Chapter XXXVII

This time, He Xi didn't lie to him.

He Xi came to Lushun for a reason.

It's waiting for someone.

However, since he miscalculated the time, He Xi did not have time to be idle. For example, shipyards. He was also worried about it before, but he was never available. In the entire Liaodong, He Xi has a lot of things to pay attention to. But in general, the most important places are Yingkou and Shenyang. Lushun waited for it.

It's not that Port Arthur is bad. Rather, Port Arthur doesn't have much of an economic hinterland. But the Lushun shipyard, which was there very early. Even He Xi had the idea of transferring the shipbuilding center to Yingkou. But there will be no giving up here.

After all, in the future of the Great Voyage. Even if there are some fluctuations in the shipbuilding industry, the trend of scale expansion will not change for a long time.

This is a long time, and it should be counted in centuries.

Therefore, the Lushun shipyard cannot be scrapped.

So, early the next morning, He Xi came to the Lushun Shipyard Yard.

At this moment, Lushun Hayao Shipyard is undertaking an important task, which is to build fishing boats.

At this moment, the hull of the fishing boat, which is more than ten meters long and several meters wide, is covered with large swaths of the coast, and a number of craftsmen are caulking with various things, that is, adhesives made of various materials, filling in the gaps of the wood to keep it watertight.

This is not the first batch.

The real first batch has already been sent out.

In order to alleviate the food crisis, He Xi thought about it and could only increase fishery inputs. It's just that He Xi faces a lot of difficulties.

The first difficulty is the problem of manpower.

Many things have to be solved at the beginning of the opening is a human problem. In the north it is not without fishermen. In general, there are not many fishermen. Expanding so many people at once, where did He Xi get the skilled sailors. Fortunately, among the Goryeo immigrants, there were many fishermen. I found some more from the coast of Shandong. In front of these people, the fishermen structure in front of them is formed.

The second difficulty is the difficulty of fishing gear, boats, fishing gear. You can't take out that much at once.

It doesn't matter, though.

These people have already built a group of technicians. It's easy to retrofit out a series of production machines. For example, hemp rope. It used to be knitted by hand, but now it can be mechanically assisted. Of course, this kind of mechanical assistance will naturally not be the automation that later generations thought. Instead, the technical problem of braiding hemp rope has directly turned into manual work, using an iron frame with wheels, as long as a beginning is braided first, and the rest is rotated at a uniform speed.

In this way, the number of things that can be done has increased all of a sudden.

All these production centers are in the Lushun Shipyard, and it can even be said that the Lushun Shipyard is now a fishing tackle factory.

That's not a problem.

He Xi faced the biggest problem, that is, the third difficulty, the uneconomicality of fishing, and the difficulty of large-scale development.

In the minds of many people, in the ancient ocean, there were fish everywhere, and it was easy to catch them.

Actually, just think about it.

If fishing is really so profitable. So convenient, why in ancient China, it was the Tan people who were discriminated against who really fished full-time. The economic base determines the superstructure, and there may be other reasons for the discrimination of the Tan people. But fishing is not profitable, and it is one of them.

First, climate impacts. Until you can't make an accurate prediction of the climate at sea, every trip to sea is a gamble. This is true for trade, and it is also true for fishing.

Secondly, there are technical issues.

There are too many technical problems. It's a litany of questions.

Let's talk about preservation first, if the fish is not frozen, but in a few days, it will become a pile of stinky fish. Can't eat it at all. Not to mention making money. This requires that the catch be sold in a timely manner. It also prevents fishermen from going to the open ocean.

As a result, the scope of fishing is not large.

And then there's the technical problem with the fishing nets.

Many people see that a net of thousands of catties, that is all a modern thing. With the help of chemical fibers to make fishing nets, there is such an effect. In ancient times, what was the best material for fishing nets? It is a net made of hemp rope and cotton rope.

Not to mention the load-bearing capacity of this type of fishing net. One thing alone, that is, corrosion resistance. These fishing nets were an important production tool, and cotton and linen were also scarce in ancient times. It doesn't take long to soak in the seawater and it turns into a pile of rotten ropes.

This is a loss that many fishermen cannot afford.

As a result, there is such a thing as three days of fishing and two days of drying nets. It's not attitude, or laziness or not. It's a very real cost problem.

Because of this, the so-called distant-water fishery does not exist.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for He Xi to increase the food supply with fisheries.

Of course, it's not without its usefulness.

He Xi still made some adjustments between the limited technical conditions and the reality.

First of all, I want to thank the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The population has declined dramatically, but it has become a thriving area for wildlife. This also includes fish in the sea. And not to mention, there are not many people in the distant-water fishing industry, even inshore fishing. The Bohai Sea is still very rich in fishery resources. Because there are many rivers flowing into the Bohai Sea, there are many kinds of plankton, and it is known as the land of a hundred fish.

Of course, the fish caught in the future is about to become extinct, but that's another matter.

Even if you fish inshore, you can catch a certain amount of money.

The second is the issue of preservation.

Then it is related to another problem, that is, the problem of Liaodong salt industry.

In short, there are quite a lot of areas suitable for salt drying in eastern Liaoning, and most of the west coast of the entire Liaoning Peninsula and one part of the east coast are OK. However, because of today's Daming population gathering places, most of them are in the area west of Qianshan. Therefore, He Xi vigorously develops the coastline on the west side of the Liaoning Peninsula.

At this point, salt production has already begun.

Of course, it's not a big number. On the one hand, of course, there is a problem of the salt factory, new technology, new manpower, and all kinds of unskill. It's more that the natural conditions are not the same. The efficiency of drying salt depends on the intensity of the sun. Now the sun is good. But it's still not the height of summer. So the production has not yet reached its peak.

However, the fishing industry is also just beginning. The two complement each other perfectly.

Not bad, either.

Of course, He Xi also has some attempts at distant-water fishing, that is, whaling ships. Whales are not uncommon in this era, and even when He Xi went out to sea on a boat, he saw whales floating on the surface of the sea a few times.

Whaling is a perfect way to avoid some of the pain points of fishing.

First of all, there is the issue of preservation.

Whales are large and tenacious, even if they are caught, they will not die for a while, and even if they are dead, the preservation time is stronger than that of ordinary fish. Enough people to bring the whales back. Give people enough processing time.

Secondly, catching whales avoids the problem of rope net material. One whale can compare, several boats of fish.

However, it is still not too far from the coast. However, the ocean of the ancients is completely different from the concept of ocean in later generations.

The former, as far as he wants, leaves the coast and cannot see the land on all sides, so it is estimated that it is far ocean. And in the afterlife, it means running all over the world and not seeing the land for several months. But the scope of the fishery has been expanded.

He Xi is not worried about the inshore fishing of these small boats. Because they are all mature technologies, the only problem is probably that the sailors are all novices, but after a long run-in, there is no problem. It can also provide enough manpower for the future nautical age.

What He Xi is worried about is actually whaling.

After all, a whale is a few tons less, and dozens of tons at most, and only a certain number can be caught. It is enough to make up for the food shortfall. Let the economic system of Liaodong continue to operate stably.

But whaling is still a new thing in Daming. Many of these technical problems are taken for granted. And the whaling ship is also new. For a behemoth like a whale, in the end, is there any effect.

He Xi still has some worries.

That's why he came all the way here to inspect.

Although, in He Xi's plan. There is more than one solution to the food crisis. If there is a plan A, there is a plan B, but every plan is not so perfect. He Xi hopes that all plans will succeed.