Pioneers are often called pioneers, but whether they are pioneers or pioneers, they will not be a good identity in the literal sense, which means that they have to take the road that others have not taken, and they should "sacrifice" if they are not careful in the face of all strangeness.

It is human instinct to explore the unknown, but the exploration of the unknown is often full of unknowable risks, either with strong curiosity or in the face of rich rewards, otherwise those who dare to take the first step in exploration will not have it at all.

When it came to the exploration of the seas, the empire was supplemented by coercive orders and various rewards, and even then not many people applied. There is a great expansion of the land, and in the face of the inexhaustible exploits on the land, it is difficult for people to attract much interest in the unknown sea, and there are many people who have won fame and fortune, and they would rather go to the grasslands to gnaw grass and sand in the desert than to explore the islands on the sea with no enemies in exchange for merit.

"The devil knows what's going on at sea, people just stay in such a small boat, and the sea is so empty that it's so scary, God knows where it's going to go in the next moment."

"That's right, if something happens, the board of the boat is so big, there is nowhere to escape, and you will feed the fish directly when you go into the water."

"There are enemies in the north and northwest of the empire, and it is better to fight them with real swords and guns, isn't this more real than drifting on the sea?"

- Similar rhetoric is the mainstream, and no one sees the development of the Navy so much.

It's not an obstacle, but there are really not many people interested in the ocean, and in the end it forced Lu Zhe to set an example again, just like choosing Sima Xin, who performed brilliantly, as a role model, as long as he can find islands on the ocean, and depending on the size of the islands and the different resources available, he will give rich rewards and give high-profile publicity from public opinion.

"Who else now!" Chen Xuan had already boarded the new flagship, another sister ship of the 2,000-ton gunboat that Bianliang had received. He deliberately stood on the highest point. looked at the dozens of battleships surrounding the flagship with high spirits, and raised his eyebrows a little: "Who else thinks that we are pure 'toys', and who dares to despise us!?" ”

"There's nothing wrong with being the king's toy," the first mate stood next to Chen Xuan, and laughed obscenely when he heard the words: "The forbidden army on land is not also said to be the king's honor guard, but the forbidden army is better than the national defense army in terms of treatment and armament, that is jealousy." We are the navy that the king attaches great importance to, that is, the forbidden army on the sea, and the previous rumors and rumors were narrow-minded, and now I don't know how many people envy us. ”

Now in high spirits. So there must have been a miserable downfall before?

It's true, Chen Xuan, the person who followed Lu Zhe from Yiling to rise to Weimo, he was transferred to the navy very reluctantly, and before entering the navy, he was a captain, and when he entered the navy, he was directly promoted to a general, and became the highest official in the imperial navy.

The first person to hold the rank of naval officer, it sounds like a powerful one? But Chen Xuan didn't think there was anything powerful at all. Although it can be regarded as a general, there are partial generals, lieutenant generals, and generals on it, and generals are divided into so many titles, and there are also lieutenants after generals. No matter how you look at it, it is not remarkable, and it can even be said that it makes people feel that it is not a big deal when they hear it. Then the problem arises, the first person in the navy is a general, and when people think that the first person in the navy is a general, they feel that the navy is really a branch of the army with no future.

It really doesn't seem to have any future. Regardless of the name of the official position, there are only 20,000 people under the command of the first person in the dignified navy, and some ground soldiers on land are still counted. There are only less than 3,000 soldiers who are really floating on the sea, and if you count such gadgets as boats, the navy will only have less than 200 "floating on water" that can float.

Chen Xuan's first person in the navy faced such a situation, at that time, the inland river army had far more boats and ships than the navy, and when he saw the manpower and ships under his command, he felt that all thoughts were disillusioned in an instant, and he felt that his future was no longer bright.

The Navy has taken a turn for the better...... At least Chen Xuan felt that it was a turning point, as he discovered the Ryukyus (i.e., Taiwan) southeast of the empire mainland by chance, and then discovered several Ryukyu islands in a row within a month (this is the real Ryukyu Islands). From the discovery of these islands, the navy seemed to have ushered in spring immediately, and in just three months the navy strength had increased from 20,000 to 40,000, and the number of marines had been added, and the number of ships had swelled from the pitiful 200 to 500.

