The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 316: Preparing to Grab Business

The navy fleet set out to sea.

Early in the morning at about noon, when the sun had just risen, hundreds of centipede ships suddenly pulled out fifty thousand-ton giant ships and five two-thousand-ton giant ships from the Xinbao Shipyard in Longjiangzhou, Jinling.

Immediately afterwards, these hundreds of ships formed a long line, sailed downstream, and headed straight overseas.

The fifty thousand-ton giant ships and hundreds of centipede ships that were originally docked at the Longjiangzhou Wharf also slowly left the wharf and followed one after another.

The long queue was getting longer and longer, stretching for hundreds of miles and it seemed like it had not yet ended.

This excited the boatmen on the Longjiang and Yangtze Rivers, and they almost jumped up and cheered.

The Ming Dynasty Navy seemed to have disappeared in the past hundred years. There were no decent ships at all. Even when Japanese pirates were rampant during the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty Navy was still a bunch of small boats.

All of a sudden, the Ming navy sent out hundreds of giant ships, and some of them were huge tower ships that were two or three meters high.

They were really excited. The Japanese invasion during the Jiajing period had cast a huge shadow in the hearts of many people. Now they finally didn't have to worry about the Japanese pirates wreaking havoc.

When the Zhejiang Party in the court received the news, they all looked solemn.

What on earth is the little emperor trying to do?
Originally, they really thought that the young emperor built ships for the navy in order to transport food and grass when conquering Tumen Khan.

Because in the past two years, the Longjiangzhou Treasure Ship Factory has produced only 400-ton octopus ships and 800-ton centipede ships, and neither of them is equipped with cannons.

They would not worry even if thousands or tens of thousands of such ships were produced. There are tens of thousands of 400-ton and 800-ton grain ships. What is there to worry about?
In the first half of last year, when the Longjiangzhou Treasure Shipyard built fifty thousand-ton Fu ships, they were really worried.

However, those Fu ships remained at the Longjiangzhou Wharf without moving, and gradually, they became less worried.

Perhaps, the young emperor just wanted to show off his power, so he ordered people to build fifty thousand-ton ships to show off.

Who would have thought that not long after the beginning of this year, fifty thousand-ton Fu ships and several two-thousand-ton Fu ships suddenly appeared at the Longjiangzhou Treasure Shipyard, and as soon as they came out, they went downstream and went overseas.

This gave them a fright.

Are there really no pirates and Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty?

Yes!

How can we do overseas business and make big money without them?
If the navy fleet happens to encounter a fleet of pirates or Japanese pirates, it will be a big trouble!

Although the imperial court did not ban overseas trade after the opening of the sea in the Longqing Dynasty, to do overseas business, one had to buy a kanke from the Maritime Customs. One kanke was for one ship, and the kanke had to be renewed every year, and it was incredibly expensive.

They just bought a few that were suitable for their own good so that they could ship them out more easily.

The problem is that the pirates and Japanese pirates who are colluding with them have hundreds of ships!

What to do now?
Shen Yikuan was secretly summoning Zhejiang Party officials to discuss countermeasures, but Wanli was gathering people to prepare supplies.

To do overseas business, you not only need ships but also goods, and a lot of them. Once overseas business is started, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of goods will not be enough.

After all, this is a big business worth tens of millions of taels a year, and the amount of goods that need to be prepared is really huge.

For example, if calculated according to the wholesale price of the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver would buy five pieces of cloth, so 500,000 pieces of cloth would only cost 100,000 taels of silver, and 5 million pieces of cloth would only cost 1 million taels of silver.

Of course, they definitely didn't sell it to those colonial bandits at this price. It could be several times or even ten times the price. However, they had to prepare at least several million pieces of cloth a year.

There are also things like porcelain, tea, medicine, glass, mirrors, even kerosene, kerosene lamps, ironware, etc., which all need to be stocked in large quantities.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, he had just finished reviewing an important memorial when he summoned Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong, Earl Yongnian Wang Wei, Zhou Danquan and Wan Bangzhong to the imperial study to discuss the matter.

He called these four together because he had not yet started his overseas business and the Zhejiang Party did not even know what he wanted to do.

At this moment, it is not appropriate to publicize this matter. If the Zhejiang Party is forced to do something desperate and mobilize pirates and Japanese pirates to go ashore and burn, kill and loot like they did in the Jiajing period, it would be troublesome.

Although he now had more than enough troops to wipe out pirates and Japanese pirates, he couldn't simply wipe out thousands of miles of coastline. Although he didn't need to spend ten or twenty years like the Jiajing Emperor, it would still take at least two or three years. By then, the civilians along the southeastern coast would have to endure another catastrophe, and the hard-earned prosperity of the restoration would be delayed for who knows how many years.

