Jensen and others boarded the galleon Jialong of the International Trade Company, a 2,000-material ship, which was originally a treasure ship, and was not later converted into a steam-powered galleon. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info said that of the 270 large and small ships in Zheng He's fleet, a few were taken out and turned into warships, and some ships in poor condition were dismantled. However, compared to the ships of the Republic of China, the treasure ships are not very profitable, and they are all wood, not to mention the effort of dismantling the ships, and the wood can't make anything, so it is better to let the logging team go into the forest to cut down trees.

Therefore, more than 200 or so Zheng He's treasure ships were assigned to four state-owned shipping companies, and about ten ships were leased to the International Trade Company, mainly for the Long Beach-Vallarta smuggling trade route. Some of the smaller tonnage was used for inland waterway shipping and short-distance small transport, and some of it was leased to smugglers who had some property.

Even so, most of the sailing ships are useless, and the Navy has determined that from the Liberty class onwards, all of them will use redesigned hulls, and converted warships will never be built again. So we can only hope that Datang will be able to use these sailboats after the future trade is developed. The shipping company plans to modify the sailing ship according to the customer's requirements, such as adding a steam engine or something, but they themselves know that Datang itself has a batch of steamships brought by the Republic of China, and even if it is used, these ships will be used first, so the people who buy treasure ships must be very rare.

In this way, shipping companies can only hope that the cabinet will lift the export ban on steam-powered sailing ships in the future, after all, even the markets in New Spain, New England, Quebec and other places in the Americas are enough to absorb these ships.

The Jialong has completed this trade mission, purchasing a considerable amount of ore, coffee beans and bananas and other tropical fruits from Mexico, as a large ship of 2,000 materials, the Jialong has transported a large amount of goods, in fact, since the opening of this route, Datang has obtained a large number of goods from Mexico. Many goods that were originally destined for Spain were transferred to Puerto Vallarta by cargo owners and smuggled to Datang, but even so, they could not meet Datang's needs. ITC can be dispatched several times the size of the fleet to purchase a variety of goods.

Standing on the bow of the ship, Dearborn was slightly dissatisfied with the environment in the cabin, and felt that the comfort of Datang's ships was not as good as that of European ships, but he still felt very excited about the novelty of this trip.

Dearborn asked John Jay, "Mr. Jay, you see, this route may not be as good as the Boston-London route, but the scale is absolutely amazing." The Spaniards would never have been unaware, so why would they indulge in this? ”

John Jay thought for a moment and replied, "This voyage has not been started for long, and the response of government organizations is always sluggish. Of course, I think the most critical point is that the Tang people just taught the Spaniards a lesson last year, and the Spaniards already knew that it was impossible to retake Jiazhou, and the powerful Tang people were likely to send troops to threaten New Spain, and the New Spanish colonies at this time must avoid conflicts with the Tang Republic as much as possible, if they forcibly closed Vallarta, then the Tang people would definitely take measures against it, and it would be difficult to solve it at that time. ”

Jensen also smiled: "So now it is wisest to turn a blind eye, I heard Mr. Guo say that the Tang Republic has reached an agreement with Spain, and soon the two countries will officially establish transportation, I think at that time, Spanish tax officials will flock to Vallarta like sharks smelling blood." However, I don't think this will hinder the current trade, but more merchants who are more powerful because they are afraid of the risk of smuggling will join in. In addition, according to my observation, the officials and nobles of the New Spanish colonies were equally satisfied with the use of all kinds of practical and novel Tang goods, so trade could almost be said to be imperative. ”

John Jay said at this time: "The Governor of New Spain, Baccarelli, just banned New Spain from doing business with countries other than Spain not long ago, and he didn't expect to break his promise so soon. Relying on their iron fist, Datang opened up trade routes for their merchants and obtained benefits. This is worth pondering and learning from, if the Thirteen Colonies are subservient to the British, they will always be checked and balanced, and the Tang Dynasty is our example, if we can also be like them, independent, and have admirable and feared power, our businessmen, such as Mr. Jensen, a gentleman who makes money by hard work, can get the reward he deserves. ”

Dearborn was amazed, "What does Mr. Jay mean by making our Thirteen Colonies independent from Britain?" ”

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as a British colony, we have to look at the faces of the British everywhere, and put our interests in the hands of greedy countries and royal families, and we have to be constrained on who we associate with, and we have to be constrained on what goods we buy, which is simply terrible," Jensen said. I think Mr. Jie's view is very correct, and the leaders of the Continental Congress should also think the same way, that we should be like the Tang people, building our own country and seeking our own development. ”

