Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 61 Carrying Problems
The carriage passed through the Tuwei gate and entered the house inside. Wu Sanchai personally came over to help Zhang Guoji get out of the carriage, then pointed to the gate of the house and said: "This is the villain's house, my lord, please!"

Zhang Guoji looked at the big house in front of him, then turned back and looked up at the two tall earthen walls behind him, and asked with a smile: "Did you build a city wall specifically for your home?"

While leading the way, Wu Sanchai said with a wry smile: "Your Excellency is laughing, isn't this the Zheng family and the Ruan family on Annan's side who have been fighting all the time? The place is not peaceful, and the villain wants to gain a foothold in this foreign country." , we still need some means of self-protection!”

Zhang Guoji couldn't help but nodded after hearing this. He also figured out the reason for building this earth fence. In the Ming Dynasty, many farms also had walls built to prevent theft and protect themselves.

Wu Sanchai continued: "The farms of the Annan people usually have wooden walls and bamboo fences. The younger ones thought that these things were unreliable, so they simply imitated our Ming Dynasty city walls and built this earthen fence. , Don’t be reluctant to spend money on things that are related to your wealth and life!”

While he was talking, several people had already arrived in the room. Wu Sanchai asked Zhang Guoji to take the seat, then ordered the servants to serve tea, and arranged for people to prepare wine and food. Then he saluted and said: "Sir, please have some tea first. Let me go back to the house and change my clothes!"

After Wu Sanchai left, Zhang Guoji saw that the five accompanying guards did not sit down, but stood respectfully to his left and right, making Zhang Shili afraid to sit down. Zhang Guoji felt that this was too awkward, so he asked them not to Everyone sat down politely, and then two maids came in and served tea and snacks to several people.

After a while, Wu Sanchai walked out of the back room. He changed from the sloppy and shabby appearance just now and put on a brocade straight dress. He also looked much more elegant. Although according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, merchants were not allowed to Wearing silk and satin, only commoners are allowed, but let alone the Wusanchai people who are not in the Ming Dynasty, how many of the wealthy businessmen in the Ming Dynasty are still willing to wear commoners?
Wu Sanchai first saluted Zhang Guoji, and then sat down beside him, urging his servants to bring the wine and food quickly. Zhang Guoji and his party had been tired for several days, and after landing ashore, they still had no water and rice. It was indeed early at this time. I was hungry, so I didn't show any politeness to Wu Sanchai. After the food and wine were served, they all sat around, picked up their chopsticks and started eating.

Because he still had errands to attend to, Zhang Guoji did not drink more than a few glasses of toast from Wu Sanchai, and Wu Sanchai did not dare to persuade him. Zhang Shili, on the other hand, did not show any concern to Wu Sanchai and wolfed down the wine. While pouring and drinking, both the appetite and the ability to drink are very good.

After lunch, Wu Sanchai ordered someone to clean up a few rooms for Zhang Guoji and the others to rest, and then hurried out to visit several big estate owners nearby.

Zhang Guoji was still a little worried as the grain and rice were not yet available, so he called Zhang Shili and asked about the situation of nearby farms. According to Zhang Shili, each farm nearby has thousands of hectares of rice fields, and here in Annan The rice fields can harvest three crops of rice every year. Based on the yield of four shi of rice per mu, each hectare of land can produce 180 shi of rice per year. One thousand hectares is 18 shi!

If this is the case, as long as he finds two or three large farms, he can easily get the 200 million stone of grain and rice he needs. Thinking of this, Zhang Guoji suddenly became enlightened and his mood improved a lot.

Zhang Shili secretly glanced at Zhang Guoji, but he looked like he was hesitant to speak. However, he had a straight temper, and it was really uncomfortable to hold back what he had to say, so after hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but speak: "Sir, It’s a small question that shouldn’t be asked, you have purchased so much grain and rice, how do you plan to transport it back?”

Zhang Guoji was taken aback by this question, and subconsciously said, "Naturally, he was pulled back by boat!" Seeing Zhang Guoji's expression, Zhang Shili couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart. Mr. Zhang is a true layman and does not realize the crux of the problem at all.

"Sir, it seems that you still don't know something. That's a full 200 ​​million shi of grain and rice. If it really needs to be transported by ship, how many ships will it take to transport it all!"

Zhang Guoji was a little confused when he said this. He really hadn't thought about it carefully. He didn't understand how much the current boats could pull. He couldn't calculate the calculation clearly, so he had to ask Zhang Shili: "If How many big ships are needed like the one we came on?"

"How many ships?!" Zhang Shili immediately shook his head and smiled bitterly, and then helped Zhang Guoji calculate the details: "My ship is only 200 pieces of material. It is not considered a big ship among sea ships. It can haul up to two thousand shi of grain and rice in one trip. , to finish milling your [-] million stone grains, you will have to find at least a thousand ships of this size, which is not something you can do just by talking about it!"

"A thousand ships..." Zhang Guoji couldn't help but sucked in a breath of cold air, and suddenly felt a bit of toothache, so he had to seek medical treatment urgently, and asked Zhang Shili: "In your opinion, is there any good way to treat it?" Transport these grains and rice back?"

Zhang Shili was also in trouble. He touched the stubble on his chin and pondered for a moment before he said, "If it doesn't work, go back and find dozens of large sand boats. The cabins of the sand boats are large, and each boat can carry at least four or five." Qianshi, just run back and forth a few more times, just..."

"Just what? If you have any difficulties, just say it's okay!" Zhang Guoji didn't care about so much at this time. Now even if Zhang Shili explicitly asked him to ask for money, he could only take it out.

Zhang Shili did not want to take advantage of the situation, but said truthfully: "It's just that this sand ship is originally used for inland river transportation. Although it can also go to sea for long voyages, its speed is slow and it cannot withstand wind and waves. There may be a risk of capsizing. Once this ship If something happens at sea, not to mention the cargo on the ship, even the people on the ship will have to feed the fish!
Then there is the matter of money. I can see that your lord is in a hurry for this errand. You will not allow those sand ships to purchase the goods in the mainland and then come here to sell them. If these ship owners are allowed to come here with empty ships, they will make a special trip to help. If you transport rice, then the dozens of sand ships going back and forth several times will cost you a lot of money! "

While listening to what he said, Zhang Guoji was also thinking in his mind. If he really wanted to follow Zhang Shili's method, he might have to spend some money as freight, so he asked: "Why don't you hire these sand ships to go back and forth?" How much money is needed for a trip?"

Zhang Shili thought for a moment and replied: "Like my eight-hundred-year-old ship, which has about twenty men on board, if you can't make 1000 taels of silver on this trip to Annan, you will lose money. If you want to make a sand boat, I’m afraid it will have to be doubled!”

If you put it this way, this is not a small amount of money. To transport 200 million stone grains and rice back, it will take at least four to five hundred ships, and the freight alone will cost nearly one million taels!

(End of this chapter)