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On the pass of Qiu He Mountain, Lixin Town, Nanping County, Fujian Province, Qiu He Mountain is not only strange and dangerous, looking at the sky like a line of sky in the distance, like two huge stones hanging on two thin walls, swaying in the breeze, making people daunting. If you walk into the interior of the first line of sky, the uneven stone walls are different in width and narrow, and some are "Avenue of Stars" as wide as ten meters; Some are sheep's intestine paths, which are only enough for two carriages to go forward; Some are even "chicken intestine trails" that are only enough for two people to run in parallel, and such a canyon is actually two kilometers long. In the middle of a line of sky, looking up at the sky, you can only see a little sunlight transmitted by the shrubs in the high places. In some places, there are boulders hanging in mid-air, as if smiling at the pedestrians below.

This is the only way from Nanping to Fuzhou, Jiangxi, since the Yuan Dynasty, a pass was built here, it is called Qiu He Pass. During the Ming Dynasty, it once belonged to the management of the 100 households in the heart of Nanping Weili, and a card was set up here to collect centigold from passing merchants. Five years ago, since the opening of the trade route in Fujian, Geng Jingzhong had already ordered that no place should be allowed to collect taxes on passing merchants, so the merchants who passed through Guò were constantly coming and going. However, the terrain here is special, and the narrowest part cannot allow horse-drawn carriages to pass, so it greatly hinders the development of commerce between the two places. Originally, there were not many businesses between the two places, and some small caravans could push a wheelbarrow to pass back and forth, but now it is no longer possible, and the trade volume between the two places has increased more than tenfold, and the original mode of transportation has long been greatly inconsistent.

It's just that this place is at the junction of two provinces, and Nanping has never thought of building roads here, so this place is a line of five people. But at the moment. The hustle and bustle of the canyon is in full swing. Thousands of people came here to work, wielding pickaxes and shovels. The canyon will be widened continuously. The project here is nearing completion, and the original narrow line of sky has changed greatly. This place is under the jurisdiction of Yanping Road Administration Company, and it is beginning to widen this first-line sky canyon. The two projects here are relatively huge, but they are still funded by the Jingnan Palace, and the Yanping Road Administration Company is fully responsible.

The whole canyon is not short like the "Avenue of Stars" as wide as ten meters, more than half of the length, these places do not need to be widened, only the ground below is paved. But the rest is divided into a narrow area of about a dozen sections. It was necessary to chisel out the mountain wall and expand it to be more than six meters wide, so that at least two carriages could be accommodated in parallel without crowding. Although there has not yet been a successful development of high-performance explosives like detonators, there are stone mines made by the old method, and the effect of blasting rocks is also very good, which also greatly accelerates the progress of the project.

At the Qiu He Pass in the rear, Zhao Qunshan, deputy Qianhu under the command of Guo Jing, commander of the 8th Battalion of the Marine Corps, led four brigades with a total of 400 soldiers of the 8th Battalion to be stationed here a month ago. Thirty members of the direct guard. The duty of their team is to hold the pass here, in the event that an army from other provinces wants to enter Fujian. All of them will be blocked, and no soldiers and horses will be allowed to pass through the customs. In the past, there was only a local patrol battalion responsible for maintaining law and order here, but the patrol battalion was not a standing combat force, and had no combat capability at all.

But at this moment, the soldiers of the eighth battalion are different, obviously, they are responsible for supervising the construction of the project here, in fact, after the construction of this place, they will not go again, only for a year's period of guard, without waiting for other troops to come to change the guard, they will not move a step. The discipline of the Marine Army was extremely strict, and the soldiers had long been accustomed to the life of obeying orders and prohibitions, and they practiced regularly in this place every day. This can be regarded as an excellent scenery in the deep mountains and old forests.

In the past, the soldiers of the former Ming Guards were corrupted and corrupted, and the common people here suffered greatly, and the merchants in the past were also because the defending officers here were too greedy, and the number of merchants who came and went was greatly reduced. Even five years ago, when Geng Jingzhong did not give an order, the patrol battalion here often scraped the place, but it was not as strict as the former Ming Guard. Even after receiving Geng Jingzhong's order, there are still people below who are yang and yin, but it is obvious that the action is a lot more restrained. This time it was the best, the soldiers of the Marine Army came, and the patrol battalion here was directly transferred back to the county barracks in Nanping County, and they were no longer needed to be stationed here. The people of the town and the merchants of the past have praised the changes in this place.

At this critical pass, six Fran cannons were secretly mobilized and placed at the head of the city. However, the cannons were not revealed, but were all covered by stone platforms, and there was no trace of anomaly visible from the outside. On the top of the sky above the pass, among the grasses, under the cover of trees and half-human-high artemisia grass, a lot of masonry, stone and wood have been placed, but this is not the time to use them. Piles of stones are piled up into small stone mountains, which can be used immediately when an enemy comes to attack, and the enemy who smashes them is turned on their backs.

