With Wang Yin's full support, many things are much more convenient, such as Zhang Chengkai and Liu Neng, who went to find a private shipyard, with a note approved by Wang Yin, the governor of Zhejiang, in their hands, and they can borrow the name of the local government when they encounter things.

After handling the matter in hand and sending people to Yangzhou, Liu Neng personally led people to accompany Zhang Chengkai to find a private shipyard for shipbuilding.

The two left Hangzhou on a wave-opening boat, this kind of wave-opening boat is a kind of lucky boat, the head is sharp and the tail is broad, the hull is slender, there are two masts, there are longitudinal sails hanging on it, it can carry more than 40 people, the speed is extremely fast, it is often used as a sentinel boat in the Ming Water Division, but it is called by Wang Yin from the Zhejiang Water Division. In addition to Liu Neng and Zhang Chengkai, there were nearly forty soldiers on the boat, all of whom were soldiers who were familiar with water, and Chen Yue allocated them from the water camp.

Zhang Chengkai wanted to find a shipyard that could cooperate, and while Liu Neng escorted and assisted him, he also had to explore the entire coastal terrain of Zhejiang, draw a map, and prepare for the enemy intelligence department to monitor the entire Zhejiang. In the future, if we want to develop in this area of Zhejiang for a long time, everything from the government to the ordinary non-governmental forces must be well understood.

Zhejiang's coastal coastline is long, the islands are dotted, hundreds of large and small rivers originate from the southwest mountain area, meandering eastward into the sea, at the entrance of the river into the sea, there are many villages, and the most suitable place for shipbuilding is here. The shipyards are often very secretive, and it is extremely difficult to find them by land under the isolation of the mountains, and it takes too long, so people choose to go from the coast.

The boat sailed from Hangzhou, sailed down the river and soon entered Hangzhou Bay, and drove east along the south coast, and saw the rocky and lush shore on the coast.

After a small half a day's effort, we bypassed the Sanshan Institute, passed the Guanhaiwei, and arrived at the sea east of Ningbo Mansion, and the large and small islands were scattered in front of the face, and the sea conditions suddenly became complicated.

The village where the ship is built is often very secluded, with outlying islands covering the estuary, and it is easy to find it unless you are not familiar with the sea conditions, unless you are sailing close to the coast, and you are afraid of the danger of running aground.

Fortunately, there was a guide in the group.

Wang Qing, a coastal fisherman in Ningbo, is in his forties, has been running around the sea for more than 20 years, his ancestors have eaten this bowl of rice at sea for generations, his grandfather once served as a pirate under the owner of Wufeng ship, and fought with the Qi army, and later the Japanese rebellion was suppressed by the imperial court, and his grandfather also died in Huangquan. His father was also a pirate, and later died at sea.

And Wang Qing himself also ate this dinner at sea, went to the Wa Kingdom and opened the Taiwan King Yan Siqi, and was a small leader under Yan Siqi, and later Yan Siqi died suddenly when he was on Dongfan Island, Zheng Yiguan used all kinds of means in a vain attempt to annex all of Yan Siqi's subordinates, many old brothers and Zheng Yiguan turned against each other, and Wang Qing was also against Zheng Yiguan's ranks.

However, Zheng Yiguan's methods were not comparable to ordinary people, and he quickly defeated most of the old brothers and began to dominate one side.

Wang Qing escaped by luck, did not dare to appear on the sea surface of Fujian again, and returned to his hometown in Zhejiang to make a living.

People who are used to going to the sea can't make a living in other ways, after all, they can't do anything as fast as the money from the sea. Fortunately, there was a lot of smuggling along the coast of Zhejiang, and the gentry in Ningbo, Shaoxing and other prefectures were honest and sanctimonious on the surface, and most of them were engaged in smuggling behind their backs, either relying on Zhoushan pirates, or simply buying their own ships to go to sea. A trip to the Wa country earns tens of thousands of taels of silver, which is much faster than hard work in farming and raising silkworms.

Relying on his rich experience at sea, Wang Qing also mixed very well in Zhejiang, worked as a helmsman on a smuggling ship, and went to the Japanese country every year to earn dozens of taels or hundreds of taels of silver, but he was also happy and happy. While the seafarers gather together to make a living at sea, they gather together when they go to sea, and when they return, they go back to their respective homes. It is already June, and there is still a little time before the southeast monsoon rises, so Wang Qing is at ease in Hangzhou, waiting for the ship to leave.

Liu Neng looked for a guide everywhere and found Wang Qing through the guidance of others. At first, Wang Qing was not very happy, Liu Neng promised a high salary of 20 taels of silver per month, and then showed the signboard of the governor of Zhejiang, Wang Qing was considered to be compliant.