If the discovery of Yisu (renamed later in the Ryukyus) and the Ryukyu Islands was a turning point for the navy, the subsequent discovery of Wajima really made the navy receive the full attention of the empire, and it no longer seemed to be a "toy" set up under the personal paranoia of the king.

Truth be told, before the navy achieved anything, the entire empire really regarded the navy as a force created by the king's paranoia or whimsy.

At that time, there were many reasons why the ministers did not object to Lu Zhe's establishment of a navy, the king's personal hobbies were nothing, and the resources were not too much, and the pie painted seemed to be a bad thing, so try it.

No matter how Lu Zhe said it, he was the founder of the country with great authority, not to mention that the establishment of a navy was not a big absurd thing, even if it was absurd, as long as it would not hurt the foundation of the country, who would want to be unhappy with a king with great authority? Even if tens of thousands of people are singled out to do things that are destined to be fruitless, as long as they don't hurt the country's vitality and play with it.

The discovery of Yizhou, the discovery of the Ryukyu Islands, and the discovery of the Wa Islands, the navy used actions and facts to prove that its establishment was not a simple "toy" of the king, and at the same time that the empire felt novel, the exploration team under the navy actually found a variety of precious metal minerals in the Wa Islands, and it seems that more than a dozen silver mines were found in the Japanese islands alone, and there was a large silver mine in it, and even six large and small gold mines were found, which ......

I vaguely remember that Xiao He jumped up directly at that time, he, the consul, was worried about the reform of the empire's monetary system, and it was not because the empire's gold and silver reserves were not enough to support the monetary reform, and so many gold and silver mines were found on the Japanese Islands, it was as if a long drought was in the rain, and the whole person went from being indifferent to the navy to always paying attention to it, and for the first time he crossed the border to meddle in military affairs, and directly jumped in front of the civil and military officials at the Great Dynasty meeting, roaring that the navy must be strengthened.

"Gold! Silver! No need to dig deep, just shallow digging. As long as you dig in the river, it is a treasure everywhere, a treasure that belongs to the empire. Strengthen the navy, immediately strengthen the navy, and now the ruling government can spend at least three million on naval construction! ”

It is completely understandable that the Imperial Currency Reform is in dire need of gold and silver, because the navy has discovered islands with gold and silver mines during the exploration and exploration of the seas, and the consul is excited to directly go into battle and personally ask for the expansion of the navy, although it is a cross-border interference in military affairs, but it is precisely in this way that the importance can be clearly felt.

Xiao He's clamor made many people look sideways. At that time, Ji Bu also jumped out, shouting, "There are still three million guan, how can you keep saying that there is no money and resources for the war in northern Xinjiang", Xiao He said, "If you invest in the navy, you can immediately exchange a lot of gold and silver, if you can bring millions of guan in three months, at least 30,000 guan in three years, then take it" blocked Ji Bu so much that he didn't know what to say.

The Imperial Army marched north and occupied a large territory, but it really couldn't make much profit in a short period of time. Even if a super-large iron mine is found in the grassland, if you want to make a profit, you must first invest millions of yuan in infrastructure, and you need to use at least 30,000 or 40,000 laborers combined with 120,000 prisoners of war to develop the iron ore that has been discovered. The cycle takes at least about five years.

The ministers are noisy and noisy, and they don't have a sense of solemnity that a court meeting should have, but Lu Zhe really doesn't care so much about the solemnity, and sometimes he is willing to watch the officials under his command blush because of some things. That's one of the few pleasures of being a king.

"Hehe, there are one hundred and three boxes of gold and five hundred and seventy-three boxes of silver in this escort." The high-spirited expression on Chen Xuan's face turned into a slight obscenity: "When the time comes, blind their eyes." ”

A burst of "hey, hey, hey......" laughter spread, it turns out that what kind of commander brings out what kind of soldiers, Chen Xuanren looks decent but has an obscene personality, and the soldiers under his command should be brought into obscenity if they are not obscene.

"A ship's mast in the distance!" The lookout roared, waving the flag in his hand and pointing out the direction.

