When Zhang Xuezeng stepped forward to put pressure on him, Cao Zhende simply gave in without causing any trouble.
Afterwards, Cao Zhende only sent a close family member to deliver a message to Zhu Dadian, explaining to Zhu Dadian the practical difficulties faced by Suzhou. By the way, he also said that this year's water transportation and military rations in Susong would not be delayed.
Cao Zhende was so weird that he didn't even want to leave any paper evidence, and just asked the messenger to carry a token with him to prove his identity.
Within ten days since then, all counties in Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture have successfully launched the grain delivery work.
Chen Shuren did not break his promise. He agreed that "whoever pays the food first will benefit" and he fulfilled the promise in full.
He brought out some small mechanical inventions that Fang Yizhi and Dong Xiaowan had just tinkered with in recent months, and they really won over people's hearts.
To the surprise of outsiders, the first family to respond to Shen Shuren's call was not the local gentry of Suzhou Prefecture, but people from Songjiang Prefecture next door - the Xu family of Huating County, who were the descendants of Xu Guangqi.
But if you think about it carefully, it makes sense. At the banquet that day, Shen Shuren said that he had many innovations to increase production and benefit the people, which were inspired by Xu Guangqi's "Agricultural Policy Complete Book".
In this case, Shen Shuren did all the tricks to pull the Xu family onto his chariot. Only by using the power of the Xu family can he better protect his own rights and interests.
Who told the Ming Dynasty that there was no patent law? It was impossible to prevent new technologies and inventions from being copied. The only way was to form an alliance with the local authority figures and rely on hidden rules to maintain the sphere of influence.
…
Xu Guangqi has passed away for six years, and even his son has retired to work to provide for his retirement.
The person in charge of the Xu family's property now is a grandson of Xu Guangqi named Xu Xilie.
Five days ago, he saw a machine modified from a traditional loom at Shen Shuren's house. At that time, he only looked at it from a distance and couldn't make out the mechanical details.
But Shen Shuren asked Dong Xiaowan to demonstrate the effect of using the new machine to weave silk. The speed was much faster than that of ordinary looms, and it could weave six-shuttle cloth, which was wider than the three-shuttle cloth that is currently the widest on the market. Doubled.
The moment he saw the machine, he learned that Shen Shuren said, "As long as the Xu family takes the lead in paying taxes on the previously overstocked grain and urges other wealthy gentry in Songjiang Prefecture to follow suit, they can get the Shen family's teachings and copy this machine for free for their own use." kind of machines, and can also get the right to distribute new technologies within Songjiang Prefecture.”
Xu Xilie immediately betrayed his fellow villagers and became the Shen family's "strategic partner" in Songjiang Mansion, as well as the most vicious accomplice.
As the Xu family transferred the grain they had hoarded, as well as the grain ships that were still returning at sea, to Liujiagang in Taicang for transshipment, Shen Shuren also kept his promise and personally sent the first loom prototype to the Xu family ( her) manor.
Xujiashen is a township-level division under Huating County. It was named after Xu Guangqi established a manor here. Later it was renamed Xujiahui. In other words, Xuhui District is now the farmland of Xu Ge's hometown.
The land along the coast of Songjiang is relatively saline and alkaline, so it is impossible to grow mulberry and raise silkworms, but cotton is not that picky. Therefore, the "mulberry-based fish pond" method alone will not attract the Xu family's cooperation. Only new cotton looms can Tempting enough.
After receiving the item, Xu Xilie's eyes lit up as he stroked the bamboo-wood structure fuselage as carefully as if he were stroking a beautiful woman.
Shen Shuren did not hide his secrets and pointed directly at the key points of the loom:
"To put it bluntly, this loom has been improved in two aspects. One is that the mechanism for lifting the longitudinal warp has been doubled in width, and the lifting legs have also been doubled. This is stupid work, and there is nothing to say about it.
The real trick lies in the second point: a chute guide rail is added under the shuttle. From then on, the weft shuttle is no longer held by hand, but is scratched back and forth on the guide rail.
There are also two bent bamboo pieces at each end. Once the machine is opened, the shuttle can be ejected. However, it is not very stable at present. If the ejection does not reach the position, you need to manually reset the connecting rod. But as long as It can be bounced nine times out of ten, and it saves a lot of effort. Originally, three shuttle cloths required two weavers to operate, but now five shuttle cloths only need one person..."
Xu Xiyeol didn't inherit his grandfather's talent in science and engineering. He probably didn't even finish reading "Elements of Geometry", so he didn't quite understand the design principles. But it doesn't matter. After intuitively feeling the usage, the rest can be left to the craftsmen at home.