Mr. Jie said: "So this time, we went to the Tang Republic, not only to ask the Tang people for help and obtain their advanced weapons and equipment, but also to see the magic of this country, what makes them create so many things, as a country of immigrants, there must be a lot of things worthy of our reference and learning, we must record them with our hearts, and then submit them to the Continental Congress as a reference for the future construction of the United States." ”

Dearborn was also thrilled after hearing this, and said: "America, a country, I have never heard a more beautiful word. ”

Jensen also smiled and drew a cross on his chest: "God bless America!" ”

While they were chatting, suddenly there was a cannon sound on the sea in the distance, and the three of them immediately changed their faces, and it happened that Guo Shuda also came out of the cabin and walked to the deck.

Dearborn hurriedly said: "Mr. Guo, there seems to be someone fighting in front, do we need to retreat?" ”

Jensen was particularly nervous: "It could be pirates. ”

Piracy is something that cannot be avoided on any route where there are huge profits. In fact, before the opening of the Vallarta-Long Beach route, there were a few sporadic pirates here, robbing the passing ships.

Guo Shuda smiled and comforted the three of them: "There is nothing to worry about, believe me, gentlemen, if I guess correctly, it should be our heroic Tang Navy, which is cleaning up those damn pirates on this route for us." ”

Dearborn's eyes lit up after hearing this: "The Tang Navy? ”

Sure enough, the lookout shouted from the mast: "It is the cruiser Fenwei and the frigate Yu Qian of our navy, and they are shelling two pirate ships. ”

(Previously, a regiment of the newly formed army was named the Fenwei Regiment, but later it was not smooth, so it was changed to the Snow Leopard Regiment, and the name of the miscellaneous general of Fenwei was given to the second ship of the Yangwei class)

The Jialong drove closer, and saw clearly that it was a scene of a one-sided naval battle that was simply slaughtered. Especially a few people from New England, they all wanted to take this opportunity to carefully understand the strength of Datang.

"What a big ship!" Dearborn saw the Fenway and exclaimed, "This is bigger than a British first class battleship, and besides, the hull seems to be black, what is the matter?" ”

Guo Shuda explained to them with a little pride: "The Fenwei is the second ship of China's Yangwei-class armored cruiser, with a full load displacement of 4,600 tons, which is larger than the first-class battleships of any European country. As for the black hull, hehe, because it was wrapped in a layer of steel armor. ”

John Jay exclaimed, "Steel armor? That's a lot of money, and few cannons can penetrate her hull on such a ship, right? This is simply an invincible battleship at sea. ”

The sound of the Fenwei's guns seemed to respond to the praise of others, and the cruiser was equipped with the largest caliber gun in the Tang army, the 155mm naval gun. Because of the terrible recoil brought by the huge caliber naval guns, even if an excellent control system was designed, the Yangwei class, which was originally designed to be equipped with six 155 guns, only dared to be equipped with four such guns, and it could not be fired at the same time, for fear of cracking the hull. This is also the most dissatisfied point after the Navy received this type of ship, so the Yangwei class, which was originally planned to produce six ships, did not continue to place orders after the Fenwei entered service.

Even so, the Yangwei class is still the most powerful maritime backbone of the Datang Navy except for the White Shark. Converted into a two-deck gun, the Yangwei class has four 155mm naval guns, plus 10 105mm guns and 16 76mm guns, which can provide amazing firepower.

The 76mm naval gun has replaced the unusable Type 92 infantry gun, and the 105mm gun is actually the Army's S1775 gun, which is still retained on the ship in order to enhance the firepower of the Yangwei-class.

Today, this group of unlucky pirates met the Datang Navy, and the captain of the Fenwei just hoped that this actual battle would determine the true firepower output capacity of the Fenwei, so the side side of the Fenwei was directly aimed at a pirate ship with a tonnage of less than 100 tons, and fired at the other party at a distance of about 3,000 meters. The three-caliber guns roared together, and almost instantly the pirate ship was blown up, and there was no need to use armor-piercing shells against the wooden hull navy, and the powerful grenade was enough to blast through the shell, and then inflict great damage.

Dearborn was amazed: "This shelling is more than three thousand yards, and almost a few shells have fallen into the water, and all of them have hit the target." ”

The reason why he was so surprised was because of the naval warfare of this era, regardless of the claimed range of those 24-pounder guns, but most captains were still used to fighting within 500 yards. Because of the long range, the cannon has no accuracy, and the battleship of the Tang people can accurately hit the enemy ship from 3,000 yards, which is simply a fantasy.