After coming out of the royal palace, Wang Shanxi seemed a little high-spirited, because when he faced the saint, the saint said that his merits were excellent, and at the same time asked his own opinion, asking if he was willing to continue to explore new routes and expand the territory for the Tang Dynasty.

From the bottom of his heart, in fact, Wang Shanxi is no longer willing to go to sea to play and explore, it is too dangerous, after going to sea, whether he can or come back, it is purely a matter of luck.

When he explored Australia before, he also encountered several dangers before and after, and was almost swept into the windless belt in the center of the ocean.

In this era, there is nothing more terrible than encountering a silent sea with no wind and no currents, but there are many such seas in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

However, although he knew that it was very dangerous, and although he was a little reluctant in his heart, when the Son of Heaven asked him if he was willing to explore new routes for the empire, he still did not hesitate to say yes!

Of course, there is also his willingness to become a baron, and get a full 5,000 taels of silver, and at the same time be promoted to colonel!

As the initiative and found Australia, his credit is undoubtedly huge, when he faced the saint, the saint Tianzi awarded him the title of baron on the spot, and personally promoted his military rank, promoted two levels in a row, from major to colonel.

Well, although it sounds a bit unreliable for an army colonel to lead a team to explore the route, the Military Intelligence Department is only affiliated with the Privy Council and adopts the rank of the Army, but in fact, the Military Intelligence Department has nothing to do with the Army.

The Military Intelligence Division, which operates independently, is used to spy on military intelligence, the intelligence structure that sabotages the enemy's country, the intelligence of the army, and the intelligence of the navy.

Because, Wang Shanxi's army colonel is completely different from the army colonels of other institutions in the Privy Council.

After the audience, Wang Shanxi received the official decree of knighthood and the instrument of conferment of titles, in addition to a cashier's check from the Royal Bank, which was 5,000 taels of silver.

Therefore, by the time he walked out of the office building of the Hanlin Academy in the Royal Annex, his identity had changed to that of an imperial baron and a colonel of the army.

On the way back to the inn, Wang Shanxi was a little fluttering, and his walking was a little unsteady.

Before going to sea, he didn't think that there would be such a good thing, but it was just an important task assigned by the superiors!

However, this is the case, he really got a baron for himself!

This is a noble title, and now many people in the empire are looking forward to getting a title, but except for the senior generals of the military, especially the chief officer who leads the troops to fight, it is easier to obtain, and most of the others have no hope.

Rao is so, at present, in the entire empire, there are more than 400 people with titles, although there are rumors that after the pacification of Liaodong, His Majesty will be a great meritorious hero, and when the time comes, a group of nobles will be awarded, and those who already have titles will also be promoted, and even a number of dukes will appear.

However, now that Liaodong has not been pacified, the expected heroes of Dafeng have not yet come.

In this context, he himself received a baronial title, even if it was the lowest title, and it was not a hereditary title, but it was also a great good thing for him.

On the way back, he even thought that he should buy a big mansion in Jinling City, and heard that most of the other nobles in the current empire have their own noble mansions, those marquises, earls or something, and the mansions are even given by the Holy Son of Heaven.

Although the Son of Heaven did not directly give the mansion, he also took a reward of five thousand taels of silver, and in addition, the size of the extra money he fished on a trip to the sea added up to several thousand taels of silver, plus some savings from being an official over the years, he didn't dare to say more, but he could still take it out of about ten thousand taels.

Although the mansion in Jinling City is not cheap, if tens of thousands of taels of silver are thrown out, they can also buy a mansion and buy some furniture and other things, and then bring their parents, wives and children from their hometown to Jinling City, and it is time for them to enjoy the life of the nobility.

Thinking so, he felt the need to write a letter to his hometown, so that his parents, wife and children could come to Jinling City from his hometown.

So after a few days, Wang Shanxi was entertaining everywhere on the one hand, and he was awarded a baron, which attracted the attention of many people in Jinling City, although few people were awarded a baron because of what merit, well, the existence of Australia today is still a military secret, and it will not be announced to the outside world for the time being.

But the baron is the baron, one of the more than 400 nobles in the empire, Wang Shanxi's appearance still attracted the attention of many people, and many people were asking whether Wang Shanxi had a wife, what, he already had a wife, and his sons were almost ten years old.

Well, better, I just have an eight-year-old daughter, let's pick up the children?

