My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 233
Just as Zhu Gaoxu and the others set sail in the Old Port, Zhu Zhanhe also boarded the grain ship in Liujiagang, and the sea transportation that had been suspended for a year was officially restarted at this time.

"My lord, although we have been on the road of shipping for many years, it is still a bit risky after all. Why do you follow us to take risks?"

On the deck of the bow, Zhang Fu earnestly persuaded Zhu Zhanhe, but he did not expect that Zhu Zhanhe would escort the batch of grain with them.

"It's okay. I'm in charge of restarting the shipping. Now that the first batch of food is on the way, of course I have to follow it myself, so as not to make any mistakes."

Zhu Zhanhe smiled and waved his hands.

In fact, escorting food was second, mainly because he took a ride with the wind, because there was news from Zhu Di that Jinling was officially named Nanjing, and then he led the civil and military officials to leave Nanjing and rush to Beijing, which was considered to be the official relocation of the capital. prologue.

In fact, Zhu Di often went to Beijing before, but this time the meaning was completely different. After the accompanying officials went to Beijing, they probably would not come back.

Of course, Nanjing has not been directly abandoned. Zhu Gaochi is still in Nanjing for the time being, and Nanjing also has a set of government agencies, such as six ministries and nine temples, which can be regarded as a backup of the Ming court agencies.

But everyone knows that the six ministries and nine temples in Nanjing have no future, and they may only be used for the retirement of officials in the future. Only the officials who accompany Zhu Di to Beijing will hold real power in the future.

Zhu Di's trip to Beijing this time was very exciting. Not only he and the officials, but even the concubines in the harem would go together. This also means that Zhu Di will probably not return to Nanjing in the future.

Under such circumstances, the accompanying officials also began to prepare the family members to leave Beijing. For a while, the water and land transportation from Nanjing to Beijing even became congested due to the large number of people.

Zhu Zhanhe didn't want to be so troublesome, so he simply set off with the grain ship and went to Beijing after arriving in Tianjin. Maybe he would enter Beijing before Zhu Di.

"Commander Zhang, how long will it take for our grain ship to arrive in Tianjin?"

Zhu Zhanhe looked at the endless sea in front of him, and asked Zhang Fu again.

Speaking of which, although Zhu Zhanhe sent many people out to sea, even his own father, it was his first time to go out to sea, but he was very adaptable and did not get seasick.

"My lord, in the past, it took at least [-] days for a grain transport ship to reach Tianjin, but when Meng Yuanshi summed up his experience and found a suitable ocean current and monsoon, the shortest time can be shortened to ten days, but it is not the best now. During the grain transportation season, it is estimated that it will take about fifteen."

Zhang Fei replied immediately.

"Sea shipping already started in Mongolian Yuan Dynasty?"

Zhu Zhanhe asked in surprise, he always thought that the shipping route was opened by Zhang He, Hou Haihai.

"Mengyuan attaches great importance to sea transportation, but they mainly transport grain from Suzhou to Dadu, which is now Beijing. On this basis, my uncle opened up a route to Liaodong, so that our Ming army can go deep into Liaodong. Strengthened the rule of the imperial court there."

Zhang Fei patiently explained.

"I see!"

Zhu Zhanhe nodded his head when he heard the words. Although Meng Yuan’s rule in the Central Plains was a failure, one thing they did well was that they attached great importance to the sea. Not only did they want to conquer the Japanese kingdom, they even sent a fleet to conquer the Nanyang area. Many small countries in Nanyang used to be the sphere of influence of the Mongolian Yuan.

At this moment, I saw Cheng Ji, no, he should be called Mr. Qi.

Mr. Qi came over with the account book in his hand, bowed to Zhu Zhanhe and said, "Your Majesty, this is my estimate of the food loss, please take a look at it!"

Zhu Zhanhe took over the account book and looked at it. There is loss of food in transportation, not only the food consumption of the crew, but also insects, spoilage, etc., which are also included in the loss.

"Is the loss of food a bit too much?"

After reading the account book, Zhu Zhanhe asked with a frown. He had read the records of water transport. Compared with water transport, although the amount of loss in this sea transport was less than that of water transport, it was not much less, and it did not reflect the advantages of sea transport. .

"My lord, our sea-going ships have been parked for a year. Although they have been sent to the dock for repairs, they cannot be compared with new ships after all. In addition, many crew members are newly recruited..."

Mr. Qi was very calm, and analyzed the reason for Zhu Zhanhe's estimated loss.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there are two aspects. One is that the ship is relatively old, and the other is that among the crew, except for a group of Zhang Fu's old subordinates, many of them are newly recruited, and they are not skilled in the operation of the ship. , so when encountering wind and waves, it is inevitable that there will be some accidents.

For example, if the cabin is flooded, the food in the cabin will definitely be lost, all of which need to be taken into consideration.

After listening to Mr. Qi's analysis, Zhu Zhanhe pondered for a moment, and then asked: "Before leaving Suzhou, I asked the shipyard to design a new type of grain ship. When will it be completed?"

Zhu Zhanhe is not satisfied with the existing grain ship, not only because it is old, but also the speed of the ship is too slow, the operation is more complicated, and more crews are needed. These problems need to be solved, so he let the shipyard Redesign the grain ship.

It is worth mentioning that there are many shipyards in the Taicang area of ​​Suzhou. Even Zheng He's lucky ships were built in the Taicang area. The same is true for the grain ships.

Before Zhu Zhanhe left Suzhou, he made many requests to the government-run shipyard to design a new type of grain ship, and Mr. Qi was also in charge of these matters.

"I talked with the officials at the dock. They estimate that it will take a year at the fastest from the design to the completion of the ship, so we old grain ships will have to last for another year. By then, the crew will be trained. Can take over new ships."

Mr. Qi replied immediately.

"Another year?"

Zhu Zhanhe frowned again and again. Although reason told him that it would be very fast to design and manufacture a new grain ship in one year, he still hoped that it would be faster, and it would be better to use the new grain ship next time. Of course, this must be impossible.

"My son, I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and even if it is an old grain ship, the loss is much smaller than before. After all..."

Mr. Qi didn't go any further when he said this.

But Zhu Zhanhe understood what he meant. Zhang Rong used to preside over the shipping, and in the middle of the food, all of them had to be paid for by food loss. Now that he is in charge of the shipping, naturally there are no such messy things, and the loss is also reduced by half.

"Well, this trip is just a rehearsal. Although the loss is not much less than water transportation, we transport a large amount at one time. At least in this regard, water transportation is far from ours!"

Zhu Zhanhe patted the ship's gangway for the last time. As long as he can safely transport it to Tianjin this time, he has enough evidence to prove that sea transport still has considerable advantages over water transport!

(End of this chapter)