The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 239 Building a Shipyard

Seeing Ding Yi, Li Zhi murmured, "What kind of boat do you want to buy?"

"First of all, here we can only make merchant ships and warships with less than [-] materials. The deposit is one-fifth of the ship's price. The deposit must be paid before we can help."

He thought Ding Yi was here to buy a boat, and Ding Yi also asked him out in the name of buying a boat.

Ding Yi thought for a while: "How much money can you get for building a ship privately like this?"

"Why, who are you?" Li Zhi quickly became vigilant and looked at Ding Yi carefully, only to realize that the person behind him looked a bit like a soldier, and his expression became uneasy.

"I'm from Dongjiang Town. I want to open a shipyard. I'll pay a lot of money to hire a shipbuilder." Ding Yi said directly.

Li Zhi rolled his eyes. He probably belonged to the group from last time. He shook his head and said, "I said I won't do it. My grandparents are all here, so it's impossible to leave."

"Why don't I go back and ask you guys, is there anyone willing to go?"

He turned to leave, but was stopped by Xiang Huailai.

"General, don't embarrass me, my whole family is here." Li Zhi had a bitter face.

"It's too dangerous for you to do this." Ding Yi said: "Use the government-run shipyard to privately build and sell it privately. If someone finds out and reports it, the serious crime of ransacking your home and destroying your family, your whole family will be ruined."

"..." Li Zhi looked at him speechlessly. Are you a threat?

"Go to Lushun and help me build it. I'll give you whatever you want. There's no risk. If the Tartars want to come in, I'll arrange for you to go by boat. What are you afraid of?"

"..." Li Zhi still didn't speak.

"Tell me how much money you can earn this year." Ding Yi asked.

Li Zhi thought for a while, and he had to scare him away: "I can earn 100 taels a year in this shipyard."

He is also talking nonsense, deliberately trying to scare Ding Yi away.

He can earn thousands of taels by building a ship here, but the shipyard officials, workers, craftsmen, and superiors want points, and finally it falls into his hands. 50 taels is not bad.

If you can build one a year, you are lucky.

Sometimes there is no private work for two years, and sometimes two ships are received in a year, but only one can be built.

So on average, it is only about 50 taels a year.

Now he reported 100 taels, deliberately trying to scare Ding Yi away.

"Two hundred." Ding Yi said directly: "Two hundred and every year, your whole family will go to Lushun with me."

"If you can bring a craftsman out, I'll give you another ten taels, whatever you have."

"The workers want it too. Bring a worker out and give you five taels."

Li Zhi was stunned in the field. After a long time, he came back to his senses. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly: "Is what the general said true?"

Ding Yi glanced at Xiang Huailai, and immediately handed over a bank note to Huailai: "Refund for more and make up for less, you take it first."

Li Zhi looked down, 500 taels, hiss, his face changed.

Looking at it, Xiang Huai thought to himself, what your lord said is indeed right, in this world, everyone has a price, and sometimes you can't agree on an agreement, just because you didn't satisfy the other party with your offer.

Li Zhi was tangled in his heart. He took the bank note and thought for a while: "Many craftsmen and workers have family members."

"I charge them all, 20 taels a month for craftsmen, [-] taels a month for workers, and [-] taels a month for all family members, regardless of size."

This is really a sky-high price, at least five times or even ten times their previous income.

Li Zhi shook his head vigorously: "Take so many people away at once, how can I explain it?"

"There is nothing to explain." Ding Yi said indifferently: "The shipyard caught fire, and the workers and craftsmen suffered heavy losses, causing countless casualties."

"The family members don't want the court's pension. Isn't the court very happy?"

"..." Li Zhi.

Xiang Huailai said softly, "Don't worry, you don't need to do the arson."

"..." Li Zhi.

Ding Yi glanced at Xiang Huailai without a trace, since Zhao Dashan married Xiang Chuchu, Xiang Huailai has made great progress.

Coincidentally, on December 21, several winter thunders hit Nanjing.

Then both the Nanjing Bingzhan Bureau and the Longjiang Shipyard caught fire and burned many places. It is said that several craftsmen were killed or injured.

The Nanjing Bingzhan Bureau was the first batch of institutions in the Ming Dynasty that could manufacture Franco cannons. After the fire, several craftsmen and many workers were lost.

The Longjiang shipyard is even more remote. It is said that on the day of the fire, everyone was terrified. Many people ran away, fearing that the court would prosecute them. Some people could not find their burnt bones. The family members quarreled for two days, but nothing was resolved.

On the afternoon of December 21, Ding Yi took a few boats, carrying more than 40 artisans of various types and more than 200 workers collected along the road, and returned home in a mighty way.

Arriving in Dengzhou on December 26, he accompanied Qin Nan for a few days, and Xiang Huailai brought them back to Lushun.

On the first day of January, four years into Chongzhen, Ding Yi returned to Lushun.

