(I missed it, make it up now, and be sure to check it in the future.) ）

The third son of the Jin family is out!

The news came from Jinan, in the entire Sijiu City, now, who doesn't know, among the small characters of the Internal Affairs Bureau, the third son of the Jin family was the first to receive the imperial mission, and this errand was all handed over to him with full powers, even if the people in the thirteen yamen wanted to intervene in it, they had to pass through him first. For a while, the once inconspicuous third son of the Jin family suddenly became popular, and even the eldest young master of the Jin family may not have as prominent a reputation as him.

Although on the surface, it seems that the imperial court ordered Jin Wenbo to handle Nanyang rice, which seems to be the hand of the Jin family, but in fact, no matter what, it can't get rid of the Jin family's grasp, after all, many things need to be done by the elders. Big things have to be done by the elders, and so small things must be done by the younger generations.

Even if it weren't for the support of the elders, I'm afraid that it would not be easy for Jin Wenbo to find a place to run errands in the capital, no, the place where he is doing errands now is an industry under the name of the Jin family.

Running errands and other jobs must be the work of juniors, this is the case in Jin, and the same is true in other families, but because of the relationship hosted by Jin Wenbo, many things are often handled by him.

In this mansion in the outer city, Jin Wenbo was discussing shipbuilding with Henry, who had just come from Macao, and Henry was recommended by Ruiz as a shipmaster, according to Ruiz's letter, he was a first-class shipmaster in the Macao shipyard, and he was the best at building all kinds of merchant ships, so he would be recommended to come to the capital to assist Jin Wenbo in shipbuilding. Also participating were Wang Duofu, Wang Anbang and Tian Liwei, all of whom represented each family, but only Wang Duofu knew what this shipbuilding was for.

Perhaps because he had been in China for a long time, Henry spoke an official dialect with a Cantonese accent that was not fluent, and he pointed to a drawing and explained seriously.

"Mr. Kan, this is the most popular "old gate boat" in Macau, which is different from traditional Chinese ships, it has traditional Chinese sail suits and Western hulls, which is faster than traditional Chinese sailing boats, requires fewer manpower than Western sailing ships, and is easier to build and maintain. ”

"This is a Chinese ship and a Western ship, is there anything different?"

Wang Anbang looked at the drawing, and asked with some puzzlement, as a descendant of the Jin merchants, if it is said that horses and camels may be able to say a reason, but when it comes to boats, he doesn't understand at all, it doesn't matter if he doesn't understand, the important thing is to know to learn, to know that he is not ashamed to ask, when he comes, because of the advice of his father and brother, Wang Anbang will naturally take the initiative to ask.

"What is so good about this "old lock boat"? Are we building this ship? ”

As soon as Tian Liwei's words fell, Henry said.

"The biggest advantage is that the sails are Chinese-style hard sails, so that your sailors don't need much training to be able to steer this kind of sailboat."

That's right, this "old lock boat" brother saw it when he was in Macao, its hull is a Western hull, unlike a bird boat, a lucky boat, not to mention that it can carry a lot of goods in the ship, and the speed is fast, this sail is also a hard sail, and the sail on the canal is also similar. ”

Jin Wenbo echoed on the side. Since he and Henry had a discussion about the choice of merchant ships, the two can be said to have hit it off on many points of opinion. Henry, in particular, shared many of his ideas in many of his opinions, so he naturally favored the construction of such "old lock ships" rather than the cheaper big bird ships.

Moreover, because the hull of this "old lock boat" was built by Western France, it has a lot of ribs, unlike the bird ship, which has no ribs as a support, and only relies on the ship's board, so its hull is more durable and durable, which can be said to be the first choice for transporting rice to the South Seas. ”

Because he knew that his father was still testing the attitudes of various families, Jin Wenbo naturally would not say his true thoughts in front of these people, but continued to buy rice in Nanyang.

"Oh? Why do you want to be so strong? There are so many ribs in this ship, and this cost must be missing! ”

Wang Anbang carefully looked at the ship samples on the drawings, and he was not much interested in Henry's proposal to build an "old lock boat", after all, although he didn't know about ships, he also knew that the extra ribs were the extra material money, wages, and the extra silver was all produced by several families.

"We're just transporting rice, and we're not going to march and fight on the sea, why should the ship be so strong?"

So he turned back to Tian Liwei and said.

"Second Brother Tian, do you think that's the truth?"

