My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 325 The enemy learns one step, we take three more steps
In the sixth year of Jian'an, one day at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month.

Wujun, Wuxian, Huating Town.

Wujun Prefect Mi Fang, County Magistrate Yan Jun, and the leading figures of the Gu and Lu families, which are still considered major families in Wujun, all waited at the dock despite the cold, waiting for Zhuge Jin, who was "in charge of the Yangzhou Governor's Office", to lead a team to inspect.

In history, the four great clans of Jiangdong were Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang. Now in this time and space, only Gu and Lu still have power. Most of the Zhu family has been overthrown, and the chances of the Zhang family to rise to power have also been greatly reduced. This can be regarded as a small solution to the problem of clans in Wu.

Gu Yong is now serving as the county magistrate of Jiangxia County, and will take over Zhuge Liang's position as "Prefect of Jiangxia" next year.

As Liu Bei's territory gradually expanded, and after the Yidaizhao incident he was able to grant official positions on his own without following the orders of the court in Xudu, it was no longer appropriate for the Zhuge brothers to hold a county-level position forever, and it was time for them to move up.

Because Gu Yong was away, the person in charge of the Gu family in Wu County was his son Gu Shao, a teenager of only sixteen or seventeen years old.

He is Lu Yi's cousin and brother-in-law, whom he just married this year (Gu Shao's mother is Lu Yi's aunt, and inbreeding is very serious among the Wu clans).
On the Lu family side, in addition to Lu Yi who is already nineteen years old, there is also a young uncle Lu Ji who is fourteen or fifteen years old, who is the one who stole oranges during the banquet at Yuan Shu's house that year.

In the years when Liu Bei conquered Sun, Lu Ji was too young to take up an official post. After conquering Sun this year, he was only fifteen years old and had just come out to look for work.

It was the first time for Gu Shao and Lu Ji to meet Zhuge Jin, so they were so diligent. This shows how much psychological pressure Zhuge Jin put on the people below him.

……

No one knew how long they had been waiting in the winter wind. Unable to bear the cold any longer, they hid in the barn next to the pier to warm themselves by the fire.

Finally, a fleet of ships came slowly towards the Yangtze River estuary in the distance. Yan Jun hurriedly reminded Mi Fang who was warming himself by the fire. Mi Fang quickly dressed and lined up on the pier again.

After a while, Zhuge Jin arrived with graceful manners and humble behavior.

As soon as he saw Mi Fang and others waiting on the shore, he made a gesture of support from a distance, but his steps were still calm:
"Brother Zifang, why do you have to be so formal? The weather is so cold, and you have to endure the cold when you are doing business. You can skip the formalities at other times."

Zhuge Jin did not quicken his pace in a pretentious manner, but this gesture made Gu Shao and Lu Ji, who were meeting him for the first time, feel more at ease. They subconsciously felt that he was a leader who dealt with matters based on facts.

"How dare I call you 'brother'? I am only a few years older than you." Mi Fang did not have such awareness and vision. Instead, he felt a little uncomfortable.

He was just a mediocre talent. After settling down in the past few years, he gained some weight. In Wu County for half a year, all the work was left to Yan Jun and Gu Shao. This time when Zhuge Jin came to inspect the construction work in the past six months, he was still worried about any mistakes.

After all, in this life, the status of the Mi family in Liu Bei's camp was lowered slightly because Liu Bei did not suffer the defeat of Guangling.

In comparison, Zhuge Jin was the one who turned the tide in the past six years. And even in terms of making money, Zhuge Jin was far better than the Mi family. Any technology and ideas he brought out could bring him hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, and Mi Zhu would have to rush to help him get a share of the spoils.

Therefore, Mi Fang had been in awe of Zhuge Jin since he, Zhang Fei, and Mi Zhu broke out of Huaiyin to Haixi and helped Liu Bei plan the counterattack against Guangling. It can be said that the degree of awe of Zhuge Jin exceeded that of Mi Fang's awe of Guan Yu in another time and space.

Seeing that he was reserved, Zhuge Jin was afraid that he would not be able to serve as the governor of Wujun well, so he told Mi Fang the good news at the right time to comfort him and set the tone for today's inspection and reception:
"Zifang is too modest. Wu County is the heartland of the lord. The Shanyue in the area have mostly been pacified. There is no worry about war. How can it be governed badly? To govern a place, the first thing is to use people. Make the best use of people and let the place govern itself.

