Slightly intoxicated with the beauty of the yard, he told Freehand to arrange a few follow-ups, and Zhu Yuan still had to start the afternoon work.

When Wu Zhen arrived, the grain transportation plan was about to be accelerated.

When he arrived at his office in the outer courtyard, Zhu Yuan was the first to call the former deputy of Taicang City to inquire and urge the progress of the formulation of the new city ship law.

These days, according to Zhu Yuan's request, Changbao has been drafting a new Daming City Ship Law by collecting the relevant laws of the Tang, Song, Yuan and other dynasties, as well as some suggestions put forward by Zhu Yuan with reference to the memories of his previous life.

Because of his experience in his previous life, Zhu Yuan knew very well that if he wanted to promote the development of an industry, the most basic premise was to have clear legislation.

Only by setting up the rules, having laws to follow, and not changing the order overnight, can people rest assured that they can invest, develop, and grow. The government can also collect taxes from a stable industry and redirect a portion of the tax to continue to support the development of related industries, creating a virtuous circle.

After a general discussion, Zhu Yuan asked Chang Bao to complete the first draft of the decree within three days, and just sent the other party away, Yao Feng came to find him again.

There is not enough hemp in the shipyard.

Tung oil, lime and hemp were the three essential materials for wooden sailing boats of this era, and they were basically used for caulking and waterproofing.

On the first day Zhu Yuan left Jinling, he learned about it on that giant boat.

In the process of shipbuilding, the cracks of the wood should be filled with fine linen silk that is very broken, and then the outer layer is glued with a mixture of lime and tung oil, and the corresponding mixture will also be used to close the nail holes of the iron nails to avoid rust through isolation. Finally, another layer of waterproof tung oil will be brushed.

So, is there a better material to do these things?

Yes!

The problem is that from the perspective of Zhu Yuan, who used to be a businessman, it is very simple.

Cost!

Just like on the first day of leaving Jinling, I learned through an old shipwright on a giant boat that Zhang Shicheng once used the asphalt brought by the big food maritime merchants to brush the bottom of the ship for waterproofing.

The old boatman didn't know the price.

But just think about it, a bucket of asphalt, after thousands of miles of transshipment, is probably worth the cost of a small boat.

As a result, tung oil, lime and hemp are the most affordable and accessible solutions for shipbuilding that coastal dwellers have developed over thousands of years.

This is also one of the reasons why Zhu Yuan lamented in that day's diary that he had no doubts about the current shipbuilding technology. Under the current conditions, the ancients thought of everything they could think of in the field of shipbuilding, and Zhu Yuan felt that what the ancients could not think of in the eyes of later generations, perhaps, it was just that it could not be done within the allowable range of existing costs.

After Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng discussed, they drafted two official documents and asked them to send them.

The first is to inform the coastal states and counties that they must continue to send the stockpiled hemp to Mingzhou, and there is no prevarication and delay.

In this era, hemp is actually a kind of tax, and all states and counties have reserves.

The second was given to Jinling.

It is hoped that Lao Zhu will send an order to all states and counties in the Yangtze River basin, and also send the surplus of stockpiled hemp to Mingzhou along the Yangtze River in addition to his own use. As for other provinces and regions, they are too far away, or land transportation is inconvenient, so they can only give up.

Zhu Yuan also discussed with Yao Feng the possibility of publicly acquiring hemp materials.

After all, if you have money in your hands now, there will be a bigger amount of money in the future.

As a result of the discussion, the idea was abandoned for the time being.

The question is cost.

In this era, the logistics system was very backward, so if you want to purchase hemp extensively, you must send enough people to pass through the state and county, and then collect and transship, and finally send it to Mingzhou, the price of a pound of hemp may be worth a pound of cotton.

Therefore, it is more convenient to collect it through the government.

However, the two of them have preliminarily determined another idea, planning to promote the coastal states and counties to increase the scale of hemp planting, just like the previous large-scale planting of tung oil along the riverside roads in Mingzhou.

These two things are different.

The tung oil will not occupy arable land, and the camp can make the decision by itself.

Mahjong.

This requires permission from Jinling.

In fact, Zhu Yuan has been gradually refining another idea recently, if it is to be implemented later, the amount of hemp required will be very large. Because hemp is not only a shipbuilding material, but also can be used to make ropes and woven fishing nets.

