This is a rare leisure and happy time, accompanying my grandmother and mother, and watching my younger brother grow up.

But can Zhou Huchen stop? Beidi Jiannu has not been destroyed, countless ideas and ideals in his heart want to be realized, who said that the traverser is easy, you will know it once you wear it, the traverser is really difficult!

With the change of seasons, the climate is comfortable, the war situation in the north came, the coalition army led by He Tengjiao recovered the whole territory of Henan, the general soldier Wang Deyong entered Shanxi, and Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong, Zhu Dadian and other people's coalition forces have taken Jinan Mansion to stabilize the entire Shandong. Jiannu's resistance was weak, but there was no doubt that this was a sign that a great war was coming, but where was the decisive point of the war?

Zhou Huchen was a little worried, but he was not worried that Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong's army would not be able to win a big victory, and the Zhou and Huang coalition forces would not be defeated miserably, and the rout would not appear in his own army, and Huang Degong's army had Zhou Yuji on the side, plus a large number of firearms were replaced, the possibility of defeat was extremely low, and before leaving, Zhou Huchen also made some deployments. Zhou Huchen was worried about He Tengjiao, worried that He Tengjiao would get carried away, once the opportunity was seized by Jiannu, who was waiting for the opportunity, I am afraid that He Tengjiao's hundreds of thousands of troops would really be defeated.

It's August, and several guests enter Zhou Yuji's Marquis's Mansion.

This is a guest from Huai'an, one is Zhou Huchen's subordinate Li Jun, and the others are ordinary people.

In addition to Li Jun, an officer of a thousand households, it is not right for several other people to call ordinary people, their status is even inferior to that of ordinary people, because. Their status is that of artisans.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the inheritance of the hereditary system of craftsmen in the Yuan Dynasty was inherited, and all craftsmen in the country were subordinate to the Ministry of Industry, the internal official supervisor and the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, called craftsmen and military craftsmen. Military craftsmen are engaged in the production of ordnance, and all activities are carried out in accordance with the provisions of the military system. Craftsmen, on the other hand, are divided into three categories: shifts, sitting, and retaining according to the different forms of service. Shift craftsmen are conscripted for service at the specified time. Surviving artisans are artisans who work in the local area for special needs, and are directly managed by local officials. It is not necessary to serve in the Beijing Division. The living craftsmen are all farmers with a certain level of craftsmanship who are recruited and dispatched by the people. There is a limit to the time of service, but there is a clear production quota. As a result, the work hours of the resident craftsmen are longer and the work is more arduous than the craftsmen in shifts.

These people are the surviving craftsmen. It belongs to the craftsman's class. It is the head of the craftsman of Qingjiangpu in Huai'an Prefecture.

Since the opening of the port in the early Ming Dynasty. With the axis of the Qingjiang and Puhe rivers, the two Huai cities choke the water transport, salt transport, river engineering, Yuguan, and post posts, and entered the heyday in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The prosperity of Qingjiangpu city has brought about a situation of cultural convergence. The boats gathered. The market is dense, and the scene of 10,000 boats "sailing and tailing, stretching for several miles". Due to the smooth transportation and the prosperity of water and land, Huai'an has welcomed the opportunity of urban prosperity, and Qingjiangpu has quickly become an important city and transportation hub north of the Yangtze River.

"The night fire is even the water, and the spring breeze is full of passenger sails"; "The light shadow is half near the water, and the sound of the kite is mostly in the boat" became a true portrayal of the prosperous scene at that time.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Qingjiangpu area gradually rose to become the center of Huai'an, with a population of as many as 500,000. In the prosperous era of Caoyun, there were civil and military officials, eunuch families, wealthy merchants, literati and scholars, and monks and celebrities. Correspondingly, there is the prosperity of gardens, temples, teahouses, restaurants, and other places.

Every session of Caoyun, Qingjiangpu "sails like a forest, department stores". The boats cover the water, and there is an endless stream, and the sailors and residents of the south of the Yangtze River go north by boat frequently. In the Ming Dynasty, the transportation of troops was allowed to carry private goods and passengers, and no taxes were levied, which promoted the prosperity of private trade. Merchants from all over the country gathered in Qingjiangpu by boat, showing the trend of "the southern ships are gathered, and the merchants have the convenience of selling them" and "the Sifang Department Store, believing in the past".

Qingjiangpu has the largest inland river bay shipyard in the Ming Dynasty - Qingjiangdu Shipyard, and these craftsmen are the craftsmen and craftsmen of Qingjiangdu Shipyard.

The crown prince Shaobao, the uncle, and the chief soldier of a province who holds real power will also become the concubine of the dynasty, such a person is not something that anyone can see, and Zhou Huchen's summons is undoubtedly a great honor for these craftsmen.

