At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 315, Vigorous Vitality, Progress of All Things and Trawling

We must know that Dahan's financial balance was only 120,000 gold the year before last, but now the whaling industry can double Dahan's financial balance. This is simply unimaginable.

Xu Fan asked curiously: "There are whales near your Kuaiji County?"

Xu Fan remembered that whales are not found only in the northern seas?

Ye Teng smiled and said: "There are many whales in the south of our Kuaiji County, otherwise the people of our Kuaiji County would not be so crazy about hunting whales. I also think this is a good industry, and the sugar industry is profitable. After the reduction, if the whaling industry can supplement it, the development of Kuaiji County will not stagnate. "

After the Han Dynasty took over the world, it ruled the world by doing nothing, restricting government offices and officials from taking charge of everything. This tied the hands of officials to the people and released the shackles that had been placed on the people of the world for hundreds of years in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

Vitality is rapidly emerging in the world, and with Xu Fan's plug-in, various emerging industries continue to explode. The textile industry, sugar industry, salt industry, and ironmaking industry are all developing rapidly. Although other industries are not as good as these pillar industries, they are also developing rapidly. In the midst of rapid development, in worldly terms, the entire world is full of vitality and all things are competing.

But this also led to fierce competition in various places, because most of the industries known to Xu Fan had little technical content. The steel industry was already considered to have the highest technical content, so this industry was basically controlled by the Han court.

But other textile industries, sugar refining, and salt industries are really just ideas. If you don’t come up with it, maybe no one will be able to think of it for thousands of years. But as long as you come up with it, people will understand it as soon as they see it, and there is nothing wrong with it. Industry barriers.

Just like in the beginning, the price of white sugar in Chen County was comparable to gold, but when Kuaiji County also produced white sugar, the price of white sugar had dropped to about a thousand yuan per catty. And today, although Kuaiji County has increased the sugarcane planting area hundreds of times, But the price of sugar has dropped to around 100 yuan. It has dropped a hundred times since the beginning. Of course, even if it dropped so much, sugarcane is still the most profitable cash crop for the Han Dynasty.

However, profits in Kuaiji County have inevitably decreased, especially as counties in the south are also expanding their sugar cane fields. Their industries are not as numerous as Kuaiji County. They can only focus on developing one or two industries, and they have invested more manpower and material resources than Kuaiji County. high.

It is foreseeable that in the near future, the price of sugar will fall even lower, and such fierce competition will not stop until the price is close to cost.

At the same time, the salt industry, another pillar industry in Kuaiji County, has greatly reduced its profits due to the addition of Donghai County, Julu County, and Guangyang County. Now it has added five counties in Qi State. There are more Hai'an counties that can produce salt, and they are all over the country. With the rapid expansion of salt fields, the ex-factory price of salt in Kuaiji County has dropped from the highest of thousands of yuan per stone to 200 yuan per stone.

In order to maintain the rapid development of Kuaiji County, Ye Teng naturally has to find emerging industries, and he has high hopes for the whaling industry. He can create a supporting industry by catching more than a dozen whales every year.

Xu Fan said calmly: "Things are rare and valuable. If there are too many whales caught, like dragon candles, ambergris will naturally become less valuable."

Ye Teng said: "But most of the profits are controlled by our Kuaiji County. If you want to catch whales, even a fishing boat with a thousand pieces of material will not work. You need to board a sea-going ship worth 5000 pieces or even larger, and we only have such ships in our Kuaiji County." It can be produced, but it will not be so easy for other counties to catch up. "

This can also be regarded as an industry barrier. The largest shipyard in the world is now in Kuaiji County, and the largest ship in the world is also built in the shipyard in Kuaiji County. Even if other counties wanted to learn, they would not be able to do so within a few years.

On February 10, the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, at the wharf of Haiyan County.

Ye Teng took Xu Fan to the Haiyan County Dried Fish Processing Workshop. The fishy smell here was extremely strong, and it took Xu Fan and others a long time to get used to it.

This workshop is connected to the pier. Fishing boats approaching from the sea can directly unload the fish caught from the sea here, and then quickly enter the processing workshop.

Dozens of women and children were busy working in this workshop. They dissected the sea fish one by one, dug out the internal organs, and discarded them in a fish basket. Then they soaked the sea fish in salt and hung them on a bracket to serve as a support. After the hangings are full, another worker will push them directly to the open space outside the workshop to dry.

