On Cheung Chau Island, the voices of people are boiling, the sound of tinkling is endless, and factories and furnace rooms are rising from the ground. The slipway dock is beginning to take shape, and several hydro-powered cranes that can lift nearly 100 tons are slowly stretching their arms.

This is the Jiangxin Island of the Pearl River, looking at Huangpu Port in the north, the river is rolling and rushing, far away, the sea and the sky are the same.

The largest shipyard in the Far East and representing the world's most advanced technology will be located here.

Walking on this busy island with countless figures, Ye Zhao exhaled deeply, and finally, there were some eyebrows.

Behind Ye Zhao, there was a mighty group of people, there were white people with high noses, and there were also Qing officials wearing official uniforms, in addition to a red-topped official next to Ye Zhao, there were two cloth clothes, curly hair in their forties and foreigners called Martin, and a Chinese in his early thirties wearing a green robe and a slightly chubby Chinese called Liu Qi, the two were the administrative directors of the Guangfu Shipyard.

Although this shipyard is state-owned, Ye Zhao did not set up a yamen such as the Harbour Administration Bureau to manage it, let alone put a red top on Liu Qi.

Shipyards should be responsible for their own profits and losses, not only ship trading companies, even if the Guangdong naval division, whether it is to buy ships from them, or to repair and renovate ships, they must be settled clearly, of course, the shipyard in the first few years of the general's mansion naturally has to allocate silver subsidies to it, but this financial allocation must also be clearly defined, and relying on the state to support are two concepts.

In terms of employing people, compared with the Westernization Movement, it is even more different, the Westernization Movement hired foreigners and technicians are very indiscriminate, and the administrative personnel are almost all laymen, such as Zuo Zongtang, and they are not exempt from nepotism, and they are hired by foreigners who have close contacts with them, rather than professional management talents.

And most of these foreigners are penniless in their homeland, but they earn huge salaries in China, and when they return to their homeland after more than ten years, they all become rich.

Now the administrative talents and technicians recruited by Wells and the Bank of Shenghe in the United Kingdom, Ye Zhao is still very satisfied, just say Martin, but he has the experience of working as an executive at the Royal Shipyard in Liverpool, although he came to Daqing for a high salary, but Ye Zhao feels that it should be worth the money.

As for the senior mechanics and low-level craftsmen, the salaries of various Western craftsmen are also reasonable.

In the Westernization Movement, the Mawei Shipyard was taken as an example, and it took ten years to realize the localization of mechanics and dismiss all the Western technicians, while Ye Zhao hoped to achieve this goal within five years, in fact, this is a conservative number, after all, unlike the Westernization Movement, Guangdong is gradually forming a national-level basic industrial chain, while the Westernization Movement has never achieved this. For example, when a shipyard runs an ordnance factory, it will set up a small iron factory in the shipyard ordnance factory, and what is needed will be built, and what will be changed is just a small world of the Shipyard Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau, and it did not rely on a few major enterprises in the Westernization Movement to drive the development of national industry.

The yamen-style factory is even more redundant, and the heads of various departments are counting on being promoted to make a fortune, from which they can fill their own pockets to get money and send it to the official.

"Okay, Lord Wang, the officials can see that the Lord is really ambitious, and this Western steamer can be seen!" The red-topped official beside Ye Zhao sighed with admiration.

He is the official of the Governor of Huguang, a native of the White Banner of Manchuria, born with a good face, tall and burly, in fact, he is a typical son of a Manchurian nobleman, who is not familiar with political affairs, and relies on the shogunate master to help him make plans.

The concept of official literature is strong, and he has always looked down on Han officials, and he has a deep prejudice against the Han scholars who have risen like a rocket.

Zeng Guofan was the governor of Liangguang, but he had a huge influence in Hunan and Hubei, especially after Zeng Guoquan was awarded the governor of Hubei, and the official text was almost like fire and water, plus the Guangdong army entered Jiangxi, and the main battlefield of the Hunan army was placed at the junction of Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui, and fought fiercely with Jiujiang Shida.

Inevitably, Hubei military and political affairs were more and more pointed at by Zeng Guofan, and even the appointment of the prefect of Wuchang Mansion was intervened by Zeng Guofan.

