Feng Cheng, who had just graduated from the Department of Engineering of Chi Shi University in Hong Kong, gently knocked on the general manager of Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Company. There was no sound coming from inside the door of Kobay's office for a moment, and he paused at the door for a moment, looking at the large factory area outside the window of the hallway. The headquarters of Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Company is now located in the Huangpu Industrial Zone along the Pearl River southeast of Guangzhou, which is probably the birthplace of China's modern industry. As early as after the Opium War, many foreign merchants set up factories here, and most of them were shipyards that repaired and built ships. And in the acquisition of John. After five years of development, Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., which was expanded on the basis of the Kebai Shipyard, is now certainly the largest shipbuilding company in Asia by output.

In 1849 alone, 369 ships of various types were built, including the "Sea King", a fourth-class warship powered by a steam engine. Although this steam warship was designed and supervised by French engineers, after all, it was built on Chinese soil, by factories controlled by Chinese capital and the hands of Chinese workers, which undoubtedly symbolizes that the level of China's shipbuilding industry is close to the world's first-class.

There was a sound from inside the door with John. Corbay's loud voice: "Please come in!" Feng Cheng straightened his work clothes at the door and walked in solemnly. John. Corbay is a stern and mean boss who often lashes out over small things. For example, a piece of wood is not sawn neatly, the stitches of the canvas are not sewn well, the paint of a sailboat that is about to be delivered is not good enough, or smoking in the workplace, or simply nitpicking, finding a mistake that is too small to be small, and then deducting a salary bonus or something. In short, the engineers and workers of the Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Company were not afraid of him and did not hate him! The Chinese workers also gave him the nickname "Wicked Ke" behind his back. The only one who likes him must be the black-hearted capitalist Emperor Zhu. Because under the management of the wicked Ke. Nanyang Hong Shipyard has too many orders to complete. Profits have increased year after year. And the quality of the ships built is first-class, no worse than that of the big factories of any Western country.

Pushing open the door and entering, Feng Cheng saw that there were already a few people in the office, one of them was a tall and fat foreign devil, Feng Cheng recognized him as Lan Fangxing's Taipan Bei Semai. Now the headquarters of Lan Fang Hong has also moved from Pontianak to Guangzhou, and the largest arsenal and steel factory of Lan Fang Hong are located in China, in Jiulong, Guangdong Province and Yingtianfu. There is also a short Feng Cheng who is also a trainee engineer of the Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Company. It is called Kayama Eisaemon. Listen to the name to know that the road is a Japanese, is one of Tokugawa Akiko's courtiers, adoptive father is the Uraga government group and force, in 1843 inherited his adoptive father's position in the Uraga office in charge of shipbuilding, and he is also proficient in orchid science. After arriving in China, he was arranged to study at Nanyang Hong Shipbuilding Company, and later attended a night school run by the Faculty of Engineering of Jeseki University, and in the past few years, he has accumulated a lot of experience in building and designing ships, and I heard that he will soon become an engineer. The other few are all blonde and blue-eyed foreign devils, Feng Chengdu doesn't recognize them, and they are probably all engineers from Nanyang Bank and Lan Fangxing.

"Wind. Sit down, sit down and talk. "The wicked Ke has always kept a straight face in front of his subordinates. I also don't like Oriental-style red tape, thinking that it is a waste of time. Therefore, Kayama Eisaemon did not bow to each other politely, but just politely pulled a chair to let Fengcheng sit down.

"There is a matter that the big boss explained." The wicked Ke went straight to the point, and the big boss in his mouth was of course Zhu Jishi and Emperor Zhu. "The big boss wants to develop a completely new warship...... He had already drawn the sketch himself, and it had been brought by Mr. Bessemat from Yingtian, so you should all take a look. ”

As he spoke, he pointed to a stack of drawings on his desk and asked Kayama Eisaemon to take them and distribute them to the people in the room one by one.

