Dominate the Country

"Boom..." The cannon roared. The black spherical iron bullet shot out from the muzzle, crossed the distance of two or three miles, and rushed straight to Chai Daji's door with a hot torrent.

When Chai Daji saw the iron bullet clearly, it seemed that there was still a little distance between them, but at that moment he seemed to be cast with a fixed body spell, and the whole person could not move. He could only watch the iron bullet getting bigger and bigger in front of him...

"Ah..." The whole iron bullet fell in front of Chai Daji's door. Chai Daji, who was sleeping, suddenly sat up from the bed. It was already November weather, and his forehead was covered with cold sweat under the quilt.

"Canrong..." The call of the personal soldiers sounded outside. Chai Daji wiped the sweat from his forehead and said that it was nothing.

With his strong back leaning against the head of the bed, Chai Daji felt weak. How many times has he woken up from the night? And he was always awakened by this scene. It makes people feel ridiculous to say it. Chai Daji covered his face with his hands. This scene happened a month ago. At that time, Chai Daji led warships to patrol the Zhenjiang River. One of the ships encountered the floating rafts released by Chen Ni from upstream, and the bottom of the ship was smashed. Chai Daji had just been promoted from Dusi to Lieutenant General at that time. Seeing this, he was furious and ordered his boat to cross the line and fire at the artillery of the Fu Han Army. As a result, the big Ganzheng ship he was sitting on had just fired two shots, and the Fu Han Army artillery on the shore rang out more than a dozen thunders. One of the shells was fired directly at Chai Daji on the bow, but it was just a little bit higher, which knocked off Chai Daji's hat, and then crashed into the cabin, killing and injuring three people, but Chai Daji only lost a few hairs.

The floating raft is not a water raft floating on the water, but a kind of floating dark raft. There are large stones as anchors below, and the head of the raft is wrapped with iron, which looks like a plow. The Fu Han Army dropped it downstream from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Once it collided with warships and civilian ships on the surface east of Zhenjiang, the lighter ships would be damaged and the heavier ones would sink on the spot. Together with the underwater Dragon King Cannons that the Fu Han Army frequently placed downstream, they became the two most disgusting weapons for the Qing Navy at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Although Chai Daji did not have any scratches, the scene at that time was too thrilling. The shell only needed to be lowered by one finger, and Chai Daji's skull would be gone. Even if his head was cut by the shell, it would be completely shattered, like a sea urchin falling on a stone.

At that time, Chai Daji, who did not twitch on the surface, calmly commanded the fleet to withdraw from the artillery battle, and won the reputation of a brave general who was not afraid of danger. In fact, at night, he had been awakened by nightmares several times. That shell didn't fly over his head, but hit him in the face...

"Fortunately, fortunately..." Chai Daji sighed again. Fortunately, he had been freed from the job of patrolling the river. He was now in Zhoushan, supervising the construction of warships.

As November came, the wars in the north stopped one after another, while the battles in the south were still going on.

The battles in Hunan affected the troops in Jiangxi and Guangdong, and the resulting chain reaction was that the pressure on the Tiandihui righteous army in Fujian was relieved a little. The Fu Han Army did not continue to march along the Yangtze River to Sichuan, but the teaching division that was recommended as the first elite among Chen Han's various armies advanced into Hanzhong and directly cut off the connection between Sichuan and Shaanxi. The Fu Han Army in Hubei was doing its best to consolidate its ruling foundation!

After exempting the summer grain, Chen Han exempted the autumn grain this year. The rural work teams and the propaganda teams organized by the prefectures and counties were all busy and never idle. Many technical schools were also established in various places. For the first time, the Fu Han Army issued a recruitment notice to the entire town and village in the jurisdiction - the Fu Han Army wanted to expand the scale of musket manufacturing! Continue to recruit blacksmiths

In addition to the recruitment of the Fu Han Army, and the recruitment of workers in each workshop. These are like the roots of the uncle, bit by bit in the fertile soil of Hubei.

In this era, everything depends on manpower. Take the production of Zhao's military uniforms as an example. In the era without sewing machines, it was completely dependent on manual labor. Each Fu Han Army soldier had at least two sets of regular clothes and two sets of battle robes every season. What kind of workload is that?

