Dozens of big ships in the North Island are moored on the wharf of the Zhu family, at this time, the wharf is full of carts, thousands of dock workers are moving all kinds of goods onto the big ship, the goods are mainly pig iron, pig iron alone has 1.5 million catties, it sounds like a lot, in fact, 1.5 million catties is only 750 tons, a cargo ship of 20,000 stones is enough to carry.

Zhu Qi on the big boat saw Fanning's carriage coming in the distance, and hurriedly beckoned two of his men to carry a large box and walk under the boat.

The carriage stopped in front of the first boat, and Fanning stepped down, and he saw the change behind the boat at a glance, the two big paddle wheels had disappeared, but the propellers were not seen, and they were probably under the waterline.

Fanning walked quickly to the shore, and he saw a huge propeller, a five-bladed propeller, made of stainless steel, this huge casting was made in the Song and Ming dynasties, and it is described in detail in "Heavenly Creation".

Zhu Qi said on the side: "The second uncle of this hall said that it took him five years and thousands of experiments to succeed, but the final result made him a little frustrated. ”

"You're saying that long-haul shipping can't go fast?"

"That's what the second uncle said!"

Fanning shook his head and said, "The long-distance speed can't be improved, it's not the problem of the propeller, but the problem of the steam engine." ”

"Ahh So what to do? ”

"There's no way, let's innovate slowly in the future!"

Fanning crouched down again to take a closer look at the propeller under the waterline, and the rudder was below, and he didn't know if it would have an impact?

Fan Ning had no hope that the propeller would come out, but he didn't expect Zhu Xiaolin to persist in research for five years, and finally succeeded, at this time his heart was full of shock and interest.

"I wonder how that shaft is sealed?"

Fanning pointed to the propeller shaft and asked, "The sea water will enter the ship through the gap." ”

"It seems to be sealed with rubber, but it still can't be completely sealed, and there is always water seeping into the hold, but it's not a big problem, there is very little water that seeps in, and we will have someone to clean it regularly."

That's not bad, anyway, now that the watertight cabin has been invented, Fanning asked, "I heard you say that coke can save a lot, how much?" ”

"I have personal experience that sailing from Beidao to Quanzhou used to cost about 800 catties of coke, but this time the propeller was used instead of the paddle wheel, the same distance, the same boat, the coke only consumed 450 catties, saving nearly half."

Fanning was shocked, "According to what you say, a fleet of 100 large ships will consume 80,000 catties of coke for a single voyage?" ”

"Almost! Forty days of sailing, twenty catties of coke a day must be desired, if ordinary charcoal is used, burning fifty catties a day must be indispensable, so a large-scale fleet sails at most once a year, and usually sails in groups of about five to ten ships. The cost of coke is too great for us to afford. ”

"Have you found the coal mine in the North Island?"

Zhu Qi was stunned, "What is coal?" ”

"Coal is another name for coal."

"That's a good name!"

Zhu Qi smiled and said: "The coal mine on the North Island has indeed been found, but it is far less than the reserves in the South Continent, and our coal mine has to dig into the flat well, not to mention the danger, it also consumes a lot of energy, and the output is also very small, the South Continent is different, the coal seam is up to hundreds of zhang thick, directly open mining, with iron fire thunder to open the mine, that is called spectacular, you didn't go to see with your own eyes, exploding an iron fire thunder can mine thousands of catties or even tens of thousands of catties, and then directly transported to the nearby large coking workshop, a year can make millions of catties of coke, One part is for ships, and the other part is for smelting steel. ”

Fanning listened leisurely, and he asked again: "Your steel is used to supply the imperial court, so what will you do?" ”

Zhu Qi lowered his voice and said: "The so-called supply of all the steel to the imperial court is just talking, in fact, we only supply thirty percent of the steel to the imperial court, and the other seventy percent are retained for ourselves, but this time we reached an agreement on exchanging steel for ordinary pig iron, and next year our three million catties of stainless steel will be sold to the imperial court and exchanged for nine million catties of ordinary pig iron." ”

Fan Ning shook his head, "Impossible, the annual output of the imperial court's official iron is only 10 million catties, how can it be exchanged for 9 million catties for you at once, tell you, the 1.5 million catties you exchanged this time is already the limit, and at most you will exchange so much for Beidao every year, and the rest will be kept for your own use." ”

Zhu Qi showed a look of disappointment on his face, so he had to nod, "I know, go back and discuss it with everyone." ”

At this time, Fanning walked to the big box, patted the box and said with a smile: "Is this what Uncle Tie Niu gave me?" ”

"Exactly! Just taken out of the freezer. ”

Fanning lifted the box and saw that it contained four cloth bags, the largest of which was bulging and full of potatoes, thirty or forty, and the other three were two plates of sunflowers, a small bag of peanuts, and a pack of tobacco leaves.

Peanuts and sunflowers are original, but the tobacco leaves are fermented, and it should be used to teach him the low-temperature roasting method, which is very important, the temperature of the roast is too high, there will be a pungent smell, the taste will not be good, and the color will not be good.

