1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1751 Who is Strong or Weak?
Someone in the audience was not in the mood to listen to the storyteller's jokes anymore, and answered impatiently: "Hurry up and get to the point, I have already rewarded you, wait until you finish listening and go upstairs for dinner!"

The storyteller explained with a dry laugh: "Don't be anxious, sir, stay here and explain the cause and effect clearly, so that you can be credible if you say it, right? What I'm going to say next is not in the newspaper, sir. I haven't heard it elsewhere, and after I finish listening to it later, I can go upstairs for dinner, and it can also be used as a talking point to show off my knowledge to relatives and friends."

The person under the stage responded: "What a sharp mouth that can speak well! I will trust you first. If the speech is wonderful, I will reward you after listening to it later! If you make up something random, then you can enter the yamen carefully!"

The storyteller did not panic at all, he cleared his throat and continued what he just said: "Everyone, I am not a shipbuilder, nor have I ever been in the army. I am actually an amateur in this shipbuilding and war. I really want to comment on the pros and cons of this warship. Wouldn't that be nonsense? But I can boldly give some personal opinions, and please judge by yourself."

"Everyone, do you still remember when the Majestic class entered the military?" The storyteller looked around at the crowd, but no one responded immediately. It seems that they are all newcomers who have only been in Haihan for a few years, or they are not good enough for the military. Sensitive, I probably don't know the official entry time of the Majestic-class battleship.

"If I remember correctly, it should be the end of the second year of Chongzhen."

The person who responded aloud was Fei Cexian. He just checked the navy-related materials in the library not long ago, and he clearly remembered that the first battleship of the Majestic class, the Majesty, entered service at the end of 1629 in the Haihan calendar. This year in Daming corresponds to the second year of Emperor Chongzhen's accession to the throne.

The reason why Fei Cexian remembers this time so clearly is not that he really cared so much about the history of Haihan's military development, but that he was recruited into the Ministry of Rites as a Jinshi back then when he met Empress Jinhuang Taiji himself. When the warlord invaded Longjing Pass in Hebei Province, Hongshankou, Da'ankou, Zunhua and other places were in emergency, and Zhao Ledjiao, the general soldier of Shanhaiguan who led the army to rescue, was wiped out.Later Emperor Chongzhen posthumously bestowed upon Zhao Latejiao the crown prince and grand teacher, and the canonization procedure was Fei Cexian's errands.

When the majestic-class battleship Haihan was commissioned, Fei Cexian was busy building an ancestral hall for Zhao Lijiao. When he inquired about this past event in the municipal library, he thought of the time when Daming was under the Golden Iron Heel. The embarrassing situation under the attack is also particularly impressive.

"This old man has a good memory!" The storyteller immediately bowed his hands towards Fei Cexian to show his respect, and then continued: "That's right, as this old man said just now, it has been a long time since the Majesty entered service. It has been more than seven years. During these seven years, more than a dozen Majestic-class warships have been built. During this period, it is said that there have been many upgrades. I will not comment on it as a layman. However, according to what I heard from relatives, the Black Shark The crew are all selected from the veterans who have served on the majestic-class warships for more than two years, and they have to go through several months of closed training before they can board the ship."

The storyteller knocked on the table with the folding fan in his hand and said, "Everyone, the selection of the crew is so strict, it can be seen that the requirements of the Black Shark are far superior to those of the Majestic-class battleship, and its combat power is naturally not inferior. It is no wonder For this expedition to Manila, the Navy will send this Black Shark as the vanguard."

Su Keyi nodded slightly when he heard this, which was basically consistent with what he knew.When the Black Shark first appeared in the crossing military exercise, its high speed, precise bombardment and solid hull were outstanding performances, which left a very deep impact on the guests from all over the world who visited the military exercise.In terms of firepower, it may indeed not be comparable to the majestic-class warships equipped with more than 50 naval guns, but apart from this item, it seems that other performances should be above the majestic-class warships.

Of course, these are just the feelings of onlookers, and the performance of the Black Shark is probably only known to those on board.

However, if this is the internal news that Mr. Storyteller has previously sold out, it will inevitably disappoint Su Keyi. He hopes to hear the evaluation of the new warship from within the Navy, and use it as a reference for evaluating Haihan's armed forces at sea.

