In the days that followed, the letter seeking Chen Kai's approval set sail and was sent directly to the Guangzhou City Council, where a group of Qiongzhou MPs handed it over to Chen Kai. Subsequently, the reply letter also traveled afar in the waves,

After surviving the stormy waves, we finally returned to the meeting hall of the Guangdong Business Alliance branch in Qiongzhou Fucheng.

"Mr. Fujun supports our development of the shipbuilding industry!"

The member who initiated the initiative cheered up, and everyone was excited about it. Even those members who had no intention of participating in it were inevitably like this when they saw Chen Kai's continued support.

In Chen Kai's letter, he was pleased that they could see a farther future, especially the plan to build European-style ships, which was highly praised by Chen Kai. In Chen Kai's words, the Thai and Western countries have already advanced in navigation technology.

Surpassing China is driven by the huge profits from sea trade. The most intuitive thing is that the ships of the Thai and Western countries are larger than the Chinese ships and are more suitable for ocean navigation. This is due to long-term accumulation of experience, so if you want to catch up, you can

You have to learn, take the essence, and get rid of the dross, so as to reach new heights and so on.

Chen Kai's words are filled with longing for going to the ocean. This is something they had not thought of before, because from the very beginning, their purpose was to take advantage of the emergence of a new profit growth point in the shipbuilding industry to improve their business.

The ability to withstand the risks of relying on the cotton textile industry.

The reply was circulated among the members. While writing these words, what emerged in Chen Kai's mind was a conversation between him and Zheng Chenggong a long time ago, and what Zheng Chenggong said to them after that conversation a long time later.

There is a complete answer to the question.

"The issue we talked about that time about the smaller Ming warships, I specifically checked the records and consulted with Marquis Zhongyong and others in detail. The problem actually lies with the opponent.

"opponent?"

"Yes, the opponent, to be precise, is the Japanese pirates. Ever since Sanbao eunuchs sailed to the West, the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory has been peaceful. In addition, the northern military defense focus on the Mongolian Tatars has led to the weakening of the navy. By the time of Emperor Su, the warships were weakened.

Seven out of ten people fled, and they fled in large numbers. When the Japanese Rebellion broke out, the coastal provinces were completely without defenses. During that time, the Ming Dynasty reorganized the coastal defenses, the most prominent of which were Yu Long and Qi Hu, especially the

The former attaches great importance to the development of the navy. Before my father took charge of the coastal defense of Fujian and Guangdong, the Yu family and his son can be said to have single-handedly built the navy of Fujian and Guangdong."

Yu Dayou served as the chief military officer of five provinces in his life, including Zhejiang, Fujian, Nangan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. During his stay in Guangdong and Fujian, he presided over the vigorous reconstruction of the navy. During the Jiajing Anti-Japanese War, Yu Dayou cooperated with Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayou was often the one who cooperated with Qi Jiguang.

With the naval force, Qi Jiguang and the land force jointly fought against the enemy. No matter how powerful the Japanese pirates were, they were always looking for teeth in front of Yu Long and Qi Hu.

After the death of Yu Dayou, Japanese rebellion was no longer the main theme of southeast coastal defense. The harassment of European colonists, especially the Dutch, had repeatedly attacked the coast of Fujian and the Penghu Islands, except for the one in the 32nd year of Wanli.

Except for Shen Yourong, the commander-in-chief of Fujian General Shi De's political order, he managed to force them back. From then on, it was Yu Zigao who fought against the Dutch. From Tongshan, Xiamen, to Penghu, there were naval battles, sieges, and sieges. He was finally forced to do so.

The Dutch abandoned Penghu and turned to Taiwan.

The father and son of the Yu family served as senior naval officers along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong for a long time, and they were credited with their hard work in restoring the weakened navy of the Ming Dynasty. However, Yu Dayou was impeached at every turn, and Yu Zigao finally managed to convince the Dutch.

He met the big player Zheng Zhilong again, and ended up being punished by being dismissed from his military post. He could only say that he had bad military luck.

"When Yu Wuxiang was alive, the main opponents of the Ming Navy were Japanese pirates. The purpose of Japanese pirate attacks was ultimately to plunder. Therefore, Japanese pirates often drove light and fast small and medium-sized ships, quickly broke into the offshore land, and then dispersed

Looting is very difficult for the navy, as the defender, to effectively stop it."

"The tactics of Japanese pirates were like this, and the ship size of the Ming Dynasty Navy at that time was mostly large ships with a load of 400 tons. The speed was not as fast as the Japanese pirates' light boats. Coupled with the problem of deep draft, they were often encountered along the coast.

