Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 62 Going to Yangzhou

Wang Jiankun turned on the searchlight in the cockpit, checked the port terrain scanned by the radar, and slowly steered the boat away from the refueling berth under the guidance of the port lighthouse.

When we were far away from the shore and the water was more than 10 meters deep, we pointed the bow diagonally towards the center of the Yangtze River and slowly increased the speed to 20 knots.

It was already past 8 o'clock in the evening, and there were fewer ships on the Yangtze River waterway, with only a few large ships sailing in the night.

The ship information scanned by the radar is displayed on the screen. When a ship approaches within 3 kilometers, the alarm on the console will beep to remind you.

When approaching 1 kilometer, a sharp alarm will sound. If the speed or course is not manually adjusted within 3 seconds of the alarm, the automatic control system will enter the automatic driving mode to avoid.

The Yangtze River waterway was very empty at night, so Wang Jiankun rarely heard the beeping sound.

After observing the sailing conditions, Wang Jiankun switched the boat to automatic driving mode, and he sat in his seat to learn from Zhizi the knowledge of microscopic particles and high-energy physics.

Time passed by unknowingly like the surging waters of the Yangtze River. After sailing for more than 4 hours, the ship arrived at AQ City in Anhui Province.

Wang Jiankun had been absorbing new knowledge along the way and was a little dizzy at this time, so he decided to stop at the dock here for a short rest and continue his journey after daybreak.

After docking, Wang Jiankun lowered the gangway, threw the rope onto the dock, then locked the cabin and got off the boat carrying his bag.

At this time, the night shift port staff had come to the side of the ship and tied the cable to the stone pier used to secure the ship.

Wang Jiankun took out a cigarette and handed it to the staff member, saying, "Comrade, I will park here temporarily for a few hours and leave at dawn. How much do you charge?"

The staff member took the cigarette and put it on his ear and said, "Comrade, you will have to pay half a day for parking a few hours. Your boat looks more than 20 meters long. According to the berthing fee standard, it should be 8 yuan. Please follow me to the toll booth to pay and get the bill."

"Okay, please lead the way. Is there any midnight snack for sale here? I'm a little hungry after sailing for so long."

"Yes, I'll take you there after you pay me."

After paying the fee and getting the receipt at the cashier's office, Wang Jiankun followed the staff to the cafeteria not far away.

At this time, several port workers on night shift were also eating. Looking at the window, they saw noodles and steamed buns, with side dishes of pickles, chili sauce and fermented tofu.

Wang Jiankun ordered two bowls of noodles and two steamed buns and asked the leading staff to eat together.

The two chatted while eating, mainly Wang Jiankun asking the staff about the situation of the port and the ships that docked there.

According to the staff, in the past year, more and more private business owners have come to this port to dock to refuel and refill water and to pick up and drop off passengers.

However, none of the ships are as big as Wang Jiankun's. The largest one is less than 20 meters. It is understood that it was contracted by five brothers and they transport people and some groceries between several cities along the river in Anhui Province.

After hearing this, Wang Jiankun became more confident that it would not be particularly eye-catching to form a fleet by himself.

By then, the autopilot system will be castrated, the captain will use people from his own team, and the engine will be changed to a diesel engine.

This will slow down the speed and make more noise, but it is still much better than those old contracted ships.

There is no other way to use diesel engines, as gasoline is now cheaper than diesel (domestic vehicles and ships are mainly powered by diesel engines and use a lot of diesel, so there is not much equipment to use the refined gasoline and most of it is exported).

However, after observing two ports in a row, we found that there were almost no ships using gasoline, so the gasoline storage capacity at the dock gas stations was very small. It would definitely be troublesome to use a large amount of gasoline if we were to form a fleet in the future.

This already built K200 will be used as a training captain and his own special means of transportation. Then, let Tomoko design a diesel version of the K200 and name it K200X!
After having a midnight snack and chatting with the staff, Wang Jiankun returned to the captain's lounge to rest. In order to prevent oversleeping, he even made an alarm clock and placed it on the bedside table.

I was woken up by the alarm clock in a daze. I rubbed my eyes and it was already dawn.

After the ship stopped, the heating also stopped. Although the captain's lounge was made as sealed as possible, it was still a bit cold in the morning after being blown by the cold river breeze for half the night.

