On June 10, 1652, just after the rumbling of cannons off the coast of Yancheng Port, the naval ships returning from the exercise returned to the port one by one to rest and receive supplies, which made the residents of the small Yancheng Port cheer for it.

The role of naval officers and sailors in promoting local consumption is quite obvious! After all, the Navy's First Fleet, which consists of 38 ships, including six battleships -- four battleships, including the "10 August," and two battleships, the "Resolute and Unyielding," and the "Great Wall of the Sea" -- 18 sail escort gunboats, four draft water supply ships, three ammunition supply ships, two repair ships, two coal carriers, one hospital ship, one troop transport ship, and one communication and liaison ship, has been intensively training and exercising for more than two months off the coast of Yancheng Port, which is rarely crowded.

In the course of the exercise, most of the daily food consumption of more than 4,900 naval officers and men had to be supplied by Yancheng Port, which has a population of only 3,000 or 4,000 people, which is actually quite a burden on this port, which is famous for its salt production and fishing. However, fortunately, there is a certain amount of food accumulation in the city, and the nearby residents like to breed ostriches, graze goats, and occasionally go out to hunt deer and camels, and the food sources are very diverse, so they have barely fooled the past two or three months -- of course, the return is also very rich, and the commercial sales of the whole city have reached the quota of last year's whole year in these two or three months, and one can't help but sigh that raising a navy such as the First Fleet is really not a worry-free matter.

Raising a navy is burning money! Captain Ventura's Kingfisher (part of the private Courier Liner Company) galleon was anchored in the harbor to unload its cargo, and they had to move to another berth at the request of the dock officials when they heard of the Navy warship entering the port. In order to give up the excellent berths that were originally better located to the Navy. This caused the sailors on the Kingfisher to boo.

"Did you hear that? The English Navy asked all foreign ships passing through the Strait of Dover to give them a 'flag-raising salute'! I don't know if our merchant ships will do this when they go to Riga and Arkhangel! "Idle." Some of the sailors aboard the Kingfisher began to chat with each other.

"Probably not." An elderly sailor with a wrinkled face said uncertainly: "I have heard that the British did not strictly enforce this rule. In fact, they mainly focus on the Dutch, they don't care about the ships of other countries, and they are not stupid, and they will not be stupid to offend all countries until now. ”

"That is, only Dutch ships were required to 'raise the flag' to the British when they passed through the Strait of Dover? Can other countries not comply? That's not bad, I thought that in the future our merchant ships would have to always have a British flag, which is really not a taste......" One young sailor breathed a sigh of relief.

"The British, who have invested really much in the navy and shipbuilding in the past three years, have heard the boasting of the English sailors who came to trade. What government encourages the construction of large ships, what kind of shillings are subsidized for every ship of more than 50 Rusts (about 100 tons) is built, what sailors are getting higher and higher, etc., looking at their smug appearance, I feel like two mouthfuls, what a thing! Some sailors said with a mixed expression of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Captain Ventura reclined on the side of the ship, eating a half-rotten fruit and laughing as he listened to the small chatter of his sailors. He certainly knew much more than they did, especially since his fellow lieutenant Rossetti was still in the Navy, and he always knew something that was not easy for others to hear—certainly not a secret.

He knew, for example, that the English fleet had been growing rapidly since 1649. Shipbuilding is taking place in almost every British port, especially on both sides of the Thames estuary. The British bourgeois government reaffirmed the Elizabethan policy of subsidy for shipbuilding. In order to encourage the private sector to build large ships of more than 100 tons as much as possible. You know, the smallest Dutch fishing boat is 60 tons, but the British fishing boats are generally between 6-12 tons (and the number of fishing boats also accounts for the vast majority of the number of British ships), the two are not the same level at all, no wonder they have been repeatedly hit by Dutch fishing boats at sea, resulting in the tragedy of boat destruction and death.

However, from 1649 onwards, the situation changed greatly, and the British government clarified the basic national policy of establishing a country by sea, began to overcome financial difficulties (for which it had to auction off a large number of property of the royal party), vigorously built warships and ocean-going transport ships, and also encouraged the private sector to build new ships and large ships. According to a number circulated in Amsterdam, the total tonnage of the British merchant ships now exceeds 180,000 tons, which is twice the total tonnage of the ocean-going merchant ships on the east coast (only the ships under the Compass Sea Transport Company and the Ministry of Immigration, not others) - but most of the large transport ships (about 2,300 sailors) on the east coast are carrying this "special cargo" of immigrants. It is not involved in the transportation of goods, so the actual sea transport capacity is actually only about 20% of that of the UK. And with the promulgation of the Navigation Regulations, a law that has a great stimulating effect on the British shipping industry, the gap between the two sides is still widening rapidly.

