On 26 March, Zhou Tian's fleet returned to Hang, and the trip was another great success, lasting a month and a half, covering the counties of Wu and Huiji in Yangzhou, the North and South Islands of the Ryukyus, the Hizen and Chikuzen provinces of the Wa Kingdom, Samhan and Baekje on the Korean Peninsula, and finally returning to Hang.

Zhou Tian gained a lot from this trip, earning 1,500 catties of gold, 20,000 catties of silver, 10 million catties of money, and also traded to buy a variety of special products back to Jiangnan, Ryukyu, Wakoku, and Sanhan, which was enough to load six large ships.

And the recruitment of craftsmen has little effect, because the land south of the Yangtze River is more comfortable, so that they venture to the north to live an unknown life, it is simply more difficult than ascending to the sky, but money can make the ghost grind, and it can be regarded as recruiting a group of craftsmen, mainly jade carving and porcelain and silk spinning craftsmen, this group of people are not very satisfactory in the local area, and most of them have no worries, so they follow to the north to try their luck.

Beifeng's silkworm spring silkworm breeding has begun, just send this group of craftsmen to guide, as long as you can bring out a group of apprentices, next year can be large-scale promotion, and the pottery industry in Santai Town is relatively developed, this time to bring back some craftsmen can be carried out on a large scale immediately, in addition to the various types of cloth purchased from the south of the Yangtze River, a wide variety, just assigned to the garment workshop to make spring and summer clothes, the jade workshop in the north of the city industrial zone has also ushered in a group of new skilled craftsmen, the carving process has been greatly improved.

In addition, Zhou Tian also got a batch of rice seedlings with rich varieties according to Zhuang Shaoyou's instructions and handed them over to Motu to test to see if he could really plant rice in southern Liaoning!

All walks of life in Liaonan County are booming, and the time has entered April in a blink of an eye, and now it has been two months since the issuance of new currency, and in these two months, an additional 2.5 million yuan of the world's Tongbao has been issued, but the recent news is not optimistic.

Because the amount of Jinbao in the world is sufficient, the design is exquisite, and the exchange ratio is acceptable, so the effect is not bad, and the circulation among merchants is relatively smooth, but the copper coin in the world Tongbao is also in a hurry, when it was first issued, it set off a huge response, and the entire southern Liaoning was sold out, but it soon disappeared from the market, and the same is true for the additional Tongbao.

Zhuang Shaoyou ordered Wu Liang to investigate the reason, and it turned out that the number of these Tongbao was relatively rare, and it was unanimously recognized by the general public, so the exchange rate was once speculated to a very high level, and the highest exchange rate was ten for the old five baht!

But soon disappeared as if a stone sank into the sea, there are two reasons, the first is that the people are looking forward to its appreciation, so after changing it back, they will be stored at home, and then refuse to take it out and use it, this reason makes Zhuang Shaoyou cry and laugh, but helpless, this group of lovely people, the value of currency is circulation, and they can't hide it!

But when Zhuang Shaoyou heard the second reason, he was immediately angry! After all, only a small number of them were collected by the people, accounting for about one-third, and many more were circulated to the Central Plains of the Yellow River Valley through the hands of merchants.

As for the reason why Jinbao can circulate in the world, it is mainly because the circle of his circulation is businessmen, and such a large amount of currency is not the currency used by ordinary people at all, so the popularity rate is not high, and gold, as a general equivalent, is calculated by weight, and it is difficult for gold to be mixed with cheap metals, and the ability of merchants to identify gold is very high, so the world's Jinbao can circulate smoothly.

Zhuang Shaoyou was very angry and made up his mind that he must eradicate these shameless clans, and in the future, he must destroy their entire clan! However, for the time being, there was nothing to be done, thinking about it for a long time, and finally ordered to stop casting the world's treasures, and make every effort to cast the world's gold treasures, and this time the 1,500 catties of gold brought back by Zhou Tian were all cast into gold treasures!

As for the mining of copper ore, it is carried out as usual, smelted into copper and stored for future disposal, so the new currency issuance action that has been vigorously disturbed for two months has temporarily calmed down in the mixed news, Jinbao is still in circulation, but the quantity has been limited, Tongbao is gradually fading out of people's sight.

On the first day of April, Motie sent back the news that a larger vein was found near the gold mine west of Xi'an Ping, and the preliminary estimated reserves were more than five times that of the original one, which is definitely a big vein!

Zhuang Shaoyou thought about it for a long time, but decided to send someone to inform Gongsun Du of the matter, and promised that it would definitely be divided according to the proportion in advance, and at the same time, he allowed Motie to recruit miners from Hongya Town on the spot, everything was preferential, and the speed of mining was accelerated.

On the other hand, the gold exchanged for the last issue of Jinbao and the gold traded back on Sunday, a total of 5,000 gold, were all used to mint the world's Jinbao, and silver and copper were temporarily reserved.

In April, the rivers of the north have thawed, and the new year's trade has begun again!

