Many times, as soon as people become obsessed with something, time will pass very quickly.

For example, you always think that you will sleep after watching for an hour, and you will sleep after watching for an hour, but the time will pass unconsciously, and when you are really sleepy, you look up and look out the window and see that it is already dawn.

The same is true for doing things, when you encounter something that you are particularly interested in and do it quite devotedly, time will also fly by, and this time is not necessarily calculated in hours, but may also be calculated in days.

During this time, Zhang Bin was obsessed with shipbuilding, or rather the construction of shipyards, because warships were too important to him.

The Ming Dynasty did not have a real sense of warship at this time, what kind of fortune ships, sea ships, Cangshan ships, these can only be regarded as armed merchant ships, it is okay to fight a dozen in the coastal seas, if you want to sail thousands of miles, go to the South Seas to start a war with the great powers, then it will not work, whether it is the amount of grain and grass, ammunition, fresh water, etc., or the number of artillery, it cannot be compared with the warships of the great powers.

Not to mention the war with the foreign powers, it will be a problem for tens of thousands of soldiers to eat and drink during the nearly one-month voyage.

Therefore, there must be a warship, and with a warship, he can defeat the great powers, control the entire southeast sea and even the South Seas, earn huge profits, deal with the next terrible natural and man-made disasters, and turn the tide.

With the Governor in charge, the construction of the shipyard is progressing at an astonishing pace.

The waterway, mainly manpower, with Zhang Bin here, how many people, how many people, less than two miles long, each two thousand people, on average, down one meter more than one person;

The dock is mainly materials, but stone, wood, bricks, cast iron, etc., as long as it is reported, the wheels will be sent to transport it immediately, and the two provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, including Dongfan, will be fully supplied;

There are also craftsmen, shipbuilding equipment, and shipbuilding materials, as long as Zhang Bin gives an order, they all frantically gather to the east.

The design progress of the battleship is also very fast, the keel and hull are basically ignored, and the original drawings of the sealing ship can be used, and the impeller is only to enlarge the impeller of the wheel boat, and change the bracket part to cast iron.

Anyway, let's make the sample first, and then talk about it, if there is any problem, try it and then improve it.

In less than a month, ten waterways were basically dug up, the first dock was built, various keels and hull materials were already prepared, and two samples of warships were put into production.

The super battleship named by the Dutch, Zhang Bin changed the name slightly and changed it to the Weiyuan battleship.

Of course, the troop transport battleship transformed from the Fu ship could not be called such a complicated name, and Zhang Bin directly took the Zhenyuan cruiser to correspond to the Weiyuan battleship.

Thousands of craftsmen, go all out to build two warships is still very fast, the keel and hull were completed in January, this has the experience of making the original boat, there is no problem.

The impeller is more troublesome, although there are wheels for reference, but the impeller is not a matter of several times the size of the light, the steam piston and gear will be increased accordingly, the boiler will also be increased, and the chimney will not be a simple problem to penetrate out of several layers of cabins, so it took nearly a month just for an impeller.

When the impeller was installed, the materials of the cabin above were almost finished, so the progress of the cabin was the fastest, and it was completed in less than half a month.

At this time, the whole ship can test the water, and it takes half a month to tinker in the waterway, and all the guns are loaded, and the first Weiyuan battleship and the first Zhenyuan cruiser of the Ming Dynasty were born.

In three months, two twenty-zhang long warships came out, I have to say, this is a miracle, of course, this is just a sample.

After opening the waterway and conducting a sea trial in Xizi Bay, Zhang Bin found a very embarrassing problem, that is, the speed of this kind of large warship has slowed down, because the volume is too large, coupled with the weight of boilers, artillery, personnel, etc., the speed of the battleship cannot reach the speed of two hundred miles per hour like the wheels.

The cruiser can be a little better, basically the normal speed can reach 120 miles per hour, and the fastest speed can reach 160 miles per hour.

Battleships were not good, and when the weight of artillery and ammunition was added, the normal speed could only reach 100 miles per hour, and the fastest speed could only reach 120 miles per hour.

The speed is only fifty miles per hour, which is half the speed of the wheels that can carry thirty or forty people in light!

This problem cannot be improved for the time being, because the Weiyuan battleship and the Zhenyuan cruiser are not really designed brand new battleships, but a combination of Fengzhou, Fuship, Wheel Boat and Dutch super battleship.

Zhang Bin took two warships to sail back and forth between the Eastern Avant-garde and the Eastern Vanguard, felt it, and finally could only reluctantly accept it, the speed is a little slower, there must be this thing first, no matter how slow the speed is, it is actually faster than the super battleships of the Dutch, because they are sail battleships, when there is no wind, they can't move, even if the wind is smooth, it can't go anywhere.

In the end, Zhang Bin made a decision, and these two kinds of warships were made according to the sample.

