Sharing her joy with Li Juaner, the two of them had a conversation, and Zhu Yicheng had to continue handling the unfinished affairs. Li Juaner reminded her a few words before getting up and leaving. After Li Juaner left, Zhu Yicheng picked up Wang Dong's military newspaper and read it again, and gradually fell into deep thought.

After Lan Yanzhen's joint fleet was destroyed, the Qing court could no longer organize maritime resistance forces in the South China Sea. If everything goes well, Fujian will be captured by the beginning of next spring.

However, after taking Fujian, the Ming army will continue to advance southward, and then the Ming army's naval forces will use the South China Sea as the main battlefield. At that time, the Qing court's naval forces can be ignored, but the Ming army's naval forces will inevitably contact Western countries in the South China Sea. Although the current Western countries' power in East Asia has not reached its peak, except for the old maritime powers Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, Britain has just extended its tentacles to the Far East. In addition to Europe now being a mess, countries are busy with their local affairs and cannot take into account the Far East for the time being, but Zhu Yicheng is very clear that once South China is captured, the Ming naval forces will inevitably face new opponents.

Judging from the current navy, this navy is powerful in the Far East and may soon be named "Navy". However, Zhu Yicheng is very clear that the Ming army's warships are still a certain distance away from the warships of Western maritime powers. First, from the sails of the warships, whether the Ming army is a lucky ship, a sand ship or a wide ship, these warships use hard sails. Hard sails are the characteristics of Chinese sailing ships. Its advantages are very obvious. First, it is easy to operate, and the lifting sails take less time and only a few operators can drive. Second, the draft is shallow, because the structure of the keel and the hull makes the draft of the hard sailboat not deep, and can directly sail from the sea into the shallow inland river.

However, compared with soft sailing ships, that is, Western sailing ships, the disadvantages of hard sailing ships are also very obvious. The first is that they have slow speed, the second is that they have small load, and the third is that they are not suitable for long-distance voyages due to draft.

Therefore, most Chinese ships built large ships when they were voyages to offset some disadvantages from the scale of the ship. This is also one of the main reasons why Zheng He treasure ship was so huge back then. For example, for example, the largest warship of the Navy Army was Wang Dong's flagship. His flagship was more than 60 meters long, which was basically the same as the 70-meter length of the British Maritime Sovereignty in more than 50 years. However, Wang Dong's flagship was equipped with 80 cannons, but the Maritime Sovereignty was equipped with 104 cannons, which was more than one-third of the Wang Dong's flagship.

This is the comparison of warships more than 50 years ago. With the curtain of the Age of Discovery, Western countries have developed rapidly in the development of warships. Today, Europe has subdivided warships into first-class battleships to sixth-class warships. Among them, the cannon equipment of first-class battleships is more than 100 to 122, and the artillery deck is divided into three layers, and the most powerful even has four layers of decks. As for the second-class battleships to third-class battleships, they also have more than 90 to 80 cannon equipment. From this point of view, the most powerful warship of the Ming army navy is at best the firepower configuration of the third-class battleship. If the ship speed and flexibility are added, the gap can be imagined.

Therefore, it is urgent to build a new navy. Zhu Yicheng does not know how long the war in Europe will last. I think it will not take too long. If the Ming army's maritime power directly attacks the new Western warships, would it still rely on the old fire ships to attack? Although this tactic still has some effect from the momentum, with the development of technology, this tactic will eventually be eliminated. More importantly, the future of the Ming Dynasty is not only in the mainland, but also in the ocean. If the ocean is ignored, it will be eliminated by the world. Zhu Yicheng does not want to wait a hundred years later to experience another humiliation reenactment like the Opium War on this country.

In fact, Ningbo has been trial-making of Western warships, but the progress is not great. Building a warship is not that easy. It not only requires skilled craftsmen, but also professional designers. Nowadays, the construction of several Dafu ships of the Navy has consumed a lot of energy from the Ministry of Works, and the construction and research of Western warships have not made any breakthrough progress. After all, the Chinese have used hard sailing ships for thousands of years, so it is normal for the incompatibility of the structure and understanding of soft sailing ships. Zhu Yicheng planned to create some professional talents from the West to accelerate the development of Western warships.

After taking the matter down in notes, Zhu Yicheng was about to arrange someone to do the matter as soon as possible. Then, he picked up a report submitted by the Jinyiwei and looked at it carefully in the candlelight.

After Yuan Qi suffered a great loss in Jiujiang, almost all of his territory was occupied by the Qing army. Zhu Yicheng's old friend, Zhou Zhongliang, the governor of Jiangxi, is now Jiangxi, and the Qing army is constantly encircling and suppressing Yuan Qi's remnants. Now, there are nearly 10,000 people in the Yuan army in Jiangxia who are barely resisting, and the other broken troops are no longer in a state of chaos.

Zhou Zhongliang's betrayal led to Yuan Qi's defeat in Jiujiang, which surprised Zhu Yicheng, and was also regretful to Yuan Qi. He did not expect that Zhou Zhongliang would have an affair with the Qing army behind his back and stab Yuan Qi hard, causing the good situation to be destroyed in one day.

