Valley Emperor

In any era, there will be no shortage of forward-looking businessmen like the Chen family and the Xu family. Some of these people died on the beach, while others made a lot of money. .

The Chen family, which is engaged in the grain business, is a successful example, and the Xu family is also trying to be one of them.

Speaking of which, this is actually the inevitability of shipbuilders like the Xu family who want to continue to develop. In the past two years, because the Datang Dynasty continued to support the development of industry and commerce, the industry and commerce under the Datang Dynasty developed extremely fast, which is also the reason It has driven the development of inland shipping industry and offshore shipping industry.

At the same time, it was also because the Tang Dynasty opened up ports and trade, which greatly stimulated the development of ocean trade!

Whether it is the development of inland, offshore or far-sea shipping, the biggest beneficiary is naturally the shipbuilding industry.

Whether it is a large or small-scale shipyard, the dock is full of ships under construction, and there are still a large number of ship orders waiting to be completed.

This also allows many shipyard owners to expand their shipyards on a large scale in order to complete more orders and earn more profits, but it is only limited by the need for risk control. At the same time, a large number of civilian ships are traditional The Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Fuchuan and other types of ships have a special liking. At the same time, because of economic factors, they are more inclined to buy these small and medium-sized ships of about 100 tons or about 200 tons, and they must be such as Guangzhou Ship and Sand Ship. A vessel capable of inland navigation and at the same time possessing certain offshore sailing capabilities.

As for those large ocean-going merchant ships of more than five or six hundred tons, or even thousands of tons, unless they are powerful and dedicated to ocean-going trade, ordinary ship owners will not spend a lot of money to buy them.

You must know that a large ship with a tonnage of more than 500 tons that can really sail in the open sea will cost 120,000 or 20,000 taels at least, and this is only a civilian ship with relatively economical materials.

But if you want to carry out real transoceanic trade, the larger the tonnage, the better, not only the safety, but also the higher the profit because of the more goods you bring.

The previous expansion of Xu's Shamian Shipyard was mainly focused on increasing the construction of small and medium-sized ships of one or two hundred tons, but now, Xu Bingfu is ambitious to enter the field of large ships, in order to avoid the most competitive two hundred tons. market at this level.

Now, in the Xijiang River Basin and even the entire coastal area of ​​Guangdong, shipyards have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain. It is not low, and it can undertake the construction of ocean-going merchant ships of one or two hundred tons.

During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, because of the policy of prohibiting the sea, they could only build ships secretly, and only large-tonnage ships could be built secretly.

Now that Datang has opened its port for business, all kinds of sneaky shipyards in the past have suddenly come out to grab business, and the traditional Chinese hard sailing boats with the largest number of orders ranging from 100 tons to 200 tons, such as Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Shachuan and even Fuzhou Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. Boats, price competition is fierce.

In previous years, the Xu family built a 200-ton sand boat, and the gross profit could be as high as 30 to 40%, but now, it has dropped to less than 20% of the gross profit, and there are still many people rushing for orders.

That is to say, now that the shipping industry has entered a prosperous stage, there are many orders for ships, and with the huge number, the major shipyards can still grow wildly.

However, Xu Bingfu firmly believes that this situation cannot last for too long. In the next few years, although the number of orders for ships under 300 tons will still not be small, the profits will become lower and lower. At that time, if you want to turn to building large ships, it is even more difficult.

Taking advantage of the current lucrative profits and being able to rely on the support of small and medium-sized ships, we will transform in advance and occupy the large ship market of more than 300 tons!

At that time, when everyone else is fiercely competing in the small and medium-sized ship market of less than 300 tons, their Xujia Shamian Shipyard will be able to monopolize the large ship market of more than 300 tons, and there will be no competitors in the market. How can it not be low!

There is even an idea in his heart that if his own Shamian shipyard can have a 500-ton or even 1,000-ton dock, and has the ability to build large-tonnage ships, then it may not be possible to build naval ships in the future.

Navy ships, because of the materials and workmanship required to be super-first-class, so ships of the same tonnage, the battleships of the Datang Navy, are often several times more expensive than civilian ships.

And the higher the price, the more profit it will make!

At the same time civilian ships

Building one warship is more profitable than building ten civilian ships!

As far as he knows, there are currently three government-run shipyards, namely Zhaoqing Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, and Lianzhou Shipyard. At that time, Zhaoqing Shipyard could only undertake the construction of small and medium tonnage inland vessels.

Lianzhou Shipyard only has the ability to build warships under 500 tons.

