In Min'an Town, Fuzhou, in Xinggang, at the mouth of the Minjiang River, Xiao Sheng came out of the barracks on the north bank with Liang Deguang and a group of thousands of handfuls, his face was gloomy, and the cold sea breeze could not blow away.

"Those curly-haired foreign dogs, one day they will stew them with people and boats!"

Liang Deguang's resentment was even more difficult to suppress.

"Someday...... What day will that be? ”

Xiao Sheng's expression was confused, and his pupils dimmed, Liang Deguang's words were almost a dream.

"Huh? It's a foreigner's ship again! Actually drove here!? ”

In a trance, someone pointed to the sea and cried out, and saw three masts bolted to the surface of the sea with bulging soft sails, approaching the harbor.

A man in the distance shouted, "It's coming!" Here it comes! ”

Xiao Sheng's heart that was about to sink flew up, and the warm current also dispelled the chill all over his body like a tide, and the person who shouted was called Zhang Ding, who was Zhang Ying's cousin, and worked in the business firm of Qingtian Company. Last year, he was sent to him by Li Shi to take charge of business dealings. He screamed, so is this ship ...... Waiting at the dock, the ship had not yet docked in the port, looking at this appearance, Xiao Sheng and the others took a breath. It's not a local boat, or even a foreigner's boat. The boat is thirteen or fourteen zhang long, but it is surprisingly thin, and the widest point is just over two zhang. The ship's side was pressed low, and the deck was flat. Not to mention the usual cabin in the middle, there is not even a head and tail platform, but the helm platform on the tail is a few feet higher.

Three masts stood high on the ship, the middle one was more than twenty feet high, with a sharp bow slashing down, and a slanted mast, pulling down a triangular sail from the foremast, was whirring in the wind.

"It's like a knife...... It's beautiful. ”

Liang Deguang said with his saliva in his mouth, Xiao Sheng glanced at the bird boats moored by his own sailors in the port, all of them were rough and rough, and he also felt the same way, vaguely, he suddenly remembered the boat map he brought back to Li Shi last year, could it be that this is how he came?

"Jia Hao! Lu Hanshan! The fourth brother was willing to send you all out? ”

The strange boat stopped, and the two people who came down surprised Xiao Sheng and Liang Deguang even more. Jia Hao Wu Ya is the second general of Li Xian's side, and Lu Hanshan is also an old qualified guard, who also followed him to kill bandits in the walled fort of Tianxinhe in Yingde, and now he is in charge of the artillery team with Zhao Hanxiang in Siwei, Li Xian asked the two of them to sail to Fujian to meet him, what is the big deal?

"We're here to give a gift to Boss Xiao."

Jia Hao smiled slightly.

"Gift-giving?"

Xiao Sheng was still frowning and puzzled, and a lot of things were moved over.

"The moon thunderbolt has been mass-produced, and the general director promised that Liang Pole is here."

Jia Hao handed over a box, and Liang Deguang quickly took it, and the smile on the corner of his mouth was almost crooked to his ears. Xiao Sheng looked at the waists of Jia Lu and the others, and sure enough, they were all bulging and two, and said in his heart that it was really mass-produced, and it was estimated that all the leaders of the guards had this guy.

"It's ...... The family of the head secretary gave it to two people. ”

Then Jia Hao handed over a package of things that looked like clothes, and opened them to see the scarves and vests woven of velvet.

"Family?"

Xiao Sheng was a little puzzled, and then slapped his forehead, who else could Li Shi's family be?

"The vest is woven by Guan Xuan, the scarf is woven by our master, and Boss Xiao and Liang Pole have it."

Jia Hao stared at Xiao Sheng curiously to see how he reacted.

The vest is tightly needled and threaded, and there is a ...... embroidered on the chest It's not so much a wolf as a cute animal of a fox, Xiao Sheng burst out laughing, this is naturally Guan Xuan's masterpiece.

And that scarf ...... Unfolding the scarf that was unevenly dense and mixed in color, Xiao Sheng hurriedly wrapped it around his neck. The warmth rushed to the corner of his eye, and he suppressed it with a smile.

"Good girl, we don't dare to wear this thing......"

Liang Deguang was even more frightened, this thing should only be qualified for Li Xian.

"This is hand-woven by the fourth sister-in-law for our brother, how can you not wear it?"

Xiao Sheng scolded with a smile, and said in his heart that we saved a fourth sister-in-law for the fourth brother, it is really worth it, and this thank you gift ...... It's just that I see myself as a relative.

"I don't know when I can call the fourth sister-in-law......"

Xiao Sheng's emotion, Jia Hao also sighed, not only their guards were muttering about this, but the whole Qingtian company was calculating, just waiting for Li Shi to marry Guan Yan Sanniang into the door.

"You're here to deliver this?"

Then Xiao Sheng looked at another large pile of messy things, all of which were miscellaneous items such as tea oil silk silk.

"No, the real gift is here."

Jia Hao pointed behind him, it was the strange ship.

Xiao Sheng and Liang Deguang, who was turning vigorously in the pile of gifts, were stunned, boat!?

