Chapter 393: Liang Family Ambition

"Eight million taels of silver, daydreaming!"

A merchant ship flying the Liang family flag slowly sailed away from the dock. Read М

At the bow, Liang Song looked in the direction of the restaurant.

Lu Zheng guessed right. This time the Liang family took the initiative to find Wufeng Island. Spending so much silver to burn the warships of King Yan was a strategy of killing two birds with one stone.

Although the Liang family was unwilling to offend King Yan for the sake of artillery.

But how could their Liang family allow King Yan's merchant ships to go to sea privately.

At the same time, Wufeng Island has been sucking blood from the body of his Liang family like a blood sucker for years.

Taking away nearly half of the Liang family's profits, how could his Liang family not be angry?

The only reason they still tolerate Wufeng Island is that the Liang family's navy may not be able to beat Lu Zheng's.

What's more, Japan is still secretly supporting Wufeng Island.

But even if they can't destroy Wufeng Island, their Liang family has had enough of giving the rich profits to Lu Zheng, a pirate.

This time, it was a contest between the Liang family and Wufeng Island. Even if they could not destroy Lu Zheng, they would at least get back 30% of the profits.

And the confidence was the cannons that King Yan made for the Liang family.

As long as these cannons were on board, they would force Wufeng Island to make concessions.

"It's a pity that King Yan's warships were not burned." Liang Song looked regretful.

The children of the Liang family all lived a very rich life relying on sea trade.

Wufeng Island had already swindled them, and now King Yan was involved in sea trade, wouldn't it be another swindle for them?

No child of the Liang family could tolerate this.

But Wufeng Island failed this time, and King Yan would definitely be alert, and it would be difficult to burn warships again.

Thinking of this, his brows frowned.

Now, the merchant ship will go to Jinling Wharf.

He would discuss these things with the head of the family.

Five days later, the merchant ship entered Jiujiang from the sea and arrived at the foot of Jinling City in another day.

After boarding the Jinling Wharf, Liang Song went to the Liang Mansion.

At this moment, Liang Kai was enjoying the cool under the willow tree in the yard, and he seemed to be in a very good mood.

"Master, Lu Zheng wants our Liang family to compensate him with 8 million taels of silver." Liang Song entered the yard and relayed Lu Zheng's words to Liang Kai.

"This thief is really crazy about silver. 8 million taels, my Liang family won't give even one tael of silver." Liang Kai stood up angrily.

The warships of King Yan are fine, and because of this incident, it is said that the inspections in Fanyang are very strict now.

Obviously, it has aroused King Yan's vigilance.

"It's just that Lu Zheng threatened that if he didn't give it, he would rob Liang's merchant ships again." Liang Song said.

Liang Kai was silent. After a while, he said: "Indeed, it's not the time to turn against Lu Zheng. Let's delay it a little longer. When we have 300 artillery pieces, we will show Lu Zheng a little color."

So far, King Yan has only delivered 109 artillery pieces to the Liang family, which is still far from this number, but it should be 300 pieces before the New Year.

"Just tell him that there is too much silver and our Liang family needs to prepare." Liang Kai added.

Liang Song nodded, which was also his idea.

Then he said: "What about the warships of the King of Yan?"

"You can't rely on the pirates for this matter. The King of Yan must be very careful now, but it's also very good that the King of Yan and Lu Zheng have become enemies because of this matter." Liang Kai laughed lightly, very proud, "It would be even better if Wufeng Island could plunder the coast of Yanzhou again."

He was very proud of his plan of killing two birds with one stone.

In his heart, he laughed at Zhao Xu for being deceived by him and having to sell him artillery.

But he didn't know that the artillery Zhao Xu sold to him was the worst.

The two families just deceived each other.

After a pause, he continued: "The emperor ordered the attack on Xiliang, and the north will be in chaos soon. Maybe there will be a chance to take advantage of the chaos. Remember, you must be patient. Look, this time the third prince is in trouble, doesn't the fifth prince have a chance to become the prince? Hahaha..."

In the past, the Liang family could only endure Dou Wei for the sake of maritime trade.

But in his heart, he always thought that the Liang family was the most powerful family in Dasong.

Even he felt terrified by the accumulation of the Liang family in maritime trade over the years.

Zhejiang, Fujian, and Shenzhou were under the control of his Liang family.

If the Liang family had not been repeatedly bullied by pirates, Portuguese, and British on the sea, and needed to rely on Dasong, he would not have needed to bow to Dou Wei.

Nor did he need to please Emperor Zhao Heng everywhere.

