I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 233 The Brit who crossed the river and demolished the bridge
Chapter 232

During the war, it was not obvious, but when watching Zheng's fleet fled, the officers and men of the Ning Navy breathed a sigh of relief, especially many sailors of the Ning Navy had trembling hands and weak legs and feet.

Of course, some of the officers and men of Ning's navy were nervous, some were tired, and of course a very few were scared. After all, the fighting on the sea was too brutal.

To put it bluntly, this is actually Ning Haijun's luck, because of Zheng Zhibao's mistake, he consumed the sharpest knife under Zheng Zhilong's command, that is, Kumamoto Taro and more than [-] young warriors under his command.

If in this battle, Zheng Zhilong's fireboat is controlled by these warriors from the small days, it is hard to say whether Ning Haijun can win this battle, because the warriors from the small days are very crazy.

Because the small day country is very poor now, even if they are samurai, the small day samurai are now managing localities and taxes for daimyo at all levels, equivalent to civil servants.However, their income is very low.The samurai who served the shogunate were almost always called "banners" and "royal family".

Moreover, samurai had no wages, and their income was shi, that is, rice. Relatively speaking, the income of the banner was slightly higher, and the income of the royal family was slightly lower. Putting it all together, their average income was about [-] shi of rice.Of course, like Kato Kazuhisa Morimoto, his income must be much higher, but the income of ordinary samurai under his command is nominally equivalent to that of an official of the ninth rank of Ming Dynasty.

This is the income level of a real-brand samurai. If you count the nominal samurai holding a samurai sword, it will be even lower. After deducting taxes, you can barely eat.Therefore, the samurai in the small days had to eat balls and so-called sushi. The reason for making sushi was that they didn't have enough rice.

It can be said that the reason and background of sushi are like the authentic specialty snacks in Beijing. In the Qing Dynasty, rich families and the eight banners dignitaries did not eat water. At the gate of people and the dignitaries of the Eight Banners, when they saw people throwing into the water, they picked up the offal and ate it.

Of course, it is not easy for the samurai to live in the small country. Pickles, dried radish and natto are their daily staple food. As for the common people, their living standards are far worse than those of the samurai.Even if there are natural disasters and man-made disasters in Ming Dynasty, in fact, the living standard of the people in Ming Dynasty is far higher than that of childhood.

These days, after the samurai took refuge in Zheng Zhilong, they fought very bravely, because if they died in battle, their families could receive 100 taels of silver as a settling allowance, which Zheng Zhilong is still very generous.

Therefore, the samurai under Kumamoto Taro's command were not afraid of death at all when they were fighting. For them, death was a kind of relief.

It's just a pity that Zheng Zhibao didn't know what was going on in his head at the time, and he actually released mobs bit by bit to gain experience for Ning Haijun's navy.

For a young army, it is the best choice to fight indiscriminately and violently. In later generations, it is a big taboo to fight against the navy of the beautiful country.

Zheng Zhibao actually used such an easy-to-use sharp blade to practice with the Ning Navy Navy. As a result, the Ning Navy Navy Fleet, which has no combat experience, gained sufficient practical experience by using these more than 200 ships and more than [-] small day warriors. .

Although the samurai recruited by Zheng Cai since childhood, their cooperation and training level are far inferior to Kumamoto Taro's, so after this battle, the real fireboat did not cause much damage to Ning Haijun.

Of course, there are not so many ifs in reality.

Li Zhixiang watched Zheng's fleet retreat and did not pursue it. Once he pursued Zheng's fleet fiercely, he would miss the opportunity to treat the wounded.

Cheng Shijie told Li Zhixiang many times that the navy is a technical arm, and wounded soldiers are very precious. The wounded soldiers who survived the battlefield will become elite soldiers when they return to the army after recovering from their injuries.The Ning Navy has no shortage of warships. With the speed of warship production at the Ning Navy, they can produce a huge fleet within a year.

The navy soldiers are the real priceless treasure.

What's more, the current Zheng's fleet has had its backbone broken, and it doesn't make much sense to continue to beat the dogs in the water, but those sailors were trained by him so hard, it would be too sad if they died because of this.

All levels of the Ning Navy dispatched lifeboats with the ship to search and rescue the survivors on the sea. The sea area stained red by blood and fire was immediately bustling.

