The shipyard outside Port Victory is already taking shape, with several sheds set up on the beach, and long planks of people constantly carrying in and out. Log by piece is lifted onto the workbench and then pushed under the fast-moving saw blade, and after a sharp cutting sound, the pinewood, which originally looked extremely tough, becomes a thick plank, and the whole process is as smooth as destroying and decaying.

The cut planks are sent by workers to the adjacent wood drying room, where they are dried for 15 to 20 days. The drying method is to use a fan to send the hot gas generated by charcoal combustion into the drying chamber, so that the residual water inside the wood can accelerate the evaporation. At present, the timber drying room built by the crossing is actually a prefabricated building ordered before the crossing, and the amount of materials can reach 200 cubic meters at a time, which is enough to build two 400 sea ships according to the standard of time and space, which is also the largest ship allowed by the Ming Dynasty government to be built by the people. However, if you want to build a naval fleet in the future, the scale of the wood drying room must be increased several times, such as a sail battleship with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and the amount of ship materials required is not what the current drying room can supply.

After the drying of the timber is now sent to the finishing shed, Cai Hongzhan uses a tape measure to measure the size, removes the pencil tip from his ear and marks the position on the board, and then uses the wheel saw to easily saw the plank to the desired size, which will then be used to repair the damaged ribs of the small ship.

Luo Shengdong has been standing next to Cai Hongzhan to watch him operate, and after watching for about ten minutes, Luo Shengdong sighed and said: "With such a sharp weapon, the speed of shipbuilding is not several times that of my dynasty!"

"Envy, huh? It's just a piece of cake. Cai Hongzhan answered without even raising his head. In the past two days, Luo Shengdong has been helping out in the shipyard shed, and at the beginning, there were people from the military and police department who took care of him, and everyone knew that this guy was in a hurry to get out now, and he would not cause trouble, so he didn't pay much attention to him anymore.

Cai Hongzhan patted the wooden board on the workbench, Luo Shengdong immediately went over and moved the wooden board to the side with understanding, and then asked respectfully, "I don't know how many boats Master Cai has built before?"

"I really haven't built a ship, I won't tell you, I used to be a carpenter, specializing in furniture, what **, cabinets and the like......" Cai Hongzhan said and caught a glimpse of Luo Shengdong's expression: "You think I'm lying to you?"

Luo Shengdong looked incredulous: "Master Cai is skilled, better than many craftsmen in my Yazhou Water Village, and he supervises the shipyard here, how can I believe this excuse?"

Cai Hongzhan raised his finger and pointed at the two people who were squatting at the door of another shed arguing or something: "Do you see those two young people? They are the shipbuilders, and the big iron ships parked in the harbor are all made by people like them." (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)"

Luo Shengdong was shocked: "With such a talent, why don't you serve the imperial court?"

"What's the benefit of serving your court? Can you have money or power? At most, you can be a foreman. Cai Hongzhan sneered: "Not to mention anything else, can the imperial court take out so much iron for them to build ships?"

Luo Shengdong said angrily: "I am afraid that the iron consumption of an iron ship can only have tens of thousands of catties, even if all the pig iron in Qiongzhou Mansion is not enough, it will naturally not be able to make it." ”

"Pig iron...... There will be later. "Regarding the matter of mining, the Executive Committee has already issued a gag order, and the Ming army prisoners cannot be allowed to know the news too early, especially Luo Shengdong and others who are about to be released back to Yazhou, so Cai Hongzhan just snorted and did not go into details.

Luo Shengdong sadly found that the more he understood these overseas visitors, the more he could not give birth to the heart of confrontation, no matter which aspect he saw, the ability of the other party was simply desperate. Whether it is naval warfare or land warfare, or reclamation of wasteland, what these people have done is far beyond Luo Shengdong's knowledge of more than 30 years of life, and even these people are also good at building roads and ships, Luo Shengdong can't even think of anything that these people can't do. Although the carpenter surnamed Cai refused to reveal his true feelings, Luo Shengdong expected that they probably already had some way to obtain a large amount of pig iron.

What made Luo Shengdong feel most terrifying was that these people were not pirates who came here to plunder, but planned to take root here and gradually expand their sphere of influence. Judging from the current speed of crossing the crowd and absorbing the people, Luo Shengdong doesn't even dare to think about whether the territory of Yazhou can be retained under the rule of the imperial court in a year or two.

"Why is your face so ugly? Let me tell you, as long as you continue to follow us after you go back, don't say anything about the general in the future, and you can choose the general and general soldiers!" Cai Hongzhan saw Luo Shengdong's strange expression, and thought that he was worried about the promotion, so he casually persuaded a few words.

