In 1650, the seventh year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty.

In March of the beginning of the year, everything recovered, and the cold gradually disappeared. The flowers are full of flowers, and they are purple and red.

What a picture of the spring scene of melting snow in the rivers and mountains.

Luoyang has never lacked flowers and plants, it is the city of peony flowers, and the king of flowers is all over the territory. The breath of spring seems to have swept through the area overnight. The warbler sings and the swallow dances, and the stream flows into the river. The murmuring water is clear and sweet.

As far as the eye can see, the city is full of spring. The spring rain is as precious as oil, and I took a pot to use in the coming year. It's sassy, but it can't stop pedestrians.

The vendors are overjoyed and welcome guests. Yun Ying covered her face and danced with a kite. The light yarn is folded into the red mansion, and the heavy cotton is unloaded and shows the thin waist. The rain and dew are congealed, and the clouds and cranes are dancing.

Exactly: the spring is full of Luoyang flowers, and the boudoir of the Red Chamber sings.

"The spring rain is as expensive as oil, it rains all over the streets, slips and falls, and laughs at a herd of cattle."

Seeing the spring rain sprinkled, the Luoyang teahouse was full of pedestrians, and I don't know who suddenly said this poem, which immediately caused the whole house to laugh.

Compared with the healthy and stable life of the common people and merchants, Liu Xia in the tall and sturdy palace city frowned and looked at the map.

"Now that it's spring, the weather is mild, and it's okay to attack the city, at this moment, the Guards Brigade and the Eagle Brigade are attacking Taiyuan Mansion from the north and south, I'm afraid it won't take long for news to come."

The map Liu Xia looked at on his desktop was the detailed map of Taiyuan, Shanxi.

But after a while, Liu Xia took out another map, which was the map of Huguang, and the blue line with nine bends and eighteen bends in the middle was the Yangtze River. The north of the Yangtze River is now all in Liu Xia's hands, and the south of the Yangtze River is still in the hands of Wu Sangui.

Liu Xia looked at the blue line in a daze. Although it was only a thin line on the map, Liu Xia knew that the Yangtze River was actually very wide and wide.

"If you want to cross the Yangtze River, you need a navy. Besides, now that Western countries are developing their navies, and their navies are now almost in Macao, it seems that I have to form a navy earlier. ”

Then Liu Xia took out a map of Shandong Province, and now in addition to Jinan Mansion, other prefectures and counties in Shandong are in Liu Xia's hands, and Jinan Mansion will also be surnamed Liu in a few months.

"Shandong Peninsula - Laizhou Mansion, Jiaozhou. Jiaozhou, later known as Qingdao, was a natural military port that could be used as a naval base. ”

Thinking of this, Liu Xia showed a smile on his face, and shouted outside: "Someone, call the two military divisions and the chief of the logistics department to come over." ”

After that, Liu Xia took out a pen and paper again and began to sketch the specific construction steps of the navy. For the navy, first of all, there must be ships, and there must be generals in water warfare. Indispensable. Ships are not difficult to solve, and it is quite easy to ask Wang En to build some ships, but it is not easy to find this naval general.

According to Liu Xia, the powerful figures in the navy are Shi Lang and Zheng Chenggong, father and son, but neither of them can be used by Liu Xia at this moment.

But after a while, Chen Liu, Li Wen and Wang En hurriedly came to Liu Xia's study.

"Meet the prince!"

The three of them bowed respectfully to Liu Xia.

Liu Xia raised his head and knew that someone was coming, and said, "You sit down left and right, this king has something to tell you." ”

"I'm just a courtier, just stand." Wang En arched his hand.

Liu Xia shook his head and said, "Now you don't have to be polite in private, just sit down." Seeing Liu Xia's words, the three of them also found a chair and sat on the edge.

"I don't know what the prince is looking for us?" Chen Liu knew that if Liu Xia had nothing to do, he would definitely not let them come together.

Liu Xia frowned, put the pen in his hand aside, sorted out the paper on the table, and said, "This king wants to build a navy." ”

"Navy?" The three of them said in unison in surprise.

