When Lin Chunhong's development in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty was restricted, he involuntarily turned his attention to the ocean. Indeed, on the mainland, the rule of the Ming Empire was strict and effective, while in the sea, there was no order or rules. Everything was spoken by strength, which was suitable for ambitious people to splash ink at will.

Zheng Zhilong, Liu Xiang and others are such ambitious people, and Lin Chunhong also stepped into a toe and tried to get a share of the pie. But the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom are not just ambitious people, but ambitious countries!

However, Lin Chunhong felt that he was not satisfied with just stepping into one toe. Compared with England, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal in Europe, the Ming Dynasty was vast and had a large population, and the ocean was far from reaching the position of determining the direction of military, political and economic development on land. However, Lin Chunhong's emphasis on the ocean can be said to be deeply rooted, "The country is prosperous and strong, and cannot ignore the ocean. The ocean is taken from wealth, and the danger also comes from the sea."

What's more, the whole world is on the eve of great changes, and the great voyage is in full swing. The Ming Empire must actively participate in the great voyage in order to keep up with the pace of the times, maintain an open and enterprising mentality, and complete the transformation from the Middle Ages to the modern times.

Lin Chunhong stared at the map, slapped the estuary of the Yangtze River with his palm, and sighed.

Currently, his foundation is in Huguang and basically controls the Yangtze River channel from Chuanjiang to Yangzhou. The best choice is to expand maritime power near the estuary of the Yangtze River, connect land and oceans, and realize the strategic concept of river-sea intermodal transport. However, Zheng Zhilong completely controlled the East China Sea route and could not leave any space for him to develop.

As a last resort, he had to choose the Guangdong coast and let Zhao Hehai develop in the South China Sea.

At present, Liu Xiang can only be called the number one force on the sea near Guangdong, and his control over the ocean is far from that of Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Zhilong's vision is longer than Liu Xiang. He levies a transit fee of 3,000 taels of transit from the ships passing through, allowing him to hang the Zheng Group's order flag, and protect the ships flying the order flag. Through this strategy, Zheng Zhilong quickly gathered a large amount of wealth and established a powerful maritime power.

Liu Xiang was obsessed with robbery and worked all day long to kill chickens and get eggs, which led to the gap between his strength and Zheng Zhilong. He was almost suppressed by Zheng Zhilong. As a last resort, Liu Xiang embarked on the road of joining forces with the Dutch against Zheng Zhilong.

It is precisely through the fight between Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong that Zhao Hehai survived in the cracks and gradually grew stronger.

After Zhao Hehai bought the ship in Fujian, he actively participated in the pirate cause. Due to the area of ​​activity, Zhao Hehai directly pointed the finger at Liu Xiang and the Dutch. Zhao Hehai was doing well on the sea, and the ships also grew from one to five, and he did the moneyless business every day. Due to the mysterious whereabouts of Zhao Hehai and others, Liu Xiang and the Dutch have always thought that it was Zheng Zhilong's move, especially the Dutch, who were becoming more and more impatient with Zheng Zhilong, and recently there was a tendency to mobilize heavy troops to gather in Fujian. The entire Taiwan Strait was full of battles and the war was about to break out.

Lin Chunhong turned his attention to Suixi County on the Leizhou Peninsula. According to Zhao Hehai's report, Zhao Hehai chose the robbed home port in Suixi County. Lin Chunhong smiled. Zhao Hehai had a little vision and had a look at Zhanjiang Port at a glance. It was the home port of the later South China Fleet. Besides, Suixi County is remote and far from the ruling center of the Ming Empire in South China, and is more suitable to avoid people's eyes and splash ink freely.

Lin Chunhong thought about his favorable conditions carefully: First of all, Liu Xiang, the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong fought endlessly. Zhao Hehai collected five warships and more than 2,000 skilled sailors in the cracks, laying the foundation for Lin Chunhong's expansion of the power on the sea.

Secondly, Qin Wuchao reported that the imitation of red-clothed cannon was successful, and as long as there was sufficient steel, it could provide a large number of cannons for the warships.

