The Young and Vigorous Eighth Prince

The most powerful thing about the Japanese pirates is not their land power, but their sea power. They come like the wind and leave without a trace. Even if we take back the five coastal cities, I am afraid that it will be difficult to destroy them after they escape to the sea.

As soon as he entered the government office, Jiang Fan looked at Fu Weimin and said, "Master Fu, I wonder how many of the five coastal cities have shipyards..."

Upon hearing this, Fu Weimin thought for a moment and said, "According to my humble understanding, each of the five coastal cities has a shipyard, but the scale is not large. But after being occupied by the Japanese pirates, they expanded the shipyard."

"Nowadays, the shipyards in the five cities are able to build giant ships that are thirty-five meters long and fifteen meters wide. We also have a shipyard in Yongning Prefecture, but it has been seized by Japanese pirates. The address of the shipyard is in Chaichuan Port! It is an inland port. It is most suitable for shipbuilding."

"The Japanese pirates may want to build more ships and transport more people from Japan. They really want to occupy our Great Yan land."

When Jiang Fan heard this, a cold light flashed in his eyes. He had learned about the shipyard from the Jinyiwei, and it was similar to what Fu Weimin said.

However, the shipyard in Yongning Prefecture was not mentioned in the intelligence. I think this shipyard is far away from Yongning Prefecture and is now in the area occupied by Japanese pirates!

Because the Japanese pirates occupied the Five Cities and Dinghai Island, it was probably impossible to find a ship from Yongning Prefecture to the lower Five Cities, as all the ships were in the hands of the Japanese pirates.

He could recapture the five cities, but it was not so easy to eliminate the Japanese pirates who fled overseas.

If we were to transfer a ship from somewhere else, we wouldn't know how long it would take. I'm afraid time wouldn't allow it.

Even if he dispatched ships, the Huaining Army under his command was probably not good at naval warfare, and it would be extremely difficult to eliminate the Japanese pirates.

"By the way, are the pirates you mentioned colluding with the Japanese pirates now?" Jiang Fan asked Fu Weimin again.

Yongning Prefecture and Wucheng both belong to Yuezhou Prefecture, and Yuezhou Prefecture has three of the largest pirate gangs. The Jinyiwei's intelligence reports say that the three pirates have all defected to the Japanese pirates.

If we can find a breakthrough among these three thieves, it will not be difficult to eliminate the Japanese pirates who have fled overseas!

Upon hearing this, Fu Weimin sighed and said, "The three pirates did indeed surrender to the Japanese pirates, but I think the only ones who surrendered to the pirates are the Sea Wind Pirates and the Yellow Sand Pirates. Their territory is right in the Five Cities area. The Japanese pirates were able to wreak havoc in the Five Cities area without any trouble. I'm afraid these two pirates have a close relationship with them."

"As for the Chongming pirates on Chongming Island, they are probably just rumors from the outside world. After all, the Chongming pirates are well-known for being chivalrous thieves. Even if they rob passing merchant ships, they only take a small amount of money. If they give more money, they will usually send a fleet to escort them to ensure that they are not harassed by the other two pirates."

"The outside world says that they have joined the Japanese pirates. Most likely, the other two pirates are slandering them and want to drag them into the water!"

Jiang Fan nodded when he heard this. It was similar to what he guessed. According to the information brought back by the Jinyiwei and Zhong Ling's intelligence network, the Chongming thief was the most controversial.

The Jinyiwei thought that the Chongming bandits must have defected to the Japanese pirates, but the news reported by Zhong Ling's intelligence network was that the Chongming bandits should not have defected.

Although many of the Jinyiwei were from the Zhongling intelligence network, most of them were newly recruited intelligence personnel.

Therefore, Jiang Fan still believed in Zhong Ling's intelligence network. However, he also wanted to prove to others that the intelligence from Jin Yiwei was wrong.

The intelligence gathering of Jinyiwei's intelligence organization has received a major training. After all, Jinyiwei itself was established not long ago, just over a year but less than two years. To be able to achieve such an achievement is actually quite good.

However, Jiang Fan certainly hopes that the Jinyiwei will get better and better. In order to prevent the Jinyiwei from having too much power, he restricts the Jinyiwei's duties to only collecting intelligence and conducting investigations.

If he gave too much power to the Imperial Guards like the dynasty in his previous life, the Imperial Guards would degenerate and eventually become a burden!

Jiang Fan asked Fu Weimin some more questions, and when he had finished, he took 6,000 people and rushed directly to Chaichuan Port.

He has to take control of the shipyard in Chaichuan Port. Not only Chaichuan Port, but also the remaining five coastal cities in Yuezhou Prefecture.

The shipyards would be the key to his elimination of the Japanese pirates. Even the expedition to Japan would depend on these shipyards.

However, even if the shipyard was built, Jiang Fan still lacked people with sailing experience. If he wanted to go on an expedition to Japan, he had to find relevant talents.

If the Chongming pirates had not surrendered to the Japanese pirates, they could be a target for them to win over. After all, the Chongming pirates had been roaming the seas for too long and had plenty of sailing experience.

As long as he imparts more relevant knowledge and some personal experience, the navy that is built will be enough for Jiang Fan to catch up with Japan in a short period of time.

At the shipyard on the Shibaku Island, there was a 5,000-man Japanese pirate army stationed there. They built a military camp next to the shipyard.

From Fu Weimin, Jiang Fan learned the general location and size of the Chaichuan Shipyard. As for the situation of the garrison, Fu Weimin did not know.

Instead, Jiang Fan led his troops here and asked his men to scout the area.

The location of the entire shipyard is the same as Fu Weimin said, but its scale is obviously nearly twice as large.

The entire shipyard has five docks into the sea, where five giant ships are under construction. Each giant ship is about thirty-five meters long and fifteen meters wide!

The hull had been built, and only the majority of the internal structure was being constructed. There were nearly a thousand workers in the entire shipyard, all of whom were common people from Dayan, mostly men, with very few women.

When the ships were being built, there were Japanese pirate soldiers supervising the construction. If anyone was even slightly slack, they would be beaten or scolded. Anyone who dared to resist would be hacked to death on the spot.

When Jiang Fan heard that there were five huge ships under construction, he was delighted. Ships that had not yet been built were the easiest to renovate. Most of the five ships were built, so even if they were to be renovated, it would probably only take two months to complete.

The Japanese pirates were preparing for a big move, so they seized the six major shipyards along the coast and expanded their scale. Previously, the shipyard in Chaichuan Port only had three sea docks,

Moreover, each sea entrance is not large, but now there are not only five sea entrances, but they are also docks capable of building large ships.

If he could seize all six shipyards, he would probably have a number of large ships in about two months. By then, it would be easy for him to form a navy.

Jiang Fan had his scouts scout out the enemy situation and launched a surprise attack on the Japanese pirates around the shipyard at night.

With rifles and assault rifles in hand, the 5,000 Japanese pirates guarding the surrounding area had no time to resist and were killed by the army.

In the shipyard, the workers who were forced to work overtime overnight saw the Japanese pirates being attacked. The workers who reacted rushed forward and killed all the Japanese pirates who were supervising them.