The lifting division is located in the Longjiang Bao Shipyard, which is a large courtyard with four or five entrances in front and back. In response to a common saying, it is called a sparrow, although it is small, it has all kinds of organs. Although this is only a factory supervising official yamen, there are all kinds of buildings such as the gate, the instrument gate, the main hall, the party house, the back hall, the study, and the back house. The only fly in the ointment is that this yamen looks quite old, and it is obviously lacking in repairs, and like the entire shipyard, it has a decaying atmosphere.

"Come on, come on, let's go this way." Cai Guozhu led Su Hao and Li Zhen to bypass the main entrance of the lifting division and walked straight to the back.

Su Hao said strangely: "Didn't we go to meet Lord Tiju, why don't we enter the main gate, where are we going?" ”

Cai Guozhu said with a smile: "Our shipyard has nothing to do, how can you have any official business?" Except for the occasional time when someone from the Ministry of Engineering comes to inspect it, the Lord will meet him in the public court. Usually when we have something to visit, we all go in through the back door and go directly to the back house to see his old man. ”

"Okay......" Su Hao said helplessly, what Cai Guozhu said also makes sense, the shipyard is no longer working, what are you doing in the court?

When the group came to the back door of the lifting division, they saw that the back door was open, and there was not even a door, probably because the lifting division had no money to hire handymen. Cai Guozhu familiarly took Su Hao and Li Zhen into the back door, and a large lush vegetable field appeared in front of him.

"This is the back house of the lift?" Su Hao asked in surprise.

Cai Guozhu is not used to seeing it, he whispered: "Our entire shipyard people grow their own grain and vegetables to eat, and they have to eat vegetables when they are lifted, what if they don't grow their own?" I heard that Tiju is also from a farmer's family, and he is an expert in growing vegetables, which is better than those of us artisans. ”

As he was talking, a human head appeared under the loofah shelf in front of him, Cai Guozhu saw this and hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "Raise the adult, the villain is Cai Guozhu, and when I met two guest officers at the door and said that I wanted to meet your old man, the villain brought them." I didn't report it to the Lifter beforehand, and I asked for forgiveness. ”

"It's okay, someone is looking for the official, you can bring them over, the official has to thank you." The man waved his hand, walked in front of Su Hao and Li Zhen, looked them up and down, and asked expressionlessly, "Two guest officers, what official business do you have to find this official?" ”

"Excuse me, is your lord the Longjiang Treasure Shipyard lifting Tian Dao Hantian?" Su Hao asked.

They wanted to come to Longjiang Bao Shipyard to do business, so naturally they had learned about the situation in advance. He knew that this Tian Daohan was a jinshi in the Jiajing period, or Tanhua and the first, who was originally in charge of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry, but because he offended his boss, he was assigned to Longjiang Bao Shipyard as a promoter, and he worked for more than 20 years. Now Tian Daohan, wearing patched civilian clothes, stained with mud stains, and wrinkles on his face, looks no different from an old farmer in the countryside.

"This official is Tian Daohan, dare to ask how the two of you are called." Tian Daohan replied, from Su Hao's tone, he felt that the other party had an extraordinary background. The businessmen who usually come to the shipyard to find workers to do their private work will not speak so humbly or arrogantly in front of the officials.

"In Xia Sutian, do some small business in the capital. This Mr. Lin is the master of the next. Su Hao reported a fake name, not wanting to reveal his identity too early.

"Oh, Shopkeeper Su, Master Lin, what do you two have to do with this official?" Tian Daohan casually hugged his fists to the two and said.

Su Hao said: "I came from the capital with Master Lin and wanted to make a deal with Lord Hetian, I don't know if my lord is interested." ”

"What kind of sale? We are a government-run treasure shipyard here, so there is nothing to do. Tian Daohan said.

Su Hao said with a smile: "Su Mou has already inquired about the matter of Longjiang Factory when he was in the capital. Su's deal, Tian Daren must have done it...... It's just that this doesn't seem to be the place to talk about things. ”

Tian Daohan frowned and said, "Okay, since that's the case, those two please go to the back hall and wait for the official to change their clothes." ”

I don't know where an old family servant came from nowhere, and took Su Hao and Li Zhen to the back hall of the Lifting Division, and Tian Daohan went to change his clothes and wash his face first. Cai Guozhu saw that he had nothing to do with himself, so he said hello to Su Hao and Li Zhen, and retreated out of the back door.

Su Hao and Li Zhen waited in the back hall for a while, and Tian Daohan came in in an official uniform. He sat down on the main seat, waved his hand, motioned for Su Hao and Li Zhen to have tea, and then said: "Okay, there are no idle people here, what does the shopkeeper Su say, you can say it to the official." ”

Su Hao said: "Su has some overseas business, so he wants to build two sea ships. I heard that there were craftsmen in Longjiang Shipyard who could build sea ships, so I wondered if I could hire a few to help. ”

Su Hao's words were also temporary. He heard Cai Guozhu say that in the past, some people came to Longjiang Shipyard to do private work, so he made up such a reason to set Tian Daohan's words.

