This time, Lu Wei and Zheng Chenggong went all the way to Southeast Asia.

This time, there were more than 20 merchant ships organized by the Yangzhou Ocean Trading Company, and these merchant ships were still sailing ships, and the Yangzhou shipyard had not yet had time to produce steam merchant ships.

"Brother Weisheng, these merchant ships are really slow, we won't take them with us next time we go to sea, they must all be steamships, so we can save a lot of time."

Not long after going to sea, Zheng Chenggong complained to Lu Wei on the "Wei Qing".

"I said Damu, don't be too anxious, Yangzhou Shipyard is already in full production, and it is estimated that there will be a lot of steam merchant ships when we go back." Lu Wei comforted Zheng Chenggong, sailing at sea was extremely boring, and the two were always chatting like this to pass the time.

"I said Brother Weisheng, most of the governors and supervisors value you so much, why don't you go and be a good official? Do you have to go with me to the sea and suffer hardships? ”

"Alas, I won't tell you the truth, last time the Metropolitan Governor asked me to go to Hunan, but I had the responsibility of the Metropolitan Governor and messed up the matter, I feel ashamed, and besides, as the Metropolitan Governor said, Yangzhou is short of talents, the only one who is not lacking is to be an official, I thought, why do we have to be an official who can do anything? It's better to do something practical for Yangzhou, that's what I think. ”

"Yes, I've been in Yangzhou for so long, and I see that most of the governors are doing practical things, and Yangzhou is really the same every day." Zheng Chenggong said with emotion.

"The Metropolitan Governor said that the future world is the world of the oceans, and we want to build a strong navy, Damu, you are the best candidate for our naval commander, you have to grasp it."

"Then I don't have to say, I must not disappoint the Grand Duke, what British 'king of the sea', if we don't meet it, if it does, I must destroy it." Zheng Chenggong said proudly.

"Da Mu, let's go to Nanyang this time, the situation on the route is complicated, you have to be careful."

"Brother Weisheng, you don't have to worry, we have the 'Weiqing' and 'Anqing' and 'Fengyang', it's not that I'm bragging, it's really these battleships that are too powerful, the last battle with the Netherlands, Brother Weisheng, you also saw it, ordinary pirates don't dare to mess with us."

"What if the Fujian sailor also fights our idea?"

Lu Wei still asked the question he was most worried about, this trip to the South Seas was close to the coastline, only more than 50 miles away from the coast, and arrived at the chicken coop (the Qing Dynasty changed its name to Taiwan, for the convenience of everyone to read, it will be called Taiwan in the future. The area around the strait entered the sphere of influence of the Fujian Navy, and if there was a real conflict, Lu Wei was worried that Zheng Chenggong would be in a dilemma.

"Brother Weisheng, don't worry, I will send a small boat to negotiate with them in advance, if they still want to attack our idea, then fight." Zheng Chenggong said nonchalantly.

Before entering the Taiwan Strait, the fleet was moving very smoothly, and the "Wei Qing" at this time was like a behemoth at sea.

After entering the Taiwan Strait, the situation began to change somewhat, and many ships followed the fleet from afar, and Zheng Chenggong knew at a glance that it was the ship of the Fujian Naval Division, so he ordered the "Wei Qing" to release a small boat to negotiate with them, explaining that this was a merchant ship in Yangzhou, and there was nothing wrong all the way, it seems that Zheng Zhilong is still afraid of Yangzhou, and has no idea of fighting these merchant ships.

When the fleet arrived near Penghu, there was finally a group of pirates who didn't know whether they were alive or dead, and the strength of these pirates was not weak, Zheng Chenggong observed carefully, and found that they had more than 20 ships about the same size as merchant ships, which was a group of pirates with no small strength at sea.

Zheng Chenggong ordered the "Anqing" and "Fengyang" to attack with all their might, and the "Weiqing" and four gunboats to protect the fleet, and the first battle of this voyage began.

The battle was not fierce, the "Anqing" and "Fengyang" were too fast, and in a short time they began to engage the enemy. Although the firepower of the two warships is not as good as that of the "Wei Qing", they are many times stronger than these pirate ships. "Anqing" was the first to open, and a pirate ship was quickly sunk directly,

Immediately after that, the "Fengyang" also stared at a pirate ship and bombarded, with a violent explosion, the pirate ship soon burst into flames, and the pirates on board jumped into the sea one after another, and the pirate ship was also scrapped.

Lu Wei was a little strange to encounter such a large pirate ship near Penghu, and when he saw that some pirates jumped into the sea, he quickly ordered "Wei Qing" to release the boat to catch a few prisoners.

The pirate ship was frightened by the fierce fire on the "Anqing" and "Fengyang" and began to flee in all directions, and Shi Lang, who was commanding the "Anqing", ordered the warship to keep an eye on a pirate ship that seemed to be a command ship.

The speed of the "Anqing" is slightly faster than that of the "Weiqing" at full strength, where can the pirate ship escape? Caught up with the pirate ship in less than twenty minutes, Shi Lang did not give the order to open fire, he wanted to capture the pirate ship alive, Lu Wei's doubts Shi Lang also had it, he wanted to find out what the situation was.

A few shells fell around the "Anqing", and the pirate ship was especially trapped in the beast, which really angered Shi Lang, and ordered several smoothbore guns on the "Anqing" to also fire, and a solid lead bullet directly hit the pirate ship, making a big hole in the side of the pirate ship, which made the pirate ship so frightened that it gave up resistance, and after a while, a white flag was played on the ship.

