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On the Sanjiang estuary of Ningbo, there are full of cargo ships, and the wharf is busy, and thousands of laborers, or carrying or carrying, shouting the number to load the goods onto the ship.

I heard that these dozen or so cargo ships are preparing to go to Japan with the mission, there is a stone inkstone silver mountain in Japan, this big man knows that it is said that the silver over there is not worth much, a shipload of goods over, can earn half a boatload of silver back.

It's a pity that Japan has been closed off from the rest of the country for a long time, and merchants can't trade if they want to. Now it's good news that the King of Qin is going to send envoys to open trade with Japan. The people of Ningbo all rushed to tell each other and rejoiced.

A tall boom has recently appeared on the side of the dock, which is the most eye-catching, and the boom is equipped with a pulley block, which can easily lift thousands of pounds of cargo onto the ship as long as two or three people.

For example, the porcelain is now packed in wooden frames, pushed under the boom by a flatbed cart, and then easily hoisted onto the ship, which is much easier than carefully lifting it onto the ship by hand.

It is said that this kind of boom was designed by King Qin, which is amazing!

After hearing about it, many people in Ningbo came to the dock to watch, not to mention children, even adults watched with relish.

Although this boom is easy to use, there is only one at the moment, and the speed of loading and unloading is not much faster, and it is said that the prefect is hurrying to build more booms, and by that time, the dock will be even more spectacular.

Qin Mu walked through the streets of Ningbo in a carriage, so that he could clearly feel the joy of the people. Ningbo is going to set up a city shipping department, which is the first foreign trade port in Daqin, which will definitely make Ningbo more prosperous, and the people are convinced of this;

Some businesses even set off firecrackers in advance to celebrate, and the crackling sound of firecrackers echoed in the streets from time to time, as if it was the New Year.

Coming to the shipyard of Taohuadu, the shipyard is even more jubilant, and the establishment of the city shipping division. The first to benefit is the shipyard, and several shareholders of the shipyard are smiling from ear to ear.

Hearing that King Qin personally came to inspect the shipyard, several shareholders were surprised and delighted, and hurriedly greeted them with incense cases.

After a salute, Qin Mu asked with a pleasant face: "Outside the Fang Yuan, how is the situation in the shipyard?" ”

Fang Weizhi, the largest shareholder of the shipyard, bowed down and replied: "Hongfu of King Qin, since the news spread that Ningbo was going to set up a city shipping department, in just a few days, the shipyard received several times the shipbuilding orders, according to the shipyard's current shipbuilding capacity. This order is already in two years' time. ”

Qin Mu said with a smile: "This is not good, if Fang Yuanwai does not increase the shipbuilding capacity, I am afraid that this order will have to go elsewhere." ”

Fang Weisheng said with a smile: "What King Qin said is that the grass people and others are discussing to increase the salaries of the craftsmen and improve their enthusiasm, and they will also recruit another batch of craftsmen to dig five more ponds to double the shipyard's shipbuilding capacity." ”

"Hmm. In this way, you can figure it out for yourselves, and this king can clearly tell you that Ningbo City, the imperial court is set. What about the future. Daqin will never be able to help the sea. However, this king also wants to tell you that in the future, the imperial court will not restrict the construction of private shipyards, and there will definitely be more and more shipyards, who want to stand tall in the competition. The only way to do that is to constantly improve your shipbuilding skills and build ships that are better than others, if you expect to bribe officials. The collusion between officials and businessmen, once verified, will be severely punished. ”

"Don't dare, don't dare, the grass people and others must keep in mind King Qin's teachings. Operate in compliance with the law and continuously improve shipbuilding skills. ”

The shipyard covers an area of more than one mile in length and width, and the area is slightly smaller than that of the Longjiang shipyard, with five ponds, and there are more than 1,700 skilled craftsmen and laborers.

The big ships are built in the pond, the small boats are built directly in the open space, and the whole shipyard is working at full capacity, and the scene is very lively, and there is the sound of ping-pong beating everywhere.

On one side, there are hills of oak, pine, nanmu and so on, such a private shipyard, Qin Mu came, one is to show his importance to the shipbuilding industry, and the other is to see a kind of wave-breaking ship that has just been built.

"King Qin, fifty ships have already been built."

"Okay, let people try it immediately, this king wants to see how fast it is?"

"Yes, King Qin."

The wave-breaking boat is two feet long and five feet wide, and the whole hull appears very slender, which can seat ten people, without sails, and is driven by ten people with pedal oars.

Fang Weizhi ordered people to carry one of them to the river, sit on ten people, and then step on the oars together, and the wave-breaking boat suddenly rushed out of the river like an arrow from the string, splashing like a screen on both sides, and the speed was at least three or four times faster than that of an ordinary sailboat.

Qin Mu looked at it and asked, "Outside of Fang Yuan, you should have tried it before, this wave-breaking ship maintains such a speed, how far can the crew support it?" ”

"Back to King Qin, it can usually support about two miles, and after two miles, ten people on the boat can take turns to rest, and the speed will slow down accordingly, but it is still much faster than ordinary sailboats."

Qin Mu nodded with satisfaction, it was enough to support two miles away, and in the current naval battles, the artillery was usually fired within two or three hundred steps, and the hit rate was almost zero no matter how far it went.

"Okay, very good, immediately send these fifty wave-breaking boats to Shuangyu Port and hand them over to Gu Rong."

