Shen Shuren has never been a person who is afraid of things, no matter how difficult the task is, as long as it is right and not the right person, he always has the execution to see the move.

After consulting with his father and reviewing the duties and risks of the river warden and figuring out Zhu Dadian's tricks, Shen Shuren's mood was much more relaxed.

Isn't it that you can't be greedy for money, you can't stick to money, and you can't even use the income that can be used by the unspoken rules of previous years, and you have to transport the grain in full! That's it!

Compared with scientific and engineering technological innovation and financial management, modern people are the least afraid of the ancients.

The day after returning to Suzhou, Shen Shuren generously went to his top boss, Cao Zhende of Su Songhe Road, and accepted his task.

It is now September, and the people's autumn grain has been harvested, but the tax payment work has not yet been completed. It will be delayed until October, and after the grain is put into storage in batches and cleared, it can be shipped to the front line in Luzhou.

Shen Shuren had more than a month to sort out the accounts, ensure the collection, and innovate the transportation technology.

Fang Yizhi, who came to Suzhou with him to play and observe, was very curious about Shen Shuren's calmness, and the two had leisure to learn, Fang Yizhi reminded many times:

"Brother Shen Xian, I don't think you're in a hurry at all, could it be that you have some clever tricks in mind? I can see that this is not easy for a layman.

In the past so many years, there has not been a single river warden who has transported grain to Jiangbei by relying only on one penny and three cents of silver per stone to cross the river, and all of them will receive additional income. You are being watched so closely by Zhu Dadian, the law is stricter, you can't use the bad rules that others can use, can you do it? ”

Shen Shuren smiled calmly: "The cost of water transportation is mainly in the need for ship change, loading and unloading, and turbulent places. Really sailing by wind power on rivers, lakes and seas, that is, walking a thousand miles, how much silver can it cost?

As long as I can stabilize the collection and storage of grain, load the ship in a regular manner, and then use some ingenious means to reduce the cost of loading and unloading, and toss a few times, one dollar and three cents are enough! ”

Fang Yizhi listened, obviously still couldn't believe it, he had also asked about the market recently, and knew that according to the original unspoken rules, the actual consumption of the "cross-river silver" had more than doubled on the surface.

Others transported the same amount of grain to Yangzhou, and it cost more than three dollars per stone.

Shen Shuren is now not a price increase, a penny and three cents of freight will be transported to Hefei, than to Yangzhou more than 300 miles of the Yangtze River, 200 miles of water, water and Chaohu Lake, a total of 500 miles of waterway.

Although the boat does not cost much when it floats on the water, mainly because it is expensive to load and unload, this account cannot be calculated.

Shen Shuren knew that he still didn't believe it, so he encouraged: "Brother Fang, don't you really want to know the content of Song Changgeng's "Heavenly Creations"? I've seen it before, but there are some things that can't be made, and if you work with me, you may be able to gain a lot. ”

Fang Yizhi was also aroused to be competitive: "Then try it." ”

……

After more than a month, Shen Shuren was not ambiguous, and with Fang Yizhi, he used all the resources that the Shen family could use in Suzhou.

While tinkering with new machinery and designing a management system for water transportation loading and unloading, we will see if we can reduce costs from various angles.

On the other hand, Shen Shuren did not forget to think of some ways to stabilize the local grain price in Suzhou - the grain price was not directly related to him, but was the political achievement of the prefect Zhang Xuezeng. But Shen Shuren knew that only when the price of grain was stable could he get grain in large quantities faster and more steadily.

Otherwise, even if the local government cooperates and the military rations that should be levied are collected, as long as they are delivered in batches and water sub-warehouses, it will greatly reduce the shipping efficiency of Shen Shuren.

As a modern person, Shen Shuren is very clear about a simple truth: scale brings benefits, and the larger the scale of anything, the cheaper the amortization of the loss cost of each link.

100,000 stone of grain, divided into three points in time, five docks, handed over to you in batches. and one-time, delivery at the same terminal. The cost of receiving the carrier is completely different.

However, these two delivery methods cannot be faulted, and they all meet the requirements of the laws of the imperial court, who makes the regulations not so detailed.

