Chapter 51 Anything Goes

At the Dengzhou Shipyard, although the family often went without enough to eat, they at least did not face starvation.

Consequently, Yang Zhiming persevered at the Dengzhou Shipyard.

"I'm going to poach Yang Zhiming. Well, I'll figure out a way to make the local government hand him over to me." Having successfully concluded his inspection of the shipyard, Zhang Chen returned to Zhang Village Pier accompanied by Qiao Biao and Zhang Er'an.

Taking Qiao Biao to the shipyard was simply a matter of the layman Zhang Chen bringing along a professional to accompany him on the tour. For now, he had no intention of replacing Qian Yuguang as the shipyard director.

Wang Shumeng, the captain of the Zhang Village Militia team who had been sent to recruit talent in Dengzhou City, had already sent back the first batch of recruits—over four hundred sailors.

Accompanied by Qi Guoshu, Zhou Yichao, Zhou Bangsen, and a plump man were currently interviewing those four hundred-odd sailors.

Zhang Chen's sworn brother Zhou Yichao had a father, Zhou Cheng'en, who was a major merchant. A few days ago, Zhang Chen had given Wang Shumeng a letter to deliver to Zhou Yichao when the latter went to recruit in Dengzhou City.

In the letter, Zhang Chen asked Zhou Yichao to send a few experienced crew members to Zhang Village to help him interview sailors.

Zhang Chen had never expected that Zhou Bangsen, the chief steward of Zhou Yichao's household, would personally come to Zhang Village to help. Walking over, he scolded Zhou Yichao, "With just this tiny matter on my end, why did you have to alarm Uncle Zhou, you rascal!"

Zhou Bangsen was one of the earliest followers of Zhou Cheng'en and had served as the captain of Zhou Cheng'en's very first merchant vessel.

Several years ago, after Zhou Bangsen retired, he became the chief steward of the Zhou household, remaining utterly loyal to Zhou Cheng'en.

Almost all Ming dynasty maritime merchants had encountered pirates; indeed, when encountering isolated merchant ships, most of them had moonlighted as pirates themselves.

Years ago, Zhou Bangsen had blocked a blade for Zhou Cheng'en, saving his life.

Therefore, Zhou Cheng'en held Zhou Bangsen in the utmost respect!

"Well, well, the most notorious kept-son-in-law in Dengzhou Prefecture has arrived," Zhou Yichao bantered with Zhang Chen. "Zhang Chen, the renowned poet of Dengzhou Prefecture, you rascal actually managed to churn out half of an exceptionally fine ci lyric and a complete poem a few days ago. Damn it!"

"I just came to Zhang Village to look around." Zhou Bangsen looked Zhang Chen up and down. "I misjudged you. In just a few days, you, a young man, have led the Zhang Village Militia to consecutively defeat the Cishan Baldy bandits, the Zhifu Island Japanese pirates, and the Futou Village pirates. *******, once meeting wind and clouds, one soars into the sky. This old man misjudged you previously!"

"Soar my foot. Those bandits, Japanese pirates, and sea raiders wanted my life, so they had to pay with their own. Uncle Zhou, I simply had the guts to risk my life against them."

Zhang Chen gave Zhou Yichao a kick. "I was just too lazy to write poetry before. Writing poetry is simple; I can rattle one off the top of my head: 'O ocean, why must you be so vast? O sea water, why must you be so salty—'"

Zhou Bangsen, Zhou Yichao, and the plump man all burst into laughter, and even the sailors waiting nearby joined in.

He had changed. The young Zhang Chen had transformed completely from his former self. In his heart, Zhou Yichao cursed the Tian family—it was the Tian family that had stimulated Zhang Chen into becoming a totally different person!

The plump man who came with Zhou Yichao was named Zheng Laohu, and he was a veteran ship captain. In Dengzhou City, Wang Shumeng and his men had already done an initial screening, so virtually none of the sailors who arrived at Zhang Village were duds.

There wasn't much to interview, truth be told. Zhang Chen joined Zhou Bangsen, Zheng Laohu, and Zhou Yichao, and the four of them screened the four hundred-odd sailors before nightfall, selecting nearly three hundred of them. These nearly three hundred sailors were the crew members from the six secondary Fuchuan war-junks or large Shachuan junks with displacements of over two hundred tons, and the more than thirty vessels with displacements between one hundred and two hundred tons that Zhang Chen had captured.

With sharp eyes, Zhou Bangsen and Zheng Laohu conferred and picked over forty men from the nearly three hundred accepted sailors to serve as captains for those forty-odd vessels.

