"The lobster in the sea doesn't eat this thing?" Wu Nanhai expressed contempt. "If you really like it, Australia also has freshwater crayfish, and it will be good to go to Australia to eat it in the future. But I still want to eat real lobster from the sea. ”

This was followed by the issue of mariculture. There are many tidal flats in Lingao, especially in the three harbors of Bopu, Ma Yuan and Hongpai, there are large tidal flats, which are the main areas for modern Lingao tidal flat aquaculture. All three of these regions are now under the direct or indirect control of the Crossing Group. There is a basis for the development of marine aquaculture.

"We don't know anything about marine farming, no one has learned it, and no one has done it." Wu Nanhai said, "I'm afraid I'll have to find a book to study by myself first." Besides, I think it makes more sense to expand the fishing fleet than to engage in marine farming. ”

"Let the fishermen do it, the early marine farming was explored by the fishermen themselves. Cultivating oyster kelp or something, mainly seedling and artificial manufacturing environment, feed feeding is very limited, and the output is quite considerable. ”

There are no concrete results in the area of marine aquaculture, because marine aquaculture is also a type of fishery, and it involves the Ministry of Maritime Liliang and needs to be coordinated. Wu Nanhai thought for a long time, it is better to let the Liliang Department of the sea collect more "fishing tax". If possible, organize fishery associations and carry out group fishing in the open sea.

But at this time, the situation in the Qiongzhou Strait became turbulent. Chen Haiyang, People's Commissar of the Liliang People's Republic of China, was staring at the charts on the table in the captain's room of the Fengcheng ship. The giant ship has been moored here for almost a year. From the very beginning, it became a symbol of the crossing group Liliang. Even when they were cowering in the dirt enclosure of Bopu, the Fengcheng wheel made everyone around them feel afraid.

For most of the past six months, apart from the two attacks by Zhu Cailao and Liu Xiang, no one has dared to challenge their presence in the Qiongzhou Strait. The small group of pirates who used to operate in the ocean near Lingao have long since been wiped out by them.

But now, the navy aboard the Fengcheng ship is starting to feel the pressure.

In the Qiongzhou Strait, small groups of pirates began to appear, robbing ships when they saw them, and often landing to harass and rob villages.

It's not that there hasn't been such a thing before, but it's never been so frequent in the past. Nowadays, there are 1~2 invasion alarms every week in Yanchang Village, and the number of people who land each time ranges from 20~50. As a result, the entire Yanchang Village was often exhausted, and the militia team of Yanchang Village had to be on guard all day, which seriously affected production. In order to protect the production of salt people, the army has sent a platoon to Yanchang Village to garrison. Ships carrying salt from Yanchang village to Bopu were also threatened. At the beginning of June, the Liliang Department lost a ship carrying salt, losing several thousand catties of sea salt, and also killed or wounded five or six people. By June, the number of attacks had become more frequent. The Maritime Liliang Division began to equip each salt vessel with naval guards and adopted a convoy system, with the Mayuan-Bopu transport ships transporting in a team of 10 units, each equipped with an escort of armed sailing ships. Finally suppressed the pirates who tried to rob the salt ship.

Although the escort battle was not fierce, many times the escort fled as soon as the other side fired. But if the opponent has four or five ships, it may turn to a resolute attack, especially the fleet transporting sea salt. In order to ensure safety, the armament of the escort sailing ships was upgraded to artillery, and it was already difficult to repel these red-eyed pirates who had not eaten for a long time without using shotguns.

Chen Haiyang soon discovered that there was not much liliang in the maritime liliang department that could be used to maintain maritime supremacy in the Lingao Ocean. In terms of the number of ships owned by the Liliang Department on the sea, there are quite a few ships, but these ships are basically a hodgepodge of various ships in the Guangdong Ocean, and the general feature is that they are relatively small. The displacement ranges from 15~100 tons, and the condition of the ship also varies, good or bad. Because most of the ships are responsible for transportation, there is basically no gunning. The only ones that can be called warships are: only four 8154 fishing boats that are the core of the navy, the self-modified towing fishing boat "Dengyingzhou", the first self-built fast sailing ship "Zhenhai", and the captured brig "Fubo" that was rebuilt from pirates. The latter three are equipped with diesel engines.

