Chapter Ninety-Four: Buying Land in Zhenjiang Discussing the Southern Expedition

Li Yunhe saw Zhang Zhimu's excited appearance, and couldn't help laughing: "Hehe! Zhang is always not too anxious. As soon as a prototype car came out, you were thinking about equipping the army. ”

"Huh! yes, I'm a little too anxious. Zhang Zhimu said, "As I told you last time, to develop a tracked tractor and a tracked gun truck, you can consider using aluminum alloy in the future, in that case, you can reduce the weight." In the future, when we come to the southern river network area, the load-bearing capacity of those small bridges is not high. Let's think first. ”

"Now it's just aluminum coming out, and aluminum alloy hasn't been seen yet." Li Yunhe said, "My father and Liu Baoxue have just gone back, and they still need to do the alloy thing." ”

"I heard from your father that arrangements were made before they left, so let's wait until they come back." Zhang Zhimu said, "But you have to arrange someone to make aluminum powder." In the future, the shells should be replaced with ladder aluminum**. It is 90% of *** and 10% of aluminum powder. The temperature at the center of the explosion of such a shell will be much higher. Also, we need to build speedboats that can be equipped with cannons. If not, we can use two diesel engines from the current speedboat and install them on a larger speedboat, so that the speedboat can be equipped with guns. Do you see if it is a modified infantry gun, or a new cannon? ”

"I've always thought about it, you said that you wanted to install infantry guns on gun trucks, but we studied it, and it was inconvenient to change it. It is better to develop a new gun suitable for loading on a car, and such a gun is almost suitable for use on ships. Li Yunhe said.

"Then you can make up your mind to develop it!" Zhang Zhimu said, "Now that you have experience in the development of several types of guns, it should be no problem to build small-caliber guns." ”

"That's right!" Li Yunhe said, "Don't worry, I have already arranged for someone to get aluminum powder." I'm going to have our radiators and pipes painted with aluminum powder so they don't rust. And our oil tanks and gas tanks have to use them to prevent rust. ”

Seeing that Li Yunhe quickly used aluminum, Zhang Zhimu was happy and said, "Okay! You know the benefits of this stuff, too. You still urge Li Di to let their cable factory pull out the cables as soon as possible, especially the cables for high-voltage wires. In the future, aluminum cables will be used to lay high-voltage lines. Aluminum alloy cables will be developed soon, and the addition of iron to aluminum alloys will improve the conductivity. In addition, aluminum alloy welding is also a problem that needs to be studied specifically. ”

At the end of the year, it was the time of the reunion of the Yaogang people, but the soldiers at the border could not come back. Li Mao's return to Yaogang still made Zhang Zhimu very happy.

Li Mao got off the boat at Yaogang Wharf, and came directly to Zhang Zhimu's office without going home. Hearing that Li Mao was back, Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He also rushed over. They were all interested in Li Mao's telegram that they had bought a large piece of land in Zhenjiang.

Li Mao was just about to talk to Zhang Zhimu about this, when he saw Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He rushing over, he hurriedly said, "I know that you are all interested in buying land. I'll tell you right away, it's over, I'm going to watch a movie, I've been thinking about it for a long time. ”

"Don't worry," Zhang Zhimu said, "You say slowly, I'll have someone move the movie machine here and show it to you." ”

"That's great!" Li Mao said, "I learned about the movie from newspapers and radio, and my heart was itching for a long time. ”

"I said, "Okay! Li Gongzi, don't hang our appetite. Ouyang He said, "You are the first person in our kiln to enjoy the treatment of special film screening." ”

"Good!" Li Mao hurriedly said, "That's right, after I got Mr. Zhang's instructions, I began to look for a place in the Zhenjiang area." But there has been no suitable shipyard. It's also my bent desire to find a ready-made shipyard. Later, I thought about it, business is not good now, and there is no decent shipyard in Zhenjiang to support it. The shipyards of the imperial court are all on the side of Yingtianfu (Nanjing), so it is best for me to buy a piece of land and build it myself. Later, in Jiangbei, west of the canal, a shipyard that had been abandoned was found. The place is not big enough, though. Later I saw that behind this shipyard, there was a small lake. There are also large areas around the lake. I talked to the original owner of the shipyard and wanted to buy the shipyard and the land. But the owner only sells the shipyard, not the land. I insisted on buying the land along with the shipyard. Tell him, your shipyard is now a scrap shipyard, and you can sell the land to me along with the shipyard, and you can buy land elsewhere with the money. Later, he agreed, and sold me the shipyard and the large piece of land for ten thousand taels of silver. Afraid that they would repent, I immediately asked someone to make the paperwork as a guarantee. And he gave them the money. ”

"Ten thousand taels of silver? Li Gongzi is generous! Ouyang He said.

