Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 194 Ships

Ma Wanpeng was called up early in the morning.

He was from Huazhou, and he was arrested by Huang Ye and sent to the craftsman camp because he knew how to build and repair ships.When attacking Tongzhou, he served in Zhu Wen's army, and then retreated all the way back to Chang'an.

After the defeat of the Chao people, the flames of war in Henan were raging, and the water transportation was cut off. His life suddenly became difficult, and he and his family were hungry and full, which was really unsightly.

This time the king of Lingwu County entered the pass and searched for shipbuilders everywhere.After Ma Wanpeng heard about it, he didn't even need anyone to come to his door, and took the initiative to apply for it.There is no other way, it’s okay to be bitter, but it’s not a good feeling to let the whole family eat bran swallowed vegetables.

"Have some water and get ready to go." A junior came over and said with a serious face.

"Team leader Zhang, it's only three o'clock, how can we set off?" Ma Wanpeng asked casually as he looked at the food in front of him as the cook with the team brought breakfast for everyone.

Ghee, milk dregs, multigrain cake, salted soy sauce.It's not bad, it really doesn't suit Ma Wanpeng's taste.However, he is also a person who has tasted the taste of hunger, so he is naturally not picky, and soon started to gobble it up.

The cook is a party member, he can only do these things, and there are only these things at home.

There are more than [-] people in their team, half of them are state soldiers, and five of them are shipwrights and carpenters, including Ma Wanpeng.

The rest, such as grooms and cooks, all come from the Dangxiang tribe, and they have to prepare their own food, cooking utensils, carriages, fodder, etc., and set off with this team, which is a kind of corvee apportionment.

The food cooked by Dangxiang is of course Dangxiang style, what else can you expect?
"Finish your work early and go back to the county." At this point, Captain Zhang hesitated for a moment, and said vaguely, "In a few days, XX will go to the Yajun."

"Captain Zhang is unparalleled in shooting, and his spear skills are superb. He should have gone to the Yajun long ago." Someone laughed.

Leader Zhang was very happy when he heard the words, so he sat down, took a sip of kumiss, and said, "I'm going to Feng'an Army, and it will be difficult to see you in the future."

The Feng'an Army and the Xinquan Army are the two yamen troops that will be formed soon, and they belong to the right wing. Everyone knows this, because since last month, all counties have posted notices to recruit strong men for the Feng'an and Xinquan Second Armies. Everyone went to apply for the recruitment. After all, the yamen army rewarded a lot. It is not a lie that one person can support a large family by joining the army.

It's a pity that the shogunate's requirements are too high, not everyone wants it, which makes many people sigh.

Ma Wanpeng actually envied those sergeants.He studied literature in his early years, but he couldn't make progress. Later, he went to join the army. Because he didn't know how to shoot arrows, no one wanted him.There is no way to do it, you have to eat!So under the introduction of relatives, he learned from a teacher and became a shipwright.

It has to be said that he is quite talented in carpentry and shipbuilding. Over the past 20 years, not to mention excellent skills, what is even more rare is comprehensiveness, good carpentry skills, knowledge of shipbuilding, selection and identification of ship materials, and a lot of shipping knowledge.Therefore, after coming to Lingzhou, he quickly stood out and became a foreman in the newly established Huaiyuan Shipbuilding Workshop, with a monthly salary of [-] yuan and a lunch included in the workshop, and life at home suddenly improved.

His wife, Li Shi, and his eldest son farmed the land at home, and rented the land of the military-owned farm, and the annual rent was [-] percent, which was not high.The old man in the family is not in good health, so it would be nice to live to Lingzhou. He really can't do heavy work, but he also took some camel hair from the official's house and helped weave brown cloth at home.

It’s really interesting that it’s going to be difficult. Liuzhou doesn’t spin wool, but camel hair. I heard that there is a tradition of 200 years, and I don’t know what’s going on.

Of course Ma Wanpeng knew about the newly formed Feng'an Army and Xinquan Army.As a person who knows a lot of shipping knowledge and has chatted with many master craftsmen and boatmen, Ma Wanpeng is not as ignorant as other people who don't know what the names of these two armies mean.

Feng'an Military City, on the North Bank of the Yellow River 180 miles southwest of Lingzhou (near Zhongwei in Ningxia today), has a wharf where water boats often pass.

Go upstream from Feng'an Juncheng Wharf, five hundred miles to Ulan Pass and Huining Pass, all of which are located at the wharf.I heard that during the Tianbao period, during the bad years in Guanzhong, grain from the Helong area would be gathered at Huiningguan, and then flow down the river with large tank boats, passing through Feng'an Military City, Dingyuan Military City, Xishoujiang City, and Zhongshoujiang City , Then gather the corn and wheat raised near Zhenwujun City, go straight to the canal, and finally transport it to Chang'an via the Weihe River.

Xinquan Military City is [-] miles west of Huining Pass. The purpose of Guochao's establishment is to protect shipping.

Of course, these are all past events in Tianbao years.Since the Anshi Rebellion, the Helong prefectures have been lost for the first time, and Lingzhou has become the front line. This section of shipping has long since been abandoned. Now there are not many boats in the Yamen of the six-city water transport. The starting point of the shipping is also Lingzhou, not Huiningguan. It is a pity.

