After taking Dong Xiaowan by his side, Shen Shuren did not force anyone to do anything. Anyway, he had no shortage of women. The girls next to him could get them if they wanted, so there was nothing much to say.
In the last ten days before the provincial examination, he still focused on riding and shooting for fitness every day, and his life was very happy.
However, Dong Xiaowan's statement that he was "willing to serve him first by writing, doing calculations, and doing miscellaneous tasks such as weaving and embroidery" inspired Chen Shuren.
Let him realize that there is not nothing to do right now. He can arrange some leisure activities such as farming and science and technology, and allocate some resources in advance for his future as a local official.
If a person has no long-term worries, he must have immediate worries.
Thieves are rampant. In the final analysis, too many people have no food and clothing. Everything that can increase productivity must be accelerated as soon as possible.
And although the Shen family is rich, Shen Shuren hopes that the speed of promotion through meritorious service is definitely unimaginable by his father Shen Tingyang. Therefore, the money prepared for him by the family may not be enough in the future. He can use technology to build a private house. , is also very necessary.
Today's Shen Shu people have basically figured out the size of their family's wealth. The Shen family's wealth is only between two and three million taels, less than one-tenth of that of the Zheng family next door.
Anyone who has done business knows that more than half of a family's assets are fixed assets. For example, the Shen family's more than 100 large-scale ships cost an average of several thousand taels each, so the ships alone account for 30% of the family's assets.
After excluding other manors, fields and workshops, the current cash flow will not exceed 500,000 taels at most. In order to pilot water transportation to sea this year, my father will leave a considerable amount of funds for up and down management and advance capital operations. It can be allocated to Shen Shu. People here can buy an official position with 100,000 taels and subsidize their tenure, which is very good.
Before Chen Shuren entered the Imperial Academy, although Yang Sichang had greeted him, he still had to pay him, and he spent more than two thousand taels of silver - this money was not collected by Yang Sichang or Wu Weiye, but was clearly marked by the imperial court.
As for the money needed to buy an official in the future, Shen Shuren also inquired about it. Even if the superintendent donated an official position, even if he was promoted from the eighth rank to an official with no real power, it would cost about 4,000 taels. Because of the large inflow of silver, rising prices and other factors , officials in the late Ming Dynasty were still relatively expensive.
If you want the deputy county level to hold real power, you should start with at least 5,000 to 6,000 taels.
At the county level or even the deputy government level, depending on the amount of power and oil and water, there are tens of thousands of taels.
…
Chen Shuren was a liberal arts student in his previous life, and was not good at making steel, making cannons, and burning glass.
However, he knows that a gentleman is not a man of talent. As long as he learns to find and value talents, the specific research and development work can be left to the people below, and he only needs to control the general direction.
Therefore, after finishing his riding and shooting exercise every day, when he returned to his house in the afternoon, he would take two or three hours to sit in his study and make plans, and list out all the farming projects that were relatively urgent at the moment and suitable for layout.
The first thing Chen Shuren thought of was to develop some military technology such as steelmaking and new gunpowder. After all, this thing has the fastest effect. But after thinking about it for two days, he put it aside for the time being.
There is too much noise to carry out such research in Nanjing, and the status of a supervisor is not suitable for recruiting talents. It is better to wait until we have a base in the future, and the sky is high and the emperor is far away, before we start pursuing military technology.
What's more, he has already set a small target. The first thing he has to deal with after becoming a local official in the future is only the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo. These bandits' weapons are not good, so it doesn't take much powerful weapons to deal with them.
Instead of engaging in military industry, what can be done right now is technology related to people's daily clothing and food. These thresholds are relatively low, and the Shen family's own resources can be used as much as possible.
After Chen Shuren sorted it out, he first set the goals in two general directions in the first stage: the introduction of various high-yielding species and the improvement of textile labor efficiency.
The former is the easiest to think of. The late Ming Dynasty was originally the period when crops were introduced to the Americas. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty in history was not able to quickly popularize crops and fully enjoy this dividend. Instead, the Manchus took advantage of it.
Corn has been introduced to the Central Plains for 70 or 80 years, and potatoes have been introduced for nearly 20 years. However, other American vegetables with perishable fruits, such as tomatoes, are not currently available in China, but peppers are available, mainly because peppers are easy to dry. Shipping.
But even for the American food crops that already exist in the Central Plains, it would be beneficial to continue to introduce optimized varieties and cross-breed them to increase yields.
In addition, Chen Shuren is familiar with history and knows that at this point in the late Ming Dynasty, there were many animal species worthy of introduction.
