For Wang Chengen, winning the Ming Dynasty's internal and external war is of course important, but the creation of the Ming Dynasty's first steam-powered vehicle and the first steam-powered ship is also a major event that has been famous in history. In a sense, the latter has greater positive significance for the Ming Dynasty. The industrial revolution is the driving force for the long-lasting prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. As long as the industrial revolution is successful, the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty will be unstoppable, and steam power is the symbol of the industrial revolution.

For Shi Lang, he did not have the same realm as Wang Cheng'en. In his eyes, only military achievements were the first priority. However, fate was a joke. The emperor ignored his fanatical pursuit of making achievements. With the emperor's uncontrollable arrangement, Shi Lang has now become a professional fisherman. Wang Cheng'en can think that the significance of steam power is even greater than the outcome of a war. Shi Lang does not think that the significance of fishing will be comparable to a naval battle. Even a small naval battle is far better than such endless fishing.

However, when Ming Pao reported on Shi Lang's First Fishing Corps, it used all its pages.

The front page is of course a report on the good news that the Sino-Korean coalition commanded by Wu Sangui recaptured the Five Forts of Kuandian. The so-called Five Forts of Kuandian were five forts built in the first year of Wanli. Kuandian was opposite to Yizhou across the river. Crossing the Yalu River from Yizhou is Kuandian. After capturing the Five Forts, the Sino-Korean coalition forces directly pointed to the Phoenix Castle to the west. The Qing army had heavy troops at Phoenix Castle. If it broke through Phoenix City, the situation of the Qing army would take a sharp turn.

In any case, after the Chinese and Korean coalition forces captured Yizhou and destroyed the five thousand Qing troops, they wiped out the five Kuandian Fortresses in one fell swoop, and then threatened the Phoenix Castle. This can be said that the news of good news has been frequent! For many years, the Tartars have always chased the Ming army, and the Tartars have repeatedly eroded the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Since the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming army has never won a decent victory against the Tartars. Therefore, the news of the Ming army's recovery of Kuandian in the Ming Pao has indeed greatly encouraged the people of the Ming Dynasty. The public opinion among the people is quite excited. The additional effect of this news is that the stocks of the exchange have taken advantage of the momentum to rise by 10%, which makes investors including the princess happy.

In addition to the front-page good news, the Ming Pao focused on the report on this day's "Ming Pao" was the First Fishery Corps led by Shi Lang. The First Fishery Corps achieved remarkable results in just eight days of going to sea.

Shi Lang's fleet caught tens of thousands of kilograms of fish and shrimps for eight days. The most encouraging thing is that it killed five whales. The largest sperm whale weighed 19 tons. The weight of these five whales alone weighed 60 tons.

Ming Pao specially introduced the behemoth of whales, which is what whale oil can be eaten, what whale brain oil can be used to make candle soap, etc. For example, whale oil can be used to make margarine cream and cooking oil, which is the best lubricant. The article says that the bone cavity of the huge head of the sperm whale contains a large amount of colorless and transparent whale brain oil. After being pressed and crystallized, it becomes a white and odorless crystal. This thing called whale is a good industrial raw material and can make the highest-end candles, soaps, and medicines.

And cosmetics, it can also be used to refine high-quality lubricants. Speaking of which, the sperm whale is full of treasures. The sperm whale meat is delicious and tastes similar to beef. The skin of the sperm whale is very tough and can be made of leather. There is a precious gray-black secretion at the end of the large intestine of the sperm whale. This is the famous ambergris. The price of ambergris is far more than gold. It is unheard of ordinary people and has never heard of it. A few people have heard of it, but they only know that it can only be used in the palace.

Now the people finally understand that there is an extremely large strange fish called whales in the sea. It is not egg-borne, but viviparous. There is actually a whale that secretes ambergris called sperm whales. This sperm whales are a treasure-level whale. This article in Ming Pao really makes people feel knowledgeable.

In late February, Shi Lang finally put together 150 ships, and his men used his own group of subordinates as the team to recruit a new group of fishermen and gathered a group of people. By the end of February, the fleet set off from Songjiang and headed south along the way, fishing while heading for major fishing in the South China Sea.

Before leaving, Wang Chengen found Shi Lang. Wang Chengen found Shi Lang, which made Shi Lang very strange. It is well known that Director Wang only cared about craftsmen making these things. Well, when the emperor personally conquered Taiwan, he temporarily took charge of the new army in Nanjing. In short, he was a hot father-in-law. Since he was looking for it, he should not neglect it.

Shi Lang clearly remembered the meeting and when he came to the conference room of the Royal Club, he saw Wang Chengen, in addition to Wang Youqing and Liu Jiyun.

Wang Chengen said straight to the point and straightforwardly:

"General Shi Lang, the emperor asked you to establish the First Fishing Corps with the purpose of catching fish and shrimp. It is of great significance. It is a solution to the food crisis in the Ming Dynasty. I won't say much about this. What I want to recommend to you is about whaling. General Shi, you should be familiar with whales, right?"

Shi Lang is at sea all year round and is of course familiar with the huge whales, so he replied:

"When I go back to Director Wang, I have seen many whales. If it is an ordinary small boat, even if it is a wheelbarrow, you must be careful to avoid it, otherwise you will be overturned by the whales if you are not provoked by the whales on the sea, so we will not provoke them."

Wang Chengen seemed a little surprised, but continued to ask:

"Have you ever hunted whales?"

