Under no-load condition, it can even reach an exaggerated speed of 25 knots (46.3km/h), which shows that the power system is fully qualified and adequate.
On the Shandong Peninsula, the miners of the Mining Alliance are allowing the miners to vigorously mine iron ore, coal, lime, gold and other ores. At the same time, they have recruited a large number of manpower and are building many roads.
A total of six ports have been built in Laizhou, Dengzhou, Weihaiwei, Lingshanwei (Qingdao), Anton, and Rizhao, which are close to the sea. Even if they are not completed yet, most of them can be used at the ports.
The main purpose is to bypass water transportation restrictions and continuously transport ore to Harbor City through sea transportation.
Now that Haiyun No. 1 has been launched, the power test has proved that there is no problem, so the sea trial only lasted for two days, and then went straight north to Shandong to ship ore.
Next, the shipyard will work at full capacity and strive to build at least 100 maritime series cargo ships at a rate of launching at least one ship per month to create a huge cargo fleet.
In addition, the distance from the Harbor City to the ports in Shandong ranges from 300 to 1,000 kilometers. A round trip for a series of maritime cargo ships, including the time for loading and unloading, can only take a week at most.
At least fifty trips are made every year.
That is to say, it will bring at least 50,000 tons of mineral resources.
Multiplied by the number of hundreds of cargo ships, the freight volume is more than 5 million tons a year, which can greatly alleviate Xujiazhuang's shortage of raw materials.
…
The Intelligence Department is still the same office as last time.
"Master Zhang, I have already made up my mind. I am willing to join Xujiazhuang. I am willing to go through fire and water for Xujiazhuang, even if I am broken into pieces!"
Zheng Cai knelt on the cement floor and swore his oath of allegiance.
He had thought about it. The moment Haiyun No. 1 sped off the highway, his loyalty belonged to Xujiazhuang. Now even if others stopped and forced him not to join, he would not agree.
Xujiazhuang, he is determined to join, no one can stop him!
"Yes, he is a man who knows the current affairs. Please get up."
Zhang Guoyan nodded, very satisfied with his change, and accepted his application for allegiance to Xujiazhuang. Then he took out a piece of information from the drawer and told the latest news about Zheng Zhilong in Fujian.
In order to avenge his brother Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Zhilong decided to go north to attack Harbor City!
I plan to personally lead a hundred large ships and carry more than a thousand large and small artillery pieces to burn the harbor city into rubble!
But the conquest fleet is still in the preparation stage.
Or maybe after learning about the power of Xujiazhuang, some voices of opposition began to appear within the Zheng Family Group, especially the more than 500 defeated soldiers of the Zheng Family Firearms Army. After they fled back to Fujian in embarrassment, they tried their best to exaggerate the power of the Xu Family Army, as if
He is as invincible as a god and a demon, so looking for trouble in Xujiazhuang is just asking for death.
These remnants and defeated generals have had a considerable impact within the Zheng Group, causing the atmosphere of unity that everyone was united in and determined to take revenge to suddenly become filled with noise and wavering.
What's more, the Zheng family should not have accepted the employment of Jiangnan nobles and sent the firearms army to fight against the Xu family army. There was no conflict between the two parties and there were even some business contacts. If the Zheng family firearms army had not taken the initiative to attack the Xu family army,
It would not have been such a heavy loss, and the commander's life would have also been taken.
If I had known this, I shouldn't have sent the firearms army to interfere!
The Xu Jiajun was just defending themselves, and you sent a large army to attack them. Could it be that the Xu Jiajun couldn't fight back?
Zheng Zhihu unfortunately died in battle, which can only be blamed on his bad luck. And the fight on the battlefield, the winner was revelry, the loser fell down, it was very fair, so how could they form a deadly feud? Using this as a reason for revenge is really too much.
It's far-fetched and can at most be used as an excuse to start a war.
It's just that fighting will lead to death! For your personal vendetta, Zheng Zhilong, to provoke an equally powerful enemy and to use the lives of Zheng clan members to satisfy the leader's personal goals is obviously difficult to convince the public.
Faced with these doubts, Zheng Zhilong had to change his reason and said: "Xujiazhuang is building a port and building sea ships. It also wants to develop on the sea and compete for the territory and space of our Zheng family. If it is not destroyed in time, when it develops, it will be destroyed."
The Zheng family has another big enemy. Let’s look at the methods used by Xujiazhuang to deal with the Jiangnan gentry. If they are used on us, will there be a place for our Zheng family to survive in this vast sea?"
Xujiazhuang threat theory!
