Steel Dynasty - Chapter 493

[Chapter 493: Dumplings Under the Battleship]

Only a blazing sun remained in the clear blue sky, and a layer of golden scales rippled on the infinite sea.

“Goodbye, everyone!”

Facing Claire, Xiao Ming also waved goodbye. Maybe he won’t come to Ryukyu again for a long time. After all, the strategy for him here is only a small part. Ryukyu’s existence in the next few years is just for Qingzhou provides some raw materials.

After all, the population on Ryukyu Island is too small.

The warships continued to move northward under the blow of the sea breeze, and gradually the city of Relanja shrank into a vague skyline.

Lu Fei said at this time: “Your Highness, Ryukyu is ours now?”

“It goes without saying that our troops are all stationed on Ryukyu Island, but Your Highness, is it too little to leave four thousand troops here? All fourteen field guns are left on the island.” Luo Xin was a little reluctant.

Xiao Ming shook his head. He understood that many generals, like the two of them, did not understand why they had to invest so much for a remote island. He said, “I don’t understand even if I tell you now. In the future, you will understand that Ryukyu is in the ocean.” With an important position in trade, this is a battleship that will never sink!”

Yue Yun nodded slightly. He understood the value of Ryukyu better than Lu Fei and Luo Xin. After all, he had led the fleet south and understood Ryukyu. importance.

Seven days later, Xiao Ming and others, who were drifting at sea and felt like vomiting, finally returned to Dengzhou. This expedition was the first time Xiao Ming led the soldiers of the Chongqing Kingdom to fight overseas. Although they took back the territory that belonged to them, But the significance of this move will surely be remembered in history.

After all, this is the first time that Chongqing has extended its tentacles overseas.

After anchoring in the military port, Xiao Ming said to Yue Yun: “The cruising of warships cannot stop. From now on, you must completely control the maritime trade routes and prevent Japanese pirates from attacking merchant ships on the routes.”

“Yes, Your Highness, but if we What should we do if we find the merchant ships of King Chu and King Wei? Do we need to escort them too?” Yue Yun asked.

Xiao Ming glared at Yue Yun, “Are you stupid? I spent so much money to build the Qingzhou Navy, and the soldiers shed blood and sacrificed to seize Ryukyu. Do they ultimately want to serve them? Tell those merchant ships that if they want to conduct maritime trade, Go to Qingzhou to get the approval document, otherwise they will go back to where they came from. If they dare to disobey, they can use force to deter them.”

Yue Yun looked embarrassed and said: “Your Highness is right, we stole this route from the Dutch. What comes back should be ours now, and the profits generated by the route should also be ours.”

“That’s about right.” Xiao Ming nodded.

After getting off the battleship, Xiao Ming and his party did not go to Dengzhou City immediately. Instead, they went to the shipyard of the military port to find Zhang Liang and inquire about the construction status of the battleship.

At this time, twelve third-level sail warships were being built on the beach of the military port, six of which were basically in prototype form. They saw Zhang Liang on the beach.

“Your Highness.”

Seeing Xiao Ming and his party coming, Zhang Liang immediately put down what he was doing and came over.

“Not bad, when can these six warships be delivered?” Xiao Ming said with a smile. He is now in short supply of warships. The current fifteen warships simply cannot meet the current usage requirements.

Moreover, in this Battle of Ryukyu, he had a complete showdown with Japan. There will only be more and more battles at sea in the future. Moreover, the coastline of Dayu Kingdom is long, and a large number of warships will be needed even for escort.

“If nothing else happens, these six warships will be launched in three months, and there are eight more warships in the other two shipyards that can be launched, which means that a total of fourteen warships will be launched by then. “Zhang Liang was very proud.

Because of Xiao Ming’s trade with the King of Chu and the imperial court, the shipbuilding workshop in Dengzhou suddenly had many craftsmen with superb shipbuilding skills. These people greatly accelerated the speed of shipbuilding.

The three shipyards also increased the number of warships launched in the same batch.

“Fourteen ships, well, at least this year should be enough.” Xiao Ming looked at Yue Yun, “Do you have so many crews to operate the fourteen ships?”

Yue Yun was suddenly in trouble, and he said: “Your Highness , This battleship was launched so fast that it can’t keep up with our training speed. Three months is really difficult.”

Xiao Ming frowned. This was something he expected. According to Claire, they The crew of merchant ships can be transformed into seamen of warships at any time. Over the years, they have invisibly accumulated a navy team.

The Qingzhou Navy has developed too late. If it continues in such a rigid manner, it will not be able to keep up. He said: “You can’t just recruit sailors in Dengzhou. After all, the fishing villages in Dengzhou are also limited. You can try to attract other places with generous treatment.” Many fishermen came to settle in Dengzhou. In addition, pirates are rampant along the coast. These pirates are all natural crew members. When arresting them, we can also recruit some crew members from them.”

“Your Highness, this is a good idea. In Dengzhou Prison. There are many pirates imprisoned, many of whom are homeless and forced to join the pirates. I will pick them up later,” Yue Yun said.

When Zhang Liang heard this, his face became even more proud. It was Yue Yun who urged them to speed up before, but now it was finally his turn because he was short of manpower.

After inspecting the naval port shipyard, Xiao Ming, led by Zhang Liang, went to the second and third shipyards located at the north gate of Dengzhou. Now these shipyards are under his unified control.

In the past, he only ran a small Qingzhou shipyard, which was different from now, because now he is living a very comfortable and satisfied life.

The second shipyard and the third shipyard are not far from the military port. This is also to enable unified scheduling. As Zhang Liang said, there are four warships that are about to be completed in both shipyards.

After inspecting the shipyard, Xiao Mingcai, Lu Fei and others headed towards Dengzhou City. On the way, they could see carriages transporting salt from the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce passing by from time to time. There were even some carriages transporting dried sea fish. These two things were very important to Dengzhou City. The state’s main profit-making cargo.

In Dengzhou City, Xiao Ming met Yang Chengye. He originally wanted to go back to Qingzhou directly, but thinking of the importance of maritime trade, he decided to remind him to pay attention to the construction of commercial offices and foreign affairs offices.

“The most important thing is the construction of the port. In the future, Dengzhou Port will become the port with the largest throughput. From now on, you will build a large number of warehouses near the port to store goods.” Xiao Ming ordered: “And we will also produce wooden boxes. At that time, you can sell these wooden boxes to merchants and rent the warehouse to maritime merchants. In addition, you need to pay the fees for berthing at the port. Just this port is enough to make you rich in Dengzhou. “

(End of Chapter)