Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 288
At the Bengang Wharf, Taichang once again led the fleet of the Oriental Navy to arrive.

Now Zheng Zhilong was very excited, because he could be reunited with his wife and children again.

Taichang frowned, thinking silently.

This time they came to exchange food, and they also brought silver and daily necessities.

Question, how to exchange this grain?
60 shi of grain is nearly ten million catties!
They didn't bring any flatbed carts or even carriages. If they were carried by people alone, how long would it take to carry them?

Careless, I forgot to consider this matter.

How to do it?

These migrating Tunwei elite did not bring much food, they just carried a few days' rations with them.

How much food can be exchanged for in a few days?

If the food is kept changing here, and then transported over by wheels and Spike warships, the first batch of [-] elite guards will not be hungry.

The problem is that the wheel boat and the Spike battleship have to transport the remaining two batches of elite guards across the sea, so they can't just stay here and exchange for food!

This question is really a headache.

The Longya battleship finally docked at the pier, and Yan stood below holding her precious son and beckoning. Zheng Zhilong just wanted to jump off.

Taichang waved his hand suddenly and said: "Wait, Feihong, don't rush down, I still have something to discuss with you."

Ah!
Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to leave the hanging ladder that was about to be built, came to Taichang, folded his hands and asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, what's the matter?"

Taichang was quite embarrassed and said: "It's like this. We didn't bring any flatbed carts or horse-drawn carts. Can you let the people here send all the food to the pier? It would be too expensive for us to buy it from village to village. It’s time, and it’s very troublesome to carry.”

It turned out to be this!

Zheng Zhilong said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, don't worry, as long as the general will send his cronies to the villages to say hello, they will naturally send the food, and there is no need to go to each village to buy it."

If so, that's great.

Taichang couldn't help but excitedly said: "They will really deliver the food by themselves? How to exchange it?"

Zheng Zhilong still said without hesitation: "Yes, Your Majesty, I used to buy grain like this before, and they sent it over by themselves. As for how to exchange it, just measure the grain with a bucket of dendrobium and ask them what they want. If the Emperor is too trustworthy In the end, you can just let these subordinates who stay at home do it for you, and the 60 stone grain can be exchanged in a day or two."

60 shi of grain can be exchanged in a day or two!
real or fake?

As for the question of whether you can believe it or not, there is nothing you can't believe in this matter. He is just watching here, whether people can still eat his food.

Taichang nodded without hesitation and said, "Okay then, go get someone to prepare it, and I'll order people to move the money and daily necessities brought over."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhilong immediately backed away excitedly.

He quickly ran off the boat, hugged his precious son and kissed him a few times, then waved to the cronies who rushed up and yelled a few words, and the matter was considered settled.

After a while, those cronies moved out buckets and baskets and arranged them neatly on both sides of the pier.

How do the common people deliver food?

A person can pick a hundred catties at most, and a stone of grain is more than a hundred catties!

Taichang thought about it for a while but couldn't understand how the common people sent the 60 stone grain.

You know, there are only more than 3 ordinary people here, and it is estimated that less than one-third of them can carry a hundred catties.

In other words, 60 stone grains and [-] young adults have to go back and forth at least dozens of times.

Carrying a heavy load and running dozens of times in a day or two is not exhausting!

He was curious there, and the nearest old Chen Tou had already brought a group of young and strong people and ran over happily pushing food.

It turns out that these people have cars!

They are all wheelbarrows.

The so-called wheelbarrow is a wheel in the front, two handles in the back, and several cross arms in the middle, which are used to place goods.

This kind of wheelbarrow uses the principle of leverage. Most of the seeds are carried on the front wheels. The people pushing the cart behind do not need to exert too much effort. As long as they get used to pushing, they can push hundreds of catties of grain in the field. Run down the path.

The design of this unicycle is really ingenious, and it is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Many people even think that this unicycle is the wooden cow and horse designed by Zhuge Liang.

Gao Cheng of the Song Dynasty mentioned in "The Chronicle of Things": "When Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, went out to conquer, he began to build wooden oxen and horses to transport wages. The horse is now alone."

