The steam ship had turned off the steam engine, the scene was quiet, and as when it set off, Zheng Chenggong stood at the bow of the ship and saluted Luo Jian and the others, and reported loudly:

"Report to the governor and the superintendent, the expedition fleet returned smoothly, none of the ships were lost, all the tasks were completed, and the team leader Lu Wei and deputy captain Zheng Chenggong were requested."

"Agree to return to the team!" Luo Jian raised his hand and saluted back, Shi Kefa looked at the two of them, tears couldn't stop flowing, and Song Yingxing was also next to him and said happily, "Great."

Zheng Chenggong turned to Lu Wei and said, "Please Brother Weisheng report to the Governor and Governor, and successfully go back to command the fleet to return." ”

After the steamer pulled Lu Wei onto the ship, Zheng Chenggong returned to the big ship in a small boat.

"Weisheng, you have worked hard! Did this trip go well? Luo Jian held Lu Wei's hand and said.

"The Metropolitan Governor, the Governor, and the Song Lao, it's hard to say a word, but fortunately, you don't disgrace your mission." Lu Wei's face was full of vicissitudes, and it seemed that he had suffered a lot along the way.

"Sit down and take a drink." Luo Jian let Lu Wei sit down in the cabin, and asked someone to pour a glass of water and hand it to Lu Wei in person.

"Brother Xian, let's stay on the ship overnight, or do we go back to Yangzhou now?" Luo Jian turned around and asked Shi Kefa.

"What are you doing in a hurry to go back? We'll go back together early tomorrow morning. Shi Kefa glared at Luo Jian.

Lu Wei, who was out of breath, slowly talked about the voyage.

Everything went smoothly for the first four days after the fleet went to sea, but who would have expected that on the fifth day, the sailors who led the ships tied to the mast to observe reported that many ships had been found ahead, which made Lu Wei and Zheng Chenggong nervous.

Zheng Chenggong personally climbed the mast and carefully observed it for a long time, and felt that the situation was not good, so he quickly let the eight warships set up a combat formation.

There were more than a dozen ships in the fleet, each of which was larger than a merchant ship, and seeing that its shape was full of warships, Zheng Chenggong knew that he could not let it get close, so he took four warships to meet it.

Getting closer, Zheng Chenggong observed carefully, this fleet was actually flying the flag of the Dutch East India Company, this flag Zheng Chenggong was very familiar with, and knew that these people were generally doing trade at sea, but they would not let go of fat sheep when they encountered them.

Obviously, they regarded the fleet in Yangzhou as a fat sheep, so they chased after it.

"What to do? Are we fighting or withdrawing? Lu Wei, who was new to naval battles, was a little nervous.

"We can't retreat, their ships are faster than ours, we have to beat them away, otherwise we will die." Zheng Chenggong said.

"We have to strike first, we can't wait for them to get closer." Zheng Chenggong said resolutely.

"It's unreasonable on the sea?" Lu Wei was a little surprised, both sides were about to start fighting before they met each other, what if the other party didn't want to fight?

"It's definitely not a good thing, if there is something they will send a small clipper to come to contact, the fleet will come up directly to specify that it is not a good thing, order all ships to quickly prepare for battle, and listen to my orders to fire together!" Zheng Chenggong's experience in this area is obviously much stronger than Lu Wei's.

With an order, the four warships quickly became ready for battle, the preparation time of the new artillery was greatly reduced, and the sailors on the road did not relax their training, and soon the signal that the ships reported that they were ready came out, which made Zheng Chenggong feel a lot more at ease.

All four ships were facing the Dutch fleet on one side, so that a total of sixteen guns could attack at the same time.

Zheng Chenggong carefully estimated the distance between the two sides, and finally the opposite fleet was within the range of the artillery, and Zheng Chenggong gave the order to open fire.

The four large-caliber guns opened fire at the same time, making the ship shake, and the first mate of each ship kept turning the rudder to balance the ship, and Lu Wei was shaken so that he was almost unstable on his feet, and he was busy grabbing the side of the ship, and he didn't care about the results of the artillery.

Zheng Chenggong stood on the boat as steady as Mount Tai, calmly looking ahead, and kept giving orders.

Although the artillery fired quickly, the firing accuracy of the artillery at this time was really not high, and only one shell exploded on the ship of the opposite fleet in a salvo just now.

The fact that the guns on this side of the ship were able to hit so far, and with flowering shells, was obviously beyond the expectations of the Dutch fleet, which had significantly slowed down.

But the Dutch fleet had no intention of leaving, but slowly approached the fleet.

Zheng Chenggong ordered the four warships behind to also catch up with the battle, and the eight warships lined up and stopped the Dutch fleet on the way to the merchant ships.

Zheng Chenggong ordered all eight warships to attack the opposite battleship, and suddenly thirty-two shells flew towards the lead ship at the front of the Dutch fleet.

This concentrated fire finally worked, and at least three or four shells fell on the Dutch battleship, which was immediately ablazed and was extinguished after a while.

With the continuous firing of Yangzhou artillery, the opposite fleet finally couldn't bear it anymore and began to turn sail and turn around, but Zheng Chenggong stopped and ordered the warships to chase after him.

But at this time, Western warships generally used soft sails, and their wind area was much larger than the hard sails of the Ming ships, so the speed was also much faster.

This was the first time that the fleet had been in distress, and Lu Wei said that if Zheng Chenggong hadn't reacted in time, the merchant ships would have suffered if the fleets had come closer.

Hearing Lu Wei say this, Shi Kefa felt that Luo Jian's decision to insist on building a big warship was really too wise.

