Just as the Cao Gang was discussing, at this time, in the basement floor of the Nanjing Shadow Headquarters, Ning Luoyuan was holding the handwritten copy of the secret letter passed by Wang Zhen in his hand, and under the light of a candle the size of a bean, his face seemed to flicker.

Cao Bang ..... Qing court...... It seems to be getting more and more interesting.....

If there is no mistake in anticipation, I am afraid that by tomorrow at the latest, the original letter will be handed over to him by the Cao Gang.

Ning Luoyuan twisted his eyebrows, maybe someone in the Cao Gang had a fluke mentality, but as long as the old man was still in power in the Cao Gang, they didn't dare to make any moves.

The reason is very simple, in front of Ning Chu now, the little Cao Gang is simply an ant that can't be smaller, and they don't even have the qualifications to jump a little, if they dare to leave this letter, then within three days, these people will have to die.

There are many things that can be done in Nanjing, but the secret communication with the Qing court is absolutely not to do, there is no other way to go in this kind of thing except death, and anyone who dares to intercede is against His Majesty, and it is against the Han army.

However, Ning Luoyuan knew in his heart that after all, there were at least hundreds of thousands of people in the Cao Gang, and it was not something that he, a secret agent, could handle by himself, and this matter had to be decided by the emperor.

"Come, prepare horses, go to the palace."

"Yes, sir."

.......

Late at night, the Imperial Study.

Ning Yu was wearing a simple but comfortable cotton robe, holding the letter in his hand, but there was no expression on his face. This kind of thing is very big to say, but in the eyes of Ning Yu now, it is nothing.

For Ning Yu, since the founding of the country, it has been the destruction of the original interests of the grassroots, especially the Jiangnan has been cleaned up and down almost from top to bottom, salt merchants, Cao Gang, etc., there is no room for resistance in this process, because no matter how powerful these organizations are, they cannot match a country after all.

Now the lifeblood of the entire industry of the Cao Gang is completely gone, and it hurts to the bones, calling twice is nothing, and Ning Yu will not be too harsh because of this, but this needs to be based on a premise, that is, to hand over the letter honestly, don't play tricks, if you dare to hide the letter privately, it can only show one point, the Cao Gang and Ning Chu are no longer of the same heart.

For the enemy, Ning Yu will not show mercy.

"Ning Luoyuan, keep an eye on the Cao Gang, if they make any moves, return in time...... If the incident is urgent, you can directly contact Ning Zuyi, the commander of the Praetorian Guard Division. ”

Ning Luoyuan bent down and arched his hand: "Your Majesty, everything is under control, and my subordinates will do their best to control this matter to the minimum." ”

Ning Yu nodded slightly, and then motioned for Ning Luoyuan to leave.

It's just that when Ning Luoyuan is far away, Ning Yu has a bit of a headache in his heart about how to settle these tens of millions, strictly speaking, many of these people are actually talents, if they are simply placed in other places to cultivate fields, it is actually a waste after all, especially now Ning Chu is forming a large-scale water division, so there is a considerable lack of water division talents, and this batch of Cao Gang talents can be filled in.

It's just that the two are far apart, so Ning Yu is a little hesitant, and he is not sure what stage the Cao Gang has developed, if it really has strict gang rules and behavior patterns in later generations, Ning Yu will not choose them to become part of the water master.

Because the sailor that Ning Yu wants should be loyal to the emperor first, and cannot be loyal to any other organization, otherwise there will be a big problem in the future. For Ning Yu, it is very important to maintain the independence of the army, even the imperial cabinet cannot be easily interfered with, let alone the local gangs?

Ning Yu sighed softly, and his eyes quickly focused on a model of a huge warship placed in the imperial study, which was a model of a warship brought back by Ernst from the West, and its prototype was the Royal Sun of the French Navy.

According to Ernst, the Royal Sun was the flagship of Admiral Tourville of the French Navy, with a tonnage of 2,400 tons and 110 bronze guns, and was famous for defeating the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet and sinking and capturing 15 enemy ships in the Battle of Cape Beach.

Until more than 30 years ago, in the Battle of Bavrel between the French fleet and the Anglo-Dutch fleet, 45 battleships of Tourville were surrounded by 97 warships of the Anglo-Dutch fleet, and the two sides fought for 12 hours, resulting in too much water and serious damage to the rigging of the Royal Sun, which was stranded in Cherbourg Harbor, and then an arson ship hit its stern, and the fire quickly spread to the powder magazine under the third mast, causing the ship to explode and sink.

