Chapter 232
During the battle, it was not obvious, but when they saw the Zheng fleet fleeing, the Ning Navy officers all breathed a sigh of relief, especially the hands of many Ning Navy officers who were trembling and their legs and feet were weak.
Of course, some of Ning's naval officers were nervous, some were tired, and of course a few were frightened. After all, the battle on the sea was so brutal.
To put it bluntly, this was actually Ning Haijun's luck. Because of Zheng Zhibao's mistake, he consumed Zheng Zhilong's sharpest knife, which was Taro Kumamoto and the more than 6,000 little samurai under his command.
If Zheng Zhilong's fire ship is controlled by these little warriors in this battle, it is hard to say whether Ning Haijun can win this battle, because the little warriors are very crazy.
Because the country of Konihi is very poor now, even if they are samurai, Samurai now manage local and tax revenue for daimyo at all levels, which is equivalent to civil servants. However, their income is very low. Almost all samurai serving the shogunate were called "Hatatamoto" and "Oikawa".
Moreover, samurai have no salary. Their income is shi, which is rice. Relatively speaking, the income of Hatamoto is slightly higher, and that of the imperial family is slightly lower. Taken together, their ordinary income is around 50 shi of rice. Of course, for someone like Morimoto Kazuhisa of the Kato family, his income must be much higher, but the income of ordinary samurai under his command is nominally equivalent to that of a ninth-grade official from the Ming Dynasty.
This is the income level of a real samurai. If you include those nominal samurai holding a samurai sword, it is even lower. After excluding taxes, you can barely make ends meet. Therefore, the samurai in their childhood had to eat rice balls and so-called sushi. The reason for making sushi was that they didn't have enough rice.
It can be said that the reason and background of sushi is just like Beijing's authentic snack braised pork. In the Qing Dynasty, rich families and the Eight Banners powerful people did not eat sushi. Every year, poor people from the imperial city roots stayed in the big families. When people and dignitaries of the Eight Banners came to the door, they would pick up the water and eat it after watching others throw it into the water. This can also be regarded as meat, but the problem is that there was not much water after all, so they added dead dough pancakes and burned them, forming the current stewed meat.
Of course, the life of the samurai in the country was not easy. Pickles, dried radish and natto were their daily staple food. As for the common people, their living standards were far worse than those of the samurai. Even if the Ming Dynasty is experiencing natural and man-made disasters, in fact, the living standards of the people in the Ming Dynasty are far higher than in the small days.
After these young warriors took refuge with Zheng Zhilong, they fought very bravely, because if they died in battle, their families could receive a settlement fee of one hundred taels of silver. Zheng Zhilong was very generous in this regard.
Therefore, the young samurai under Taro Kumamoto were not afraid of death at all when fighting. For them, death was a kind of relief.
It's just a pity that Zheng Zhibao didn't know what he was thinking at the time, but he actually released monsters little by little to gain experience for Ning Haijun's navy.
For a young army, it was the best choice to fight indiscriminately and indiscriminately. In later generations, fighting against the beautiful navy in their childhood was a taboo.
Zheng Zhibao actually used such a useful sharp blade to practice with Ning Haijun. As a result, Ning Haijun, who had no combat experience, used these more than 200 ships and more than 6,000 young warriors to gain sufficient practical experience. experience.
Although Zheng Cai recruited samurai from his childhood country, their coordination and training were far inferior to those under Taro Kumamoto. Therefore, after this battle, the real fire ships did not cause much damage to Ning Haijun.
Of course, there aren't that many what-ifs in reality.
Li Zhixiang watched the Zheng fleet retreat and did not pursue it. Once he pursued the Zheng fleet fiercely, he would miss the opportunity to treat the wounded.
Cheng Shijie told Li Zhixiang many times that the Navy is a technical branch and wounded soldiers are very valuable. Wounded soldiers who survive the battlefield will become elite soldiers when they return to the team after recovering. Ning Haijun has no shortage of warships. At Ning Haijun's warship production speed, they can produce a huge fleet within a year.
The Navy soldiers are truly priceless.
What's more, the current Zheng's fleet has had its backbone broken, and there is little point in continuing to fight down drowned dogs. However, those sailors were trained by him with so much hard work. It would be too sad if they died because of this.
Each level of the Ning Navy dispatched lifeboats accompanying the ship and began to search and rescue survivors on the sea. The sea area dyed red with blood and fire suddenly became lively.
