On New Year's Eve, Beitang Xinghe Shipyard.
Other places have already taken a break, but here they are still working in full swing.
No one is forced, everyone is voluntary.
Now the shipyard recruits 1,500 people from trackers to become shipbuilders. In addition to the more than 70 workers from the original shipyard, there were also craftsmen and apprentices recruited from various places. The number reached two thousand.
In this era, this can be said to be a large shipyard.
During this period, an additional 5,000 people were temporarily hired to clean up the silt from the hundreds of thousands of square meters of land. Seven thousand people worked in three shifts day and night.
Today is New Year's Eve, and the mud has finally been completely cleaned up.
The entire shipyard is in excitement. The master said that as long as this shipyard is cleaned up and repaired, an order for a ship will be placed every month every year.
As long as there are orders, the shipyard will be revitalized.
The livelihood of my family is guaranteed. If you are a shipwright, your descendants will be shipwrights. This is the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
This shipyard is our lifeblood.
Mingyan was retained by Yang Fan as the factory director, taking charge of the shipyard expansion work.
Yang Fan attaches great importance to this shipyard. After much deliberation, he can only rest assured that Mingyan is literate, has been around him for a long time, and is familiar with his own way of doing things.
Master craftsman Chen Liang was appointed chief engineer. The shipyard also lacks a chief designer and chief accountant. Let's talk about this after Yang Fan's students are trained. There are no such talents now.
Because Chen Guzi works hard, although he is a bit old, he is clever and handy. He did not show it in fiber drawing before. Now when he arrived at the shipyard, it was quickly discovered that he was suitable for the job of maintaining the shipyard. has been recruited as a full-time employee to manage the maintenance of the dock.
Ming Yan and Chen Liang were very excited when they looked at the excavated dock. Chen Liang gently stroked the wet bluestone strips with his rough pine bark-like hands, as excited as he was stroking his young wife on their wedding night. .
"It's such a good thing. It's been buried in the mud for more than two hundred years, and it's not damaged at all. It's perfect. I heard my grandfather say that when the eunuch Qibao went to the West, he built such a big ship!" Chen Liang said infatuatedly.
Mingyan looked at a stone tablet in front of her and remained silent.
"Director, what is written here?" Chen Liang couldn't read.
"This is the inscription on the dock built by the Yongle Dynasty. It has been more than two hundred years, and today it has finally seen the light of day." Ming Yan also said with emotion.
More than two thousand people were carrying buckets and scrubbing the stones as carefully as they were scrubbing the furniture in their own homes.
The master said that as long as this shipyard builds one large warship, it will be enough for the entire factory to feed the people for a year.
More than 5,000 trackers stood around the shipyard, watching the final cleaning. They were both happy and worried. They had worked in the shipyard for two months, and tomorrow the shipyard would pay everyone their wages.
This year has been a bad year and the Ji Canal has been closed to navigation for a long time. Many people would have starved to death. Unexpectedly, a shipyard was recruiting workers this year. Although it was harder, the family was able to survive after earning more than three qian.
Moreover, the shipyard said that if money is not required, food can be provided. Food is so expensive now.
The shipyard gave a grain called cornmeal, three pounds per penny. The money earned from digging the soil during this period was enough to exchange for two thousand kilograms of cornmeal. That’s enough cornmeal to feed a family for two years.
In the past two months, they have been working on something called Fa Gao, which is made from cornmeal. Although the texture is a bit rough, it is very sweet and the quantity is sufficient. You can eat as much as you want, including cabbage soup. , there is a lot of salt in the soup, it is really enjoyable to drink.
Now that the dock has been dug, they have become accustomed to working in three shifts day and night. Although digging in muddy water in winter is hard, it is easier than pulling fibers.
Everyone is at a loss and somewhat reluctant to leave here.
At midnight, as the New Year was approaching, the shipyard bought two hundred sheep, killed them all, and stewed mutton soup as the shipyard's New Year's Eve dinner, which was also the break-up meal for the five thousand temporary workers.
Early tomorrow morning, they will go home after receiving their wages or food, and continue their career of pulling fibers in the cold river.
During this time while working in the shipyard, they were not beaten, scolded or mistreated. For the first time, I was able to have enough food and clothing. The shipyard issued cotton clothes and pants and waterproof boots. Eat enough food every day.
Unknowingly, they have already developed a sense of identification with the shipyard.
It wasn't until today that they realized that they didn't belong here. They were called temporary workers. The name they loved so much at the beginning has become so annoying at this moment.
Many people cried silently.
Mingyan also felt a little heavy. During these days, he also developed feelings for these trackers. These people were all very good workers, obeying management and working hard.
They can do their jobs well without any supervision, and they cherish getting this job in winter.
A few days ago, he wrote a letter to his master. He proposed that the best wood for shipbuilding at present is teak and oak. The best teak is in Myanmar. Oak is distributed in Hunan and Hubei, but the best quality grows in Liaodong and further north.
Unfortunately, that was the territory of the slaves.
In Liaodong, oak is called oak wood, and the fungus produced from this thing is very delicious, much more delicious than the fungus produced from basswood.
People in the Northeast eat oak fungus, and fungus are sold to outsiders.
Mingyan considered that a large number of warships would be built in the future, which would not be possible without good wood. Judging from the information Yang Fan left for him, the production area of white oak was in the Vladivostok area. It's quite close to Tianjin, so a large number of lumberjacks can be recruited to cut down trees there and dry them in the local shade.
It was also a distant rear area for the Jiannu, a place that was difficult to reach and was inhabited by the savage Jurchen tribe.
If a settlement can be built somewhere and large quantities of high-quality white oak can be harvested, it will be a century-old project for the Yang Fan Group.
Yang Fan and Ming Yan said that one of the important reasons why the Francois in Western Europe now have hegemony is that their land has a large amount of mountainous land where oak trees suitable for shipbuilding grow.
When the continuous wars consume all their oak, their sea power will come to an end.
In the era of sailing warships, warships had sea power, and warships could be built only with wood. The quantity of centuries-old wood determined the quality of warships.
If you want to participate in this feast, you must start stocking up on wood as early as possible. For at least twenty years, Yang Fan would be unable to live without warships made of wood.
The more oak and teak you can store, the better, because it takes years to dry naturally, so the sooner you prepare, the better.
If a huge inventory is accumulated in Vladivostok, it can be shipped to Tianjin at some time, and even shipbuilders can be sent to build a shipyard to manufacture large quantities of warships.
Many things must be planned ahead of time, and you cannot wait until you need to find shade-dried wood.
Mingyan's letter was sent, but he never got a reply from the master. He was also a little worried. After the money and food were distributed tomorrow morning, these people would disperse and go home.
It's hard to call them together when they're down.
Mingyan hasn't slept yet, thinking about this matter. Not only does he really like these workers and wants to find a way out for them, he also wants to plan for the long-term of the shipyard.
In many cases, people in the past planted trees and people in the future took advantage of the shade.
At dawn, a messenger ran into the shipyard quickly, shouting as he ran, "Letter from the capital, this is Ming Yan."
Mingyan was overjoyed and ran out quickly, taking the envelope from the courier's hand.
I couldn't wait to open it and read it. When I saw the new content, Mingyan's heart dropped into her stomach, and the master agreed.
And arranged a brigade of troops to go to Vladivostok to establish a colony with the lumberjacks Mingyan could recruit.
Colony, Mingyan thought about the meaning of this word. It probably meant going to a wild land to develop.
This will be the Yang Fan Group's first colony in this time and space.
