Datang Nongwang

Chapter 643 The Great Project

Chongming Island.

In the Five Dynasties, Chongming Town was established on Gu Junsha Island, the largest sand island here. (Gu Junsha is one of the largest of the two sand islands, also known as Xisha.)
In the Ming Dynasty, because Chongming Town was a natural salt field, it was believed that this place was a heaven-sent salt field, so Chongming Prefecture was established.

It was not until the period of the Republic of China that Chongming Island began to be marked on the map.

At this time, Li Chongyuan named this place Xisha, which is just an excuse.

Xisha Island is not small, at least seven or eight square kilometers.

Neither small nor small, nor big.

The sand island in the southeast of Xisha Island is smaller than Xisha Island, but it is estimated to be at least five square kilometers in size.

The distance between the two sand islands is about five kilometers, but the sea water is extremely shallow, and the deepest point is only half a foot deep, which is in the shape of a concave.

If Li Chongyuan wanted to connect the two sand islands, he had to fill up this concave water area.

but.

At the moment, Li Chongyuan didn't intend to connect the two sand islands. After all, the distance of several kilometers away, if you want to fill this section of water, the project is comparable to reclamation to build an island.

Moreover.

Li Chongyuan also needs to build a shipyard on Xisha Island, which requires a lot of stone.

The source of the stone can be obtained from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

At least, the area around the Yangtze River in Suzhou is a plain area.

If you want to get stone materials, you must at least get materials from the Jiangdu area or go up.

Fortunately, it was going down the river, and there was a paddle steamer, so Li Chongyuan didn't think it was difficult to carry stones.

The difficulty lies in the matter of transporting timber from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

After all, if you want to build a shipyard here, whether it is timber for the construction of the shipyard or timber for future shipbuilding, the demand is particularly large, and it must be transported over long distances.

but.

If he wanted to build bigger ships, that's all Li Chongyuan did.

Even if the cost is higher, Li Chongyuan has to carry it out. After all, whether it is a Type B ship or a Type A ship, Li Chongyuan has to build it no matter what.

Sailing long distances on the sea, small boats cannot withstand wind and waves.

Even Li Chongyuan was a little worried that the C-type paddle steamer he built might not be able to withstand the wind and waves at sea.

months ago.

Li Chongyuan returned to Chang'an on a C-[-] paddle steamer, passed the coastline, and encountered no big waves along the way, so small that there were occasional ones.

But the boat built by Li Chongyuan can go to the other side of the ocean.

Even if the route is still the coastline, but even so, if a typhoon comes, when the big waves come, the Type C paddle steamer may be overturned.

and so.

In any case, Li Chongyuan had to build a large paddle steamer.

Whether it was the previous plan or the current plan, there is no conflict.

C-type paddle steamers can still be part of the fleet going to the opposite ocean in the future, but these medium-sized ships need large ships to protect them.

and.

The cost of medium-sized ships is not expensive. Even if the cost of one ship exceeds [-] guan, if it is really mass-produced, its cost will definitely drop.

As for the cost of large-scale paddle steamers, that is, Type B and Type A, although Li Chongyuan has not built them yet, Li Chongyuan can estimate their cost.

Take the cost of a Type B paddle steamer, one of them costs at least [-] to [-] guan, and it may exceed [-] guan; while the cost of a Type A paddle steamer may exceed [-] guan, or even more higher.

As for the super-A paddle steamer that Li Chongyuan thought of, the cost of one ship is estimated to be no less than [-] guan.

Fortunately, Li Chongyuan's plan is to build two super A-type paddle steamers, and even if this A-type paddle steamers, Li Chongyuan will not build too many, at most five to six.

As for Type B, that was Li Chongyuan's main ship. At least Li Chongyuan would have to build fifteen, or even twenty.

As for Type C, there will probably be more, at least thirty.

Calculated in this way, Li Chongyuan wants to form a fleet, and if the calculation is based on the full number of ships, it is the ships that Li Chongyuan wants to build.

There are two Super A-type ships, six Type-A ships, twenty Type-B ships, and thirty Type-C ships, for a total of 58 ships.

As far as the cost of these ships is concerned, it is estimated to be at least 140 million guns.

This does not include the cost of the shipyard, which is only calculated based on the lowest estimated cost of the ship.

140 guan.

