The venue slowly fell into a dispute because of Fang Congzhe's speech.

Now all the ministers attending the meeting, even those who do not understand military affairs, understand under the explanation and guidance of Ma Gui and others: the key to the current war situation is at sea! As long as the Ming Dynasty's fleet defeats the combined fleet of the three countries, the entire situation will be It's all alive.

Of course, the previous comparison of first-class battleships between the two sides was 20:50. Therefore, not to mention Zhu Youdong, even other officials did not ask the Ming Dynasty's navy to go up and fight a decisive battle. But now it is said that Spain's Manila Fleet has been lured Opened. And our Changsha Shipyard has new ships. If Li Guozhu's fleet comes back, the ratio of the battleships of the Ming and Japanese navies and the Thai navies will be 30:27 (Japan and Thailand suffered losses in the Chongming Sand Offensive and Defense Battle). In this way, the Ming Dynasty's navy had an advantage.

Therefore, a group of officials led by Wang Xiangqian, Minister of War, tended to start the decisive battle as early as possible.

In this faction, apart from Wang Xiangqian, Xu Honggang, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, danced the most fiercely.

There is no other way. Although Wang Xiangqian and Xu Honggang often quarrel at state affairs meetings, their positions are consistent on this matter.

For the Minister of the Ministry of War, if the enemy comes to his home to fire artillery and rob people, if he doesn't fight back, how will he be able to face people in the future? And what about the Ministry of Household Affairs? Maritime trade is cut off, and the income of the Ministry of Household Affairs is greatly reduced! And as time goes by, the income of the Ministry of Household Affairs will be greatly reduced! A single incident of trade severance will affect the people's livelihood in the southeastern provinces and even the central and northwest provinces!

There is the quick-war faction, and of course there is the slow-moving faction. Naturally, this faction is led by the first assistant, Fang Congzhe.

Fang Ge Lao's idea is very simple: Yes, Li Guozhu's fleet diverted the Spaniards away, but after Li Guozhu came back, the Spaniards also followed? It won't be 30:45 by then, and Ming Dynasty is still at a disadvantage. Moreover, The crews of the ten new ships in Changsha Shipyard are not very familiar with ships. If there is a fight, it is hard to say how much ability they can use. I don’t know, it will be 25:45 at that time.

As the chief minister, Lao Fang has more problems to think about than the two ministers. In his opinion, the Ming Dynasty is much stronger than the two thieves of Siam and Japan. As long as we slowly accumulate strength, at most In a year or two, these two clowns have been firmly defeated. Is there any need to seek a decisive battle in such a hurry?

The two factions had their own disputes at the meeting. When they were criticizing each other's views, they did not forget to glance upward. However, His Highness Taisun seemed to be deep in thought and had no intention of expressing his position at all.

Just when a group of old men were somewhat tired, there was a knock on the door outside the conference room.

The door opened, and a messenger with three red flags on his back came in: "Your Highness, Sun Zhijun, Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, has an urgent report."

At this time, Zhu Youdong, who had his eyes closed at first and gently tapped the armrest of the seat with one hand, suddenly stood up: "Bring it over and show it to me!"

After quickly reading Sun Chengzong's report, Zhu Youdong's expression improved significantly: "Everyone, Mr. Sun came to report, well, on July 2 this year, that is, seventeen days ago, Li Guozhu's main fleet entered Yuegang. At the same time, The fleets of Yan Siqi and Yu Zigao have also met there. Mr. Sun said that on the day the letter was sent, these three commanders had led the entire fleet north to Chongming Sand, preparing to receive new ships there.

In addition, Mr. Sun also said that Li Guozhu's fleet sailed south to Luzon and successfully intercepted the Spanish treasure fleet. It sank six Spanish warships and three cargo ships, and captured seven. Our Huguang was lightly damaged and the Chongqing was lightly damaged.