"This Golden Carp was given to Boss Xiao by the General Directorate, of course, the conditions are...... Gotta get us cooked. ”

Jia Hao looked at the eyes of the two of them with satisfaction, and his heart couldn't scare you stupidly?

After being silent for a long time, Xiao Sheng suddenly let out a hehe sound that he didn't know whether to cry or laugh, and the tears in the corners of his eyes finally lit up.

"Okay...... Okay, the fourth brother really knows my heart, but ...... Aren't you afraid that if you fight at sea, you will lose your life? ”

Xiao Sheng's eyes lit up.

"We're here to fight."

Jia Hao's eyes also shone brightly, and like Xiao Sheng, they were all blazing fire.

Xin'an, Guangdong, off the coast of Hong Kong Island, Hu Hanshan climbed the side of the boat, his face was pale, and he vomited out.

"Chasing ...... Catch up! ”

But he pointed to the sea in front of him and cried out for death.

"This ...... This is not what the General Secretary said, this is going to war! ”

Lao Jin on the helm platform also looked pale, and on the sea in front of him, there were several boat shadows faintly visible, and the roar of the cannon just now was still lingering in his ears.

"The words of the Director-General are clear! You are in charge of the ship, I am in charge of the war! ”

Hu Hanshan roared.

"Those pirates! Dare to fire a protest at us, it's boring! ”

He turned to the hatch on deck.

"Han Xiang, then it's up to you to do it!"

Outside the stalagmite village, on Lantau Island, looking at the peaceful harbor in the northeast, the concrete forest in the later generations is still nowhere to be seen, it is all dense jungle, Li Xian's heart is stretched, this will be another base for him outside of Yingde.

"Su Wencai became the Cheng of Xin'an County, which was used to cover the prying eyes of the government, and the Kowloon inspection you were at your disposal was a wall."

Li Xian is surrounded by Liu Xingchun, and he, like Zhang Ying, is a brick of the revolution, from Yingde's Xunzhuo inspection, to Xianggang inspection, and then all the way to Xin'an's Kowloon inspection, all of them are sesame petty officials from Jiupin. But unlike Zhang Ying, Liu Xingchun has been tightly tied to Li Shi's boat, although he doesn't know that Li Xi is determined to rebel, but he also understands that the road he has taken has been getting farther and farther away from the imperial court.

Therefore, some things that are faintly taboo, Li Xi can already say to Liu Xingchun.

"To the south of the wall, Lantau Island at the foot, and Hong Kong Island to the east, will be the place where we hide our troops and cover our armor."

Li Shi said this, Liu Xingchun nodded solemnly, understanding his duties.

Tan On is a desolate place, and the New Territories is even more remote, with only a few farmers growing incense on Hong Kong Island and fishermen on Lantau Island. Pirates of all sizes haunt this harbor, but the government doesn't bother to take care of it. The first is that these pirates are thieves when they go out, and they are people when they enter, and it is difficult to distinguish between them. Second, Xin'an is sparsely populated, the products are barren, there are not many people, the army comes to suppress it, but it can't stop, and when the bandits are gone, they will resurge, anyway, the pirates are begging for a living on the sea, as long as they don't disturb the state and county boundaries, no one wants to care.

Su Wencai, who was originally the head of the Yingde County Punishment Room and the Barracks Case, was promoted to Xin'an County to be the county governor by Li Xiantong, and was stationed in Dapeng, which stuck a link in the government affairs and covered the affairs of the New Territories, Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island south of Dapeng. And Liu Xingchun actually acted as a Kowloon inspector to cover Li Shi's efforts here. Although Zhang Ying's position was fixed on Hong Kong Island, he used his activities during this period of time to encircle the green camps in the New Territories and Lantau Island, and cover Li Ying in military affairs. With a few prongs, although this place is not far from Guangzhou Mansion, it has become a dark place under the lights of the government.

Li Shi's cover is not only these, Li Zhushou of Guangzhou Mansion is a big lampshade, and the magistrate of Xin'an County, hehe, it is really a coincidence, more than a year ago, Li Shi "instigated" Tang You to resolve the Guangdong Prefecture case, the magistrate of Xin'an County Jin Qizhen, who was almost rectified, was still sitting in this position thanks to Li Shi. Tang You has confessed, and Duan Hongshi has contacted him, although it is impossible for this Jin Qizhen to help Li Shi do something too out of the ordinary, but it is not an obstacle to acting.

"Jin Qizhen has been the magistrate of Xin'an County for more than ten years, but Xin'an's head snake, you still have to deal with him."

Li Xi explained such a sentence again, Liu Xingchun nodded, it is his forte to encircle the government, and it is also the duty of the public relations department of the Qingtian company where he works.

"The ship...... Just let those kids play outside? Anyway, it cost three or four thousand taels of silver. ”

After finishing the matter, Liu Xingchun said a gossip, he knew that Li Shi was particularly concerned about these two boats, and just after the New Year's Festival, he went to Qingpu Shipyard and squatted for half a month. Now let Hu Hanshan's guards fiddle with it, what should I do if something happens?

