"Boom!"

The sound of the gong echoed in the city of Fuzhou, and the officials carrying the gong shouted loudly while striking the gong.

"Listen to the neighbors, the imperial court has set up a large water division, and raised and distributed 5,000 sailors and soldiers, each person is paid 128 yuan per month, and 4 buckets of rice ......."

Even the wharves and city gates were posted with notices, not only to recruit bravery, but also to recruit shipbuilders. The shipwrights who had lost their jobs because of the "forbidden sea" had finally found their skills again, and even the once heaping of broken planks would come in handy. It's no longer like in the past, piled up on the dock waiting to be bought to build a house. Even more than in the past, it can be sold at a higher price, not only for good wood, but also for wood that is barely usable due to rainwater.

It's no wonder, after all, nowadays, on the riverside outside the city of Fuzhou, you can see bird boats under construction everywhere, those bird boats are seven or eight zhang small, and more than ten zhang long, as for the arson boats that are several zhang long, they are dozens or hundreds of them.

Nowadays, the government is running a large sailor, and this sailor naturally needs to build ships, if it is held in previous years, it can still seize some ships, but now, after breaking the forbidden sea, the civilian ships have been destroyed, and naturally it is impossible to seize the civilian ships.

Shipbuilding is easy, as long as there is money and someone can build a ship, this Fuzhou is a prosperous place for navigation, shipbuilding craftsmen naturally have, even if the construction of sea ships is stopped, this shipwright is just idle, as long as people do not die, they can naturally be built, of course, as long as they are paid.

But now the problem is not only the problem of craftsmen and wages, the problem is the material, the big wood in Fuzhou is scarce, the wood needed for shipbuilding can not be solved, naturally it cannot be shipped, and the wood used for shipbuilding such as camphor wood is special, so for a time the wood is difficult to prepare, can only be replaced by the old demolished plank, even if the government knows that the wood has been placed for many years, it is just barely usable, and has to reluctantly accept these wood, after all, now, the government needs enough ships.

Boats and people are indispensable.

When the shipyard was working overtime to build the ship, the recruitment of the sailor Shui Yong did not stop, compared to the difficulty of preparing the wood for shipbuilding, the recruitment of the Shui Yong could not be simpler, after all, Fuzhou was a major navigation town after the ban on the sea unemployed sailors more than 10,000 people, the salary of two or eight yuan is not much, it is said that it is much less, far more secure than they go around as coolies, so the gongs and drums here are beaten, and the notice is posted, which has thousands of people have signed up to join the sailor, for a time, but also let the momentum of the sailor battalion be strong.

And when the water warriors in the sailor camp were slowly enriched, in the rivers outside Fuzhou City, these boats were also increasing day by day, but they were just a few big bird boats that had not been seen for many years.

When Shui Yong was practicing on the river day and night, the formation of this water division did not fall, and for Shi Lang, who was the commander of the water division, in addition to practicing Shui Yong in the water division camp, he was to go to the yamen to fight for the water master as much as possible.

"500,000 taels!"

In front of the Governor's inquiry, Shi Lang replied truthfully.

"If you want to build 70 big bird ships, 100 fishing boats and 50 double-sailed boats, plus the large and small red cannons on board, I am afraid that it will cost no less than 500,000 taels of silver!"

Shi Lang, who was transferred from the governor of Tong'an to the admiral of the Fujian Navy Division, is now full of high spirits, and he no longer sees yesterday's downfall, and even this is only half a month, he has made this water division battalion show a bit of momentum, and with the water division, he is much tougher than in the past.

After all, this use of troops in Taiwan is inseparable from the naval division, and the imperial court is even more determined to win Taiwan this time, after all, for the imperial court, if Taiwan is not captured, it will not be able to prevent the Loyal and Righteous Army from exile Shiqing officials' families belonging to Taiwan.

It is precisely because of the will of the imperial court that the governor in front of him will fully support Shi Lang and support him to build sea ships in Fujian. supported him to train the water master, of course, it was also thanks to this that Shi Lang's waist pole was much harder than in the past, after all, now the court could not do without him Shi Lang.

