Zhou Ling sighed and said: "Don't hide it from the general, it turned out that all kinds of shipbuilding materials in the shipyard were piled up, but that year Wang Bo led the army to attack Beihai County, burned and looted everywhere, and burned everything that could not be taken away.

The shipyard, which stretched for more than ten miles, was also destroyed by a fire, which burned for three days and three nights, and hundreds of keels were all burned, and these materials were still found by me from the ruins, and I spent a whole year leading my family to look for materials in the ruins, and there was only so much, all piled up in the yard. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded silently, Zhou Ling's persistent spirit moved him, he knew that Zhou Ling's father Zhou Ruifeng was the previous shipyard manager, who had been a shipyard manager for thirty years, and passed on the position of steward to his son, although the shipyard was not their family property, they had devoted several generations of effort to this shipyard.

"What's that warehouse?" Jao Hyun asked, pointing to the warehouse.

"General, please come with me!"

Zhou Ling took Zhang Xuan into the warehouse, which occupied a large area, and a wooden house was built with wooden planks in the corner, which was the residence of Zhou Ling and his old wife, and the children were not around now.

I saw that the warehouse was full of ropes, canvases, large iron nails, tung oil and other materials necessary for shipbuilding.

"These are the materials that Zhang Dashuai transported from the shipyard of Zhu'a County, Qi County last year, including this warehouse, which was also built last year, and now there is only this thing in the entire shipyard."

Jang Hyun pondered and asked, "What else do I need to do if I want to continue to restore the shipyard?" ”

Zhou Ling saw that Zhang Xuan came to visit the shipyard, and knew that Zhang Xuan wanted to restore the shipyard, he was extremely excited, and hurriedly said: "General Qiyu, in fact, the restoration of the shipyard is three things: people, money, and things, and there are many shipbuilders in Beihai County, and I recruited for the first time last year." There were 3,000 people who rushed to sign up, in fact, the key is money and food, and if there is enough money and food, people will come to work, and only then will they buy wood and all kinds of materials. Last year, there was no money and food, so Zhang Dashuai's recovery plan could not be implemented. ”

"What are you going to do if I guarantee the money and food that the shipyard needs?" Zhang Xuan asked again.

I don't know how many times Zhou Ling thought about this question in his heart, he said without thinking: "I will start by building a small cargo ship, about 500 stones, which can not only sail in the inland rivers of Beihai County, but also sail into Jishui and the Yellow River, develop inland river freight, and after a year or two of accumulation, you can build large ships." ”

Zhou Ling's sentence is to develop inland river freight. Speaking of Zhang Xuan's heart, he currently has ten large ships, which are mainly used for the transportation of materials between Beihai County, Donglai County and Gaomi County.

But he also wants to set up another inland river cargo fleet, which will be dedicated to Jishui and closely link Qi County, Beihai County and Jibei County.

Although he collected more than 300 ships, most of them were more than 100 stones, and there were only a few dozen ships above 100 stones, which was far from enough. Therefore, he also hopes to start with a 500-stone cargo ship first, and in just one or two years, he can have hundreds of 500-stone cargo ships. Solve his urgent need.

Zhang Xuan couldn't help but excitedly said: "Since this is the case, you will immediately start recruiting shipwrights, and even the Beihai County Government can do its best to help you, you can ask for as much food as you want, the key is that I hope to build a hundred cargo ships of five hundred stones before the end of the year." ”

Zhou Ling smiled bitterly and said, "General, Beihai County alone will build a big ship of more than five hundred stones. At least three years later. ”

"Why?" Zhang Xuan was stunned.

"General, shipbuilding mainly depends on accumulation, and after a big tree is cut down to make a ship's plank, it must be dried for two or three years before it can be used, and even the keel must be dried for two or three years. Therefore, the materials used in shipbuilding every year are actually prepared two or three years ago, and they are prepared every year, and the cycle repeats.

Now we are restoring the shipyard, everything has to start from scratch, now start to prepare, dry for two years, build for a year, the first ships will not be launched until at least three years later, of course, I still have spare materials here, but at most it will be enough to build ten 500-stone cargo ships, and I can deliver them by the end of the year. ”

Jang Hyun had an irrepressible disappointment on his face, and the first ships would not be launched until three years away, which would affect many of his plans.

