In the following days, the letter seeking Chen Kai's approval set sail and was sent directly to the Advisory Bureau in Guangzhou, where a group of parliamentarians from Qiongzhou Prefecture handed over to Chen Kai. Subsequently, the reply letter also traveled far away in the waves, survived the stormy seas, and finally returned to the meeting hall of the Guangdong Commercial Alliance Branch in the capital city of Qiongzhou.

"Boss Fujun supports our development of the shipbuilding industry!"

The members who initiated the initiative raised their arms, and everyone was also excited, even those members who did not plan to participate in it at all, seeing Chen Kai's support as always, it was also inevitable.

In the letter, Chen Kai was pleased that they could see a farther future, especially the plan to build European-style ships, which was appreciated by Chen Kai. In Chen Kai's words, the Taixi countries have surpassed China in navigation technology, which is driven by the huge profits of maritime trade. The most intuitive thing is that the ships of the Taixi countries are larger than the Chinese ships, and they are more suitable for ocean voyages, which is the result of long-term experience accumulation, so if you want to catch up, you must learn, take its essence, remove its dross, and reach new heights.

Chen Kai's text is full of longing for the ocean, which they did not expect before, because from the very beginning, their purpose was to use the emergence of the shipbuilding industry as a new profit growth point, so as to improve the ability to resist the risk of the cotton spinning industry relying on the sky.

While the reply was circulated among the members, and while these words were written, what came to Chen Kai's mind was a conversation between him and Zheng Chenggong a long, long time ago, and after that conversation, and a long time later, Zheng Chenggong's complete answer to a question that they both had questions about at the time.

"On the issue of the smaller size of the Ming warship that I talked about that time, I specifically consulted the records, and also consulted the Zhongyong Marquis in detail, and the problem was actually the opponent.

"Opponents?"

"Yes, opponents, to be exact, the Wokos. Since the eunuchs of the Three Treasures went to the West, the Ming Sea was peaceful, coupled with the military defense focus of the north against the Mongol Tatars, in the long run, the sailors were abolished, and when the Su Emperor did not have seven out of ten warships, a large number of people fled, and when the Japanese rebellion was together, the coastal provinces were completely a result of having no sea defense. During that time, Da Ming had reorganized the coastal defense, the most prominent of which was Yu Long Qihu, especially the former, attached great importance to the development of the water division, before the father presided over the coastal defense of Fujian and Guangdong, the Yu family father and son can be said to have single-handedly built the water division of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. ”

Yu Dayou served as the chief military officer of five provinces in Zhejiang, Fujian, Southern Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi during his life. During the Jiajing Anti-Japanese War, Yu Dayou cooperated with Qi Jiguang, often Yu Dayou relied on the water division and Qi Jiguang to join forces with the land division to fight the enemy.

After Yu Dayou's death, the Japanese rebellion was no longer the main theme of the southeast coastal defense. The attacks of the European colonists, especially the Dutch had attacked the coastal areas of Fujian and the Penghu archipelago several times, except for the one in the 32nd year of Wanli, when the Fujian General Army Shi De ordered Shen Yourong to try to force it back, and then Yu Zhigao was in the confrontation with the Dutch, from Tongshan, Xiamen, to Penghu, naval battles, sieges, sieges, never less, and finally forced the Dutch to abandon Penghu and turn to Taiwan.

The father and son of the Yu family have served as senior officers of the naval division along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong for a long time, and they have worked hard to restore the slackening of the naval division of the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, Yu Dayou was impeached at every turn, Yu Zhigao easily tossed the Dutch and understood, and ran into the big player Zheng Zhilong, but he ended up with a punishment of being dismissed and attacked from his military position, and he could only say that his military luck was not good.

"When Yu Wuxiang was alive, the main opponent of the Daming Naval Division at that time was still the Japanese Kou. The purpose of the invasion of the Japanese invaders is, in the final analysis, the word plunder. For this reason, the Japanese often drove light and swift small and medium-sized ships, quickly broke into the coastal sea to land, and then scattered and plundered, which was difficult for the sailors who were the defenders to effectively stop. ”

"The tactics of the Japanese are like this, and the ship regulations of the Ming Navy Division at that time were mostly 400 material ships, and the speed was not as good as the light boats of the Japanese Kou, coupled with the problem of draft, it was difficult to catch up with the Japanese Kou when they encountered it along the coast. For example, Yu Wuxiang once drove a big boat to pursue, only to watch the Japanese invaders calmly escape from the shallow water. ”

"So, since then, in order to effectively intercept the ships that have been discovered, the Daming Sailor can only change the big ship to a small one, from the earliest 400 materials to 200 materials, and then it will not work, so they will continue to change to small, and in the end they are all small and medium-sized warships of 150 materials and 100 materials, and the big ships are 9 to 10 zhang Fu ships and Guangzhou ships."

