Wentang

Chapter 348 Craftsmanship
The ancient artisans had a relatively low status and were not qualified to take a boat with Li Daoyan and Yue Shan. It was quite troublesome for Yue Shan to meet them.

The general process is that the two boats approach slowly and travel at the same speed, a plank is built between the two boats, and people cross the ship along the plank.

It is easy to say but not easy to do. The requirements for the operator are particularly high. If you are not careful, you can go into the water to catch people.

Naturally, Yue Shan and Li Daoyan would not do such a dangerous thing, so although he said he was going to see the shipbuilder, in fact the master came to see them.

After a lot of tossing, Yue Shan saw several master shipbuilders on his clothes.

"I've seen Lord Jiaodong, I've seen Qingshuihou..." Several craftsmen bowed nervously to the two.

Li Daoyan was still sitting there drinking his tea, he didn't even look at these people, let alone talk to them.Yue Shan shook his head secretly, got up and said: "Excuse me, you are all great talents in the country, so there is no need to be restrained. Sit down and talk."

"Don't dare, we don't have the place to sit in front of the nobleman, just stand up, just stand up." The old man in his 60s and [-]s said flatteredly.

"That's good." Yue Shan didn't force it either, he knew that if these people were to sit down, they wouldn't be able to chat today.

Yue Shan didn't directly talk to them about shipbuilding, but chatted about family matters to ease the tension of these people.

His age was deceiving and his affability combined, and it didn't take long for the artisans to return to normal.Through chatting with Yue Shan, he also got general information about these people.

These boatmen belong to the same family named Mei, who have made a living from shipbuilding for generations. They originally worked in the shipyard in Zhenjiang, Suzhou Prefecture, but this time they were packed and transferred to Dizhou by the imperial court.

The one at the beginning is the leader of the Mei family and the most skilled shipbuilder, named Mei Xiang.

Those behind him are his younger brother Mei Jiang, the eldest son Mei Jiang, the second son Mei He, the nephew Mei Hu, the nephew Mei Po...

Seeing that the few people were not nervous, Yue Shan began to talk about business: "I invite you to come here to talk about the shipyard. Do you know the purpose of transferring you to De... Dizhou?"

"The Shangguan didn't say anything, but the little old man doesn't know anything except shipbuilding, so he boldly guessed that the shipyard should be built in Dizhou." Mei Yu became more courageous and stepped forward to reply.

"You guessed right, the imperial court sent you here to build a new shipyard in Dizhou, a very big shipyard." Yue Shan confirmed his guess.

"It's an honor for the little old man's family." Mei Xiang said excitedly.

Mei Jing and the others were also overjoyed.

Although their family has superb shipbuilding skills for generations, there are no eggs.There are too many people who can build ships in Suzhou Prefecture, and their Mei family is just an ordinary craftsman over there.

No matter how good a craftsman's skills are, he is still a craftsman, and any small official can bully them.

Unlike Dizhou, the poor shipbuilding industry here is zero. Although it will be very hard to build a new shipyard here, the rewards are relatively rich.

For a shipyard built with the craftsmen of his own family as the backbone, then his Mei family is a meritorious service.In the future, he can also gain a certain right to speak in the shipyard, so that his Mei family's life will be much easier.

Yue Shan can also understand a thing or two about their thoughts, everything comes from the craftsman's book.

Craftsmen have always been a valuable asset, and the ancients have already discovered this.When Guan Zhong divided the attributes of household registration, he deliberately listed craftsmen as a list, which is the craftsman's registration.

The sons and grandchildren of craftsmen will always be craftsmen. They must learn the crafts handed down from their ancestors and must do the work that their ancestors did.This is to ensure that the craftsmanship will not be lost.

However, when Guan Zhong promulgated the craftsman's registration, he also formulated additional clauses to improve the social status of the craftsmen and give them generous salaries, so the craftsman's registration was very popular at that time.

We all know what happened later, when scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce became the mainstream.Although the craftsman status still exists, all those additional preferential treatment have been cancelled.

The status of craftsmen has plummeted, and the status of craftsmen is only slightly higher than that of cheap ones.

The life of a craftsman who has registered as a craftsman is not as good as that of a commoner.Common people can choose to farm, study, do business and other industries, as long as they have the ability to do whatever they want.

It is really miserable for people who have registered as a craftsman, and their descendants cannot change their careers as a craftsman. It is okay if the supervisors they meet are kind-hearted, but they are better than beggars when they meet those who are more harsh.

There are countless tragedies in history caused by not paying wages to craftsmen.

It can be said that once becoming a craftsman, it will be a disaster for the descendants. Artists with superb folk crafts would rather starve to death than become a craftsman and work for the court.

Most of the craftsmen who have craftsmanship are passed down from generation to generation, and their identities cannot be changed even if the dynasty changes.There are also a small number of forced naturalization by the imperial court.

Yue Shan knew that this situation was wrong, and he already had a plan to change it.However, this implementation strategy will take a long time to operate, and there is no rush right now.

Unfortunately, the Mei family is a craftsman's family. It is said that it has been a shipbuilding craftsman since the Three Kingdoms Soochow period, and it has been passed down to the present.

However, shipbuilding is a high-end technology in any era. Although their family's life is not very good, it is definitely not bad.At least much better than carpenters, stonemasons, masons and the like.

Yue Shan had seen craftsmen directly under the Ministry of Industry, they were a group of beggars.

But still the same sentence, people are always dissatisfied.Compared with ordinary craftsmen, the Mei family's life is pretty good, but they want to live like ordinary people.

Of course, this is not wrong, after all, people go to high places.

And this family not only dared to think, but also dared to do it.

The relationship between Yue Shan and Duan Lun is relatively good, and I heard the news from him that the Mei family asked to come to Dizhou on their own initiative.

At that time, the Ministry of Industry recruited craftsmen from the Suzhou Fu Shipyard, and most of them were unwilling to leave their hometowns. The Mei family was the first to sign up and migrated as a whole family.

After knowing this, Yue Shan was also very happy, he likes this kind of people who dare to think, dare to do and dare to risk their lives.Because this kind of person will not stick to the established rules and dare to innovate.

The shipyard that Yueshan wants to build is not a serious shipyard, it is to build seagoing ships.For Datang at this time, it was a brand new hull structure.

The key is that Yue Shan doesn't know much about sea-going ships, he only knows the general outline. As for how to realize it, skilled craftsmen need to fill it in with experience.It's really inappropriate to switch to that kind of old-fashioned craftsman.

Today, Yue Shan called the people from the Mei family over to test their views on the new sea-going ships.If you follow the old ways, treat them as ordinary craftsmen, and reuse them if you have ideas.

Thinking of this, Yue Shan asked, "Master Mei, have you ever built a ship?"

"I have built warships, river boats, and sea boats." Mei Xiang said hastily.

"Then can you tell me the difference between a sea boat and a river boat?" Yue Shan asked again.

(End of this chapter)