……

The time soon came to the middle of October, and for more than a month, Shen Shuren was inconspicuous, and outsiders didn't know what he was messing with.

Early this morning, Shen Shuren, who had been fully prepared, finally entrusted the relationship, prepared a gift, and went to Wu County in person to meet Zhang Xuezeng, the prefect of Suzhou.

I want to ask Zhang Futai to come forward and help him say hello to the wealthy gentry in Suzhou counties.

Zhang Xuezeng didn't want to meet this kind of eight-grade petty official, but in the end, he still saw Shen Tingyang's face. As soon as they met, he also felt very emotional:

"The virtuous nephew is really terrifying, I haven't seen him for three months, not only was he not disturbed by the previous lawsuit, but he also entered the Guozijian and donated the official, which shows that Saion is not blessed if he loses his horse."

"Thanks to Futai Yucheng," Shen Shuren politely put down the gift, and then got straight to the point,

"I am here to ask for one thing - I don't know what the government thinks, what is the price of grain in Suzhou now? The trend of private gentry and giant rooms rushing to buy grain can be alleviated in Futai? ”

This asked Zhang Xuezeng's concerns, and he was immediately aroused.

"Who says it's not, there is a big drought in Zhejiang, and the rice bought from outside costs more than three taels per stone to Suzhou! The rich are nothing, but what can the poor people do? Can a virtuous nephew solve this stubborn disease? ”

In Zhang Xuezeng's tone, there was a faint expectation, but he didn't dare to be overly extravagant.

How could a nineteen-year-old boy who had just become an official solve such a big problem! With this ability, will he still be an eight-grade petty official?

Shen Shuren sincerely analyzed: "I think that Suhu has always been the land of wealth and fish and rice in the world, and the local households have accumulated all year round.

The key is that people's hearts fluctuate, so that everyone has expectations, and they feel that 'in the future, there will be more and more food shortages, more and more disasters, and food prices will rise'.

In Futai, the local people will suffer from rising food prices. As far as the river yamen is concerned, the grain chiefs of the townships can delay and deliver in batches, which adds a lot of loss and inconvenience. Therefore, the two sides should work together to resolve this matter. ”

Zhang Xuezeng: "This is what you Cao Daotai mean?" ”

Shen Shuren did not hide it: "Cao Daotai is Governor Zhu's person, Governor Zhu does not deal with our Shen family, and Futai should know about it." But it's done, and it's good for both parties. ”

Zhang Xuezeng thought about it for a while and felt that his political achievements were more important.

Cao Zhende can afford to offend him, it's a big deal that outsiders know that he has in-depth cooperation with Shen Shuren, so don't offend Zhu Dadian.

Zhang Xuezeng took a deep breath: "Then what can you do?" ”

Shen Shuren was poor: "A few months ago, I tried some methods to increase production in my own manors in Taicang, Kunshan and other places, as well as in the old manors of relatives and friends.

We can't produce much food on our own. But if these whimsical ideas can be generalized, let the wealthy households of Suhu compete to follow suit.

It can definitely give rise to the expectation that in the future, local food and meat self-sufficiency will increase, and there will be less food that needs to be purchased. If this expectation changes, supply and demand will naturally ease, and there will be fewer cases of hoarding and delaying the payment of grain. ”

Zhang Xuezeng's eyes finally lit up: "There is still this wonderful method? The official wants to see it. If it is indeed effective, the official will naturally use his authority to promote it in all counties of Suzhou. ”

Shen Shuren: "Then please ask Futai to come to Kunshan tomorrow to observe my Shen family's manor." ”

……

Early the next morning, Zhang Xuezeng took a lot of staff and confidants to Kunshan by boat along the Liuhe River from Wu County.

Shen Shuren didn't let him go directly to Taicang, the journey was too far, and the prefect was impatient.

The manor of the model pilot is actually the "Dong Family Embroidery Village" that Shen Shuren just got from Dong Xiaowan a few months ago.

