Albert bought a fourth-class cruiser, three fifth-class cruisers, and thirteen sixth-class privateers.

"Mr. Albert, you have bought so many ships, is this enough money to sell the goods? That fourth-class cruiser will cost more than 100,000 taels of silver! Wang Xinyu asked in surprise.

Albert replied with a smile: "Dear boss, I can't hide it, that fourth-class cruiser doesn't cost money!" With the money I spent, I bought three fifth-class cruisers and thirteen sixth-class privateers. ”

"Don't want money?" Now Wang Xinyu couldn't figure out what was going on.

Albert smiled: "That's the case, after I bought the fifth and sixth class ships in Chennai, didn't I want to hire sailors?" It just so happened that the captain of the fourth-class ship was a friend of mine, so I took it upon myself to hire them along with the ship! So that we have enough sailors to drive so many ships back. ”

"Hahaha! Good! It's a good idea! Wang Xinyu smiled.

"It's not because of the good treatment here, boss, that they are willing to come."

However, just buying the three fifth-class ships and thirteen sixth-class ships, plus the cost of hiring a fourth-class ship, a total of about 300 crew members were hired, and the estimated cost was more than 200,000 taels of silver. According to this calculation, Albert has not earned a penny. Thinking of this, Wang Xinyu was a little worried that his employee didn't make any money: "But in terms of these ships and employment fees, Mr. Albert, don't you make a penny?" The money from the sale of the goods is only enough for expenses, right? ”

Albert smiled confidently: "I also bought some pig iron and grain and came back, and there was a little silver left." But it doesn't matter, if we don't defeat the Dutch first, how can we make a fortune later? If I covet a little money in front of me, I will earn less in the future! ”

In fact, Albert is indeed very far-sighted, and he also saw that Wang Xinyu would definitely become an excellent and good boss, so he followed Wang Xinyu with all his heart. Albert didn't feel that he had made the wrong choice, and he thought that he would definitely be able to go down in history like his predecessor Drake.

It's a great thing to have such a visionary employee! But seeing that those privateers had cannons on the bow and stern, Wang Xinyu asked with some puzzlement: "You British don't pay attention to neatness, including naval battles, but also volleys of cannons, and strive to give the opponent the maximum damage at one time." How come both ships have cannons in the bow and stern? ”

Albert replied: "These two types of privateers are not naval warships after all. In a real sea battle, these two ships are not on board, because they are just pirate ships. When the pirate ship is at sea, it is inevitable to use the bow of the ship to launch a pursuit of the opponent's merchant ship, and at this time, the bow cannon needs to fire chain bullets to knock down the opponent's sail in order to easily catch up; Corsair ships are also often chased by the navy, which requires tail guns to knock down the sails of the opposing side before they can run away. So the pirate ship has cannons at the head and tail. ”

"That's right!" Wang Xinyu asked again, "There is something I almost forgot, you have been here for so many days, and you haven't entered the river inside to see?" We built a military port in it. ”

Albert shook his head: "I'm not familiar with the waterway situation here, how dare I go in casually?" ”

"Alright then, you guys come with me, I've built a military port here, and this will be your home port from now on! Let's sail! Wang Xinyu said with a smile.

The Ming warships opened the way in front, and the British ships followed, sailing south, from the mouth of the river into the Yanping River Delta, which was crisscrossed by a network of rivers. The fleet slowly sailed on the main channel that Wang Xinyu and their colleagues had explored in advance, and sailed for two hours before arriving at Yanping Port.

After leaving for about a month and coming to Yanping Port again, Wang Xinyu was stunned when he saw that Yanping Port had changed greatly, and couldn't help but admire the work efficiency of the naval auxiliary soldiers and the people.

On the banks of the river, berths have been built to provide large seagoing vessels, all of which are extended to the deep water of the river with wooden trestle bridges, and wooden floating docks have been built on the river, with a total of eight berths for large seagoing vessels, and four small berths on the riverbank for small boats.

On the shore, a two-kilometer-long and five-hundred-meter-wide earthen city has been completed, and the surrounding forests have been cut down a lot, and there is a fence outside the earthen city, in which green crops are planted. Since the current population is not large, there is also a lot of farmland in Tucheng. Because the crops have been planted, this is the slack season, and Luo Xiang, who stayed here, is leading the people to build intensely inside and outside Tucheng. Many people are building castles with built carts and pulling stones pulled back from the mountains not far away.