The Weiyuan battleship had a total of 106 guns, all of which were 1,000-pound Franc machines, equipped with gunners and sailors to attack more than 300 people, with a normal speed of 100 miles per hour, and the fastest speed of 120 miles per hour.

The Zhenyuan cruiser has a total of six guns, one in the front and one in the front, two on the left and right, all of which are thousand-pound Franc machines, equipped with more than 50 gunners and sailors, and can carry more than 500 sailors or foot soldiers, with a normal speed of 120 miles per hour, and a maximum speed of 160 miles per hour.

According to the current staffing, it is impossible to build 100 ships a year, and Zhang Bin gave the Kaohsiung shipyard a task to build 10 cruisers and 20 battleships by June next year, because the Dutch are likely to attack again at that time.

This time this year, they sent a layman, and it would be wishful thinking to expect them to make such a childish mistake again next year, and they would definitely send an authentic admiral, and even support more super battleships, and when the time comes, it will definitely be a fierce battle, with ten cruisers and twenty battleships leading the original warships, plus arsonists, wheels, and bastions, to hope that they will be defeated in a real battle.

After the matter of the battleship was dealt with, Zhang Bin immediately returned to the Dongfan Governor's Mansion, and he had been busy in the Dongfan avant-garde for three months, and there were too many things that he needed to deal with.

First of all, the officials he bought with Chongzhen have already come, Fu Guan, Ni Yuanlu, and Qian Shijin have all been delivered, and Chen Zizhuang has been appointed as the political envoy of Fujian Chengxuan Si Youbu and Zhang Guowei as the prefect of Guangzhou.

Chongzhen also sent him a special decree, and praised his achievements in governing Fujian and Guangdong and his achievements in exterminating pirates, as for the official positions of Fu Guan, Ni Yuanlu and Qian Shijin, Chongzhen's meaning, let him decide for himself, decide it, just make a twist.

In short, he was very relieved about his affairs and said that he would not interfere in his governance of Fujian and Guangdong.

The reason why Chongzhen is so good at talking is naturally for the sake of money, if every governor is like Zhang Bin, give him a few million taels a year, then he will smile crookedly, two capitals and thirteen provinces, that is thirty or forty million taels, to have so much money, Zhongxing Daming, just around the corner!

Of course, it is impossible for the governors or governors of other provinces to give him so much money, and it is very good not to ask him for money, so he is still very satisfied with Zhang Bin, at least for now.

These three people have been here for several days, Zhang Bin has been busy, so he didn't have time to arrange an official position for him, and now that he is busy, he naturally has to feel that his position has been set.

He talked to the three of them a few times, and found that these three people are also very good talents, and it just so happens that he still lacks three positive three products, namely the Guangdong Chengxuan Political Envoy Department to participate in politics and the Fujian Provincial Prosecutor to procure the criminal envoy.

Among these three, Ni Yuanlu was the most upright, so Zhang Bin promoted him to Fujian as the Fujian Provincial Prosecutor and the Provincial Prosecutor, while Fu Guan and Qian Shijin respectively served as the Guangdong Chengxuan Political Envoy to participate in politics.

At this point, the teams of Fujian and Guangdong are complete, and he does not have to interfere too much in the rest, after all, some provinces do not have governors at all, and there is no problem with daily things.

As a governor, he mainly deals with big problems, such as pirates, bandits, official corruption, foreign invasions, etc., as for daily things, he only needs to supervise and supervise, but he doesn't have to stare at it every day.

Of course, he didn't have time to stare at the daily affairs of the two provinces every day, because he was not only in charge of the military and political affairs of the two provinces, but also in charge of a huge Dongshengtang.

No, just after dealing with political affairs, he couldn't wait to start dealing with Dongshengtang's affairs, because as early as when he was crazy about building the Kaohsiung Shipyard, his grandfather Huang told him that Dongshengtang was running out of money!

Dongshengtang's huge industry, last year's income of more than 5 million taels, how can it develop for nearly a year, but it is almost out of money?

In fact, it is very simple, it is precisely because Dongshengtang has developed so rapidly this year that there will be financial problems, no matter what business you do, you can't just look at income, not at expenditure.

This year, Dongshengtang expanded wildly in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, and thirteen provinces, as well as Nanyang, Dongying, North Korea and other places, buying land, building shops, recruiting people, and purchasing goods, and the investment in each place was hundreds of thousands of taels.

For example, Dongshengtang invested in the construction of Zhuhai New Town, even if Zhang Bin used his power to use guards, bandit captives, and pirate captives to collect materials and build city walls, but the houses in the city still had to be built by special craftsmen, and the wages plus the food costs of all the participants and the transportation costs cost a city to repair it also cost millions of taels, plus the 500,000 taels of land lease fees paid, and it was not enough to put all the rental income into it this year.

In addition, the expenses for developing and producing looms, soliciting weavers, and purchasing silk cotton, as well as the costs of purchasing goods from various shops, will not be able to earn back at all without two or three years.