Sure enough, Tian Daohan was not surprised by Su Hao's request, he asked calmly: "I don't know how many materials the sea ship that Shopkeeper Su wants to build and where to build it." ”

Su Hao said: "These things are done by other shopkeepers, and Su doesn't know very well." This sea ship is about 1,500 materials. The construction site is near Taicang. ”

"Well, a ship of 1,500 materials is not a problem for our craftsmen." Tian Daohan said, "I don't know how many craftsmen we will use for Shopkeeper Su and how long it will take." ”

"About 40 craftsmen, two months." Su Hao said.

"Two taels of silver for one person." Tian Daohan bluntly offered the price code.

Su Hao already knew from Cai Guozhu that Tian Daohan was asking for bribes, but he was still a little surprised that he was so outspoken. He asked: "When Lord Tian said two taels of silver per person, doesn't he mean the craftsmen's labor and food silver taels, right?" ”

"Of course not." Tian Daohan said, "This is the silver collected by the lifting division, and the craftsman's labor and food silver, you can just go and talk to the craftsman yourself." ”

It's black, it's so dark, Su Hao scolded secretly in his heart. He is the imperial history of the capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Li Zhen's official is one level older than him, and he is the deputy imperial history of the capital. For this kind of naked bribery, as long as the two of them take out their official seals, they can immediately rip off Tian Daohan's official uniform and dismiss him for investigation.

However, Su Hao did not come to the shipyard this time to investigate the case, even if he had a lot of bad feelings towards Tian Daohan, he was not in a hurry to deal with it. He nodded and said, "I understand." May I ask Lord Tian, is it possible that after handing over the silver taels to the Lifting Division, we can go directly to the craftsman? ”

Tian Daohan is obviously very familiar with this kind of transaction, and he said: "There are still a few conditions. First, when our craftsmen go, they must be engaged in shipbuilding, and cannot be used for other purposes. Second, the promised time cannot be delayed, let alone privately retain craftsmen with high salaries. If the latter thing happens, the official will definitely investigate it to the end. ”

"We can guarantee that." Su Hao said.

Tian Daohan thought about it again and said: "There is another reluctant request, if you want to use a blacksmith, the blacksmith Liu of the second compartment and the fourth class has good skills, you can give priority." ”

Su Hao was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "What, this Liu blacksmith...... Is it a relative of Tan-sama? ”

Tian Daohan shook his head and said, "No, it's just that Blacksmith Liu's inner man has a serious illness and is short of money." Isn't it a good thing that you want to find a blacksmith anyway and let him do things for you, and if he can earn some money to treat your insider? ”

Su Hao was a little distracted, the official in front of him, in addition to being greedy, didn't seem to be useless, at least he cared about the livelihood of the craftsman, and could even tell which craftsman's family was in difficulty. In these years, it is not so easy to find an official who cares about his subordinate craftsmen.

"In addition to hiring craftsmen, we have one more thing to ......" Su Hao was silent for a moment before bringing up the next question.

"Shopkeeper Su, please speak." Tian Daohan said.

Su Hao said: "I heard that your factory has a lot of timber for building big ships, and some of them are still saved during the Yongle Ye period, I don't know how well they are preserved?" ”

Hearing Su Hao talk about wood, Tian Daohan's expression changed suddenly, and he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why are you asking this?" ”

Su Hao smiled: "Without him, just ask casually." I heard from the head of our shipyard that the timber has rotted over the years. ”

"Hmph, your master knows a piece of. I'm not afraid to tell you that none of these timbers in Longjiang Shipyard are rotten, and all of them are intact. Tian Daohan said proudly.

"Really?" Su Hao asked.

Tian Daohan said: "This kind of thing, is it necessary for this official to lie to you?" ”

Su Hao pretended to be excited and said, "That's great, we build a big ship, and we are short of giant trees, I heard that ......"

"Stop!" Tian Daohan directly interrupted Su Hao's words, "The giant trees in the Longjiang Shipyard are reserved for the imperial court to build treasure ships, don't think about the idea of fighting them." ”

"The imperial court has long stopped building treasure ships, these timbers have been preserved for more than 100 years, how can there be a chance to use them for shipbuilding?" Su Hao said, "Su has heard that these timbers are all good timber from Nanyang, and the price is ......."

Before he could finish speaking, Tian Daohan had already stood up, he pointed to the door with his finger, and said, "If you two don't have anything else, then please." ”

"Lord Tian......" Su Hao was a little embarrassed, he originally just wanted to try Tian Daohan's professional ** guard, but he was driven out as a bad person. At this moment, he didn't know how to evaluate Tian Daohan's talent, he was so arrogant in asking for bribes before, and when it came to the matter of wood, it was actually leaky. You know, as long as he secretly sells a few large logs, he will collect far more money than the bribes he asks.

"Master Tian, don't get me wrong, we're just asking. Since Lord Tian didn't allow it, then we didn't say it, and asked Lord Tian to calm his anger. Li Zhen came forward to play a round.

"yes, yes, we're just asking." Su Hao said with a smile, "As for the hiring of workers mentioned earlier, Lord Tian won't change his hexagram, right?" ”

"This matter has already been said, you hand over the silver taels, and the official will arrange for someone to take you to the craftsman." Tian Daohan said with a stiff face. (To be continued.) )