The first place led by Wang Qing was called Yangjiapu, where a turbulent river flows into the sea, and where the river meets the sea, there is a village of hundreds of people. It is said that the ancestors of the Yangjiapu people more than 200 years ago were originally the Nanzhili people, who had participated in the design and manufacture of the treasure ship of the West, and the official shipbuilding industry shrank in a large area after the end of the Western feat, and the Yang family was also among the layoffs.

Yangjiapu has such a long tradition, but due to the lack of a suitable external environment for the imperial court's sea ban, the shipbuilding skills are actually not as good as the generation, and in the lowest period, even the people who know how to build big ships are only a dozen people, and they all rely on ancestral training, guarding the shipbuilding map to memorize utopia, lack of practical operation.

Until the Jiajing period, the southeast maritime trade gradually revitalized, smuggling merchants sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, Wufeng shipowner Wang Zhisheng rose to sea, smuggling more maritime merchants than cattle hair, Yangjiapu had the stimulation of the external environment to rejuvenate again, the ancestral shipbuilding skills were reactivated, and also learned overseas shipbuilding skills from the exchanges with Hui merchants and Francophone people, which was the most glorious era of Yangjiapu. In more than ten years, hundreds of large ships were built, including four-masted and five-masted giant ships.

However, the good times did not last long, the owner of the Wufeng ship, Wang Zhi, was booby-trapped by the imperial court, and the maritime merchants suddenly cut off their sea trade, and turned into pirates, with the poor fishermen on the seaside as the main force, hiring wandering warriors from the Wa Kingdom, and began to attack the Ming coast frantically, which is known as the Wa Rebellion in history.

"Where are the Japanese robbers, most of them are smuggling maritime merchants and fishermen, the imperial court forbids the sea, and they can't buy goods and commodities from the interior, nor can they buy food supplies, so they have no choice but to rob. Of course, there were also many Japanese samurai among them, but they were all hired by the major masters of the sea.

No matter how powerful the pirates are, they can't compete with the army of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the appearance of famous generals like Yu Long and Qihu, and the armies of the major masters have been defeated and annihilated one after another. My grandfather was following Xu Hai at the time, and he died with Xu Hai's defeat. ”

Talking about the past of his ancestors, Wang Qing sighed, and he was not ashamed of being a pirate at all. Because in the coastal fishing villages of Zhejiang, almost every family has people begging for a living at sea, and people admire the warriors who can conquer the sea by boat.

"After the rebellion was pacified, the imperial court imposed a stricter ban on the sea, and Yangjiapu, which built ships for a living, lost its source of customers, coupled with the tight control of the imperial court, there was no business at all for a period of time, and they lived a tight life. Knowing that in the past twenty or thirty years, the control of the imperial court has been much weaker, there have been many good men begging for a living on the sea, and there are more and more smuggling maritime merchants, so Yangjiapu's business has improved again.

When I was working under Yan Siqi and Yan Da, I came to Yangjiapu, and many of the ships of Yan Da were built here. ”

Wang Qing is very good at talking, and he talks endlessly, but Liu Neng and Zhang Chenglei listen to it with relish.

"They build ships here, and the government doesn't care?" Liu Neng suddenly interjected and asked.

"Hehe, the government wants to take care of it then, but the Maritime Guard has already been bought, and do you know who their customers are? Most of them are the gentry of Zhejiang, the four gentry of Ningbo Prefecture, which one has no smuggling business? Wang Qing said disdainfully, "With these squires around, who dares to do much in the local government?" ”

Liu Neng and Zhang Chenglei glanced at each other and suddenly understood.

"The two adults have a deep background, but there are rules for everything, but you must not mess around." Wang Qing said with some concern.

How can a person like Yang Jiapu who openly builds ships for smuggling gentry and even pirates? Wang Qingsheng was afraid that the conflict between the two sides would affect him.

"Don't worry, we are buying and selling publicly, everything is done according to the rules, and the money that should be given will not be given to them." Liu Neng said with a smile.

However, if the problem can be solved by buying and selling, things in the world will be much easier.

Yang Jiapu was particularly vigilant against the sudden appearance of strangers, and the ships at the junction of Jiangwan were expected to be windy, and they immediately greeted the strange ships when they saw them intruding. Now is not a peaceful time, the combat effectiveness of the guards along the coast of Zhejiang has been sharply reduced, and they have been reduced to the common people, and they have long been unable to deter the many pirates in the Zhoushan Islands. Therefore, the villages along the coast have their own armed forces. Yangjiapu was rich because of shipbuilding, and he was even more afraid of being sacked by pirates, so there were hundreds of archers in the village.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Liu Neng saw that the other party was a narrow dhow boat, and there were more than a dozen dark-faced fishermen on board. The leader was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old man, shouting in a Wu dialect that Liu Neng could not understand. Fortunately, there is a guide Wang Qingzai, although Zhang Chengkai is from Fujian, he has been dealing with Zhejiang people at sea for many years, and the other party's words can also be understood.

