Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 734 Breaking the Cocoon
One of Yang Menglong's major characteristics is that he acted vigorously and said what he said. Now that he has made a decision, Li Yan can only obey, work hard to write the memorial, quote from many sources, search his guts, no matter what, let's take the reason first.This memorial is very difficult to write. The Donglin Party has too much power in the court. It is difficult to persuade Chongzhen to suppress the officials and give Yang Menglong the green light to go to war with Zheng Zhilong!So he had a headache writing, and finally finished the draft and gave it to Yang Menglong. As a result, Yang Menglong frowned after reading half of it, and finally read it bravely.

As soon as he saw his frown, Li Yan knew that he was not satisfied with the memorial, so he asked: "Sir, is there anything that needs to be revised?"

Yang Menglong said: "Actually, your literary talent is very good. After you write like this, the unreasonable becomes reasonable. But, Mr. Li, you have to remember that this world has never been unreasonable! No matter how reasonable you are, you are also very reasonable." It is difficult to persuade the emperor to agree to our war against the Zheng family at the risk of turmoil in Fujian!"

Li Yan smiled wryly: "That's true. I don't know how to make the emperor nod?"

Yang Menglong said: "It's simple, you just write down how much profit the Zheng family gets through maritime trade and protection fees every year."

Li Yan's eyes widened: "It's that simple!?"

Yang Menglong said, "It's that simple."

Li Yan was dubious, and continued to revise as Yang Menglong said.

Yang Menglong obviously didn't have much patience to stay up late with him to write articles, so he patted his butt coolly and went to spend time with his wife and children.

Now the two children were lying in the cradle. Xiao Yufang gently rocked the cradle and hummed a beautiful song softly. With her singing, the two little ones fell asleep sweetly.The elder sister slept very honestly, lying on the side in a neat manner, while the younger brother put on a domineering "big" character, with a small bubble popping out of his mouth, trying his best to occupy the elder sister's territory. You can tell by looking at him that he is not an honest guy.Yang Menglong walked quietly to the cradle, sat down, and rocked the cradle with Xiao Yufang. Seeing the two little guys sleeping so sweetly, he also showed a happy smile and whispered: "Sleep so soundly. "

Xiao Yufang smiled and said: "Yes, both of them are very sleepy, Kaixuan is more quiet, Xiaojun is very naughty, every time he sleeps, he always occupies a large space, pushing his sister aside, what a naughty person Bag."

Yang Menglong said happily: "Looks like me, exactly like me when I was a child!"

Xiao Yufang looked at him, feeling that something was wrong with his expression, and asked softly, "Why, are you going to fight again?"

Yang Menglong was a little surprised: "You know everything?"

Xiao Yufang said, "Catherine just told me."

Yang Menglong sighed: "Look at me, I'm floating outside all year round, either dealing with business or going to war. It's rare to spend a few days at home with you. I really owe you too much!"

Xiao Yufang said: "But what you want to do is to benefit the people and benefit the great cause of future generations. Those who want to do big things must first wrong the family members. Don't worry, I can take care of the family. "

Yang Menglong felt a little guilty: "I really wronged you."

Xiao Yufang smiled and said: "Silly words. By the way, if you can, kill less people. You kill too much in Japan. This is not good. Just think of it as accumulating some virtue for your children and kill less people." , okay?"

Yang Menglong held her soft hand and said, "Don't worry, this is not a national war, at most it is a conflict of interests. I will not use the same methods I used against the Japanese to deal with my own people."

Xiao Yufang leaned against his chest and said, "Then I can rest assured."

After so many years, she has not changed at all, she is still the fairy princess who will not hesitate to take out the little food she has when she sees a stranger collapsed on the side of the road.

The next day, Yang Menglong reluctantly kissed Xiao Yufang and his two lovely children goodbye, and took Li Yan, Wu Yong and others by boat south to Wuhan.This guy moved so fast that when Liu Ziyan and Cheng Qi rushed back after hearing the news, they could no longer find him. They were so angry that they vowed to greet him with a washboard when he came back!
Catherine also followed, euphemistically saying: Investigation!