After passing this pass, the fleet continued to move towards the Sea of Japan, but on the tenth day, it encountered a major storm, and Lu Wei, who had never been out to sea, was still shocked when he said it.

"It was like the end was coming, the people on board couldn't stand at all, the waves were on the deck, and everything on the deck was swept away, and if it weren't for the experienced old shipwrights on our ship, we would definitely not be able to come back." Lu Wei said.

The fleet struggled for three days, and the storm passed, Zheng Chenggong counted the losses, and the fleet lost more than 30 people in the storm, all of whom were swept into the sea by the wind and waves.

Lu Wei said, with a sad look on his face.

The fleet, led by an old shipwright, kept searching for monsoons and currents until a month later in Nagasaki, Japan.

The huge fleet arrived at the port of Nagasaki, which caused Nagasaki to panic, and Zheng Chenggong sent people ashore to negotiate, but they were not allowed to dock.

Zheng Chenggong was so angry that he ordered the fleet to prepare for battle, and he was about to bombard the port of Nagasaki.

When Luo Jian heard this, he couldn't help but be a little amused, thinking that when there was a large fleet in the future, he would have to let Zheng Chenggong lead it, and it would be best to bombard it directly to the ground.

Lu Wei stopped Zheng Chenggong, and with the interpreter, Lu Wei went ashore in person.

Lu Wei also learned a lot of Japanese himself along the way, and with the help of an interpreter, he repeatedly negotiated with the Japanese officials in Nagasaki, and this negotiation actually lasted four days, and finally they agreed to the docking of the fleet.

The rest of the commodity trade did not go well, and this time the fleet carried too much cargo, and it was clear that the port of Nagasaki could not eat so much cargo.

Lu Wei went to the Japanese officials with an interpreter, negotiated with them repeatedly, and finally relied on a table clock and a few mirrors to buy off the Japanese officials in Nagasaki, and with their help, Lu Wei entered Kumamoto and Fukuoka with the goods, and only in these two places did he get rid of all the goods.

"Just a table clock and a few mirrors?" Luo Jian asked curiously.

"These Japanese people are really difficult, and if it weren't for these things, it would be really difficult to get rid of these goods." Lu Wei was still a little scared when he said it.

"That's right, the Metropolitan Governor and Supervisor, Lu Wei made a decision privately, if he is wrong, Lu Wei will be punished by the Metropolitan Governor and the Supervisor." Lu Wei stood up and said.

"What's the matter? Sit down and say. Luo Jian said.

"Governor, Governor, I saw in Fukuoka that the Japanese saltpeter mine is very cheap and of good quality, I think the fleet is empty when I go back, so I simply bought a few ships back, I don't know if Lu Wei did something wrong?" Lu Wei's face was very uneasy.

"Smack!" Shi Kefa slapped the armrest of the chair and stood up.

"What did you say?" Shi Kefa then asked.

"Inspector, I privately decided to buy four boatloads of saltpeter and come back." Lu Wei lowered his head and said.

"You're coming to my house tomorrow night." Shi Kefa said word by word.

"What for?" Luo Jian was overjoyed in his heart, he didn't know what Shi Kefa was going to do, and Lu Wei also showed a look of fear on his face.

"What? Come to my house tomorrow night, I will ask my wife to do nothing, cook a few dishes myself, I want to give Weisheng a few glasses of wine, Xinghua let you lead the team, it's so right! Shi Kefa was so excited that he didn't know what to say.

Song Yingxing was also brushing his beard next to him.

Only then did Luo Jian tell Lu Wei that now the saltpeter in Yangzhou had been exhausted, and he was sending people to buy it everywhere, but there was no result yet.

"I'm afraid that there are tens of thousands of catties in a few boats, isn't it much?" Lu Wei was still a little nervous.

"Not much! The more the merrier. Shi Kefa didn't wait for Luo Jian to speak, and said anxiously.

"By the way, Weisheng, how about the income of this cargo?" Only then did Luo Jian remember the results of the voyage.

"Governor, these goods sell very well in Japan, especially glass products and table clocks, I heard in Japan that they are not short of silver at all, let's get more to sell in the future, I have already gone through the way of Japanese officials, and there will be no such trouble in the future." Lu Wei said.

Japan is a famous silver-producing country, and since the end of the last century, there has been a boom in the search for silver mines, and after fifty or sixty years, there is no shortage of silver in Japan at all.

"Weisheng, hurry up and tell me how about the income this time?" Shi Kefa hurriedly asked.

"I've already calculated on the ship, except for the manufacturers, we can still make a net profit of 520,000 taels, and I have removed the silver for saltpeter." Lu Wei said.

Shi Kefa was dumbfounded when he heard this number, and even Song Yingxing didn't let go of his beard, until he pulled off several beards before he reacted.

"You're saying that the manufacturer's profits have been removed?" Shi Kefa was still a little unconvinced.

Lu Wei nodded yes, and Shi Kefa was so excited that he stomped his feet in the cramped cabin.

"How is Liulan's perfume selling?" Luo Jian asked.

"Hey, Metropolitan Governor, what kind of sale is that, it's purely robbed." Lu Wei said with a smile.

Luo Jian knew that perfume must be selling well in Japan, and now Japanese pop geisha, these geisha rely on heavy makeup, and perfume is the most needed for them.

"Your Liulan must have made a fortune this time, by the way, my wife is also working in the factory, you can't lose your salary." Shi Kefa, who was in a good mood, made a joke, and everyone couldn't stop laughing.

Lu Wei said that other silk and porcelain are also selling well, and the price is three or four percent more expensive than in China, and the transportation cost is also much stronger than in China, and the key is that the volume is large this time.