[Happy New Year to all book friends]

"Australians patrol the seas here?" Shen Yourong was a little surprised, he was really bright and upright, he couldn't help but feel that his own water standard was really too idle these days, and he let outsiders reach out to the door. "Penghu Sailor doesn't care?"

"Don't say that now that the sailors have returned to Fujian between the two floods, even if there are boats in the Penghu Water Camp, they have to be able to manage it, right?" The shipowner was a little unimpressed by Master Shen's surprise, and only regarded him as a first-time businessman, with a full sense of superiority in his mouth.

"The Fubo army patrols here every day, and when they encounter bandits, they will be exterminated, and they are more willing to rescue ships when they are in trouble, and they are never perfunctory, since they have these patrol ships, the sea here is much more peaceful, and the bandits now don't even dare to supply around Penghu."

Shen Yourong listened to it and said in his heart, no wonder.

He suddenly remembered that he had heard some rumors, and asked the owner of the ship, "I have heard that this Australian can sail an iron ship without sails and oars, but is it true?" ”

"That's just a rumor, but I haven't seen it, and now there are many such patrol boats on this side of Penghu, but they all have sails."

As he spoke, the two dhows had slowly approached, and the lucky ship that Shen Yourong was there was driving quite fast, and it had already reached the front of several merchant ships in the same company, and just as the patrol ship was coming, Master Shen could even see the sailors rushing back and forth on the opposite deck to collect the sails.

On the sloping and bumpy deck, the sailors in their blue and white striped coats walked like a fly, unaffected. Both the deck and the sails look well organized, and the things covered with oilcloth on the front and rear decks make Master Shen even more curious, I have heard that Australians have sharp firearms, probably those things that cover them are Australian firearms and the like.

"Hang the flag!" Seeing that the patrol ship had approached, the owner of the ship hurriedly ordered his sailors, and it didn't take long for a triangular red flag to flutter on the mainmast, Shen Yourong saw that the person in charge of the dhows looked at it for a while, and the sailors next to him gave a few more orders as if to record, and after a while, the bow of the ship turned and sailed to the next lucky ship.

"What does that mean?" Shen Yourong saw that the Australian's patrol boat seemed to have some rules, and asked with great interest, he originally thought that the people on the patrol boat were going to get on the boat to blackmail.

"My ship has been registered on Taiwan Road, and this small flag is the survey given by the officials of the Song people, as long as this flag is hung, it can be exempted from inventory inspection, and the three ports of the Song Dynasty here can be directly sailed."

Shen Yourong felt that this Australian was really interesting, the patrol at sea was quite orderly, and there was also survey control, which seemed to be done by the government.

"Taiwan Road?" He remembered the title of the ship's owner and asked.

"It's the guest officer, you said Dongfan, and the heads of Ao and Song are called that."

"You have been talking about the Australian Song Dynasty just now, are the Australians really descendants of the Two Song Dynasty?" Shen Yourong asked what he was curious about.

The owner of the ship seems to have answered this question more than once, and he is confident, "As far as I know, the Australian chiefs all claim to be descendants of the Song people, but they also look the same as us, who knows if they are really Song people." ”

Shen Yourong said again: "I'm curious, if there is no such survey flag and they refuse to stop the ship for inspection, what will happen to them?" ”

He pouted at the dhow, which was already gone.

"No stops?" The owner of the ship smiled when he heard this, "The guest officer is really joking, not to mention that the big iron cannon on the cruiser can't resist even the immortals, even if you are given a row of firearms, it is enough for you." Besides, the Fubo army will not ask for your goods when they get on the ship, so why bother to look for this uncomfortable. ”

It seems that his guess is really good, those things that cover the front and back of the deck are indeed artillery, if what the owner said is true, I am afraid that they are all powerful things, he continued to inquire, "The Fubo army is the army of the Australians?" ”

"Yes and no, the Song people are divided into soldiers, this Fubo Army is only a water division, and there is a land division on the ground, I heard that it is called the Beiwei Army, and there are those who praise the Japanese army, but I have not seen it. In addition, there are also public servants called police in various ports to be in charge of law and order and anti-theft. ”

Shen Yourong listened to the shipowner's eloquent talk, and the more he listened, the more he felt that this Australian was extraordinary, this kind of behavior could no longer be called like the government, many systems were even more complete than the government, of course, if they could be implemented. Moreover, the name of this Lu Shi, if you heard the name of the Yue family army correctly, this tone is really big.

