Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 260

The various stallions that Cheng Shijie wants are not difficult to obtain given the connections and wealth accumulated by the Venetian City-State Republic. It is just a matter of spending some money.

Now for the Venetian City-State Republic, if money can buy peace, they are willing to buy it. In fact, Catherine has another plan. If Cheng Shijie is unwilling to sell their artillery, they decided to pay to hire Ning Haijun to go far away

Europe, let them help Venice fight a war.

As long as the Ning Navy can defeat the Ottoman Mediterranean Fleet just like Zheng Zhilong or the Dutch East India Combined Fleet, Venice can win peace for more than ten years or even decades.

But the problem is that the sea map is different. This is the intangible wealth accumulated by Venice for hundreds of years since its founding. Now there are many unclaimed lands in the world, especially Venice’s discovery of a continent (Australia). If it were not for lack of time and strength,

To conquer this continent, but giving up the sea country would mean abandoning the new continent and islands they discovered. This is a huge wealth, far beyond the comparison of tens of thousands of war horses.

Catherine looked at Cheng Shijie warily and asked, "What do you want a nautical chart for?"

Cheng Shijie smiled lightly and said: "It is convenient for our Ning Haijun to go to Europa to greet His Majesty Emperor Philip IV, and we also want to ask the King of the Netherlands!"

Catherine didn't believe that Cheng Shijie was talking about cheating, but there was no way. Even if she didn't give them these things, Cheng Shijie could still get them by making deals with other countries, especially the Portuguese, who had a pretty good relationship with Cheng Shijie. It would be better to take advantage of Portugal's return.

Without doing anything, just exchange it for some things you need. Besides, these things are not secrets in Europe.

At least, the countries that have now completed global voyages include Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Venice, and the United Kingdom. France has also recently completed a global voyage.

Now it can be said that this is the real age of navigation. Venice has no friends to begin with. Letting Ning Haijun or let Ming join the Great Navigation Club will be beneficial to Venice but not harmful.

Catherine nodded and said, "Okay, I will provide you with navigation maps and information later."

Although Cheng Shijie could get nautical charts from later generations, the problem is that there will definitely be errors between the nautical charts of later generations and the current ones. Besides, being able to get Venice to produce their nautical charts is actually nothing to Cheng Shijie.

Something particularly important.

He could no longer ask for money from Venice. As Cheng Shijie repeatedly delivered silver to Emperor Chongzhen, inflation had been caused in the capital, and its impact had penetrated into all aspects.

No matter how high the per capita level is, it is actually a relative concept. If prices are also high, the quality of life will still decline.

Cheng Shijie: "I hope you can send some shipbuilding craftsmen over to communicate with us... Don't worry, we won't steal your people, it's just communication."

Catherine cursed in her mind: "It's weird to believe you!"

After quite arduous negotiations, the arms deal was finally concluded.

Ning Haijun will deliver 200 quadruple six-inch caliber 189mm copper-skinned fire dragons and 80,000 rockets to the City-State of Venice within two years.

The City-State Republic of Venice delivered 96,000 horses to Ning Haijun within two years, and the most important thing was that the Shire horses were not less than half.

This problem is enough to give Venice a headache. You must know that although there were more than one million Shire horses in the UK at its peak, the problem is that it will be more than a hundred years later. Now, there are estimated to be more than a dozen in the entire UK.

There are tens of thousands of horses, including old horses and ponies.

Cheng Shijie clearly stipulated in the transaction that the shoulder height of the Sharma horse should not be less than six feet (the average shoulder height of the Sharma horse is 188 centimeters). Cheng Shijie added one centimeter to the average height of the Sharma horse. Such a Sharma

Horses, even in the UK, cost more than ten pounds, plus the consumption on the long journey. It is conceivable that the price paid by the Venetian City-State Republic was definitely not low.

Delivered to Venice various nautical charts and data accumulated from hundreds of years of maritime trade across Europe, Asia and Africa, and sent no less than a hundred experienced shipbuilders to help Yang Menglong build warships. At the same time, some naval officers were also sent to help with training.

