Chapter 80                                                             �

Moreover, Zhang Yunling also has to consider another thing, that is, the money he lent to Zhou Mengchen, and Zhou Mengchen will return to Beijing. Who will repay the loan? Will the officials in the future refuse to admit it, and will the court refuse to admit it. In other words, today's situation is paid with five million taels on paper. When the money is not put into the pocket, it will never be real money.

At this time, Zhang Yunling’s choice can be imagined.

Zhang Yunling said: "On behalf of the Shanxi merchants, I agreed to this matter."

Zhou Mengchen said, "Okay. Xu Wei, go and talk to Brother Zhang. It's better to talk to him today, and I'll take it to show you what you want to do."

Xu Wei immediately stepped forward and said, "Yes." Then he made a gesture of asking Zhang Yunling. It goes without saying how the two of them would go down to discuss the details.

Zhou Mengchen had also thought of many ways to run railways before. In the end, he found that none of them could work. The biggest problem was the lack of talent.

Zhou Mengchen didn't want to see his railway in the future. He would not charge any fees with a wave of his hand and let people use it for free. However, most civil officials' attitude towards tax collection is like this.

It was not that Zhou Mengchen didn't want to let officials run the railway directly and create a Ministry of Railways or a railway company or a general state-owned enterprise, but Zhou Mengchen gave up after thinking about it. Because the Ming Dynasty bureaucratic system could not do such a thing at all.

This is the reality. The Ming Dynasty officials and clerks system were used to manage the railway. The result was a mess, and it might not be impossible to turn the railway into a loss of money.

Zhou Mengchen was in charge and could get a complete railway charter. However, many officials would maintain it in the future, and it was also a problem. In the end, it was always Zhou Mengchen and others. These people would not and dare not oppose the rules set by Zhou Mengchen.

Zhou Mengchen felt more and more that the biggest problem he encountered was that he was a person. It was not a person, but a large number of people who could keep up with his thinking and inherit the career he had started.

This problem was just that it could not be solved for a while. Zhou Mengchen thought about it and could only let merchants do the railway by using tax payment.

In order to make money, merchants will definitely do things well. Moreover, to a certain extent, the tax system of the Ming Dynasty also has many tax-inclusive systems left behind for the convenience of tax collection. Taxes in various places are fixed. Even if the salt tax is still lost, it is better to include taxes to merchants and make money from merchants. This is convenient.

Zhou Mengchen did not give the amount of this million tael quickly. He added 20% when he estimated the charge. On the one hand, he took an integer, and on the other hand, there was almost no profit. He wanted to wait for Zhang Yunling to bargain, but he did not think about agreeing.

Zhou Mengchen immediately understood that although many people said that Zhou Mengchen could turn stones into gold. But he himself knew that his turn stones into gold was based on the development of technology, not business. In terms of real business experience, both him and Xu Wei had some shortcomings.

Although the tax-inclusive system is not perfect and Zhou Mengchen is not satisfied, it will be the most suitable system for the Ming Dynasty in the future.

By the way, Zhou Mengchen cleared the loan owed to Yellow River Bank. Zhou Mengchen was actually worried that it would be difficult to deal with if he borrowed money in the future. So I will settle this matter first.

Zhou Mengchen was at Mengmen Port north of Hukou. He watched the surging Yellow River flow into the front line, and there were only a few ships on the newly built Mengmen Port pier. He asked Xu Gao, "I just asked you the question about the ship, how are you thinking?"

Xu Gao shook his head and said, "I'm stupid. I really can't imagine what kind of material can replace wood."

Zhou Mengchen did not answer positively, but asked Yin Zongyi: "In your opinion, what material can replace wood to build ships?"

Yin Zongyi pondered for a moment and said, "I have always had an idea, can cement build a ship?"

Zhou Mengchen was stunned and asked back, "Why did you think of this?"

Yin Zongyi said: "When my disciple was running the ship on the Sanggan River, I thought about how to build a ship quickly. The fastest thing I thought was that it would be best to water it with cement and form it in one go. It was just a delusion at that time, but afterwards, I thought it might be possible. I just haven't tried it yet."

