In the sixth year of Chongzhen, June 28, afternoon.

The fleet from Yingzhou Tamsui Port arrived at Wusongkou Military Port one after another, and received an urgent report from Baoshanwei Commander Tongzhi Shi Qingyang, Commander Chai Cheng'an, Commander Yang Yichou, Commander of Baoshan Training Base. Mai Li, Wang Fengwu, director of the Navy's Military Command Department, Lin Yaozong, minister of military affairs, Li Yiquan, director of the quartermaster department, and Tan Yue, director of the Military Judge Advocate General's Department, braved the rain to greet them.

Seeing Chu Mei, who was tall and graceful and had a temperament very different from that of a Ming woman, took Zhu Daolin's hand and got off the boat together, and the generals and colonels standing in line on the dock were stunned.

Only Shi Qingyang and Tan Yue, a few henchmen and generals, knew that he had a beloved woman in Tianshu Pavilion who honored his parents for him.

Although the heavy rain gradually became lighter, the dripping rain could still drench through the clothes, and Zhu Daolin, who was wearing a raincoat that was too hot, introduced Chu Mei to the generals, and ordered him to return to the headquarters in the acropolis with a wave of his hand.

Dozens of generals and colonels immediately complied with the order, led the 500 elite soldiers of the garrison battalion directly under the Navy Headquarters who were drenched all over, surrounded Zhu Daolin and his wife, and strode away from the dock.

The four cargo ships, laden with sulphur and Japanese copper, continued to sail westward to their upstream destination, Longtan Wharf.

The simple and sturdy courtyard in the northeast corner of the Baoshan Acropolis is Zhu Daolin's special residence, and the long-term guards will carefully clean it every day to ensure that there is no dead end.

Seeing their commander suddenly arrive in the rain, the guards were pleasantly surprised, and without command, they took the luggage sent by the generals of the East China Sea Fleet, put it in the inner room, and then quietly doubled the number of sentry posts.

Zhu Daolin solemnly introduced Chu Mei to the guards in front of dozens of generals, and Chu Mei's generous and cordial attitude made the guards more respectful.

After the school was dispersed. Zhu Daolin quietly told Chu Mei that these twelve people were the first old subordinates to follow him, all of them were over 28 years old, and many of them had married wives and had children, and they not only voluntarily followed themselves to undertake the task of staying behind, but also shouldered the heavy responsibility of collecting local military and civilian intelligence and secretly supervising the military discipline.

Shower and change clothes at home. Zhu Daolin and Chu Mei went to the naval headquarters to attend the reception banquet organized for him by the generals of various departments.

After three glasses of wine, Zhu Daolin stood up and told everyone loudly: "The Hushan Daqu we drank tonight, the recipe and brewing process of the koji are all from Chu Mei's winery, and the two sets of wine-making equipment used in Ziyangguan Winery were also bought from an old factory in Tianshu Pavilion with the efforts of Chu Mei's uncle. ”

The generals immediately understood that Chu Mei's identity was extraordinary, and they all raised their glasses to express their gratitude to Chu Mei. Immediately, Chu Mei's pretty face turned red with shame.

Halfway through the banquet, the colonels once again turned to the controversial issue of armaments.

I don't know who leaked the secret of the revolver, but after the generals and colonels here vied with each other to equip the powerful four-barrel rocket launcher on every battleship, they all demanded that officers above the battalion commander level be issued with this serial weapon, and they also gave the revolver a resounding name -- a handcuff!

After a brief discussion with Simeno and Wang Fengwu around him, Zhu Daolin called Li Yiquan, the head of the quartermaster department in charge of naval equipment.

After questioning, Zhu Daolin learned that the Longtan Gun Factory had reached a full capacity of 5,000 craftsmen, and the four major branches had officially started. A secretly assembled 50,000 single-shot rifles have arrived at the newly completed Tangshan Army Headquarters Armory. The manufacture of copper-shelled guns and ammunition is also on the right track, and it has been able to produce 200,000 rounds of ammunition per month since this month, but the stock of copper strips for making bullets is about to run out, and Zhu Daolin needs to buy it back from Tianshu Pavilion when the research institute has not yet solved the copper plate rolling machine.

Imitations of flintlock pistols have risen from 20 per day three months ago to 80 per day at the end of last month. The pass rate has gradually risen from less than 40 percent at the beginning of this month to 85 percent at the beginning of this month, and the manufacture of special paper-shell ammunition has been going smoothly and is fully able to meet the needs of the Jiangnan Army Division, the Jiangnan Navy Division, and the DPRK army.