What Shi Lang never expected was that the pirate leader on this pirate ship was actually his acquaintance, a pirate who took refuge in the Fujian Navy last year.

This time the pirate ship attacked the Yangzhou fleet was actually Zheng Zhilong's idea, and the huge profits of the Yangzhou merchant ships had already spread to Fujian after they went to sea, Zheng Zhilong had of course heard about it, and he also knew that the leader of the fleet was his son Zheng Sen.

But Zheng Zhilong, who still regards piracy as his main profession, doesn't want to let go of this big fat sheep at all, but he is worried about the power of the Yangzhou giant ship, so this group of pirates comes to try the weight of the Yangzhou fleet.

After Zheng Chenggong learned all this, he was really ashamed and angry, he had already sent someone to write a letter to his father, explaining to him what he was doing now, hoping that he would facilitate the trip of Yangzhou merchant ships to the South Seas, who knew that his father could not listen to it at all, and he disregarded the feelings of father and son, and started the idea of Yangzhou merchant ships.

According to Zheng Chenggong's meaning, none of these pirates remained, all of them were killed, and he wanted to warn his father that the fleet in Yangzhou is not something you can afford to provoke, and the father is so ruthless, so there is no need for me, the son, to care about the relationship between father and son.

Lu Wei stopped Zheng Chenggong, he put the captured pirate ship back, and just asked them to go back and tell Zheng Zhilong that the Yangzhou fleet was not aimed at the Fujian naval division, and if Zheng Zhilong still wanted to fight the idea of Yangzhou merchant ships, he would resolutely not be polite next time.

After this naval battle, Zheng Chenggong has been sullen, and Lu Wei has to keep explaining him along the way.

After crossing the Taiwan Strait, the fleet continued to encounter small groups of pirates, and these pirates really had nothing to do with Zheng Zhilong, but these pirates had not heard of the power of the Yangzhou fleet, and only habitually wanted to plunder merchant ships.

Skirmishes were still frequent, but they were mostly one-sided battles that did not delay the fleet's march too much.

When the fleet passed through the Bass Strait, it was again met by the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, which also numbered a large number, more than 40 ships, and this time the Dutch fleet did not take the initiative to provoke, but sent small ships when it was far away to express its friendship to the Yangzhou fleet.

"These foreigners, they will only be honest if they are scared, and we will let them go once this time." Zheng Chenggong pointed to the Dutch fleet in the distance and said.

"I said Damu, do you think we only have three warships and can't hold them? If we had ten ships, would you let them go? Lu Wei asked with a smile.

"That's natural, I think with the speed of our Yangzhou's development, it won't be long before we have ten warships, right?" Zheng Chenggong also said with a smile.

"Yes, wasn't the 'Huo Quai' already under construction before we set off? I heard that the 'Huo Quai' is even better than the 'Wei Qing'. Lu Wei said.

"Yes, the 'Huo Quai' has absorbed some of the advantages of the foreigner warship, the main body of the hull has been made of steel, which is more suitable for sea voyages, and the firepower is stronger than the 'Wei Qing', I heard that the main gun is 250 mm, and when the time comes, I will use the 'Huo Quai' as the flagship, and the 'Wei Qing' will be handed over to Shi Lang to play."

Speaking of this, Zheng Chenggong's eyes showed a look of longing.

"You Damu, this new one hasn't come out yet, and you're starting to 'get tired of the old'?" Lu Wei was also very happy to see that Zheng Chenggong had finally come out of the shadow of the battle with his father.

The fleet crossed the Bass Strait, and everything went smoothly and anchored in the port of Manila.

At this time, the Dutch East India Company had basically monopolized Manila's trade with China, and the arrival of Yangzhou merchant ships alarmed the Dutch East India Company.

Lu Wei had no intention of going to war with the Netherlands at this time, and after sending people to negotiate with him repeatedly, the Dutch East India Company found that the goods of Yangzhou merchant ships did not conflict with their business, and the goods brought by Yangzhou merchant ships were brand new, which allowed Yangzhou merchant ships to start trading in Manila.

Most of the cargo of the fleet was eaten by the Dutch East India Company, which made the process of trade extremely fast, and Lu Wei also purchased a large number of spices, cotton, lead, tin and other materials according to the plan drawn up in Yangzhou, and dozens of merchant ships returned with full loads.

What Lu Wei did not expect was that the Dutch East India Company had a great interest in Yangzhou's goods and asked for direct trade with Yangzhou.

Lu Wei did not dare to make his own claim on this matter, and made it clear that the matter could only be answered after going back to ask for instructions, and then the Dutch East India Company retreated and asked for a contract with Yangzhou Ocean Trading Company for the supply of goods, and asked Lu Wei to supply Yangzhou products for a long time, especially glass products.

Lu Wei agreed to this request, and with a stable shipping channel, Yangzhou's glass manufacturing industry should also develop greatly, Lu Wei felt that this was a good thing.

By the time the fleet returned, more than two months had passed, and Lu Wei and Zheng Chenggong were also in a hurry to rush back to Yangzhou, and when all the merchant ships were full of purchased goods, the fleet immediately set off from the port of Manila to return to Yangzhou.

The process of returning was extremely smooth, and there was no more infestation from pirates, and it seemed that the battle along the way had already made the prestige of the Yangzhou fleet when they came, and the small group of pirates no longer dared to provoke.

By the time the fleet entered the mouth of the Yangtze River, Lu Wei calculated the time, and three months and ten days had passed.