Luo Shengdong sighed and said: "I was born poor, and I am not a disciple of the generals, so I dare not think of being promoted to a high-ranking official." ”

Cai Hongzhan said disapprerovingly: "What's wrong with being born poor? Isn't your founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Chongba, also a cowherd baby when he was a child?"

"This ......"

Cai Hongzhan ignored Luo Shengdong's stunned expression and continued: "What is the saying...... By the way, princes and generals, rather have a kind of care! Who said that if you herd a cow, you can't be an emperor, and a librarian can't go against the sky?"

Although Luo Shengdong doesn't know what a "librarian" is, listening to Cai Hongzhan's tone, there must be someone who started from a humble position and achieved great things. Luo Shengdong was frightened when he heard this, but a thought involuntarily came out of a corner, maybe I can really become a general one day?

April 26, 1627, March 11, the seventh year of the Great Apocalypse.

Luo Shengdong finally waited for the moment of departure, as much as he wanted to open his mouth and shout a few times to vent his excitement, but when he saw Tao Donglai and others who came to the dock to see him off, he still tried to restrain his ** At this time, if there is any stupidity, it may lead to the loss of his previous efforts.

The pirates' heads and captured weapons have now been loaded onto the ship, and the uniforms, leather armor and weapons of Luo Shengdong and his men have also been returned to them. After more than half a month of re-education through labor, Luo Shengdong and the others put on the red robes again, and they seemed to lack a kind of murderous atmosphere unique to soldiers.

Tao Donglai walked up to Luo Shengdong and said in a deep voice: "I hope that after you go back this time, we can turn our rivalry into jade silk and forget all the unpleasant misunderstandings in the past." At the same time, I hope you don't forget what you promised, and if you don't, then we will remind you in our own way. ”

Luo Shengdong hurriedly responded: "Chief Tao, please rest assured, what I promised before will be done as much as I can." But there is one more thing I would like to ask Your Excellency. ”

"You say. ”

"If your ministry wants to go to Yazhou to trade with merchants, how should I introduce the origin of your merchants?" Luo Shengdong asked a very important question before leaving.

How to establish the external image of this group is also a topic that has been discussed many times by the Executive Committee, and there is a relatively clear plan for this. Tao Donglai nodded and responded: "If you don't ask about this matter, I am also ready to sue you." Our unified name to the outside world is Haihan. ”

"Haihan ......" Luo Shengdong pondered for a while and asked, "Is it the meaning of overseas Han people?"

"That's one of them. Tao Donglai went on to explain: "Another meaning is that the Han people who value sea power. ”

"Dare to ask what sea power means?" Luo Shengdong continued to ask.

"Sea power is the right to control and use the ocean. Only a nation that attaches full importance to sea power can win in the competition of this era...... You probably won't understand this, your court has always thought that the forbidden sea is the king's way, but in the end, the coastline was just given up to pirates and Westerners. Tao Donglai ignored Luo Shengdong, who wanted to argue, and continued: "Whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, there is no need to argue now, it will be clear in a few years, let's wait and see!"

In later generations, China suffered a lot on the issue of sea power, and the enthusiastic keyboard party had countless times in front of the computer in the middle of the night to angrily spray the inaction of the relevant departments, but few people thought that since the end of the Ming Dynasty, China's control over the sea has been gradually declining, and it has slowly lost its control over the surrounding waters, and the suffering of later generations began at this time. Many of them are fanatical cannons and giant ship parties, and they have a great interest in conquering the world through guò control of the sea, and since they have come to this time and space, they will never let the sea power fall into the hands of others again. The executive committee will be collectively named "Haihan" to the outside world, but also to take this time to remind themselves not to forget the original intention.

Luo Shengdong got on the boat with complicated feelings and ordered his subordinates to lift anchor and set sail. The boat slowly sailed away from the dock, and the large repaired scar on the rib of the ship was still visible, but there was no obstacle to the boat.

The traversers who were responsible for this trip also began to fish aboard the "Speedy", and all kinds of supplies had been loaded onto the ship early in the morning, and the food and drinking water they carried alone were enough for the more than 20 people in the task force to consume for five days. In fact, bringing so much food is just in case, the sea route between Yazhou and Shengli Port is less than 40 nautical miles, and at the speed of the "Feisu", it can run back and forth in a day, and even if it is really out of food and cannot find supplies, it will not starve to death.

Most of them rush into the cabins to see the interiors when they get on board, after all, few of them have ever boarded a real luxury yacht, which is a bit of a bustle. However, everyone's attention was soon attracted by the two boxes of shining silver ingots in the cabin, and three thousand taels of silver, weighing more than 100 kilograms, would serve as the ship's treasure during the operation.

After Yan Chujie shook hands with Tao Donglai and said goodbye, he was the last to board the ship. The crew untied the ropes and hoisted the sails, and soon the Speedy was sailing lightly away from the dock and heading for the southern harbor exit.