"Returning to Your Highness, Caomin's father was a craftsman in a shipyard. Caomin was with his father when he was a child. At that time, he aspired to be a shipbuilder. He usually fished for a living, but he always wanted to build a boat and made many small boats. .” Yun Shou replied respectfully.
"Small boat?" Li Yin asked doubtfully.
Du Zhiping explained: "Your Highness, it's actually the model ship you brought. It's also because of the model of the ship that I asked him to try it. I didn't expect him to be quite capable."
"Let me see!" Li Yin became interested. There is really no shortage of talents among the people, and they can even make models.
Du Zhiping called a boatman over and said a few words to him. The boatman ran back to the shipyard and soon came out with several small ship models. Obviously, these were the models made by Yunshou himself.
"It's not simple!" Li Yin was a little surprised when he played with the model in his hand. The ship model Yunshou made was also a large ship, somewhat similar to the Tang Dynasty building ship. Although it was not as exquisite as modern ship models, it was still modeled In a way, when the sail was out, what surprised Li Yin was that there were paddle wheels on both sides of the boat. According to historical records, this new type of wood pulp tool was invented only during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. This is what impressed Li Yin. Incredible place.
Li Yin praised, and Yunshou also showed a smile on his face. It was because he was unwilling to accept his fate that he took the risk of finding Du Zhiping with his model ship, hoping to join the shipyard to realize his childhood dream.
"What is this thing used for?" Li Yin pointed to the paddle wheel and asked deliberately pretending not to know.
Yun Shou said with some embarrassment: "Your Highness, this is something that the grass-roots people imagined randomly, because I saw people in the village using this kind of thing to tread water, so I thought that if this kind of thing is loaded on a boat, then it can be used for paddling. It's as good as wood pulp to make the boat go."
Li Yan nodded, saying that inventions come from life, this Yunshou is really smart, this paddle wheel is not the same as the water wheel for fetching water.
"Zhiping. Let's take him to Taoyuan to learn shipbuilding technology!" Such talents are hard to come by, and Li Yin plans to focus on training them.
Du Zhiping is an expert in steam engines, but not in shipbuilding. Although there are many craftsmen in the shipyard, there are not many outstanding craftsmen. Otherwise, he really didn't have the confidence to finish the project on time. Although he learned some shipbuilding knowledge in Taoyuan, he always felt that steam engines were much simpler than shipbuilding.
"Yes, Your Highness!" Du Zhiping said excitedly.
Li Hui never said a word since he came down. Li Yin looked at him as if Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden, and was frightened silly by the behemoths built by these five ships.
Although he was surprised that Yunshou invented the paddle wheel, Li Yin did not intend to use this old driving technology. Now that he has an advanced steam engine, he simply uses the propeller as a driving device, and a large ship such as a treasure ship is also very expensive. Fit for a propeller, but he wasn't about to give up the paddle steamer. He doesn't use it, but it can be produced and sold to other merchants.
After inspecting the shipyard, Li Yin took Li Hui back to Yizhou City. Li Hui was silent all the way, and halfway he said to Li Yin: "Liu Lang, I'm going to report to the academy today."
In the past two days, all kinds of things in Yizhou have stimulated him too much, and he feels that he is a frog at the bottom of a well. At first, he was dissatisfied with Li Xiaogong sending him to Yizhou. But now he finally understood his father's vision. Li Xiaogong had many old friends in Yizhou, and it was these old friends who told Li Xiaogong about the changes in Yizhou when they visited him in Chang'an.
Li Yin gave him a sideways glance. This is not Li Hui's character. If it was before, he would definitely have had enough fun in those fireworks places before going to do something serious. What he said really surprised Li Yin.
"You have taken the wrong medicine!" Li Yin said while staring at Li Hui.
Li Hui sternly said: "Liu Lang can turn his prodigal son back, so can I!"
Li Yan was speechless for a moment.
Back to the palace, Li Yin sent someone to call Tong Nian over. I don't know how he negotiated with those rich people about the well salt.
Tong Nian was still tired, obviously he didn't sleep well last night.
"How is it? Did they agree?" Li Yin asked.
Tong Nian handed over a stack of sub-contracts to Li Min, and said, "At first they were a little hesitant, they all wanted to sell by themselves, nothing more than speculation, but how could they beat Shengtang Chamber of Commerce, after all, Yanjing It is in our hands, and selling the well salt directly to the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce saves them from finding sales channels by themselves.