At the beginning, the head of the logistics force of the expeditionary army had a headache for this. In the entire expeditionary army, except for the uniforms of the main battalion, there was a certain guarantee. For other non-main forces, many uniforms were directly dyed red. So, the recruitment of workers is the Fu Han Army consolidating its foundation bit by bit. Whoever enters the factory as a worker, they will become a member of the Fu Han Army.

Now, in the entire Yangtze River Basin and the area south of the Yangtze River, only Hubei and Jiangnan are relatively stable. The former is invincible to the Qing army, and the latter is invincible to the Qing army. The war in Jiangnan has become a stalemate.

Between Hubei and Jiangnan, there are Jiujiang and Anqing as support, and there are frequent fleet exchanges. Moreover, the warships of the Fu Han Army are also launched one after another, and the Qing army is naturally unwilling to be outdone. The Jiangsu Wusong Navy was reorganized in summer and autumn.

Chai Daji himself was from Jiangshan, Zhejiang. He studied literature in his childhood and later gave up literature to practice martial arts. In the 28th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1763), he passed the military imperial examination. He served as the left camp garrison and the right camp commander of the Fu Ning Town in Fujian. When the Fujian Navy returned to the southeast, some people were left in Jiangnan and formed the Susong Town Water Camp, stationed at Wusongkou. Chai Daji was transferred to Susong Town at that time, and was promoted from commander to lieutenant general.

As for why Chai Daji, who supervised the warship construction, was not in other places but in Zhoushan, it was because the Fu Han army swept through Songjiang. Although they stopped at the Huangpu River, it still frightened many people. After the war, they moved to Zhoushan in the sea. Among them were not only gentry and common people, but also many merchants and even shipyards.

The naval warships of the Qing army were originally owned by the government, but isn't the situation different now? When the matter was urgent, many orders were placed to private shipyards from Zhejiang to Guangdong. Among them, Zhang Jigong, whose pseudonym was Tong Li, teamed up with Yue Wenhai and won several orders.

Chai Daji's job is a good one.

Zhang Jigong also had several contacts with him and spoke highly of him. Zhang Jigong had kept a low profile for more than a year. The Panxia Shipyard specialized in manufacturing sea-going ships. Taking advantage of the trend of shipping grain in the southeast, he made a lot of money. He also tied up with Yue Wenhai, organized a commercial shipping fleet, and raised funds with small and medium-sized shipping merchants in the coastal areas with maritime traditions to become independent. At first, it mainly focused on trafficking grain and other agricultural products. After the Fu Han army withdrew from the south of the Yangtze River, it quickly expanded to trade cloth, ceramics, indigo, sugar, tea, salt fish, etc. The ports of call reached Tianjin in the north and Guangdong in the south.

In just one year, he became a rising ship owner in Songhu area.

That is to say, the matter of manufacturing a Western-style sailboat that Chen Ming told him has not been settled yet. "You can't just give me an exterior diagram of shipbuilding. The structural diagram inside is the real thing." Chen Jigong helplessly 'protested' to Chen Ming. Several of his masters knew nothing about Western sailboats, so he had no choice but to hire masters from Guangdong. He also specially invited several Cantonese who had worked as sailors on foreign sailboats as staff advisors. Only then did he realize that Western sailboats were Not only is it very different from Chinese sailboats, it only has one sail to control, and it is impossible to play it without long-term practical training.

On the ocean, there are strong winds and waves, and all kinds of dangerous situations are encountered. The area and complexity of the sails of Western-style sailboats are far greater than those of Eastern hard sails. The masts of Western-style sailboats are very tall. How can they hang so many masts if they are not tall? Where's the sail? Therefore, the mast of a Western-style sailboat is also easy to break. To prevent this flaw, they use reinforced cables to stabilize the mast, but this makes it impossible for the sail to rotate around the mast.

Therefore, Eastern sails and Western sails are completely two concepts!

Chen Jigong still cannot complete the task assigned to him by Chen Ming. He couldn't even build the most common Western-style sailboat, so he could only ask people to contact the shipwrights and shipwrights of the Macao Red-haired Ghost, but he had no idea when he could bring him back to Zhoushan.

On the other hand, Chen Jigong can now build oriental-style sea-going ships and sailing ships, and the quality is very good.

"Second Master, Zhu Zhiwei is back."

When Chai Daji was awakened at night, Chen Jigong slept peacefully that night, and was not woken up by his subordinates until dawn. Because Zhu Zhiwei came to see him.

