On the second day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Wang Xinyu sailed to Dingguo Bay with the returning fleet.

In addition to the eight Ming ships, there were also five Spanish galleons loaded with cargo. However, the Spanish galleon did not fly the flag of the Ming Army, but the flag of the Nanyang Company.

Wang Xinyu designed the flag of the Nanyang Company: it is a kind of flag similar to the naval flag of later generations, the upper part of the flag is red, the upper left corner is a yellow five-pointed star, the middle is a yellow anchor chain pattern, and the lower part of the flag is four blue and white horizontal stripes, which represent the four oceans.

On the Spanish galleon, the goods brought to Dingguo Bay included grain brought back from the island of Borneo, pig iron, sulfur and saltpeter bought from the Spaniards in Manila. Eight large ships of the Ming army were loaded with grain, sulfur and saltpeter to be brought back to Xiamen. On Wang Xinyu's own ship, there are ten pairs of telescopes, ten pocket watches, four table clocks, two sets of chemical experiment equipment and six vernier calipers, all of which are placed in Wang Xinyu's own cabin.

At the same time, Wang Xinyu also designed the naval uniform of the Nanyang Company's escort team according to the naval uniform of later generations. Navy uniforms are divided into: General Summer Uniform, General Winter Uniform, General Summer Uniform, General Winter Uniform, Officer Summer Uniform, Officer Winter Uniform, Officer Summer Uniform, Officer Winter Uniform, Summer Sailor Uniform, Winter Sailor Uniform, Sailor Winter Uniform, Sailor Winter Work Uniform and Sea Soul Shirt and other clothing. All winter clothing is dark blue, close to black for generals, slightly lighter for officers; All summer clothes are white. The sailor uniform is designed according to the sailor uniform of later generations, with shawls and streamers, and there are four horizontal bars on the shawl, representing the four oceans; The streamer has an anchor chain pattern on it. The sailor's winter work clothes are pure dark blue, like the submarine overalls of later generations; The sea soul shirt is not only the underwear of the sailors, but also the summer work clothes.

Before leaving Manila, Wang Xinyu bought five more Spanish galleons. These boats were to be purchased by Pan Liu. Pan Liu felt that there were still a little less than eight galleons, and when the coal and iron mines in Annan were opened, only iron ore and coal, and the capacity of the eight ships was not enough.

After finding Manrik, Wang Xinyu offered to buy additional goods.

Seeing the god of wealth come to the door again, Manrik was like seeing gold and silver.

But when he heard that Wang Xinyu was going to buy five additional galleons, Manrik said with a sad face: "I sold you eight ships, and it is already very difficult to deal with the above, and I have to buy five more, I'm afraid it's a little difficult to explain." ”

Wang Xinyu knew that Manlik actually wanted to sit on the ground and start the price, anyway, he came to buy it this time, using the silver given by Pan Liu. The price offered by Wang Xinyu to Pan Liu was: 20,000 taels of silver for a 750-ton ship, and 15,000 taels of silver for a 500-ton ship. Even if Manrik raised the price a little, Wang Xinyu still earned it. But Wang Xinyu couldn't let the greedy governor make too much money, so he said that the price was 15,000 taels of silver for a 750-ton ship and 10,000 taels of silver for a 500-ton ship. In this way, Wang Xinyu can still make a lot of money.

Anyway, Manrik was going to report to the higher authorities that the ships were old, or had been robbed by the Dutch and British, and had been badly damaged, and sold as scrap wood. Wang Xinyu bought these ships, and Manrik almost made this money for nothing, so he agreed to come down and sell Wang Xinyu two 750-ton and three 500-ton merchant ships.

Each ship Wang Xinyu can net 5,000 taels of silver, so that another 25,000 taels of silver will be in hand. Although Pan Liu is a partner, it is Wang Xinyu's credit to be able to cut the price, and Wang Xinyu has no pressure to earn the money he should earn.

