The Extra Long-term Plan

It was already March 207 that Li Su returned to Kuaiji, so when he arrived in Juzhang County, he met Zhuge Liang who had been transferred.

Of course, there are also Gan Ning, who specially handed over military affairs and garrison work to the deputy general and returned to Kuaishou to report his duties.

Zhuge Liang was in Qing, and Xu's term of office was three years, one year longer than Governor Li Su's term of office for affairs in the four eastern prefectures. However, Li Su went back for a year on vacation, nominally "preserving filial piety" for Cai Yong, so the terms of his master and apprentice were regrouped.

In the first month of the year, Zhuge Liang handed over the work with the new Qingzhou governor and Xuzhou governor. Finally, he inspected the work of spring plowing in February to ensure that the civil affairs did not delay, and then headed south along the sea route.

Because Qingzhou is closer to Kuaiji, Zhuge Liang naturally arrived earlier than his mentor and made some preparations.

When Li Su saw Zhuge Liang being so diligent, he was quite commended: "Aliang, I have the intention, and there is no big battle to fight. It's just a patrol and appease the newly conquered areas. How could there be so much preparation?"

Zhuge Liang did not give in at all: "My mentor is the prime minister of the Han Dynasty. The prime minister will serve as a patrol to the heavens and comfort people from afar. How can he not be solemn? The navy of the ships and navigators naturally have to prepare carefully. There should not be any risks to injure the court's dignity."

Zhuge Liang explained a few words first, then led Li Su into the city to rest first, and roughly explained his itinerary, and went to the dock and shipyard to inspect and inspect tomorrow, and then slowly chose the day to sail.

During the chat, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but sigh:

"The mutual trust between Your Majesty and His Mentor is really the prosperous track of ancient and modern times. Those who are kings are not afraid of their subordinates operating in foreign lands, and those who are ministers are not afraid of leaving the center for a long time, and their authority falls behind, and gradually become eroded by other ministers who are lucky. The disciples once thought that Your Majesty would no longer let His Mentors go to all directions for many years."

It is indeed not very appropriate for a prime minister to run outside all day long, especially now that the scale of the war has been obviously controlled, and the surrounding barbarians are fighting small things and are not worthy of Li Su's personal handling.

Of course, if we attack Xianbei or other grassland ethnic groups on a large scale in the future, we can still let the three dukes or even higher-level ministers supervise the army, but it should not be the prime minister, but the general takes action.

After all, there were many precedents in the Han Dynasty starting from Wei Qing to Dou Xian that the general personally conquered the grasslands.

Faced with the disciple's concerns, Li Su also easily explained: "Your Majesty knows that I am lazy and that the world has been determined over the years and is about to rest and recuperate and be ineffective. Then he frequently used the excuse to allow me to patrol and hunt around.

When the two-year term ends, the court's debts for copying will be almost done, and the people's strength will be restored. Many of the previously delayed large-scale construction measures can be re-launched.

At that time, the government's official tax system and the imperial examination rules can also be readjusted. After the age of forty, I probably won't have the chance to leave Beijing for many years."

Li Su is still very clear about his medium- and long-term plans. He is 38 years old this year, and his physical age is 35 years old. When his book age is 40, he will definitely stay in Luoyang.

Even if you can leave Beijing in the future, at most, you will have a few months off or have temporary errands. It is impossible to have a few consecutive years of leaving Beijing, so you must cherish it.

Even if the great man made new geographical discoveries in the future, Li Su himself probably would not have the chance to set out on "travel" himself and was locked in the Heluo Plain since then.

Being the prime minister is so painful. Liu Bei has given him special favors, and he knows that he is still young. If he were the prime minister of another period, there would be no such freedom.

Li Su already understood a bit why the foolish emperors such as Emperor Ling of Han had to build the Biguiyuan in Xiyuan, and why later emperors wanted to build royal gardens such as the Old Summer Palace, gathered "The Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" and brought in all the scenic buildings in the world.

It’s not because the emperor cannot travel everywhere!

Zhuge Liang did not have any worries in this regard, mainly because he was not yet at the age of becoming the center. But after listening to his mentor's analysis, he also realized the importance of reserve and cultivating talents who can face the development of the outside world.

Today, the Han Dynasty has a full understanding of the pioneering geographical discoveries and the benefits of species exchange, namely Li Su and Zhuge Liang.

Zhou Yu barely understood a little bit of geographical discovery, but Zhou Yu did not have a deep understanding of the value of species exchange, nor did he understand other science and engineering knowledge besides navigation and shipbuilding. This is even more so for those of Ganning Taishici.