Of course, there is a lot of controversy about this statement, because there are still many people who think that the wooden ox and the horse are self-propelled mechanisms that can walk around by themselves, and the wheelbarrow is at most a part of the wooden ox and the horse, that is, the part of the wooden ox.

Chen Shidao of the Song Dynasty mentioned in "Houshan Cong Tan": "The wooden ox is the unicycle, and the flowing horse is the four-wheeled cart."

This statement should be the closest to the truth.

Because the records about wooden cows and horses in "Zhuge Liang Ji" are like this.

A wooden ox has a square belly and a curved head. It can carry a lot and travel a little.

The ox leans on the double shafts, the man walks six feet, the ox walks four steps, carries one year's grain, and travels twenty miles a day, and the man does not work very hard.

The number of Liuma's size, the rib length is three feet five inches, the width is three inches, and the thickness is two inches and two inches.

This shows that the wooden ox and the flowing horse are not the same thing, and Zhuge Liang's description of the wooden ox is almost the same as the wheelbarrow.

Of course, it remains to be verified whether the wheelbarrow is a wooden ox among wooden oxen and horses.

In short, pulling things on a wheelbarrow really saves effort. Not to mention carrying one-year-old food without much fatigue, you won't feel tired after pushing a few hundred catties and running for several miles.

When Taichang saw this wheelbarrow, he immediately understood that with this thing, tens of thousands of young and strong can deliver 60 shi of grain in just two or three trips!
Seeing that the old Chen who ran in the front had finished exchanging money, he quickly walked down, stood on the pier and waved: "Old Chen, long time no see!"

Hearing the words, Old Chen ran over with two packs of goods that had just been exchanged, and said excitedly, "Oh, Mr. Huang, long time no see!"

The pirates who were exchanging grain were stunned when they heard this.

They didn't know that the emperor was coming again, and the head of Zheng Da didn't say anything!
What's going on with this old man?

He didn't kneel when he saw the emperor, and even called him Huang Da to be the head of the family!
They all froze there not knowing what to do.

Seeing this, Zheng Zhilong waved without hesitation to let them continue to exchange grain.

The emperor often said that there is no need to be polite when working, and he still knows this.

As for Taichang, he didn't pay attention to those people at the moment, he was just curious about what the old Chen was exchanging.

A carload of food, just exchange one big and one small two bags of things, it seems to be light in your hand, are you still laughing?
He couldn't help asking curiously: "Old Chen, what are you exchanging for? It can't be silver, right?"

Old Chen said with a smile: "How can it be silver? I still have some silver at home, so I don't need to exchange it. What I exchange here is tea and salt. These two things are good things. I used to be late and couldn't exchange them." Now, I don’t know if the head of the Huang family brought a lot this time.”

Zheng Zhilong can't get too much of these two things if he wants to buy them, because tea and salt are all exclusive to the imperial court. It's okay for ordinary people to just buy some for their own use. Illegal salt.

However, for an emperor like him, these two things are naturally necessary.

Taichang smiled slightly and said: "Don't worry, these two things are enough, you can exchange as much as you want, if there is not enough here, I can send someone to bring some over immediately."

He also hopes that people will exchange tea and salt!
Because these two things occupy the least space, and the exchange rate is still the highest.

A stone of grain can be exchanged for a few catties of such high-quality tea, and salt is even more exaggerated, a stone of grain can be exchanged for a few taels of salt!
Alas, the price of salt these days is simply too high.

Taichang looked at the small package in Old Chen's hand, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

How about this sea salt?

Naturally, the salt obtained by directly drying or boiling the seawater cannot be eaten, because there are too many impurities in it, and ordinary people cannot bear it after eating it.

The salt boiled out of seawater can only be eaten after being washed and filtered by special methods.

However, the cost of boiling salt in seawater is not high. If calculated according to the cost, it is not bad that one catty of salt can exchange two catties of grain.

And now, a catty of salt can be exchanged for almost two stones of grain!
To be honest, this belongs to the exploitation of ordinary people, and it is still very serious exploitation.

It is not easy for ordinary people to grow some food!
The court can no longer rely on selling salt to increase tax revenue, which is too unfair to the common people.

Taichang kept this in mind, and when he was about to go back, he ordered to increase the production of sea salt and lower the price of table salt.

(End of this chapter)