It wasn't just Su Keyi who was dissatisfied, the guest who spoke out before said again: "Isn't that all your inside information? Anyone who is not blind or deaf knows this, and it is not new Bar?"

The storyteller was unfazed by the harsh words, opened the folding fan and shook it twice and said, "If you only have this little material, how can I sit here and collect money? You know, since this Black Shark is in good shape Well, why haven't new ships of this level been built?"

Now everyone is silent. After all, when it comes to the strengths of this new ship, many of them are obvious, and everyone can talk about it together.But to pick out the faults of this ship, not everyone can say the right place, at least one must have certain attainments in military affairs, navigation, and shipbuilding to dare to say such a thing.

Mr. Storyteller saw that everyone was stumped, so he said calmly: "My relative said that there are two reasons. It is not easy to select and train qualified crew members. If there are too many crew members, there may not be so many crew members. Do you think this reason is superficial? But the fact is that it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. Although the world is invincible, there are still things that cannot be done!"

Fei Cexian was dubious when he heard it. To be honest, this topic is a bit sensitive. If what the storyteller said was true, he would be suspected of leaking military secrets. If it was false, he would be accused of deceiving people.This is just to say that a book bragging about this bullshit takes a big enough risk. If it is investigated by the government afterwards, it will really not be worth the candle.

After hearing this, Su Keyi was thoughtful. The weapons and equipment of the Haihan Army have always been of outstanding performance, and the cost is naturally high.The East India Company bought a batch of empty ships from Haihan last year with great difficulty, and the money spent was already equivalent to several years of military budget.Of course, the reason why the East India Company bought these ships was not entirely because they wanted to equip a large number of warships built by Haihan. Part of the reason was to prevent Mata Ram from snatching this shipbuilding order. I can bear the pain to subscribe.

The Exploration class with the smallest tonnage is still expensive, so what will be the construction cost of the Majestic class with the largest tonnage in the Haihan Navy, and the Warrior-class warship named "Black Shark" newly commissioned? Su Keyi is unimaginable.But if even the rich Haihan cannot afford the construction and operation costs of this new type of warship, then it is conceivable that the combat capability of this new type of ship is completely piled up with money, although it is powerful, it cannot be promoted.

As for the second reason mentioned by Mr. Storyteller, Su Keyi thinks it is a bit far-fetched. He knows that the military port on the east bank of Victory Port is the headquarters of the navy, and there is a military academy there that specializes in training sailors. officers of all ranks.Even if there are not enough qualified crews for a while, that should not be the main reason why Haihan stopped building new warships. The Haihan army can send troops thousands of miles to fight, and its determination to promote force is evident. The construction of new equipment was stopped with a hundred or so qualified crew members.

However, the storyteller also seemed to know that this matter should not be discussed in depth. After explaining in a few words, without waiting for anyone to respond, he took the initiative to skip this section and return to the topic to continue talking about the plot of the naval battle in the Battle of Manila.But he has never been to the battlefield, so the content of this naval battle can only be played out by brain supplementation. He described Wusen as a general who could borrow the power of the sea and sky, and commanded the Black Shark to enter Manila single-handedly. In the port, they fought endlessly with enemy ships in the dense coastal defense artillery fire. When they reached a dangerous place, they used their magical powers to activate the two Thunderbolt artillery on the ship to destroy the enemy ships one by one.

The storyteller was quite good at creating an atmosphere, leading the emotions of all the guests to the battle he narrated, but no one questioned why there was such a magical general as Wusen in the Haihan Army.But thinking about it carefully, after years of publicity, the people of Haihan firmly believe that the Haihan army is invincible, and the generals in the army have superpowers beyond the reach of ordinary people, which seems to be a reasonable thing.

This set of rhetoric was obviously very popular among the local audience, and even the man who had spoken out twice before was shaking his head, with an expression of enjoyment.

But Su Keyi and Fei Cexian are not ordinary people who are so easily paralyzed by propaganda. Their identities, knowledge, and information levels they can access are far from ordinary people. Naturally, they will not believe what this storyteller said." The reincarnation of the dragon in the South China Sea" and other nonsense.As for Wu Sen's use of superpowers to defeat the enemy fleet during the battle, it seemed even more absurd to them, and it was just a gimmick used to deceive the ignorant people.