Li Yin nodded, he was playing the salt well card, these salt wells basically cost nothing to Li Yin, but for them it definitely took a lot of time and money to play, now Li Yin is using the ready-made salt wells Selling it to them at almost half the price is tantamount to reducing the time it takes for them to return their funds, and it will allow them to see the benefits immediately, so why not do it.
And Li Yin is now equivalent to a developer, but what the developer provides is land, and what he provides is a salt well. These wealthy families are equivalent to a construction team. Let the rich people do it. Labor, transportation, and workshops are all done by themselves. Li Yin just buys and sells, earning the biggest profit in the middle, which is simply a huge profit. As for sales and transportation, does the Tang Chamber of Commerce need to worry? This steamship is no decoration.
Tong Nian had to admire Li Min. If the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce exploited salt wells alone, the labor, transportation, and construction itself would require a lot of costs. Now these costs are all saved.
After the Hao family participates, the salt output of this well must increase by multiples. If Li Yin's mining capacity is 1, then the overall mining capacity is now 100. As the total sales, Li Yin earns more money than his own mining At the same time, it also saves a lot of management costs, and allows the rich to follow the lead of the prosperous Tang Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, these wealthy families are not stupid. No matter how hard and tiring the construction team is, it is still profitable. Although the profit is not as good as that of the developer, it is still enough to make money.
Choosing to be the general salesperson, Li Yin also considered that he could control the price of salt. Like a specialty store, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce set the retail price of goods to prevent merchants from raising or lowering prices at will, causing malicious competition.
After looking through the contract for a while, these contracts are the requirements of both parties for their respective rights and obligations, but in fact they are nothing more than Li Yin's overlord clause: "You should discuss with Shangguanyi to bring these salt wells into the management of the salt wells. Accurately grasp the salt production of each salt well, put an end to smuggling, and deal with those wealthy families who smuggled well salt according to law and take back their salt wells.”
Tong Nianzhong nodded emphatically. The salt industry is something that cannot be joked about. For this reason, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce also set up a salt industry department dedicated to the acquisition and sales of well salt.
Discussed some details with Tong Nian, and Tong Nian got up to find Shangguanyi. Although these matters were handled by the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce, after all, they had the name of official salt, and some things had to be cooperated by Shangguanyi.
After several discussions, the well salt industry finally came up with a general policy. The vigorous salt industry movement officially started in Chengdu. Some merchants with capital began to buy salt wells from the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce, and workshops stood up around the salt wells.
After the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce investigated the demand for well salt, the first batch of 1,000 salt wells were prepared to be sold, and then continued to develop according to market demand. After all, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce assumed the risk of sales, and the sale of these 1,000 salt wells had already made Li Yin a profit. The pours are full.
At the same time, the sweet potato fair also officially started in Yizhou. Merchants from all over the Tang Dynasty tasted this new type of delicacy for the first time. Prices also enable high-volume transactions.
As for the peanuts, Li Yin did not sell them directly, but built an oil-extracting workshop, preparing to use these peanuts to produce vegetable oil. Once this batch of vegetable oil is produced, the catering industry in Yizhou will undergo revolutionary changes. Now, Li Yin is getting more and more He is keen to popularize all kinds of new things in Yizhou, which makes him feel like playing a strategy game. Watching Yizhou change little by little in his hands, this feeling is really indescribable.
And when Li Yin was complacent about his achievements, the eyes of the whole Tang Dynasty were once again focused on Chengdu, but this time it was not for the potatoes in Yizhou, nor for the sweet potatoes in Yizhou, but in another place in Chengdu. One place Songzhou.
In October of the eighth year of Zhenguan, Tuyuhun attacked and harassed Songzhou. At this time in history, Tuyuhun attacked Shanzhou in the Qinghai area. Since Li Yuanwude's reign, Tuyuhun's raids on the Tang Dynasty have never stopped, and the peace between the two sides has never exceeded After half a year, and after Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, although this kind of harassment has decreased, it still continues.
"Tuyuhun chose to attack Songzhou simply because His Royal Highness just took over the Chengdu Mansion, which is not stable. He also saw that the Chengdu Mansion has a few major generals and is still very rich. These barbarians are all robbers thinking, and they are just grabbing and running." Zhu Zhu Said from it.
"Don't talk about this first, this Tuyuhun is too shameless. His Majesty promised to marry the princess to his son. His son pretended to be sick and didn't want His Majesty to cancel the marriage. Now they say that we don't mean anything. Learn how to do it." Qin Huaiyu yelled.
As soon as he finished speaking, a scout on horseback stopped in front of the palace gate and hurried into the main hall, "Your Highness, Tuyuhun claims to have an army of 80,000 troops, and they have already set up camp outside Songzhou City."