Mochou Lake.

After half a year, Jiangnan Shipping Company has annexed dozens of small gangs along the Yangtze River, and has developed into a large shipping company with more than 30,000 professional shipwrights, almost covering the freight transportation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and even extending to Huaishui and the Grand Canal.

At this moment, thousands of people gathered on the shore of Mochou Lake, and on the shore of the lake there was a behemoth covered by a sackcloth canopy, and the boatmen only knew that a huge tent had been erected here half a year ago. Ordinary boatmen are not allowed to enter, and they must have a special waist card to enter it.

There was a noise and shouting, and I saw a young man on the high platform, accompanied by a father and son, most of whom the boatmen did not know.

Wu Qing pressed his hands, and the boatmen in the audience suddenly stopped, and then said: "Today, I want you to come here to witness that I can finally walk out of the Yangtze River and into the sea." ”

"Childe!"

"Childe!"

The cheers came and went, and Wu Qing knew that the people behind him didn't hear it, but this cheer made his heart surge, and he had a feeling of dominating the world, which made him like it a little.

"The future world is the world of the ocean, and our journey will be to the ocean, on the other side of the ocean, there is a rich land, where there is a lot of gold and silver, and there are abundant products, which is no worse than the Tang Dynasty. Your task is to transport my Datang products to the other side of the ocean, and then transport the gold and silver from there to Datang! Wu Qing shouted loudly.

Looking forward to the future on the other side of the ocean, the boatmen are completely boiling, they know. What Childe said must be correct, and what Childe plans must be achievable.

Wu Qing whispered to Yuwen and his son: "The sea ship is on trial today. It's up to you father and son! ”

Yuwen father and son bowed their hands together and said, "Please rest assured, son." My father and son will not disappoint their son's love! ”

"In that case, let's get on board!" Wu Qing said in a deep voice, today's day is very important for him, if the sea trial is successful, then his sea trade can be gradually realized, if it fails, it means that it will take half a year.

In the past six months, Wu Qing ordered Zhu Fugui to collect boatmen and boatmen with sailing experience. There are also missionaries, but unfortunately there are only a few dozen people who can join the Jiangnan Boat Company, and as for those missionaries, they only think about going to Chang'an and Luoyang to preach, and they will not teach you the art of ocean navigation at all.

Wu Qing had no choice but to order the recruited boatmen and boatmen to train apprentices, and in half a year, nearly 2,000 people were trained. He also trained Zhu Fugui and several selected literate boatmen, a total of ten, to teach them some geography and astronomy in later generations, and invented the compass and the simple telescope. And on the basis of the compass, the application of the compass in navigation was added, and these three things belonged to the level of secrecy, and only these ten future captains could see and use.

Now everything is ready. Only the east wind is owed!

Wu Qing saw Yuwen father and son, Zhu Fugui and others enter the giant tent, and then shouted loudly: "Sea trial!" ”

And behold, the sackcloth on the great cloak was parted on all sides. Slowly slide down and finally fall aside. Own boatman to clean up.

In the eyes of everyone, a huge sailing ship lies across the Mochou Lake, its hull is about six zhang high, about forty zhang long, about fifteen zhang wide, the ship is divided into four layers, the ship has nine masts and eighteen sails, and the mast is fifteen zhang high.

Such a behemoth, for a while, the boatmen were stunned in place, and some fearful people yelled "monsters" and fled from the lakeshore.

Wu Qing stared at this behemoth, his beloved sea ship, and couldn't help but sigh, although there is no shortage of design talents in Datang, it is a pity that it is a little worse than the legendary treasure ship of the Ming Dynasty in later generations. However, he believes that as long as the sea trade develops, he is not afraid that Datang's shipbuilding industry will not move forward, and he may be able to see the emergence of super sea ships in his lifetime!

Wu Qing shouted: "Set sail, set sail!" ”

"Knock knock!"

The gongs and drums sounded loudly, the eighteen lion dancers danced happily, and the blasting rod began to play non-stop without money, although Wu Qing was very dissatisfied with the blasting rod, but he really didn't have much time to study black powder and fireworks, so he could only get it slowly in the future.