Just as the Subic Haining Navy was engaged in a decisive battle with the Zheng fleet, the Dutch East India Company sent a third-level battleship and two fourth-level battleships on the Tulip, the flagship of this small fleet. The fleet commander, Colonel Bernard L. DeVos, handed the telescope to the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Peter van der Waals, and said, "What do you think?"
"Their warships... are really fast! Moreover, their naval guns are much larger in caliber than ours, have a longer range, and are more powerful, but they are always weird!"
Bernard sighed and said: "The vampires on the board of directors have failed in their wishes!"
In fact, after Manila in Luzon changed hands, the Dutch East India Company paid special attention to this matter. Since most of the more than 150 armed merchant ships and warships of the Dutch East India with a thousand tons or more were scattered around the world, they were short of In fact, not many warships can be mobilized within the time limit, but twenty or thirty ships are still possible.
At the Eastern Headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, Senior Commercial Commissioner Koopmans proposed to take chestnuts from the fire. If Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun lost both sides in a decisive battle, they could save 120,000 francs in protection fees. At the same time, they can take advantage of Spain's inability to take care of Luzon and get a share of the pie on Luzon Island.
It's just a pity that the Subic naval battle started very hastily and ended even more quickly. It came to an end in just two or three days and ended with the Zheng family's disastrous defeat.
"Their ship is about two knots faster than our warship without full sail. How did they do it?"
Lieutenant Colonel Valls said in disbelief: "How did they do it?"
"Don't worry about how they did it. We are businessmen, and profit is the standard that businessmen use to measure everything! The current situation is very obvious. The profit from fighting Ning Haijun is far less than paying them protection money!"
Bernard smiled bitterly and said: "Unless the board of directors is willing to risk the loss of at least a hundred battleships, or five thousand sailors, and the loss of millions of gold carats."
Regarding the Dutch watching the game, Li Zhixiang had the same reaction as Cheng Shijie. He had already sent someone to warn the Dutch: "You can watch, but don't interfere, otherwise Ning Haijun will fight to the death!"
Obviously, these Dutch people did not have the courage to fight Ning Haijun until death.
…
Although Zheng Zhilong retreated, not everything was lost, because when they were dueling with Ning Haijun's main battleship, their squadron, the troops led by Zheng Zhibao, finally did something serious.
The Zheng fleet successfully captured the Port of Subic. Subic Port at this time was actually just a small Spanish port, but it had four forts. This time Zheng Zhibao was very powerful. He successfully learned the lessons from the Wusongkou naval battle and attacked from both sea and land simultaneously.
First, about a hundred small centipede boats with extremely shallow drafts carried army troops to land from the left and right wings of Subic Port. After the landing troops successfully landed, they did not touch the Spanish, but Zheng Zhibao's squadron successfully landed. After attracting the Spanish's attention, they attacked from both sea and land.
After more than half a day of fierce fighting, Zheng Zhibao captured Subic Port and Subic Castle after paying the price of more than a thousand casualties, killing 63 Spanish soldiers defending Subic City and capturing them. Ninety-three people annihilated about 1,500 Spanish colonial troops.
When arriving at Subic Port, Zheng Zhibao held a grand welcome ceremony.
However, Zheng Zhilong had no interest in this. His ears were buzzing, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and he struggled to swallow the blood that surged into his throat.
"Fifth brother, prepare some wine, food, and women!"
Zheng Zhilong knew that the pirates' life at sea was very boring, and now that they had lost the battle, they needed to revive their morale. There were only two things that could boost their morale, wine and women.
Zheng Zhibao looked at Zheng Zhilong with an unkind look on his face. Although he did not ask Zheng Zhilong about his results in detail, a cursory look at him, the third person in the Zheng Group, revealed that the Zheng Group's fleet had been streamlined too much.
"Yes, brother, I'll make arrangements right away!"
Zheng Zhibao had actually made preparations for a long time, but it was just to celebrate Zheng Zhilong's victory. After he occupied Subic Port, he sent troops to wipe out more than a dozen surrounding tribes and captured six to seven thousand women. Except for black spots, ugly Click, it can be used as a makeshift.
Now that celebrations are out of the question, it would be easier to appease the soldiers.
Zheng Zhibao paid a little attention and found that Zheng Zhilong's main fleet only had more than 300 warships left, and most of the warships were scarred and covered with bloody wounded soldiers. These wounded soldiers could not receive effective treatment. Deaths continued to occur in the hot and smelly cabin, and it was probably unknown how many people would survive in the end.