And the Kunming was hit. In these seven cargo ships, there are a lot of spices, as well as silk, porcelain, tea and various antibiotics that we sold. The total value is about 1.2 million silver dollars."

As if to confirm Sun Chengzong's report, as soon as Zhu Youdong finished speaking, another messenger came in outside the venue.

This was sent by Yuan Keli, the governor of the southeast. What he said was roughly the same as that of Sun Chengzong.

Yuan Keli's messenger also attached a report from Li Guozhu. Li Guozhu said that Chen, Yan Shuai, and Yu Shuai have accepted ten new Beizhili-class ships, and the original ships have also entered the port for repairs and maintenance. After the three of us combined

, please give us another month, and then we are willing to go to sea to find the enemy fleet and invite a fight. At the same time, Li Guozhu also clearly pointed out that the sea area for the decisive battle should be between Taiwan and Ryukyu - this is the route between Japan and Thailand.

If you interrupt the midpoint, the alliance between the two countries will lose its military significance.

"Your Highness, what a good thing! Let's prepare for the decisive battle at sea!"

"Your Highness, no! Although I am old, I still read the Yanjing Daily News every day. I know very well what this treasure fleet means to Spain. Li Shuai said that the goods on these seven cargo ships are worth 1.2 million, and they are antibiotics, silk

The porcelain tea was calculated based on the market price of our Ming Dynasty. In fact, it would cost tens of millions to transport these things to Spain?! After losing such a large amount of things, the Spaniards will not come to fight us? After all, we are in

We are still at a disadvantage on the battleship!"

"Mr. Fangge! Why don't you stop fighting when you are at a disadvantage? If so, how did Taizu found the country? How did Chengzu find peace?!"

"Hmph! It was certainly difficult to start a business in the past, and defeating the strong by the weak was a last resort. Today, our Ming Dynasty is far more powerful than the three countries. Why can't we endure it for the time being and crush it with a glorious formation in the future?"

"Hahaha~~" After laughing heartily, Zhu Youdong pressed his hand down, and the entire venue became quiet again.

"Before receiving the news from Li Guozhu, I had some ideas in my heart, but I couldn't make up my mind for the time being. But now...well, Mr. Xu, how long does it take for my shipyard in Ming Dynasty to build a warship?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, a 600-ton second-level battleship with a finalized design will generally only take five to six months with 20 craftsmen and 60 ordinary craftsmen to participate in the construction. If you do not pay attention to details and rush to work, it will take three days

One month is enough. A 1,200-ton first-class warship generally takes eight to nine months. If the work is rushed, it can be shortened to five months."

"Well... How many slipways does our Changsha Shipyard have now? How many craftsmen? How many warships can be started at the same time? Where is Tianjin Wei's Binhai Shipyard?"

"Changsha Shipyard has twelve berths, including four for building two-class warships, two for building other auxiliary ships and two for repairs. Now the shipyard has 320 craftsmen, more than 780 mature craftsmen, and thousands of

Apprenticeship. Binhai Shipyard has the same number of slips as Changsha Shipyard, but only has half of the craftsmen and so on. "

After Xu Guangqi said this, he thought for a moment and added: "Your Highness, what I just said was just the construction period. In fact, the most time-consuming part of shipbuilding is wood. At present, the wood of our two major shipyards in Ming Dynasty mainly comes from

Compared with places such as western Huguang and Liaodong, the former passes through the Yangtze River and the latter is transported by sea. After these woods arrive at the shipyard, they need to be shaped and dried. If you want a warship to have a service life of ten years, then just these woods will need to be transported to the shipyard.

It will take three to six years to build battleships.

Since His Highness left Nanjing to build the Changsha Shipyard, all the warships that were rushed out ten years ago have been destroyed. It was because the wood at that time was not completely processed and was used for the construction of warships. Now Li Shuai and Yan Shuai have it.

Most of the warships were built in the past three to five years, and the quality of this batch of wood is also the best."
Chapter completed!