Chapter 574: Visiting the shipyard

Along the way, Ye Fu wished he could use a handkerchief used for wiping snot to plug both of their mouths. He didn't know what was so endless to talk about that they could nag all the way to the destination without feeling thirsty.

What kind of nonsense was so much, he didn't know!

As soon as A-Guang stopped the bicycle, he quickly took a big gulp of water from a bamboo tube, then gargled and spat it out, followed immediately by another big gulp.

"I thought you two weren't thirsty."

"He's too infuriating. Dad, it's a good thing you don't live with him."

"Alright, you two stop talking, save some saliva. Listening to you talk gives me a headache."

"Then I still have to say one more thing," A-Guang glared at Ye Yaodong. "You ride when we go back to the city later."

Ye Yaodong glanced at him. "I know, I know your legs are weak."

"Grass, you try it later, pedal a bicycle for two hours and see if your legs are weak or not?"

Ye Fu, with a headache, simply abandoned the two and walked toward the shipyard himself.

The two behind him didn't nag anymore and quickly followed.

This shipyard looked a bit dilapidated. The iron gate at the entrance looked rusty, and the walls were okay, just simply piled up with stones. The iron gate was open on one side and didn't restrict people from entering or leaving, but ordinary people wouldn't run here, and there were people working in the factory day and night.

This was the only shipyard around their county.

It could be said that more than half of the big ships in the county came out of this factory, and the other half might be from other places, or possibly from the city.

After all, after the fishing brigade was disbanded, besides returning the original fishing boats to the original fishermen, there were also those built by the brigade later, which were all circulated at low prices after the disbandment.

There were also some who had connections and bought them from other places.

And some of the 20-30 meter big ships currently in the town were also entrusted to be built by shipyards in the city.

Just as Ye Yaodong followed his father through the iron gate, he saw several semi-finished ships piled up scattered on the open space in front, along with various equipment and machines, and workers coming and going.

He estimated the open space in front was about an acre in size, and there were sheds built on the edges of both sides of the open space, inside which were also scattered a few half-built ships.

The three of them felt that their eyes weren't enough as soon as they walked into the shipyard. They were all here for the first time; before, they had only heard about it.

That was why A-Guang was so interested. As soon as he heard they were coming to the shipyard, he followed along happily.

The workers in the factory were all busy there, surrounding a ship in twos and threes. Some were electric welding there, some were knocking and hitting there, and some were moving and lifting there.

Before they had walked a few steps, just sighing there, an old man came over to ask what they were doing?

After Ye Yaodong explained their purpose, the old man let them look around casually first, or go inside to drink tea and sit for a while, while he went to call the factory director.

"We'll look around casually first, and we definitely won't touch anything randomly."

"Alright, then you wait a moment, I'll go call Wu Changzhang."

With so many workers busy in the factory, there was nothing to worry about.

Ye Yaodong and the three of them looked here and strolled there. Although some workers were suspicious of who they were, no one bothered them. After all, people often came to their factory to check on progress.

A-Guang touched his chin and sighed, "Tsk tsk tsk~ So many ships being built at the same time? How much money does this factory earn in a year?"

Ye Fu shook his head. "Building a ship takes a lot of time. Don't you see that none of these ships are under ten meters? This shows that they only accept motorized ships over ten meters."

"Originally, you could just hire a master to build a small wooden boat. If you're in a hurry, you can buy a ready-made one from some old masters. Waiting in line at the shipyard would kill you." Ye Yaodong also said.

"Yes, the kind of ships they build take more than half a year to build one. Although there are quite a lot of people working here, they really can't produce many in a year; it's very time-consuming."

"Like this bigger ship here, some equipment might need to be ordered from big places, which takes time, and might even need to be coordinated." Ye Fu pointed to the ship in front of him, speaking with authority.

At this time, the gatekeeper old man brought over a middle-aged man with a square face and a somewhat sturdy build.

"The old comrade must be an old fisherman; you know quite a lot."

"Hehe, it's Wu Changzhang. You're so young, you really have ability!"

"Where, where. Do you want to go inside to sit for a while and chat, and then drink some tea to warm up your body?"

Ye Fu looked at Ye Yaodong, wanting to see what he said?

"Do you want to walk around and take a look first, or sit down and chat?"

Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "How about we chat while we look around?"