Zhu Zhiwei, a native of Yunxiao, Fujian, has been traveling by sea since he was a teenager, going back and forth between shipyards. He is a major contributor to Chen Jigong's establishment and successful operation of his own fleet. Zhu Zhiwei had two sons. The eldest son Zhu Xi was just twenty years old this year, and the second son Zhu Wo was only seventeen years old. The two brothers are not very old, but they have followed their father in shipbuilding or transportation since they were young. They are well-informed and have experienced hardships. Now Zhu Xun has become the bowman of the fleet, and Zhu Wo is following Chen Jigong. Be a long-term follower.

Although Chen Jigong has not really revealed the secret to the Zhu family and his son, his fleet did a lot of business in Fujian in the second half of the year, but it was Zhu Zhiwei who took the initiative. Although this only involves the issue of interests!

The Fujian Tiandihui rebels had a lot of money. After the main force of the Fuhan Army withdrew from Jiangnan, their lives became difficult. The goods transported by the fleet from Songjiang could only earn one copper if they were transported to Shandong, Tianjin or Guangdong. If you go to Fujian, you can earn two or three copper coins. Of course, the risk will be much higher.

This matter is said to be motivated by interests, but it also shows that the Zhu family and his son are not law-abiding people. When it came time to clarify the relationship, they had no choice but to give in.

"Second Master, the price of grain in Shandong has risen again. The price of miscellaneous grains is one, two, three, four and one stone." This is the latest news from Wusongkou.

Zhu Zhiwei's face was full of joy when he walked in, because he knew that his young boss had really good vision. The grains stored this summer and autumn include not only fine grains, but also sweet potatoes, potatoes and other miscellaneous grains, as well as soybeans. , black beans, sorghum and other whole grains. The main force of the Fuhan Army withdrew from Jiangnan after the beginning of spring, which made many people think that Jiangnan would be stable now. Grain prices plummeted in response. Zhang Jigong was ridiculed by some people when he was storing grain, but now it seems that his boss is very discerning. . If we sell them all to Shandong now, we will definitely make a fortune.

"Is the situation in Shandong still stable?"

"I heard that many large households in states and counties have started group training to protect the environment and the people. Small troubles often occur. Every time the people eat, someone will always take risks, and big troubles will disappear."

"Then it's good luck. I also have some connections in Shandong. If you bring the grain ship to Jiaozhou, the grain won't be sold yet. We'll wait until the people I send have negotiated with them, and then it depends on the situation." Chen Jigong said lightly After deciding this matter with Zhu Zhiwei, let Zhu Zhiwei go down to make preparations. He turned back to the chair and took out a map of Shandong from the drawer under the desk. He tapped his fingers on Shouzhang and Guyang, which were the base areas of the Qingshui Sect.

And now, His Highness Duke Lu is going to stir up the Qingshui Sect!

From Shouzhang and Guyang to Jiaozhou, the straight-line distance is 700 miles. Can the Shandong dark camp do it without leaving any loopholes, and then transport this batch of grain to Tai'an Prefecture safely? Chen Jigong was very worried about this. He compared the distance to Tai'an again. Wang Lun attacked Jiaozhou from Shouzhang and Guyang, which was very far away, and attacked Tai'an, which was very close, only 200 miles away, and there were official roads all the way. Of course, there is also a Feicheng stuck on this official road. It is located in the western extension of the Taishan Mountains, and the mountains and hills in the territory are rolling and crisscrossing. If the Qingshui Sect takes the opportunity to rise up and attack Tai'an, it must seize Feicheng in the middle. If there is a slight delay, it will be a big deal. Can they complete all this and seize this batch of grain?

Chen Jigong was very worried about this. He didn't understand the operation of the dark camp in Shandong, but this was a decision made by Chen Ming. That batch of grain and the things hidden in the grain must be transported.

While many people were staring at Hunan, no one would have thought that the Fu Han Army was brewing a big explosion in Shandong. If the Qingshui Sect could do everything they wanted, they would enter the western border of Tai'an and cross into the Taiyi Mountain area.

The north of the Taiyi Mountain area is Jinan!

The Qingshui Sect is a powerful chess piece if used well.

This matter is even connected to the grand strategy of the Fu Han Army's navy to move eastward in the spring - it can be said to be the vanguard of Chen Ming's strategy of "cutting off the north and the south"!

Wang Lun has caused chaos in Shandong. Can the Qing army's troops in Shandong still move south in large numbers? If they continue to move south in large numbers, the gap left behind will be large.