Dominate the Country

Time flew by in March.

Shi, who was very favored by Chen Ming, was pregnant. She was diagnosed with Ximai in February, but with the birth of her three previous children, this news was no longer taken seriously. Now everyone's eyes are set on moving the capital!

In March, Chen Ming went on a tour to the south of the Yangtze River. In addition to the Governor's Office, the first person to leave with him was the Industrial and Commercial Administration, which had officially moved.

This is not the first relocation of the Fuhan Army. Since the beginning of the first month, departments have moved to Nanjing one after another, including the Ministry of Communications and the Construction Bureau that moved out after Chen Cong took the order to supervise the movement of river engineering southward.

However, Lushan's status in Chen Han is still unquestionable. It is still the most important and reliable steel base and military industrial base in Chen Han. It is also imperative to establish stay-at-home institutions in the future. Chen Hui also planned to learn from Zhu Ming's old tricks and set Lushan as the central capital. Chen Ming didn't object either.

A huge team passed from Nanyang to Xiangyang. Chen Ming's trip to Jiangnan this time was not just a routine trip, but a front stop for Chen Hui. The entire Prince's Mansion and the entire Metropolitan Governor's Mansion are in the process of being relocated. Officials at all levels, their families, and accompanying soldiers escorted the fleet from Xiangyang southward for twenty miles.

Zhou Tiancai wiped a handful of sweat, and all the strength in his body disappeared with the flow of sweat. Standing next to him was Liu Zhixie, who also had a pale face and thick dark circles under his eyes, as if he was wearing a pair of glasses.

As the person in charge of raising sailors for Chen Ming's trip to the south of the Yangtze River, Zhou Tiancai and Liu Zhixie started working on it for a whole month.

"Brother, we finally have a business relationship." Liu Zhixie felt as if he had come to life again.

"I won't drink with you for now. Brother, I want to have a good sleep. Let's talk about what happened when I wake up."

"I want to sleep with him for three days and three nights."

The fleet stretches for twenty miles, although the main reason is that the Han River is narrow. For safety reasons, only three or four ships can go parallel. There can be at most forty or fifty ships in one mile of river, but the length of the river is twenty miles long, which is also a terrifying number.

"I will sleep with him for three days and three nights. Even if the sky falls and the earth falls, I won't wake up." Even if the prince is assassinated, even if the ship leaks, if you want to behead him, behead him. Let him have a good sleep first! At this moment Zhou Tiancai was no longer afraid of death.

After a month of worrying and tiring, I was completely stunned. Fortunately, at first, he secretly hated Liu Zhixie, and Liu Zhixie secretly rolled his eyes at him, but soon, as the number of official family members increased, and as the size of the ships and sailors expanded, the two of them quickly moved on. Arrived.

"After I wake up, I will have a drink with Mr. Liu."

The entourage had already summoned a carriage, and Zhou Tiancai was almost helped into the carriage. Before the carriage rolled far, a carriage of similar specifications also stopped next to Liu Zhixie. The same carriage lay down in the carriage, and Liu Zhixie fell asleep quickly.

At this time, Chen Ming, who was facing the river breeze, was reading the information on Sulu City that had just been sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He didn't know that the two officials in charge of the ship's sailors had been carried back to their residence like patients. Chen Han is still short of manpower and lacks work efficiency in many things, especially the large number of experienced logistics personnel who are still working in the logistics department. Otherwise, how could Liu Zhixie and Zhou Tiancai be as tired as dead dogs?

Both Qianlong and Kang Mazi often went to the south of the Yangtze River, dancing on the water in dragon boats, and making thousands of miles of waves. Wasn't it a smooth journey?

Just like Lu Shan before, Ding Dian was not affected by this incident, because this matter that should have been coordinated by many people was simply and rudely left to a limited number of people. The latter was exhausted, but they completed the task and everything went smoothly.

"Your Highness. If the nobles of Sulu dare to openly rebel, they must have something to do with the Spaniards."

"I'm afraid that not only the Spaniards, but also the Dutch are not willing to see us take Sulu into our pocket." Moreover, the Fuhan Army has already started ground in Singapore.

Abubakar's sons who stayed in Hele had no extraordinary abilities, but they also had no big ambitions. They respected and fully cooperated with Chen Han's special envoy. Abubakar has now succeeded in getting big and thick legs, and he has also been awarded the title of Marquis. This has basically kept the basic foundation of the Sulu royal family stable. It even allowed some small Sulu nobles who were originally free from the gap between the two major power groups to choose to join them. Therefore, although the nobles of Sulu are now setting off a wave of rebellion, they are not yet able to overthrow the rule of the Abubakar family and capture Hele.

"Sulu is in Nanyang, so naturally the Nanyang Navy is dispatched."

"Say hello again, bring back Nanhai No. 1 and the boat produced by Zhoushan Shipbuilding. Separate some trainees."

Chen Ming's intuition told him that this battle would not be easy. The Spanish and Dutch would not take action on the surface, but secretly they could allow armed merchant ships and even pirates to attack.

