Zhang Xiaohu frantically trained the 6,000 sailors in Cam Ranh Bay for his own ideals, so that they could quickly familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations of the Nanzhong Army Naval Division, and learn to use the rules and regulations to improve their words and deeds, daily life and everything on board.

While the recruits were struggling with the heavy military training and endless memorization of inspection regulations, Shouhan quietly returned to Hue with his own soldiers and the guard battalion on the Chang Sheng.

The reason is very simple, Yan Meier, Mei Shan, and Shi Lin are about to enter labor.

It's a little weird to think about it, I'm sorry for my wives, it seems that from Xiao Huamei to Li Muhua's birth of Xiao Huayu, Shouhan is not around, either to ask for this, or to deal with something somewhere.

Now, it is barely relatively calm, and before the storm comes, it is good to be by his side when he walks around for his three women in this life-and-death situation.

Returned to the Hue General's Mansion, before getting off the horse, under the leadership of Xiao Huamei, several children surrounded Shouhan like a group of cute baby bears.

Hua Mei is very competent to play the role of the eldest sister, with Xiao Huayu and A Liang, that is, the daughter born by Shilin for Shouhan.

Seeing that the three babies were full of excitement and happiness, Shouhan couldn't help but feel warm in his heart. He hugged Xiao Huamei to the back of the horse, and put Xiao Huayu in Xiao Huamei's arms, "Hug my brother!" ”

"Daddy, Daddy!" Ah Liang inherited the beautiful appearance of her mother and aunt, as a cute baby, she saw that her brother and sister were hugged by her father. Careful eyes suddenly rushed to the scene. Spread out two small arms and wave in front of the guard, that means, I want to get on the horse too!

"Come on! Daddy lets you ride a big horse! ”

Shouhan picked up Ah Liang with both hands, put his baby daughter on his neck, and let his daughter ride on his neck to look around.

In the courtyard of this palace, Shouhan saw a group of men with turbans wrapped around their heads. Wrap your legs in a piece of cotton cloth about a foot long. Then roll the ends of the cloth together, pass between the legs, and tuck it into the lower back. Suddenly it looks like Mingguo's bloomers.

Seeing a group of guards hugging Shouhan and returning with a few young masters, that group of men didn't know Shouhan. I also know that this must be an extraordinary person. He hurriedly knelt down and prostrated his head.

"Who are these people?"

There was something strange about Shouhan. He turned to ask Huang Meiyu, a battalion officer who had recently been in charge of the defense of the inner house and Hue.

Huang Yingguan has not yet had time to return. Xiao Huamei, who was holding her younger brother on horseback, opened her mouth first.

"Daddy! It's Siam's grandparents who are here! Because Aunt Mei Shan and Aunt Sirin are going to give birth to younger brothers and sisters, let's take a look at the two aunts. ”

It turned out that his cheap husband was here! Shouhan couldn't help but feel a burst of amusement in his heart, and then a burst of sadness. Yan Mei'er was a child whose parents died. Li Muhua was also killed by his father by traitors, and Xiuzhu, not to mention, he didn't even know what his real name was, only the Meishan sisters could be regarded as both parents.

Mei Shan's father is a member of the Siamese royal family, and his own title is Pa Ong Chao, which is somewhat similar to the standard rank of the royal family members of my Celestial Dynasty, or the county king. If they didn't have such a bloodline, the soldiers who guarded the Han Dynasty were trapped in the Ayutthaya Mansion, and it would not be the turn of the Meishan sisters to go out of the city and make peace.

However, Shouhan did not treat the father-in-law and mother-in-law badly, in addition to the constant exchange of messengers, whenever there was something new in Nanzhong, he immediately sent someone to send a boat to Ayutthaya and handed it over to his father-in-law Ba Mo to enjoy, and then handed over the land and farms in the Chao Phraya River valley to the prince of Ba Mo to take care of. In addition, the prince of Bamo is also the agent of ironware, salt, glass mirrors, cloth and other products in Siam, which together have accumulated endless wealth and contacts for the prince of Bamo. Before coming, the King of Siam learned that he was coming to Hue to visit his family, and issued an edict to elevate his title to Chaofa, which was the highest rank a member of the royal family could receive.