It will definitely not work if it continues like this, so Zhang Bin decided to convene a meeting of all shareholders involved in the operation to discuss the development plan.

The shareholders involved in the operation of Dongshengtang are actually several families with relatively large shares, that is, the Huang family, the Zhang family, and the Zheng family, which account for 10% of the shares, and the Luo family, the Cao family, the Bi family, the Qi family, the Yu family, and the Mao family, which account for half of the shares.

This time, there were more people who participated in the meeting, not only shareholder representatives but also big treasurers who were directly involved in the operation.

The Zhang family has Zhang Bin and the big treasurers Zhang San and Zhang Jun;

The Huang family has Old Man Huang and big treasurers Huang Peng and Huang Cheng;

The Zheng family has Zheng Zhilong and the big shopkeepers Zheng Zhiyu and Zheng Zhihu;

Luo Jialuo couldn't come to raise sex, only the big shopkeeper Luo Yangde and Luo Yanglian came;

Cao Huachun of the Cao family couldn't come, only the big treasurers Cao Huachun and Cao Huayu came;

As for the other four, there is no big shopkeeper, but Bi Maokang, Qi Yuangong, Yu Chenglong and Mao Chengzuo are representatives.

After more than ten days of convening, all the participants finally arrived, and in the morning of this day, the meeting finally began, and the huge conference room of the Governor's Palace was almost full, but at first there was only the sound of Zhang Bin turning over the account book alone.

Zhang Bin flipped for about a quarter of an hour, and finally closed the account book and said solemnly: "Now the development of Dongshengtang is a bit chaotic, there are few places to make profits, everyone is investing hard, but there is no profit, if there is no external capital injection, I am afraid that there will be a large number of semicolons to close, have you ever thought about it, is it right to develop blindly like this?" ”

When everyone heard this, they all showed ashamed expressions, they were indeed a little blind.

Zhang Bin sighed: "I can't blame you for this, I am also responsible, I made the same mistake as everyone else on the issue of Zhuhai, and the step is too big, after all, Dongshengtang's business is too big, and all aspects must be paid attention to." ”

Indeed, Dongshengtang's business is very large, and the income of five or six million taels is already equivalent to tens of billions of income in the future, that is to say, Dongshengtang was equivalent to a large multinational company ranked in the top 500 in the future last year!

In the past year, after crazy expansion, if there is no problem, I am afraid that the income will exceed 10 million taels.

It's a pity that something went wrong, in the words of later generations: the steps are too big, and the eggs are pulled.

In fact, Zhang Bin already has a solution, and the reason why he said this is mainly to attract everyone's attention.

Seeing that everyone showed ashamed expressions, he said solemnly: "We are lucky this time, because when I exterminated the bandits and cleaned up the local tyrants and squires in Guangdong, I withheld millions of taels as military expenses, and if I borrowed this money, there would be no semicolon bankruptcy." ”

When everyone heard this, they all showed happy expressions, it turned out that there was still money, and it was easy to do.

Zhang Bin then said solemnly: "This time we have to remember the lesson, we can't mess around in the future, in order to prevent this situation from happening again in the future, we must be held accountable, that is to say, in the future, the major treasurers will be responsible for the area under their jurisdiction, and if they lose, they will be replaced." For this reason, I will divide the area that the major shopkeepers are responsible for, and in the future, the major shopkeepers will be responsible for their own areas, and no longer be like now, there are several big shopkeepers in an area to open a semicolon. ”

The area is in charge, which is a good idea, and everyone in the audience nodded slightly in agreement.

Zhang Bin immediately assigned: "Fujian and Jiangxi are in charge of the big shopkeeper Huang Peng, Guangdong and Guangxi are in charge of the big shopkeeper Huang Cheng, Nanzhili and Zhejiang are in charge of the big shopkeeper Cao Huachun, North Zhili and Shandong are in charge of the big shopkeeper Cao Huayu, Shaanxi and Shanxi are in charge of the big shopkeeper Zhang San, Henan and Huguang are in charge of the big shopkeeper Zhang Jun, Yunnan and Guizhou are in charge of the big shopkeeper Luo Yangde, Sichuan is in charge of the big shopkeeper Luo Yanglian, Nanyang is in charge of the big shopkeeper Zheng Zhihu, Dongying and North Korea are in charge of the big shopkeeper Zheng Zhiyu, do you remember?" ”

When the major shopkeepers heard this, they nodded one after another, indicating that they remembered.

Zhang Bin finally said: "In the future, everyone will manage their own area, other people's suggestions, you can adopt or not, in short, your own area is responsible for yourself, I won't say much else, in the future, every year on the fifteenth day of the first month, all the big shopkeepers must come here to report, we each send a representative to listen to the report, assess the performance." Okay, that's all I have to say, do you have any questions? ”