That night, Zhao Hao once again tried to persuade Yang Fan to switch to Jiangnan Shipyard as captain.

To this end, Zhao Hao offered a generous salary of 3,000 taels per year as the chairman of Jiangnan Shipbuilding Corporation, plus performance shares and a female secretary.

He also promised that if he still wanted to be an official, he would try to make him the magistrate of Chongming County. Although they were both of the eighth rank, the magistrate was a proper civil servant, not a miscellaneous official like the one promoted by the Baochuan Factory.

Yang Fan was obviously very moved, but he couldn't bear to leave the Baochuan Factory where he had lived for generations. Zhao Hao could understand his feelings, just like the directors of state-owned factories in the 1980s and 1990s, who had real feelings for the factory and would never leave until the factory was gone.

Moreover, with their own orders, the Longjiang factory was enjoying a comfortable life, so he was even more reluctant to leave.

Everyone has their own aspirations, and Mr. Zhao couldn't afford to spend money to humiliate him, so he could only respect Yang Fan's choice.

However, apart from sticking to the Longjiang Factory, Yang Fan was very flexible in other aspects. Otherwise, he, the great Baochuan Factory, could not open a coffin shop to supplement his life.

In addition to the promise made to Zhao Hao before to help him train 500 shipbuilding craftsmen including carpenters, ironworkers, tin workers, carvers, boat workers, sail workers, rope workers, cable workers, painters, etc.

This time he also promised Zhao Hao to recruit a thousand skilled craftsmen for Zhao Hao from the two thousand craftsmen households under the jurisdiction of the Longjiang Tizhusi, in order to strengthen the shipbuilding capabilities of the Jiangnan Factory.

The reason why Yang Fan had the confidence to help Zhao Hao recruit so many craftsmen was that, first, Mr. Zhao gave too much. Second, since the 41st year of Jiajing, the court was forced to implement the "silver instead of labor" law due to the increasingly serious phenomenon of craftsmen slacking off, hiding, and escaping. Craftsmen can pay silver instead of labor, and the government uses silver to hire workers instead.

In this way, craftsmen only had to pay five cents of silver to the Tizhusi every month and they could work freely without any restrictions.

Zhao Hao promised to pay the craftsmen at least two taels and fifty cents per month. After deducting the money to be handed over to the Ministry of Supervision, the craftsmen would still have two taels of salary per month, so there was no need to worry about them not making enough money.

As for Yang Fan, first of all, the five cents of silver paid by the craftsmen included five cents of tribute to the supervisor. One thousand craftsmen would earn fifty taels of silver per month, which was very satisfying.

Furthermore, only one person in a craftsman's family had to serve in the army, not all of them had to work for the government. In this way, the father worked as a craftsman for the court, and the sons who had learned the craft could go out to work. Therefore, among the two thousand craftsmen, there were at least three or four thousand skilled craftsmen. The loss of one thousand would not affect the normal operation of the shipyard, and it would also reduce his burden.

Two thousand families have to follow him around for food and drink all day long. It must be a very depressing feeling.

~~

Although Yang Fan was not persuaded to come out of retirement, Zhao Hao's trip to the Longjiang factory was quite fruitful.

That night, he stayed at the Tiju Yamen. The Yamen was small, so Mr. Zhao could only sleep in one room with Sister Ma and Qiaoqiao, and there was only one bed...

Don’t think too much, we are in the same bed together!

It was a clean night, nothing happened. Believe it or not, I believe it anyway.

The next morning, Mr. Zhao, who had not slept all night due to being too excited, had dark circles under his eyes. He boarded the Science at the Longjiangguan Wharf and headed straight for Chongming.

According to the original plan, he would go to Jinling City to continue the friendship and prosperity. But now, everything that has nothing to do with going to sea must be put aside!

~~

A day later, the Science arrived in Sansha, Chongming.

Zhao Hao stood on the deck and saw from afar the entire southern bank of Sansha. There was a high stone embankment and seawall, which looked like a long winding dragon in the morning light, protecting the entire Sansha.

That is the 'Chongming Pond Construction and Collapse Prevention Project' which started in October last year. It has lasted for four months and the first phase of the project is finally nearing completion.

The Science Ship sailed along the seawall around Sansha, intending to find the newly built county yamen pier to dock, but halfway through, it heard a lot of people shouting "Master", "Master"...

Zhao Hao looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of people waving and shouting at the seawall construction site. He took the telescope and saw that the people leading the group were his two funny apprentices.

There is a large mudflat in front of the seawall. Although the Science is a flat-bottomed sand boat, it did not dare to approach it rashly.

At this time, Ma Yinglong, who was patrolling nearby, came over in a small boat to greet them.

Young Master Zhao left Sister Ma on the Science, and let the big ship go to the county government office first. He then climbed down the ladder to the small boat and took the boat to the seawall.

~~

"Disciple greets Master!" As soon as Zhao Hao came ashore, Jin Xueceng and Yu Shensi kowtowed to him.

Seeing that the old parents had knelt before the young man, the laborers who were repairing the dike also quickly knelt on the ground.

"Get up, everyone. Get up quickly." Zhao Hao kicked Jin Xuezeng quickly. If someone saw this scene, he would not be able to explain himself.

"Hehe, Master deserves the kneeling of the Chongming people," Jin Xuezeng stood up with a smile, turned around and said to the Chongming people: "This is the old master I often told you about. Our seawall is all thanks to him. And our county town was also given to us by him!"

The common people naturally expressed their gratitude and kowtowed repeatedly. Although they felt that this young man could not be considered an old man...

"Alright, alright, get back to work." Jin Xuezeng sent the laborers away, turned around and asked with a smile, "What brings Master here?"

"Don't you read the court bulletin?" Zhao Hao asked him back.

"Hey, I haven't seen you for a long time. My disciple is now focused on repairing the seawall and completing it quickly so that we can grow crops." Jin Xuezeng chuckled. He is now dark and thin, and looks more and more like a monkey.

"Yes, Master. It's almost the middle of February and the seawall is still not finished. This year's spring ploughing will be delayed." Yu Shensi said anxiously, "If you plant late, you have to harvest late. If you delay until the storm, it will be troublesome."

Seawalls are mainly used to prevent sandbars from collapsing, and it is not known whether they can prevent tides. Moreover, even if they can prevent tides, typhoons can still blow rice crops down, causing heavy losses.

"Hmm." Zhao Hao nodded. He didn't even count the earth embankment in Chongming as part of this year's harvest. Unexpectedly, Lieyang was so stubborn.

Now that he was here, Master Zhao couldn't resist his disciple's strong invitation and could only visit the seawall construction.

The people of Chongming were extremely concerned about this project to protect their homes and prevent collapse. In order to make it permanent, they dug a deep foundation for the seawall, and built a slope protection outside the rubble stone concrete seawall, which was several meters high. They raked and leveled the layers, sprinkled water and compacted them. Then they poured grout in sections with cone holes to make it more solid and resistant to floods.

In addition to the slope protection, the workers also built many embankments and groins with concrete in key places. At the same time, they planted reeds on the beach in front of the embankment. The reeds have deep roots and are connected. They are not afraid of wind, flooding, and waves. They can protect the beach and promote siltation.

Retaining banks, slope protection, groins, mudflats and reeds form a three-dimensional barrier that together protects the seawall that they regard as their life.

This scene made Mr. Zhao once again convinced that the people of the Ming Dynasty were not as ignorant and numb as some people said. It was just that the emperors, ministers and scholars of the Ming Dynasty were unable to mobilize their enthusiasm.

You see, when it comes to defending their homes, they are so serious and responsible, and they actively and proactively use their intelligence and talents.