The so-called red-clothed cannon is actually an eighteen-pound ship-borne cannon. After Lin Chunhong obtained four red-clothed cannons, he immediately ordered the craftsmen to imitate it. Unfortunately, during the casting process, the scrap rate was too high. More than 30 pieces were cast in a row, all of which were scrap. The imitation work had to stagnate. Later, Qin Wuchao tried to polish the interior of the cannon with a water truck, which was much more accurate than manual polishing, so that the front and rear bore diameters of the cannon were consistent, and a finished product was created. However, the scrap rate of the cannon was still too high and the cost could not be suppressed.

Qin Wuchao led more than a dozen students in Xingzhishu Hall to study this problem. One student found that cracks appeared in the cannon barrel, and the main reason for the inconsistent cooling speed of the inside and outside. Generally speaking, when casting the cannon in a mold, the surface first cools down and shrinks, and cracks are generated by squeezing. What if the inside of the cannon can be cooled first?

Inspired by this, Qin Wuchao immediately designed a hollow inner mold and tested the cast. As a result, during the experiment, the hot cannon barrel quickly vaporized the water in the inner mold, causing the inner mold to explode, causing many people to be scalded, and a student died. Qin Wuchao learned from his mistakes and redesigned the inner mold. This time the inner mold was not sealed, and the water inside was constantly flowing and exchanging with the outside, which solved the problem. Now, the waste rate of the cannon has dropped to 60%, and the cost has dropped greatly.

In fact, in order to address the problem of inconsistent cooling speeds inside and outside, the Ming Dynasty's craftsmen had already had a solution, that is, the method of casting guns with copper-tire iron cores. Qin Wuchao did not know about it, but he found a method that was more cost-saving than copper-tire iron cores: the internal mold water-cooled casting gun method.

Lin Chunhong didn't know these details. He only knew that Qin Wuchao was desperately speeding up the casting of the red-clothed cannon to meet Zhao Hehai's needs.

Another favorable condition is that the shipbuilding workshop in Bailizhou gathered a large number of shipbuilding craftsmen and established a complete set of related workshops, which initially achieved one-stop shipbuilding.

Although the technical differences between sea ships and river ships are very different, they are always easier than starting from scratch. Besides, Zedia and Fendos are masters of sea ship building. Lin Chunhong believes that as long as you find a suitable place along the coast of Guangdong, you can build sea ships in a year and a half.

Being able to build sea ships and cast artillery can provide Zhao Hehai with a steady stream of support. It is not difficult to deal with Zheng Zhilong in time.

Lin Chunhong thought about it and focused on choosing the shipbuilding point. In the end, he fixed his eyes on Changzhou Island in southeastern Guangzhou.

"Well, this location is good. Going deep into the inland, Liu Xiang, Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch cannot disturb you, and you can also cut down pillars from the upper reaches of the Pearl River!"

While thinking, he suddenly reported that Zhang Zhao had arrived at Zhangde Mansion and was asking for a meeting outside the door. Lin Chunhong was overjoyed and hurriedly brought Zhang Zhaoying into the tent.

When Zhang Zhao entered the door, he saw the circles on the huge map. He knew it in his heart that it seemed that Lin Chunhong would make big moves on the sea.

Sure enough, Lin Chunhong asked, "Xue Yiqian and Chang Shudan have been with you for so long. Can they be competent?"

"Xue Yiqian is very smart and makes the matter of fortune only orderly. Chang Shudan is cautious and meticulous, and doing logistics is just right..." Zhang Zhao replied respectfully, and finally smiled bitterly: "It's just that I'm going to start wandering on the sea again!"

Lin Chunhong patted Zhang Zhao on the shoulder and laughed: "Deputy Governor Zhang is very thoughtful. I am trying to let you go to Guangzhou. However, you don't have to be nervous. It's enough to charge in front of Zhao Hehai. Your main task is still on land."

"On land?" Zhang Zhaodaqi, what's the matter with the fleet on land? What can we do on land?

Lin Chunhong said: "When you go to Guangzhou, the first priority is to seek peace from the court and find a protective umbrella for the growth of Bangtai's maritime power."

Zhang Zhao's heart lit up. The general was indeed easy to plan! Thinking back to the beginning, after Zheng Zhilong was recruited by Xiong Wencan, he not only expanded his strategic depth on land, but also received strong support from the court, providing him with a strong backing for clearing the maritime forces. Once Zhao Hehai was recruited and his back was backed by the Bangtai Group, it was not comparable to Zheng Zhilong.

