Xu Jie's second son, Xu Kun, was cheered by his servants and landed on Chongming Island.
Chongming Island is located at the estuary of the Yangtze River. Like Yangzhong Island, it is also an island formed by the sediment accumulation of the Yangtze River at the estuary. In the Ming Dynasty, Chongming Island was already an island with fertile land.
However, Chongming Island at this time was not a large connected island like that of later generations, but several sandbars washed out by the Yangtze River.
Since the early Ming Dynasty, these sandbars have continued to grow larger and gradually formed three main sandbars.
They are Sansha, Dongsha and Xisha. Some of these sandbars are only a hundred meters apart, and you can walk between them at low tide.
At the beginning, the imperial court also set up a patrol department on the Xisha Islands to monitor water bandits and pirates in this part of the waters, but they were removed after the sea was banned.
Originally, there was a county on Chongming Island. After the Fang Guozhen Group used Chongming Island as a stronghold to attack the north of the Yangtze River in the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming court evacuated the island residents and the county government in order to ban the sea.
Nowadays, there are some families on Chongming Island who came over from Jiangbei during the Japanese Rebellion a few years ago.
These people who were opening up wasteland on Chongming Island were all driven out of the thatched houses that they had finally built by the servants of the Xu family and the Songjiang government officials. The stewards of the Xu family gave them two choices.
One is to leave Chongming Island now. They are opening up wasteland privately without permission, and nothing can be taken away.
The other is that they have now signed a contract and become permanent tenants of the Xu family. From now on, the land on Chongming Island will belong to the Xu family, and all land cultivated in the future will have to pay rent to the Xu family.
Naturally, the people cried for their fathers and mothers, but facing the large number of Xu family servants and subordinate officials wearing official clothes, the people's resistance was naturally fruitless. After the leader of the protest was beaten, no one said anything anymore. .
Xu Kun didn't care at all about the wails of these ordinary people. Such things had happened countless times when the Xu family's land expanded.
At this time, he was looking at the map with the butler.
"Master, the land on the island has been surveyed, and the fields can be used to grow cotton. In addition, a dock can be built at this location, and a cotton spinning workshop can be built next to it."
"Has the loom been built?"
"A thousand textile machines have been built, all of the styles commonly used in family workshops. As long as a few experienced weavers bring them with them, they can use them. When these one thousand textile machines are started, there will be no worries about the order from the north. "
Xu Kun said with satisfaction: "This year's war in Liaodong is unfavorable. The court is already very dissatisfied with Wang Yan, the governor of Jiliao. This time, the Ministry of War reported that Liaodong is short of food and clothing, so this big order was made."
The housekeeper immediately said: "If it weren't for the young master's management over the years, our Xu family wouldn't be able to take on such a big order!"
Xu Kun nodded proudly. He had been in charge of the expansion of the Xu family's industry over the years at home.
Xu Kun was also secretly competing with his brother, and he also criticized his father for allowing his brother to stay by his father's side and serve as an official.
If it weren't for me, Xu Kun, how could the Xu family have such a big industry?
This is something Xu Kun has always been proud of. Over the years, as his father's official position has become larger and larger, there are more and more ways to spend money.
Xu Kun has to transport a lot of money to the capital every year. His contribution to the family is no less than that of his brother!
Xu Kun said proudly: "Isn't Su Ze's father-in-law the minister of household affairs in Nanjing? With the Shanghai pier built by Fang Wanghai, do you think you can cover the sky in the south of the Yangtze River?"
"Let me tell you, because Liaodong is short of food, the imperial court has ordered Dengzhou to build hundreds of sea ships to transport food from Shandong north to Liaodong."
"In the future, these ships will also go south to transport the winter clothes purchased by the Ministry of War to Liaodong. Our Xu family will make a lot of money!"
The manager looked at Xu Kun with admiration. This is the best way to make a fortune!
The order for tens of thousands of winter coats from the Liaodong Frontier Army was placed in the entire Songjiang Prefecture. Who else besides the Xu family could fulfill it?
This is why Xu Kun wants to open up connections and develop Chongming Island. He needs to build his own dock and expand the cotton spinning workshop on Chongming Island.
This time the Xu family also spent a lot of money on the loom and hired craftsmen from the entire Songjiang Prefecture. Xu Kun was afraid that the order would not be completed, so he had the craftsmen build the loom in Songjiang Prefecture and wait until it was completed before transporting it to the island.
These looms are all old models that have been used in the Xu family workshop for many years. Although the weaving speed is not very fast, at most it will allow the weavers to work for an extra hour or two.
"When will the pier be built?"