At the time of the decisive battle between the Subic Haining Navy and Zheng's fleet, the Dutch East India Company sent a third-tier warship and two fourth-tier warships on the Tulip, the flagship of this small fleet. Fleet Commander Colonel Bernard L. De Vos handed the telescope to Lieutenant Colonel Peter van der Waals, the chief of staff next to him, and said, "What do you think?"

"Their warships... are really fast! And their naval guns are far larger in caliber than ours, with a longer range and greater power, but they are full of weirdness!"

Bernard sighed and said, "The vampires on the board, their wishes have come to nothing!"

In fact, the Dutch East India Company paid special attention to this matter when it changed hands from Manila in Luzon. Since most of the more than 150 armed merchant ships and warships above [-] tons in the Dutch East India were scattered all over the world, they actually Not many warships can be drawn, but twenty or thirty ships are still possible.

At the Eastern Headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, Senior Commercial Commissioner Koopmans proposed to take advantage of the fire. If Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun are in a decisive battle, both sides will lose, they can save 12 francs in protection fees, and at the same time You can also take advantage of Spain's inability to take care of Luzon, and take a share of Luzon Island.

It's just a pity that the Subic naval battle started very hastily and ended even more quickly. It came to an end in just two or three days and ended with Zheng's disastrous defeat.

"Their ship is about two knots faster than our warship without full sail. How did they do it?"

Lieutenant Colonel Valls said in disbelief: "How did they do it?"

"Never mind how they did it, we are businessmen, and profit is the standard that businessmen use to measure everything! The current situation is very obvious. The profit from fighting the Ning Navy is far less than paying them protection fees!"

Bernard smiled wryly: "Unless the board of directors is willing to fight to lose at least a hundred warships, or five thousand sailors, or millions of gold carters."

Regarding the Dutch watching the battle, Li Zhixiang had the same reaction as Cheng Shijie. He had already sent someone to warn the Dutch: "You can watch, but don't interfere, otherwise Ning Haijun will never die!"

Obviously, these Dutchmen did not have the courage to fight Ning Haijun forever.

……

Although Zheng Zhilong retreated, he was not left with nothing, because when they were confronting the main warships of the Ning Navy, their squadron, that is, the troops led by Zheng Zhibao, finally did something serious.

Zheng's fleet successfully captured Subic Port.At this time, Subic Port was actually just a small port of the Spaniards, but it had four forts. This time, Zheng Zhibao was very powerful. He successfully learned the lessons from the naval battle at Wusongkou, and attacked from both sea and land at the same time.

First, about 100 small centipede ships with extremely shallow draft landed from the left and right wings of Subic Port with the army troops. After the attention of the Spaniards, the sea and land attack.

After more than half a day of fierce fighting, Zheng Zhibao captured Subic Port and Subic Castle after paying more than a thousand casualties, killed 63 Spanish soldiers guarding Subic City, and captured 93 of them , Annihilated about [-] Spanish colonial troops.

When he came to Subic Port, Zheng Zhibao held a grand welcome ceremony.

However, Zheng Zhilong was not interested in this, his ears were buzzing, his chest rose and fell sharply, and he swallowed the mouthful of reversed blood that rushed to his throat with great effort.

"Fifth brother, prepare some wine and food, and women!"

Zheng Zhilong knew that the life of the pirates at sea was very boring, and now that they had lost a battle, they needed to boost their morale. There were only two things that could boost morale, wine and women.

Zheng Zhibao looked at Zheng Zhilong with a bad look on his face. Although he didn't ask Zheng Zhilong about the results of the battle in detail, he, the number three member of the Zheng Group, could also find that Zheng's fleet had been streamlined too much.

"Yes, brother, I'll arrange it right away!"

In fact, Zheng Zhibao had already made preparations, but he was celebrating Zheng Zhilong's victory. After he occupied Subic Port, he sent troops to wipe out more than a dozen surrounding tribes, and arrested six or seven thousand women. Point, can also be used.

Now that the celebration fails, it is easy to appease the soldiers.

Zheng Zhibao paid a little attention, and found that Zheng Zhilong's main fleet only had more than 300 warships left, and most of the warships were scarred and full of bloody wounded soldiers. These wounded soldiers could not receive effective treatment. Dying continuously in the stinky cabin, it may be unknown how many people will survive in the end.

