Tianjin Wei Wharf, Li Xiao stood on the wharf.

Two black dots appeared on the sea level, and the black dots gradually expanded. Everyone gasped, and the battleship approaching in the distance had no sails. This thing is like a legendary beast of the wilderness, constantly spitting black smoke, but faster than a galleon with full sails.

As the boat approached the dock, the workers on the dock felt that their legs were weak, and groups of people knelt down and bowed. I've been on the dock all my life, and I've never seen such a big ship. The tall ones are suffocating, and the whistle sounds like a dragon's roar. They looked at the people on the ship as if mortals were looking up to the god-men.

Li Xiao nodded with satisfaction, and finally built such two ships in three years. Fully steam-powered, the speed is twice as fast as that of a sailboat of the same class. In fact, there are no sailboats of the same class. The huge five-masted ship looks like a kindergarten child in front of the giant ship.

The only regret is that the ship is still made of wood. This is also a helpless thing, the current technical conditions can not effectively weld the steel plate, and now there is no qualified cold-rolled steel plate.

The high spiral ladder was lowered, and the fisherman, supported by his grandson, walked down the gangway with a smile.

"You've worked hard!" Li Xiao stepped forward and shook the fisherman's rough hand. In these years, the construction of a warship the same size as the Liaoning made of wood is enough to prove the exquisite shipbuilding skills of the old fisherman.

"Huh! Originally, I wanted to build one, but there was no way to achieve ship rotation. The second master always chattered, saying that the five-masted ships under his command were too few and too old. Even on his boat, there was wood rotting. Now it's okay, there are two at once, which is enough for him to be happy for a while. The second master didn't come? ”

"No, the military newspaper said that the Yangtze River estuary only came out ten days ago. Now it is estimated that he is floating on the Yellow Sea, and if he sees such a big ship, he will definitely be crazy. Two at a time! To make him happy, I didn't even tell him. just said that he would come back and go back to his hometown in Liaodong to pay tribute to his father and mother during the New Year. ”

"There's no way not to make it this big, because the boiler is too big. If you don't make the ship bigger, it won't fit at all. The old man didn't expect that in this life, he would be able to build a boat that could sail without sails. It's so big, like a mountain.

The front main guns are all newly cast, and the caliber and firing range are fully twice as large as the previous guns, and the fly in the ointment is that the reloading is too slow. The original copper cannon was mounted on both sides. The aft deck was not equipped with a main gun, but with twenty heavy rocket launchers. Didn't you say this thing was strong enough, so let's just put it all on at once. This thing hits a target on land, and as long as you turn the stern of the ship, the overwhelming cannonballs can smash the mountains and shake the ground. What is Jinling Chengqian, even a mountain can collapse. ”

The old fisherman was obviously very satisfied with his masterpiece, and his hands kept pointing at the giant ship, and his face was full of proud smiles.

Anyone who can build these two giant ships in their lifetime is something to be proud of. In this era, these two battleships are definitely the best in the world!

"The second child turns twenty years old this year, and these two ships are considered his birthday gifts."

"Yo! That's got to come up with a good name! The old fisherman said with a smile.

"This ship is called Dingyuan, and that ship is called Zhenyuan. The name written by Mr. Sun himself! ”

"Dingyuan, Zhenyuan. Good, good name. ”

Not far behind Li Xiao, Ao Canghai took a sip of wine in a wine jug. "The battle on land has not yet been fought, so how can I think of shipbuilding? It would be enough to build two or three more divisions of such a large ship. Against whom is such a big ship against? Wa Kingdom? North Korea? They are all as well-behaved as cats, and there is Zheng Zhilong in the South China Sea, and it is not our turn to intervene. ”

"Drinking can't stop your mouth, I didn't hear that it was a gift for the second master. The handsome man loves his younger brother, so he just builds two ships, which is not a big deal. Zhang Huangyan stroked his beard, he was shocked by such a big ship. However, the old fox is an old fox after all, and the so-called very shocked, in fact, it was only shocked for ten minutes.

No matter how big a ship is, it's just a man-made tool. Tools are tools, and people are the masters of this world.

The old fisherman invited Li Xiao to board the Zhenyuan, and when Li Xiao held on to the railing and looked at the cheering crowd below, a feeling of being alone arose.

Li Xiao doesn't speak, others don't speak, everyone doesn't speak. Everyone was immersed in the sheer size and horror of the battleship!

Standing on the giant ship, you can have a bird's-eye view of the entire Tianjin Wei Wharf. The Tianjin Guardhouse Wall in the distance can also be seen, and with the help of binoculars, Li Xiao can even see the big banner with bright characters fluttering in the wind on the head of the city.

