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Shen Tingyang came into the sight of the Great Library and Zhao Yingong very early, not only because he was a celebrity in the late Ming Dynasty, but more importantly because of his background in the Shachuan Gang. [No pop-up novel website]
There is very little personal information about Shen Tingyang, but since he was a Imperial College student, he was able to finance the construction of sand ships for maritime transportation, and he was able to immediately take out a hundred large ships when the Ming Dynasty fell, it all shows that the Shen family is a wealthy shipping family - You must know that the cost of each of his large ships in the late Ming Dynasty was at least one or two thousand taels of silver. In the first year of Hongguang, he wrote to the court that he owned 100 ships that could carry 200 soldiers. The total assets of these ships alone were more than 100,000 taels of silver. In addition, the Shen family cannot only have these ships, there must be many ships with smaller tonnage. In addition, according to the common style of wealthy merchants in the late Ming Dynasty, they usually purchased a large amount of land, opened shops... and operated various industries. All told, the total assets of the Shen family are at least five hundred thousand taels.
Shen Tingyang's family is not an ordinary big businessman. Shen Tingyang once had an old relationship with Hong Chengchou. After he was captured, Hong Chengchou once tried to save his life. This shows that Shen's background is not too low. The Shen family is not an ordinary wealthy businessman, and it is likely that he has contacts with high-ranking officials in the court.
This kind of businessman with a strong official background and a large amount of funds and ships is an excellent agent to support Zheng Zhilong.
The problem is that he has to convince Mr. Shen to cooperate with him. At this point, he relied on his contacts with Fushe, especially the strategy of transporting grain and shipping that he boasted at the beginning, to win Zhang Pu's favor, and he was already well-known among the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. The reputation of Mr. Zhao Xianggong of Hangzhou Wanbi Bookshop for his "practical knowledge of the world" has spread like wildfire - coupled with the "Australian style" of his bookshop and many novel gadgets and books, it has become a hot spot among scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. . So he asked someone to express his hope to visit Shen Tingyang before he had enough confidence that the other party would not give him a rejection.
It seems that no matter what time and space you are in, if you want to do big things, you have to be well-known. Otherwise, even if you have shocking stunts, others will probably just treat you as a madman - Bole is not easy to find.
If the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Department of Colonial Trade had not built such a bookstore for him to "raise his hopes", he would have never even thought about starting a career in Jiangnan.
Zhao Yingong had been thinking about how to persuade Shen Tingyang along the way. Judging from historical records, Shen Tingyang was quite capable of doing his job. And he has made great achievements in shipping: he has skills and is willing to take risks. He was born in 1594, and is now in his prime, less than forty years old. In terms of physical strength and energy, he is at the peak of a man's life. He should have some ideas of doing something big.
Zhao Yingong knew that it might not be possible to directly persuade Shen Tingyang to join the Japanese trade - after all, the news was too big, and it was like a gamble to the people at the time. So he decided to put forward Shen Tingyang's own suggestion in history: changing water transportation to sea a few years in advance.
Shen Tingyang was able to make this suggestion to the court, which was obviously after many years of consideration and planning - so he could succeed at the first time. If you bring it up, the other party will definitely respond more positively. Moreover, Zhang Pu was also very interested in changing water transportation to sea. As a scholar from Jiangnan, it was difficult for Shen Tingyang not to be influenced by Zhang Pu.
As long as it can be done once, Shen Tingyang's trust in himself will increase. The next suggestion to go to Japan is very likely to be approved.
Zhao Yingong thought all the way as the sedan gradually approached Chongming County.
The history of setting up administrative offices on Chongming Island is very short. The state city was not built in Yao Liusha until the Yuan Dynasty. Establish a state. This is the first time a governance office has been set up on Chongming Island. Later, due to the continuous collapse of Yao Liusha to the south, the administrative office was moved north twice and rebuilt. In the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Chongming was reduced to a county, and the administrative office was moved from Yao Liusha to Sansha and Pingyangsha successively. In the 16th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, the administrative seat of Chongming area was finally moved to Changsha City, which was later the location of Chongming County.
In this time and space, Chongming County is under the jurisdiction of Suzhou Prefecture. Therefore, after Shen Tingyang died for his country, he was included in the Suzhou Five Hundred Xian Temple. He is from Xinhe Township, Chongming County, and his residence is not in the county. However, Zhao Yingong had already received a message from his servant, asking him to meet him in a separate courtyard in Guanxiang, the county seat.
Due to its geographical environment, Chongming Island's shipbuilding and shipping industries are very developed. Especially the Yangtze River and coastal shipping industry. In ancient times, Chongming's shipbuilding industry and water transportation were very developed. Chongming sand boats, suitable for sailing in shoals and dark sand, originated from Chongming and are famous throughout the country. Along the way, you can see many shipyards beside the docks outside the county town, and sand boats under construction stand on wooden frames on the tidal flats. There are also masts on the piers along the coast. There are many large and small sand boats moored.
Zhao Yingong knew that sand boats had flat bottoms and were particularly suitable for waterways with many shoals and dark sand along China's coast and in large rivers. And not afraid of being stranded. It has strong adaptability to docks and waterways, and because the bottom of the ship is flat, the effective volume of the cargo warehouse is large, and the load capacity is heavy, it is a very economical and suitable ship.
coastal cargo vessels. At the same time, it also has certain long-distance navigation capabilities.