Thinking back to the grand occasion when the fleet set out with white sails like clouds and flags covering the sun, and looking at the miserable scene now, Zheng Zhibao really wanted to cry. The loss of Zheng's fleet was too heavy, and the consequences were very serious.

Located in a castle built by the Spaniards, Zheng Zhilong was in no mood to face a dozen or so trembling Spanish women. He was drinking alone, his face smelled scary.

Most of the bottle of whiskey poured into his stomach, Zheng Zhilong couldn't figure it out.

"How could this be?"

The battleships of the Ning Navy Navy are obviously only one-tenth of their main battleships, and if it is based on the total tonnage, it is also one-eighth, and those battleships are driven by a group of sailors who have been in the army for less than two years. Technically or mentally, it still seems very immature.

Although it is said that Zheng Zhibao lost many warships in the battle of Wusongkou, the main force is still there. In order to win, from his commander to every ordinary sailor, he even tried his best to eat milk. The tactics that dealt a blow to the Ning Navy's navy were the only ones he hadn't thought of, and there was nothing he hadn't tried.

With ten times the advantage of the Ning Navy's navy, coupled with the fierce sailors honed over the sea for more than ten years, and the muskets and artillery they bought at a high price from Xiyi, such a huge advantage, why can't they still fight? win?Why?
Shi Daxuan also knew that Zheng Zhilong was in a bad mood, and Zheng Zhibao didn't dare touch Zheng Zhilong's brow.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was like Huang Taiji after the Battle of Baliwan, and began to worry about the future of their Zheng Group. Although Zheng's fleet had more than 3000 warships, he also had many enemies.

Xu Xinsu, Li Kuiqi, the great pirate Zhong Bin, Liu Xiang, etc., who parted ways from the official party, have crossed the sea for more than ten years and established countless establishments. Usually these contradictions will not be exposed, but his defeat will bring all the problems to the surface water surface.

The Zheng Group is completely different from the Ninghai Group. Cheng Shijie has different control over the Ninghai Group. The Zheng Group is like a typical company. Zheng Zhilong is only the chairman, and the following are large and small shareholders.Shareholders, large and small, are also mountain tops. These shareholders have their own people, their own boats, and even their spheres of influence are divided to a certain extent.

But the problem is that Ning Haijun is a collective. Even Li Zhixiang, who controls the main fleet of Ning Haijun, as long as he dares to betray Cheng Shijie, the supervisor will immediately deal with him.If he dared to defect to the enemy, he might not even be able to take away a single ship, most likely his personal guards.

In fact, when he retreated this time, he found that many warships did not keep up. It may be that the ships were damaged, or they might have betrayed.

What should we do in the future?
Zheng Zhilong had a very headache.

He drank his sorrows away, so he got drunk very quickly, and Zheng Zhilong fell into a coma before he knew it.

Then Zheng Zhilong, who was sleeping, had a dream.

In the dream, the sky and the sea were already dyed bright red by blood and fire, thousands of cannons were roaring wildly, and the thick smoke and flames from the muzzles made the battleship vibrate violently, as if a volcano had erupted.

The huge hill-like battleships flying black battle flags are lined up in two rows, as if a copper wall and iron wall lie in front of them, no matter how they charge, they can't move, and every time they shoot, one or two or even several battleships must be shot into flames. , frontal shock has almost become synonymous with suicide.

A row of cannonballs hit their heads and faces, most of them fell into the air, and turned into a blazing flame with a loud noise, and the sharp rainstorm of shrapnel poured down, beating many sailors to blood spatter, and their bones and flesh were messed up. ...

"what……"

Zheng Zhilong screamed, but frightened the dozen or so Spanish beauties around him.

Seeing these dozen or so Spanish beauties discovering his gaffe, Zheng Zhilong shouted coldly, "Come here!"

"What are your orders, Lord Admiral!"

"Throw them into the sea and drown them!"

Zheng Zhilong's personal guards felt a little regretful, what a pity, Zheng Zhilong looked down on these Xiyi, they didn't mind, but the problem was, they dared not disobey Zheng Zhilong's orders.