It is also extremely difficult for Japanese pirates to catch up. For example, Yu Wuxiang once chased in a large boat, only to watch the Japanese pirates calmly escape from the shallow water area."

"So, from then on, in order to effectively intercept the Japanese pirate ships that had been discovered, the Ming Dynasty Navy could only reduce the size of the big ships, from the earliest 400 materials to 200 materials. When that didn't work, they continued to reduce the size, and in the end they were all 150 materials.

The materials are small and medium-sized warships with 100 materials, and the big ships are the Fuchuan and Guangzhou ships that are 9 to 10 feet tall."

"However, such a warship is just right for dealing with Japanese pirates. Not only does it no longer suffer in terms of speed and draft, Master Wang's warship is equipped with a four- to five-pound cannon launcher and a small number of Folan cannons.

In addition to some weapons such as blunderbuss, fire bricks, fire barges, and rockets, Japanese pirates are just pirates who make a living by looting. They deal with civilians on a daily basis, so they often have what they call in Japan.

With the iron cannon's blunderbuss and some bamboo bows, Master Wang regained the advantage..."

The history of maritime development in the Ming Dynasty reached its peak at the very beginning - Zheng He's Seven Voyages to the West. This was a subject that was studied by many scholars even in later generations. These studies were not only limited to Chinese people, but also by many foreign scholars.

Among them, Chen Kai vaguely remembered that a retired submarine captain of the British Royal Navy had written a book about Zheng He's voyages to the West and discovered America and Australia before the Europeans. It was very popular on the Chinese Internet at that time.

A handful.

Since the treasure ship and related records were later burned by the opposition, the specifications, shape and many issues of the treasure ship are all controversial mysteries. However, one thing is beyond doubt, that is, the fleet of that year was indeed

He has conducted ocean voyages, not only in the traditional sense of the South China Sea, but also across the Indian Ocean, reaching the Red Sea and eastern Africa.

After the peak, it was the fall. However, at that time, the Ming Navy no longer had treasure ships, but it still relied on 400-material warships as the main force, which shocked the sea. However, the peace lasted for a long time, coupled with the northern border troubles, the flood

It was inevitable that the division would be decommissioned. When the Japanese Rebellion broke out in the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty Navy and the garrison soldiers on the southeast coast were holding hands and shoulder to shoulder, which became a joke in the history of Chinese military affairs.

During the following Yu Dayou period, the Ming Dynasty navy relied on modifying smaller warships to deal with the threat of Japanese pirates. Later, it was indeed effective in curbing the rampage of Japanese pirates. But later, the Japanese chaos disappeared, and the local pirates relied on earlier contact.

The firearms and warships that arrived in the West once became a strong opponent of the Ming Navy. Among them, Lin Daoqian, Zeng Yiben, Lin Feng, Zhu Liangbao and others became even more famous.

Among them, Zeng Yiben is the most powerful. He owns hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers. He can be regarded as the great pirate who succeeded Wang Zhi and Zheng Zhilong in the Chinese sea. Zeng Yiben has

A main fleet composed of large black-tailed ships from Dongguan. The carrying capacity of these black-tailed ships is more than 10,000 tons, which is converted into later measurement units between 380 and 400 tons. In this way, the Ming army once changed its military force to fight against Japanese pirates.

The small warship suffered the absurd embarrassment of being bullied by pirates.

In order to annihilate Zeng Yiben, 29 coastal counties of the Ming Dynasty built 24 sealing warships with a length of 15 to 17 feet and a hull covered with a layer of iron armor within half a year. In addition, there were more than 100 Dafu ships, which were already the successors to Zheng He's

It is the most powerful maritime combat force since the voyages to the West.

Later, the opponent changed to the Dutch. Facing the maritime coachmen with stronger maritime strength, the Ming Dynasty navy did not rest on its laurels. It also made necessary upgrades on its battleships, and double-deck gunboats and single-deck gunboats began to appear.

It is a decked gunboat and is equipped with 10 to 30 Western-style guns on the sides. For example, the British Peter Mundy at the time encountered a Ming army double-deck gunboat carrying 28 to 30 guns and a carrying gun at the Pearl River Estuary.

A single-deck gunboat with 10 to 12 guns.

During the Apocalypse and Chongzhen years, the struggle with the European colonists became increasingly fierce, and the Ming army's warships continued to be upgraded. According to the records in "Military Records", the double-deck gunboats at that time had been upgraded to the lower deck carrying red barbarian cannons.

8 guns, 22 thousand-jin cannons and five-hundred-jin cannons, and 30 small artillery pieces such as Folan machine guns and Baizi guns on the upper deck. The number of artillery pieces on the entire ship has reached 60.