Ye Teng said: "This fish processing workshop can process up to several hundred kilograms of marine fish per day. Now the price of dried salted fish in Kuaiji County is as high as 20 yuan per catty. The dried salted fish in Kuaiji County can be sold all over the world, and it earns money for me in Kuaiji County every year. We have made thousands of gold in profits, and there are five such dried fish workshops in Kuaiji County. The only limitation now is our production capacity, but the lack of fishing boats makes it difficult to catch enough sea fish. "

"The ship is coming!" At this time, someone suddenly shouted outside.

Xu Fan and the others came to the pier to observe. At this time, they saw a thousand-material sea-going ship in the distance slowly approaching the pier. When the fishing boat docked, baskets of sea fish were transported down, and hundreds of baskets of fish were piled up. Like a small mountain, the employees of the processing plant quickly sent these sea fish into the processing plant. Then came the assembly line operation, and the deformed salted fish appeared.

Zhang Liang asked: "Approximately how many fish are there in this boat?"

Ye Teng said: "A basket is about one stone, and there are about four to five hundred stone fish in this boat."

Zhang Liang said in surprise: "If we go to sea once a day, there will be four to five hundred shi of sea fish in one trip. In one year, the catch of a sea-going ship will be 10 shi? Even if the internal organs are removed and dried, a sea-going ship will catch 3 shi of fish." We can also produce stones of dried salted fish every year, which is equivalent to the grain production capacity of tens of thousands of acres of high-quality fields.”

The food obtained by one ship can be worth 1 acres of fields. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, who would have dared to believe it?

And this is fish meat, so it can be worth 2-3 times the food. No wonder the emperor has been talking about developing offshore fisheries along the way. If this big man has tens of thousands of fisheries, everyone in the world will be full of fish and meat.

Ye Teng said: "It's not as much as Prime Minister Zhang thought. After all, sometimes the weather is bad and the boat won't go out, and sometimes the harvest won't be so rich. Cutting it in half is what we caught by each ship last year."

Ge Ying said in surprise: "That's incredible. One boat can catch marine fish worth thirty to forty million yuan in a year. No wonder you said you can make double the profit in half a year. Your Kuaiji County Guang fishing can make twice as much money every year." Earned hundreds of thousands of gold.”

Ye Teng shook his head and said: "It's not that simple. It has been four years since Xianguan came to Kuaiji County, and the number of fishing boats in Kuaiji County is only 10 boats with 3000 yuan and two boats with yuan."

Chen Sheng asked strangely: "How come there are so few? Didn't you say that one shipyard can make three thousand-material fishing boats?"

Ye Teng said: "They are three thousand-material sea-going ships, not fishing boats. There is also the naval branch of General Hengbo Zhonglang in Kuaiji County. They took away 10 sea-going ships from the shipyard and used them as warships."

Chen Sheng said: "Your shipyard in Kuaiji County can build dozens of ships a year, shouldn't this be the only thing?"

Xu Fan was also curious. When Ye Teng came to Kuaiji County, Xu Fan had told Ye Teng to build seagoing ships and develop the fishing industry. However, although Kuaiji County has developed rapidly in recent years, the number of fishing boats is very small. Compared with other rapidly expanding industries, fishery has developed relatively slowly.

Ye Teng smiled bitterly and said: "Building a sea-going ship cannot be built by cutting down wood. There is no shortage of wood for building sea-going ships around Kuaiji County, but the cut wood needs to be dried in the shade for three to five years. With this little wood, It’s already the lower official collecting wood from all over the south of the Yangtze River.”

"Three to five years? After such a long time, can't we just use the wood we just cut down?" Chen Sheng said in shock.

Ye Teng shook his head and said: "No, wood that has not been dried in the shade is easy to deform, warp, crack and rot. If used to build ships, sea-going ships will soon leak. This batch of reduced sea-going ships was cut down by Xiaguan when he came to Kuaiji County three years ago. After using up the wood, the shipyard will have no choice but to stop work."

Xu Fan frowned after listening to Ye Teng's words. It seemed that there was such a thing in drying wood in the shade, but Xu Fan, who was used to the rapid expansion of the industry, found it difficult to accept this kind of thing being stuck with raw materials.