"Yes, King Qin."

This is one of Qin Mu's big killers against the Zheng family's fleet, and if it is used well, it can even decide the victory of a sea battle. It was he who was so attentive to the special trip to see the trial voyage of the wave-breaking ship.

On the way back to the city, when Qin Mu lifted the curtain of the car to watch the street scene, he unexpectedly saw a blonde and blue-eyed foreign girl, buying silk in a silk village, at least 1.75 meters tall, very beautiful, fair complexion, fiery figure, very attractive.

Of course, the so-called seductiveness is for Qin Mu, in this era, women are too tall and unwelcome, and the people's aesthetic standards are based on Li Xiangjun's petite and delicate figure.

But as a traverser, the blonde and blue-eyed long-legged beauty is still very attractive to Qin Mu. He could scarcely resist ordering a stop and admire.

I remember that Cao Weijun said that there are nearly 20,000 foreigners living in Ningbo. Since the Tang Dynasty, the city has been an important treaty port, and it is not uncommon for foreigners to live there.

Before the Qing Dynasty, foreigners had a very high opinion of China, and they were also very yearning, Qin Mu remembered that he had read some accounts before, which described the Ming Dynasty as seen by some Westerners, and these accounts compared China to heaven:

"In this big country,......, people have plenty of food and dress. The house is richly furnished, and above all, they are hard workers, and they are great merchants and traders, all of which, together with the fertility of the said land, make it rightfully called the richest country in the world."

"They produce a lot of silk, of the same quality and in perfect colour, much more than the Granada silk. It is one of the largest trades in the country."

"In the country there are many rivers and people grow rice, which is the common food and grain of the people of the whole country. …… They harvest so much that when the price of rice is at its highest, you can buy a pinch with one riyal.

"All the fields are beautiful and fragrant, because there are many kinds of fragrant flowers, and it is also dotted with green villages planted on the banks of rivers and streams, where there are many rivers. Orchards and gardens are planted there. There are very cheerful banquet halls, and they often go to rest and escape from the troubles of the mood. The old men, that is, the gentlemen, often planted large forests and dense forests. There are wild boars, sheep, hares, and all kinds of other wild beasts, and from their skins they make fine furs."

"In mountainous areas unsuitable for farming. There are plenty of pine trees, bigger and more flavorful nuts than you usually find in Spain. Between these trees, they grow corn. These are the general food of Mexican and Peruvian Indians. In short, they don't leave a single foot of unplanted land,...... You can hardly see any wasteland or no harvest in the whole country, and the people of this country are so industrious. ”

"Their houses are generally beautiful, and they are usually neatly planted with trees outside their doors to look beautiful and shine on the streets. The interior of the house was as white as milk, and looked like smooth paper, and the floor was paved with large and flat ashlar stone, and the ceiling was of a childish wood, well constructed and painted, and looked like brocade, and the color was golden, and it looked very good; Each house has three courtyards and a yard full of ornamental flowers. All of them had a fish pond, even though it was small. One side of the courtyard is gorgeously furnished. ”

"They are extremely clean, not only in their houses, but also on the streets. They usually had three or four necessary or public resting places in the streets, well arranged, so that those who were busy with official business did not stain the streets, and received supplies from there, and a similar method was used to pass all the roads of the country. Some cities have navigable streets, like Venice in Italy. ”

"Their women were dressed in peculiar fashion, much like the style of the Spaniards, and they wore a lot of gold and precious stones, and their clothes had wide sleeves, and they wore gold and silver and all kinds of silk materials, as mentioned before, they had a great quantity of silk, and it was of very good quality, and very cheap, and the poor wore velvet, untrimmed velvet and beep. They kept their hair and combed it carefully and diligently, like the Genoese women, who tied it around their heads with wide ribbons and adorned with pearls and precious stones. ”

From these accounts, we can see how yearning the Westerners were for China at this time, and this country where "all the countryside exudes a strange fragrance" is completely different from the Chinese with long braids and filthy clothes in the eyes of Westerners in the late Qing Dynasty.

It is not difficult to understand that in a city like Ningbo, there will be nearly 20,000 foreigners who will settle down, paradise, who does not yearn for it?

Li Shi, who was on the side of the car, keenly noticed that Qin Mu's gaze lingered on the blonde and blue-eyed Western woman, he immediately came up and said with a face: "King Qin, do you want to check the details of that Yi girl?" ”

"Yi girl?" This title made Qin Mu not react for a while.

In later generations, people were accustomed to admiring foreign charm, and all people with high noses, blue eyes and white skin were superior to others.

At this time, on the contrary, the Chinese are superior, not only the Chinese think so, from the above accounts it is not difficult to see that even Westerners, with the same humble heart towards China, believe that China is the richest and most civilized country, it is said that Columbus is to find paradise China, and discovered the Americas and opened the prelude to the Great Voyage.

Qin Mu was thoughtful, Li Shi thought that Qin Mu was pretending to be stupid, he looked back at the blonde beauty in the silk village, and said with a smile.

"Go, go, it's important to deal with the Zheng family now, this king doesn't have the heart to hunt for beauty, go home."

Li Shi showed a comprehension expression: Now I want to deal with the Zheng family, and I don't have the heart to hunt for beauty, so what about dealing with the Zheng family?

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(To be continued......)