Chen Haiyang mobilized the main force to launch several patrols and clean-ups, and also carried out many fishing and law enforcement, sank and captured more than 20 ships of all kinds, and killed hundreds of prisoners. Since the Pearl River Estuary was also the focus of the Ming army's clearance, the Portuguese, worried that the shipping lanes would be blocked, also dispatched large ships to patrol the Pearl River Estuary. Many small bands of pirates could not gain a foothold and had to continue to the less stressful western seas.

From the mouths of the captives, the Executive Committee learned the latest maritime movements: after confirming that Zheng Zhilong was appeased, Xu Xinsu and Yang Liu had been killed at the end of 1628, and most of the other small and medium-sized pirates such as Chen Shengyu and Wednesday were eliminated or annexed by him. The battle between Li Kuiqi and Zheng Zhilong is still ongoing. Zhu Cai Lao, who was most concerned about the group, ran to Fujian in the muddy waters, repeatedly attacking Tong'an, as if he was ready to make a share of the chaos in the Fujian Ocean, according to the pirates, Zhu Cai Lao had all the way to contain the scattered people and horses, and the momentum had expanded a lot. Waiting for an opportunity to rob foreign ships on the Fujian Ocean made a fortune.

Chen Haiyang thought that this could probably be regarded as a chain reaction. Zheng Zhilong fought vigorously in the Fujian Ocean with various maritime groups, and in the process of eliminating and annexing these gangs one by one, more and more scattered ships will inevitably flee to the Qiongzhou Strait.

This is a good opportunity to swallow up these people and ships. Chen Haiyang had already calculated at this time, and he didn't have a good eye on the ships, but these experienced sailors were extremely useful naval soldiers. It is better to train peasants recruited from the land to become sailors than these native-born sea-seekers.

As for whether or not these pirates will be able to become qualified naval soldiers, Chen Haiyang is not worried, this is a matter for Wei Aiwen of the Political Department -- this brand-new organization was proposed and set up by Ma Qianzhuo and belongs to the General Staff Department and is specifically responsible for the political work of the army -- Wei Aiwen was nominated for this new post because of his outstanding political propaganda work in the training camp in those years. He was also the commander of the boot camp directly under the General Staff Department. After enlistment, recruits first receive 90 days of basic training and political education here.

However, in order to achieve this goal, he also had to step up patrols on the Lingao Ocean, and Zhenhai and Fubo, which were originally tasked with long-distance armed transport to Changhua and Yulin, were now engaged in security patrols, which were not a big problem in the short term, and in the long term they would affect the transportation of the routes around the island - especially the supply of coconuts and timber.

"What we need now is not a fleet, but a sufficient number of patrol vessels to maintain maritime security along the Lingao coast."

"Choose some more Haode ships from the miscellaneous ships in your hand, and add artillery to act as patrol ships." This is actually the form of the current armed sailboat, "adding a diesel engine to increase mobility"

"No, these ships are too small. It's a waste to install a diesel engine - I don't even want to use artillery. Chen Haiyang quickly discarded this suggestion, and his ambitions were greatly inflated by the renewals of the shipyard's equipment, the increasing proficiency of Jishu workers, and the ability of the machine shop to provide more and more equipment.

"I want a small, but professional standing patrol fleet." At the meeting of the Executive Committee, he clearly put forward his demand, "The current mixed navy only has deterrent power in the Qiongzhou Strait, but has no enforcement power." ”

Because this hybrid boat has no advantage in performance, there are not as many experienced sailors as the opponent. As long as the superiority of the KAO firearm is relied upon to offset the opponent. But these miscellaneous ships were built without considering the need for artillery at all, and it was difficult to install multiple guns. It is also extremely inconvenient to use.

