Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 11 Buying a Boat
With money in their pockets and food in their stomachs, walking became much easier. After an hour or so, the two arrived at Xiaoheji. Today is the day of Xiaoji. Even in the afternoon, there are still some farmers in the market temporarily. The stalls set up are here, but they sell all the things that can be produced in the village, which did not arouse Sun Xiangfu's desire to buy. Today he mainly came to pick up the refined iron pot that he ordered yesterday. In addition, let's see what can be bought Useful items, anyway, now that you have money, the more the better.

In the grocery store, Sun Xiangfu bought a lot of goods after sorting and picking, including a thousand-character text, a relatively low-end set of the four treasures of the study, needles and threads, pliers, fine linen thread, pots, bowls, dishes, etc. Some, when I was bargaining with the boss, I accidentally heard the conversations of some customers who came to shop.

"Is there someone selling boats at the pier today? Brother Dali, let's go and have a look."

After paying the bill, the two walked quickly to the pier with the purchased goods. At this time, there were already many people chatting around an old man, probably bargaining.

"Although the old man's three-sail fast boat is self-made, it has been launched for more than half a year. The hull is strong, watertight, and can carry a load of twenty stones. From here, it goes down the Wei River to Chang'an. It takes less than two hours to return against the current. When the wind is down, it will never take more than three hours to come back with the sails hoisted, and the speed of an empty boat propped on pennies is comparable to that of a fast horse."

In the Tang Dynasty, the water flow in the middle section of Weishui Pass was gentle, and the difference between going upstream and downstream was not very big. The waterway from Xiaoheji to Chang’an was more than 120 miles. This old man’s self-made boat can travel [-] miles in an hour when going along the river, which is obviously extraordinary, but After seeing the speed of the clippers of later generations, Sun Xiangfu calculated that this ship only traveled thirty miles in an hour along the river, which is not fast.

Looking at the hull again, it is really strange, narrow and long, it is not a flat-bottomed boat, but it is not bold enough to directly make the boat into a pointed bottom, moreover, there are three large bamboo poles erected on the narrow hull, and there is a pile of sackcloth under the bamboo poles Fan, seeing this, Sun Xiangfu secretly sighed, this old man is a talent, the speed he mentioned just now should be reserved for the sake of safety.

The hull of the boat is only about 1.5 meters wide, but the length reaches [-] feet. There are three sails erected at the front and rear. The boat can also go fast on the water because the resistance is small!It's just limited by the short hull, the load of this ship is not heavy, but it is excellent for carrying a small amount of cargo for short distances.

"What is the price of the old man's boat?" Sun Xiangfu pushed forward from several people who were interested in buying the boat and asked.

"Five thousand dollars, nothing less will not be sold."

Five thousand coins, that is, five guan. Of course, unless someone as kind as Qin Qiong is as kind as Qin Qiong, the Tang Dynasty will not give the full guan. It was stated that it would cost five thousand dollars, but the market price was more than six guan.

"It's too expensive, too expensive. The market price of this kind of boat with a load of only [-] shi is only about [-] yuan in Chang'an." A fat man dressed as a merchant said.

There is nothing wrong with what he said. In terms of carrying capacity, this ship is extremely light. It belongs to the smallest equivalent class. Chang’an’s cargo ships, at least, can carry fifty stones, one hundred stones, and even A large ship with a load of three thousand shi, but this ship only had a load of [-] shi, which obviously did not meet the psychological expectations of the merchants.

"It will take a year for the old man's family to build such a boat. Not to mention the wasted tung oil wood, the wages alone are worth a few pennies! Five thousand yuan is definitely the real price, and you can't miss a penny. You want to buy it Just buy it, if you don’t buy the old man, I’ll go to the next episode.”

The old man must have run more than this episode, but obviously he didn't find the reason why his boat couldn't be sold. The people in Guanzhong sailed the boat not for fishing, but mostly for freight. This boat is fast, but the load is too small. It's a bit tasteless. If the price is comparable to the market price, it's okay, but it's [-]% to [-]% higher than the market price, but it's hard to sell.

Seeing that the business was about to collapse, a voice sounded.

"I want this boat, Brother Dali, count the money for him."

It was Sun Xiangfu who was talking. Five thousand dollars was a lot, but not much. It was almost enough to buy food for a family for a year. What Sun Xiangfu wanted to buy even more was actually the person who designed this unique boat.

The old man was overjoyed when he heard the words, and made a gesture of invitation and said, "The two young men can come on board to deliver."

After a while, the crowd dispersed, and Sun Xiangfu and Sun Dali followed the old man onto the boat. There was not much room on the boat, and every meter or so, there was a horizontal wooden beam as a barrier, and there was a pergola made of bamboo mats in the middle. The tidy up was fairly clean, and the three sat down in the shed. Sun Dali put the cloth bag containing more than 6000 copper coins on a small wooden table in the shed, and began to count money. This is what Sun Xiangfu often asked him to do recently. The most basic math, counting from one to a thousand.

"The old man's surname is Gao, where is he from?"