Chen Xuan looked in the direction pointed by Ling Qi, and sure enough, he found a black shadow at the end of the sea: "It's strange, I've found this problem more than once, how come I saw the mast of the ship on the sea before seeing the hull?" ”

Each season has its own monsoon, non-monsoon sailing ships can not run much faster, with the monsoon but also to observe the wind direction, according to the direction of the wind to determine the course, the navy is to get the hint after groping for a long time to understand the impact of the monsoon on the sea.

"This thing called glass is very good, very good!"

"yes, press this thing on the window of the command room, just close the door and you don't have to worry about maps and papers flying in the wind. It's like before it was useless to close the door or not? I could only hide in the enclosed space, and the oil lamp got closer to the map. ”

The officers who were chatting casually suddenly heard the shout of "find the ship on the sea" in their ears, and subconsciously looked at Bianliang, who had stood still for a long time.

Bian Liang ignored the gazes of the officers, and thought to himself: "Half a day ago, I crossed the Yizhou Strait, and the current location is probably near the waters of the Ryukyu Islands, so what should I encounter the fleet of the old boss?" ”

Again, the Pacific Ocean has a fleet in the Empire, after all, the Pacific Ocean does not have as many countries as there are in the Mediterranean region, except for the fleet of colleagues, how can there be any other fleet!

In this day and age, there are really not many ships sailing on the oceans, and even on the other side of the Atlantic, there are hardly any ships on the oceans, let alone any fleet.

After all, in addition to the rising Rome, there are Greek city-states, Seleucus, Egypt, Carthage and other countries around the Mediterranean, and they basically take the sea route to invade or do business, and it is inevitable that the Mediterranean will be more lively.

In fact, Bianliang also has similar doubts as Chen Xuan, that is, the targets found on the sea are all to see the mast first, and there is no argument that "the earth is round", it is about the sky and the earth, and there is no good explanation for the doubts in their hearts, and they are just curious, and they probably have no intention of delving into it.

The two fleets approached slowly, the sound of trumpets and drums sounded one after another, and the people on each ship of the two fleets waved and cheered at each other.

The fleet of Liang Liang will be given the number of the Nanyang Fleet, and the fleet of Chen Xuan will have the number of the Beiyang Fleet, and the two fleets will know from the number that they will be responsible for different directions in the future.

Chen Xuan looked at the friendly forces that were gradually approaching, and said a little sourly: "Look, their new warships seem to have more than ours?" I felt that I would definitely lose face: "Most of our new ships are transport ships, what is this!" ”

There was no way to do it, because the Beiyang Fleet had gold and silver production on the Japanese Islands, and it was a matter of course that the number of transport ships increased, after all, the ruling government hoped to obtain more gold and silver support from the Japanese Islands for currency reform, and the Imperial Navy had no enemies on the sea; The responsibilities of the Nanyang Fleet are different, they are still in the stage of large-scale exploration, and in the short term, they need warships to move around, so it is natural to replenish more warships instead of cargo ships.

Biao Liang couldn't guess that his old boss was pantothenic acid in his heart, but instead he saw that there were quite a lot of transport ships in the old boss's fleet and said to the people next to him with some envy: "They have gained a lot, and they can already bring benefits to the empire, we should work harder!" ”

In fact, the islands discovered in the South China Sea are not unproductive, but the islands discovered have not yet been developed, and the forward base is only established on the side of Scarborough Shoal, such as the huge copper mine on Luzon Island has not been found for the time being, and some of the precious wood and spices that have been discovered have not yet been determined.

"We are only in the stage of exploration and development, but the king has concluded that there are quite a lot of precious resources in various parts of the South Seas." The first mate seemed to be full of a certain confidence, and there was an indescribable pleasure on his face. He should also be happy, there is already gossip that he will be the captain of the South Sea Fleet for the duration of the fleet, although it is not so certain, but it does not prevent the heart from blossoming.

The two fleets merged, and after a slight pause, he sailed to the old boss's ship, which, according to him, should be respected, but in fact he had to go over and inquire about something.

From here, they would head northwest to the mouth of the Yangtze River, which is Dantu County, Huiji County, and then dock at a port there, change into boats that could travel on inland rivers, and take the Yangtze River waterway directly to the southern tomb of the empire. (To be continued......)