Chapter 64 Monthly protection can be discounted

Chapter 063

"This group of pirates, both men and women, are usually for the people. Once they go out, men, women and children will come. The women there are more ferocious than the men. They have more than 100 large and small fishing boats, including more than 30 bird boats, and two

Western ships are quite powerful."

Li Zhixiang smiled bitterly and said: "If our Ning Navy has the strength of the Dongjiang Army Navy, we can naturally fight. However, our Ning Navy Navy only has 21 ships, and 15 of them are just river ships, so there is no way

beat!"

Only then did Cheng Shijie learn that this so-called bird boat was actually one of the four famous ships in ancient China. It had a length of 31 meters, a width of 6.8 meters, a draft of 2.2 meters, and a displacement of 230 tons.

In terms of appearance, this kind of ship is almost twice the size of the Ninghai Navy's 400-gun ship. It uses an ancient wooden rudder with a length of 11 meters and a width of 2.3 meters. It has three masts and five sails, of which the main mast is 24.5 meters high.

, with three main sails, the sailing speed can reach up to 9 nautical miles per hour using wind power.

This speed was already very impressive in the era of sailboats.

As for the Western ship, it was a Portuguese Carrick, with a displacement of more than 800 tons. For the Ning Navy, this was simply a huge vessel.

Cheng Shijie understood that this South Island was right under Dengzhou's nose. If it was dark under the lamp, it was still possible for a while. For so many years, this Meng Xianhan under Xu Hongru's command had not been exposed, which meant that officially, he must have someone.

Pirates are different from bandits. Bandits are more secretive, especially in desolate places like Ninghai Prefecture. They can just find a forest, dig into a ravine, and disappear.

But you can see more than ten miles at a glance at sea, and you can see more than ten kilometers with a telescope. More importantly, pirates have a unique smell. As pirates, they want to sell stolen goods, right?

You always have to buy supplies, right?

Meng Xianhan was not discovered as an old subordinate of Xu Hongru. This can indeed be done easily. This group of pirates were not discovered, which only shows that their official backing is still very strong.

However, Cheng Shijie felt a little regretful. Meng Xianhan was indeed a fat man, but the problem was that the fat meat grew on the body of a fat pig. If you want to eat fat meat, you must be strong enough, otherwise you will be killed by the fat pig.

Naval battles are different from land battles. Even if there is a numerical advantage, the problem is that the numerical advantage cannot be used. Especially in the Ning Navy, there are many landlubbers. On land, they are pretty good, but at sea,

The combat effectiveness cannot be exerted.

Although there are some regrets, Cheng Shijie also knows that he cannot make rash progress now, let alone seek success in a hurry. If he takes too big a step, he will easily get hurt. If he rushes for success, he will not only fall short of success, but may even overturn.

"There is no need to make any announcement about this matter for the time being. Let brothers take a good rest. Your bodies are too weak. If you don't have a good body, how can you fight?"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Let's carry out restorative training with peace of mind first. When our navy becomes stronger and our brothers are in good health, we can then kill pigs and eat meat. They can't run away anyway!"

"Yes, I resign from my humble position!"

Just when brothers Li Zhixiang and Li Fang walked to the door, Li Fang suddenly turned around and said: "Master Guard, I have something to say!"

"Say it!"

"We have many brothers in the Dongjiang Army. I wonder if the Lord Guards still wants more soldiers?"

Li Fang was worried that Cheng Shijie would not let him go, so he hurriedly said: "These soldiers are all good soldiers. They are veterans who have fought against the Jiannu slaves for many years. They have strong fighting ability. Even though the brothers are poorly equipped and cannot eat, what if the garrison master..."

Cheng Shijie couldn't figure out why the Dongjiang Army was leading such a miserable life while guarding the sea.

They can imitate Ning's navy to dry salt, go fishing at sea, or plant kelp on the sea. Kelp is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Under suitable conditions, each giant kelp can grow to 30 to 30 to 100 years old in a day.

Sixty centimeters, a piece of kelp can grow more than 50 meters in one year.

Kelp has high nutritional value, and Cheng Shijie himself likes to eat it. Moreover, this kind of kelp is a unique product of the North Pacific and is suitable for growing in cold seawater. The Dongjiang Army controls more than 400 islands of various sizes in the Liaodong Peninsula, and in

Guards were set up on more than thirty islands.

Jiannu does not have the ability to attack the sea, let alone attack the sea. Even the Yalu River can only pass through when it is frozen in winter. With the strength of the Dongjiang Army Navy, they can torture Jiannu to death.

"Do they have any craftsmen who can build ships?"

"have!"

"Let them come!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Let them come to Hot Spring Town. The dock is too small and needs to be expanded. The warships also need to be repaired. We need to build a repair dock."

"Thank you, Lord Guard!"

Li Fang was overjoyed, but Li Zhixiang frowned secretly: "This clan brother wants to cause trouble!"

Although Ninghai City is a place with thousands of households, in fact, it is more like a commercial city. In particular, the military households in Ninghai City are very capable. Gu Shizhang spent 6,800 taels of silver to hire Ning Haijun to protect his caravan.

.

Neither Song Xiance nor Zhou Yandong had the authority to mobilize Ning Haijun. In order to complete this task, they temporarily organized some military households to accompany him under the banner of Ning Haijun.

