Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 153 A Good Idea
Gan Ning established more than ten Jinfan docks along the coast of Kuaiji and began to manufacture and develop ships. The two largest shipyards were in Shanyin and Zhang'an.
Zhang'an is directly facing the sea and is surrounded by a large number of huge trees. There are teak trees in the jungle that require more than ten people to hug, and the thinnest part of the trunk is three or four meters long. It is difficult to find such thick teak in later generations. They are excellent materials for making keels and decks.
The rest of the pine and fir wood can be used to make some less important parts, and they are inexhaustible.
It can be said that even when the Ming Dynasty sailed to the West, they did not have the convenience of natural resources that we have today...
Shanyin was the seat of Kuaiji, not the Shanyin in Shanxi in later generations, but in the area of Shaoxing, close to Qiantang and Fuchun in Wu County. In terms of the advantage of local materials, it is slightly inferior to Zhang'an, but it is close to Hangzhou Bay in later generations. As a bay, the sea surface is relatively calm, which is equivalent to the entrance in simple mode.
In addition, it is relatively convenient whether you enter the Qiantang River locally, or enter Sanjiang along the coastal area and then enter Zhenze.
That is to say, in shipbuilding, Zhang'an Jinfanwu focuses on seagoing ships and Shanyin Jinfanwu focuses on river ships.
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools - and more important than "tools" is naturally the "Tao", that is, the manufacturing principle!
Before Ningjin started to attract money and there was no foundation for large-scale shipbuilding, the shipbuilders were not idle. Instead, they experimented with new sails under the guidance of the drawings that Bai Tu gave to Gan Ning...
According to Bai Tu's drawings, a real "sailboat" can not only sail against the wind, but its speed can even exceed the wind speed.
To the shipwrights of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this was pure fantasy. If Gan Ning had not been the governor of Kuaiji and concurrently the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, they might have protested. However, when it came to Gan Ning... no one dared to say a word.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money, just make a model first - a small boat that is as big as one person can always be made!
Moreover, under the guidance of the drawings, they explored a little bit at a time and actually succeeded in the experiment. Now the "simulated ship" can sail against the wind. Although the simulated ship is controlled by only one person, which is similar to the single-person sailing ship that is used as a competitive event in later generations, the principle is the same after all.
The shipbuilders’ understanding of the flow speed on curved surfaces is still very superficial, and it is a little difficult to be “faster than the wind”, but they can already sail in a zigzag shape against the wind by adjusting the angle of the sail!
As for the primitive steamship, there were many blind spots in its structure that touched upon the shipwrights at that time, and required the collaborative research and development of other trades. Gan Ning seemed irritable, but he was not impatient. He first let them practice by improving the sailboat.
Most of the river ships are technological improvements from the Eastern Wu period, while the sea ships are based on the sand ship model, which is a flat-bottomed boat that is not afraid of running aground. They are simpler than the pointed-bottomed Fujian ships. Moreover, there is no need to consider improving the combat effectiveness of sea ships for the time being, and navigation is the main direction of research and development breakthroughs.
…
At this time in the general's mansion in Jinling, Bai Tu received the documents sent by Liu Biao. Excluding those high-sounding nonsense, in general... Liu Biao rejected all of Bai Tu's requests.
Previously, when the drought worsened, Bai Tu was worried that the relief grain in reserve would be insufficient, so he considered purchasing it from Jingzhou and Yizhou.
As for the Central Plains and Guanzhong? Forget it. Those warring princes are short of food, and it is not convenient to take the route.
"This Liu Biao guy is simply presumptuous of being a royal family member! Not only did he refuse to sell us grain when we asked him for it, but he even refused to allow us to pass through when we wanted to buy grain from Yizhou!" Bai Tu was quite indignant.
Lu Su, who was at the bottom, didn't find it strange...
Jingzhou, especially Nanjun and Nanyang, is located on the Yunmeng Lake, and the drought in Huainan has little impact on it.
But Liu Bian was obviously wary of Bai Tu now, so how could he sell food to him?
As for purchasing food and fodder from Yizhou... Lu Su was not very optimistic about it. Although it was possible to take the Yangtze River waterway, which would have much less losses than land transportation using human and animal power, the cost was still a bit high because of Jingzhou in between.
It is even slightly higher than the current grain price in Wu County. After the drought began, the grain price in Wu County has increased four or five times, reaching one thousand coins per stone.
Bai Tu did not make things too difficult for the Ministry of Revenue. In theory, it was the Ministry of Revenue's responsibility to regulate grain prices. However, since the sale of relief grain was prohibited, it did not matter if the grain prices were a little higher. After all, the people would buy relief grain.
The trading volume of ordinary grain is very low. Basically, it is only traded between aristocratic families, and the other is purchased by the General's Mansion.
In comparison, the Ministry of Justice has been much more aggressive in cracking down on the reselling of relief grain. Two local tyrants have already had their homes raided because of this, making it clear that this is a red line that cannot be crossed.
It was not unfair for the relief grain to be confiscated. After all, in order to facilitate storage and reduce transportation consumption, the relief grain was stored in each county’s own treasury. So... where did the relief grain sold on a large scale come from?
After being processed by Cheng Ji, the relief grain has basically become an anti-counterfeit product. The noble families who really care about their reputation now dare not think about taking the relief grain, otherwise it would be tantamount to directly admitting to the people that they have touched the disaster relief treasury.
Lu Su had calculated before that if he purchased grain from Yizhou, after adding up all the costs, it would cost basically 1,500 coins to harvest one stone of grain in Chaisang.
However, the grain in Jiangdong is basically in a state of high price but low demand now, so it is possible to consider purchasing grain from Yizhou at a premium.
But now there is no need to consider it. Liu Biao, who occupies the middle section of the Yangtze River, has no intention of borrowing the passage. The grain of Yizhou in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River cannot be directly flown to the lower reaches...
When the Gan family of Shu County separated their clansmen and came to Jiangdong, their light boats and fast ships with a few hundred people were not conspicuous, and they did not need Liu Biao's consent. However, it was too easy to block the shiploads of grain!
As for individual purchases and small boat deliveries?
The cost would be several times higher, and even a white map would be unaffordable...
Because Bai Tu accepted a group of Sun Ce who had a grudge against Liu Biao and Huang Zu, compared to Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Liu Biao is the one who is most wary of Bai Tu now.
"Zi Jing, in addition to clearing the river and digging canals during the dry season, we should also start digging deep wells in Danyang and the southern part of Wujun to prevent any accidents!" After Bai Tu was angry, he still began to arrange the project.
This year, due to the decrease in grain production, Bai Tu increased the intensity of "hiring corvée" based on the idea that using relief grain to "open warehouses for disaster relief" would be a loss and "hiring corvée" would not pay .
While the relief grain in stock was greatly reduced, the laborers in Wujun and Danyang were abundant!
At the same time, Bai Tu also wanted to send a message to Poyang and Kuaiji. Although the journey would be more consuming, he would try to transport some food to Wujun and Danyang...
Poyang County and Kuaiji County were far away from the Yangtze River. The former had the Poyang River system, while the latter was south of the Qiantang River system.
The drought centered in Huainan has not yet had a major impact on Kuaiji and Poyang.
If this continues, Bai Tu is worried that the relief food that was originally estimated to be sufficient will be insufficient, so he is already hoping to raise food and grass in Poyang County and Kuaiji County...
It’s just that Poyang was not open enough before, and the arable land area was a little small. As for Kuaiji... it was famous for its rugged mountains, making it difficult to transport grain.
Bai Tu thought about it for a whole night before he came up with a universal "good idea"!
