Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 708 Yangzhou Wharf
Dozens of large ships from Beidao were moored at Zhu’s wharf. At this time, the wharf was full of carts, and thousands of dock workers were loading various goods onto the big ship. The main cargo was pig iron. There are 150 million catties, which sounds like a lot, but in fact, 150 million catties is only 750 tons, and a cargo ship with [-] shi is enough to carry it.

Zhu Qi on the big boat saw Fan Ning's carriage approaching in the distance, and hurriedly called two of his men to carry a big box and walk down the boat.

The carriage stopped in front of the first boat, and Fan Ning stepped down. He saw the changes behind the boat at a glance. The two big paddle wheels had disappeared, but the propellers were not seen, probably under the waterline.

Fan Ning walked quickly to the shore, and he saw a huge propeller, a five-blade propeller, made of fine steel. This kind of huge casting could be made in the Song and Ming Dynasties. There are detailed introductions.

Zhu Qi said from the side: "My second uncle said that it took him five years and thousands of experiments to succeed, but the final result made him a little frustrated."

"You mean the speed of long-distance shipping can't be increased?"

"Second uncle said so!"

Fan Ning shook his head and said, "It's not a problem with the propeller, it's a problem with the steam engine that the long-distance speed cannot be increased."

"Ah! What then?"

"There is no way, let's innovate slowly in the future!"

Fanning squatted down again to carefully look at the propeller below the waterline, and the rudder was below, wondering if it would affect it?

Fan Ning had given up hope for the advent of the propeller, but Zhu Xiaolin had been studying for five years and finally succeeded. At this time, he was full of shock and interest.

"I wonder how that shaft is sealed?"

Fanning pointed to the large shaft of the propeller and asked, "Sea water will enter the ship along the gap."

"It seems to be sealed with rubber, but it still can't be completely sealed. Water seeps into the cabin all the time, but it's not a big problem. There's very little water seeping in. We will have someone clean it up regularly."

This is not bad, anyway, now that the watertight cabin has been invented, Fan Ning asked again: "I heard you say that coke can be saved a lot, how much is it?"

"I have personally experienced that it used to cost about 450 catties of coke to sail from Beidao to Quanzhou. This time, propellers were used instead of paddle wheels. For the same distance and the same boat, only [-] catties of coke were consumed, saving nearly half. .”

Fan Ning was shocked, "According to what you said, a fleet of a hundred large ships would consume [-] catties of coke for one voyage?"

"Almost! Forty days of sailing, twenty catties of coke a day is definitely needed. If ordinary coal is used, fifty catties of coal a day must be burned, so a large-scale fleet sails at most once a year, usually five to ten ships Sailing in teams left and right. The coke consumption is too great, we can't afford it."

"Have you found any coal mines in the North Island?"

Zhu Qi was startled, "What is coal?"

"Coal is just another name for coal."

"That's a good name!"

Zhu Qi smiled and said: "The coal mines on the North Island have indeed been found, but the reserves are far less than those in the South Continent. Moreover, our coal mines have to be dug in flat wells. Not to mention the danger, it takes a lot of energy and the output is also very low. Small, but the Southern Continent is different. The coal seam is hundreds of feet thick, and it is directly mined in the open pit, using iron fire mines to mine. Tens of thousands of catties, and then directly transported to the nearby large-scale coking workshop, millions of catties of coke can be smelted a year, part of which is used for ships, and the other part is used to smelt refined steel."

Fan Ning yearned leisurely, and asked again: "Your fine steel is used to supply the imperial court, so what do you do?"

Zhu Qi lowered his voice and said: "The so-called full supply to the imperial court is just talking. In fact, we only supply 300% of the refined steel to the imperial court and keep the other 900% for our own use. However, this time we have reached an agreement to replace refined steel with ordinary pig iron. Next year we will All the [-] million catties of fine steel will be sold to the imperial court, and [-] million catties of ordinary pig iron will be returned.”

Fan Ning shook his head, "Impossible, the annual output of imperial iron is only 1000 million catties, how could it be possible to exchange it for you for 900 million catties at once, let me tell you, the 150 million catties you exchanged this time is already the limit, every year At most, I can exchange so much for Bei Dao, and keep the rest for myself.”

Zhu Qi had a look of disappointment on his face, so he nodded, "I see, I'll go back and discuss it with everyone."

At this time, Fan Ning walked up to the big box, patted the box and said with a smile, "Is this what Uncle Tieniu gave me?"

"Exactly! Just took it out of the freezer."

There was a buckle on the top of the box. Fanning opened the box and saw that there were four cloth bags inside. The largest bag was bulging and filled with potatoes. There were thirty or forty of them. The other three bags contained two plates of sunflowers. , a small bag of peanuts, and a pack of tobacco leaves.