My main purpose of coming here this time is to inspect the progress of the shipyard construction and water conservancy projects, and I have no other intentions. By the way, there is another good news. The lord has a son. Your sister gave birth to a boy at the end of last month.

From now on, as long as you, the Mi family, pay attention to your dignity as in-laws, you won’t have to worry about not being able to maintain your wealth forever.”

Mi Fang was shocked when he heard the news, but then he felt relieved and was even more awed by Zhuge Jin: "It turns out that everything is going well, that's good, that's good! Congratulations! My lord is really... I have to trouble Ziyu to convey this matter.

My elder brother and I have been waiting anxiously recently and wanted to go to Wuchang to visit him. But my elder brother taught me to do my duty and not to leave my post without permission. What kind of ability can I have? The affairs of the county may be more orderly without me. "

As Mi Fang spoke, he gradually became a little out of tune. Although he was in awe, he couldn't help but become a little carried away.

Of course he knew that his sister Mi Zhen was pregnant at the beginning of this year. It was mentioned repeatedly in family letters, and according to the month, it should be a recent event.

But there was no news from Wuchang for a long time, and Mi Fang thought that something had gone wrong, or that the baby was born late, or that it was a daughter so she didn't make it public.

Who knew that in the end Zhuge Jin was better informed.

And we can also see Liu Bei's thoughts from this:
Even if it was his own family affairs, even if Liu Bei himself had a son, he did not immediately inform Mi Zhu and Mi Fang. Instead, he informed Zhuge Jin who was in Moling, Danyang, and asked Zhuge Jin to pass the news downstream to Mi Zhu and Mi Fang.

This approach can be said to be due to Liu Bei's humility. He did not want to bother with his family affairs, so he chose the most economical way of communication.

But as a general of chariots and cavalry, with the power of two states, what's wrong with sending an urgent 600-mile mission for such a big event as having a legitimate son? So Liu Bei was obviously trying to warn the Mi family: Even if you become the uncle of my legitimate son, you still have to listen to Ziyu's words in the future, and what Ziyu says is equal to what I say.

Mi Fang himself didn't react that quickly, and he hadn't figured out all these tricks for the time being, but he would figure them out sooner or later after he returned.

Although Gu Shao, Lu Yi and Lu Ji next to them were very young, their IQs were obviously higher than Mi Fang's, and they had already heard some clues.

Gu Shao and Lu Ji were already extremely nervous as they had to figure out the relationship between the big leaders during their first meeting. Just from these few sentences, it was clear that Liu Bei did not want his in-laws to be too powerful.

Gu Shao, in particular, read the most classics and history among the three, and thought to himself: "My lord and the envoy both specifically advised you to 'pay attention to your dignity as a relative, so that you won't be unable to maintain your wealth and honor forever'. It is obvious that they thought of the end of so many relatives of the emperor who were arrogant and domineering in the end.

Since the restoration of our dynasty, we have treated the descendants of meritorious officials and their relatives with special favor. However, if the descendants of meritorious officials become relatives by marriage, their ending is often worse than those branches that did not become relatives by marriage. How many relatives by marriage did the Hexi Dou family have? Which one did not end up miserably?
Even the relative of the emperor who restored the country like Emperor Guangwu, Empress Yin's younger brother Yin Jiu, was eventually executed because his son Yin Feng married Princess Liyi, was lustful and quarrelsome, and killed the jealous princess. Yin Jiu committed suicide because he did not know how to educate his son.

My lord is probably thinking that if he can achieve the rejuvenation of the Ming Dynasty one day, he must treat his meritorious officials well and does not want the Mi brothers to be as arrogant and lawless as the Yin family. "

Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu, was a rare benevolent ruler in ancient and modern times who conquered the world on horseback and treated his meritorious officials well.

But few people noticed that even Liu Xiu, who did not kill his meritorious officials, would find it difficult to deal with the dual identity combination of "meritorious officials and foreign relatives" in the end.

Liu Xiu himself never took action against his wife Yin Lihua's family until his death, but after his son Emperor Ming of Han Liu Zhuang succeeded to the throne, he took action against his own uncle, but his uncle's family was indeed arrogant and lawless.