"You said the Australians have three ports here? We are all new to Dongban, and we asked the boatman to talk to us. Master Shen's tone was modest.

The owner of the ship was also generous, "Yes, there are indeed three ports, the northernmost is the original North Port, the middle of the Mosquito Port, there is also called the Port of Dragon, now called Anping Port, many immigrants from Fujian settled there, I heard that the new Han people all give cattle land." However, if you want to say that the business is still in Kaohsiung Port, the public people there are very good, and the errand people are also polite, and they will not cheat people for money, as long as it is the goods bought in the port, they will not pump water. ”

Duty-free for imports and exports? Shen Yourong immediately figured out that this was encouraging trade.

"What about going to Kaohsiung Port to do business?"

"At first, there weren't many, but in the last six months, there have been more." The owner of the ship talked about the business experience, "Almost everything can be sold, and then you can bring a lot of good-to-sell Australian goods on the return trip, and you will not go empty again and again, and you will earn double the money, and you don't have to worry about bandits, which one can not want to?" ”

"I wonder what is the best of the goods they bought?"

"The most is iron, and cotton."

"Iron ...... Cotton cloth ......" Shen Yourong fell into deep thought.

The owner of the ship did not intend to make him clean, "The Song people like Fujian iron the most, but they also have to buy ordinary iron materials and iron utensils, and cotton is not cotton, I heard that the Song people weave their own cloth, and only accept cotton from the outside world, but it is higher than the big monks in Zhejiang, and a few days ago I heard that there are many Fujian merchants who go to Songjiang to sell cotton. ”

"I see." Master Shen secretly wrote down in his heart, cotton is okay, it is also a bulk commodity, although cotton and cotton cloth are only small profits, but they are all daily use, and if the amount is large enough, it is also a business. However, buying iron made Shen Yourong a little uneasy, iron has always been a controlled export goods, I didn't expect the Australians to make such a large number of public acquisitions, most of them used this iron to make firearms, which needs to be paid attention to.

"You two are also going to Kaohsiung to do business?" The ship's owner's question interrupted Shen Yourong's thoughts again.

"How can this be?" Shen Yourong asked.

"Then you still need to see? If you don't do business, why do you travel all the way across the ocean? I think a few masters are also Zhang Zhi, and they are definitely not the broken families who have no livelihood and want to escape. ”

…………

While chatting with the owner of the boat while talking to He Qiaoyuan and others, an hour had passed unconsciously, and when he turned his head, he found that his son was holding on to the railing on the side of the ship. Speaking of which, his son is only twelve this year, and he has grown a little older by focusing on his homework on weekdays, but it is inevitable that he has the nature of a child, and now he naturally invests a little bit when he sees curiosity.

"What's there to see?"

"My lord, aren't those salt ships?" Shen Shouyao pointed to a fleet of boats on the shore and asked thoughtfully.

Shen Yourong looked and saw that on the left side of the ship, a group of ships was sailing slowly.

This group is made up of small and medium-sized boats, including two-masted fortune boats and canton boats, as well as more common rice boats and towing boats in inland rivers and shallow coastal waters, which look more like improvised patchwork. Although the ships in the fleet are of different shapes, each ship has two white Chinese characters painted on the boat's gang, 'Buyun', which is in a vulgar style, followed by a set of Arabic numerals. Shen Yourong recognized Arabic numerals, but he didn't understand the meaning of all the characters, and even if Hongyi had the habit of using this kind of 'straw code' counting, he wouldn't paint it directly on the boat.

"This is a ship from Kaohsiung Port?"

"No, this is the salt ship in Beigang, you see the word cloth transportation written on it, that is the ship of the cloth bag salt field."

"Bag Salt Works?"

