I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 169 Preparations
Suddenly, a lot of people came to a beach on the north side of the Bohai Sea. They held a red flag with a black dragon on it and set up a camp on the beach. They erected a series of tents, and various supplies were continuously transported in. The entire camp became larger and larger.

In the largest tent in the camp, Zhu Houxuan was sitting at the top of the tent presiding over a meeting. There were about forty or fifty people sitting densely in the tent, making the air in the tent a little stuffy.

Behind Zhu Houxuan is a huge map with densely packed markings of various colors.
"Your Highness, the laborers recruited by Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture are already gathering. According to the plan, 50,000 laborers will go to Kaiping Zhongtunwei, and 100,000 laborers will gather here. Based on the distance of the journey, all these laborers will arrive here within ten days," Jiang Jiangong said in a serious tone.

Zhu Houxuan nodded with satisfaction.

He had no choice but to entrust Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture to recruit laborers, because as a business organization, the Ming Royal Group simply could not recruit enough laborers.

He sent people to recruit workers door to door, but he estimated that not many people would trust them.

Moreover, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated various policies to restrict population mobility. If a person wanted to travel far away, he had to go to the local government to apply for a travel permit. Zhu Houxun wanted to recruit 100,000 laborers, and the issue of travel permits alone was enough to give him a headache.

So Zhu Houxun simply used the Ming Dynasty's administrative system to recruit 150,000 laborers through corvee labor and brought them over first.

As for why Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture cooperated so well, one reason was because of his identity, and the other was because he bought the beach under his feet with 100,000 silver coins.

The place where he is now is a wilderness with only a few small fishing villages nearby. There are no iconic buildings or natural landscapes. Even in later generations, this place is not very famous.

If we use the place name of later generations to describe this place, it is called Nanbu Economic Development Zone, Caofeidian District, Tangshan City.

The most famous thing about this place in later generations is the Nanbu Salt Field.

Nanpu Salt Field is the largest sea salt production field in China and Asia, and ranks third in the world.

This is the advantage of being a time traveler. He can know the distribution of various minerals and places with excellent natural conditions, thus saving a lot of exploration effort.

Even though there is a gap of 500 years, the coastline and natural conditions in the northern part of Bohai Sea are actually not much different from those in later generations. Unlike the coastline in the southern part of Bohai Sea, because the Yellow River flowed north into the Bohai Sea in the Qing Dynasty, the coastline in the southern part of Bohai Sea is quite different from that in later generations.

This area has excellent natural conditions for salt drying:
1. A long, broad and flat mud beach.

2. Weather that is conducive to the evaporation of seawater, that is, a short rainy season, rapid temperature rise in spring, more wind and less rain, sufficient sunshine, and vigorous evaporation.

3. There is no terrain obstruction nearby, so it is not easy for orographic rain to form.

When Zhu Houxuan was in Qizhou, he planned to open a salt field here. He also inspected this place when he was in Tangshan last time, and has been keeping people here to collect various natural data. "How is the logistics preparation going?" Zhu Houxuan looked at Chen Hong who was sitting on the other side.

Chen Hong stood up quickly. He was stronger than he was a few months ago, and his temperament became more capable. "Reporting to Your Highness, we purchased 312,540 dan of rice and wheat in Tianjin, spending a total of 318,791 silver coins. Now this batch of grain has been gradually loaded onto the ship. We have built five wooden trestle bridges nearby, and the grain will be shipped to Nanbao soon."

Chen Hong stuttered at the end. He was still not used to Zhu Houxuan calling this place Nanbao, when there was clearly nothing nearby.
Zhu Houxuan looked at Wu Liangshan again. Wu Liangshan was still as fat as ever, with no sign of losing weight at all.

"The first batch of transport fleet heading north brought 400,000 steel tools, including 100,000 pickaxes and 100,000 steel shovels. The mechanical team has found a suitable location on the nearby steep river to build a waterwheel. They will set up a repair station there to repair the damaged tools," Wu Liangshan said simply.

The people in the tent reported one after another, and a lot more markings appeared on the map behind Zhu Houxuan.

After everyone had finished reporting, Zhu Houxuan looked at the map behind him. It was a map of the area forty miles around Nanbao, and it was drawn in great detail.

Zhu Houxuan slowly said: "I am very satisfied with everyone's work."

The people in the tent did not relax because of Zhu Houxuan's words, but became more focused. They all knew Zhu Houxuan's speaking style very well and knew that there would definitely be a twist later.

Sure enough, Zhu Houxuan changed the subject and said, "But on some things, we still haven't considered them carefully enough."

"First of all, there is not enough medicine. Summer is coming, and we need enough medicine to prevent heatstroke, epidemic diseases and injuries. We also need to invite some doctors to provide the laborers with enough boiled water. We cannot let them drink raw water."

Chen Hong quickly wrote down Zhu Houxuan's request with a charcoal pencil. He was responsible for this.

"Then the camps for the laborers are not designed properly. They are too densely packed. Summer is the peak season for diseases. The camps can be spread out further to prevent the disease from spreading quickly. In addition, a patrol mechanism should be established to mediate conflicts between the laborers in a timely manner."

Jiang Jiangong nodded repeatedly and wrote down Zhu Houxuan's request.

Zhu Houxuan kept making demands, some of which were very subtle.
Chen Hong looked at Zhu Houxuan with admiration. He felt that Zhu Houxuan was like a general who was giving orders, taking every detail into consideration.
He didn't expect that his life would change so much in such a short time. A few months ago, he was still at home doing nothing, but now he has started to handle the logistics support work of 100,000 people. He is now surprised by his progress every day.
After Zhu Houxuan finished speaking about his request, he looked around the room again, raised his voice and said: "Everyone present must cherish this opportunity. This project is a very rare opportunity, and it is also a huge test and challenge to our management capabilities. We have organized projects involving tens of thousands of people in Qizhou, but this is the first time we have organized a project involving 100,000 people. Everyone must be vigilant and not let down their guard. At the same time, we must also record the gains and losses of this project. After the completion of this project, we must also summarize the experience and lessons learned."

"Yes! Your Highness!" everyone shouted loudly.

Zhu Houxuan pressed down his hands to quiet everyone down, and said in a softer tone: "This project is our first since we moved north, and everyone knows its importance."

(End of this chapter)