Shi Feiyang settled the trade arrangements with Emperor Taichang, then selected a site between the Capital City and Tianjin.
The emperor sent a eunuch and a number of master craftsmen to coordinate with him. After Shi Feiyang explained the scale and purpose of the project, the eunuch had the craftsmen draw up plans and took them away to begin construction.
The money for buying the land and constructing the buildings all came from the emperor's Imperial Treasury.
Once he had given his instructions, Shi Feiyang also asked the emperor to find him thirty craftsmen capable of building large ships.
The craftsmen were brought over by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, trembling with fear. The moment they saw Shi Feiyang, they hurriedly kowtowed and addressed him as Lord Imperial Preceptor.
Shi Feiyang said, "I'll be taking you out to sea. Even if everything goes smoothly, it will take several months. Otherwise, it could be years. Go home and make arrangements with your families. This is your settling-in allowance."
With that, he gave each craftsman a gold bar weighing twenty taels.
The oldest of these craftsmen was already over fifty, his face covered in wrinkles. Never in all his years had he seen such a large gold bar, and none of them dared accept theirs.
Shi Feiyang pressed the gold bars into their hands and told them to hurry home with them, then return that afternoon.
Not knowing whether fortune or disaster awaited them, the men took their gold bars home and gathered their wives, children, and elders. Tears streamed down their weathered faces. "This is the money the Imperial Preceptor gave us to buy our lives! They say he's taking us out to sea. With mountains so high and roads so long, we probably won't ever come back..."
Every household clung together