The shipbuilding industry of the Great Song Dynasty is very developed, Guangzhou is one of the largest ports of the Great Song Dynasty, and there are many large-scale shipyards near the port, but like other industries of the Great Song Dynasty, these large shipyards are generally opened by the imperial court, in the words of later generations, they are state-run, as for private shipyards, but the scale can not be compared with the state-owned ones, some private shipyards are too small to build ships at all, and can only carry out some repairs and maintenance of the ship.

Zhao Yan wants to visit the shipyard, naturally to go to the largest national shipyard, and this is also the most convenient, in fact, there are three national shipyards in Guangzhou, the largest of which is called Nansha Shipyard, located next to Nansha Port inside Guangzhou Port, in fact, Guangzhou Port is just a general term, it is composed of multiple internal ports, Nansha Port is one of the most prosperous.

Nansha Shipyard is on the east side of Nansha Port, is a shipyard with a large area, Zhao Yan came here accompanied by Cai Jing, speaking of which Cai Jing was pinched by Zhao Yan, Zhao Yan can let him roll out of Guangzhou City at any time, he also knows this very clearly, but he was originally a villain who sees the wind and rudder, and now he sees that Zhao Yan is powerful, and the new party in the capital can't help him at all, so he simply came to Zhao Yan's side, no matter what Zhao Yan asked him to do, he was very cooperative.

For Cai Jing's initiative to take refuge, Zhao Yan hasn't thought about whether to accept him, after all, this person is the first traitor in history, and he really has no confidence to control such a subordinate, but now Cai Jing is the governor of Guangzhou, with his assistance, it will be much more convenient for Zhao Yan to take over the sea trade, which is also the reason why Zhao Yan left him in the first place, after all, even if he drove Cai Jing out of Guangzhou, but with the current situation that the imperial court is completely controlled by the new party, Wang Anshi will definitely send another general from the new party to Guangzhou to serve. In case the other party is a tough guy and doesn't cooperate with him, it will only bring him more trouble.

"Your Highness, please see, this is the Nansha Shipyard, speaking of which, this shipyard has a long history, as early as the middle of the Tang Dynasty. There is already a shipyard here, although it was destroyed in the war several times, but each time it can be rebuilt, now we see this shipyard is still after the founding of the country, personally ordered to rebuild, and given the name Nansha Shipyard, this plaque on the door is the one that Taizu rewarded at the beginning, that has been more than 100 years. Cai Jing led Zhao Yan and the others to the shipyard, and then pointed to the huge plaque at the door. Although Cai Jing's character is not good, sometimes I have to admit that this person is indeed very capable, although he has not been in Guangzhou for a long time, he is very familiar with all aspects of Guangzhou, as if he was born and raised here, which is not something that ordinary people can do.

At that moment, Zhao Yan and the others accompanied Cai Jing into the shipyard, and helped them introduce Cai Jing while walking. Almost everywhere he went, he could tell what it was used for, and he could also comment on the craftsmanship of shipbuilding. made the shipyard manager who accompanied them useless, which made Zhao Yan feel very surprised.

"Cai Zhizhou, did you often come to the Nansha Shipyard before?" At this time, Su Shi, who came with Zhao Yan, suddenly said, he had no prejudice against Cai Jing, although he knew that Cai Jing and Xu Yuan's subordinates had some contradictions, but in his opinion, it was nothing. In addition, Cai Jing not only learned well, but also wrote a good hand, which even Su Shi was ashamed of, so he had some friendship with Cai Jing during this time.

"Hehe, I've only been to Nansha Shipyard once. At that time, I heard the steward here introduce me here, so I wrote it down. Cai Jing smiled and said, don't look at him is very fierce and tough on Yu Niang, but when he gets along with other scholars, he seems very gentle and elegant, and he looks like a humble gentleman.

"I didn't expect Cai Zhizhou to have the ability to never forget, it's really admirable!" At this time, Li Gonglin also smiled and said, like Su Shi, they both admired Cai Jing's talent and calligraphy, and they also had some friendship with each other.

Zhao Yan didn't say anything when he heard this, but he couldn't help but admire Cai Jing a little in his heart, thinking that he was worthy of being called the first traitor by later generations, if he didn't have some ability, I am afraid he really didn't deserve this title.

Under Cai Jing's introduction, Zhao Yan and they spent a morning turning the entire shipyard, mainly because the shipyard is too big, and the division of labor inside is fine, and even there are special craftsmen for making zuò cables, not to mention sails, rudders and the like, in addition to the most important dock, there was a special dock in the Song Dynasty, and the keel was already used for sea ships, which allowed the Song Dynasty to build a large ship of 5,000 stones, which was equivalent to 300 tons in later generations. Although the 300-ton ships in later generations can only be regarded as small ships, you must know that even 10,000-ton oil tankers are very common, let alone 300-ton boats, but in the era of the Great Song Dynasty, 300 tons is already quite a large sea ship, and it is estimated that only the Great Song Dynasty can build such a big ship in the whole world.

