national surname chiming

Chapter 23 What I'm not afraid of the most is that the ancients show their science and engineering skills in front of me

Shen Shuren has never been a person who is afraid of things. No matter how difficult the task is, as long as it is right and wrong, he will always have the ability to execute it.

After consulting his father to review the responsibilities and risks of the river channel officials, and understanding Zhu Dadian's tricks, Shen Shuren felt a lot more relaxed.

Isn't it that you can't be greedy for money, you can't post money, you can't even use the income that can be used by the unspoken rules in previous years, and you must transport the food in full!Just do it!
Compared with technological innovation in science and engineering, compared with financial management, modern people are least afraid of ancient people.

On the second day after returning to Suzhou, Shen Shuren generously went to his immediate boss, Su Songhe Dao Cao Zhende, ordered him to take up the post, handed over the procedures, and accepted his task.

It is September now, and the people's autumn grain has been harvested, but the tax payment has not yet been completed.It was delayed until October, and after the grain was put into storage and cleared in batches, it could be shipped to the front line in Luzhou.

Shen Shuren had more than a month to sort out the accounts, ensure collection, and innovate transportation technology.

Fang Yizhi, who came to Suzhou with him to observe and observe, was very curious about Shen Shuren's calmness. When the two had free time to discuss each other, Fang Yizhi reminded him many times:
"Brother Shen Xian, I don't think you are in a hurry at all. Could it be that you have some coups in your chest? Even a layman like me can see that this matter is difficult to handle.

In the past so many years, none of the river officials transported grain to the north of the river just by paying one and three cents per stone to cross the river, and all of them would charge extra.You are being watched so closely by Zhu Dadian, and the law is extra strict. You can't use the bad rules that others can use. Can you make it? "

Shen Shuren smiled calmly: "The cost of water transportation is mainly in changing ships, loading and unloading, and the need for poles and fibers in fast-moving places. If you really rely on wind power to sail in rivers, lakes and seas, how much money can you spend if you travel a thousand miles?

As long as I can stabilize the grain collection and storage, regularly and intensively load the ships, and use some ingenious means to reduce the cost of loading and unloading, and save a few times of tossing, three cents of the money will be enough! "

Fang Yizhi heard this, but obviously still couldn't believe it. He also asked about the market recently, and knew that according to the original unspoken rules, the actual consumption of "Guangjiang Bank" was more than double that of the apparent one.

Others transported the same amount of grain to Yangzhou, and it cost more than three yuan per stone.

Shen Shuren does not increase the fare now, and he has to transport it to Hefei for one cent and three cents. Compared with Yangzhou, he has traveled [-] miles on the Yangtze River, [-] miles on the Ruxu River, Fei River and Chaohu Lake, a total of [-] miles of waterway.

Although it doesn't cost much to float a boat on the water, the main reason is that loading and unloading is expensive, but this account cannot be calculated.

Shen Shuren knew that he still didn't believe it, so he encouraged him: "Brother Fang, don't you really want to know the content of Song Changgeng's "Heavenly Creation"? I have read it anyway, but there are some things that I can't make. You can discuss and tinker with me. It might be quite rewarding.”

Fang Yizhi was also aroused to be competitive: "Then give it a try."

……

After more than a month, Shen Shuren was also unambiguous, brought Fang Yizhi, and used all the resources that the Shen family could use in Suzhou,
While tinkering with new machinery and designing management systems for water transportation and loading and unloading, we will see if we can reduce costs from various angles.

On the other hand, Shen Shuren did not forget to think of ways to stabilize the local food prices in Suzhou - the food prices were not directly related to him, but were the achievements of Zhang Xuezeng, the magistrate.But Shen Shuren knew that only when the price of grain was stable could he get a large amount of grain faster and more stably.

Otherwise, even if the local government cooperates and all the military rations that need to be requisitioned are collected, as long as they are delivered in batches and sub-warehouses, the shipping efficiency of Shen Shuren will be greatly reduced.

As a modern person, Shen Shuren is well aware of a simple truth: scale brings benefits, and the larger the scale of anything, the cheaper it is to amortize the loss and cost of each link.

One hundred thousand shi of grain will be delivered to you in batches at three time points and five docks.And one-off, delivery at the same dock.The carrier's receiving cost is completely different.