Now the Jianghan Plain has changed. Down the river, you can see endless farmlands and orchards. Rice, flax, vegetables, sunflowers, sugar cane, cotton and other crops are lush and growing, and some are not suitable for growing food. The land is not wasted, one side of the pond and one side of the mulberry are patchwork, and there is no mistake in raising silkworms and fish.Chinese farmers are unmatched in their use of land. Take fish and silkworm farming as an example. The leftover mulberry leaf dregs and feces excreted by silkworms are good feed for fish, while the silt in ponds is the natural source of mulberry trees. This pattern of development can still be found hundreds of years later.And in the rolling river, patches of white sails come and go, some are full of fishing goods, some are full of phosphate fertilizer produced in Jingxiang, some are full of special products from various places, and most of them are merchant ships full of various goods. The channel is extremely busy.Industrial and mining enterprises are blooming all over the place. The rich coal and iron ore resources in the Jianghan Plain have been developed one after another. Coking plants, steel plants, cement plants, textile plants, and food processing plants have appeared one after another. The land became more and more prosperous.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the Wuhan Shipyard, which is a giant. A large amount of wood and steel are sent over every day, and then processed into ship materials amidst the roar of the machines. There are new ships every month. Launching, not one or two ships, but several ships, including warships and merchant ships.When Yang Menglong arrived, he happened to catch up with a battleship installing the main mast.This is a large warship with a displacement of 120 tons and a length-to-width ratio of six to one. Eighteen 160mm naval guns and two [-]mm long-barrel mortars are installed on it.In order to pursue speed, it does not have a fixed rocket launch platform. Its main task is to send enemy warships into the seabed. As for using rockets to attack port terminals, that is the task of medium-sized warships, and it has no interest.

"How fast is this kind of warship?" Yang Menglong turned to ask the shipyard director accompanying the inspection.

The factory manager proudly said: "Very fast! If the wind is strong enough, it will only take half a month from Guangzhou to Tianjin. It is really too fast!"

Catherine said in surprise: "If you want to reach Tianjin within half a month, the speed must be at least [-] knots, right? Will the hull be able to withstand such a high speed for a long time?"

The factory director said: "Our warships use fine steel as the keel, and the hull is riveted with thick rivets. It is extremely strong, and it is also covered with a series of steel plates to act as armor. It is extremely strong and can withstand abuse!"

Catherine clicked her tongue: "How much high-quality steel is consumed! You really know how to play!"

Over there, a dock was filled with water, and a medium-sized warship slowly sailed out of it.This is a medium-sized battleship with a displacement of between 120 and 85 tons. Three [-]mm naval guns are installed on the bow, and twelve [-]mm naval guns are installed on both sides and the stern. Although the tonnage is not very large , but the firepower is very fierce.The manufacturing cost of this kind of warship is relatively low, and the working hours are relatively short, so its number is several times that of the main battleship. The sailors are already hungry and thirsty. It will arrive in Denglai, where it will receive rigorous training, and only by withstanding the test of the sea can it become a member of the navy.

Yang Menglong watched the battleship Feiyan boat row across the water and disappear into the mist, nodded in satisfaction, and asked the factory manager, "How many warships can the shipyard produce every month now?"

The factory director said: "Now the workers are very skilled, and with the help of a large number of hydraulic machine tools, the efficiency has doubled. It is not a problem to produce five or even six ships per month. It's just..."

Yang Menglong frowned: "Just what?"

The factory director said: "To tell you the truth, the Longjiang Shipyard, Dengzhou Shipyard, and even the Guangzhou Shipyard have almost run out of ship materials suitable for making large warships. There are still a lot in Fujian, but they are controlled by Zheng. Now, we can’t buy them at all! Without enough ship materials, no matter how skilled the workers are, it’s useless! If there is no replenishment, in two months, the shipyard will have to stop building warships and focus on Dealing with wood!"

