Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 185 Meeting with Li Dejian

After the autumn harvest, large sums of grain were transported by water to Li Tai's small Tianjin city. The mighty long dragon was crowded with boats on the canal from Youzhou City to Tianjin City, as if connecting end to end, stretching across thousands of miles. Absolutely.

And among these endless shipping ships, the Patriarch of the Ancestral Family, Zu'an, personally came to deliver this batch of grain.

In contrast, Lu Chengji still had to work in an agricultural college. As the famous Fan Yang Lu family, these things did not require him to show his face.

As for the Hedong Wei family, although they are not as prestigious as the Lu family now, their foundation is not in Youzhou.

It is enough for them to have a certain relationship with Li Tai. As for whether there will be more contacts in the future, it depends on whether Li Tai will return to Chang'an, and whether there is a possibility of going further.

However, the ancestor's family is considered to be an authentic Youzhou native family. After leaving Zuti, the family gained a reputation in the local area and gradually became a Youzhou rich family. Become a prefect in Youzhou.

Compared with Lu Shi's arrogance and Wei Shi's indifference, Zu'an thinks that King Yan is very capable.

He has done so many things and spent so much money in less than half a year since he came to Youzhou, he is a master of great things.

So he thought that by getting closer to King Yan, the influence of the ancestors would expand, not to mention the world, at least to make Hebei Province more famous.

Therefore, this time Zu'an personally delivered food to Li Tai, the ancestor's family could still get a hundred thousand shi of food.

But as the head of the family, it is impossible for the whole family to empty out the food directly, so I joined forces with the Han family, Zhang family and other aristocratic families in Youzhou to pool together [-] shi, and personally sent the food to Tianjin Town to come and see this place Happening.

Usually, it is impossible for me to meet King Yan. If I am lucky enough to talk to King Yan when harvesting grain this time, it may be a chance for Zuan. Look at your luck.

After all, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. If you prepare a few times and try your luck, you will eventually have a chance.

Driving grain boats to Tianjin City through the canal, and when passing Yongnu, the waterway, which was a little narrow at first, suddenly widened.

At this moment, they stood at the bow of the boat and looked towards the bottom of the water. The water in the whole canal seemed to be somewhat clear.

The ship came to the mouth of Tianjin, but Zuan looked at the mouth of Tianjin but was a little dazed.

The entire Tianjin mouth is huge, and his own ship loaded with [-] shi of grain is normally enough to block the entire mouth, but now it only occupies a part of it.

The entire Jinkou of Tianjin spread around the canal for several miles. As soon as my fleet entered the Tianjin waterway, a guiding ship came over and asked if they wanted to dock at Tianjin Jinkou. Ships moored.

After explaining his purpose, soon a local official named Wang Zhenru came to receive him.

Wang Zhenru first took Zu'an to the warehouse where the silk was placed, and counted out the silk needed for [-] shi of grain.

Then he took the soldiers to count the grain sent by Zaan, and even randomly selected ten sacks of grain to open to check the quality.

Although he didn't expect all the grain to be new grain, even if it was old grain, it was impossible for him to give him something moldy.

After confirmation, they put all these grains in a big box. When the box was full, they asked the lifting machine to pick up the big box and put it on the carriage. Put it on the carriage safely.

Two boxes can be placed at a time, and after packing, the carriage will transport these goods in an orderly manner, and send them to the designated location in Tianjin City.

This kind of situation was never seen by the Youzhou family, and Zuan was a little taken aback, curiously asked Wang Zhenru:
"My lord Bo, why do you put all these things into this big box and let the horses transport them? Wouldn't it save a lot of trouble to just let the horses transport them directly?"

Wang Zhenru is not an official in Youzhou, but Li Tai's secretary.

Although after the Qin and Han Dynasties, the function of the official position of the chief minister was weakened a lot, but in fact, if the chief official is willing, the chief minister under him can be regarded as the secretary-general, acting on his own behalf.

It's just that Li Tai's boss is a bit special, and he is regarded as a person who specializes in road construction.

The main reason is that there is no such department as the Ministry of Communications in this era, and the rank of Hucao, who is similar to it, is too low, so Li Tai directly appointed him as the master to be in charge of infrastructure on his behalf.

"The main reason is to improve efficiency!" Seeing Zu'an's inquiry, Wang Zhenru replied,
"In the Guanzhong area, the imperial court has been able to collect taxes based on this uniform box. Although the Grand Canal has not yet started, it is expected that it will be implemented one day.