"I originally had five credits, but now I only have one credit left." Su Keyi put down the teacup in his hand, turned his head to Fei Cexian and asked, "What do you think, Lord Fei?"

Fei Cexian replied: "It is true that what this person said is not very reliable, but what I am puzzled about is that he can obviously win the support of these foolish people by making up stories, but why would he insert such a paragraph in the middle?" The so-called inside news that doesn’t sound too weird? If this is caught by the Haihan official, he might not even be able to keep his job.”

Su Keyi shook his head and said: "I don't quite understand his real intentions, but he dared to publicize untrue rumors on this occasion, I think it's not just for showing off, besides, it didn't do much. Effect."

"Master Su means...someone instructed him to do this?" Fei Cexian knew it after hearing Xiange, and immediately asked.

Su Keyi said: "I'm just guessing, after all, it's not reasonable to think about it. If it's true, it can only be the official intention."

The two of them made eye contact, and they tacitly stopped talking about this issue.There are so many people in this place, maybe there are official eyes and ears sitting next to it, some things still can't be said casually on this kind of occasion.

Finally, when the storyteller came to an end and stopped to rest and drink water, Fei Cexian called Xiao Er and asked him if there was any space upstairs.After getting an affirmative answer, the two got up and left the table to go upstairs to eat.As for the content behind this, they were not too interested in listening to the storyteller's continued nonsense.If the Haihan army needs to rely on these gods and ghosts to fight, then they don't have to try to sell weapons. Wouldn't it be easier and more enjoyable to just find a few Taoist talismans to sell?

The two went upstairs, and the shopkeeper had already prepared a small private room according to their wishes.The two of them ordered food, declined the girl who played music recommended by Xiao Er, and sent him to prepare the food and wine quickly.

After Xiaoer went out and closed the door, Fei Cexian opened his mouth and returned to the previous topic: "If it was done on purpose, it was intentional to let the audience know that Haihan's military expenditure and personnel are insufficient."

"That's right, I think so too." Su Keyi frowned slightly and said, "But what's the benefit to Haihan officials? Arousing public opinion to increase military spending? Attracting soldiers to join the army? It doesn't feel right."

"Master Su, have you noticed? He originally said that he wanted to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the old and new warships, but in the end he still didn't make it clear what is good about the new ship and what is the difference between the old ship." Fei Cexian tried Analyze the storyteller's rhetoric from another angle.

"Yes, after we listened to it, we only noticed that the new ships were not built in large numbers, rather than the careful comparison of the two ships. This guy... is deliberately digressing to mislead our attention!" Su Keyi sighed: "It's all a trick!"

"It's definitely not enough to just have opinions from the people. If this is really an official arrangement, then you will definitely see related news in the newspapers." Fei Cexian recently spent a lot of time studying Haihan The operating methods of the official media are quite familiar with the practice of the media blowing the air first and the officials following up to express their attitude.If the dubious parts they had just heard were indeed propaganda, then it was indeed possible to see further news in the papers in the near future.

"What Master Fei said is very true." Su Keyi also agreed with Fei Cexian's judgment: "It seems that we all need to pay close attention to it recently. If the Haihan people really plan to vigorously build warships and develop a navy, then for you and me Nothing good."

Fei Cexian deeply believes that Haihan's expansion rate so far is too fast. If the navy scale is further expanded, Fei Cexian is also very worried that the attention of Haihan people will return from the South China Sea to the north, and the mainland will be the next strategy. direction.However, the current situation of Ming Dynasty could not stand the toss at all, and it was probably difficult to organize a decent defense against the armed invasion from the sea.

　Zero Point, together with Haihan Traveling, wishes all readers of this book, old and new, a Happy New Year 2019!In good health!Get rich!

　　Because this book was first published on the Chuangshi Chinese website, and other websites are automatically forwarded in the background, so the comments on other websites and platforms such as Qidian are generally invisible and cannot be answered. Friends who are interested can leave a message on Chuangshi. I will digest and refer to your valuable opinions (of course I may not adopt them hee hee).

　　It's a new year, I hope everyone can continue to support this book, and Zero Point will continue to write it seriously as always.

　　Those who are rich will hold a money market, subscribe more and give more rewards.If you don’t have money, you can hold a personal game, and if you don’t spend money, remember to vote once a day.

　　Thank you readers for your support again!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)