Kang Libo's experimental plan was approved and 1,240 taels of silver were allocated. However, whether to allocate the money and how much money was allocated was not decided by Lin Chunhong, but by the thirteen senior craftsmen of the Academy of Engineering.

Inspired by Kang Libo, Lin Chunhong selected thirteen craftsmen with high reputation and significant contributions to the group, formed the Engineering Academy, and allocated special funds to decide whether to support individual experiments.

The main responsibility of the Academy of Engineering is to study the group's technological development strategy, provide strategic consultation for the group, and organize personnel to research and develop technologies of great strategic significance.

However, these responsibilities are long-term planning, and are currently only on paper. The thirteen academicians in the first issue can be called senior technicians at most, far from meeting the standards of engineers or scientists. Their vision and thinking ability are extremely lacking, and they cannot even understand what strategy is.

According to the regulations of the Academy of Engineering, if the Institute supports a certain research, if successful, the group and individuals will discuss the money issue of purchasing technology. The cost of purchasing technology can be taken in two ways. One is to buy out directly, and the other is to share the individual's share, which is determined by the two parties. Li Chongde also formulated a system, and Lin Chunhong directly named the system "Patent Regulations".

This "Patent Regulations" made Kang Libo ecstatic and plunged into the mountains of Ma Lian, fiddling with his test furnace day and night. This patent Regulations also made other craftsmen run around and tell each other, immediately took out the so-called secret ancestral skills, and discussed the buyout and share with the thirteen craftsmen. Lin Chunhong saw that the thirteen craftsmen were just a layman in negotiations, and he couldn't see what technology was useful to the Lin Group. He couldn't help but take Zheng Tiancheng to take action personally, selecting technologies that were beneficial to the group, and discussing remuneration. Now, Lin Chunhong's pocket leaked tens of thousands of taels of silver, which made him feel very distressed.

Given that the group's development speed has slowed down significantly and its profit level has been reduced, it is urgent to open up new markets and new profit growth points. In order to brainstorm, Lin Chunhong decided to hold the first expanded group meeting.

Lin Chunhong formulated several issues, the first one was the group's name. As the group's popularity grew, outsiders generally called the group the Lin Family Business. This title was not formal, but also placed Lin Chunhong in front of the stage, which was very inconvenient to do things. After discussion, everyone unanimously decided that the group would be called Bangtai Trading Company in the future and filed it with Jingzhou Prefecture.

The second issue is to open up new markets. Everyone agreed that the market must expand to Jiangnan and Fujian, Guangdong. At present, the market of Bangtai Trading Company is limited to the two lakes and eastern Sichuan, and it is urgently necessary to develop to Jiangnan, where the most prosperous and most consumed in the Ming Dynasty. As for Fujian, Guangdong, it is mainly due to the consideration of cotton and tea sales.

Since Lu Shiyuan and Zhao Hehai arrived in Guangzhou, Zhao Hehai took a fancy to the promising profession of pirates and withdrawn 300,000 taels of cash bank from Lin Chunhong as startup capital, which is also the main reason why Lin Chunhong has shortage of cash bank. Lin Chunhong did not frown, and immediately agreed to Zhao Hehai's request and sent a large number of troops to escort the silver bank to Guangzhou.

As for Lu Shiyuan, he started to build a Guangzhou warehouse, mainly for the sale of cotton and tea overseas. Bangtai's cotton cloth could not compete with Songjiang, and its sales were not wide. Even if it was sold overseas through Guangzhou, the profit was not high. But Lin Chunhong gritted his teeth and insisted, and he could clearly remember that the industrial revolution first started in the cotton textile industry.

Seeing everyone constantly looking forward to the bright prospects of Jiangnan and overseas markets, Lin Chunhong thought secretly: These two markets are not easy to develop. Overseas is subject to Zheng Yiguan and he has become a grudge with Zheng Cai. It seems that there is no possibility of resolution. Even if it is resolved, Zheng Yiguan will never allow others to get a share of the pie.

As for Jiangnan, it was even more difficult. Jiangnan's merchants had a strong influence, not only had powerful local merchants, but also had famous Hui merchants in history, but also cultivated political representatives of Jiangnan: the Donglin Party and later Fushe. It should be said that Jiangnan is more difficult to deal with than overseas.

"I don't believe it. There is no gap in Jiangnan. After a while, I will have to go to Jiangnan for a while!" Lin Chunhong made up his mind secretly.

The meeting was held next, and the third topic was to create the fist products of Bangtai Trading Company and form a new profit growth point. Since the three-masted sailboat that Lin Chunhong ordered to build had been launched, its huge body and towering mast shocked all the participants, and the first thing that everyone thought of was shipbuilding. Lin Chunhong had no objection and immediately decided to invest additional investment in the shipbuilding workshop to build more large docks.

