getting some sailors in the Cao army, we still have to train some captains ourselves."

Cao Jun!

It is a soldier who specializes in transporting grain, there are tens of thousands of people along the canal, since it is to the sea, it is natural to need sailors, naturally everyone has their eyes on the Cao army, although the company does not have a boat now, but in fact, among the Cao army in various places along the river, it has long been spread all over - the Western company recruits sailors with a monthly salary of 3 taels, and for the Cao army who can't earn a tael of silver a month, it is natural that they are waiting for the recruitment inspection.

Of course, it is the craftsmen of the shipyard, and they are also working in the Caochuan shipyards in Tongzhou, Qingjiang, Huai'an and other places, where there are thousands of skilled craftsmen, as long as there is a need, they can pull a group of people at any time, of course, the price should be right. But what really matters is the captain, after all, everything at sea depends on the captain.

"After all, without a captain, it is useless for some of us to have a boat, after all, people can't go without a head, and when they get to sea, without a captain, everyone doesn't know where to go!"

"As it should be, as it should be! Zhiyuan's consideration is very appropriate, and I think it is appropriate to do so. ”

Regarding Shi Yiwen's suggestion, Zhu Yingzhen naturally accepted it all. It's not because he doesn't have an opinion, but because he really doesn't know much about the sea business, and even now, he doesn't know what the East and West refer to, so he naturally obeys Shi Yiwen's suggestion, but this doesn't mean that he doesn't have his own opinions, and while agreeing to set up a crew school, he asked.

"Zhiyuan, this sailor's business is easy to do, I have already said hello to the Caojun Yamen over there, as long as we want people, we can release people at any time, but, what about the captain as you said? I asked my family members about how they could get along with the boat in the Bohai Sea, but they were out of the Bohai Sea......

Shaking his head, Zhu Yingzhen said without concealment.

"They don't have the courage yet, they say, going to sea is not something ordinary people can do! The farther away the more so. ”

Originally, Zhu Yingzhen thought that going to sea should be the same as the servants transporting wood from Liaodong, no big deal, but later he learned that this is very different, and this is even the reason why he also established a joint-stock company, after all, the risk of going to sea is too great.

"It's really not something that ordinary people can get out of!"

Shi Yiwen nodded, looked at him and said.

"I've been thinking about this these days, and I want to use Yu Zhigao from Fujian."

"Yu Zhigao? Who is he? ”

"He is the son of Yu Wu Xianggong, the former governor of the left capital."

The Yu Wu Xianggong in Shi Yiwen's mouth is Yu Dayou.

"He has been following his father for many years, he is familiar with the sea, and he is also familiar with navigation, I think there is no one more suitable than him, after all, at sea, pirates emerge in an endless stream, can be used as the captain, I think, at least we don't need to worry about pirates."

The reason why Yu Dayou's son was chosen is because Yu Dayou broke through the core of naval warfare in one sentence - "Fighting at sea is nothing more than fighting small boats with big ships, attacking the outnumbered with the crowd, and fighting small guns with big guns." In fact, the basic core of naval warfare is technology versus technology, and it is the struggle between shipbuilding technology and artillery casting technology.

Perhaps, Yu Dayou is dead, but his son is still alive.

"This, didn't Yu Wuxiang just pass away this year, his son, he should be in his hometown now."

Zhu Yingzhen glanced at Shi Yiwen. As Zhang Juzheng's cronies, how could he not know about the series of troubles caused by his seizure.

"For our sake, let the family take their affection...... This goes out, but it will get into trouble. ”