Zheng Zhilong's strategic vision is very good. He can see Xujiazhuang's potential threat at a glance. If he doesn't take advantage of Xujiazhuang's fleet now, which is still weak, he can strike first and wait for Xujiazhuang's navy fleet to be built, and then equip it with those sharp weapons.
What will be the result once a conflict breaks out with the Zheng family's fleet?
Shivered.
All the senior officials of the Zheng family could not help but shudder and did not dare to imagine any more.
The opinions supporting the attack on Harbor City suddenly became a majority.
However, it still cannot form an overwhelming majority, and there are still many opponents.
Because Xujiazhuang is not the only enemy that the Zheng Group faces with huge threats.
The fleet of the Dutch East India Company has been harassing the southeast coast in an attempt to capture a territory in the Ming Dynasty, and then purchase these goods directly from the origin of tea, silk, porcelain, etc., thus ending the price exploitation of the Zheng Group as a second-tier dealer.
In addition, the Dutch East India Company also supported the South China Sea giant Liu Xianglao. Although he was weak, he still had hundreds of large and small ships. He launched attacks on the Zheng Group every year. The scale became larger year by year, seriously damaging the Zheng Group's maritime operations.
Order, the losses were so heavy that it was intolerable and a decisive battle had to be launched.
Although Xujiazhuang is a threat, compared to the combined fleets of the Dutch East India Company and Liu Xianglao, the latter is a greater threat, and it is close at hand.
Now that the threat from the south has not been eliminated, Xujiazhuang has been added as an opponent. How unwise is it to make enemies on both sides?
Moreover, all the main ships and gunboats were mobilized to attack the harbor city and the Quanzhou Port base camp in Fujian. Only small and medium-sized ships were left. What if the Dutch East India Company and Liu Xianglao got the news and took advantage of the situation? How should they respond?
Intelligence information is heard here.
Zheng Cai then said with determination: "Master Zhang, Zheng Zhilong will definitely not lead the fleet to come to Xujiazhuang to cause trouble. I know this person's character very well. Zheng Zhilong has always been cautious and will never do anything uncertain. If it had been done earlier,
In the year before, he was still willing to take some risks, but since the year before last, he has bought a mansion and built a garden in his hometown of Anhai Town, and bought land for his concubine. He only pursues stability and enjoyment. He no longer has any ambitions, and it is impossible to do anything desperate. Harbor City
There is no need to worry anymore.”
"It makes sense."
Zhang Guoyan nodded. Zheng Cai is a smart man. His analysis is the same as the conclusion of the elite analysts of the intelligence department: the Zheng Group faces many maritime threats, far from being invincible at sea. Their wisest approach is
, that is, to avoid making enemies on both sides and deal with the threat in the south first.
"Sir Zhang, although this crisis has been eliminated, the conflict between the two parties still exists. The villain is willing to mediate and make peace, resolve the grievances between the Xujiazhuang and Zheng families, establish a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship, and gain more development time for Xujiazhuang..."
Zheng Cai took the initiative to volunteer, hoping to work for Xujiazhuang. He was so young and it was a great opportunity to make contributions. How could he be willing to stay in a prisoner-of-war camp?
"It's a good idea of yours. In this way, I will send someone to give you some training to make you a qualified informant, and then send you back to Fujian. As a show of sincerity to the Zheng family, I will also offer to cooperate and we will not cooperate with each other in the future.
I think that after seeing the sincerity of Xujiazhuang, Zheng Zhilong got a step to ease. There is a high probability that he will not mention the matter of revenge again, at least in the short term, he will not take actions hostile to Xujiazhuang." Zhang Guoyan said.
"Sir, I actually have a better idea."
Zheng Cai rolled his eyes and said with a bright light: "If Xujiazhuang is willing to lend Haiyun No. 1 to someone else, I will take this ship and more than 1,300 prisoners of the Zheng Family Firearms Army.
Returning to Quanzhou together, Zheng Zhilong and others will be horrified and shocked when they see the huge gap between the Zheng family and the Xu family in shipbuilding. Only by proposing cooperation and non-aggression at that time will the best results be achieved. Zheng
Everyone in the family will definitely not dare to have the slightest contempt or hostility."
"Can I lend you Haiyun No. 1?"
Zhang Guoyan narrowed his eyes slightly, gave him a funny look, shook his head and said: "Haiyun No. 1 has already set off to Shandong to transport ore. I have more important things to do, so I'm afraid I won't be able to borrow it from you."
"Sir, I'm just borrowing it for a few days. When I arrive in Quanzhou, the ship will sail back soon," Zheng Cai said.