The three cavalrymen galloped on the official road, and the smoke and dust from the horses' hooves rose into the sky. Li Xiao clearly saw the big red feathers on the heads of the knights, and these knights were carrying leather bags behind them. This is the legendary Red Feather Urgency, eight hundred miles in an emergency.

Li Xiao was shocked in his heart, Jiangnan had been pacified. It stands to reason that there is nothing particularly important now, and it is necessary to use 800 miles to expedite. You know, 800 miles of urgent rest of the horse. When the inn is farther away, a good horse will be exhausted to death. It is not important to deal with military information, and it will definitely not use 800 miles to expedit. In the Liao army, a lot of military intelligence is the use of carrier pigeons.

After all, what runs on the ground is far less fast than what flies in the sky.

Tianjin Wei is not a city like Jingshi, and Li Xiao is the only one who is qualified to receive an eight-hundred-mile expedited.

Li Xiao saw that Hongling was in a hurry to gallop all the way to Tianjin Wei Wharf, and the guards on the wharf saw Hongling from a distance and immediately opened the gate to let him go. I didn't dare not let it go, and it was in vain to be trampled to death by Hongling.

The guards didn't even stop him, and Hongling hurriedly ran all the way to the bottom of the boat and got on the boat under the guidance of the guards.

"Dashuai, Hongling is in a hurry from Jingshi." Junzi held the leather bag in both hands and presented it to Li Xiao.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiao muttered as he checked the fire paint on the leather bag.

Opening the leather bag, Li Xiao took out the cowhide envelope inside and tore it open. He took out his letterhead and froze after reading two lines.

The letter paper slipped from his hand, but fortunately, Ao Canghai quickly fished it back and didn't float into the water.

Zhang Huangyan took the letterhead, just glanced at it and immediately widened his eyes: "There is a warship of another country in the East China Sea, and the second master is seriously injured...... ”

"Go back to the capital!" Li Xiao had a calm face and walked down the gangway first.

The capital is the landing point of the flying pigeon, and in the era when there is no phone, no WeChat, and no text message, the Beijing division can get the latest information of the empire as soon as possible. Lao Chen Fu didn't do anything else during this time, he was busy with the establishment of a national spy network.

Hearing the news of Li Xiu's injury, Li Xiao's heart felt like grass had grown. Riding a horse all the way, when I returned to the capital, everyone was almost exhausted and collapsed.

"How's the second one? How could there be warships in the East China Sea? "When Li Xiao returned to the capital, the first thing he did was to find Lao Chen Fu. The whole empire, all the latest news he was the first to know.

"Uh......! In fact, more than 20 days ago, Zheng Zhilong discovered this fleet. His report said that the fleet did not sail through the strait, but suddenly appeared in the waters of Fujian. As soon as he made a move, he knocked out the Mawei Shipyard, and Zheng Zhilong's fleet resting in the Mawei Shipyard was almost completely wiped out.

As for the attack on the second master, it was because the fleet tracked Zheng Zhilong's escaped warship to the East China Sea. Chen Laohu's recital newspaper said that the second master entrusted the big ......! ”

"Don't talk about this, how is the second child's body? Where's the injury? Can the injury be severe? ”

Chen Laohu said in the newspaper that the second master was injured in the chest. It has been treated by military doctors, and the battleship has also been seriously injured and has returned to the Yangtze River. Docked at Jinling Wharf, the specific situation of the second master is unknown. But please rest assured, the old man has invited Doctor Li to go south to treat the second master. ”

Hearing that Li Zhongzi went to Jinling, Li Xiao's heart was also relaxed. Wounds on the battlefield are generally not dead in most cases as long as they are not dead at the time. Especially with penicillin, the injury and infection are no longer terminal. "Zheng Zhilong was attacked more than 20 days ago, you don't know here?"

"Handsome ......!" Lao Chen Fu was a little embarrassed, "Jiangnan is newly attached, and the carrier pigeon stations in Fuzhou and Quanzhou are newly established. One is that there are not many carrier pigeons, and the other is that there are many mountains and birds of prey. According to investigation, none of the three carrier pigeons sent out by Fuzhou returned to the capital. This news was sent to the capital by 800 miles from Fuzhou. ”

"Figure out where the fleet came from, how big it is. What weapons do they have, they can actually hurt the second child's ship like this. Li Xiao was a little puzzled, Li Xiu's five-masted ship was a ruthless character walking sideways in the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the Bohai Sea. How could he be beaten and fled into the Yangtze River? Who is the other party, so fierce?