"Hey! Don't look at the silver is a lot. Let me tell you, in that place, I can give them 20,000 taels if he asks for them. That place wasn't worth that price to them, but it was too straight for us. The shipyard was on the Yangtze River, and there was a river leading to the small lake. Around the small lake, we can transform it into a dock. Our warships in Zhenjiang can also dock in this lake. Li Mao said, "However, the amount of work is not small. But it's worth the effort. ”

"Good! It's good to have a place to stay. In the future, we will not only have the Yangtze River ** and the Yangtze River No. 2 there, but also send a steel-hulled warship over there. That would pose a threat to the entire Yangtze River. Zhang Zhimu said, "We should immediately fence off our place with barbed wire." Watchtowers are to be built around the perimeter, and a regiment is to be sent over to take charge of the guards there. The construction can start immediately, and Brother Li will be responsible for the construction of the shipyard. Mr. Lin Zongwei suggested that his son and nephew be the director of the shipyard there, do you have any opinions? ”

"Nope!" "Nope!"

There is no more suitable than for them to go, everyone is okay.

Ouyang He said: "I think, in this way, our shipyard and dock will be solved." Isn't that so? When making plans, let Fan Chengkun and Mr. Lu Bingyi, Mr. Lin Zongwei and them go over together, so that they can consider it comprehensively. ”

"Yes, yes, it should be. I want to set aside land for shipbuilding and military docks, and I want to build a few civilian docks there. Li Mao said, "That lake will be a natural haven in the future." We can install the tower cranes and other equipment at our Lingshui Wharf on the wharf, I'm afraid it won't take a few years, and that place is not enough. ”

"What Li Gongzi said is that there are not many decent wharves on the entire Yangtze River." Ouyang He said, "If we do a good job of the wharf facilities, the goods on the ship can be loaded and unloaded quickly when they arrive at our wharf, and the ship's family saves time and effort, and it is not easy for us to think about our business." ”

"Huh! If that's the case, Brother Li, you can't think about saving money yet. If our pier is really like you said, the price of land around it will also double. Zhang Zhimu said, "We export so many things, in exchange for cold silver, it is better to buy land in advance, so as to make some reserves for future development." ”

"Yes, yes!" Li Mao said, "Besides, even if you buy land, you won't lose money, and when you don't build, you can still farm there." As long as there is no heavy flooding, it is good land, and there are at least two crops of rice a year. I'll look into it when I get back. ”

Chen Yufeng usually listens to such things and rarely speaks. After saying this, Chen Yufeng asked, "Li Mao! Tell me more, how did Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong fight? ”

"Li Zicheng can't fight us, but they still have a way to fight Zhang Xianzhong. Some of Zhang Xianzhong's people have already gone to Sichuan. Some of them went to Gangnam. There are not many people and places in Jiangbei. We all withdrew to Jiangnan. Now the imperial court has transferred a lot of soldiers and horses to the area of Fengyang, the central capital. They were afraid that Li Zicheng would enter Fengyang again. However, I think Li Zicheng will recuperate for a while after expelling Zhang Xianzhong. I won't fight Fengyang again right away. ”

"Do you estimate that we will build a shipyard in Zhenjiang, what will be the reaction of Zhenjiang Government?" Chen Yufeng asked.

"Humph!" Li Mao snorted twice with his nose and said, "Don't worry about them, the emperor can't do anything about us, how dare they." Let's just say that when our two warships first arrived in Zhenjiang, their hearts were itching to death, and they sent people to observe on the shore every day, and they also sent people to take small boats to check in the water. Trying to scare us. We ignored them, and they didn't fart! ”

"Hahaha!" Li Mao's foul words made everyone laugh.

