"You have a steamer?!" Wang Tiehammer's brows stretched suddenly, and he said with a smile: "I'll just say, I just saw a ship with a chimney in the harbor just now, and I was still strange, but I didn't think about it for a while." Alas, after a few months at sea, this man has become stupid. ”

"It can only be said that there was a preliminary breakthrough on the steamship." Zhang Xiao smiled reservedly, he was one of the main R&D personnel of the "Breaking Waves", and his family knew his own affairs, so he truthfully said to Wang Tiezhu: "The multi-functional ship of the 'Breaking Waves' built so far is only experimental in nature. Its power is mainly based on sail power, supplemented by steam paddle wheel power. Because the skills of the 'Popeye-1' steam engine used on the ship are not very good, there is still a lot of room for improvement. And the calorific value of our coal combustion is too poor, which affects the endurance of the ship. In general, this ship is a breakthrough for us, and the ships in the future will get better and better. In less than two years, maybe we'll have a steam engine with a bigger output, maybe we'll be able to install propellers on our ships, in short, please have confidence in our modern special shipyard, haluha. ”

"Zhang Gong, anyway, you are also a temporary captain, after you go back, you will talk to the boss and allocate the 'Breaking Waves' to our Second Fleet?" Wang Tiezhu suddenly came to his senses, sat up straight and said, "Our Second Fleet is said to be a fleet, but it is completely incomparable with the First Fleet where the main force gathers. There are only three or four broken ships in total, but they have to fight against the naval threat of European countries in South Africa, East Africa, and even the Far East alone, which is obviously too heavy and the strength is obviously insufficient. Never mind. I'll write my own report. It is strongly requested that the 'Breaking Wave' be placed under the command of the Second Fleet. Otherwise, Lao Tzu, the commander of the fleet, will not do it! Whoever loves to do it, who does it! ”

"Don't be busy playing the trick of retreating for advance." Zhang Xiao waved his hand with a smile and said, "There are still many practical problems that have not been solved. The first is the follow-up improvement series of the Popeye model steam engine, which has to be perfected by the people of the First Machinery Factory. You may not know how heavy the task of the boiler shop of the First Machine-Plant is nowadays, on the one hand, they continue to improve the series of barbarian models of steam engines produced before, well, mainly 1-3 generations; At the same time, they are also vigorously developing the Barbarian-4 for steel rolling, as well as the Barbarian-5 for steam locomotives. In short, their task is very heavy. We'll have to rush them at all times, or God knows if they're focused on developing and improving the Popeye steam engine, and if they get stuck in the neck, then there's nothing I can do. I heard that Li Hongxing, deputy director of the first machine factory and the person in charge of the boiler workshop, is currently planning to separate the boiler workshop from the first machine factory and set up a new enterprise specializing in steam engines. ”

"It's my duty to do this." Wang Tiehammer patted his chest and promised, "If there are any other questions, I will raise them together." Lao Wang, I still have some old relationships. Maybe I can help you with anything. Say, I'll listen. It's time to write a report, it's time to write a report, it's time to say hello, say hello! ”

"The next thing is about developing the Tacheng coal mine." Shi Qinjie glanced at Zhang Xiao and the others, and then said personally: "The quality of the coal produced by the local Ping An Mining Bureau is extremely poor, which is a big obstacle to the endurance of the ship, after all, the capacity and tonnage of the cabin are limited, and more coal with higher combustion calorific value can sail more distance." Some time ago, we found a coal field near the port of Tamatave in the south, which is more than two days away, which is by no means small for us at this stage, and the coal field produces high-quality hard coal, which is comparable in quality to the Sakoua coalfield in southern Madagascar in the future. The coal produced in this coalfield is suitable for both coking and thermal coal. Our side is ready to jointly apply to the Executive Committee to occupy the Tacheng area, and then set up the Tacheng Mining Bureau to lead the development of the Tacheng Coal Mine. What do you think about this? ”

"That's a great thing!" Wang Tiehammer said without hesitation, "I firmly agree!" If you didn't say it, write my name on it too! This matter is absolutely a matter of top priority for our navy, so rest assured, I will write to members Xiao and Wang of the Executive Committee on this matter, asking them to help and make this matter as good as possible. ”

"Then I'll be half relieved." Shi Qinjie, Zhang Xiao and others looked at each other and smiled, "This matter is related to the overall situation of the country's industrial development, I think Premier Ma will definitely agree, and Minister Shao of the Ministry of Materials is also inseparable, this matter will almost be done, hehe!" ”

"By the way, are we digressing?" Liao Meng, who had just recovered from seasickness in the past two days, sat aside and said coldly. Just now everyone was still discussing how to bypass the Dutch's power in the East Indies and find another way to the coast of Daming.

