When the Dongzhao war entered a stalemate, the Jiangnan of the Ming Dynasty continued to flourish.

Zhao Ming made great efforts in China to carry out infrastructure construction, give job opportunities to the people, increase their income, and drive the development of the domestic market in the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty made large-scale investments in the Nanyang vassal states and recruited civilians from Nanyang to build military ports and purchase supplies, which enabled the Nanyang vassal states to obtain a large amount of silver dollars and foreign exchange.

When the vassals had foreign exchange and the princes and nobles had money, they naturally had to consume, and they would inevitably purchase goods in Jiangnan, which to a certain extent alleviated the overproduction surplus in Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, due to the defeat of the Tokugawa family in Japan, the national policy of the Tokugawa shogunate retreating to the country failed and Japan returned to the Warring States Period.

The various vassals fought for hegemony in Japan with the support of different Ming forces such as Han, Yanping, Jiangnan sea merchants. In order to gain support, the vassal lords gradually became agents of the Ming forces, and a large number of Ming Dynasty commodities and weapons poured into the Japanese market, eased the Ming Dynasty's economic crisis.

In 1663, the summer, Nanjing, Longjiang Shipyard.

This shipyard, which once built a huge fleet for Zheng He to voyage to the West, once again ushered in its great moment.

Half a year has passed since the last steam paddle ship failed to test sailing. After the first steam ship was towed back to the shipyard for overhaul, it was finally launched again after half a year to conduct a trial sailing.

At this time, Zhao Mingyuan was in Dongshuo and could not participate, but the Ming Dynasty government still attached great importance to this trial voyage.

Not only did Grand Secretary Chen Ming meet the scene, but the Merchants and Shipping Company supervised it, but also Jiangsu and Zhejiang Maritime Businessmen came to Nanjing to watch the trial voyage.

"Ge Lao, it is said that this ship sails with wind and burns carbon without wind, but it is true?" Chen Yonghua, the supervisor of the China Merchants and Shipping Company, asked.

Chen Mingyu nodded slightly, "According to the documents given by the Ministry of Works, this ship can indeed sail on the sea without wind or headwind."

Chen Yonghua showed excitement on his face, "Marine trade and ship exchanges are limited by the monsoon. Within a year, the number of ships transported is limited. Sometimes, in order to wait for the wind, it takes several months. If this ship can not rely on the monsoon, the ship can sail in any season and can travel a few more times a year."

After hearing the conversation between the two, a group of marine merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang couldn't help but talk, realizing that once such a ship is successfully manufactured, it will inevitably replace the existing sailing ships and become the main force in maritime trade.

However, this is a new thing after all, and the maritime merchants are still cautious and dare not give up the mature sailing shipping rashly.

Judging from what they learned, the ship had not run a few miles last time, and the cabin was unable to sail, and was finally towed back to the shipyard by a wooden boat.

If you sail on the sea and have such an accident, the vast sea will not be found or rescued, and you may have to sink to the bottom of the sea.

Therefore, businessmen still don’t trust this new thing.

"The trial voyage starts!" Chen Mingyu stopped talking to everyone, pointed to the river surface, began to heat the boiler, and gradually lifted the steamship at speed.

Unlike the last time when the Longjiang Shipyard was launched, tens of thousands of craftsmen cheered together. There were more craftsmen by the river than last time, but they were silent. The craftsmen were all nervous and afraid that there would be problems with the ship again.

The steamship, under the gaze of the people on both sides of the strait, emitting black smoke, turning the paddle wheel, slowly heading west, gradually disappearing from the sight of everyone. Tens of thousands of craftsmen happily threw up their towels and cheered.

At this time, Chen Mingyu explained: "This trial voyage will sail from Nanjing to Huguang and Jingzhou, and then return. If the ship has no problem, conduct a trial voyage at sea and set off from Shanghai at the same time as a sailboat to see who will arrive in Dongzhou first and then return to Shanghai."

If a ship can sail against the current in the inland river and cross the Pacific Ocean to reach Dongzhou on the sea, then the value of the ship will undoubtedly be very huge.

Chen Yonghua heard the words and said excitedly: "If the sea trial is successful, I will purchase shipping company and be willing to purchase 100 such steamships from Longjiang Shipyard."

Chen Mingyu smiled on his face and supervised the shipyard next to him, "Did you hear that? Do you have the confidence to eat a hundred steamboats?"

The supervisor's face was flushed. With the current manufacturing level of Longjiang Shipyard, it is estimated that five ships can not be built a year, but the supervisor still said with a look: "Don't worry, as long as there are orders, no matter how many ships we can build."

In the past two years, the Ming Dynasty has engaged in infrastructure, investment, and also fought against foreign countries. The court has a huge deficit and has owed a lot of money.

Zhao Ming felt that this was nothing, it was normal. Later, many countries borrowed money to survive, but the Chinese have always been debt-free and were light and built high walls to accumulate grain. Many officials of the cabinet and the court were worried about the current finances of the court.

After all, it was less than twenty years since the Chongzhen court was destroyed. The shadow of the collapse of the court's finances in the late Ming Dynasty was still in the hearts of all officials. Everyone was very alert and hoped to avoid repeating the mistakes of the old Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, while Zhao Ming spent a lot of money, the cabinet was trying hard to make money to pay off the debt.

Steam ships, steam trains and other projects cost more than one million silver dollars, and they didn't even see any splashes.

Now that the steamboat has finally succeeded, the shipyard will get the shipbuilding order and can finally earn some silver dollars.

The Yangtze River is the east-west artery in southern China, and is the main shipping route.

Bashu, Huguang's grain and supplies flow down the Yangtze River waterway and easily reach the south of the Yangtze River.

However, it is easy to go downstream, but it is more difficult to go upstream. For cargo ships in Jiangnan have to reach the upper reaches, most of the time, they can only rely on human resources to pull fibers.

Therefore, when a steamship that was emitting black smoke, without sails, and without a boater, appeared at the docks of cities along the Yangtze River, it immediately caused a sensation and onlookers.

Of course, in addition to this, it has also brought some turmoil to the coast. Many people who rely on fibre-pulling to make a living feel very confused and even gathered to prevent steamships from approaching the dock.

The ship sailed all the way, and in just one month, he arrived from Nanjing to Jingzhou. Then he returned to Longjiang Shipyard for maintenance and maintenance. He found that the ship was not seriously injured.

This made the entire shipyard boil, and Song Yingxing and others cried with joy.

A month later, the steamship that completed the replenishment and maintenance arrived in Shanghai, and together with a sail warship, he took dozens of students from Imperial University to cross the Pacific Ocean, heading to the East Continent, and embarked on the second half of the Age of Discovery.
Chapter completed!