These are the most recent examples, after all, they happened during the "last revival", and are very worthy of learning for the Mi family. Young Gu Shao was already thinking that he heard that Lord Mi didn't read much, so he could find an opportunity to hint at him in the future, and let Mi Fang see some selected volumes of "Dongguan Hanji" left by Lord Cai that his father had copied by hand, and then read it himself, so that Mi Fang could learn the lesson without being noticed.

The events of the Eastern Han Dynasty were not compiled into a formal history book because the dynasty had not yet ended. However, great scholars of the dynasty participated in the supplementation of the Dongguan Han Ji, adding contemporary events bit by bit. Cai Yong, Lu Zhi, and Ma Riti all participated in this during the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling.

Cai Yong was convicted in his early years and exiled to Wuhui for twelve years. Gu Yong became his teacher and supported him with the financial resources of the Gu family. During this period, Gu Yong took the opportunity to hand-copy many manuscripts of his teacher. Therefore, Gu Shao's statement that he could produce the manuscripts of Cai Gong copied by his father is absolutely credible.

While Gu Shao and the others were thinking in their minds, Mi Fang on the other side was already anxious to hold a banquet to celebrate and also to welcome Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin had not originally planned to attend the banquet. He arrived early today and wanted to inspect the newly built shipyard in Wujun in the morning.

As a result, Mi Fang insisted on "congratulating the lord on the birth of a son", and Zhuge Jin had no choice but to eat and drink without doing anything.

This was a huge happy event for the Mi family. Naturally, Mi Fang would go a step further in the specifications of the reception for Zhuge Jin, selecting the rarest and most expensive items. On such an occasion, there was no need to worry about Zhuge Jin blaming him for being extravagant.

Several long tables were filled with seafood and delicacies. After three rounds of drinking, Mi Fang suddenly remembered a question and asked casually, "I wonder if the master has named the child?"

Zhuge Jin put down his wine glass and answered sincerely, "It's not even a full month yet, how can I name it? I just gave it a nickname, A-Tai."

Zhuge Jin actually wanted to complain about this name, but there was nothing he could do because Liu Bei had the final say in this matter. Liu Bei himself wanted to "confer the heaven and earth/Taidou". In ancient times, one had to confer the North Star on the sky and Mount Tai on the earth.

This child is the eldest son, and by chance, he is not corresponding to the Big Dipper, so he can only be corresponding to Mount Tai. It's a bit vulgar, but there's nothing we can do about it.

Fortunately, there is still hope for scientific names in the future. The ancients first gave a scientific name when the baby was one month old, but it is not too late to give a name when the baby is one year old.

……

After being harassed by Mi Fang for a whole morning and having celebrated everything that needed to be celebrated, Zhuge Jin finally had time to get down to business.

After lunch, the group came to the newly built shipyard in Huating Town again. This is also the biggest scientific and technological farming achievement in Wudi in the past six months.

This shipyard has been under full expansion, although it has only been about half a year, but Wu has never lacked shipbuilding infrastructure. When Sun Ce was in power, there was a shipyard in the local area, which was run by the Gu and Lu families.

In order to save time, Zhuge Jin did not choose to start a new business from scratch. Instead, he directly took over the foundation of the Gu and Lu families in building civilian and merchant ships, and injected some official technology and manpower to make the company bigger and stronger. During this process, Zhuge Jin did not compete with the people for profits. The Gu and Lu families still invested with their original foundation and took a slight 20% of the profits.

After all, advanced technology is the main source of productivity, and we must distinguish the primary from the secondary. The original fixed assets account for no less than 20%.

Zhuge Jin took a quick look first. The construction of the two new docks had begun to take shape. The length of the docks was more than thirty meters. This size would be sufficient in the foreseeable future.

Mi Fang was born into a maritime merchant family and had some knowledge of ships. When he was supervising the construction of these docks, he came to take a look and felt that the docks were a bit too long. Now that Zhuge Jin came in person, he took the opportunity to ask a few questions to clear up his confusion:
"This dock is so long. I wonder how huge the ships built there will be. Wouldn't it be too risky to suddenly expand it so much?"

Zhuge Jin was very confident: "It will indeed be enlarged, but not as much as you think. The length-to-width ratio of future ships will be narrower and longer. The length may increase by half, but the width may only increase by 20% to 30%. "

Mi Fang could not help asking, "The largest tower ship nowadays can weigh 30,000 to 40,000 jin. The keel warships built by our army before weighed at most 30,000 jin, but they were more suitable for seagoing and resisting wind and waves, and they were faster, but they were not heavier than the large tower ships.