The housekeeper said hesitantly: "Back to the young master, an official from the Songjiang Prefecture Workshop said that the soil on the Dongsha side is not compact enough and is not suitable for building a dock, but it is built on Sansha and it is inconvenient to load and unload."
Xu Kun frowned and said: "It's just a subordinate official's scaremongering. Is it possible that Dongsha can sink? Just build a dock in Dongsha. It is close to the sea and easy to dock sea ships. These winter clothes will be woven in the autumn. Transport it to Liaodong before winter!"
"Understood!"
Xu Kun's heart is full of ambitions. After the Dongsha Pier on Chongming Island is built, he can organize a fleet to go south to do business. Then he will steal all the business of Suze Shanghai Pier and see who is in charge of South Zhili!
What happened years ago was reported back to Songjiang, making Xu Kun very angry. He wanted to seek revenge on Su Ze, but Xu Jie asked his cronies to bring letters, prohibiting Xu Kun from causing trouble to Su Ze in Nanzhili.
Since he is not looking for trouble, then defeat him in business!
Su Ze was just an official, and his backer was Fang Wanghai, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing.
His father is the second minister in the imperial court, is it possible that he can't do business as well as Su Ze?
At the same time, the dusty Lu Er was lying on the grass, watching Su Ze walk into the Shanghai dock in the distance.
Lu Er is the Deputy Qianhu of Jinyiwei. He is related to Lu Bing, the commander of Jinyiwei, and is regarded as Lu Bing's distant nephew according to their seniority.
This time, an order came from the palace for Jin Yiwei to go to Nanjing to monitor Su Ze.
Lu Bing, who was recuperating at home, suddenly spoke up and ordered Lu Er to come to Nanjing.
Lu Er came to Nanjing from the capital with two Jin Yiwei Baihu, and they opened a pork shop at the entrance of the alley of Su Ze's house to monitor Su Ze.
Su Ze stayed at home for two months. Lu Er originally thought it was a good job. Unexpectedly, starting from April, Su Ze traveled frequently, which made Lu Er who was following him very tired.
Lu Er really couldn't figure out why he was assigned such a hard job because he always treated his uncle with respect.
These days, Su Ze went to the academy to inspect the construction site, and to the newly purchased printing shop to inspect the equipment, and then came to Shanghai without stopping.
Lu Er originally sent two of his men to stay at the Shanghai Anti-Smuggling Corps, but he did not expect that Su Ze would not go to the Shanghai Anti-Smuggling Corps, but only went to the Shanghai dock.
Lu Er could only follow him on horseback and squatted on the grass beside the Shanghai pier.
It's now April, and all kinds of mosquitoes are nuisance, making Lu Er feel uncomfortable all over. When will these days end?
After entering the dock, Su Ze's system popped up a prompt:
[Avoid surveillance, "Anti-surveillance" skill experience +10, Lv5, 1/1000]
[Skill 'anti-surveillance' breaks through Lv5 and gets free attribute points: 1, please choose passive skills! 】
Sure enough, luck is conserved, and this time it was three green cards.
Su Ze turned over these three green cards and saw only these three passive skills:
[Green Passive—Disguise Master: When avoiding tracking and using makeup to disguise, anti-surveillance skills +1.]
[Green Passive - Racing Master: When avoiding tracking and using a vehicle, vehicle driving skills +1.]
[Green Passive—King of Secret Spies: When teaching and imparting anti-surveillance courses, anti-surveillance skills +1.]
Su Ze thought about this and chose the third passive.
Feeling the sight behind him disappear, Su Ze knew that Lu Er had entered a fishing state.
Now he already has a certain understanding of this Jin Yiwei.
Lu Er's work seems to be hard, but when he is actually working, he is fishing.
As for the task of monitoring Su Ze, as long as Su Ze's itinerary is recorded, Lu Er will not inquire about the rest.
They are all doing things on royal rations, so why are they working so hard!
Moreover, there were so many court ministers and key personnel under surveillance by Jinyiwei. In fact, even if Lu Er's information was sent to them, no one might even read it.
Lu Er only had to wait until Su Ze came out of the dock and then follow him back to complete his mission.
No longer paying attention to the follower behind him, Su Ze came to Shanghai Pier today mainly to inspect the flood control construction of the terminal.
Although the Yangtze River is milder than the Yellow River, once flooding occurs, it will be very terrifying.
Su Ze's [History] told him that there will be a major flood in the Yangtze River this summer.
This flood swept through Wuhan and Jiujiang in the upper reaches, affected Nanjing and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and raised the water level of the Huaihe River, all the way to Shanghai at the outlet.
Su Ze used the [Water Conservancy] skill to calculate that the Shanghai pier needs to continue to be reinforced to ensure that the pier will not be submerged during a flood.
