Author: Use your soul to aim

Chapter 187 Dengzhou

In the third year of Tianqi, early February.

Zhang Zongxian set off for Dengzhou with his direct disciples Liu Jiansheng and Wang Guofu.

He was accompanied by five thousand governor's troops, half of whom were internal and external disciples from the school. They were responsible for building factories in Dengzhou to produce various steam engines.

The rest are officers who are not seasick and selected from the legislative army, and they will form the future navy.

The reason why Zhang Zongxian did not go to Liaodong but to Dengzhou first was to build a navy here to prepare for the development of North America.

When there is a severe drought for several years, Zhang Zongxian can send the victims to North America through the routes that have been explored. There are tens of millions of bison running on the vast plains there, and the victims will not be short of food.

To avoid disturbing the place, Zhang Zongxian was in a marching state all the way until he arrived at Jinan Prefecture.

At this time, Xu Hongru's rebellion had just been put down. Because the thousand-year-old family was slaughtered, the entire Shandong officialdom was implicated, and the Shandong governor had been imprisoned. Now was the time when people were in panic.

Zhang Zongxian came to Jinan to discourage local officials from embarrassing the people of the Railway Association regarding railway construction. He also wanted to sell railway stocks to them and encourage them to invest in shipyards, etc.

The other is to gather the people displaced by the war and organize them to build the railway.

After entering Jinan City, the Taiping Branch that came to Daqian Station has been prepared and will be opened soon.

Zhang Zongxian wanted to use the opening of Taiping Bank to let Zhao's staff gather with these bureaucrats and gentry in private to spread the news.

On the opening day of Taiping Bank, an exhibition hall was specially set up for the Railway Association to introduce steam trains to visitors. In addition to the operation and profitability of several railways that had been built.

A model was specially built for display in the hall. The one-meter-long model, after adding clean coal, kept running on a circular track. The exhibition hall was almost crowded by the guests who came to watch.

Staff Zhao warmly received every visitor. After all, he received a commission from the railway shares he sold today.

After the opening ceremony was completed, Zhao's staff hosted a banquet for gentry and bureaucrats worth more than ten thousand taels of silver.

At the banquet, Zhao's staff drank wine one by one. Jinan's gentry also asked Zhao about the railway. They had heard that it existed in Shaanxi, but they didn't know what it was about.

Looking at the trains that could run with the addition of coal, the gentry knew in their hearts how much profit this thing could bring.

The gentry of the Ming Dynasty were not Manchus, and they were very receptive to new things. For them, making money was a good thing.

Staff Zhao continued to explain the power of the train to every gentry who inquired. Some gentry also raised concerns and asked Staff Zhao:

"I heard that this thing eats coal and uses a lot of iron to make it. Now the coal is easy to say, but the iron is not cheap!"

There is coal in Yongping Prefecture and iron in Jizhou. We will start building it from Dengzhou, which is close to the sea, and build it all the way to Jinan. When we reach Jinan, the next step is to build it to the capital.

Besides, you can also participate in coal mining and iron training! Are you afraid that no one will do this profitable business?

Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Jiaozhou are governors who control military affairs. The governors have already planned to encourage mining, iron-smelting, and shipbuilding in the three states. You must have heard that the governors have always liked to support private workshops to produce ordnance.

When the governor arrives in Dengzhou, a bidding meeting will be held. All new warships for the navy will be bid from private shipyards.

After saying this, everyone present was thinking about how to participate. Although Zhang Zongxian is easy to kill, he is very trustworthy in business. As long as the requirements are met, he will never delay the checkout.

Those who have a little money are thinking about buying some railway stocks to make a safe profit, those who are a little powerful are thinking about opening an iron-making workshop, and those who are smart and eye-catching are interested in the business of building warships, so they want to send people to collect them when they go back.

Shipbuilder.

After staying in Jinan for a few days, Zhang Zongxian came to Dengzhou, which he had longed for.

After arriving in Dengzhou, Zhang Zongxian directly sent his disciples to take over the yamen of the three states. He completely took over the original navy, and then announced that he would rebuild the navy and purchase large ships.

The original warship Zhang Zongxian of the Dengzhou Navy was completely disdainful. After the inventory was completed, only the ships in good condition were left as transport ships.

All the others were abandoned directly, and some money was spent to buy some merchant ships to collect twenty large ships for the navy for navy training.

After laying off the old and weak of the original navy, another 20,000 sailors were recruited as the basis of the future navy. Not only that, a local branch of the school was also established, with the first batch of 500 recruited, from poor families.

The children become disciples.

As a lover of big guns and big ships, even though rockets are a big killer, I still want to build a sailing battleship.

In the future, the entire navy will only need three types of ships. One is a large-scale naval battleship that pursues firepower. It is required to be able to carry a thirty-pound cannon. In the future, it will be equipped with Dahlgren artillery.

One is a cruiser pursuing speed, equipped only with rocket launchers, and used as a warship for daily patrols. It adopts the design concept of a clipper ship. In fact, to deal with the current Galen ships, it is enough for the clipper ship to carry rockets and thirty kilograms of black powder.

If there is not enough rocket charge, you can add more.

Finally, there are large transport ships. This type of ship requires a large carrying capacity and is cheap to build. It will be used as an immigration ship in the future.

The main purpose of Zhang Zongxian's coming to Dengzhou was to establish a large-scale shipbuilding base here. Maritime trade was only incidental. What Zhang Zongxian was most in need of now was money. The Taiping had already begun to collect seigniorage from the entire northern Ming Dynasty.

The common people at the bottom of the North all recognize Taiping bills. When exchanging bills, Taiping always gives people more advantages. Small bills are also very popular in the South. After all, no one wants to go out all day with a pair of scissors.

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After completing the reorganization of the Dengzhou Navy, the number of ship tenders was officially issued.

Two hundred Fuzhou ships were purchased through direct bidding, requiring them to be built locally. The purpose of this was to stimulate the enthusiasm of the shipbuilding industry, let them build shipyards first, and stimulate related industries.

Zhang Zongxian selects outstanding captains and provides them with key support, funding and technology.

Then Zhang Zongxian launched a special attack on fishing tyrants, building special docks for fishermen, setting up fish markets on the docks, sending tax squads to collect taxes, and protecting fishermen from gang exploitation.

A cannery was also established to specialize in the production of canned seafood. The fish were purchased from fishermen at high prices, which increased the fishermen's income and gave them the confidence to borrow money from Taiping and buy larger boats to go fishing.
Chapter completed!