At the beginning of May of the ninth year of Chongzhen, several exploration teams sent to Taiwan's central mountain range returned to Beigang one after another, although some of these exploration teams suffered a lot of losses, but most of them brought back gratifying news, according to the situation of these exploration teams to draw a map of timber resources, even if not considering those that are too far away, so that those that are difficult to transport, just the timber resources in some areas that are relatively easy to develop are enough to support a fleet that can dominate Asia. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoAll this information has been summarized here by Zheng Zhilong, waiting for his next instructions.

However, at this time, Zheng Zhilong was much more relaxed than some time ago, this because many things were already on track, and there were fewer things to deal with. For example, the construction of the fortress in Anping has been fully rolled out. Now Zheng Zhibao is in charge of this matter, and he squats there almost every day to supervise the construction there. Although Zheng Zhibao has no talents, there is no big problem in dealing with some trivial matters, and he has also asked some curtain customers to help, with him there to watch, there are a lot less things to trouble Zheng Zhilong. As for the Beigang side, the immigration arrangements are also on the right track, and there are not many things to manage. Nowadays, there is almost one thing left that is really messy, that is, the construction of the shipyard and supporting facilities in Beigang.

Originally, this one thing alone could make Zheng Zhilong anxious, thinking that Zheng Zhilong didn't understand a lot of Western-style things involved, and many times he had to worry about being deceived by those big noses, so it would naturally be quite difficult to deal with. However, fortunately, Zheng Sen's government exam has also ended some time ago, and firstly, because Zheng Sen himself is good at reading, secondly, the Zheng family's silver bullet offensive is also very fierce, and thirdly, the children's examination is relatively less valued, and it is naturally easy to open the back door. So Zheng Sen successfully won another case.

Generally speaking, when the head of the county examination and the government examination arrives at the hospital examination, as long as there is no big basket, there is no reason not to be selected. Moreover, the current governor and Xuezheng have a good relationship with Zheng Zhilong, and they will not deliberately make things difficult for Zheng Zhilong in this matter. So by this time, although there are still two college exams that have not been examined, Zheng Sen's title of Xiucai is already quite safe. And the college examination will have to wait until more than a year later, and after obtaining the identity of a child, Zheng Sen does not need to go back to the Hong clan to receive enlightenment education. Therefore, those things that give Zheng Zhilong a headache can be temporarily handed over to his genius son to deal with.

Of course, this meant that Zheng Sen had to leave Anping for Beigang. Because he was worried that Zheng Sen was young and could not deter some people, Zheng Zhilong also sent Zheng Zhifeng to Beigang and asked him to preside over the affairs of Beigang shipbuilding. Zheng Zhilong actually knows that his younger brother is a person who can't make up his mind, don't look at the shipbuilding affairs under his control, and the others are Zheng Sen's elders, but if Zheng Sen's opinion is inconsistent with his, then his younger brother is most likely willing to do it according to Zheng Sen's opinion.

This time, Zheng Sen and Zheng Zhifeng were on a plywood boat captured in the Zheng family's previous battle of Liaoluo Bay. According to the peace agreement signed between the two sides, the captured Dutch seafarers had been redeemed by the Dutch with money. Half of the sailors who operate the ship today are the Cheng family's sailors, and the other half are foreign sailors recruited by the Cheng family in Macau, Batavia and Manila.

Now the captain of this ship is an Englishman named Jack Obery, this guy is an old pirate who robs around with a privateer warrant issued by the King of England, because of piracy, he is wanted by many countries in Europe, but fortunately there is a British who can give him shelter. Later, due to a mistake, he attacked a British merchant ship with his pirate ship in the fog, and let the ship run away. As a result, even the British began to want him. To make matters worse, in that tragic misunderstanding, the cannon on his ship killed a member of the House of Lords. And this guy's family was very influential, and as a result, his ship was pursued by two British cruisers, and in order to avoid the pursuit, Jack Obery crossed the Strait of Magellan like a lost dog, and then across the Pacific Ocean, to the Far East. Then, in a sailors' rebellion, he was expelled from the ship, and later became a sailor on a Portuguese ship incognito, and was promoted to first mate because of his outstanding performance in the storm. He was jealous of the other crew members, and when he heard that he had been reported to the Governor of Macau that he was a wanted pirate, the weak-hearted Jack Obery saw that Cheng was recruiting sailors in Macau, so he simply took refuge in Cheng Chi Lung, and thus became the captain of the three-masted clipper now named the "Fubo".