Along with the upgrade of battleships came the casting of cannons. While the Ming Dynasty was dealing with the threat of the Manchus, it also cast a large number of cannons in the south to equip the navy. Among Chen Kai's artillery fleet were two inconspicuous twelve-guns.

One pound cannon was cast in the second year of Chongzhen, and the other was cast in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. The only difference from other artillery is that these two red barbarian cannons are iron cannons, not the usual bronze cannons.

.(Note)

The development has not stagnated, but compared to the Netherlands, which has more than 16,000 merchant ships of various types and a total tonnage of about 580,000 tons, it is still not worth mentioning. Even compared with the Netherlands, which has more than 150 merchant ships.

Merchant ships, compared with the 40 warships of the Dutch United East India Company, had little chance of winning. Because the merchant ships of the Dutch United East India Company were Yahat ships, which were called East India ships at the time, with a displacement of up to 2,000 tons. And that warship

The seemingly small and pitiful fleet was also composed of the famous Galenic ships, with a displacement ranging from 300 to 2,000 tons.

With such a huge gap, when faced with the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, which was praised by history and sailing enthusiasts in later generations, Zheng Zhilong, as the most legendary maritime player in eastern Asia and the last maritime Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, simply started to play

He used a tactic of attacking in groups of small boats. This was basically a ridiculous tactic in the open sea, but when it came to the coast, it had unimaginable effects.

It was a last resort. This was the deep impression that Zheng Chenggong left on Chen Kai at the time. However, for Zheng Chenggong, during the years when he was in charge of the Zheng Group, the size of the navy continued to expand, but the shape of the battleships

But it seems a bit complacent - most of them are still about the same size as the battleships of Zheng Zhilong's era, and some larger ships are mostly modified from European merchant ships. Such a fleet encountered a sea coachman in the open sea.

, its chance of winning depends more on God, but it can still dominate the world in the offshore. Not only does it have the right to dialogue with the Western colonists, but it also suppresses the Qing navy without any chance to breathe.

Such complacency is not due to Zheng Chenggong's lack of foresight, but for today's Zheng Group, resisting the Qing Dynasty is the top priority. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong has never been stingy in his investment in the Land Division, and on the Navy side,

As long as the Manchus can be sealed off at sea and the army can be supported by sea trade, that is enough. To improve further, after all, a lot of money will be invested.

"After destroying the Tatars, relying on the Ming Dynasty and having abundant human, material and financial resources as support, and then competing with Hongmao and Folangji, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

This is what Zheng Chenggong thinks and what Chen Kai sees. Originally, Chen Kai planned to wait until the Manchus were eliminated before supporting Zheng Chenggong in developing the navy. Then the Zheng Group and the Guangdong Business Alliance he was cultivating could become a ready-made business alliance.

Interest groups use tons of gold and silver to drown out the voices of opponents!

However, this time, the Guangdong Business Alliance has spontaneously started to develop the shipbuilding industry. This is undoubtedly good news. For this reason, Chen Kai cannot have any other attitude except support.

"Old Fujun has said that he will inject 20,000 taels of silver from the Guangdong Trading Company in advance, and he does not ask for the dominance of the shipyard, and we will operate it ourselves. He only has one request, and that is that he must drive out the Tartars.

Before we succeed, we can see that our shipyard can build a large-scale ship that can sail across the ocean, a large-scale ship that is truly not inferior to the European and American merchant ships!"

This was affirmation and encouragement. Members raised their arms and shouted. Those members present who had originally intended to participate in it were all excited, and even those who had no idea were more or less itchy.

With this letter as a basis, they immediately took action. Selecting a site, hiring craftsmen and workers, and opening up raw material channels and relationships with the government. They had the precedent of running a cotton spinning workshop before, so they were familiar with these things.

Among them, the initiating member handed over the affairs that needed overall management to others, but he boarded a sea ship and embarked on a voyage to Luzon with the ship owner who had been waiting in Qiongzhou for a long time.

"Brother Tang, when you go to Luzon, don't remember to make it public. Just say that you are going to buy spices, and don't mention anything else."

"Why is this?"

"Brother Tang will understand it when we get to Luzon."

Note: One of these two red barbarian cannons is now collected in the National Museum of China, and the other is collected in Yuexiu Mountain, Guangzhou.

ps: Things were complicated some time ago, and the status was not good. Last week, the laptop started to have troubles again, and the updates were not good. I'm sorry. These days, most of the things that need to be dealt with have been dealt with, and the status is also being adjusted. Yesterday, I repaired the files on the laptop.

The son has also arrived and has been sent for repair. Normal updates will resume today.
Chapter completed!