Sulu is just a cover. In fact, this is a contest between Chen Han and Xi He.

"That's fine. Anyway, if we want to get involved in Nanyang, we must have a fight with the West and the Netherlands."

"Supervise the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ha Tien matter will be settled as soon as possible."

The latter could serve as a powerful supply base for the Fuhan Navy in this battle. Otherwise, this position would have to be pushed to Hongji Port at once, with hundreds of miles of land in between.

Chen Ming now has a certain understanding of the strength of the Netherlands and Spain in Southeast Asia. No matter by sea, these two countries do not threaten Chen Han's local strength, but in distant Southeast Asia, it is very unusual.

The Spanish and Dutch countries did not have many white armies in Southeast Asia, but both countries controlled large numbers of colonial armies in the hands of the local colonial governments. It's just that the organizational forms of the two countries are somewhat different.

In Luzon, the entire Luzon is under the rule of the Spanish. Although there are tribal leaders of various sizes, there is no Sudan in the East Indies. Therefore, the total force of the Spanish Luzon Army must control the entire island. There are tens of thousands of people, including the Spanish Army in Manila; while the number of troops directly under the Governor of Batavia is much smaller, only 4,000, of which the majority are white Dutch soldiers. This is because there are still a large number of local feudal lords and a large number of indigenous green nobles recognized by the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies. These people obey Batavia's orders and can be summoned as long as the Governor of Batavia gives an order. Raise an army of 10,000 to 20,000 people. Of course, the soldiers in this army are armed with swords and guns.

These numbers are just their Army. And the navy!

Whether it was Spain or the Netherlands, both countries deployed defending fleets in Manila and Batavia.

The power of these two fleets would make people laugh in Europe, but in remote Southeast Asia, they are two man-eating tigers patrolling their own territory.

What's more, both Manila and Batavia have a certain number of armed merchant ships.

Thinking further, and thinking more carefully about the governors of the West and the Netherlands, since the Dutch and Spanish have officially intervened in the Sulu situation, before the navy of the Fuhan Army has been mobilized, the two countries will soon Maybe everything has been prepared, including contacting the vicious European pirates. This is not impossible!

"No matter how powerful the European warships are, the Nanyang Navy has more than a hundred large and small warships, how can they still not defeat the little Sulu?"

"Our artillery is no weaker than that of foreigners, and we also have rockets..."

Unlike Chen Ming's small worries, everyone around him is confident. No matter how many times Chen Ming emphasized the power of Western warships, they obviously didn't really take it to heart. If you don't really suffer losses or get beaten, how many smart people are there?

"Rockets. Be sure to replenish them with rockets!"

Chen Ming did not argue with the people around him. At this time, the Chinese people's self-esteem as a great nation was still very strong. He has a completely contemptuous attitude toward the Western world. This kind of mentality cannot be explained by Chen Ming in a few words. They must experience it personally before they can learn to open their eyes and see people. So he ordered Liu Wudao.

"Your Highness, are you..., do you want to give some to the Nanyang Navy?"

"The location of the Nanyang Navy is in close contact with foreign sailing ships. Brothers Zheng Lianchang and Zheng Lianfu must know how powerful they are." To put it darker, if the Nanyang Navy really suffered heavy losses, Chen Ming would just take over the power. Compared with the Southeast Navy, the Nanyang Navy has too much autonomy.

"Tell Singapore to be wary of possible attacks."

During the Chinese New Year, Chen Han designated several overseas sites at the level of ‘city’, including Hon Kei City, Singapore City, Sulu City, and the future Ha Tien City. The level is the same as that of a prefect, and the territory is certainly not as huge as a prefecture in the mainland, but it has a certain degree of military power, which is something that civil servants in the mainland have absolutely no access to.

…

Chen Jigong has returned to Shanghai. Although his shipyard is named "Zhoushan", it is actually located in Shanghai.

As the largest and most technologically advanced shipyard in the Fuhan Army, Zhoushan Shipyard not only builds Western-style sailing ships, but also builds Chinese-style sailing ships, and even takes orders to build large merchant ships.

After entering the Qing Dynasty, China's shipping dropped significantly compared with the previous Ming Dynasty. Up to now, it is difficult for people to see large ships with more than three masts. The highest Manchu warships were only three masts.

But last year, Zhoushan Shipyard successfully built two four-masted sand ships, both with a carrying capacity of more than 600 tons. This year they will work hard to build five-masted ships. Private shipyards along the coast of Guangdong and Fujian have also quickly followed suit, moving towards four-mast and five-mast ships.

And if you want to build a bigger ship, you need a bigger sail. In later generations, some people used this point to 'explain' the doomed decline of China's maritime shipbuilding industry, because after the early Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to find huge trees like those used for treasure ships as masts in China.

The tallest and suitable trees have been cut down, but they are not pillars that can be grown in more than ten years or decades.

And the rest were pushed back by the emperor. He wanted to build palaces and tombs. The smaller ones were also cut into sections for use as coffins. If you don't have the right materials, you'll have to build a boat.

