Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

Autumn in Nanjing carries a slight chill from the Yangtze River's moisture. But at the Longjiang Shipyard, located in the northwest of the city, it is scorching hot like never before.

This government-run shipyard, which has existed since the previous dynasty, once built enormous treasure ships for voyages to the Western Ocean.

However, due to the maritime ban and the decline of national power, this place has been quiet for many years.

The dock was overgrown with weeds, and the dry dock was filled with murky rainwater. Only a few old cargo ships under repair told tales of past glory.

Until Xiao Chen arrived in person.

"Your Majesty, we, your humble servants, pay our respects!"

The shipyard director, a group of craftsmen, and officials from the Ministry of Works who had been urgently transferred all knelt down in a sea of ​​black.

Many people prostrated themselves on the ground, their bodies trembling slightly—was the emperor's personal visit to this dilapidated shipyard a blessing or a curse?

Xiao Chen paid no attention to the fearful looks.

He walked straight to the largest dry dock and looked at the half-rotted ship skeleton inside. It was the wreckage of an unfinished Fujian ship, like a tombstone of an era.

"Get up, all of you."

Xiao Chen's voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear him clearly: "I haven't come here today to see these rotten logs. I've come to tell you that the fires at the Longjiang Shipyard will be reignited. And they will burn even brighter than when the previous dynasty sailed the Western Ocean!"

He turned around, his gaze sweeping over every face in the room—whether aged, confused, or expectant.

"From this day forward, the Longjiang Shipyard shall be directly under the Royal Maritime Administration, with its funding directly allocated from the Imperial Treasury and customs duties from the Maritime Trade Office, free from the constraints of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue! I intend to build here new warships capable of traversing the four seas, undaunted by storms, and possessing powerful cannons and sturdy ships!"

A stir ran through the crowd. Direct funding from the imperial treasury? Beyond the jurisdiction of ministries and departments? This was an unprecedented level of attention!

"Where is the supervisor?"

"Your subject is here!" A man in his fifties, with a dark complexion and a lean physique, quickly stepped forward.

"What's your name? How many years have you been working at the shipyard?"

"Your Majesty, I am Shen Shouchang. I joined the shipyard in the third year of the Tianyou reign of the previous dynasty, and have been here for more than twenty years."

"More than twenty years... good."

Xiao Chen nodded. "You're familiar with every piece of wood and every nail in this shipyard. I appoint you as the director of the Longjiang Shipyard, fully responsible for the construction of the new warship. Provide manpower and funding as needed; all I want are ships! The fastest and best ships!"

Tears streaming down his face, Shen Shouchang prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing: "Your subject... Your subject would rather die than repay this debt!"

"Don't be in such a hurry to die."

Xiao Chen gestured for him to stand up, "Loyalty alone is not enough; you need real skills. I've brought you a few helpers."

He clapped his hands.

Several guards in black led a dozen or so foreigners with high noses and deep-set eyes, dressed in various styles, forward.

Among them were Portuguese men dressed in tattered clothes but with sharp eyes, Dutch sailors with weathered faces, and several dark-skinned Southeast Asians.

"These are shipwrights, gunners, and boatswains that I have recruited from Macau, Guangzhou, and even Southeast Asia. Some of them have built galleons for the Portuguese and Dutch, some have worked on armed merchant ships for decades, and some have even participated in naval battles with Western countries. They understand Western shipbuilding techniques and naval warfare tactics."

Shen Shouchang and the old craftsmen behind him wore complex expressions.

There was curiosity, disdain, and deep wariness—allowing barbarians to guide the state-run shipyard of the Celestial Empire?

Xiao Chen observed this and said in a deep voice, "Director Shen, and all the master craftsmen, I know what you're thinking. China's shipbuilding technology has a long and rich history; the ships of the Song and Yuan dynasties were unparalleled in the world, and the treasure ships of the previous dynasties were colossal. But..."

He then changed the subject, saying, "Times have changed. Western ships may not be as wide and stable as our Fujian ships, nor as sturdy as our Guangdong ships, but they have one advantage—they are good at fighting!"

"Their galleons, with their high gunwales and deep holds, could carry more cannons and were more stable in stormy seas. Their carracks, with their forecourts and sterncastles like castles, offered a huge advantage in boarding actions. Their shipbuilding didn't strive for perfection, but rather for practicality, durability, long-range capability, and fighting ability!"

"And what about us?"

Xiao Chen's voice carried a hint of regret, "After the voyages to the Western Ocean, the technology for large-scale shipbuilding was almost lost. Today, the warships of the coastal navy are mostly small sampans and bluffing boats that can only patrol the coast. When they encounter the cannons of Western sampans, they can only be beaten! Why was Penghu occupied by the Japanese? Why were Japanese pirates so rampant in Fujian and Zhejiang? It's because our ships can't go out to sea and can't fight their gunboats!"

These words left the old craftsmen blushing, yet they were unable to refute them.

"Therefore," Xiao Chen said firmly, "we must learn! We must learn the strengths of the West! But not simply copy them! What I want are new ships that combine the best of both East and West! We must retain the advantages of our Fujian ships—watertight compartments, responsive rudder, and excellent seaworthiness—while absorbing the strengths of Western galleons—robust structure, numerous gun emplacements, and suitability for long voyages! We must build warships that are faster than galleons and more powerful than Fujian ships!"

He walked to the wreckage of the Fujian ship and patted the mottled planks with his hand: "Use this unfinished Fujian ship as a base for renovation! I have already had the craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Works draw up the sketches."

Xu Guangqi and Zhao Tie quickly stepped forward and unfolded a huge blueprint.

