After more than a month of preparation, by the end of November of Chongzhen 22, everything was ready.

Yan Yingyuan had already led the 2nd Division to Chongming Island to stand by, and the 2nd Division at this time was no longer a shelf division, but a full-fledged division after being combined with the town soldiers.

In addition to the 4th, 5th, and 6th mixed brigades, the 2nd Division also has a medical rescue team, a scout cavalry team, a guard team, and staff officers directly under the division headquarters.

The total number of people in the division is about 20,000.

In addition to Zhou Yu, the navy also requisitioned a large number of bird ships.

Among these bird ships, there were 10 2,000-class sailing ships, 20 1,000-class sailing ships, and 200 400-class sailing ships, which was more than enough to carry the personnel of the 2nd Division.

After everything was ready, Chongzhen held a swearing-in ceremony on the river outside Yanziji.

Chongzhen hates formalism, but he still has a positive attitude towards some rituals, such as worshipping ancestors on the first day of the new year, and worshipping ancestors on the Qingming Festival, these rituals he believes can improve ethnic identity, and it is necessary to keep them.

There is also a swearing-in ceremony before the army goes out, which can also improve ethnic identity and enhance national pride, so it is necessary to make a special effort, and wait until after the triumph from the Japanese kingdom to have a victory ceremony.

After the news spread, there was no need to organize, and the entire city of Nanjing was empty in an instant.

Among the crowds that flocked to the riverside, there were more than 9,000 students who had just passed the Nanjing Guozi Examination and hundreds of students who had entered Nanlin because of their military exploits or because of their parents' military exploits.

Among these students was Ri Woo-sung, a North Korean.

Li Yucheng was promoted to the Southern Prison because of his military exploits.

On the day he received the notice, Li Yucheng couldn't believe it.

It was also from that moment that Li Yucheng secretly swore a poisonous oath that he would swear allegiance to the Ming Dynasty in this life and never betray!

"It's coming, the navy's fleet is coming!" With waves of cheers, the crowd of spectators crowded by the river suddenly became commotion.

If it weren't for the presence of the officials of Ying Tianfu to maintain order, someone would have been squeezed down the riverbank.

Rao is like this, and the officials who maintain order are also busy and sweating profusely.

Because Li Yucheng was standing on a higher terrain and next to the river, he had a very good field of vision, and he just raised his eyes to see the fleet of the Yangtze River moving southward.

But I saw a huge warship at the head.

The battleship was covered with hard and thick iron armor throughout.

The chimney in the middle, raised upwards, is spewing black smoke.

Behind this huge warship were hundreds of warships of various sizes.

Looking from a distance, I saw that the dense warships almost covered the surface of the Yangtze River!

Almost at the same time as the crowd on the shore cheered, the ironclad ship at the head let out a long air whistle: Ang ......

Hearing the loud and long-lasting sound of the air whistle, the people on the shore cheered more and more, and the huge wave almost suppressed the loud air whistle.

Listening to the loud sound of air whistles and the cheers of the mountains and tsunamis,

Li Yucheng was so excited that he burst into tears, and couldn't help kneeling on the ground: Long live Daming!

……

With tears in his eyes, it was not only Li Yucheng who was in tears, but also an Italian mathematician and physicist who traveled to Nanjing on the Portuguese merchant ship "Duke", Viviani.

Viviani was "tricked" into a letter from Pascal.

By the way, the concept of air pressure was first proposed by Viviani, but the naming rights of the pressure unit fell to Pascal, and when the news reached Europe, Viviani was not convinced.

So after receiving Pascal's transoceanic letter, he decided to come to Daming to have a look.

Viviani wanted to see how much the emperors of the Ming Empire really valued science?

And Pascal's Daming Royal University, is there so many students?

A university with 40,000 students? How is it possible, more than the total population of the city of Florence? How is it possible in the world to have such a large university?

After nearly a year of turbulence across the ocean, we finally arrived in Nanjing without danger.

However, before he could go ashore, he saw the Ming naval fleet coming down the river.

As the ships of the naval fleet cut almost the entire length of the river, the "duke" on which Viviani was riding was squeezed to the south bank of the Yangtze River, and was almost stranded.

Viviani was completely shocked by the sheer size of the Ming naval fleet.

Viviani was particularly shocked by the ironclad battleship at the head.

A battleship covered with steel plates can actually sail? And there are no sails?

How does a battleship without sails move? Just by the steam engine that Pascal said in his letter?

"Oh my God, oh my God, it's not true, these must not be true!"

Viviani closed his eyes and opened them again, but the expected "illusion" did not disappear, the huge ironclad ship was still moving slowly, and once again let out a loud air whistle.

It took a long time for Viviani to finally recover from the shock.

However, when Viviani set his sights on the shore, he was once again shocked.

"Oh my God!" Viviani let out an exclamation again, there were so many people?

Did the Ming Dynasty gather all the people of the entire empire to the river? To review this fleet?

The shock again and again almost numbled Viviani, and he did not even know when the merchant ship "Duke" would dock, until the sailor reminded him to disembark.

"Da Ming, I'm here!" Viviani grabbed his hat and got up to get off the boat.