"However, such a warship is just right against the Japanese Invaders. Not only is it no longer a loss in terms of speed and draft, but Wang Shi's battleship is equipped with a four- or five-pound cannon and a small number of Franc cannons, plus some weapons such as bowls, fire bricks, fireworks, rockets, etc., the Japanese are just pirates, who make a living from plundering, and deal with ordinary people every day, so they often have some bird guns called iron cannons in Japan, as well as some bamboo bows, and Wang Shi has regained the advantage......"

The history of navigation in the Ming Dynasty reached its peak at the very beginning - Zheng He's seven voyages to the West, which was a subject that was studied by many scholars even in later generations. Among them, Chen Kai vaguely remembers that a retired submarine captain of the British Royal Navy once wrote a book about Zheng He's voyage to the West to discover the Americas and Australia before the Europeans, which was very popular on the Chinese Internet at that time.

Since the treasure ship and related records were later burned by the opposition, the size, shape, and many other issues of the treasure ship are puzzled by debate. However, there is no doubt that the fleet did sail the oceans, not only in the South China Sea in the traditional sense, but also across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and eastern Africa.

After the peak, it is a downfall. However, at that time, the Daming Navy Division did not have a treasure ship, but it still used a 400-material warship as the main force to shock the sea frontier. It's just that after a long period of peace, coupled with the northern border troubles, the abolition of the sailors is inevitable, and when the rebellion of the Jiajing Dynasty broke out, the Daming Navy Division and the guards on the southeast coast are even more hand-in-hand, shoulder to shoulder, and have become a joke in the history of Chinese affairs.

In the following Yu Dayou period, the Daming Navy Division relied on small warships to deal with the threat of the Japanese Invaders, and later effectively curbed the rampant Wolves. But later, the Japanese rebellion went, and the local pirates became a strong opponent of the Ming Dynasty sailors by virtue of their earlier contact with Western firearms and warships, among which Lin Daoqian, Zeng Yiyi, Lin Feng, Zhu Liangbao and others were even more famous.

Among them, Zeng Yiyi is the most powerful. He owned hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers, and could be called a great pirate between Wang Zhi and Zheng Zhilong in the Chinese Sea. Zeng Yi had a main fleet composed of Dongguan big blacktail ships, and the deadweight of these blacktail ships was more than 10,000 tons, which was converted into a unit of measurement between 380 and 400 tons. In this way, the warships that the Ming army had changed to small in order to fight against the Japanese invaders absurdly encountered the embarrassment of being bullied by pirates.

In order to exterminate Zeng Yi, the 29 coastal counties of the Ming Dynasty built 24 ships with a length of 15 to 17 zhang and a hull covered with a layer of iron armor within half a year, in addition to more than 100 Dafu ships, which were already the most powerful maritime combat force after Zheng He went to the Western Ocean.

Later, the opponent was replaced by the Dutch, and in the face of the sea coachmen with stronger maritime strength, the Ming Dynasty sailors did not rest on their laurels, and carried out the necessary upgrades on the warships, and began to appear double-deck gunboats and single-deck gunboats, and equipped with 10 to 30 Western-style guns on the side guns. For example, Peter Mundy, an Englishman at that time, once met a double-deck gunboat of the Ming army carrying 28 to 30 guns and a single-deck gunboat carrying 10 to 12 guns at the mouth of the Pearl River.

By the time of the Apocalypse Chongzhen, the competition with the European colonists became increasingly fierce, and the warships of the Ming army continued to upgrade. According to the records of the "Records of Soldiers", the double-deck gunboats at that time had been upgraded to 8 Hongyi guns, 22 jack guns and 500-pound guns on the lower deck, and 30 small guns such as Franc machine guns and Baizi guns on the upper deck, and the number of guns on the whole ship had reached 60.