Peanuts and sunflowers are both original ecology, but the tobacco leaves are fermented. It should be roasted at a low temperature that I taught him. This is very important. If the roasting temperature is too high, there will be a pungent smell, and the taste will not be good. It will be better.

Fan Ning took a piece of tobacco leaf and chewed it for a while, the taste was bitter, without the aroma of flue-cured tobacco, and the color was darker, not golden enough, obviously over-toasted.

Fan Ning rummaged again in the cloth bag where the tobacco leaves were placed, and found that the tobacco leaves were divided into four small bags, each tied with a rope. Fan Ning asked Zhu Qi, "My third uncle should ask you to bring me something!"

Zhu Qi thought for a while and said, "It seems to mean that he doesn't know the quality of tobacco leaves, so I want you to judge for him."

Sure enough, he asked himself to help him judge. Third uncle Fan Tieniu roasted four batches, but he didn't know which batch was top grade, so he asked himself to judge for him.

However, the brochure I handed to him clearly stated what constituted top-grade flue-cured tobacco, so I guess I was still a little worried and undecided.

Fan Ning took a closer look at the four batches of flue-cured tobacco. The last batch seemed to be good, with a golden color and no impurities. He tore off a piece and chewed it. The taste was very mellow.

Fan Ning was overjoyed, put the fourth batch of flue-cured tobacco into the bag, handed it to Zhu Qi and said, "This batch is roasted very well, tell my second uncle, I will roast it according to this batch, then cut into shreds, sprinkle with spices, put In the pipe, I made it clear in the pamphlet, he ought to know."

"Don't worry! I will definitely pass it on to Uncle Tieniu."

Two days later, the fleets headed for the Southern Continent and the North Island set sail one after another, and headed for the East China Sea along the Yangtze River. More than 200 ships stretched for dozens of miles. This time, their trip will definitely have a profound impact on the Southern Continent.

When Fan Ning returned to the capital, the reform of the official system had already begun. The first reform was to restore the three provinces of the Tang Dynasty, abolish the political affairs, and use Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi as the title of Xiangguo. The voting system of the Xiangguozhizhengtang was retained. The court meeting system has been reformed. The content of the daily court meeting is specified by the emperor, and the supervisor in the palace is responsible for notifying each participating official three days in advance. The participating officials of the daily small court meeting are also changed from officials of the third rank and above to the officials of the sixth rank and above. .

The second reform is to remove all those who have names in the provinces, Taiwan, temples, and prisons, so that each institution has a fixed number, a fixed number of people, and fixed responsibilities, so that the official and the dispatching officer are integrated into one, which is called the integration of duties. For example, before Fan Chunren was the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple and knew about Yangzhou affairs. After the reform, his title of Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple was lost, and his official position was the governor of Yangzhou.

In the past, many people held the same official position in the court, which was called a few carrots and one pit. After the reform, it became one carrot and one pit.

At the same time, the number of official positions in provinces, Taiwan, monasteries, and supervisors will be increased. For example, there was only one minister in each department, and then there were four divisions in each department. Now each department has left and right ministers, and each department has eight divisions. Refinement of powers and responsibilities.

The third reform is the merger of institutions. The three divisions belong to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, the Trial Court is merged with the Ministry of Officials, and the Trial Court is placed under the Ministry of Punishment, etc.

The fourth reform is the local reform, abolishing magistrates, all called county magistrates, changing the three major magistrates under the county from officials to officials, and upgrading them to nine-rank officials. Promoted to rank nine officials.

The fifth reform is to subdivide scattered officials into 24 levels, which are used to determine the salaries and benefits of officials, and then the promotion of each level must have a number of years and other conditions. This is actually taking care of seniority.

For example, a certain person has outstanding talent, and the imperial court promoted him to be a doctor in the household department. You will get job subsidies and the like.

Another example is an official who has been in politics for 20 years, but his ability is really mediocre. It is impossible to promote him to be a servant of the household department. His ability can only be a county magistrate, so he is a county magistrate. , but the qualifications are enough, the official rank is promoted to the fifth rank Chaosan doctor, and enjoys the salary of the fifth rank.

So the fifth reform is actually a kind of compromise. If the ability is enough, the qualifications will come sooner or later. Just like Fan Ning, everyone used to say that he lacked qualifications and actually got promoted, but now no one mentions this matter anymore. I have also been an official for nearly 20 years, and my qualifications are sufficient.

But most of the officials who are not capable enough cannot be promoted. In order to appease them, they are promoted and their income will naturally increase. As long as they have enough qualifications, small officials can also receive high salaries.

So the comments of the major newspapers in the capital are, 'a reformist reform'.

In the afternoon, when Fan Ning was drinking tea at the Qingfeng Tea House next to his house, he unexpectedly met the Su brothers.

(End of this chapter)