Shopkeeper He's words made Zeng Shou and the others all silent.

Do they have this heart?

Of course I did.

At the moment, the sea is becoming more and more difficult to mix. The fleet of ships running to the sea is getting bigger and bigger, and it is very risky to want to plunder such a fleet. In fact, at sea, these large merchant fleets could turn into pirates at any time, stealing other people's goods and making them their own.

There are fewer and fewer simple pirates like Zeng Shou and them.

Seeing that the dead tree of Pan Motang, which they thought was old before, sprouted new sprouts, and now it is vigorous, of course they want to work again, but after the trial, they can only return disappointed.

After a person has betrayed once, it is difficult to gain the trust of others if he wants to return again.

Zeng Shou betrayed Pan Motang once.

At that time, when Pan Motang decided to defect to Li Ze, he hoped that Zeng Shou and the others would come with him, so that he would have more ships and sailors, and in front of Li Ze, he would have more face and more right to speak.

But Zeng Shou and the others refused, and took their respective subordinates to go their separate ways. So much so that Pan Motang finally brought one or twenty boats and thousands of people to Haixing, including many old and weak women and children.

After three years, Pan Motang finally stood up again, and now the fleet he commanded was undoubtedly the king of this sea.

He would rather train newcomers than ask for someone who betrayed him once.

Zeng Shou even felt that if he committed something in Pan Motang's jurisdiction, he would not hesitate to exterminate himself. If he was targeted by the Tang Dynasty sailors, Zeng Shou didn't feel that he could run away.

Shopkeeper He's words poked Zeng Shou's heart, making him a little annoyed and angry.

"Defect to your young marshal, does he have a Sea Falcon-class warship? Does he have the latest wheeled warships? Zeng Shou snorted. What kind of official can he give me? ”

Shopkeeper He smiled: "Not now, but there will be in the future." Zeng Da is in charge, you should know that our eldest lady of the Xiang family is about to become the queen of the Tang Dynasty, right? ”

Zeng Shou was stunned, he really hadn't heard of it. "Is there such a thing?"

"If you stay here for a few days, you will see Datang's fleet return to Hong Kong, and they went to Lingnan to pick up our eldest lady back." Shopkeeper He said with a smile. "Don't hide it from the big boss, now in Lingnan, the first wheeled warship has already begun to be manufactured, of course, we will definitely have the Haigull-class warship in the future. If you are willing to serve in the past, the position of the commander of the naval division is indispensable to you. ”

Zeng Shou looked at the other party in a daze: "You don't deal with Li Ze and Li Xiangye!" ”

Shopkeeper He laughed: "It's not to talk about not dealing with each other, everyone is a courtier of the Tang Dynasty!" It's just that two people get along, and they always have to be equal in strength to win respect, and now we are in Lingnan above the land division, and we are confident that we are not inferior to others, but above the water division, it is indeed a lot worse than the north, so we have to make up for the shortcomings, I admit so frankly, Zeng Da should also feel it, right? ”

"I need to think about it!" Zeng Shou pondered for a moment and said.

"Of course!" Shopkeeper He said: "Zeng Da is in charge, you have lost a chance, I hope you can seize the second chance, the opportunity to wash white, not all the time." ”

Shopkeeper He left, and a group of pirates in the house fell silent.

It is said that after Gu Chang left Zeng Shou and the others, he rushed back to his home as soon as possible, without saying a word, he called his wife and children up, and a carriage drove straight into the naval barracks, found a barracks and settled down. He couldn't have been clearer about the ways of his former brothers. In order to achieve their goals, their ferocity is often beyond human imagination. Now I don't like before, some of them have weaknesses for them to poke.

For a few days, everything was calm, and the people arranged by Gu Chang at home did not find any accidents, which made Gu Chang a little surprised, could these pirate brothers have changed their temperament? Five days later, when several pirate ships anchored in the port and left, Gu Chang also confirmed that those people had left, and he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed, it seemed that he was a villain's heart, Zeng Shou They did want to use themselves, but they didn't mean to threaten themselves, they were too careful.

Gu Chang, who breathed a sigh of relief, ushered in a new task after sending his family back. The huge fleet led by Pan Motang is about to return from Lingnan, and the future queen mother came with the ship, although his identity is still only the eldest lady of the Xiang family, but in order to show respect, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty and the prince Li Ze will still bring the princess Liu Ruyan to Haixing Port to greet him. Hou Zhen, the governor of Cangzhou, had already arrived in Haixing in advance to prepare for the matter, and Gu Chang, as the envoy of the naval division, was naturally busy.