After the incident in Jiujiang, Zhu Jiancai, who was in the north, suddenly felt danger. Perhaps it was Zhou Zhongliang and others who turned against each other, which led to Yuan Qi's defeat to Zhu Jiancai, Zhu Jiancai not only killed the Qing army envoys who came to contact, but even cleaned up all the internal internal rebels. It is said that Zhu Jiancai killed a lot this time, and nearly a thousand people in the rebel army who suspected of colluding with the Qing army, including more than a hundred officers at all levels, including several old brothers who had been following him.

For Zhu Jiancai, he would rather kill him wrongly than let him go. Once he rebelled, he would be the next Yuan Qi. He raised his butcher knife and Zhu Jiancai was the head of the killing, and his subordinates were frightened. But no one knew whether the people he killed had colluded with the Qing army, or how many of them died unjustly. But no matter what, Zhu Jiancai's move did have any effect.

After the cleaning, the combat effectiveness of Zhu Jiancai's army not only did not decline, but increased. Moreover, considering that the lips and teeth were cold, Zhu Jiancai commanded the Qing army to attack the joint headquarters and achieved several victories in a row, which made the Qing army able to transfer troops from Jiangxi to the north to deal with Zhu Jiancai's offensive. This is also the main reason why Yuan Qi's army in Jiangxia can barely support it...

"Call Zhang Ran!" After reading this report, Zhu Yicheng frowned and thought about it for a while, and asked the little yellow sect to find Zhang Ran. Although it was late at night, Zhang Ran had a special identity. He was one of the few people who could enter and exit the palace gate at night. After waiting for half an hour, Zhang Ran hurried there.

"Is Yuan Qi dead or alive now?" When he saw Zhang Ran, Zhu Yicheng didn't say much and asked directly.

Zhang Ran didn't expect that Zhu Yicheng would come to him in the middle of the night, so he immediately replied: "Go back to the emperor, Yuan Qi doesn't know yet. I have sent someone to inquire about the news quickly. I think there will be a definite result in not long after coming."

"It won't take long? How long will it take? Two days? Three days or January?" Zhu Yicheng asked on the head.

Zhang Ran was speechless, and a dense bead of sweat suddenly oozed out of his forehead. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed, "I... I am incompetent... I have let down the emperor's trust... I..."

"Okay!" Zhu Yicheng shouted impatiently, looked at Zhang Ran lying on the ground, picked up the report of the Jinyiwei and threw it over: "What I want is the exact news, not the possibility, maybe! Jinyiwei is my eyes and ears, collecting intelligence for me and monitoring the world, rather than just knowing that as the emperor's personal army, being arrogant and arrogant outside, or like those civil officials who can only talk in the court! I ask you, who is the remnants of Yuan Qi's army now in Jiangxia? Where did Yuan Qi go after the defeat in Jiujiang? Where are the leaders of Yuan's army now?"

"This..." Zhang Ran was immediately ashamed. Zhu Yicheng's problems hit the nail on the head and pointed out the key points directly. Indeed, in this report, there are only rough and no details about the current specific situation of Yuan Qi's army, especially the whereabouts of several important figures of Yuan Qi and Yuan Qi's army. This is obviously the negligence of the work of the Jinyiwei, and Zhang Ran, as the commander, has to bear the main responsibility.

"I will give you five days to find out Yuan Qi's current situation immediately and the situation of his subordinates and generals. I will use these things to fool me next time, and you know what the result will be."

Zhu Yicheng said coldly, Zhang Ran, who was lying on the ground, kowtowed repeatedly, and didn't even dare to breathe. After Zhu Yicheng waved his sleeves and asked him to retreat, Zhang Ran raised his bleeding head, picked up the report and stepped back out of the hall gate.

"They are all uneasy guys." After Zhang Ran left, Zhu Yicheng cursed inwardly. It was indeed the report of the Jinyiwei who came here so late today that it was indeed the Jinyiwei who was angry. As an intelligence agency in the Ming Dynasty, he had very strict requirements for the Jinyiwei and had high hopes. However, it is not so easy for a mature and effective intelligence agency to achieve its effect, rather than simply having some people and hanging a sign.

If this is the case, can you find someone to hang a military commander or the CIA sign to achieve the effect? ​​Of course, the answer is no. Although Zhang Ran is a man with some ability and a dedicated person, not to mention loyalty, but his shortcomings are also obvious. In addition, he did not have the experience of being an independent person before, and after being promoted to commander Zhang Ran did not completely satisfy Zhu Yicheng in his work efficiency.

In addition, the Jinyiwei has been a little inflated recently. When Li Juaner talked to him just now, she mentioned indirectly. Li Juaner used to directly grasp the information for Zhu Yicheng, but now she is the queen and has long stopped managing these things, but no matter how she says some news, she can still know.

Li Juaner reminded Zhu Yicheng in this way, and Zhu Yicheng was certainly clear about this, so using this excuse to scold Zhang Ran was also a shocking sound, so that he could remember his duties, rectify the Jinyiwei, and do his best to do his job well for him.
Chapter completed!