Fortunately, Li Chongyuan still has the money on hand, otherwise, if Li Chongyuan wants to form a fleet, he may not be able to get it by selling himself.

At least, Li Chongyuan hasn't touched the millions of dollars of wealth under the ground in Yuancun.

Form a fleet of at least 58 ships, in addition to going to the other side of the ocean to find various crops or plant species.

Li Chongyuan can also send a fleet to the Nanyang area or the west area for trade.

and.

Li Chongyuan knew that there was a mountain of silver in the country of Wa, but no one had discovered it yet, let alone mined it.

What's more, in the Nanyang area, those islands have a lot of gold, silver and copper mines. As long as you have people, you can bring yourself endless wealth.

Moreover.

The area around Nanyang, as well as the country of Asan, is the country of spices.

Once the fleet goes, isn't that wealth.

but.

Although the idea is good, but before the fleet is formed, everything is empty talk.

After Li Chongyuan inspected the entire sand island, he already had a general idea in his mind.

"Steward Wang, do you have a feasible plan to build a shipyard here?" Li Chongyuan asked Wang Sheng who came with the ship.

When Wang Sheng heard Li Chongyuan's question, he thought for a while and said: "Jun Wang Li, this place is sandy. If you want to build a large shipyard here, it will cost a lot and it will be easily submerged by sea water. If you don't want to be If the seawater is submerged, it will have to be filled with a large amount of stone to prevent the seawater from pouring back. In this way, a large shipyard can be built here.”

"I understand what you said, so what I'm asking is do you have a plan in mind? How much stone do you need, how much wood do you need, how much mortar do you need, these, I think you should have a rough idea in your mind at this time Right. But you don't have to worry, in the next two days, you write out the plan to me, and I'll see how to arrange people to deal with it." Li Chongyuan nodded lightly and said.

Wang Sheng nodded heavily, "Okay, then I will write out the plan in the next two days and hand it over to you, Prince Li."

Wang Sheng them.

Since the shipbuilding was built in Xixiang, he has been staying in Xixiang.

When I have nothing to do on weekdays, I help out in the shipyard to do some work within my ability.

When something happens, help build something.

Such as the school, such as the blacksmith's room.

Of course, there are dock reinforcements, maintenance and so on.

But Wang Sheng and his group of more than [-] people never thought about leaving, as if they had been nailed to Li Chongyuan's territory since they came last time.

Li Chongyuan could still afford to support more than three hundred people.

This is not.

It's time to use it.

That afternoon.

All the workers started to board and disembark, and went to the land opposite Xisha to start cutting trees, and transported them to Xisha Island to build wooden houses for living.

As for the bottom stone materials for building wooden houses, we can only choose some usable ones on the opposite bank.

Two days later.

The plan came out.

As soon as the plan came out, Li Chongyuan didn't even have time to test the two paddle steamers, so he stopped directly and let Xiang Jiu take the two ships back to Xixiang.

On the same boat were Xiang Ba and other servants who needed to go to Changshu and Jiangyin to buy various ingredients and some daily necessities.

Of course, some ships will also need to be hired.

But Li Chongyuan stayed in Xisha.

The current conditions are very difficult. As the county king, Li Chongyuan eats and lives with the craftsmen and workers, which makes those craftsmen and workers get closer to Li Chongyuan.

Two days later.

Xiangba returned from Jiangyin.

All kinds of small boats were employed by Xiangba to help Xisha transport various ingredients and daily necessities.

Eight days later.

Xiang Jiu also returned to Xisha.

Returning to Xisha together with Xiang Jiu, the paddle steamer was followed by a large number of small boats, the number of which was no less than [-].

These ships help transport the water workers and various helpers who come to help.

Of course, there's mortar, or something.

When two to 3000 people arrived on Xisha Island, the island was overcrowded immediately.

This also caused the hired ship bosses to have a lot of doubts about what Li Chongyuan and the others were doing on a sand island.

The ships continued to be employed by Li Chongyuan, and began to go to the Jiangdu area.

They need to go to the Jiangdu area to help Li Chongyuan transport stones and other things.

And when they heard that Li Chongyuan was going to build a shipyard on a sandy island, everyone became very curious.

They knew that Li Chongyuan already had a shipyard in Xixiang, and now he went to Linhai to build a large shipyard. They became more and more curious about these paddle steamers that they knew belonged to Li Chongyuan.

