"Eliminating evil is a matter of perseverance, and there can be no slackness, and I must continue to do it after I leave." After Hou Xuanyan boarded the ship, he said to the officials who saw him off below.

After seeing the newly built warship, he couldn't wait to take a test ride, so Zhang Mingzhen had to gather the best skilled boatmen and start the first entry of the new ship.

Everyone said goodbye together, and Hou Xuanyan returned to the ship, which was a new type of warship, covered with iron sheets, and all twelve sails were propped up, so that it could gallop on the sea.

Starting from the mouth of the Wusong River, he went up the river to Yangzhou, and Zhang Mingzhen accompanied him to experiment with the performance of the new ship.

Sure enough, the speed of the ship was fast, and the ship was steady, and a pot of tea was placed on the deck, and it was poured into a bowl, only to see a slight ripple in the center.

Zhang Mingzhen said with a smile: "Guogong, this is the best Huangjian, it is baked by the best tea master in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province, and Xiaguan's Yulu can be drunk once a year, you can taste it." ”

Hou Xuanyan picked up the tea bowl, cooed, and drank it all. Zhang Mingzhen's face turned green, and he looked at him with a black line.

"What broken tea? Don't quench your thirst, if you want me to say, this ship is really good. After speaking, he stood up, stroked the mast, and exclaimed: "This ship should be able to go to sea, right?" ”

Zhang Ming shook his spirits, endured his distress, and said: "This ship was paid a lot of money to help build it, and according to them, it can sail to the other side of the ocean." ”

"Did you make the guns on the ship yourself, or did you buy them from foreigners?"

When Zhang Mingzhen heard this, he complained: "The quality of the artillery we made ourselves is almost the same as that of Fanren, but we build a red-coated cannon ourselves, and the cost of silver taels is more than twice that of direct purchase." Therefore, most of the artillery on the warship was bought, half of them were purchased by Zheng Zhilong before, and only one or two were made by themselves. ”

Hou Xuan said strangely: "We make it ourselves, why do we need to spend more silver taels?" ”

Zhang Minzhen's understanding is limited, most of it was Yao Yiyao who told him, and after thinking for a while, he said: "It seems that our steel is not qualified, and Deputy General Yao is not satisfied, so he always says that it is easy to use." However, he has already set out to improve the smelting process. ”

Hou Xuanyan can probably understand that it is a problem of imperfect basic industrial facilities, which leads to the fact that if you want to directly produce military industry, you just want to run without learning to walk. From this point of view, Yao Yiyao is not wrong about what he did, but the military industry cannot completely rely on outsourcing. Now the sailor has not participated in the battle, and once the fight starts, the price will definitely rise by relying on external purchases. And no matter which country it is, there are only a few that can be transported here. If you really have to rely on buying military industry, you can't fight a tough battle at all.

"You go back and tell him not to be afraid to spend money, build what you can use first, and then slowly improve." Hou Xuanyan calculated that the silver taels spent by the Songjiang sailor were not very expensive. Zhang Mingzhen is okay, Gong Zifang was born as a businessman, and he looks at everything to make money. This kind of thing cannot be saved, as long as it can be developed, there will be infinite wealth returns.

Zhang Mingzhen is not a businessman, nor is he an expert like Yao Yiyao, the more requirements for warships, the better, he wants a strong sailor who can do his part for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. Hearing Hou Xuanyan's words, he suddenly had a feeling of meeting a soulmate in his heart, and said with a smile: "With Guogong's words, our Songjiang sailors will be at ease." ”

Hou Xuanyan praised happily: "What a boat! At the beginning in Jingxiang, if we had such a warship, Wu Sangui and Haoge would not have been able to run at all. ”

Zhang Mingzhen's face was bright, and he said to himself: "This ship is actually the effort of our sailors, Guogong, look at the iron armor in front of you, even if you hit the enemy ship at close range, it will be smashed into pieces." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a small boat came from upstream, and the speed of both ships was too fast to dodge.

A chubby figure on the ship, standing at the bow of the boat, shouted backwards: "Hurry, hurry, they have been overtaken." ”

The boat fell apart on the spot, and the people on board fell into the water one after another.

Zhang Mingzhen was stunned, he didn't expect to blow the warship by himself, and someone would sacrifice himself to cooperate.

Hou Xuanyan frowned and looked down, and vaguely saw that the people who fell into the water were all his own people, and they seemed to be wearing the official clothes of the yamen.

The soldiers on the boat knew how to swim, and they jumped into the water one after another, and the ones on top threw off a rope and pulled the people up one by one.

Hou Xuanyan took a closer look, and a little fat man on the ground who didn't listen to the water spray in his mouth turned out to be his brother Xu Yuanbao.

He was wearing the official uniform of the salt inspector, and there were obvious scars on his face, but judging by the color of the scars, it should not be the injuries just now.

Hou Xuanyan stepped forward and squatted down, pressed his chest, the water in the little fat man's stomach was almost vomited, his eyes slowly opened, and his mouth was already scolding: "Diao Min, the whole Yangzhou is Diao Min." ”

Hou Xuanyan patted his cheek, Xu Yuanbao woke up slowly, and asked blankly, "Big brother, why are you?" ”

Hou Xuanyan saw them overturned with his own eyes, and the speed of this small boat was simply faster than his own twelve sails. I couldn't help asking: "I still want to ask you, this river is so tortuous, you are so fast, do you want to die?" ”

Xiaopang suddenly came to his senses, struggled to stand up, and said angrily: "Big brother, Yangzhou Diao Min is reversed." ”

Hou Xuanyan was frightened by his brainless words, and asked, "What's the matter, let's start from the beginning." ”

Xu Yuanbao found a wooden barrel, sat down at will, held his knees and said, "Big brother, let's go to Yangzhou, take back the old salt lead, and announce the new policy of big brother." The front was going well, who knew that when I arrived in Dingyan Town, Huang Lianxiang, a salt merchant in the town, first entertained me. Then they said that they were not grain merchants, they had been selling salt for generations, and they could not transport grain to Sichuan. also took out a box of treasures and found a few handsome young ladies. Speaking of this, Xu Yuanbao swallowed his saliva and continued: "How can I, Xu Yuanbao, be that kind of person, naturally I don't want to betray my eldest brother for these things, so I told him righteously, 'If you want salt, you must transport grain. Then the old thief became angry and sent his men to drive us out. This old thief is so ruthless, if I hadn't run fast, I wouldn't have seen my eldest brother. ”

When Zhang Mingzhen heard this, his face turned pale, and he said, "Commander, do you want to send troops?" ”

Hou Xuanyan heard it strangely, waved his hand and asked: "There are two battalions of my people stationed in Yangzhou, how can this surnamed Huang dare to openly resist if he eats the bear's heart and leopard gall." Even if he refuses to hand over the salt and offends us, how can he transport salt in Jiangnan again? Won't there be nothing left by then? ”

"There's got to be something wrong with that!"

Genius one second to remember the address of this site:.手机版Reading URL:m.