Therefore, he decided to prepare secretly, not to reveal his intention to rob businesses, nor to encircle and suppress pirates and Japanese pirates, so as to confuse the Zhejiang Party. When the navy had enough ships, he would suddenly launch an attack, clear out the pirates and Japanese pirates at sea, so that the pirates and Japanese pirates would have no ships left and would drag people ashore to burn, kill and loot, and then rob businesses.

There is no way. There are too many civil servants with ulterior motives in the Ming Dynasty now. These guys can do anything for their own selfish interests. Once he shows his intention to harm these guys, strange things will happen frequently and even the world will be in chaos.

For example, just as Emperor Jiajing showed his intention to recover Hetao, Zeng Xin, the governor of the three border areas who proposed to recover Hetao, and Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet who supported the recovery of Hetao, were both killed, and the northern barbarians came directly to the capital.

Later, Emperor Jiajing was still ignorant of the consequences and issued an order to eliminate pirates and Japanese pirates and strictly implement the maritime ban. In the end, the governor Zhu Wan, Li Tianchong, governor Zhang Jing and others who had made every effort to suppress the pirates and Japanese pirates were all killed.

These were all killed by order of Emperor Jiajing himself, and then the Ming Dynasty was invaded by Japanese pirates in the south and the barbarians in the north, and the world was in chaos!

He didn't want such absurd and bizarre things to happen in the Ming Dynasty today.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, he solemnly said, "What I tell you today must remain secret. Don't tell anyone."

Upon hearing this, Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong, Earl Yongnian Wang Wei and others nodded solemnly.

They all thought that Wanli wanted to discuss some military and national affairs with them.

Who would have thought that Wanli would ask immediately: "Mr. Zhou, are porcelain still made by hand?"

Uh, what does this mean?
Zhou Danquan thought about it carefully, then said carefully: "Your Majesty, now our kerosene cans, thunder bombs, medicine bottles and wine bottles are all pressed out by water wheels, and other porcelains are rubbed by hand."

Now that they have the basics of stamping, this will be easy.

If porcelain is a work of art, it will naturally look better if it is rubbed by hand. If it is a pure daily necessity, it will be more practical if it is punched out by a machine.

For example, the most common plates and bowls, if they are rubbed by hand, there will be some differences, and a stack of ten will probably be a little crooked. If they are punched by a machine, a stack of dozens will be neat and tidy, which makes it easier to place and transport them.

Wanli nodded slightly, then said decisively: "Mr. Zhou, we are now going to mass-produce porcelain bowls, plates, cups and other daily-use porcelain. We will use water trucks to press these. This is fast, and the sizes are consistent and uniform, which is convenient for use and transportation."

This does make sense. Nowadays, if you stack ten rice bowls and wine bowls in a restaurant together, you have to be careful not to let them fall over. But if they are punched out by a machine, you don't have to worry about them falling over even if you stack dozens of them together.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Danquan nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. This business is indeed easy to do. We can stamp it out with machines at an incredibly fast speed, saving a large portion of labor costs. The price is half as cheap, and we still make money. Restaurants and even hotels will definitely buy these bowls and plates of the same size."

Why are you thinking of selling it at a low price?

I want to make a lot of money.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "Mr. Zhou, we don't make cheap products. We want to make products that can be sold at a high price. You can order people to carve the mold more finely, or make some products with particularly beautiful appearance.

For example, I've used teacups with hexagonal petal shapes, which look quite exquisite. If you rub them by hand, it would probably take a long time to rub one cup. If you stamp them by machine, it's just a hexagonal cup with an exquisite handle, which is very quick, but the result is definitely much more exquisite than a hand-rubbed one."

Well, it is indeed very simple to make it more exquisite by using a mold stamping.

The question is, how many people would buy it if the price is too high?
Zhou Danquan thought about it carefully, then asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, do you mean that we should carve more exquisite designs and make fewer to sell to the rich?"

Just kidding, the purpose of using mold stamping is to produce as much as possible.

Wanli said very straightforwardly: "No, we need to make more. We will arrange a waterwheel to continuously press each style. We will make as many as we can."

what?
Is there a water truck for continuous stamping for each style?

At least thousands or tens of thousands can be stamped out that day!

Zhou Danquan was at a loss when he heard this. One kind would produce thousands or tens of thousands of products a day, and ten kinds would produce tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of products a day. In a year, that would be tens of millions of products.

With such a large output, and yet selling it at a high price, who are they selling it to?

(End of this chapter)