"This is ......" Seeing the sketch drawn by Zhu Jishi himself, Feng Cheng said in his heart: "It's so ugly!" It looks like a turtle with two chimneys on its back, and is it really embarrassing to drive such a boat? ”

"The big boss's vision is this, this ship will be a completely new concept of military ships, which is of epoch-making significance."

Corbay touched his bearded chin and smacked his lips and said, "First of all, this ship has removed its sails and will rely entirely on the steam engine to propel it; Secondly, the ship will be covered with iron armor on the hull, and it will be a steam ironclad ship...... The Big Boss wanted the ironclad ship's iron armor to withstand the bombardment of a 32-pounder cannon with a Hodchisky grenade; Thirdly, the ironclad ship will follow an enclosed rotatable armored turret; Fourth, the big boss wants to equip the ironclad ship with 10 to 12 large-caliber rifled guns; Fifth, the big boss demanded that we build at least eight of these steam ironclads by 1853.

Although the appearance of this steam ironclad is extremely ugly, I believe that as long as this steam ironclad is developed, it will completely change the face of future naval warfare and the ranking of the strength and weakness of the navy in the world. In my personal opinion, there is no kind of wooden warship in the world today that can compete with ironclad ships! Therefore, the big boss also asked all the engineers involved in the design and construction of the steam ironclad ship to sign a confidentiality agreement. Would you like to take part in this major project that is destined to change the face of naval warfare? ”

……

At the same time, in Ying Tianfu and Zhu Jishi's palace, the news of the arrival of the Russian crown prince's delegation in Hong Kong had already arrived. The news was not sent to Yingtian by an eight-hundred-mile expedited fast horse or a flying scissor clipper, but by a cable telegraph that had just been erected. The Daming Telegraph and Telecommunications Bureau was established as early as 1848, and after more than two years of hard work, it finally set up a telegraph network connecting the major cities of Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Nanzhili and Zhejiang. So as soon as the Russian crown prince arrived on the front foot, Zhu Jishi received a report on the back foot.

Prime Minister Zuo Zongtang and Zheng Hong were summoned to the Qianqing Palace to meet the saint to discuss the reception of the Russian crown prince. Zhu Jishi was in the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace and Maria, who had a big belly. Clementina talks about the same topic. Maria analyzed: "Now Russia is in a dilemma, the land force of the Ming Dynasty has posed a serious threat to Russia's eastern territories, if Russia wants to ensure that the East is safe, it needs to devote most of her energy, so that it is unable to expand in the Balkans." But Russia's policy for centuries had been Pan-Slavism and the elimination of the Turkish Empire, and now that Russia had just intervened in the Hungarian Revolution and become the savior of Austria, establishing great prestige in the Balkans, while Turkey was weakening day by day, it was clearly the best opportunity for expansion, and it was obviously a pity to turn east. So the Petersburg side will certainly ignore the threat from the east and continue to pay most of its attention to the Balkans and Asia Minor...... If Alexander's trip to the East had achieved some success, I am sure that Nicholas I would have started a war as soon as possible.

And the British Empire was in the same dilemma as Russia. Since the Napoleonic Wars, the British have tried to avoid war with the European powers. I'm sure Whitehall was more than happy to make Alexander realize how great the threat was to the Ming Empire, and even couldn't wait to see a war between the Ming Empire and the Russian Empire. Therefore, the British diplomats in the East must have tried to exaggerate the power of the Ming Empire, and at the same time encouraged Alexander to adopt a hostile policy towards the Ming.

France's policy, as you already know, is to prompt Russia to carry out military adventures in the Balkans, and only by dismantling the Russian-Austrian alliance can France have the opportunity to rise again and dominate the European continent. Therefore, French diplomats in the East will try their best to use diplomatic mediation to promote reconciliation between the Ming and Russia. At the same time, under the guise of a joint attack on Vietnam, Alexander was fooled into believing that the French and Ming wanted to unite to gain benefits in the rich South Seas, which would inevitably lead to tensions between the Ming, France, and the British Empire. This is the situation that Russia most wants to see! (To be continued......)