In addition, Wang Xinyu himself purchased 300 sets of armor, 100 muskets and 200 halberds, and proposed to purchase two additional boring machines, two drilling machines and two hydraulic stamping and forging equipment. In addition to the fact that the weapon was Wang Xinyu's own money, the money used to buy the lathe was Nanyang Company. Because he planned to open a steel mill and an arsenal in Dingguo Bay, which was the industry of Nanyang Company, naturally Wang Xinyu did not need to pay for this money himself, and could buy it with the company's public funds.

Anyway, you won't lose money if you buy equipment, and when you produce weapons later, you can sell them to the Annamite people, sell them to the Japanese, sell them to the Siamese, sell them to the Koreans, sell them to the Sulu people, sell them to the Mongols, and even sell their own weapons to Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong and others. Of course, the quality of the weapons sold to outsiders is definitely a little worse than that used by oneself, and the vast majority of the weapons sold are cold weapons. Later, when the Americas route was opened, weapons could be sold to the Americas, and the Indians could be sold sophisticated firearms, so that they could fight with the Western colonists.

The American route is definitely going to be opened, and Wang Xinyu will have to set his army on the American continent sooner or later.

wanted to go to Dingguo Bay, Pan Ying pestered her grandfather again, hoping that her grandfather would take care of the task of going to Dingguo Bay to inspect and help the company build Yanping City.

"Alas! The female university is not staying! Pan Liu saw that his baby granddaughter had been unsettled for a few days, her eyes were hazy, and she was in a trance, and she thought that her cheeks were suddenly flushed, Pan Liu was a little worried, I really didn't know what would happen to this baby granddaughter and this General Wang in Borneo Island for more than half a month. Although I like Wang Gongzi very much, after all, he already has a wife! Can't you marry your precious granddaughter as a concubine?

couldn't resist his granddaughter, Pan Liu had no choice but to agree, and let his baby granddaughter follow Wang Xinyu to Dingguo Bay.

When she was on the boat, Pan Ying was still dressed in men's clothes. But the soldiers and officers already knew that this was a beautiful woman, and Wang Xinyu had a wife, so it was impossible for Miss Pan to be a concubine, so Li Rui, Wu Haodong and others worked hard to find an opportunity to get close to this girl.

But Pan Ying ignored them, and ran to Wang Xinyu's side whenever she had time.

Wang Xinyu stood at the stern of the boat, looking into the distance, flocks of seagulls followed the big boat, and silver fish jumped out of the water from time to time on the sea.

"Childe, what are you thinking?" Suddenly, someone from behind was asking.

Wang Xinyu heard a fragrant wind coming from behind, and knew that Pan Ying was coming. So he turned his head and replied with a serious face: "I'm thinking about the future, where should we go." ”

Pan Ying nodded and said: "Gongzi is reasonable, now the Dutch are now the most powerful, the Portuguese only occupy a little territory in the Sultanate of Aceh, the Spaniards are even more compressed in Manila and dare not move, and the British don't even dare to come over the Strait of Malacca!" But the Dutch had already captured the islands of Java, Golden Island, and most of the Sultan of Aceh. What if they send troops and attack our Borneo? ”

"Even horizontal and vertical, long-distance and close-range attack!" Wang Xinyu cherished words like gold, and only said eight words.

"Tell me, how to connect horizontally and vertically, and attack from afar and closely?"

"This sea is also like the Spring and Autumn Warring States of the year, and now the Netherlands looks like a strong Qin, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, all of them have weakened, but the British are actually not weak! Now we are working with the Spaniards, but we can only do business together, and they can't make a big deal. The key is to ally with the British! When I beat the Dutch away first, we will be the boss in the South Seas! At that time, it will be a matter of course to drive out the Spaniards! ”

"What if the British were going to enter Malacca? Then aren't we driving wolves at the front door and tigers at the back door? ”

"As for the British, we will deal with them later! We and the British will eventually have a decisive battle, but not now! After speaking, Wang Xinyu turned his head to look at the sea again.