Shanghai is the main construction site and shipping port of sand ships. In the Qing Dynasty, the number of sand ships in Shanghai Port exceeded 5,000, with an annual throughput of 2 million tons. The British's request for Shanghai to be included in the open ports after the Opium War was not simply based on its geographical conditions.
Zhao Yingong conducted some research on Shanghai's shipping industry in advance: Although the Shachuan Gang in the late Ming Dynasty was not as large as the Qing Dynasty, it still had thousands of ships. These sand ships sail along the coast between Tianjin and Shanghai every year. Transport large quantities of civilian goods.
Shen Tingyang's family owns the sand ship shipping business, so it is not a problem for him to convert grain from land to sea. It seems that the Shen family has always hoped to be able to take on the imperial court's grain shipping business and recreate the glorious scene of Zhu Qing in the Yuan Dynasty who presided over the grain transportation to the north.
Thinking about it all the way, the sedan has been carried into the sedan hall of the Shen family's villa, and the armrests are pulled out after getting off the sedan. Zhao Yingong slowly came out of the sedan with a smile on his face.
The person who greeted him was a young man in his twenties - probably Shen Tingyang's nephew. He was wearing a green shirt of a student, with a respectful attitude and thoughtful words. Welcoming him all the way into the main hall.
Shen Tingyang is already waiting in the hall. This Mr. Shen was a student of the Imperial College. Many of the Imperial College students in the late Ming Dynasty were from grace or charity backgrounds, and they were nothing more than scholars. Zhao Yingong estimated that Mr. Shen was in a similar situation - it was not easy for a wealthy family like the Shen family to have a prison guard.
This Mr. Shen is about thirty-seven or eighteen years old. He is handsome, with dark complexion and a strong build. At first glance, he looks like a weathered man, not a weak scholar who spends all day studying in his study. Judging from this look, he probably has been to the sea and ran on ships.
Seeing that he behaved boldly and had a chivalrous air in his every move, and his Chongming dialect was not loud but crisp, Zhao Yingong couldn't help but feel a little more confident about this visit.
Here, Shen Tingyang is also looking at Mr. Zhao - he has been admired for a long time: not only is Wanbi Villa famous, but he is also said to be highly regarded by Zhang Pu: Shen Tingyang is not a member of Fushe, but Zhang Pu is quite A leader among the scholars in Jiangnan. Those who can be valued by Zhang Pu will naturally be highly valued by him. What's more, it is said that the relationship between Mr. Zhao and Xu Shanghai is extraordinary. There are even rumors in Jiangnan Shilin that Sun Yuanhua, the son and daughter-in-law of the eldest son of Xu Ge, was able to escape this time because of Mr. Zhao's running around.
All these factors combined, it is true that Shen Tingyang is very much looking forward to Zhao Yingong's visit - Mr. Zhao took the initiative to come to visit. I wonder what his intentions are?
No matter what his intentions were, Shen Tingyang was still very interested in making friends with such a person.
The two of them had finished their greetings, and the host and guest were seated, and tea was served to them. Everyone inevitably started with a set of polite words such as "I have admired my name for a long time." Only then did he gradually turn to the topic.
Zhao Yingong turned the topic to the bad governance of grain transportation when he visited Zhang Pu not long ago, and then brought up the topic of "abolition of canals and reform of sea" - telling Shen Tingyang exactly what he and Zhang Pu discussed, of course , under his ingenious discourse organization, abolishing the canal and reforming the sea became "the heroes share the same views", rather than coming from his suggestion.
Sure enough, this topic immediately scratched Shen Tingyang's itch. As Zhao Yingong guessed, Shen Tingyang has always had a strong interest in grain shipping. He has always been concerned about water transportation, an important matter for the court. He hoped to follow the example of his local predecessor Zhu Qing in the Yuan Dynasty and transport southern grain to the capital by sea, thereby saving a large amount of water transportation costs - Shen Tingyang was well aware of the court's current financial predicament and would save the emperor the expense of maintaining canals and Caoding. is extremely attractive.
His fellow countryman Zhu Qing shipped grain from Liujiagang in Taicang, using sand ships built in Shanghai. In the first year, 40,000 shi of grain were transported. At the peak, the annual grain transportation reached 3 million shi, and the loss was so small that it was almost negligible. There is no need to spend endless manpower and material resources to dredge and repair canals and maintain a large and inefficient fleet of canals and canals.
His consideration not only contains political ambitions, but also practical interests. The Shen family is the largest sand ship gang in the Yangtze River Estuary. If they can transport grain to the sea, the huge income from water transportation will be attractive enough.
Shen Tingyang has been studying Zhu Qing's shipping route in the past few years, trying to figure out a safe and fast route: after all, water transportation is a major event for the imperial court and cannot be careless.
But after all, he comes from a businessman family and has a very flexible mind. When he heard it, he understood that this was a joke: Mr. Zhao came here to see him, and it turned out that this was what he had in mind!
This Mr. Zhao is really good! Shen Tingyang is a "Ren Xia" person. I know that there are many difficulties in this matter, but the more difficult it is, the more interested I am in challenging it.