Recalling the grand occasion when the fleet set off on the expedition with white sails like clouds and flags covering the sun, and looking at the miserable scene now, Zheng Zhibao really wanted to cry. The losses to Zheng's fleet were too heavy, and the consequences were very serious.
Located in a castle built by the Spanish, facing a dozen trembling Spanish women, Zheng Zhilong was not at all in the mood. He was drinking alone and his face was frighteningly smelly.
Zheng Zhilong couldn't figure it out after pouring more than half the bottle of whiskey into his stomach.
"how so?"
The warships of the Ning Navy are obviously only one-tenth of their main warships. In terms of total tonnage, it is also one-eighth. And those who drive those warships are a group of sailors who have been in the military for less than two years, regardless of whether they are from Technically and mentally, he is still very immature.
Although Zheng Zhibao lost many battleships in the Battle of Wusongkou, the main force was still there. In order to win, from him, the commander-in-chief, to every ordinary sailor, they even tried their best to eat milk. As long as they could There were only tactics that could hit Ning Haijun's navy that he had not thought of, and there were no tactics that he had not tried.
With ten times the advantage of the Ning Navy, coupled with the fierce sailors who have been honed for more than ten years across the sea, and the muskets and artillery they bought at high prices from Xiyi, with such a huge advantage, why can't they still win? win? Why?
Shi Daxuan also knew that Zheng Zhilong was in a bad mood, and Zheng Zhibao did not dare to touch Zheng Zhilong's brow.
At this time, Zheng Zhilong was just like Huang Taiji after the Battle of Bali Bay. He began to worry about the future of his Zheng Group. Although the Zheng Group had more than 3,000 warships, he also had many enemies.
Xu Xinsu, Li Kuiqi, the great pirate Zhong Bin, Liu Xiang, etc., who parted ways from the official party, have traversed the sea for more than ten years and established countless achievements. Normally these contradictions would not be exposed, but with his defeat, all problems will surface. water surface.
The Zheng Group is completely different from the Ning Haijun Group. Cheng Shijie has different control over the Ning Haijun Group. The Zheng Group is like a typical company. Zheng Zhilong is only the chairman, followed by shareholders of various sizes. And shareholders, big and small, are also on top of each other. They, these shareholders, have their own people, their own ships, and even their spheres of influence are divided to a certain extent.
But the problem is that Ning Haijun is a collective. Even Li Zhixiang, who controls the main fleet of Ning Haijun, if he dares to have the slightest idea of betraying Cheng Shijie, the governor will immediately deal with him. If he dared to surrender to the enemy, he might not even be able to take away a ship. The most likely possibility would be to take away his personal guards.
In fact, when he retreated this time, he found that many warships did not follow. It might be that the ships were damaged or they might have betrayed them.
What should we do in the future?
Zheng Zhilong had a headache.
He drank to drown his sorrows, so he got drunk very quickly, and Zheng Zhilong fell asleep without knowing it.
Then, Zheng Zhilong had a dream while sleeping.
In the dream, the sky and sea had been rendered bright red by blood and fire. Thousands of cannons were roaring crazily. The thick smoke and flames emitted from the muzzles caused the warships to shake violently, as if a volcano had erupted.
The hill-like warships with flying black flags were lined up in two rows, like a copper wall and iron wall standing in front of them. No matter how hard they charged, they could not break through. And every time they fired, one or two or even several warships would be set on fire. , frontal impact has almost become synonymous with suicide.
A row of cannonballs hit them head-on and face-to-face, most of them missed and turned into a ball of blazing fire with a loud noise. Sharp shrapnel rained down, beating many sailors until their blood splattered and their flesh and bones were reduced to ashes. …
"ah……"
Zheng Zhilong screamed, but it scared the dozen Spanish beauties around him.
Seeing these dozen Spanish beauties discovering his gaffe, Zheng Zhilong shouted coldly: "Come here!"
"What are your orders, Lord Admiral!"
"Throw them into the sea and drown them!"
Zheng Zhilong's personal guards were a little regretful. It was such a pity that Zheng Zhilong looked down on these Western barbarians. They didn't mind, but the problem was that they didn't dare to disobey Zheng Zhilong's orders.
…
Cheng Shijie, who was in Chongming, did not know the news about the Subic naval battle, but he received further news from Luzon. After Mao Youjun, the survivor, was rescued by Liang Zhiqi, Liang Zhiqi was ecstatic.