Along with the upgrading of the warships was the casting of cannons, and while the Ming court responded to the threat of the Manchus, a large number of artillery pieces were also cast in the south to equip the sailors. Among Chen Kai's artillery corps, there were two inconspicuous twelve-pounder cannons, one was cast in the second year of Chongzhen, and the other was cast in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, except that unlike other artillery, these two Hongyi cannons were iron cannons, not the usual copper cannons. (Note)

The development has not stagnated, but it is still not worth mentioning compared to the Netherlands, which has more than 16,000 merchant ships of all kinds and a total tonnage of about 580,000 tons. Even compared to the United Dutch East India Company, which had more than 150 merchant ships and 40 warships, it had few chances of winning. Because the merchant ship of the United Dutch East India Company was the Yahat ship, which was called the East India Ship at that time, with a displacement of up to 2,000 tons. And the poor fleet, which at first glance looked small, consisted of such famous Galen ships, with a displacement of 300 to 2,000 tons.

With such a big gap, when encountering the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, which was praised by the majority of history and navigation enthusiasts in later generations, as the most legendary maritime player in eastern Asia and the last Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong simply played the tactics of attacking it with small boats. This is basically a ridiculous tactic in the open sea, but it has an unimaginable effect on the coast.

A last resort, this was Zheng Chenggong's extremely deep impression on Chen Kai at that time. However, for Zheng Chenggong, over the years when he presided over the Zheng Group, the scale of the sailors has continued to expand, but the shape of the warships seems to be a little complacent - most of them are still about the same size as the warships of Zheng Zhilong's era, and some of the larger ships are mostly converted from European merchant ships. Such a fleet, in the open sea encountered the sea coachman, its odds of victory still depend more on God, but in the coastal sea can still dominate the world, not only has the right to dialogue with the Western colonists, but also presses the Qing army and sailors without any respite.

Such complacency is not because Zheng Chenggong lacks foresight, but because for today's Zheng Group, resisting the Qing Dynasty is the first priority. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong's investment in the land division has never been stingy, and on the side of the naval division, as long as he can seal the Manchu Qing at sea and feed the army with sea trade, it will be enough. Further improvement, after all, it will take a lot of money.

"After the destruction of the Tartars, backed by the Ming Dynasty, with rich human, material and financial resources as a backing, and then competing with the red hair and the Franc machine, it can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

This is not only what Zheng Chenggong thinks, but also what Chen Kai sees. Originally, Chen Kai planned to wait until after the elimination of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to support Zheng Chenggong's development of the navy, and the Zheng group and the Guangdong commercial alliance he was cultivating could become a ready-made interest group, drowning out the voices of opponents with tons of gold and silver!

However, this time, the Guangdong Business Alliance spontaneously began to develop the shipbuilding industry, which is undoubtedly good news, so Chen Kai will not have any other attitude in addition to support.

"The old man of Fujun said that he would inject 20,000 taels of silver into the Guangdong Trading Company in advance, and he did not require the leading power of the shipyard, and we would operate it ourselves. He has only one request, that is, before he succeeds in driving out the Tartars, he must see that our shipyard can build a sea-going ship that can sail to the sea, and a sea-going ship that is truly not inferior to the Tessie merchant ship! ”

This is an affirmation and a spur. The members raised their arms and shouted, and the members present who were originally interested in participating in it were all excited, and even those who had no idea also had more or less itching.

With this letter as a foundation, they immediately took action. The selection of sites, the hiring of craftsmen and workers, and the opening up of raw material channels and the relationship between the government and the government have precedents for running cotton spinning workshops before, and they are familiar with these things. The first member of the group offloaded the affairs that needed to be managed by others, and he boarded a sea ship and embarked on a voyage to Luzon with the owner who had been waiting in Qiongzhou for a long time.

"Brother Tang, when you go to Luzon, don't remember not to publicize it, just say that you are going to purchase spices, and you must not mention other things."

"Why is that?"

"When I arrived in Luzon, Brother Tang understood."

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

PS: Some time ago, things were complicated, and the state was not good, and last week the notebook began to make trouble again, and the update was not good, sorry, sorry. These days, most of the things that need to be dealt with have been processed, and the status is also being adjusted, and the pieces that repaired the notebook yesterday have also arrived, and the repair has been completed, and the normal update will begin to resume today.

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