In the same month, Sun Chengzong took charge of affairs outside the customs, began to inspect Songshan, Jinzhou and other places, and wrote to Chongzhen his various suggestions on the inside and outside of the customs, Chongzhen adopted them all, and added Sun Chengzong as the grand tutor.

Because Gao Di withdrew the Ningjin defense line back then, Youtun, Dalinghe and other cities were destroyed by the Houjin army. The Ming army built the defense line and repaired Dalinghe twice in Yuan Chonghuan's era, but Huang Taiji sent troops every time Come and call, don't finish it for him.

After Sun Chengzong inspected the Songshan and Jinzhou defense lines, he felt that the Daling River still had to be repaired.

Begin to arrange the military affairs of building the Daling River for the third time.
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After Ding Yi came back in a hurry, he immediately started to inspect and make arrangements.

Because he knew that several major events were going to happen this year, the battle of Dalinghe between the Later Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, and the rebellion of Kong Youde and the others.

The battle of Daling River is expected to continue as usual, but Ding Yi's arrival in Lushun has changed part of history, so it is not certain whether Kong Youde will turn against him.

But for the benefit of himself and Lushun, he had to ensure that he would not be sent to support Dalinghe, and gain enough benefits in the corresponding matters to strengthen his own strength.

January and February are relatively cold, and Lushun is mainly engaged in military training and building houses, and repairing the South Pass. In particular, building shipyards, ship repairing stones, peng factories, sail factories, fishing, hoarding and cooking salt are basically all stopped.

According to Li Zhi's suggestion, in the way of starting from scratch in a shipyard like Lushun, the shipyard will be built in the first year, small boats will be built, and skilled boatmen, sailors, gunners, and ship repairers will be trained.

In the second and third years, medium-sized ships with about 2 materials can be built.

In the fourth year, you can start to try to build a big ship.

He also said that it is best to make Guangzhou ships for warships, which need iron wood, while pine and fir ships can be used for blessing ships and merchant ships.

There is no iron wood in Lushun, which has the most pine trees, which means that the wood Ding Yi stockpiles is only suitable for making lucky boats and merchant ships.

Qi Jiguang also said in Ji Xiao's new book back then: "When the Guangzhou boat collided with the blessing boat, the blessing boat must be smashed, because the pine and fir used by the blessing boat."

Wang Zaijin also said: "Guangchuan regards Fuchuan as the biggest, and its sturdiness is far more than that. It is made of iron wood——Iron wood is strong, and it is hard to break even if insects eat it."

Ding Yi asked again, there is iron wood.

Li Zhi said that Yunnan and Lingnan are the main production areas, and there are also Guangdong and Guangxi, but the quantity is small. The Cantonese ships built in the Ming Dynasty were all along the coast of Guangdong.

Iron wood is known as the king of hardwoods, and its specific gravity is four times that of fir.

In addition, the firewood for shipbuilding needs to be soaked first and then dried in the shade. The water in the shade evaporates more evenly and is less prone to cracks, but it is relatively slow. The minimum requirement is more than three to four years, preferably more than ten years.

Ding Yi asked again, is there any way to speed up the drying.

Li Zhi said yes, to build a drying kiln, if you want to hurry up, it will be built now.

Choose a suitable place to build a kiln. The wood is piled full. It is best to place it vertically and varnish both ends.

This kind of preheating is more difficult, too high temperature is not good, too low is not good, and experienced carpenters are needed to watch over it. This kind of wood from the dry kiln can be used for about one or two years, but it is easy to crack in the later stage, and it takes time It is not long, and it is suitable for building a ship quickly in the early stage.

If you really want to be a century-old navy, you must dry in the shade.

In history, it is said that there was a country that used teak wood to make warships. From the 19th century to the 20th century, it took 80000 years to dry 100 pieces of teak wood in the shade. It is a real century-old navy.

Seeing that Ding Yi was thinking, Li Zhi said, "Your Excellency, you can prepare on both sides."

"Iron wood can be bought in Guangdong, and it is ready-made and dried in the shade. The price is a little expensive, but you have a big boat with [-] materials, and you can build two ships with [-] materials when you fill one ship with materials."

"Of course, the amount of iron wood is small, and it depends on luck and opportunity to fill a boat."

"Our pine and fir trees can be shaded first."

"We build small boats a year, and we can build big boats in three to four years. By then, the pine and fir trees that have been dried in the shade will almost be usable."

Ding Yi asked again, with the current shipbuilders, in three or four years, how many material ships can be built each year?
Li Zhi thought for a while: "My lord will train new craftsmen every year. According to the current manpower, three to four years later, three to five ships can be built every year, and more than [-] ships can be repaired. If you want to build more ships, More people and craftsmen, and new shipyards are necessary."

After hearing this, Ding Yi was quite satisfied. After three or four years, it will be almost the same as Zheng Zhilong's shipyard. Of course, after three or four years, Zheng Zhilong will definitely be stronger.

"Just do it like this." Ding Yi made the final decision.

(End of this chapter)