In addition to the captain, most of the seafarers in other positions on the ship were not very clean. The Zheng family, of course, hoped to use these foreign sailors to train their own sailors who could operate Western-style sailing ships. So it was hard to stuff almost twice as many sailors as needed into this small ship, so that almost every position had a Chinese sailor followed by a European sailor.

There are too many people to load, and of course there are not many other things, and the ship will not be able to go far, and basically it can only run back and forth on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In general, every three months, the Chinese sailors on the training ship Fubo are replaced.

Now that it was time to call at the port, the big-nosed foreign sailors stood aside boredly, watching the Chinese sailors busy there, and these sailors had been on the "Fubo" for almost three months and were about to leave. After they leave, they will be sent to pilot the other two plywood boats captured by the Zheng family. And further on, it will depend on when the North Port Shipyard will be able to build more Western-style sailing ships.

Obviously, this is not the first time that the Chinese sailors on board have steered the ship to the shore, they quickly climbed the mast, rolled up the sails one by one and tied them up, and then the ship slowly approached the pier with only the power of the spinnaker on the bow and the small sail between the three masts. The sailors skillfully threw the ropes onto the trestle, and the people on the other side of the harbor followed suit, and in a few moments the ship was parked.

"Captain Jack, they're doing a good job, aren't they?" At the helm, Zheng Sen said to Captain Jack.

Zheng Sen had studied English in his last life, and although there was a big difference between American English in the 21st century and ancient English in the 15th century, he had this foundation after all, so he was quick to learn again, and now Zheng Sen was able to converse with Captain Jack Obery in classical English with a slightly strange pronunciation.

"Not bad, but that's not enough. It wasn't hard to do that, and they had a lot of experience going to sea before, even if it was on a junk. But the truth on the sea is the same. Little general, you know, our ship is very different from the junk boat they used to be used to. And now we have only been running back and forth between Taiwan and Fujian, and we will not go to those difficult and stormy seas at all. So now they can barely drive a boat, and only after climbing to the top of the mainmast in the wind and waves can they really become veterans of controlling such ships. So little general, I have a suggestion, if you want them to grow up faster, it's best to prepare a few whaling boats for them to go whale hunting. It is much cheaper to build a whaling ship than a warship. But the same can train sailors. You can also earn income and reduce expenses. Captain Jack Obery said.

"Whaling? That's a good idea. Zheng Sen nodded, taking the suggestion to heart, "Captain Jack, I will make this suggestion to my father, who has always been very generous to loyal and capable people. ”

Whaling is indeed a good idea, Zheng Sen thought, in the whale-infested Bering Sea generation, the sea conditions are relatively more complicated, and it is indeed a place to train sailors, which is very helpful for training sailors. And the whale itself also has a very important value, the whale is a treasure all over the body, the whale skin can be made into all kinds of leather, the fat on the whale is the best aerospace grade lubricant, although the whale meat is relatively coarse, but the taste is also good, basically close to beef, and its protein content is beef - basically the same. But in this day and age, it's a rare source of protein. In Zheng Sen's plan, he will build an elite army in the future, and the emergence of an elite army requires high-intensity training. And without an adequate supply of protein, high-intensity training is impossible to maintain. The military of this era often only conducts drills once every few days, not all because of laziness or anything, but because they cannot provide enough protein for the soldiers, and if the training intensity is too high, it will only cause the soldiers' bodies to collapse. But where are the whales?

In Zheng Sen's memory, there seemed to be no whales off the coast of China, and if he wanted to hunt whales, it seemed that he had to run all the way to the Bering Sea. Is there any refrigeration technology in this era, and even if you catch whales, how do you bring whale meat back? Probably only salted, right?

"I don't know where there are more whales. I've heard that there are the most whales in the Bering Sea, but it's farther away, and it's not easy to come and go once. Zheng Sen thought for a moment, and said this to Captain Jack Obery.

"Why go to the Bering Sea? There are a lot of whales there, but it takes too much time to come and go once. We have whales here too. In the Bering Sea, you can see dozens or hundreds of whales a day, but it can still take a day or two to kill a whale. It takes a month or two to get it back. One by one, a boat can only kill a few whales in half a year. And on our side of the sea, you can find a pod of whales in a couple of days, and then take a day or two to kill it, and then take a few days to transport it back. In half a year, many more whales can be caught. Why go to the Bering Sea? Jack Obery asked in surprise.