Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 289 The Rebels Flee, Guanzhong Falls (Part 1)

After the imperial examination for military officers concluded, a chill gradually crept into the capital.

With winter fast approaching, Zhu Jue turned his attention to the shipyard again.

This is because the docks and waterways of the Beijing Shipyard and the Haihe Shipyard are full of ships under construction.

These ships were extremely important to them; it could be said that whether the Ming Dynasty could soar to new heights depended on these ships.

The problem is, if the construction can't be completed before the ice freezes this year, these ships will have to lie in the water in the dock for more than five months!

Currently, the Beijing Shipyard and Haihe Shipyard are simultaneously building more than 2,000 ships. If these 2,000 ships were to lie idle for more than five months, one can imagine how much transport capacity would be wasted.

Furthermore, they can build ships now that they are frozen. If the docks and waterways are filled with ships under construction, the two shipyards will be unable to build ships. This delay will result in the loss of at least two thousand more ships!
In other words, if the more than 2,000 ships at the Beijing Shipyard and Haihe Shipyard were not completed before the ice freeze this year, they would lose nearly half a year's worth of transport capacity, amounting to five or six thousand ships.

At this point, they can only mobilize five or six thousand ships from overseas, and they cannot afford to lose the transport capacity of those five or six thousand ships for half a year.

Therefore, as soon as the imperial military examination ended, he began heading to the shipyard.

Actually, the main problem the shipyard is currently lacking in timber, because their shipyard is expanding too fast and the timber supply has not kept up.

The local timber supply in the Ming Dynasty was already barely enough to supply the capital shipyard alone, as they had been importing timber from Southeast Asia. Now that two shipyards were operating simultaneously, the timber supply immediately became strained.

He wasn't without options; he ordered people to start logging timber in the Americas and Southeast Asia.

The problem is that the Americas are too far away, and a round trip would take four months. Moreover, they are severely lacking in ships, so they can't carry too much timber in one trip.

The South Seas are close, but they have only been developing them for a little over a month. Timber production has not yet increased, and there are not enough ships. Therefore, the timber supply has always been tight, and the shipbuilding progress of both shipyards has been delayed due to insufficient timber supply.

If he doesn't come up with a solution quickly, the Beijing Shipyard and the Haihe Shipyard might not be able to complete the construction of all two thousand ships in the docks and waterways before the ice freezes.

Around 1:00 AM that day, he brought Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others to the Beijing Shipyard.

Meanwhile, the hulls of the five hundred small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships had been assembled and tested in the water. At this moment, the craftsmen were swarming onto them, assembling boilers, steam engines, and water turbines.

The problem is that there's hardly any plank left in the dock; the timber here is almost all used up.

Zhu Jue examined it carefully and then asked, "Liangfu, how many batches of timber have been sent over from Southeast Asia?"

Without hesitation, Wang Zheng replied, "Zhu Jin has already sent two batches over."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "Before he freezes, how many more batches of timber can he send over? Do you think that will be enough to complete the construction of all the existing ships in the two shipyards?"

How do you say this?

Wang Zheng pondered, "He can send another batch in a few days, but the next batch will probably have to be frozen."

"Currently, the timber harvested in Southeast Asia is still limited. I estimate that even if two batches are delivered, the timber will still be insufficient. My only hope now is that the Ming Dynasty can harvest more timber domestically and transport it over to fill this gap."

Timber native to the Ming Dynasty?

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue immediately pressed on, "You mean we don't need very long timber anymore, and that timber from the Ming Dynasty can be used?"

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, the long timbers are mainly used for the bottom, sides, and keel of the ship. The timbers in other places can be spliced ​​together, so it doesn't matter if they are a little shorter."

In particular, the small and medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships here originally only needed about ten zhang of timber at most, and the shorter ones could be used with two or three zhang of timber.

Most of the timber harvested in the Ming Dynasty is only about two or three zhang long to about ten zhang long. Therefore, timber harvested in the Ming Dynasty can be used here.

As for the Haihe Shipyard, the hull, sides, and keel frame have already been assembled. Using shorter pieces of timber to join the deck and cabins shouldn't be a problem, as long as they're not too short.

