Chapter 1                                                              

In a trance, a year has passed. Now it has been thirty-seven years of Jiajing.

Zhou Mengchen did nothing else during this year. The only major thing he did was to move the Governor's Office from Suzhou to Shanghai County. He also put a lot of effort into the infrastructure construction of Shanghai. First, he cleared the Wusong River. The waterway from Suzhou to Shanghai was extremely unobstructed. Suzhou was the entire Jiangnan. No, it was the center of the waterway from Jiangnan to northern Zhejiang. The waterway from Suzhou to Shanghai was extremely unobstructed, which means that the richest places in the Ming Dynasty, the four prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, and the areas north of Hangzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang, could all trade through Shanghai.

And they are all waterways. The waterway consumes the least amount, even if there is a little more mileage, it doesn’t matter.

In this way, Shanghai is established as the largest port.

It was precisely this status that Zhou Mengchen made up his mind to move the Governor's Office from Suzhou to Shanghai.

From the perspective of urban positioning, Suzhou is a production center and a consumption center. Its core position is unshakable. However, Shanghai represents the rise of the marine economy. Today, Shanghai is still affiliated with Suzhou's economic system, but how many years will it take for such a home and guest to be transferred?

Zhou Mengchen didn't know.

But he really hoped that this would happen.

Because when such a thing happens, it means that either China has enough economic share overseas, so that its foreign economy is at least equal to the domestic economy of the Ming Dynasty, or even surpassing it. Or there are enemies coming from the sea. The economic system within the Ming Dynasty has to rely on the external economy.

The latter is the process of the rise of Shanghai, and the rise of Shanghai is the process of further intensification of Western invasion.

Of course, what Zhou Mengchen expected was naturally not the former. What he expected was that the Ming Dynasty had enough overseas territory, and the local materials were continuously supporting these overseas territories and exporting them to other countries. The Ming Dynasty could become a world factory in the 16th world.

Zhou Mengchen also put a lot of effort into this.

First of all, the Jiangnan Shipyard. The Jiangnan Shipyard can be said to be the largest workshop in Shanghai, employed tens of thousands of workers and a series of woodworking tools. Recently, I am taking on the next bold idea. It is nothing else. It is to change the Donghai Navy. The Donghai Navy has more than 200 ships, all of which are old ships and captured ships.

Moreover, in Zhou Mengchen's opinion, it is not in line with the future naval battle. Therefore, Zhou Mengchen formulated a plan for forty gunboats. The shape of these forty ships was slightly improved and specially reinforced. There are rich watertight cabins and special gun positions.

A ship is five zhang wide, fifteen zhang long, and has sixty gun positions. Generally speaking, fifty guns are enough. This gun is also specially customized by Shuozhou Military Arts Supervision. The gun body is heavier, each weighs 1,200 kilograms. It has fierce firepower and is suitable for sea combat. There is even a version of rifled guns. It is just because of steel. Three or five guns can level the rifle. Moreover, because it is a front-loading gun, it is very difficult to load shells. It requires a long-handed cork hammer, lightly tapping, and loading the shells into it bit by bit. It is a waste of time. There are only two or three sample guns. But it also has the style of a shot in the Beijing City back then.

This also represents the highest level of manufacturing in the Ming Dynasty.

However, this is also very expensive. A ship with cannons is slightly more than ten thousand taels.

Moreover, such a ship has no cargo capacity at all. It is almost enough to be filled with the required ammunition, food, water and other supplies. The additional carrying capacity is pitifully small. However, this is the real warship in Zhou Mengchen's mind.

And it wasn't that if you added a few cannons to the bow of the ship, you could use it as a warship.

In addition, many other ships were added to the Donghai Navy. After all, regular naval forces are not a type of ship that can conquer the world. In short, the Donghai Navy has more than 200 ships, nearly 300. In addition to the forty largest warships, half of them are smaller than the largest Fu Ship, which can accommodate forty guns and twenty guns respectively. As for smaller ships, the Donghai Navy is not equipped. However, such small ships, the Zhejiang Army, Fujian Army, and the newly established Nanzhili Army are still a little bit.