The most amazing thing is that there are also many indigenous people in Sulu who are also helping the Ming army build the castle.

The flotilla arrived at the pier, and the sailors lowered the anchor chains and threw the ropes ashore.

Immediately, a number of sailors' auxiliaries came to help, tying ropes to stakes and securing the boats.

"Such a big river, the river network is vertical and horizontal, and the two sides are densely covered with primeval forests, I'm afraid only the boss can imagine that you want to open a harbor in it!" Albert sighed.

Wang Xinyu smiled slightly: "Let's go, let's go ashore!" ”

After going ashore, Wang Xinyu asked Luo Xiang, and then he learned that those who worked were all captured by the Banshilan tribe. For those captives, as long as they are fed with sweet potatoes every day, occasionally given some rotten vegetable leaves and stinky fish and shrimp, and eat the remaining bones to stew a soup, so that they can replenish their nutrition, the captives who escaped death are already thankful, at least they will not be killed. And the king of Banshilan was also willing to send the captured natives of other tribes, because he was already allied with the Ming army.

With the armor and iron weapons provided by Wang Xinyu to the Banshilan tribe, the warriors of the tribe are invincible and invincible every time they go on an expedition, and they have destroyed many surrounding tribes. A large number of men from other tribes were captured by the Tu King, who was then brought here. And the women of those small tribes have become the spoils of the Banshilan tribe.

Sending slaves to work, the Ming army paid certain rewards to the Banshiran tribe, such as grain, wine, cloth, and the like.

Since the Banshilan tribe is relatively civilized, the natives of this tribe should be guided slowly, and those who can assimilate will be assimilated. As for those other Shengfan tribes who could not assimilate, Wang Xinyu was happy to use the Banshilan tribe to slaughter them.

On Sunday, who helped the Ming army as a supervisor, he saw Wang Xinyu and a group of foreigners coming over, and hurriedly stepped forward, knelt on the ground, and kissed Wang Xinyu's toes: "Dear Ming Army general, without you, there would be no us today!" ”

Wang Xinyu took a closer look, and saw that this Sunday, the clothes on his body had turned into a silk Hanfu style, and the original hair was tied up, and a silk headscarf was put on his head. If it weren't for the darkening skin, it would look almost no different from the Han people. Look at the Sulu warriors who helped supervise the slaves, they also wore linen clothes, straw sandals, leather whips, and waist knives around their waists. Although there is no hair on his head, he has become a civilized person.

"You have to let your tribesmen learn our Chinese, otherwise it will be difficult to communicate in the future!" Wang Xinyu asked Sunday to stand up.

Sunday stood up and bowed his hands again and again: "Respected general, the king of the earth also wants to learn Chinese!" After the villain goes back, he will definitely let the people of the tribe learn Chinese! ”

Albert, who was standing behind him, stepped forward and whispered in Wang Xinyu's ear, "How did these barbarians become so civilized?" ”

Wang Xinyu replied with a smile: "Enwei and Shi!" They fought with us and killed many of them. Beat them to the ground, give them some more benefits, and they will completely succumb! ”

"That's a good idea!" Albert laughed too.

Luo Xiang and his soldiers came to greet Wang Xinyu, and took Wang Xinyu to a beautiful building in Yanping City.

"This is the temporary general's mansion that has just been repaired." Luo Xiang said.

Wang Xinyu took a look at his mansion, only to see that this is a big house with three entrances and three exits, although it has not been completely completed, but it can be seen that it covers a very large area, and there are two-story buildings in the courtyard that are under construction, and in the backyard, there are also reserved gardens, rockeries and other facilities.

So Wang Xinyu arranged accommodation and arranged Albert, Wu Haodong, Li Rui and Pan Ying and others into his mansion.

"That's it! This will be my office from now on! Pan Ying looked at Wang Xinyu with shining eyes.

Wang Xinyu agreed: "I won't live here in the future, you can live here." But there is one condition. ”

"On what terms?"

"Maybe in two years, I'll bring my family and my wife, and then you'll have to move out."

"Humph!" Hearing the word Madame, Pan Ying was obviously displeased, turned around and left.

The army returned to Yanping, where Luo Xiang ordered chickens and sheep to be slaughtered, and the Sulu people of the Banshilan tribe were sent down to the river to the sea to catch seafood. And some of the vegetables grown here, because of the hot climate in Luzon, also grow quickly, and some leafy greens planted for a month can already be harvested. The people cut the vegetables and returned to the city to prepare the welcome dinner.