Mingzhou's sudden lack of hemp was because Zhu Yuan had embezzled a part of it for weaving large fishing nets, so that he could try to go out to sea to fish on the thousands of seagoing boats he brought from Jinling.

On the one hand, this is to add food to the busy soldiers and people everywhere, and on the other hand, it happens to be related to the idea that Zhu Yuan has been brewing.

Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng were talking about the matter, and another official came to report that Tao Qian, the prefect of Mingzhou, personally escorted a batch of iron ore to the shore of the shipyard.

The two of them hurried together to the west of the city.

Iron is also a must-have for shipbuilding.

Or for cost reasons, it is best to have a nearby source of iron.

Through inquiry, Zhu Yuan learned that there is pyrite in the mountainous area of western Mingzhou, and the quality is average, but fortunately, it is not far from the Yanjiang River, which is a tributary of the upper reaches of the Yongjiang River, which first joins the Fenghua River, and then joins the Yuyao River in the capital city of Mingzhou, becoming the Yongjiang River and going straight into the sea.

Therefore, the relevant iron ore can be transported down the river to Dinghai after mining.

There is a small episode in this matter.

According to Zhu Yuan's proposal, the imperial court had just issued a decree prohibiting arbitrary mining, and even if the local government needed it, it had to inform the Zhongshu to be approved.

Zhu Yuan can act cheaply, but he still follows the rules and deliberately goes through the process for this.

Tao Qian personally escorted the first batch of pyrite and brought some coal and stone samples. After Zhu Yuan saw it, let alone use it for iron smelting, he even completely dispelled the idea of speeding up the drying of shipbuilding wood by baking

The quality of the coal and stone is so poor that it can't be considered coal at all, it can only be regarded as barely burnable stone. Moreover, mining is not as convenient as pyrite near the Yanjiang River.

It's better to use the nearest log.

At the end of the day, it's still the cost.

It's like baking wood.

Onlookers may think, isn't it just firewood, it's all over the hillside, can't you just cut it and use it?

The problem is that there is also a cost to chopping wood.

Firewood was a fairly common commodity in those days, and there were also woodcutters who specialized in cutting firewood for a living. Even if Zhu Yuan can use the people, the people are not a perpetual motion machine, and they have to eat, which is also a cost.

Zhu Yuan and Yao Feng carefully summed it up.

To build a kiln, each cave can not be too much, otherwise the heating is uneven, according to the calculation of a hole and ten materials, slow roasting, ten bundles of wood are consumed every day, each bundle of wood is 10 yuan, and the baking time of different wood is also different, on average, two months, 60 days, it is equivalent to each material of wood, which increases the expenditure of 600 Wen.

And that's not even counting the cost of extracting and transporting the timber itself.

At the same time, it also does not take into account the loss part of the wood that is dry and cracked due to improper control of the heat and scraps.

Therefore, it is better to purchase directly from the private sector at an average price of 1,000 wen per material.

All in all, any thing, if it is too tossed and a piece of tofu is made into the price of meat, even if it can be expedient in the short term, it cannot last long.

What Zhu Yuan wants is long-term, sustainable, and a virtuous circle.

In a way, this is also a standard business thinking.

Any business, if it always loses money and there is no possibility of big returns in the long term, then it cannot be done, because it will definitely not last long.

Many of the things that Zhu Yuan is operating happen to be standard labor-intensive industries. One more person, one more cost. The scale is very large, and there may be some cost reduction through efficient management, but it is limited.

Not to mention the labor cost in this era, it is basically just the degree of managing rice, how can it be compressed?

It was indeed a major way for engineering officials in ancient times to make a fortune. However, unless Zhu Yuan is not afraid that the hungry soldiers and soldiers will take him to cook, or he will be caught by Lao Zhu to cook after the incident, he can't go any lower.

After dealing with the affairs of the shipyard, it was already evening.

Zhu Yuan rushed to the east wharf of the city to meet Hua Gao and Wu Zhen, and the two generals saw him and congratulated him on his birthday.

Wen Zao returned from Jinling in such a big battle, others may not know the inside story, and Hua Gao will definitely not ignore it.

Hua Gao knew, and Wu Zhen naturally knew.

Zhu Yuan smiled and returned the salute, asking the two of them to be quiet.

He also promised that this year was too busy, and if he had time next year, he would hold a banquet for everyone.

Speaking of birthdays, Zhu Yuan has never felt much, and his birthdays in the last few years of his previous life have basically become business interactions, and he often gets drunk before dawn the next day.

quickly turned to business and had a preliminary understanding of the general situation of the 20,000 sailors brought by Wu Zhen.

