Sebastian said: "My lord, the quality of Fujian iron is good, if we build an ironmaking factory in Europe, the quality can be improved, after careful quenching and forging, it can increase the hardness by 25 percent compared with the current one, in that case, the firing range can be increased by another hundred meters, and the number of shells fired can be increased to eight hundred." ”

"In terms of output, after all, there is more iron than copper, it is easy to find, and we can increase it to 20 guns per day per gun factory at the initial stage, and the output of 4 gun factories is about 80 guns per day."

"Okay, there are 2,400 doors in such a month, not bad, not bad."

"Sebastian, I have decided to improve your salary, from now on you will no longer be a prisoner of war, I will not be busy in a few days, you go with me to sign an employment contract, you will be a craftsman hired by me from now on, the basic salary is two hundred yuan of grain coins per month, if you want to use silver, you can increase the exchange value of ten taels of silver on the basis of the equivalent exchange."

"Master Xie." Sebastian, stabbing a little, from standing to kneeling, the speed surprised Zhang Qiang.

It also made him more intuitive about the value of money and treatment, no matter what era, it is still easy to use silver.

A little spiritual power allowed Zhang Qiang to subdue the alien craftsman Sebastian, so that Zhang Qiang got the cast iron cannon, and in the next month to three months, he could get the cast iron cannon that doubled the output of the previous bronze cannon, and improved the combat effectiveness of his artillery unit, Zhang Qiang was still very satisfied.

After some inspection, some comfort, and some wishes, Zhang Qiang returned to the Governor's Palace, and Zhou Congee was summoned.

Zhou Congee came to Zhang Qiang's office with a bunch of folds.

"My lord," Zhou Congee put down the fold and sat down on the side.

"Counselor Zhou, tell me about the recent situation around us, as well as the development of the territory." Zhang Qiang said.

Zhou Congee stood up and said to Zhang Qiang: "My lord, then I will say from west to east, on the side of King Lu, the Qing army has intensified its encirclement and suppression of them, they have lost several counties they occupied before, the territory has retreated to the mountains and some villages, and the large army has retreated to Zhoushan and other islands near the sea. ”

Zhang Qiang felt that the Lu Wang family still did not have the ability to shake the Qing Dynasty Tartars alone, and it seemed that he had to help them.

Zhou Congee continued: "The Longwu Imperial Court launched a southern expedition two months ago, in order to gain contact with the rebel army in Jiangxi, and to open a channel with the official and military forces of the Yongli Imperial Court to get in touch, but unfortunately, Li Chengdong and Fan Shaozu defeated them, and Zhang Tianlu and others led the army to surrender Li Chengdong, so that the army of the imperial court was completely wiped out. ”

"This is a big deal," Zhang Qiang thought to himself.

Zhou Congee continued: "The Longwu Imperial Court lost one admiral, more than a dozen newly promoted generals, one general soldier was killed in battle, more than 10,000 officers and soldiers were captured and killed in battle, and another 2,000 Jiangxi rebels were annihilated. ”

"The mud can't hold up the wall." This is Zhang Qiang's feeling, Longwu during this period of time, the government has made great achievements, the population of his territory has reached more than three million people, some landlords and squires have defected to the past, and their own territory trade, Zheng Chenggong's trade, and even with the Dutch, Portuguese, as well as some smuggling trade with the north, have made their economy embark on a path of steady development, which Zhang Qiang can still experience through the intelligence department controlled by Zhu Dayou.

According to the information collected, in addition to the troops of the Jinhua Righteous Army of 10,000 people stationed in their own station, the Longwu Imperial Court also had 40,000 troops of the former Ming Army, 30,000 newly formed troops, and some defected generals also brought some troops, which totaled 20,000 people, plus Zheng Hongkui's navy, almost 120,000 people, if you count Zheng Chenggong's navy, more than 130,000 troops.

But I still don't know how to use it, most of the people are stationed on the territory directly under the Longwu Imperial Court, in addition to the fish and meat people, rampant and domineering, that is, they are afraid of the enemy and war, and they are unwilling to attack, even if there are troops to attack, they are very few, and there are more than 100 victories, which simply tells the Qing Dynasty Tartars, I am stupid, I am weak, you come to fight me.

Seeing that Zhang Qiang was deep in thought, Zhou Congee also sighed.

"The imperial court has sent people to your lord three times and twice to give you an order, so that you can take people to exterminate Li Chengdong and them, because you are concentrating on studying guns and other things, I will take it upon myself to transfer these things to the Admiralty Joint Conference, after several meetings of the Admiralty Joint Conference, I feel that it is still a tactful rejection of them, we are now concentrating on development, and it is not appropriate to start another war with the Qing army." Zhou Congee said as he looked up to observe Zhang Qiang's expression.

"Okay, you have finally grown up, you can share my worries, yes, just do it in the future, if the Longwu Imperial Court doesn't tear off the skin, let's ignore them and concentrate on development, you have to deal with it well, it's really not good, and then transfer it to me, let's discuss it together." Some small things, according to the rules, do not need me to deal with it. Zhang Qiang looked very relieved and instructed Zhou Congee.