With the bandits in Ninghai Prefecture, including Qin Wu who is not in Ninghai Prefecture, regardless of whether they number in the thousands or hundreds, more than a dozen groups of bandits have been eliminated by Ning Haijun. These bandits are also very well-informed.

They all speculated that this might be Ning Haijun fishing for law enforcement.

They protect caravans as they travel, and if they are attacked, they can strike across the border.

It is more than 900 miles from Dengzhou to Jinan. Along the way, there are hundreds of bandits, large and small, but no one dares to move. The role of example is huge. This situation was soon known to other merchants, and they came to Ninghai City to negotiate.

business.

When these merchants arrived in Ninghai City, they discovered that this was not a military city, but a city made up of factories. Carriage factories, furniture factories, textile factories, farm tools factories, especially factories that produced farm tools, and the hoes they produced were actually...

What is used is not iron, but steel.

After this situation was discovered by the merchants, they discovered a new world.

The agricultural tools produced by Ninghaicheng's agricultural tool factory are almost all made of steel. Hoes, guillotines, heads, hammers, axes, hatchets, plows, columbians, plows, harrows, and lào are all made of steel.

.

Of course, these businessmen didn't know that these were actually not made, but cast. Since the demand for farm tools was not high, Cheng Shijie especially handed over the cold-casting process of shafts to the craftsmen.

The iron parts of farm tools such as guillotines and plows are directly made into molds. After the molten steel is cooled by the cooling tank, it flows out of the mold, and is directly shaped after simple grinding.

Since then, production efficiency has been greatly improved. As long as there are enough molds, it is not a problem to produce tens of thousands of simple agricultural tools like hoes in a day.

"Do you sell the hoes here?"

"Nonsense, the things you produce will naturally have to be sold. As long as you have enough money, everything will be easy!"

"How much does this hundred-refined hoe cost?"

"Three denarii, not even a penny less!"

Ninghai Agricultural Tool Factory made one cent and five cents in tears.

In fact, it was not just the Ming Dynasty that was short of iron. Even in the 1980s and 1990s, some remote areas still used wooden agricultural tools. The main reason was iron deficiency. Of course, it was not that China was short of iron, but that due to backward transportation or technology, there were

Railway transportation is not coming in. This is not the same as the situation in Ming Dynasty.

Many farmers in the Ming Dynasty could not afford iron farm tools at all. When pig iron sold for more than 100 yuan per kilogram, the value of farm tools can be imagined. A waist knife weighing about two kilograms could be sold for eighty yuan.

Nine taels of silver.

The imperial-style sword was actually just a piece of iron. The effect of cutting people was very poor. It was only covered with iron armor. The armor piece was only three or four millimeters thick at most, so it couldn't cut in. If you use the knife of later generations,

Let alone an iron piece of three to four millimeters, even a steel bar of eight millimeters can be cut. This is the difference.

When Cheng Shijie returned to Ninghai City, dozens of new shops had opened on the streets. Since Ninghai City was very limited, the whole city seemed a bit crowded.

When Zhou Yandong heard that Cheng Shijie was back, he immediately came to discuss the matter with Cheng Shijie.

"Greetings to the Lord Guard!"

"Brother Zhou, you've seen someone outside again, haven't you?"

Zhou Yandong's face was flushed and he looked more energetic. He reported to Cheng Shijie: "Master Guards, there are currently fifteen merchants who have come to Ning Haijun to escort the caravan, with thirty batches of goods, and a total of thirty-nine thousand has been collected.

Escort fee for both parties!”

"The protection fee is not low!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Brother Zhou, please let me talk to them. We are a single transaction, and the protection fee is a bit high. However, we also have monthly and annual services."

Cheng Shijie pointed at a batch of linen from Guoji Company and preached: "Look, Guoji's protection fee for this shipment is 5,300 taels of silver. If it is a monthly subscription, we will charge 1,000 taels of silver. As long as we leave two taels a month."

Once the goods are shipped, the rest is what they earn.”

"This is not good!"

Zhou Yandong thought for a while and said, "Isn't it a little low?"

"It's not low. It's more than 900 miles from Jinan to Dengzhou. It takes almost a month to go back and forth."

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "How many times can they ship goods in a month?"

"That...it is indeed!"

Cheng Shijie pointed to the words on the bill and said: "Take Guo Ji as an example. If they offer annual subscription, it will be cheaper for them, eight thousand taels of silver a year. On average, it is only equivalent to more than 600 taels of silver every month. They

Make a lot of money."

Zhou Yandong reported on the recent production situation. Their carriage factory has ordered 200 four-wheel carriages. If these orders are completed, it will not be until next year.

The most popular thing is actually the steel farm tools of the farm tool factory. This month’s profit is more than 8,000 taels. In addition to the factories of the Gun Bureau, the Ordnance Bureau, and the Armored Crossbow Bureau, even the quilt factory can also maintain profits.

state.

"Lord Guard, those merchants want to build shops in Ninghai City, but we have no place to sell them to them in the city!"

Cheng Shijie took a pen and drew a circle in the direction of the south gate of Ninghai City: "Tell them that from now on, the original Qianhu Residence will be regarded as the inner city of Ninghai City. If the city wall is moved another five miles to the south, this area can be sold to them!"
To be continued...