Vasco da Gama and other Portuguese envoys were warmly received by Zhengde, and Zhou Zhong was also hospitable to a group of Europeans, who were European craftsmen led by Chilava.

In an open space in the Beigang Shipyard, a table of sumptuous wine banquets was put up, Zhou Zhong pulled Chirawa and several foremen of the shipyard to sit on the first seat, and other ordinary craftsmen sat at the tables around them casually, eating meat and drinking wine while talking loudly, and even many people were shouting and punching, the scene was very hot.

"Chilava, on behalf of the Governor's Mansion of the Four Seas, I would like to toast you, after such a long time of hard preparation, our first Valen battleship is finally going to be launched, as long as it goes through sea trials, the army's orders will come down immediately, and in a few years, the entire Daming Navy will be replaced by the Valen warship, and then your name will not only be recorded in the history of our Daming, but also become the most dazzling shipbuilding master in the whole of Europe!" Zhou Zhong raised his wine glass at this time, and said excitedly to Chirava beside him.

Last year, Chirawa has designed the Valen ship, and has begun to build, now many merchant ships of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce have used this kind of better performance, and safer Valen ship, but these ships are merchant ships, and there is still a lot of gap with the real warship, so Zhou Zhong asked Chirawa to find a way to improve the Warren ship, designed a real Warren battleship, today this battleship was finally launched, Zhou Zhong personally participated in the launching ceremony of the battleship called "Four Seas", Then a banquet was held in the shipyard to celebrate the success of Chirava and them.

Chirava heard Zhou Zhong's compliment, especially the last few words, which made his eyes flutter. The last one also stood up and said in strange Chinese: "Thank you, Your Excellency, for your compliment." The reason why I was able to complete the design and construction of this battleship. It is inseparable from the support of the Governor, so the successful launch of the Four Seas is also due to the Governor's success! ”

After living in Shuangyu Port for nearly two years, Chilawa not only spoke Chinese fluently, but also became tainted with the habits of many Han people, such as the construction of the Sihai this time, he was very modest to attribute his credit to Zhou Chong, which is not a good change. But it can't be said that it's bad, after all, this allows Chirava and them to better integrate into Daming.

After Zhou Zhong listened to Chirava's words, Ha Luha smiled, patted him on the shoulder and toasted again, and the other people at the wine table did not let go, everyone ate happily at this meal, and many people were drunk at the end, including Chilava.

However, Zhou Zhong didn't drink much, and after he asked the drunk Chirava and the others to go back to rest, he came to the side of the Four Seas alone, after the launching ceremony was held just now. The ship did not immediately go to sea for sea trials, because it was a warship. The personnel for the sea trials were also selected from the army.

The operation of the Valen battleship is similar to that of the Portuguese battleship, so the trial personnel are selected from the Ming soldiers on the Portuguese battleship, but those soldiers heard that the new ship is going to be tested, and the performance is better than the Portuguese battleship, one by one they are rushing to come, but there are too many people who sign up, and they will not be selected for a while and a half, and it is estimated that the soldiers who will be selected for the trial voyage will not be able to come out until tomorrow morning at the latest.

When the guards of the Four Seas saw Zhou Chong coming, they immediately stepped forward and saluted, and Zhou Chong also returned the salute with a smile. For the army under his command, Zhou Zhong immediately made major reforms after the end of the Battle of Malacca, first of all, to eliminate the weak, cancel the military household system, and change to the curtain soldier system, that is to say, the soldiers in the army are not compulsory military service, but take money to be soldiers, and can receive a large amount of military salary every month, enough for them to feed their families, if there is a war, there will be war dividends, it can be said that the treatment is very generous.

Of course, it is not enough to just improve the salary, after all, this is the army, so while improving the treatment of sergeants, Zhou Chong's training of soldiers is also more strict, and he has to practice every day, rain or shine, in Zhou Chong's own words, even if it is a knife in the sky, the drill must be carried out as usual.

Strict or even harsh drills scared off a group of people, but the generous treatment of the Four Seas has attracted more people to join, after all, in the era of the Ming Dynasty, too many people can't eat a full meal, many people are holding that instead of watching the whole family starve, it is better to go to the army to fight hard, if you are lucky, you will be promoted and raised, and if you are unlucky, you will die in battle, and the Governor's Mansion will also give a smile and a small pension, which is enough for the whole family to eat for a few years, so it is not a loss.

Zhou Zhong patted the sturdy shoulders of the guards, and then stepped onto the Four Seas. The Sihai is about 18 zhang long, that is, more than 50 meters, has four masts, the whole hull is long and narrow, and uses the watertight cabin in the Fu ship, with a five-story long deck, a very high stern, a draft of six meters, and an excellent endurance. There are forty guns on both sides of the ship, plus eight guns on the head and tail, a total of eighty-eight, and the hull can be crossed during the battle, so as to better play the artillery ability of the battleship, which is very similar to the battleships of later generations, so Zhou Zhong called this type of battleship a battleship.

