After coming out of the Royal Courtyard, Wang Shanxi seemed a little high-spirited, because when he met the Holy Emperor, the Holy Emperor himself said that his achievements were outstanding. At the same time, he also asked for his opinion and asked himself if he was willing to continue exploring new routes.
Open up territory and expand territory for the Tang Dynasty.
Inwardly speaking, Wang Shanxi is actually no longer willing to go out to sea to explore. It is too dangerous. After going to sea, whether he can come back or not depends purely on luck.
When he was exploring Australia before, he encountered several dangers and almost got sucked into the windless zone in the center of the ocean.
For sailboats in this era, nothing is more terrifying than encountering a silent sea with no wind, no ocean currents. However, there are many such sea areas in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
However, even though he knew it was dangerous, and even though he was a little reluctant in his heart, when the Holy Emperor asked himself if he was willing to explore a new route for the empire, he still said yes without hesitation!
Of course, this also includes his willingness to become a baron, receive a full five thousand taels of silver bonus, and be promoted to an army colonel!
As the man who took the initiative and found Australia, his contribution is undoubtedly huge. When he met the emperor, the Holy Emperor granted him the title of baronet on the spot and personally promoted his military rank, two levels in a row, from Army Major to Army Colonel.
Well, although it sounds a bit unreliable for an army colonel to lead a team to explore routes, the Military Intelligence Department is only affiliated with the Privy Council and adopts the rank of the Army, but in fact the Military Intelligence Department has nothing to do with the Army.
The Military Intelligence Department operates independently and is an intelligence structure used to spy on military intelligence and sabotage enemy countries. They spy on the Army's intelligence and the Navy's intelligence as well.
Because the army colonel of Wang Shanxi is completely different from the army colonels of other institutions in the Privy Council.
After the interview, Wang Shanxi received the formal edict of knighthood and conferring documents, as well as a cashier's check from the Royal Bank, which amounted to five thousand taels of silver.
Therefore, when he walked out of the Hanlin Academy office building in the Royal Villa, his identity had become an imperial baron and an army colonel.
On the way back to the inn, Wang Shanxi felt a little light and unsteady when walking. Did he get a baron for himself after going out to sea?
Before going to sea, he had never thought that such a good thing would happen. He just regarded it as an important task assigned by his superiors!
However, this is the fact, he really got himself a baron!
This is a noble title. Nowadays, many people in the empire are eagerly looking forward to obtaining a title. However, except for the senior generals of the military, especially the chief officers who lead troops in combat, which are easier to obtain, most others have nothing.
hopefully.
Even so, there are currently only more than 400 people with titles in the entire empire. Although there are rumors that after Liaodong is pacified, His Majesty will grant many meritorious officials. At that time, he will also grant a number of nobles.
Those with noble titles will also be promoted to noble titles, and even several dukes will appear.
However, Liaodong has not been pacified yet, so the expected heroes of the Great Confederation have not yet arrived.
In this context, he himself received a baronetcy. Even the lowest title was not a hereditary title, but it was a huge good thing for him.
On the way back, he even thought that he should buy a large mansion in Jinling City. He heard that most of the other nobles in the empire have their own noble residences. Those marquis, earls, etc., even have the residence of the Holy Emperor.
given.
After all, he is now a baron and a noble lord. Although the Holy Emperor did not directly grant him a mansion, he also received a reward of five thousand taels of silver. In addition, the extra money earned from a trip to the sea totaled several thousand taels of silver. In addition,
I dare not say how much he has saved from being an official over the years, but he can still get it around ten thousand taels.
Although the houses in Jinling City are not cheap, if you throw away tens of thousands of taels of silver, you can buy a mansion and buy some furniture and other items. When the time comes, you can bring your parents, wife and children from their hometown to Jinling City, and let them enjoy it.
The life of an aristocrat.
Thinking like this, he felt it necessary to write a letter to his hometown and ask his parents, wife and children to come to Jinling City from his hometown.
So after waiting for a few days, Wang Shanxi was socializing everywhere. He was awarded a baron, which attracted the attention of many people in Jinling City. Although not many people were awarded the baron specifically for his merits, well,
The existence of Australia is still a military secret and will not be announced to the outside world for the time being.
But a baron is a baron, one of the more than 400 nobles in the empire. Wang Shanxi's appearance still attracted the attention of many people. Many people were asking whether Wang Shanxi had a wife or not, he was already married.
My wife and son are almost ten years old.
Well, this is even better. I happen to have an eight-year-old daughter. How about we pick her up?