"They asked where we came from and what we were doing. I told them they were from Hangzhou and wanted to talk about a business. After Wang Qing said a word to the man, he explained in a low voice.

Then the man said something again, and Wang Qing's face became ugly, "He said that Yangjiapu doesn't do business with strangers." ”

"Tell him who we are, it's up to them whether the business is done or not!" Liu Neng sneered.

Wang Qing exchanged a few words with the man in a loud voice, and saw that the expression on the man's face changed violently.

Liu Neng stood quietly, and the soldiers on the ship were all on guard, once this man insisted on refusing, Liu Neng didn't mind killing chickens and monkeys. If even the identity of the governor of Zhejiang can't deter them, they can no longer expect anything.

After a while, I saw the man wave his hand, and the bird boat turned around.

"He led the way ahead and led us into Pu." Wang Qing explained.

Not long after the wave-opening boat sailed into the river, he saw a river more than 20 zhang wide surging into the sea in front of him.

Following the other party's bird boat into the river, it was not long before I saw a village of 100 houses on the shore. What attracted Liu Neng more was the two new ships on the right bank that were about to be launched, as they approached, they saw that their ships were as tall as a building, enough to accommodate hundreds of people, with a pointed bottom, a wide surface, a high and open bow, and a high and towering stern. At the stern of the ship, there are three floors of turrets on the deck, and the turrets are surrounded by guards, and there are thatched bamboos outside the guards, which stand like a city wall.

When he was closest to these two lucky ships, Liu Neng couldn't help but order to stop and watch carefully.

"These are two three-masted ships, most of the sea ships that go to sea are like this, with a lot of loading, simple operation, and only more than ten people can control it freely." Zhang Chenglei is very familiar with sea ships and introduced Liu Neng.

"If only we could have many of these big ships." Liu Neng, who was born inland, has not seen too many ships, and the river boats on the Yangtze River cannot be compared with the sea boats, so he can only look dizzy and can't help but say.

"This ship is ordinary, it's not too big, it is rumored that the flagship of Zheng Zhilong, the chief soldier of Fujian, is a four-masted warship, which is really as tall as a building, but compared to the deck ship of the Xiyi people, it is nothing." Zhang Chenglei said.

"Lord Zhang is talking about Zheng Yiguan's dog thief, indeed, his flagship is a four-masted fortune ship, and there is more than one four-masted fortune ship under his hands, I fought with him when I followed Brother Fu Chun, and I suffered a lot of losses." The talkative Wang Qing couldn't help but interject on the side.

The boat continued to swim upstream, entered Yangjiapu, and saw an old man in his fifties standing on the shore to greet him, and the man who led the way stood beside him.

"Old Yang Gonghui greets all officials." The old man was full of smiles, and greeted Liu Neng and Zhang Chenglei, who were walking in front, and said the official language of the Ming Dynasty.

"Under Liu Neng, Zhang Chenglei has seen the elders." Liu Neng and the others returned the salute.

"Duke Qi Guo, but is it Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi who is full of tartars?" Before the old man could answer, the man on the side was surprised that he could speak official language.

"Shi Yun, Hugh is rude!" The old man reprimanded the man, and then apologized: "The dog is a rough man in the countryside, and he doesn't know the etiquette to call the official name of Qi Guo, and he hopes to atone for his sins." ”

Liu Neng and the others naturally didn't have a chance to meet him, and waved their hands to show that they didn't care.

"I said that I was the person of Qi Guogong, and I said that I was sent by the governor of Zhejiang." Yang Shiyun muttered.

"The Duke of Qi broke the Manchurian Tartar and saved the people of the world, and he is the hero of my Ming Dynasty. If he had known that the two of them were the people of Qi Guogong, the old man would have greeted each other a long time ago. Yang Gonghui seems to have read books for a few years, knows etiquette quite well, and keeps humbly complimenting.

The two of them sat in the living room, and someone brought tea and chatted a few words. Yang Gonghui asked at this point.

"Two adults, I don't know what happened to the Duke of Qi Guo, and I need to get the old man's orders."

"Naturally, I came to Guipu to build ships." Zhang Chenglei said with a smile. Zhang Chenglei was the person in charge of this trip, and Liu Neng closed his mouth with interest when he talked about shipbuilding.

"Oh, I don't know what kind of ship to build?" Yang Gonghui asked with a smile.

"I don't know how much those two boats will cost, and how long will they take?" Zhang Chengkai didn't answer directly, and pointed to the two new ships that were about to be built not far away.