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.
There is very little personal information about Shen Tingyang, but since he was a student of the Imperial Academy, 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 saying that he owned one hundred ships that could carry two hundred soldiers. According to calculations, the total assets of these water ships alone are 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, generally They will also purchase a large amount of land, open shops, and run various industries. All in all, the total assets of the Shen family are at least 500,000 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, and the Shen family is not an ordinary wealthy businessman. It is very likely that he had contacts with high-ranking officials in the imperial 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 grain and sea transportation strategy that he boasted at the beginning, to win Zhang Pu's favor, and he has already gained favor among the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River. It is a little famous. The comment that Mr. Zhao Xianggong of Hangzhou Wanbi Bookstore has a "knowledge of the world and apply it" has spread like wildfire - coupled with the "Australian style" of his bookstore and many novel gadgets, books have become the Jiangnan It was a hot spot in Shilin. So he asked someone to express his hope to visit Shen Tingyang before he had enough confidence that the other party would not reject him.
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 has been thinking about how to persuade Shen Tingyang along the way. From historical records, Shen Tingyang is quite capable and has made great achievements in shipping: he has skills and is willing to take risks. He was 1594 A young man 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, and he should have quite the idea of doing a big career.
Zhao Yingong knew that it might not be possible to directly persuade Shen Tingyang to intervene in Japanese trade - after all, the matter was too big and it was like gambling to the people at the time. So he decided to use Shen Tingyang's own suggestion in history: to reform water transport. Hai proposed it several years in advance.
Shen Tingyang was able to put forward this suggestion to the court, which was obviously after many years of consideration and planning - so it could be successful at the first time. If he puts it forward, the other party will definitely respond more positively. Moreover, Zhang Pu also has some ideas about the reform of water transportation by sea. He was very interested. 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 possibility of going to Japan again next time will be very high.
Zhao Yingong thought about it all the way, and the sedan gradually approached Chongming County.
The history of setting up a government office on Chongming Island is very short. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that a state city was built in Yao Liusha and a state was established. This was the first time a government office was set up on Chongming Island. Later, due to Yao Liusha's continuous collapse to the south, the government office was established twice. Moved northward and rebuilt. In the second year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty, Chongming was reduced to a county, and the administrative office was moved from Yao Liusha to Sansha and Pingyangsha successively. In the sixteenth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty, the administrative office of Chongming area was finally moved to Changsha City. It was the location of what was later Chongming County.
In this time and space, Chongming County is under the jurisdiction of Suzhou Prefecture, so Shen Tingyang was included in the Suzhou Five Hundred Worthy Shrine after he died. He was from Xinhe Township, Chongming County, and his residence was not in the county. However, Zhao Yingong had already received the information from the other party. Ask the servant to send a message and ask him to meet him in the other courtyard in Guanxiang, the county seat.
Due to its geographical environment, the shipbuilding and shipping industries on Chongming Island are very developed, especially the Yangtze River and coastal shipping industries. In ancient Chongming, the shipbuilding industry and water transportation were very developed. Chongming sand ships, which are suitable for sailing in shoals and dark sand, originated from Chongming. It is famous all over the country. Along the way, you can see many shipyards beside the docks outside the county. On the wooden frames on the beach stand a sand boat under construction. There are also masts on the piers along the coast, and many large and small sand boats are moored.
Zhao Yingong knew that sand ships have a flat bottom and are particularly suitable for waterways with many shoals and dark sand along China's coast and in large rivers. They are not afraid of running aground. They are highly adaptable to docks and waterways, and because the bottom of the ship is flat, the cargo warehouse has a large effective volume and a heavy load. , is a very economical and practical coastal cargo ship. At the same time, it has certain long-distance voyage 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. After the Opium War, the British requested that Shanghai be included in the open ports. It was not a simple matter. due to its geographical conditions.
Zhao Yingong conducted some research on Shanghai's shipping industry in advance: Although the sand ship gang in the late Ming Dynasty was not as large as the Qing Dynasty, it still had thousands of ships. These sand ships sailed along the coast every year between Tianjin and Shanghai. to transport large amounts of private goods.
The Yang family of Shen Ting was engaged in the shipping business of sand ships, so it was not a problem for him to change the transportation of grain to the sea. Thinking about it, the Shen family had always hoped to be able to take on the imperial court's shipping business of grain. It would reproduce the story of Zhu Qing in the Yuan Dynasty who presided over the transportation of grain to the north. Brilliant scene.
Thinking about it all the way, the sedan has been carried into the sedan hall of the Shen family's courtyard. After getting off the sedan, the armrests were pulled out. Zhao Yingong slowly got 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 the green shirt of a student, with a respectful attitude and thoughtful words. He was welcomed into the main hall.
Shen Tingyang is already waiting in the hall. This Mr. Shen is a student of the Imperial College. Many of the Imperial College students in the late Ming Dynasty were from Enyin or Zongna, and they just have the status of a scholar. Zhao Yingong estimates that Mr. Shen is similar. Situation - It is 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 room. Look at this, Probably he has also gone to sea and run on boats.
Seeing that he behaved boldly and had a chivalrous air in every move he made, and that although his Chongming dialect was not loud, it was crisp and clear, 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 a famous person 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 As a leader among Jiangnan scholars, anyone who can be valued by Zhang Pu will naturally be highly regarded 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 Scholars that the head of Xu Ge The young master's son and daughter-in-law, Sun Yuanhua, was able to escape this time, and it was also thanks to 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 being able to make friends with such a person.
The two of them had finished their greetings, and the guests and hosts were seated. Tea was served to them. It was inevitable for everyone to say a set of polite words such as "I have long admired your name." Then they gradually turned to the main 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 canal and reform of sea" - telling Shen Tingyang exactly what he and Zhang Pu discussed, of course , under his ingenious discourse organization, the idea of 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 and sea transportation. He has always been concerned about water transportation, an important matter for the court. He hopes to follow the example of his local predecessors In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Qing transported grain from the south to the capital by sea, thereby saving a large amount of water transportation costs. Shen Tingyang was very aware of the court's current financial predicament, and eliminating the expense of maintaining canals and Caoding was extremely attractive to the emperor.
His fellow countryman Zhu Qing shipped grain from Liujiagang, Taicang, using sand ships built in Shanghai. In the first year, he transported 40,000 shi of grain, and at the peak, the annual grain transportation reached 3 million shi, and the loss was so small that it could almost It's negligible. Not to mention 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 actual interests. The Shen family is the largest sand barge gang in the Yangtze River Estuary. If they can transport grain to the sea, this huge water fee income will be attractive enough.
In the past few years, Shen Tingyang has been studying Zhu Qing's shipping route, trying to figure out a safe and fast route: after all, water transportation is a major event for the imperial court, and there is no room for sloppiness.
But after all, he comes from a businessman family and has a very flexible mind. As soon as 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 "no-brainer" person. He knows that there are many difficulties in this matter, but the more difficult it is, the more interested he is in challenging it.