I will be the prince at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 75 Longjiang Shipyard ([-])
"Ah!" Zhu Cixuan sighed, quickly changed the subject, and said, "Master Wang, please introduce the current situation of the shipyard to the Crown Prince."

"Ah! Alright, Your Royal Highness, please follow me." Wang Chengyuan waved his hand, and Zhu Cixuan began to visit the Longjiang Shipyard accompanied by Wang Chengyuan.

"His Royal Highness, please see that this is Touzuo Pond (dock), 160 feet long and 25 feet wide. There is a stone gate that can be opened and closed to control the water volume.

When building a ship, the water is drained, the gate is closed, and the ship is built in the pond.After the ship is built, the gate is opened to fill in the water, the hull is floated, and then the ship is put into the river.

The treasure ships of Zheng He and Master Zheng were built in this pond. "Wang Chengyuan pointed to a large rectangular dry pond with a length of about 500 meters and a width of about 70-80 meters facing the Yangtze River.

Zhu Cixuan discovered that this is a huge artificial dock with an inverted trapezoidal shape, with a width of 80 meters at the top, 30 meters at the bottom, and a depth of about [-] meters. The strange thing is that there are no bricks or stones on the banks on both sides Isn't it afraid that the embankment will collapse?
So he asked: "Master Wang, why isn't this embankment built with bricks and stones to protect the slope? Isn't it afraid of collapse?"

"Your Highness does not know that there are four layers of strata on the embankments on both sides. The top layer is the cultivated soil layer with a thickness of one foot.

Next is the loess layer, which is three feet thick and has been rammed so that it is very compact.

Below the loess layer is a gray-black soil layer mixed with loess and black silt, also three feet thick.

The bottom is the fine sand layer, which is mixed with black silt and gray fine sand.Among them, the loess layer is highly viscous and impermeable, so the embankment is extremely strong and not afraid of collapse. "

Zhu Cixuan was filled with emotion. The wisdom of the working people is indeed boundless. This method looks crude, but it reduces the cost and saves time. It is a typical project of "more speed, better economy".

Accompanied by Wang Chengyuan, Zhu Cixuan continued on his way, and saw seven large docks in total, Erzuo (dock), Sanzuo, Qizuo, Niangniang Temple, Sizuo, Wuzuo, and Liuzuo.

Then I looked at the lifting department, the helper command hall, and a tent factory specializing in the manufacture of seagoing awnings, as well as seven joinery workshops, paint workshops, twisting workshops, iron workshops, tent workshops, rope workshops, and cable workshops. Workshops and materials shop, etc.

Among them, only the tent factory located in the northeast of the shipyard has ten rows of sixty houses.The shipyard's construction supervisor, Zhongyuan Wupin's engineering doctor, is no longer there.

At present, there is Yuanwailang, that is, Wang Chengyuan, and there are some directors, promotions, helpers and other shipyard commanders and other personnel.There used to be nearly [-] junior squad leaders such as Xiang Zhang and Zuo first, but now there are only about [-] left.

Shipbuilding craftsmen mainly come from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian, Jiangsu and other places, and their division of labor is meticulous.

There are four compartments in the lower part, and each compartment is divided into ten armors, and each armor has a chief, who is in charge of ten households.

The first compartment is divided into ship wood, shuttle, scull, and cable makers; the second compartment is divided into ship wood, iron, and cable makers;In addition, there are internal officials and supervisors, imperial horse supervisors, material watchers, watchmen, bridgemen and other personnel.

After visiting the entire shipyard, Zhu Cixuan saw that Cai Jiuyi had returned with a thousand soldiers escorting silver and rice.

Zhu Cixuan asked Wang Chengyuan to call all the craftsmen in the shipyard, and moved ten tables to the open space of the shipyard.

When I saw the sallow, emaciated and scantily clad shipbuilders in the dark, my heart was very heavy.

To say that these people are all technical talents, let’s say that among them, they are all shipbuilders and craftsmen of a big country, and they should enjoy good treatment.But now they have no clothes to wear and no food to eat, how can it not be regrettable.

When Zhu Cixuan saw that everyone had arrived, he stood directly on a table and shouted with all his internal energy: "I am the prince Zhu Cixuan. From now on, the Longjiang Shipyard will return to my Ming Dynasty. From now on, I will pay everyone's salaries on time every month. The craftsmen who work in the shipyard have a minimum of two taels of silver per person.

Have you seen these tables? Please line up in front of the tables. Now the crown prince will distribute two taels of silver and one stone of rice to each of you. "

"Boom" the more than 700 shipyard craftsmen below cried with joy.

Wang Chengyuan called everyone to line up and started to receive money and rice.

Zhu Cixuan sent 150 soldiers to help these craftsmen transport the rice home. After all, a stone of rice is equivalent to [-] catties in modern times. These craftsmen are all yellow and thin, and they may not be able to carry them back. So Zhu Cixuan sent soldiers to help them transport the rice home. .

The shipyard craftsmen who received the rice, with happy smiles on their faces, hobbled home with the rice on their shoulders.

When the craftsmen were almost gone, Zhu Cixuan called Wang Chengyuan aside and ordered him to manage the shipyard temporarily. The large ships that had stopped working in the shipyard continued to build ships, and the vacant ponds were also used.

Wang Chengyuan looked at Zhu Cixuan and hesitated for a moment. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said to Zhu Cixuan: "His Royal Highness, there is not much wood stored in the shipyard at present. If we want to resume production, we need to buy a large amount of rare wood. Now that the waterway is cut off, the shipyard is used for shipbuilding. The lumber cannot be transported."

"Where did the wood come from?" Zhu Cixuan asked.

"Pine, fir, camphor, nanmu, teak, persimmon, lattice wood, cone wood, and cup-cracked fragrant wood are generally collected from Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Qiongzhou. Some of them, such as Sala double trees and iron pear trees, are from Annan and Nanyang. .

Have there been wars in these places in recent years? The sea routes are impassable, so these timbers cannot be transported. The shipyard has always used the original stored timbers for shipbuilding. Now some types of stored timbers are no longer available. Those large ships that have stopped working can still be built. But to build a new ship, wood is not enough. "

Zhu Cixuan nodded, "I see, let's build according to the existing wood, and after a while, my Master Daming will recover the entire Jiangnan, and the wood will be transported over by then.

You tell everyone that even if the ship is not built, the prince will not let everyone go hungry again, so that everyone can rest assured. "

After Zhu Cixuan made arrangements for the shipyard, the sky was getting dark, so he and Mu Zhongliang left the Longjiang Shipyard surrounded by a thousand guards from the East Palace, while Cai Jiuyi led a thousand soldiers to stay in the shipyard.

One is to protect these craftsmen. After all, these are technical talents, and it is not easy to train them. The Tartars don't care about their lives, but Zhu Cixuan can't. Now that they lose one, Zhu Cixuan will feel distressed for a long time.

The second is that these thousand soldiers can help the craftsmen to repair the houses. Just now Zhu Cixuan saw that although there are many houses in the shipyard, most of them are vacant, dilapidated and in urgent need of repairs.

Zhu Cixuan wanted to plan ahead and resume production in the future. He needed to recruit a large number of craftsmen and repair the houses. These recruited craftsmen would also have a place to live.

(End of this chapter)