On the tenth day of November, Li Zhi was teaching his son Li Huan to ride horses in the wilderness east of Tianjin.
Fifty miles east of Tianjin Acropolis is a large area of wasteland. Most of this land is saline-alkali land, which is not suitable for agricultural cultivation and is covered with weeds. However, there are many small herbivorous animals such as hares on the wasteland. Li Xing often comes here to hunt with others.
.
Li Huan is now six years old and will inherit Li Zhi's career in the future. Li Zhi hopes that he will be an excellent commander. Li Zhi found a docile pony for Li Huan to practice riding skills.
Li Huan heard that there was a horse riding, and he was very happy in the carriage on the way here. He bragged about what he would do if he got on the horse.
But when it came time to mount the horse in the wilderness, Li Huan was timid and did not dare to go up. Li Zhi persuaded him to get on the horse. Li Huan was a little stiff at first, but after riding for a while, he became bolder and rode on the horse's back.
He laughed happily and rode around Li Zhi happily.
Li Zhi was looking at his son there when he saw a dozen riders approaching in the distance. Looking closer, Li Zhi found out that it was his fleet commander Lu Hu. Lu Hu's fleet would run once a month
Taiwan, shipped a large amount of supplies needed by Hsinchu. Li Zhi could only see him for a few days when he returned to Dagu Port, Tianjin.
Lu Hu came to Li Zhi, bowed and saluted, and said, "My lord, Lu Hu has something important to report."
Li Zhi asked one of his guards to check on Li Huan and said to Lu Hu, "You tell me."
Lu Hu cupped his hands and said, "My lord, there is something unusual happening in the Zheng family in Fujian."
"oh?"
"On these two trips to Taiwan, I found many small boats disguised as fishing boats on the coast of Hsinchu, monitoring our comings and goings. As soon as those small boats saw our fleet, they followed us and spied a few hundred steps away. There were also boats
Following our fleet, it seems to be recording our entry and exit dates."
"There are also some sneaky outsiders on the pier in Dagu these days. They speak with Fujian accents and look around."
"On Taiwan Island near Hsinchu, there are also many secret sentries of the Zheng family. Zheng Hui said that his people saw Han people coming and going in the local Shengfan camp, and they obviously went to Heshengfan to buy information."
After listening to Lu Hu's words, Li Zhi was silent. He remembered seeing Zheng Zhilong in the court in May. At that time, the pirate leader wanted to share Li Zhi's profits in Hsinchu, and also took the Zheng family's warship.
to threaten Li Zhi.
There are not many people who dare to threaten Li Zhi these days.
However, the Zheng family's maritime power is indeed huge, and they actually control the oceans along the southeastern coast. When ships from Fujian and Guangdong go to sea, each ship has to pay the Zheng family 2,000 taels of silver every year to pay for passage.
If it encounters the Zheng family's fleet, it will be sunk.
Li Zhi's ship did not pass through Fujian, so he did not pay for the passage of the Zheng family. But now that Hsinchu's business is getting bigger and bigger, Zheng Zhilong is jealous. The land in Hsinchu is fertile, and Li Zhi cultivated more than 10,000 hectares of land there, earning a year's land rent income
After deducting various expenses, there are still two to three million taels of silver, and this number is still increasing. Zheng Zhilong is salivating.
Judging from what Lu Hu reported, the Zheng family is keeping an eye on Hsinchu. It is estimated that Zheng Zhilong will take action against Hsinchu in less than a year and a half.
Nowadays, land rent in Hsinchu has become Li Zhi's largest income, which cannot be lost.
Li Zhi pondered for a moment and then said to Lu Hu: "Call Gao Ligong and let's go to the shipbuilding site to have a look."
Li Zhi continued to teach Li Huan how to ride horses, and when Gao Ligong arrived, they went to Wangjiawan together to visit Mr. Wang's shipyard.
After three and a half years of development, Li Zhi now has forty-three large pointed ships with a displacement of more than 400 tons. These large ships are equipped with twenty 18-pound heavy guns and have considerable combat effectiveness. Moreover, Li Zhi has other ships in Dengzhou and Tianjin.
Two shipbuilding sites are building new ships, and new ships are launched every year.
These ships are more than enough to deal with ordinary pirates. However, if they face the Zheng family, Li Zhi still lacks confidence.
On the way to the shipyard, Gao Ligong said: "My lord, the number of pirates in the Zheng family is very large. There are tens of thousands of them. These pirates are foraging for food in the waves and have very high skills in operating ships. Although they have also built a
There are more than a hundred large ships equipped with cannons, but most of them are small two-masted boats."
"I won't talk about Zheng Zhilong's big ships. Some ships have eight or nine heavy guns, and some ships are equipped with four or five small guns. The overall firepower is not as good as our fleet. But Zheng Zhilong's greatest strength is his large number.
boat."
"When Zheng Zhilong was still a maritime guerrilla, there were more than a hundred of these small boats. Now the entire Fujian navy is at Zheng Zhilong's disposal. It is said that Zheng Zhilong can dispatch five or six hundred of these small boats."
"Zheng Zhilong was born as a pirate and did not have the skills to build a large number of cannons. There were no cannons on these small boats. During naval battles, these small boats were used as fireships. The sailors on the boats did not fire cannons or engage in hand-to-hand combat, so they drove the small boats to the enemy ships.
, and then set fire to his own ship and the enemy's ship together."
"The fire ship was filled with hay, gunpowder and other flammable materials, and the bow was equipped with sharp hooks. When it arrived on the battlefield, the sailors of the fire ship quickly rowed the fire ship towards the enemy ship and plunged the hook into the enemy ship.
The hull of the ship was then set on fire to burn the enemy's large ship."
"At Liaoluo Bay, the large Dutch ships were burned and sunk one by one by Zheng Zhilong's fireships. No matter how big the ship was, it could not withstand dozens of such fireships surrounding it and burning it."
"When a large ship was burned down, Zheng Zhilong gave the pirates on the ship a reward of several hundred taels of silver and never defaulted on it. Therefore, the pirates on the ship were very enthusiastic and fearless of death."
"This tactic is very vicious. Once surrounded by fire ships, no ship can escape no matter how big it is."
Li Zhi listened to Gao Ligong's words, nodded slightly, and said nothing the whole time.
The crowd rode to Wangjiawan with the official guard of honor.
Over the years, Li Zhi continued to place shipbuilding orders for Wangjiawan, and Wangjiawan became really wealthy. Although Mr. Wang said verbally that he did not make much money from shipbuilding, the actual profits were obviously very considerable. Li Zhi saw the construction of ships near Wangjiawan.
Many elegant courtyards were built, and all the original mud houses of the shipbuilder were demolished. The shipbuilder's family members wore very decent clothes when they came out of the courtyard.
Li Zhi smiled and asked someone to find Mr. Wang.
"Boss Wang, when will the ship you are building now be ready?"
Boss Wang knelt on the ground and kowtowed, then stood up respectfully, cupped his hands and replied: "My lord, according to General Lu's order, we are building a larger pointed ship this time, with a total of five thousand materials."
, there are twenty-four gun emplacements.”
Li Zhi nodded and asked: "What if I want to equip the outside of the ship with iron armor?"
Boss Wang was stunned for a long time before he said: "My lord, how can this wooden boat be equipped with iron armor?"