With a sound of a trumpet, nearly two hundred boatmen pulled up three jacks of huge anchors one by one, and then raised eight four-cornered long sails. For a moment, only a piercing sound of friction was heard, the giant ship slowly went off the shore, Wu Qing took the long pole, put his hands on the ground, and with a flick, he rose into the sky, and Wu Qing fell towards the giant ship. The boatmen cheered.

Wu Qing went on the deck, met the busy boatmen and boatmen, nodded their heads, and came to the bow of the ship in a moment, a huge disc wooden rudder stood on the bow, this wooden rudder was to control the sails, and then to control the direction of the ship. Yuwen father and son, Zhu Fugui and others were next to the wooden rudder, and when they saw Wu Qing on the boat, they saluted one after another.

Wu Qing said: "How is the speed of the ship? What about the draft? How smooth is it? ”

Yuwen Yiyang arched his hand and said: "Hui Gongzi, the speed of this ship is relatively slow now because the wind is not strong; Draught, the subordinates have ordered people to go into the water, and according to the design, it meets the requirements; If you load thousands of pounds of goods, the stability will be better! ”

After Wu Qing heard such a number, he couldn't help but smile and said: "Then drive the boat into the Yangtze River, go around and come back, I think, it won't be long before Zhu Fugui, you can go to sea!" ”

As soon as Zhu Fugui heard his name, he immediately arched his hand and said, "Childe, I can't wait!" ”

Next, Wu Qing inspected the facilities below the deck, the hull is divided into four layers, the lowest level is filled with sandbags, the second floor is the various cabins, which is a resting place, the third floor is a place to store food and fresh water, and the fourth floor is on the deck, which is a place to store weapons and the activities of the boatmen.

After reading them one by one, Wu Qing explained a few words, and then put down the boat and went directly to Jiangningcang.

Now under the management of Xu Xiaoying, Jiangning Warehouse has completely changed, and the wine workshop has expanded from one granary to ten. Both the paper and sugar mills have expanded their production, and since the paper mills produced soft paper, Wuqing has not used bamboo paper or rice paper to wipe his buttocks. In ancient times, people wiped their buttocks, the rich and noble families scraped with wooden chips, and the poor families used dirt or broken tiles or something. But now in Runzhou, after the promotion of Wuqing, all households above the well-off home have used soft paper to wipe their buttocks. Of course, Wuqing also planned to solve the problem of menstrual belts for the women of the Tang Dynasty, but unfortunately the scale of cotton was too small to produce. He didn't have the conditions to produce toilet paper.

As for the sugar workshop, I have to say that the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty are really full of ingenuity, and one of the craftsmen in Shuzhou came up with the idea of using the heating crystallization method to make rock sugar, which made Wuqing very emotional. For this reason, Wu Qing directly rewarded the craftsman with a hundred guan.

For these three workshops, Wuqing's monthly profit reached 20,000 yuan.

Wu Qing walked into the Jiangning Cang, the hired workers all bowed and saluted, Wu Qing returned the salute one by one, he looked up at the water tower that took nearly four months to build, and he felt as if he had returned to the era of the later generations. On the water tower, two hired workers are stepping on the pedals of their feet, constantly pumping water from the clear stream for the use of the three workshops.

Wu Qing shook his head, thinking that if he could invent a steam engine, how much manpower could be saved, but unfortunately the iron-making technology was not up to par now, and he couldn't build it at all. The wind power in Shangyuan County is not strong, otherwise a wind power device can be designed.

After inspecting the Jiangning Cang workshop, he wanted to go to Qixia Mountain to see, where the academy had been under construction for nearly a month, and he didn't know how it was going. But I saw Wu Da come to find him.

"What?"

Wu Da bowed and saluted, and said, "The porcelain merchant from Yuezhou is here, and he is waiting for the prince in the mansion. ”

Wu Qing was overjoyed, I didn't expect this porcelain merchant to come so quickly, it seems that Qixia Mountain can't go, I hope to be able to negotiate the porcelain matter! So he said, "Let's go, let's see!" (To be continued......)