"This makes the boat, the younger brother does not understand, but what Brother Wang said is very true, this since ancient times, doing business are particular about one, the cost is as little as possible, the board of the "old lock boat" ship is so thick, and there are so many more ribs, when the time comes, the extra material money, wages, I am afraid it is not a star and a half, not to mention, when the time comes, the ship may not be so tolerant, if the construction period is delayed, maybe this year may not be able to transport the rice to the imperial court, a few brothers said is this reason? ”

Tian Liwei replied respectfully, among the eight imperial merchants, the Tian family's current situation is the most delicate, the reason why this is so is because the Tian family has been relying on Fan Wencheng in the past, but as we all know, now the Fan family is finished, and now the Fan family is not reliable, and it is even possible to offend the emperor because of this, and it is just like this, the Tian family hopes to do this errand well, Tian Liwei naturally hopes to transport the rice as soon as possible, in this way, it can be regarded as a credit to the imperial court, if someone wants to attack the Tian family, this can also be regarded as a credit as a reliance.

"I don't know what my brothers do!"

Wang Duofu, who had been silent, interjected on the side.

"This sea is different from land, if we want to transport rice from the South Seas, in addition to the wind and waves on this sea, there are also pirates, the Zheng family is from pirates, plus the fleet of Zhu thieves, although we will hang the Western flag at that time, but what if these pirates make a move? Therefore, these things must be guarded against. Therefore, this ship is better built with stronger insurance. ”

Among the people, Wang Duofu, who is the eldest son of Wang Dengku, is the only one who knows what the real purpose of buying rice in the South Seas is, and naturally he also knows what kind of rice ship this ship is, which is simply the life-saving ship of their families. This boat is stronger, it is always more reassuring, just like building a house, who doesn't know that the house they live in is stronger? But he couldn't say these words, after all, the other six didn't know their plans now.

"That's right, and if the ship is built strong, it can last for decades, if it is not strong, I'm afraid that within ten years, the ship will not be usable, and when the time comes, it will have to build a new ship."

Looking at Wang Anbang and Tian Liwei, Jin Wenbo added.

"Moreover, what we are looking at is not now, not now, you think about it, if it is in the future when Jiangnan recovers, when the time comes, if the imperial court changes the grain to levy silver, this year it will be seven or eight million taels of silver, and then change to buy rice from us, so that the imperial court only needs to spend six million taels to get six million stone grain, and we can earn three million taels of silver this year, although this silver is not much, but after all, it is a steady stream of input, we want to save a few silver in shipbuilding now, and we may have to rebuild it in the future. When the time comes, the money will be spent more. ”

Jin Wenbo is still here under the guise of using a seemingly reasonable excuse to lobby Wang Anbang and Tian Liwei, he knows that the two of them do not have the right to decide, and in the end, it is their respective elders who can make a decision, that is, Wang Dayu and Tian Shenglan, the two uncles behind them, thinking about it, this truth should be able to convince them.

For them, who are the best at calculating, they naturally know what is the most cost-effective.

After listening to Jin Wenbo's explanation, Wang Anbang moved his eyes to the drawings again. He looked at the sample of the ship on the drawing, and while thinking about how much more money it would cost, he asked how much it would cost such an old lock boat.

When he asked like this, Tian Liwei on the side also looked at the drawing curiously. Compared to the ship drawings he had seen, this drawing could be said to be extremely complicated, after all, the ship drawings he had seen before only had simple lines. The drawing was extremely complicated, and when he looked closely, he noticed that there seemed to be some windows on the hull, so he pointed to the drawing and asked Henry.

"What's down here? But windows? ”

Looking at where he was pointing, Henry nodded and said:

"Yes, these windows are gun windows, after all, there is a high probability of encountering various risks at sea, so it is common practice to install artillery on merchant ships?"

Henry's explanation made Wang Anbang immediately exclaim.

"What's the matter, this ship still needs to be equipped with Hongyi cannons? How much money will I have to add to this? ”

Wang Anbang almost instinctively thought that the additional Hongyi cannon would definitely cost a lot of silver, and for him, who was originally careful in business, he naturally felt a little painful, and even unacceptable.

Tilting his head sideways to look at Wang Anbang, Heng said in an extremely serious tone.

"It's fine if you don't have artillery, but in that case, your ships will be sheep to be slaughtered on the sea!"

"Now that you've built a ship, do you care about spending more money? This is to transport goods to the north and south of the river, and also pay attention to a dart master, this Hongyi cannon is the dart master on the ship, and it can't be lost! ”

Wang Anbang's reaction fell in Jin Wenbo's eyes, making his brows wrinkle, can you do great things with such a group of people?

But then he thought again, "Let them make the ship out of the money......