Zhou Chong, who was far away in Shuangyu Port, naturally didn't know what to do, his name had not only spread all over Beijing, but also reached the ears of Zhu Houzhao and Liu Jin and others, and what was even worse was that Liu Jin even remembered him, and even sent Jinyiwei to get a book comparable to Journey to the West from him.

Zhou Chong doesn't have any intention of writing a book now, after he persuaded Wang Lun, he immediately returned to Shuangyu Port, he had already discussed with He Xian and others about investing in the Chamber of Commerce a few years ago, and now the money for the shares has been sent to the Chamber of Commerce, and the ships and boatmen needed by the Chamber of Commerce are already in preparation, and Zhou Chong is needed to go there to preside over the overall situation.

On a small plain on the south side of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce in the Beigang District of Shuangyu Port, Zhou Chong, Sanniang, Uncle Huo, and Sun Tong were traveling together to inspect the buildings on this plain. In this small plain, a simple village is under construction, made entirely of wood and stone from the island, so that the houses are so strong that they will not be blown down by the storms of summer and autumn.

"Owner, after this village is built, the boatmen of our Chamber of Commerce can move their families in, the first batch of more than 500 boatmen, in addition to the families of the 300 new boatmen, there are more than 200 old boatmen of the original Chamber of Commerce, they are also willing to move their families to the island, so that the whole family can live together!" Sanniang introduced to Zhou Zhong and the three of them as she walked.

Zhou Zhong nodded after hearing this, looked at the busy construction site, and found that many of the houses in the entire village had already laid the foundation and were under intense construction, and it was estimated that they would be officially moved in by next month at the latest. This made him very satisfied with Sanniang's ability to do things.

The idea of this area for the families of the employees of the builder's association was conceived by Zhou Chong. This is mainly because after he took over the Chamber of Commerce. The members of the Chamber of Commerce are mainly composed of two parts, the first part is the management of the Chamber of Commerce in the port, and the second part is the boatmen of the smuggling fleet, of which the shipwrights make up the majority. Of course, there are some relatively senior managers in the chamber of commerce, such as bookkeepers and stewards, but these senior personnel are very few, and they are almost negligible compared with the hundreds of shipwrights.

However, Zhou Zhong found that whether it was the management of the port or the shipwrights in the fleet. They work in the Chamber of Commerce all year round, and usually live on the island, so many people have moved their families to live on the island, but this is the spontaneous behavior of the Chamber of Commerce personnel, and there is no organization, although the people in the Chamber of Commerce have a good income, but it is still a little difficult to build a yard on the island, so there is no plan for the place where these people live, and they are all crowded together. The house was built in a mess, and there was no guarantee of safety. It can be summed up in three words: dirty, messy, and poor.

Seeing this situation, Zhou Zhong came up with the idea of building a concentrated residential area within the chamber of commerce, which can not only improve the accommodation conditions in the chamber of commerce and bring convenience to the chamber of commerce personnel, but also attract other chamber of commerce personnel to move their families to live on the island, thereby increasing the cohesion of the chamber of commerce.

After Zhou Zhong said his idea, he immediately got the strong support of Sun Tong and Uncle Huo, but Sanniang was a little worried about spending money, after all, the financial situation of the Chamber of Commerce was not very good, although he Xian got 80,000 taels of shares and silver, but most of the money was used to buy ships and recruit shipwrights, and there was not much money for them to squander.

However, Sanniang's worries are obviously superfluous, because Zhou Chong has long thought about it, there are more woods and stones on Liuheng Island, where Beigang is located, it can be said that building materials don't cost any money at all, as for the manpower, it is even simpler, the original Chamber of Commerce has two or three hundred people, plus more than three hundred newly recruited, and then one or two hundred will be allocated every day to work, they are building houses for themselves, and they will definitely be very willing, and then the Chamber of Commerce only needs to provide food and some simple materials, and it will not cost a few dollars at all.

Sure enough, as soon as Zhou Chong announced the idea of building a residential area in the Chamber of Commerce, he immediately received the support of most people, especially those low-level boatmen, who spend most of their time at sea every year, and it is not safe for their families to live on the island, and there have even been robberies and murders, which makes many people still worry about the safety of their families when they go to sea.

Seeing that the people in the chamber of commerce are so supportive, and it doesn't cost much money, Sanniang naturally no longer stops it, and also takes the initiative to take on the coordination of the residential area.

Although the idea of concentrated residential area was put forward by Zhou Chong, but he was busy during this time, so this was the first time he came here to inspect, only to see him walking into the residential area under construction, the entire residential area is completely in the form of a village, with a tall wall built outside, and there will usually be guards on duty in front of the gate, except for the people in the Chamber of Commerce, outsiders are not allowed to enter, after all, the Beigang District is mixed with people, and the necessary security measures are still necessary.

