Chapter 50 There is plenty of cow dung

Back then, Keiji Yokomichi commanded five hundred Japanese pirates to push the stranded ships in the shallows into deeper water, so they did not bother to burn down Qi Dazhi's shipyard.

"The imperial court won't rebuild the Qishan Guard garrison anytime soon, nor will they have the bandwidth to punish me. As long as nobody files an official complaint against me, the higher-ups won't care," Qi Dazhi said with a bitter smile. "Someone went to the Regional Commander's office to accuse me—it was instigated by my father-in-law's political rivals. My father-in-law is currently pulling strings for me, which requires a huge amount of silver for bribes. Sigh—"

"What if I buy the Qishan Guard garrison, rebuild it, and develop it, only for someone from the Deng-Lai Regional Commander's office to grow envious and try to seize it? What should I do then? Your backing definitely won't suffice by then, old Qi. As for that shipyard, I'll buy it. Make it cheap—ten thousand taels of silver."

Zhang Chen cursed at Qi Dazhi internally: "Why don't you let your daughter, Qi Yuxuan, marry me as a concubine along with that shipyard?"

"My shipyard is worth at least twenty thousand taels of silver. Oh, you really want to marry my daughter Yuxuan, is that right? Splendid! It's a deal. Like father, like daughter, and my daughter Yuxuan looks very much like me." Qi Dazhi, a burly man with a thick beard, heavily slapped Zhang Chen on the shoulder. "Tomorrow, I'll send Yuxuan over to Zhang Village."

"No, no, old Qi, Brother Qi, I was just joking." Zhang Chen cursed Qi Dazhi inwardly. Since Qi Yuxuan looked just like her father, she was bound to be a muscular tomboy. He was firmly resolved not to take a tomboy concubine!

"Can such a thing be joked about?"

Qi Dazhi cursed back at Zhang Chen: "My legitimate daughter Yuxuan has no flaws other than being a bit dark-skinned, a bit chubby, and a bit sturdily built. Chuyang, my dear son-in-law, tonight the two of us will drink a few cups properly and not stop until we're drunk!"

"This morning, I already sent someone to Jinan City to propose marriage, so it's inconvenient for me to take a concubine for a while. Old Qi, you drive a hard bargain. Your rundown shipyard—I'll buy it for twenty thousand taels."

After Zhang Chen flattered him profusely, Qi Dazhi reluctantly accepted the twenty thousand taels of silver as payment and dropped the matter of giving Qi Yuxuan to Zhang Chen as a concubine. Cursing Zhang Chen, he left.

The Zhang Village Wharf (Futou Village Wharf) was quite large and included a vessel repair yard.

A "one-hundred-liao" ship was equivalent to a vessel with a displacement of about fifty tons, and the repair facility was capable of building small boats under one-hundred liao.

The primary task of the vessel repair yard was to service passing ships.

At the third quarter of the *shi* hour, Zhang Chen, accompanied by Qiao Biao, the director of the repair yard, and his guard Zhang Er'an, rode on horseback to the shipyard near the Qishan Guard garrison. He had come to take possession of the shipyard.

A little over a hundred meters away from the shipyard, Zhang Chen could already see the dock area behind it and its many tall masts.

Just moments ago, Qi Dazhi had come over to notify Qian Yuguang.

Director Qian Yuguang of the shipyard, along with more than a hundred employees, was waiting at the main gate to welcome Zhang Chen.

Well, to be precise, only Director Qian Yuguang and a few middle and senior managers of the shipyard were waiting at the gate for Zhang Chen, and most of them were inwardly cursing the tardy Zhang Chen.

A few days ago, on that fateful night, more than two thousand Japanese pirates landed on Zhifu Island and suddenly veered to launch a surprise attack on the completely unprepared Qishan Guard garrison.

Not far from the Qishan Guard, the people at the shipyard fled at the very first moment.

By the next day, most of the shipyard workers had returned in twos and threes.

Qi Dazhi had sold the shipyard to Zhang Chen, and the shipyard workers had no objections.

He who feeds you is your mother; after all, working was working no matter who you worked for.

As long as Zhang Chen did not default on their wages, the shipyard workers did not mind working for him.

Accompanied by five or six middle and senior managers, Director Qian Yuguang showed Zhang Chen around the shipyard. Exchanging a glance with Qiao Biao and then turning away, Qian Yuguang thought: *Zhang Chen is probably going to install Qiao Biao as the head of the shipyard, and old Qian here is about to lose his job.*

The Qishan Guard garrison was fifteen or sixteen *li* away from Futou Village, and Qi Dazhi's shipyard was about fourteen *li* away from the Futou Village Wharf.

