After saying that, Chen Ke told Li Fan and Zhou Dingqian that Qinzhou would set up a money supervisor, discuss business affairs, and give them ten years of tax rights... These exciting news told Li Fan and Zhou Dingqian: "The sales momentum of Dali bonds Very good, this way, Bianjing Money Company finally has sufficient funds. The shareholders decided to invest an additional 800,000 yuan in Sihai Company!"
This was a series of surprises, and the two of them were naturally overjoyed. The difficult history was finally a thing of the past, and Sihai Company was about to usher in great development!
"You two split up." Chen Ke ordered in a deep voice: "Shopkeeper Zhou will stay here, build a dock, recruit shipwrights, and start preparations for Qinzhou Port. Of course, there is no income without trade, so we can run for a while first. Run the surrounding routes. Although Jiaozhi opposite Qinzhou Port is not a big market, it is still very profitable to traffic tea and silk from the Song Dynasty there in exchange for gems, ivory, and mahogany. You have to eat the food one bite at a time. This Jiaozhi will keep us busy for several years."
Zhou Dingqian nodded in agreement, and Chen Ke turned to Li Fan and said: "Leave all the work at hand to Lao Zhou. I will give you a guard of 200 people and the five new ships. You can hire sailors yourself." , buy goods, and then go to the West with Aziz." He paused and said: "This trip has three tasks. The first is to become proficient in the use of star-pulling techniques and star-pulling charts."
"Star pulling technique?" Li Fan widened his eyes and said, "Where can I learn this magical skill?"
"Don't worry about so many things. Anyway, I will teach you later, but my knowledge is very shallow. If you don't understand anything, just ask Aziz and don't be polite to him. But don't ask him in front of others or cause trouble for him. .”
Li Fan understood, and he and Zhou Dingqian looked at each other, and both saw ecstasy in each other's eyes. It turned out that he was really a master, one could defeat two others! Mr. Chen actually got the star-pulling technique, which meant that the merchant ships of Sihai Company were really You can reach the whole world!
"The Arabs' trade routes are about to be cut off." After they were overjoyed, Chen Ke continued: "The future ocean belongs to us, the Song Dynasty. Although our Four Seas Ships started late, we can enter the ocean first. Take up the majority. So you must be proficient in the art of star-finding, and when you return home, you must be able to safely drive from the Persian Gulf back to Qinzhou Bay."
"Yes." Li Fan nodded heavily and said, "I understand."
"Except for the shipping route, after arriving in Baghdad, bring back to me all the books published by the Wisdom Museum, as well as the scholars and translators who have worked in the Wisdom Museum. Of course, these are mainly Aziz's. It’s a mission, but you have to keep your eyes open and don’t let him make excuses for me.”
Li Fan nodded again, and Chen Ke added: "The last task is to establish contact with the Christian world. Of course. The Arab world and the Christian world are now in serious conflict. You can't come forward directly, but you can ask a country called Aksum Please help, this is the only Christian country in the Arab world. They are very weak, but they are suitable to be our middlemen."
"What kind of Aksum is this? Will it affect Chiyu?" According to Li Fan's understanding, if there is really a war there, such a weak country will definitely be wiped out."
"No. Because the legendary Ark of the Covenant is kept in the Cathedral of Axum. It is a sacred object common to both religions." Chen Ke shook his head and said: "The sacredness of the Ark of the Covenant is inviolable, so they will not Attacking Axum."
"The Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah?" Zhou Dingqian suddenly said excitedly: "I heard the rabbi preach that it is also a holy thing that we give to those who are interested in the industry!"
"How could it be from your family?" Li Fan didn't understand.
Zhou Dingkun briefly explained the origins of the three religions.
"This is really interesting. It turns out that your three families are from the same origin?" Li Fan scratched his head and said, "Then why are you still fighting for life and death?"
"You should study such a profound question yourself..." Chen Ke rolled his eyes at him and said to Li Fan: "You can tell the rabbi in Bianjing everything you know... Of course, I don't think you will do the same. Do."
Li Fan smiled sheepishly and sighed: "War is about to break out in Jerusalem again. I hope Lan Bi will not let our lives be covered in smoke..."
"I hope he can stay awake." Chen Ke smiled slightly, but he didn't care. He thought it was just a good time to leave, and the Bianjing money account will be mine!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After completing the task, Chen Ke said goodbye to the two of them and returned to Guizhou with Wang Han. When he returned to Guizhou, it was already October, and the Hongshui River entered the dry season. Until April of the next year, there was only half a year. Construction can be started, but once April is over, the water will rise and miasma will occur, and the dangerous situation will make people change their minds, so the work will have to be stopped.
Chen Ke then joined Shen Kuo and Bai Chongli, the representative of Bianjing Qianhao, and led the civilians gathered in Guizhou to go to the Hongshui River project. Before the construction, Shen Kuo and Su Song had already gone up the river to survey beach by beach. The two men led the survey team to climb high and face the depths, trekking through dangerous obstacles to measure water properties and analyze beach shapes. They discovered that there are 125 beaches in the waterway of more than 1,200 miles, of which 84 beaches need to be repaired. There are eight most dangerous shoals, 35 dangerous shoals, and 41 less dangerous shoals.