Only then did Wu Changzhang realize that the young man in front of him might be the leader of the three. He had thought it was a father and two sons.

Actually, he hadn't guessed wrong.

It was just a bit rare that the son and son-in-law were more capable than the father, and the father was working for the son.

"Alright, I'll take you around, and we can chat while we look. If there's anything you don't understand, I can clear it up for you along the way."

"So, Wu Changzhang, when is your current delivery schedule pushed to?"

This was one of the questions he cared about most.

"About a year and a half later, I can't say for sure. It depends on the size of the ship hull, and also on the arrival of individual accessory machines. It might be earlier, or it might be pushed back, I can't say for sure. We have several groups working at the same time. If one group finishes ahead of schedule, we can arrange it earlier. If we arrange it early, the progress of completion will definitely be faster."

Ye Fu also let out a sigh of relief when he heard this delivery schedule. It was so slow that Dongzi wouldn't immediately spend a fortune to get one back.

"It takes that long!"

He had thought the delivery schedule would be at most one year; this efficiency was too poor.

However, thinking about the inconvenient transportation in this era, buying big items was even more inconvenient, especially mechanical equipment and the like.

Ye Fu quickly said, "Slow work produces fine products. This ship is a super-large industry that has to be operated for decades; it's not comparable to those electrical appliances, so it must be built well."

Wu Changzhang also nodded and said, "That's one part of it. Another part is that there are quite a lot of customers coming to order ships this year, so we've expanded our scale a bit and recruited more than a dozen apprentices. Otherwise, the delivery schedule could be pushed to two years later."

A-Guang interrupted, "It might be because everyone has had more money in their hands in the past few years, and they have some conditions, so they all have some ideas, wanting to change to a bigger ship to earn a little more."

"Yes, the living standard in our coastal area has been high in the past few years. The 'three turns and one sound' have gradually entered every household, and even in the countryside, it's slowly becoming more common."

"More than that, I heard that people in the city are buying refrigerators now!"

"Some individual cadre families have already been equipped with new three items like televisions and refrigerators."

"Everyone has a bit of money in their hands, so they must improve their living standards. Fishermen are of course the same. With money in their hands, they must change to a bigger ship, go to a further sea area to catch more fish, and earn more money."

Wu Changzhang echoed, "That's the logic. So now there are more and more orders. The orders received this year are more than double those of last year. Our manpower has increased, but the delivery schedule still has to be pushed to a year and a half later."

"I estimate that it might increase after the year. Many fishermen have earned some money in the past few years and are no longer satisfied with just fishing along the coast."

"Did you hear that, Dad? We must have a long-term vision!"

Ye Fu smiled. "Don't let people laugh at you. You're still very green, and your experience isn't sufficient yet."

"So it really is a father and two sons."

"No, he only counts as half!" Ye Yaodong pointed to A-Guang on the side.

"Right, I'm just the son-in-law, he's the biological son. Wu Changzhang, if we want to pre-order a ship of 20-something meters now, about how much money will it cost?"

"That's hard to say. You have to determine if it's 20-something meters, and then you have to determine the machine configuration you need, and then the requirements for the ship hull."

"Some people want two floors, some people just want a bigger cabin, and some people have high requirements for the fish hold. As for fishing equipment like net winches, net rollers, power pulleys, net lifting booms, and guide pulleys, it depends on how you configure them according to the size of your ship hull. Of course, if you're not well-off, you can decide for yourself."

"Also, it's best to confirm whether it's a trawler or a dual-purpose fishing boat. If it's a dual-purpose fishing boat, see what kind of fishing nets it's used for; the things that need to be equipped will be more."

A dual-purpose fishing boat is a fishing boat that uses trawling as its main fishing method, and also uses purse seines, drift gill nets, and fishing as auxiliary fishing operations.

Ye Yaodong nodded. "I understand this."

"You two are very young, but you look like you've surpassed your master. Your father will have blessings in the future."

"Where, where, Wu Changzhang is too polite."

"I have a very accurate eye for people. You two young comrades will definitely be very capable in the future."

Ye Yaodong was happy in his heart, really wanting to reply to him, consider your eye poisonous!

"Go this way, I'll take you to introduce and look at the several ships currently being made, what equipment they have, and what the structure is like, so you can understand it first."

"Alright."