Subsequently, Shen Shuren took the trouble to talk more. There is no need to go into details. Anyway, it is similar to the flying shuttle invented by the British in the 1730s.
The current reliability is poor and manual reset is often required. This is only because the metallurgical technology in the late Ming Dynasty was not good enough to produce the spring steel needed for the British shuttle ninety years later.
The adjustment of the loom structure was made by Dong Xiaowan under the guidance of Shen Shuren.
The shuttle locking material was Fang Yizhi's idea. Fang Yizhi had never seen a "spring" before. After hearing the function description, he used the idea of a Japanese bow, relying on bamboo and wood bent pieces to accumulate elasticity, and the reliability is naturally better than the real thing. The springs are far behind and can only be considered barely usable.
(Japanese bows and British longbows both rely on the elastic deformation of bamboo to store energy. The bowstring material they use is only hemp fiber, which has insufficient elasticity. Mongolian and Chinese composite bows rely on the elastic deformation of the tendons to provide potential energy.)
After Xu Xilie thoroughly understood the function of the new machine, he eagerly discussed with Shen Shuren how to make money from this thing: "Suren brother, what do you think is the best way to use this new machine?"
Shen Shuren had already thought about it: "If your family wants to use it, you can make it yourself, or you can let our Shen family craftsmen make it. After it is built, each one will only cost the price of two old-style looms.
For takeaway, each loom costs twice as much as the old loom plus ten taels of silver - these ten taels of silver are the money for the shuttle, circlip and guide rail. I know the materials are cheap, but isn't this idea expensive? Can it be saved? A weaver's labor can be earned back in a few months' wages.
Although we can't control the outside world, we can still control more than half of the wealthy gentry in Susong territory by joining forces with our two families and making a unified statement to the outside world.
If others want to make their own, they can do it, and they will be given a few taels of silver for each one. If they insist on stealing, then our Shen family will not be lucky enough to buy their silk and satin cloth. I will also discuss it with the young master of the Zheng family in Fujian. When they come to Susong to buy goods, let them not buy the cloth of those who are not discerning. By then, all the water transportation and sea trade of the Ming Dynasty will be in our hands, so they can't afford to go around."
Xu Xilie also gasped after hearing this.
It is true that another person would not have such power, but if the Shen family can convince the Zheng family to unify their attitude, as the main customers of Su Song Textile Company, the textile companies really have no ability to mess around.
In this way, we can at least catch the big ones and let go the small ones, and control all the big businessmen with thousands of looms. Those who want to steal without restraint are the small workshops of poor and middle peasants with only a few or dozens of machines.
Chen Shuren's move can be regarded as robbing the rich to give to the poor. He only earns "royalty fees" from wealthy businessmen and does not collect patent fees from individual poor users.
Chen Shuren also said: The Xu family will come forward to handle the licensing of new machines on the Songjiang Prefecture boundary. The sales profits will be divided 40-60 between the Shen family and the Xu family.
The Suzhou market is naturally handled by the Shen family, and all profits belong to the Shen family and have nothing to do with the Xu family.
Xu Xilie was only responsible for the sales work, and by dealing with the unbelieving Daotouqing on the ground in Songjiang, he was able to get 40% of the final net profit, and he was very satisfied.
In addition, Chen Shuren also respects the actual developers of technology very much.
For this matter, he gave Fang Yizhi a thousand taels of silver and a small house in Suzhou City, so that Fang Yizhi could often visit Suzhou as a guest in the future and have his own place to stay.
As for Dong Xiaowan, he burned Dong Xiaowan's deed of sale with a stroke of his pen, and told Dong Xiaowan that he no longer had to consider himself a slave, but could stay in the Shen family as a guest, or take her as a concubine in the future.
As for the property rights of the old house in Dongjiaxiuzhuang, Shen Shuren also returned the deed to her. The farm, mulberry garden and workshop do not need to be returned.
…
As more and more Susonghaoshenfufu joined, Shen Shuren collected tens of thousands of taels just for the deposit for the new loom. At the same time, hundreds of grain ships also arrived at Taicang Liujiagang Wharf. , centrally deliver the grain and military rations that need to be paid this year.
The Shen family is also preparing for this matter, slowing down other business a little, squeezing out enough large sand ships, and queuing up at the dock every day waiting to enter the port for loading.
Shen Tingyang even placed an order for his own shipyard to build more seagoing ships.
