Chapter 54: Cannons and Butter
Two committees and all chairs held an expanded meeting. After solving John's problem www.biquge.info these servants of Yulin Bay went to the shipyard and the ordnance team again. The He brothers have not been heard from so far, and according to the information of the prisoners of war, they are likely to contact the pirates, so strengthening the sea power has become the top priority in Yulin Bay.
During the Ming Dynasty, the development of the shipbuilding industry reached a peak, and the shipbuilding workshops were widely distributed, large-scale, and complete, reaching the highest level in the history of shipbuilding in ancient China. The main shipyards are Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard, Huainan Qingjiang Shipyard, Shandong Qinghe Shipyard, etc., all of which are very large-scale. The shipbuilding workshop of the Ming Dynasty had a supporting handicraft workshop, processing sail canopies, ropes, iron nails and other parts, as well as stacking warehouses for wood, paulownia lacquer, hemp, etc. At that time, there was also a strict management system for the acceptance of shipbuilding materials, as well as the repair and delivery of ships. Under the guidance of the craftsmen sent by Mr. Zhao Qian to Yulin Bay, more than 100 prisoners of war are working day and night to build a new shipyard.
Wood used for shipbuilding must generally be wood that has been stored for more than 3 years, and the moisture content is reduced to less than 20%, and the frame and shell of the ship are naturally dried with this material. The absence of dry wood, the closed hull, and the shady environment allow wood rot fungi to grow, resulting in a decrease in the strength of the wood and destroying the compactness of the ship's structure. But this kind of timber Yulin Bay is not available, through the group to the Ming Dynasty only half a year, now it is too late to cut down trees, can only be purchased, which made Zhao Qian a big windfall, he arranged all the shipbuilding materials needed in Yulin Bay.
Cheng Yiyi sat on the chair, her heart was a little sour, and Xu Lang's high-spirited appearance appeared in front of her eyes. In the past, when there were meetings, Xu Lang was always the most active opposite. But now that Xu Lang has withdrawn from the committee, he is not eligible to participate in this kind of meeting.
Cheng Yiyi settled down and opened the notebook: "Members, team leader." Personally, I disagree with the shipyard shipbuilding project to be launched now, because we don't have the money. According to the statistics of the finance team, we have made a book profit of about 15,000 taels of silver so far this year, but in fact, because of last year's debt, we still owe 17,000 taels of silver, which needs to be paid off within half a year according to the contract. And our population is still increasing, and all aspects of infrastructure construction are also expanding, and these are projects that only have inputs but no outputs. So far, there has been no progress in the development of Tiandu iron ore and the smelting of steel, the bottleneck is in the money, the old problems have not been solved, and now we have to launch new projects, I am afraid that our finances will not be able to bear it. Besides, what is the use of having a ship until a qualified cannon is cast? ”
"Team Leader Cheng is right." Fan Qiuming nodded, "It's really not possible to do without artillery, Shen Daxing, what progress have you made?" ”
"It's basically no fun." Shen Daxing frowned and said, "Ye Sunquan only knows how to build a fire system, and he has only seen the clay mold casting cannon, and the tricks in it are not clear at all, we have collected some information, and we have tried all kinds of methods, and you all know that there is no qualified one." We think it's better to have a big YUE here, directly use the method of drilling, and now it's too slow to build a fire system by hand, it's been almost half a year, a total of 15 arquebuses have been made, and the caliber is still very different, and it is impossible to use bullets uniformly. However, if it is a bore, there is no steel and no boring machine. I've talked to Xia Yang about this a few times, but he hasn't solved it. ”
"Don't even look at me, I can't help it." Xia Yang looked back at his gaze, "The steam engine can't be made at all now, that thing is the simplest and most primitive industrial machine, but it is an epoch-making change." We have been experimenting with hydraulic boring machines, and there are many problems, and now they are not practical. The best way to get a boring machine is to generate electricity, but this will have to dismantle the ship, and this bill has been rejected by the two crossing conferences, so it is not my problem. As for the steel, the steelmaking furnace is currently in trial operation, and there is a serious shortage of coke and coal, and the quality of the steel is very poor. And we don't have iron ore, and the raw materials we use now are all pig iron bought, which is a serious waste. It has been a few months since Gu Yunkun's Tiandu iron ore mining rights were won, and there has been no movement at all. ”
"Can I be blamed for this?" Gu Yunkun defended, "I have been handing over the development report for more than a month, and the committee has not even given a reply, and has been telling me to wait, no one, no money, no food, so I will not be asked to mine alone." ”
The problem came full circle and returned to the starting point, there was no money.
