Neixiang County, Xiaguan Town.

Xiaguan Town is located at the southern foot of Bear's Ears Mountain in the upper reaches of the turbulent water, about 100 miles away from the county seat of Neixiang, which is rich in iron ore.

You read that right, after the turbulent water leaves Xiaguan Town, it can be navigated, and the flat-bottomed inland river sand boat about three zhang long and one zhang wide can go down the river.

This type of boat has a square head and a square tail, one side of the sail, a rudder at the bow, a shoar at the stern, and four oars, which require two people to swing.

Generally speaking, if it is a tailwind, the boat boss is at the helm, and two people can rock the oar, if it is not downwind, then the four oars and the six people of the oar need to move.

Of course, since it is a tributary of an inland river, the number of waterways that can be used is limited, and in the case of turbulent water, the waterways that can be used from the town of Natsudate are only about the same on average.

That's enough.

Such a sand boat, if the wind and water are smooth, can be loaded with stone iron ore, or root wood, and the Bears Ears Mountain behind Xiaguan Town is rich in wood.

Neixiang County was both an iron-smelting base and a shipbuilding base for Xiaoqiangshi, so when a sand boat like this went downstream, it could load 30 stone of iron ore in the front half of the ship, and then drag 20 oaks (Chinese oaks) all over Bear's Ears Mountain, which were very suitable for shipbuilding. qs

At this time, the oars and oars need to be used.

This is quite efficient, if you take the land route, a big cart can only load ten stones of iron ore at most, and you need two pack horses to pull it, and the two pack horses have to pull these materials to the inner township county town hundreds of miles away, and the consumption along the way is also a lot.

Of course, such a sand ship needs at least ten people to be able to drive, and ten people will take up ten stones, so generally speaking, twenty stones of iron ore and twenty pieces of wood are the reasonable loading capacity of a sand ship.

At present, there are a hundred such ships, all loaded with iron ore and oak, running day and night on the turbulent river.

After the sand boat is full, if it is downwind, the speed can reach ten miles per hour, if there is a headwind or no wind, the speed is only about or so, and the distance of a hundred miles takes a day and night to arrive.

But this is also worth it, when Xiaoqiangshi went south, not only carried a large number of farmers, but also successively obtained a large number of craftsmen in Jiaokoubao (Luliang City), Lingshi County, Huozhou, Siyancheng, and Mining City, and there were tens of thousands of households in the mining city alone.

As a result, a considerable number of their sons were placed on such ships after they were thirteen years old, and of course the helmsmen and sail men had to use their skilled hands, and the rest of them had to use these teenagers.

A hundred ships need a thousand, and all of them are paid.

One hundred ships, one day's effort, can transport 2,000 stones of iron ore, that is, 200 tons, as well as oak, oak, fir and other timber.

If you want to ensure that these 100 ships will not be idling every day, you need to have enough iron ore and wood in Xiaguan Town, and there are 13,000 craftsmen and miners under the command of Xiaoqiangshi, half of which are related to iron, and the remaining half are related to wood, so a large number of them are placed in Xiaguan Town!

If Jin Buchang, Zhou Jiali and other bandits have not been cleared, it is impossible for Xiao Qiangshi to mine and log here in peace.

Such a place, Nanyang Mansion has been used for a long time, not to mention, the Eastern Han Dynasty Red Mei Army was stationed in this place, and later after the rise of Liu Xiu, the iron and wood of Xiaguan Town were continuously transported to Wancheng (Nanyang), and there were castles, storage yards, docks and other regulations early on.

And then it continues to the present.

In such an important place, Long Xiaoju, the garrison of Neixiang County, personally brought a hundred cavalry and two hundred pikemen to garrison here, and concurrently served as the director of the castle, mine, wood yard, cart shop, and ship shop in Xiaguan Town.

After Shang Ziyi arrived, Long Xiaoju hurriedly greeted him.

As a Mongolian teenager, Long Xiaoju knows the weight of this person.

Long Xiaoju, like Omubu, is the only two who can read and write in the Xiaoqiang Division, because they originally had the identity of Xiao Taiji, and after becoming a member of Long Thirteen's personal guards, under the teaching of Long Thirteen, Lu Xiangsheng and others, the personal guards became successful

In the last two years, they have more or less recognized a few words and counted a few numbers.

Originally, Long 13 was going to disperse the miners and craftsmen to various places, but after learning about the convenient conditions of Xiaguan Town, he decided to focus on Neixiang County.

As a result, nearly three of the 13,000 artisans and miners went to Neixiang County, and half of them went to Xiaguan Town.

Long Xiaoju talked to Long Xiaoshi and Li Xin, and roughly understood that Shang Ziyi would be the role of "Shangshu of the Ministry of Works" in the future, so although Shang Ziyi was already old, and he was only the county order of Neixiang County at the moment, he still greeted him in person.

Along with Long Xiaoju, there were also the leaders of the old camp who were sent here to be in charge of the mines, wood yards, storage yards, docks, ship dealers, and cart dealers, these people were established as early as Lingshi County, and now they are just in place and performing their duties.

If these tasks are not planned in the morning, or there are no people like Li Xin and Long Xiaoshi who have been in charge of logistics for a long time, it is impossible to operate them quickly as soon as they arrive in Nanyang Mansion City.