Fanning took a piece of tobacco and chewed it for a while, the taste was bitter, there was no aroma of flue-cured tobacco, the color was also dark, the color was not golden enough, and it was obviously over-roasted.

Fanning rummaged through the cloth bag where the tobacco leaves were put again, and he found that the tobacco leaves were divided into four small packets, each tied with a rope, so Fanning asked Zhu Qidao: "My third uncle should let you bring something to me!" ”

Zhu Qi thought for a while and said, "It seems to mean that he doesn't know how good tobacco leaves are, so let you help him judge." ”

Sure enough, let himself help him judge, the third uncle Fan Tieniu roasted four batches, but he didn't know which batch was the best grade, so let him help him judge.

However, it was written clearly in the booklet I handed him that what is the best flue-cured tobacco, and I guess I was still a little worried and couldn't make up my mind.

Fanning looked closely at the four batches of flue-cured tobacco, the last batch seemed to be good, the color was golden, there were no impurities, he tore off a piece and chewed it, the taste was very mellow.

Fan Ning was overjoyed, put the fourth batch of flue-cured tobacco into the bag, handed it to Zhu Qi and said: "This batch is very well roasted, tell the second uncle, just roast this batch as the standard, then cut it into shreds, sprinkle spices, and put it in the pipe, I wrote it very clearly in the booklet, he should know." ”

"Don't worry! I will definitely relay it to Uncle Tie Niu. ”

.........

Two days later, the fleets heading to the South Continent and the North Island set sail one after another, heading toward the East China Sea along the mighty Yangtze River, with more than 200 sea vessels stretching for dozens of miles, with tremendous momentum and extraordinary magnificence, which was the largest number of immigrants from the South Continent, and their visit will certainly have a far-reaching impact on the South Continent.

When Fan Ning returned to the capital, the reform of the official system had already begun, the first reform was to restore the Tang three provincial system, abolish the governor's political affairs, take the Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi as the title of Xiangguo, retain the voting system of the Xiangguo Governor's Hall, and at the same time reform the court meeting system, the content of the daily court meeting was specifically designated by the Son of Heaven, and the palace supervisor was responsible for notifying each participating official three days in advance, and the participating officials of the daily small court meeting were also changed from officials above three grades to more than six grades.

The second reform is the removal of all the empty names of provinces, Taiwan, temples, and prisons, so that each institution has a fixed number, a fixed number of personnel and fixed responsibilities, so that the official and the dispatch officer are integrated, called the unity of the ministry, for example, Fan Chunren was the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, and he was the governor of Yangzhou, but after the reform, his title of Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple was gone, and the official position was the governor of Yangzhou.

In the past, many people in the DPRK and China held the same official position, which was called a pit for several turnips, but after the reform, it became a pit for one turnip.

At the same time, the number of official posts in provinces, Taiwan, temples, and prisons has been increased, for example, there was originally only one squire in a ministry, and then each ministry had four divisions, but now each ministry has set up left and right squires, and each ministry has eight divisions, so that the functions and powers will be refined, and the responsibilities will also be refined.

The third reform is the merger of institutions, with the three divisions being transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, the Court of Judges being merged into the Ministry of Officials, and the Court of Trials and Punishments being transferred to the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

The fourth reform is the local reform, abolishing the county magistrate, all called the county order, and changing the three major divisions under the county from officials to officials, and upgrading them to the nine rank officials, in addition to the county school and the county school teaching edict are also promoted from the nine rank officials.

The fifth reform is to subdivide the loose officials into 24 ranks, which are used to determine the salaries and benefits of officials, and then the promotion of each rank must have conditions such as the number of years, which is actually to take care of seniority.

For example, if someone is outstanding, the court will promote him to be the head of the household, this is just his official promotion, but because he is too young and not qualified enough, the official rank may only be eight grades, and the official income is still relatively low, but he will also get job subsidies and the like.

Another example is that an official has been in politics for 20 years, but his ability is really mediocre, it is impossible to promote him to be a household servant, his ability can only be a county order, so he can only be a county order, but his ability is insufficient, but his qualifications are enough, and the official rank is promoted to the doctor of the five products, and he enjoys the five products.

So the fifth reform is actually a compromise, the ability is enough, and the seniority will be up sooner or later, just like Fanning, everyone used to say that he was not qualified enough, and he was actually promoted to an official, but now no one mentions this matter anymore, after all, he has been an official for nearly 20 years, and his qualifications are enough.

But most of the officials who are not capable enough cannot be promoted, in order to appease them, then the rank is promoted, and the income will naturally increase, as long as the qualifications are sufficient, the petty officials can also get a high salary.

Therefore, the comments of the major newspapers in Beijing are, 'A reformist change'.

In the afternoon, when Fan Ning was drinking tea at the Qingfeng Teahouse next to his house, he unexpectedly met the Su brothers.