In fact, the more than 400 soldiers on the pass are all superb in martial arts and accurate in marksmanship, and hundreds of muskets can completely form a dense firepower network on the pass, and form multiple rounds of shooting to cut off the enemy's retreat. However, there are also six Fran machine guns hidden here, and in front of this line of Heavenly Canyon, even if there are 100,000 troops, it is difficult to forcibly break through from here. With such an arrangement, no matter how brave the enemy is, standing under the canyon and letting the artillery bombardment, stone smashing and musket fire, he can not hope to survive, as long as the ammunition is sufficient, the four hundred soldiers can always defend.

There are also seven other transportation arteries in Fujian, such as Qiu Heguan, which connect other provinces, and Geng Jingzhong has sent hundreds of soldiers to garrison each place, which is also carried out after he has consulted with Yao Qisheng and Li Guangdi. Fortunately, some time ago, when he was in disaster relief, he had already sent eight battalions of marines to various provinces and counties to take charge of law and order, so mobilizing some of them to these transportation arteries would not arouse the suspicion of others. Then again, at this moment, Yunnan, Guichuan and Guangdong are already nervous, at least loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and some of his actions in Fujian should also be.

Geng Jingzhong was busy designing the land reform plan in Mawei for more than a month, and he was half tired to death. I also feel that I have nothing to do, and I am busy with this matter for a while. It feels like everything that should be considered has been taken into account. So he took the guards out to sea to relax. By the way, look at how the warships of the two detachments in the new shipyard are being built!

The new shipyard in the northern part of Pingtan Island has been busy since the dockyard was built. The timber sent from Guangdong in the early stage can start to build the main body of the warship, and it is the main body of several third-class warships, and the subsequent timber has been continuously sent. At the same time as the construction of large warships, the fourth and fifth class warships, as well as light clippers, etc., are also being built at the same time, but the smaller the ship, the easier it is to build.

Geng Jingzhong took Gu Ping on a naval warship. Going directly to the new shipyard, the guards here are tight enough, the northern waters of Pingtan Island are completely blocked by naval warships, and no external ships can enter, even the fishermen close to here are not allowed to enter the waters here to fish. The warship that Geng Jingzhong was riding was his own warship, and after the flag was issued to announce the order, he could directly enter the dock in the shipyard and dock. The wharf in this place is specially set up for ships transporting timber, and it is also easy to disembark here.

As soon as he got off the boat, Geng Jingzhong found a mountain of timber piled up not far away. He also spent some time at the Mawei shipyard. The role of wood is also understood. After his inspection, most of them could be used to make keels for large battleships. This is for the new shipyard. Definitely a happy event. Because, this means that there is no bottleneck that restricts the production of large warships, then his two new detachments can be completed smoothly.

In the past two years, the biggest problem restricting the development of the Mawei Navy has been the keel issue of large warships. Because in Fujian, there are very few big trees that are more than 100 years old, and ordinary trees are definitely not possible if they want to be used to make keels. The best local trees in Fujian can only be used to make the keel of a fifth-level battleship, and if you want to use it to make a third-level and fourth-level battleship, it does not meet the requirements. In addition, timber merchants in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places did not dare to come to Fujian to sell timber again, so Geng Jingzhong had to seek cooperation with Shang Zhixin in Guangdong.

It is the keel that determines the final mass of a battleship. For this reason, the shipyard masters are very strict in the selection of keel wood, and they would rather be lacking than excessive. Fortunately, there is more timber in Guangdong, and it is still possible for him to build two detachments. In front of me, there are a large number of ancient trees that require two or even three people to hug in this pile of wood, and some exaggerated trees actually require four or five people to hug them. These ancient trees, not to mention the keel used to make a third-class battleship, are used to make a second-class and first-class battleship, they are completely sufficient.

Transporting the wood was originally a problem for these merchants, but as long as there were enough benefits, coupled with the pressure from Shang Zhixin, they still quickly came up with a solution. There were not so many merchant ships transporting timber, so they tied up the timber and formed a raft shape, which floated into the sea from the Pearl River, and then used a sea ship to pull the timber forward, but the timber was sent to the new shipyard smoothly. As the ships were approaching the shipyard, the sailors received the timber, which the warship then pulled and drove to the new shipyard docks.

Geng Jingzhong looked at the wood, as if he had seen the formed warships. As long as there are enough warships, what are the Spaniards afraid of? What are the Dutch afraid of? You Spain has a thousand warships, and I'll get you ten thousand! If you Dutch have 10,000 ships, I'll get you 100,000!" In the future, if he succeeds in his great cause, he will go to Changbai Mountain and Daxing'an Mountains to cut wood, all of which will be used to build warships and vigorously train the navy, and then the whole world will be the back garden of the Mawei Navy.

"This pile is being transported to docks one to sixteen!"

"This pile is being transported to docks seventeen to forty!"

"This pile was transported to the 40th and onwards, and it was all used to build clippers, and the thickness of the wood was obviously inferior!"