On the last day of October, Xu Xilie personally brought a large number of grain ships to Liujiagang for delivery.
On the pier, there were already a large group of spies sent by other Su Song gentry, who also came to watch quietly.
Firstly, it was to see how cooperative Xuge's hometown was with Chen Shuren. Secondly, it was also because they heard that Chen Shuren had also tinkered with some very useful gadgets in terms of port loading and unloading technology.
There are many berths on the pier, which have been surrounded by curtains and scaffolding for the past two months. It seems that they are under construction and construction.
Now that the fences have been removed, you can see that the trestles at many berths have become wider and deeper into the river. There are also some big things like waterwheels standing in the center of the end of the trestles, with winches, hemp ropes and hooks on them.
There are piles of wooden latticework piled on the dock. If future visitors see it, they will find that these wooden latticework are similar to the forklift pallets in the warehouse, except that there are many fixed positions for hooks with hemp ropes on the sides.
As loading and unloading begins, it is finally clear how these machines operate.
I saw a few dock workers stacking the large sacks containing grain neatly on the wooden grid, and then attaching hemp rope hooks to them.
In the large waterwheel-shaped machine on the trestle, there are also several workers who use their weight to step on the edge of the wheel and use the principle of labor-saving pulleys to twist the entire forklift pallet-shaped wooden lattice.
Then, under the operation of another worker, the direction of the cantilever was twisted half a turn and loaded onto another ship at the parallel berth on the other side of the trestle, and the transfer of dozens of tons of heavy cargo was easily accomplished.
This improved version of the squirrel cage crane was used by Europeans until the advent of steam cranes.
Shen Shuren relied on modern thinking and added some "modularization and standardization" thinking, and combined it with forklift pallets, which easily saved most of the labor of dock workers carrying packages one by one. .
In order to make full use of this technology to save costs, Shen Shuren even made arrangements thousands of miles away in advance - the military rations he shipped to Yang Sichang and Shi Kefa were shipped from Suzhou and unloaded in Luzhou.
If Luzhou still uses primitive production methods, it means that at least half of the loading and unloading fees cannot be saved.
Therefore, in fact, as early as a month and a half ago, as soon as Shen Shuren figured out the crane matter, he had quietly sent his servants to take a boat to Luzhou.
They also approached Zhang Huangyan, his cousin who was an official in Tongcheng, Anhui Province. The Shen family paid for it, and Zhang Huangyan came forward to help organize civilian workers to renovate the Hefei terminal facilities on the Feishui River. It ensured that after the grain arrived in Hefei, it would be unloaded directly on forklifts and pallets.
Shen Shuren also carefully calculated the size and capacity of these wooden lattice pallets. One pallet is exactly the weight that an ox cart can drag.
So when unloading the ship, just connect the wooden lattice and put it on the bullock cart, and you can run away with a whip. This idea is almost the same as "precise docking of container ships and container trucks".
After using so many modern logistics management optimization ideas, Shen Shuren finally calculated that the "crossing the river silver" he needed for the entire process could be done with only nine cents of silver, without having to make false accounts.
In previous years, the amount of "crossing the river silver" collected on the surface was one cent and three cents. However, in fact, due to rising prices in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, rising labor costs, and excessive apportionment, the actual amount of "crossing the river silver" collected by the local government had already reached four cents. silver.
Chen Shuren used a quarter of other people's money to get the job done, and he also had to transport an extra two hundred miles of waterway in vain. It can't be said that this job was not done beautifully.
Of course, Shen Shuren did not include the cost of investing in "fixed assets" such as renovating the wharf trestle, building cranes, and building wooden pallets for forklifts.
Fortunately, there were no accounting standards in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no requirement that "depreciation of fixed investments must be amortized into cost." As long as Shen Shuren said that these things were fixed assets of the Shen family and there was no "use depreciation," no one would You can catch him.
Cao Zhende of Hedao Yamen was completely ashen when he saw the Shen family's fleet carrying grain from Xu Ge's hometown to Hefei.
He knew that the errand assigned to him by Governor Zhu had been completely failed.
"Brother Zhu, you'd better ask for your own blessings. If His Majesty knew that simplifying the loading and unloading times of water transport would save so much money. But you have blocked the change of water transport to sea for so many years, would His Majesty look good on you? "
Thinking of this, Cao Zhende was no longer afraid. As long as Zhu Dadian was no longer a popular figure in front of the emperor, he would not be able to retaliate against his subordinates who did not do things well.
It seems that I should hedge my bets in time to repair the relationship with the Shen family...