Listening to Marshal Xiahou Min's complaints, Fang Xiaoyu nodded, although the national strength of the Lanfang Empire is strong, the investment in the military is not much, just like Marshal Xia Jun had a headache for the cost of replacing guns for the army, Xiahou Min also had a headache about the lack of naval funds.

Xiahou Min continued: "People say that you are a golden hand, as long as you come up with an idea, you can make money, can you think of a way for our navy, and let us be rich." Recently, the Japanese country on the other side of the sea is carrying out reforms, not only building industries but also collecting donations to buy warships throughout the country, and if this continues, I believe that our navy will be in danger of being suppressed by them in less than ten years. ”

"Wa Kingdom?" Fang Xiaoyu has learned about this country from books, this country is an island country with the same environment as Japan on the earth, the same environment has created their same island country character, these Japanese people are as cruel, they are just as crazy as they want to occupy the mainland, and they are also crazy about expanding the navy.

Fang Xiaoyu thought for a while and said, "I would like to ask Marshal Xiahou how the ships of our navy are classified, and what types of ships are there?" Xiahou Min said: "Our navy is all wooden sailing ships, which are roughly divided into three categories, battleships, cruisers and frigates. Generally, a battleship with more than 100 guns on the three decks, a cruiser with about 50 guns on the two decks, and a frigate with about 30 guns on the first deck. The battleships were relatively large and expensive, so the four fleets of the Navy had only 50 battleships, and there were more than 180 cruisers, and the rest were frigates. ”

Fang Xiaoyu nodded and said, "Although this frigate is not big, it should be enough to deal with pirates." Xiahou Min said: "Of course it's enough, but there are too many pirates, and we can't suppress them, so we also went to exterminate them at first, but later we found that we spent too much money and didn't have any input, so we didn't care about them." Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "The pirates are going to be suppressed, but the marshal's method is wrong." ”

After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's words, Xiahou Min said strangely: "This suppression of pirates is the suppression of pirates, is there any different method?" Fang Xiaoyu asked, "Then I want to ask the marshal, what do pirates do for a living?" Xiahou Min replied without thinking: "Of course, it is by robbing merchant ships." ”

Fang Xiaoyu nodded and said, "Yes, pirates live by robbery, if they can't rob merchant ships, they naturally can't survive." Xiahou Min nodded, listening to Fang Xiaoyu continue to say: "If we send frigates to escort merchant ships, pirates will naturally not dare to rob, because they are only pirates after all, and they are still incomparable to the regular navy." ”

Xiahou Min said: "This is a solution, the pirates have no livelihood, so they naturally can't survive, either they will break up, or they will fight with the navy to kill themselves, but what does this have to do with the navy making money?" Fang Xiaoyu smiled secretly, this marshal is a good hand in naval warfare, but he has no business acumen at all, no wonder the navy is so poor, what is the use of just a little military expenditure from the imperial court.

Fang Xiaoyu said: "We can charge a fee for escorting merchant ships with frigates, so we won't make money?" Xiahou Min said: "If you charge a fee, how can those mercenary merchants agree, they would rather take risks themselves, anyway, there are not many incidents of pirate looting." Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "Of course, there are not many pirate raids without naval escort, but if we start escorting, there will be many businessmen, especially big businessmen looking for us to escort, their family is big, and safety is more important than that money." Once these merchant ships are escorted by us, the pirates will have to plunder the merchant ships that are not escorted, and the losses of those merchant ships that are not escorted will become more and more great. The greater the loss, the more and more merchant ships will pay for us to escort, so that in less than a year, all the merchant ships will find the navy to escort them, and the pirates will inevitably disappear without entry, and the navy has also found a way to make money, and also exercise the sailors' ability to sail in the ocean, which is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone. ”

After listening to Fang Xiaoyu's words, Xiahou Min suddenly realized: "This is really a good way, with these good ideas, our navy will not be short of money." Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "To make money, we must pay attention to open source and reduce expenditure, and one method is not enough." Xiahou Min was already getting more and more excited when he listened, and he asked, "What else is there to buy?" Fang Xiaoyu asked, "The navy should have a lot of shipyards, right?" Xiahou Min said: "Yes, there are as many as twelve large shipyards of the navy in the entire coastal area, but we don't have so many warships to build, they are usually only responsible for the repair of warships, it can be said that they lose money every year, and I am planning to ask the imperial court to reduce some." ”