"Honorable Marquis, this silver, you don't have to worry, the silver, the headquarters will raise it for you, this thief is rich more than ten households and hundreds of households, if the silver is insufficient, just copy a few, but now everyone thinks that you are building a boat in Fuzhou, it is too time-consuming and laborious, such fanfare, when the time comes, it will definitely be discovered by the Keelung thieves, if it sends reinforcements to increase Taiwan, what should happen then?"

Li Shutai's tone was a little puzzled, he could understand that the reason for building boats in Fuzhou was that Fuzhou was closer to Keelung, and the fleet would arrive at Keelung if it went east all the way out of the Min River, but even if there were tens of thousands of boatwrights, it would not take a few months to build so many ships, not to mention that there were not so many shipwrights, and there were not so many ship materials.

"The ministry, marked once said, if only the current naval boat to attack Taiwan, will be able to easily defeat the enemy, but under the mark, now the emperor in Shandong, will lead the troops to the south at any time, once defeated Zheng thief, Zheng thief must flee by sea, for many years, Zheng thief has been a disaster to the Fujian Sea, if he is allowed to return to Xiamen safely, it will be a disaster to the Fujian Sea again, for the harm to the imperial court, so the mark thinks that when the Zheng thief flees south, we can block it in the middle of the road, and then hit it hard, when it returns to Xiamen and Kinmen, Then attack Xiamen, so that the Fujian Sea can naturally be flattened! ”

As one of the generals who were once the best at water warfare under Zheng Chenggong, Shi Lang naturally understood the strengths of Zheng Chenggong's marching army, and knew how to grasp the opportunity in front of him.

In the past, for Shi Lang, he could only vaguely see that there would be such an opportunity in the future, after all, the Great Qing Kingdom was to deal with Zheng Chenggong with the strength of the whole country, and the absolute disparity in strength was the reason why the Great Qing Kingdom would win. But now, for the first time, he saw this opportunity, because the emperor led the troops to recruit in person, and hundreds of thousands of troops pressed towards Nanjing, even if Zhu Mingzhong was good at land warfare, how could he stop the hundreds of thousands of troops led by the emperor himself?

Once Zhu Mingzhong is defeated, then Zheng Chenggong will not be far from defeat, because Zheng Chenggong has no generals who are good at land warfare, even if it is the Iron Man Army, it is only in vain. If Zheng Chenggong is defeated in Jiangning and he flees from the sea, he can lead the sailors to wait for work and inflict heavy losses on them at sea!

Such an opportunity, Shi Lang naturally does not want to miss it!

"Zheng Thief's strength is that he is a sailor, and every time he is defeated, he can escape alive, because once he is defeated, he will flee to the sea, and if he wants to defeat Zheng's army, he must defeat it from the sea. If you want to defeat the Zheng thief, you have to defeat his water master, and there is no other way! ”

Regarding Shi Lang's words, Li Shutai, who has been the governor of Fujian for many years, is naturally very clear, otherwise, he would not have recruited a large number of Zheng army generals, and even recruited pirates and trained sailors.

"Your Excellency, you know all these things you said, but the problem is ......"

Li Shutai then picked up an official letter and said.

"No, there are two more counties of Zhejiang's magistrate who fled, and the court over there should be lenient, even if he is arrested, he must be ordered to return to his original post, every day it drags on, maybe how many people will abandon their officials and abscond, how stable is the heart of the eunuchs in the world? The court is waiting for our good news! ”

Shi Lang has Shi Lang's considerations, and Li Shutai also has his considerations, he knows that the imperial court can't wait, and those Han officials from Jiangnan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang can't wait either, everyone is here waiting for the good news from his side.

"If we drag on like this again, the court will blame it, but you and I can't afford it!"

Li Shutai glanced at Shi Lang and said seriously.

"If you mobilize all the boat divisions now to attack Taiwan, how sure are you?"

Facing Li Shutai's inquiry, Shi Lang first pondered for a moment, and then said.

"If it is the elite under the command of Gong Haicheng and Ma Degong and other departments, well, Tang Bangjie, Lin Chong, Ye Lu and others can indeed choose 15,000 elites. Then collect all the big ships in Fujian, and when spring comes, when the wind direction turns south, even if the rebel sailor goes south to help, it will be blocked by the wind. ”

Shi Lang's tone seemed to be very affirmative, and he chose the troops led by General Zheng Chenggong, because he knew very well that those Eight Banner soldiers and the green battalion soldiers from the north, let alone fighting across the sea, when they arrived in Keelung, they might all become soft-footed shrimp because of the turbulence in the sea.