However, Zhang Zhao was a meticulous person and immediately said, "Our maritime power is too weak, and the court may not be able to take a fancy to you. Besides, how can there be any officials who are eager to contact each other?"

"The court looked down on him and beat him up, so he naturally took it seriously. As for the person to contact him, I have already chosen you, Guangdong Governor Xiong Wencan. He recruited Zheng Zhilong and was promoted. Now we are here to the door, I believe he will not refuse." Lin Chunhong has been thinking for a long time, and he has already decided in his heart, so he told the story immediately.

Zhang Zhao nodded constantly and secretly kept Lin Chunhong's words in his heart.

Let’s hear Lin Chunhong continue to say: “It’s great to do the recruitment matter. We have an amulet at sea. The second priority is people! As long as we have the right person, we will succeed more than half of it. As the saying goes, it will be done by people. It is naturally not difficult for Zhao Hehai to lead the pirates to rob, but it is still far from competing with Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch with these pirates!”

Zhang Zhao asked: "Does the general have to go and train his troops?"

Lin Chunhong shook his head and said, "Where do those pirates need training to make a living at sea every day? What they lack is discipline, what they lack is regularization, and what they lack is recognition of Bangtai!"

Zhang Zhao nodded and said, "That's right, those people are really difficult to restrain, and they won't treat themselves as Bundeslite from the bottom of their hearts."

"I'm going to build a naval school. You first go to the Dengzhou naval army to recruit some skilled sailors and gunners, and let them move their families to Bailizhou, and then use them as the foundation to set up the naval school's rack in Suixi. After the rack is set up, you can select people from pirates and join the naval school. The standard for selecting people is to read, have skillful skills, and be willing to accept the constraints of military discipline. In addition to pirates, poor fishermen and bankrupt farmers can recruit. In the future, with new warships, sailors and captains will be selected from the naval school as our regular navy!"

Zhang Zhao was amazed that the Naval Academy can not only provide talents for the regular navy, but also cultivate a sense of belonging to Bangtai. It can be said that it can kill two birds with one stone. In the future, with more and more warships, the strength of the regular navy will become stronger and stronger, which can effectively prevent the pirate team from backlash.

The more Zhang Zhao heard it, the more excited he became, his heart was pounding, and he couldn't help but want to return to his old career.

Looking at Zhang Zhaoyueyu's trial, Lin Chunhong smiled and said, "You can serve as the Navy Admiral first. If you don't want to do it one day, you'll still come back as your Navy Minister."

Zhang Zhao hesitated for a moment and said, "I think I'd better stay on land. With Zhao Hehai, I won't join in the fun."

Lin Chunhong laughed and said, "I bet that if I want Zhao Hehai to be the admiral of the navy, he is not happy, he is still suitable to be the pirate leader. As for the pirate team, it must be expanded, not only in terms of warships and numbers, but also in the activity area..."

Lin Chunhong pointed to the Indian Ocean on the map and said, "There is a larger space for activities here. I think Zhao Hehai will definitely not refuse! The pirate team is expanding, and plundering wealth is second. The key is to provide us with a continuous stream of naval talents!"

Zhang Zhao nodded constantly and said happily: "Then I will take care of it first, and I will talk about it if I have the right person in the future."

Lin Chunhong continued: "After solving the human problem, it is warships and artillery. It is easy to solve the problem, and we can build naval guns, mainly warships. I plan to build a shipbuilding factory on Changzhou Island in Guangzhou. This time, when you negotiate with Xiong Wencan, you will solve this problem together. As for ship materials, first transport them from Bailizhou. I will ask Guo Mingyan to immediately send people to the upper reaches of the Pearl River to log wood. The newly cut wood cannot be used for shipbuilding. However, after a year and a half, Changzhou Island will be able to support itself, so you don't have to transport wood thousands of miles away!"

"The Xiangjiang River is against the current and the Lingchuan is silted. It is not easy to transport the wood!" Zhang Zhao reminded.

"Don't worry about this, let Xue Yiqian make things difficult. We don't have so much time to waste, so we can only do this first." Lin Chunhong waved.

"The port of Suixi must hold our hands and must be negotiated when recruiting the amnesty..."

Lin Chunhong ordered again, and the two had a long conversation until late at night.
Chapter completed!