Qian Yuguang knew Qiao Biao, the director of the repair yard at Futou Village Wharf; they were good friends with a solid relationship.

*Driven out by the Tian family to Zhang Village, Zhang Chen—this former son-in-law of the Tian family—first defeated the Mount Ci'e Bald-Headed Bandit Gang, and then triumphed twice over the Zhifu Island Japanese pirates and the Futou Village sea bandits.* Qian Yuguang cast an imperceptible glance at Zhang Chen. *This sixteen-year-old brat Zhang Chen is no ordinary person!*

"All these vessels are flat-bottomed sand-ships of under two hundred liao." Guiding Zhang Chen into the dock area, Qian Yuguang smiled and said, "Within ten days, these dozen or so ships will definitely be completed. The remaining balance for the vessels—three thousand seven hundred taels of silver—will be delivered in the next couple of days."

Qi Dazhi, who was always extremely stingy, had actually left behind materials worth over three thousand taels of silver, such as refined iron long nails and canvas, for Zhang Chen. Qian Yuguang cursed Qi Dazhi inwardly: *Even ghosts and spirits fear the wicked.* Over the past few days, Zhang Chen had slaughtered quite a few bandits, Japanese pirates, and sea bandits, and Qi Dazhi was terrified of this ruthless figure!

*The remaining balance for the ships is three thousand seven hundred taels, and the shipyard still has a batch of refined iron long nails, canvas, and other supplies.* Zhang Chen cursed Qi Dazhi inwardly: *Though he took twenty thousand taels of silver from me, Qi Dazhi didn't clean the shipyard out entirely; he's not completely rotten yet!*

"You fasten wood and boards together with nails, and that makes a ship. Old Qian, I'm a layman. Then you sew a few sails with cloth, and the ship should be finished, right?" Zhang Chen smiled and looked at the forty-something Qian Yuguang. "Uncle Qian, building a ship shouldn't cost all that much, should it?"

"Patron, that's not how it's calculated. A single vessel requires tens of thousands, or even more than a hundred thousand, refined iron nails of various lengths, top-quality construction, and very expensive hardwood."

Qian Yuguang cursed the clueless Zhang Chen in his heart:

"It also requires top-grade linen and cotton cloth, and important parts of the hull's bottom need to be sheathed in iron or copper. Furthermore, a great deal of miscellaneous paraphernalia is needed. Leaving aside labor costs, building a ship takes a vast amount of silver!"

"I stand corrected. My knowledge is shallow, and I've made myself a laughingstock before Uncle Qian!" Zhang Chen gave a respectful bow to Qian Yuguang.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." Qian Yuguang stepped aside to avoid it. *This kid Zhang Chen knows his manners; he's not an arrogant sort.*

Historically, in the eighth year of Chongzhen in the Ming dynasty (1635), a wealthy English merchant spent more than 100,000 pounds sterling to build a large sailing ship with a displacement of over a thousand tons, named the *Princess Royal*.

Building wooden sailing ships truly consumed a tremendous amount of silver!

Piles of hardwood were stacked throughout the shipyard, and sawdust covered the ground everywhere, filling the air with a strong fragrance of timber. Accompanied by Qian Yuguang and the others, Zhang Chen toured the shipyard, inspecting its various workshops, including the sail-making workshop and the lacquerware workshop.

"Uncle Qian, can't we build large ships of one thousand liao? What is the shipyard lacking, or rather, how can we build vessels of one thousand liao or even larger?"

"We lack a master shipwright, we lack craftsmen, and of course, what we lack most of all is silver..." Qian Yuguang spoke for several minutes.

Zhang Chen understood. The shipyard lacked a chief engineer. He smiled and said, "There's plenty of horse manure, and well, there's plenty of silver. Among the refugees, there are many shipbuilding craftsmen. Hmm, let's poach an expert—poach a top-tier expert from the Dengzhou Shipyard with an exceptionally high salary."

"The Guard Commander has approached my master several times, and he was tempted, but Master is afraid of the officials..." Qian Yuguang's master, Yang Zhiming, was the finest shipwright at the Dengzhou Shipyard and ranked among the top shipbuilding craftsmen in the entire Ming dynasty.

The Dengzhou Shipyard was an official state-run facility, and Yang Zhiming's family belonged to the hereditary artisan caste, building ships for the imperial government generation after generation.

Qi Dazhi had tried to poach Yang Zhiming with heavy sums of money before, but Yang Zhiming feared the authorities would bring trouble upon his family and did not dare to jump ship.