"Sir, the area ahead is under the jurisdiction of Datang Town. However, in recent years, Japanese people have repeatedly invaded, and most of the residents in Datang Town are moved in. Now, Datang Town is empty, and there are no few people!"

Zhang Xiaosan is born in Hangzhou Prefecture. Now he is an ordinary yamen runner in Bei'an County. Hangzhou Prefecture lives in the eastern part of Yangzhou. Because of the isolation of Suzhou Prefecture, the plague here has not yet spread. However, even so, many people died. Zhang Xiaosan's immediate boss died of the plague. The strong man who was over seven feet tall was almost the same as a person when he died, and his skin was attached to his bones.

Fortunately, everything was over, and Hangzhou Prefecture had been taken over by the Great Chu army. After some rectification, the county finally stabilized. Zhang Xiaosan was lucky. Not only did he fail to get the plague, he was also appointed as the head of the class, which was a blessing in disguise.

"Stop the boat, let's go ashore!" Qi Jiguang looked at Datang Town on the distant shore and said to his subordinates.

Qi Jiguang and his personal guards entered Datang Town under the leadership of the guide Zhang Xiaosan. As Zhang Xiaosan said, Datang Town was already broken and the traces of being burned by fire are still vivid in my mind. Although the blood stains on the street were washed away by rain many times, there were still some residues.

"Where is it?" This dilapidated town did not arouse Qi Jiguang's interest. He glanced around and finally landed on a low hill not far outside the town. On the top of the low hill, there seemed to be a tower.

"That was a beacon tower, built more than a hundred years ago. It is said that at that time, Japanese pirates were often rife here. After Emperor Shenwu seized the country, beacons were set up all over the coast. If Japanese pirates came, they would ignite beacons to warn them. However, later, the Imperial Navy launched an expedition to the Japanese islands and conquered the Japanese again. The Japanese pirates were killed. The beacon tower became a lighthouse! Give the ships on the sea and the bay to sail!"

Qi Jiguang said, "Go up and take a look!"

This beacon tower is still a small defense fortress. The main building is the beacon tower, and there are barracks and fort walls around it. However, now only a bare tower is left. Although this tower has stood for a hundred years, it is still as firm as usual. The thick bluestone has not been knocked down by the storm. The moss, ivy and other plants are covered with the vicissitudes of time.

Although the tower has been abandoned, it has been used as a lighthouse since then, and the interior is quite neat and clean. The tower guards probably left here when the Japanese pirates came.

The interior space of this beacon tower is quite large. The ground floor is a livestock shed, the higher floor is a warehouse, and the higher floor is a living room, but it is thirty or forty square meters, which is spacious enough. From this room, there is a crossbow room with shooting ports on all sides. The iron rings on the ground seem to be used to fix crossbows, but now this floor is empty.

Going up the spiral stone steps, there is the rooftop of this tower, with a beacon pier on it, but now it has been transformed into a lighthouse that can shine on all sides. Standing on this rooftop, a breeze with the smell of the sea blows on the face.

Datang Town, more than ten miles east of the sea, less than one mile west of the sea is Hangzhou Bay. If Hangzhou Bay is compared to a hawk beak, then this is the end of the hawk beak, close to the eyes, the entrance of Hangzhou Bay is dozens of miles away.

Datang Town is located in the East Peninsula of Hangzhou Bay, like a breakwater blocking the sea, blocking the storm and rain on the east coast, making Hangzhou Bay a natural good harbor.

Before the rise of Haizhou, Hangzhou Bay was once the Yangzhou Sea Trade Center and Shipbuilding Center. Here, there was the largest shipyard in the empire, the Longjiang Shipyard, which once built a giant sea ship with thirteen masts. When the expedition to the Japanese island in the east, this giant sea ship was the main force of cross-sea combat.

But that's all the past. Haizhou's unique environment has caused Hangzhou Bay to lose its status as a sea trade center. Because Haizhou is very close to Hangzhou Bay, the rise of one place means the decline of a place. Coupled with the passing of Emperor Shenwu, the imperial powers, the huge fleet that once fought against the sea in the east quickly declined. Without the orders in the army, the shipyards in Hangzhou Bay have been closed one after another. The shipbuilding center in Yangzhou has become an old story thirty or forty years ago.

The information collected from the place quickly flashed through Qi Jiguang's mind and the situation he had witnessed with his own eyes, and he had made a decision in his heart.

Qi Jiguang appeared in Hangzhou Bay and was naturally not a good thing to travel. As Yangzhou was actually controlled by Da Chu, some problems were put on the table. Taicang was gnawed, and the mixed forces in various places were also dug up, but the threat of Japanese pirates became the top priority.

Before, Leng Zhuo could not do anything in Yangzhou and was able to control himself everywhere, so the disaster of Japanese pirates was not painful for Leng Zhuo. However, under his rule, Yangzhou was no longer aware of the Japanese pirates along the coastal coast.

Especially the Penglai Islands on the sea outside Yangzhou are still in the hands of the Japanese. The Haizhou port almost faces the Penglai Islands, so Haizhou Port is no longer a good place to form a navy, so you can only choose another place. Hangzhou Bay, less than 800 miles away from Haizhou Port, has entered the sight.

Leng Zhuo is from the modern earth and attaches great importance to maritime power. So after occupying all parts of the coastal areas of Yangzhou, he began to prepare for naval construction. For this reason, Leng Zhuo also transferred several water generals. Yu Long and Qi Hu were naturally the best choice. These two men were just carrying the Japanese back then. Now in another world, there is also a Dongyi Wu tribe, and these two men are going to do their own business.

