Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

174 Chapter 3.81

Volume Three

3.81 What a blast

On the eighth day of May, at the Miyakojima Pier, a sea-going ship with a small displacement and a large angle beveled bottom sailed smoothly into the berth. Amidst shouts, the dock workers stepped forward to pick up and moor the ship in an orderly manner, and quickly boarded and disembarked the ship. The plank route has been laid. Zhou Yang and Xue Biao smiled and walked to the trestle, looking at the busy dock with emotion.

"Second Uncle is indeed a veteran who has been doing this all his life. This pier may be a lot worse than the most prosperous Jinling, Songjiang, Jinmen and even Quanzhou in the Zhou Dynasty, but if you look at the world, it can be said to be busy and busy. The flow of people is endless." Zhou Yang looked at the busy flow of people on the pier and said with a smile, "The daily flow of water in and out of the transfer fleet is probably a big number, right?"

"I would also like to thank Brother Zhou for his guidance." It is probably "nurturing the body and moving the energy". With the strong rise of the second brother of the Xue family in the sea, the temperament of Xue Biao, the heir and eldest son, is now better than that of the four princes and eight princes. It's a little worse. At least when facing Zhou Yang, he is no longer as unconfident as he was at the beginning. "But what I admire most is Brother Zhou's forward vision in military affairs."

"Oh?" On the pier at this time, teams of guards passed by from time to time, all of them carried matchlock guns and hung wild goose feather knives on their waists. Zhou Yang pointed at them and smiled, "Brother Tad is talking about them? I really don’t need to remind you, Second Uncle has been at sea all his life, how can he not understand the principle of ‘trading with a sword’? If there is no such steel sword and long spear, who will earn more money?”

"Of course it's more than that." Xue Biao smiled and called the people on board to come down, "Only relying on sea ships, matchlock guns and steel knives is enough to save the fleet, but to save such a piece of foundation, That was pure idiotic talk; I now understand why Brother Zhou insisted on the production of artillery."

"Oh? According to Brother Tadou, has it been built?" Zhou Yang asked quickly. This is very important. In the early days of hot weapons, whether it was a matchlock gun or a later flintlock gun or even a primer gun, there was no artillery. Even with the support, they may not be able to have an absolute advantage in fighting with the elite cold weapon troops. "Why don't we go over now?"

"Master." A soft call from behind made Zhou Yang temporarily put down what he was doing, and turned around to hug Qingwen, who had been vomiting all the way. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu is obviously no worse than Sister Qin, huh?" Speaking of physical strength, this slave is much stronger, so why is it that while she has nothing to do, this slave will encounter this thing called 'seasickness'?"

"Giggles, Sister Qingwen is really useless. I've been running here for nearly five days and you haven't recovered yet. Isn't it because you had some vomiting on the first day? You also took the pills prepared on the ship, and you haven't recovered in the past few days. When she vomited again, she still felt like she had no bones, and she had to be helped when walking." The only person who could laugh at her like this was Xue Baoqin, who had lived with her along the way.

"You damn hooves, let's see if I don't tear your mouth apart!" Qingwen's temper returned and she jumped to chase Xue Baoqin, completely forgetting her poor physical condition. As a result, she just broke free from the hands of the strong woman who was supporting her. He stumbled and almost fell down, but fortunately Zhou Yang caught him.

"Hehe, it's really useless!" Xue Baoqin took the opportunity to jump behind Zhou Yang, then reached out and gently hit Qingwen with a PP. It didn't hurt but was extremely insulting. "Sister Qingwen, you should just rest honestly. If If you really fall out, it’s my little sister’s fault!”

"Woo--Master!" Qingwen decisively gave up her fantasy and resorted to her last resort - calling her parents.

"Okay, I told you when I came here that I asked you to stay in the capital to look after the house. You have to come. Wouldn't it be embarrassing now?" Zhou Yang smiled and supported Qingwen, helped her get off the side of the ship, and walked slowly on the plank road. Walking slowly, "You will stay on the island and have a good rest these days. After I finish the things here, I have to go to Jinling. I will pick you up when I return to the capital."

"No!" Unexpectedly, Qingwen shook her head stubbornly, "The servant is here to serve the young master. How can anyone leave a reason to be lazy? The bridge was arranged by the uncle to draw a curtain, and there was no one else but his own people, so the servant Take a nice walk here and wait until you recover before serving the young master."

"Hee hee, this is the sister Qingwen I know!" Xue Baoqin jumped out with a smile, supported Qingwen and said, "When the little girl was just on the boat, she was dizzy, didn't she come here too? If not, just sit a few more times, how can you be delayed by such a trivial matter?"

"Hmph!" Qingwen stretched out her hand to pinch one of Xue Baoqin's ears and twisted it symbolically, "Don't think that just because you say nice things, I will spare you. Let's see if you dare to do it next time!"

"Little sister, I know I was wrong!" Xue Baoqin smiled and cooperated.