According to the size of the new ship, it is likely to be several times heavier than the largest building ship. If it leaks or breaks because it is too narrow and long, the loss will be unbearable. It is not that the ancients did not have the ability to build bigger ships, but a bigger ship would face various instabilities and dangers that are difficult to predict. "

Zhuge Jin couldn't help but laugh when he heard this: "It's not surprising that you haven't figured it out yet, because we've only just started. Since I dare to build a bigger and faster ship, I must have something to rely on.

After the construction of this new shipyard, I will assign accountants and craftsmen to concentrate on research and experiments. When building the ship, ribs will be used to completely separate the underwater cabins along the longitudinal direction to ensure that if water enters any cabin in the fore-and-aft direction, it will not spread to the adjacent cabins longitudinally.

Traditional tower ships and battleships cannot do this because the internal compartments need to be accessed and the paths are complicated. Even if the board waterproofing technology is good enough, it cannot be completely sealed. Keelboats are narrower and longer than traditional old ships, so they are suitable for being completely divided in the front and rear longitudinal direction.

In the future, the inner waterproof bulkheads must also be made according to the craft standards for the bottom of the ship, with hemp being used when necessary and tung oil being soaked in it, so that the hemp fibers can swell and completely block the gaps. "

Zhuge Jin seemed to be eloquent and eloquent, but in fact he did not know much about the details. He just knew the general trend of the development of the history of science and technology.

The keel-structured warships he had previously developed actually raised China's shipbuilding level from the end of the Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. But he was also very clear that there was a big gap between the keel-structured warships in the early Tang Dynasty and the Fuzhou ships in the Southern Song Dynasty and even in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, that is, the watertight bulkhead technology was used in the Fuzhou ships after the Song Dynasty.

Firstly, as the ship types became increasingly narrow and long, it became possible to completely divide the cabins along the front and rear directions; secondly, the structure of keels and ribs became increasingly mature, and each layer of watertight bulkheads could be used as an extension of the ribs, or in other words, "the ribs could be directly made into transverse bulkheads that cut off the entire cavity."

With the development of watertight bulkhead technology, ships dared to leave the coastline and sail to the distant sea, instead of sailing cautiously along the coastline for fear of a small accidental leak.

Moreover, because the hydrological conditions in the coastal waters of China and the north and south of the Yangtze River estuary are too different, the shipyards in the East China Sea in Jiangbei, Guangling, and even the shipyards in Dashi County in Liaodong can continue to build ships that sail close to the coast.

Whether it is watertight bulkheads or other technologies, we should learn as much as possible from those offshore flat-bottomed ships. It is also a way to enhance our technical strength and combat effectiveness, and it will also be useful when fighting Cao Cao.

The new ships, similar to the later Fu ships, could go to Linyi State to explore the species in the south by crossing Jiaozhou. If Gongsun Du was wooed by Cao Cao, they could wait until Gongsun Du died in the future to ensure that Gongsun Kang would be pursued and rooted out.

Historically, Gongsun Du lived for more than two years and died in 204. When he died, his power had expanded to the Three Han.

In this time and space, because of the plank boat trade between Zhuge Jin and Gongsun Du, Gongsun Du conquered the Three Kingdoms of Han at a faster speed.

The ships Zhuge Jin had built before were not strong enough to sail directly from Shandong Peninsula to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The risk was relatively high, and the technical innovation of "keel" alone was not enough. If "watertight bulkhead" was added, it would be more than enough to sail directly to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. By then, all of Gongsun Du's early expansion would be a waste of money.

Since he had to rely on the coastline to control Yuan Tan, fight against Cao Cao, and eliminate all potential backstabbing forces, Zhuge Jin must of course first ensure absolute control of the sea, and make himself able to dispatch troops from south to north with ease.

The enemy may have seen the characteristics of Liu Bei’s army’s new warships. They cannot learn them, but they cannot help but be on guard and devise countermeasures.

Zhuge Jin had to ensure that no matter how the enemy defended themselves or how they came up with countermeasures, by the time the enemy had come up with the first version of the countermeasures, his tools had already been updated and iterated for two or three versions.

(End of this chapter)