My Father in Law is Lu Bu

In Liu Mang’s opinion, if they could make cannons, then they should just make more cannons. If any enemy comes, pull out those cannons and shoot them with it. He did not believe that there were any city walls that could withstand the might of the cannons. While this is true, Liu Mang would not be able to afford it even if he plundered half of Yangzhou.

One large cannon alone would cost at least nine hundred gold. It would cost even more once the gunpowder and other things were factored in. If they wanted to make over a thousand large cannons, Yangzhou would go bankrupt. Fortunately, Mi Zhu and the others were around to stop Liu Mang.

In the end, they reached a compromise. Only a hundred and fifty of the large three thousand catty cannons would be made instead of one thousand eight hundred. That being said, it was still fifty more than the initial plan of a hundred. Mi Zhu could only feel his heart ache from the additional cost of fifty thousand gold. For comparison, Sun Quan’s ransom money was only ten thousand gold.

Naturally, the large cannons could not be used by the ground troops as it was too heavy. They would need at least three horses just to move it. Instead, they would use the small cannons that could be pulled by a single horse. They would also need carriages for the cannons. These things did not need to move quickly. They simply need to be able to keep up with the army.

The large cannons would be placed on the walls of important cities like Wancheng and Jiangxia. Each side would have at least two cannons. These cannons would be able to strike fear in the enemy when they attack.

For the small cannons, Liu Mang took out two hundred to form an artillery unit. This was truly a luxurious troop as they were pretty much made out of gold. Each cannon would be pulled by a horse and operated by four people. So two hundred cannons would total up to eight hundred men. On top of that, they would also be guarded by two thousand heavy infantries. The first artillery troops were formed.

“Milord. What about the remaining cannons?” Xu Shu asked thinking that the cannons were to be used either here or for defending the city. The large cannons had good range but were too heavy. So putting it on the city walls was beneficial. From on top of the walls, its range would increase. Yet Liu Mang did not place all of the large cannons onto the walls nor did he allocate all of the small cannons on troops.

“The remaining three hundred small cannons and one hundred large cannons will be given to the navy!” Liu Mang said to the others.

“What?” Xu Shu was shocked. Why would the navy need these cannons for? Didn’t they already have the ballista?

“Yuanzhi. You did not hear wrongly. These cannons were originally made for naval warfare!” Liu Mang then turned to Liu Ye. “Ziyang. Take out that blueprint and show it to our Inner Minister. Have him give you a budget before building the ship.”

It does not matter whether it was making cannons or making ships. Liu Mang could not be a dictator. That was why Xu Shu needed figure out how much money they need. Liu Mang did not want to do this not because he wanted to let his subordinates exercise more freedom. He simply did not want to be too tired.

“This warship…” Xu Shu felt like fainting as he looked at the blueprint as the amount of resources needed to build this ship was too astonishing.

“This has eleven masts?” Xu Shu saw that there were eleven masts on the blueprint. He estimate it to weight one thousand five hundred tons. It was also about five times larger than Liu Mang’s current ships.

“How is this large ship going to travel along the water?” Xu Shu asked.

“This ship is not for the river. This is an ocean vessel!” The ship Liu Mang made previously was not good enough to be an ocean vessel. Even the ones sailing it stayed close to the shore and did not dare to go too far out.

“Ocean vessel?” Xu Shu was confused. Why bother with the ocean? “Milord. We already have enough ships!” To the ancient people, the ocean was an unexplored region. They should be pacifying the Central Plains, not exploring places.

“Gan Ning’s ships are pretty much just row boats. How could it go out to sea? This is what I really want!” Liu Mang had Gan Ning dispatch people out to the ocean to look for Taiwan. However, all the ships that set sail had sunk into the ocean. Fortunately, the ocean tide pushed some of these soldiers back so they manage to learn that this ships were all sunk by the ocean waves.

That was why Liu Mang wanted a better ship. The blueprints he gave Xu Shu was the best one he had. This was the ship the Europeans used to conquer the ocean. It had a weight of one thousand five hundred tons and was about seventy meters long. 