At present, there are already 20 three-masted merchant ships in the county, and it is difficult for the official to fully control them, so Zhuang Shaoyou decided to sell the merchant ships, and sell more than half of the 20 three-masted merchant ships, and the remaining few will be used to purchase special products from the north to transport them back to the reserves, and slow down the construction of the three-masted merchant ships, and send craftsmen to the five-masted dock to speed up the construction, and all the small number of three-masted merchant ships built in the future will be sold to local merchants, and only merchants with local merchant nationality can buy ships.

On the 10th day of April, the five-masted warship was finally launched for sea trials, and it took more than seven months from design to construction! Zhuang Shaoyou excitedly ran to participate in the sea trial.

After absorbing the natural way of shipbuilding ideas of the Austronesian natives of the Ryukyu Islands, and combining it with the exquisite shipbuilding ideas of the Mohists, a new shipbuilding idea was created.

The hull of the new ship is streamlined, more in line with the natural curve, and the shipbuilding style of the Han has been very different, the length and width of the hull ratio has increased, it appears more slender, and the draft has also increased significantly, enhancing the stability at sea.

The new five-masted warship is 21 zhang 2 feet long, 6 zhang 8 feet wide, 5 zhang high, and has a draft of 1 zhang and 4 feet, with a total of five masts. The sail is six horizontal and five vertical, and the speed of the ship is 280-600 miles per day, which is three percent higher than the speed of the four-masted warship.

The bottom bilge is equipped with 80 groups of manpower oars, the combat crew of the warship is 500 people, and the cargo hold space is 1,000 square meters.

As a result, the 30 manpower oars of the four-masted warship have been directly increased to 80 manpower oars, and these manpower oars are more advanced than the original, belonging to the third generation of manpower oars, and the instantaneous acceleration ability has been improved by a grade.

The armament of the warship was equipped, the foredeck was equipped with sixteen improved eight-shot bed crossbows, the firing range was increased to seven hundred paces, the loading time remained the same, and the number of operators remained 3-4 people; The stern of the ship was equipped with twelve improved small catapults, the firing range was increased to 600 paces, the loading time remained the same, and the number of operators remained 2-3 people.

The sides of the ship have been greatly changed, retaining the original six-shot fixed crossbow machine, 36 planes, a range of 250 paces, and 1-2 operators; Twenty-four eight-shot ballistas were added to the side of the ship, with a range of 600 paces and three operators, greatly increasing the attack range and intensity of the ships on both sides.

The cost price of the newly built five-masted warship is 2.4 million yuan, which is three times that of the four-masted warship, because the weapons and equipment are fully upgraded, the hull is larger, the keel is more demanding, the cost of materials is more, the production process is more demanding, and the production cycle is as long as three months! In the future, it will be slightly shorter as the production proficiency increases, but it will not be much less.

It can be said that this five-masted warship is already the most powerful warship in the Han Dynasty and even the whole world at this time, Zhuang Shaoyou thought like this, but he still didn't dare to be careless, the construction cost is so high, and the maintenance will be very high, and after the draft is greatly increased, those ordinary rivers do not know whether they can enter, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River are naturally no problem, and the downstream of Mazi Water is not a big problem, and the White Wolf Water is definitely not good, I don't know if Liaoshui can enter, it seems that someone has to be sent to measure it!

The design drawings of the five-masted sailing ship are the continuous accumulation and improvement of the Mohist family for several generations, and the corresponding improvements have been made after the ink integrates the way of nature with the way of human thinking, but the drawings of the larger ships after the five-masted sailing ship are gone, and can only be redesigned, and the speed will be much slower!

Zhuang Shaoyou thought about it again and again, and estimated that the five-masted warship would not have an opponent in the next few years, so he suspended the research on the new warship, or went all out to build the five-masted warship and build merchant ships, as well as enrich the ship type, and the ink also agreed, the design drawings are not something that can be done in a while.

In the end, Zhuang Shaoyou decided to allocate another 10 million dollars for the construction of new warships and the design of five-masted merchant ships, as well as other new ship types.

In late April, the first wave of caravans this year returned to southern Liaoning, paying 3 million yuan in commercial taxes, and 2 million yuan in profits from the joint venture workshops.

This is undoubtedly good news for the fledgling industrial manufacturing in southern Liaoning, the businessmen who have made money are smiling, and the other businessmen who have not participated are full of regrets, why are people so discerning? It seems that the phrase "be careful to sail a ship for ten thousand years" does not apply in southern Liaoning!

As a result, a vigorous upsurge of investment and construction handicraft workshops quickly set off, and Lord Zhuang Shaoyou and the officials of the county government took advantage of the situation and guided them to Beifeng, which had just begun to develop! All walks of life in Beifeng, which have just digested official funds, have received a large influx of private capital, and some are overwhelmed!

Happiness came too suddenly, and wave after wave, it is really difficult to digest, the entire Beifeng area was originally worried about being incorporated into Liaonan County, but now it was suddenly discovered that the original wife to the poor man, now to the landlord as a concubine, in addition to the name is not good, this actual benefit is much greater, it seems that this concubine has the benefit of being a concubine!