That night, a banquet was held for the couple in the Crystal Palace, and the Shouhan was half out of sincerity, half to envelop the couple, and kept claiming that the prince of Bamo was "Father" and his mother-in-law "Mother." ”

Even the roles of a group of servants and guards who came with the Bamo couple were also rewarding money, rewarding goods, appreciating cloth and satin, etc., and even set up more than ten tables of banquets outside, and ordered people to accompany them to have wine and dinner.

The two big-bellied Meishan sisters, seeing Xiang Gong treating their parents like this, were also very relieved, and couldn't help but secretly wonder in their hearts, when the fetus in the womb is born and they take care of themselves, it is Xiang Gong who proposed how to be ashamed in the room, and they are also doing it, and they must let Xiang open his heart so that he will not be in vain.

Only Li Muhua saw such a scene, and felt a little jealous in his heart, remembering the prosperity of the past, although he was a puppet with great power, but he was also the princess of a country, and now, alas!

After eating a few glasses of wine, he complained of some fatigue, got up and left the table.

Seeing her back disappear outside the Crystal Palace, the Meishan sisters couldn't help but exchange glances with each other, and they both understood each other's meaning from each other's eyes.

"Today is a family banquet to welcome my parents, if you don't give our sisters face, then don't blame us for not leaving room for you!"

At the end of the banquet, the mother and daughter went to the room to talk, Yan Mei'er and Xiuzhu also got up and retreated, leaving only the prince of Bamo to stay in front of Shouhan to talk about things.

"Dashuai, this year's Chao Phraya River has also been a bumper harvest in several places." As the substitute Shouhan was in charge of dozens of large and small farms in the Chao Phraya River region, Ba Mo only opened his mouth when his son-in-law wanted to ask about his harvest, intending to take the initiative so as not to cause trouble for his precious daughter in front of this bullish son-in-law.

Scattered in the south of Siam, there are dozens of farms in 14 provinces, including Chumphon, Krabi, Nakhon Sitham, Tao Kong, Pattani, Phang Nga, Ko Tau Lun, Phuket, Ranong, Satun, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Trang (Setin), and Yala, or cinchona trees are planted. In addition to the rubber trees known as tear trees, rice is still the most widely planted in the Chao Phraya River basin, and there are more than a dozen logging fields in several mountain forests, where nearly 1,000 elephants and tens of thousands of workers work.

"Father-in-law, don't talk about the harvest, if you want to pay the money. Then please go to the inner accounting room and go through the formalities with the gentlemen. I ask you to speak for something else. ”

"What! Sourcing Giant Trees! ”

After listening to Shouhan's speech, Prince Bamo's first reaction was that there was another fat pig arch!

Today, Shouhan is one of the best maritime forces from the east coast of the Indian Ocean to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. This is true both in terms of the number of artillery pieces and the technical performance of the ships. In particular, Liaoluo Bay and Nanao Island have fought several times. The power of the Dutch and the pirate group was swept away, and then a good period of development was obtained. So, he prepared a crazy ship-building plan!

"What! Twenty giant trees of no less than sixty-five meters?! ”

Shouhan's request drove Prince Bamo insane. Siam is located in the tropics, though. It has always produced high-quality timber, and many ships of Daming maritime merchants were purchased and manufactured here, but I have never heard of such a large ship.

"I'm going to build a big ship, a big ship you've never heard of or seen!"

At a meeting with everyone in the shipyard, Shouhan solemnly announced this crazy shipbuilding plan in front of Galileo, Descartes, Bhamo and others who attended the meeting.

"Build five slipways first, the kind that can build a 5,000-ton ship!"

