The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 566 Monkhood
"Du~~"

A long whistle sounded over the Lushun Shipyard, and then an ironclad ship with a strange appearance slowly sailed out of the dock where it was built.

The reason why this ironclad ship looks strange is that the standard equipment of mainstream warships - towering masts, huge sails, only towering chimneys emitting thick black smoke - cannot be found on its hull.

This ironclad ship is the "Pangu" ironclad ship of the Tang Dynasty Navy. It marks the official elimination of sail power by the human navy and the reliance on steam power to conquer the ocean.

Due to the high failure rate of steam engines, the Tang Dynasty's ironclad ships still retained tall masts. Once the steam engine on the ship encountered an accident, the sails could be directly deployed again and the wind could be used to escape danger.

The retained masts inherited the defects of the old sailing warships intact. These masts were very heavy, which would cause the center of gravity of the warship to be seriously high, the freeboard to be low, and the stability to be poor. If encountering bad weather and big waves, there is a risk of capsizing.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty's ironclad ships had always been able to sail only in the coastal waters. The latest steam engines, both in terms of reliability and performance, could meet the needs of ocean voyages.

In addition, the Pangu ironclad ship also creatively used the design of a turret to accommodate the main weapons. The steam engine plus the turret made it closer and closer to the modern warship in Li Hu's mind.

The displacement of the Pangu ironclad ship reached an astonishing 13,000 tons, which was four times that of a first-class sailing battleship! Eight new boilers provided the required steam for two latest steam engines. With powerful steam power, the Pangu could theoretically sail at a speed of 13 knots.

The ship's artillery is no longer arranged inside the hull like previous warships, but is all arranged above the hull. The main weapons are four new ten-inch breech-loading guns, and the secondary guns are two eight-inch breech-loading guns. At the same time, a number of rapid-fire guns were added, which effectively improved the firepower of the secondary guns.

When designing this ironclad ship, Li Hu referred to the English's previous life's Ravage-class ironclad ship. This epoch-making top-level warship was ahead of Western countries by nearly a century.

With a clear whistle, the Pangu ironclad ship slowly sailed out of the port and headed towards the sea.

The nine cannons arrayed at the port fired in unison, nine times in a row, shaking the earth.

The five-year-old Princess Shouchang was so scared that she hid in Li Hu's arms.

Li Hu smiled and touched her head, then glanced to his right.

Li Ye, wearing the prince's formal attire, stood there quietly, his face tense, his eyes fixed on the Pangu ironclad ship that was gradually moving away.

At this time, Li Ye had just celebrated his eighth birthday.

Li Hu was very satisfied with this eldest son, who inherited the beauty and wisdom of him and Lin Daiyu. He was well-behaved and sensible since childhood, had a strong learning ability, was talented, and had a kind and generous personality. He was very friendly to his brothers and sisters and had a very high prestige among the little kids.

Not only Li Hu, but also Lin Ruhai, Li Shouzhong and the two university scholars Shi and Meng who taught Li Ye were very satisfied with Li Ye.

The sound of cannons was so earth-shaking that even some civil officials were frightened and turned pale, let alone an eight-year-old kid.

Li Ye subconsciously leaned closer to Li Hu, then retreated modestly.

Li Hu smiled and took Li Ye into his arms.

Leaning in Li Hu's arms, Li Ye finally showed the expression that a child should have.

Princess Shouchang giggled, "My royal brother is scared too." She made a face at him and stuck out her tongue.

Li Yese's face tightened and he scolded in a low voice: "Don't stick out your tongue."

Princess Shouchang curled her lips and said "Oh".

Li Hu smiled secretly. This girl is fearless and only her brother Li Ye can control her.

The Pangu ironclad ship quickly disappeared at the end of the sea, leaving only a cloud of black smoke.

Li Hu then turned his attention to the Lushun Shipyard, which was the first modern shipyard in the Tang Dynasty. It was built at the same time as the Anshan Iron Works. It cost more than two million taels of silver, nearly five million silver dollars, and was the largest military factory in the northern part of the Tang Dynasty.

After several expansions and reconstructions, the dock size has expanded from 5,000 tons to 7,000 tons, 9,000 tons, and now to 10,000 tons.

In order to make up for the shortage of technical and management personnel, Li Hu ordered the establishment of technical schools across the country. Four sessions have been held so far, training tens of thousands of production technical backbones and countless technicians for the shipyard. The addition of these people has injected new vitality into the technological progress and production development of the shipyard, and has greatly improved the productivity of the shipyard.

Today, the Lushun Shipyard ushered in a historic moment as the first 10,000-ton ironclad ship of the Tang Dynasty was officially launched.

The entire process, from laying the foundation on the slipway to the completion and launching of the battleship, took only 480 days. This amazing technology and efficiency shocked everyone.

Li Hu's eyes fell on the dock in the distance, where three sister ships were expected to be launched in mid-September.