The Zuihou Executive Committee approved an emergency shipbuilding project, ordering the Bopu Shipyard to concentrate all its manpower and material resources to immediately build five triangular schooner patrol boats, which imitated the concept of pirate pursuit ships built by the British Royal Navy in the 17th ~ 19th centuries. The use of dhow drennaturs, shallow draft boat type, convenient for combat in the rough terrain of the coast and shallow sea areas. In order to facilitate rapid maneuvering in windless or unfavorable wind conditions, multiple pairs of paddles are also available.

The British had a displacement of up to 113 tons, but the standard displacement of the ship designed by Bundezi was half that of the ship - a concept, not an imitation. The purpose of these ships is only in the Qiongzhou Strait, and in the future at most along the coast of Hainan Island. Voyage performance doesn't need to be thought about too much.

The displacement of the new patrol ship was reduced to 60 tons in order to speed up construction. The dhow design has been retained as it is well suited to the changing winds of coastal areas, and the cable operating system is entirely modeled after the yachts brought by the North American rudder - except for the replacement of the electric motor with a hand hoist. An additional 3 pairs of long oars are installed on board to provide additional propulsion and acceleration steering.

The whole ship adopts a mid-island layout. On the fore and aft decks, there is a 12-pounder M1857 smoothbore cannon modified naval gun, which is mounted in the same way as the Zhenhae. According to Wen Desi's calculations, even if the gunner's training is not too sufficient, each cannon can be fired once a minute. In terms of shell configuration, according to the experience of several naval battles, more incendiary bombs, grenades and shotguns are equipped, as well as chain shells specially used to shoot masts.

Because the pirates faced by patrol ships preferred to fight in gangs and broadsides, the small number of small ships was inevitably a disadvantage, and a large killing weapon specially designed to deal with dense combatants was installed on board: multi-barreled guns.

A multi-barreled gun is not a machine gun, although it can fire continuously for a short period of time, but there is no automatics on the gun. Essentially, it's a weapon that integrates multiple rifles and fires them sequentially to create a burst effect. This strange weapon was popular in Europe at one time.

Li Yunxing's design of this weapon is basically a copy of the structure of the past, consisting of 16 barrels, in order to reduce the cost of manufacturing. The barrel was made from seamless steel tubes drawn in batches at the rolling mill and then rifled with rifling. It is loaded with Minnie paper packets and fired by the fire cap. Caliber 14mm - this size was inherited from the seamless boiler tubes brought from modern time and space that served as the barrels of Mini rifles. The maximum firing range is 400 meters, and the effective firing range is 100 meters.

The significant disadvantage of the multi-barreled gun was the difficulty of reloading, and it was almost impossible to reload such a weapon in battle. Later, a complete ammunition system was developed. The gun body is divided into two parts: the barrel and the cartridge plate, and the cartridge part can be disassembled and assembled as a whole. This allows you to quickly reload your ammo. The idea is similar to changing the revolver directly when reloading.

As a result, the finished product became so heavy that anyone who wanted to use this kind of robbery as a "machine gun" thought that it was impossible to use it to equip the army when they saw its huge size. Historically, this multi-barreled gun had to use a two-wheeled gun mount when maneuvering on land, and weighed nearly a light gun, but it was inferior to the gun in power and range. So in the field troops it was quickly eliminated.

Navy ships are relatively less sensitive to weight. The multi-barreled gun uses a gun carriage equipped with a gimbal on the deck of the ship, which can be easily fired in all directions. The gun carriage was provided with a sliding track, which used the stroke to counteract the recoil after partial firing. An improved version of the ignition device was also installed: a hammer-firing device similar to a typewriter keyboard controlled the frequency of fire under the control of the shooter. Li Yunxing was able to shoot a spot shot after operating it himself a few times. This weapon got the nickname "typewriter". Each multi-barrel gun set carries 12 cartridges as standard. To protect the shooter, an iron machine gun shield was also installed on the multi-barreled gun.

In addition to this terrible melee weapon. Patrol boats also installed an ancient but effective method of guarding against enemy jumpers, with protective nets on both sides of the ship's sides. As for the hand-held shotgun, which is very effective in the fight against bandits, it is also equipped with ships as standard equipment, and is used as a melee weapon in deck combat.

