Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Outside the flagship, there was continuous artillery fire.

Inside the flagship, two young men were clinking their abacuses.

To take advantage of someone is often considered a derogatory term.

But that's just a difference in position. If I were the one who was kicked around, I don't know how great it would be.

This has always been Zhang Shikang's fine tradition.

"I have said before that I am not the kind of person who likes to take advantage of my friends. The price of this fleet will be based on the cost of new ships and new guns." Seeing Zheng Zhibiao stunned, Zhang Shikang quickly increased the price.

"This……"

Zheng Zhibiao was indeed a little confused. He ran all the way here to deliver free food, and then ran back to pull the fleet back to help you fight.

Marshal, it's fine that you are thinking about grain ships and want to buy warships, but why are you also thinking about your own fleet?

It’s not that this fleet is so huge. Including small boats such as bird ships that can only carry three or two sailors, there are only about a hundred ships.

Compared with the Zheng family's more than 3,000 warships of various types, this cannot even be called a squadron.

But that’s not how it works. I give you food, help you fight, and then in the end I have to go back on my own?

You say that you don't take advantage of your friends, but you have always been doing so and never stopped.

After all, this is a small fleet that can be directly combat-ready!

"Marshal... Marshal, please don't make things difficult for me. This matter still needs my brother to make the decision."

Selling ships and selling fleets are not the same thing. Building ships takes time, while selling fleets is a trade-off. Even if Zheng Zhibiao wanted the title again, he would never dare to act on his own.

"Hey, I was just saying it casually, look how nervous you are."

Zhang Shikang just tried it out, and seeing that Zheng Zhibiao was really unable to make the decision, he felt a little disappointed, but he didn't take it too seriously.

Zheng Zhibiao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"However... before the new ships are built and ready for combat, can your fleet be leased to the imperial court?

You have also seen that the imperial court is now unable to do anything about the rebels' shabby navy. If I cannot wipe out this group of rebels, His Majesty may be furious.

If your Majesty gets angry, I will be in big trouble.

If I were to take this lying down, my title... might be lost!"

Zheng Zhibiao breathed a sigh of relief, but it came up again.

"My Lord! You are..."

He wanted to say, "What's the difference between renting and buying? You are so shameless," but he didn't dare to say it out loud.

After thinking for a while, Zheng Zhibiao had no choice but to retreat half a step and said:

“It shouldn’t be a big problem to rent it temporarily for a while.

I still need to report this matter to my brother, and then tell him that the Marshal is still needed to suppress the rebels, and this small fleet can be temporarily left in Dajiang.

However, I have to submit my request. If my brother disagrees, or if the Zheng family needs to be recalled due to a war overseas, the Marshal must not make things difficult for me!

The matter of the title..."

Zheng Zhibiao's brows were twisted into knots in frustration, as if he had suffered a great injustice.

This is of course a bit of pretense, after all, it is nothing to the entire Zheng family fleet.

But he had no choice. He had originally wanted to give this noble young man some benefits in a mutually beneficial way.

However, he discovered that this man who held great power in the Ming Dynasty was not as humble, polite, and fair as he thought.

It is not like the popular belief that Zhang Shikang was a playboy, superficial, short-sighted and unreasonable.

This young marshal has a playful face and seems short-sighted, but he is actually smart. He seems not to let his friends suffer any loss, but he is actually taking advantage of them and taking advantage of them.

The key is that he still makes sense!

The fleet is about to be lost after going around in circles!

"Don't worry, leave it to me!

I am the commander in chief, and you brothers can choose the titles of nobility among yourselves.

Biaozi! This is a privilege that no one else has ever had! " Upon hearing this, Zhang Shikang raised his eyebrows at Zheng Zhibiao.

As for titles, there are plenty in the Ming Dynasty. As long as you are powerful enough, you can get them wholesale.

He had discussed this with his brother Chongzhen a long time ago. It was nothing more than a title. Although things are valuable because they are rare, the title is worthless. What other titles could he get?

Taking later generations as an example, rabbits have the honor of special allowances from the National Academy of Sciences, and other countries have the Medal of the Republic, and so on.

There are three ranks of nobility: duke, marquis, and earl. Now I give you an earl, and if you continue to take advantage of me in the future, you can become marquis or duke.

Since there is no way to get a promotion in title, you can get medals. With the honor of being a Soviet leader, there is no shortage of medals.

"Please let the commander know that if I leave the fleet behind, I will definitely have a hard time reporting back.

It would be best if the Marshal could pay me the cost of building the silk ships and the rent for renting this fleet, so that I can go back and report to my brother."

Zheng Zhibiao was afraid that Zhang Shikang would make any excessive demands again, so he quickly backed down.

"Oh, that's easy. How much silver will it cost?"

What the Ming Dynasty court lacks the least now is probably silver, oh, and also artworks and luxury goods such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings.

I don’t know why those Donglin Party members and corrupt officials liked these things so much. The proceeds from the property confiscations filled up the Taicang.

He couldn't sell it all of a sudden because almost all the rich people were included in his liquidation.

There was no place to put the jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, jade and antiques, so Brother Chongzhen simply asked the factory guards to take them to his home.

He was happy that his father liked antiques, but now the house was full of those things. Even the gym that he had built with his own hands was filled with various porcelain bottles.

Zheng Zhibiao said nothing, took out an abacus from somewhere, and started calculating.

There were twenty silk ships, each costing one hundred thousand taels, and each was equipped with more than thirty sailors and boatmen, and eighty gunners and marines.

There was a large-caliber tribute cannon at the bow, three thousand-jin French cannons, six bowl-mouth guns, and twelve thunder guns.

Sixty squirt guns, ten Lumi guns, three hundred crossbows, ten gunpowder crossbows, two hundred rockets, sixty fire bricks, and thousands of cold weapons...

Sailors, boatmen, gunners, and marines were paid their own wages...

Total of various firearms...

The cost of building twenty silk ships plus the total cost of all personnel and equipment...

The monthly salary of all the personnel in this fleet... the rental fee of all the warships...

Zheng Zhibiao calculated extremely seriously. Apart from the sporadic sound of artillery fire from the flagship, the only sound left was the crackling sound of his keyboard.

Zhang Shikang helplessly watched Biaozi settle the accounts. He didn't know much about the fleet before.

It was only after following Zheng Zhibiao onto this fleet that I gained a general understanding of the current strength and level of the fleet.

The warships at that time were completely incomparable to later aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, or even ordinary combat ships of later generations.

But the Zheng family’s current navy is definitely at the world’s advanced level.

Even though he understood that in another hundred years, after the Qing Dynasty took control of the Central Plains, the level of firearms would decline sharply until it was overtaken and bullied by other countries.

But at least for now, with Zhang Shikang here, there is still a chance to save everything.

Take his flagship No. 1 Fuchuan as an example. Although the crew members on the ship are equipped with cold weapons, they basically use firearms.

There were at least twenty different kinds of firearms, some of which Zhang Shikang couldn't even name.

It can be said that by the end of the Ming Dynasty, China had already mastered the use of firearms.

It took a full quarter of an hour, with sweat breaking out on Zheng Zhibiao's forehead, before he finally calculated the rough price.

"Let the Marshal know. The total amount of silver needed is about 4.6 million taels."

……

PS: Starting tomorrow I will stand up and write five chapters a day.