However, these two delivery methods can't be wrong, and they all meet the legal requirements of the imperial court. Who made the regulations not so detailed?

……

The time soon came to mid-October. For more than a month, Shen Shuren didn't show his mountains and dews, and outsiders didn't know what he was up to.

Early this morning, Shen Shuren, who had been fully prepared, finally entrusted his relationship, prepared a gift, and went to Wu County in person to see Zhang Xuezeng, the prefect of Suzhou.

I would like to invite Zhang Futai to come forward and help him say hello to the wealthy gentry in various counties in Suzhou.

Zhang Xuezeng didn't want to meet this kind of low-level official, but in the end he took Shen Tingyang's face into consideration.When we met, he also felt very emotional:
"My nephew is really a formidable young man. I haven't seen him for three months. Not only was he not disturbed by the previous lawsuit, but he was also admitted to the Imperial College and donated an official position. It can be seen that it is a blessing to lose one's horse."

"Thanks to the successful completion of the palace," Shen Shuren put down the gift very politely, and then cut straight to the point,
"I came here with a humble job to ask for something. I don't know what the Futai thinks, what is the price of grain in Suzhou now? Can the Futai hope to ease the trend of folk gentry rushing to buy grain?"

This question asked Zhang Xuezeng's concern, and he was immediately aroused.

"Who says it's not? There's a severe drought in Zhejiang. The rice bought from outside costs more than three taels per stone in Suzhou! The rich are nothing, but what can the poor people do? Could my nephew be able to cure this stubborn disease?"

In Zhang Xuezeng's tone, there was some expectation, but he didn't dare to expect too much.

How can a 19-year-old boy who has just become an official solve such a serious problem!With this ability, can he still be an eighth-rank petty official?

Shen Shuren then analyzed sincerely: "I believe that Suhu has always been a land of abundance and abundance, and the big local households have accumulated food all the year round. Even if this year's drought hits Zhejiang and the price of outsourcing becomes more expensive, the local grain storage in Suzhou is definitely enough for food.

The key is that people's hearts are fluctuating, so that everyone has expectations, thinking that "food will be more scarce in the future, there will be more disasters, and food prices will rise."

As far as Futai is concerned, the local poor people will suffer from rising food prices.As far as the Hedao Yamen is concerned, the grain chiefs of each township can delay as long as they can, and deliver in batches and land, which adds a lot of loss and inconvenience.Therefore, the two sides should work together to resolve this issue. "

Zhang Xuezeng: "Is this what you Cao Daotai mean?"

Shen Shuren didn't hide it either: "Cao Daotai is a member of Governor Zhu. Governor Zhu is not dealing with our Shen family, and the Futai should know about it. But if this is done, it will be beneficial to both parties."

Zhang Xuezeng thought about it, and felt that his political achievements were more important.

Cao Zhende can afford to offend him, at worst, if outsiders know that he and Shen Shuren have a deep cooperation, just don't offend Zhu Dadian.

Zhang Xuezeng took a deep breath: "Then what can you do?"

Shen Shuren saw it poorly: "In the past few months, Beizhi tried some methods of increasing production in his own manors in Taicang, Kunshan and other places, and in the old manors with relatives and friends.

Although we alone cannot produce much food.But if these whimsical ideas can be generalized, the wealthy households in Suhu will follow suit.

It can definitely make people expect that 'in the future, the self-sufficiency of local grain and meat will increase, and the grain that needs to be purchased will decrease'.Once this expectation changes, the supply and demand will naturally ease, and the situation of hoarding and delaying payment will also decrease. "

Zhang Xuezeng's eyes finally brightened: "Is there such a wonderful method? Then I want to see it. If it is really effective, I will use my power to promote it in Suzhou counties."

Shen Shuren: "Then invite Futai to go to Kunshan tomorrow to observe my Shen family's manor."

……

Early the next morning, Zhang Xuezeng took a lot of staff and confidantes along the Liuhe River, from Wu County to Kunshan.

Shen Shuren didn't let him go directly to Taicang, the journey would be too far, and the prefect didn't have the patience.

The model manor is actually the "Dong's Embroidery Manor" that Shen Shuren acquired from Dong Xiaowan to repay the debt a few months ago.