This was a good opportunity to hug his thighs. For this reason, he directly ordered the fleet to turn around and head for Tamsui. After arriving at Tamsui Port, Mao Youjun reported the news about Luzon to Chen Dayong.
Chen Dayong knew the news and had to report it to Cheng Shijie immediately. In order to avoid another accident with Mao Youjun, the Fifth Squadron, which had not yet formed a battle, went directly to Chongming Island.
On June 19, the seventh year of Chongzhen, which was the fifty-fifth day after the Ning Navy attacked Manila Port and the fourth day of the Subic naval battle, Cheng Shijie received the Luzon intelligence reported by Mao Youjun.
Cheng Shijie was not a native of the Ming Dynasty. He was not afraid of Spain, the empire on which the sun never set, because the Thirty Years' War successfully brought the Spanish Empire down from the altar.
As early as the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, that is, the year when the Spanish colonial authorities massacred the Chinese for the second time in Luzon, the Spanish Empire, which had no strength to fight the Netherlands because of its declining national strength, signed a twelve-year treaty with the Netherlands. The truce actually recognized the independence of the Republic.
However, at the beginning of the first year of the Apocalypse, the truce agreement between the Netherlands and the Spanish Empire ended, and the Netherlands began its war of independence from Spain. Now a new small power called the Netherlands, known as the horseman of the sea, is rising, and the Spanish Empire is already in a situation where everyone is pushing against it.
No matter how unwilling Philip IV was, he could not undo the situation of Luzon changing hands. At most, he would call on the Netherlands and Portugal under Spanish management to put pressure on the Ning Navy.
But Cheng Shijie knew very well that at this time, the Netherlands and Portugal were trying to get rid of Spanish rule, especially the Dutch. They had clearly realized that the Ming Dynasty was not a small country, and it was not a native they could bully at will. Even if the Ming Dynasty was full of wars, Even Zheng Zhilong, the admiral of the Fujian Navy, could manipulate them.
What's more, Ning Haijun is more powerful than Zheng Zhilong?
In this case, the only variable is Zheng Zhilong. If Zheng Zhilong defeats the main fleet of the Ning Navy led by Li Zhixiang and then attacks Luzon, then Zheng Zhilong's strength will expand again.
In fact, it was not that Zheng Zhilong did not have the strength to capture the entire Luzon, but that he did not realize the importance of Luzon. Because Ning Haijun captured Manila, he captured Luzon in the name of defeating Ning Haijun. I am afraid that Ning Haijun The struggle between the navy and the Zheng family will last longer, which is very detrimental to the development of the Ning navy.
Cheng Shijie looked at Li Fang and said, "Do you dare to go south with me to meet Zheng Zhilong?"
Li Fang was slightly startled: "Just rely on our Fifth Squadron?"
"Of course it's more than that!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "I have not been idle on Chongming Island. I also had more than 600 warships built!"
When Li Fang heard that there were more than 600 warships, he was overjoyed and said, "How dare you disobey me!"
However, when Li Fang saw the more than 600 warships Cheng Shijie said, he was speechless.
How should I put it? These are just over 600 small boats that will fall apart when the wind blows. They are not even comparable to small fishing boats.
Li Fang swallowed hard: "Commander, this boat... is too small. It can barely sail on the river, but on the sea, I'm afraid it will capsize with just one wave!"
"I have already thought of this problem. Don't worry, I have other plans!"
Cheng Shijie's plan is that the small boats will be placed in parallel like wooden rafts, directly connected front and back with iron locks, just like a small train, towed by the main battleship.
When you encounter Zheng's fleet, set fire to the ship.
Shen Boyun was frightened when he heard that Cheng Shijie was going to the South China Sea to fight Zheng Zhilong.
Shen finally got into Cheng Shijie's lap, not to mention that their base, Chongming Island, had now become Zhu Weiti's fiefdom.
The Shen family and their Shachuan Gang had only had enough to eat for a few days with Cheng Shijie. Now that they heard that their meal tickets were going south, Shen Boyun became anxious: "Commander, a gentleman will not stand behind a dangerous wall..."
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "I am not a gentleman, I am a general. As the commander-in-chief of Ning Haijun, I believe that Ning Haijun will protect their commander!"
Li Fang directly sang the opposite tune to Cheng Shijie: "Commander, naval warfare is not the same as land war. On land, all of our Ning navy officers are confident to protect the commander, even if we face heavy siege, even if we are surrounded by enemies, Widow!"