Of course, the British also had the trouble of being much more expensive to build ships than the Dutch. The Dutch shipbuilding industry is not comparable to the British in terms of scale and intensification, which saves a lot of costs; At the same time, their mechanization was higher than that of the British, and they had a greater cost advantage in purchasing spare parts (Amsterdam was a distribution center for ship gear), raw materials, which were even greater because the Dutch had mastered the Baltic and Muscovy raw materials such as hemp, flax, masts, timber, tar, beeswax, etc.; As well as their much cheaper financing costs and labor costs than British shipbuilders, they are often only half of their British counterparts in terms of shipbuilding costs, and in extreme cases even only one-third of the British, which has greatly hit the development of the British shipbuilding industry.

The Dutch were able to start building hundreds of ships at the same time, which consumed a lot of shipbuilding resources and drove up the average shipbuilding cost in Europe. They also send 700-800 ships (average tonnage 280 tons) to the Baltic Sea every year. a total of 207,000 tons). With the dual advantages of politics and economy. With a near monopoly on trade along the Baltic coast, it was difficult for wood, iron, cables, asphalt, asphalt, and beeswax, which were crucial to British shipbuilding, to enter the British market - or even if they did, they were extremely expensive (a conscious act of the Dutch) - which made British shipbuilders furious, but helpless.

"Thanks to Tianzun, we have the inexhaustible treasure trove of wood on New Huaxia Island; Thanks also to the enterprising Southern Railway Company, who helped our country's shipbuilding industry control the endless beech forests in Tierra del Fuego and Chile; Finally, thanks to the wise Executive Committee, our country has its own independent ship design, construction and testing system, a stable number of skilled workers, and a complete supporting industry. There are complete factory-run vocational schools to train talents, our country's shipbuilding industry is efficient and healthy, it is not subject to anyone, thank you Tianzun! Thinking of this, Captain Ventura couldn't help but remove the gossip pendant from his neck.

……

"The British Navy is growing so fast, it's surprisingly fast." Rear Admiral Li Yi, commander of the First Fleet, stood on the deck of the battleship "10 August," which sailed into Yancheng Port, and said in a worried tone to Navy Minister Lu Ming, who had come to inspect the exercise.

Lu Ming served as the chief of the general staff of the military department with the dignity of the Minister of the Navy, and he fought wits and courage with the army generals, and he had not paid attention to the daily training of the navy for a long time. However, this time, the First Fleet held a large-scale military exercise off the coast of Yancheng Port, which included almost all naval ships on the east coast. Lu Ming still took time out of his busy schedule to come over and take a look, so as to get a closer look at the recent development of his beloved navy.

And the main admirals of the Navy also seized the opportunity. He began to complain to the Minister of the Navy about the lag in the development of the navy on the east coast -- that is, in recent years, there have been almost no new ships added, and a batch of them has been launched this year, which has not been built for several years.

"According to the information that has been widely circulated in Europe, by the end of 1651, the British navy had raised the number of demobilized warships to 80-100 (the real number is 88), while a dozen years ago, this number was only twenty or thirty, which is a very frightening increase." Li Yi complained loudly to Lu Ming, "In comparison, the development speed of our navy seems too slow and too conventional, but now that our country has more and more overseas interests, and the sea lines of communication that need to be protected are getting longer and longer, the slow growth of naval forces has become an increasingly serious problem." Therefore, increasing investment in the Navy and increasing the size of the Navy fleet are matters that the Executive Committee should focus on in the next stage. ”

"The skyrocketing number of British warships is unsustainable, with the concentrated pressure release of the past two decades of low investment, and the British government can't afford to continue to build ships like it has done in the past three years, unless they get far more out of the war than they have in the past, or Cromwell, the dictator, continues to tax and invest in the navy at home." Lu Ming patted Li Yi on the shoulder and said with relief: "Our navy is taking the route of being a crack soldier, the ships are large and strong, the mobility is high, the firepower is strong, and the officers and men are highly motivated and well-trained. According to the department's calculations at the beginning of this year, after some of the new ships are put into service, the annual salaries of the navy's personnel will reach 674,400 yuan, and the training expenses will also exceed 1.2 million yuan. None of the navies of European countries has trained so frequently, so hard, and so scientifically as we do, so don't be arrogant, have confidence in yourself, and even more so in the 1.2 million yuan you spend on training in a year! ”

"As for the rapidly expanding number of professional warships in Britain and the Netherlands, isn't the Admiralty or the Executive Committee worried? But what's the use of worrying? Our national strength currently only allows us to have such a large navy, which is already the limit, unless we drastically cut the cost of training, when the zài fleet is saved, but then who will agree? When Lu Ming said this, he sighed imperceptibly and said: "You have to take your time every time, and you have to rely on the national strength to allow it." The Government Council has already complained deeply about the huge annual military expenditure, and has repeatedly mentioned that we want to reduce military spending and invest in economic construction, but we have stopped them. In addition, the army's situation must also be appeased, otherwise many things in the military department will not be able to be handled. Not only have their numbers been reduced over the years, but their military spending has also been declining, from more than 800,000 yuan at the peak to about 550,000 yuan now. At this time, if the limited military expenditure is tilted towards the navy, do you want those simple-minded and well-developed guys to rebel? ”

"Why is it so difficult to do something......" Li Yi, who knew that it was impossible for the navy to expand in a short period of time, suddenly said in disappointment. (To be continued......) R1292