At that time, the imperial court only needs to send people to station and calculate, and the handover will be much more convenient at that time. "

Zuan didn't expect that he could know a little bit about the imperial court's policy from Wang Zhenru's mouth. He said in surprise, "In the future, the canal will go up and down, and you still need to pay taxes to the imperial court?"

"But if the goods land, then the toll will be charged according to the box of this uniform specification!" Wang Zhenru said to Zu An,

"After this is implemented, most of the canal traffic is transported by equipment and horse-drawn carts. It does not require a lot of labor to get close to the shore, causing unnecessary congestion at the port. When these goods land on the shore with horse-drawn carts, the unloading site can be spread over the entire area. Tianjin city.

In this way, the entire city of Tianjin can be regarded as a port, and the work is naturally much faster and more convenient. "

Zaan didn't quite understand, but still nodded, because he saw a power of order here.

Only then did Zu'an realize that Tianjin Jinkou didn't have those messy peddlers around the usual Jinkou.

It seems that there are no local staff organized by themselves, there is only an indescribable order.

Of course, there is also a lot of labor here to be responsible for shipping each item into the designated large box, and then use some mechanical lifting devices composed of winches and pulleys to put the large box on the carriage and let the carriage transport it out. .

"Wooden boxes of these specified standards are required for inbound and outbound warehouses in Tianjin.

This batch of goods is the food we need in Tianjin City, so the rental fee for the boxes is unnecessary. "

Wang Zhenru said to Zu'an, "However, if you want to buy goods here in Tianjin City and transport them by fleet, you need to rent our special wooden boxes. Of course, you can also buy them directly."

"How much is a wooden box?" Zu'an couldn't help asking after hearing Wang Zhenru's words.

"One always!" Wang Zhenru replied to Zu'an very sincerely.

"Just these boxes made of broken wood, are you selling all the time?!" Zaan couldn't help but be astonished when he heard Wang Zhenru's words.

"Well!" Wang Zhenru nodded in confirmation, and said, "Of course, it's cheaper to rent, one hundred cash per month, don't think it's expensive, and when the "Water Transport Plan" is implemented on the Grand Canal in the future, you will naturally buy this something."

Wang Zhenru was not surprised that Zaan did not accept such things as containers.

Because when containers were first introduced in Weishui, some local businessmen in Jinkou also had a hard time accepting these things.

But with a lot of use, this kind of container was quickly accepted, and such things as Zhenxiang are a matter of course for businessmen.

Especially for large-scale and large-scale trade, it is really much more convenient to use containers than to carry them one by one.

Because this thing is not only a simple box, but more importantly, the standardization of the product, so that a set of transportation system based on it can be established, and supporting facilities can be derived from it to disassemble the entire process and quickly Distributed goods.

Under this standardized transportation system, huge monsters of several tens of tons can be disassembled at the fastest speed, and then transported from shipping to horse-drawn carriages, and even directly from the dock to the designated land location, there is a complete set of unified system.

This is not comparable to the usual ancient transportation method that requires constant loading and unloading, and the efficiency is much higher.

Of course, at the beginning, it will be promoted on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and there is only one in Tianjin, so it will naturally be resisted by upper and lower businessmen.

But it is meaningless for them to resist, because this thing is related to the taxation of the court.

And Datang is not Ming Dynasty. When collecting taxes, especially those from Kanto merchants, at most, Datang didn’t think about how to collect them.

Because the foundation of the Tang Dynasty is the nobles of Longxi, not the Kanto family, and even actively suppressed the Kanto family.

Therefore, Li Tai generously began to implement the system of surgery at the ferry in Tianjing City. Whether Li Tai should accept it or not, anyway, this kind of thing is the general trend. Now use this standard early, and maybe you can get some benefits in the future .

And Zaan sent the grain to the designated granary, and looked at the granary curiously, because the granary was too short!

This granary is a fireproof underground granary, and a large amount of grain of the same kind is poured into it to continuously accumulate.

Zaan was amazed when he saw this kind of granary. He was only curious why the granary was built underground instead of on the ground.

But in fact, this is more or less to prevent people from embezzling, and burn the grain with a fire. It is actually very difficult to burn the grain in this kind of underground granary. Even if someone embezzles, they want to burn it There is no proof of death, but it will soon be discovered that it is burning, and a large part of the place below cannot be burned.