This tone, how can the official document not be panicked? In this world, there is no such a cowardly governor, right?

Ye Zhao naturally knows a lot about his relationship with Zeng Guofan, and he also knows that the official and political voices are not good, and the so-called "three big" jokes are mostly fueled by the Hunan army, which is known to the world, but in fact, the official literature is not so mediocre and incompetent, but there are Manchurian children who have extremely heavy habits.

And chatting with Ye Zhao about playing with birdie eagles, the two chatted happily, and they smelled like each other.

For Ye Zhao, a yellow belt and a nobleman of the clan, the official document is another posture, and the affection is incomparable, if he is a person with a blue flag, I am afraid that he can be called a slave.

A year ago, the official Wen personally came to Guangzhou to meet the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces to ask for sin, but after this year, he came to the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces to ask for peace, which can be said to be without the credit of the "confidant" of the little prince.

Now he followed Ye Zhao to Changzhou Island, but everything was really fresh, and he saw that the huge crane lifted thousands of catties of sediment, and his tongue couldn't retract it.

Listening to the official text, Ye Zhao smiled slightly and said: "If we build it, then it can't be called a Western steamer, if it is called a Qing steamer, in a few years, let's build a Lafayette and carry the two palaces Lafayette to the sea, then it is called majestic." ”

Guan Wen smiled: "Then dare to be kind, who said that our flag soldiers are not good?" The prince's soldiers, aren't they flag soldiers? Steamships can be built, can they be compared to the Hunanese? ”

Listening to his three or two sentences and then turned to Zeng Guofan's head, Ye Zhao was amused, nodded, and did not squeak.

While talking, he saw that in front of the workshop that had just been built, there was a tall eagle-hooked nose foreigner admiring the stone lions on both sides of the factory.

These two vivid male and female stone lions are carved with Xin'an bluestone, which is the meaning of warding off evil spirits and protecting the spirit beast.

When Martin saw the hook-nosed foreigner in front of the stone lion, he hurriedly walked a few steps, whispered a few words to the hook-nosed foreigner, and led the hook-nosed foreigner over, Martin smiled and said to Ye Zhao: "Your Excellency, he is the chief designer Cook, Brooke and Cliff, you have seen it." "This time, Guangfu Shipyard has hired a total of three chief designers, all of whom are top technicians who can lead the design team to complete the design of giant ships.

Ye Zhao stretched out his hand with a smile and said, "Mr. Cook, hello, welcome to China, in a few days, I will personally invite you to a banquet to welcome you from afar." ”

Seeing Ye Zhao stretch out his hand first, and speak to himself in fluent English, Cook's arrogant face couldn't help but show a little surprise, stretched out his hand to shake Ye Zhao's hand, and said: "It turns out that His Excellency the Prince speaks English, very good, I have a lot of things to say to you, but Mr. Martin has been blocking me, now, I hope we can have an open and honest exchange!" ”

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Mr. Cook said it clearly. ”

Martin's face was a little anxious, but now, it was not easy for him to take Kukla away.

Cook immediately shrugged his shoulders and put an exaggerated expression on his face: "Your Excellency, the conditions here are too difficult, my stomach is very uncomfortable, as if I have dysentery, I heard that there will be many mosquitoes in the future, people can't stand it, if I had known the environment of your shipyard, I would not have come to China." ”

Ye Zhao smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Cook, I am a straightforward person, and I hope you can get straight to the point, to put it bluntly, I am not very good at guessing riddles." ”

Cook tilted his head and smiled: "Your Excellency the Prince is a big man, I won't delay your time too much, I hope Your Excellency the Prince will increase our salary as appropriate, after all, the environment here is very different from what I imagined before, it is too difficult." ”

Martin shook his head, but said it anyway. Mr. Martin Wells has repeatedly asked him to do his best to help the Chinese prince to build this shipyard, and from his own point of view, coming to China, in addition to a high salary and a good job, is also an opportunity to prove his ability, if he can make a name for himself in the East, and return to China after returning to China, he will be worth double, which is much more eye-catching than running a shipyard in the British mainland, not to mention that in the British mainland, there is no such huge shipyard that will hire him as the chief administrator.

