Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 550 Seal the boat
Upon hearing this, Li Ruolian quickly reminded Emperor Chongzhen: "The grain fields along the coast of Fujian, within the Zheng family's sphere of influence, almost all belong to the Zheng family. Those places should also be cleaned up according to the tax situation, and the Zheng family is almost the same. No tax paid!"

Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen of course remembered it.It took a little thought to let Zheng Sen do it.

The reason why he did this at the beginning was because he was worried that Zheng Zhilong would feel resentful if he found out.

This is true, if Zheng Zhilong used this as a reason to pretend to be dissatisfied with Daming, and thus colluded with the Wa Kingdom, it seemed to be a reasonable reason!
He was thinking, and then he heard Li Ruolian continue to play to him: "The last general is worried, whether this Zheng Zhilong will make a fake show for real, and then he will really collude with the Wa Kingdom!"

Once Jianlu and the Wa Kingdom collude, their strength will definitely become very powerful.Once the imperial court is deadlocked in their war or there is a possibility of defeat, maybe Zheng Zhilong will really betray the imperial court.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard his worry, he chuckled and said, "No, I am sure about this!"

Previously, because of the rectification of the local affairs, I was worried that Zheng Zhilong would have resentment, but it was only worried that he would have resentment instead of sincerely doing his best for the court.As for his betrayal of the imperial court, Emperor Chongzhen discussed it with Liu Weichao, at least Zheng Zhilong would not.

Not for anything else, just because Zheng Zhilong has no ambition to fight for world hegemony.Otherwise, in the original history, he had a powerful navy, and Emperor Longwu controlled it, so he was fully capable of competing with the Manchus.

However, Zheng Zhilong did not, even though at that time there were rebels fighting against the Manchus, he chose to surrender to the Manchus.

In addition, Zheng Zhilong had already seen the prototype steam paddle steamer. Both Emperor Chongzhen and Liu Weichao believed that with Zheng Zhilong's experience at sea for so many years, he would definitely know that the sea in the future would definitely be dominated by the Ming Navy.

If he dared to betray the imperial court and chose to really collude with the Wa Kingdom, then the imperial court might be more passive at the beginning.However, the imperial court will soon be able to follow Liu Weichao's words, to crush him with violent soldiers and violent ships, with the power of science and technology, and comprehensive national strength.

As Liu Weichao said, Zheng Zhilong is actually a businessman, and he definitely knows what to do to get the best deal!
At this time, after he finished speaking with confidence, he picked up another letter from the royal table, and said to Li Ruolian: "This is my own letter, just give it to Zheng Zhilong. As for how you will act in the end, I don't care, you guys Discuss it yourself!"

Speaking of this, Emperor Chongzhen paused and reminded: "But how to do things should be based on Zheng Zhilong's opinion, because he knows the situation of Wa Kingdom best! Please show him the information and let him Deepen your understanding of the Wa country. I believe that you can do a good job!"

"The general obeys orders!" Li Ruolian immediately agreed upon hearing this.

Although Emperor Chongzhen said that no matter what they did, in fact, the arrangement was almost the same and many conditions were created for them.It's just that it doesn't intervene in the specific details.

After listening to Emperor Chongzhen's words, he held a stack of documents in his hand. Let alone, although Li Ruolian didn't know the specific method of doing things at this time, he already had strong confidence and felt that he could complete this task.

After Emperor Chongzhen finished explaining, without further delay, Li Ruolian immediately packed up his things, selected some elite soldiers, left the capital the next day, took a train to Dengzhou, and prepared to go out to sea from there to join Zheng Zhilong.

The construction of the railway has been in full swing. The railway from the capital to Dengzhou is a more important railway in the future plan, so it is given priority.However, some road sections have not yet been repaired, but trains have been opened on some road sections.

For Li Ruolian's itinerary, besides taking the train, he still had to travel quickly.

Let's not mention the matter on his side.It is said that after Song Yingxing received the decree, he rushed back to the capital to see him the next day.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw him, he was not in a hurry to talk about it, but was concerned about the affairs of the Tianjin Shipyard, and asked Song Yingxing, "Is the transformation of the steam iron-clad warship going well?"

Song Yingxing originally thought that Emperor Chongzhen summoned him for this matter, so he was naturally prepared, so he hurriedly said: "Return to Your Majesty, all types of warships have remodeled prototypes, how big will it be in the future?" Scale transformation is no longer a problem. What I am doing now is according to His Majesty's request, and how to transform Fengzhou is currently undergoing experiments."

Among the ships of the Ming Dynasty, the largest one was Fengzhou.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen, the imperial court wanted to confer the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and specially built a Fengzhou, 47 meters long, 12 meters wide, 16.5 meters deep, 4 meters draft, and 12.5 meters above sea level; and the largest warship in the West at the same time The "King of the Seas" is comparable.