"Yes, yes, continue with the topic just now." Wang Tiehammer said excitedly, "Now that we have a steam clipper, things are much easier." Could we follow the summer southwest monsoon straight east from Fort Xinhua and set up a base on the north or west coast of Australia? This stronghold will have the most basic defenses, enough food for 10,000 people to feed for half a year, and a large coal storage warehouse. By the way, there must also be the ability to repair ships. After doing this, our ship can stop here for a while, and then find an opportunity to head east along the Timor Sea, around the island of New Guinea, and then north through the Solomon Sea, and head straight for the coastal waters of Daming. It's just that there are still some troubles on the way back, if there is not enough coal - this is almost a certain thing - then you need to have a stronghold along the coast of Daming, and I choose Jeju Island for this stronghold, what do you think? ”

"Jeju Island is good." Zhang Xiao first agreed, "With the weak combat effectiveness of the Korean Kingdom, our big ship will go there, and then send a small army to land on the island, and the Koreans on the island will be the turtle in the urn." Later, with this island as a base, and with the situation of leaks everywhere along the northern coast of the Ming Dynasty and the fact that the government at that time had actually lost its control over the local area, we swaggered ashore to collect displaced people, or simply forcibly abducted people, and it is estimated that no one can cause us any trouble. ”

"Actually, we have another way." Zhang Xiao thought for a moment and then said, "We can also set up a base off the coast of India, and the construction of the base is as we said before, and then our ship will sail all the way to the sea near Ceylon Island with sail power, and then turn on the steam engine and sail east at full speed." With the old Dutch sailing ships sailing at less than half the speed of us, it will be difficult to intercept us. The advantage of this method was that it consumed very little coal, and that it was a well-established route, so that the Dutch would only stare at our ships if they found them, and unless they mobilized a large number of ships to blockade the Strait of Malacca, they would not try to stop the passage of our steam clippers. I thought about it, if the ship was built on the model of the 'Breaking Waves', a boat could carry at least 500 people at a time. The more ships we build, the more people we can transport at one time. However, this is not a solution, the Dutch always see you drilling under their eyes and noses, and they will definitely not be able to bear it after a long time, and they will still mobilize a large number of capital ships to block the strait. This route, after all, seems to be not as good as taking the southern Timor Sea and the Solomon Sea, but it is also good as a backup route. ”

"How about taking the Pacific route? Has it ever been argued? Shi Qinjie stared at a hand-drawn map in front of him for a long time, and then suddenly asked: "I mean to cross the Strait of Magellan from the mainland through Baleen Whale Harbor, then go north along the coast of Chile, and then take the Spanish Manila galleon route west along the North Pacific Ocean near the equator and enter the coast of China." How about this route? Is it feasible? ”

"It's not very feasible." Wang Tiezhu only glanced at it and said: "In fact, a group of staff officers of the Admiralty have long argued about this route, and the conclusion is unrealistic. The first is that we could not dock at the Spanish seaports in Chile or Peru for supplies, which were as important to the Spaniards as the East Indies were to the Dutch. All the cities here are restricted from trading, and no foreign or domestic ships are allowed to enter the port without a license, so there will be no supply points along this stretch, which is quite disadvantageous. And when we cross the Pacific Ocean, we don't have the ability to find those small islands, you let us find a continent is simple, but in the vast ocean to find a small island depends on luck, it is impossible to find it every time. And as long as you don't find it right once, then it's a big trouble. Therefore, I can only say that this route is unrealistic, at least not for now, and can only be used as a backup route for the above backup route, ranking as the last option. ”

Several people discussed it on paper for a long time, and finally formed several plans into documents, and after signing their own names, they were ready to submit them to the Admiralty for reference, and the rest of the matter was left to them.

On October 14, 1641, four ships including the "Breaking Waves", which had been delayed for a day due to the return of the Second Fleet, pulled anchor and set sail, left New China Bay, and sailed towards the mainland. They were accompanied by several reports submitted to the Executive Committee by the Malagasy Pioneer Team, including the most important application for the establishment of the Tacheng Mining Bureau. In addition, there are several private messages, which Shi Qinjie and others believe will definitely provide greater assistance to their careers here. (To be continued......)