"No, Xujiazhuang is extremely short of minerals. This matter is more important. Don't think about it anymore!" Zhang Guoyan waved his hand.
"this……"
Zheng Cai lowered his head in despair, then thought of another thing and said: "Master Zhang, forget it if you can't borrow the boat, but can I take away all the more than 1,300 Zheng family prisoners? These people are very important to me.
If I can recruit them all as subordinates, after arriving in Fujian, I will definitely be able to do more for Xujiazhuang with these manpower!"
"Yes, those prisoners can leave with you if they want, but if any of them don't want to go back, you can't force it."
"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir!"
Zheng Cai burst into tears with gratitude, great! Xujiazhuang treated him well. As long as he has more than 1,300 people as subordinates, he may not be able to become the second Zheng Zhilong in the future! At this moment, he was so excited that he completely ignored it.
The second half of Zhang Guoyan’s words.
…
Three days later.
What took others five days to complete the informant training, Zheng Cai completed in only three days.
Then I couldn't wait to come to the seaside port and saw the hundreds of fishing fleets returning full of fish and slowly docking at the dock - now among the fishing fleets in Harbor City, the twenty electric boats
The number of fishing boats has not changed, but the new addition of more than 80 ordinary wooden fishing boats are all 100-ton fishing boats built by the Harbor City Shipyard. The biggest difference from ancient fishing boats is that they have
A 20-horsepower low-fuel-consumption diesel engine (maximum speed 8 knots), a plastic fish box with a capacity of 30 cubic meters in the cabin, and a low-power oxygenation device can ensure that most of the fish arrive alive
shore.
As for the main force of fishing, they are still the twenty electric fishing boats. These more than eighty wooden boats serve as accompanying warehouses and have no fishing ability.
In this way, the fishing capabilities of electric fishing boats have been maximized. Now every time they go to sea, they can get three or four times the fish catch before.
The crew members on the electric fishing boats are all local personnel from Harbor City.
Most of the crew members on ordinary fishing boats were captured sailors from the Zheng Family Firearms Army.
So after these ordinary fishing boats docked, Zheng Cai boarded the boat, found those familiar subordinates and former subordinates, and started to win over them, wanting to take them back to Fujian and their hometown.
Zheng Cai thought that her recruitment would be extremely smooth, because no one wanted to return to their family, and no one wanted to wander outside and be oppressed.
However, the feedback he received surprised him.
"I won't go back. Now I can earn more than 30 silver dollars every month, which is ten times what I used to earn! And after working for two years, I can get the Xujiazhuang household registration, and I can bring my family over to enjoy the blessings. Why should I go back to Fujian?"
"
"It's much better here than in Fujian. When I go back, I'm just a coolie sailor, captain, helmsman, accountant, and veteran seaman. Anyone can take advantage of us and exploit us. I think it's pretty good here."
"I won't go back. I heard that many shipping cargo ships will be built, but there is a serious shortage of sailors. I will definitely have the opportunity to board a big ship like the Shipping No. 1 and work on a fast ship like this." The sailor was full of longing.
road.
"Yes, there are too many opportunities to stay here, and we are very useful. The people in Xujiazhuang have not bullied us, but have been very kind to us. Moreover, this sea will definitely belong to Xujiazhuang in the future, and it will only last ten years at most!
"The twelve-year-old boy named Shi Lang said.
"Master Cai, why don't you go back alone first and help us make sure you are safe? We may sail back to Fujian in two or three years and pick up our family members. Yes, we want to go home.
, but no one wants to give up the opportunity here."
"..."
Zheng Cai worked hard to win over people and tried her best to win over her. Finally, there were only a dozen or so people willing to go back to Fujian with him. These people couldn't live with their families for various reasons and had to go back.
It was as if a large basin of cold water had been poured on Zheng Cai's heart, and the smile on her face gradually solidified.
at last.
By the end of July, he could only take a dozen people with him, riding the fast horses provided by Xujiazhuang, and embarked on the road back to Fujian. He did not borrow the epoch-making No. 1 Sea Transport, and he did not bring back a few of the more than a thousand prisoners.
All the good intentions in my heart came to nothing.
However, Zheng Cai did not dare to be dissatisfied or resentful towards Xujiazhuang. Instead, he made up his mind to be a good secret agent and work hard for Xujiazhuang. As long as he did well and made significant contributions to Xujiazhuang, he believed that Xujiazhuang would not treat him badly.
Own.
He secretly thought: Big ships will have them, sailors will also have them, these things will belong to him sooner or later!