Moreover, Zhou Yu has his biggest shortcoming, that is, he is a surrendered general who is at the end of his journey. At least in the future, it is impossible to trust him to control the newly developed territory independently for many years.

During the previous conquest of Sanhan and Xiematai, Zhou Yu had already caught the last train and helped Gan Ning as a guide, which was considered a contribution.

In addition, when he first surrendered, Zhou Yu himself had a certain official position. Now he is barely qualified to serve as the deputy general of Gan Ning, but his position is still a miscellaneous general.

For example, during this time when Gan Ning returned to Yangzhou to welcome Li Su, Zhou Yu could temporarily supervise the immigration and construction government affairs of Zhuzidao (Jiuzhou), but he only had a temporary term of office for a few months. Once Gan Ning returned, he had to hand over the power.

Zhuge Liang figured out these causes and effects and suggested: "Since my teacher had this concern, he should set up a school in Yangzhou to teach sailing, adventure, and explore various practical studies.

In order to avoid the lack of talent in this area when the disciples have to return to Beijing to serve as officials in the future."

Li Su was very convinced of this and immediately ordered: "It is true that this is true, A Liang, you have gone with your teacher. On the way to come, you have this idea vaguely, but you have not yet understood it.

Not only should we set up a sailing academy, but we should also encourage the use of famous maths who are good at summarizing and give official titles, add technicians to the public, and make up for the subjects of shipbuilding and construction.

This time when I came to Yangzhou, I wondered if I should improve the method of shipbuilding first, and then go to Fusang. The Fu Ship sailed far away from the East China Sea and the South China Sea, but after leaving Liuqiu, it was still not suitable to face the vast ocean.

The monsoon in the offshore Han Dynasty was chaotic, and it was not that the bamboo strips were hard sails and the masts were high and there were few sails, so that the wind could be snatched. Once you entered the distant sea, the wind direction might change, and there should be a corresponding ship. We should not underestimate changes in sea conditions, but we must be realistic.

At that time, the East China Sea, north of the Yangtze River and south of the Yangtze River, were also significantly different in sea conditions. The north was shallow and there were rolling waves. We had to sail with sand ships. The water in the South China Sea was deep, so we could use blessed ships. The gap between ocean-going ships and blessed ships in the future may not be smaller than the gap between blessed ships and sand ships."

As Li Su spoke, he couldn't help but think of the sailing school of Prince Enrique in Portugal in later generations. It was the injecting many outstanding talents into the era of great geographical discovery of Europeans. It can be said to be the cradle of European ocean navigation.

Now he wants to prevent talent outages and have ready-made experience to learn from, so of course he needs to use it.

Zhuge Liang's eyes lit up when he heard this: "My teacher is in Heluo and has not been on tour this year. In this regard, it is inconsistent with what his disciples think. His teacher's vision is indeed extraordinary.

To be honest, last year, General Gan was unwilling to accept this lengthy and tedious route after finding out the route from Liuqiu to Zhuzidao. He wanted to summarize his experience and find a more convenient and time-saving direct route.

Then he and General Zhou took advantage of the trip to transport equipment and materials for Zhuzi Immigration and Military Tunnel, and he explored four round trips. He found that after the lucky ship sailed out of the Liuqiu Island chain and had to go directly to other places on the long east coast of Fusang, it was indeed not suitable to take advantage of the strong winds of the distant seas.

After returning, my disciples also thought about how to improve it in Donghai County. They also borrowed several famous shipbuilders brought back from Rome and Anxue to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses.

However, the shipyard in Qu County, Donghai can only build sand ships, and some ideas are difficult to realize. Later, I took the Juzhang Shipyard from Kuaiji to build it on site. At most, a new ship can be put into the sea in a few months. The mentor will inspect the shipyard tomorrow and can also personally guide it."

Li Su was quite pleased. It turned out that Zhuge Liang had already done so many things for him during his stay at home during the period of vacation.

...

Li Su rested in Juzhang County for several days, alleviating the hardships of boats and trains. On the ninth day of the third lunar month, under the guidance of Zhuge Liang, he finally inspected the Juzhang Port and Shipyard that had been away for more than a year.

The port and shipyard here have been three and a half years since the initial planning to start construction. During the period when Li Su left, it has made great progress. It is changing with each passing day, and there are some new things every day.

However, these things are the intention after all, and they are already within Li Su's plan, and he will not be surprised if he sees them. What really surprised him was some surrounding industries that naturally grew up in people's livelihood, which once gave him good expectations for the future development speed of the commercial society of the Han Dynasty.

