Lu Ming

Chapter 358 Opening the Port (24)
The mosquitoes, savages and mountain roads in the Miaosu mountain area made Feng Guanjie want to die in a short time.There is nothing else here except the primeval forest, and the feeling of being far away from civilized society makes him want to escape from this place all the time.

God bless, finally one day I heard that the construction of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone has started.So Feng Guanjie went back to say hello without saying a word, and rushed to the front line-he was in a hurry with anyone who dared to mention the word Miaosu again. It had been more than half a year, and it was time to change shifts.

He brought a few apprentices to Hangzhou first, and then Feng Guanjie took a riverboat to Xiongdao.

Knowing that the surname Feng is coming, Xiong Dao dare not neglect.This person has already specified his position in the telegram: the chief designer of the free trade zone, responsible for the overall design and planning of the port area, the industrial area along the river, and the living area.

That's why Xiong Dao brought Feng Guanjie to Zhang Sutan for inspection today.

Now it is the month of May when the weather starts to be hot.In previous years, Zhangsu Beach was already covered with waist-deep thatch in this season, which became the best cover for thieves to commit crimes.

Today's Zhang Sutan has changed a lot.Zhangsutan, located at the confluence of the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River estuary, has a superior geographical location and is less difficult to demolish. It was the first free trade core area identified as a dock area.

So the first batch of construction workers came to Zhangsu Beach and started construction.The main force of this group of people was the land-lost tenants spun off from Zuojia Village. Later, a large number of refugees and beggars from the surrounding areas were added to the construction team, resulting in an increase of the number to more than [-].

Large-scale projects in the Jiangnan area have an advantage that other places do not have: food.

Engineering in the 17th century was hard work.In many places, if thousands of strong laborers are gathered at once, it will become a big trouble for future generations to transfer food that has no concept at all.

This is equivalent to gathering an army with a huge appetite near the county seat. However, in poorer areas, the stocks will soon be out of supply, and grain and grass need to be transported from nearby areas.The cost of this kind of transportation is very high. In the northern region, it is not bad to transport ten vehicles to five vehicles.

When crossing the country was engaged in projects in Fujian, it suffered from this kind of hardship.It is difficult to transport food in mountainous areas, and Fujian itself is a food-deficient province, so the engineering headquarters, which was inexperienced at the beginning, stumbled a few times in this regard.

In the Jiangnan area, there is no such problem.First of all, the inland water network extending in all directions ensures the timely and low-cost delivery of supplies.

Secondly, although the grain fields have been replaced by a large number of cotton fields, since Hangzhou is the water transportation terminal, there is no shortage of grain in the Jiangnan area-the grain of the southern provinces will be concentrated here.

In the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain the 400 million tons of grain in grain on the surface, the cost of the entire water transportation system was getting higher and higher.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the so-called quota of 400 million tons was no longer enough.The central government, local governments, gentry, subordinate staff, and officials big and small who eat food transported by water, these forces have the same aspirations, and they have inserted tubes in the main artery of the country to suck blood.

So the current situation is: on the surface, the amount of grain is still 400 million dan, but after the actual collected grain has been scrambled by various national taxes, bad regulations and consumption increases, the amount has been pushed up to the level of [-] million dan.

So for the cross-travelers, this situation is actually a good thing: because food can be purchased in a centralized manner.

After the officials and gentry expropriated extra days of grain, they definitely did not use the steamed rice from their families. These grains would eventually be sold to merchants for cash, completing the cycle of wealth accumulation.

So now if a certain force offers silver and various rare commodities in exchange for food, it will really be beneficial.When I was in Hangzhou at the beginning, this place was still sneaky; after General Cao called for security, Taiwan began to unscrupulously ship a boatload of industrial products to Hangzhou.

After the industrial products were exchanged for silver on the spot, boatloads of food and people were brought back to Taiwan—the Ming Dynasty had countless "currency" that could be used to compensate for the trade deficit: population.

The consequences of a strong consumer popping up out of thin air are: from the second half of 1628, the price of grain in the Jiangnan area slowly began to rise; by the beginning of 1629, when the crops were not available, the price of brown rice had been pushed up to a tael of silver a load .

This kind of change, which had never happened before in history, led to the production of more refugees in price-increasing areas.But the good thing is that after the initial difficulties, these extra refugees and bankrupts are being transported away in a steady stream.

In the future, as the large granaries of 4000 square kilometers in Tainan are successively reclaimed, a few years later, the grains released by industrial means can be used in turn to support the population collection operations of the Ming Dynasty.

The story goes back to Zhangsu Beach: Due to the sufficient food supply, the infrastructure construction here quickly gathered a construction scale of 2000 people.

With this scale, it is also thanks to the tireless infrastructure construction of the people who have traveled through time.Now a large number of experienced construction workers have been trained, such as the simple work of organizing civil servants in the early stage of construction, setting up construction sites, and leveling the land, no longer needs to be presided over by the crossing crowd.