After putting on clothes and going to the cockpit, I turned on the engine first. The temperature outside should be only 5 or 6 degrees at this time, so I had to let the machine warm up first to allow the lubricating oil to melt.

Then I went down to the lounge to get some water to brush my teeth and wash my face. After washing up, I ran to the dock canteen and bought ten buns and six steamed dumplings and brought them back to the ship, which served as both breakfast and lunch.

Because Wang Jiankun decided to fly directly to Yangzhou, he went there to see what the house rented with the help of the two bosses Hu Yuefei and Ge Tianwei was like, and handed over 3 lighters to them.

After breakfast, Wang Jiankun signaled the dock staff to untie the ropes and steer the boat downstream of the Yangtze River.

There were more boats on the river during the day. Wang Jiankun drove the boat to a maximum speed of 30 knots, turned on the navigation equipment, and recorded the terrain while making an electronic map.

The gray K200 passed tugboats and passenger ships one after another. Every time it passed a ship, the captain and passengers would stick their heads out to observe. Seeing the words K200 written on it, they all thought it was a foreign ship.

Passing through several major cities along the river, including Tongling, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, and Nanjing, Wang Jiankun did not stop at any time. He just slowed down the boat at the port and used his superpowers to take a closer look before leaving.

After passing Nanjing, we arrived in Zhenjiang, where we crossed the Yangtze River and arrived at Guazhou Town.

After sailing downstream along the north bank of the Yangtze River for more than 10 kilometers, we saw many boats queuing at a river mouth waiting to enter the river.

Wang Jiankun estimated the distance and knew that the estuary was the confluence of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, so he slowed the boat down to about 5 knots and followed the queue of boats to slowly head into the river.

At this time, there is a lighthouse on the left bank of the estuary, which must be used to indicate the direction for ships at night and tell passing ships to enter and exit the Grand Canal from here.

After traveling 8 kilometers north along the Grand Canal, we arrived at a lock where passing ships lined up waiting to pass through.

Many berths have been built next to the lock. Several coal ships and cargo ships carrying iron ore, sand and gravel dock at this canal terminal to unload goods, and there are also many trucks on the shore to load goods.

When paying the fee at the lock, Wang Jiankun asked the staff how far north Fanjia Town was.

The staff told him that if he went about 12 kilometers further north, he would reach Fanjia Town, which was on the edge of the ancient canal. When he came across a small river mouth, he would reach Fanjia Town, where there was also a small pier for docking.

After passing the lock, we slowly headed north at a speed of 8 knots. At this time, the weeds on both sides of the canal were withered and yellow, and there were sporadic small chimneys on the shore emitting gray-black smoke, which must be some small factories.

Moreover, the further north you go, the more chimneys you see. After walking for less than 10 kilometers, you will see a small pier. A little further north is a narrower river channel. I guess this must be the ancient canal that the lock staff mentioned.

Now that he had arrived at the place, Wang Jiankun drove the boat to the pier, parked it, dropped the anchor, threw the cable to the pier staff to help secure it, and then used a crane to lower a bicycle to the pier.

The staff looked at this ship type they had never seen before, with letters and numbers written on it and its own crane to lift cargo. It felt very high-end and they wondered what country the ship belonged to.

After lifting the bicycle, Wang Jiankun did not retract the crane arm. He would have to unload the lighter after finding Hu Yuefei and Ge Tianwei.

I walked from the cockpit to the lounge, put on my backpack, and walked down the gangway to the dock.

The staff found it a bit strange to see that Wang Jiankun was the only one coming down with a bag on his back. How could only one person come down from such a big ship? They also didn't see any other people in the cabin above.

Wang Jiankun saw the staff member looking at the boat all the time, so he walked up to him and said, "Comrade, could you please tell me how much the boat parking fee is?"

"Ah? Oh, comrade, how long will your ship be docked? Our dock charges 12 hours per node. Your ship is more than 20 meters but less than 30 meters long. The berthing fee is 6 yuan for 12 hours. If it is less than 12 hours, it will be charged as 12 hours."

"Okay, it's a little before 3 o'clock now, I'll probably leave around 9 o'clock in the evening."