However, some people were worried about the court's attitude, which was directly ignored by Lin Chunhong. Lin Chunhong knew that the power of merchants in Jiangnan had expanded to a point where they were almost unrestrained by the court, so how could they care whether the court allowed the use of three-masted sailboats?

In addition to shipbuilding, Kang Libo also proposed that there are no iron ore in Jiangnan. Bangtai should give full play to its advantages and use the iron ore resources in its hands to create all iron-related products and sell them to Jiangnan. Lin Chunhong raised his hands to agree that in the industrial era, steel output was a symbol of national strength. What reason did he not actively explore the downstream market of steel?

In addition, Li Chengzong proposed to sell weapons and weapons to the outside world, but Lin Chunhong firmly denied them. He was also preparing to expand his army on a large scale. These weapons are not enough, so how can they be exported? Besides, weapons and weapons are too sensitive and are accidentally considered by the court to rebel, and that will be completely over.

Seeing that everyone did not expect to make the most profitable financial products, Lin Chunhong personally proposed to make credibility notes. Everyone opposed it. Everyone believed that no one had tried credibility notes, but they were often forged and lost all their money. Before finding effective anti-counterfeiting measures, they must not test credibility notes. Lin Chunhong could not, so he had to instruct everyone attending the meeting to think about anti-counterfeiting strategies, and everyone must write a note.

After the enlarged meeting, Lin Chunhong left behind core members to discuss the expansion of the army. No one had any objection to the expansion of the army. They felt that as the chaotic times of the Ming Dynasty approached, Jingzhou and Yiling could never be immune to it. Having a strong force is the most basic guarantee for profits in various businesses. According to the existing financial resources of Bangtai Trading Company, the team size was controlled to be around 5,000 people, and the weapons factory accelerated the progress of building weapons to meet the needs of the army.

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Hukou County, Jiujiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province.

Hukou County is located at the mouth of the river in the Poyang Lake. It is known as the "key to the river and lake, the thoroughfare of the three provinces". Its geographical location is crucial. Li Mengshen's range of activities finally arrived at the mouth of Poyang Lake. There were very few merchants in Huguang. Li Mengshen plundered for half a year and did not gain much, so he worked hard to develop into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

As early as the summer of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Lin Chunhong issued an order to plunder Li Mengshen. Lin Chunhong believed that plundering secretly was a matter of killing three birds with one stone: it goes without saying that we got the stolen silver. Lin Chunhong hoped to use this method to attack the power of the Jiangnan consortium and reduce resistance for his entry into Jiangnan. In addition, Lin Chunhong also hoped to use this method to force Jiangnan merchants to purchase a three-masted sailor. The three-masted sailors have many sailors, the side of the ship is tall and the hull is strong. As long as you are careful, you will not worry about the plunder of the centipede ship.

The estuary of Poyang Lake is three miles wide and is connected to the Yangtze River. From a distance, the water and sky line is extremely spectacular. Opposite the estuary of the river, there is a deserted island that runs straight in the middle of the Yangtze River. Li Mengshen settles here and moors the centipede boat in a hidden place. Li Mengshen especially likes this centipede boat, named the Poison Scorpion. This name made Lin Chunhong and Li Chongde despise it. They both thought that it was better to call the Centipede, or the Loach Scorpion, and it was more like the Poison Scorpion. But Li Mengshen didn't care at all, and his sailors also liked the name Poison Scorpion. The Poison Scorpion gradually gained fame in Dongting Lake, and Li Mengshen's bandit "one-eyed Scorpion" also resounded throughout the world, causing trouble for the government. Now Li Mengshen sent a clutch to measure the hydrological conditions near the Hukou.

There were five people on the Clippers, one of whom was standing at the bow of the boat, holding a string of knotted ropes in his hand, with an iron piece tied to the end of the rope. He shouted, "Break anchor, stop the boat!" This man was named Huang Shunxing, who was good at hydrological measurements, and was sent by Lin Chunhong to assist Li Mengshen.

A sailor threw the anchor into the water, and the boat continued to move forward for a while and stopped. Huang Shunxing threw the iron block at the end of the rope into the water, held one end of the rope for several times, and confirmed that the rope had been straightened. He bent down and carefully checked where the water surface was on the rope.

"The water is two feet and one third!" Huang Shunxing shouted casually, pulled the rope out of the water, and wrote down the data on the note book.

After doing all this, Huang Shunxing shouted again: "Let's go, move forward a little more, let's measure the speed of the water flow!"