The Cabinet and the Ministry of War have already formulated a military strategy and will formally declare war on England on October 1. The navy will march out of the Strait of Malacca and cooperate with the army to wipe out the English colonies and attack the English mainland from the west.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye, and the world situation has undergone earth-shaking changes.

First, the Ming Dynasty collapsed at an alarming speed. Li Hu never dreamed that Shui Rong would die so miserably. Shui Rong and Yang Qilong died so suddenly that the front-line army was completely defeated and the Holy City fell in an instant. In addition, Luosha was destroyed.

After taking the Holy City, internal strife broke out among the Western Yi coalition forces. The Russians made huge demands, not only wanting to swallow up Central Asia, but also half of the Holy City and the vast territory to the north of the Holy City.

The shamelessness of the Rakshasa people attracted opposition and abuse from the Western Yi countries, especially the short commander of the coalition forces who wanted to take control of the holy city. He pointed directly at the Rakshasa commander and started to attack, and finally parted unhappily.

The commander of the Rakshasa State also had a bad temper. Before leaving, he robbed the French of their spoils and burned the coalition's granary, which directly triggered a war.

Just when everyone calmed down, news of the Rakshasa Queen's death came from Moscow.

The little man discussed with the commanders of England and other countries and decided to go all out and destroy the Rakshasa Kingdom. The unlucky Peter died in the chaos before he could sit on the throne.

As the Western Yi coalition had no time to look east, West Asia and Central Asia fell into war again and split into countless small countries. Even some loan sharks who escaped the disaster established their own countries in West Asia.

After the situation in the northwest stabilized, Li Hu immediately formed the second Western Expedition Army, recovered the Ming territory in Central Asia, and established the Anxi Protectorate.

In addition to Peter, another monarch died in Europe. King Louis of France, just like in his previous life, was beheaded by the people of Paris.

The French Revolution broke out. The little man led his troops to overthrow the French royal family. Then he turned his guns on the revolutionaries, massacred the revolutionaries, stole the fruits of the Revolution, established the First French Empire, and proclaimed himself emperor.

The funniest thing is that the little guy canonized Shui Rong’s son as the Son of God, a living Son of God.

The entire Western religious circle was in an uproar. This was like having a new father!

The little guy successfully offended everyone. Just when the English were forming an anti-French alliance on the European continent, the United States, which had just driven the English out of the North American continent, attacked the English fleet escorting the troop transport ship, and then sank the troop transport ship, leaving tens of thousands of English army soldiers as food.

The English masters were not going to swallow this humiliation. They ignored France and immediately mobilized their army to go to war with the United States.

Without England, the effective helper, the anti-French alliance was beaten and fled in panic by the little guy. The Italians were the first to surrender and let the little guy succeed to the throne as the King of Italy.

Now the whole world is at war, except the East.

The Tang Dynasty actively engaged in arms trade with various parties and made a fortune from the war. In just one and a half years, the export volume nearly quadrupled, the export of industrial products almost tripled, and the trade surplus reached an astonishing 3 billion Tang silver dollars.

The growth of foreign trade has greatly stimulated domestic production, leading to rapid development of industrial sectors such as steel, shipbuilding, and weapons.

Now everyone is exhausted and can hardly fight anymore. It is time for the Tang Dynasty to step down and reap the fruits of victory.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in from the sea, and the corners of Li Hu's robe were lifted up by the wind, and it felt cool and had a fishy smell.

The little fat man hurried over and said softly, "Your Majesty, the wind is blowing, let's go back." Li Ye immediately left Li Hu's arms, straightened his robe, and then pretended to be a little adult.

This made Princess Shouchang roll her eyes.

Li Hu smiled, and led Princess Shouchang out of the shipyard, while saying to the official in charge of the shipyard: "All meritorious personnel will be promoted by the Ministry of Personnel and awarded three years' salary."

The official said: "I led the whole team to build the ironclad ship. Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty!"

Li Hu: "Pay more attention to the other three ironclad ships and make sure they are launched and tested smoothly."

The official: “Yes!”

After leaving the shipyard, Li Hu boarded the special train back to Beijing and would arrive at Luheyi Railway Station before noon tomorrow.

It's the autumn examination again, and it's time to announce the results.

Outside the Imperial College, there were few people looking at the list.

Jia Baoyu walked over step by step, looking at the list on the wall in the distance, but he didn't have the courage to go closer to take a look, so he stood there in a daze.

Mingyan, who was standing aside, had a look of discomfort in her eyes, sighed silently, and advised: "Second Master, go back."

A few people who had read the list came over, and one of them said, "Young Master Zhen took part in the Autumn Examination for the first time, and he actually ranked eighth."

Jia Baoyu's brain buzzed with excitement. Zhen Baoyu had actually passed the imperial examination, and ranked eighth.

Those people obviously recognized the "Uncle of the King" Jia Baoyu. They looked at him with strange eyes and then left quickly.