The manor he got at that time also included some mulberry fields near Xiuzhuang.Later, anyway, the Shen family had a lot of money, and Shen Shuren annexed some surrounding mulberry fields, and now it is quite large.

In the late autumn of October, the wind is howling by Yangcheng Lake.Here, the port is surrounded by mud and mud, and the countryside is divided into small pieces by the natural low-lying terrain.

Zhang Xuezeng walked for a while, and after entering the boundary of the Shen family's manor, he found that the terrain became more and more complicated.

Rows of dense mulberry forests alternate with strips of shallow ponds, and the width of each field ridge is no more than three feet.

Zhang Xuezeng couldn't help but feel strange: "I also know that there are many low-lying and muddy places beside Yangcheng Lake, but my impression is that it is not so complicated and difficult to navigate. Are you reclaiming the lake to reclaim fields?"

Shen Shuren pointed out from the side: "I learned that this is a humble job and a few of the same year. According to the method described in Xu Ge's "Nongzheng Quanshu" and Song Changgeng's "Tiangong Kaiwu", we have improved it and made it. The 'Mulberry Fish Pond'.

The biggest disadvantage of the people's livelihood in the two prefectures of Susi and Lake is that the benefits of sericulture are several times that of growing rice, and the price of Susi Lake silk is the most expensive in the world, so most of the fertile land has become mulberry gardens.

But after researching at the humble job, I found that mulberry forests only need more water and fertilizer.As long as the irrigation is sufficient and the fertility is sufficient, mulberry trees can be planted more densely than the current farming method.

However, Suzhou is low-lying and there are many muddy wetlands. As long as the low places are dug a little bit, the excavated soil is piled up on the high places on both sides, and the height difference between the ditches and ridges is widened, fish can be raised in the ditch and planted on the ridge. mulberry.

Like this, two rows of trees are planted on each ridge to ensure that each mulberry tree is no more than eight feet away from the shore, which can completely save the hard work of irrigation. Fat mulberry.

In this way, without reducing the total amount of mulberry trees, one more crop of fish can be raised than in the original dry land.Although it is inconvenient to transport and store fish, it can at least subsidize the food of the local people and make them eat less rice.Squeeze out more purchased grain and rice to pay grain and military grain. "

In the late Ming Dynasty, large-scale fish farming was still relatively rare. Natural water bodies could not raise fish, and most artificial domestic fish farming was only in small ponds.Fish sales with a high degree of commercialization are mainly by fishing.

After all, the population in ancient times was small, fishing equipment was poor, and natural resources were not exhausted, so artificial breeding was too lazy.

Zhang Xuezeng was still a little suspicious, so he randomly picked a long strip of pools and asked Shen Shuren to block the net, wanting to confirm the output per unit area.

Shen Shuren was also unambiguous, and his operation quickly opened Zhang Xuezeng's eyes: these mulberry fish ponds on the shore of Yangcheng Lake even made several layers of gradients based on the height of the natural terrain.

Although the water level difference between each step is only a few feet, who makes Suzhou flat, but it is enough.

Shen Shuren was at the end of a pond, blocked the opening with a fishing net, and then peeled off the sealing soil, allowing the pond water to flow naturally into the fish pond on the next step.When the water level in the ditch on the upper level dropped by two feet, many fish had already been washed away and entangled in the water-retaining fishing nets, saving even the effort of fishing.

There are also many hairy crabs that were not raised by Shen Shuren, but naturally flowed in from Yangcheng Lake when the water was diverted. After a month or two of fattening, they are quite full in late autumn.

It's a pity that for the people of the Ming Dynasty, hairy crabs were obviously not as valuable as fish, because there was too little meat in this stuff.

"So convenient? It seems that letting the common people raise fish is indeed much less labor-intensive than fishing in Taihu Lake and Yangcheng Lake. There are so many people planting mulberry gardens in Suzhou, and there is no need to prepare special food for the fish. It is a huge profit."

After Zhang Xuezeng wanted to understand this truth, he was overjoyed.

The Shen family's fish and crabs are not worth it at all, but this technical idea is too valuable.If Shen Shuren is willing to show it for everyone to learn from, the psychological expectations of the people in Su and Hu prefectures regarding the trend of food prices will change.

The "short futures news" was understood by Shen Shuren.

(End of this chapter)