The drawing depicts a ship with sleek lines and a unique shape: it has the typical square bow and stern of a Fujian ship, and a wide hull to ensure stability and cargo capacity; however, the hull is noticeably longer, and the V-shape of the bottom is more pronounced to reduce resistance and increase speed; most striking are the rows of neat square windows on each side of the hull.

"This is..." Shen Shouchang squinted his eyes.

"Cannon window!"

Zhao Tie excitedly explained, "His Majesty designed it so that it's closed during normal times and opened during battle, housing cannons. There are twelve gun emplacements on each side, totaling twenty-four cannons. This way, while the ship is moving, it can bombard enemy ships with all the cannons on one side! Instead of only having a few cannons at the bow and stern as before!"

"Twenty-four cannons?!" an old craftsman exclaimed in surprise.

The largest warships of the Great Xia Navy today can only carry about ten cannons, most of which are small cannons like bowl-shaped muskets.

"Yes, twenty-four 'Yuanfeng' cannons!"

Xiao Chen picked up the conversation, "It's the improved Franz cannon, lighter, with a longer range, and faster firing. Zhao Tie, how's the cannon's production going?"

Zhao Tie bowed and reported, "Your Majesty, the Tianjin Arsenal has successfully produced a prototype cannon. It is one-third lighter than the old-style breech-loading cannon, has a 30% greater range, and uses pre-loaded bullets, doubling its rate of fire. If mounted on this ship, its combined fire from both sides would be incredibly powerful!"

"Can the ship's structure withstand it?" Shen Shouchang, being an expert, immediately asked the crucial question.

"That's why I sought out these Western craftsmen."

Xiao Chen pointed to the foreigners, "They know how to reinforce the keel and ribs to withstand the recoil of the cannons. We also brought in the best ironwood from the southwest."

Director Shen, you need to bring our experienced engineers and work alongside them. Don't be afraid of arguments, don't be afraid of trial and error. What I need is a ship that can go to sea and fire its cannons!

I'll give you three months, no, two months! I want to see the first new ship launched!

This ship will be named—"Azure Dragon"!

The emperor's orders are the highest motivation.

Longjiang Shipyard, this long-silent behemoth, has begun to awaken and roar.

Money poured in like water, and the finest Southeast Asian hardwoods, ironwoods, and teak were brought out from the depths of the warehouse and urgently transported from Guangdong and Fujian.

The furnace was relit, and the blacksmith's shop rang out with clanging sounds, working day and night without ceasing.

The water in the dock was drained, the silt was cleared, and the unfinished Fujian ship's frame was carefully reinforced and modified.

The artisans from the East and West began a difficult process of adjustment.

If they couldn't communicate verbally, they would use hand gestures and draw pictures on the ground.

Ideological clashes are commonplace.

The Portuguese shipwright Antonio insisted on using thicker hull plates to withstand the shock of cannon fire, but the Chinese master craftsman believed that it would make the ship too heavy and affect its speed.

Dutch gunnery chief Van der Sar insisted that the gun ports must be located below the center of gravity for stability, but Chinese artisans believed that opening them near the waterline would make them prone to flooding...

Arguing, experimenting, arguing again, experimenting again.

The dock was filled with shouts in various languages ​​and the sounds of sawing and hammering every day.

Shen Shouchang's hair turned completely white in just one month, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

He had never been so passionate, as if he had returned to the days when he first participated in shipbuilding in his youth.

Xiao Chen did not leave Jinling.

He would come to the shipyard almost every few days, not wearing the imperial robes, but only casual clothes, and stay in the dock for half a day.

He doesn't understand the specific technology, but he understands the problem and can make decisions.

When the two sides are deadlocked, he can often come up with a compromise or a more creative solution.

"If you're worried about water ingress, why not install an openable waterproof cover on the inside of the gun port?"

"Can the keel be reinforced by combining iron hoops with hardwood?"

"For the sails, don't use only stiff sails. Try adding a soft Western sail at the stern to improve the boat's ability to sail against the wind?"

Many of his ideas, though seemingly far-fetched, often hit the nail on the head, enlightening both Chinese and Western craftsmen.

Time flies by amidst sweat and sparks.

The hull took shape day by day, its lines smooth and powerful, like a giant beast about to awaken.

Twenty-four "Yuanfeng" cannons were carefully transported onto the ship and installed on specially made gun mounts.

The waterproof cover for the gun sluice was tested repeatedly. The massive hardwood rudder was installed.

Three mainmasts stood tall, with a huge hard sail and a soft sail billowing slightly in the wind.

Finally, on the last day of the two-month deadline set by Xiao Chen, the "Azure Dragon" quietly anchored in the newly renovated dock. It was about forty meters long and nine meters wide, with an estimated displacement of over five hundred tons. The hull was painted a deep blue-green, with a ferocious dragon head carved on the bow, a towering stern, and tightly closed gun ports on both sides, like the closed eyes of a giant beast, silently containing a terrifying power.

"Your Majesty, you may go into the water now," Shen Shouchang reported in a hoarse voice, his eyes bloodshot but gleaming with pride.

Looking at the warship that embodied the hard work of countless people, Xiao Chen felt an indescribable surge of excitement. He took a deep breath: "Launch!"

"Launch!!" The shouts rang out as the sluice gates opened, and the Yangtze River water surged into the dock.

The massive ship shuddered slightly before rising steadily and swaying gently with the river current.

"It's done! It's done!" A deafening cheer erupted inside and outside the shipyard. Chinese and Western craftsmen embraced each other, laughing and crying at the same time.

Xiao Chen's gaze, however, was already fixed on the sea to the southeast.

"Issue an imperial decree ordering General Zheng Zhilong, the Pacifier of the Seas, to immediately come to Nanjing for ship trials! The miracle of the Longjiang Shipyard should now be put to the test at sea!"