"Yes, sir." Zhou Congee was also very happy, this was a temptation, Zhang Qiang's reaction made them very grateful, a boss who can delegate power is a good boss.

"What's going on over there in Yongli Nanming?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Zhou Congee thought for a while, "My lord, it's very difficult over there, most of Jiangxi, most of Hunan, Guizhou, and Sichuan have almost all fallen, and half of Guangxi, I heard that the Yongli Imperial Court has set off again, and the imperial court is still on the way, so far I don't know where they are going, Dashun Li Dingguo's ministry occupies Yunnan, Liu Wenxiu and others occupy Kuizhou and other places, contact Yunnan, Guizhou Tusi and the Qing army and the Southern Ming Yongli are not clear, and there are mutual battles, I heard that the largest Tusi has surrendered to Wu Sangui, preparing to attack Li Dingguo's Yunnan Province. ”

Zhou Congee's words, told Zhang Qiang Yongli Imperial Court, almost unable to carry it, maybe soon the Qing army Tartars will turn their eyes back to the southeast, their own Jinhua Righteous Army is the most powerful force in this area, although there is a Longwu Imperial Court in front of it, but I believe that the Qing army after several defeats, will definitely pay more attention to themselves, maybe they will send a road to deal with the Yongli Imperial Court similar to the army to deal with themselves, and may even go hand in hand.

This is absolutely not a no-go.

I'll have to cause some trouble for the Tartars myself.

Zhang Qiang's eyes rolled around, when did Zheng Chenggong join forces with King Lu to attack Nanjing?

If it's not time, I'll have to do my best to make the operation happen.

"How are we doing these days, except for some big things that I need to deal with?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Zhou Congee reported on some things related to grain purchases, military distribution, and food stamps, and in general, it is accelerating, and the momentum is good, the development is very fast, and the prospects are very good.

Then Zhou Congee said: "My lord, I followed your instructions, and established a cannon factory, an arquebus factory, three gunpowder manufacturing plants, and built eleven small dams in many places, built three hundred and eighty Lanzhou waterwheels for carrying water, built 1,800 water mills in many places, and built three new stone roads, communicated the mountain passage of Jinhua Mansion to the state capital, communicated the liaison from the state capital to Wenzhou Mansion, and also built a connection between Yunxi County and Yiwu County, and from Yiwu County to Sanmen County by the sea of Taizhou PrefectureThe roads that pass through the mountains and connect with several rivers and streams are basically four-lane. ”

"So we already have twenty-seven gunpowder factories?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Zhou Congee immediately said: "Yes, my lord, there are still three gunpowder factories planned to be built, and we will have thirty gunpowder factories by then." ”

"Anything else?" Zhang Qiang asked.

"There are also 30 large granaries, 140 medium-sized granaries, and 380 small reserve granaries in the entire territory, which can meet the current grain harvest in our territory, as well as the storage of purchased grain, which can maintain the grain consumption of three million people for three years."

"We have a few ironworks." Zhang Qiang asked.

"There are fifteen ironworks in total, and twenty-eight iron storage warehouses have been purchased, which can basically meet the needs of agricultural tools, armor, swords, and even muskets and artillery production."

"How's our ironmaking technology going?" Zhang Qiang asked.

"According to your tips, a total of 200 hot blast furnaces have been built, all of which are concentrated in Xianju County, divided into three steel-making plants, with a daily output of 1,000 tons."

"What about our shipyard?" Zhang Qiang asked.

"There are three shipyards, thirty supporting factories and fifteen small shipyards."

"How many ships of the West did I let you make according to my ideas?" Zhang Qiang said.

"Five imitation Clark ships have been built, three Galen sailing ships, after this more than half a year of running-in and familiarization, our workers can make seven Western ships of 300 materials on multiple slipways within a month, if it is a large Fu ship, it is about eight to ten, but the slipway is not enough, only one can be manufactured."

"We have formed three naval fleets, namely the First Fleet of Longzhu Island, the Second Fleet of Taizhou County, and the Third Fleet of Wenzhou Prefecture. Among them, the Second Fleet in Taizhou County has the strongest combat effectiveness. ”

"Oh, tell me." Zhang Qiang said.

Zhou Congee didn't need to go through the information, and immediately said, "At present, the Second Fleet is commanded by Zhang Ying, and has three Galen ships with 800 materials in the West, seven Galen ships with 600 materials, 12 Galen ships with 400 materials, 21 Clark ships with 650 materials, 38 Clark ships with 400 materials, large Fu ships, 1,000 ships, 25 ships, 32 ships with 850 materials, 45 ships with 600 materials, 75 ships with 300 materials from medium materials, 120 ships with small centipede ships, and 340 ships with offshore fireboats. ”

"Tsk," Zhang Qiang didn't expect that after more than half a year of recuperation, he suddenly had such a huge fleet.

Maybe the experience and combat effectiveness of his sailors are still inferior to the Dutch and Portuguese, compared to Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Hongkui and other pirates, but the scale of their own sailors has increased, even if it is a fleet, it also has a great deterrent, for a period of time, whether it is Zheng Chenggong or the Dutch, the Portuguese do not dare to easily start a war against themselves and find trouble for themselves.