"That will also count as 12 hours. Give me the money and I'll give you the ticket."

Wang Jiankun glanced at him, then looked around the dock. He saw only a windproof brick-and-wood pavilion. Inside, two other people in work clothes were chatting and pointing at Wang Jiankun's ship from time to time.

The staff saw him looking around and asked, "Comrade, what are you looking at? Give me the money and I'll tear off a ticket for you. When you want to leave, show the ticket to the night shift staff and they'll untie the ropes and let you go."

"Is your place so simple? There is no toll booth or office, only a booth."

"Hey, what are you looking at? This pier was built with funds raised by our town. It doesn't count as the canal management office's pier, so there's no formal office or toll booth. But it's cheap to moor your boat here. Don't worry, we are hired by the town, and the mooring tickets are stamped."

As he spoke, he took out a booklet that looked like an invoice from his arms. On the top of it was written "Fanjia Town Boat Ticket", and there was actually a red seal on it, which was the seal of the town government's finance department.

So Wang Jiankun paid 6 yuan, the staff filled in the stopover time, and then tore off a white copy from the notebook and gave it to him, asking him to keep it safe and not lose it, and to give it to the staff when leaving so that he could untie the rope and leave.

After collecting the boat ticket, I rode my bike to the town to find Hu Yuefei and Ge Tianwei.

The two of them had already told him their detailed addresses before. When they set out from Hukou Town, Wang Jiankun sent a telegram to tell them that he would come to Yangzhou to meet them that day.

Wang Jiankun asked around along the way and learned a lot from the soft Wu dialect, which was very pleasant to hear. After riding for more than 20 minutes, he finally arrived at Hu Yuefei's workshop, stopping and starting.

The house doesn't look big from the outside, but the yard is quite large. There is also a chimney made of red bricks more than 8 meters high, which is emitting black smoke. There are also knocking sounds in the yard.

The gate of the courtyard was closed. Wang Jiankun checked the house number and went up to knock on the door after confirming it was correct.

After knocking a few times, a head popped up on the courtyard wall. It was Wang Jiankun who was holding a bicycle alone. The head disappeared from the courtyard wall. After a while, the courtyard gate opened and Hu Yuefei came out with a smile on his face.

"Brother Jiankun, welcome, come in and sit down. My subordinates are ignorant and neglectful." He welcomed Wang Jiankun in. "No, considering your scale is not small, it is right to be cautious."

After entering the door, Hu Yuefei asked someone to take the bicycle and park it in the corner of the yard, and then led Wang Jiankun to the second floor of the house.

Knowing that Wang Jiankun didn't smoke, he asked his wife to pour tea.

Hu Yuefei's wife is thinner than Hu Yuefei, but her skin is not as dark as that of other rural women. Instead, her skin is a little white. She should be rarely busy outside. After pouring tea, she invited him to have tea and snacks in Yangzhou dialect.

Wang Jiankun also expressed his thanks in Yangzhou dialect, which aroused the curiosity of Hu Yuefei and his wife, and they even asked whether his ancestors were from Yangzhou.

Wang Jiankun told them that he had learned this from a passerby when he asked for directions just now. They both praised him for his talent for languages ​​and said that they still couldn't speak Mandarin fluently.

After some greetings, Wang Jiankun explained his purpose and said that he had brought 3 lighters. He was on a boat at the town's dock. He asked Hu Yuefei to take him to meet Ge Tianwei first, and then go to the two rented houses to complete the transfer procedures and then pick up the lighters.

Hu Yuefei said it was no problem, took Wang Jiankun downstairs, and rode a bicycle to take him to Ge Tianwei's factory.

The two houses are not far from each other, only about 5 meters away. There are some small workshops here. The houses are not big but the yards are big, and they all have rain shelters.

Arriving at Ge Tianwei's house, Hu Yuefei shouted outside the yard: "Old Ge, open the door quickly, Brother Jiankun is here."

After a while, the courtyard door opened, and the tall and strong Ge Tianwei came out and scolded with a smile: "You little moustache, you made me look bad in front of outsiders. Can't you call me by my full name? If you don't speak standard Mandarin, don't just call me by my last name, especially with the word "old" in it."