……

Cheng Shijie, who was in Chongming, did not know the news of the Subic naval battle, but he received further news from Luzon. After Mao Youjun, a survivor, was rescued by Liang Zhiqi, Liang Zhiqi was ecstatic.

This was a good opportunity to hug his thighs. For this reason, he directly ordered the fleet to turn around and head for Danshui. After arriving at Danshui Port, Mao Youjun reported the news of Luzon to Chen Dayong.

Chen Dayong knew that the news had to be reported to Cheng Shijie immediately. In order to avoid another accident for Mao Youjun, the Fifth Squadron, which had not yet formed a battle, went directly to Chongming Island.

On June [-]th of the seventh year of Chongzhen, five days after the Ning Navy attacked Manila Port, and the fourth day of the Subic Naval Battle, Cheng Shijie received the Luzon intelligence reported by Mao Youjun.

Cheng Shijie is not a native of Ming Dynasty, and he is not afraid of Spain, the empire on which the sun never sets, because the Thirty Years War successfully brought the Spanish Empire down from the altar.

As early as the 37th year of Wanli, the year when the Spanish colonial authorities massacred Chinese for the second time in Luzon, the Spanish Empire, which had no power to fight against the Netherlands, signed a 12-year truce agreement with the Netherlands due to the fact that its national power had never recovered. The independence of the Republic was actually recognized.

But at the beginning of the first year of the apocalypse, the truce agreement between the Netherlands and the Spanish Empire ended, and the Netherlands began its War of Independence from Spain. Now a new small power called the Netherlands, known as the sea groom, is rising, and the Spanish Empire is already in a situation where everyone is pushing the wall down.

No matter how unwilling Philip IV was, he could not undo the situation where Luzon changed hands. At most, he called on the Netherlands and Portugal under Spanish management to put pressure on the Ning Navy.

But Cheng Shijie is very clear that at this time the Netherlands and Portugal are trying to get rid of Spanish rule, especially the Dutch, they have clearly realized that Daming is not a small country, and they are not a native they can bully at will. Zheng Zhilong, the admiral of the Fujian Navy, can handle them.

What's more, Ning Haijun, who is stronger than Zheng Zhilong?

In this case, the only variable is Zheng Zhilong. If Zheng Zhilong defeats the main fleet of the Ning Navy led by Li Zhixiang, and then takes advantage of the trend to attack Luzon, then Zheng Zhilong's strength will expand again.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong did not have the strength to win the entire Luzon, but he did not realize the importance of Luzon, because the Ning Navy took down Manila, and he took down Luzon in the name of fighting the Ning Navy. The struggle between the navy and the Zheng family will last longer, which is very detrimental to the development of the Ning navy.

Cheng Shijie looked at Li Fang and said, "Do you dare to go south with me and meet Zheng Zhilong?"

Li Fang was slightly taken aback: "Just rely on our Fifth Squadron?"

"Of course not!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "This commander has not been idle in Chongming Island, and I have had more than 600 warships built!"

When Li Fang heard that there were more than 600 warships, he was overjoyed and said, "Don't dare to obey orders!"

However, when Li Fang saw the more than 600 warships Cheng Shijie mentioned, he was very speechless.

How should I put it, these are just more than 600 small boats that will fall apart when the wind blows, not even a small fishing boat.

Li Fang swallowed hard: "Commander, this boat...is too small, it can barely sail on the river, but on the sea, I'm afraid it will capsize with just one wave!"

"This coach has thought of this problem a long time ago, don't worry, this coach has other plans!"

Cheng Shijie's plan is that these small boats will be connected in parallel like wooden rafts, and directly connected to each other with iron locks, just like a small train, towed by the main battleship.

When encountering Zheng's fleet, set fire to the ship.

Hearing that Cheng Shijie was going to the South China Sea to fight Zheng Zhilong, Shen Boyun was terrified.

It was not easy for the Shen family to hug Cheng Shijie's thigh, not to mention that their basic land was Chongming Island, which now became Zhu Weiti's fiefdom.

The Shen clan and their Shachuan gang had only had enough to eat with Cheng Shijie for a few days. Now that the meal ticket was going south, Shen Boyun became anxious: "Marshal, a gentleman can't stand under a dangerous wall..."

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "I'm not a gentleman. I'm a general. As the commander of Ning Haijun, I believe that the officers and men of Ning Haijun will protect their commander!"