Although the ship was sunk more than 30 years ago, its outstanding combat effectiveness is undoubtedly one of the most powerful warships of this era. As a result, it became quite famous and was also noticed by Ernst.

In addition to getting such a model, Ernst also spent a lot of effort to get the drawings of the Royal Sun - this kind of drawings are the most confidential things in any country, so Ernst also spent a lot of money to get Ning Yu back.

In Ningyu's plan, the future Dachu Navy will choose Western-style sail warships as the main force and abandon traditional Chinese-style warships, the reason for this is very simple, because the Western warships of this era have far surpassed Chinese-style warships.

In this era, the main difference between Chinese warships and Western-style warships is reflected in the sail cable system, such as Chinese-style hard sails belong to the longitudinal sail category, which has high wind efficiency and can be used in both downwind and crosswind situations, but the problem is that due to the material problems of hard sails, the area of the sail cannot be compared with the soft sails of Western sailing ships.

The soft sail of the Western-style sailing ship usually has a large area, and the mast is also very high, but because the sail is high, it is easy to do this, so the mast of the Western-style sailing ship has a reinforcing cable to stabilize the mast, but in this way, the sail can not rotate around the mast, so the efficiency of the Western sail in the crosswind is very low, but they use the sail to solve this problem, in general, in terms of power is actually stronger than the Chinese warship.

In addition, Chinese warships have a water trap design that many people are proud of, but the problem is that in this way, each water trap needs to be opened in order to load the cargo, which will lead to the loss of a large number of gun emplacements, so on Western-style warships without a silo design, the gun emplacement is often several times that of Chinese warships.

At the same time, because Chinese warships had partitions of water compartments to support the structure, ribs were rarely used, and they were relatively easy to penetrate, and the damage caused by shells would be much greater than that of Western sailing ships. Western-style battleships, on the other hand, use a large number of ribs, but the structure is more suitable for battleships, and there is no need to worry about being shaken apart by the recoil of the guns that fire intensively, so they are better on battleships.

Of course, the Chinese sailing ship is not without benefits, it is easy to operate due to the use of hard sails, the number of sailors required is much less than that of the soft-sailed Western sailing ships, and it is more flexible in complex sea conditions, coupled with the design of the water trap, its anti-sinking and cost is also better than that of Western sailing ships, but she is more suitable for merchant ships than warships.

Therefore, in the planning of Ningyu, Western-style warships will become the main force of the navy, while civilian commercial ships are still dominated by Chinese-style sailing ships.

..........

Weng Yan finally made up his mind, he planned to hand over the letter, but this matter was too big, and if he handed it over rashly, he was afraid that there would be a disaster, so how to hand it over was also a factor that needed to be considered.

"Second brother, third brother, I think very clearly, this matter is not trivial, if we hide this matter from the imperial court, something bad will happen...... We, Cao Gang brothers, are not worth taking this risk. ”

For Qian Jian and Pan Qing, it was difficult to fight for right or wrong in this matter, so seeing that Weng Yan had made up his mind, he didn't say anything more. It's just that Qian Jian faintly frowned, but it fell in Weng Yan's eyes.

Weng Yan sighed softly, "But this letter was given to our Cao Gang after all, and the three of us read it again, if we just tell the court like this, I'm afraid they won't believe us." ”

When Pan Qing heard this, he faintly felt that something was not quite right in his heart, he glanced at Qian Jian again, but found that the other party's face was also at a loss.

"Second brother, it's really not easy for the Cao Gang to get to where it is today, you also know how much effort we have put into the Cao Gang over the years, if it's over like this, I'm afraid you won't feel good in your heart."

Weng Yan looked at Qian Jian with a little regret in his eyes, but the words that came out of his mouth made Qian Jian feel more and more bad, he raised his head and looked at Weng Yan, and said in a trembling voice: "Big brother, you know me, I am sincere to the gang, big brother!" ”

"We can't deal with the court like this........ Second brother, even if the eldest brother begged you, this letter is for you, and after you saw the letter, you were in a dilemma and chose to commit suicide...... I took the letter with the third child and went to report to the official......."