After laughing, Li Mao said again: "When our steel-hulled ship arrives in Zhenjiang, they will be more honest." However, their hearts are itching, and they will not get any benefit from seeing us build a lot of construction and flowers like flowing silver. They're going to be looking for something. I'm just not kind to them. Let's talk about it, let's talk about it. Now no one dares to mess with us. I dare to say that we are in Zhenjiang, and the prefect of Zhenjiang should be happy. He knew that Li Zicheng would also avoid us. ”

"That's right! If the emperor asks about this, we will say that it is to build a base against Li Zicheng over there. Zhang Zhimu said, "But the emperor won't ask about this for a short time." We have just given the emperor silver and kiln coins, worth one million taels of silver. It is estimated that the emperor is now breaking his fingers and calculating how to spend these silver and kiln coins. ”

"Haha!" Everyone laughed again. Li Mao said: "The emperor's silver is too easy, and it will be inseparable from us in the future." I heard that we are moving a lot here in Qinshui, but the emperor was stunned and didn't react at all? ”

"Huh!" Chen Yufeng said, "What did he react to? Now only silver is the most important thing for the emperor. The ministers of the court also knew that without the silver, their money was gone. Who wants to come out and talk about this when this wrongdoer is wronged? ”

"That's right," Li Mao said, "Okay, okay, the movie is coming." I'll talk about the rest of the things after I've read them! ”

"Huh! Okay," Zhang Zhimu said, "We'll watch it with you again today." ”

Yang Yulin and a group of them, knowing that there was a movie, also crowded into the small conference room and watched it again. Zhang Zhimu knew that Yang Yulin and her sisters had used their privilege to watch the movie at least twice. Even Huang Yukun admitted that she had watched the movie twice. Xiaoqing and Xiaohu also said that they had watched it twice.

After moving away from the movie, Li Mao's hands kept holding until he finished watching.

The lamp was lit, and Li Mao had tears in his eyes and said, "Alas! I really envy you, you can charge into battle. I didn't catch up with the battle to defend the kiln. ”

Zhang Zhimu hurriedly said: "Your position is irreplaceable. Without you there, our trade routes would not have been so smooth. There is no place for us on both sides of the Yangtze River. ”

"Alas! I understand the reasoning. This movie is a good thing," Li Mao said, "Can I take it to Yangzhou and show it to those gentlemen in Yangzhou?" That's the best way to get the word out about us. ”

"Yes," Zhang Zhimu said, "I'll ask Editor-in-Chief Fan to prepare a projector and a set of film for you." ”

"Actually, I really want Li Zicheng to see how we fought one battle after another." Li Mao said.

"Huh!" Ouyang He said, "If that's the case, this movie is even more powerful than our 203 cannon." ”

"I saw our 203 caliber cannon at Lingshui Pier, it was just terrifying." Li Mao said, "You don't know, the Yangtze River ** and Yangtze River No. 2 that we have modified are equipped with 130 cannons. When they returned to Zhenjiang, the navy and army generals of the imperial court came to the dock to watch. Our cannons were covered in canvas, but they were scary. If the steel-hulled ship equipped with the 203 cannon arrives in Zhenjiang, it won't scare them to death? Hehe! ”

"Many of the Ming Dynasty sailors are very experienced in sailing," Chen Yufeng said, "When our steel-hulled ship arrives in Zhenjiang, we should let Mu Yi go over and invite those navy generals to visit our ship." ”

"Huh! Chen always wants to fight the idea of the Ming Dynasty naval army? Li Mao said.

"It should be like this," Zhang Zhimu said, "it is not easy to train a naval general." Why don't we use the ready-made ones when we have them? To be honest, with our current military strength, it will not be too difficult to sweep the entire territory of the Ming Dynasty. But we lack the talent to govern the world. At present, we can produce at least two warships a year, but we don't have so many talents who can really control these warships and gallop on the rivers and seas. Cultivating naval generals is a bottleneck for us at present. We are not like Zheng Zhilong, who has so many talents who have been eating at sea all year round. ”

"We can use Mu Yi and Shi Tao to find talents in the original Ming Dynasty naval army." Ouyang He said, "Now that their families have been brought to the kiln, there is no need to worry about their identities being exposed." ”