Hearing that Wang Xinyu had returned, the king of Sulu Banshilan also brought people to welcome the king from the Ming Kingdom, bringing venison, hares and pheasants that had just been hunted.

"Beer!" Seeing the beer kegs removed from the ship, the eyes of the king of Banseran Tu lit up.

"Let me tell you, these are beers brought from Chennai by the British, and they taste much better than the expired beers that the Spaniards in Manila sold you!" Wang Xinyu said to Sunday.

A soldier had already opened a beer keg, poured out beer, and poured a bowl for Wang Xinyu and Albert and several others.

The earth king took a sip of beer and praised again and again: "Good! Wine! It's delicious! After that, he asked Sunday to ask, "Can there be more of this wine?" ”

Wang Xinyu told the king of soil on Sunday: "As long as you work hard, there will be better beer in the future, which will be shipped from the north!" ”

Two hours later, the dinner began.

Wang Xinyu, Albert, Wu Haodong, Luo Xiang, Li Rui, Pan Ying and others, as well as Albert's English friend, plus Tuwang, Sunday and the two leaders of the tribes under the Tuwang, all sat at the main table. The soldiers served with plates of steamed sea fish, salted shrimp, fried oysters, braised pork, roasted sheep's trotters, stewed deer tendons, roast chicken and other delicacies. The beer brought by the British was also opened, and the beer was still a little cold!

After asking Albert, I learned that the British, who were originally in Chennai, couldn't stand the heat, so they went out of their way to let the Indian natives transport thousands of years of ice from the Himalayas. So the beer produced in Chennai is made on ice. Packed in sealed kegs, the beer can be kept at a certain temperature due to the air pressure, and in Chennai, you can drink cold and delicious beer. After a long haul here, although it was not as icy, the beer was kept in the bilge, and when Albert loaded the ship, he filled the tank with ice to keep the bilge temperature low. Now the ice has melted, but the temperature of these beers is still much cooler than that of Luzon, so it is naturally very refreshing to drink.

After dinner, Wang Xinyu sat in his study, lit the lamp, and on the table was a map of the vicinity of Ban Shilan that Luo Xiang had drawn during this time.

The map is very detailed, with mountain ranges, several copper mines found, navigable rivers, and the surrounding terrain. Wang Xinyu looked at the map and marked on it the living quarters, barracks, castles, forts, and wasteland outside the city to be developed in Yanping City in the future. Then, along the river, the location of the barrage was marked in some places upstream, and the location of the steel mill and the arsenal was marked.

"Along the river, you can reach the steel mills and arsenals directly by boat, and the iron ore and coal from Annam can be sent directly to it. In addition, a coking plant was built in Haikou to directly smelt coal into coke, and also provide coal tar, phenol, etc. Wang Xinyu said to himself.

"What is a coking plant?" Pan Ying didn't know when she appeared behind, still holding a bowl of rock sugar lotus seed soup in her hand.

Wang Xinyu patiently explained to Pan Ying that the coking plant could not be used directly to make steel, and the cost of making steel with charcoal was too high. However, coal can be placed in a sealed environment for high-temperature decomposition, and the coke can be used to make steel. In addition to coke, coking can also obtain various items such as coal tar, gas, sulfur, and phenol. In fact, there were already coking plants in the Ming Dynasty, but they were just the extraction of coke by the earthen kiln method, which was seriously wasted, and the by-products were not only unusable, but also a serious pollution.

With a little improvement, a new type of coking plant could be built, not only to obtain high-quality coke, but also to recycle by-products, gas to provide lighting, cooking, and sulfur, phenol and ammonium were valuable by-products that could be used to produce gunpowder and even more advanced smokeless gunpowder. Coal tar, on the other hand, can also be used as a fuel and can also be used to extract valuable chemical raw materials.

However, under the current level of science and technology, Wang Xinyu has not yet thought of engaging in large-scale coal chemical industry, in addition to the production of coke, the remaining by-products can only be the production of a small amount of new gunpowder under laboratory conditions. As for the use of gas, in the absence of rubber to ensure sealing, it cannot be stored or transported over long distances, so the gas can only be burned as coking fuel in the coking plant, and the excess gas can only be ignited in vain and wasted.