Li Fang directly sang against Cheng Shijie: "Commander, sea battles are not the same as land battles. On land, all our Ning Navy officers and men have the confidence to protect the commander, even in the face of heavy siege, even if it is the enemy widow!"

"Ning Haijun, is it Ning Haijun?"

"Naturally, the Navy is also a member of the Ning Navy, but the Fifth Squadron is full of recruits!"

At this time, Li Fang wanted to cry. Although the Fifth Squadron he is now leading has relatively strong strength, these strengths are only on paper. The problem is that due to the rapid expansion of the Ning Navy Navy, the old base of the Dongjiang Navy Navy and the Denglai Navy has basically been exhausted.

Although these sailors and gunners are not new recruits, they have never fought in battle. They can barely control the ship. They have never fought a real naval battle. Although they are not new recruits, they are similar to recruits.Never seen blood.

Li Fang also has no confidence in the soldiers of this squadron.

"I understand your worries, well, the veterans are all recruits!"

Cheng Shijie said: "You are also a veteran of this commander. When you were in Dengzhou, Ning Haijun was all recruits. Were you afraid? You only have more than 500 people, and more than 8000 Denglai Navy were surrendered. Don't you Also brave?"

"The last general is as brave as now!"

Li Fangdao: "Commander, the last general can lead the Fifth Squadron to the south, and the commander will wait for the good news about the last general on Chongming Island!"

"Okay, this matter is not a discussion with you, but an order. You forgot the military regulations of Ning Haijun!"

"The last general dare not forget!"

"Excuting an order!"

"Yes!"

Seeing Cheng Shijie's firm attitude, Shen Boyun had no choice but to ask Zhu Weiti for help, but the problem was that Zhu Weiti didn't persuade Cheng Shijie either.

However, what Cheng Shijie didn't know was that the survivor Mao Youjun was not the only survivor of the Gaizhou and the Fuzhou, but another sailor named Gao Zongsheng.

Gao Zongsheng was caught by the patrol fleet of the Ning Navy Navy. From the Liaodong Peninsula, to the Korean Peninsula, and then to the Xiaorihai Sea, they were all within the default range of the Ning Navy Navy. However, the Ning Navy navy actually wanted to reciprocate.

Of course, those old gunboats couldn't defeat Zheng's fleet. Under the leadership of Chen Shiyou, they trained sailors and entered the Xiaorihai Sea to attack the cargo ships trading in Xiaori.

When Gao Zongsheng was rescued, the news was sent back to the General Staff of the Liaodong Ning Navy and the Liaodong Management Committee at the first time. Song Xiance saw the strategic position and value of Luzon at a glance, and he also knew that Cheng Shijie would eat it. I absolutely don't want to spit out the things in it.

He didn't think that Zheng's fleet would take Luzon, but he was worried that the Spaniards would take Luzon. He suggested that Chief of Staff Zhou Ning send more troops to Luzon, and Zhou Ning accepted this suggestion.

The Sixth Squadron, which originally planned to take half a month to go to sea for sea trials, went to sea eight days ahead of schedule, and even the paint on all the warships of the Sixth Squadron was not completely dry.

Liu Qingsong of the Ninghai Navy and more than [-] soldiers of the army also went out to sea with the sixth squadron. This will make these soldiers suffer.

The officers and men of the Ning Navy from Liaodong and Dengzhou were better off, but the officers and men of the Guan Ning Army who were born were all landlubbers. eye straight...

It's really uncomfortable!Even the ferocious veterans turned pale, but these veterans were more ruthless, even if the stomach juice rushed to their throats, they would swallow it back.

After Sun Chengzong learned that Cheng Shijie's Ning Haijun had seized a large island with a large area from the Spaniards, he asked Sun Zhiyi, his grandson, to follow Cheng Shijie.

Sun Zhichen looked at the ups and downs of the waves on the sea, and said with a little fear: "People seem too small in front of the moody sea. A storm can kill a hundred thousand troops. It’s no wonder Meng Yuan’s two attacks against Xiaotian ended in disastrous defeat!”

Chen sometimes said with a faint smile: "That's because they don't have a large warship like ours. If you ask me, I don't really understand how the Mengyuan Navy failed. I have been to the sea countless times in my childhood. Although the wind and waves Bigger, we have no problem with [-] broken ships, how did they annihilate the [-] army?"