Some wealthy businessmen and gentry are even talking about dowry or something, and Wang Shanxi is satisfied with your custody.

However, the other officials of the imperial court are much more restrained, and they will only ask in a roundabout way.

And the other nobles who are also nobles have to be restrained a lot, because most of the nobles are military nobles now, and they are all generals.

And although Wang Shanxi also has the title of army colonel, everyone knows that the army colonel of the Military Intelligence Department, can he be called an army colonel? At most, it's just a grade title, and it can't be taken seriously.

In addition, the military aristocracy has more scruples, and they who hold military power, if they want to marry, they need to be cautious and cautious.

If you look for Wang Shanxi!

Okay, you're an army general, and you're looking for an intelligence officer to marry, what do you want to do? Could it be that the accumulation team wants to rebel?

Therefore, military generals are often more inclined to marry within the aristocracy, or with the gentry and wealthy of the people, and usually do not marry with other officials of the imperial court.

Wang Shanxi was entertaining these people, and at the same time, he was also busy buying real estate, and after letting those intermediaries take them to see many houses, he finally chose a three-entry mansion located not far from the royal courtyard.

But there are not many Wang family members, and the location of this place is good, close to the royal palace, so on this street, there are all high-ranking officials and nobles, and next door is the house of the servant of the ministry, and a few more houses, which is the mansion of Chen Keqiao, the marquis of the dynasty!

The houses on this street are all expensive, and he spent a full eight thousand taels of silver to buy this set of small sanjin mansions, and then hired some servants and other housekeepers.

When his family arrives from his hometown, he will be able to move in directly, and at that time, he will be relieved to go to sea again.

However, the next voyage was not so fast, and he was ready to wait until after next spring before officially setting off, taking advantage of the last monsoon to reach Luzon first, and then start the next step south, to the gold mining port in northern Australia.

The place where they found the gold mine before was already named the gold mine port, simple and clear, he also heard that the immigration reclamation department was preparing for secret immigration, preparing to immigrate hundreds of people in the early stage of construction.

And the gold mine port will be the starting point for his next exploration route!

On his next voyage, his mission was to explore Australia, to find what His Majesty described as the rich southeastern part of Australia, as well as to explore several other islands in the waters near Australia.

Wang Shanxi hasn't gone to sea so soon, but others don't have so much encouragement!

Captain of the Navy, after Su Jiade met the Son of Heaven, he directly took the internal traffic boat of the Navy down the river, and then arrived at Wusong Port!

Here, a brand-new, specially modified expedition ship awaited him, and his hand-picked crew arrived early, waiting for his captain.

Su Jiade, who went down the river, soon arrived at Wusong Port, and then, after making the final preparations in Wusong Port, he led the crew to sail the Yueji and went straight to Ryukyu!

On the bridge, Su Jiade couldn't help but nod slightly as he watched the sailors struggling to pull the ropes, manipulating the sails to maintain the direction, and pushing the ships eastward.

At this time, a young man in civilian clothes beside him said: "Colonel Su, I have long heard that you are the premier captain, and most of these sailors are also trained. ”

Su Jiade smiled, and then said: "What is our ability, it's not to look at the sky to eat, if there is no wind, no matter how good our sailing skills are, it will be useless, and then we will have to rely on Mr. Shi's steam engine!" ”

"But Mr. Shi, this steam engine is such a precious thing, will it break down after a bumpy road, and our monthly number is almost 700 tons, can this steam engine push it?"

In the face of Su Jiade's words, the young Mr. Shi also said with a cautious expression: "To tell the truth, I don't know, this steam engine was originally just a test product made by our company according to the design of the Royal Institute of Technology, and it was originally intended to be tested, but the boss said that you are in urgent need, so our company simply moved the test to your ship."

However, although this steam engine has been improved many times by the Royal Institute of Technology, and has been specially designed for shipboarding, our Zhaoqing Machinery Company has also used the best materials and carefully built with the best skilled workers, but will it be bad on this road, this is hard to say! ”

"But you can rest assured, when we installed, we have taken these problems into account, we have carried out many measures such as anti-shock absorption, and also carried out strict fixing, the problem should not be big, and even if there are some problems, we can repair them on the spot!"

"As for the power, we used the method of double boiler linkage, and we also tried to use new steel to build the boiler and other core components, which can withstand higher air pressure, and in our previous test run, the power output of this steam engine reached an unprecedented 35 horsepower!"