Xu Fan carefully recalled how later generations solved this problem, and he actually found a way.

"Shade-drying wood mainly removes moisture from the wood. You can build several large kilns, put the wood in, and then maintain a higher than normal temperature and dry environment in the kiln. This should be able to quickly remove the wood. The water in it is a method I have seen before, and I don’t know if it can be successful. I need to try it a few more times.”

Ye Teng was delighted when he heard this: "Your Majesty has solved a big problem for me in Kuaiji County again."

Ye Teng has more confidence in Xu Fan than Xu Fan himself. Kuaiji County can develop into what it is now because the emperor has made a development plan for Kuaiji County. As long as he does things step by step, he will have a minister with Guan Zhong and Le Yi. reputation.

And if Kuaiji County solves the problem of raw materials for the shipbuilding industry, their fishery and whaling industries will quickly replace the sugar and salt industries and become the mainstay of Kuaiji County's income.

Next, Xu Fan originally wanted to board the fishing boat to see how the fishermen in Kuaiji County fished, and to evaluate the potential of the fishery. However, Zhang Liang and Ye Teng said that the son of a rich man could not sit in court, and even tried their best to not let Xu Fan board the boat. .

Xu Fan had no choice but to give up this idea. But Xu Fan summoned all the fishermen in Kuaiji County to communicate with them face to face.

When Xu Fan came to the scene, he bowed his hands and saluted these fishermen and said: "Last year, you caught 30 shi of sea fish for the imperial court, which is equivalent to helping everyone in the world get 1 jin of fish to eat. Each of you is a hero of the Han Dynasty. I represent People all over the world thank you for your hard work.”

"What these villains should do." The fishermen saw Xu Fan's actions and returned the favor in panic. They did not expect that the emperor would be so polite to them, and these words also made their hearts warm. Even the emperor valued me. wait.

Then Xu Fan asked them: "How much is your monthly salary?"

Captain Yu Jidao said: "As a captain, the villain gets a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, and the remaining sailors get 800 yuan a month. At the same time, the court also allows us to take some small fish home, which is also a big profit. If we catch more at one time, , The court will also give us a bonus, which is about a hundred dollars a month. The court also helped us build a house to live in, which saved a lot of money."

Captains are naturally high-income people, but this cannot be used as a comparison, but ordinary sailors can get 800 yuan per month. According to the price of food in Kuaiji County, it is equivalent to them earning almost 22 shi of food per month, which is close to yuan per month. More than two hundred and forty dan, plus the benefits of the fishing team, the income is slightly higher than that of farmers in Kuaiji County. With this income, it is not a problem to support a family of five.

Although Ye Teng said that the wealthy people in Kuaiji County can harvest 300 shi of grain every year, these are only high-income farmers and cannot be used as an ordinary sample. The entire Kuaiji County has nearly 3000 million acres of farmland, and the real high-yield farmland is less than one-tenth. The income of most farmers in Kuaiji County is between 100 shi of grain and 200 shi of grain. The salary of a sailor is almost twice that of an ordinary farmer in Kuaiji County.

Sure enough, simple dungeons and hell dungeons are two different things in the past. The salaries of craftsmen and sailors in Kuaiji County are directly proportional to the income of farmers. If the income of craftsmen is not as good as that of farmers, people like Yu Ji will simply give up their jobs and go home. Farm. Juntian gave the craftsmen of this era the confidence, and they did not have to be squeezed to the extreme by workshop owners.

Xu Fan continued to ask: "Is your fishing risky?"

Yu Jidao: "There are risks, of course. Since the establishment of our fishing team, more than ten people have died in the sea, but the imperial court has given them pensions, and the brothers have no worries about helping the imperial court.

And now that the weather is bad, we won’t go out to sea. In the end, the places where we fish are all offshore. Even if there is a problem, we will come back quickly. "

Xu Fan then remembered that Kuaiji County seemed to be near the famous Zhoushan fishing ground in later generations. The ocean in this era was basically pure and natural, and the fishery resources were extremely rich. There was no need to go deep-sea fishing like in later generations.

Then Xu Fan told them some fishing knowledge that he had learned in later generations, such as the sound induction method (slapping the water with a bamboo pole) and the fire light induction method.

Captain Yu Ji hesitated and said: "Your Majesty, where did you hear this method? How come we haven't heard of it?"

