The Lifting Department is located in the Longjiang Bao Shipyard. It is a large courtyard with four or five entrances in front and back. It is in line with the common saying that although a sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs. Although this is just a supervising official office in a factory, it is
The main gate, the ceremonial gate, the main hall, the pavilion, the back hall, the study, the back house and other buildings are all available. The only flaw is that the yamen looks quite old and is obviously lacking in repairs. Like the entire shipyard,
It has an air of decline.
"Come on, let's go this way." Cai Guozhu led Su Hao and Li Zhi around the main entrance of the Tijusi and walked straight to the back.
Su Hao asked strangely: "Aren't we going to meet Lord Tiju? Why don't we enter the main entrance? Where are we going?"
Cai Guozhu said with a smile: "We have nothing to do in our shipyard, so how can Lord Tiji have any official duties? Except for the occasional inspection by someone from the Ministry of Works, Lord Tiji will receive him in the courtroom. Usually when we have business to visit Tiji, we always go through the back door.
Go in and go directly to the back house to meet his old man."
"Okay..." Su Hao said helplessly. What Cai Guozhu said made sense. The shipyard was not working anymore, so why was Tiji still staying in the court?
A group of people came to the back door of the Tiju Office, and saw that the back door was open and there was no door. It was probably because the Tiji Office had no money to hire handymen. Cai Guozhu took Su Hao and Li Zhi in familiarly.
After entering the back door, a large lush vegetable patch appeared in front of me.
"Is this the back house of Tiju?" Su Hao asked in surprise.
Cai Guozhu was not surprised. He whispered: "We in the whole shipyard grow our own food and vegetables to eat. Tiju also has to eat vegetables. What if we don't grow them ourselves? I heard that Tiju also came from a farmer's family and grew vegetables.
I am an expert in vegetables, and they are better than those grown by craftsmen like us."
Just as he was talking, a human head popped up under the loofah stand in front of him. Upon seeing this, Cai Guozhu hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "Master Jiji. I am Cai Guozhu. I just met two guests at the door who said they wanted to see you.
.The villain brought them here without reporting it to Master Tiji in advance. Please forgive me."
"It's okay. Someone is looking for me. If you can bring them over, I would like to thank you." The man waved his hand, walked up to Su Hao and Li Zhi, looked them up and down, and asked expressionlessly.
He said: "Two distinguished guests, what business do you have with me?"
"Excuse me, is this Master Tian Dao Hantian from Longjiang Bao Shipyard?" Su Hao asked.
Since they were coming to Longjiang Bao Shipyard to do business, they naturally knew about the relevant situation in advance. He knew that this Tian Daohan was a Jinshi during the Jiajing period, and he was also the third flower in the imperial examination. He was originally the director of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry, but he offended his boss.
He was assigned to Longjiang Bao Shipyard as a lifter. He worked there for more than 20 years. Now Tian Daohan is wearing patched casual clothes, stained with mud stains, and his face is lined with wrinkles. He looks no different from an old country farmer.
What's the difference.
"My officer is Tian Daohan. May I ask how you two are called?" Tian Daohan replied. From Su Hao's tone, he felt that the other person had an extraordinary background. Generally, businessmen who come to the shipyard to find workers for private work speak in front of officials.
He won't be so humble or arrogant.
"I, Su Tian, do some small business in the capital. This Mr. Lin is my master." Su Hao gave a false name, not wanting to reveal his identity too early.
"Oh, Shopkeeper Su and Master Lin, what business do you two have with me?" Tian Daohan casually hugged the two of them and said.
Su Hao said: "I came from the capital with Master Lin and want to make a deal with Master Tian. I wonder if you are interested."
"What kind of business? We are a government-run treasure shipyard here, so there is no business to be done." Tian Daohan said.
Su Hao smiled and said: "Su had already inquired about the Longjiang factory when he was in the capital. Mr. Tian will definitely be able to handle Su's business... But, this doesn't seem to be the place to discuss matters."
Tian Daohan frowned and said, "Okay, in that case, the two of you please go to the back hall and wait for me to change clothes before we talk."
An old servant came from somewhere and took Su Hao and Li Zhi to the back hall of Tijusi. Tian Daohan went to change clothes and wash his face first. Seeing that Cai Guozhu had nothing to do, he beat Su Hao and Li Zhi.
He said hello and backed out through the back door.
Su Hao and Li Zhi waited in the back hall for a while, and Tian Daohan came in wearing official uniform. He sat down on the main seat, waved his hand, motioning for Su Hao and Li Zhi to have tea, and then said: "Okay, here we go
There are no other people around, so if Shopkeeper Su has anything to say, please tell me clearly."
Su Hao said: "Su has some overseas business, so he wants to build two sea-going ships. I heard that Longjiang Shipyard has craftsmen who can build sea-going ships. I wonder if I can hire some to help."
Su Hao's words were impromptu. He heard Cai Guozhu say that in the past, people came to the craftsmen of Longjiang Shipyard to do private work, so he made up such a reason to cover Tian Daohan's words.
Sure enough, Tian Daohan was not surprised by Su Hao's request. He asked calmly: "I wonder how many materials Shopkeeper Su wants to build and where to build the ship."