"If you don't play, you won't be able to call, and you can't help it."

Li Xian sighed helplessly, three or four thousand taels of silver is only the cost of the ship itself, plus sails, artillery, and all kinds of additional facilities, the cost of a ship is close to seven thousand taels of silver, and this is only a small ship with a displacement of less than two hundred tons.

But he felt that it was worth it, and the two ships of the Golden Carp and the Silver Carp had too many expectations on him.

Judging from the appearance alone, the crowd will shout "flying clippers" at a glance, but this is the design of Fujian shipwrights, and Li Xi did not mention to them the flying clippers in the future.

Earlier, when Xiao Sheng went to Fujian to take up a post, Li Shi asked him to find a Fujian shipwright to draw a boat drawing, that is, to design a ship type. Compared with Guangdong, Fujian has a more developed shipbuilding industry than Guangdong because of its abundance of marine timber, and its technology is naturally much more advanced. The design requirements he put forward were simple, one word: "fast".

In his previous life, he knew that the clipper ship was the fastest ship in the era of sails, but Li Xian wanted to see what Huaxia shipbuilding technology could reflect in this regard. Last year's New Year's Festival, Xiao Sheng brought the boat map back to take a look, and Li Xian's reaction at that time was one: "Different paths to the same end."

Before the Industrial Revolution, technology was still in the stage of experience precipitation, as far as experience is concerned, China's shipbuilding industry is no worse than Europe, before the Great Voyage, it is far ahead of the world. Although by 1714, China's shipbuilding technology had stagnated, but the experience accumulated by shipwrights in fields such as fluid mechanics and ship structure still has its own uniqueness.

Therefore, the ship drawings obtained by Li Xi are not much different from the flying clippers of later generations, with a large aspect ratio, a deep arc bottom, a low freeboard, a flat deck, and a bladed bow. This kind of ship is rare in China, but it is not nothing, the very early loach ship is this type, known for its flexibility and speed, but it is only an auxiliary ship, and it has never been built so large.

Demand determines the direction of technology, and the "fast" proposed by Li Shi is precisely not the main demand of Huaxia Shipbuilding for thousands of years, and even Europe is not. It was only in the age of intercontinental navigation that special requirements were put forward for the word "fast", and the clippers relied on "fast" to win profits.

Reliable basic understanding of the sea and ships, Fujian shipwrights designed this ship type, it is not worth making a fuss, as far as Li Shi knows, in this era, Fujian and Guangdong shipwrights also built high-masted clippers known for their speed, but because the government's sailor ships could not catch up, they ordered a ban, and the Qing court's way of thinking was so strange.

Li Shi did not plan to let Fujian build a ship, but took the ship diagram and found a Guangdong shipwright to further improve. Fujian shipwrights gave a new boat design, but the sails are still old-fashioned. Through the relationship between Li Shi, he recruited some Macao shipwrights into the Qingpu shipyard and asked them to move the European soft sail technology, and the things that came out were naturally very similar to the clippers in the future.

"It's not clippers, it's called ...... Flying boats. ”

Li Xi gave the name of this ship type, and there are still differences between his flying boat and the flying clipper ship, such as there is no hollow bow, and the sails are not so complicated, because Li Xi is still facing a problem, there is no one on the boat, in order not to make the boat too complicated, he can only save some high-precision technology. Therefore, this ship can run 14 or 5 knots with full sails downwind, which is only twice as fast as the Chinese sea ships of the same era, and less than twice as fast as the European ships. Compared with the general fifteen or sixteen knots, and even the clippers that can run twenty knots under special circumstances, there is still a gap.

He did have a lot of boatmen, some of whom were still big sailors who could run sea-going ships, but they couldn't do anything against soft sails and clippers. They had to continue to secretly recruit Macao crews, and it was the Macao crew members who drove the Golden Carp to Fujian, and the local crew members, Li Shi, only dared to let them go around the coastal waters in Hong Kong.

"When they can play, they can go out to sea and do big things."

Li Xi set his eyes to the south, the sea was calm, and there was no ship in sight, but the Silver Carp should be sailing on the sea somewhere in the distance.

Why build a clipper, the answer to this question is very complicated, in a nutshell, quantitative change leads to qualitative change, once a certain bottleneck is broken, he is invincible.

"Martial arts in the world, only fast is not broken."

Yan Sanniang also asked this question curiously, Li Shi replied like this, and the kung fu girl blinked for a while, and was fooled by him.

"In the south of the New Territories, pirates are rampant, nothing will happen, right?"

Liu Xingchun said again casually.

"I guess I don't have that bad luck."

Li Shi shrugged his shoulders disapprehantly, this was the first voyage of the Silver Carp after it was fully loaded, how could it be so unlucky?

Rumble...... On the surface of the sea, which was no longer land, two or three miles away, several fishing boats half smaller than the Silver Carp flashed a few fires, and a moment later, several small columns of water rose in front of the Silver Carp, which was breaking the waves and rushing forward, and Hu Hanshan on the helm raised his fist.

"You're going to be out of luck!"

(To be continued)