Li Guodong's construction of the engineering soldiers deducted the food and construction costs of the engineering soldiers, and earned him more than one million taels of silver. These silver were all paid by the gentry of Jiangnan and Huguang. When it was related to his own wealth and life, especially in Jiangnan, under the agitation of the Donglin Party led by Lu Xiangsheng, these gentry also gritted their teeth and took out the money. Although the gentry of Huguang invested less, they also had more than 400,000 taels of silver in total.

The flood passed, and the gentry who paid the project fee were all glad that they made the right choice. The gentry who did not pay the bank had not been renovated, and this time they were washed away by the flood, especially in the Huguang area. Not only were some people unwilling to pay the money, but also people who blocked the construction, and even their homes were washed away by the flood.

The value of the gold, silver and treasures that the engineers salvaged was more than 2 million taels of silver, as well as various porcelain, high-end furniture, rare stones and other items. The value of the furniture soaked in water must have decreased, but it can still be sold at a discount when transported back to the north.

Returning property? That is impossible. If you don’t pay the money, your home will be washed away by water. Who knows where the property has been washed away by the flood?

After the flood receded, a boat yard was under intensive construction on the riverside in Anqing.

Wang Quan stood in the riverside boat yard, watching the engineers who were under intense construction. The soldiers cut wood from the mountains and chiseled stones. From time to time, there were fleets coming from the river and mooring on the shore. Bags of new building materials were unloaded on the boat.

A city wall was built around the boat yard, and a castle was built on all four corners, and a fort was built on the riverside. These facilities were all for the future defense of the Qing army.

Li Guodong was stationed in Henan, so the full responsibility for the shipyard was handed over to Wang Quan.

A powerful naval division is a powerful tool to prevent the Qing army from moving south in the water network area in the future. The naval division of the Zheng family army has actually fallen behind in this regard. The naval division of the Zheng family army mainly uses fire attack ships and small boats that jump gangs to fight, and lacks the ability to attack land.

The navy built by Li Guodong has extremely powerful firepower. As long as the land division of the Qing army approaches the riverside, it can greet them with rows of artillery shells. Even the small sampan is equipped with firearms such as Jiutou Bird heavy muskets and light Folang machines, which can attack the land outside the range of Qing army's bows and arrows. This navy not only has extremely powerful attack capabilities against land, but Li Guodong will not suffer any losses even in water battles.

Most of the officers and soldiers of the Navy were recruited from fishermen and boatmen in the Huai River, and some were recruited by water bandits.

The only drawback is that Li Guodong's generals were all cavalry and infantry generals, and there were few naval generals. In order to solve this problem, Li Guodong selected officers from the recruited fishermen and boatmen, and then borrowed people from Zheng Zhilong to train the navy.

After the shipyard was built, Li Guodong discovered that building a navy was really costing money. He found that the three million taels of silver saved through caravan trade, plus the more than one million taels of silver this time the engineering troops went south to construct, and the more than two million taels of silver salvaged after the flood, a total of more than six million taels of silver. Even if all of these silvers were put into the construction of the navy, there was still a huge gap.

If the Red Barbarian cannons used in naval warships were purchased from the Portuguese, one cannon would cost more than one thousand two to three thousand taels of silver. A large warship was equipped with thirty cannons, just one ship's cannons. According to the cheapest calculation, it would cost at least more than 30,000 taels of silver.

The cannons are cast by themselves, but the cost of casting cannons by themselves is not low. High-quality iron is bought from Guangdong through Zheng Zhilong. It costs a lot of charcoal to cast a cannon. Although it has been changed to using coke, the cost of coal mining, coking costs, transportation costs, etc. to add up to the cost of casting an iron cannon, which is no less than three hundred taels of silver, as well as the cost of shells and gunpowder. In short, a navy will continue to build it, and more than six million taels of silver is not enough to spend.

What's more, the more than 6 million taels of silver cannot be spent on the navy. The land division also needs to spend a lot of money, raising soldiers, training, building castles, and making strategic layouts. All of this requires a lot of money.

The fastest money-making process in this era is the sea trade, but now the sea trade of the Ming Dynasty is almost monopolized by the Zheng family. If Li Guodong drove his ship to Japan, he would steal Zheng Zhilong's business, anger Zheng Zhilong, and cut off the help of Li Guodong's naval commander, and his naval commander plan would have to be completely declared to be a failure.

The Nanyang route was monopolized by the Dutch, and the Japanese sailing was monopolized by the Zheng family. The way to make money by relying on maritime trade seems to be unworkable.

If you invest in the shareholder Lin Dang, you will naturally be more than enough to make a wealthy man. However, if you have to raise soldiers and build a navy, this amount of money is not enough.

Selling private salt? Same as above.

Now the Qing Dynasty has controlled the entire grassland, and the business of Dadewang's Dadewang's business in Mongolia has almost stopped. Instead, it has changed to Liaodong, selling cigarettes, silk, tea and salt to the Qing Dynasty, and can also make some profits. However, grain, iron, cotton, and Li Guodong's resolutely will not be allowed to flow out of the pass.

"Silver, silver!" Wang Quan's hair turned white with sorrow. He was the most profitable person among Li Guodong's brothers, and he was all having headaches for money at this time.

Zheng Zhilong is personally supervising shipbuilding at the seaside yard of Kinmen Island, Fujian. Four large shallow water warships will be built here, which is a shallow water warship of a combination of Chinese and Western styles. They can be hung with soft sails and hard sails. The wood used is all iron wood purchased by Li Guodong for Zheng Zhilong. This kind of wood is expensive. If you build a warship, the cost of building a ship will cost 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver. The price Zheng Zhilong sold to Li Guodong was 100,000 taels of silver per ship.

This price is actually very fair. It is not considered a bad thing. Selling a ship can only make 30% of it. If it is not a good relationship, making half of it or even several times the profit is normal.

The first batch of wood purchased has been dried and soaked and can be built directly; the second batch of wood is not processed and is now soaked in water. After soaking for a period of time, the wood has to be picked up and dried, and then soaked in water. After repeated soaking and drying, it takes three to five years for those untreated wood to be used for shipbuilding.

The first warship has begun to lay keels. Craftsmen lay keels on the beach, then set up frames, and when the frame is completed, they will nail the wooden boards.

Since it is a warship that combines Chinese and Western styles, it has both the keel of a Western warship and the compartment of a Chinese ship. Such a ship has extremely strong vitality. Even if it encounters an armed merchant ship of the Dutch, there is no need to worry about not being able to win.

"Father, why don't we build such a ship?" Zheng Sen walked up and asked, pointing to the battleship where the keel was laying.

"Fu Song, we don't need to build such a ship. Wuweibo built such a ship to deal with the Tartars. This kind of ship is specially driven on rivers and is mainly shelled on the opposite shore. We mainly focus on fire attacks and seizing ships." Zheng Zhilong said.

Zheng Sen shook his head: "Father, this kind of ship is actually good to fight against water. The hull is strong and there are many artillery. This kind of ship will not suffer any loss when dealing with the big ship of Hongmaoyi. Otherwise, our small ship will kill 800 enemies and lose 3,000 to himself, and the gain will not be worth the loss."

"So what about the big ship? We have defeated the Red Mavericks yet?" Zheng Zhilong sneered.

"Father, how much did we lose in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay?"
Chapter completed!