Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Shi Luobao frowned when he heard this, as if he was also troubled by this.

"Your Excellency, Grand Marshal, I really cannot help you with this request.

To be honest, people overseas do not necessarily live as well as the people in the Ming Dynasty. There is a shortage of food everywhere.

Especially in the past six months, I don’t know who is buying up the food in large quantities, and food shortages have become even more severe in many places overseas.”

"Is that so? Never mind." Zhang Shikang was happy.

The guy who is buying up grain in large quantities must be Lao Zheng!

In fact, the reason why he asked this question was that he wanted to learn about the situation from other European people.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust Zheng Zhilong, but as a superior, he needs more channels to find out the truth.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty was not so bad, after all, there were all-round supervision such as the Factory Guards, but it was only limited to the domestic area.

He finally had a general understanding of the overseas situation, but in the court, from Brother Chongzhen to the seventh-rank county magistrate, it cannot be said that they knew nothing about overseas; it can only be said that they knew nothing.

This situation is definitely not acceptable. After returning this time, he plans to slightly adjust the monitoring scope of the factory guards and extend the tentacles of the Jinyiwei overseas.

After all, only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win every battle.

After finalizing the order, Zhang Shikang did not stay in Haojing for long. At noon, unable to refuse the hospitality, Zhang Shikang had an authentic Portuguese meal.

But the so-called Portuguese meal was not even a hair's breadth better than the Zheng family's meal, and its taste was even worse than the simple imperial meal of Brother Chongzhen.

After bidding farewell to Shi Luobao, Zhang Shikang led the small fleet straight to Guangzhou Port.

This time there was not much commotion. Many managers in Guangzhou Port knew Ma Tong, and when they learned that the person on the ship was the current commander-in-chief, they all flattered Zhang Shikang to the utmost.

However, Zhang Shikang has long been immune to flattery. In the past two years, what he has heard the most is flattery.

When you are in a good position, you are surrounded by good people.

After the fleet docked at the port, Zhang Shikang did not stop at all and went straight to the shipyard in Guangzhou City with a group of personal guards.

There were not many people in the shipyard, from the manager to the craftsmen.

The reason why Zhang Shikang did not inform them in advance was that he wanted to see the real situation. In fact, what he saw was worse than he expected.

The wood used for shipbuilding was piled up randomly. Many of the woods had become moldy, and some even had mushrooms growing on them.

When the manager of the shipyard learned that the Grand Marshal was coming to inspect in person, he shamelessly took out 1,200 taels of silver.

At that time, Zhang Shikang hadn't even lost his temper or scolded him, but this guy just took out silver as a bribe.

This made Zhang Shikang extremely angry. He directly chopped off the manager's head in front of dozens of shipbuilders, accusing him of bribing the current commander-in-chief.

It can be said that the atmosphere became particularly depressing as soon as Zhang Shikang arrived at the shipyard.

Zhang Shikang waited for about half an hour before the shipbuilders affiliated with the shipyard finally arrived one after another.

Including shipbuilders and apprentices, there are more than 460 people in the Guangzhou Shipyard. Among them, there are more than a dozen people in charge, and only more than 60 people are actually responsible for shipbuilding technology. The remaining nearly 400 people are apprentices or ordinary people doing manual labor.

"You guys come over here and answer the call." Zhang Shikang pointed at the dozen or so managers.

The dozen or so people walked over with fear on their faces. One of them boldly said that the shipyard was too noisy and dirty, and hoped that Zhang Shikang would go with them to the back room to talk.

"I'm telling you right here. If you dare to answer irrelevant questions again, you'll be punished. If you dare to deceive me, you'll be sentenced to death. I'm telling you again, I'm not kidding you."

He just wanted to speak out in front of everyone in the shipyard, telling them not to do anything empty talk, otherwise they would just chop off their heads.

The Ming Dynasty's military industry has begun to lag behind that of Europeans. Although the lag is not that large, it is not easy to catch up with the lag.

First of all, Europeans are also constantly improving. If you want to catch up with them, you have to work harder than them.

Secondly, European industry is already evolving rapidly towards assembly line operations, while the Ming Dynasty still has a backward workshop mechanism, and the old shipbuilders do not want to easily pass on their skills to others.

This outdated idea is not without reason. There is indeed an objective fact that there were cases in the Ming Dynasty where students taught their apprentices but starved themselves to death.

But Zhang Shikang still tried his best to change it.

The dozen or so managers shuddered at the words.

"Let me ask you, how much is the monthly salary for a shipwright, an apprentice, and a helper?"

One of the men came out. He should be the second in command of the shipyard. He came out and said:

"Replying to the commander, the monthly salary for a shipwright is 4 taels and 6 qian, while an apprentice only gets 2 taels, and a helper gets 2 taels and 8 qian, with one meal provided."

"How much material is needed to build the largest ship that a shipyard can currently build? If you dare to lie, I will kill you without mercy." Zhang Shikang stared at the man coldly.

"Replying to the Marshal, four...four hundred materials." When the man heard that Zhang Shikang wanted to kill people at any time, he dared not lie.

Zhang Shikang frowned when he heard this. A warship of 400 tons could only be considered a medium-sized warship in his small fleet. At most, it could be equipped with twelve to fourteen small Francois cannons. Its firepower was far inferior to that of the Portuguese armed merchant ships.

The Ming Dynasty had only abandoned its shipbuilding industry for a few decades, but it had fallen to this state.

"What do you do all day?" Zhang Shikang frowned.

More than a dozen managers were almost frightened to death, and most of them fell to their knees and trembled on the ground when they saw Zhang Shikang frowning.

"Reply...to the Marshal, it's...nothing."

He stuttered and didn't dare to tell a lie, but the truth was that he had nothing to do.

The Southern Army had been causing trouble for a year, and there was some trouble a while ago. The Donglin Party members even pulled them together to discuss matters, saying that they wanted them to build ships.

But not long after, the Donglin Party members disappeared and the shipbuilding project was shelved.

So they continued to stay here idle.

"You have all been dismissed. Go back to where you came from!" Zhang Shikang said in a deep voice.

If there is nothing to do, then isn't that just slacking off every day?

Most of these guys had picked up the habits of the man who had just been killed. Zhang Shikang couldn't control them in the officialdom, but this was inside a factory and he wouldn't allow that kind of bureaucratic style.

After firing all the managers, Zhang Shikang became worried while standing in the shipyard.

He originally thought of taking all these shipbuilders and their apprentices to Tianjin and building a large-scale shipyard there.

However, as an important port city, Guangzhou was one of the major cities with developed trade as early as the Song Dynasty. It can be said that it has great geographical advantages.

It would be really embarrassing if such a city, which was destined to become the trade center of Ming Dynasty in the future, did not even have a decent shipyard.

But now he is really short of management talents, which is really a dilemma.

Ma Tong, who was standing by, seemed to have sensed something and walked behind Zhang Shikang and whispered:

"General, when our fleet temporarily stopped in Chaozhou to replenish supplies, a shipwright named Mo happened to be staying at home idle. According to him, he used to work in the Zheng family's shipyard.

Not only can this person build large ships weighing more than 800 tons, but I have communicated with him a lot and he seems to have some ability to handle daily affairs.

I thought he was a talented person, so I hired him on board."

……