When the three of them heard this, they looked at each other and burst into laughter.

As far as the current Huashan is concerned, it already has seventeen first-class masters, which is one point stronger than the Songshan faction, and it is actually considered that it is only ranked third in the five mountains.

Cao Yihui exclaimed: "In this way, the master's strategy of taoguang and obscurity has been successful!"

Tong Yiwen's eyebrows fluttered, and he smiled: "It's a success beyond expectations!"

Cheng Buxian raised his glass, stood up and said: "Without the master, there would be no Huashan today, we respect the master!"

The three of them poured their wine, stood up, and the four of them bowed to the west, with solemn expressions, and respectfully drank the wine in their hands.

After drinking, everyone looked relaxed, sat down one after another, and no longer mentioned the matter of Huashan masters, since the head has not decided to let everyone show up in the rivers and lakes, he has his own thoughtful considerations, and he doesn't have to worry about waiting for others.

Speaking of the development of the open sea, the northern route has been basically cleared, dozens of warships are cruising in the East China Sea, escorting a large number of northern goods southward, and southern goods are also constantly moving north.

Many materials were gathered in Zhoushan and distributed to the north and south.

The Angry Waves Gang, the overlord of the sea, sits in Zhoushan, collects storage fees, escort fees, plus the consumption profits of merchants from the north and south in Zhoushan, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are recorded in the accounts every year, and they eat with a mouth full of oil, so as to support the huge consumption of tens of thousands of immigrants.

According to Yue Buqun's goal, within five years, the number of Ryukyu residents would need to reach 200,000 in order to have enough manpower to support the southward expansion of the Huashan fleet and compete with many pirates and Western ghosts and animals in the South China Sea, which would be a huge challenge for the entire Huashan.

Now, because most of the immigrants from Huashan were concentrated in Shaanxi in the early days, and they have begun to affect the agricultural employment in Shaanxi, the landlords who have a large amount of land have already felt the shortage of the peasants, and have to reduce the land rent in order to recruit tenants.

Since last year, Huashan's immigration targets have begun to tilt towards Hebei, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Fujian, and Huashan in these areas is weak and does not dare to carry out in the name of Huashan, and the progress is much slower than before.

Fortunately, the country has been peaceful for a long time, the society is generally stable, the landless people are increasing due to land annexation, and it is also a headache for the local government.

And the people of the Jianghu martial arts don't care about this, they only know that Huashan seems to be very willing to do business, and they ignore the affairs of the rivers and lakes, and naturally they don't care about the life and death of these poor people who have nothing to do.

After the experience of Shaanxi, Yue Buqun, for the sake of insurance, asked the immigration hall to carefully assess the number of immigrants from various places, so as not to cause a shortage of local migrant workers, so as not to cause a counterattack by the local landlord forces.

Although the four people here have heard about this, they are not very concerned about it, and they are only responsible for receiving and resettling migrants as planned.

Tong Yiwen only cared about when the battleships he assigned would be delivered, and asked Cheng if he was worried: "Uncle Shi, how is the manufacturing progress of the new battleship now, and when can you give me the new battleship?"

Cheng Buxian glared at Tong Yiwen and said: "You don't know, the head of the family asked to imitate the warship of the Western barbarians, that sample ship was captured by you in India the year before last, the construction and operation are completely different from the Fu ship, the shipyard groped for more than a year before starting to build, how many can there be now?"

Tong Yiwen didn't care about humility at this moment, and asked anxiously: "What about the Fu ship? Didn't the three shipyards interrupt the manufacture of the Fu ship? How many have they completed now? I still don't want to use those barbarian plywood ships! The sail is so troublesome that it is not strong enough." ”

Cheng Bu said: "At the end of this year, you will each have three 300-ton warships and three 200-ton warships. ”

Tong Yiwen couldn't help but be disappointed: "There are only a few ships, when will we be able to assemble a fleet?"

According to the current number of warships of the Angry Waves Gang, a full fleet, and thirty-six large and small warships, this number is still far behind.

Cheng Buxian smiled and said: "Take your time, didn't the head of the sect instruct it to be completed in five years? ”

Tong Yiwen said: "It's easy to say, if it's not enough, we won't be short of people now, but Uncle Shi, your ship is too slow to build, and I have prepared very much wood!"

Cheng Buxian ignored Tong Yiwen's complaints, and asked: "You plundered that barbarian, well, Portuguese warship from the West, and you have spent a lot of time observing it along the way, what do you think of this ship?"

Tong Yiwen pouted and said: "It's not as easy to use as our current fortune boat, it's troublesome to sail, it's not easy to work against the wind, it's not as flexible as the fortune boat." ”

Cheng Bu smiled worriedly: "You didn't think about it carefully, I discussed it with the shipwrights at the time, and I didn't think it was good, so I made a model, and went back to the mountain to ask the master, and I knew the master's intentions." ”

Tong Yiwen and the others also wanted to know why the head of the sect wanted to learn Western shipbuilding, and said curiously: "The head of the sect has seen thousands of miles, and he must be more thoughtful than us, so Uncle Shi will come and listen to it." ”

Cheng Buxian said patiently: "The head of the house gave me an analysis, this Portuguese warship, the hull structure is more stable, the mast is heightened, although the soft sail is used, plus the spinnaker, it can also get enough wind power, can be built larger, and load more personnel and equipment." ”

Tong Yiwen said: "The size of the ship can't dominate the outcome of the naval battle, relying on help, no matter how many people we have, it is not enough for us to kill." ”

Cheng Bu smiled worriedly: "What the head thinks, it's not for you to guess, you know why the head wants to build a big ship." ”

Cao Yihui said: "Could it be to load more goods?"

Cheng Buxian nodded and said, "This is also a consideration, but the most important thing is to load more artillery." ”

Tong Yiwen frowned and said: "The operation of the artillery is not convenient, and if you can't fight a few times, you have to rely on the gang to fight, which is of little use." ”

At this time, most of the artillery was placed above the deck, and there were not a few of them, and the accuracy of the artillery was not very good.

Cheng Buxian said with a smile: "The master's opinion is also comparable to you, the boss explained to me a tactic, and I can kill the opponent's warship without relying on help." ”

"Huh!"

Cao Yihui and Tong Yiwen are interested, and it is not easy to destroy the enemy's warship without relying on help.

With rockets!

This is more difficult, the fire prevention measures on the ship are better, and it is difficult to burn the ship with rockets alone, after all, rockets cannot go far.

With trebuchets?

Save it, the operation is difficult, and the accuracy is miserable.

"Is it the massive use of artillery?"

Li Yigen did not have the inertial thinking formed by Cao Yihui and Tong Yiwen who had managed the fleet for a long time, and when he heard Cheng Buxian just say that he was loading more artillery, he directly thought of this, otherwise why install artillery?

"Smack"

Cheng Buxian slapped the table and shouted: "Yi Gen has insight, that is, the large-scale use of artillery, you come and see." ”

Cheng Buxian put away the chopsticks of several people, put them on a plate of dishes, used the plate as a boat, and used the chopsticks as a cannon, and began to explain the gunboat tactics.

The three of them stretched out their heads and leaned in, and began to study this tactic that they had heard of for the first time.