Ming Dynasty Navy.

This made Catherine a little confused. Isn't Ming the most powerful country in the world, with the best battleships and naval guns in the world? Why should it learn from Venice in turn?

Cheng Shijie could only smile bitterly at this. The Ming Dynasty indeed had the most powerful army in the world, and it also had the most powerful navy in the world.

It's a pity that this fleet has long been burned down by fire. Almost two hundred years have passed, and the Ming Dynasty is still running on the sea with the fortune ships that have long lagged behind. As for the countless archaeologists who have marveled, the displacement is extremely large.

It may be close to 10,000 tons, and it can be called a giant treasure ship on the ancient sea. Even the blueprints have been burned away long ago.

Although the Haisha-class and Jusha-class warships built by Ninghai are good, they are just good. In fact, the Ninghai Navy only relies on the range advantage of naval guns. When fighting naval battles, it actually fights naval battles in the same way as the army.

, but the tactics of cavalry battles are applied to naval battles. For Li Zhixiang or Cheng Shijie, a battleship is equivalent to a cavalry unit, and the only tactics are flying kites, cavalry running and shooting, and detouring left and right.

We haven't had time to fight against a truly powerful naval force. Once this shortcoming is discovered, the consequences will be disastrous. To admit your weakness, you have to learn what you need to learn. If you want to catch up with the West, there is no shortcut, you can only

Start from scratch honestly and learn from the other party. Navigation equipment such as the navigation compass and sextant must be imported, and the skills to use these equipment must be learned from others. In this regard, Ming Dynasty really has nothing to be proud of.

Fortunately, this was the Ming Dynasty when the atmosphere was relatively more open. Western learning gradually became popular in the East. People did not think it was a shame to learn from foreign devils. After learning, it was natural to do better than the teacher.

If it was the Qing Dynasty...that would be a headache.

Of course, Cheng Shijie also guaranteed that Ming Dynasty would not compete with Venice for the interests of maritime trade, nor would it seize Venice's overseas territories in any way. To put it bluntly, everyone was just exchanging technology.

This made Catherine secretly relieved. The Ottoman Empire was enough for Venice to have a headache. If the Ming Dynasty got involved again and competed for Venice's trade share in the Mediterranean, it would be impossible to survive!

In Catherine's eyes, this transaction is worth it. Compared with the three to four hundred yards of naval gun engagements in this era, the effective range of the Fire Dragon Water can reach more than eight hundred meters, or even one thousand meters. As a target ship,

The 400-material battleship is similar to the Ottoman Empire's main battleship, the Maihadi class.

The Ottoman Empire had a poor shipbuilding industry and lax management. Their shipbuilding technology was very poor. In fact, it was not that the navy of the Venetian city-state was too powerful. To be fair, the Ottoman Empire's Mediterranean fleet ran aground every year due to rocks, rot, water ingress, improper operation, or collisions.

The losses caused by other accidents were ten times greater than the losses caused to them by the Venetian navy.

If the Ottoman Empire really relied on its strength, it could crush Venice or crush it to death. Why it had been at war with a small country like Venice for more than two hundred years? The only explanation that can be explained is a Chinese word: "Raise the invaders and respect yourself!"

The kind of fire dragon they have obtained now not only has a higher range advantage, but also its power is quite amazing. One fire dragon can kill a small warship of more than 100 tons. If it is a large warship, up to three or four can kill it.

Sink a medium-sized battleship.

This time Catherine purchased 80,000 pieces from the Ming Dynasty, which was enough for more than a thousand large, medium and small warships of the Ottoman Empire's Mediterranean fleet to allocate 70 to 80 pieces to each ship.

Venice needs this powerful weapon so much! Negotiate everything and everyone signs the contract.

While Cheng Shijie was busy, Cheng Jiayue actually entered Jinzhou No. 1 Elementary School. This was the first elementary school in Jinzhou. The school was built on the original grounds of the Guns and Artillery Bureau, and people also used to call it the Guns and Artillery Bureau School.

.

In the first class, Cheng Jiayue felt a little incredible.