Zhou Ling saw Zhang Xuan's disappointment, and said with a slight smile: "General, I said that it will take three years to rely on the strength of Beihai County, but if I use external strength, I can guarantee to build a hundred five-hundred-stone cargo ships this year." ”

Zhang Xuan was overjoyed and hurriedly asked, "Are you buying ready-made materials from outside?" ”

"Of course, you can buy it from outside, for example, you can buy it from several large ship yards in Jiangnan, but I am talking about the Beiping County ship yard, I just came back from there at the beginning of the year, and I can get a lot of plates and even keels for very little money."

"Why?"

"General, the Beiping County Weihekou Shipyard nominally belongs to Beiping County, but in fact it is directly managed by the imperial court, with unclear powers and responsibilities, chaotic management, and thousands of ships attacking Goguryeo are anchored there.

After the end of the Goguryeo War, the Beiping County Shipyard had stopped shipbuilding, but all kinds of good old materials in the warehouse were piled up, there were no account books, and no one cared, if you didn't get up, sooner or later they would all rot in the warehouse, and the general only needed to spend a few hundred taels of gold to transport all the materials worth tens of thousands of gold back to Beihai County. ”

"And this kind of good thing?"

"What my subordinates said is true, even if the general doesn't come today, I will write a report and report it, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the general must seize it."

Jang Hyun was actually more impressed by the thousands of large warships, which he witnessed in Goguryeo last year, and the overwhelming Sui army slaughtered Pyongyang, if these big ships could be his own

He pondered for a long time and then asked, "What about those thousands of warships?" ”

"General, those warships are controlled by the Youzhou Army, Luo Yi sent three thousand troops to be stationed in Beiping County, and one thousand of them were specially stationed in the shipyard, just to guard these warships, it is said that this is an order from the Ministry of War, although these warships are not used, but it may be very difficult for the general to pocket them, at least it is not realistic now."

Zhang Xuan was just thinking about it, if thousands of warships appeared in Beihai County, I am afraid that the entire imperial court would be fried, and he didn't want to attract so much attention.

"That's it!"

Zhang Xuan smiled happily: "I will send someone to the north to buy back all the materials that have been piled up in the warehouse of the Beiping Shipyard." ”

At this moment, there was a slight commotion outside, and a soldier rushed in to report, "General, the fleet is here!" ”

Everyone followed Zhang Xuan out of the warehouse, only to see a fleet moored in the Juyang River hundreds of steps away, consisting of ten cargo ships of 3,000 stones, they were originally large grain ships in Liyang Cang, and dozens were detained by Wang Shichong, Zhang Xuan burned most of them in Zhu'a County, and only these ten ships remained, all of which were extorted to Beihai County by Zhang Xuan as a quid pro quo.

Ten big ships loaded with 5,000 stone of grain, set off from Yidu County, ready to be transported to Donglai County by sea, a big ship led by a large ship slowly leaned on the shore, put on a board, a lieutenant quickly stepped off the big boat, knelt down on one knee to Zhang Xuan and saluted, "General Qiyu, I am ordered to go to Ye County to deliver grain!" ”

Ye County is the county seat of Donglai County, most of the population of Donglai County is concentrated near Ye County, Pei Xingyan led a thousand troops are also stationed in Ye County, in the past month, more than 10,000 people who migrated from Qi County have also been placed in the area of Luxiang County, Donglai County, this time the grain is mainly for the relief of the migrant population.

Jang Hyun asked again, "How much time will it take for the fleet to come back?" ”

"General Hui, this time we will not go to Gaomi County, only Ye County, and we will be able to return in four or five days at most."

Zhang Xuan nodded, "After I come back, the fleet will temporarily anchor in Shouguang County, and I have another task for the fleet." ”

"Obey!"

The lieutenant saluted, got up and returned to the ship, and the fleet set sail again.

[In the past two months, Lao Gao has been redecorating the old house, and I would like to think that it is easier to renovate the old house, but once I do it, I find that it is not so simple, and it is a clear bag, and there are things busy every day, so the update of these two months is not powerful, two more and the number of words is less, I am really sorry, Lao Gao is busy with this time, and he will definitely restore the three watches] (to be continued......)