Chen Sheng said: "Your Majesty is omnipotent. This is teaching you His Majesty's unique secret skills. Just listen."

Xu Fan glared at Chen Sheng and said: "No one can do everything, don't say such ignorant words."

Then Xu Fan, Yu Ji and other sailors said: "I read this from an ancient book. You can also verify it. It doesn't matter if you are wrong. After all, what I said is not the truth. Success in practice is the truth. You still have to rely on it." You have to figure it out yourself.”

Yu Ji said: "I'll understand later."

Xu Fan continued: "I have also heard of a trawl fishing method, which is to take an extremely huge fishing net and drag it behind two fishing boats. Thousands of stone fish can be caught in one net. This method of fishing higher efficiency."

Yu Ji combined his own fishing experience and said: "Your Majesty's idea makes sense, but I'm afraid there is no big net in the world that can catch thousands of stone fish at one time. And how can such a large net be collected?"

Xu Fan said: "Drive the fishing boat to the shore, and then use manpower to pull it ashore."

However, Ye Teng was a little excited. If this was successful, the fishing efficiency could be increased by more than ten times in the future.

So he said: "Your Majesty, why don't you verify it in our Kuaiji County? If this is done, there will be millions more fish and meat in the world to eat."

Xu Fan said: "This kind of trawl consumes a lot of twine."

Ye Teng said confidently: "We in Kuaiji County spin 500 million pieces of linen every year. Your Majesty does not need to worry about the problem of linen threads."

Because there were a large number of fishing boats in Kuaiji County, there was a lot of weaving industry for making fishing nets. Xu Fan called them together and asked them to weave a trawl net that was 100 feet long and 10 feet wide and could withstand the force of kilograms.

In order to make Xu Fan's fishing net, 25 weavers worked hard for ten days and spent a lot of hemp rope. Only then did the fishing net produce the trawl net Xu Fan requested.

March 3, the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, at the wharf of Haiyan County.

Two Qianliu fishing boats went out to sea. After they discovered the fish, the fishing nets were lowered and slowly sank into the sea. Then the two fishing boats began to drive the fish towards the pier.

At three o'clock in the morning, people waiting at the dock saw the fishing boat and said with surprise: "They are back."

As the boat got closer and closer, everyone saw countless schools of fish jumping in the fishing nets, and the schools of fish under the sea made the water dark.

Standing on the boat, Yu Ji looked at the jumping fish and said happily: "There may be thousands of stone fish in this net."

When the boat approached the beach, the ropes on the boat were thrown down. Xu Fan led hundreds of young men into the sea, and they pulled up the trawl net from both ends.

"One two, one two" Xu Fan kept shouting, and the young man beside him also said the same thing as Xu Fan.

In this way, they dragged the fishing net up to the shore little by little, and soon everyone was ashore. The trawl net under the water also slowly appeared.

And this scene made everyone's blood rush. Fish weighing dozens or hundreds of kilograms were in the fishing nets, and they were pulled ashore little by little.

At this time, the sea fish seemed to be aware of their own threats. In order not to become a victim of humans, they rose up to resist. One by one, the sea fish jumped in the shallow water, causing countless splashes.

But their struggle was destined to be in vain. With the efforts of hundreds of people, the trawl net was continuously pulled ashore, and the fish were pulled out of the sea and jumped on the ground one by one. They were then knocked unconscious by the fisherman with a stick and thrown into the fish basket.

Among them, Xu Fan was particularly efficient. He was very strong and could hit almost accurately, and he quickly collected a basket of fish, while the young man behind kept delivering the fish baskets to the salted fish workshop. Soon, an extremely efficient assembly line formed. Some young people caught fish, some young people transported fish, and women and children quickly salted fish.

Zhang Liang and Ye Teng were transporting fish behind Xu Fan.

Zhang Liang said to Ye Teng, "Congratulations to Governor Ye. The fishery in Kuaiji County will have a bumper harvest this year."

Ye Teng smiled and said: "We are happy together, 70% of it still belongs to the imperial court."

However, Ye Tengxiao couldn't keep his eyes open. The fishery had increased by more than ten times, and the emperor was naturally the first to take the lead. But as the prefect, he was ranked second. These fish were not only money and food, but also his political achievements.

(End of this chapter)