This is how export to domestic sales came about.After these foremen and technicians went to Taiwan to learn their skills, they were sent back to the Ming Dynasty this time to take on important responsibilities.The difference from the past is that they no longer have long hair. In order to avoid shocking people, they had to shave their heads and pretend to be monks.

The original Zhangsu Beach Wharf has been burned down.Now after the preliminary renovation in the early stage, the river channel has also been filled and connected with the Hexin Island.

On the original site of Hexin Island, a traditional wooden pile trestle bridge is extending to the river, and a large number of workers are like ants, busy around the unbuilt trestle bridge.

Accompanied by Xiong Dao, Feng Guanjie took a tour of the still rather rudimentary dock area.With a rough idea in mind, he started work the next day.

The first thing Lao Feng did was to take his apprentices to survey and map the surrounding area.This kind of work basically doesn't need him to intervene now. The young people can already use the total station and other instruments proficiently, and run around against the tripod.

After getting the detailed data of the surrounding land, Feng Guanjie moved into the landlord's house in Zuojia Village, and began to draw the design drawings one by one.

Right now, since all the projects are concentrated around Zhangsu Beach, his design task is relatively easy: level the river bank along the river, harden the road surface in the wharf area, and build a few trestle bridges, a few warehouses, and a few square houses. Yes. Of course, there is the most important road.

As for the industrial zone, that will have to wait.Right now, both Xiong Dao himself and the cabinet of the senior officials have concerns about opening a factory in the south of the Yangtze River that emits black smoke. It seems that the time is not yet ripe.

But Feng Guanjie still planned out the industrial zone.A large area of ​​regular factories is unrealistic, but a small amount of steam machinery used to power the docks is still no problem.

In addition, if a large factory cannot be built, "smoke-free industries" such as the handmade paper workshop promised to Yu Bende, the planned match workshop, and the mahjong workshop can also be opened in advance.

"Let's do it bit by bit." Feng Guanjie led his apprentices and spent almost half a month drawing out all the blueprints of the first phase of the project he planned.

The entire first phase of the project covers a fairly large area, almost three square kilometers, and the location is in the area of ​​Gaoqiao Port in later generations.

After lying on a big table and looking at Feng Guanjie's general design, Xiong Dao didn't express any opinions: he knew nothing about architectural design, and he couldn't say anything.

However, the next moment, Xiong Dao pointed to a place in the upper left corner of the design drawing: "Is there no rush to build this land?"

Feng Guanjie leaned on his arm, glanced at the map, touched his stubble, thought for a while before saying: "This is the planned cement gravity dock area. In the future, warships will be parked and heavy equipment will be unloaded. To build For this, the cofferdam must be built first, and there is no construction machinery here, so the construction period will be very long.”

When Feng Guanjie said this, he showed a "you know" look in his eyes: "Even if I start working tomorrow, I won't be able to repair it in half a year, let alone I can't do it tomorrow."

Xiong Dao felt dizzy when he heard this: "This piece of land hasn't been bought yet."

"Then hurry up and buy it. This land extends to the west. You will have to buy it sooner or later."

Xiong Dao understood what Feng Guanjie meant.

The Huangpu River is a waterway from south to north in the area of ​​Wusongkou where it enters the Yangtze River; the river surface of Wusongkou here presents an "S" shape.In the planning of the country, the upper half of the "S" shape, that is, the area of ​​nearly [-] square kilometers east of Wusongkou and west of Gaoqiao Town, will be the territory of the future "National China".

In other words, this peninsula-shaped land will gradually clear away all the aborigines and become an administrative area similar to a "concession".Then, on the day when the Ming Dynasty fell, a large number of troops mobilized would quickly set off from this source of war and capture all parts of the south of the Yangtze River.

Feng Guanjie just said "the land extending to the west" refers to the land west of the Gaoqiao River—these land plots are the core areas that must be obtained in the above-mentioned long-term plan, so Xiongdao should not There is hesitation in this regard.

"The problem is that he has a lot of background in this piece of land!" Xiong Dao shook his head helplessly at this time: "I have done a lot of things recently, and it is already very eye-catching. This piece of land is the manor of Dashen's family. I really don't want to Just go make trouble."

"How to deal with the natives is your business, I don't care."

Feng Guanjie laughed gloatingly: "The only thing I can offer you now is professional advice: it's best to get this piece of land as soon as possible. As soon as the trestle is repaired, some construction machinery will arrive, and construction will start there."

"If it doesn't work, I'll change the drawing, but I'll remind you friendly: Stretching the head is a knife, and shrinking the head is also a knife, and it will be taken down sooner or later."

Xiong Daochang sighed: "Oh, I understand what you mean. But the situation is very tense now, and I need to think about it. Let's talk about it after I finish communicating with my hometown."

That piece of land is the chief assistant of the old cabinet, Taishi, posthumous name Wenzhen, Zhuangzi of Xu Zisheng's family.
(End of this chapter)