For example, halfway through the way to the port area, along the river mouth and the coast, Li Su actually saw the salt fields that should not have appeared in this era. The Han civilization had a long time ago the production method of boiling seawater to get salt, but it was entirely relied on drying salt, and it would have appeared nearly a thousand years later.

Even in this time and space, with Li Su's butterfly effect, Zhuge Liang was practicing the method of salt, but he had never heard of it as a complete success in the past few years.

After all, salt drying requires solving the problem of leakage. Oftentimes, we use a thin stone sink to dry, or we need to prevent it from raining for too long.

The research and development from boiling salt to drying salt is not achieved overnight, but requires a process of continuous iteration and improvement.

The dependence on fuel in the entire production process also slows down from "100% relies on the heat of fuel to evaporate moisture" to 70% relies on fuel, 50% and 30% relies on fuel.

At this moment, Li Su was surprised to see a local small-scale salt field that completely dried sea salt in the wet and rainy Juzhang area.

After chatting with Zhuge Liang, I realized that he had improved his technology again - but this new technology is still difficult to promote in the humid and rainy environment in the south, and the requirements for site selection are extremely high and cannot be copied on a large scale.

The structure of the hull does not seem to have any time travel design. At least there is no Western Clark ship, Garen ship or even fly-scissor ship. At first glance, there is no time traveler guidance, and it is all done by normal people themselves.

But from the appearance, it combines some of the advantages of the Fu Ship and later Arabian ships. The bow and stern are narrower than the Fu Ship, and the masts and sails are set more, reaching three masts and flying truss sails with front and rear cables.

In traditional Chinese sailing boats, the flying truss sails with cable-staggered cables between the mast top and the bow and tail definitely do not exist, so this must be the product of civilization along the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf coast. At first glance, it is the advantage of Zhuge Liang absorbed by Western craftsmen.

However, these flying truss sails can no longer be made with Chinese bamboo mats and straw mats, but can only be made of thick linen. So Li Su saw the product of combining Chinese and Western styles in front of him and slowly exploring.

For this purpose, Zhuge Liang also specially opened a canvas factory and improved a canvas loom and spinning machine specializing in canvas-weaving - dense and thick fabrics. The weaving process and labor costs required are actually reduced, because the number of warp and weft lines per unit area has become smaller.

However, the amount of material used in the cloth must be significantly increased, because the cloth becomes thicker, and the yarn required for the spinning process must be thicker. Zhuge Liang can also solve the problem when encountering problems, and saved up the necessary conditions bit by bit.

In addition, Li Su can also see that there are several large docks next to him, all of which are newly built. It seems that in the more than one year he was on vacation, there were more than one large dock here.

There were also some boats with lower completion levels parked in those docks, and some of them were exposed with keels. Li Su could see clearly that the keels were also black and dirty, obviously of cast iron. They may have been strengthened after casting, making the material denser.

Li Su had invented a single bottom shaft keel as early as 194, which was used in Yizhou. Later, it developed into a box-shaped keel around 196/197, and even the ribs and ship reinforcement structures were added. But no matter what, the keels at that time were made of wood and rely on thick, straight and hard trees.

It was also a war era. Steel was too valuable and had to be used for weapon forging, and the hardwood keel boat was definitely enough at that time.

Now that it has been peaceful for several years, steel has finally become rich. As the prime minister, Li Su will also roughly look at the statistical data reported by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Finance every year.

On the eve of the unification in 202, the final steel production capacity in the jurisdiction of Liu Bei's camp was about 3,000 tons per year. Of course, this data is for "steel", at least it is forged iron. Low-quality cast iron is not included, because the threshold for inferior cast iron is too low, and it is difficult for the public to count.

When the first reunification, the steel production capacity of the five states under Cao Cao was received was less than 500 tons per year. However, with the reunification and reconstruction of five years, the basic industries of Kanto states also grew the fastest in the past five years.

Anyway, it is the land of the Han Dynasty, so there is no need to be guarding against its own people. At least the preheating air blowing and steel filling methods of the government have been popularized in every state. Now, the steel production capacity of the five states in Guandong and Yangzhou has exceeded 2,000 tons, and the steel production capacity of the Han Dynasty has exceeded 5,000 tons, which is stronger than the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty and is close to the level of the mid-term Ming Dynasty.

Zhuge Liang used forged steel to build hull bones, and even used as core materials for masts, which of course has more benefits for the size of sea ships. Li Su would definitely be absolutely safe to go to Japan on such a boat.
Chapter completed!