Zhao Yan originally wanted to use his later generations to make some improvements to shipbuilding technology, but after understanding the internal operation of the shipyard, he found that although he knew the scientific principles that many craftsmen did not understand, it could be used in shipbuilding, but unfortunately he knew almost nothing about shipbuilding, even if he wanted to help, he felt that he couldn't start, which made him very helpless, and it seemed that he had to find someone who knew how to build ships to help him.

After visiting the Nansha Shipyard, Zhao Yan went to several other shipyards, several of which are private shipyards, after all, the purpose of Zhao Yan's visit to the shipyard is to understand the shipbuilding industry of the Great Song Dynasty, although the scale of private shipyards is not as large as the state-owned shipyards, but there are many of them, and they also occupy a considerable share in the shipbuilding market.

After a few days of busy work, Zhao Yan finally had a general understanding of the shipbuilding industry of the Great Song Dynasty, and also knew about the development of some shipbuilding industry through some officials in charge of shipbuilding, in general, the Great Song Dynasty should be a watershed and peak of the shipbuilding industry in ancient China, from the Tang Dynasty to the era in which Zhao Yan lived, although the period of war continued, but the shipbuilding industry of the Great Song Dynasty ushered in a period of vigorous development, and various revolutionary technologies emerged, such as the laying of keels, the use of watertight cabins, the subdivision of shipbuilding craftsmen, and so on, all of which made the shipbuilding industry of the Great Song Dynasty stand out from the crowd and reached an unprecedented height.

Later generations only know that Zheng He went to the South Seas in the early Ming Dynasty, and used a variety of large-scale treasure ships, thinking that the shipbuilding industry in the early Ming Dynasty was the peak of ancient China, but this is actually not true, before the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains civilization was attacked by the barbarian Jurchens and Mongols one after another, so that the level of all walks of life has regressed in different ways, so although the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty is developed, but in fact, it is also the inheritance of the technology left over from the Song Dynasty, compared with the shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is actually not stronger than the Song Dynasty, There are even some aspects that are far inferior to the Song Dynasty, such as the huge vehicles and ships that were very famous in the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty did not have the ability to manufacture them.

However, the development of shipbuilding technology in the Song Dynasty is also a good thing for Zhao Yan, after all, sea ships are the basis for the development of the maritime trade industry, and even sometimes he is fantasizing, in case he can get the steam engine out, and then install it on the car ship to make a steam ship, then the entire ocean will become the back garden of the Great Song Dynasty, and the goods of the Great Song Dynasty will also be able to reach every corner of the earth. It was not easy to build a steam engine.

Zhao Yan took over the sea trade, and the shipbuilding industry is also related to the sea trade, but he did not take over the shipyard like taking over the city shipyard, first, it is not necessary, because if he needs it, he can order the shipyard to cooperate with him, and secondly, the shipyard is different from the city shipyard, in addition to the state-owned shipyard and the private shipyard, so Zhao Yan can only control the shipyard at most, and there is nothing he can do about the private shipyard, since this is the case, it is better to simply let go, Anyway, his biggest need for the shipyard is nothing more than asking them to build some sea vessels, which can be done only through the normal way, and there is no need to spend effort to control the shipyard.

After inspecting the shipbuilding industry near Guangzhou, Zhao Yan then learned about the import and export goods in Guangzhou, which is more complicated, because Guangzhou is just a port, and there are not many goods produced by itself, most of which are transported from various places in the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Yan spent more than two months to familiarize himself with all aspects related to the maritime trade industry, during which he almost turned the entire city of Guangzhou no less than ten times, although Guangzhou is only one of the ports of the Great Song Dynasty, but it is the most representative port, so as long as you understand the operation of the port of Guangzhou, you will also understand the development and recent situation of the maritime trade industry of the Great Song Dynasty.

"Third brother, you have already understood the situation in Guangzhou, do you have any ideas now?" After breakfast that day, Princess Chen Guo and Wang Shiyu came to visit, sat down and chatted for a few words, Princess Chen Guo immediately asked, after several years of rapid development, the sea trade line has gradually entered a development bottleneck, and the speed of expansion has slowed down significantly, so they very much hope that Zhao Yan can put forward a constructive idea, so that the sea trade line can break through the bottleneck.

However, Zhao Yan heard this and smiled slightly: "Sister, you don't have to worry, although Guangzhou has learned about it, but I am very interested in your deep-water port in Jiaozhi, I also put forward a lot of opinions on the construction of the deep-water port when I was in the capital before, just take advantage of this opportunity now, let's go to the deep-water port for a turn, by the way, I have to invite someone to come over to help me." (To be continued......)