"Guys, I'll give you some advice." Seeing that everyone was silent, Zhang Guodong said, "This is the collective opinion of our Military Commission. Our current development has entered a bottleneck period, as long as this bottleneck is broken, Yulin Bay will have greater development. Everyone knows the problem of lack of money, but it is precisely because of the lack of money that we have to use it more than ever. Why we are short of money now, two reasons, insufficient production capacity, insufficient capacity. The production capacity is due to the lack of personnel, and the transportation capacity is due to the lack of ships. All of our foreign trade now is basically waiting for customers to come to the door, which is not the way. Now the majority of the profits have basically been taken away by Li Shuang and Gao Pengju, to put it mildly, we have been doing sweatshops. Of course, this situation may be inevitable in the start-up stage, but it will never continue like this forever. We have the technology, and the technology will definitely bring profits. But we don't have a ship, we can't ship the goods out, let alone find new customers, and our lifeblood will be tightly choked by others. It has been more than half a year since we landed, and the results are obvious, we have not only gained a firm foothold in Yulin Bay, but also fed more than 3,000 people, but from another aspect, we are far from enough, because until today, we have not left Yulin Bay. No matter what you think about the entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Hainan will not be guaranteed in 20 years, even if we cannot change this history at that time, we will not be able to defend Hainan Island, we will not be able to defend Yulin Bay, we will go to the South Seas, go overseas, what is needed, what is needed is also ships, guns. Without these two things, we will not be able to move forward in this era. Don't pin your hopes for the future on the Pearl and the 777, the guns don't work at all in front of the fierce Eight Banners, no one knows what we will encounter in 20 years, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the pirates, these need us to deal with, and the backing of all this is the battleship and guns. ”
Zhang Guodong talked for a long time, felt a little drunk, picked up the teacup and took a sip of water, and suddenly smiled a little strangely: "There is another question that you may not have considered, what is the fastest way to get money?" ”
"What is it?" Everyone didn't react for a while, and asked one after another.
"Robbery." Wang Hua preemptively said this answer on the side.
"Robbery? Rob whom? How to rob? There was a buzz in the conference room.
"Be quiet, be quiet." Fan Qiuming waved his hand at the participants again and again, "Let the Military Commission finish talking first." ”
"I'll explain this to you." Jiang Beiming said, "Everyone has seen the results of our last trip to Lingshui County to suppress bandits, seizing more than 20,000 catties of grain and more than 1,000 taels of silver, as well as more than 100 prisoners of war who do not need to pay wages. This is only 10 days of achievement for 150 soldiers, and if all this were to be earned by trade, how much salt and soap would have to be needed, and how much manpower and time would have been required. Since we promised Wang Kezong to clear the ground in Yazhou, we can't talk about it. Didn't He Laosan and He Laoliu go to contact the pirates, how much money Zheng Zhilong has, I think people who know a little bit about history will not know. Of course, we can't afford to mess with this behemoth now, but it's okay to find a few small characters to bully and bully. But what is needed for all this, is it a gun, a cannon, a warship. I think everyone should understand what our military committee means. ”
After returning from Lingshui County, Jiang Beiming and Han Wantao had a private exchange, and both of them were surprised that a small bandit den had hoarded so many supplies, and thus they also had the idea of solving the financial and manpower problems by suppressing bandits. The Military Commission agreed to the proposal of the two people, and at the same time decided to unify the opinions of the committee and the leaders of each group first, and then submit it to the crossing meeting for voting, because Zhang Guodong found that he didn't know whether it was because some people were bored or really had any special hobbies.
"Ladies and gentlemen." Zhang Guodong continued, "The opinion of the military committee is to use all manpower, material resources, and financial resources for military production, and to use artillery instead of butter. Of course, this metaphor may not be appropriate, but that's what it means. We have to tighten our belts for a while, and with arms, we have money, and with money, we have a greater voice. And all this will mean that Yulin Bay will have a bright future tomorrow if we break through this bottleneck. To this end, the military council agreed to dismantle the ship. ”