Zhou Mengchen looked at Yin Zongyi, smiled slightly, and said, "You can try it."

There were a large number of cement ships in the inland rivers in later generations. Zhou Mengchen had never seen the real thing, but he had met and met. However, Zhou Mengchen didn't know whether cement can build ships now. After all, although today's cement is also called cement, it is essentially a world of difference from the nature of cement in later generations. It's like Zhou Mengchen just took a train, but compared with the high-speed rail in later generations, it is not a species at all.

Zhou Mengchen didn’t know whether cement could be done in later generations, but whether cement from the Ming Dynasty could be done today. Only by trying it can you know whether it works.

Yin Zongyi received Zhou Mengchen's affirmation and immediately said, "Yes. After the disciple goes back, I will try it."

Zhou Mengchen said: "Have you ever thought that iron can build a ship?"

"Use iron?" Xu Gao said: "I have heard of the Southern Song Dynasty that there were iron ships. The teacher said that this is the iron ship?"

Zhou Mengchen smiled softly and said, "Of course not. I have heard of the iron ships of the Southern Song Dynasty. They are just a layer of iron armor on the wooden ship. What kind of iron ships are? The iron ships I want to talk about are all made of iron."

"You have all seen military weapons smelting iron. Although the price is very high, it is not difficult to build it. Wood is more expensive. The big wood that can build ships is a big wood for decades or even hundreds of years. Not to mention the northwest land, even the Central Plains is the southeast land. How much wood is there? You know in your mind. For the main beams of the three halls, the big wood transported from the deep mountains in the southwest has lost many lives. Each wood costs thousands or tens of thousands of taels. The larger the amount of the same iron, the cheaper it is. From the perspective of cost, iron may be more expensive now, but over time, the price of iron will definitely be lower than that of the big wood."

"There are also quite inconvenient places to build ships with wood, which have to be hung for several years, but there is no need to use iron."

"I don't call the college here the railway school, but the transportation college. I just don't want your energy to be just on the railway. I must uphold the ambition of transportation in the world and care about other aspects. The iron ship project will be handed over to you. I hope that in the future, you will see a large number of iron ships you have built on the Yellow River."

Zhou Mengchen also thought about the future. The Ming Dynasty in the future will definitely experience the maritime struggle with Western powers.

The Western shipbuilding industry has been developing for so many years, and it has already had a very mature process for marine shipbuilding, but the Ming Dynasty was different. It had long been banned from the sea. Zhou Mengchen didn't know that the craftsmanship of Zheng He's voyage to the Western ships was preserved. And even if it was preserved, this kind of big ship could not adapt to the upcoming era of artillery war. Not to mention, even if it was not about shipbuilding, the Ming Dynasty had insufficient reserves, and the cost of wood in the southwest was too high, and the wood in Liaodong was good. However, it took four or five years for wood to come out of the mountain to be processed into a ship.

Many times, there is no time.

Moreover, iron ships represent the future after all. If the iron ship's technology tree can be pointed out in advance, it will be much easier to build sea ships in the future. Moreover, based on Zhou Mengchen's processing technology of the Ming Dynasty for gold, silver, copper and iron, it is actually not difficult to create an iron ship.

There are three biggest problems. One is that large iron parts like iron ships are too big. They have not been built before. Of course, there are not all. After all, large parts like Wudang Jindian have also been built, and various rivet welding techniques are actually available. Please note that the welding technology here is not the current welding and other welding, but the more traditional and ancient heating welding technology, which is very troublesome.

Secondly, the most important thing is waterproofing, rust-proofing and other processes. It is not difficult to build a ship, but how to use the ship for a long time is the most difficult thing.

Another problem is the power of the iron ship. The heavy iron ship cannot blow the wind force at all, but now there is a steam engine.

The two of them had no reason to refuse the topic given by Zhou Mengchen, so they could only say: "Please rest assured, we will start preparing for this matter immediately."
Chapter completed!