After Zu'an transported all the grain to the designated warehouse and exchanged for several carts of brocade, he mustered up his courage and saluted Wang Zhenru:
"Yan Wang is in Tianjin City. If he is, Ann...can you visit him?"

When Wang Zhenru heard what Zuan said, he also knew that Zuan wanted to use this opportunity to meet Li Tai.

However, Wang Zhenru shook his head regretfully and said, "It's a bit of a misfortune today. King Yan is seeing Gao Shaoqing off and is not in Tianjin City. I don't know whether or when he will return to Tianjin City today, so the patriarch of the ancestors still Don't wait any longer."

"It's such a pity!" Hearing Wang Zhenru's words, Zaan was quite disappointed that he didn't meet him.

At this time, Li Tai had just sent Gao Biaoren, Master Changsun, and the Japanese envoy sent to the Tang Dynasty to the Bohai Navy.

To be honest, looking at the entire Bohai Navy, which has a complete fleet of large ships, warships, fighting ships, walkers, yachts and sea falcons, it looks quite majestic and impressive. Very emotional.

This is not only the strongest navy in East Asia, it may even be the strongest navy in the entire world.

Standing in front of such a naval fleet, there will naturally be an indescribable sense of pride!
After sending the two envoys to Goguryeo and Japan to the fleet, Li Dejian turned to look at Li Taidao,
"King Yan, I heard that as long as you are in charge of Youzhou and have the right to manage Hebei Road, it will only take three to five years for the warships of our Datang Navy to be launched like dumplings!"

"If the navy is still in Youzhou, I can do this.

It's a pity that the Bohai Navy is already stationed in Dengzhou, and I, the governor of Youzhou, can't control that place.

Even with this ability, it must be a taboo to act across states! "Li Tai said helplessly.

Li Dejian frowned. Obviously, Li Tai's attitude of decisively swallowing what he had said made Li Dejian somewhat predictable, but he was still somewhat steadfast. Reasonable.

Li Tai continued, "However, if a small Bohai Navy is stationed near Tianjin City, it is normal for Tianjin City to be responsible for supply and maintenance. Even with the approval of the imperial court, we will add defensive weapons to this fleet.

As the governor of Youzhou, I still very much hope to add some energy to Datang's coastal defense cause! "

When Li Dejian heard Li Tai's words, he took a deep look at Li Tai and said,

"Isn't there a group of students from Youzhou Academy who will come to our Bohai Navy for internships, and these students will form such a navy and send them to guard Tianjin City. You won't refuse it!"

"Since they are all soldiers from Youzhou, I will treat them well!" Li Tai replied with a smile.

The two parties had reached an agreement to some extent. For Li Dejian, the navy was too expensive for military expenses, so he was very happy to have someone to help support him.

The most important thing is that the Bohai Sea area was supposed to be patrolled by someone, and handing it over to this group of student soldiers can be regarded as allowing them to increase their war experience.

As for Li Tai being in charge of logistics, he will report to his father.

Because if he remembered correctly, King Yan had also intervened in his father's logistics back then, so it wasn't a big deal.

In the end, it was just a report, and when I returned from North Korea and Japan, there should be results.

As long as this matter is reported according to procedures, whether to agree to it in the end is a matter for the court and has nothing to do with me.

If I didn't report it, but discussed with Li Tai in private, and even reached an agreement, then I was misbehaving.

So, after talking about this matter with Li Tai, Li Dejian returned to the ship, wrote a letter and sent it to the Ministry of War.

To be honest, Li Dejian still hopes to have a good relationship with Li Tai, especially after hearing that Li Tai has come to Youzhou, the Youzhou branch school seems to have expanded its enrollment, and this batch directly recruited more than 800 people.

You know, these student soldiers are much easier to use than those old fritters, especially for mastering various tools on ships. The student soldiers learn quickly, which makes Li Dejian quite like it.

Therefore, Li Dejian wanted to use this warship as a bait to lure more people to come to the Bohai Navy.

After all, in Youzhou, as long as they are normal men, there are a few who don’t want to rely on being soldiers for a living, especially sailors. After retiring from the army, they can buy retired warships from the army and use these warships to fish. Soon!
Naturally, Li Tai didn't know what Li Dejian was thinking, but just watched the Bohai Sea Master set sail from Tianjin and start heading towards Goguryeo, disappearing bit by bit on the sea level in the scorching sun.

(End of this chapter)