Watching the dock laborers pile large rocks on the riverside, this kind of dam is the most effective way to prevent river and sea floods. The only disadvantage is that it is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
However, there are still a few months until summer, and according to the current construction progress, it is still not too late.
The dock was full of enthusiasm and enthusiasm. This was because Su Ze paid high wages.
Lifu, who unloads goods at the dock, can get two taels of silver every month. Even in Jiangnan, this is considered a considerable income.
Moreover, the dock also takes care of two meals, which makes Lifu even more motivated.
In addition, Su Ze also collects labor-saving tools from Lifu, and Lifu who invents labor-saving tools will receive additional bounties.
"Ms. Su, this is a rotatable sling, invented by our dock Lifu."
The steward of the dock took Su Ze and pointed to a machine on the port that could rotate its head, similar to a crane.
Su Ze nodded with satisfaction. As expected, the wisdom of the working people is infinite. Some tools did not need to be invented by Su Ze. Workers could figure them out in their daily work.
"Those who participate in the construction of ponds and dams will be given an extra tael of silver. They must be completed before summer."
Su Ze ordered to go down and look at the river where boats were passing by. The Shanghai Pier has rapidly prospered since it was put into use.
The reason is that the natural conditions of this pier are so good.
If it weren't for such a superior geographical location, Shanghai would not quickly become one of the top ports in Asia.
And this port is a natural harbor. Many waters do not even need a pilot, and sea ships can enter the port directly. Compared with Yuegang, which requires careful piloting to enter, Shanghai is a place where God will give you food.
Fang Aizhu whispered in Su Ze's ear and talked about the news he had recently heard.
"The Xu family is buying land on Chongming Island? Are they going to build a dock on Chongming Island?"
Su Ze laughed. This Mr. Xu is a real layman.
Due to sedimentation, there are many reefs in the waters near Chongming Island, making it difficult for ships with deep drafts to dock. Therefore, Chongming Island, which seems to be closer to the sea outlet, is actually not suitable for building a harbor terminal.
Not to mention that many of the sandbars on Chongming Island today only emerged from the river a hundred years ago and have no ability to withstand floods.
However, Su Ze would not kindly remind Mr. Xu that after inspecting the flood control construction of the dock, Su Ze went to Suzhou without stopping.
Poor Lu Er could only continue to mount his horse and keep up.
Su Ze arrived at Suzhou Mansion before dark.
The editorial department of "Jingshi Bao" was moved to Nanjing by Su Ze, while "Tongyan Shuo" remained in Suzhou. Li Shizhen also chose to open a medical clinic in Suzhou, teaching apprentices, treating diseases, and writing medical skills at the same time.
Su Ze first went to Li Shizhen's medical clinic. The building was quite large and there were a lot of people coming and going. Su Ze finally found Li Shizhen who was instructing students.
"Feel this patient's pulse."
Li Shizhen asked the young apprentice behind him to feel his pulse, and then said: "This is the floating pulse. Do you remember this pulse?"
The young apprentice nodded quickly, and Li Shizhen said again:
"The floating pulse only goes up from the flesh. Remember the body shape poem on the pulse judgment. Now can you recite the main disease poem?"
The young apprentice began to sweat on his forehead. Li Shizhen sighed and said:
"If you have a headache, dizziness and wind, or wind and phlegm accumulate in the chest; when the earth is closed and the wood is strong, the waves in the foot will not flow."
"Patient, are you always dizzy and feel like you can't cough up enough phlegm?"
The patient nodded quickly, and Li Shizhen quickly wrote out a prescription and said:
"This is the prescription. You can buy the medicine here, or you can go back and get the medicine yourself. The method of making the medicine is in this booklet."
After speaking, Li Shizhen handed over another comic book. This is a brochure that popularizes the knowledge of decoction and is given free of charge.
The patient was extremely grateful, and Li Shizhen said to the apprentice:
"This month I will copy out "Linghu Pulse Jue" once."
The apprentice's face drooped, much like the intern doctor who was reprimanded by the chief director in later generations.
Only then did Li Shizhen notice Su Ze. He stood up and said to Su Ze:
"Mr. Su."
The surrounding apprentices also hurriedly saluted. Su Ze was the owner of this medical clinic. This was not only a medical clinic, but also a school where Li Shizhen taught. Su Ze was also the principal of this medical school.
What's more, Su Ze himself is also a famous doctor. He pulled Li Shizhen and said:
"Mr. Binhu, have you read the sample booklet of the first edition of "Compendium of Materia Medica"?"
At this moment, someone suddenly rushed in and shouted:
"Divine Doctor Li! There's another fight at the pier!"
At the beginning of the month, please vote for me, thank you all!
(End of chapter)