Ancient sailing warships had very strict requirements on ship materials. A qualified piece of wood must be slowly dried in the shade for two or three years to dehydrate it. At the same time, it must be waterproofed, otherwise the seawater will swell. The battleship is doomed.In the Wuhan shipyard, wood from Hubei, Sichuan and even the primeval forests of Nanyang is piled up like a mountain, but it has not been completely dehydrated and cannot be used. All warships have been built by collecting ship materials from various domestic shipyards. Now those in stock The ship material has been consumed completely, and the factory manager has nothing to do.He is worried, this shutdown means that many people have nothing to do, will Yang Menglong fire people?

Yang Menglong sent him a package of reassurance: "Just stop. The workers have been busy for more than a year. They have worked hard. They need to rest for a while. I will pay them the wages."

The captain breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, sir!"

Yang Menglong asked: "How many warships can be built with the remaining ship materials?"

"A maximum of six warships can be built, two large and four medium-sized," the shipyard said.

Yang Menglong counted and found that there were still three unfinished ships in the dock.In other words, in two months, he will have sixty battleships.

Sixty ships... enough!

Encouraging the factory manager again, Yang Menglong left Catherine and went to the military factory by boat.

The military factory is also roaring with machines. The toothache sound of machine tools cutting metal fills everyone's eardrums, making people have an urge to jump into a river.Some workers fixed the drilled barrel on the threading machine, and the high-speed rotating drill bit was aimed at the mouth of the barrel and slowly drilled in, and clusters of metal debris were dug out.After a while, the drill bit was removed, and a worker wrapped his hands in a wet cloth to take out the hot gun barrel, cleaned off the debris inside, and then sent it to the assembly workshop, which would combine it with the various firearms that had been prepared for a long time. The parts are assembled, and a rifled flintlock is done.On the other side, several workers worked together to push the delivery vehicle, and sent a 120mm gun barrel to the front of the machine tool. The high-speed rotating cutter head was inserted in, copper shavings flew randomly, and the rifling slowly formed.The factory manager complained to him: "There are some components that make the hydraulic machine tools unable to do what they want. When will you get me a steam engine? As long as there is a steam engine, our production efficiency can be doubled or even several times!"

Yang Menglong said: "Don't think about the steam engine for the time being. At least there is no hope for this year. It is not perfect. Even if you dare to use it, I will not let you use it. Wait for another two years. Come on, ah, and Nearly ten battleships are waiting for your cannon!"

The factory manager let out a feeble groan... His pressure was too great, and he had to produce nearly [-] cannons every month—this was the result of the Nanyang Military Factory taking over half of the production tasks. What a good temper, as soon as the warship is built, they will see the brand new naval guns installed. If they are not produced in time, they will roar: "I have given you so much money, and you still have to push back? You don't want to do it, do you?" !?" If the delivered naval guns have quality problems, they will directly spray their saliva on the factory manager's face: "I gave you so much money, and you just use this pile of garbage to fool me!?" The maintenance is a bit late , They immediately scolded their mothers: "I gave you so much money..." In short, as soon as the battleship hits the water, they will see that the cannon can roar loudly, and if they can't do it, they will hang the southeast branch by themselves!Fortunately, iron molds are generally used to cast cannons. If clay molds are still used as before, it will take a year just to let the mold dry completely...you just wait to be sprayed to death!
Yang Menglong didn't understand the factory manager's pain at all. He looked at the roaring machines and the busy workers like worker ants, and he felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart.All of this is the result of his hard work, years of painstaking efforts, the accumulation of talents and technology, and finally the current prosperous situation, and he has reason to be proud of it!And all this is why he dared to despise all the ugly unspoken rules, played cards not according to common sense, and turned the stagnant water of Daming upside down. As long as the machines in the factory are still running, he and his army will have nothing to fear. If he is willing, the Heluo New Army can overthrow the whole world!
Now he's a little tired of playing land battles, and it's not bad to find marine varieties for a change, hum, Zheng Zhilong, just wait for me!

(End of this chapter)