Pan Ying looked at the man's back stupidly, and suddenly felt that he was very tall, revealing a kind of domineering aura on his body. Suddenly, a strange feeling appeared in my heart, and I couldn't tell whether it was sour or happy. She thought stupidly: It's a pity that the son is already married, and she can't go to the side room! Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation on my face. Pan Ying touched her face with both hands, and said in her heart: How can I think about this? Forget it, don't think about it.

On the morning of 4 September, the fleet sailed into Dingguo Bay.

"Look ahead! There is a fleet of Xiyi people! A lookout soldier shouted.

Wu Haodong heard the report of the sailors and hurriedly picked up the binoculars. From the monoculars, it was clearly seen that it was a fleet flying the British flag and the Daming flag! The number of ships was large, about a dozen to twenty large and small battleships.

"It's British! It's a friend of our General Wang! Wu Haodong put down the binoculars, turned his head and said, "Let's play the banner of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

The flotilla replaced the flag of the Nanyang Company, hung the sun and moon flag of the Daming Naval Division, and sailed towards the British flotilla.

The two fleets met, and Wang Xinyu stepped on the Drake.

When Albert saw Wang Xinyu coming up, he hurriedly stepped forward: "Boss, you're finally back!" ”

"Well, there were some things to do in Manila and Borneo, it's too late! How many days have you been here? Wang Xinyu apologized to Albert.

"We've been hanging here for five or six days, but it's good that it's right on the coast, there's fresh water, there's wild animals to catch on the shore, and we've got enough food with us," Albert said. By the way, boss, look at how many boats I brought you! ”

Wang Xinyu counted it and found that Albert was indeed fully loaded, and in addition to his own fourth-class cruiser Drake, he also brought back a sister ship of the Drake, an identical fourth-class cruiser! In addition to this, there are three fifth-class cruisers with a displacement of three hundred and eighty tons, five sixth-class privateers with a displacement of two hundred hundred tons, and eight sixth-class privateers with a displacement of one hundred and fifty tons!

Albert first took Wang Xinyu to visit a sixth-class privateer, and began to introduce with interest: "The sixth-class privateer of the Golden Deer-class was once the pride of the British Royal Navy!" It was twenty-five meters long, six meters wide, with a draft of 2.5 meters, a displacement of one hundred and fifty tons, three masts, an oak structure, two four-pounder guns in the bow and stern, and seven four-pounder guns on each side. This kind of ship is fast. Back then, our famous Captain Drake used this kind of ship to make the Spaniards fearful. ”

After visiting the Golden Deer-class, there was a 230-ton sixth-class privateer, which was a parrot-class sixth-class privateer, with three masts, oak structure, 31 meters long, 7 meters wide, 3 meters draft, and 22 six-pounder guns.

Although the Parrot-class sixth-class privateer was a small boat, it had a displacement similar to that of the main warships of the Ming army at that time, and its firepower was much more ferocious, and the planks were much stronger. However, all Western ships have a disadvantage, that is, there are no compartments, once the waterline position is penetrated by solid bullets, the workload of the repairers is very heavy, and if the hole cannot be plugged in time, the ship is in danger of sinking. And Chinese ships, whether they are fortune ships or sand ships, centipede clippers, or even small sampans, have compartments.

Next, we visited the Brave-class fifth-class cruiser, a three-hundred-eighty-ton cruiser that, like the Drake, had two gun decks, but the guns of this type of ship were smaller, with twelve eight-pounder guns in the upper gun deck and sixteen eighteen-pounder guns in the lower gun deck.

With the addition of the original Drake, Wang Xinyu now has two 500-ton fourth-class cruisers, three 380-ton fifth-class cruisers, five 200-ton sixth-class ships, and eight 150-ton sixth-class ships. If such strength is brought to Europe, it is not enough to even look at it, as long as three or four Royal Ark-class 800-ton third-class frigates are enough to defeat all of Wang Xinyu's ships. But in Asia, this is already a very powerful fleet.

At that time, the largest first-class battleships in Europe were the British first-class battleships Lordship of the Sea and King of the Sea, huge ships of 1,600 tons, with three gun decks.