When you enter the village, you will find that there are small independent courtyards, but now there are no courtyard walls, only lime frames are used to distinguish them. Each courtyard house is almost identical, all made of thick logs and stones, which looks rough but sturdy enough.

The whole village is divided into three main streets, Zhou Chong and they turned around along the middle street, when the members of the Chamber of Commerce who were working on both sides saw them, they would also stop their work and wave to Zhou Chong, and the call of "the owner" was endless. Now Zhou Zhong has been fully recognized by the entire Chamber of Commerce, especially after the start of the construction of this residential area, many members of the Chamber of Commerce are grateful, which greatly increases Zhou Chong's prestige within the Chamber of Commerce.

For these people who greeted him, Zhou Zhong also nodded and smiled, and even a few familiar people, he would stop to chat with each other for a few words, ask about the quality of the house construction and other issues, and learned the strength of some leaders in later generations to inspect.

After staying in this built residential area for nearly an hour, Zhou Chong and Sanniang left at this time, today he mainly inspected the Chamber of Commerce, he had already gone to the port before, and now after seeing the residential area, it was time to go to the shipyard inside the Chamber of Commerce to have a look.

The shipyard of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce was built on the west side of the North Port District, adjacent to the port in charge of Uncle Camel, and the scale of this shipyard was not large, and the staff was only twenty or thirty craftsmen at most, mainly responsible for repairing some damaged ships of the Chamber of Commerce, and also helping the Chamber of Commerce to build some small boats. However, after Zhou Zhong took over the Chamber of Commerce, Sanniang has expanded the scale of the shipyard, and now a group of shipbuilding craftsmen have been recruited from Nanjing and other places, and the craftsmen of the entire shipyard have reached nearly 60 people.

When Zhou Chong came to the shipyard under the leadership of Sannianghe, a thin old man with gray hair immediately greeted him, bent down and saluted Zhou Zhong and the others: "Guan Hong greets the president!" ”

"Uncle Guan doesn't have to be polite, how is the shipyard running now?" When Zhou Zhong saw this thin old man, he immediately smiled and helped the other party up.

In the past, although Sanniang was in charge of the shipyard, but she actually did not know how to build ships, the real person who managed the shipyard was the old man Guan Hong in front of him, Guan Hong was originally a person from Nanjing, the shipbuilding skills of the family, the ancestors of the three generations are shipbuilding craftsmen, it is said that his ancestors also participated in the construction of Zheng He's treasure ship, Guan Hong's shipbuilding skills are also very exquisite, will build more than ten zhang of large ships, but unfortunately the Chamber of Commerce did not pay much attention to shipbuilding before, and all the big ships used were bought, so that Guan Hong's shipbuilding skills have been useless.

"Don't worry, the president doesn't have to worry, now the newly recruited craftsmen have officially started shipbuilding, and the new dockyard is also under construction, everything is on track, and by mid-February at the latest, our first big ship will be launched!" Guan Hong was also very excited when he stood up, and he was also very grateful to Zhou Chong, after all, it was Zhou Chong's support that made his ancestral craftsmanship useful, which made him full of enthusiasm now, and he wanted to help the Chamber of Commerce build the best big ship.

"Okay, Uncle Guan, take us on a tour of the shipyard!" Zhou Zhong heard that a big ship built by himself would be launched in February, which made him very happy, the ship of the Chamber of Commerce could not only be ordered from the shipyard of Daming, but must be able to build it himself, so that not only could he save money, but also would not be stuck.

Uncle Guan also agreed after hearing this, and took Zhou Zhong and them into the shipyard, but Zhou Zhong soon found that the entire shipyard had expanded a lot more than before, and the only dock in the shipyard had been emptied of water, and a ten-zhang long ship was supported in mid-air by the shelf, and it was under intense construction, and the hull had been almost built.

In addition, three larger docks are under construction in the immediate vicinity of this dock, and when these docks are completed, the shipyard will be able to build larger merchant ships. However, these workers who built the dock were all coolies recruited from the dock temporarily, after all, the current dock only needed to dig a big pit, and there was no great technical content, and there was only a craftsman to direct it.

After following Guan Hong around the shipyard a few times, Zhou Zhong found that there was no big problem with the operation of the entire shipyard, and the timber on Hu Lei's side was also transported in a very timely manner, if it were not for the limitations of manpower and dock, the shipbuilding speed of the entire shipyard would definitely be faster, and then several large ships would be built together, and several large ships would be built in a few months, and the Chamber of Commerce would no longer have to worry about the lack of ships.

In a few months, Zhou Zhong has made some subtle reforms in all aspects of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, making the structure of the Chamber of Commerce more close, and the personnel are more united, and the ships ordered a few years ago have also been built and opened to the Chamber of Commerce, and the newly recruited shipwrights have also begun to practice on these new ships. (To be continued......)