Chen Ming was a little eager to extend his tentacles to Nanyang, also in order to make use of the wood in Nanyang as soon as possible.

Five large logs that were two grades higher than domestic timber were transported to the shipyard. Chen Jigong was alarmed by the news. Now that he was officially a captain, he really let go of the secret camp thing for a while, but Chen Ming soon added it to him.

The southern secret camp is being split up. Some of the people inside are going to work in the government and police stations, such as Xiao Jian and Wei Changkong; the other group of people continue to stay in the dark, but are split into two.

Some will continue to stay in the secret camp, and these people will become the national security in the future. Not many people!

The dark camp has been slimmed down, and many peripheral personnel have been thrown into the army and the government. Some people have taken the opportunity to clean up their whitewash and become ordinary people. There are not many people who can really be regarded as the dark camp. Now many of them have been selected to enter the government as middle-level officials, just like the underground organizations have transformed into officials after seeing the rabbit.

And a small number of elites who have been selected will form an intelligence bureau in the future, specializing in the detection and investigation of overseas intelligence.

As Chen Han's exchanges with Europeans develop, not only Europeans will come in, but Chinese will also go out. They will mix in the middle, or become the trend-setters that everyone pays attention to; or become unknown small sea merchants.

Chen Jigong is now responsible for the former, and the people under his control will soon become the Shanghai National Security Bureau. By then, Chen Jigong will continue to lurk underwater, and then his duties will gradually become one of the platforms for communicating between the two major intelligence agencies inside and outside.

"Boss, this is shipped from Annan. What a big fir tree."

Chen Jigong has now evolved into a half-expert in shipbuilding. He can see at a glance that among the five big trees, the two largest ones are fir, and the remaining three are teak. The latter is an excellent shipbuilding material, which can be used for masts, keels, hulls and ribs. But now large teak is too difficult to find.

"Look carefully, check carefully." Old man Li shouted loudly.

Chen Jigong has stood up and washed his hands, standing on a high place overlooking the five big trees undulating in the water.

"Boss, do you want to use the two largest ones as masts?"

"If you use these two teak trees to make masts, will the army give us extra money?" Chen Jigong glanced at Zhu Wo.

"But..." But aren't you a public servant? Zhu Wo roared in his heart.

Chen Jigong raised his eyebrows, "I have a 10% bonus from this shipyard." Of course, I have to think about the future of the shipyard.

"Tell the people below to store these two large teak trees properly, and use the others." Fir is not valuable, and the source is also wide, unlike teak.

Chen Jigong will wait until the technology of Western sailing ships matures before considering whether to use these two teak trees.

Whether in China or Europe, when the wood for making masts is not long enough, when the access to self-made wood is limited, splicing is the only option. Large sailing ships have high requirements for the supply of mast materials, that is, the masts must be straight and must have a certain circular diameter. It is best to use a single straight wood. In Europe, shipbuilding materials mainly come from the forests of Eastern Europe, especially the forests of Poland and Russia. On the coast of southern China, it is very difficult to find such suitable wood - the treasure ship eventually became a thing of the past, and traditional Chinese sailing ships rarely have such tall and straight masts. Even some small two-masted boats also use splicing.

Just like the choice of Europeans when wood is blocked.

Although the overall strength of the spliced ​​mast cannot be compared with that of a natural straight mast, such a mast is not limited by the size of the wood itself. Basically, it can be manufactured for sailboat masts of any size, which is very economical.

The mast splicing of Zhoushan Shipyard is a combination of Chinese and Western styles, with both Western traces and traditional Chinese mortise and tenon joints to ensure that the wood joints are more tightly engaged. According to the requirements of the technical data, the shipwrights also need to nail rivets and other fasteners into the engaged parts to ensure the strength of the engaged connection.

Then there are iron hoops. Each iron hoop is customized according to the size of the part. The diameter of the iron hoop is slightly smaller than the diameter of the mast to ensure that it can be tightly clamped once it is put on. As for how to put it on, you always know about thermal expansion and contraction. In addition to the "screwdriver" and anti-loosening nut invented by Chen Ming before, the composite mast manufactured can still meet the standards anyway.

In a corner that many people in Lushan ignore, Zhoushan Shipyard has developed to the first level in China in two years with the support of Chen Ming. And it will continue to move forward unswervingly along the route set by Chen Ming.

After looking at the wood, Chen Jigong did not turn back immediately, but went to the largest dock not far away. More than a hundred ship workers were busy like ants, and a five-masted ship lay quietly on the slipway.

"You all worked hard for me. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will soon arrive in Jiangnan. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must review the ship built by our factory."

"In April, the main body must be completed; in May, the decoration must be completed, and then it will be launched for trial." Before June, this five-masted ship must be thoroughly inspected because it will pick up Chen Hui in Wuchang. This is a gift! There is no room for error.

"If this ship is successfully delivered, each of you will be rewarded with three months' wages."