Seeing that Zhang Feng said that 5,000 catties of fine iron would come over soon, Zhao Zuolin was a little relieved and continued to report: "Boss, according to your high standards and strict instructions, we recruited more than 200 people in the first batch, all of whom are skilled craftsmen, and they will go to work in two days." Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Zhang Feng said: "More than 200 people, a lot, it is so smooth." ”

Zhao Zuolin said: "Boss, you don't know, as soon as the news that we want to recruit craftsmen is released, and we also manage the meal at noon, there are more than two taels of silver per month, many people have come, we have selected more than 200 people, and in a month or so, we are ready to recruit two or three hundred people." ”

The final scale of the Xiaoqingshan Arsenal is about 1,000 skilled craftsmen of all kinds, and after two recruitments, it will last about a month before and after, and it will basically reach 1,000 people.

Zhang Feng said: "There are so many craftsmen, these are all treasures." ”

Zhao Zuolin said: "There has always been no shortage of craftsmen, many craftsmen are so poor that they are about to eat, we are treated so well, they want to come over, and even many people in the craftsman camp have come." ”

"Artisan Battalion?"

Zhang Feng has heard that there are several artisan camps in Songjiang Prefecture, and there are many handicraft craftsmen in them, these people have been passed down from generation to generation, and some craftsmen still have ancestral skills.

The Ming Dynasty followed the artisan household system of the Yuan Dynasty, dividing the households into three categories: civil, military, and craftsman. Among them, all the craftsmen are handicraftsmen, and there are also many people in the military who serve in the ordnance bureaus under the jurisdiction of the various capitals, called military craftsmen.

In terms of legal status, these craftsmen and military craftsmen who are included in the special household register have a lower status than ordinary households, and they have to be inherited from generation to generation, and they are not allowed to divide their households in order to make up for it.

If you want to break away from the original household registration, it is extremely difficult for you to get out of the original household registration, and you must be approved by the emperor, and you are not allowed to take the test to be among the scholars.

There were many drawbacks in the artisan household system, and the artisan households had to be controlled and exploited by the handicraft officials, and the craftsmen resisted by means of sabotage, concealment, and escape, and the Ming government had to formulate a law of substitution of silver for the development of the commodity economy.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the management of artisan households was more loose, or existed in name only, as long as the artisan households handed over a certain amount of silver every month, the government was too lazy to manage, and those who were affiliated with the artisan status could freely engage in industry and commerce, and the personal constraints were greatly weakened.

Zhang Feng sighed that this era is not good, but at least one thing is better, that is, there are many craftsmen, blacksmiths, carpenters, and some craftsmen who can make weapons and armor, and even arquebuses.

Talent is wealth, there are so many craftsmen, Zhang Feng is very relieved, his arsenal will soon be able to manufacture muskets one by one, of course, the key is to have enough, good quality fine iron.

There is no large amount of steel, which is a headache for Zhang Feng.

Steel!

Lots of steel!

This question is really a headache, Zhang Feng thought in his heart, these 5,000 catties of refined iron are used up, I don't know if I can buy a large amount of refined iron from the government, and these 5,000 catties of refined iron are still bought on the pretext that he is the chief soldier of the regiment training and needs to build weapons.

In addition, the government's refined iron is not only expensive, but also limited, and it will definitely be far from keeping up with its own needs in the future.

Zhang Feng asked: "Lao Zhao, when you recruit craftsmen, are there any craftsmen who can build ships, craftsmen who can build that kind of big ships?" ”

Although I don't understand why Zhang Feng asked like this, Zhao Zuolin still said: "Boss, there are really some craftsmen who can build big ships, they are the leading shop craftsmen, two days ago when we recruited workers, there were many people in the leading shop craftsmen's camp, however, many of them are shipbuilders, which do not meet our requirements, and they are disappointed and returned." ”

Longtoupu is a place name, and the craftsman camp is named after the dragon-headed shop, which is a suburb of Shanghai County.

Zhang Feng said: "That place is not close, and it takes at least half a day to walk." ”

Zhao Zuolin said: "No, I don't know how they heard that we were going to recruit workers, we walked for most of the day, and twenty or thirty people came, but because they only knew how to build ships, we only recruited a few people who had good carpentry work." ”

Shipbuilding must be building wooden ships, and it is not uncommon to know how to work as a carpenter, but there is a difference, because the focus of people's professional direction is shipbuilding, not ordinary carpenters.

Zhang Feng plans to build a shipyard, and there will be more places to use ships in the future, especially the kind of large ships that are more than ten zhang long, this kind of large ships have a very strong transportation capacity, and it is not a problem to transport hundreds of tons, or even thousands of tons of goods at a time.

Water transportation, compared with land transportation is much more convenient, but also much lower cost, such as transporting cloth to Nanjing, if starting from Songjiang Mansion, by land, hundreds of kilometers, transportation basically relying on horses and carriages of the Ming Dynasty, transportation costs are high.

But water transport will be much better, from Shanghai to Nanjing, very convenient, of course, the key is that you have to have a ship, the kind of big ship that can transport a lot of goods.