Shang Ziyi came today to check the construction progress of the shipyard in Xiaguan Town, there was only one ship-repairing workshop here, with the county's large demand for iron ore and wood, now these 100 ships can no longer meet the needs, because in the entire Nanyang Mansion, rich in iron ore, and mining, transportation is more convenient here.

In the planning of the Dragon Thirteen, in addition to Neixiang County, smelting plants and workshops will also be opened in Dengzhou and Nanyang Fucheng, all of which require iron ore, and the most convenient is to use the turbulent water and white water channels for transshipment.

Of course, like Dengzhou itself, which is rich in coal and iron, can be self-sufficient, and Nanyang Fucheng can also transport the iron ore from Yunyang Town in the north through Baishui, but it is not as convenient as Xiaguan Town, not to mention, Neixiang County is within the second line of defense, even if a big war comes, it will not be affected immediately.

Neixiang County, Dengzhou, and Nanyang Fucheng are the main smelting yards and workshops set up by Xiaoqiangshi.

Due to the rich production of pyrite, in addition to iron smelting, Dengzhou is also the place where sulfur is refined (China's method of refining sulfur from pyrite, that is, pyrite began in the Yuan Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, due to the prosperity of firearms, there was already a complete set of methods, which was recorded in detail in Song Yingxing's Tiangong Kaiwu).

There are several caves in the mountains near Neixiang County that can be used to refine nitrate, and the nitrate dumps set up by Long 13 in Neixiang County, Xichuan County, and Xixia County can basically meet the needs of Xiaoqiangshi.

The nitrate refining craftsmen brought by Long 13 from Lingshi County and Jiezhou (Nitrate Pond) can come in handy.

After a few words of greeting with Long Xiaoju and others, Shang Ziyi came to the shipyard.

In order to build more of these vessels, Shang Ziyi planned to set up a medium-sized shipyard in Xiaguan Town to house shipwrights, who were not in high demand at the moment.

In addition to the shipwright, the iron, sails, paint, and lime used for caulking the ships all required manpower, so that there were actually more than 70 households.

The presiding officer of the workshop is an old craftsman recruited by the boat workshop in Neixiang County, who used to be a sailor craftsman in the Zuoqi Battalion, and later after the artisan households and military households relaxed their identity restrictions, they dispersed to various places to fend for themselves, of course, provided that the jurisdiction of the craftsman battalion agreed.

Generally speaking, if you want to leave the artisan camp, you have to pay a ransom fee in private, which requires a shipwright to obtain, so although the imperial court decree was released, it was not easy for the artisan and military households to leave this trap.

The decay of the last days of the Ming Dynasty is not only reflected in the peasant households, but also in the military soul and artisan households.

After joining the Xiaoqiang Division, the host of a shipyard like this can get ten taels of silver per month, which is quite good, this host used to pay silver when he left the left banner camp to be expelled from the country, and there was only one tael of silver left a year, and after coming to Neixiang County, the annual income was only one tael more than before.

But now the income of the next month is more than the income of the previous year!

How can this not make people die for Xiao Qiangshi?

Although their current identity is still "rogue", and they take risks to do things for them, people must have also inquired, since everyone in the mining city is all

Here it is, and this team has not suffered defeat so far, so what is there to worry about?

What's more, people die for money, birds die for food, and it is true for eternity, and it is even more so for ordinary people.

Also, at the moment, Xiaoqiang Shi occupies almost the entire territory of Nanyang Mansion, unless you don't want to do it here, otherwise, joining them to do things for them is a move to understand the current affairs.

Under the guidance of the host, Shang Ziyi carefully inspected the operation of the shipyard, and when he saw a ship being made, he couldn't help but frown.

When the host saw this, he hurriedly said, "County Honorable, not long ago, the big boss came here, and when he learned that it would take a day and night for the sand boat to reach the county seat, he said to me, 'Since this is the case, it is not appropriate to use all square heads, and you have also gone to the county town of Neixiang to participate in the training of the shipyard, where the new warships under construction are all pointed, and compared with the square heads, it is nothing more than the method of bending part of the ribs by roasting them with fire."

"I thought about it and replied, 'In that case, we'll need to use ribs in the stern of the boat, and in the middle of the boat, we will use the same method as before.'"

"The big boss asked, 'In this case, how much will the cost of the ship increase,' and I said, 'Once you want to use ribs, you need to carefully select the wood you need, and bake it, at least double it, and the cost of two ships is now a hundred taels."

"The big boss didn't say anything and agreed."

Shang Ziyi couldn't say anything when he heard it, and secretly thought: "Big boss, big boss, since you have entrusted me with the affairs of presiding over the major workshops, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to directly manage it below, in this case, the funds will be overrun, have you ever thought of ......it?"

Just as he was thinking about it, a large cloud of dust suddenly rose on the road leading to the mountain.

Everyone was in a daze, but Long Xiaoju smiled and said, "The big boss came here the day before yesterday, because there are tigers in the mountains here, and several woodcutters have been injured and harmed, as well as many black bears, Yelang and wild boars.

Not long after, Long Thirteen came out of the smoke and dust with dozens of horses.

At present, the guards are all one person and two horses, and the dragon thirteen and one horse are the first to run in the front, and beside him, there is also a war horse, which is carrying a tiger on the horse!