...

Huang Shunxing's measurement was cumbersome and time-consuming, which had long been dissatisfied with Li Mengshen, and suggested that Lin Chunhong not do such meaningless things anymore. However, this suggestion was firmly denied by Lin Chunhong. Lin Chunhong advised him: "For generals, you must observe astronomy and geography. If you don't understand the hydrology of the Yangtze River, how can you fight? Even if you are familiar with it yourself, I will send another centipede ship to rob there in the future. How do they know where to go and where to go?" Li Mengshen could not do so, so he had to let Huang Shunxing waste time. Therefore, the hydrological data of the Yangtze River was continuously handed over to the Zhijiang archives to be preserved as important materials.

However, after this system persisted for a while, Li Mengshen praised Huang Shunxing's work. When Huang Shunxing handed him over the nearby hydrological materials, he knew the situation here clearly. He looked at it and said, "Well, the water depth of Beijiang is only 100 meters long, and our boat cannot go. Brothers, after the robbery in the afternoon, we went upstream from the Nanjiang River to avoid the pursuit of the government!"

The sailors cheered and followed Li Mengshen for so long, but never lost their hands. Besides, they also gained huge wealth from the robbery. Lin Dianshi was also righteous enough, only 40% of the profits, and the others were all allocated by Li Mengshen. Although the robbery was very risky and lost three sailors last month, high risk meant high profits. The sailors all knew the taste and did their best to do this career. After all, there were a large number of sailors waiting to get on the ship and make a fortune.

In May, Jiujiang Prefecture was so hot that it was smoking. Li Mengshen and the others hid in the cool place of the Poison Scorpion and kept wiping their sweat. There was no shortage of river breeze on the Yangtze River. The whistling southeast wind blew, which could not relieve the heat at all. Instead, it took away the moisture in the body, making people unable to help but hold the kettle and fill it with a rush.

"Are the artillery ready?" Li Mengshen leaned over his neck and took a sip of water and asked Ling Su. Ling Su was the captain of the artillery team appointed by Li Mengshen.

Ling Su quickly stood up, bowed his waist and replied, "Reply to the Scorpion King's words, you have wiped them, and the gunpowder is ready!"

"Well, it's not bad. This is the first time we use cannons alone after the Fran robot left. Don't make any mistakes!" Li Mengshen explained seriously, his one-eyed eyes ejaculated with a terrifying light. Ling Su's heart tightened and he hurriedly bowed and swore.

Li Mengshen has a high reputation among sailors, after all, he has the right to distribute spoils. Besides, he has rich experience, and all sailors are convinced.

Li Mengshen turned to Wu Tianhai again and said, "You must prepare your spears, and the spear heads are brighter. If you board the ship later, it will depend on you!"

Wu Tianhai took the order and left. He was the stormtrooper captain, but unfortunately he could not fully demonstrate his martial arts on the Poison Scorpion. Generally speaking, when the Poison Scorpion set off fire, the merchant ship basically surrendered. But Wu Tianhai did not dare to slacken at all, and practiced the battle formation technique with paddlers every day, which was greatly appreciated by Li Mengshen.

...

After Li Mengshen asked about the preparations of all parties one by one, he put on a pergola and looked towards the entrance of Poyang Lake. In fact, he could not see anything and he didn't need to look around. There was a special lookout on the bow of the boat, and there was a special lookout on it, holding a telescope to look at the wind. It was what Li Mengshen asked for from Lin Chunhong. Later, he grabbed another one, and his performance was not as good as the one Lin Chunhong had on hand, so he returned the spoils to Lin Chunhong. Lin Chunhong was so angry that he cursed.

"Don't look at the sun, you're a slut, you want to blind your eyes? Look at me, you just look at the sun too much!" Li Mengshen saw Xiaowang's eyes looking at him and scolded.

The lookout hand called Han Siliang, who was only seventeen years old, was very clever and was not afraid of Li Mengshen. He smiled giggled and turned around to look elsewhere.

After looking at it for a while, Han Siliang shouted: "Here are here, two ships!"

The sailors suddenly became excited and forgot to wipe their sweat. They all looked at Li Mengshen with eager eyes. Li Mengshen nodded with satisfaction. He was quite satisfied with the sailors' reaction. When the sailors heard that the prey came, they went their separate ways and became in chaos. Li Mengshen scolded him several times, but the effect was not good, so he severely punished several sailors, which changed the situation. Now, the Scorpion has basically implemented orders and no one is allowed to move without orders.