The interview process concluded with flying colors. The over one hundred men who were rejected were all robust youths. Zhang Chen smiled and said, "Those willing to stay on as ship guards may remain; those who are unwilling are free to leave." In this era, there weren't many places where the poor could eat their fill, so not a single person left—every single one of the hundred-odd men chose to stay on as guards aboard the ships.

With a smile, Zhang Chen accompanied Zhou Bangsen, Zheng Laohu, and Zhou Yichao back to Zhang Village for a meal.

Qi Guoshu led his men in organizing meals for the newly recruited four hundred-odd men and assigning them sleeping quarters.

After breakfast the next morning, Zhou Bangsen, Zheng Laohu, and Zhou Yichao bid farewell to return to Dengzhou City, heading down to the Zhang Village Pier to catch a boat back.

"Don't forget to go to Dengzhou on the eighth day for the literary gathering," Zhou Yichao reminded Zhang Chen once more as he was about to leave. "Quite a few people want to catch a glimpse of you, the famous poet."

"We'll see how things go. If there's no fighting, I'll take a boat to Dengzhou on the eighth," Zhang Chen replied with a smile. In the next couple of days, the government troops were bound to launch a suppression campaign against the Cishan Baldy bandit gang.

At quarter past the ninth hour of the afternoon, the teams sent out by Zhang Village to Muping County and Qixia County to recruit sailors, robust youths, blacksmiths, gunpowder artisans, and other useful talents returned, bringing back over a thousand people.

Wang Shumeng also returned from Dengzhou, having recruited another two thousand-plus people.

The three recruitment teams brought back a total of over two hundred artisans. Zhang Chen had local craftsmen Zheng Laotie, Jiang Bao, Wulin, and others interview them, ultimately hiring over a hundred.

Currently, Zhang Village was undergoing massive construction with over a dozen active work sites, so the remaining artisans could only work as temporary laborers across those sites.

The three teams had brought back over three thousand robust youths in total. After consulting with Qi Guoshu, Zhang Da'an, Wang Shumeng, and Zhang Yixin, Zhang Chen gritted his teeth and hired the vast majority of them.

Liu Village would undoubtedly be rebuilt, and the population of Zhang Village would continue to grow, with the overflow eventually being siphoned off to settle in Liu Village.

Moving forward, the Zhang Village Militia would be tasked with defending both Zhang Village and Liu Village.

To prepare for future contingencies, the Zhang Village Militia recruited several hundred more men to expand its ranks to fifteen hundred, and Zhang Chen appointed Zhang Da'an as the deputy captain of the militia.

Adopting the suggestions of Qi Guoshu, Wang Shumeng, and others, Zhang Chen selected fifty men from the militia to form his personal guard detail when traveling out.

The Zhang Village Pier and the Zhang Village Shipyard (formerly Qi Dazhi's shipyard) would each station several hundred guards.

In the future, Zhang Village would manufacture commodities such as cotton cloth, cigarettes, and glassware.

Those forty-odd ships belonging to Zhang Village would sail south to procure grain and raw materials for soap, cotton cloth, and cigarettes.

In this era, setting sail on long voyages without a sufficient number of guards on board merchant vessels was tantamount to seeking death.

Therefore, recruiting over three thousand robust youths at once was not excessive for Zhang Chen.

Between yesterday and today, Zhang Village had recruited over four thousand people in total. Suddenly acquiring over four thousand mouths to feed placed immense pressure on Zhang Chen—he was nearly reaching the limit of what he could support.

Shaking his head, Zhang Chen stepped into Xia Hua's courtyard.

Xia Hua was currently in the outer room of her bedroom, searching for something in a chest drawer.

Bent slightly forward as she rummaged through the drawer, her lower back curved upward, and her sleepwear was pulled up slightly, exposing her plump, straight young legs in their entirety. Through the soft pajama pants clinging to her skin, the graceful lines of her buttocks were half-hidden, half-revealed, showcasing her perfect, delicate physique!

Zhang Chen froze for a moment. This was the very same sexy body he held in his arms every single night!

"Husband, it's not dark yet." Catching the somewhat startling intensity of Zhang Chen's gaze, Xia Hua blushed and said softly, "My lord, after dark, whatever you wish!"

"Wife, I'm a good man." Zhang Chen planted a kiss on Xia Hua. "We'll hold a meeting after dinner. Tonight, at midnight, I'm heading out to Zhifu Island to fight a battle. Get a good night's sleep yourself, and don't wait up for me."

The Zhang Village Shipyard was less than ten li away from Zhifu Island. Formerly belonging to Qi Dazhi, the shipyard had evidently been beneath the notice of the Zhifu Island Japanese pirates, as they had never launched an attack against it.