There is no engine installed on the ship for the time being, and considering the needs of future upgrades and modifications, the space and structure for modification are set aside when the ship is shipbuilding. The engine in the Jihua will be a single- or two-cylinder diesel engine, which can be started quickly and is suitable for the needs of patrol boats.

Some have questioned the usefulness of such ships, which are too small to have a capacity of 30 people. But Chen Haiyang believed that such ships were sufficient to serve as escorts, patrols, and other security guards in the Qiongzhou Strait -- no one could expect to use them for a decisive battle of the fleet.

At the beginning of June 1629, the Bopu Naval Shipyard placed five iron keels on the slipway in turn, and construction began at the same time. For the first time, a patrol boat was built with an iron-boned wooden hull. The keel and ribs are all made of rolled iron. According to the design drawings, the steel mill rolls the keel and ribs on the ship in batches. The whole construction period is reduced by more than two-thirds compared with the original wooden keel rib.

Patrol ships were built with a number of modern design concepts. The exterior of the ship was completed on a computer by Wen Deji and several ship model enthusiasts with the help of virtual shipbuilding software and a huge fluid shiyan database. The CWI is trying to promote standardised construction. The various wooden sheets used in shipbuilding are unified in size and shape, and are mass-produced in workshops with woodworking machinery. Wen Desi even made a preliminary attempt at modular construction, where some of the ship's large components were built on the ground and then hoisted onto the ship for installation. The spinnaker was ordered in Macao through a Jesuit connection. The Jesuits wrote to inform them that the sailmakers they needed were on their way from Europe to Macao, and that if all went well, they would have arrived in a year and a half if they had not encountered storms, sickness, or pirates on the way.

The Liliang Department at sea built ships and reorganized their armaments for war -- Chen Haiyang seized the time to carry out large-scale training in exchange for war, and drove the navy's midship, noncommissioned officers, and recruits one after another to the armed sailing ships. Zhenhai and Fubo also maintained combat readiness, patrolling the strait area between Lingao and Xuwen on a daily basis. For a while, there were many sails along the coast, and there was a lot of my martial arts flavor.

Soon the first batch of five patrol boats was launched. The entire construction period is less than 20 days. Wen Desi ordered to concentrate on outfitting one of the Liliang as a verification boat and put it into actual combat as soon as possible, so as to find problems and make further improvements.

Lelin is now sitting on the bridge of the new patrol boat, with a rattan high-backed bench fixed to the deck under the awning, and it can still be rotated - a gift from Wu Kuangming to the Liliang Department at sea, and part of the shipbuilding standardization measures. This comfortable chair in the high climate soon became a symbol of naval power. So much so that "sitting on a rattan chair" later became a slang term for the navy of the crossing country - meaning to become the captain of a ship.

His command flag was fluttering on the mast. The newly built patrol boat No. 101 is the flagship of this patrol formation. The beautiful spinnakers were full, and on deck were the newly converted Mini Marines with navy mini rifles, which were characterized by a relatively short barrel and were suitable for use on deck. The front and rear two LOU guns with the same shape as the "Zhenhai" have black holes sticking out of the gun muzzles.

Experimental weapons were also installed at the rear of the bridge, that is, Li Yunxing's "machine guns" -- "typewriters" -- several units had already been manufactured and were being loaded and tested on ships, and the 101 patrol boat was honored to be the first batch of ships to install such weapons.

"It's like a warship at last." Le Lin said with satisfaction. He looked away from the guns and at the boats on either side of him, albeit a little dilapidated fishing boats. The hard sails are also full of patches, but the jiashi of these three ships lined up in a row on the sea still has the meaning of a naval formation. In the hallucination, he saw himself wearing the uniform of a white generalissimo with a Korean medal on his chest, standing on the bridge of a battleship, and on the sea next to him, there were battleships lined up with goose wings, riding the wind and waves under the light of the morning sun...... (！ )

[зZcｎ.]