Every Liang family member had such a vision in their hearts, that their navy could crisscross the sea and control maritime trade.

This time, he wronged himself in exchange for artillery for this purpose.

He wanted to use the artillery of King Yan to defeat Lu Zheng, defeat the Sterdans, force them to hand over the artillery casting method, and then get rid of the artillery of King Yan.

In this way, the Liang family will no longer be afraid.

Liang Song had been in Zhejiang, and he didn't know about the third prince's affairs, and he was confused.

Until Liang Kai explained it to him, the two laughed together.

"This royal family is really embarrassed. I didn't expect that there would be a eunuch prince. I'm afraid there has never been such an embarrassing thing since ancient times." Liang Song laughed.

"That's right, otherwise why would the emperor want to attack Xiliang for the first time in history? But this has nothing to do with our Liang family. I refused this matter on the pretext that the southeastern pirates were making trouble." Liang Kai thought for a while, "But Dou Wei and the emperor are still not giving up. So, you go back to Zhejiang to make some noise, find some people to pretend to be pirates, and capture a few counties."

"Yes, I understand." Liang Song was familiar with this matter and smiled slightly.

...

Yancheng.

For six or seven days, the people and merchants in the city often saw a huge ball flying in the sky.

This caused a fierce discussion throughout Yancheng.

Even more ignorant people would kneel on the ground and pray for a long time whenever the giant ball flew by, thinking it was a parade of gods.

Seeing that the situation was getting more and more outrageous, Zhao Xu had people spread the news, telling the people that this was a hot air balloon, which was prepared by the Armory.

Only in this way did the matter calm down.

However, the merchants and people in Yancheng became more and more awed by the King of Yan.

"Your Highness the King of Yan is really amazing. Now things flying in the sky can also be made."

In a tea shed outside Yancheng, several people drinking tea saw the hot air balloon floating by again, and they were amazed.

"Of course it is amazing, otherwise, can you and I sit in the teahouse and drink tea leisurely today?" said another citizen.

Since the King of Yan took charge of Yanzhou, there have been more merchants in Yancheng.

Needless to say, there are all kinds of sheds everywhere from the Yancheng city wall to three miles outside.

There are people drinking tea, selling snacks, and snacks in these sheds.

The most important thing is that each shed is full.

After a season of harvest, and with the paving of roads and bridges for the palace, the pockets of the people have bulged unknowingly.

The ragged clothes on their bodies have been replaced with new ones, and they have spare money to drink tea and buy wine, and order some small dishes.

While the people were chatting, the altitude of the hot air balloon slowly decreased, and finally landed on an open space in the east of the city.

At this time, Wang Chong jumped off the hot air balloon with a satisfied look.

"Your Highness, how is it this time?" Wang Chong looked at the King of Yan who was waiting on the side.

After improving the hot air balloon according to the guidance of the King of Yan, he practiced maneuvering every day.

Today, he finally took off from this point and returned here again.

However, due to the problem of wind direction, he went around a big circle.

"Pretty good." Zhao Xu nodded gently.

He just asked Wang Chong to change the burning basin of the hot air balloon into a barrel shape, and at the same time opened a hole on the side of the barrel, inserted an iron plate, and controlled the size of the flame by pumping the iron plate.

Another problem is the fuel problem. He asked Wang Chong to replace the straw with carbon powder mixed with vegetable oil to replace the original fuel.

Carbon powder burns slowly, while vegetable oil burns quickly. The mixture of the two burns neither too fast nor too slow, which is just right.

Wang Chong chuckled twice, and then he said: "Your Highness, I know what you want this hot air balloon for?"

"Really?" Zhao Xu stood with his hands behind his back, "Tell me."

"To investigate the enemy situation, this plus a telescope can see the enemy clearly." Wang Chong said with a smile.

"Well, not bad, what else?" Zhao Xu continued to ask.

Wang Chong scratched his head and couldn't think of it, "Are there other uses?"

"Of course, but I won't tell you now." Zhao Xu looked at the hot air balloon, "I will arrange some soldiers for you, you teach them how to operate the hot air balloon, and make nine more for backup."

He still attaches great importance to the hot air balloon. Since Wang Chong accidentally made it, he must use it to the greatest effect.

After all, the only man-made thing that can fly in the sky in this era is the hot air balloon.

In Dasong, it is unique to Yanzhou.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Wang Chong said loudly.

He saw excitement in the eyes of the King of Yan.

It seems that his hot air balloon is really very useful.

Now he finally felt balanced, and he was not suppressed by Qu Sheng.