Chen Ke personally served as the prime minister of the river, and Shen Kuo served as the technical director. The two were responsible for overseeing the overall situation and inspecting the transactions. Then the civil and military officials of the department were selected to undertake the repairs on separate beaches, and they were assigned according to the difficulty and difficulty.
Another 38,400 guan was allocated from Jiang ICBC to pay Sihai merchants to go to Jiangnan to buy rice for 100,000 official workers and craftsmen; another 40,000 guan was allocated to Guangnan West Road Duzuoyuan for manufacturing and purchased 100,000 steel drills, 40,000 wedges, 18,000 sledgehammers, 15,000 hand hammers, 2,000 jins, 2,000 pulleys, and 1 million jins of gunpowder.
Such an arduous and large-scale project will of course require the use of gunpowder. Gunpowder was only a burning powder in the Tang Dynasty, but it developed rapidly in this dynasty and has gradually transitioned to explosives. People in the Song Dynasty already knew that black gunpowder was placed on If burned in a closed container, an explosion will occur, but this is the first time it has been used for explosions.
However, the gunpowder used for blasting must be turned to Tosakuin, because only Tosakuin can purchase saltpeter and sulfur on a large scale. According to absolutely confidential formulas, they can produce flammable, explosive, poison-proof and smoke screens, etc. Four kinds of gunpowder with different uses. What is needed for river engineering is naturally the first kind of gunpowder.
In fact, Chen Ke and Shen Kuo studied the formula of army gunpowder when they were in Dongchuan. They found that the content of sulfur and nitrate in gunpowder in the Tang Dynasty was the same, one to one, but in this dynasty it was one to two, or even close to one ratio. 3. It is very similar to the formula of later black gunpowder that Chen Ke knew, with saltpeter accounting for three-quarters.
But for breaking mountains and breaking rocks, the power was still not enough, but this was not a problem for Shen Kuo. After learning from Chen Ke that the performance of gunpowder could be enhanced by improving the purity of the ingredients, he quickly worked out a set of methods to improve the performance of gunpowder. Methods for ingredient purity.
For example, the crucial process of making saltpeter in the capital is just to dissolve the natural saltpeter in clean water, and then sediment and remove the sediment particles, and then it can be used as an ingredient. But after this step, Shen Kuo
Add a certain amount of adsorbents such as egg whites and red radish, put them into a nitric solution and boil them several times to absorb the residue, salt and alkali. Then use a strainer to remove the adsorbents.
Then put the water glue into the nitrate solution and boil it again, then pour the nitrate solution into the porcelain urn to cool and solidify, so that the waste water floats on the urn, the mud will sink to the bottom of the urn, and the pure nitrate will live in the center. Finally, remove the water and remove the slag.
Take out the pure nitrate and dry it in the sun. You can get pure nitrate in the form of white crystals.
However, using this method to make nitrate is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also roughly only 30 jins of pure nitrate can be extracted for every 100 jins of natural nitrate, so the cost suddenly goes up.
The treatment of charcoal and sulfur was similar, so even though the craftsmen of Duzuoyuan saw the huge gap, they were reluctant to improve. It was Wang Han who came forward and whittled the thorns before reluctantly letting them use them as new ones.
Production method. In order to ensure the construction period, Chen Ke also made concessions and reduced the original purchase price from one million kilograms to three hundred thousand kilograms. However, the funds remained unchanged, allowing them to make a huge profit, and everyone was happy again.
In addition to the wages paid to the peasants, the Hongshui River project has not yet started, and 150,000 taels of silver have been spent. If it were not for the creative issuance of bonds and their popularity, Chen Ke would not dare to take on this porcelain job.
In order to meet the construction deadline, Chen Ke continued to burn a lot of money. He formulated reward and punishment measures for each unit. For example, if a stonemason cuts a stone, he will receive a reward of 300 yuan; a porter who carries a stone of 500 kilograms will also receive a reward of 200 yuan.
; The rest, such as how much a carpenter will be rewarded for felling wood, and how much a cutter will be rewarded for drilling a blast hole, are all clearly marked, so no one can be deceived...
In the past, when the peasants were doing corvées, they were not paid and only had to take care of food! In comparison, the peasants were naturally more active than ever before.
Regarding Chen Ke's generosity, the officials were first shocked. Such a big project, if carried out like this, would probably cost millions of dollars. Then they criticized it. They believed that once this case was started, they would like to recruit civilians for free in the future.
It will be very difficult.
Chen Ke didn't want to argue with them. He only mentioned one point - the Hongshui River stretches for more than a thousand miles and has turbulent currents. It has been divided by barbarians in the past dynasties and is regarded as a natural moat. Both sides of the river are remote and dangerous areas with sparsely populated areas and barbarians.
He goes out and about, often doing unprofitable things. Therefore, officials and civilians all regard it as a fearful road. If they are not lured with generous rewards, they will hesitate to move forward.
This reason was quite sufficient, and with Wang Han's full support, those opposing voices gradually disappeared. However, what they did not expect was that when the engineering team entered the mountains, the barbarians along the coast not only showed no intention of embarrassment, but instead men and women
Young and old came together to join the construction of the river section in front of their homes. People at this time were superstitious and believed that this was God's blessing, so their confidence increased greatly.
Little did they know that Chen Ke had planned ahead and shared the benefits of the Hongshui River with those tribes.