By Geng Jingzhong's side, there were also people from the shipyard who kept issuing instructions, and they didn't have the slightest idea of Geng Jingzhong's arrival. Geng Jingzhong watched the workers in the shipyard constantly busy, and he didn't bother them, after all, he was wearing civilian clothes, as long as he didn't show his identity, many shipyard workers still couldn't recognize him.

Because it is the wood to make the keel, it must be preserved as well as possible and cannot be truncated, so the general wood, without dozens of people, cannot be lifted at all. Some timber even has hundreds of people to carry it together, which shows the weight of wood. Here, Geng Jingzhong's design of the pulley block played a big role, which saved the workers a lot of trouble. In fact, even if there is a pulley set. At the time of transferring some super large wood. The creaking sound of the pulley block. It also made the people around him, a heart hang in their throats, for fear that the rope would suddenly break, or the pulley set bracket would crack.

With the implementation of Geng Jingzhong's plan to conquer Luzon, the new shipyard launched a new round of frantic shipbuilding plans. The original number of naval warships was already quite a lot, but Geng Jingzhong still felt that it was not enough, and the old maritime power Spain he had to deal with this time was only one of his small territories. But you have to be well prepared. The first thing to do in this naval confrontation is to have enough warships. Geng Jingzhong roughly estimated that to counter the Spanish power in the Far East, the Mawei Navy would have to add two detachments to ensure security.

Geng Jingzhong was afraid that during the period when he took Luzon, the Dutch would make trouble for him, or Zheng Jing couldn't hold it back, and his eyes were red, so . It has to be planned carefully to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Of course. The most basic thing is that you must be strong. Fortunately, his current power has made Zheng Jing afraid, and he does not dare to come to make enemies of him.

If conditions permit, Geng Jingzhong wants to directly build a third-class battleship of this level, at least about two hundred. Ships of this class, when fighting at sea, are the main warships, even in Europe. On the seas of Southeast Asia, it can be regarded as the existence of an absolute deterrent force, not to mention that there are 200 ships now, as long as there are 30 more ships, he will take Taiwan first, so that he can be justified in any aspect without hiding and tucking it away.

Now in the South Seas, there are many fifth-class warships, Spain has stationed more than 30 in Manila, and the Dutch Batavia also has a lot, but they are only used as auxiliary warships, and some fourth-class warships can participate in the main battle, but the third-level Spain has none, and the Dutch have two. Under normal circumstances, the displacement of fifth-class warships is not less than 500 tons, which is also the capital of foreigners to dominate the South Seas.

The main warships of the Western powers in the South China Sea have a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. In particular, the Dutch fleet numbered as many as twenty or thirty warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and there was a tendency to continue to increase. Just if you want to really gain a foothold in the South Seas, occupy a place, and play the majesty of the Mawei Navy, you must have a large number of third-class ships. These 16 third-class warships with a displacement of 1,700 tons have been built and two new squadrons have been formed, and their own Mawei Navy can send troops to the South China Sea without any scruples. The Dutch must have weighed before they dared to do it. The point is that he has already sent an envoy to Britain, and presumably Britain will have a way to contain the Netherlands.

Geng Jingzhong also didn't think about building larger first-class and second-class warships, he now has the blueprints of the first and second grades, but he doesn't want to build them himself. At this moment, his third-class battleship is no worse than the second-class battleship of the West, but it is the absolute main force. And the ships of that class, in general, their symbolic significance, is greater than the practical significance. The cost of such a super-large warship is too high, and the technical difficulty is also great, so it is difficult to mass produce. The main force of the battle at sea should still be the third-class and fourth-class warships.

"His Royal Highness!" After receiving the report and knowing Geng Jingzhong's arrival, Jason hurriedly came up to greet him.

"How's it going? How long will it take to finish? Geng Jingzhong asked with concern as soon as he saw Jason.

"It is estimated that it will be completed and launched in two months!" Jason replied confidently.

According to Jason's description, the construction of the battleship is now in full swing. With all the conditions fully met, it would take only two more months for the detachment to be successfully launched. If there are no accidents, the new shipyard can build fifty third-class warships every year, and if there are accidents, such as insufficient raw materials, not enough workers, insufficient financial resources, etc., it will affect the production of third-class warships.

In fact, Geng Jingzhong spent money to build more warships. In addition to building a large number of warships in its new shipyard, the Mawei Navy has also ordered a full 200 light warships from various civilian shipyards to strengthen its naval combat forces in the coastal waters. Those warships only need local wood from Fujian, but there is no need to worry too much.

Although light warships cannot sail far, it seems that they can no longer keep up with the needs of the development of the times. However, in coastal operations, their combat capability is still very strong. In particular, the construction of light warships has low technical difficulty and low cost, and can explode in a short time. You can think about it, more than 200 light warships, rushing up, even if it is a third-class battleship, will have a headache.

Geng Jingzhong had already invested millions of taels of silver, and seeing that the return was just around the corner, he became more and more excited, and under the leadership of Jason, he quickly walked towards the dock. With a large amount of silver support, Geng Jingzhong is not worried that the ship will not be built. (To be continued......)