Zhang Feng planned to build a ship, first build a large wooden ship, transport his own goods to sell to Nanjing, in addition, Zhang Feng naturally did not simply build a large wooden ship.

Zhang Feng's future plan is to build a steam engine, build a large steam-powered transport ship, and then run by sea, to Tianjin, and even further afield.

In addition, with a strong maritime transportation capacity, Zhang Feng can build a steel plant to transport coal and iron ore to Shanghai, and with coal and iron ore, he can smelt a large amount of steel, and with a large amount of steel, there is so much that can be done.

The later Baoshan Iron and Steel Plant was to transport iron ore from Australia, and Zhang Feng already had plans to build a steel plant in Baoshan in the future.

If you don't go to Australia, go to a closer place, bring in iron ore, and Zhang Feng's steel mill can start work, of course, the key thing is that there must be a big ship first.

Shipbuilding, I want to build ships.

With such an idea in mind, the idea of building a shipyard was strong, even if only a few sailing ships were built in the early stage.

So, Zhang Feng thought in his heart, it seems that it is necessary to go to the leading shop craftsman camp for a trip.

Zhang Feng is a person who does what he says.

The next day, with two retinues (also guards, selected from more than 200 veterans), they rode to the camp of the leading shopkeeper.

After riding a horse for a long time, I finally arrived at the leading shop craftsman's house, which is said to be a craftsman camp, but in fact, it is a relatively large village, and it is estimated that thousands of people live there.

After dismounting at the head of the village and tying the horse under the tree at the entrance of the village, Zhang Feng walked into the village with his two entourages, and Zhang Feng's first feeling was that the village was very dilapidated and poor.

A few children were playing, several children were dressed in shabby clothes and their faces were full of vegetables, and one of them was a little older, a boy of about eight or nine years old, who asked curiously, "Who are you?" ”

Zhang Feng smiled and said, "Let's find someone, find the most powerful person in shipbuilding here." ”

"The best man in shipbuilding." The boy immediately said happily: "That must be the third grandfather, I'll take you there." ”

didn't think about it, things went so smoothly, Zhang Feng was happy in his heart, this was a good sign, Zhang Feng took out a few copper coins, "This is for you, take it to buy something to eat." ”

Zhang Feng naturally couldn't take out a silver ingot, that would scare the other party, a few copper coins made the boy hesitate for a while, Zhang Feng said it was okay, and the boy accepted these copper coins.

The boy was happy, chattering, leading the way in front, and kept talking about how powerful the third grandfather was at shipbuilding, and it could be seen that the boy admired the third grandfather very much.

"Stone, who is this!"

Someone asked along the way, and the boy, that is, the stone, replied loudly: "This is looking for the third grandfather, I will take them to the third grandfather." ”

The leading shop is really poor, Zhang Feng saw that several people were full of vegetables and looked malnourished, for Zhang Feng, they were just curious and watched from afar.

A big grass house, there was a bamboo fence around a courtyard in front of the big grass house, and the stone took Zhang Feng into the yard, and shouted: "Third grandfather, someone is looking for you." ”

Zhang Feng motioned for his two entourages to wait outside the courtyard, Zhang Feng followed the stone into the grass house, this is a few grass houses, one of the grass houses has a false door, the stone is obviously familiar with the door, pointing to this grass house and saying: "The third grandfather must be inside, you can go in by yourself." ”

After speaking, the stone turned around and walked happily as if he had completed a big task, while Zhang Feng stepped forward and gently pushed the door and walked in.

As soon as he entered, Zhang Feng was almost stunned!

The grass house is relatively large, there are a lot of carpentry parts, and there are also a lot of wood, these are not the main ones, the most important thing is that Zhang Feng saw a lot of models of wooden boats on a shelf, these models are only one or two feet large, and the small ones are estimated to be only a few inches.

These wooden boat models, from double-pole boats to ordinary boats, have a variety of styles, and there are at least dozens of them.

A thin old man, concentrating on making a part, apparently a part of a wooden ship model.

The old man was at least fifty years old, perhaps sixty years old, with gray hair, but he was in good spirits, his complexion was more ruddy, and his clothes, though old, were clean and neat.

Zhang Feng was a little embarrassed, and hugged his fists and said apologetically: "Old man, I'm disturbed, I'm Zhang Feng from Songjiang Mansion." ”

The old man put down the things in his hand, looked at Zhang Feng, and then said, "Old Tang Jianqing, I don't know what Zhang Gongzi is looking for me?" ”

Zhang Feng did not answer Tang Jianqing directly, but said: "Old Tang, I heard that you are the person with the highest level of boat construction in the entire leading shop, so I came to visit you." ”

Tang Jianqing said: "Zhang Gongzi, I'm afraid it's not so simple, if you have something to say, just say it, it's okay." ”

Zhang Feng smiled, "Donald, then I'll tell you the truth, I'm going to build a shipyard and want to invite Donald out of the mountain." ”

Tang Jianqing said: "Zhang Gongzi, I'm afraid that you will be disappointed, the old man is already old, and he has not built a ship for many years, so you should invite someone else." ”

I don't want to go out of the mountains, no.

…………