For such a large ship to be transformed into a steam iron armored warship, the technical requirements are even greater, which is why Song Yingxing rushed to the Tianjin Shipyard.

In fact, the reason why such a large Fengzhou was built was mainly to show the prestige of the country. The Naha Port on the Ryukyu Kingdom was unable to dock, and it needed to be towed by a small boat.

Another thing is that such a big ship is easy to fold its sails at sea.

But now, to transform this Fengzhou, not to mention covering the whole body with iron, but also to install a steam engine and the corresponding paddle wheels.

Where is the right place for this steam engine to be installed on Feng Zhou? How big is the paddle wheel? Is one pair enough?
These problems cannot be solved by empty talk, and experiments are needed.

Also, heavy artillery should be installed on the boat, how much is better?It is powerful, but it does not affect the normal navigation of Feng Zhou and so on.

These problems, also sitting where to think, can't be figured out, need to do experiments.

Therefore, even though Song Yingxing had already had a lot of experience in transforming a small warship into a paddle steamer, it was still very troublesome to transform Fengzhou.

In the beginning, Song Yingxing actually didn't want to reform Feng Zhou.He felt that this kind of huge ship was originally just to show the prestige of the country, and it was only used when it was canonized by the king of the vassal state, and it was impossible for ordinary sailors to equip it.

However, Emperor Chongzhen insisted on remodeling, and he also told Song Yingxing that the future would be the era of giant ships and cannons, not to mention sealing boats, he would rebuild ships that were bigger than sealing boats.

It is said that in the future, the navy of the Ming Dynasty will also have aircraft carriers, which are very large warships, the kind that can hold tens of thousands of people in one ship, and the kind that can destroy a country with a single ship of soldiers to deal with countries at sea. .

If one such ship is not enough, then come two.Each giant is equipped with warships of different sizes, forming a navy of the Ming Dynasty, which can be sent north and south across the ocean.

At that time, when Song Yingxing heard the narration of Emperor Chongzhen, he was stunned: What is the emperor going to do?Spend so much money and manpower, as for?
Emperor Chongzhen did not explain this to him.

Through Zheng Zhilong's incident, he finally realized that Shanghai made so much money!Just by controlling the southeast coast, there are tens of millions of income a year!It's so simple!

For this alone, Emperor Chongzhen must vigorously develop the navy.

Not to mention, there are so many gold and silver mines overseas waiting for him to dig.There are also these vassal kings in the country who have to be divided out.Therefore, a navy with absolute control at sea is something that Emperor Chongzhen must do.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen listened to Song Yingxing's words, and naturally paid close attention to the matter of Fengzhou's transformation, so he asked some more questions and got answers. , he stopped asking.

He just said to Song Yingxing: "Building a navy is the focus of Ming Dynasty in the future. And this warship is even more important. Don't be afraid to spend money. Just tell me in advance how much you want!"

Although it is said that Tianjin Shipyard is currently only renovating the original warships, it is also spending money like water.Fortunately, he has the confidence now, otherwise, he really can't do this!

"The humble official leads the decree!" Song Yingxing was naturally not polite. For him, the more funds for scientific research, the better!

After talking about this matter, Emperor Chongzhen finally mentioned the signal tower to Song Yingxing.And give Song Yingxing information on the spot, let him see what the signal tower looks like, and what kind of combination can represent the numbers from zero to nine.

Song Yingxing watched and listened, and when he understood everything, he couldn't help but said happily: "Your Majesty, that's a good idea. With the help of a telescope, as long as the signal tower is built high, you can see it from a long distance. If the weather is good, Maybe the summons from Dengzhou to Dongjiang Town will be shortened all of a sudden!"

There is no shelter at sea. If the islands are dense enough, you can see farther than on land.

As for the signal tower, as long as it can be seen, it can pass on the information.

At this time, Song Yingxing and Emperor Chongzhen discussed for a while, and they were both very happy. They felt that although this method of communication had various disadvantages, it was still necessary.

But at the end, Song Yingxing said with a look of embarrassment: "Your Majesty, I'm busy sealing up the boat and rebuilding it, and I need to go to the field to investigate the matter of the signal tower. I'm afraid I can't do without it!"

Emperor Chongzhen naturally knew this. When he thought about this before, he felt that there were too few talents in Gewuxue. He hoped that there would be unexpected joy in this special scientific examination of Gewuxue.

Thinking this way, he said to Song Yingxing: "Of course I know that you don't need to do this matter yourself. Whoever you think is more reliable will assign the matter. From the capital to Dengzhou, from the capital to Shanhaiguan, and from the capital to Nanjing , let’s do these lines first!”

(End of this chapter)