Gan Ning established more than ten Jinfan docks along the coast of Kuaiji and began the manufacturing and research of ships. Among them, the two largest shipyards were one in Shanyin and the other in Zhang'an.
Zhang'an is directly adjacent to the sea, surrounded by a large number of giant trees. There are often more than ten people hugging each other in the jungle. There are also three or four meters of teak in the thinnest part of the trunk - it is difficult to find such thick teak in later generations. They are used to make keels and decks.
Excellent material.
The rest can be used to make some less important parts of pine and fir, which is inexhaustible.
It can be said that in later generations, even when the Ming Dynasty went to the West, natural resources were not as convenient as they are now...
Shanyin is the administrative seat of Kuaiji, not Shanyin in later generations of Shanxi, but in the Shaoxing area, close to Qiantang and Fuchun of Wu County. In terms of the advantage of using local materials, it is slightly worse than Zhang'an, but it is close to later generations.
The Hangzhou Bay, as a bay, the sea surface is relatively calm, equivalent to the entrance in simple mode.
In addition, it is more convenient to enter Qiantang River on site, or enter Sanjiang along the coast, and then enter Zhenze.
In other words, in terms of ship manufacturing, Zhang'an Jinfan Dock focuses on sea-going ships, while Shanyin Jinfan Dock focuses on river ships.
If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools - and what is more important than the "tools" is naturally the "Tao", which is the principle of manufacturing!
Before Ning Jin attracted money and did not have the foundation for large-scale shipbuilding, the shipwrights were not idle. Instead, they were experimenting with new sails under the guidance of the drawings that Bai Tu handed over to Gan Ning...
According to Bai Tu's drawings, a real "sailing boat" can not only sail against the wind, but can even cross the wind.
From the perspective of the shipwrights of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this was a complete fantasy. If it was not Gan Ning who was the governor of Kuaiji and also the captain of the boat, they might have protested, but if it was Gan Ning... no one would
Dare to talk nonsense.
It doesn't matter if you don't have money, just make a model first - you can always make a boat as big as one person!
And under the guidance of the drawings and a little bit of exploration, the experiment was actually successful. Now the "simulated ship" can sail against the wind. Although the simulated ship has a single person to control the sail, it is similar to the single-person sailboat that was used as a competitive event in later generations, but the principle
It's the same after all.
Shipwrights' mastery of surface flow is still very basic, and it is a bit difficult to "go faster than the wind", but they can already adjust the sail angle and sail in a zigzag pattern against the wind!
As for the original ship, there were many blind spots in the structure that had hit the shipwrights at this time, and they needed to be jointly developed by other types of workers. Gan Ning seemed irritable, but he was not impatient, so he first asked them to start practicing by improving the sailboat.
Most of the river ships are technological improvements from the Soochow period, while the sea-going ships are based on the sand ship model, which is a flat-bottomed ship that is not afraid of running aground. It is simpler than the sharp-bottomed fu ship, and sea-going ships do not need to consider improving their combat effectiveness for the time being.
, only focusing on navigation as the main research and breakthrough direction.
…
At this time, in the general's palace in Jinling, Bai Tu received the documents sent by Liu Biao and cleared out the high-sounding nonsense. In short... Liu Biao rejected all Bai Tu's requests.
After the drought expanded, Bai Tu was worried about insufficient relief grain reserves, so he made the idea to buy from Jingzhou and Yizhou.
As for the Central Plains and Guanzhong? Forget it, those princes who are making a pot of porridge themselves are short of food, and it is inconvenient to take the road.
"Liu Biao is so arrogant that he is a member of the royal family! When we asked him to buy grain, he would not sell it and would not tell us. Even if we wanted to buy grain from Yizhou, he was not willing to use the road!" Bai Tu was quite indignant.
Lu Su didn’t find it strange...
Jingzhou, especially Nanjun and Nanyang, is located in Yunmengze, so the drought in Huainan has less impact on it.
But Liu Bian was obviously wary of Bai Tu now. How could he possibly sell grain to him?
As for purchasing grain and grass from Yizhou... Lu Su was not optimistic about it at first. Although he could take the Yangtze River waterway, which would be much less expensive than the No. 6 transport using human and animal power, the cost was still a bit high with Jingzhou in the middle.
It is even slightly higher than the current grain price in Wu County - after the drought began, the price of grain in Wu County has increased four or five times, reaching one thousand yuan per stone.
Bai Tu did not make things too difficult for the Ministry of Household Affairs. Supposedly, it is also the responsibility of the Ministry of Household Affairs to regulate grain prices. However, when the sale of relief grains is prohibited, it does not matter if the grain prices are higher. After all, the people who want to buy are also buying relief grains.
The trading volume of ordinary grain is very low, basically only the wealthy families trade with each other, and the general government is purchasing it.
In contrast, the Ministry of Punishment has been much more aggressive in investigating and punishing the reselling of relief grains. Two local tycoons have already had their homes confiscated because of this, which makes people understand that this is an insurmountable red line.
It is not unfair to have the relief grain confiscated. After all, in order to facilitate storage and reduce transportation consumption, the relief grain is stored in each county's own treasury. So...where will the relief grain sold on a large scale come from?
After being processed by Chengji, the relief grains are basically anti-counterfeiting products. Noble families who really want to save face do not dare to take the idea of relief grains now, otherwise it would be equivalent to directly admitting to the people that they have used the disaster relief treasury.
Lu Su had said before that if you buy grain from Yizhou, the various costs add up, and it basically costs 1,500 yuan to harvest one stone of grain in Chaisang.
However, now the grain in Jiangdong is basically priced but not marketable, so you can consider buying grain from Yizhou at a premium.
But there is no need to think about it now. Liu Biao, who occupies the middle section of the Yangtze River, has no intention of borrowing the passage. The food from Yizhou in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River cannot be flown directly to the lower reaches...
When the Gan clan of Shu County divided the tribe and came to Jiangdong, the few hundred people in the light boats and fast boats were not conspicuous, and Liu Biao's consent was not needed, but it was too easy to block the shiploads of grain!
As for scattered purchases, can they be delivered by small boat?
The cost would be several times higher, and Baitu couldn't even afford it...
Because Bai Tu accepted Sun Ce, who had a grudge against Liu Biao and Huang Zu, compared to Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Liu Biao is the one who is most wary of Bai Tu now.
"Zijing, in addition to cleaning up the rivers and digging canals during the dry season, we have also started digging deep wells in Danyang and the south of Wu County to prevent unexpected events!" After Bai Tu was angry, he started to arrange the project.
Due to the reduction in grain production this year, Baitu has stepped up its efforts to "hire corvees" based on the idea that "opening warehouses for disaster relief" with relief grains will be a waste of money, and "hiring corvees" will not compensate.
While the stock of relief grains has been greatly reduced, the number of laborers in Wujun and Danyang is very abundant!
At the same time, Bai Tu also wanted to send a message to Poyang and Kuaiji. Although the journey would be more expensive, he would try his best to transport some food to Wujun and Danyang...
Poyang County and Kuaiji County are far away from the Yangtze River. The former has the Poyang River system, and the latter is to the south of the Qiantang River system.
The drought centered in Huainan will not seriously affect Kuaiji and Poyang.
If this continues, Bai Tu is worried that the originally expected abundant relief grain will be insufficient, so he is already hoping that Poyang County and Kuaiji County can also raise food and grass...
It's just that Poyang was not open enough before, and the cultivated land area was somewhat small. As for Kuaiji... it is famous for its rugged mountains, making it difficult to transport grain.
Bai Tu also thought about it all night before he came up with an all-purpose "good solution"!