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Chapter 139 Smuggling under orders 2
The content of the letter is very simple. It first affirms the achievements of the past two years and then arranges the focus of the next step. Finally, it also gives the names of two people, both of whom are eunuchs stationed in coastal port cities.

After the goods arrive at the port, they will take the initiative to contact them. Needless to say, they will unload and load the ships and return immediately. When they return to Tianjin Wei, the tax inspectors here will buy the goods. The difference between the purchase and sale price is the shipyard's profit. As for Tell us how much the goods that come and go are sold for, don’t ask!
The three and a half young men were only responsible for two jobs after boarding the ship, accounting and navigation.And after each round trip, three different people will come. The origin is still the same, so don’t ask!

In fact, even if he asked Yuan Keli, he knew that there was only one agency that could mobilize eunuchs across the country so smoothly, the Chief Licensing Supervisor!Those three and a half young men are not ordinary people, they are 100% eunuchs.We really can’t ask who the Supervisor of Ceremonies listens to, so it’s best not to think too much about it.

Unless something goes wrong, no one will be fine. If something goes wrong, a certain senior eunuch of the Supervisor of Ceremonies will definitely be found guilty of corruption and perverting the law, and then he will be ordered to go to prison and tortured to extract a confession. As a result, the patient suddenly died of an illness, and all the secrets were destroyed along with them.

A very ruthless imperial method, but also a very correct way of doing things.Yuan Keli didn't have any resistance to all of this. Those who achieve great things do not stick to trivial matters. If the emperor does not have these means, he will have to consider whether to join in the fun anymore.

Facts have proved that the emperor's methods are far more than that. The three young eunuchs may not be underage yet, but they have a magical ability. They only rely on a strange-shaped metal instrument to observe the position of the sun several times at noon every day, and then write it on a piece of paper. Just by writing and drawing, you can accurately calculate the heading, and the error is almost negligible.

It's a pity that the little eunuch stayed alone in a room after boarding the ship and basically didn't interact with outsiders. When observing the sun, he had to clear the place and cover it with a white cloth. If he hadn't demonstrated it to himself in advance, no one would have known that such a magical skill existed in the world.

At this time, I couldn't help but wonder, for example, where did the emperor find so many children who had mastered the magical skills of navigation, and then all of them were castrated and made eunuchs.

If this were not the case, it would be a bit scary. According to common sense, the young eunuchs probably did not acquire the skills before entering the palace. It should be the other way around, and learned the skills after entering the palace.

The problem is that the emperor grew up in the palace. He may not even have seen the sea, let alone the sea. How could he have such skills that even old boatmen don't know?Could it be that there are talented people hiding around the emperor?

It might be possible, but Yuan Keli felt that it was unlikely. The most likely possibility was that the emperor himself would do it.The reason is very simple. The location selection of the shipyard and the drawings for building the sailboat were all made by the emperor!

If not, it would be impossible to talk face to face, down to the size and curvature of each keel, the size and shape of each boat plank, and the texture and stitching of each sail.

What is even more puzzling is that among the more than ten shipyards under the jurisdiction of Caoyun, not a single shipbuilder knows the sea-going ship on the drawing. Only a shipbuilder from Guangdong is very uncertain and feels that the ship type and sail type are consistent with the Folang machine. There are sixty-seven points of similarity between human ships, but they are only similar, definitely not exactly the same!
It seems to make sense that he can understand shipbuilding and then navigation. As for where he learned it from, Yuan Keli does not intend to pursue it further.He is an emperor, and he has been taught the art of emperors since he was a child. It is not possible to keep it intact, maybe, maybe, there will be something like an ancient divine book!
However, the strange scene that appeared in the Haihe River in the second year of Jingyang increased the number of possible ancient sacred books from one set to several.

Navy Chief Qian, who was driving the boat to pick up the goods, came back and reported that there were several huge waterwheels standing on the river less than ten miles north of the shipyard, and at the same time, someone was building weird houses by the river.

Normally, it would not be unusual for the waterwheel to be larger, and it was unclear whose mill it was. However, a few months later, President Qian came to report again, saying that the house was completed, and it was more than ten feet long and more than two feet long. It's tall, and it's not one tower, it's three towers!
This is simply nonsense. If President Qian hadn't been the most familiar with ships, Yuan Keli would have decided to deal with it in accordance with military law and immediately pulled him out to fight.In less than half a year, it was too late to build a small temple. How could there be such a huge palace? It would definitely confuse the public and disturb the morale of the army!
But after he took a boat to see it in person, he immediately stopped staring and kept his mouth open for most of an hour.Mr. Qian didn't lie. There were indeed several huge buildings standing on the ground on the shore. They couldn't be called palaces. No one, no matter the royal family or the nobles, would build such ugly houses.

