Chapter 766: Sword Pointed at Dongying

The north wind rose overnight, and winter arrived unexpectedly.

In the early morning, a thin layer of ice had formed on the small puddles in Yanzhou.

In the bedchamber, Zhao Xu wrapped himself in a fox-fur cloak; a month had passed in the blink of an eye since he returned from Jinghai.

During this time, neither the south nor the north had been peaceful.

However, just as he had predicted, whether it was the powerful clans or the Northern Di, they were only creating minor frictions and had not launched a full-scale invasion.

"Your Highness, this stove is truly easy to use."

Zhao Xu was sitting in front of the stove warming himself when Yang Susu leaned in.

This stove was a coal-ball stove, and naturally, it burned honeycomb briquettes inside.

The shell of the stove even had precautions marked on it: must be used with ventilation to avoid poisoning.

This was manufactured by a private workshop in Yanzhou.

While opening up private workshops, Yanzhou established a Patent Office, and the Imperial Court promulgated a Patent Law.

Zhao Xu handed over the civil technologies that could currently be realized with Yanzhou's industry to the Patent Office.

One only needed to pay a patent fee to obtain the technology from the Patent Office for use in one's own workshop.

This coal-ball stove was one of those patents.

At present, many coal-ball stove workshops had appeared among the people, manufacturing and selling coal-ball stoves.

And according to Yang He's feedback, once this coal-ball stove hit the market, sales were quite good.

Especially for the commoners living in Yancheng, they no longer needed to gather grass and wood to cook meals.

"There will be more and more interesting things in the future." Zhao Xu took a piece of bread from Yang Susu's hand.

This was bought by Feng'er from a pastry shop.

Not all patents in the Patent Office were fee-based; some were free, such as bread baking, cake making, and so on.

Besides these, there were also many contemporary cooking methods.

This was to promote the development of the catering industry in the Great Song.

"Since Your Highness says so, this concubine is truly looking forward to it," Yang Susu said. "From now on, the lives of the Great Song commoners will truly become more and more prosperous."

Hearing this, Zhao Xu felt a sense of accomplishment.

His goal was to let the Great Song commoners escape poverty and live a wealthy life.

Of course, he also knew that he was still very far from this goal.

Things like coal-ball stoves and bread could currently only be enjoyed by at least moderately wealthy families.

The vast majority of commoners were still engaged purely in agriculture and could not afford these.

And according to Fei Wen, ordinary families in Britain could drink a glass of milk and eat bread every morning.

This was created by the wealth accumulated from over two hundred years of external plunder and the occupation of overseas markets.

This did not differ much from the intelligence he had gathered.

According to his memory, it was recorded in a contemporary historical document.

Eighteenth-century British country folk lived in red-brick cottages with red-tiled roofs, wore woolen clothes, wore leather shoes, ate white bread, and drank milk.

In terms of diet,

vegetables and meat were very common.

This was already the case in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

However, the more he understood these things, the more filled with fighting spirit he became.

His Great Song would not only catch up in technology, but the living standards of the Great Song commoners would also catch up.

He would make the Great Song a holy land yearned for by the people of the world.

But to achieve these things, he needed the world's markets and resources.

Currently, ninety percent of the markets and resources were in the hands of the Xitu Guo.

They would not allow him to sell goods to their colonies.

Nor would they allow him to go to their colonies to mine minerals.

They guarded the lands and resources they plundered very tightly.

This was the reason why he had to tear down the old order and establish a new one.

Otherwise, the Great Song would be suppressed forever, unable to breathe.

The lives of the Great Song commoners would remain forever dim.

And now, the challenge to the old order had already begun.

Didn't they believe in the jungle law of the survival of the fittest, thinking that the weak deserved to be enslaved by them?

Then, they would compete to see who was superior.

Thinking of this, he looked toward the direction of Jinghai.

Zhou Yi had sent someone over two days ago to deliver the date for setting sail to him.

Today was the day they would head to Dongying.

Jinghai.

The sea wind whistled, mixed with coldness.

After the temperature plummeted, the navy soldiers changed into cotton-padded military uniforms.

With the increase in Yanzhou's Spinning Mill and Weaving Mill.

Providing military uniforms for the army had become increasingly easy.

At this moment, Zhou Yi stood on his Le Ting flagship.

The harbor.

Twenty-four Steamships, forty-eight Sailing Warships, and sixty Troop Transport Ships had finished assembling.

This fleet would head toward Dongying.

The remaining twelve Sailing Warships were responsible for patrolling the coast to guard against the unexpected.

Once everything was ready, Zhou Yi gave the order to set sail.

The steam whistles of the twenty-four Steamships sounded simultaneously.

Immediately, they towed the Sailing Warships out toward the open sea.

The remaining twenty-four Sailing Warships followed closely behind.

Next were the sixty Troop Transport Ships.

However, these Troop Transport Ships would only sail with them for a portion of the journey.

After stopping at the Ryukyu Kingdom, the marine soldiers would stand by on Ryukyu Island.

From there, it was only three or four hundred li to Dongying.

When landing operations were required, the Warships would escort these Troop Transport Ships to land.

After all, the soldiers needed to eat, and drifting on the sea with them the whole time placed immense pressure on supplies.

But in the Ryukyu Kingdom, the soldiers' supplies would no longer be a problem.

Furthermore, they needed to fight a decisive battle against the British and Dongying fleets first.

Only then could they launch an attack on the Dongying mainland.

After five days of sailing, the fleet arrived at the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Immediately, the fleet headed north, going straight toward Edo.

During this time, Zhou Yi received intelligence.

Dongying had launched eighteen Sailing Warships, and another eighteen would be ready for launch in a month or so.

Thus, the British and Dongying would have twelve Steamships and thirty Sailing Warships.

In Zhou Yi's view, the Dongying and British inciting the Northern Di and the powerful clans to provoke them was likely a feint to the east to attack in the west.

They were likely waiting for all of Dongying's Sailing Warships to be launched to wipe out the Yanzhou Navy in one fell swoop.

It was just that their wishful thinking would ultimately come to nothing.

Even if all of Dongying's Warships were launched, he was not afraid in the slightest.

This time, they not only had Steamships, but the Sailing Warships also carried Rifled Cannons with greater range and power.

Edo would become the graveyard for their warships.

After another three days of sailing, Zhou Yi arrived in the waters off Edo.

Along the way, they encountered quite a few Dongying Merchant Ships.

But Zhou Yi ignored them; it was too late for these Merchant Ships once they discovered them.

Because these Merchant Ships were too slow, they were completely unable to send word ahead.

It was not until the watchtowers at Edo harbor spotted them that the Shogunate and the British learned of their whereabouts.

"Twenty-four Steamships, are you certain those are Yanzhou's Steamships!" When he received the news, Wolf was sipping red Wine and eating steak.

At that moment, the knife and fork in his hands dropped to the floor, and he was shocked beyond measure.

"These Warships are flying the banner of Yan Wang." Watanabe's face turned ashen.

The British Warships were docked at Edo harbor, and the Dongying Warships were also docked at Edo harbor, not hiding in the inland rivers.

This was because Dongying had been practicing naval warfare with the British these past few days.

Now, these Warships were all exposed to the cannon fire of the Yan King Fleet.