Li Mengshen waved to Fei Daishan and ordered, "You come to command today, I'm lazy." After that, he went to the bottom cabin and acted as a paddler. Fei Daishan was Li Mengshen's deputy. He has been following Li Mengshen for a long time and is basically competent in the war. Li Mengshen longed for Fei Daishan to fly solo early. After all, the second centipede ship had been built and was waiting for someone to fuck him.

Fei Daishan was not polite either. He took the token and shouted to the flag bearer beside him: "Do your own position!"

The flag bearer waved up and down, and the other flag bearers also waved him. The sailors acted quickly and ran to their respective posts in an orderly manner under the leadership of their captains. At the beginning, Li Mengshen issued an order by roaring, but the Scorpion Slaughter was too big, and sometimes the sailors couldn't hear his orders clearly. In addition, the sound of cannons during combat was rumbling, so no matter how they roared, Li Mengshen came up with this method, placing the flag bearer at a key position on the ship and conveying the order.

As Fei Daishan issued a series of orders, the black sail of the Poison Scorpion quickly rose up, and countless legs stretched out from both sides of the ship, stirring the river water. The Poison Scorpion began to accelerate and rushed towards the merchant ship.

The merchant ship was hanging a small sail, walking upstream and slowly. When the merchant ship sailor saw the Poison Scorpion, he was suddenly panicked. Where have you ever seen such a monster on the Yangtze River? I saw that the monster was huge and there were countless legs next to it, rushing towards him like an arrow from a string. His intention to rob was obvious. The merchant ship captain was shocked and immediately ordered to turn around and go down the river, hoping to get rid of the Poison Scorpion.

When the merchant ship was turning around, the call from the Scorpion came: "Leave the money to buy the way...Leave the money to buy the way..." The captain ignored it and only ordered the turn to make an anxious order.

"Bang..." The huge sound of cannons came, and the subsequent shells scared the merchant ship sailors and exclaimed: "This ship has cannons!"

With a loud bang, the shells fell into the water. The sailors of the merchant ship were panicked and wished they could extend their oars to get rid of the pursuit like the Scorpion.

The Scorpion was very fast and was getting closer and closer to the two merchant ships. "Bang..." Another cannon sound came. The shell never landed in the empty space again. It directly penetrated the hull of the merchant ship and rolled into the cabin.

"It's leaking..." The sailor let out a hysterical roar.

The captain was anxious and saw the Poison Scorpion approaching and shouted: "Bow and arrow fight back, swordsman prepare!"

In addition to plugging the leaks, the sailors of the merchant ship gathered on the deck to deal with the Battle of the Scorpion. Unexpectedly, the Scorpion did not get close at all, so they quickly rowed forward and directly blocked the way of the two merchant ships.

Another cannon sound came. The shells fired this time were not solid bullets, but shotguns. Pieces of lead beads flew over, and the merchant ship was in chaos. Several sailors fell to the ground and screamed in terrible voices.

The Poison Scorpion cried out again: "Surrender immediately, seek money without harming your life..."

The two captains of the merchant ship were unable to hang up the white flag.

Seeing the white flag of the merchant ship rise, Li Mengshen smiled on his face: "Fe Daishan is good, he knows how to save gunpowder, hehe..." At the same time, Wu Tianhai sighed secretly: "Hey, there is no chance to take action this time!" No wonder Wu Tianhai sighed. He had never taken action and he got less spoils.

...

Under the night, the Poison Scorpion hung a black sail and slowly moved upstream. Because the Poison Scorpion acted quickly, the officers and soldiers who rushed to the news were killed in vain.

"Damn it, it's raw silk again. I'm almost the king of raw silk..." Li Mengshen looked at the boat full of raw silk and scolded with hatred. Fei Daishan commanded the robbery for the first time. He was still excited and said, "Raw silk is valuable." Li Mengshen had a few votes in Hukou. In addition to robbing some silver, the most was raw silk. Li Mengshen did not kill all the merchants, and only robbed valuables suitable for transportation. After all, the Poison Scorpion could not hold much cargo.

"In addition to going to sea, the other road in Nanzhili is to cross the Ganjiang River to Fujian. In the future, we will only grab more raw silk at Hukou." Fei Daishan's words made Li Mengshen very upset. He felt that the most satisfying thing was to plunder the official ship, which was directly covered with silver, and just move it onto the ship. It was not as troublesome as it is now, and he had to wait for the merchant ship to pick it up.

"Ga...Ga...Gaga...Gaga..." A regular wild duck cries came, and Li Mengshen shouted excitedly: "Kong Yinglong, the immortal, is here so quickly this time... Haha..."

Fei Daishan crawled out of the cabin and saw that it was Kong Yinglong's three-masted sailboat coming...
Chapter completed!