Zhang Siwei was born as a big shopkeeper of the Thirteen Foreign Firms, or a professional manager who climbed step by step from an apprentice to a shopkeeper, and he is very good at this kind of administrative work, and has many years of experience in Guangzhou, so he is the most suitable person to do this thing.

As for Li Xian, he did what he was best at, which was to take a powerful army to the sea and obtain the resources needed for the development of the Mixed Yuan Sect.

There is a narrow strait between Dayuan Island and Fujian, and all foreign or Chinese ships that do business in Hangzhou or Shanghai have to cross this strait.

The first step Li Xian did was to set off from the northern part of Dayuan Island with a fleet to hunt in this strait.

When Li Xian led a detachment of more than a dozen warships to appear at the mouth of the Min River in Fuzhou, the officials and merchants in Fuzhou were obviously unprepared.

"Check all the boats entering and leaving the Min River to see if there is any illegal opium trafficking. Li Xian pointed to the large and small Chinese ships in front of him and gave an order.

The detachment led by Li Xian had only twelve ships, two of which were Western soft sailing warships imitated by the Huaxia Army in recent years, which were equivalent to the British cruiser class, with a displacement of only 800 tons, and the advantage was that they were quite fast;

In addition, there are two imitation paddle steamers, with a displacement of about 600 tons, and there are two-story high life wheels on both sides of the ship, which are very fast, but have poor anti-artillery ability, but if one or two shells hit the life wheels on both sides, it may cause the warship to lose its ability to act;

In addition, there are six Chinese-style hard sailing ships, with a displacement of between 600 and 800 tons, which are common flat-bottomed sailing ships, similar to the famous Qiying in later generations;

The last two were small steam engine ships, but propeller-propelled instead of the older paddle wheel.

Here, it is necessary to briefly explain Li Xian's concept of naval construction.

The forties of the nineteenth century should be regarded as the end of the Age of Discovery, which coincided with the gradual withdrawal of traditional sailing ships from the stage and the increasing attention of steamships.

In this era, the main force of the navies of Western countries was battleships with strong firepower, with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons to more than 5,000 tons, and the number of artillery guns carried ranged from more than 50 to more than 90, and some even reached more than 100 guns.

Such battleships are the darlings of maritime powers, and it can be said that the number of battleships directly determines the status of the country's navy in the world.

When the Huaxia Army built the navy, it also thought about producing this kind of battleship at the beginning, but soon gave up, first of all, this kind of battleship is too expensive, at least 300,000 taels each, and the maintenance cost after construction is also very high;

What's even worse is that this kind of battleship has strong firepower, but the speed is not high, it belongs to the heavy armored knights at sea, and when it encounters the enemy, it can only be stumbled to the end, and it is impossible to escape.

Considering that the imaginary enemy of the Huaxia Army is the powerful British Navy, and that the British Navy is precisely a terrifying power with a battleship tonnage of more than 250,000 tons, which is more than the combined tonnage of battleships of seven or eight European powers, such as the United States, France, Russia, Italy, and Spain, it is obviously unwise to fight with such a powerful country. (Britain in this era is so awesome)

Therefore, Li Xian's request to the navy is "You can not defeat the enemy, but you must outrun the opponent", that is, to preserve your own strength as the first priority.

Under this concept, the navy began to be miserable, and the giant battleships that it originally wanted to obtain were rejected, and were replaced by super-fast cruiser clusters, and at the same time, its naval combat methods also underwent major changes, that is, the tactics of abandoning the decisive battle with the enemy at sea, but began to flee as soon as they encountered the enemy, and then took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to sneak attack others, such as sneaking into the port at night or sending the warrior to the enemy's ship, and starting a broadside battle.

In short, compared with the army's self-proclaimed invincibility, the navy's combat methods are much more obscene, preferring light cavalry tactics or bandit tactics, never fighting the enemy hard, and constantly maneuvering until the enemy is found to be flawed.

Such tactics would explain why Li Xian's fleet had two light cruisers and two paddle steamers.

However, what made the navy complain was that the battleships that were originally said to be changed into cruisers, that is fine, the whole army uses light battleships, and it can also pull the wind in the Chinese waters in this era, but I didn't expect that after the construction, Li Xian was not even willing to equip the navy with regular warships such as cruisers and steam ships throughout the whole process, and also stuffed in a large number of Chinese-style hard sailing ships.

China's flat-bottomed ship is actually a good sailing ship, which is no problem for sailing in the near sea or as a merchant ship to transport goods, but because of its structural characteristics, the hull is not strong enough, and it cannot be equipped with too many guns, so it is not suitable for warships at all.

However, under the high-pressure policies of Li Xian and Xuan Zheng and other upper echelons, the navy could only cry and accept these lucky ships into the battle sequence.

In fact, Li Xian's insistence on the widespread use of these lucky ships in the navy is not an outbreak of patriotic sentiment, believing that the Chinese should use Chinese ship types, but there are many practical considerations.

First of all, the flat-bottomed ship was quite fast and had excellent resistance to storms, and the British could buy a cargo merchant ship of about 800 tons (that is, the Jain), and on the first voyage they could go around the Cape of Good Hope to reach New York, and then smoothly from the United States to England, sailing almost halfway around the world, which is enough to prove this.

You must know that the Qiying was originally only one of the hundreds of ships that went to the South Seas, which means that other ships should have similar capabilities and performance.

Secondly, the construction cost of the Fuchuan is very low, and the price of the Fuchuan with a displacement of 800 tons is about 10,000 taels, and if it is an 800-ton Western soft sailing ship, the price must be about 24,000 taels, which is more than twice as expensive.

Third, because they are flat-bottomed ships, the Fuchuan has an outstanding cargo carrying capacity, with an 800-ton ship capable of carrying 250 to 300 tons of cargo, while a Western soft sailing ship and a 1,000-ton ocean-going merchant ship can carry about 250 tons of cargo.

Fourth, and most importantly, the construction period of the Fuchuan is very short, only one-tenth of that of the tall Western sailing ship, and even shorter than that.

For example, in the case of sufficient materials, it only takes about 20 days and 30 days for a lucky ship to be built and launched, which is still the practice of traditional ordinary shipyards, and the shipyards of the Huaxia Army can shorten the construction period a little more after using Western technologies such as pulleys and steam chambers.

If you change to a similar Western sailing ship, it will take at least one to one and a half years from construction to launch, and it is not impossible to reach more than two years.

Li Xian calculated that as long as he built a dock, he could produce more than ten 800-ton warships within a year, which was much more attractive than just getting a Western warship.

As for the Chinese sailing ships are not strong enough, two or three shells may be damaged, this small defect is automatically ignored by Li Xian, anyway, the navy of the Huaxia Army will not fight hard with the British warships after it is completed, and there is no difference between being able to carry two shells and being able to carry two hundred shells.