The only one capable of building warships over 500 tons is Guangzhou Shipyard!

If you can make the layout in advance and let the Shamian Shipyard have the ability to build ships of more than 500 tons, I am afraid that you don't have to compete for orders yourself, I am afraid that the military will take the initiative to come to the door.

When he thought that in the future he might become a merchant ship overlord in the field of large ships, or even a supplier of naval capital ships, his inner fiery could not stop.

After several days of deliberation, Xu Bingfu persuaded the rest of the family to raise funds to build three new 500-ton docks and a new 1,000-ton dock.

Then prepare to spend at least 50,000 taels of silver to purchase all kinds of shipbuilding equipment!

In order to build a new dock and shipyard, they even spent a lot of money to acquire the large vacant land along the river on the right.

And these are only their first investment. To build a shipyard that can build a thousand-ton giant ship, and is still ambitious to build a warship, it will cost a lot of money!

However, the Xu family is also very strong. Relying on their own fleet profits and the profits of the three shipyards, they can barely support it, but inevitably, they are also forced to stop expanding the scale of building ships under 300 tons.

This made many competitors overjoyed, thinking that the Xu family was looking for a dead end, leaving the easily profitable shipbuilding market of less than 300 tons, and had to open up the large ship market that no one had done before, and even set out to build warships. Isn't it just looking for death!

But these competitors of the Xu family were quickly dumbfounded, because when the Tang Navy heard about the Xu family, the private first shipyard was going to invest heavily in the construction of a 500-ton and 1,000-ton dock and introduce a lot of advanced equipment. .

Before the Xu family knew about it, the navy had already conducted a thorough examination of the Xu family's shipyard!

At the beginning of June, when the Xu family's first 500-ton dock was officially started, and a batch of shipbuilding equipment orders of up to 50,000 taels were placed with the Zhaoqing Machinery Branch, a major of the navy found the Xu family. He also gave Xujia a tender document, informing Xujiazhi Shamian Shipyard that it has passed the Navy's internal primary election and is allowed to participate in the Navy's warship bidding conference held in mid-June!

Xu Bingfu was overjoyed at this, and immediately brought many craftsmen in the shipyard and core members of the family to discuss how to participate in this bidding conference, and then unanimously agreed that even if it did not make money, he would grab an order for a warship.

However, they are also very cautious. They have not read the bidding documents for third-class cruisers or even second-class cruisers. What they are looking at are orders for third-class frigates.

The third-class frigate with a standard displacement of 350 tons has become the standard main warship of the Tang Dynasty Navy. Because the technology is mature and the cost is relatively cheap, the navy is building a lot.

As for the entire construction plan, the Navy is preparing to build at least 20 or more ships, and will only consider upgrading in the future!

Twenty third-class frigates, even if the requirements for construction technology are lower, are not as demanding as cruisers, but now few shipyards in the Tang Dynasty have the strength to undertake construction.

In early June, Xu Bingfu took a dozen people from Guangzhou to Zhaoqing. After arriving in Zhaoqing by boat, they first took a rest and then carefully reviewed a plan they had made.

This is the first time to participate in the bidding. Although there are templates sent by the Navy, they still need to think hard about how to plan.

After waiting for three days in Zhaoqing, they finally went to the Naval Command to officially participate in the bidding~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and when they arrived at the bidding venue, Xu Bingfu found that in addition to the three government-run shipyards, there was actually another one just like him. Private shipyard, this is the old rival of their Xu family. It is also Guanghe Shipyard in Guangzhou, and there is another Dingsheng Shipyard that I have never heard of. I only found out after asking the old enemy Guanghe. , This heyday shipyard is from Hong Kong, but it is not well-known. It is rumored that its predecessor was an underground shipyard.

Everyone participating in the meeting today is a competitor to each other, so all of them are silent. Even the two parties from Guangzhou Shipyard and Lianzhou Shipyard, which are both government-run shipyards, are not quite right with each other.

Looking at this situation, Xu Bingfu knew that there would be a fierce battle today!

Today's bidding meeting is not a hidden bid, but an open bid. At the same time, shipyards are not allowed to change the bidding conditions in the middle.

The first thing that started was the bidding for a second-class cruiser, which was undisputedly won by the Guangzhou Shipyard, and the order for two third-class cruisers was won by the Guangzhou Shipyard again. The other one was taken down by the notorious Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard, which surprised Xu Bingfu!

This Hong Kong's heyday shipyard, it seems not simple!