When Li Xiang arrived in Haixing, of course, he would not just greet Miss Xiang, since he came, he would definitely inspect the work here. The Tang Navy Division is based in Haixing, and Li Xiang has arrived in Haixing, and here he is bound to come.

Gu Chang's idea was quickly confirmed. On the first day of Li Ze's arrival in Haixing, he was accompanied by Hou Zhen, the governor of Cangzhou, to inspect Haixing Shipyard and other places.

The garrison of the sailor division is now sparse, and Pan Motang led the sailor to almost pour out, and in the water village, there are only a few warships that need to be repaired. Of course, what interested Li Ze the most was a new warship that had just been launched from the Haixing Shipyard that was being installed with combat equipment.

"In recent years, the water division has developed rapidly, and Hou Zhizhou has made great contributions!" Li Ze looked at Zhizhou Hou Zhen, who was beside him, his hair was all gray, and said, "Cangzhou has almost single-handedly supported the construction of the water division!" From scratch, from weak to strong, today's Datang Sailor can be said to be the only one in the world. ”

Li Ze's words are not hypocritical, all the financial revenue of Cangzhou in recent years, aside from the most basic people's livelihood facilities, the rest have all been invested in the construction of the naval division, a warship costs a lot, and an ordinary warship starts with tens of thousands, like the Haigull-class warship, it starts with 100,000 runs.

"It still depends on Li Xiang's policy support!" Hou Zhen said with a smile: "Now Haixing is replacing Guangzhou, Quanzhou and other places to become the largest port in Datang, and the income is still very considerable." ”

"Next, the imperial court is preparing to build a new port in Jiaozhou, Pinglu, Cangzhou, we must vigorously support it, mainly to build ports, dockyards, etc., and then Zhizhou should not be stingy." Li Ze said with a smile: "When our sailors go to sea, they need more bases, so that they can cruise at sea for a longer time and control a larger area." ”

Hou Zhen nodded and said, "This Li Xiang can rest assured." Most of us won't be able to come up with extra money at that time, but people, as long as they look at it over there, we can support it here. Haixing has become a scale, with a system, and has entered a stable stage of development. ”

"That's good!" Li Ze nodded and said, "Go back, you draw up a list of talents in this area for me." ”

"Yes, Li Xiang!" Hou Zhen said with a smile: "Speaking of such talents, there is one in front of you, and it is this Gu Chang Gu envoy!" He has extensive experience in the construction of shipyards and docks, as well as shipbuilding and ship repair. In the past few years, Gu Zhi's errand has not leaked a little. ”

"Oh?" Li Ze turned his head to look at Gu Chang and said with a smile: "Then Gu Zhi's envoy, are you willing to go to Pinglu Jiaozhou?" It's not like Haixing, there is nothing now, where it goes, everything has to start from scratch. It's going to be hard. ”

Gu Chang bowed down and said, "No matter where you go, Gu Chang will do his best." ”

"Okay, our Datang talents must have this spirit of dedication, where there is a need, go there. Of course, the imperial court will not disappoint people like you, official positions, titles, salaries, will be given priority. Pioneers are always a priority. Li Ze praised it, turned around and pointed to a battleship in the dock: "Is this battleship a warship designed by Haixing Shipyard that is suitable for inland river operations?" ”

"Yes, Xiangye!" Gu Chang said: "There is a big difference between naval operations and inland river operations, and there are also great differences in hydrology and meteorology. These warships were specially built for future inland river operations. A total of 50 ships are planned, but in Haixing, only 10 will be built, and the remaining 40 will be built by the Yangzijin shipyard in Yangzhou. Over there, two ships have already been launched. ”

"Is there any difference in armament?"

"The difference is still huge." Gu Chang said: "For this kind of inland river combat ship, we have emphasized speed and flexibility, and at the same time strengthened the anti-collision ability of the warship, set up a special collision angle, anti-climbing setting, and at the same time, the trebuchet on the ship, we managed to reduce the firing range and speed up the rate of fire." Generally speaking, for inland waterway warfare vessels, we place more emphasis on the ability to fight in close quarters. Each ship was specially designed to carry an additional fifty soldiers. Li Xiang, as far as I know, the naval division in the south, a warship of the same size as ours, can carry far less soldiers than us, and as for the combat capability of the entire warship, it is even far behind. Once our warships form a scale, on the Yangtze River, we will inevitably find no opponent. ”

"Very good, Jiangnan Operation, we need a strong water division, we need to control the entire Yangtze River Basin!" Li Ze laughed. "The first batch of fifty ships, and then we will have the second, third, third".

"In the layout of the south, we must take the water division as the foundation and Yangzhou as the base camp, and invest our strength and influence in the entire Yangtze River Basin. Once the momentum is achieved, there will be no force that can stop us from dominating the world. ”