20,000 people, divided into two parts.

The first part is the Tianxing Guard officers and soldiers from Jiangyin.

About 8,000 people.

At first, it was close to 10,000, and all the way south, losing 2,000 in battle.

As for Tianxingwei, it was originally Tianxingyi.

After crossing the river that year, Lao Zhu changed the armies to 'wings', set up the wing marshal's office, and the commander under his command was the wing marshal.

Hua Gao once served as the left wing marshal of the center, front, rear, left and right five wing armies of the old Zhu Tent's former lineage.

Why lineage?

Because Hua Gao took his troops to join Lao Zhu at the beginning, just like the rich lady who brought a large dowry to marry, and stood in the right position during the turbulent period before and after crossing the river, and has always been loyal to Lao Zhu.

Also because of this, Hua Gao himself admits that his ability to manage the army is not as good as that of the Wu brothers, but his current status is still higher than that of the Wu brothers who prospered with Lao Zhu. Even in the previous life, the ranking of the Meritorious Temple is higher than that of the Wu brothers.

Speaking of Tianxingwei, it was the Tianxing Wing set up by Lao Zhu to guard Jiangyin at the earliest, and the Yongxing Wing led by Geng Bingwen faced each other across the north and south of Taihu Lake, forming an eastern barrier against Zhang Shicheng.

After the wing was changed to guard, Tianxing Wing and Yongxing Wing became Tianxingwei and Yongxingwei.

Zhang Shicheng calmed down, and after a while, the two did not tell Zhu Yuanming, and Zhu Yuan could guess it.

Wu Liang, who is so thoughtful that he is like a saint, is most likely stripped of his bare pole and named the commander of Suzhou Wei, and the elite of Tianxingwei, who has been in battle for tens of thousands of years, was sent by Lao Zhu to Wu Liang's younger brother Wu Zhen to march south with Tang He.

In the end, it is still the Wu brothers who are in charge, and it will not seem that Lao Zhu crossed the river and demolished the bridge.

This time, Wu Zhen brought Tianxingwei to Mingzhou again.

It is expected that he will also become a descendant of the Navy in the future.

The other part of the 20,000 people, about 12,000, of which 6,000 Fang Guozhen's old department, and 6,000 people from eastern Zhejiang who were originally brought to the south.

This part of the soldiers and soldiers did not have a clear establishment of the guard, and belonged to the sequence of township soldiers.

Zhu Yuan remembered that he had learned before that the Southern Expeditionary Army had taken away a total of 23,000 soldiers from Fang Guozhen Shuibu's two armies, and more than 30,000 including the people. This time, only 12,000 came back, even if some of them were taken to the north by Tang He, or some were left on the southern front, but how much was lost during the war, you can imagine.

This is also the norm.

If the annexed army does not wear and tear hard, they will have no way to retreat completely, and it is inevitable that there will be repetition.

Then there are the ships that Zhu Yuan is most concerned about.

Not counting the fast-paddle light boats attached to large ships for sea encounters or landing operations, there are a total of 379 large-scale ships, of which 29 are large ships with more than 2,000 materials, 77 are large ships with more than 1,000 materials, and the remaining 273 are sea ships within 1,000 materials.

Zhu Yuan plans to eliminate all ships below 500 materials, after all, the size of the ship is too small and unsafe, and the remainder, according to preliminary estimates, theoretically has a total load of 260,000 stones.

How many simple maintenance can actually go to sea in the near future will need to be checked and evaluated in detail.

Zhu Yuan discussed these things with the two generals from the east wharf of the city to the Huagao Mansion in the city, and the dinner was simply used in the process of talking about things.

It wasn't until the end of the day that He Xuan came to remind his little master that it was time to rest, and in the shock that Wu Zhen also saw the eunuchs beside Zhu Yuan for the first time, Zhu Yuan got up and returned to his mansion next door.

Came to the front of the main house of the inner house, and lowered his shoulders, this time a few Nizi did not come out to greet him.

The lights were on in the bedroom.

Entering the door, greeted by the warm lady who pointed out to the young lady as a maid when she left in the afternoon, took off her coat and came to the bedroom, under the red candle, the young lady did not know when she prepared a big red for herself, and sat on the edge of the bed with restraint and expectation, lowered her eyebrows and lowered her head, gorgeous and beautiful.