This was also the final choice Yu Dayou thought about for a long time and made, and he gave all the responsibility for near-shore defense to the local military.

For this matter, Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, Lu Tong and others argued a lot.

Nothing else, the bigger the ship and more cannons in Yu Dayou's hand, the less he becomes, the less he becomes, the more he becomes, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is, the more he is

Because the complex environment of the islands by the sea is actually a flexible boat, not a large boat. Large boats are most likely to exert combat power on the sea. However, in the near sea, due to the changing wind direction, it is easy to turn ineffective, which is not as flexible as small boats.

When the ship loses its speed and its space for steering, that is the point where people can slaughter it.

In history, Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch war and the Battle of the Luowan Sea were so big. The so-called secret techniques of breaking Western ships, fire attack ships, etc. were all based on this far-fetched one.

At sea, although big ships beat small boats and cannons beat small cannons, the problem is not necessarily near the sea.

Offshore defense is best for large numbers of small boats.

If Yu Dayou included all these small boats in the East China Sea Navy, the funding would be too high, and secondly, management would be very troublesome.

Therefore, Yu Dayou finally decided to delegate these forces to coastal provinces.

Of course, an important reason why the coastal provinces are unwilling is that Yu Dayou still retains the command of these small fleets, that is, when wars occur at sea, these fleets will be commanded by the Donghai Navy. This is what annoyed the generals of each province, why should we spend our money to support your people? Some civil servants even felt that in this case, the Donghai Navy was useless at all. It is recommended that the Donghai Navy be divided and distributed to the coastal provinces, so that the coastal provinces can form their own naval divisions.

Zhou Mengchen tried his best to persuade him to settle everything.

He gave the navy in coastal provinces an important power, that is, the power to anti-smuggle.

Although the sea ban has not been fully released yet, every citizen in Jiangnan knows that opening the sea is inevitable, but it is just a matter of time. Every ship that exports from a regular port and pays taxes will issue a certificate. Anti-smuggling ships can intercept the ships of the man at sea. As long as there is no certificate, they can be pushed back. Notify the person to pay the fine. Of course, if they do not come, the ship will even have the goods confiscated, and as for the sailors on the ship, they will be exiled overseas.

Now the only overseas mentioned by the Ming Dynasty is Da Ryukyu, which is Taiwan. However, it is gradually called the East China Sea. Because the East China Sea Navy has three port stations in Zhoushan, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Chongming, Xiamen, etc., in addition to its garrisons, it also has three port stations in Penghu and Taiwan.

The Five Guards of the East China Sea were established. In the customary terms that many people agreed to be, they were all in the East China Sea.

Zhou Mengchen estimated that Taiwan Island will be called East China Island in the future.

The other business of the shipyard is to build offshore ships with only ten artillery pieces on each ship, light and even sailing together. Each province has a base of one hundred ships.

This kind of shipbuilding order for the government to make the profits is very low. What really brings a lot of profits to the shipbuilding ships is the construction of merchant ships.

Because the sound of opening the sea has spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, and everyone knows that Shanghai must be the first port to open the sea, the Ming Dynasty's demand for ships has suddenly increased rapidly. It can be said that supply is in short supply. What price a ship is the shipyard has the final say.

Zhou Mengchen managed the shipyard again. No, it should be said that Zhou Mengchen did not manage the shipyard, but managed almost all the styles of work. However, Zhou Mengchen's attention could only be in the Jiangnan area, and there would be no more places farther away.

Shipyards and cloth shops are included in taxation. They should not be said to be included in management.

However, what can be done now is only taxable. More management is impossible, but it is too manpower. With the configuration of county governments in the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to manage all factories.
Chapter completed!