For example, pigs in the Ming Dynasty were generally black-haired native pigs. Although black pork in later generations was more expensive, more fragrant and delicious, its growth rate and meat production efficiency were obviously not as good as those of British white pigs.
Even the European and American white pigs of the 17th century were not scientifically bred, but it would definitely be helpful to introduce breeds, crossbreed them, provide more genetic diversity, and select the best from the best.
The same principle applies to the breeds of chickens. In the late Ming Dynasty, although there were no white-feathered chickens with extremely high meat production efficiency, some of the natural genetic sources of white-feathered chickens must have existed.
Historically, in the 1800s, the British developed a variety of chicken breasts that were particularly thick and grew quickly based on Indian fighting cocks.
Although Shen Shuren doesn't know where to look for these varieties specifically, he can always find them as long as he has the right idea and focuses on introducing varieties with particularly thick breast meat like the original KFC chicken nuggets of later generations. Chickens must be efficient in producing meat. The only way out is that the chicken breast must be thick and fat, and other parts cannot be developed any more.
As for the Chinese people who don’t like to eat chicken breast because they think it is too spicy and too dry, this is not something that should be considered in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty. Making more people survive is the first goal, and taste can be sacrificed.
In addition to pigs, chickens and ducks, there are also some varieties of fish that can be improved. Shen Shuren thought for a moment and realized that the large, fat fish steaks and boneless varieties that were eaten in later generations, as long as they are not raised in the Ming Dynasty today, are all Try your best to introduce it.
Whether it is dragon fish and Saba fish from Southeast Asia, tilapia from Africa, or Qingjiang fish from the Americas. Regardless of whether the meat is delicious or not, as long as it grows meat quickly and has no ecological harm, we must try our best to introduce it.
Moreover, this field also has the largest room for operation. Because transporting freshwater fish across continents is something that previous navigators would hardly consider. It is too expensive to keep live fish alive on sea ships and frequently change fresh water.
Only Chenshu people understand the huge value of species introduction. Even if they spend a lot of money in the beginning, as long as they are planted, they will multiply in a geometric progression and they will definitely make a huge profit.
After listing them in a circle, grains, vegetables, pigs, chickens, ducks, and fish were all on the list of efforts to introduce them, but he did not consider cattle and sheep.
Cattle were used for farming in the Ming Dynasty, and eating meat was too wasteful. However, sheep were expensive, much more expensive than pork. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, sheep were no longer considered food for the common people, and there was no need to introduce them.
What's more, cattle and sheep are the strengths of the northern grassland pastoral people. Shenshu people are also afraid that they will spend their energy on improving cattle and sheep too early. If it spreads and takes advantage of the Tatars first, it will not be worthwhile.
After sorting out all the things to be done in this area, Shen Shuren was not polite. On the one hand, he found Zheng Sen and discussed with the Zheng family, asking them to find ways to find overseas species that meet these conditions. Once found, the Shen family is willing to pay a large sum of money. Purchase it, or develop it together and share the benefits.
On the other hand, Shen Shuren is also thinking about getting some new large-scale ships for his family. He can even ask the Zheng family or the red-haired foreigners to buy them, and then hire some sailors from the Zheng family to serve as pilots, coupled with the Shen family's own manpower. , go out for trading adventures.
If this road were to go back half a year, the Shen family would not be able to pass it. Because since the early years of Chongzhen, the maritime trade territory of the Ming Dynasty has been clearly divided. The north of the Yangtze River Estuary belongs to the Shen family, and the south of the Yangtze River Estuary belongs to the Shen family. The Zheng family does not cross the boundary with each other, and does not interfere with the water in the well.
But now, Zheng Sen has been coaxed by the Shen Shu people and taken to Nanjing as a hostage. With both kindness and coercion, he asked the Zheng family to allow a small number of Shen family ships to explore the south. Zheng Zhilong didn't dare to refuse even if he wanted to. At worst, the Shen family would also give it. Just give some money to the flag to make Zheng Zhilong look good.
Calculating the voyage, even if everything goes well, it will take at least half a year to return to India to find new species, at least more than a year to go to Africa, and maybe two or three years to Europe and the United States.
After Shen Shuren made a plan, he wrote to his father to buy a new ship and transfer sailors, while he discussed it with Zheng Sen.
Zheng Sen is also a passionate young man now. He knows that this kind of thing is beneficial to the country and the people, so he tries his best to borrow family resources to help Shen Shuren do it.