Liu Xia nodded and said, "That is, as the saying goes, the water army." Nowadays, the construction of a naval army is imperative. Although we control the area north of the Yangtze River, we are still threatened by Wu Sangui all the time, because there is Wu Sangui's naval patrol on the Yangtze River, and we may suddenly come ashore at any time and night to launch an attack on our army. And our army is full of land soldiers, and it is impossible to compete with Wu Sangui on the water. Moreover, the coastal area was also harassed by water bandits and pirates from time to time, and the people and businesses along the coast were looted, killed, and tortured countless times. It has to be governed. ”

"Everyone knows that the profits at sea are very high, and now we have a lot of places to make military money in Pingbei, so this king also intends to conduct maritime trade with the West, and there are many sea thieves along the way, and a strong navy must be needed as protection."

In fact, there is also a very important point that Liu Xia envies, envies, envies, and hates the large land occupied by the West in the Americas and Australia, and is very greedy for those rich lands. The construction of the navy was to wait until the Westerners were driven away from the American continent.

The era to come will be the age of the sea, and the navy is indispensable. Only with a strong navy can it be invincible in the world.

"Since the prince wants to build a navy, he will inevitably need to build a large number of warships." Wang En frowned and said.

Liu Xia smiled slightly, nodded, and said: "That's right, my Huaxia shipbuilding technology is still the best in the world, let the craftsmen build a few treasure ships the same size as Zheng He when he went to the West." At the same time, he sent an order to the steel mill to divide the factory into a part and build it by the sea, and the king had found them a place in Jiaozhou, from where they would build ships and wrap them in steel. ”

Liu Xia finished happily, but the other three frowned. According to historical records, the treasure ship is 124 meters long and 50 meters wide, which is not small, and even the current steel frigate is only that size.

Wang En was the first to say: "Lord Wang, the method of building the treasure ship has now been lost, and if there are no drawings, it will be difficult for the craftsmen to build it. Moreover, as the prince said, wrapping all ships with a layer of steel on the outside, wouldn't this increase the weight of the ship? Wouldn't this sink the ship to the bottom of the sea because of its weight? ”

Liu Xia was stunned, will he sink to the bottom of the sea? No, the aircraft carrier is so big that it is also built of steel, why didn't it sink to the bottom of the sea, so Liu Xia hurriedly shook his head and said: "No, this king guarantees that it will definitely not, you just have to let people build it." Since you won't be able to build a treasure ship for a while, let's start with a small ship. Build a 200-foot-long steel ship first. The king has given you enough money and manpower, so be sure to build it for the king as soon as possible. ”

Wang En glanced at Liu Xia's eyes, it didn't look like he was joking, although he didn't understand why Liu Xia believed so much that the steel ship would not sink to the bottom of the sea, but since Liu Xia had arranged it like this, then he could only do as ordered.

After the two of them spoke, Chen Liu shook his feather fan, and was about to speak, although it was only March weather at the moment, but it was still a little cold, and Chen Liu's fan was just an ornament.

"Lord Wang, if you want to build a navy, you must need excellent naval generals, I don't know Lord Wang. Does the prince have a candidate? ”

Chen Liu's words also hit Li Wen's mind, as far as Liu Xia's army is concerned, there are basically no generals with experience in water warfare, even if they can swim, there are not many people.

Liu Xia frowned, sighed and said: "This is exactly where this king is worried, this king has not found the two armies of the navy, I don't know if the two military divisions can be recommended?" ”

This is not an easy fact, for the time being, the army is fighting on the road, and it is all the army. As for the navy, no one has found talents at all, and no one has paid special attention to talents in this area.

Chen Liu was silent for a long time, frowning and still silent.

"How about Yu Mingjun?"

Liu Xia suddenly spoke, Yu Mingjun was the commander of Ying Yangwei before, and Ying Yangwei was Liu Xia's special army. Commando. Not only do you learn the skills of scouting, but you also need to learn how to dive and climb the city. torture and so on.

"Presumably, Yu Mingjun will be able to fight a little bit in water warfare."

If it is to pick up force, Yu Mingjun may not be ranked first, but if there are many things that will be discussed, Yu Mingjun said that it is second, and no one dares to say first. This person is not only skilled in the art of war and strong in force, but also proficient in foot combat, horse warfare, archery, and knife skills.