Since the development of the four-barrel rocket launcher was in the Gushan Iron City, which was kept strictly secret, Li Yiquan was not qualified to know the details. Li Kuanji, the commander of the Firearms Bureau who sat in Gushan Tiecheng, gave the navy as much as he wanted, so the admirals and colonels who had seen the tremendous power of rocket artillery could not ask for more.

Fortunately, after the navy successively obtained 360 guns, equipped with 16 main warships and distributed 24 guns to the First Marine Division, there are still 320 guns in the arsenal, and there is no need to worry about this kind of easy-to-fire and powerful artillery within two years.

However, the ever-expanding army demanded a strong force, and the newly established Fushan Army and several cavalry battalions at the Qingdao base frequently sent people to urge the Firearms Bureau to more or less copy a batch of equipment for the new army.

After learning about the specific situation, Zhu Daolin agreed to the request of the admirals and promised to allocate 5,000 handcuffs to the Naval Quartermaster Department by the end of the year, which immediately won a round of cheers.

Chu Mei suddenly found that the soldiers in the hall no longer had the indescribable sense of distance they had before, and felt that the generals were very similar to the people's army that she was very familiar with, so she approached Zhu Daolin slightly and asked in a low voice: "Are all the admirals here?" Why do some wear camouflage uniforms and some navy formal uniforms? ”

Zhu Daolin patiently explained: "The entire Baoshanwei was originally a guard of the Daming Naval Division, and after continuous expansion, it has now become the base camp of the Daming Navy, that is, where the naval headquarters is located. ”

"Most of the generals and colonels here today belong to the navy, and most of the generals and colonels who wear camouflage training uniforms are officers of the Marine Corps, and the officers on the battleships and the generals of the Navy Headquarters are deeply influenced by foreign officers and instructors, as long as they are not on the battlefield, they all like to wear naval uniforms that are majestic and beautiful and can clearly show their ranks."

Chu Mei nodded with relief, and then asked, "How many officers and soldiers are there in the Ming Navy now?" Are they all directly under your leadership? ”

Zhu Daolin replied with great pride: "The Ming Navy was set up by me from scratch, and the Ming Emperor and the imperial court have never given a copper plate, so the two fleets, two marine divisions and the two fortress troops of Qingdao and Tamsui are all my Zhu Daolin's soldiers." ”

"At present, the total strength of our navy has grown to 35,000 people, with 28 warships of more than 300 tons, 35 ocean-going armed transport ships with a displacement of more than 500 tons, and more than 200 other offshore patrol ships and small cargo ships!"

"Before the end of the year, two more advanced warships of 1,200 tons will be launched, and 18 new armed transport ships of 800 tons will be put into service one after another, and the Daming Navy will be the strongest and best-equipped armed force in the entire Far East......"

"It is precisely with this confidence that I have the courage to drive the Dutch out of Tainan in one go and take back the entire Yingzhou."

Chu Mei thought for a while, and said worriedly: "I have watched "The Rise of a Great Power", and I vaguely remember that the Dutch are now in the strongest period of national strength, even if you drive away the Dutch who occupy Tainan, you can't guarantee your ocean trade!" What would you do if the Dutch fleet attacked your trading fleet in Malacca and the Indian Ocean? ”

Zhu Daolin smiled and continued to explain patiently: "Now that part of Egypt has not yet opened the Suez Canal, no matter how many Dutch warships there are, it will take at least eight months to reach a decisive battle with me in the Far East, not counting the months of preparation for the big war and the long logistics supply line. ”

"The Dutch would never dare to attack my trading fleet with the Portuguese East India Company and Arab merchants unless they were disguised as pirates, and in fact the Dutch were more worried about my attack on Batavia, their foothold in Asia, which is known to you in Jakarta, Indonesia."

"If you lose Jakarta, the Dutch will lose most of Asia, so the most likely strategy for them is to give up Tainan, sit down and negotiate with me, and we will do business and make a fortune together. The Netherlands is essentially a merchant polity, you should understand that. ”

After speaking, Zhu Daolin nodded to Chu Mei on his own.

Chu Mei finally put her mind at ease, because she didn't know the history of this era, her pretty face flushed with shame.

Seeing this, Zhu Daolin immediately picked up his wine glass and asked to meet Chu Mei with affection, which immediately dispelled Chu Mei's embarrassment and made Chu Mei's heart sweet.

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PS: Thank you for my love sister and my brother's big reward! (To be continued.) )