"Haha! We are old friends. It's more friendly to call you Old Ge. Brother Jiankun has brought some good stuff. Let's go and settle the house first and then go to the dock to pick up the goods."

"Brother Jiankun, please come in and sit down. It's still early."

"No, Boss Ge, I have to go to Jiang Province tonight. Let's get things done first. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future, and I will come here often."

"Okay, it's convenient for you. Let's go to the one I helped you rent. It's in the alley next to mine."

Ge Tianwei led the way, while Wang Jiankun and Hu Yuefei followed holding their bicycles. After walking about 200 meters, they arrived at a yard.

Ge Tianwei took out the key and opened the gate. The yard was empty, about 120 square meters. Then he opened the door of the house. The only furniture left inside was an octagonal table and four benches. There were no other chairs. The lights in the room could be turned on, but there was no bed.

Ge Tianwei told Wang Jiankun that the house belonged to his relative. The whole family had gone abroad and most of the furniture had been sold by the relative, who then entrusted him to sell the house.

Then I took him to the back of the house, where there was a small courtyard of more than 40 square meters. More than 150 meters outside the courtyard was the ancient canal.

Ge Tianwei told Wang Jiankun that the vacant land behind was too close to the river and was quite humid, so generally no one built houses there. But if one wanted to buy or rent it, the town could handle the formalities.

Wang Jiankun asked, "Do you mean the kind that can actually be transferred? Not the kind of private sale contract, right?"

"It's the kind of transfer registered with the government, which requires paying taxes, and the property and land deeds are formal."

"That's good. Let's transfer the ownership of the house first. I'll come back to buy the river beach behind it later."

"Okay, let's go check out the house that Mustache found for you, and then we can transfer the ownership together."

As he said this, he took Hu Yuefei's bicycle, let him sit on the back seat, and asked Wang Jiankun to follow.

After riding for about 1 kilometer, I was probably riding towards the Grand Canal. I could hear the sound of diesel engines of ships.

The three of them came to a two-story building. The house was relatively new and was made of red bricks. The lower floor was built flat, so it should be quite solid.

Hu Yuefei went to the house next door and knocked on the door. An old man came out. After arriving at this house, the old man opened the door. The furniture inside was complete and there was little dust. Someone must come to clean it regularly.

I looked around the rooms and found that the wooden beds and dressing tables in all six rooms were new.

Wang Jiankun asked Hu Yuefei: "Boss Hu, how could such a new house be sold?"

"This house belongs to the old man's nephew. His nephew is going abroad to develop, I think he is going to America. This house was originally built for him to marry a wife. Now there is an opportunity to go abroad, so he doesn't want the partner he was talking to anymore, and he wants to sell this house to raise money for the trip. Do you think foreign countries are so good?"

"I haven't been there either, but I think it should be better. Can this old man be the one to take charge of the transfer? If not, I'll come back next week."

"We were originally talking about renting it, but you later telegraphed that you wanted to buy it, so we have to wait for the owner to come back before we can do anything."

"Okay, please tell the landlord that since he is going to America, ask him if it can be cheaper if he buys it in US dollars, so that he doesn't have to find connections to exchange foreign currency."

"Brother Jiankun, you have foreign exchange, that's great. I'll telegraph him later and tell him when he'll arrive next week. I'll tell him to hurry back from Shanghai."

"I will be here next Wednesday. I will prepare some US dollars and convert them to 9% of the current black market price. Ask him if he agrees."

"Why would he disagree? You're giving him a discount and saving him the trouble. As for using the official exchange rate, that's impossible. He will definitely agree. I'll make it clear in the telegram."

"Okay, then it's settled. Let's go transfer the ownership of the other house first. If it's too late, the staff might have gone off work."

So Ge Tianwei took Wang Jiankun to the town government to transfer the house, while Hu Yuefei went back to find a car to go to the dock.

After paying the tax and completing the transfer of ownership, Wang Jiankun took the house deed and put it in his backpack, and asked Ge Tianwei to ride his bike to take him to the dock.

When they arrived at the dock, Hu Yuefei was already waiting with three flatbed trucks. Wang Jiankun came up to him and said, "Brother Jiankun, your boat is so high-end, with its own crane. The boat looks very beautiful. Where did you get it from?"