Everyone speculated in their minds whether Li Chongyuan planned to build a larger paddle steamer by building a large shipyard.

Paddle steamers, they are very greedy.

but.

On the way to Xisha, they knew that the price of the paddle steamer they saw was not something they could afford.

but.

Even if they couldn't afford it, they couldn't help but imagine it in their hearts.

After the arrival of the stone materials, a major project started on Xisha Island.

The project is huge.

The number of craftsmen, water workers, and helpers transported from Xixiang has reached as many as 3000 to [-].

There are as many as two to three thousand people employed in quarrying and various ships.

If other people are added, the number of people who built Xisha Island for Li Chongyuan is estimated to exceed 8000.

every day.

Xisha Island has undergone changes in the hands of craftsmen.

The first thing Li Chongyuan does when he wakes up every morning is to test the water pattern, as well as the sea current, wind and other things.

Although Li Chongyuan didn't learn from this birth, he can still know the most basic ones.

For example, a few days before a typhoon is coming, it will be accompanied by sweltering heat.

After all, together, the typhoon will have a large range.

Under the scope of the typhoon, due to the problem of air pressure, it will definitely make people hot and stuffy.

For another example, under the scope of the typhoon, the water flow will also advance to the coast with the typhoon and so on.

and so.

Under the premise that Li Chongyuan can't help much, he can only do these weather forecasts.

Li Chongyuan didn't want anyone to die under the influence of such extreme weather on his own territory because of typhoons, strong winds and waves, or even heavy rain.

If someone died, Li Chongyuan would bear a bad reputation.

even.

In order to avoid this situation, Li Chongyuan specially reserved a C-[-] paddle steamer docked outside Xisha Island to transport the people on the island to the coast in case of emergency.

Even more.

Li Chongyuan was afraid of the typhoon, so he asked people to build a lot of stone houses on the land opposite Xisha Island.

Li Chongyuan is the most clear about the tyranny of the typhoon.

although.

Li Chongyuan was from Jiangxi Province in his previous life, but he worked in Lingnan after graduation.

The Lingnan area, especially the cities near the sea, is hit by typhoons every summer, ranging from one or two to more than a dozen times.

Moreover, if there is an extreme super typhoon, there may be casualties.

visible.

The violence of typhoons cannot be stopped by manpower, so even in modern times, typhoons can only be predicted to prevent accidents.

Fortunately, it is now mid-September.

Even if there is such a typhoon, it is very rare.

But even so, Li Chongyuan didn't dare to be careless, so his daily work was to predict typhoons, rain and other things.

someday.

When Li Chongyuan began to test the water flow again, Xing Ba came to Li Chongyuan, "Xiao Langjun, the Jiangyin county magistrate sent a message yesterday, saying that if you are free, Xiao Lang, I would like to invite you to Jiangyin." Sit down."

"Oh? Then who is the magistrate of Jiangyin County? Why did he invite me to sit down? It can't be an acquaintance, right?" Li Chongyuan raised his head after hearing Xingba's words, feeling a little puzzled.

Jiangyin county magistrate, Li Chongyuan really didn't know who was doing it.

Xingba shook his head, "I don't know. However, we are not mining stone in Junshan, Jiangyin County recently. I guess, the magistrate of Jiangyin County may want to meet you, Mr. Xiaolang, because of this matter."

"We have already reported to the Changzhou prefectural government office for mining stone materials. We have also reported to the Jiangyin county government office and paid for it. He is a Jiangyin county magistrate, so he doesn't want to be involved in this matter. Are you stuck with us?" Li Chongyuan immediately became vigilant when he heard about the stone materials.

Xingba continued to shake his head, "Probably not. We have never stopped mining stones, and I have not heard about Jiangyin blocking us from mining stones. I think the magistrate of Jiangyin wants to invite Mr. Xiaolang to sit down for a while." , I guess I really know you, Xiao Langjun. Xiao Langjun, why don't I go and have a look and find out what the county magistrate has to say?"

"Yes. But, when you go to the Jiangyin Yamen for me, bring some gifts with you, don't let people think that we have no manners." Li Chongyuan nodded.

It is really misleading for a governor to ask a county magistrate to visit him.

But there is a saying that if you mine stones on someone else's site and enter the door with courtesy, everything is easy to talk about.

If Li Chongyuan was the governor of Changzhou, it would be a different matter.

(End of this chapter)