Still want to cut it? Fang Xiaoyu secretly said that he came very timely, if the navy abolished all the shipyards, it would be a big loss. Fang Xiaoyu said: "How about this?" I bought these shipyards. Xiahou Min said: "You bought it?" So how many are you going to buy? ”

Fang Xiaoyu clasped his hands and smiled: "All, I want all the twelve shipyards." Xiahou Min was shocked when he heard Fang Xiaoyu's big tone, but he also heard that Fang Xiaoyu had recently slaughtered the Cheng family and made a lot of profits, so he had no doubts that Fang Xiaoyu could come up with so much money.

After thinking about it for a while, Xiahou Min still shook his head and said: "This is not good, if it is all given to you, where will my warship be repaired?" Fang Xiaoyu seemed to have already understood his concerns, took a sip of tea and said: "We can make an agreement, these twelve shipyards will sell them to me at a low price, and I will repair your ship for free, and pay 10 million yuan to the navy every year as a fund?" ”

Xiahou Min thought about it for a while and said: "If this is really a good thing, the shipyard gives it to you, our navy can repair ships for free, and pay back 10 million funds every year, and we can not invest money in the shipyard, then our navy will make a lot of money." Fang Xiaoyu secretly laughed, who made a lot of money is not necessarily.

Xiahou Min said: "If this is the case, then I will ask the imperial court to sell the shipyard to you." Fang Xiaoyu said again: "I wonder if the Ludao Navy wants to invest and make money with me?" This would also allow the Navy to be more financially funded. ”

Fang Xiaoyu teased Marshal Xiahou Min like a big bad wolf that tempted the little white rabbit. This marshal's business acumen is not ordinarily bad, but he knows that the more money the better, at least he can build a few more ironclad ships like the 'Quanzhou'.

For cooperating with Fang Xiaoyu to make money, this is something that the merchants of the entire Lanfang Empire dream of. Xiahou Min, who is now thinking about money in order to build a new ship, will not miss such an opportunity, he hurriedly asked: "No problem, I don't know what you plan to cooperate with us?" ”

Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "Anything can be done, as long as there is naval protection, you can make money doing anything, first of all, I want to open an international trading company." Xiahou Min was puzzled: "What is an international trading company?" Fang Xiaoyu explained: "It is to transport our goods to the Western Continent or the New World by sea ship, and to transport their specialties back. But in this way, I need a lot of land to open a workshop or farm, which requires the help of Marshal Xiahou. I will list the finances of this trading company separately, and 10% of the annual profits will be given to the navy as military expenses. ”

Xiahou Min shook his head: "No, at least forty percent." Fang Xiaoyu didn't give up and said: "At most, I need to provide my own manpower, my own equipment, and my own shipping." You're just providing protection and land, so what's the point? If you lose money, you can bear it, and I will give you forty percent. ”

"Two achievements and two percent are good." Xiahou Min looked at Fang Xiaoyu with a smile. Fang Xiaoyu secretly scolded for falling into the trap, this marshal has a bad business mind, but he is not stupid at all when making money.

Fang Xiaoyu said: "Two achievements are two percent, but I need to go to the Western Continent once recently, and I can only start to establish the company when I come back, I'm afraid you will have to wait a few years?" "Wait a few years? Not necessarily. Xiahou Min said: "I will lend you the newly customized naval supply ship, which is an iron-ribbed wooden ship with a steam engine, and it can run fast, I'm afraid you can come back in a year." "With the way to make money, Xiahou Min didn't want to wait too long, so he made a bloody effort to let Fang Xiaoyu go and come back quickly.

After negotiating the matter, Fang Xiaoyu naturally didn't want to stay in the military port anymore, and Xiahou Min also got what he wanted, and he didn't keep it anymore. Fang Xiaoyu and the two returned to the hotel under the escort of the second lieutenant.

Back at the hotel, Fang Xiaoyu called Wu Yu and said, "Old Wu, you find a guy to send a letter to Mr. Hua and your eldest brother." Wu Yu said: "Young Master, we haven't left the Lanfang Empire yet, is something wrong?" Fang Xiaoyu smiled: "Something happened, but it's definitely a good thing." Fang Xiaoyu then said that the navy was going to do business with him, and added his own plan later.