It was impossible for Liu Mang to copy an actual Royal Sovereign-class warship as it was a work of art. There was also a difference in the size and number of cannons. The original had twenty 60-pound cannons, eight 30-pound cannons, thirty two 18-pound cannons and fourty four nine-pound cannons.

Liu Mang’s large cannons were only about 18 pounds while his small cannons were only about 9 pounds.

“How much would it cost to construct this ship?” Xu Shu asked. He did not believe that Liu Mang had not yet figured out the cost for it.

“Yuanzhi. We from the Ministry of Works have already estimated the cost. Assuming we procure our wood locally, the cost would be about eighty thousand gold.” Liu Ye estimated this as they had never made such a large ship before. They would definitely make mistakes which would drive the cost up. Once they have enough experience, the second one would have an estimated cost of fifty thousand gold.

“Eighty thousand gold?” Xu Shu already felt like killing Liu Ye and Liu Mang. Fortunately, Mi Zhu wasn’t around this time or he would faint again.

“Yuanzhi. Let me tell you that once this ship is built, we would only gain profits. Do you know what land you can find in the South?”

“Nanyue!” Xu Shu replied. When the Qin Dynasty was about to perish, a Nanhai general, Zhao Tuo, conquered Guilin and Xiang, becoming King Wu of Nanyue. In 196 BC he was recognized as the King of Nanyue by the Han Emperor in return for nominal submission. In 183 BC the two kingdoms become enemies and Zhao Tuo proclaimed himself Emperor Wu of Nanyue. In 179 BC, the two kingdoms were once again on peaceful terms and was later succeeded by his grandson at 137 BC. In other words, Nanyue has been around for some time.

Xu Shu knew about Nanyue because Nanyue was finally wiped out by the Han. One can even say that Jiangdong used to be part of Nanyue’s territory. The Nanyue people also integrated with the Han people and became known as the Baiyue. Some of them continued down South.

“If you go South even further, you would reach a place like the current Western region. Once we reach there, we can open up a trade route like the Silk Road. Once they serve us, we would no need to fear being short of money!”

If you were to tell Xu Shu that there were riches in the South, Xu Shu would think that you were trying to deceive him. However, mentioning the Silk Road made his eyes gleam.

On the other side of the Yumen Pass was the Western Regions. There were many small but rich nations there who would pay a fortune for silk.

“Does Milord know about the country across the ocean?” Xu Shu asked skeptically.

“Not really.” Liu Mang replied. He did not know much about the regions at Southeast Asia in that era. After all, people in that era were too busy fighting each other to learn about other places. All the fighters were basically monkeys who can’t write. How were they going to write down about other places?

However, Liu Mang was not discouraged. He may not know about the cultures at other places but he knew there were benefits as the location of natural resources would not change. There was also India in the South.

“How many ships are we building?” Xu Shu finally asked as he realized he could not persuade Liu Mang otherwise. The only thing he could do is reduce the number of ships.

“We wouldn’t have money to make more even if we wanted to!” Liu Mang smiled bitterly. He knew that the ships and the cannons would empty Yangzhou’s savings. “For now we make three ships.”

Liu Mang initially planned for three ships. It just so happened to be that each ship could have a hundred small cannons and thirty three large cannons. It would not be as powerful as the Royal Sovereign-class warships but it was good enough in that era.

“Alright! Just three!” Xu Shu gritted his teeth.

“We make three to test the waters first. If it’s good, then we think about making other things.”

Xu Shu nodded with hear as he heard the words ‘other things’. He was afraid Liu Mang would really make other warships.

“Yuanzhi, there is no need to panic. The next thing we make would be merchant ships, not warships!” Liu Mang said as he showed Xu Shu the next blueprint. Xu Shu felt a sense of relief as he saw the blueprint detailing a crude and fat ship that weighed over a kiloton. However, it being ugly was alright. A merchant ship in charge of carrying things had no business looking beautiful.

“This merchant ship should cost about twenty thousand gold. Let us build three to start with.” Suddenly there was another extra cost of sixty thousand gold.

Xu Shu carefully checked their inventory. Yangzhou’s treasury now had less than fifty thousand gold. Fortunately they had Jiangling or they would have long gone bankrupt.