"Not bad!" Zhou Yang looked at Xue Baoqin and nodded with satisfaction. She is indeed a good girl who appeared briefly but left a lasting mark. She indeed has an irreplaceable side of herself. "You and Qingwen should leave first. Other ships are unloading. , I just have something to do and I’m going over with Brother Tadou first.” “Yeah!”*2.

The two walked across the trestle one after another, and after entering the pier, they saw that the protection here was even more exaggerated. This pier was originally a natural harbor, with an indentation of about four or five miles, forming a big-bellied, narrow-mouthed shelter from the wind. The cement Structural trestles penetrate into the water one after another to form shipping berths, and eventually expand into a huge harbor.

Beyond the bay is naturally the landside part of the port area. Central Plains-style cement brick and wood structure buildings are in order. They are basically designed according to Zhou Yang’s original suggestions. They can be called wide main roads and continuous traffic roads. There are many alleys between buildings, eventually forming a prosperous new city.

But the most eye-catching thing about this emerging seaport city is not the above, but the small "guard rooms" arranged every less than a hundred steps along the coast of the harbor and eventually connected into a "defense chain". Basically, they occupy There are two rooms on the ground floor and two floors high. There is an arquebusier with a small flag on the lower floor, and a black muzzle protrudes from a specially set aside window on the upper floor!
"How many servants like this do you have now?" Zhou Yang followed Xue Biao into a "turret". After climbing to the second floor and looking out at the port area, he pointed at the matchlock gunners behind him and asked, "They seem to have already After receiving a certain degree of training, he can be regarded as an elite soldier in the imperial army."

"It's roughly less than one and a half thousand households. Half of them are on the island, working in two shifts for guard training; the other half follow the fleet, also working in two shifts, so it sounds like there are a lot of people, but when it comes to actual use, it's still hard to come by." Xue Biao sighed. He said in a tone, "Fortunately, my father has been doing business at sea for many years and has fairly good connections, so he can stabilize this business."

"Not bad!" Zhou Yang patted the "enlarged version of the Crouching Tiger Cannon" beside him and said, "This is a good thing. Why haven't I seen you loading it?"

"The ship we were on was specially built for our own use. The gun positions are not on the deck. Instead, the eighteen artillery pieces are arranged on the second floor. They are sealed with gun doors when not in use and will be pushed out when in use." Xue The scorpion smiled and said, "The same goes for other cargo ships. To avoid the trouble of returning to Dazhou, a ship usually has twelve doors, six on the left and right."

"What a great cannon!" Zhou Yang remembered that he would soon be promoted to an official position and could not help but understand the situation in advance, "How is the performance of this cannon?"

"It uses the 'single-legged gun mount' that Brother Zhou mentioned. It has two wooden wheels and weighs two hundred and fifty-six kilograms. It is nearly [-]% heavier than originally expected. It is mainly used to shoot farther. The barrel has been lengthened." Xue Biao's introduction was very cheerful, "If the cannonball uses a two-and-a-half kilogram iron ball, it can hit three hundred paces, but this will only scare ordinary merchant ships or incompetent pirates.

In fact, the main thing is to hit iron sand. Hundreds of them can be shot out with one shot. No one can hold them within two hundred steps. When I encounter anyone who dares to take action, I always use this method to fight. Ever since this was installed on the ship, the family has been fighting again and again. No problems due to pirates. "

"Really. Not bad!" Zhou Yang nodded in surprise. It is a perfect infantry support light artillery. "When you did this, you should have found an expert, right?"

"Brother Zhou has a good eye. He found a few red-haired soldiers from Haojing and made the changes under their suggestions." Xue Biao smiled and nodded, "Even the many small details of the cannon casting were under their guidance For example, this thing called the 'cannon ear' finally became the treasure in front of you. With the 'blast furnace' refined iron that Brother Zhou made, you can basically make as much as you want!"

"Prepare twenty doors, I will use them when the time comes." In Xue Biao's surprised eyes, Zhou Yang said with a smile, "I have made an agreement with Uncle Niu and Lord Liu a few days ago that I will be given a free release in August. There is a real shortage of children for thousands of households, plus matchlock guns for two hundred households and spears and steel knives for three hundred households. When needed, I will ask someone to bring money to get it."

"Congratulations to Brother Zhou!" Xue Biao's eyes obviously changed, and his tone became much more polite, "Don't mention the money, it's just a trivial matter, what's it worth!"

"Brothers must also settle accounts openly." Zhou Yang patted Xue Biao on the shoulder, "Besides, after I was released, I would be done with 600 people under my command. Didn't Brother Biao just say that there are already [-] people on this island? More than one thousand guard servants? With such strength in Jingying or Jiubian, it is also an elite force that can be counted."

"Brother Zhou should stop making fun of this shameful strength." Shaking his head with a wry smile, Xue Biao directly avoided the topic, "There's more to this island than just that. My father and younger brother have already sent news. Shi’s father should be waiting at home, we might as well go over now.”

"That's how it should be. There's no reason to let the elders wait in vain!" Zhou Yang nodded happily, "Let's go!"

(End of this chapter)