Some wealthy businessmen and gentry even talked about dowry and so on. I will keep it to your satisfaction, Wang Shanxi.
However, other officials in the imperial court were much more restrained and would only ask in a roundabout way.
The other nobles who are also nobles have to be more restrained, because most of the nobles now are military nobles, and all of them are generals.
Although Wang Shanxi also has the title of Army Colonel, everyone knows that an Army Colonel in the Military Intelligence Department can be called an Army Colonel? At most, it is just a rank title and should not be taken seriously.
In addition, the military nobles have more scruples. As they hold military power, they need to be cautious if they want to get married.
If you are looking for Wang Shanxi!
Well, you, an army general, are marrying an intelligence officer. What do you want to do? Is it because you want to build up a team and want to rebel?
Therefore, military generals tend to prefer marriages within the nobility, or with private gentry and wealthy people, and usually do not marry other officials of the court.
While Wang Shanxi was socializing with these people, he was also busy purchasing real estate. After letting the agents show them many houses, he finally chose a three-entry house not far from the Royal Courtyard. This house was actually not large in size.
He's quite big, but in the Sanjin Mansion, he's considered small.
But they don’t have many royal family members, and the location of this place is good, close to the Royal Courtyard, so all the dignitaries live on this street. Next door is the house of the Minister of Civil Affairs, and a few houses away, it is the house of the imperial court.
The residence of Marquis Chen Keqiao!
The houses on this street are all expensive. He spent a full eight thousand taels of silver to buy this house for a mistress, and then hired some servants and other housekeepers.
After his family arrives from his hometown, they will be able to move in directly. At that time, he will feel relieved to go to sea again.
However, the next time he goes to sea will not be so soon. He is planning to wait until next spring before officially setting off. He will take advantage of the last wave of monsoon to head south and arrive in Luzon first, and then start the next step south to the gold mining port in northern Australia.
The place where they found the gold mine had already been named Gold Mine Port. Simple and clear. He also heard that the Immigration and Reclamation Department was preparing for secret immigration, and was planning to immigrate hundreds of people to carry out preliminary construction.
The gold mining port will be the starting point for his next exploration route!
The next time he goes to sea, his mission is to explore Australia and find the rich places in southeastern Australia that His Majesty said. He will also explore several other islands in the waters near Australia.
Wang Shanxi has not gone to sea so soon, but others do not have so much encouragement!
After Navy Captain Su Jiade met with the Emperor, he took the Navy's internal transportation boat down the river and then arrived at Wusong Port!
Here, there was a brand new and specially modified expedition ship waiting for him. At the same time, the crew he personally selected had arrived early, waiting for him, the captain, to arrive.
Su Jiade, who was going down the river, soon arrived at Wusong Port. Then, after making the final preparations at Wusong Port, he led the crew to officially set sail on the "Moses" and headed straight for Ryukyu!
On the bridge, Su Jiade watched the sailors struggling to pull the ropes, control the sails to maintain the direction, and push the ship to sail east, and he couldn't help but nodded slightly.
At this time, a young man in casual clothes beside him said: "Colonel Su, I have long heard that you are the best captain, and most of these sailors are trained. When I see you today, you are indeed well-deserved!"
Su Jiade chuckled, and then said: "Our little ability is nothing, we have to depend on the weather. If there is no wind, it will be useless no matter how good we are at sailing. We will have to rely on Mr. Shi's steam engine."
ah!"
"But Mr. Shi, this steam engine is such a precious thing. It will be broken due to the bumpy road. Moreover, our Yueji is almost 700 tons. Can this steam engine push it?"
Facing Su Jiade's words, the young Mr. Shi also looked cautious and said: "To be honest, I don't know. This steam engine was originally just a test product made by our company based on the design from the Royal Institute of Technology.
, we originally planned to conduct a test, but the superiors said that you are in urgent need of it, so our company simply moved the test to your ship.
However, although this steam engine has been improved many times by the Royal Institute of Technology, and has been specially designed for shipboard use, our Zhaoqing Machinery Company also uses the best materials and carefully builds it with the most skilled workers.
Yes, but it’s hard to say whether it will break down on the road!”
"But you can rest assured that we have already taken these problems into consideration during the installation. We have taken many measures such as anti-shock absorption, and have also carried out strict fixings. The problem should not be major, and even if there are some problems,
, we can also repair it on the spot!”
"As for the power issue, we adopted a dual-boiler linkage method, and we also tried to use new steel materials to build core components such as boilers, which can withstand higher air pressure. In our previous test runs, the power output of this steam engine was
Reaching an unprecedented thirty-five horsepower!”