"Ning Haijun, could it be Ning Haijun?"
"The navy is naturally a member of Ning Haijun, but the fifth squadron is full of new recruits!"
At this time, Li Fang wanted to cry. Although the Fifth Squadron he was leading now had strong strength, these strengths were only on paper. There were twelve Sea Shark-class battleships and four Giant Shark-class ships. The problem is that due to the rapid expansion of the Ninghai Navy Navy, the original foundation of the Dongjiang Navy Navy and Denglai Navy has been basically exhausted.
Now, although these sailors and gunners are not new recruits, they have never fought in a battle. They can only barely control the ship and have never fought a real naval battle. Although they are not new recruits, they are almost like new recruits. No blood was seen.
Li Fang also had no confidence in the officers and soldiers of this squadron.
"I understand your worries. Well, veterans are all new recruits!"
Cheng Shijie said: "You are also a veteran who has followed me. When we were in Dengzhou, all the Ninghai navy were new recruits. Were you afraid at that time? You are only more than 500 people, and you have surrendered more than 8,000 Denglai naval forces. Aren’t you just as brave?”
"The last general is as brave as he is now!"
Li Fang said: "Commander, the general can lead the Fifth Squadron south. The commander will wait for the good news about the general on Chongming Island!"
"Okay, this is not a discussion with you, but an order. You have forgotten Ning Haijun's military regulations!"
"I will never forget it!"
"Excuting an order!"
"yes!"
Seeing Cheng Shijie's resolute attitude, Shen Boyun had no choice but to seek help from Zhu Weiti, but the problem was that Zhu Weiti did not persuade Cheng Shijie.
However, what Cheng Shijie didn't know was that the survivor Mao Youjun was not the only survivor of the Gaizhou and Fuzhou. Another sailor with a fateful life was named Gao Zongsheng.
Gao Zongsheng was captured by the patrol fleet of the Ning Navy. From the Liaodong Peninsula, to the Korean Peninsula and then to the Xiaoli Sea, these were the default range of the Ning Navy. When the Zheng fleet attacked the Ning Navy's commercial fleet, , Ning Haijun actually wanted to retaliate.
Of course, those old gunboats couldn't defeat the Zheng fleet. Under the leadership of Chen Shi, they trained sailors and entered the Xiaori Sea to attack cargo ships trading to Xiaori.
When Gao Zongsheng was rescued, the news was immediately sent back to the Liaodong Ning Navy General Staff and the Liaodong Management Committee. Song Xiance could see the strategic position and value of Luzon at a glance, and he also knew that Cheng Shijie had eaten it. I absolutely don’t want to spit out the contents inside.
He did not think that Zheng's fleet would capture Luzon, but was worried that the Spanish would capture Luzon. He suggested to Chief of General Staff Zhou Ning to send additional army troops to Luzon. Zhou Ning accepted this suggestion.
The Sixth Squadron, which was originally planned to take half a month to conduct sea trials, went to sea eight days ahead of schedule. Even the paint on all the battleships of the Sixth Squadron was not completely dry.
Also accompanying the Sixth Squadron to sea were Ning Haijun, Liu Qingsong, and more than 9,600 army officers. This made these army officers suffer.
Those Ning Navy officers who came from Liaodong and Dengzhou were better off, but the officers who came from Guan Ning Army were all landlubbers. Those Ning Navy officers who didn't know how to do it had been in bad luck for eighteen lifetimes, and each of them vomited twice. Eyes straight...
It’s so uncomfortable! Even the fierce veterans turned pale, but these veterans were more ruthless and swallowed back even if their gastric juices surged into their throats.
After Sun Chengzong learned that Cheng Shijie's Ning Haijun had seized a large island covering a large area from the Spanish, he asked his grandson Sun Zhiwan to follow Cheng Shijie.
Sun Zhiman looked at the undulating wave peaks on the sea and said with a slight fear: "Human beings are too insignificant in front of the moody sea. A storm can kill a hundred thousand troops in the belly of the fish. That's right." No wonder Meng Yuan’s two attacks on Xiaoli ended in disastrous defeat!”
Chen sometimes smiled faintly and said: "That's because they don't have large battleships like ours. If you ask me, I actually don't understand how the Meng Yuan Navy failed. I have been to Xiaorihai countless times. Although the wind and waves are Big point, we had no problem destroying the ship with 400 materials, so how did they annihilate an entire army of 100,000 people?"