"Well, the Marquis is also a serious word!"

Li Shutai nodded, just as he had initially speculated.

"Ministry, although this Keelung thief is limited in strength, after all, it has a Western-style platform, and if our army wants to seize this place, it must surround its platform, but I am afraid that even if it is attacked now, without a month or two, it may not be easy to take Keelung!"

Although Keelung is located in the open sea, Shi Lang still collected a lot of information through merchants and even the Dutch, and of course he also knew about the forts in Keelung City.

"It doesn't matter, as long as Keelung is surrounded layer by layer, it will be a great achievement for the imperial court at that time!"

As the governor of Fujian, Li Shutai knows very well that for the imperial court, there is no difference between taking Keelung now and surrounding Keelung layer by layer, what the imperial court needs is to use this to tell the Han officials in the world, you see that the imperial court has put a lot of effort into the big guys, and now Taiwan has a large army of the imperial court, so you naturally don't need to worry. As for Keelung, the outer land, the imperial court really doesn't care.

Even he thought that if the Dutch were willing to help, after conquering Keelung, he would hand over Taiwan to the Dutch, so that Taiwan would not be used by pirates again.

"It's just that the ministry, if you send troops to Taiwan now, this big sailor must not be stopped, after all, whether this can give Zheng Thief a fatal blow next, so that he can no longer be a disaster in Minhai, the key is this move, when the emperor wins, the ministry can also serve the emperor with this miraculous feat!"

Shi Lang, who was afraid that he would leave Fujian, caused the sailor to be delayed, and said a little nervously.

"Besides, after capturing Taiwan, you also need the help of sailors to live in Taiwan! This sailor can't stop! ”

"Marquis, you can rest assured, this sailor will never stop, this ship will continue to be built, and the headquarters does not know the importance of this sailor, when the Zheng thief is defeated, the old man will definitely ask for merit!"

Li Shutai comforted Shi Lang and told him to go to Taiwan with confidence. He said again.

"But this Taiwan, but it is a foreign land, if it is defeated, there is no reason to stick to it, then the prince only needs to demolish the fortress, and then he can return to the court, but in order to avoid Taiwan being used by pirates, the old man thinks that he can hand over all the Taiwan authorities to the Dutch, and those red hairy Yi are not the favorite kind of foreign places!"

Li Shutai's words made Shi Lang stunned, he pondered for a moment, and then nodded in agreement.

"What the ministry said is very true, if Keelung is handed over to Hongmaoyi, Hongmaoyi can naturally defend Keelung on my behalf, so that our army can not spend a single soldier and avoid the pain of garrisoning, but the size of this Taiwan is far beyond our imagination, and there are no less than hundreds of miles from north to south......."

Shi Lang is not a stranger to Taiwan, after all, the Zheng family also hid from the official army in central Taiwan and other places, and it is precisely because of this that he knows the actual situation in Taiwan.

"The number of Hongmaoyi on this island is very small, only this few uncivilized natives, even if Keelung is handed over to the Dutch, I am afraid they will not be able to control the whole island, if the pirates avoid other places, when the time comes, I am afraid that the Dutch will not be able to reach the whip, so ......"

Looking up at Li Shutai, Shi Lang said in a deep voice,

"If the ministry wants to stabilize the Fujian Sea, this Taiwan will not only be handed over to the Dutch, but must be given sufficient manpower for Taiwan's reclamation and farming, so that the Dutch will naturally not easily let the pirates invade the territory, or as they are now, they will not react at all to the pirates stealing Keelung!"

Shi Lang, who knows the Dutch and also knows Taiwan, made Li Shutai nod his head in agreement.

"What the Marquis said is very true. This matter will be left to you to take full responsibility, you personally go to negotiate with these Dutch, by the way, I heard that many of the ships used by the pirates are Western ships, and these Dutch also have Western ships, if you can get their help, the capture of Keelung will definitely be twice the result with half the effort! ”

The Governor's words made Shi Lang's heart move, but he thought of those red-haired temperaments again, and then nodded and said.

"Your Excellency the Governor, if you can get the help of Hongmaoyi, you will definitely be able to come to this Keelung!"