At that time, the manor he got also included some mulberry fields near the embroidery village. Later, the Shen family had a lot of money anyway, and Shen Shuren annexed some mulberry fields in the surrounding area, and now it is quite large-scale.

In late autumn in October, the cold wind is blowing by Yangcheng Lake. The harbor here is muddy and horizontal, and the countryside is also divided into small pieces by the natural low-lying terrain.

Zhang Xuezeng walked for a while, and after entering the boundary of the Shen family's manor, he found that the terrain was becoming more and more complicated.

Rows of dense mulberry forests alternate with long strips of shallow ponds, each ridge no more than three feet wide.

Zhang Xuezeng couldn't help but feel strange: "This official also knows that there are many low-lying muddy places by Yangcheng Lake, but his impression is not so complicated and difficult to walk, are you surrounding the lake again?" ”

Shen Shuren pointed out beside him: "The good sect learned that this is the 'Sankey Fish Pond' made by the humble post and a few years in the same year, according to the method described in Xu Gelao's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" and Song Changgeng's "Tiangong Kaiwu".

The biggest drawback of the people's livelihood is that the benefits of sericulture are several times that of planting rice, and the price of Susi Lake silk is the most expensive in the world, so most of the fertile land has become mulberry gardens.

However, after studying the lowly job, it was found that the mulberry forest only needed more water and fertilizer. As long as there is sufficient irrigation and fertility, mulberry trees can be planted more intensively than the current farming methods.

As long as the low place is dug a little deeper, the excavated soil is piled up on both sides, and the height difference between the ditch and the ridge is widened, and the fish can be raised in the ditch and planted mulberry on the ridge.

In this way, two rows of trees are planted on each ridge, ensuring that each mulberry tree is no more than eight feet from the shore, which can completely save even the hard work of irrigation, and the root system of the mulberry tree is enough to absorb the seepage water at the bottom of the pond next to it, and the fish manure can directly fertilize the mulberry.

In this way, if the total number of mulberry trees does not decrease, it will be possible to raise one more fish than the original dry land. Although fish is inconvenient to transport and preserve, it can subsidize the local people's food and let them eat less rice. Squeeze out more purchased grain and rice to pay for grain and military rations. ”

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, large-scale fish farming was still relatively rare, natural water bodies could not be raised, and most of the artificial domestic farming was only in small ponds. The sale of highly commercialized fish is mainly based on fishing.

After all, in ancient times, the population was small, the fishing equipment was poor, and the natural resources were not exhausted, so they were too lazy to breed artificially.

Zhang Xuezeng was still a little suspicious, so he randomly picked a long pool and asked Shen Shuren to block the net, wanting to confirm the output per unit area.

Shen Shuren was not ambiguous, and his operation quickly opened Zhang Xuezeng's eyes: these mulberry fish ponds on the shore of Yangcheng Lake even made several gradients based on the natural terrain.

Although the difference in water level between each staircase is only a few feet, who made this place in Suzhou flat, but it was enough.

At the end of a pond, Shen Shuren blocked the hole with a fishing net, and then peeled off the sealed soil and let the water flow naturally into the fish pond one step below. When the water level of the upper level of the pond dropped by two feet, many fish had been washed away and entangled in the barrage nets, and even the effort of fishing was saved.

There are also many hairy crabs that are not Shen Shuren seedlings breeding, but naturally flow in when the water was brought in from Yangcheng Lake, after a month or two of fattening, in this late autumn, it is also quite full.

It's a pity that for the people of the Ming Dynasty, hairy crabs are obviously not as valuable as fish, and there is too little meat for this thing.

"So convenient? It seems that it is indeed much easier to let the people raise fish than to fish on Taihu Lake and Yangcheng Lake. There are so many people who grow mulberry gardens in Suzhou, and there is no need to prepare food for fish, which is simply a huge profit. ”

After Zhang Xuezeng figured out this truth, he was overjoyed.

The Shen family's fish and crab are not a big deal at all, but this technical idea is too valuable. Shen Shuren is willing to take it out for everyone to learn, and the psychological expectations of the people of Suzhou and Hu will change on the trend of grain prices.

"Futures short news" can be regarded as being played by Shen Shuren.