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, on June 25th, when Cheng Shijie was about to set off from Chongming Island, Catherine told Cheng Shijie an amazing news.

"What did you say that our Ning Haijun won?"

"Yes!"

Catherine smiled and said: "Congratulations, Your Excellency, you have won a great naval battle! I think your victory can be compared with the glory of Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada!"

Cheng Shijie also knew that what Catherine knew was just hearsay, and it would take some time for detailed information to arrive.

He changed the topic and asked: "By the way, you said that Britain defeated the Spanish Armada. So, what is the British navy doing now?"

"What else? After defeating the Armada, it was disbanded."

"Disbanded?"

"That's right!"

Catherine curled her lips and said: "Six thousand to eight thousand sailors who fought bloody battles with the Spanish Armada and desperately protected Britain died of illness and starvation in extreme poverty. Now the British navy almost ceases to exist."

"The British guy's ability to cross the bridge and draw boards is really admirable!"

Although almost everyone attributed the British-West naval battle to the British, in fact, the British navy did not rise at this time. The Dutch also contributed a decisive force in this battle. The Netherlands dispatched 34 warships, accounting for It accounted for slightly more than one-third of the Anglo-Dutch coalition forces.

"Is there any way, the navy is a large military spender, it is easy to build a group of warships, and it is easy to recruit a group of sailors, but it is very difficult to maintain it for a long time. With the national strength of the United Kingdom, it is simply impossible to support such a large navy! "

"It's a good one that I can't afford..."

Cheng Shijie couldn't help but think of the England that would be extremely underserved a few hundred years later, the empire where the sun never sets. There are more than two hundred combat aircraft, one hundred of which are still old-fashioned Tornado fighter-bombers.

The navy is even worse, not to mention the aircraft carrier battle group, the total force of the entire British Empire has been reduced to only 16 people, and it is still shrinking... Inversely proportional to the shrinking force is the always high military expenditure and the ever-expanding workforce of the Department of Defense.

The total strength of the British army is 16, and the Ministry of Defense employs as many as 10. It is really incomprehensible that the army cannot be supported, but a lot of idlers can be supported.

Now the hegemony of the empire on which the sun never sets is still asleep, waiting for the spring breeze of the first industrial revolution to wake them up, so Britain is still muddling along, a monk hitting the clock for a day, a powerful British navy?

Not even a shadow can be seen.However, Cheng Shijie didn't intend to let Britain's hegemony sprout. He was very interested in leading the Ning naval fleet to Europe and making Britain and France compensate millions or even tens of millions of pounds for military expenses.

Of course, Catherine was also very interested in Cheng Shijie at this time, especially Cheng Shijie's naval guns. It just so happened that she had just purchased a batch of silk from Shanghai and shipped it to Venice. a naval battle.

The captain in charge of transporting these goods was Giovanni. He divided them very clearly. He didn't even care about silk, which could earn more than ten times the profit, and immediately turned around and returned to Shanghai.

In fact, Cheng Shijie’s cost of raising a navy is also very high. Of course, the way he makes money is not glorious, but the people of Liaodong. In fact, if the factory workers of Liaodong Shipyard can get higher wages, the cost of his shipbuilding Also much higher.

The British warship King of the Sea has a full load displacement of more than 600 tons, which is similar to the Jusha-class warship of the Ning Navy. The problem is that the cost of building this warship in the UK is more than 4 pounds.

One pound is equal to 25 francs, which is equivalent to 100 million francs, or about 3406 million taels of silver. Cheng Shijie can't afford such a cost.

Although he knew that the Subic Sea Battle against the Ning Navy had won, Cheng Shijie decided to go to Nanyang. Now is the best time to reap the reputation of the Chinese in Nanyang. If he doesn't go now, when will he wait?
On June 26, the seventh year of Chongzhen, after Cheng Shijie joined the Sixth Squadron of the Ning Navy, the Fifth Squadron and the Sixth Squadron of the Ning Navy Navy, plus more than 200 merchant ships and sand ships, and more than [-] Ning Navy Marines Fighting soldiers, took the Eight Princesses and headed for Luzon.

(End of this chapter)