Su Hao said: "These things are handled by other shopkeepers, and Su doesn't know much about it. This sea-going ship probably costs about 1,500 materials. The construction site is near Taicang."
"Well, a boat costing 1,500 materials is no problem for our craftsmen." Tian Daohan said, "I wonder how many craftsmen Shopkeeper Su will use and how long it will take."
"About 40 craftsmen, two months." Su Hao said.
"Two taels of silver per person." Tian Daohan directly stated the price.
Su Hao already knew from Cai Guozhu that Tian Daohan wanted to ask for a bribe, but he was still a little surprised that he was so blunt. He asked: "The two taels of silver per person that Mr. Tian said does not refer to the craftsmen's work and food taels, right?"
"Of course not." Tian Daohan said, "This is the money collected by the lifting department. It is the money for the craftsmen's work and food. You can just go and negotiate with the craftsmen yourself."
It's dark, it's so dark, Su Hao cursed secretly in his heart. He is the censor of the capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Li Zhi's official is one level higher than him, he is the censor of the deputy capital. For such nakedness
For asking for bribes, as long as the two of them showed their official seals, they could immediately take off Tian Daohan's official uniform and have him dismissed from his post and investigated.
However, Su Hao came to the shipyard this time not to investigate the case. No matter how much he disliked Tian Daohan, he was not in a hurry to deal with it. He nodded and said, "I understand. I would like to ask Mr. Tian if he wants to
After the prosecutor pays the silver, we can go directly to the craftsman?"
Tian Daohan was obviously very familiar with this kind of transaction. He said: "There are still a few conditions. First, when our craftsmen go, they must do shipbuilding and cannot be used for other purposes. Second, the agreed time
, we cannot delay, let alone retain craftsmen privately with high salaries. If the latter thing happens, I will definitely pursue it to the end."
"We can guarantee this." Su Hao said.
Tian Daohan thought for a while and said: "I have another unwelcome request. If you want to use a blacksmith, Blacksmith Liu from the second compartment of Sijia is good at craftsmanship. You can give priority to it."
Su Hao was stunned and asked subconsciously: "Why, is this Blacksmith Liu... a relative of Mr. Tian?"
Tian Daohan shook his head and said: "No, it's just that Blacksmith Liu's wife is suffering from a serious disease and is short of money. Anyway, you are looking for the blacksmith and ask him to help you. He can earn some money to treat his wife, isn't it?
Is it a good thing to kill two birds with one stone?"
Su Hao was a little distracted. Apart from being corrupt, the official in front of him seemed to be good for nothing. At least he cared about the livelihood of the craftsmen, and could even tell which craftsmen were in difficulty. These days, we need to find a craftsman who cares about his subordinates.
It is not that easy for officials.
"Besides hiring craftsmen, we have one more thing to do..." Su Hao was silent for a moment and then asked the next question.
"Shopkeeper Su, please speak." Tian Daohan said.
Su Hao said: "I heard that your factory has a lot of wood for building large ships. Some of them were saved during the Yongle period. I wonder how well they are preserved?"
Hearing Su Hao talk about wood, Tian Daohan's expression suddenly changed, he opened his eyes and asked, "Why do you ask this?"
Su Hao smiled and said: "Nothing else, I'm just asking casually. I heard from the manager of our shipyard that the wood that has been used for so many years has probably rotted away."
"Humph, your boss knows nothing. He's not afraid to tell you that none of the wood in Longjiang Shipyard has rotted. All of them are in good condition." Tian Daohan said proudly.
"Is that true?" Su Hao asked.
Tian Daohan said: "Do I need to lie to you about this kind of thing?"
Su Hao pretended to be excited and said: "That's great. We are building a big ship and are short of huge trees. I heard..."
"Stop it!" Tian Daohan interrupted Su Hao's words directly, "The giant trees in Longjiang Shipyard are reserved for the imperial court to build treasure ships. Don't even think about trying to take advantage of them."
"The imperial court has stopped building treasure ships for a long time. These timbers have been preserved for more than 100 years. How can there be any chance of being used for shipbuilding?" Su Hao said, "Su has heard that these timbers are all good timber from Nanyang. In terms of price,
…”
Before he could finish speaking, Tian Daohan had already stood up. He pointed to the door and said, "If you two have nothing else to do, please do as you please."
"Master Tian..." Su Hao was a little embarrassed. He originally just wanted to test Tian Daohan's professional ethics, but unexpectedly he was regarded as a bad guy and kicked out. At this moment, he didn't know how to evaluate Tian Daohan's talent.
He asked for bribes so confidently, and when it came to the wood, he was completely flawless. You know, as long as he secretly sells a few large logs, the money he collects is a hundred times more than the bribe he asked for.
"Master Tian, don't get me wrong, we are just asking casually. Since Master Tian refuses, we can just pretend that we haven't said anything and ask Master Tian to calm down." Li Zhi stepped forward to smooth things over.
"Yes, yes, we are just asking casually." Su Hao said with a smile, "Master Tian will not change his mind about hiring workers as mentioned earlier, right?"
"This matter has been agreed. You hand over the silver, and I will arrange for someone to take you to the craftsman." Tian Daohan said with a sullen face.