In addition to these two people, Leng Zhuo also sent the people of the Dongfang family from Nantou to the two people. The foundation of the Dongfang family is above the navy. Although the Dongfang family lost the battle in Yunhai, this aristocratic family that has mastered the northern fleet of the empire for hundreds of years has even a foundation in naval battles of a group of water generals under Leng Zhuo.

Leng Zhuo's command was only ten water generals, and those who had experience in naval battles were Liu Rengui, Zheng Chenggong, Yu Dayou, and Qi Jiguang. However, the latter two were also fighting near the sea and did not set sail in the depths of the sea. Most of the water generals such as Zhou Yu, Gan Ning and others were in rivers and lakes, and were not considered naval.

Qi Jiguang looked at the outer sea, the vast blue color that could not be seen at first sight, and his heart was also open. After a while, Qi Jiguang withdrew his gaze from the sea, turned his head, and said to Zhang Xiaosan: "Have any Japanese pirates been ashore in recent times?"

Zhang Xiaosan shook his head and said, "It's strange that in recent years, the Japanese pirates have come a few times every year. I haven't seen Japanese pirates attacks this year. Our county magistrate has nervously prepared a lot of measures to deal with Japanese pirates, but none of them are useful! Moreover, the fishing boats that have recently gone to the beach to fish for fishing have seen no trace of Japanese pirates!"

"Oh!" Qi Jiguang frowned when he heard this. However, they didn't know much about the Japanese pirates. Although the power of the Great Chu waters was not weak, they had no power at the sea. Therefore, although Qi Jiguang felt something was wrong, he did not go into it in depth.

The most urgent task is to build the naval shelf, and the base is easy to solve. There are many vacant places in Hangzhou Bay now that can be used to build a naval village. However, if you want to build a naval army, many of them can be just a place.

Ships and people are a problem that cannot be avoided by any means. Hangzhou Bay was a shipbuilding center in the past, but that was the past after all. Thirty or forty years have passed, and the old generation of shipmakers died, and the old ones have another plague. It is not that easy to restore the scenery here in the past.

In rivers and lakes, super building ships are already the top big ships, but at sea, such super building ships are far from enough, especially those that can expedition the sea, which are several times larger than super building ships and must carry a large amount of food and water, so as to provide logistics supplies to the expeditionary army.

If you want to build a huge sea fleet, time and ship craftsman are indispensable. The other worry is that you are both human. The navy is not as wider than the rivers and naval army. The sea is wider and the climate is harsher. You are a good player on the rivers and may not be able to play around on the sea.

Moreover, when they built the navy this time, they could only use two unsatisfied naval divisions, and the rest had to be recruited by themselves, which was also an urgent problem.

"Zhang Bantuo, you are native to Beitang County. I think you should know the place very well. If you want to reopen the shipyard, how many shipbuilders can Beitang County come up with? "Qi Jiguang asked.

When Zhang Xiaosan heard this, he hesitated for a moment and then said, "Sir, if you really know how to build big ships, our county will probably attract at most two or three hundred people. If you stick to the shipbuilders, such as carpenters, lacquers, etc., you can make up a thousand or eight hundred. If you have too many, you will probably not be able to find them!"

Qi Jiguang suddenly widened his eyes and said, "That's just such a person?" Qi Jiguang has seen the county annals of the counties near Hangzhou Bay. In the jurisdiction of Beitang County, there were three first-class shipyards that could build such a seven-massed ship. There were 3,000 shipwrecks registered in a shipyard, and there were as many as tens of thousands of shipwrecks like Lifu!

In Longjiang County near Hangzhou, when Longjiang Shipyard was at its heyday, there were 10,000 ship craftsmen and more than 100,000 ship workers. Almost 80% of the county’s young and strong people made a living by building ships.

"Sir, if it were my father's generation, of course it would be more than this. But since I was born, in the past forty years, the shipyards in Hangzhou Bay have to be closed several times a month. At most, more than a dozen of them were poured in a day. A large number of shipwrecks could not eat. Some could only go to other places to find jobs, and some changed careers. My generation is better, and some are willing to inherit the shipbuilding skills of their ancestors, but like my son's generation, few people are engaged in this industry!"

"And this year's plague has also taken away many names, especially those old people. Most of these old people are ship workers and ship craftsmen of the past. Nowadays, there are not many people living. So, most of them have never built any large ships. The biggest one is to build a three-masted fishing boat. Even if it is a big life, and in recent years, Japanese pirates have been rampant, the only remaining shipyards are almost unable to survive!"

"Like my neighbor, I am a boatman. Now I rely on odd jobs to supplement my family income. Life is hard. Sometimes I have had no meals, but it has made those half-year-old children suffer!"

Qi Jiguang also sighed as he heard the old shipbuilding center, which had fallen to this place.

"Sir, please ask this, may you...!"

"Yes, I, Dachu, want to rebuild the navy, so I will build a large number of warships in the future, including those giant sea ships that have expeditioned the sea. But after hearing you, I feel unsure!"

"What can you say is true?"

"Of course it's true. I'm just here to take the lead. More people will come soon. After you go back, let's spread the news. Our Da Chu Navy not only has to build countless warships, but also has to recruit a large number of young and strong men who are good at fighting the sea!"

"That's great. Sir, if you really want to build a big sea boat that can sail far, it's best to go to the boat craftsmen's house. Although there are not many people working in a business now, they still insist on being a business. Most of them are the big boat craftsmen of the past. They have a lot of pictures of building big ships in their hands!"

"Really?" This time it was Qi Jiguang's turn to be surprised, because the shipbuilding was undoubtedly the most important thing.

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Chapter completed!