On the fourth day of August in the third year of Hongxiang, the first new warship was born. The www.biquge.info adopted a new type of warship with a completely different design from the popular car ships, with a keel, watertight compartments, and a window on the side of the ship for unknown purposes. Whether such a design can have an advantage in a water war, these old shipwrights are not optimistic.

Losing the speed of the car and ship, how to get close to the enemy ship and engage in hand-to-hand combat? Do you want to rely on equipping a warship with a bed crossbow, or a stone thrower, to attack enemy ships with long-range? Aside from the large trebuchets, the bed crossbow could not do much damage to the huge enemy ships. No way, in this era, the understanding of water warfare is that you can't defeat the opponent by long-range attacks. If you want to take down your opponent, you must use your speed to get close to the enemy ship and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

The trebuchet is too slow to load stone bullets, and if you load too many stone bullets, it will slow down your own ship. In the water warfare of this era, speed is of the essence. Otherwise, the fastest vehicles and ships with short-term acceleration will not be very popular. And the bed crossbow may not be able to achieve great results. The arrow attack is just a consumption before hand-to-hand combat.

No way, if they knew that there was a long-range weapon that could destroy an enemy ship with a few attacks, then they wouldn't think so. This weapon is called artillery. It's a cross-generational weapon, certainly not something they could have predicted.

When the construction of the first new warship was completed, the Quanzhou Ship Department and the Local Supervision Department handed over the note at the same time. Five days later, Lu Chengqi, who was sitting in the Chang'an Imperial Palace, received the news of the launch of the warship at the same time.

After Lu Chengqi watched the recital, he laughed. It just so happened that Xu Chongguang, the first assistant of the cabinet, came to meet him, and Lu Chengqi summoned him without hesitation, and before Xu Chongguang could speak, he showed him this notebook.

Xu Chongguang looked at the first warship that cost three million yuan and silver to build, and smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, you don't need to show this matter to the old minister, right?" In Xu Chongguang's view, the new warship with an initial investment of 3 million yuan, if this can't be built, it really can't be said.

It was probably during this period that, in addition to recognizing the huge benefits of maritime trade, even the more enlightened Xu Chongguang did not think that investing money in the endless shipbuilding industry would bring any benefits.

But Lu Chengqi's eyes are full of gold and silver. With ocean-going vessels, you can explore the whole world, and if you can reach the American continent, which generation of emperors can compare with this achievement of expanding territory?

Even in the case of ocean-going trade with foreign merchants, the tariffs received by the Shipping Division must have been staggering. In the official history, the Southern Song Dynasty almost regained the lost territory in a corner south of the Yangtze River. If it weren't for the Southern Song Dynasty Gaozong Zhao Gou who was afraid that Yue Fei would really recover the lost territory of the Northern Song Dynasty and welcome back the second emperor, maybe history would have been rewritten. The Southern Song Dynasty was able to support such a short period of time, relying on overseas trade. This shows how profitable this ocean-going trade is. Even if the sea is very risky, but under the temptation of huge wealth, there are not a few people who take risks.

The only thing that's a bit of a pity is that this new type of warship must be equipped with artillery in order to give full play to its power. Now everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. Tang Xun and Su Song can only say that they are accumulating experience for casting cannons. I don't know how much steel was wasted, but the cannon can only hit more than a mile, which is not as good as a bed crossbow.

This is far lower than Lu Chengqi's expectations, the progress of cannon casting is slow, in this era of low steel smelting technology, even with small blast furnace technology, it is still difficult to solve a series of problems such as gun chamber pressure, gun body bubbles and gas leakage.

However, in a short period of time, it is already remarkable to be able to accumulate cannon casting technology. Lu Chengqi also knows that in this time and space where there is no accumulation of science and technology trees, achieving this step is already the embodiment of the wisdom of the ancients of the Chinese nation. If you want to go further, you have to build an industrial system in order to mass-produce artillery.

Lu Chengqi knew that he couldn't be in a hurry in this matter, and he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry. The meal should be eaten in one bite, and the road should be walked step by step. Building an industrial system is a long-term process. Even the most rudimentary industrial system requires the accumulation of an entire generation. If there is no Lu Chengqi, let alone the industrial system, even the Hongxiang rifle, it will take at least 500 years before the prototype appears.

Sighing regretfully, Xu Chongguang spoke: "Since the warship is ready, I don't know when this Liangshan water thief will be exterminated?" In this note to the cabinet, when it comes to the issue of food and salary for the forbidden army, the treasury is already a little unable to hold on. ”

Lu Chengqi was puzzled: "Didn't this autumn harvest just come up, how could it not hold on?" Besides, the commercial tax is collected once a month, and Jingzhao Mansion alone, I'm afraid there are three million yuan, right? ”

Xu Chongguang smiled bitterly, this is not a family that does not know that chai and rice are expensive, Lu Chengqi is completely a hands-off shopkeeper, and if there is any problem, he will lead a group of cabinet ministers and various ministries to solve it, and he only needs one result. Although he has obtained the coveted power of Zaifu, this already weakened power of Zaifu is not enough for Xu Chongguang, and he is also a little dissatisfied. But he also knew that the previous prime minister had too much power, which would inevitably cause the emperor to be suspicious. Nowadays, the power of the prime minister is dispersed among the six ministries, as well as the cabinet and the Privy Council, which is in line with the emperor's interests. This is also something that cannot be helped, in the struggle between the prime minister and the imperial power, the imperial power, which occupies the general trend, must be the victorious side. As the losing party, there is no other way but to accept fate. Unless someone rises up to rebel, but now that the four seas in Dashun are calm, how easy is it to rebel?

This thought was just a fleeting thought, Xu Chongguang understood that his power was obtained by relying on the imperial power, and it seemed to be powerful on the surface, but as long as the emperor no longer trusted him, he could transfer him at any time under any pretext, which was the consequence of too much concentration of imperial power. Xu Chongguang is an understanding person, knowing that as long as he does his part well and gains the trust of the little emperor, with the "inertia" of the little emperor, he will definitely not let a capable minister easily "return to his hometown". In other words, he, as the head of the cabinet, should not be a problem for ten years.

"Your Majesty, this is the details of income and expenditure submitted by the Ministry of Households, please see it at a glance." Xu Chongguang took out a book that had already been drafted and handed it to Lu Chengqi.

Lu Chengqi turned out to be a fold and found that this was an account book recorded by the double-entry accounting method he "invented", which should be an account book that had been supervised and audited by professional accounting personnel of the Supervision Department.

Spread out the long twists and turns, all kinds of income and expenditure are clear at a glance, and Lu Chengqi, who is accustomed to traditional Chinese bookkeeping, can also see it clearly. It's just that the more I look at the back, the more I feel that the money is not enough.

In the three months since the forbidden army went out, it has already consumed six million yuan. Of these, 3 million were used to pay for the rations, and the other 3 million were allocated for the first instalment for the construction of the new warship. (To be continued.) )