There was no tea on the boat, so Sun Xiangfu could only chat with the old man. The old man looked at the yellow and orange copper coins and was happy. I make a living by building boats, but unfortunately, in my generation, my family is small and my labor is limited, so I can only build some small boats and sell them to make ends meet.”

Sun Xiangfu nodded when he heard the words, "Oh, it turned out to be the old boatman's home! In this way, although we bought your boat, your boat is rather strange, but we don't know how to operate the boat. Can you come here? For two days, teach my two brothers, don’t worry, you won’t lose the lodging and food.”

"Hehe, there is no need for this. The old man's boat is very easy to operate. Look, Mr. Xiaolang, there is a sail at the stern and a rudder, both of which can be turned. You only need one person to turn the sail and the rudder, and the boat can turn. It is very flexible, but because the hull is not wide, the steering should not be too fast, otherwise it is easy to capsize. When loading people and cargo, try to go from the middle to the rear as much as possible, and finally load the bow, so that the sailing will be safe. If there is an emergency , While hoisting the sail, you can also use the penny to prop up the boat, and the speed can be increased by [-] to [-] percent, so it is not a problem to reach Chang'an in an hour."

When Yang Shunshui said this, Sun Xiangfu understood. After all, he was a southerner in his previous life, and he often rowed boats when he was a child. This boat is not big, and it is not difficult to operate. But since Yang Shunshui himself is here, Sun Xiangfu is happy to let him guide it on the spot. , So, he untied the rope and steered the boat to the Weishui River.

"Well, this boat is really light. You can go back and forth to Chang'an once in a day. If the old man is not in a hurry, you can go back to the village next time. Tomorrow morning, I will wait for the boat to go to Chang'an, and I will follow you to recognize Chang'an. waterway."

After Yang Shunshui agreed, Sun Xiangfu drove the boat on the Weishui River for an hour under his guidance. Sun Dali also tried his hands excitedly. Soon, the two of them mastered the control skills of this simple boat. It's just that Sun Dali is a northerner, and he was not as stable on the boat as Sun Xiangfu, who was a southerner in his previous life. It took a lot of effort to turn the boat into a small river with a width of only two or three feet, and walk along this river. After ten miles of water, you can return to the village.

However, on the way back, they still had something to do, which was to collect the fish cages, which was a novelty for Yang Shunshui. With this boat in the future, they could bring hundreds of fish cages out at a time, and they could also take the fish cages out. The cages were put in the Weishui River, which magnified Sun Xiangfu's fishery space countless times.

"Xiao Langjun's fish cage is exquisitely made."

"Hehe, old man Yang praised it. In Xiaquan Village, he lived by this fish cage! Please don't spread the word."

"Don't worry, Mr. Xiaolang, absolutely not. Cutting one's way of life is a great crime, and the sky will be hit by thunder and thunder. Those of us who sail on the water must accumulate virtue so that we can have a smooth life for the rest of our lives."

Look how simple the folk customs of Tang Dynasty are!When the old man said so, Sun Xiangfu naturally believed it, and took all the fish cages to the boat along the way. Before dusk, the three of them returned to the village.

In the past two days, Sun Xiangfu's family has made a lot of noise, and they can no longer hide it from the villagers. Especially today, Sun Xiangfu actually came back by boat, which even alarmed the village head, Hu Cai. Many people in the village gathered around the small river. On the other side, the fish cage and the harvest of the fish cage were also exposed to everyone.

"With this sharp fishing tool, it's no wonder that the two boys of the Sun family have started to grow flesh in the past few days."

Hu Cai said something sullenly, then turned around and left. Sun Xiangfu distributed two palm-sized fish to each person in the village according to the head, but he didn't want it either.

The big pot rice in Sun Xiangfu’s family is still delicious. Today there are hundreds of fish cages, and the harvested fish are all filled into a tank. There are many big fish weighing three to four catties, and the small fish are distributed to the villagers. Everyone naturally eats big fish.

"Well, your fish is well cooked." Old man Yang ate up a carp weighing two or three catties with a bowl of broomcorn porridge, rubbing his belly.

"The old man will come here often. When the conditions are better, I would like to ask you to come and build a boat for me." Sun Xiangfu picked his teeth with a bamboo stick.

"Specialized in shipbuilding? Build this kind of ship that I designed?"

"No, this ship still has a lot of room for improvement, and, it's too small, I may need to build a bigger ship, at least with a thousand stone capacity."

Hearing Sun Xiangfu talk about the thousand-stone boat, Yang Shunshui's eyes lit up, but then dimmed. The bigger the boat, the higher the cost. Yang Shunshui could only hehe, but Yang Shunshui knew the truth of not bullying the young and poor, and said with a smile, "If you really have the financial resources to build a thousand-stone boat, the old man and his nephew will definitely be willing to help you."

Well, Sun Xiangfu was drawing cakes again. After chatting with Yang Shunshui for a while, Sun Xiangfu invited him to rest on his bed. The ancients went to bed early, but Sun Xiangfu didn't have this habit, and he didn't do much today. Physical work, so he walked alone in the village to digest food, and finally walked to this newly bought boat, in the cabin under the awning, resting his head with his hands, looking at the sky full of stars.

(End of this chapter)