Ye Zhao glanced at Cook a few times, and said quietly: "Although it is a little harder now, Mr. Cook should know that this problem will be solved soon." ”

Cook shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, if you can't improve our treatment, I will have to return home." ”

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Okay, then please take care of yourself." ”

"What?" Cook was stunned, he couldn't believe his ears, and Martin also looked at Ye Zhao in surprise.

"Aren't you going back home? Tomorrow morning, I will send someone to take you to Hong Kong, and the shipyard will be responsible for the food and lodging from Canton to Hong Kong, but after arriving in Hong Kong, Mr. Cook will have nothing to do with the Canton shipyard. Ye Zhao spoke, as if he was calculating the number, "Well, two pieces of silver are enough to pay all of Mr. Cook's expenses. ”

Cook stayed for a moment, his face flushed, and said, "But, we have a contract." ”

Ye Zhao said lightly: "What, do you also know that there is still a labor contract between us?" Mr. Cook, your Undersecretary of the Exchequer's salary is just over £1,000 a year, do you think your position is more important than that of your Chancellor? Do you know why the shipyard signed a one-year contract with your three chief engineers? Survival of the fittest, competition, after a year, the shipyard will only retain one chief engineer, of course, this is just my idea, if the three of them perform well, can make the shipyard management feel that all of them are indispensable, then the three of them together is nothing. ”

"Don't say that only you are gone now, even if all three resign, that's nothing, now in London, my friends have been helping me find the right talent, Mr. Cook, you choose the company, the company also chooses you, this is a two-way choice, Mr. Cook thinks that without you, my shipyard will not be able to continue?"

"According to the contract, if you quit now, you won't get a penny, not only now, if the future performance is not satisfactory to the shipyard management, you can also be dismissed, but you need to make up for two more months' salary. Of course, we Chinese are face-conscious, hospitable, and never coldly only care about interests, but if Mr. Cook is good at calculation, then we must also learn from Mr. Cook. ”

Cook was a little confused, first of all, the Chinese prince was very familiar with London's salary structure, and secondly, the contract? How did the one-year contract come about? Originally, I thought that the Chinese signed three chief engineers in one go, which was a consistent extravagance and waste, but it turned out to be a competitive mechanism. As for the terms of the contract, Cook did not study them carefully at all, because he had heard of the Chinese Yamen institutions, contracts and other deeds were just formalities, and the British adviser of the Shanghai Jiang Customs was like the emperor.

But, how? Seems to have fallen into a contract trap? Listen to this meaning, can you dismiss us chief engineers at any time? The contract trap of the Chinese, this, this is also too funny, right?

Cook wanted to run back and read his contract carefully, and at the same time wanted to beg for mercy, indeed, he could earn the salary of the deputy chancellor of the exchequer, which is not easy to find in Britain.

Ye Zhao glanced at him and said, "I hope Mr. Cook will think about it carefully before deciding where to go." ”

"Okay, okay." Cook sweated slightly on his forehead, watching Ye Zhao move forward, the mighty procession passed by, and he suddenly deflated like a ball, leaning on the stone lion.

Following Ye Zhao's side, Martin's eyes changed a little when he looked at Ye Zhao again, which is this Chinese prince? This style is more exploitative than the big capitalists in China, and it looks very gentle, and the clouds are light, but if you really provoke him, you will immediately know what a huge mistake you have made.

When Ye Zhao spoke to him again, Martin became more and more respectful tenfold.

Hiring three chief engineers is indeed a lot of money, and the three of them together have an annual salary of tens of thousands of taels of silver, which can catch up with the prince, but Ye Zhao feels that it is still necessary to do this, introduce competition, lest he work in China and make trouble, and just copy some sketches of British ships to make a difference.

Although it is inevitable that the shipyard will imitate it in the early stage, Ye Zhao still hopes that the Chinese technicians who follow the study can learn some real skills.

And Ye Zhao just made them have a sense of crisis, waiting for the Ship Master School to start, the contract stated that the three chief engineers and all kinds of technicians will teach part-time, and then they will do their best, and they will hire more technicians, just to prepare for the Ship Master School.

Thinking about Ye Zhao, he also feels like a black-hearted boss, but everyone takes what they need, there is nothing to blame, is the silver of the Chinese so easy to earn?

(To be continued)