"I have a relative overseas. I will drive it first to get familiar with the route and train some sailors. Then my relative will build a few more ships and form a fleet for transportation."

"That's incredible. You want to buy several boats this big and this good? Each one must cost a lot of money, right?"

"I don't know how much it will cost, they just want us to help out, and the management staff will be sent from abroad."

"Oh, so that's the case. Once your fleet is formed, I will ask you to transport my goods in the future. You have to give me a preferential price then!" Hu Yuefei took the opportunity to say.

"Little mustache, you are taking advantage of the other fleet even before they show up. This ship is obviously going fast, so I hope your freight rate doesn't go up."

"Boss, please don't argue. This ship is indeed faster than ordinary ships. I mainly transport people and some urgent goods. I will definitely get a discount if I transport them for you two bosses."

"That's great. There are still cabins available. I'll go to Raozhou and take your ship."

"Okay, let's stop talking for now. I'll go up and lift the goods down and transport them away."

Wang Jiankun lowered the gangway and climbed onto the ship. He controlled the crane to lift down the lighters in the cargo hold twice, then folded the crane, locked the hatch and got off the ship.

Ge Tianwei and Hu Yuefei watched Wang Jiankun control the crane to lift four large bags of lighters to the dock so quickly. They both thought that this crane was very convenient and could also be retracted into the boat.

I wanted to go up and take a look, but when I saw that Wang Jiankun didn't invite me and had already locked the cabin door and got off the boat, I gave up the idea of ​​going up to take a look.

The two men then worked with three cart drivers to load the goods onto the truck. They first went to Hu Yuefei's house and unloaded 2 lighters, and then went to Ge Tianwei's house and unloaded 1 lighters.

After unloading the goods, they had dinner at Ge Tianwei's house. His wife and mother cooked a Huaiyang meal together, and his father also brought out rice wine to accompany the meal.

Wang Jiankun didn't want to drink, but seeing the old man so enthusiastic, Ge Tianwei and Hu Yuefei also persuaded him to drink a little, saying that rice wine has a low alcohol content and it is okay to drink a little.

Not wanting to spoil the fun, he had to agree, thinking that he could just drink a little first, then use his super powers to break down the alcohol into carbon dioxide and water so that he wouldn't get drunk.

As they drank and chatted, the three of them decided to place a large order for these lighters once they found a good market. If they could set up sales outlets or find agents in several northern provinces, they would then come to Yangzhou to cooperate in building a factory and produce them locally.

There are many iron and steel plants here, and it is easy to find assembly workers. When the time comes, we can distribute the parts to various companies and then collect the finished products. There is no need to build a large factory, just a parts stamping workshop and a paint shop.

Wang Jiankun drank half a bowl of rice wine at the beginning, and the rest of the wine was broken down into water and carbon dioxide before it reached his stomach. The carbon dioxide was exhaled from the nostrils as gas, while the water entered his stomach.

So later on, Wang Jiankun became more and more energetic as he drank, while the other three were a little drunk.

The three of them were stunned by Wang Jiankun's drinking capacity. No wonder he could manage such a big business when he had such a good alcohol tolerance at such a young age.

The banquet lasted until after 8 o'clock. Wang Jiankun put down some water, drank a bowl of sobering soup that Ge Tian made for his mother, and then said goodbye and left.

Ge Tianwei, who was still sober, sent Wang Jiankun to the boat at the dock and asked Wang Jiankun to rest for a while before setting sail. He was worried and waited until the lights on the boat went out before leaving.

After Wang Jiankun waited for him to leave the dock, he turned on the generator to preheat it, then got off the boat and found the staff to give them the tickets and asked them to untie the ropes.

After getting on board and watching the cable being thrown back onto the ship, Wang Jiankun drove the boat away from the dock and prepared to head for the East China Sea.

The company is laying off employees recently, and I am also among those who are being laid off because I often slack off. So I have been posting my manuscripts these past two days. The average subscription is only over 3 now. I will starve to death if I just rely on writing books. So the updates may be unstable for a while to come, because I have to find a job. If the average subscription reaches 1 in the future, then the author will finish writing this book full-time. I hope all book friends can help promote the next book. Thank you.
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(End of this chapter)