But it is really big, almost catching up with the city wall of Beijing.If it weren't for a palace, who would be able to build such a tall house with enough food?Is it made so ugly for people to live in?
Not only women gossip, but men do the same on some issues.With so many reasons in his mind, Yuan Keli finally couldn't bear it any longer and took the initiative to ask the tax supervisor. After all, he often moved around with the local government and had a wider source of information.

As a result, we hit a snag this time. The tax superintendent said that he didn't know the origin of the waterwheel and the strange houses, and then deliberately warned that it was best not to inquire, because it was the Imperial Mansion and was surrounded by Dongchang fans who were guarding it day and night.

Without this sentence, Yuan Keli would not have given up. Apart from the man in the Forbidden City, who was he really afraid of?Even if you can't cause trouble for no reason, it's always right to ask.

But after hearing about Huangzhuang and Dongchang, Yuan Ke immediately stopped thinking about who to find, and returned to the shipyard obediently, focusing all his energy on building sea-going ships and training sailors, regardless of his subordinates. No matter how weird the reports were, he ignored them.It was not until the end of last year that the mystery was finally revealed. Zou Yi, the royal horse supervisor, suddenly visited the shipyard with the emperor's secret letter. While chatting, he heard about the strange things that happened in the imperial village in the north and grinned.

"Hehehehe, the master lost. He said you wouldn't come to ask, but I thought you would definitely come and ask. Governor Yuan, don't worry. In... half a year, you won't have to wait for the fleet to deliver the goods in the spring. Those big houses are where goods are loaded and unloaded. When the time comes, go there and see for yourself, and you will know what they are used for!"

Six months later, the tax supervisor indeed sent a familiar yet mysterious anonymous letter, this time with more content.First, he pointed out the omissions in building large-scale ships. For example, it is not necessary to build one ship and then build the second ship. That is too slow. As long as the materials and craftsmen are enough, two or even more ships can be built together.

And for this purpose, a construction method called assembly line and very detailed process flow standards are given.It is required that craftsmen be exposed to this model as early as possible. Even if multiple ships are not built together, they must be carried out according to the same standards. One person cannot make the same thing, and it must be universal.

Secondly, it is about shipbuilding. The huge courtyard upstream is a machinery manufacturing factory developed on the basis of Huangzhuang. It mainly processes various metal objects, including metal parts on large sea ships.

In the future, marine metal parts will be manufactured individually by the shipyard's blacksmiths. All of them will be uniformly processed by the machinery factory according to the dimensions provided by the shipyard and then sold to the shipyard for use. The purpose is still based on the principles of assembly line and standardization.

Then the letter asked me to go to the machinery factory to have a look, and there was an acquaintance waiting there.How the two factories can cooperate seamlessly and closely in the future will be discussed by themselves after meeting.

The last step is to change the loading location. From now on, the goods will be loaded and unloaded in the machinery factory warehouse.At the same time, a new product called a four-wheeled carriage was added. It is said that it can be transported in a large wooden box. It can be assembled by a few people in an hour, and it can run on the official road for several days without falling apart.

Yuan Keli understood the general principles of assembly lines and standardization, and then he felt a little sad.This method can not only be used in shipbuilding, but can also be transplanted to many industries, such as weapons manufacturing.

Parts are manufactured using unified standards and processes, and are finally assembled together according to unified standards. Not only is it fast and high-yield, but it is also interchangeable, which greatly reduces logistical pressure and manufacturing costs.

It's a pity that the court will not agree to such a good method. The principle is the same as water transportation. The benefits have been distributed. Whoever wants to break the tradition is everyone's enemy. No matter whether the method is good or bad, it must be eliminated quickly.

The emperor wrote a letter specifically to tell himself that he was not planning to roll it out on a large scale. It was obvious that the construction of sea ships and naval forces was speeding up. There was really no place to guess why, and he did not dare to ask blindly.

There is no need to go to the machinery factory to see the four-wheeled carriage. I have already seen it in Tianjin Wei. It was purchased by a Tongzhou businessman with a lot of money and was specially used to transport transparent glassware.

Although it looks slender, it is actually made of steel and iron, and it does run much faster.The half-moon-shaped bow at the bottom of the car is amazing. It can effectively reduce the undulations of the car through bending. It is indeed faster and more stable whether it is seating people or loading cargo.

On the other hand, the statement from an acquaintance in the machinery factory is relatively new. Who is willing to go to this deserted river beach to be accompanied by rumbling hammers and black smoke-filled fires all day long? It seems that I don't know anyone with such ability.

If you can't figure it out, then go take a look. Anyway, it's not far away. We need to work closely together in the future.From a distance, I saw two men standing on the pier. Judging from the blue official uniforms and the tattoos on their chests, they should be of the sixth grade, but their looks were relatively unfamiliar.This makes it even more confusing, who is it?
(End of this chapter)