"Talent is really important, let's talk about Shi Tao," Chen Yufeng also sighed, "Needless to say, I'll find something to do." One of his teams has already surveyed and mapped the entire coast from Tianjin Wei to the mouth of the Yangtze River with a sextant. Now this part of the map is much more accurate. I think in another year, they'll be able to measure almost the entire coastline. ”

"If that's the case, we should arrange people now to study the matter of poaching naval talents." Ouyang He said, "In our military academy, all we learn is kung fu in books, and we still need experienced people to take them." However, if our students learn it, they will have more stamina. ”

"Now we have troops in Wuzhi and Kaifeng, all the way to Wuluo Lake and Hongze Lake, and the next step is to Zhenjiang. Whether it is the imperial court, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu, and those officials in Nanjing, they will not ignore our existence. I want to know, when will we enter Henan? And where do we go next? Li Mao asked the question very seriously.

Ouyang He smiled and said, "This is exactly what we are studying. One thing is for sure, we won't have any big action in a year. Our southern expedition route basically has two routes, east and west. We may take Hanzhong first in the middle of next year. During the southern expedition, we started from Hanzhong on the west road, and the east road could first go straight to Luoyang along the Luohe River. Or start from Wuluo Lake and Hongze Lake on Jiayi Road, and press from east to west. The key is to leave an exit for Li Zicheng. Our idea is to squeeze him across the Yangtze River. ”

Li Mao nodded and said: "How to fight the initiative is in our hands, the question is, should we turn against the court at that time?" ”

"We don't want to turn against the court, we are still ordered to beg the thief. Otherwise, we will become thieves, which is not good. Zhang Zhimu said.

"Then there is a problem, we are in contact with the territory under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. Without us here in Shanxi, there is no obvious division of mountains and rivers. I don't think we can occupy Fengyang, the central capital, to the east. This is an important point. If we occupy Zhongdu, many people will have an excuse to oppose us. It doesn't look good for the emperor. Li Mao seems to have thought about this matter for a long time.

Ouyang He twisted his beard and said, "What Gongzi Li said is that we have to choose a dividing line with the imperial court, and it is best to have a river, or some sign. We're going to have some time to get in touch with the officials of the imperial court. Don't look at the officials of the imperial court when they see Li Zicheng's army hiding far away, as long as we don't fight back for a day, they will look for trouble on us. ”

"In my opinion, just use the method of Qinshui in Shanxi, don't mess with us, you can do anything, and you are resolutely polite if you provoke us. Otherwise, it will take a lot of my energy. Chen Yufeng said, "This time, I will take back the north of the Yangtze River and the south of the Yellow River." Just leave most of the Nanzhili to the imperial court. Militarily, we are not at all worried that after the first battle in Shaanxi, our army can be considered to have been tempered. In fact, many teams just followed along, and didn't get started. Next time, I think we will use one army each, plus a part of the cavalry, artillery, and naval army will be enough. ”

"I know we still don't have a takeover cadre. I've already sent some people back this time. When I get back, I'll get some more people. Li Mao said, "Li Zicheng will not give up his current place easily this time, he will fight with us." But I think Li Zicheng is also a person who knows the severity. Next year, his power will develop to Jiangnan, and he will leave himself a way back. ”

"If that's the best, Li Zicheng can't stand it, and he won't fight to the death if he has a way out." Chen Yufeng said.

"This expedition to the south means more to us." Zhang Zhimu said, "We have taken the whole of Shanxi, governed Shanxi very well, and the people have supported us, which is the first step we have taken." We marched west to defeat Shaanxi, and now Shaanxi has not been greatly damaged, and peace will soon be restored, and even we did not expect that the people would accept us so quickly. This shows that the cadres we have trained and trained already have work experience. This is the second step we've taken, and it's a safe step. We're going to be a little bigger. Where we end up depends on how well we prepare. ”

"Mr. Zhang, I think that our next southern expedition may not necessarily be bounded by the Yangtze River to South Africa. We can completely occupy the banks of the Yangtze River at the same time. Li Mao's opinion made everyone stunned. Because Li Mao, this is the first person to doubt this.

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Mt. Fuji erupted, Japan was earthquaked. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".