When the craftsmen visited Zhou Huchen in fear, they were shocked to find that this high-powered, world-famous Zhou Huchen had no shelf, no at all.

"Sit down! Uncle Ben asked everyone to come, don't be restrained, sit down! ”

This is completely a sunny young man, not luxuriously dressed, and the youth makes people can't believe his prestige.

Restraint is inevitable, Zhou Huchen's status is too high, and his prestige needs to be looked up to by these lowly people, in fact, if it weren't for Zhou Huchen's summons, they wouldn't even have a chance to stand in front of Zhou Huchen.

Sitting did not dare to sit, the posture of several craftsmen made Zhou Huchen feel deep sadness.

This is the sadness of the times, these craftsmen are second to none shipbuilding talents, although they are old-fashioned talents, but these people are undoubtedly the top of shipbuilding in this era. The status of these craftsmen is too low, and the low ones are like slaves.

During the Yongle period, the water conservancy family, Chen Xuan, the founder of the Ming Cao transportation system, opened a port in Huai'an, and was ordered to build a shipyard between Shanyang and Qinghe counties, called "Qingjiang Shipyard", at its peak, it had jurisdiction over Jingwei (Beijing, Tianjin Wei), Zhongdu (Zhengzhou, Henan), Zhili, Weihe four major shipyards, a total of 82 branches, 23 miles long, set up a lifting division in Qingjiangpu management, and built more than 560 boats every year, at most more than 670 ships. In the past, the seafaring treasure ship of Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, was built by the Qingjiangpu Shipyard.

This is a withering era, Qingjiangpu now only manufactures trough ships, ordinary river warships and ordinary transport ships, and the feat of Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, has become a thing of the past.

The country's prosperity is not only reflected in the economy and military, in fact, the most important thing is talent, as long as there are a large number of talents, a country can stand on the top of Shijie for a long time.

Zhou Huchen understands this truth, so these shipbuilders are talents.

Of course, now they are not the kind of talents that Zhou Huchen needs, but who is Zhou Huchen, he will make these craftsmen the talents he needs.

Putting a drawing on the table, Zhou Huchen was very direct: "Look at this thing, do you know it?" ”

Several craftsmen cautiously probed their heads, and then gathered around the table.

"Isn't this a keel, uncle?" A craftsman spoke first.

"Can you see how this keel is different from a normal keel?" What Zhou Huchen needed was for these craftsmen to continue the topic, and he immediately asked rhetorically.

"Uncle Hui, the composition of this keel is a bit long, and there are more ribs, it should be the keel of a sea ship, but it seems that large sea ships don't need such a long keel, the boat made of such a keel is too long!" It was the craftsman who spoke first, and it seemed that the craftsman knew something about seagoing ships.

Zhou Huchen smiled: "It is the keel of the sea ship, this is a large keel of the sea ship, what will happen if this keel uses steel?" Who's going to talk about it? ”

The craftsmen were silent, and this silence made Zhou Huchen wonder a little, is it difficult to build sea ships and use steel?

Soon, perhaps in order to relieve the embarrassment, a craftsman finally broke the silence with some restraint: "Uncle, these sea ships are all large ships, and the sea ships that can go to sea are all above 500 materials, as for the Dafu ship, it is even bigger, I'm afraid it is more than 2,000 materials, who can afford to use steel to make keel?" ”

Steel is a strategic material, limited production, is an extremely expensive war material, although the ship is also a part of the battle, but how much steel does a large ship use? How many weapons can be made from this steel? Using steel to build ships, this is undoubtedly a crazy move.

Who is Zhou Huchen? He has a complete set of iron and steel processes and workshops, sufficient funds, and sufficient sources of iron, and this iron keel is nothing.

"If we use iron dragons to build warships, won't warships be stronger? Will the voyage be smoother? ”

"That's natural, uncle, but warships need a lot of accumulation to be used in battle, and it's still possible to make one, and make a large number of iron keel warships, who can afford to use them?" The craftsman hastened to explain.

"Will you build warships?" Zhou Huchen continued to ask with interest:

"Yes, it will," everyone replied busily.

It will be good, Zhou Huchen decided: "Then let's have a smaller one first, and use the iron keel!" This kind of warship should be designed with gun emplacements, and if it is feasible, we will build a large iron keel warship in the future. Let's think about it and see how the first iron keel warship will be built. As for the wages and iron, you don't have to worry about it, I will arrange haode. ”

This world-famous uncle is so crazy that he really wants to build an iron keel warship. Craftsmen, you look at me, I look at you, this is incredible, uncle, this is going to play! But who would dare to refuse? (To be continued......)