The turquoise sky was clean and only a blazing sun remained, and the infinite sea was covered with a layer of golden scales. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Goodbye, everybody!"

Facing Claire, Xiao Ming also waved goodbye, maybe he won't come to Ryukyu for a long time, after all, what he wants here is only a small part of his strategy, and the existence of Ryukyu in the next few years is just to provide some raw materials for Qingzhou.

After all, the population of the island of Ryukyu is too small.

The battleship continued to move northward in the sea breeze, and gradually the city of Geranza shrank into a faint skyline.

Lu Fei said at this time: "Your Highness, now Ryukyu is ours?" ”

"Needless to say, our troops are all stationed on Ryukyu Island, but Your Highness, is it too small to leave 4,000 troops here, and twenty-four field guns are all left on the island." Luo Xin was a little reluctant.

Xiao Ming shook his head, he understood that many generals didn't understand why they invested so much for a deserted island, he said: "I don't understand what I told you now, and in the future you will understand the important position of Ryukyu in maritime trade, this is a warship that will never sink!" ”

Yue Yun nodded slightly, he understood the value of Ryukyu better than Lu Fei and Luo Xin, after all, he had led the fleet south, and understood the importance of Ryukyu.

Seven days later, Xiao Ming and others who wanted to vomit on the sea finally returned to Dengzhou, this expedition was the first overseas battle led by Xiao Ming to the soldiers of the Great Chongqing State, although it was to take back the territory that belonged to them, but the great significance of this move will be remembered in the annals of history.

After all, this is the first time that the Great Chongqing Kingdom has extended its tentacles overseas.

Anchored in the military port, Xiao Ming said to Yue Yun at this time: "The cruising of warships cannot be stopped, from now on, you must completely control the sea trade routes, and you must not let the Japanese invade the merchant ships on the routes." ”

"Yes, Your Highness, but what if we find the merchant ships of the King of Chu and the King of Wei? Do you want to escort too? Yue Yun asked.

Xiao Ming glared at Yue Yun, "Are you stupid?" Benwang spent so much money to build the Qingzhou Navy, and the soldiers shed blood and sacrificed to capture the Ryukyus, is it to serve them in the end? Tell those merchant ships that if they want to trade at sea, they should go to Qingzhou to get approval, otherwise they will go back from where they came, and if they dare not comply, they can use force to deter. ”

Yue Yun looked embarrassed, and he said: "Your Highness is right, this route was snatched back from the Dutch, it should be ours now, and the profits generated by the route should also be ours." ”

"That's pretty much it." Xiao Ming nodded.

After getting off the battleship, Xiao Ming and his party did not immediately go to Dengzhou City, but went to the shipyard in the military port to find Zhang Liang to inquire about the construction of the battleship.

At this time, twelve third-class sail warships were being built on the beach of the military port, and six of them were basically in rudimentary form, and they met Zhang Liang on the beach.

"Your Highness."

Seeing Xiao Ming and his party coming, Zhang Liang immediately put down the work at hand and came over.

"Not bad, when will these six warships be delivered?" Xiao Ming said with a smile, he is very short of warships now, and the current fifteen warships cannot meet the current requirements for use.

Moreover, in this battle of the Ryukyus, he had a complete showdown with the Wa State, and the next battle at sea will only increase, and the coastline of the Great Yu State is long, even in order to escort the convoy, a large number of warships are needed.

"If nothing else, these six warships will be launched in three months, and there will be eight more warships in the other two shipyards, which means that a total of fourteen warships will be launched by then." Zhang Liang was triumphant.

Because of Xiao Ming's trade with the King of Chu and the imperial court, there were many skilled shipbuilders in the shipyard in Dengzhou, and these people greatly accelerated the speed of shipbuilding.

And the three shipyards also increased the number of battleships launched in the same batch.

"Fourteen, well, at least this year should be enough." Xiao Ming looked at Yue Yun, "Do you have so many crew members to operate the fourteen ships?" ”

Yue Yun was suddenly in a dilemma, and he said: "Your Highness, the speed at which this battleship was launched is too fast, this can catch up with the speed of our training, and it is really difficult for three months." ”

Xiao Ming frowned, this matter was expected by him, according to Claire, the crew of their merchant ship could be transformed into the seafarers of the warship at any time, and they had accumulated a naval team over the years.

And the development of the Qingzhou Navy is too late, if you go on like this, you can't keep up with the pace, he said: "You can't just recruit seafarers in Dengzhou, after all, the fishing villages in Dengzhou are also limited, you can try to attract fishermen from other places to settle in Dengzhou with generous treatment, in addition, coastal pirates are rampant, these pirates are born crews, and you can also absorb some crew members from them when you capture them." ”

"Your Highness, this is a good way, there are many pirates imprisoned in the Dengzhou prison, and many of these pirates are homeless and forced to join the pirates, and the general will pick them up later." Yue Yun said.

When Zhang Liang heard this, his face became even more proud, it was Yue Yun who urged them to speed up before, but now it was finally his turn to lack manpower.

After inspecting the shipyard of the military port, Xiao Ming went to the second and third shipyards at the north gate of Dengzhou under the leadership of Zhang Liang, and now these shipyards are under his control.

In the past, he only ran a small Qingzhou shipyard, which is not the same as now, because he is now very comfortable and satisfied.

The second and third shipyards are not far from the military port, which is also to be able to unify scheduling, as Zhang Liang said, there are four warships that are about to be completed in both shipyards.

After inspecting the shipyard, Xiao Mingcai and Lu Fei and others went to Dengzhou City, and when they were on the way, they could see the carriages of the Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce transporting salt passing by from time to time, and even some carriages were transporting sun-dried marine fish, which were the main profitable goods in Dengzhou.

In Dengzhou City, Xiao Ming met Yang Chengye, who originally wanted to go back to Qingzhou directly, but thinking of the importance of maritime trade, he decided to tell him and remind him to pay attention to the construction of the merchant hall and the foreign affairs office.

"The most important thing is the construction of the port, in the future, Dengzhou Port will become the port with the largest throughput, and from now on you will have to build a large number of warehouses near the port to store goods." Xiao Ming instructed: "And we also have to produce wooden boxes, when the time comes, you can sell these wooden boxes to merchants, the warehouse can be rented to maritime merchants, and you need to pay a fee for berthing in the port, just this one port is enough to make you Dengzhou rich." ”