If we can use timber from the Ming Dynasty's own land, then we can come up with a solution.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly, then asked, "Where does the Ming Dynasty mainly source its timber nowadays?" There are quite a few sources.

Wang Zheng explained in detail: "Currently, we mainly harvest timber in Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Southern Zhili. We also harvest some in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. However, we send people to purchase timber from Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, but we do not organize people to harvest timber there."

These places are all too far away; there are places around the capital.

Leaving aside the Central Plains and the Northwest, there is plenty of timber in the capital region, and the Yanshan Mountains alone contain countless timber reserves. Liaodong, on the other hand, has even more, covering more than 100,000 square kilometers, most of which are mountainous. From the Liaoxi Corridor to Liaoyang, there are mountains all along the way, and Dingliao Right Guard is even more surrounded by mountains.

If timber is harvested from the capital region and Liaodong, it can be transported here incredibly quickly.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Then we will organize manpower to cut timber from the capital region and Liaodong."

The reason we didn't harvest timber from the capital region and Liaodong was mainly due to inconvenient transportation and insufficient transport capacity.

Now our railway tracks have reached Liaoyang, and there are 1,500 small Zhiyuan merchant ships in Liaodong, making it incredibly convenient to transport timber from the capital region and Liaodong.

"Make a rough estimate of how much timber you need and how many people you'll require to cut it down. I'll immediately order people to organize the manpower for you."

Yes, transportation to and from the capital region and Liaodong is much more convenient now, and they have sufficient transport capacity in both areas.

They could easily harvest timber in both places. Timber harvested in the capital region would take less than a day to arrive, and timber harvested in Liaodong would only take two or three days. That's incredibly fast.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng was quite excited and said, "If the timber is harvested from the capital region and Liaodong, it will be transported over quickly."

Actually, we don't need that much timber now. The two shipyards are only short of about three million timbers. Two shipments from Southeast Asia can bring over nearly two million timbers. In total, we are only short of a little over one million timbers, less than two hundred thousand.

As for manpower, a team of ten people working at a wood-pounding station should have no problem harvesting ten loads of timber a day, roughly one load per person per day. If they could organize 100,000 people to harvest timber, it would take about ten days.

The sooner the better, we can't delay. This Little Ice Age disaster is so severe, who knows when the capital region will freeze over? Liaodong is probably about to freeze over as well.

Zhu Jue pondered, "Liaodong will soon be frozen over, the grain there should be harvested, and the soldiers and civilians there should have nothing to do."

I will issue an edict shortly, ordering Boya to conscript 200,000 able-bodied men to quickly cut timber for you, and try to harvest as much as possible before the ice freezes over. After the ice freezes over, the only way to transport timber will be by land, and not much can be transported.

"In the capital region, I will have Grand Tutor Tian conscript 200,000 able-bodied farmers to quickly harvest timber. We'll strive to gather the necessary timber for the two shipyards within ten days. Shouldn't there be no problem completing these 2,000+ ships before the ice freezes?"

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Then there's definitely no problem."

As they were discussing, Fang Zhenghua suddenly rushed over with a memorial in his hand, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, General Pan has sent a secret report."

Secret report?

What else could Pan Yunteng report at this time?

Zhu Jue took the memorial and frowned slightly upon reading it.

Pan Yunteng reported that the rebel Zhang Xianzhong's forces seemed to have ceded all the territory around Lu'an Prefecture and Liaozhou, and appeared to be gathering troops and heading northwest.

What was Zhang Xianzhong up to?
At this time, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong still divided their troops. Weren't they afraid that Pan Yunteng would lead his army to attack the strongholds of the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou?
Even with Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang working together, they couldn't hold out. How could leaving Gao Yingxiang alone make it possible to hold out?

He frowned and pondered for a while, then a look of sudden realization appeared on his face.

Zhang Xianzhong wanted to march back to Shaanxi!

This is because there were still quite a few vassal states in Shaanxi that could be seized at that time.

Furthermore, spies in the court could exploit these princes and members of the imperial family.

(End of this chapter)