It's okay for others, he has always been accustomed to seeing the lord's generosity or amazing words, but as the first time he had close contact with his son-in-law, Prince Bamo couldn't help but make him smack. Good boy! Five thousand tons?!

Over the years, he has worked for his son-in-law, and he also knows the inside story of the Nanzhong Army, and he still knows what the concept of 5,000 tons is. It seems that it makes sense for the son-in-law to ask for this 65-meter-high log.

After the construction of these five slipways was completed, the so-called frigate-class ships of the Shouhan were built, and there were five ships in one go.

As a mathematician and physicist, Galileo's interest was mainly focused on the performance parameters of the ship, and through the drawings on the wall and a list of parameters written by Shouhan, the Italian could not help but secretly exclaim, God! What are you going to do with this crazy Oriental monarch?!

The total length of the hull is 63 meters, the width is 14 meters, the draft is 7 meters, the design displacement is 2,200 tons, the design speed is 13 knots, in order to achieve this speed, the number and area of the sails are amazing, the sail area has reached an unprecedented 3,969 square meters, the gun decks on both sides of the ship are equipped with 28 24-pounder guns and 10 12-pounder guns, not counting those mortars and Cron guns that may be temporarily strengthened, and the crew has reached as many as 400 people.

In this way, these five ships would have occupied at least 2,000 sailors, but fortunately a large number of sailors were captured and recruited, otherwise, the craftsman of a shipyard shook his head and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

However, his surprise was yet to come.

When Descartes asked if he had so much wood-processing capacity, Shouhan corrected his proposal, which made everyone almost have the urge to go berserk.

"Mr. Descartes, I have to correct your reference not to five frigates, but to four. There's a slipway left to make this. ”

One of the soldiers unfolded the scroll in his hand and hung it on the wall, and on the wall appeared a huge ship, which was even larger than the so-called frigate just now, according to the eyes of the craftsmen. From the gun windows on the sides of the ship, it can be seen that the firepower of this ship is far stronger than that of the frigate.

"This is going to be the flagship of my fleet in the future." Shouhan endorsed the status of the ship. "In the future, the left flank and right flank of the naval division, the practice fleet, and the fleet directly under me all chose such ships as flagships."

Looking at the three tall masts on the drawings, Prince Bamo couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice, "Buddha! I now know why you're looking for such a tall tree, Son-in-law! ”

The ship on the picture has 3 masts, the mainmast is 63 meters high, the length is 68 meters, the width of the ship is 15 meters, and there are three gun decks.

Descartes raised his hand to indicate that he had a question to ask.

"My lord. I would like to know, such a huge ship, if you build one at a time, and the four just now, add up to a huge amount of timber consumption, may I ask, do we have such a huge and stable source of timber? And these woods must be processed into the right size according to your design requirements. ”

"In fact, the demand and consumption of wood. Far greater than you think. ”

Shouhan nodded to Mr. Descartes. Expressing gratitude for his kind reminder. "Because in fact, my plan is this, after the two flagships were built, the craftsmen and craftsmen have accumulated a lot of experience. So. Our army will then be able to carry out the next ship-building activity. ”

He struck each other with his thumb and middle finger rather scetuously. With a snap of his fingers, the other two pro-soldiers opened the drawings in their hands.

"These two ships are the final level of ships I want to build, take a look!"

If you don't look at it, it's enough. After reading it, almost all of them had the urge to throw the items in their hands in the face of Shouhan.

The ship on the drawing in the hands of the soldier on the left is a battleship with four gun decks, 60 meters in length, 17 meters in width, and 8 meters in draft. The number of gun windows has reached more than 60, and according to the usual frenzied practice of strengthening artillery fire in Shouhan, the final number of guns on this ship will not be less than 150.