"Chen Laohu reported more than 20 ships, and Zheng Zhilong reported more than 70 ships. The old man believes that the latter is more likely. Chen Laohu's recital newspaper said that those ships were also five-masted ships. But the ship seems to be bigger and faster than our five-masted ship. The most lethal thing is that the guns on their ships are also using flowering shells. The second master was seriously injured because the flowering bomb shattered the glass on the bridge.

After the second master's ship was severely damaged, he retreated all the way back to the mouth of the Yangtze River. Those battleships actually dared to follow the attack, and in the end, they used rocket artillery to scare those battleships away. As for which country the fleet belongs to, it has not yet been found. Chen Laohu's newspaper said that they seemed to be hanging a rice-shaped flag. has already sent a book to ask John Tang, and it is estimated that he can know which country is hanging the rice flag. ”

"Rice flags? I know! Li Xiao nodded, and at the same time muttered in his heart, why did the British run over.

It is now known that the British fleet was at least seventy ships in size, and all of them were large ships. A big ship bigger than a five-masted ship, what are these Britons going to do? Such a large fleet is definitely not here for a friendly visit. As soon as he made a move, he knocked out Zheng Zhilong's Mawei shipyard, and Zheng Zhilong also had two brushes. While in Macao, a lot of Dutch artillery was captured. In these years, all ships trading in the South China Sea must be planted with the banner of the Zheng family so as not to be robbed. It can be seen from the annual dividends to Li Xiao that this guy is the kind of person who receives money and receives hand cramps.

Why was it all of a sudden, the shipyard was ended.

Question marks lingered in Li Xiao's heart, but what Li Xiao was most anxious about was Li Xiu's condition.

"Tell Jinling immediately, and do your best to save the second child."

"No!"

"Order the coastal provinces, prefectures and counties, to keep a close eye on the movements of this fleet." Li Xiao was not surprised that the British came up with flowering bombs. After the gunpowder reached the West, these guys have been working on it. Just a few years ago, the most advanced artillery of the Ming Dynasty was still the Furlong cannon.

That kind of thing represented the world's advanced level at that time!

It is only after the appearance of a guy like Li Xiao that the artillery level of the Ming Dynasty leads the world. It's not surprising that the British are now tinkering with flowering cannonballs, after all, it's not too sophisticated technology.

The first question now is to figure out what the British are doing here.

"Tune up the hot air balloon to go to the coast and monitor this fleet. Every day, the position of the fleet was reported to me. Dick ......! Forget it, Chen Laohu led the crew of his department and hurried to Tianjin Wei Port to receive the new ship. If the ship in Jinling is broken, it will be broken, and it will be repaired there. ”

"No!"

Old Chen Fu took Li Xiao's order and left, and Sun Chengzong arrived when he walked on the front foot and Sun Chengzong on the back foot. As the head of the cabinet, he needs to know where this battleship came from, eating the bear's heart and leopard's gall. At the same time, Sun Chengzong also felt that he had been beaten up in this battle, and he didn't even know what nationality he was.

"Is there any news from Chen Fu?"

"No, but I know the ship is British. That country is the hegemon of the Western oceans and has colonies all over the world. These guys are not easy to deal with. I have asked Chen Laohu to come back with the team and take over the two boats that Yu Lao parked in Tianjin Wei Port.

In the future, we will have to approve more shipbuilding plans for Yu Lao. For thousands of years of civilization in China, the threat has always come from the northern barbarians. Now it's different, the danger comes from the sea.

The southeast coast is the soft underbelly of my Ming Dynasty, as long as foreign ships pass smoothly through the coast of Guangdong and Fujian. They can go all the way north and enter the Yangtze River at the mouth of the Yangtze River to threaten the second mansion of Susong.

Susong Erfu is the richest place in my Ming Dynasty, and it has hardly been damaged by military disasters over the years. Even the great plague did not affect the second mansion of Su Song. As long as I do a good job there, my Daming's economy will not be bad. This English fleet must be guaranteed to be killed, otherwise his long coastline will become a paradise for them to rob.

Sun Lao! These people are much more powerful than the Japanese in the past, and our department has encountered a strong opponent. ”

"England? The old man in this country has never heard of it, but since they have opened a station, we must not admit it. It's just a pity that in previous years there was too much debt to the Navy. The fisherman applied repeatedly and five times before he allocated money to build Zhenyuan and Dingyuan. If we now have twenty warships of the scale of Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, what are we afraid of England? ”

"There is an old fisherman, and the two boats are similar, you don't see it. These two ships are enough to surpass the entire fleet of the English! ”