"Yes, just near Beigang, there is a large area of salt farms run by the Song people, and around Anping Port are sugar cane farmers and sugar mills of the Song people, all of which are self-operated by the Song people, recruiting many displaced people from Fujian."

Shen Yourong immediately remembered that the houses he saw on the shore when he passed by Luermen must have been the sugar factory mentioned by the shipowner.

"And where are these ships going to go?"

"How do I know, but I think it's mostly Kaohsiung, where the bulk of the Song people's salt and sugar are sold to the outside world."

The Australians are selling smuggled salt, and the amount is not small, Shen Yourong reacted immediately, he continued to look at the fleet, there are more than a dozen ships in front and behind, forming a long snake formation, each boat has a very deep draft, about a lot of sea salt loaded on it. Such a blatant transportation of illicit salt is really bold, but if you think about it, if you don't even take care of the water camp under your own hands, no one else will take care of it anymore.

However, when I looked at Master Shen again, I was relieved, the sailors on those ships were wearing blue and white striped short coats just like the ones on the cruiser I saw just now. Some of them also carry long bird guns behind them, guarding the sides of the ship. Shen Yourong silently counted in his heart, there were at least four people carrying bird guns on each boat. There were also a few larger ships with something even stranger, as if a long black crate was mounted on a round metal base, behind which stood two sailors for some purpose. Shen Yourong guessed that this might also be an Australian firearm - they were known for their sharpness, and it is not surprising that there were several types that were not available in the Ming and Hongyi.

With such a posture, it is no wonder that the Penghu Water Camp can only pretend to be deaf and dumb. Shen Yourong has been walking in this sea area for a long time, and naturally knows that the government's seizure of illicit salt has always been a small magnification. Those who are caught and punished are nothing more than dealers who are tens or hundreds of catties, and the amount of a few stones is already a big case, and no one dares to provoke the real gang of dozens or hundreds of stones trafficking. Not only are the smugglers salt dealers mostly outlaws, but also because this kind of trade is either a big gang of powerful people or often involves the gentry behind it. Naturally, there will be no wealthy gentlemen in the backstage here, so there is only one answer left, and the Australians are strong. At least as Master Shen saw with his own eyes, the combat power shown by the Australians is afraid that the water battalion in Penghu does not want to take advantage of it at all, the equipment is still secondary, and the more important thing is morale.

Soon you can see the outline of Mt. Dagou looming over the sea level in front of you.

"After Dagou Mountain, you can see Kaohsiung Port." The shipowner said to Shen Yourong, and then looked towards a bay on the left in surprise, "It's strange, when did there be another port here?" ”

"Why, didn't there be this harbor here before?" Shen Yourong said.

"Naturally, there is a bay, but the last time I came to Kaohsiung was only half a year ago, and this port was built too quickly."

Naturally, the shipowner did not know that the naval base of Zuoying was originally an important strategic fulcrum for the Senate to operate southern Taiwan, and the delay in completing the construction until now has been greatly delayed due to various reasons.

As he spoke, two pillars of smoke rose faintly in the distant harbor.

And what happened in the next moment shocked everyone on board.

In just a few dozen breaths, the body of the black smoke had already come closer, and the shadows of the boats like mountains were blocked in front of everyone's eyes, making it difficult for people to breathe.

There was a sudden silence on the deck, and a pin drop could be heard.

"The Great Iron Ship ......"

I don't know who said it.

[References]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "History of the Late Ming Dynasty" Fan Shuzhi

4, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

5. "Examination of the Origin of Science in Fujian, Volume 75, Mr. Situ He Jingshan, Qiao Yuan"

6, "History of the Ming Dynasty • The Biography of Shen Yourong"

7, "History of the Ming Palace"

8, "Chronicles in the Middle" Liu Ruoyu

9. "Research on Folk Literature in the Ming Dynasty" Zhang Bo

10, "Records of Emperor Mingguang Zongzhen"

11, "Book of Min" He Qiaoyuan

12, "Quanzhou Mansion Chronicles"

13, "Dongfanji" Chen Di

14, "Minhai Gift" Shen Yourong