Mingyan glared at those people and advised: "The imperial examination is to take care of those small families. When royal relatives like us want to be officials, we can get an official position. Why should we compete with them for this?"

Jia Baoyu calmed himself down, gritted his teeth, and strode towards the list.

Mingyan smiled bitterly and followed.

As he approached, Jia Baoyu looked over the list line by line. His eyes gradually dimmed. Then he calmed himself and looked over it again from the beginning.

I still didn’t see the three words “Jia Baoyu”.

Mingyan: "Second Master."

Jia Baoyu turned around like a sleepwalker and murmured, "It's over. It's over."

In Kunning Palace, Lin Daiyu sat on Li Hu's dragon chair, writing something with the imperial pen that only he could use.

Shi Xiangyun sat on a chair nearby, holding a book in her hand, reading half-heartedly.

Zijuan came over with a tray of exquisite snacks, and refilled Shi Xiangyun's tea, saying softly, "This is the newly made osmanthus cake from the imperial kitchen. Try it, young lady."

Shi Xiangyun put the book in her hand on the coffee table and said to Zijuan with a smile, "Thank you for your trouble again."

Zijuan smiled slightly.

At this time, Lin Daiyu stood up, washed her hands in the golden basin beside her, took the face towel handed to her by Zijuan, and while wiping her hands, she said to Shi Xiangyun who was eating cakes, "Why did you think of entering the palace today?"

Shi Xiangyun smiled and said, "I miss you."

"miss me?"

Lin Daiyu rolled her eyes, walked over to sit beside her, and said, "Is it about Baoyu's matter?" As she said that, she picked up a piece of osmanthus cake and started eating.

Shi Xiangyun blushed: "I said I came to see you two days ago, but unfortunately the old lady was not feeling well those days. You can ask Cuilu."

Lin Daiyu smiled. She knew everything about Rongguo Mansion. Zhou Rui and his wife had always been spies of the Imperial Household Department. They worked for Dashun in the past and now they work for Datang.

Shi Xiangyun was silent for a moment: "The old lady has already made a harsh statement. If Baoyu fails to pass the imperial examination this time, she will let Brother Lian drive Miaoyu out of the capital."

Lin Daiyu shook her head slightly. She had not expected that Jia Baoyu was such a romantic man. During the time when he was locked up in the mansion by Grandmother Jia, he tried every way to get out, even tried to climb over the wall and almost got into trouble.

Grandmother Jia finally understood that she could lock him up in prison, but she couldn't lock up his heart. Besides, it was impossible to lock him up in the mansion for the rest of his life.

So, Grandmother Jia made a bet with Jia Baoyu that as long as Jia Baoyu passed the imperial examination, she would never stop him from being with Miaoyu; if he failed, she would drive Miaoyu out of the capital.

She had already seen the list of candidates for the autumn provincial examination, and Jia Baoyu had failed again.

Shi Xiangyun: "The old lady forced Baoyu to take the imperial examination because she wanted him to be more motivated and have a career in government." At this point, she took Lin Daiyu's hand and begged, "Sister, please have pity on me!"

Lin Daiyu looked at her and asked: "Award him an official position?"

Shi Xiangyun nodded: "It doesn't need to be a high-ranking position, just like what the master did in the past."

Jia Zheng? Director of the Ministry of Works?
Lin Daiyu smiled and nodded at her: "How dare you open your mouth. A Jinshi candidate who is waiting for a vacancy in the Tiger Class can only be given a seventh rank."

Shi Xiangyun blushed and was about to speak.

Lin Daiyu: "Okay, it's rare that you ask me for help. I will discuss it with your brother-in-law when he comes back."

"Thank you, Queen!"

Shi Xiangyun smiled again: "When will Brother-in-law Lin come back? And Shouchang, I haven't seen her for a long time, I miss her so much."

Lin Daiyu: "I should be able to return to the palace in the afternoon."

Shi Xiangyun nodded.

Lin Daiyu looked at her with a smile and asked, "Are you not angry?"

Shi Xiangyun smiled and said, "Why should I be angry? She's just a concubine. Oh, by the way, I heard Baoqin is about to give birth?"

Last year, the wars in South Asia and Northwest China were successfully concluded. Li Hu was rewarding meritorious soldiers. Xue Ke's accumulated merits happened to be enough for rewards, so Li Hu planned to reward him together with Xue Ke. However, Xue Ke refused. He used his accumulated merits to ask for a concubine position for his sister Xue Baoqin, Lipin.

Lin Daiyu nodded: "She was still talking about you yesterday. After dinner, go and see her."

As they were talking, the eunuch on duty came in quickly and knelt down before Lin Daiyu: "Your Majesty, someone has come from Rongguo Mansion. Please ask Madam Bao to return home immediately."

Lin Daiyu: "Oh? Why are you so anxious?"

The chief eunuch on duty said: "It is said that Master Bao has become a monk."

(End of this chapter)