And the ship on the right, although it does not have a four-layer gun deck, can still be described as frenzied. The hull is 64.05 meters long, the hull is 18.11 meters wide, and the draft is 8.61 meters, just like the ship just now, all of which are reserved for 120 guns, but the difference is that from the shape of the hull, it seems that this ship can be equipped with large-caliber heavy guns, instead of those small guns, but in this way, the amount of ammunition carried on the ship and the number of crew members will be doubled. Compared with the first frigates, this ship, I'm afraid that the crews of three frigates will be operated?

"My lord! To build such a ship, we don't have such a tall mast! One craftsman expressed the difficulty.

"It's okay, I've asked my father-in-law to find a giant tree for our army to serve as a mast for these ships."

Looking at the bitter face of Prince Bamo, Shouhan threw out an astonishing price.

"Father-in-law, in this way, as long as you find wood that meets the requirements and transport it to the port, how heavy the wood is, I will pay you how much wrought iron, or ironware, do you think?"

As long as the wood is suitable, a pound of wood can be exchanged for a pound of iron?!

Prince Bamo suddenly felt that his good son-in-law was simply the incarnation of the Buddha of the Western Heavens, and he resisted the desire and impulse to kneel on the ground and bow and worship, and said as reservedly as possible, "Do your best!" ”

Wang Zhengquan of the shipyard couldn't help but laugh secretly in his heart, one can be exchanged for a giant wood that meets the requirements for making such a large ship's mast, and exchange a pound of iron for a pound of wood, in this way, this prince of Bamo is bound to frantically look for the kind of tall and large, dense and heavy wood, in exchange for wrought iron, he doesn't know what status iron is now in his good son-in-law.

However, as the head of the shipyard, he was both excited and a little worried about the behemoths that were about to be built.

Excitedly, as a technician and a craftsman, who doesn't want to be able to produce a few works that can go down in history? And these ships will undoubtedly leave their names in the annals of history.

What I am worried about is the huge investment and consumption. He silently calculated in his heart, just a few frigates, I am afraid that it will cost tens of thousands of towering trees, if you consider the use of nine turns of steel to make keels, although the consumption of trees can be reduced, but the cost has gone up again.

"No, no, no! If you can use steel, you don't need wood, how much time does it take us to make a furnace of steel? How long does it take for a big tree to grow into a mature tree and then transport it out of the forest? How much does it cost? How much effort does it take?"

When he privately reported his concern to Shouhan, he got such an answer from Shouhan.

"However, the cost of such a large ship is also huge!"

He looked at the renderings of several large ships hanging on the wall with love and hate, as if he was looking at his beloved son who had caused trouble outside.

"You can't do it all in ten years! You can't do it all in ten years! He couldn't stop muttering this. In the book in front of him, according to the number Shouhan said, he wrote the following numbers on it: five frigates, four flagships of each fleet, at least one four-deck gun-deck ship, and one three-deck gun-deck ship.

"Yes, this is our shipbuilding plan for the next ten years for the sailors! In addition to the current Changsheng-class ships, brigs and schooners are still being built, but the main focus should be tilted towards the design and manufacture of these four types of ships. I have received a secret report that Xiong Wencan, the governor of Liangguang, has already begun to build three-masted gunboats, and if we lie down on the book of war exploits and sleep soundly, maybe tomorrow morning we will get up and have a shell hit our heads by someone else! ”

Watching the monarch in front of him lose his temper with his ministers of civil and military affairs and the master of the factory for his "big toy", Galileo and Descartes and others felt very interesting, in their opinion, since there is no shortage of funds to build warships, why not build them? After building a warship, you can better protect and develop your own commercial interests.

"Three gentlemen."

Shouhan bowed to them, and the three blonde and blue-eyed guys hurriedly got up and hurriedly returned the salute, during this time they already knew that in this country, it was an extremely solemn thing for the monarch to bow to his subordinates.

"I'm tired of the three, help coordinate the calculation and arrangement of shipbuilding, and make the most perfect plan to report to me." (To be continued......)