Zhou Chong walked around the deck, and then went down to the decks of each layer and patted the dark and sturdy guns, the guns of the entire battleship reached an unprecedented eighty-eight, this amazing number has far exceeded those Portuguese warships, and according to Chilava, in fact, the entire battleship can be loaded with more guns, and even more than a hundred guns are no problem, just because this is the first Valen battleship, all the performance is speculative, so the number of some guns on the ship is minimized.

Although this Sihai has not yet undergone real sea trials, but Zhou Zhong is full of confidence in it, after all, this warship was originally an improved Wallen ship, the Chamber of Commerce's Wallen ship ran very happily on the sea, and other Ming merchants were very angry, but unfortunately the shipyard's shipbuilding capacity was limited, although Zhou Zhong had opened several branches, but it was still impossible to solve the problem of output in a short period of time, so it would take a few years for this kind of ship to be promoted on a large scale.

With those civilian Warren ships as an example, there is no reason why this improved Warren warship will not work, at most there will be some minor problems in some aspects, which is also unavoidable, but as long as there are Chilawa people, plus the skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, they will always come up with ways to improve, so Zhou Zhong is also very optimistic about the prospects of the Warren battleship, and he has even seen the scene of the Daming Navy Master riding this kind of warship across the sea.

Zhou Zhong stayed on the Sihai for a long time, waited until dusk, and then got off the ship, and then ordered the guards to take good care of it, and no one was allowed to board the ship without his warrant, after all, this is a warship, not a merchant ship, and it must not be sloppy at any time.

Returned home to accompany Jinxuan and Lingyun and they had dinner, at this time it was just dark, and it seemed too early to go to bed, Daming made Zhou Zhong unaccustomed to this, that is, there were too few entertainment methods, and there was nothing to do after dinner every night, and he had to get some entertainment facilities in the later generations, such as mahjong and cards, which was already the most popular toy in the family, and I don't know how the road spread out, and now it has spread to the entire Shuangyu Port, and there is even a tendency to spread outward, it is estimated that it will not take two years, The whole Ming Dynasty will sound the sound of rubbing hemp and throwing cards.

Today is no exception, everyone sat together after dinner, among which Jinxuan and Lingyun, Mengwan, and Bang'er played mahjong, and Zhou Zhong took Duo'er and Qingqing to play cards.

"Uncle, can I sleep with my aunt tonight?" Qingqing, who was playing cards, suddenly asked Zhou Zhong.

"Huh? What's the matter, haven't you always slept with Do'er? Zhou Zhong asked a little strangely, Qingqing's mother Junwan has been helping Zhou Chong deal with the affairs of the Chamber of Commerce, and now she has become the second only person in the Chamber of Commerce to Sanniang, some time ago there was something wrong with the business in North Korea, Junwan personally asked for orders to deal with it, so she handed over Qingqing to Mengwan to take care of, but Qingqing and Duo'er have the best relationship, so the two have been sleeping together at night.

"I don't sleep with Do'er, she always told ghost stories last night, I'm scared!" Qingqing glared at Duo'er at this time.

"That's your own cowardice, you see that I'm not afraid!" Duo'er smiled and puffed up her little chest and said, five or six-year-old girls are just when they are naughty, and scaring the timid Qingqing with ghost stories may make Duo'er feel a sense of accomplishment, so she is so proud.

"Hmph, Duo'er big villain, if I don't sleep with you tonight, maybe that green-haired female ghost will run to you." Not to be outdone, Qingqing fought back, it seems that the female ghost with green hair is the protagonist of the ghost story of two little girls.

Zhou Zhong smiled when he heard this, stopped the two little girls from bickering, and also agreed to Qingqing's little request. However, Zhou Chong soon regretted it, because after the evening entertainment, he couldn't go to Mengwan's place to sleep, and could only go to Jinxuan or Lingyun, but the two women said that it was inconvenient for them to be pregnant, and they were also worried that Zhou Chong would hurt the child by sleeping at night, and finally drove Zhou Chong out of the room.

In desperation, Zhou Zhong had to go back to the study alone, it seems that he is going to sleep alone again today, if he knew that Lu Dao was like this, he should mediate the contradiction between Qingqing and Duo'er.

But not long after Zhou Zhong fell asleep, he was suddenly woken up by a rapid knock on the door, which made him a little strange, and when he walked to the side and opened the door, he found a maid standing outside the door, and said to him with a frightened face: "Master, Madame Bai is injured, you can go to the front hall to have a look!" (To be continued......)