Anyway, the Zheng family is not at a loss, they can reproduce themselves after acquiring new species.
…
The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, and the second best time is now.
Although some things are slow to produce results, they will never yield results if they are not started.
After arranging the introduction of species, there was nothing left to do in agricultural innovation for the time being. With the remaining time, Shen Shuren turned his attention back to handicraft industry.
If you don’t know how to make steel and cannon, then start from the areas with the most abundant resources and talents.
Shen Shuren currently has no one else available, except Dong Xiaowan, who came from an embroidery shop. With nothing to do, Shen Shuren set his sights on the textile industry.
During the Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the climate was colder than normal, and the textiles for the poor people were definitely not enough. There was no overcapacity. If production efficiency could be improved and the labor force was liberated, more people could be used to fight wars and farm.
Of course, Shen Shuren would no longer let Dong Xiaowan ponder over those high-end Suzhou embroidery and the advancement of luxury goods technology, which were of no value in troubled times. To improve the textile industry, we had to start with Songjiang cotton, the clothing fabrics of ordinary poor people.
Chen Shuren asked people to bring samples of various fabrics sold at home, as well as existing looms, and observe the production process and finished products every day. In just a few days, he also discovered many problems.
Cotton cloth in the Ming Dynasty was generally narrow. Normal cotton cloth was only one foot and eight inches wide. Among the Songjiang cotton cloths, there was a kind of "three shuttle cloth" that could only reach four feet wide, but it required a very cumbersome loom to weave. When I came out, a female worker still couldn't handle it.
A piece of cotton cloth, one foot eight inches wide and five feet long, costs two cents.
The area of a four-foot-wide three-spindle cloth is about 2.3 times that of ordinary cloth, but the price can reach 6 silver coins, which is three times that of ordinary cloth. It can be seen that the extra 0.7 times premium is for the cloth. Additional width is paid for.
When making clothes and quilts from wider cloth, fewer cutting and sewing processes will be required, and there will be less waste at the corners, resulting in a high utilization rate.
After seeing this situation, Shen Shuren couldn't help but ask Dong Xiaowan to think of a way and discuss with him every day to see if he could improve the machine.
After all, Shen Shuren also went to a tailor to make custom-made clothes in the 21st century, and saw the cloth of the 21st century. There is no width limit for textiles in later generations, and you can weave a roll of cloth a few meters wide.
According to history books, it was the "flying shuttle" that first appeared in England in the 1730s, which solved the problem that the width of cloth was restricted by the length of the manual shuttle.
As long as the cloth is widened and the weavers pick the shuttle and draw the warp at the same frequency, the textile products that can be produced can be doubled, which is a good thing that benefits the country and the people.
Chen Shuren roughly arranged the idea of inventing the "flying shuttle", and he acted as a hands-off shopkeeper, letting Dong Xiaowan figure it out on his own.
…
After handing over all the farming and science and technology tasks, more than ten days passed quickly.
The provincial examination in the twelfth year of Chongzhen also passed by Shen Shuren in Shen Shuren's busy schedule. It was not until the day when the results were posted that Shen Shucai remembered this matter and accompanied Zhang Huangyan and Gu Yanwu back to the village to see the results.
Zhang Huangyan was supposed to have won the election in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, but perhaps after becoming friends with Shen Shuren, Shen Shuren provided him with many new ideas, which made Zhang Huangyan's answering style and political opinions more in line with that year. admission tendencies.
All in all, Zhang Huangyan passed the exam three years in advance due to a combination of circumstances.
Guizhuang's knowledge was already good, and he was not as shocking as Gu Yanwu, so he passed the exam as usual.
Gu Yanwu failed the exam just like in history. After failing the exam, Gu Yanwu was very angry. He felt that the current eight-part essay style was too rigid and complained to Shen Shuren that he would never take the exam again in the future.
Chen Shuren was secretly happy that Gu Yanwu didn't take the exam anymore, so he just wanted to work as his staff.
As for my cousin Zhang Huangyan, who has passed the exam, he can also find a way to buy Zhang Huangyan an official position, and first go to Shi Kefa to find a job to help Shen Shuren establish a foothold in Anhui as a base for fighting against bandits in the future.
"Congratulations to my cousin for high school. Brother Gu, don't be discouraged. The exams are over. Let's go drink on the Qinhuai River for a few days to relax. In these troubled times, no matter whether you win or not, you still have the opportunity to serve the country and save the people."
While Chen Shuren was thinking about it, he comforted Gu Yanwu who failed the exam.