On June 25, the seventh year of Chongzhen, just as Cheng Shijie was preparing to set off from Chongming Island, Catherine told Cheng Shijie a surprising news.
"What do you mean, our Ning Haijun won?"
"yes!"
Catherine smiled and said: "Congratulations to Your Excellency the Duke, you won a great naval battle! I think your victory is completely comparable to the glory of Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada!"
Cheng Shijie also knew that what Catherine knew was only hearsay, and it would take some time for detailed information to arrive.
He changed the topic and asked: "By the way, you mentioned that Britain defeated the Spanish Armada. So, how is the British navy doing now?"
"What else? After defeating the Armada, it was disbanded."
"Disbanded?"
"That's right!"
Catherine curled her lips and said: "Six thousand to eight thousand sailors who fought bloody battles with the Spanish Armada and fought desperately to protect Britain died of illness and starvation in extreme poverty. Now the British Navy almost no longer exists."
"The British guy's ability to cross the bridge and draw the board is really admirable!"
Although almost everyone attributed the British-Spanish naval battle to the British, in fact the British navy had not risen at this time. The Dutch also contributed a decisive force in this battle. The Netherlands dispatched thirty-four warships. , accounting for slightly more than one-third of the Anglo-Dutch Allied Forces.
"What can we do? The navy is a huge consumer of military expenditures. It is easy to build a group of warships and recruit a group of sailors, but it is very difficult to maintain it for a long time. With the national strength of the UK, it simply cannot afford to support such a large navy! "
"I can't afford to be so good..."
Cheng Shijie couldn't help but think of the Britain that would be at its worst a few hundred years later. The sun never set on the empire. The army had been reduced to only 70,000 people, which was about the same as a first-class group army in my rabbit. The Royal Air Force had only There are about two hundred combat aircraft, one hundred of which are old-fashioned Tornado fighter-bombers.
The navy is even worse. Not to mention the aircraft carrier battle group, the total military strength of the entire British Empire has been reduced to only about 160,000 people, and it is still shrinking further... Inversely proportional to the shrinking military strength, it has always remained high. Military spending and the Defense Department’s ever-expanding employee base.
The total strength of the British army is 160,000, and the Ministry of Defense has as many as 100,000 employees. It is really incomprehensible that the British army cannot support the army, but it can support a lot of people who are just eating.
The hegemony of the Empire on which the sun never sets is still sleeping, waiting for the spring breeze of the first industrial revolution to wake them up. So Britain is still muddling along, being a monk for a day and hitting the clock for a day, with a powerful British navy?
Not even a shadow can be seen yet. However, Cheng Shijie did not intend to let Britain's hegemony sprout. He was full of interest in leading the Ning Navy fleet to Europe and asking countries such as Britain and France to compensate millions or even tens of millions of pounds in military expenses.
Of course, Catherine was also very interested in Cheng Shijie at this time, especially Cheng Shijie's naval guns. This naval battle was a coincidence. She had just purchased a batch of silk from Shanghai and shipped it to Venice. On the way, she happened to meet this man. A naval battle.
The captain responsible for transporting these goods was Giovanni. He knew the difference very clearly. He didn't even care about the silk that could earn more than ten times the profit, and immediately turned around and returned to Shanghai.
In fact, the cost of raising a navy engineer for Cheng Shijie is also very high. Of course, the way he makes money is not glorious, but the people of Liaodong. In fact, if the workers at the Liaodong Shipyard can get higher wages, the cost of building ships will be It's also much higher.
The British warship HMS King of the Sea has a full load displacement of more than 1,600 tons, which is similar to the Ninghai Navy's Shark-class warship. However, the problem is that the cost of building this warship in the UK is more than 40,000 pounds.
One pound is equal to twenty-five francs, equivalent to one million francs, which is equivalent to approximately 13.46 million taels of silver. Cheng Shijie cannot afford such a cost.
Although he knew about the victory in the Subic Sea battle against Ning Haijun, Cheng Shijie decided to go to Nanyang. Now was the best time to harvest the reputation of the Chinese in Nanyang. If he didn't go now, when would he wait?
On June 26, the seventh year of Chongzhen, after Cheng Shijie joined the Ning Navy's Sixth Squadron, the Ning Navy's Fifth Squadron and Sixth Squadron, plus more than 200 merchant ships and sand ships, totaled more than 9,600 people. Ning Marines took the Eighth Princess and headed for Luzon.
(End of chapter)