Lanzhou is 380 miles upstream from Huining Pass. Commander Shao resettled the Xinquan Army. What is the meaning of this?Going up from Huining Pass, it’s not easy to sail. The water is fast and there are many shoals. During the Tianbao years, the tank boats were damaged. Now I don’t know if I can sail. After all, what I know is passed down from generation to generation among the boatmen. People's news may not be accurate.

Everyone quickly finished their party-style breakfast, then packed their things and set out on the road until they arrived at a forest at noon.

"Foreman Horse, are these all pine trees?" Team Leader Zhang led the people into the woods and asked.

"Mostly pine wood." Ma Wanpeng replied affirmatively.

This forest is densely packed to the west of Huaiyuan County and extends to the Helan Mountain in the distance.

At this time, the wind is blowing and the forest is ringing, and the pines are bursting.Ma Wanpeng looked at each tree carefully, as if looking at his wife, with fiery eyes, they are all big trees that can be used to build ships, how many years have they grown?Chop it all up, go shipbuilding!

What Captain Zhang saw was another scene: Helan Mountain stretches hundreds of miles from north to south, and is the natural boundary between Lingzhou and the western desert grassland. Then, the captive army invaded the territory from the west, and it was impossible to defend against it.The Marshal was right in ordering the prohibition of woodcutters from harvesting Helan Mountain forests, this forest cannot be harvested!
"Captain Zhang!" Ma Wanpeng stroked a pine tree tenderly, and said, "This keel is also wood, and it can build big ships."

"Foreman Horse!" Captain Zhang was stroking a pine tree sadly, and said, "This general pine is also safe."

"However, the shogunate has an order to cut down logs to build ships." Ma Wanpeng said.

"Don't cut too much. Isn't there ready-made dry ship material in Lingzhou Shipyard? Li Shijun also learned from the Tibetan population that Huizhou big wood is better." Zhang Duizheng said.

Li Shao is Shuofang Jiedushi, but in private, many people still call Li Shijun, and treat him as the governor of Lingzhou, not a town commander.

Li Shao did know from the Fan population that the quality of wood in Huizhou area is even better, especially what the Fan people call "Snow Mountain" (Hasi Mountain), which is near a big river and can be made into a raft after a little treatment. From there, until Huile and Huaiyuan, where there are shipyards, the cities along the way that need timber can of course also purchase it, which is very convenient.

Moreover, when these braided rafts go down the river, they can also transport goods along the way, further reducing costs.

This method can also be extended to further upstream reaches.The degree of dense forest in the land of Helong at this time is not the same as that of later generations.During the Qing Dynasty, after thousands of years of deforestation and war damage, the forests in the Hetao area disappeared in large areas. Even Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other provinces did not have enough timber, so they had to purchase from Gansu, Qinghai and other places.

The method at that time was to cut down forests from Gansu and Qinghai, weave them into rafts and go down the river to the northern provinces.These rafts also undertake the task of transportation. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, about 1000 million catties of Qinghai grain were transported out through wooden rafts and sheepskin rafts every year. They were called "Xihe grain" and "Ledu wheat" in Lanzhou.

Of course, the consequences of deforestation in these places are also obvious.The Northern Song Dynasty began to enter a cold period, which lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty before it began to pick up.During this period, the weather becomes colder and the precipitation decreases. Once the forest disappears, it will be difficult to restore it.

"Huizhou..." Ma Wanpeng heard these two words from others again.

Now he kind of guessed the commander in chief's train of thought.For the Dingnan army, Huizhou is indeed a very important place. There is a boat ferry at Huining Pass, which goes straight to Lanzhou in the southwest, Minzhou in the south, Yuanzhou in the east, and Liangzhou in the northwest. It is really a city extending in all directions. All places are connected by large post roads, and there is also convenient river transportation-even if large tank ships cannot pass, small boats and rafts should be no problem.

Of course, Ma Wanpeng didn't know that Shao Dashuai was also very interested in a place in the southwest of Huizhou and northeast of Lanzhou, the only city in the country named after a precious metal in later generations.Iron was mined here in the Han Dynasty, and it remained silent until the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang set up 20 mine furnaces and more than 30 mining sites here, and thousands of miners mined and smelted silver.

The most precious resource here is of course not silver, but copper, which was buried very shallowly. It was even called an open-pit deposit in the 50s, but I don’t know why it was not discovered in the Ming Dynasty.

For this alone, Huizhou and Lanzhou must be fought!

The group stayed in the forest for several days. After a rough inspection, they returned to Chuanfang, Huaiyuan County, which was also a newly built wharf.

"Another ship of coal is coming. This is the first ship after the beginning of spring." Ma Wanpeng said, looking at a small sailboat slowly approaching the shore.

At this time, the northwest wind is blowing, and the heavy-duty sailboats going south from the north can quickly go south to Huaiyuan, Baojing, Huile, Mingsha (near Zhongning County) and other counties.It is heard that near Dingyuan Juncheng, the captured Hexi Dangxiang was mining coal.Its price is very cheap, and it is often cheaper than firewood after it is shipped to various places.

The commander-in-chief is firm in his determination to reduce the collection of forest trees and woodcutters, and he tries to find ways to reduce the use of firewood.In the future, most of them will be shipped to the area of ​​Huining Pass for consumption in the army.

No wonder it is necessary to build a large ship.

Transportation of food, soldiers, livestock, charcoal, equipment, and ships can greatly reduce civil service. This is a great act of charity for the benefit of the people!
(End of this chapter)