Shi Lang also knew the reasons for this, so he replied:

"Fishers say that whales are sea gods. If they are disrespectful to whales, they may suffer from a boat-turning disaster. Furthermore, the legendary sea god Yu Jing in "Shan Hai Jing" has the magical power of Kunpeng transformation. Jing is homophonic with whales, which is also a whale. According to scholars, the sea god Yu Jing is the legendary ancient fish god, transformed into a whale. In this way, who will still hunt whales? Moreover, hunting whales is not easy, and maybe even boats will capsize and perish. I heard that the Japanese are catching whales in large quantities, and the Japanese should have different customs from ours, so they are unscrupulous. I have been on the sea for so many years, but I have never hunted whales."

After hearing this, Wang Chengen seemed to suddenly realize it, and then said solemnly:

"General Shi Lang, according to the emperor's will, your main fishing target for your First Fishery Corps to go to sea is whales. This whale is full of treasures, meat can be eaten, oil can be lit, and the most important thing is to be used as lubricant. The sperm whales have a precious ambergris. The ambergris I bought at a sky-high price was the gray-black thing at the tail of the large intestine of the sperm whales. Since the Japanese hunt whales, we can of course kill whales. Let me tell you that Europeans are also hunting and killing them, but the fishermen of my Ming Dynasty treat whales as gods. Don't do such a loss-making thing."

Shi Lang thought it was right. The Japanese killed whales, at least a few thousand, and they even regarded whale meat as delicious. Although Shi Lang also studied, he was a martial artist after all and did not have so many taboos, but Shi Lang immediately thought of a question and hesitated:

"Director Wang, there is a problem with Beizhi. After we caught whales, Beizhi was worried that if the people knew that this was whale meat, they were afraid that they would not dare to stutter, what should they do?"

When Wang Chengen heard this question, he not only scratched his head a little. Fortunately, Wang Youqing was standing up and said:

"General Shi Lang, don't worry about this! Zhang Xianzhong sent someone to buy food from the emperor before. Think about it, the imperial court's grain is not enough, so how can there be any food to Zhang Xianzhong! As long as you catch whales, all the whale meat can be made into jerky. I promise that Zhang Xianzhong will definitely eat your whale meat in one bite, and the price will not be low. Moreover, as long as someone eats whale meat in the Ming Dynasty, others can't stand the temptation of delicious food, and it will gradually become popular. Besides, for those who are about to starve to death, human meat can be eaten, let alone whale meat."

Shi Lang smiled when he heard this. It is said that Zhang Xianzhong and his bandits had eaten human flesh. I would like to know that there would be no taboos when using whale meat to do business with Zhang Xianzhong.

Since Shi Lang no longer resisted whaling, Wang Chengen recommended the whaling cannon to Shi Lang. This whaling cannon was actually done a month earlier. Many of Wang Chengen's projects urgently needed whale oil and whale brain oil, but there was no suitable whaling fleet for a while.

After Wang Chengen's introduction, Shi Lang suddenly felt that killing whales had become a simple task, even easier than fishing for nets.

After Shi Lang went to sea, he caught the opportunity to use whaling cannons on the third day.

The fleet left the East China Sea, and six ships equipped with whaling cannons were scattered. Finally, one of them encountered an unlucky whales. Originally, they had always wandered freely in this sea area, and they had always been peaceful. Unexpectedly, they encountered Shi Lang's whaling ship this time.

One of the five whales entered the range of the whaling ship.

The gunners on the ship nervously turned the gun mount left and right to aim at the whale. The whale gun was installed in the cannon barrel, and the rear end of the whale gun was connected to the firing rope. It is said that as long as the whale gun was shot and stabbed the key part of the whale, the whale basically had no chance to run away.

It must be said that the gunner was lucky. The moment the whale rushed to the water surface, a cannon sounded, and the whale gun rushed out at high speed and pierced into the whale's back. After the whale was stabbed, the head of the whale delayed the fuse and exploded in the whale's body, causing the barb of the gun to explode. This not only caused the whale to lose a lot of blood, but also made the whale's shopping guide to open the whale's gun to break free from the whale's gun.

Immediately, a piece of blood surged from the sea. Although the injured whale struggled violently in the sea, it could not break free from the barb whale gun. The delayed explosion after the whale gun pierced into the whale's body was fatal, causing the whale to be seriously injured. The whale ship followed the injured whale around the sea. The rope connecting the whale gun always maintained a certain tension, consuming every thread of the opponent's strength just like catching a big fish. As the blood continued to flow, the whale's physical strength gradually disappeared until it was exhausted, and then finally died on the sea.

The people on the boat couldn't believe that they could easily kill a whale

After this successful whaling, Shi Lang's interest in whaling increased greatly. Obviously, it is obvious that it is at least ten tons of whales to catch a whaling. It is not known whether it will be successful in seven or eight days if it is fishing for fish and shrimp of the same weight. The most important thing is that whale oil can be sold at a good price, but the Ministry of Industry has opened up to buy this whale oil. If sperm whales can be caught, it would be even more amazing.

As for whale meat, no matter what, Zhang Xianzhong would not refuse to pay for it. You should know that Zhang Xianzhong spent food but not money. Shi Lang had made a decision and was planning to meet Zhang Xianzhong directly and promote the whale meat he caught.

However, after arriving in Taiwan, Shi Lang heard that Zhang Xianzhong had actually gone to Luzon. Unfortunately, when Zhang Xianzhong was about to board Luzon, he was attacked by Japanese iron ships and iron birds, and was said to be seriously injured.
Chapter completed!