Weng Yan said word by word, but Qian Jian was a little stunned, he didn't expect that at this critical time, the eldest brother he trusted with all his heart would let himself die, which really made him never expect...... But he didn't want to die yet, let alone die in such an unclear way.

"No....... Big brother, you can't do this...... I can't die....... Third brother, tell the eldest brother about ......."

Qian Jian knelt on the ground, sobbing and looking at Weng Yan and Pan Qing with a pleading face, hoping that the other party could let him go.

However, at this time, a short knife stabbed into Qian Jian's body from behind, and at the same time, he was still in a trance, as if he heard Pan Qing talking.

"Second brother, go all the way ......."

Soon, Weng Yan and Pan Qing went directly to the county government with Qian Jian's head and the letter, and presented the letter and the head together, and the county government did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly told the matter all the way...... In the end, the letter arrived in front of Ning Yu just as Ning Yu thought.

Seeing that this matter has been successfully handled, Ning Yu will no longer be held accountable too much, and for the livelihood of the Cao Gang, the Navy Department and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Privy Council have joined together to set up a temporary department for the diversion of Cao Gang personnel, and some people will be selected from the Cao Gang to enter the newly established Dachu Naval University to study, and the other part will be connected by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to join the major maritime trade companies that are becoming more and more prosperous.

Of course, this is destined to be a relatively long process, but for the Cao gang personnel, it is enough, because with these two paths, they do not need to guard the canal to eat this bowl of rice, with more choices, the future will be broader.

For Ning Chu, going through this incident can be regarded as eliminating a hidden danger, at least the Cao Gang, which is not yet fully formed, will be successfully disbanded, and these millions of idle people will also be diverted to other places along the coast and thrown into the vast and endless sea.

At the same time, the program will be accompanied by a naval program involving hundreds of thousands of people, with the help of relevant Western shipbuilding experts and naval officers, including a naval university and at least three large and five small and medium-sized shipyards, with the aim of forming an initial naval force within 10 to 20 years.

In Ning Yu's eyes, the importance of this plan even exceeds the construction of the army, because a large naval force can fully guarantee Ning Chu's interests in controlling the South China Sea and even the Pacific Ocean, and the gap between Ning Chu and Western countries in this regard is too far and too far, and there are too many lessons to be made up.

However, Ning Yu is not completely without bargaining chips in his hand, that is, the idea of using improved rockets on ships has been verified by actual combat, and in the future, it may be possible to form a small rocket attack fleet and use a large number of rockets to directly kill the opponent's main battleship......

Just when Ningyu began to prepare for the construction of the navy, the issue of the Ningchu imperial court regarding the expenditure of this year had also reached a critical period, and the cabinet, the Privy Council, and even the Metropolitan Procuratorate also expressed great concern about the financial distribution this time and the financial distribution that would be carried out soon.

After all, although this bread is getting bigger and bigger, but the appetite of the big guy is getting bigger and bigger, as long as you want to do things, it is inseparable from a lot of resources, the military has a plan for this year's military expansion, and the cabinet has investment plans for industry and commerce, education, transportation and other aspects, if you have more, he will have less, coupled with Ning Yu's tacit attitude, it also makes the matter of competing for funds once again vigorously unfold in Ning Chu.

Especially after the large-scale construction of the navy in Ningyu this year, it also led to a large part of the original loss of this dough, which not only made the cabinet more dissatisfied, but also had many complaints within the Fu Han army.

In the heart of the original big guy, this sailor is fighting pirates at sea or something, can he spend so much money? The Navy, which can't even find an opponent, is a bunch of expensive toys to say.

Of course, for the newly appointed Minister of the Navy Qiu Ze, he was deeply pressured, he was originally a rebel general of the Green Battalion, although he cooperated with the army to win a battle in Liangguang before, directly included Liangguang into Ning Chu's sphere of influence, and eliminated the remnants of the Qing Army's naval division, but in the eyes of others, he Qiu Ze is still just a small character.

Therefore, for this big battle for military spending, Qiu Ze himself was almost trembling, but he had to fight hard, because if he didn't fight, it would not be the first assistant to be held accountable, but the emperor himself, which he couldn't bear.

So, in such a strange atmosphere, the Imperial Council of the second year of innovation is finally about to be held.