……

At this time, Chongzhen did not know that Pascal had recruited another mathematician and physicist for Daming, but was in the official hall of Zhou Yu to meet a businessman who had come all the way from Guangdong.

The merchant's name was Chen Bishan, and he was an iron merchant in Foshan.

Moreover, the Chen family has been engaged in iron smelting and selling iron in Foshan for more than three generations.

Chen Bishan was introduced by Kang Million, the two had contact before, and Kang Million felt that Chen Bishan had a good character and was very business-minded, so he introduced him to Chongzhen.

After a short period of contact, Chongzhen also had a basic judgment on Chen Bishan.

Kang Million's comments are reliable, this Chen Bishan does have brains and knows how to operate, and more importantly, the Chen family has been engaged in iron smelting and selling iron for generations, and is familiar with this industry.

This is exactly the ideal person Chongzhen is looking for.

At that moment, Chongzhen didn't say any more nonsense, and said straight to the point: "Shopkeeper Chen, what I am looking for you for, I guess you already know, right?" ”

Chen Bishan hurriedly said: "Gong Kang has already informed the grass people of everything. ”

"Okay, then I'll have something to say." Chongzhen nodded and said, "A total of 90,000 craftsmen, among which there should be many master-level craftsmen, plus the thousands of craftsmen in your Chen Ji Iron Smelting Workshop, plus the unlimited full support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, how much can you increase the production capacity of the Hanyang Iron Smelting Workshop within a year?" ”

】

"Capacity?" Chen Bishan couldn't react at once.

Chongzhen said: "That is, how much iron can be smelted in a year?" ”

Chen Bishan estimated it and said categorically: "No less than 30 million catties!" ”

From here, it can be seen that Chen Bishan does have two brushes, because when Wu Jinxi was appointed as the imperial history of iron smelting, he only dared to guarantee the production of 20 million catties of iron, that is, 10,000 tons!

But Chen Bishan dared to boast that he produced 15,000 tons of iron!

Chongzhen then asked, "What about the second year?" What about five years from now? ”

Chen Bishan said without thinking: "At least 40 million catties of iron will be produced in the next year, and at least 50 million catties after five years!" However, 50 million catties is the most, and if you want more, you must increase the number of craftsmen. ”

"Don't worry." Chongzhen said, "No matter how many craftsmen you want, you can do it." ”

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "I will not only give you enough craftsmen, but also give you a steam engine, in short, you just have to rivet enough to increase the production capacity of the Hanyang Iron Smelting Workshop for me, the more the better!" ”

"Grass People's Command." Chen Bishan hurriedly knelt on the ground to receive the order, ready to take office.

"Excuse me." Chongzhen waved his hand, and then said, "Chen Bishan, you also spend a few hundred silver tickets to ask the Ministry of Officials to donate the official title of a member of the Ministry of Labor, and don't kneel anymore when you see me." ”

After a pause, he said, "Our Ming Dynasty has abolished the kneeling ceremony. ”

"Grass People's Command." After Chen Bishan finished speaking, he habitually knelt on the deck.

Chongzhen could only shake his head when he saw this, and then instructed Zheng Zhilong: "Duke Min, get a small boat to send Chen Yuanwai ashore." ”

"Command." Zheng Zhilong immediately signaled Shi Tianfu to put down the boat and send Chen Bishan ashore, and Shi Tianfu led Chen Bishan out of Zhou Yu's official hall.

Chongzhen asked Zheng Zhilong again: "By the way, I have been busy in the Gewu Department for a while, and I didn't bother to ask about the Wa Kingdom, have you arranged the conflict over there in Osaka?" ”

Arrange a reason to use force, not to give an explanation to the country, but only to give an explanation to the country, after all, the Ming Dynasty is a country that respects Confucianism, and the emphasis is on the famous teacher, the righteous soldiers, and the lack of way.

"Holy rest assured, everything has been arranged." Zheng Zhilong said with a smile, "If nothing else, within this half a month, the Ming merchants living in Osaka will riot and rebel against the tyranny of the Tokugawa shogunate." ”

Chongzhen was surprised and said: "Is there a businessman from the Ming Dynasty in Osaka?" ”

"Naturally, there are, and there are quite a few of them." Zheng Zhilong nodded and said, "After all, the Tokugawa shogunate's lockdown is a matter of recent years, less than ten years ago, Osaka Port could still trade freely, so there were many Ming merchants stationed in Osaka for a long time, and later the Tokugawa shogunate locked the country, and only allowed Ming merchants to do business in Nagasaki, but it did not drive away the merchants who lived in Osaka." ”

"I see." Chongzhen said again, "By the way, there won't be many deaths, right?" ”

"Don't worry, the ministers have already made arrangements." Zheng Zhilong said, "The merchants who participated in the uprising will immediately retreat to Kankong Island in Osaka Bay after robbing the rice market of Dojima, and Guankong Island is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if nothing else, the Tokugawa shogunate will definitely choose the strategy of luring and surrendering, so the merchants who are involved in the uprising will definitely be able to hold out until the main force of the navy arrives." ”