The schools in the Ming Dynasty were also like those in later generations. When you meet the teacher, you have to say how good the teacher is.

However, they are not like the schools of later generations, who lazily deal with it. Cheng Jiayue's Chinese teacher is named Zhang San, who is also the outlaw Zhang San. He is a serious scholar and is also a famous strict teacher in Jinzhou.

one.

After learning that he was going to be the teacher of Cheng Shijie's biological daughter, Cheng Jiayue, he decided to teach Cheng Jiayue a lesson first.

After Zhang San entered the classroom with the textbooks in his arms, all the students stood up and bowed to Zhang San according to their level: "Hello, teacher!!"

Just when Zhang San was about to wave his hand for everyone to sit down, he came back to his senses and saw clearly the scene in the classroom. The students were all slumped with their shoulders slumped and their necks crooked. They were neither standing nor sitting down. He thought to himself that this was not possible.

Is this a good opportunity to establish your authority?

"Chen Zhong, Zhou Dingguo, come out!"

Zhang San naturally knows the true identities of Chen Zhong and Zhou Dingguo. In Liaodong, they are the real sons of high-ranking cadres. Although Chen Dayong is now only the director of the Military Commission, in fact, everyone knows that Chen Dayong is now second only to Shen Ming.

Yu, the third person in Zhang Yu's army, has a higher status than Liu Qingsong and Zhou Ning.

Not to mention Zhou Dingguo at least. His grandfather is Zhou Yandong, nominally the second person in Ning Haijun, and also the Dinghai Shenzhen of Liaodong. Zhou Yandong is in charge of everything except military power, and his power is greater than Song Xiance. Zhou Yance

Dong can hold his veto power.

Zhou Dingguo's father, Zhou An, currently serves as the deputy commander of the Ning Navy in Guangning, and is also considered one of the senior generals. The Zhou family can be said to be the second largest family in Liaodong after Cheng Shijie.

However, Zhang San did not give Chen Dayong and Zhou Yandong face, and said in a very stern tone: "Is it your first day of school?"

"no!"

"My husband taught you how to read and write. He is your great benefactor. Once you are a teacher, you will be your father forever! You should treat your husband with the same respect as your father. How can you greet and send him off so carelessly? No matter how much you read, you will never know.

Li Na is still a waste! Everyone has it, you all learn from me, watch carefully!"

Zhang San said, then he tightened his waist and hips, put his legs together, placed his hands on the sides of his legs, and shouted loudly: "Hello, sir!"

When Zhang San finally said the word "good", his head and upper body had already been flatly bent ninety degrees, and he performed a standard bow.

"This is etiquette!"

Infected by the emotions of the surrounding classmates, Cheng Jiayue also shouted at the top of his lungs: "Hello, sir!"

"Very well, sit down!"

When Cheng Shijie quietly came to see Cheng Jiayue go to school, physical education classes had already begun. Different from the happy education of later generations, primary school education in Liaodong actually had four subjects, namely Chinese, mathematics, chemistry and physical education. And

Before the age of twelve, male and female students are not separated into boys and girls, but go to school together.

In Liaodong, a quarter of the class time for children under the age of twelve is physical education. Cheng Jiayue's management is much better than that of most Liaodong children. Especially after traveling through time and space, Cheng Jiayue's physical fitness has improved significantly.

Due to the improvement, Cheng Jiayue, who was originally not good at sports, actually performed well in sports.

This is a children's version of a race, with a 400-meter standard track, which means they need to run two laps. As the one-armed sports teacher's whistle sounded, fifty or sixty children started running away.

The four companions immediately surrounded Cheng Jiayue, like a plum blossom, secretly protecting Cheng Jiayue.

The children chased each other and ran very happily and lively.

The physical education teacher was Li Yong, a retired veteran of Ning Haijun. Li Yong watched Cheng Shijie arrive and gave Cheng Shijie a chest-high salute: "Meet the Marshal!"

“How is life at school!”

"Tell the truth, or lie?"

"Truth!"

"I'm really not used to it!"
To be continued...